The Savage Critic: May 22nd, 2002 By Brian Hibbs

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends.

God, what a tiny and pathetic weak of comics. And since last week was small, too, that means next week will be a ball-breaker of epic proportions. This is how these things work. You’d really think someone in publishing would look at a calendar and realize that there should be lots of good comics coming out the week that all of the new TV shows go off the air, but what do I know, huh?

And, let me also remind you that because of the three day weekend, comics will be on Thursday next week. Don’t go bugging your store on Wednesday! Also, because of the delay, that means that next week’s Savage Critic probably won’t be up until Sunday, June 2^nd, assuming I don’t get overwhelmed and just decide to skip it altogether.

I’m actually not in the mood to write this one, either, but time waits for no man. Or something.

ACTION COMICS #791: A stand-alone one-shot in the Smallville days. Finally, DC tries to capitalize on Smallville in some fashion. Good solid one-shot, too... which the Super-books really needed. I was a little disappointed at the death there in order to Make a Point, but still, solidest single issue of Superman all this year. Good

AGE OF BRONZE BEHIND THE SCENES: Lots of sketches and background information, and if you’re a Shanower fan (and who isn’t?!), this might well be a useful part of your collection. But it’s not entertaining, per se – not that it is meant to be. OK

AMAZING SCREW ON HEAD: Fuckin’-A! Mike Mignola apparently decided to take a whole lot of drugs and put his ramblings on paper, and I’m so very glad he did! This was loony and absurd, yet it still told a coherent story, and was absolutely and completely gorgeous to look at. Not only my favorite comic this week, but for the entire month, too. I wouldn’t want to see this all the time, but as a one-shot experiment, this completely buttered my toast. Not merely excellent, but Utterly Excellent!

AVENGERS ICONS TIGRA #3: Unh, and then I have to review this. Foo. Awful

BATMAN GOTHAM ADVENTURES #50: Completely solid issue. Very good.

BIRDS OF PREY #43: I nearly forgot that I read this. I think it’s those damn covers which all look alike. Eh

CAPTAIN MARVEL #32: Funny stuff, and it reads very much like the first "post challenge" issue. Fanboyism either toned down, or adequately explained. Good

CATWOMAN #7: Again, very solid stuff. (I told you I wasn’t in the mood to write the column this week!) Good

DC FIRST GREEN LANTERN GREEN LANTERN: Flashback with a moral, or something. Reads like a fill-in annual or the like. Eh

DEADPOOL #67: Heh. The Rhino being a Dazzler fan is a pretty amusing idea. I don’t really like a single character in this book, but I was giggling enough this issue to give it an OK

FUTURAMA COMICS #9: They just don’t know what to do with this book, do they? Not funny. Awful

HAVEN THE BROKEN CITY #6: *shrug* Again, some halfway interesting ideas, but I suspect this will end up as forgotten as Bloodlines, or something equally awful. It’s not bad... but it’s not really good, either. Also, how do you "torture" someone invulnerable? Wouldn’t one negate the other? Eh.

HOOD #1: Liked it a lot more than I imagined I would. In fact, I liked this semi-Astro City-esque view of low level street-hoods in the Marvel Universe a whole lot. Completely had me in the "Hydra? Fucking terrorists!" scene. Smart and well-rounded. Very good.

IT GIRL ONE SHOT: Light as air, this really could have been about any interchangeable characters. It wasn’t bad or anything, just kinda... OK

JSA #36: Back to being a guilty pleasure. Woo-hoo! I thought the last couple of issues were a little weak, relatively, but this one was a great example of epic-level superhero comics. I really really like the new Hourman thing, too. Very good

LONE WOLF 2100 #1: Smells like a cash in. I adore LW&C – and there wasn’t a single thing in this that appealed to me one bit. Awful

MARVEL KNIGHTS VOL 2 #3: Ugly and bad, this now goes into the "Not bothering to read pile" from now on. Awful.

MIDNIGHT MASS #2: Good, but narratively disjointed putting a 2 (?) part flashback in here. I liked it fine, but if I was spending real cash money to buy this, rather than owning a comics store and being able to take it home to read for free, I wouldn’t be going any further. OK

ORIGIN #6: Ugh. Crappy end to a crappy series that wasn’t much of an "origin" at all. I hear the collection ships next week, too – way to go, Marvel, in not giving us any time to shift this five month late comic book... Awful

POP GUN WAR #3: It is pretty, there are a few good lines here and there... but I don’t know what’s going on, or why I should care about any of the characters. Lotta people I respect are raving about this... and I see that it has skill and craft. But, so far, it’s Not For Me. OK

POWERS #20: Totally goes in a direction I didn’t expect, and you can’t ask for much more from a comic book. Very good

ROBIN #102: Cursive handwriting is very hard to read in captions. Solid enough issue, otherwise. OK

SOJOURN #11: Lotsa fighting. Well done enough, but let’s get back to the plot. OK

SUPERGIRL #70: Another issue. Eh.

TOMB RAIDER JOURNEYS #4: Bland and sloppy – it’s generally considered bad form to, in a mini-series, to skip a plot point for two issues, then shoe-horn it back in (the pirate stuff). Awful

WOLVERINE HULK #4: Last issue wraps it all up, as is usually the case with Keith. Hulk’s dialogue in the plane scene was perfect. Very good

X-FACTOR #2: Much easier read than the first one, but it’s still too heavy on narrative captioning, and there’s some awkward transitioning here. For example: the female lead’s mother appearing inside her locked car, while she’s in the middle of a case. How does that work? Interesting enough central premise, I guess, but didn’t hold together for me. 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.

ARCHIE #523
BITCH IN HEAT #14
CAVEWOMAN PANGAEAN SEA #4
DAEMONIFUGE SCREAMING CAGE #3
INCAL #9
INU YASHA PART 6 #13
JUGHEAD WITH ARCHIE DIGEST #175
LOST BOOK OF ELVEN EROTICA VOL 1
MY MONKEYS NAME IS JENNIFER #2
NEGATION #6
PALS N GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #67
SIGIL #24
TREASURE CHESTS #7
VAGABOND PART 1 #7
VERONICA #127

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.

BATGIRL BY ALEX ROSS POSTER
CABLE THE SHINING PATH TP
CRUX VOL 1 TP
DAWN THE RETURN OF THE GODDESS TP
DIRTY STORIES VOL 3 TP
DRAGONBALL VOL 8 TP
EC TALES OF TERROR THE EC COMPANION SC
EL HAZARD VOL 1 TP
GREEN LANTERN CIRCLE OF FIRE TP
GREEN LANTERN EMBROIDERED PATCH
HEAVY METAL JULY 2002
JUSTICE LEAGUE ANIMATED SUPERMAN MAQUETTE
PARADISE KISS VOL 1 GN
PHOENIX TALE OF THE FUTURE TP
STAR TREK MAGAZINE #38
SUPERGIRL BY ALEX ROSS POSTER
TO AFGHANISTAN AND BACK HC
TRENCHES GN
UNO FANTA ART ASHLEY WOOD SC

This Week’s TP recommendation is: Jeez. Um...well, I dunno, really. I guess I give it to Dawn: Return of the Goddess TP, but that’s pretty much just for the art. Story’s not all that hot, really.

Average Rating for the Week: 27 books "reviewed" for an average rating of 3.96 (out of a possible 7.00) – the curve is all screwed up because so few books came in.

Pick of the Week: Absolutely positively no contest: Amazing Screw On Head by Mike Mignola. You need this. Very very very much.

Pick of the Weak: For the sheer blatant cash-in factor, the stinky thumbs-down goes to Lone Wolf 2100 #1. Utterly shameful.