My pull list is way, way, way too long and so I can’t possibly get around to doing a good, thorough and proper review of every issue. So, for those issues that neither my WCBR colleagues or I could get around to this past week, here are some quick thoughts….
Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #3 of 9 – We’re getting into the meat of the story now after two issues of build up. If you like the Young Avengers, Magneto or the Scarlet Witch, this is going to be must read material for you. Heineberg doesn’t quite have Wolverine’s voice down (he’s too stabby), but it is otherwise a very fun and nicely done comic book and it goes without saying the Cheung art is nice. Grade: B+
She-Hulks #1 of 4 – This was super fun and I’m very disappointed that Marvel cut this back from an ongoing to a 4-issue miniseries. This title must have not gotten very many pre-orders and that is a real shame. The story is fun and very She-Hulky as Jen takes Lyra (the Savage She Hulk from the future) under her arm. But the real star is Ryan Stegman’s art. It really pains me that he’s going to have to go draw something else for Marvel after these 4 issues because he draws a GREAT She-Hulk. Grade: B+
Avengers Prime #4 of 5 – This series is still pretty good, but is suffering a bit from the bi-monthly schedule. The idea of a series set immediately after Siege where Captain Steve, Tony Stark and Thor could rediscover the love was a good idea. But, this story isn’t done yet and Siege ended eons ago. The Heroic Age banners have long since disappeared! Still, good story. It has some sexism that was moderately annoying as the trio basically discussed which of their female Avenger’s teammates they’d happily make sweet love to, but you can just ignore those panels. Davis’ art is excellent and really makes this worth reading. Grade: B
Batgirl #15 – Art change notice: Dustin Nguyen + Derek Fridolfs take over art duties from Lee Garbett for this issue of Batgirl. If you’ve followed the work of those artists, you know that is a pretty large change from a style standpoint, so I was very curious to see how it would work. It is a bit of a mixed bag. It felt like Nguyen was sometimes trying to soften his style to be closer to Garbett. I wish he’d just “gone for it” because I really like his style and there are glimpses of how great the art will be in this series here and there. The story is typical awesomeness from Bryan Q. Miller. Everyone should be reading this series. It’s a real gem. Bonus points for the Tiny Titans intro to the Bat-family. Grade: B
Red Robin #17 – Lots of good moments in this issue, but it was a little too jumbled to get a higher score. Of course, the big moment was seeing Tim and Bruce Wayne back together and that was very nicely handled. Those two characters have had such a rich relationship over the last ~20 years and Tim is the one who has stuck by Bruce’s memory for the last couple of years, so it was nice to see the payoff. I also liked the bit with Tim and Lynx, but felt the beginning story with Tim touching base with Cassandra Cain was a little too abrupt. Cassandra really deserves her own one-shot for what’ she’s been up to. As always, Marcus To is awesome with his Red Robin art. Tim actually looks like a teenager! Grade: B
Nancy in Hell #4 of 4 – Mixed feelings on this one. It was actually a quite good series, but it ended up going in a directly that was quite different than the promise of issue #1. Issue #1 was all hot-chick-with-chainsaw-killing-demons. But this has turned into much more of a religiously rooted story about escape from hell. I hate to sound disappointed, because it was still a good comic but I just wanted what happened in issue #1 more (that could have been an A+ comic). Grade: B-
Thanos Imperative #6 of 6 – I have loved Marvel Cosmic for the last couple years, especially Guardians of the Galaxy. This issue really is the END of Abnett and Lanning’s Cosmic story and while I expected it to be sad (especially with the way it ends), I couldn’t work up a lot of emotion. That probably means that Marvel was right to end this on a high note. The star here (for me) were the heroic actions of Peter Quill. He’s an awesome character: An everyman in space! Sepulveda’s art is mostly good, but you’ve got be able to do better with Rocket Raccoon if you want to draw this title. He made him look like a monkey. Grade: C+
Incredible Hulks #616 – There is a lot I just didn’t care for about this. I think it’s well written and Greg Pak is a good writer. I think it is very attractive and I like Barry Kitson’s art. But this story is just a dud for me. I haven’t enjoyed one single moment of Hulk’s other son: Hiro-Kala. I should probably just stop buying this story (and stop peeing on it in reviews)…. The winner in this issue (but not enough to save things) was the Hulk/She-Hulk team-up in the back-up story written by Tim Seeley and drawn by Al Rio. It was a fun tale and looked really nice. Why couldn’t this have been the main story? Grade: C-
-Dean Stell
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