"...are you experienced?"
San Francisco's Premiere Comic Book
Shop
|
If you've come to this page from a link outside our pages, or if you've never read our intro to the Savage Critic, please do so here. (It'll help prepare you!) |
||
|
The Savage Critic: February 6th, 2002 By Brian HibbsWelcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends. APE is in town this weekend – thankfully, it looks like the rain broke this morning, nary a cloud in the sky. I probably won’t go until Sunday – I have to work the store Saturday, and after a day behind the counter I don’t think I’ll be up for MORE comics stuff on Sat. night. But I should be there Sunday. If you go, and you read this column, look for the long-hair wearing a Comix Experience t-shirt. I’ll even let ya’ buy me a beer! Here come da’ comics.... ALIAS #6: Starting the second story arc here. It’s interesting – I seem to remember a quote of Bendis’ saying something about how this book couldn’t possibly work outside the Marvel universe. And while, given the first plot, and the last page of this issue, I think I see what he means, I actually think being in the MU is working against the book. I mean, if I read the first arc correctly, Cap really WAS having an affair with that chick. That seems really wrong to me on a lot of levels – not to mention basic continuity. This issue ends (and remember the introduction, kids – the Savage Critic is a spoiler-enabled zone) with a mention that Rick Jones is related to Jessica, and, again, seems out of continuity to what’s going on in Captain Marvel. This jars me, and not in a good way. The thing is, this is really well-written, and the perversity of seeing "I want you to take out your throbbing cock" in a Marvel book is... unique. I like it, but I have pretty intense mixed feelings about the setting. Very good. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #38: Excepting the semi-continuity implant of May feeling responsible for Ben’s death too (which seemed pretty contrived to me), the "I know you’re Spider-Man" conversation couldn’t possibly have been handled better. Me, I always thought May DID know, but JMS handled the dialogue extraordinarily well. Very Good. AMERICAN CENTURY #11: I wonder if this book can go an issue without a blowjob. Kinda doubt it, actually. More of the same, with the same "Wait, who is that character" problem that has plagued the book from the start. Eh. AVENGERS CELESTIAL QUEST #6: Finally some action happens. If this had been issue #2 (of 4), then this might have even been a good comic. I liked this issue pretty much – though it took so long to get here I can’t imagine that many people have hung around to find out. OK BATGIRL #25: I don’t think the conclusion of the Shiva arc could be much of a surprise to anyone. OF COURSE Batgirl has to beat Shiva. And yet, there’s absolutely no way she COULD. Kelley Puckett actually found a path that satisfied both of those conditions, and I’m impressed by the cleverness of his solution. Good. BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #152: Something approaching half the issue was the origin of the two villainesses – told in faux-fairytale style. *shudder*. Next episode, Batman punches someone and the story is over. Wake me the month after that. Awful. CEREBUS #274: *Must ignore text pages* Dave may be nuts, but the comic sings. Very good. CITIZEN V & THE V BATTALION EVERLASTING #1: Huh. Well, the art was... interesting. There’s a part of me that said, "it is nice to see Marvel being so willing to experiment with new styles" but there is a MUCH larger part that said "When did Marvel become Malibu?" Maybe that’s too old a reference for a lot of you, I dunno. Malibu used to get artists who were almost, but not QUITE, ready for the big leagues – a bit of odd perspectives, awkward anatomy, things like that. 22 pages later, and I’m still undecided if I liked the art at all. The story? I dunno, do you CARE about Citizen V? Does ANYone? Mid-90s Marvel line expansion, at best. In the balance... I’s gonna go with....Awful. CRUSADES #12: I must be in a good mood or something, I actually thought this issue had some heart, and moved the story somewhere. Whether that’s a good place, or a "Daddy, please make the bad man stopping touching me there" place, I dunno yet, but I didn’t hate this as much as I loathed the first 11 issues. Y’know, though, I find it fairly preposterous that four guys shooting at the knight, and the bullets bounce off (!!), but then one of them sneaks around, and stabs him with a big-ass sword, and it penetrates through BOTH sides of armor. Still, an improved rating for Eh. DOOM PATROL #5: The story is nothing special, but the art is improving by leaps and bounds every issue (and it started off very nice). Some Morrison-style weirdness at the very end, but lets see if they have the chops to pull it off. For the art alone: Good. EXILES #9: The middle part of three issues, and it feels like it. Some nice scenes (esp the first one), but I think this could have worked better had it been a tighter 2-parter. OK. FANTASTIC FOUR #52: When did the FF become the X-Men? Just substitute "Mutie" for "alien". Marking time, and not doing it all that well. Eh. FOUR WOMEN #5: I thought this might happen – I can’t judge the whole from the parts. Well done, but I lost some of the subtler threads through the serialization. I’m going to give it an "incomplete" until I can either read all five at once, or read the inevitable TP. FURY #6: Wow, big let down. I feel empty. Max’s first clear failure. Awful. FUTURAMA COMICS #7: I haven’t seen more than a half-dozen of the cartoons, which puts me one comic up on the whole thing. Cute parody, I suppose, but there really wasn’t much there. Eh. GREEN LANTERN #147: Almost feels like a fill-in. Only tangentially related to the last batch of issues, and it gives a really nasty and utterly unneeded continuity implant to John Stewart. Let us hope this is never mentioned again, just like Hal’s little drunk driving incident. Not all heroes must have a tragic incident in their past, y’know. Awful. JLA SHOGUN OF STEEL: On the one hand, it is a clever little conceit and a fairly skillful way of Elseworlding the characters – but on the other, $7 for that? *shakes head ruefully* Eh. SANDWALK ADVENTURES #2: I was hoping for a little more science, and a little less history, but I suppose this was needed to get the next three issues going. It was sweet, and well told, and if you’re interested in Charles Darwin, a nice little lesson. If you’re NOT interested in Darwin, you might be after this – which is about as high praise one can give to an educational comic. I really like Hosler’s work, and this is no exception. Good. SCARY GODMOTHER #6: Late as hell, but worth every minute. Jill is god. Very good. SCI SPY #1: Wonderful, wonderful art – I don’t know that I’ve liked Gulacy as much as this. But the story was paper-thin. Nearly worth picking up just to LOOK at, but, in the balance, it gets an Eh. SPECTRE #14: I think I could write the Spectre from here out: "God has forgiven you, why won’t you forgive yourself?" The End. See? Easy as pie. Nice to see Craig Hamilton art though, and this is consistently a pretty book. Eh. STRAY BULLETS #23: Returning with a BIG ASS BANG. Man, that was a gripping story, and I was surprised as hell by at least one of the twists. Excellent. SUPERMAN #179: Three weeks in a row, and I don’t have bad things to say about Superman? Huh. Must be the trade dress! Squidges a bit close to preaching, but then it backs away, so, hey, I can give this an OK TOMB RAIDER JOURNEYS #2: Ah, I see, this isn’t actually a mini-series, with a plot or anything – it’s just a second TR book. I rented the movie last night (along with Planet of the Apes – and wow, did THAT stink like hell) – and I’m surprised TR got the drubbing it did. I mean, no, it’s not a GOOD movie, but for a shooting, kicking, ‘sploding film, I’ve certainly seen worse. Oh, oh, the comic? Eh. ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #18: So then the formula is that Peter gets his ass kicked the FIRST time, then? Alright, I can live with that. Not really reading it for the fight scenes, anyway. I really really like this version of the Peter and MJ relationship. "Hey, if I sew you a new costume, can I wear it?" "No." "No?" "No." "A few inches more, and I would have been Spider-Man!" "Are you going to bring that up everytime we have this conversation?" I don’t know, that just FEELS right to me. Good. UNCANNY X-MEN #402: On the other hand, this feels completely and utterly wrong. The CONCEPT of Sean putting together a group of baddies works just fine (remember that Banshee was an X-enemy when HE started, too), but the screamingly angry presentation was pretty left field. Awful. VAMPIRELLA #6: Just when you think it can’t get more exploitive, you’re very very wrong. This is the type of comic that embarrasses me when I say I own a comic book shop. Crap. WAITING PLACE VOL 2 #12: I’ll miss this, I will. Nice anti-climactic send-off, and it’s a shame, because this is certainly McKeever’s great strength: writing normal people realistically. I wish this had enough of an audience so Sean didn’t have to write fill-in Hulk stories or whatever. Ah well. The weak point is the art – suffers from some of the American Century problem of "Wait, which character is that?", but not so much so that I can’t give this a Good. X-FORCE #124: Hurray! Darwyn Cooke art. I really like his stuff. Story wasn’t anything earth-shattering, but it sure was pretty to look at. Very good. YOUNG JUSTICE #42: I found something very creepy about this whole origin. And implausible. But, whatever. It’s always been a pretty uneven book. Still, the Spectre didn’t say, "God has forgiven you, why won’t you forgive yourself?" What up with that? Heh. Eh.
For Sake of Completeness, here’s a list of all of the OTHER comics that CE got in this week, that I did NOT read (and, therefore, am unlikely to review!). Note, that in most cases this is limited to 1) Manga, which I try to read as it is collected; 2) "Kids" comics like most of the Archies; 3) titles that were subs-only, either by design or accident; 4) Porno [oh, like you need me to REVIEW it!], 5) Things that looked SO bad on the racks that I didn’t bother, and 6) stuff that I’ve assessed before, and I care so little about that I don’t want to waste my time reading anymore. You decide which is which. ANGEL #3
And, for even MORE completeness sake, here’s a list of books, TPBs, GNs, and magazines that CE got this week. I generally haven’t read any of this by the time I post these reviews. Though I generally attempt to give at least one recommendation amongst the TPBs each week, since I HAVE read the material at SOME point. 2000 AD #1273 This Week’s TPB recommendation is: The one that didn’t ACTUALLY arrive this week. Diamond is usually pretty good about getting comics to us, though 2002 has been a pretty bad mess in almost every shipment. This really impinges on my ability to run a profitable store... anyway, we didn’t actually get our order of Usagi Yojimbo Grasscutter II TPs, but I read them all in single issue form, and, even without examining the final package, I feel both safe and confident in giving it the TP rec. What was up with the THREE Top Cow books shipping in ONE week, though? |
||
|
Average Rating for the Week: 34 books "reviewed" for an average rating of 3.29 (out of a possible 7.00) Pick of the Week: The fucked up Spanish Scott and Stray Bullets #23. Good job! Pick of the Weak: The shameless and pandering Vampirella #6. Shame on you!
|
||
|
|
All Material on this page:
© 2001-2005 by Comix Experience (except the graphic, which was appropriated
from Tales of Suspense #21,
and is probably
© Marvel Comics). Reproduction without permission is expressly
forbidden.