By: J.H. Williams III & W. Haden Blackman (writers), Amy Reeder (penciller), Rob Hunter & Richard Friend (inkers), Guy Major (colorist)

The Review: Talk up any comics enthusiast, and one of the first things out of their mouths will be something along the lines of how unique comic books are for storytelling.  You hear less about their painful limitations.  I don’t know about you, but the most frustrating restriction on comics, in my mind, is their painful shortness.  Many writers have made the most of the pages they get, but by and large, I find myself wishing there was a little more substance in my hands.

That was the prevailing feeling I got reading this issue.  You shouldn’t take that to mean Williams-Blackman skimped on the story in any way.  After all, it’s fairly ambitious of them to not only play around with a number of different character perspectives in the story, but also to set each vignette at a different time.  All told, you get six mini-tales, each standing on their own, and each with enough drama to support half an issue on its own.

This fragmented structure can easily get confusing, but Williams-Blackman do two things to keep things moving smoothly and clearly.  First, they bookend the issue with the central action, Batwoman facing down the kid-thieving Medusa, which lays down some context for each of the different stories we get here.  Second, while each scene has only faint connections to the others, they have enough common ground to deliver a unified story overall.  Think of it as a mosaic, each scene piecing together to form a bigger picture of where this series plans to go next.

Even so, some scenes work out better than others.  I especially liked the sentimental and awkward exchange between Colonel Kane and Bette Kane, who’s still comatose from her run-in with Hook-Man in #4.  Not only do their share blood, but both have been abandoned by Kate, and both are, at the moment, experiencing the loneliest moments of their lives.  Particularly touching is the colonel reading aloud an Ian Fleming novel, which “[Kate] always liked,” telling you all you need to know about where the ex-soldier’s heart and thoughts really are.

Most important is our introduction to Maro, the woman (I’m assuming—a slight androgyny to her appearance makes her exact gender a bit dicey to pin down) responsible for creating the Weeping Woman.  We don’t get much insight into her long-term goals, but her ability to make fancies come to life will prove formidable to Batwoman down the line, and her Zen attitude toward child-murder is quite disturbing—a worthy foe for our heroine.

Maggie and Cameron Chase’s parts in the issue come across less powerful, but also interesting.  For better or worse, these will be the primary women in Kate’s life, each exerting her own particular influence on the redhead, yet sharing some significant qualities.  It should be no surprise that both Maggie and Chase are strong women in their own rights, and neither brooks Kate’s occasionally petty behavior.  In time, however, we’ll need to see more of their emotional background, if we’re to take them as seriously as we do Kate.

I was a big fan of Matt Wagner’s Madame Xanadu on Vertigo, and much of that had to do with Reeder’s highly distinctive style of art.  However, Williams has crafted a very distinctive look for this title, not to mention a very high artistic bar, so whoever has to follow him will necessarily have a lot to live up to.  Reeder is admittedly not as diverse as Williams, but her free-flowing, organic aesthetic, along with a flair for drama and detail (see the fishheads littering the alleyway where Chase and Batwoman confront some thugs) is very effective all the same.

Conclusion: Very much a prelude issue, complicated by a somewhat complex structure and an artistic readjustment.  In the end, though, the series feels quite as solid as it ever was.

Grade: B

- Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: - Love that Colonel Kane reads from You Only Live Twice, considering the Japanese elements of the issue, and the theme of redeeming oneself after the crash from a terrible trauma.

By: Jason Aaron (writer), Nick Bradshaw (pencils and inks), Walden Wong (inks), Justin Ponsor (colors).

The Story: Beast loads the students onto the Magic School Bus!

-MILD SPOILER WARNING- I will be discussing a plot point from the middle of this issue, though rather obliquely. If you want the abridged version of my review, skip to the Conclusion.

What’s Good: You have to admire Jason Aaron and Nick Bradshaw. Wolverine and the X-Men is beautiful and rich, jolly and sentimental. It delivers high concept shenanigans and strong character development. And contains more plot in one issue than many 3-issue arcs in other books, without any plot threads feeling under-developed. In this issue alone, we watch Logan struggling to come up with the finances to fund the school, Angel as he loses control of his company, Kitty dealing with the ramifications of her apparent and sudden pregnancy, Quire getting sent into space, Doop acting as a substitute teacher, and the X-Kids taking a science class from Prof. Henry Philip McCoy.

I’ve been excited about seeing Beast in the classroom since the concept for this book was announced. And boy, is it awesome. The lesson plan for the day is a tour of the mutant body, courtesy of Pym shrinking technology. Nick Bradshaw renders the scene with an impeccable sense of wonder. Each panel is flooded with detail, and even on my third read-through I was noticing new antics in the background. (See if you can guess who is the ‘host’ for the students’ field trip before it’s revealed.) Justin Ponsor deserves praise as well for his bright, bubbly colors that match the energy of the script and artwork.

All of this would be enough to recommend this book, but Aaron and Bradshaw are also in lockstep with the characterization. When Angel re-discovers his position of privilege, he observes, “No one told me this. Otherwise, I could’ve been giving [all my wealth] away.” A few panels later, as the focus shifts to Wolverine and Iceman discussing the school’s financial woes, we see in the background that Angel has begun to remove all of this clothes; on-lookers chuckle and pull out camera phones. Little moments like this are all over the place in this issue, like Broo taking pictures of a uvula, Quire carving his name into capillaries, and a very pregnant-looking Kitty making a call to Colossus but hanging up before saying anything. The abundance of these moments gives the issue a palpable vitality that you simply will not find anywhere else on the stand.

What’s Not: After all of that, it’s weird to say that this is the weakest issue so far, but it is. The first thing I have to knock it for is bad science. During the tour of the body, McCoy has the students take note of the X-Gene, the fragment of DNA that makes mutants different from humans. And here, they are drawn as numerous X-shaped blobs that float around outside the cells, and feature a double-helix pattern running along their surface. So, in other words, nothing like actual genes.

I’m not going to get into how genes really work because half of you are already know and are aghast at this portrayal, and the other half of you don’t care and wonder why I’m making a big deal of it. Well, I’m making a big deal of it because it breaks suspension of belief. I can buy that the students get shrunk down micro-levels and walk around in a body because, as Arthur C. Clark said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” So long as I cannot understand the science involved, I can accept it as “super-advanced.” But I learned the basics of how genes work when I was fifteen. Drawing a single gene as an extra-cellular organelle that looks like a chromosome about to undergo mitosis takes me out of the narrative experience.

Normally, I’m happy to let the science in comic books be as soft as fresh Brie, but this complete disregard for basic biological principals really put me on edge. Because of it, I started noticing other problems I might have otherwise passed over. The biggest of these is—and here’s the mild spoiler I talked about earlier—when we discover that Kitty Pryde is not pregnant. I won’t say what is actually going on, but it’s sure not something I think would make Kitty look pregnant. Thus, the whole sub-plot feels forced and unnecessary. It’s a shame, because Kitty’s response to believing she’s pregnant, and her subsequent interactions with staff are fairly good. But using pregnancy just for shock value is, well, pretty cheap.

Conclusion: Although the art and writing remain great, some bad science and a lame red herring make for some odd creative decisions. I still strongly recommend this book; I just don’t think Wolverine and the X-Men #5 is the strongest in the series so far.

Jumping on point?: Remarkably, I would say yes. Despite the chaos of everything going on, you should be able to understand everything without much background knowledge.

Grade: B+

-Jim Middleton

Some Musings: -Am I the only one who feels a little uncomfortable with the cover? It’s well drawn and relates well to thematically, but…yeah, it makes me a little squeamish. And not in a “Wow, this imagery is really creepy! Great job conveying the mood!” way, more in a “Wait, what kind of comic is this again?” way.

-Beast: “I will be the absolute greatest uncle who has ever lived.” Yeah, I have no doubt that this will be true.

-In addition to the other bad science at work here, the students seem confused as to whether Kid Gladiator was attacked by an antibody or a white blood cell. I can almost forgive this, as it might be the characters’ confusion instead of the author’s (although this is almost always a lazy excuse). The problem is, no matter what it was supposed to be, it probably shouldn’t have looked like a jellyfish, Mr. Bradshaw. I know, I’m being picky—that’s why it’s down here and not in the review proper. But seriously. They aren’t jellyfish.

By: Chris Yost (writer), Ryan Stegman (pencils) Mike Babinski (inks), Marte Gracia (colors)

The Story: Scarlet Spider punches the bad guy, saves the girl, and finally gets an origin that makes sense.

What’s Good: It’s fun to watch Kaine argue with himself about his actions. Sure, we know that he’s going to be a hero, but watching him struggle with making the right choice is fairly compelling. This guy is clearly damaged goods, frightened about whether or not he can actually do something good, and ridden with guilt over past wrongs.

Give him something to punch though, and he’s all over it. Fortunately, he’s got a pretty good punching bag, in the shape of the Salamander, a massive brute who has been “kissed by the fire god, Xiuhcoatl!” Drawn by Ryan Stegman and Mike Babinski, Salamander is a fairly menacing force. His design is simple, but watching the dancing serpents in the flames he controls is really a visual treat. When we get to the fight scene between the two, we also see that the art team is really trying to give Scarlet Spider a different physicality than his Northern cousin. Kaine is a scrapper. His fighting is focused and aggressive, and he does without Parker’s more acrobatic finesse. The storytelling is much more streamlined in this issue as well, with nothing as gimmicky as the spider-stickers from issue #1.

We also see the beginnings of a supporting cast of local civilians, which I think will be important for the series. Protagonists in the Spider-Man franchise are largely defined by their loyalties and responsibilities to their personal communities. It looks like Kaine is going to have a very different relationship with the citizenry of Houston than Peter Parker or Miles Morales does with New Yorkers. I won’t spoil it here, but I see it as a good sign this book is headed in an original direction.

What’s Not: This book might be trying a little too hard to show that Kaine isn’t your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. I know you’re supposed to be rough around the edges, Kaine, but pushing taxi drivers out in front of traffic is pretty reckless after you killed a guy in a car last issue. And shoving the damsel in distress onto the floor for no reason, while saying, “Girl…you’re in my way,” is not very endearing. Isn’t she the whole reason you’re fighting Salamander? Is manhandling her really necessary?

Speaking of Salamander, while he’s fine on a design level, he’s not the most interesting of fellows. He’s has a bad habit of monologing without actually saying anything. He alludes to there being a reason he wants to kill our damsel, but he can’t seem to decide whether he’s going to just say it or actually kill her. Instead, he stands over her and just babbles a bit.

If you’re wondering why I keep referring to our story female only as the damsel, it’s because that is all she is so far. I know absolutely nothing about this chick except that she speaks Spanish and needs a lot of rescuing. In fact, the entire supporting cast is still pretty one-dimensional. Apart from the damsel, we’ve also got Dr. Nice-Guy and Officer Prick. The only other thing I know about them is that Dr. Nice-Guy speaks bad Spanish and that both want Kaine to stick around as Houston’s superhero. Only they seem kind of confused about the last bit, because they also want Kaine to follow the damsel back to Mexico. So yeah, they need to get their ducks in row, but to be fair, they’ve never had a vigilante before. They don’t even know that the first thing to do is declare him a public menace.

I’m probably being a too harsh. The creators clearly wanted to tell a simple intro story, and there’s plenty of development going on with Kaine to make up for the dearth of it with everyone else. So long as we start learning more about our cast as this series goes on, I think it could do all right for itself.

Conclusion: Sweet but simple to a fault, Scarlet Spider #2 is light but tasty fare.

Jumping on point?: No, not really. The next issue will be one, probably, so you could wait for that. Or, you know, you could pick up the issue that says #1.

Grade: B-

-Jim Middleton

Some Musings: – Officer Prick: “Mayor Parker’d probably give you the key to the city if you stayed.” Kaine: “Parker, heh.” You know, touches like that are cleverer if you don’t shove them in the reader’s face, Yost. I guess this way we get to see that Kaine caught your joke too, but this is still kinda clumsy. Props for being aware of actual local Houston politics, though.

-Salamander “I was given fire by a god! By the serpent Xiuhcoatl!” Actually, the fire god to the Aztec culture was Xiuhtecuhtli, and Xiuhcoatl is just his nahual, or spirit form, which…you’ve all stopped reading, haven’t you? Sigh…nevermind. I find Meso-American mythology interesting…

By: Steve Mannion (writer/artist) and Mannion, Frank Forte & JC Wong (colors)

The Story: More zany adventures of teen heroine Fearless Dawn.  Plus a bunch of short stories and concept art.

Review: This is completely a comic for art lovers.  If you’re one of those readers who rolls his eyes why guys like me start talking about the great art in comics, I’d still encourage you to try the comic but it might not be your bag.  On the other hand, you won’t find a better artist who simultaneously pays homage to the golden age greats while also mixing in a helping of good girl, PG-level cheesecake than Steve Mannion.  Then he adds a very black and off-color sense of humor and you have comic gold.

The title panel on page 1 is a wonderful example of Mannion’s work.  In the foreground he has this horrible, grotesque monster rising out of the swamp to threaten Fearless Dawn and her sidekick.  The monster looks like something straight out of an old EC comic: rippling musculature, grotesque warts, the awful bulging and bloodshot eye, snaggle-teeth and a slobbering tongue.  Of course, Mannion can’t leave his sense of humor out, so the monster is seen from behind and the slobbering tongue is at about the same height, as you would expect his “member” to be.  And, that is part of Mannion’s brilliance: When you first look at it, you think, “Man….that is freaky and wrong!  Just look at that monster’s pink, slobbery wang poking out!”  But, Mannion could easily retort: “Dude, get your mind out of the gutter.  That’s its tongue!”  I have no doubt that the placement of the tongue is intentional.  :)

Then, cringing before the monster is our plucky heroine, Fearless Dawn.  She is drawn in a completely different style: Slightly cartoony and very heavy on the innocent cheesecake factor.  The juxtaposition of the two styles makes for a masterful panel.  And, the main story continues this theme of outstanding EC horror comic art with this good girl dancing through the action.  Wonderful stuff.

What is great about Mannion’s storytelling in this Fearless Dawn series is how he’s always skating along the edge between naughty and offensive.  True, every reader has their own personal limit, but the Fearless Dawn concept is pretty bulletproof.  Because he starts with a naive (e.g. she tries to change her clothes in a glass phone booth in one story), heroic and plucky teenage girl, the reader already has that slightly naughty feeling just BECAUSE they know the protagonist is a teenage girl.  And because Mannion knows (and I think he clearly knows what he’s doing) that he’s already caused that feeling in the reader, then he doesn’t have to do ANYTHING too salacious.  Fearless Dawn is never naked, never has any sexual innuendo coming out of her mouth and even that directed towards her is more tame than what you might see in a Marvel/DC comic.  When you think about it, that is really smart: If you have a character like Catwoman who is a grown woman, you have to see her having sex with Batman on the page to get a similar reaction.  Fearless Dawn comics kinda remind me of 50′s “men’s adventure” magazines when material didn’t have to be hardcore to get a reaction from readers and Mannion is a master at digging up a reaction from jaded readers without doing anything over the top.

The humor is so wonderful in Fearless Dawn.  The “story” isn’t anything you’ll tell your grandkids about; the humor lives in the little moments.  Like Fearless Dawn meets a pirate named Brownhole Jones.  He doesn’t do anything to back up that name, it’s just his name and I think it’s funny.

This comic has a main Secret of the Swamp story that ends about halfway through.  Then Mannion treats us to a few short stories and various pieces of pin-up art.  He is such a gifted artist.  Often I roll my eyes at this sort of “extra” material, but with Mannion your mouth is just agape one guy can create all of this.

Conclusion: A “must read” for anyone who considers himself or herself a fan of art.  Steve Mannion is a truly gifted guy.  You’ll look at this and honestly have a hard time appreciating some of the dreck we are subjected to in regular comics.  Even if you aren’t an art fan: Check it out.  It’s a single issue for $2.95 and it isn’t going to start coming out bi-monthly or crossover with a bunch of other titles.  Chances are your comic shop will NOT have a copy and you’ll have to order it from eBay or the Asylum Press website. [Note: at the time of this writing, the title wasn't available yet on their site.]

Grade: A

-Dean Stell

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By: Peter J. Tomasi (writer), Patrick Gleason (penciller), Mick Gray (inker), John Kalisz (colorist)

The Story: Not one of your typical father-son bonding times, but to each his own…

The Review: Since family has been such a prevalent motif in this series, it got me reflecting on the special relationship between our titular stars.  It then suddenly occurred to me how the parent-child duo is getting increasingly common in comics nowadays, what with Cyclops-Hope, Mr. Fantastic-Franklin and Valeria, Animal Man-Maxine and Cliff.  This is an important trend, since family remains a largely untapped mine of stories in this medium.

Once you read through this issue, you can clearly see why: the world of vigilantism is a rather sordid place for a kid to hang around.  Innocence doesn’t stay unstained for long, and sooner or later these younglings will run into some very gray situations that even grown-ups struggle to deal with.  Plus, no matter how you look at it, there’s something a bit disturbing about either exposing the child to such danger or having them adapt, even take to it.

And that’s pretty much the big reason why Damian as a character is so off-putting and yet completely engrossing.  I suspect you have the same feelings toward him as you would a ghost-child; while horrified about what they’ve become, you remain invested in their fate, hoping that somehow, they might regain the purity you expect from them.  Tomasi has made it very easy to believe the ship has sailed on that point for Damian, and the opening of this issue felt very much like a seal on his destiny as a remorseless assassin, Nobody’s empty gun be damned.

All that does is add another cord of tension humming through the story as you barrel towards the climax of this motherlode of father-son issues.  As it turns out, the anger Morgan Ducard holds against Bruce not only involves a “favorite sons” resentment, but also a good dose of wounded pride as well, not only for himself, but on behalf of his father as well.  You have to remember, though, that Bruce left the Ducards over a conflict of principles.  That Morgan well-nigh hisses about Bruce’s “only child” mentality indicates he has a deeply-rooted insecurity, in spite of the front of professionalism he tries to employ (“I don’t believe in fanfare or a signature style…”).

Ultimately, that insecurity plays into Nobody’s swift and violent reaction to Robin’s—spoiler alert—betrayal at the end.  Our boy’s too much his father’s son to indulge in emotional monologues, so he offers only this very simple, and very perfect, explanation for cleaving to Batman in spite of a deep animosity towards his rules and attitudes: “Because he’s my father you idiot.”  If you’re wise, you know you don’t really need a better reason than that.  Considering Morgan’s daddy had little of what we might call paternal loyalty to his son, Nobody can’t help seeing this devotion between Bruce and Damian and not want to destroy it.

Gleason makes no real attempt at realism in his art.  He creates his own sense of proportion and physics, and makes the world he draws function in line with it.  That’s why, in spite of the outrageous shape of his characters, the wild use of perspective, the uncanny special effects, it all looks completely convincing and real.  And let me just say, the man knows how to work a close-up; we get plenty in this issue, and rather than feeling claustrophobic, they ramp the tension to breaking point.  Kudos to Gray and Kalisz for excellent support, making the already affecting even more effective.

Conclusion: It’s a very different kind of drama and Batman story Tomasi’s telling here, but a powerful one just the same, very much the rival of Scott Snyder’s acclaimed work on Batman.

Grade: B+

- Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: - If Damian survives this, at least he’ll have added a very valuable technique to his skill set.  Putting someone out without killing them using only two fingers seems like a pretty handy thing to know; I can immediately think of several individuals in my life on whom I’d like to try it—even with mistakes.

By: Geoff Johns (writer), Mike Choi (artist), Alex Sinclair (colorist)

The Story: In which Sinestro finds prophecies to be heavy reading.

The Review: At some point in every superhero’s life there comes a time when they have to face the prospect of hanging up the cape/putting away the spandex outfit for a while, even for good.  You can understand why this is such a popular plotline in comics.  There’s a certain fascination in figuring out the person beneath the costume, and having our hero take out of it for a while is a huge opportunity to see exactly who we’ve been idolizing all this time.

And if any of you saw the Green Lantern movie, I think you understand for Hal especially it’s important to find out what the deal with this guy is.  Basically, when he’s not ruining planes left and right, he’s slinging energy blasts while in colorful wardrobe.  Clark writes, Bruce invests money, Diana’s royalty, Barry gets his CSI on, and all of them have non-vigilante people around to do it with.  Even Hal’s love interest slips into a hot pink number and exacts justice now and then.  If the life of Green Lantern isn’t available to him, how would Hal fare?

Actually, it seems like Hal takes to civilian life pretty well, despite being essentially homeless, unemployed, and broke.  Even more interesting, he doesn’t seem all that enamored with his piloting life either.  In fact, he’s so well-adjusted to being grounded that you might very well share Carol’s sentiment that “I’m not sure I can get used to this.”  Going from intergalactic cop/flying ace to house husband—or, more accurately, house live-in partner—seems too major a switch for him to act like everything’s fine and dandy.

That brings me to a complaint I’ve voiced before since this series relaunched with Hal kicked out the Corps: we still have yet to see him tackle a personal life in earnest (beyond the confines of his relationship with Carol, of course).  Having him fortuitously take down a bunch of adult bullies ganging up on an elderly mechanic may be fun, but it also underlines the fact that he can’t give up the hero business entirely, even if he has no ring anymore.

Meanwhile, Sinestro remains the mover and shaker of the book.  For all the work he puts in this issue, he gets rewarded not only by retrieving the Book of the Black, but getting a glimpse of a fairly grim future to come, one which involves the death of pretty much everyone he knows and their mother, apparently.  That the Guardians are at the root of all this is no surprise, and the vision of him as part of the Indigo Corps may fill veteran readers with weariness; we’ve grappled with color-switching among the various corps to really be thrilled by that concept anymore.

Ultimately, the issue serves only to remind Sinestro, much to his distaste, that while he may hold his former subordinate in contempt, Hal Jordan is the only man he has anything resembling faith in.  Certainly, he can’t expect any help from the largely useless Starstorm, who never once reveals the kind of grit and guts everyone else claims he used to have.  So we’re soon back to the adventures of Sinestro and sidekick Hal—whether Hal wants to or not.

Choi is a fine artist, but I’m not so sure he’s entirely suited for a pure action-adventure title.  There’s a highly poised, stiff quality to his work that doesn’t lend itself well to conveying movement.  Hal’s fight with the hangar thugs, for all their lively choreography, looks very static, almost frozen.  Choi doesn’t help things by being a little lax with the backgrounds either, often leaving them empty, except for Sinclair’s color washes.

Conclusion: I suppose you should be happy that Hal’s happy, but you can’t help feeling like there’s something not quite right with him settling down to a quiet life of domesticity.

Grade: B

- Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: - Really, guys?  It’s not enough you’re being indicted for fraud/embezzlement, now you want to get battery charges, too?  Lawyered!

By: Scott Snyder & Scott Tuft (writers), Attila Futaki (art), Greg Guilhaumond (colors) & Fonografiks (letters)

The Story: It’s the finale!  How does little Jack get away from the cannibal?

Four Things: 

1. Creepy and disturbing! – Man, does this team understand horror or what?  Most monologues by villains/killers are contrived, but hearing the killer in Severed go through his motivations for picking Jack was really something: The dude actually gets off on crushing the dreams of children.  The bigger their dreams, the more he likes to eat them.  I also love that there was no attempt to make this guy redeeming.  We didn’t have to see his childhood and understand what made him a monster; nope, he’s just an evil monster who devours children.  A couple other moments really stuck with me too: the panel on page 2 where the killer is shown from above with a long shadow behind him AND the ending when the killer is yelling after Jack.  This story will stick with us!

2. Excellent art! - There isn’t much more to say about this art that I haven’t already said here and here.  But, for those who haven’t been following along, the art is splendid.  Futaki is laying down some wonderful lineart.  I mean, this stuff is among the most vital and lifelike art you’ll see from an artist who is working in a mostly realistic style.  If we had more artists like Futaki, I probably wouldn’t mind realistic art so much.  I only hope that less talented artists aren’t being inspired by him.  But, it doesn’t stop there.  Usually with lineart as good as Futaki’s, the colorist needs to just not screw up: don’t add stupid highlights, don’t ruin the light sources, don’t mess up the depth in the panels, etc.  But Guilhaumond actually improves the overall look of the book.  His colors are what make this book look so smelly, sweaty and dusty.

3. Room for more stories. - I’d wondered how these guys were going to end this story but still leave room for more.  Well, I don’t want to spoil the ending, but they have several ways they can go.  There’s an obvious “present day” angle to play with, but they could also show us something from the last 50 years OR even something from the killer’s dark past.  Heck, we could even learn more about Jack!  Much like the time bouncing in American Vampire, Snyder and Tuft have given themselves a very flexible structure going forward.

4. Love Jack getting all bad-ass. – It’s a small item, but I think it was very important for the story to see Jack get all tough with the killer at the end.  Because of this, I LIKE Jack now in a way that I wouldn’t if he’d just run screaming from the building and gotten away.  What’s amazing about this sequence is that Jack was totally believable.  I mean., it’s a kid who is missing and arm and he’s going to do battle with an ancient monster and you actually feel like he’s going to win.  And he needs to win because otherwise the monster will just find him again.

Conclusion: A great finale to this miniseries.  I hope we haven’t seen the last of these characters and creative team.  You won’t find a better told and illustrated pure horror story in recent comics.

Grade: A

-Dean Stell

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By: Brian Wood (writer), Danijel Zezelj (artist), Dave McCaig (colors), Travis Lanham (letters), Massimo Carnevale (cover) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: In this long-form story about the early history of Viking Iceland, one family leader tries to become an honest businessman, but can that ever really happen?

Three Things: 

1. Great series in hindsight. -Who knows why, but I’d always had a blindspot when it came to Northlanders.  This despite the fact that I enjoy virtually everything from Vertigo.  Consider that remedied!  I picked up most of the issues in one batch on eBay (see, THAT is how much I prefer single issues to those yucky “trade” things) and inhaled them…  As in I read the whole thing over the course of a week.  This has been a great series and even though it ends in a few issues at #50, it deserves some attention here.  This series is really a collection of independent story arcs that tell various tales about the people of the north.  Some are basic crime dramas that wouldn’t be out of place in an Ed Brubaker Criminal story, but others have been like the Plague Widow arc that showcased a city that shuts its doors to keep out the plague and the mayhem that ensues behind the walls.  Great series!  Check it out even if you must buy the yucky trades.

2. Compelling, self-contained story. - Don’t be too put off by the subtitle on the cover that says, “Part 7″.  This issue is completely accessible to a new reader because it jumps forward in time from the last issue.  And, that has been the pattern for this story arc that began with the first Vikings coming ashore in Iceland and has followed them through clan warfare, the formation of a city and society and the arrival of Christianity bringing us to this story.  As I mention above, this issue’s story could feature in any modern-day organized crime story.  Basically, you have the male leader of the family who wants to sit on the sidelines of this round of clan warfare and profit by picking up the pieces in the aftermath.  He wants to “go legit” like Michael Corleone in Godfather 3.  But, we all know it never works out that way as he comes into conflict with his son who is more eager to defend the family honor.  We’ve seen this story before, but that’s because this clash between wisdom and bloody emotion is timeless.  Wood handles the conflict very well, gives us a slightly surprising ending and in so doing, shows us how the Icelanders have changed and become a little less savage over the course of this story arc.

3. Zezelj’s art is very distinctive. - I think I first became aware of Zezelj a few years ago on the gritty and haunting crime OGN, Luna Park (wonderful read if you haven’t checked it out) and since then he’s done a few things here and there (notably that great issue of Scalped with the two old Native Americans and an excellent issue of American Vampire).  He’s one of those artists who is skirting along the edges of realism, but is willing to make slight deviations from normal human anatomy when he wants to tell his story.  The trick is to do that without it looking like he just doesn’t understand how to draw and he pulls it off 95% of the time in this issue.  The reason I think it works for him is that he’s very careful about when to deviate and get more stylized and he doesn’t waste those efforts on elements that don’t help to tell the story.  Zezelj also uses full on images of character’s faces more than most artists, in fact, I’d say this is his most distinctive attribute.  There was a with those faces early in this issue where I thought, “Wait a minute, this is the same guy who drew Luna Park a few years ago.”  Those full on faces are so unique because of the focus he puts on the eyebrows, cheekbones and chin.  In case you can’t tell, I really like Zezelj’s art and wish we got to see more of it.  He’s a gifted artist and hopefully the Vertigo editors will keep connecting him with writers.

Conclusion: A very solid issue that basically takes a classic clash between the old man of the family and the young buck and transports it into Viking times.  Wonderful art from Zezelj.  I wish we got more art like this.

Grade: A-

-Dean Stell

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Best From The Past Week: Amazing Spider-Man #679 – The entirety of the Dan Slott run on ASM has been pretty darn good, but when he is partnered with Humberto Ramos the quality goes to a new level and we get a comic that can win “issue of the week” much of the time.  Ramos just accentuates the FUN aspect of Slott’s Spidey writing better than any of the other artists in the regular Spidey rotation.  So, on top of the fact that this Spidey time-travel story was exciting and played up the importance of the Peter Parker side of Spidey, Ramos’ art made everything so bouncy and expressive that nothing else was really close this past week.

Most Anticipated: Severed #7 – It’s a crowded week, but I can’t wait to see how this one ends.  Severed has been creepy and touching and featured great art!  How is that little boy going to get away from the creepy old man with the big-ass teeth?  Will we see how he loses an arm?  Scott Snyder mentioned doing more comics in the Severed universe, so will some elements of the story be left open-ended?  Runner-up: Fearless Dawn: Secret of the Swamp One-Shot – Steve Mannion = Awesome!  Comics don’t come much more fun than Fearless Dawn, so anytime an issue pops up, it is a “must read”.  If you didn’t pre-order this, you’re probably out of luck on Wednesday, but you can probably find them on the Asylum Press website.

Other Picks: Northlanders #48, The Unwritten #34, Blue Estate #9, Thief of Thieves #1, Powers #8, Scarlet Spider #2, Wolverine and the X-Men #5, Cavewoman: Feeding Grounds #1

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Fatale #2 – While not quite at the slam-bang awesome level of the first issue, this was a still a really great, moody slice of everything the Brubaker/Phillips combo do so well.  This is a really great series that everyone should be on board with, particularly those who read Brubaker’s Marvel work.

Most Anticipated: Powers #8 – Do my eyes deceive me?  It has been almost exactly ONE FULL YEAR since the last issue of Powers, which left us hanging in the middle of a story-arc.  Seriously, this issue was solicited, I believe, in August of 2010. Resentful as I may be, that doesn’t change the fact that Powers is Bendis and Oeming at their best.  Both are creators with very distinctive, idiosyncratic styles that don’t necessarily fit every book, but Powers really is their wheel-house, one that maximizes their strengths and, well, turns their weaknesses into strengths as well.  So grumpy though I may be about the delay, rest assured that I will still be buying this book.

Other Picks: Batwoman #6, Demon Knights #6, Frankenstein #6, Green Lantern #6, Captain America #8, Incredible Hulk #5, Journey into Mystery #634, Wolverine and the X-Men #5, PunisherMAX #22

By: Matt Fraction (writer), Terry Dodson (penciler), Rachel Dodson (inker), Sonia Oback (colorist)

The Story: The Defenders prove their incompetence.

The Review: I’m not sure what just happened. I enjoyed The Defenders #1, and while I wasn’t particularly impressed with #2, I still thought the series was on good footing. But after reading The Defenders #3, I have to question this book’s right to exist. The series has gone downhill fast, with several factors undercutting any chance it had at success. I would be sad if weren’t so comical. I’m going to put a SPOILER warning on for this entire review. If you just want my opinion before reading it, know that I think it’s bad. If you want more of a blow-by-blow analysis, read on.

The book opens fine, with Prester John explaining to the Defenders that he is going to allow Nul, the Breaker of Worlds, to destroy the Concordance Engine, a timey-wimey spacey-wacey thingy which, when destroyed, will end the universe and propel John and his spaceship/arc into a new universe. John’s motivation is basically that he thinks that this universe is sick, God is dead, and there’s no point in sticking around any longer. When finished talking, he then walks off, telling the Defenders they can join him on his spaceship, or stay and be killed when the universe dies.

The Defenders declare that they need to A) stop Nul from breaking the Concordance and B) stop Prester John from leaving the universe. Now, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know than B) relies on A) being done, so as long as A) is stopped, the Defenders don’t need to worry about B). So, naturally, the Defenders split up to try and stop both. Right.

Silver Surfer goes off to stop Prester John, and the rest stay behind to stop Nul, thinking, “That much madness…that much power…” The thought and narration boxes really try to sell you on the idea that John is insane, but I’m not buying it. Comics are a medium rife with madmen and lunatics both good and evil, so “madness” isn’t a word you can just toss around. As is, John simply acts more like an over-powered curmudgeon than a deranged psychotic. He’s not even ranking at a level of J. Jonah Jameson madness.

The narration actually has a pretty bad habit of trying to oversell things in this book. The florid language appears to be trying to convince us of the impossible stakes at every instance, and then it switches to irony in the next panel. It wouldn’t be terrible, but there’s just so much of it. Only three pages are narration free, and the rest is filled with prose like: “In the infernal algebra that Prester John had to calculate in the manipulating of the end of this world…we all fell on the wrong side of the equation.” I would normally be inclined to like stuff like this, however, it’s so prevalent that it breaks up the flow of the issue, and so melodramatic that it sounds like Fraction is being sarcastic.

Worse, there are times the narration works against the art. When the Defenders square off against Nul, the narration tells us, “They pretend they’re not all nauseous for no good reason. That their heads do not throb.” Well, they’re doing a good job of pretending, because looking at the art, I would have no idea this was the case; they all look perfectly healthy. The fight looks pretty standard for the ridiculously high hype we’ve seen. We’ve had three issues now that have exposited about what a beast Nul is—that he’s capable of making planes crash into each other and making dead men place phone calls. But the worst damage he does in this issue is to bite Betty Ross. Otherwise, he acts like a punching bag.

Nonetheless, the four Defenders fail to stop him. There’s a brief moment of coolness when Nul starts wailing on the Concordance Engine, causing reality to shift and putting the Defenders in different costumes, but then we get the worst moment of this book so far: Prester John’s brother, who has been guarding the Concordance for years, steps in and destroys Nul. What. The. Hell. The entire reason the Defenders got together was to stop Nul, and now we find out that if they hadn’t done anything, things would have turned out just fine? Seriously??

But we’re not done with pointless actions. The Silver Surfer, meanwhile, throws John Prester’s ship to Saturn. Again, this isn’t necessary. Prester John was planning to propel himself into a different reality. How does moving him around in space affect anything? As long as the Concordance isn’t destroyed, he can’t do anything. We also get more over written narration. As we watch the ship flying through space, it tells us, “They’ll continue travelling in a straight line for centuries. This is the size of mercy within the Surfer.” What does that even mean?

I feel a bit bad that I’m only focusing on bashing Fraction here, as there’s plenty of nice work coming from the art team. Terry and Rachel Dodson make just about every page fun to look at, even if it’s not so much fun to read. The scene where Nul reaches the Concordance is really eye-grabbing, as is the reality shift I mentioned earlier. The colors from Sonia Oback remain strong, and match the tone of the pencils and inks perfectly. However, the art is not good enough to save this book from the writing. The artwork is solid and expressive, but it would have to be spectacular to make me recommend this issue.

Conclusion: Filled with plot holes, lackluster characterization, and delivering an unfulfilling end to its first arc, The Defenders #3 is a bad comic. I’ll stick around for at least one more issue, but more out of morbid curiosity than anything else.

Jumping on point?: No. This issue doesn’t make sense in context, so I can only imagine how it will read out of context.

Grade: D-, only passing because of solid art.

-Jim Middleton

Some Musings: -I’m actually glad to see Namor back in the green trunks at the end of this issue. Let’s face, for an over confident narcissists, this outfit makes more sense than the stupid vest. The guy is constantly talking about his awesome physique and near invulberability, why wouldn’t he always be showing his body off?

-If we’re calling Gen. Ross Rulk, can we start calling Betty Shrulk? She-RedHulk is cumbersome.