ComicCritic87’s weekly comic book reviews
Week of September 21, 2011
Greetings friends and fellow comic book readers and fans, the ever continuing reviews march on. Another batch of DCNU reviews has come in and its quite a batch this week for me, 7 brand new #1 issues, this is the week where I’m excited for them all, which one with be on top, it’s going to be a close one friends. So far from the stuff I have been reading with DC, I been enjoying them, so far the hype surrounding the reboot has been pretty good, all are interesting and worth a read, at the end of the month I will most like be keeping them all in my roster, but I’m still a Marvel guy through and through. On the Marvel Front this week it’s much smaller than DC since, only 3, I would be like totally broke in one day, some news with Marvel, I will be ending my readings of Herc and Heroes for Hire, and they had great starts but got mediocre by this point. So to fill that in soon the Defenders and Incredible Hulk with Jason Aaron will take those spots. I also did pick up Demon Knights but since that was last week I will do that in my comic spotlight after this. With that let’s begin.
Comics this week
DC Comics: Blue Beetle #1, Captain Atom #1, Catwoman #1, DCU Presents #1, Nightwing #1, Supergirl #1, Wonder Woman #1
Marvel Comics: Avengers #17, Captain America #3, Invincible Iron Man #508
Other Comics: TMNT #2
Top Picks of the Week
DC Comics: Catwoman #1 Writer: Judd Winick Artist: Gulliem March
Abridged Story: Selina Kyle’s apartment gets under attack, grabbing her suit and her babies aka cats; she escapes just as the apartment explodes into flames. She stops over at a friend’s house who tells her where to find an empty suite own by millionaires. She sets up shop there and gets down to business by finding the people responsible for this. Selina goes undercover at a Russian club as a barmaid, all goes well until she sees the man that abused her in the past. She finds him in the bathroom and kills him, she gets caught quickly and makes a getaway. She returns to her hideout, with Batman arriving to talk with her, she leaps at him and they get their freak on (OH YEAH!!!!!)
Review: WOW, just WOW, this is one super fun, super sexy, super sleek, and super naughty and dirty little secret of the DCNU. This issue is by far my favorite of the reboots, I saw CBR gave it 1 star in their review; they are such prudes and snobs. This series is about CATWOMAN and how much sex she exudes with her thieving persona. She has a great amount of character established in all the years she has donned this iconic role and here they take it to the next level. Not only is this a fun read, but it’s a more mature and “adult” style character, she isn’t about the good she does, she’s a thief and uses all her feminine wiles to win the day. We get a faint amount of backstory but all that takes a back seat to the sexualized world Catwoman lives in. I mean that too, the world has a sense of fetishism to it, her suit, the villains, and even the ending, which is a GREAT moment, comes out of nowhere and is so funny to see Batman giving in to sexual lust and temptation. CBR can suck it, this issue is great, showing how much love they have for her real side.
Artwork: I LOVE this cover; it features Selina in a sexual pose, on her back, on a building top, pouring diamonds onto her cleavage. The inner artwork is just pure bliss, they hide nothing about her, well they don’t show EVERYTHING, but they showcase the sexual nature of Selina Kyle, as Catwoman and as her other disguises. The Russian bar has a dream like atmosphere; it feels like you are in another world. The “sex scene” between Catwoman and Batman is SO good; there is so much detail in their embraces.
Grade: A+ (screw that 1 star crap…it’s called ESCAPISM)
Marvel Comics: Avengers #17 Writer: Brian Michael Bendis Artist: John Romita JR
Abridged Story: Hawkeye, Protector, Ms. Marvel, and Spider-woman return to New York and witness the devastating ruins of New York, Hawkeye is angered by all this, sees Red Skull and fires an arrow into her throat, and it doesn’t do anything. Ms. Marvel tries her hand by absorbing the energy but it’s too much for her and she is flung to the far side of the city. Protector finds a special loophole in Tony Stark’s security and activates all the empty armor shells to distract and overpower Sin as best they can. The New Avengers come in to help, they manage to “defeat” her but she disappears as the team regroups for the final assault.
Review: This series in the current arc has been fun, there are so much amount of action beats and small pockets of exposition. They are still doing the talking interview angles where each character talks about what occurred on that day, the final panel with Captain America done with it all and want to battle. The cool part was with Protector making all the suits come to life and attack Sin, even with the reference of the Armor Wars event.
Artwork: The cover is “interesting” it features Hawkeye and Spider-woman in a loving embrace while the background around them is engulfed in flame, this doesn’t occur in the issue at all. Romita’s artwork has been fun and great, I enjoyed the way he’s captured the action moments and characters.
Grade: A-
Other Comics: TMNT #2 Writer: Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz Artist: Don Duncan & Kevin Eastman
Abridged Story: Raphael beats up Casey’s dad and gains some level of friendship. The other brothers still worried where he might be. We get more backstory as to where Splinter and the Turtles escape from a ninja attack, April is safe and sound as Splinter and the Turtles are in the ooze.
Review: This issue cements how great this new take is going to be, the characters are so much fun, we get great amount of pace on both the past and present, which both show us where the series may be heading, with hints of Krang furthering itself into fruition. The fight between Raphael and Casey’s dad was great and well-paced between blows.
Artwork: The cover features all the turtles and Splinter in battle ready poses. The inner artwork of Eastman’s layouts and Duncan’s artwork are best combined to give us a retro style look and feel with the characters in terms of design. The action beats are fun and quick since they are ninja.
Grade: A-
Weakest of the Week: Captain Atom #1 Writer: J.T. Kurl Artist: Freddie Williams II
Abridged Story: Captain Atom discovers he has gained a new power but at the cost of him risking his life, essentially becoming Dr. Manhattan.
Review: This was the series I was highly looking forward to, I enjoyed the episodes with Captain Atom on JLU but this issue just fell short of expectation, this issue is practically all about dialogue about what Captain Atom is and what he is becoming, I wanted action, not a history lesson. This may be the first casualty on my roster; I will give it one more issue to shape up.
Artwork: The cover is AMAZING but the inner artwork is a bit messy, Captain Atom looks just like Dr. Manhattan but with a big red symbol on his chest, minus the nudity, I thought his outfit was a containment suit. The final moments are just hard to look at; it seems like it’s trying too hard to be interesting or special.
Grade: D-
Quick Reviews
Blue Beetle #1: A new retelling of the origin of Jaime gaining the scarab. A fun refreshing retake of the origin, a much better origin in my opinion, I dare say it’s close to the 90s Guyver movie but done much better. Artwork is great. B+
Captain America #3: Steve fights a giant robot looking like him. He wins but gets sent into the dream world of his former partner. Brubaker makes this a fun read. McNiven artwork is AMAZING. B-
DCU Presents Deadman #1: another origin tale of who Deadman is and his trial to find a true purpose. Fun idea, they take full advantage of his power in here. Artwork is well done. B-
Invincible Iron Man #508: Tony gets attacked by the mud person that is taking away his armor. He gets saved by his dwarf friends. He meets with Odin and gets blessed in the Forge. A fun issue but feels a bit empty, no real conclusion to his attacker, just happens and over with quick. Artwork is nicely done as usual. C+
Nightwing #1: Dick Grayson returns back to his old mantle, feeling freer to be doing what he was born to do. He fights off some thugs, returns to his old roots and soon attacked by a Daken wannabe (has claws like Daken). A fun issue, once again hints at Dick being Batman for a year even within the new 5 year timespan. Artwork is well done. B+
Supergirl #1: ANOTHER new origin of Supergirl arriving on Earth, unaware of her new surrounds, gaining powers at an accelerated rate, scared and under attack, she fights back until Superman comes in to calm her. Fun, great, well done, well-paced, and fine touches in the artwork. A-
Wonder Woman #1: A son of Zeus is partying it up on Earth as he wishes to overtake Olympus. A woman gets attacked by centaurs as Hermes sends her away to seek out Wonder Woman’s help. She finds her and Diana saves the day, tends to Hermes and learns the woman is pregnant by Zeus. WOW!!!! Very impressive first issue, writing is FANTASTIC and the artwork is BEAUTIFUL. A-
Well that’s all for this week, this week was a great week for DC, next week caps it all off with the New 52, last batch I’m excited to read. That’s all for now friends…..