My pull list is way too long, so it seems like every week there are a few comics that neither I (nor any of my WCBR colleagues) has time to review thoroughly, but it still seems fair to give them the praise (or scorn) they deserve.
Skull-Kickers #3 – I was a little hard on the first issue of Skull-Kickers. I didn’t think it was remotely “bad”, but didn’t see why all the fuss, why it was selling out, why people were able to sell their #1 issues on eBay at a profit before the book even hit shelves, etc. It just seemed nutty that there would be so much fuss about a book that I thought was fine, but nothing special. But, guess what…the 2nd issue was better than the first and the 3rd issue is the best yet. This comic is really about a buddy-pair: rascally dwarf + huge, deadpan, contemplative dude. There is lots of funny dialog between the pair and that almost makes the overall plot irrelevant. It’s just fun. The artwork is gotten better too, going from “fine, but nothing special” to “pretty good”. If you haven’t been reading this, it might be worth checking out the trade in a few months. Grade: B
Scalped #43 – THE WORST ISSUE OF SCALPED IN A LONG TIME!!! Of course, that means it still gets a “B” and shows just how incredible Jason Aaron’s series is. This seems to be kinda a one-shot with guest artist Jason LaTour and the story focuses on the all-hat, no-saddle Sheriff in the next town over from our beloved (?) reservation. It’s just a solid story about humanity and heroism and how heroism portrays itself. LaTour’s art is outstanding and fits with the look of the series, even if he did kinda mess up one climatic panel that shows how the bad guy took down the good guy (I stared at it for ~5 minutes total and am still unclear what happened). Also, this issue’s story could be an important story element in a coming story arc. We’ll have to see, but it is certainly worth reading this issue and series. Grade: B
New Mutants #19 – The good news: I enjoyed this issue, which wraps up the “Fall of the New Mutants” storyline. The bad news: I had a hard time remembering the events 5 days after reading it. The title of the storyline is probably overly dramatic, but this story had a neat hook: An army expedition that went to Limbo for years and established a forward base there. If you like the New Mutants, you’ll enjoy this issue, but it’s probably only for the mutant obsessed. Grade: C+
Incredible Hulks #617 – I don’t like Hulk’s other son Hiro-Kala so that’s kinda affected my enjoyment of this issue. And I just didn’t like the dramatic point of this story-arc: Hiro-Kala is flying an entire planet at Earth. Established bad guys like Doom get to threaten the entire planet, but not newbies like Hiro-Kala. The story is competently told, well written and the art is good, but I just didn’t enjoy this story arc at all. Pretty sure I’m dropping this title. Grade: C
– Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion