Comic Reviews - 8/2: Bad art and Booty calls.

Hey all you 1uppers!

Here is another round of reviews by me Chris Z. Lets get to work! 

Avenging Spider-Man #11 - $3.99 - Digital Copy - T+

So this is an ode to the 50th Anniversary of Peter Parker/Spider-Man.  It's a touching story between Aunt May and Peter rehashing the importance of Uncle Ben to the both of them.  The story by Zeb Wells is a decent for the touching tribute type, but nothing ground breaking.  The art which is done by Steve Dillion,  is really bad. Now I am not going to blame Steve, no not because I have a framed sketch by him up on my wall, but because he is consistent in everything he has done. I set the blame squarely on the Frank Martin Jr.  Now Dillions work is still and not very stylish but it has a certain charm that Martin has seem to hinder in this issue.  Every panel looks pixelated and out of focus, and the color pallet is meh at best. Read this story for the Uncle Ben tribute and by all means avoid the art.  If you are looking for good Dillion art work try The Punisher: Welcome Back Frank or any of the Garth Ennis line.

Story - 3/5
Art - 1/5

Justice League #12 - $3.99 - T

Superman and Wonder Woman, sitting on a roof. K-I-S-S-I-N-G....I'm just messing with you. So this is the issue that caused all the hoopla. The League was forced to confront the deceased loved ones.  Then we find out it was all a disillusions created by David Graves to get revenge on the League for losing his family.  This causes a rift in the League. The Green Lantern leaves, Superman and Wonder Woman make out and commiserate, and the League is falling apart.  This issue was a good setup for what's to come and I can't wait to see what comes next. But WTF is TMZ in there for? No other creditable sources available?  The collaborative art is great by Jim Lee, Ivan Reis, and Joe Prado.  The three compliment one another's art so well that it isn't that noticeable when the art shifts in style.

Story - 3/5
Art - 3/5

AVX: VS #5 - $3.99 - Digital Copy - T+

Again this is one of my guilty pleasure, because there is no purpose for the book other than see heroes knock the crap out of each other.  The first pits a fight between Hawkeye and Angel. This was a very good fight that shows the strengths and weaknesses of each character which was good to use against one another. Hawkeye wins by being his cunning self and knowing he is out manned and out numbered, her shoots Angel with an arrow after they beat the ever loving crap out of one another.  The second fight is a nice marital fight between Storm and Black Panther.  Now your saying why would they fight? Because according to the book they had a weak marriage, which is crap we really know it's because they both bought into what their superiors are saying.  That being said Storm is giving up on her husband because of Cyclops? WTF? So Storm attacks Black Panther the entire time and all he does is defend himself, which were also pretty lame cop outs.  In the end Storm blindsides Black Panther then takes her ring off and that's the end.  The entire fight was meh the first fight by Jason Aaron was pretty good but not enough to save it.  The art was good, better then most of the regular AVX art.

Story - 2/5
Art - 3/5

Detective Comics Annual #1 - $4.99 - T

PICK OF THE WEEK
The best comic I read this week.  This issue deals with Black Mask escaping from Arkham and trying to locate all the masks from the False Face Society.  Its a great crime drama that plays out like every other cop drama, but it is done well. Criminal escapes, they extort a cohort, and main character chases down bad and solves mystery.  In the end they discover that this was an elaborate set up by Jarvis Tetch to collect all the masks in order to have hypnotics and mind control of the masks to take over the world!  It's also a great testament to the Black Mask's dependency for his mask and the power it has over others. In the end Batman kicks Black Mask square in the jaw which cracks the mask rendering it useless. They put both guys in prison and were able to recover the Masks which are being held, and Mr. Sionis is locked up again.   The art is amazing in this issue it fits the Dective Comics perfectly.  My favorite panel is when Batman, who is on fire, has his palmed by False Face Society strongman. It is great.  I highly recommend giving it a read, even if it is the N-teenth time the story has been told.

Story - 3/5
Art - 4/5

Green Lantern Annual #1 - $4.99 - T

First off, best cover of the week! Second, this was another great issue that dealt with The Guardians and their questionable ethics to remove chaos from the universe. Hal and Sinestro were both buried by Black Hand, and while they both escape and battle Black Hand.  The Guardians don't know any other way to stop to chaos other then create a Third Army lead by the first lantern, which remains a mystery as to who that is. There is a great scene that switches between Hal / Sinster and the Guradians fighting one another as  Hal and Sinestro are reciting the Green Lantern oath.  This angle where the Guardians are pulling out all the stops is an interesting one, because they charge up Black Hand so it will destroy Hal and Sinestro. As they are getting sucked into a vortex their rings merge into one and left to find the next Green Lantern. There are so many questions to answer as the Third Army rises.

This is just like the Green Lantern for me, multiple storylines intertwining and finally coming to a head and leading to a new story.  This is something Geoff Johns is great at and it works to lead to issue #0 of the Green Lanten. The art is by Ethan Van Sciver who is still in full stried and hasn't missed a beat.  It's a great issue, but I feel Batman edges it out in entertainment value for me and it was a complete story. Both are great reads so please pick them up or flip through them at least.

Story - 3/5
Art - 4/5


That's all folks. Until next week. Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Blog.

Also if you wanna Tweet at me hit me up @Zennie87

Comic Reviews - July 11th & 18th part one.

In this my inaugural review post I am going to be giving reviews on a smattering of comics that I read while on vacation in OCNJ. These comics are a week to two weeks old. If any of them strike your fancy please check them out at 1up Collectibles. 

LET THE GAMES BEGIN! 

Avenging Spider-Man #9  -  $3.99  -   Includes Digital Copy  -  T+

This series has been a bit of fun. For anyone who hasn’t picked it up this is a series where Spider-Man individually teams up with members of the Avengers. In this one he teams up with the new Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers (f.k.a. Ms. Marvel.) Written by Kelly Sue DeConnick (the new Captain Marvel writer), the story is full of decent banter you expect from a Spider-Man story, but nothing ground breaking. It is the first part of an arch that sets up Spider-Man and Capt. Marvel vs. Robyn Hood vs. The Police and Hired Security team. Everything in this story is decent except for this new character Robyn Hood, which is weak. The name tells you her story, but she also absorbs then uses the damage dealt to her. It should be interesting to see where this little tiff goes.

Read it for the banter and the great artwork from Terry and Rachel Dodson. If you haven’t seen much of their work, look them up, it’s a unique comic book style. Terry who does the pencils does a great job of storytelling with great figures andgestures, while Rachel inks his work perfectly. Edgar Delgado does a great job of coloring this work and makes it all seem to come together just right.

Story – 2/5

Art – 4/5

Animal Man #11  -  $2.99  -  T+

This series has been well written and the art at times has been disturbing.  Jeff Lamire, known for his writing on Sweet Tooth, has written a long interwoven interesting story so far. This issue is no disappointment. It starts off where Buddy Baker is meeting Totems of the Hire Flesh to form a new body for him.  Since it has been taken over by a hunter of the Rot. There is a great sequence that is really well written and illustrated, it is where Buddy forms his way from a speck of consciousness to a nanobe and from there he reaches out to different animals until he finds his body and can go find his son.

Buddy finds his son who was being protected by Sox from the hunter with Buddy's body. After a warning that the Rot is coming, the hunter looses his head in a gruesome fight with Buddy. To see what I mean go pick it up, this is a great couple of pages.  After that there is also a pretty awesome visual nod to John Carpenter's The Thing. Finally Cliff passes out while spouting on about the avatar of the Rot, Anton Arcane. Leading to a cross over with Swamp Thing. The art in this book is great the style fits the tone and mood of the story perfectly. There are a few visual miscues that do hinder some of the story telling but Alberto Ponticelli does a great job, and I can’t wait to see this crossover.

Story – 4/5

Art – 3/5

Swamp Thing #11  -  $2.99  -  T+

Lets pick up where the Animal Man #11 led us to, Swamp Thing. This has been written by current Batman writer Scott Snyder (got to meet him at my past job and is a good guy btw.)  This issue picks up right where the last one left off. Arcane, the avatar of the Rot is here to get his daughter Abigail. In a kinda hokey and cheesy way the Green has saved Alec because he saved them and supplanted them. Just thinking aloud, I am wondering if this was an intentional parallel between this and Animal Man. So after that Arcane tries to take Abigail with him into the Rot, but Swamp Thing comes out of nowhere and punches Arcane straight in the jaw. In a decent fight they learn things have changed with one another and Abigail intervenes sending Arcane back into the Rot portal by himself.  Abigail then tries to get him to run away, but Animal Man shows up with his family. Animal Man informs Swamp Thing that they both need to team up to take down the Rot.

This was a good back story building issue that was illustrated by Marco Rudy. Marco’s art is hit and miss in this issue. Certain panels are beautifully illustrated then they get bland and not detailed like when the Arcane is shown. The panels and story telling of the art is great where the action and other visual elements break up the normal panel structure. The color is something to be desired by Val Staples. It’s the same five colors used again and the colors are muted nothing is overly bright and bold just a little better contrast would be nice. Overall a good build up to an interesting team up.

Story – 3/5

Art – 3/5

Avengers Vs. X-Men #7  -  $3.99  -  Includes Digital Copy  -  T+

On this weeks AVX….More of the same. Okay sorry for being facetious. Seriously though the series is boring and lack lust for me. Hope flinches and doesn’t get the Phoenix Force instead some of the more agitating X-Men do. The only things that change in this issue is that Vision is gone, Hawkeye is burnt badly, Avengers go to Wakanda , Cyclops gets more aggressive, and Emma Frost tells Namor (behind Cyclops’s back) where they are and he shows up. Boom end of issue. I would have been more interested if they explained more about Iron Fist’s role in all this and if Scarlet Witch hurt Magik more for presumably killing Vision. Instead Cyclops becomes a hypocrite wanting to end the Avengers and the Avengers have to get Hope to K’un Lun to learn how to fight the Phoenix force.

The art by Oliver Coipel is great. I am glad to see they put him on this book. It made this story bearable enough to finish. Well I am not saying it wasn’t bad just boring, nothing big happens so when this happens I tend to focus on the art of the figures, gestures, and the artists ability to move the story along. Coipel does this wonderfully. Some of his actual characters don’t look right like after the Blank Panther smacks the crazy out of Stark, Starks face doesn’t appear even. I wish this issue was better, maybe I missed something somewhere. What do you guys think?

Story – 2/5

Art – 4/5

The Avengers VS The X-Men #4 of 6  -  $3.99  -  Includes Digital Copy  T+

This is a guilty pleasure of mine. For those who don’t know this is a book where one member from each side wallops on one another created by two different creative teams.  This issue is Daredevil vs. Psylocke and Thor vs. Phoenix’ed out Emma Frost.  The Daredevil vs. Psylocke was the better of the two fights. The story was written by Rick Remender who seemed to get the characters right. In this fight both characters had a moment in the fight that played to their strengths.  The art by Brandon Peterson was well done it made the action and their powers work.  The best part of the first fight was when Daredevil reminded Psylocke that with all their power now the Avengers will soon be on their own island, leaving Psylocke speechless.

In the next fight, which seems more odd, Thor takes on Emma Frost in a knock down drag-out fight. The story was written and illustrated by Kaare Andrews, who while wearing both hats manages to make this work.  Thor and Emma go shot for shot. One of the best scenes is when Thor upper cuts Emma with Mjolnir while she is in her diamond form and shatters her in to tiny pieces. Shutting her smug face up, but of course that’s not the end of her. I won’t spoil how it ends but it was a disappointment to me, but given the situation I guess that’s how these things go. Check it out and let me know what you guys think.

Story – 3/5

Art – 3/5

Punisher #13  -  $2.99  -  Parental Advisory

This issue of the Punisher by Greg Rucka is one of the better issues I have read this week. It is written in such way that it feels like a spy thriller. The Punisher and Marine Sergeant Rachel Cole – Alves are sneaking onto a black market weapons auction on a yacht. Frank gets caught which was his plan, and Alves seduces the boats owner. This gets her into the engine room, where she plants charges and stops the yacht. While all the guests are trying to leave Alves tries to exact revenge on the Exchange’s leader Stefanie Gerard, but Frank stops her to keep her on task.

This story reads and feels like an secret agent film. It was highly entertaining and was done right. Granted, this type of story has been done before but it is done so well that it works. The pacing of the story helps it move along and makes me want to find out what piece of tech they took that belong to Doc Ock. The art by Mico Suayan works for the tone of the story. It looks a little rough at times, but it adds to the Pulp-ishness of the story and the storytelling ability of the art helps solidify this as a solid issue.

Story – 4/5

Art – 3/5

BONUS ROUND

Have you seen this? Thoughts?

!!! WARNING MATURE AUDIENCE ONLY!!! 

You have been warned

That’s it for now. I wanna hear your thoughts on any of these issues and video so please feel free to comment.  If you anyone wants to talk shop please stop by 1up Collectibles on Wednesday for new releases I’ll more than likely be there!

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