This week had four pretty evenly matched books. Nothing was horrible and nothing was outstanding.
Fourth Place:
Superman Unchained #8
The penultimate chapter of what's been an underwhelming story. Another story about how Superman reacts to an outside subject instead of a story about Superman.
Scott Snyder does his best this issue to try to get into Superman's head an lead us through his thoughts during the fight for his life. Clark looks into how Wonder Woman and Batman would handle certain situations, and eventually uses Wraith's powers against him. The interesting part is how you learn, through Supes circumstances learning to be a hero, that he's had to learn to be his own kind of no-holds-barred street brawler. He's had to look out for himself and face fights head on with no one at his back.
Jim Lee's pencils are nearly flawless as usual. He doesn't do a whole lot these days, but when he does, it still looks great. One more issue to go and maybe Snyder and Lee can pull something off and salvage what's been a weak story.
Third Place:
Coffin Hill #11
I would describe Caitlin Kittredge and Inaki Miranda's second arc as... slow. Not bad, just slow. Where the first arc had a quicker pace, there's a slow burn quality this time around. By the time we get to the climax, I expect this story to really take off.
There's a new player in Coffin Hill... or at least in a different dimension around Coffin Hill. Her name is Belinda, she has no eyes, and she's leading people in the real world to kill witches. She also seems to be eating human fat. She's got a real Cenobite quality to her.
My hope is that Kittredge has some tricks up her sleeve regarding the serial killer the Ice Fisher and Detective Doyle, who is also Eve's love interest this arc. Right now, ALL signs point to him being the Ice Fisher, but it can't be that simple can it? I expect to be surprised in the next couple issues.
Second Place:
Futures End #19
We are ripping right through this story, aren't we? Seems like yesterday we started our walk through 5 years in DC's future. For having to tell a year long story, the writing team isn't decompressing very much. There's enough going on to keep the story at a fairly quick pace and to keep things moving forward.
Lois Lane has outed the fact Shazam has been standing in for Superman, who's whereabouts are a mystery to the rest of the world. Batman Beyond's team finally breaks into Terriffitech and things get weird when Plastique gets face to face with her Brainiac-ed self. What gets confusing, is that now I'm not sure if Brother Eye and Brainiac are connected. It would seem like they are, but after hearing more about Fifty Sue's deal with Brother Eye, I'm not so sure.
Scot Eaton does a great job with the pencils this issue. He makes a couple cool moves with panel layout and camera angles. For a weekly, the art has been pretty impressive.
First Place:
Hawkeye #20
Be warned, I'm going to spoil some shit in this review. So there you go. SPOILERS.
Matt Fraction, with Annie Wu on art wrap up Kate Bishop's trip to Los Angeles. And they do it VERY well. When Fraction moved Kate to LA, I wasn't sure where he was going, but he clearly had this plan in mind. Kate's rivalry with Madame Masque throughout the book comes to a head, and everything Fraction has planted pays off. What really pays off for me is that Masque has been using Life Model Decoys to keep herself young. The LMD she's been using? Kate Bishop. Mind. Blown.
That isn't expressly stated, but if you've been following along, its pretty clear. Especially after learning that Kate's father has been on Masque's payroll.
Hawkeye has had some ups and downs. Some genuinely awesome issues, and some dumb stuff too. But this issue really pulls all the Kate Bishop story together brilliantly. It makes me want to go back and read all of the LA stories again. The more I think about it, the more I loved this issue.
Panel of the Week:
Inaki Miranda's Belinda. Gross on so many levels.
-Gint
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