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The Savage Critic: April 17th, 2002 By Brian Hibbs[Hey, everyone. Jeff here. Hibbs was actually on time this week; a bit of a SNAFU here at the CE Computer Terminus kept this from going up sooner. Those damn sugar ants eating the coating off the computer chips--what are you gonna do about 'em, move? Sorry for getting on the site so late. My apologies to everyone, particularly Hibbs who was eerily patient about it. Won't happen again (or at least, it won't happen again until it happens again, heh-heh.)] Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends. WonderCon this week. I don’t set up at shows, mostly because I don’t want to be fucking trapped at a booth all weekend, and I don’t really feel like having a separate convention stock JUST for doing events like this. Plus, someone has to run the store. I’ll be at the con on Sunday, though, so, if you feel like it, find me and tell me how much you like the column (heh). My pic is on the "staff" page on the main section of comixexperience.com (you HAVE checked out the rest of the site, right? Not just reading the Critic and not looking at the rest?) [Like I said, my apologies to everyone, particularly Hibbs--j.] Anyway, on with the show.... ARIA A SUMMER SPELL #1: Fairies and Hippies, you’d think that’s the perfect San Francisco comic, wouldn’t you? Solid enough comic on all levels, but I kept thinking, "aw, where’s Anacleto?" Good. BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHTS #28: I don’t understand how they lost the momentum so quickly. "Murderer?" was so solid, but this "Fugitive" arc has been dull and unfocused. Zombies and asian gangwars, whatever. The B&W backup was fine, I guess, but the whole package was just a big blah. Eh BIRDS OF PREY #42: Glenn Fabry was a damn fine choice to render the overly-muscled Power Girl. Nice enough in-and-out story, but awkward narration killed some of the tension for me – all of that time she’s TALKING about not being save people, couldn’t she be moving during that time? I can’t QUITE give it a "good", so let’s settle for OK BLACK WIDOW PALE LITTLE SPIDER #1: I liked this quite a bit. The sexual stuff was tastefully done (unlike some of the other of the Max line where it feels like prurience for prurience’s sake),.and I actually felt for the new BW a bit, which neither of the two previous minis were able to do. Very good. BPRD HOLLOW EARTH #2: Solid enough middle chapter on this storyline. Good. CAPTAIN MARVEL #31: Hopefully people reading the whole PAD/Jemas/Q stupidity on the net will check out this issue, rather than the 2 before it. An attempt at a self-contained issue, though it has flashbacks to other PAD works, and that last page doesn’t make a lot of sense if you haven’t been following the book already. *shrug* OK CITIZEN V II #3: I don’t understand why this was published. Gobbeldy-fucking-gook. Crap CROSSGEN CHRONICLES #7: Nice nice art, and very different than the typical CG "house style". Self-contained war story, which actually made me think for a second that I should take another look at Negation. That’s the best you can hope for in a sampler book like this. OK DAREDEVIL #32: Extremely solid issue, especially after the awkwardness of the last couple. Plus it has a "Last Page Shocker!" which is always good for a laugh. Very good. ESTABLISHMENT #8: Not at all sure how, but I just realized now that I forgot to read this one. I would have moved it to the "not reviewed" section, but was afraid that would send the wrong message. Incomplete. GEN 13 #76: A very...interested end to the run. I have to say I really fucking hated the black bars every where, but when I got to the end and say what he was doing, I warmed up to it a lot. Good. HAVEN THE BROKEN CITY #5: FINALLY some signs of thought and individuality in the book and characters. Not enough for me to actually like it, but I’m beginning to see the faith that Carlin felt. OK INCREDIBLE HULK #39: Uh... Big ass left-turn, and not the kind that makes me go "oooh, cool!". But then, the beginning of the book ruined me with the wholly unnecessary Frankenstein homage. Times like this the Savage Scale isn’t quite right.... but it’s what I use, so Awful. JSA #35: Fight fight fight. I’ve noted before this is my guilty superhero pleasure, but this was wafer thin. The new Crimson seems interesting enough, but there’s no real drama in brand new characters coming up with brand new powers to fix everything, really. Hate to do it, but Eh LUCIFER #25: A misleading cover, given the contents, but this is still a solid and compelling book. Very good. MEGLOMANICAL SPIDER-MAN: Ahahahahahahaha. Peter Bagge’s Spider-Man. Really, neither fish-nor-fowl – I have a hard time seeing Bagge fans liking this, and the hard-core marvelites will HATE this. But I liked it a lot. Someone opined on the Warren Ellis Forum that it was like Ditko writing and Stan drawing an issue of Spidey, and I can’t top that at all. I liked it a lot. Very good. MIDNIGHT MASS #1: The concept and the set-up are cute enough, but I think there was a bit too much talking and describing and not enough HAPPENING on the page. What the hell happened to the lettering though? Looks like it was badly relettered in several places, with oddly sized balloons. OK NEW X-MEN #125: Morrison makes it louder and wilder and faster... and Igor Kordy just can’t keep up at all. Wrong wrong wrong choice for art, and it makes me fear for the quality of the book as it goes bi-weekly for the summer (? Or is it longer? There’s two issues each in June and July, at the least). My gut tells me a lot of people are going to be jumping off over the next few issues unless the art improves.. OK POWERS #19: Great issue. Lotsa plot and very little blah-blah. Very good. PROMETHEA #20: The lessons on magic are interesting, but I really hope we have something resembling a plot coming up soon – my interest in the journey is beginning to flag rapidly. Still, this is stellar work from amazingly talented creators... it just needs a story is all. Very good. PUNISHER #11: Except for torturing Soap (which was really funny and tremendous) there’s nothing here. Eh RISING STARS #18: Solid enough issue from a craftsmanship POV, but, I dunno, I wasn’t surprised anywhere for even a single second. The last few panels of #17 mostly telegraphed this entire issue. OK ROBIN #101: Was REALLY digging Jon Lewis’ first go at the character, then in the middle of the issue the crossover kicks in, and ruins it all. Who the fuck’s idea was that? Very good to start, zooming straight into awful at the end, average it out to an Eh SIMPSONS COMICS #69: I’m tired of saying Ian Boothby is funny. Good. SPIDER-MAN PETER PARKER #43: Cute enough, but this absolutely should have been one issue of Tangled Web rather than inserted into the middle of Parker. Eh. STRANGERS IN PARADISE VOL III#49 MOLLY & POO: Poo is right. Why was this reprinted? It was ass the FIRST time I read it. Awful SUPERGIRL #69: Big "whatever" to the first ¾ of the book, but the last ¼ was intriguing, in a too-much-continuity kind of way. OK SUPERMAN THE MAN OF STEEL #125: Kill me now. If you were to ask "what’s wrong with Superman?" I’d have to say Man of Steel is your perfect example. This can’t be appealing to either ongoing super-fans, OR new readers, can it? I found it to be Crap, myself TITANS #40: Oh god, I thought we were done with these STUPID FUCKING KIDS. Add in YET ANOTHER super-team, with no real back story presented, and it makes one wonder just how long this book can possibly continue. Unless Peyer TOTALLY turns it around, I can’t see it making it past #50. Awful
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. BETTY & VERONICA #174
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 #1282 This Week’s TPB recommendation is: Three good choices this week, but you’re already smart enough to be checking out Eagle, aren’t you? Groo isn’t for everyone, I know, but this is a good batch of Sergio work. SO that gives us our pick for this week: The Ring of the Nibelung V1. Never before has opera been so palatable! |
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Average Rating for the Week: 28 books "reviewed" for an average rating of 3.96 (out of a possible 7.00). Highest overall rating in a long time. And without a single "excellent" in the batch, at that! Pick of the Week: Kinda a hard choice – everything was slightly flawed this week. Well, despite of my growing weariness of the Magical Mystery Tour, I’ll slide the vote over to Promethea #20. Bagge’s Spidey came in a very close second, though. Pick of the Weak: Citizen V II #3, but that’s like beating a nun....
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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.