Gather your forces and divide them in to dramatically posed teams it's time for a action-packed look at last week in comics. Spoilers, cursing, and curmudgeon like behavior ahead.
X-Men: Second Coming #1
Hey remember the plot of Messiah Complex where in everyone, bad guy and good guy alike, chased after Cable and the kid for like 3 months? Hope you're ready to do that again. That's actually a bit more cynical then I actually feel. Despite the set up being eerily familiar this was not a bad issue. It does all the necessary first issue stuff; it introduces the cast, it presents the conflict, and it informs you of the stakes. Plus even with all that set up it provides some big action scenes.
The art is by David Finch and it's pretty good. If you like Finch and his kind of Silvestri/Image style you'll love it, if not, it could be a lot worse (see this week's X-Force below). Finch is solid when it comes to action and quite frankly the art on the X-Franchise is at a point where solid is a welcomed change. A random musing: this issue in which the 'Mutant Messiah' comes back was released a few days before Easter, that can't be a coincidence right? It's interesting to note that like Messiah Complex and Necrosha X the real driving force behind this crossover seems to be the stuff Kyle and Yost set up first in New X-Men and then in X-Force. It's intriguing if only because those books are seen as peripheries and sell much less then the flagship Uncanny or even Astonishing and Legacy. Seeing as Kyle and Yost are almost like the Geoff Johns of the X-Men I almost wonder if Marvel wouldn't be better served, at least financial, to give them Uncanny. And hey if that freed up Fraction to write some Iron Fist I wouldn't complain.
X-Force #25
You wonder if when Kyle and Yost get these pages they have as much trouble telling what the fuck is happening as we readers do. Even having written the story I think that sometimes they're confused. I'm not trying to attack Clayton Crain on a personal level or anything, for all I know he routinely saves puppies and feeds starving orphans, but damn man this shit is murky. That's not to completely exonerate the writers who criminally miss used the teleporter and kind of half-assed the resolution. I have no problem with them using some Native American magic to combat Selena but I think touching the spirit realm should be a bit more complex then painting your face. Shouldn't you need at least a ritual of some sort? I suppose they did have plenty of sacrifices. Ultimately though it's the art that fails it. It's hard to present a climatic confrontation between James and his brother (a climax not only of this story but of almost every story that Warpath has been in for almost 30 years) when you can barely tell a confrontation is even happening. A moment I did think was pretty sweet was the final showdown between Elixir and Wither, though it does remove a potentially interesting villain it was nice to get some resolution to a rivalry that was started like 8 years ago. Thus ends this incarnation of X-Force as the issue ends with them more or less disbanded. It will be interesting to see who joins Wolverine in the post Second Coming version.
Amazing Spider-Man #627
When I got to this page I couldn't help but laugh. ASM has had a bit of an old school vibe for awhile but this was straight up 80s style. While a throwback Roger Stern shows that he can still tell a good Spider-Man tale, revisiting two of his more famous stories; Spider-Man vs. Juggernaut and Spider-Man as Captain Universe. I confess I've never actually read those stories but I was still able to follow this just fine. Of course this is Stern who comes from a time in which comics needed to be new reader friendly even while building on previous plot points, writers didn't assume you'd read stories from before you were born (*cough*Geoff Johns*cough*). It helps a great deal to have Lee Weeks on art, he is very good. While his work doesn't quite have the dynamic action of recent artists like Martin, Bachelo, or Pulido his style is beautiful, his layouts flow, and his design sense is great. Unlike the X-Books it seems that only top notch artists are working on the Webhead these days. The Spider-Man offices should give themselves a pat on the back, they've done good yet again.
The Sword #23
I love this page. And no, not just because someone is getting a sword jammed through their head. I mean it's partly that but mainly I love the way the Luna Brothers fuck a bit with your expectations. They start playing the old 'revenge is a fools game' angle, flashing back to Dara's father teaching her about forgiveness and non-violence and for just a moment you wonder what she'll do. Will she actually give up her quest and let Malia live? Embrace a life of peace? Fuck no, stab. And this isn't even the biggest spoiler in this issue. It seems the Lunas had one more twist up their sleeves. They do a nice job of raising the stakes for next issues finale.
Blackest Night #8
So I posted this panel because it's really the only one worth talking about. I maintain my opinion the Blackest Night was utterly okay. Johns is a mediocre writer with a lot of tendencies that irk me to no end but he can write a solid big action story which is what this is. I was sort of disappointed that he punked out and had Sinestro fail so Hal could save the day, not that anyone really expected any different. Despite a few flaws, mostly with stupid dialog, Blackest Night was fairly enjoyable. It also surprisingly had consistently good artwork from Reis and company who finished all 8 issues on schedule without a fill in and without sacrificing quality. This seems like it should be common place but alas it is not. But back to the panel above (okay so I guess I had a few things to say about the rest of the book after all). Since their's only one character that I really care about let me say welcome back J'onn J'onzz, The Martian Manhunter. The rest of these people, no offense, but I couldn't care less. Max Lord? The Hawks? Firestorm? Really was the DCU so lacking without these people? Take Osiris, he was a decent enough character but nothing so unique or appealing that you couldn't just invent a new similar person that would have a clean slate, one who fans both new and old could enjoy on equal terms. I will admit I'm intrigued to see what they'll do with a living Deadman. Also, while I'm fine with DC picking and choosing which characters get to come back shouldn't Johns at least try and give some sort of explanation as to why these people came back while others who were standing right next to them did not?
That is rhetorical, the answer is yes.
The real problem here is that it once again shows DC's backwards looking philosiphy, a philosiphy that I strongly disagree with. I understand that Didio and Johns love these old characters and want to bring back the DCU of their childhood (Hal Jordan Green Lantern, Barry Allen Flash, Arthur Curry Aquaman) but it stagnates the books and repeals new readers. Whatever benefits you get from bringing back a good character are crushed by the weight of continuity baggage that come with him or her. Part of this is just bad writing as Johns and others focus their stories on the past instead of moving the rebirthed characters forward. I don't believe continuity its self is a bad thing but when every plot and subplot is tied into 40 and 50-year-old stories I think you have a problem.
Punisher #15
Fuck yes. Frankenstein Punisher mowing down a bunch of zombie Nazis, what more do you want in life? What's that, Frakencastle riding a fire-breathing dragon while firing a rocket launcher at Samurai monster killers on top of an ancient castle.
Ask and ye shall receive. So yeah this was awesome. The only slight downside was the lack of Tony Moore art but Boschi does an admirable job filling in. Other then that one slight complaint this issue, and this story has been perfect. They've tried three times to do the Punisher as a dark and serous movie, and each time has ended in varying degrees of failure, next time do this story. It is action-packed, funny, dark, perverse, dramatic, for fucks sake it's a story in which the reanimated corpse of a mad vigilante joins with a band of legendary monsters to fight the samurai who killed Godzilla and who are lead by a crazy living head encased in a steampunk exosuit after his fight with Dracula who uses magic to raise zombie Nazis!
Nothing can follow that so that's all for tonight. Comment below onegaishimasu*.
-egs
*it means por favor
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