Happy New Year to you all. DC Comics finished up 2011 with a strong push for the reboot of the line. Lets hope they can keep it going through 2012. Lets countdown to the best book of the week of 12-28-11 shall we?
Eighth Place:
Superman #4
Opening Superman every month takes some work since I know its not going to be good. But I do it anyway. Is my altruism showing?
The bonus of this issue is that Jesús Merino is allowed to do his own work. "Breakdowns by George Pérez" has been removed from the credits page which leads me to believe Merino had sole art duties. And it was good. It wasn't cramped. The pages had room to breathe. And more so than other issues, Merino's work had a hint of Andy Kubert with a touch of John Romita, Jr. thrown in.
As an aside, I would love to see Romita, Jr. do some DC work. Just for a little bit.
This story is still confusing. And maybe that's the way its supposed to be. In a couple issues we'll get a payoff that will tie everything together and make this a worth while story. Man, I could barely type that with a straight face.
This book needs a new voice. Plain and simple. Bring on the new creative team. Or at least the new writer.
Seventh Place:
Teen Titans #4
Well that wasn't so bad. You'll notice it didn't finish high this week, but it wasn't so bad.
What I'm noticing from Scott Lobdell is that he seems to be trying too hard to write the characters as teenagers. They're almost too silly and melodramatic at times. But I guess maybe that's the point of writing teenagers.
My key problem with this story is that Wonder Girl and Superboy have a heavyweight throwdown in Times Square during New Years Eve. And you're telling me in a world populated with heroes, NO ONE else shows up? Maybe that'll happen next issue, but I don't think so.
Teen Titans continues to muddle down the middle of the road.
Sixth Place:
Annihilators: Earthfall #4
The Annihilators half was pretty good. The Rocket Raccoon and Groot back-up story was crap. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning managed to take two characters during the good 'ol Guardians of the Galaxy years and make them 3-dimensional, well-rounded characters only to denigrate them to cheap images of themselves. Rocket and Groot need the Guardians back.
The Annihilators however wrap up the threat of the Universal Church of Truth and the Magus in a pretty interesting way with the help of the Avengers. Though Beta Ray Bill was pretty much stage dressing, they did a good job fleshing out the characters of Ronan, Kallark and Wendell Vaughn.
Annihilators wasn't the lead-in to saving the nearly forgotten Star-Lord and Nova like I hoped, but it was a good story.
Fifth Place:
Green Lantern: New Guardians #4
I've been pleasantly surprised by New Guardians so far. Maybe Green Lantern Corps just wasn't the proper vehicle for writer Tony Bedard and artist Tyler Kirkham? New Guardians seems to work just fine though.
Bedard introduces a brand new enemy at the end of this issue. Something from a different universe the size of a solar system called the Orrery. Kirkham does a great job of drawing a vehicle/space station that looks like a model of the Milky Way. (the galaxy, not the candy bar).
The mystery heats up as to what the Orrery is and what it has to do with each Corps ring attaching itself to Kyle Rayner. New Guardians is rolling along as a solid comic book.
Fourth Place:
Aquaman #4
The Trench storyline concludes and does so without much of a bang. As a whole, this first arc of Aquaman was pretty solid, but the final chapter wasn't more than just fine.
I like that Geoff Johns kept this to four issues and didn't feel the need to pad it to bring it up to the standard six issues. The first three were definitely the strongest and this issue is pretty much "Aquaman defeats the bad guys and everyone lives happily ever after." As far as an introduction to an Aquaman on-going though, it was pretty great.
The last page sets up the next storyline which looks like it will run all next year. The "Who Sunk Atlantis" story looks like it'll have a lot more depth in not only story, but character as well.
By all means Aquaman is a success and it looks to just be getting started.
Third Place:
The Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Men #4
This was easily my favorite issue of Firestorm. I'm not sure why Gail Simone is leaving this book but I'll hold onto hope that Ethan Van Sciver can keep the good work up.
This issue the story slows down a little bit and we get an emotional breather for Ronnie and Jason. We also get to learn a little about new villain Pozhar, the Russian Firestorm. He's pretty damn threatening. Jason and Ronnie should have a hell of a time dealing with him. Basically Van Sciver and Simone give a lesson in how to write a proper action-mystery. George Pérez should take note.
Yildiray Cinar also offers up his best artwork. Each panel is well thought out with sharp inks. All the art in this issue seemed tightened up just enough to make this the title's standout issue.
Second Place:
The Flash #4
Almost too much fancy panel layout in this issue. There are a few flashbacks that are handled in Francis Manapul's unique framing style, and while each one was pretty cool, there's a reason for the saying "too much of a good thing."
That's a fairly minor criticism of this issue as Manapul and Brian Buccellato's Flash continues to impress. Allow me to extol the virtues of Brian Buccellato's colors. The watercolors, especially in the flashbacks really impress me every issue, even though I know its coming.
I've heard it said that this is a boring story and there's nothing to it, but I really get a sense that Manapul and Buccellato are creating a much bigger world for Barry Allen slowly dropping in pieces here and there each issue. And the handling of Manuel is great. He's written in such a way that you really understand all the grey areas of himself and his multiples.
The Flash continues to do all the right things.
First Place:
I, Vampire #4
This book has its first breakthrough into the full DC Universe with an appearance from John Constantine. For me though, he doesn't really feel like an official DC character. For the majority of my DC-readership, John Constantine belonged in the Vertigo U., so I will patiently wait until we see Batman next issue.
Constantine finds Andrew on his way across the country to Gotham to find Mary. They don't fight as the cover suggests (I know $oss hates this) but due to some other fighting, you get a real good idea of who Constantine and Andrew are. If other writers write Constantine like Fialkov does I might have to get a Hellblazer book.
Joshua Fialkov and Andrea Sorrentino have a good thing going. They're really on the same page with their pacing and storytelling. This book goes down smooth. And much like Animal Man, its nice that DC has taken a different art road in Sorrentino's work. Its really unlike anything else DC has going.
Panel of the Week:
A double spread of Andrew becoming a giant bat. For this being a book about Vampire's this is the first time we've seen one of them become a bat.
-Gint
No comments:
Post a Comment