At the 11th hour of posting last week's reviews, the file got deleted. All of it. So I apologize for not posting last Monday. But the comic world doesn't stop and we're on to a whole new week of books.
Star Wars #20
The final issue of the series. The license moves to Marvel for 2015 and beyond, so Dark Horse, who has been a steward of the brand for so long is S-O-L. I haven't read a lot of Dark Horse's Star Wars series, but this one has left me thinking the move to Marvel will be a nice shot in the arm for the brand in the comics medium.
Brian Wood wraps up the series with Carlos D'Anda, telling a story of Han, Luke and Leia rescuing an undercover Rebel operative. See, I think THIS should have been the story the whole time. It only spans 2 issues, but it feels more like the Star Wars universe than the majority of Wood's run has.
The run had its ups and down, but was mostly entertaining. Still, I won't be upset spending this $2.99 elsewhere.
X-Men #18
Well folks, that'll do it for the X-Men X-periment (see what I did there). I sat though some really good stuff from Brian Wood on his run, and a few not so good things, and was prepared for Marc Guggenheim to really deliver a good book. I've read some great comics by Guggenheim in the past, and he's an Executive Producer on Arrow, so how could this go wrong?
Well, you put the X-Men in space... that's how this could go wrong. The X-Men work best at home. Dealing with personal and societal issues and locking things down on the homefront. Once you take what makes the X-Men work and dump it into their crazy space bullshit, you lose any desire I had to read about the charcacters.
Also, Guggenheim did his own best Bendis impression loading every character with snappy one-liners and zingers. Agent Brand being the worst offender of all. If that's what her character is always like, she needs a reboot. It was a nice little run, but daddy's done.
Justice League United #4
Man, I really wanted to love this book. I was prepared to have a new favorite comic. Maybe my expectations were working against it, because this book hasn't been much more than average.
I love the cast. Animal Man, Green Arrow, Supergirl, Stargirl, Martian Manhunter. Plus Adam Strange and Hawkman... but something just hasn't clicked through this first arc. For one reason or another the stakes don't seem very high. There's also too many heroes. Pair it down to maybe four, plus the newly created Equinox and give the team a less insane plot ad maybe there's hope. There's just been a lot going on in this first arc. Lemire had a lot of balls in the air and didn't quite catch any of them. Disappointing since he's one of my favorite writers.
And since this first arc was so-so, its put this book on the bubble. I've been buying a lot of books lately and its time to cull the herd. Justice League United may be the first to go.
Third Place:
Coffin Hill #10
Alright, Coffin Hill, time to step it back up and pull me back in. The last couple issues have contained some important plot points, and move the story along, but its also slowed down a little.
The first arc had a quick pace. It was also super creepy and it carried us along the story of Eve Coffin's youth intersecting with her present. This second story, Dark Endeavors, uses a similar flashback style moving from the present Eve in prison, to the past story of how she ended up there.
Inaki Miranda's artwork is still great and even excels in some of the creepier moments. There's a lot of plot points being setup right now, and hopefully a powerful payoff will follow.
Second Place:
Futures End #15
Technically, Scot Eaton's pencils aren't perfect. But when I finished this issue I was pleasantly surprised to realize there wasn't one panel that pulled me out of the book. You expect less from a weekly, and while we're not getting Alex Ross-quality every week, Eaton and the rest of the artists are drawing a really solid book with each issue.
This week we learn a little more about the Earth 2 heroes captured on Cadmus island. Rita (presumably Earth 2's Rita Farr) and Hawkwoman let us know Cadmus implanted them with monitoring devices that are apparently growing inside them. Gross. Constantine is after what looks like a malevolent robot. And its all but spelled out that the Superman of five years later, is Shazam in a Superman costume with a mask.
The tight writing team of Brian Azzarello, Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens and Jeff Lemire have kept this story's pace slow and steady, and interesting with each issue.
Coffin Hill #10
Alright, Coffin Hill, time to step it back up and pull me back in. The last couple issues have contained some important plot points, and move the story along, but its also slowed down a little.
The first arc had a quick pace. It was also super creepy and it carried us along the story of Eve Coffin's youth intersecting with her present. This second story, Dark Endeavors, uses a similar flashback style moving from the present Eve in prison, to the past story of how she ended up there.
Inaki Miranda's artwork is still great and even excels in some of the creepier moments. There's a lot of plot points being setup right now, and hopefully a powerful payoff will follow.
Futures End #15
Technically, Scot Eaton's pencils aren't perfect. But when I finished this issue I was pleasantly surprised to realize there wasn't one panel that pulled me out of the book. You expect less from a weekly, and while we're not getting Alex Ross-quality every week, Eaton and the rest of the artists are drawing a really solid book with each issue.
This week we learn a little more about the Earth 2 heroes captured on Cadmus island. Rita (presumably Earth 2's Rita Farr) and Hawkwoman let us know Cadmus implanted them with monitoring devices that are apparently growing inside them. Gross. Constantine is after what looks like a malevolent robot. And its all but spelled out that the Superman of five years later, is Shazam in a Superman costume with a mask.
The tight writing team of Brian Azzarello, Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens and Jeff Lemire have kept this story's pace slow and steady, and interesting with each issue.
Green Lantern Corps #34
Van Jensen and Bernard Chang are making it very difficult to quit this book. I quit Red Lanterns and Green Lantern: New Guardians a long time ago. And last week Green Lantern finally bought the farm. But this team is the last reminder of why I have a Green Lantern tattoo. They just keep doing the right things with this book and with John Stewart.
John deals with the aftermath of finding out his girlfriend has been a shapeshifter for the last couple arcs. So he goes off in a rage to find the real Fatality, who has been imprisoned this whole time. When he does he learns that since it was never really her he was with, she doesn't love him. And in fact, still hates him for blowing up her planet. Its honestly a pretty heartbreaking issue.
The Green Lantern books get caught up in a war with the New Gods next, so I'm fucking NOT buying those. But maybe once the dust clears, I'll come back to this title. Its the only title (besides Cullen Bunn's Sinestro) that's been treating this mythology with the care it deserves.
Page of the Week:
This week's Green Lantern Corps was a great story and looked amazing. A lot of that is thanks to colorist Marcelo Maiolo who really brought his A-game.
-Gint
Page of the Week:
This week's Green Lantern Corps was a great story and looked amazing. A lot of that is thanks to colorist Marcelo Maiolo who really brought his A-game.
-Gint
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