ComicCritic87’s weekly comic book reviews
Comics of 1/18/12
Hey there, I’ve finally gotten back into the groove of things and my reviews are picking back up. I call it, every third week my comics this week are always in the double digits. This week is a nice sized amount of issues to read, full of variety and always fun worth reading. Sadly this week Justice League was delayed until next week, I was so amped to see the League fighting off Darkseid, got to wait now. Also this week brings an end to Mark Millar’s work, Superior, can’t wait to see how it all comes to an end. Let’s begin shall we…….
Comic List
DC Comics
Batman #5
Catwoman #5
Wonder Woman #5
IDW
Ghostbusters #5 (not reviewed)
Marvel Comics
Amazing Spider-man #678
Avengers #21
Daredevil #8 (second part to ASM #677)
Fear Itself: The Fearless #7 of 12
Superior #7
Thunderbolts #169
Venom #12
DC COMICS
Top Pick of the Week
Batman #5
Written by Scott Snyder
Artwork by Greg Capullo
Story: It’s been 8 days since Batman has mysterious disappeared, trapped in an endless maze in the Court of Owls lair. Bruce searches for a way out while trying to keep his sanity. The tension mounts as he starts to see things that blur the line between reality and fantasy. Batman’s finally free from it by a major event that leaves us with this image, Damian Wayne being sad.
Review: I want to keep this issue very spoiler free because it truly is one of the best issues I have ever read and most likely the best Batman story ever to be told. This whole event with the court of owls has been full of history, mystery, and intrigue from all 5 issues plus now that it’s going to cross over into the other Bat titles, including All Star Western, this is one major event that will leave us with a totally different Gotham city. This issue is a very dark and bleak issue, we truly see a tested Batman, deprived of sleep and sustenance for eight straight days, his mind and body weary from this constant assault to the senses, seeing Batman finally outmatched by the very techniques he has used against the criminals of Gotham have finally caught up to him. This is the issue that will be seen as the paradigm for future Batman stories. This to me is vastly superior to the Killing Joke, that’s right, this tops Alan Moore.
Writing: Scott Snyder is a genius, plain and simple. His writing brings this series a dark tone and depression air to it throughout the story. The way he writes Batman is amazing, this issue we see as mentioned an exhausted Batman, he cannot stop, he pushes further looking for a way out, constantly testing himself and feeling the effects of whatever the Court has done to him down there. The opening dialogue with Commissioner Gordon is one of the best, telling Bullock why he keeps the Bat Signal on, it truly defines the character that much further.
Artwork: I can analyze this issues stellar artwork for hours. This artwork is full of unique symbolism, imagery, and design. The maze Batman is in a metaphor for the human mind, constantly searching through memories of the past, trying to escape. The cowl of Batman’s is also damaged where we see his eye showing, this gives us a sense of the two forms of a single person in one place at the same time. We see Batman AND Bruce Wayne trapped trying to get free. The various rooms that are visited make us have to switch the reading style from vertical to horizontal, changing our perspective on the whole thing. The most iconic image I cannot say what it is but it truly is one of the best single paged images. The final image of Damian being consoled by Gordon is hauntingly beautiful.
Summary: Its perfect, I rarely say that word too, this issue is PERFECT from beginning to end, this issues artwork and writing are true perfection.
Grade: A ++
DC Quick reviews
Catwoman #5: Catwoman survives the fall and takes out the super powered chick. She uses the money she took to enjoy herself but is attacked by all the corrupted cops in Gotham. I love this series, this issue still has the sex appeal and well written story telling the Winick is good at doing. The artwork is nice and keeps making Catwoman that much sexier, I like how expressive her eyes and face can truly be. B+
Wonder Woman #5: Diana, Hermes, and Zola are back in London where a mysterious man introduces himself to the three and knows of who they are. Diana and Zola soon meet Poseidon, a giant Frog creature, but Wonder Woman wants to talk with him. This was a fun issue that is still evolving this world and characters in it, I like the new design of Poseidon, making him more attuned to his element than being an Aquaman rip-off. The artwork is not Chiang’s art but was serviceable. A-
MARVEL Comics
Top Pick of the week
Amazing Spider-man #678
Written by Dan Slott
Artwork by Humberto Ramos
Story: At Horizon labs one of Parkers coworkers has created a door to Tomorrow, he goes in and everything goes well, but once Peter steps in, all of New York is destroyed. They try to figure out why and use the newspaper from the “Good” day to prevent the “Bad” day from happening. Madame Web warns Peter not to get other heroes involved. He goes through all of the day’s events but hasn’t changed the future back to “Good” with minutes left he runs out of ideas ending on a cliffhanger.
Review: Right off the bat this issue gets the ball rolling, it’s more about the day in the life of Peter Parker, which is always a fun thing to see after watching him go hero all the time. This issue has quite an intriguing plot and it was easy to see why, he disappeared for one whole day and it shows off major repercussions for an entire city. I love the environment of Horizon labs; it’s full of really colorful and unique people for Peter to interact with. There are villains in this issue but they are briefly mentioned and seen but will most likely be major players in the next issue.
Writing: Dan Slott is one enjoyable writer. He writes the character with such tribute to the old days of the character, he keeps Peter the same with small increments of evolution in his character. I also like he way Slott gives side characters a lot of personality, making them characters you want to see more of in any way possible.
Artwork: This issue features one of the best well drawn and made covers in the Spider-man titles. It features a battle damaged hand of Spider-man’s reaching up to a newspaper dispenser with NEW YORK DESTROYER as the main page story. The inner artwork is continued with Humberto Ramos who always gets constant flak for having “bad artwork” but his artwork fits well with the Spider-man character, the look and design of the characters are well done. The way he draws Spider-man in combat is great and shows off the characters agility.
Summary: A fun issue and always worth reading. Slott is a great writer and Ramos does the character justice with the art.
Grade: A-
Marvel Quick reviews
Avengers #21: The new team gets ambushed and overpowered by the various Meta human soldiers that Osborn and HAMMER have unleashed. This is one super quick read. Bendis does a fine job with writing the characters and the artwork really improves in quality. B+
Daredevil #8: The conclusion to the Spider-man and Daredevil team up. Black Cat and DD team up and find the device to clear Cat’s name. A much better conclusion to an awkward arc, the Daredevil angle was done much better than Spider-mans. The artwork is nice and transitions from one to another pretty well at the end. B
Fear Itself: The Fearless #7: The team still ambushed by the various demons continues to fight back until Valkyrie comes in and saves them. Meanwhile Wolverine and Crossbones fight but it ends abruptly. I like this series, the various writers do a good job fleshing out this post event story. The artwork is nicely done. B-
Superior #7: The epic and giant conclusion to Mark Millar’s tribute to Superman meets BIG. The ending doesn’t come out of nowhere and is one of the more interesting endings Millar has done. The artwork is really top notch, a great staple when it comes to Millar works. A-
Thunderbolts #169: The team is in the mid-6th century and meets up with King Arthur and his round table knights. The Thunderbolts are quickly overpowered and trapped in Camelot’s Dungeon. This series is always fun. I like the characters and the various time periods they travel to. The writing is always top notch as well as the artwork, giving the characters well defined features. A-
Venom #12: The Venom suit takes over as it discovers the cargo that it and Flash were forced to get, a former spawn of Carnage, TOXIN. This was an okay issue, I loved the series up to this point but feel its slightly lacking in quality but it should pick up with this Venom event coming to it. The artwork was nicely done, featuring some finely designed characters and Venom. B-
That’s all for this week friends. Next week features quite an amount of IDW comics. I’m going to check out both new Transformer comics, which were said to be excellent jumping on comics. I’ll catch you all then. Later…..