Try as we might, we can’t always do full reviews for every comic on the stands. Thus, the Quick Hit Reviews….
Steve Rogers: Super Soldier Annual #1 – Leaving aside the awkwardness of having an Annual for a title that was a 4-issue miniseries that wrapped up ~6 months ago (silly editors!), this was a pretty hot issue. This is Part 2 of the Escape from the Negative Zone that is mostly an X-Men story. In the Uncanny X-Men Annual a couple weeks ago, we saw Cyclops, Hope, Namor and Dr. Nemesis get sucked into the Negative Zone and come into conflict with Blastaar. As you might guess, in this issue Steve Rodgers goes in to save them and fun ensues. This issue (written by James Asmus) is just packed full of Steve kicking ass, Cyclops and Hope kicking ass, Namor being really well written (not too haughty) and Nemesis being 100% smart-ass fun. Ibraim Roberson & Jim Charalampidis combine to give the book a very pretty, painted look. I (personally) like to see a little more inking in my comic art, but I know some people just go bat shit for this painted stuff and this issue is really well done and beautiful. Grade: A-
Incredible Hulks #626 – Even though I dropped Incredible Hulks during that boring Dark Son story arc ~8 issues ago, I had recently reread the Planet Hulk story and said, “THAT was awesome. Maybe I should be reading Incredible Hulks again!?!” This is a fun story that sends Banner off to track down Betsy. Betsy and he aren’t getting along and she has fallen in with a bad crowd, but the real problem is that her continual use of her Hulk powers is threatening to get her stuck in Hulk form. OH NO!!! Banner wants to stop that, but to find her he has to go to a black-tie affair in Italy. Of course, not everything goes smoothly and thanks to some unstable molecules, you get to see Banner transform into the Hulk without ripping up his tuxedo (which was pretty awesome). This is a worthwhile Hulk story and Grummett’s art is very much the old-school, superhero art that I like. Looks like I’m back on Hulk for a while! Grade: B
Black Panther #517 – It is not a good thing when you sit down to do the Quick Hit Reviews, look at Black Panther #517 and think, “What was that about? I remember that Francesco Francavilla’s art was gorgeous, but other than the title nominally being about Black Panther dealing with eastern European gangsters in Hell’s Kitchen, I don’t remember anything about the plot.” While that is surely a sign that Dean gets too many comics, it also means that this story has run its course. Like many Marvel story-arcs: It would make a snappy 3-4 issues story, but just doesn’t have the meat to be 6 issues. Never really understand stretching out stories so that they make better trade paperbacks. BP is probably selling ~30K units in the direct market, so Marvel will mess up a good story (by stretching it out) only to have 6 issues to collect into a trade paperback that will probably sell a combined 1,000 units between the direct market and everywhere else. That’s smart right there! </sarcasm> I usually don’t pick on covers, but I will here: The cover text promises Black Panther vs. Luke Cage (because we all know that the kiddies love black-on-black fights), yet the cover seems to show Black Panther with his hands around the throat of some white guy. Bad coloring! Oh….and SPOILERS….there really isn’t that much to the BP vs. LC fight anyway. Grade: C (good art, story getting long in the tooth)
Carnage #4 – I hate to have this issue sitting here amongst the Cs, but this miniseries is too long (5 issues) for a very simple story. So far, the Carnage symbiote has been recovered by greedy businessmen (are there any other kind in comics?). Of course, the Carnage symbiote escapes from their stupid lab and reunites with Cletus Kasady. Spider-Man and Iron Man fight with the new Carnage. That’s really the whole story so far, but again…Marvel is stretching a story out so that they can better collect it into a trade paperback that will hardly sell any issues. And, on top of that, it has shipped bi-monthly, which has crushed whatever momentum the story has been able to muster. Bravo guys! It’s a shame because anyone who has read Zeb Wells’ work in the past, knows he could have made a crackling 2-issue story out of this. The primary attraction to this series is Clayton Crain’s artwork. Personally, I tend to be more of a fan of old-school pencil and pen, but Crain is working his ass off on these digital images. The amount of detail he crams into each image of Carnage with tentacles and sinews is just nuts. I still wish his fight scenes were a little brighter or that they were a little more choreographed. So, the upshot on this one is stellar art, well written, but this is a story that should have been told in 2 monthly issues and not 5 issues over 10 months. Grade: C
Carbon Grey #2 – Lots of folks going ga-ga for Carbon Grey, and I just don’t get it. I didn’t love the first issue of Carbon Grey and turned off my future orders, but was still stuck with issue #2. Sometimes (as we all know), a series finds its footing in issue #2, but not in this case. What we got in this issue was more of the same: striking digitally painted artwork combined with a prophecy heavy, eastern-themed story set in a steampunky world. None of those things floats my boat personally, so I just didn’t care for this issue either, even though I DO appreciate the craft in the artwork. Grade: C-
-Dean Stell
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