Gint's 8-15-12 Pull-List Review

Artwork seems to be the theme through this weeks review. Some good, some not so good.

Fifth Place:

Voltron #7

New artist N. Steven Harris makes me long for the days of Ariel Padilla's woeful art. You'd think with all the good artists in the world, all the artists that would love a gig on Voltron, Dynamite would be able to find someone of quality to draw this book. Harris' art is just as bad if not worse than Padilla's in a lot of places. At least Padilla's inks didn't look like they're barely holding on to the paper.

Brandon Thomas' story is still incredibly solid. This book would rate a lot higher this week (and most weeks) if Dynamite could get a good artist on it. Its embarassing. It looks like weak fan fiction.

Dynamite needs to start getting it right before people stop buying this book.

Fourth Place:

Wonder Woman #12

Cliff Chiang delivers his usual beautiful pencils and is once again the highlight of the book. The problem I'm starting to have with it is I don't feel like we're getting anywhere. A lot of stuff keeps happening, but it doesn't feel like the story is getting anywhere. Zola had the baby though, and then it got kidnapped, so I imagine we're getting somewhere.

I suppose that's why I feel like some of the sheen has come off this book since it started. I need to start feeling like something is actually happening.

Third Place:

Supergirl #12

Cam Smith joins Supergirl as inker for Mahmud Asrar. I think up until this point Asrar has just been throwing down heavy pencils. A lot of the panels stuck out this issue because some of the smooth fluidity of Asrar's work got lost. The angles and figures are still great, but some of the detail is now a little too detailed.

As for the issue, Kara visits Clark at the Fortress and they talk all things Krypton and Kara. They still have an awkward relationship but Mike Johnson and Michael Green use a slow build. You can see the relationship they should have in this foundation.

I didn't read any of the 80s/90s Supergirl stories, but I can't imagine Green and Johnson's work not being the class of Supergirl stories.

Second Place:

Green Lantern Corps #12

Things are getting decidedly more dangerous for our favorite Lanterns. The Alpha Lanterns pretty much destroyed themselves and the Guardians are happy about it. They're bringing down their own empire on their own very subtly. They're also getting more and more evil. Normally the Guardians are just dicks, but now they seem to have gone off the deep end.

Tomasi and Pasarin do their usual great job leading everything up to the #0 issues and the Third Army story that will appear beyond.

First Place:

Green Lantern #12

Geoff Johns has me pretty damn nervous. All this end of the Green Lantern Corps talk, plus this new GL appearing post #0 issues and that bloody GL logo cover. If they kill Hal Jordan again, I will seriously fuck someone up.

And another clue appears in this months Green Lantern. The Book of the Black tells Black Hand that Hal Jordan will be the greatest Black Lantern. That means he'll have to be dead. Geoff Johns has yet to let me down, so I'll just keep trusting what he's doing.

The negative of this issue is the double art duties of Renato Guedes and Jim Calafiore. Calafiore's art was nice to see since I haven't seen his work since they cancelled Secret Six. A nice throwback to one of my favorite books of all time. Guedes however is just unimpressive. Light inks, thin lines, just not for me. I guess regular artist, Doug Mahnke is busy with that Annual coming up, but it would have been really nice to see him do this whole arc.

Panel of the Week

This is the garbage that Dynamite is trying to pass off on the reader. C'mon, Dynamite. Get your fucking shit together.

-Gint