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Elektra #4 – Review

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: W. Haden Blackman (story), Michael Del Mundo (art) Marco D’Alfonso (colors)

The Story: Which assassin will have the better family reunion?

The Review: If there’s someone who fits the definition of antihero, Elektra does. Her methods are unapologetically brutal, her objectives not always for the greater good. In times past, she’s even been outright villain, I believe. Therefore, it’s important, for those of us who want to continue enjoying this book without feeling bad about ourselves, that we get a solid sense of where her morals land, so we’re not just getting entertainment out of a killer satiating her killer’s instinct.*

Indeed, that could be Blackman’s very purpose in kicking off the series with an arc involving a whole bunch of assassins. They provide the comparative framework we need to understand how Elektra places on the scale between good and evil. Putting her side-by-side with Bloody Lips seems particularly useful because they have the common ground of deep family tragedies in their past. The more similar two things are, the more profound their differences.
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The Wicked + The Divine #2 – Review

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Kieron Gillen (story), Jamie McKelvie (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: As you can well imagine, the devil doesn’t take kindly to being imprisoned.

The Review: Not to get too socio-political, but I think current affairs of recent weeks teach us that humans have awfully short memories, which explains why history so often repeats itself, which is to say we may all be doomed. You’d think, if something repeats itself often enough, we’d learn a little something from it each time and at least make some progress. More frequently, however, we end up practically starting over each time, learning the same lesson only when it’s too late.

Fortunately, repetitions in fiction are easier to keep track of. It doesn’t take an English major to recognize that if something is cyclical, you’d best be alert for constants, so as to better observe the changes. In the case of the Recurrence (the centennial appearance of gods that forms the premise of The Wicked + The Divine), our constant is Ananke, the elderly woman with the eye-mask who greets the gods when they return and bids them farewell when they depart.
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Robin Rises: Omega #1 – Review

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Andy Kubert (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks), Brad Anderson (colors)

The Story: Invasion of the body-snatchers.

The Review: Superhero deaths and resurrections have become so commonplace nowadays that I do believe an unwritten etiquette has developed regarding the proper amount of time that must pass before publishers and writers can start thinking about bringing a character back from the dead. From my completely unscientific observations, it seems the mourning period is somewhere between one-and-a-half to two years, give or take a few months.

And what do you know, it’s been just about a year and a half since Damian Wayne was pincushioned to death in Batman Inc. #8, and now we have a storyline titled, quite explicitly, Robin Rises. There’s a possibility Damian might not come back—the title emphasizes it’s Robin who’s rising without specifying which one—but whoever picks up that red, green, and yellow mantle, it’s Damian who’ll carry this story along. Let’s hope for a good one, at least.
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The Legend of Korra S03E06-07

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Katie Matilla & Tim Hedrick (story)

The Story: Family, the ties that bind and gag.

The Review: There was a long period, starting in Season 1 and gaining steam in Season 2, when it looked like Korra might turn into the least likable character in her own show—which would have been awkward, to say the least. You could forgive her hot temperament, impulsiveness, and pride, but her tendency to trust her enemies before her friends displayed such a severe lack of common sense that you couldn’t help feeling her position as avatar was ill-deserved.

But her spiritual experiences last season have done a lot to polish her personality and give her some measure of wisdom. She’s humble enough to freely admit her inability to metalbend, sensible enough for Tenzin to take her advice seriously, likable enough that even when she has the occasional outburst, she seems passionate rather than nauseatingly self-righteous. All this evolution is conveyed through Janet Varney’s centered voicing, which keeps Korra sounding firm and strong, but with gentler delivery.
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Superman/Wonder Woman #10 – Review

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Charles Soule (story), Pascal Alixe (art), Paulo Siqueira (pencils), Hi-Fi (colors)

The Story: Lois always did want to conquer the world.

The Review: A shared universe can be a headache in more ways than one. Every single time a major crisis happens in a single title, there’s this mental effort you have to make to keep from wondering why no other hero in the universe notices. This is especially the case when the hero or heroes in question don’t seem to be handling the situation particularly well. What? Everyone else is so busy handling their own problems that they can’t be bothered?

That’s what’s so puzzling about this whole Doomed storyline. Superman’s been turned into a killing machine, an entire metropolis has fallen unconscious, so why is the League and every other A-list hero not on deck, especially since Superman isn’t there? Why does it suddenly seem like the world has no other resource except Wonder Woman, Steel, and Lana Lang? This is a difficult logistical problem to ignore, but Soule clearly would prefer that you don’t think about it at all.
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Daredevil #5 – Review

Posted on July 15, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Mark Waid (story), Chris Samnee (art), Javier Rodriguez (colors)

The Story: When Daredevil isn’t enough to save the day, we need Foggy Nelson!

The Review: In the superhero world, much as in real life, it’s the lot of the supporting characters to be overshadowed, overlooked, marginalized by the heroes they support. The heroes can’t get along without them; how often do you see our costumed protagonists triumph thanks to the timely save or quick thinking of their faithful companions? Yet these brave men and women are rarely gratified by public admiration, even though they take relatively greater risks in involving themselves.

No one exemplifies this hapless lot better than Foggy, the very definition of everyman: average looks, flabby, intelligent, prone to fear and bravery in equal measure. As if he hasn’t already suffered enough as Matt’s best friend, now he faces the prospect of having to completely abandon his normal life for one as a hidden invalid. That’s a raw deal, any way you look at it.
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The Legend of Korra S03E01-05 – Review

Posted on July 13, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Tim Hedrick, Joshua Hamilton, Michael Dante DiMartino (story)

The Story: Suddenly, being an airbender is a whole lot less special.

The Review: So for all those who thought that maybe I Dropped this series, my sincerest apologies. I hate to turn bar prep into my personal scapegoat for all my failings, but you have to admit, it’s a good one. Indeed, it wasn’t until commenters Daniel and Del Keyes mentioned it—thanks, pals!—that I remembered there was such a thing as Legend of Korra. Seriously, my reaction was something along the lines of, “Oh, yeah…”

I picked a real bad season to forget about the premiere, too, since the show came right out the gate with three episodes, and seems set to follow a two-episode-a-week schedule from now on. So just like my bar prep, I have a lot of catching up to do. To get started, let’s do as the show does and get the return of the spirits out of the way first. It’s exactly as disruptive as you’d expect, with vining habitats randomly popping up across Republic City, but since the show can’t exactly revive the spirit-human conflict without becoming repetitious, there’s not much anyone can do about the situation except deal with it, albeit sullenly.
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Justice League United #3 – Review

Posted on July 13, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Mike McKone (art), Cam Smith & Guillermo Ortego (inks), Marcelo Maiolo & Andrew Dalhouse (colors)

The Story: Dealing with a traumatized child is a lot easier if you have psychic powers.

The Review: Last month, I suggested that Justice League United may be the least enjoyable part of Justice League United, which I meant only partly in jest. Acknowledging that team chemistry is probably a difficult thing to generate from scratch, it must be said that the JLU has very little of it. That’s not totally unnatural, given how new the team is and how unformed their personalities are, but it does make for a duller read, and there seems to be little improvement in that respect on the horizon.

Lemire’s so distracted with carrying the plot forward that we get few interactions among the cast in the first place that isn’t exposition-related, and what few we do have rise to a very tepid degree of liveliness. After Kara socks Lobo into the stratosphere, Buddy remarks, “Wow. Nice punch, kid.”

“Hey, what about my arrow?” Ollie complains, referring to the shaft he just earlier put into Lobo’s shoulder.*

Buddy, unbothered: “Meh.”
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Grayson #1 – Review

Posted on July 10, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Tim Seeley & Tom King (story), Mikel Janín (art), Jeromy Cox (colors)

The Story: Grayson—Dick Grayson.

The Review: I’m no comic book history expert, so I can’t tell you about the actual origin of superheroes according to such niceties as facts. But I like to believe that among their closest ancestors is the spy. The idea of a person meting justice while living an apparently normal life is such an integral part of both that it’s not hard to think of them as arising from a common nucleus. So if one decides costumed vigilantism isn’t one’s thing, spywork seems like a natural alternative.

It’s thus not entirely surprising to find Dick muttering into earpieces and adopting codenames now that his public outing has made being Nightwing impossible. Besides, playing secret agent seems right up his alley. Not only is he more than qualified, skill-wise, he’s got the daredevil charm that’s so essential to the modern spy. As he dons a blond wig,* tries out his Russian, and acts out the douchey American tourist to perfection, you can tell that he’s thoroughly enjoying himself, so maybe you should, too.
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Green Arrow #33 – Review

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Andrea Sorrentino (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: Ollie gets to experience the joy of having an annoying little sister.

The Review: When the DCU relaunched, the idea was supposedly that we were in a sparkling new world, with the characters living out their early superheroic histories before our very eyes. Going by that theory, you assumed that in the first few issues of Green Arrow, Ollie had only recently started going about town in his emerald hoodie. The introduction of Diggle thus creates a slightly awkward pre-history to this early period, one even odder since Ollie never gave a hint of its existence before now.

Lemire tries his best to reconcile these two eras in Ollie’s vigilante life, using the death of his mom as a sensible dividing line. But from a character development standpoint, there are redundancies. Lemire goes through a great deal of trouble playing out Diggle’s disgust with Ollie’s indolence after his mother’s death, accusing him of being a “self-absorbed, spoiled little rich kid with a lot of fancy toys.” Given that Ollie resumed the Green Arrow identity by the first issue of this series, Ollie must have taken those words to heart. But then what should we make of his self-loathing remarks about being a spoiled kid in practically every issue of Lemire’s first arc on this series?
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Fairest #27 – Review

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Mark Buckingham (story), Russ Braun (art), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Even a fox loses his charm once he turns human.

The Review: And we’re back! It’s been several months since the abysmal Mice and Men arc, and if I had any doubts at the time whether I was doing the right thing temporarily Dropping the series, I have none now. I’m in a much better spirit of mind than if I had forced myself to buy into Andreyko’s wandering, inconsequential storyline, and eager to check in with the less pressing side of the Fables universe, especially as we’re winding down to the series’ conclusion.

Since I’m still woefully deficient in my Fables history, I can’t confirm whether Prince Charming’s promise to provide glamours to all non-humanoid Fables was ever established before this issue, but it does lead to a solid plot for the Fables that tend to be overlooked. It’s true they don’t get enough respect; that will happen when you look like a walking sunflower in breeches or cat with a bonnet or some other anthropomorphized creature in medieval costume. Kind of hard not to see them as comical even when they have very real grievances.
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Swamp Thing #33 – Review

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Charles Soule (story), Javier Pina (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Jonah proves to Weeds and Wolf that sex is more rewarding than scheming.

The Review: I might have said this before—in fact, I’m almost certain of it—but one of the best things Soule did for this series was introduce us to specific members of the Parliament of Trees, then include them as part of Alec’s supporting cast. Alec has always been a decent, likable protagonist, but the additions of Jonah, Lady Weeds, and the Wolf have given Swamp Thing layers of human intrigue between its supernatural mysteries.

Almost all of that intrigue is generated between Weeds and Wolf alone, not least of all because they have such dramatically different personalities. Wolf prefers to play the long game, slowly breaking down Alec until the final stroke can be delivered. Weeds would rather eschew this Machiavellian approach for a more direct attack. It’s not hard to figure out whose plan will carry the day in the end; it’s just amazing that Weeds goes along with Wolf for as long as she does.
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Earth Two #25 – Review

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Tom Taylor (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: If you’re going to break your father’s heart, you might as well kill him.

The Review: As I read through this issue, it suddenly occurred to me that for a big, gushy superhero series that’s been around for over two years, we’ve had surprisingly few displays of superheroic power. A couple come to mind—Alan’s duel with Solomon Grundy, Marella’s airborne whirlpool—but for the most part, it’s the enemy that’s done most of the showboating. No wonder morale has been so low; it’s hard to hold out hope when all the major moves come from the other side.

And no wonder that as our heroes get bolder, more aggressive with their powers, the more you think Earth Two may stand a fighting chance after all. I’m not just talking about the war against Apokolips; I’m talking about the chances of these characters rising to the same level as their peers on Prime Earth. It’s easy to think of Earth-2′s Wonders as cheap riffs and knock-offs of more famous characters, and thus inferior product. The only way to break out of that perception is to stand tall and proud on their own laurels, and they weren’t going to do it by constantly fleeing Darkseid’s forces.
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Action Comics #33 – Review

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Greg Pak (story), Aaron Kuder (art), Wil Quintana (colors)

The Story: As if Doomsday isn’t enough of a problem, now there’s mass narcolepsy going on.

The Review:
Last time we visited this storyline, I said that I was on the verge of giving it up, a proposition I was only half-joking about. I just couldn’t bear the idea of buying three comics a month for however long this arc lasted, knowing I wouldn’t really enjoy them. At least with Transformers, I only kind of knew I wouldn’t like it. But after dropping Batman/Superman, economic considerations aren’t as pressing anymore, and admittedly, Pak’s starting to take the story in an interesting direction.

Don’t get me wrong; the Doomsday Superman stuff is incurably dull. There’s little psychological gold to mine from Clark’s mental war with his Doomsday conscience; it’s your typical angel-devil set-up, but with superheroes. You also doubt that Clark will ever fully succumb to his destructive urges because once he does that, even involuntarily or by accident, it’s over for Superman—either that, or everyone, including Clark, will need to have a short memory. You might as well flip the page every time you see a craggy-faced Clark.
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Batman/Superman #12 – Review

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Greg Pak (story), Ken Lashley (art), Tom Raney (pencils), Jamie Mendoza (inks), Jason Wright (colors)

The Story: The trip to Earth-2, Part 2.

The Review: I’m starting to realize that this title might not know what it’s talking about. The series has meandered so much that it’s been hard to make sense of where it was going. Since the first arc, we’ve had one tangential disappointment after another: a forgettable storyline with Mongul, a forgettable crossover with Worlds’ Finest, a forgettable filler issue with guest writer Jeff Lemire, a forgettable tie-in to a most unwelcome Event…you get the picture.

This issue’s return to Earth-2 seems like a desperate attempt to pick up from the only successful plotline the title has ever had, but even here, there’s not much excitement to be had. Bruce and Clark, deprived of any ability to actually interact with the parallel world, have little to do except watch helplessly as things go further and further south for their counterparts. It’s a depressing experience, certainly, but not exactly a learning one.
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Daredevil: Road Warrior #1 – Review

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Mark Waid (story), Peter Krause (art), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: If you can get in trouble in winter Milwaukee, you can get in trouble anywhere.

The Review: Because we all love to discuss writing technique on this site, let’s talk about first-person narrative. Frankly, outside pure prose fiction, the first-person very rarely works. As a delivery mechanism for exposition, it’s largely unnecessary in any medium with visuals, and as commentary, it’s mostly redundant and distracting if the dialogue and acting is good enough. The only reason you’d keep a first-person narrative in these cases is because the audience really, really wants to hear it.

As Waid proves with Matt Murdock, you can only get that if the narrator himself is just that charismatic. Matt’s internal voice is crafted with such natural, likable care and he blends humor and sensitivity in near perfect measure. Best of all, Waid uses it to capture things that the spoken word and visuals can’t, which is saying a lot when you consider how strong his dialogue and artistic collaborators are. The joy of Matt’s narration is he only grows richer in character rather than wearisome over time, and his personality always comes through even when he’s essentially just dropping essential information:

“[I]f I could see the things that come at me in this job the way sighted people see them…they’d probably stop calling me, ‘The Man Without Fear.’ Or even ‘Daredevil.’ They’d probably go with ‘Matt Murdock, the idiot who keeps picking fights in really dumb places.’”
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Iron Fist: The Living Weapon #4 – Review

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Kaare Kyle Andrews (story & art)

The Story: Kung-fu foreplay is best foreplay.

The Review: When we first met Brenda, her slender blondness (and the fact that she wound up cuddled in Danny’s bed) made it natural for us to think of her as an entirely passing character. Lately, though, it’s clear that Andrews has bigger plans for her beyond a one night stand. I personally wonder if she’ll outgrow the journalist-girlfriend mold which so many other women have already defined: Linda Park, Vicki Vale, Iris West, and, of course, the mother of them all, Lois Lane.

If Andrews insists that she fulfill this somewhat stereotypical role, at least he makes her seem fairly competent doing it. Compared to the giggly fangirl of the debut issue, Brenda is much more perceptive and dedicated to her work here. As Danny recounts a sickeningly sweet memory of his father, Brenda comments a bit ambiguously, “You make him sound like a good man.”

Danny continues. “He was gentle and kind and warm…”

“But that’s not the truth.” It’s a good psychological read that makes it seem like Brenda will have a much stronger bond with Danny than you might think.
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Superman Unchained #7 – Review

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Scott Snyder (story), Jim Lee (pencils), Scott Williams (inks), Alex Sinclair (colors)

The Story: Can a one-man army take down an actual army?

The Review: Happy Independence Day, everyone—yes, even you folks who have nothing to do with the good ol’ U.S. of A. So I think it’s appropriate that my first review of the day celebrating America goes to the comic starring that most quintessential all-American hero, the Man of Steel himself. It’s also important that here, we’re dealing with a Superman in his purest, most heroic form, as opposed to one struggling not to unleash certain death on all living things—we’ll deal with that hot mess later.

That said, Clark’s big heroic moment in this series has come and gone; what’s left is purely personal, with little opportunity for growth. He seems on the verge of it here, reflecting on Wraith’s challenges from #5: “The choices I make about when I fight, how I fight, how I live my life inside and outside of this…those choices mean that Superman, as I’ve created him, he can’t last forever.” But he never synthesizes these musings into a concrete conclusion as to what he should do. Instead, he dithers, pleading with Lois for understanding, which is preaching to the choir if you’ve ever seen it.
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The Private Eye #7 – Review

Posted on July 4, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Brian K. Vaughan (story), Marcos Martin (art), Muntsa Vicente (colors)

The Story: No one deserves to go down this way—not even a sex doll.

The Review: Brace yourself—personal story coming through. A few months ago, I switched email accounts. My old one kept having this problem where someone would hack into the account and send spam mail to all my contacts, usually with subject lines like, “Check this out,” or, “You won’t believe this!” The third time this happened was the final straw. Of course, when I made the switch, I let all my contacts know. I just forgot to do the same with my commercial subscriptions.

Consequently—and this is the point of this otherwise bizarre anecdote—I never received an email from Panel Syndicate letting me know the latest Private Eye issue was out. It wasn’t until after reviewing the latest Saga did it occur to me that I hadn’t read an issue of Vaughan’s other ongoing in a while. But here we are, better late than never, as some might say. Anyway, I’m sure fans will agree that unlike many series, Private Eye doesn’t suffer for the wait.
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Futures End #8 – Review

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens (story), Scot Eaton (pencils), Drew Geraci (inks), Hi-Fi (colors)

The Story: Superman demonstrates how not to listen to other people’s problems.

The Review: Last week, I gave this series an ultimatum: give me something, anything, that can be considered even remotely compelling—by which I mean it seizes your interest instead of weakly grasping for it—or else I drop it for good. I don’t think that’s too harsh a demand, considering the money I’m putting in. At about twelve bucks a month, I figure it’s worth exchanging a merely decent title for three or four better ones, or an extra meal or two at In ‘n’ Out—whichever.

Let’s cut to the chase. This issue doesn’t do it. Like its predecessors, it has some merit, but it mostly fails to convince you that there’s must-read material in here. Must-skim-for-anything-noteworthy is more like it. This is no doubt in part due to the series’ uncertain continuity. How much of this is going to end up as canon? I’m not sure the answer matters. If none of it has any permanent impact on the DCU, then you obviously have no reason to care. But if any of it gets integrated into the DCU, we have a much grimmer world to look forward to, and that’s not terrific either.

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Justice League #31 – Review

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Geoff Johns (story), Doug Mahnke (pencils), Keith Champagne & Christian Alamy (inks), Rod Reis (colors)

The Story: What to do when your secret identity’s discovered.

The Review: I’ve heard somewhere that Johns is not a big Batman fan, but I think it’s more accurate to say that he doesn’t worship Batman the way many superhero readers do. People have built up Batman’s stature to the point that he sometimes coming across as less human than his actually inhuman peers. This goes against Johns’ grain, since he’s a writer who likes to bring characters down to Earth in an occasionally misguided attempt to make them more “relatable.”

Perhaps this explains why Batman in Johns’ hands is hardly the mighty figure we’re used to seeing. Compared to the vicious Batman who appears in the works of Scott Snyder or Pete Tomasi, Johns’ Batman is mostly hot air, a bit flimsier and more ineffectual. We saw this in his laughable attempts maintain control in Forever Evil, and we see it again here as he tries to fake his way out of Luthor’s discovery of his identity: “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Luthor. I’m not Batman.” The only way he could be more unconvincing would be to add a stutter and several exclamation points.
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Sinestro #3 – Review

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Cullen Bunn (story), Dale Eaglesham & Rags Morales (art), Jason Wright (colors)

The Story: As with most former dictators, it’s hard to wring an apology out of Sinestro.

The Review: So I saw Transformers: Age of Extinction last night, the first Transformers film I’ve ever seen beyond the trailer. This isn’t really the time and place for a fully-fledged review of the movie, but for those curious, I’ll say that it’s extremely distressing to see how much money could be spent to produce something so soulless and utterly lacking in redeeming quality other than visual spectacle. Clearly very little of that $210 million budget was expended on the writing.

More than anything else, I’m angry at myself for actually paying money to see the film and thus indirectly supporting such wanton lack of integrity. That’s the upside of reading comics; even if you feel like you’ve wasted your money on some bad issues, you can take comfort in knowing the profits aren’t terribly encouraging anyway. And with that, I think I’ve successfully brought us back to our real topic of choice, Sinestro #3, which might not be exceptional, but at least it has characters with dimension, which can’t be said of certain works with a gajillion times the resources.
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Superman #32 – Review

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Geoff Johns (story), John Romita Jr. (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Laura Martin (colors)

The Story: The last son of Krypton meets the last son of Earth.

The Review: Do you want to know the easiest way to tell if a writer/artist is in the top tier of comic book creators? Don’t answer; of course you do! All you have to do is see they have when attached to an already ongoing series. If they’re lower on the popularity scale, hardly anyone will take notice. If they’re big-time, it’s like the title just came out with a new #1 issue, like their creative energies have the power to transform the old into the young again.

As I never once picked up an issue of Superman until now, I can’t make any comparisons to what came before, but I can say that Johns makes me feel like I’m reading a brand-new series. You have to say this for the man: he knows how to write a good hook. Like a rapper sampling a famous guitar riff for his latest single, Johns takes a story we’ve heard so often before—a baby boy rocketed from a doomed setting by his loving parents—and tweaks it ever so slightly to make it fit his purposes yet also remind us why we love that story so much in the first place.
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Letter 44 #7 – Review

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Charles Soule (story), Joëlle Jones (art), Dan Jackson (colors)

The Story: If you’re going to mine diamonds from Russia, make sure to ask the Russians first.

The Review: Among Letter 44‘s many unusual qualities, the one that sticks out the most is the fact that it started with the action well underway, the Clarke crew having already closed in on their destination. This meant that the characters had gone past the getting-to-know-you stage and were now too busy dealing with the plot to reveal much about themselves for our benefit. Even so, the series is half a year old, which means it’s time for us to know more about the people we’re working with.

This flashback issue thus couldn’t have come at a better time. Soule wisely chooses not to disperse the attention to the lives of the entire crew at once, instead focusing on Charlotte, arguably the lead of the series, and Dr. Rowan,* the crew member revealed to be MIA in #3. There’s no long-term plotwork here; given that we’re in the past, we already know what this manned space mission being offered to Charlotte and Rowan is about. This issue is pure character work, getting us to more deeply sympathize and admire the cast we’ve grown familiar with.
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Filed under: Oni Press, Reviews | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Aquaman #32 – Review

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Jeff Parker (story), Paul Pelletier (pencils), Sean Parsons (inks), Rain Beredo & Rick Magyar (colors)

The Story: Apparently, no one read Frankenstein before this whole human chimera project.

The Review: We have an interesting relationship to science, don’t we? In the real world, we can hardly get enough of it; see the hordes waiting for the newest iPhone, watching the Curiosity rover putter around Mars, buying into anything that says it was “scientifically approved.” And yet our fiction is replete with plots where a scientific experiment/product goes wrong, leaving us the message that we’d be better off approaching science with caution than enthusiasm.

Just as you can expect any story starting with a huge technological leap will lead to a fall, you can bet that if a story begins with people in lab coats mucking with someone’s body, he’s going to arise in some monstrous form to terrorize us all. There was never any doubt that Orson’s gruesome surgeries on the technically dead Coombs was going to hell eventually; Orson has too little conscience and too much arrogance to avoid it. So when the hideously transformed Coombs (who later identifies himself as “the Chimera”) escapes Orson’s control, we view it with as much weariness as horror.
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Filed under: DC Comics, Reviews | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

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