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The Savage Critic: April 10th, 2002 By Brian HibbsWelcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends. Lotsa stuff, no interest in writing an introduction, let’s go! ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #603: Pretty nice cover (thought it was Kyle Baker, before I actually took a close look at it), but a reasonably thin story – But I’ve got this weird childhood love for the Crime Syndicate, so I smiled at the last page, and it popped the rating up a notch. OK AVENGERS #52: Kitchen Sink storytelling (as in, "everything but..."), with stakes getting bigger each page. Leaving me oddly colder on each page. I liked the start of the scene between Thor and wosname, discussing divinity, but it didn’t go anywhere at all. That last page was... well, pretty damn stupid. Eh AZRAEL AGENT OF THE BAT #89: I don’t know why, but I found this really repugnant. Probably the absurd conclusion. Can you believe this is going to make it all the way to #100? Awful. BATGIRL #27: A "big clue" revealed in the Fugitive storyline, but desecrating the dead isn’t something they teach in bat-school, is it? Ew. Sloppy art. Eh BLACK PANTHER #43: Suddenly things make a lot more sense. Still, I recognize that Panther’s primary power is his "super cunning", but his being 9845289 steps ahead of everyone is hardly fair on the reader, is it? OK CABLE #104: Whatever. Awful DEADMAN #5: Jose Luis Garcia Lopez! Woo! Dunno, where I read it, but I think this is already cancelled, but JLGL doesn’t draw enough comics, so go grab this while you still have the chance. A fairly nothing story, but JLGL!!!! OK DORK TOWER #17: Certainly of the "agh!" school of cartooning – something goofy happens, and half the characters go "agh!" I appreciate the attempt at a longer plot, , but it mostly feels like wheel-spinning to me. Eh FANTASTIC FOUR #54: ALMOST reminds me of the heyday of the Byrne years... and it probably should since half the plot seems to be stolen from him. Nice little addition to FF continuity, though, and it will be interesting to see if Waid continues these threads. OK GREEN ARROW #13: Those first 6 or so pages made me grin that goofy "I’ve been reading comics too long" grin – and it’s an amusing enough idea for a villain. But, dunno, doesn’t seem all that credible to me. Still, those first few pages... Good. GREEN LANTERN #149: I appreciate the spin on Dark Pheonix, and the whole "hey, you may be going about this wrong", "maybe you’re right" thing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen THAT before. And I really can’t see what’s coming next, which is always a plus. But I still don’t care, all that much. OK GREYSHIRT INDIGO SUNSET #5: I think Rick Vietch is one of the most under-rated creators in comics – YOU try following Alan Moore on Swamp Thing and being as good as he pulled it off – but I’m somehow bored to tears with all this gangster stuff. Eh. HARLEY QUINN #19: That would have made a good final issue. Too bad it’s not. Eh HUNTER THE AGE OF MAGIC #10: No real surprises here – if one introduces a gun in chapter 1, you KNOW it will be used before the end of the story – but it's still well done. OK IMPULSE #85: Cute, I guess. Eh IRON MAN #53: Eeef, that was a jumbled mess. Awful. JAMES KOCHALKAS SKETCHBOOK DIARIES VOL 2: How utterly god-damn charming. I don’t think I’ve been this charmed in... well a long-ass time. Excellent. JUST A PILGRIM GARDEN OF EDEN#2: Quite liked this issue – even though it’s pretty by-the-numbers plotting. Not sure why, but there was some Good Garth in this. Good. JUSTICE LEAGUE ADVENTURES #6: Very fun issue – simple, yet clever plot that probably couldn’t be on the show. Which is how this kind of comic is supposed to be. Very good. LAB RATS #1: Won’t make it a year. Not a chance. Awful NIGHTWING #68: If he was just going to climb out the window, what was the point of sneaking into the building in the first place? Eh. NODWICK #13: The best of Dork Storm’s (Dork Tower, Nodwick, PVP) titles – though some one needs to explain to me the sense of shipping all three gaming-related comics in a single week? I like the cartooning, and the characters are sharply drawn, and above all else, it’s funny. Its really weird how two of the funniest "funny books" are gaming ones (Knights of the Dinner Table is the other). Very good. PEEPSHOW #13: Been a long long time since we’ve seen one of these – and this may be Joe Matt’s best single effort yet. I think he’s learned a chunk about cartooning since the last issue – rather than just focusing on his eccentricities exclusively, he’s cast them in a conversation that shows ALL of their eccentricities. That really worked, more so than any previous issue, and if Joe doesn’t get an Eisner for this issue, it will only be because it came out so early in the year and the judges might forget about it come next nominating season. Excellent. POWER COMPANY #3: Fighting and hitting and shooting and yelling. Decently done, but the market isn’t clamoring for a whole new group of f&h&s&y characters. OK PVP #5: Isn’t it a bit late to be doing a Matrix parody? It’s well done, but... well, who cares? Eh SANDMAN PRESENTS THE THESSALIAD #4: The first three were funny and had clever spins on mythology – and this conclusion was mostly just bloody and violent. Not the tonal shift I would have suggested. Eh SOJOURN #10: I do kinda like the "Aw, fuck my quest, let’s just kill him", and I was wondering how they were going to get around not having the antogonist and protagonists meet until the end of the quest. Plus the art is fucking nice. Really really fucking nice. So... good. STRANGERS IN PARADISE VOL III#48: Bawdier than usual. That’s good. SiP is frustrating me – one issue I’ll like, the next I’ll hate (next is the Molly and Poo reprint, which was awful the first time around). But this one: Good. SUICIDE SQUAD #8: I appreciate trying to do a series nearly exclusively in dialogue, but I tend to think a LITTLE exposition is needed to place the who and why of characters. Eh TASKMASTER #3: Cheap theatrics in killing that chick, and I wouldn’t expect a simple bonk on the head would take out TM. Not For Me. Awful TEENAGERS FROM MARS #1: Larry Young said nice things about this, so I was anticipating it. Too bad. The art was nice, but I didn’t think the story held together or had much of a point or direction. People are surley? That’s no newsflash. Rather be charmed by Kochalka. Eh THOR #48: This whole "You’ll be a bad man one day in the future" thing is getting REALLY old. Eh TRANSMETROPOLITAN #55: Felt like vamping. Plus that "here’s an old file that will bring him down" thing felt pretty left field and deux ex machina to me. OK ULTIMATE MARVEL TEAM UP #15: "Taking too long to change costumes" is a nice scene, but it’s not much of a story, in and of itself. OK X-FACTOR #1: Unlikable characters. At least it doesn’t have sentinels. 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. BLACK PLAGUE #3
And, for even MORE completeness sake, here’s a list of books, TPBs, GNs, magazines, and other things 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 #1280 This Week’s TPB recommendation is: Andi Watson’s Dumped GN (not to be confused with Derf’s GN of the same name that came out a few weeks back) – but it was a hard choice, since White Trash is back in print. Didn’t like the paper on it, though. |
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Average Rating for the Week: 35 books "reviewed" for an average rating of 3.74 (out of a possible 7.00). Pick of the Week: Kochalka charmed the pants of me, but it was Joe Matt’s Peepshow #13 that really plucked my strings this week. Best work of his career. Pick of the Weak: Oh, I dunno. Lab Rats #1, I guess – why not just go back to Next Men?
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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.