ComicCritic87’s weekly comic book reviews
Week of August 17, 2011
Greetings friends and fellow comic book readers and fans, the ever continuing reviews march on. This week features a return to form, I have returned to the 10 issues, granted this tends to jump from week to week but for the most part it’s usually a solid 10. This week also brings about the end of some of my DC comic reads; Superboy, Power Girl, and Zatanna are coming to a close this week, will they be shiny moments of glory or will they go out like Superman, no payoff. I have 10 issues to get through; let’s begin shall we…..
Comics this week
DC Comics: Power Girl #27, Super Boy #11, Zatanna #16
Marvel Comics: Avengers #16, Avengers Academy #18, Captain America #2, Invincible Iron Man #507, Journey into Mystery #626, Thunderbolts #162, Venom #6
Other Comics: None
Top Picks of the Week
DC Comics: Power Girl #27
Abridged Story: The final issue of the run features Power Girl having to race against the clock to save her friend, save people in Italy, or save a little girl in a boat. She flies as fast as she can to each location to stop the throwaway villains used in each location. She saves her friend first. Heads to Italy and saves the people, then heads over to the little girl and saves her. She finishes with a few seconds to spare and finds the man behind it.
Review: Well this is it, the final issue of the fantastic run of Power Girl. I enjoyed the first run with Gray and Palmiotti then the second half with Winnick. Now we end with neither team working on it, ending on an issue that somewhat leaves you wanting more. The story has a fun concept, Power Girl having to race around the globe and save three separate groups within that time. A story like that is pretty basic but was better accomplished with this character, making her joke at the idea of getting it all done in a minute and doing so with seconds to spare. I feel this issue should have be a best of moment like Gray and Palmiotti did with the 12th issue, having fun with all the stuff the character has been through, instead we get a story that more or less leaves on an empty note, nothing ends, it just more or less stops, no closure whatsoever.
Artwork: The Cover of this issue does go out with some style. The cover is a much better done version DC comics did a few months back with the characters behind white back drops, this is much more effective. The look of Power Girl is done with such beauty and detail, it’s like they rotoscoped a model. The interior artwork is done really well, still in vain of the Sam Basri art style with the character looking sexy and owning everything she does.
Grade: B-
Marvel Comics: Venom #6
Abridged Story: Integrated with the events of Spider Island, Flash is forced into the quarantine zone to battle one of the giant man-spiders. He enters into the fray and does battle with the creature. It easily overpowers him with its more advanced power set like Acidic webbing. He gets the help with the young hero Gravity, using him essentially as a wrecking ball to land on the creature. He brings the monster back to be studied but soon it vomits out tiny spiders and attacks the lab. Flash is too far from the Venom suit to help but it finds something else to latch onto. We soon learn the truth behind the monster and who it really is, and it’s a big shocker ending.
Review: WOW!!!! Just…..man…this series was the biggest surprise for me when I picked it up and this has shown to me that this is one of the best series Marvel has to date. The way it merges into the events of Spider Island is a great one, continuing to expand and connect other titles to one another. The fight between Venom and the Man-spider (which I called last week and hope they expand this MUCH more) is just so down and dirty, it’s an up close battle we do have moments with Venom relying on the suit to move around and fire its guns at it. The moments at the base continue to add into the craziness of this plague. When this creature spews out baby spiders and break out adds to the tension of what it can do. The thing Venom attaches to in order to reunite with Flash is highly creative and adds so much more fun. The big reveal as to WHO it is made my jaw drop at it, it now pushes this series to the nth degree.
Artwork: The cover is extremely well thought of. The cover is the Venom suit merging with the Spider-man outfit, however unlike the suits fabric it appears very much like the symbiote has merged with the suit and trying to merge with itself, showcasing the duality of the Flash Thompson being a fan of Spider-man and being venom. The Inner artwork continues to be great, it’s just so grim and gritty, I keep saying it’s in vain to Dave Gibbons artwork on Watchmen, adding to the late 80s and early 90s dark age style of characters, which works really well in this characters favor. The thing the suit latches onto reminds me very much like the Alien from….well Alien.
Grade: A+
Weakest of the Week: Zatanna #16
Abridged Story: Zatanna returning from a few gigs in Europe comes home exhausted and wants sleep only for her to be interrupted by a young blue demon boy who wants to be her apprentice. She says no but he sneaks away to find her Library and to find a book he wants to use to overtake his hometown. Zatanna tries to stop him but is forced to follow him through various worlds. He gets too cocky and is returned to his village. Zatanna returns home and goes to sleep.
Review: I can’t believe I had to do this but this is and will be the worst Zatanna comic of this run. I can’t believe how much Adam Beechan ruins this character. I swear he can’t write her to save his life. The story is another one that took over a BETTER one where Zatanna was going to have a conflict with the Specter but NO, we don’t get that and probably never will. This story makes Zatanna out to be an uncaring woman when we have seen her loving be around people and embrace her optimism. This issue makes her out to be this cold and uncaring woman, which she is not. The writer keeps this dumb gag of her trying to dream about Bradley Cooper, some other guy, and a cocoa butter massage….yes because when I think of Zatanna, I PICTURE THAT!!!! Her lusting over an actor....Continuing on with this horrid story, the demon kid we are introduced to add nothing more than an inconvenience to her. The kid comes in, messes around and takes her on a ride against her will and even that is not fun as it sounds. It has one of the worst endings where she doesn’t even fight the kid and showing how strong she truly is. If I was Paul Dini, I would be offended at what they gave us, DC gave up on the character and allowed this to take over and not see Dini’s final arc end, we got crap filler and this is the biggest offender. DC better redeem her with Justice League Dark or else I will be pissed.
Artwork: The art just barely saves this issue. The cover is of Zatanna in her sexy stage outfit, her hat covering her eyes and she has a cane holding herself up. The interior artwork is not that bad. I have seen it before and it fits the character, she is designed nicely and the various worlds were nice but it barely kept me interested.
Grade: E- (that’s for the artwork which kept it from getting an F-)
Quick Reviews
Avengers #16: Steve Rogers heads to a castle in Europe with a small force to investigate only to be ambushed by a group of ex Cap villains. They are soon saved by one of Fury’s crew. Cap preps for battle leading into Fear Itself #4. I enjoyed this issue, I liked the Cap centric focus, allowing us to see how he dealt with Bucky’s passing and getting revenge only to still not obtain it. JRJR’s artwork is not as stylistic before, it’s not as colorful as the many issues have been prior. B+
Avengers Academy #18: The Team is still being attacked by Titanna and The Absorbing man. The team devises a plan to save two of their members that were taken as hostage. The kids fool the enemies with a fake Pym which the two hurl their hammers at and they get hit by them. Only for them to be stuck with a bad situation as the mansion begins to grow. Not a bad issue but they are really pushing this attack too long. Artwork is still nice. C+
Captain America #2: Cap and his team still try to figure out who these people are that appear to be his former teammates. He attacks and defeats a group of HYDRA agents but finds nothing. Sharon has a dream about the man Cap knew only for her to wake up and see Steve get attacked by a giant Captain America robot (?). A pretty good issue, Brubaker has perfected Captain America time and time again and continues that trend here. The artwork is beautiful and done extremely well. A-
Invincible Iron Man #507: Tony still building weapons in the forges. Pepper heads to Paris and discovers the attack along with the Hammer daughter leading the charge. One of the dwarves made a deal with a Serpent agent and created a monster to kill Tony. Still has that annoying cursing that slows the issue down. The series is stalling a bit since Matt is doing Fear Itself too. Artwork is still nice as it has been. C+
Journey into Mystery #626: Loki has entered Limbo and finds Surtur who strikes a deal with the young trickster. Loki heads back into Asgard and finds his team waiting for him as he brings along one bad-ass ally. Loving this series since its new format and been so great ever since. The character is so much fun to see moving and working his trickster self around people to get his way that benefits him. The artwork compliments the story really well. A-
Super Boy #11: Connor and his team finish off the villain of this final arc. The evil magician is defeated and life goes back to normal. Well this one does end good but still leaves a few things unresolved. B-
Thunderbolts #162: The team heads into battle against the strange water creatures. The B-squad comes into play and help out. Man-thing begins to change and grow into his next stage of evolution. Satana and Moonstone find the B-team has taken over the ship and join them in the escape. Nice issue and continues to showcase that these villains are still evil doers despite being heroic in the process. The artwork is fun as always. B-
Well I hope you all enjoy my reviews, next week is a slightly smaller week 9 issues now. Haha. Next week will bring the return of Kick-ass (Finally), the end of three more DC series, and a new addition from IDW…til then catch you guys later. Peace…..