Gint's 2-29-12 Pull-List Review

Only two books this week provided a nice quick read and review. And unfortunately, both books weren't as good as they should have been.

Second Place:

Justice League #6

This book should have been better. This whole arc should have been better. The Justice League (the original seven), Geoff Johns, Jim Lee... this should have been a tentpole comic story to live forever along with titles like Batman: The Long Halloween, DC: The New Frontier and Dardevil: Guardian Devil. But it just hasn't lived up to what it could have been.

And this issue isn't any better. Maybe this is one of those stories that you have to read all in a row. One book a month didn't cut it. The characters trade some zingers, Darkseid shows up, gets beat and its all over. And for as much as I love Geoff Johns, some of the dialog in this issue was just awful. After our heroes win someone in the crowd actually says, "You're the world's greatest super-humans!" Fucking groan inducing.

So that's that. The big first arc wraps up with more of a whimper than a bang. Here's hoping Johns turns this book in to the best seller that it should be with the next story arc.

First Place:

Voltron #3

What a cool fucking book. I think I like it better than the old cartoon. Brandon Thomas does a great job modernizing the Voltron mythos for an audience that has grown up. Much like the old Dreamwave Transformers series did.

Thomas writes the backstory of how the Voltron robot was created while tying it into who King Zarkon is and what he has to do with the creation of the lions. Now, I'm no Voltron scholar, but it reads great and ties everything together nicely. It also says something about the book that we haven't actually seen Voltron since the first few pages of issue #1 and its just as entertaining.

If there's a negative, its the art. Ariel Padilla does a serviceable job, but that's all it is. He also seems to have trouble setting up a scene so the reader knows who's all in the room. Some panels are a little disjointed, but I've struggled through books with way worse artwork, so I don't want to complain too much.

This spring Brandon Thomas takes on Voltron: Year One. I'm pretty amped about it.

Ps... Very cool cover by Alex Ross this week. Nice to see him doing something not from the 1930s. I give you a higher res version this week so click it for the larger version.

Panel of the Week:

There wasn't a whole lot of art this week that stood out, but this panel was pretty funny.

-Gint