The Savage Critic: August 22, 2001 By Brian Hibbs

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

Once again, only a short preamble – I have 90 minutes to write this if I want it up before late this evening.

ACTION COMICS #782: The End. Thank god. Why is it the last 2 issues of the crossover had more plot than the first 20? Am I becoming a crotchety old man? Yes. Yes, I am. Convoluted pseudo-science wraps everything up in a neat bow, and still I can’t muster better than Eh.

AGENCY #2: Yikes. That was pretty gnarly. "Hey, Vern, just how gritty CAN we make a comic?" "Dunno Leo, let’s find out!" Yikes, I say. Awful.

ANGEL AND THE APE #1: Phillip Bond is an... interesting choice for the art. Extremely jarring change from the cover, too. Story? OK, I guess... perversity-light, or something. Sam not talking is a very weird choice, though. Eh

AVENGERS THE ULTRON IMPERATIVE: Four different writers. And it reads just like that. Heck, it reads like they weren’t even telling the SAME story. Some decent art, but overall, "trainwreck" describes it fine. Awful.

BATMAN #594: Batman and crossovers usually don’t work. Ed Brubaker and crossovers usually don’t work. So, no, Ed Brubaker Batman crossovers really don’t work. Eh

BATMAN ORPHEUS RISING #1: Y’know art by Dwayne Turner (From the Jim Lee school) and Danny Miki (from the Rob Liefeld school) shouldn’t work... but it was actually not really that bad. The story and the new character left me pretty cold, though. Eh.

BATTLE CHASERS #9: How long has it been since the last issue? And no recap of any kind. I have no idea what is happened, and I can only barely remember who any of these people are. The art is nice though, I guess. Backup story by Adam Warren, who, while a great storyteller, draws the ugliest god-damn faces. Anyway, OK

BROTHERHOOD #3: Blech! "He raped me, but you’re a stinking mutant!" This is a jumbled and incoherent mess, and the Savage Critic says crap.

CEREBUS #269: Aw, just as I was getting to like the "unconnected" one-shots, here comes a continuation of last month’s issue. Look at that damn lettering! It is truly and absolutely a crime that Sim doesn’t win "Best Letterer" EVERY Eisner award. Still, the religious stooges have already grown weary on me. OK

DAREDEVIL #22: I dunno. Not badly crafted, but I think I’ll need to reserve judgment until the arc is done. Not sure if the legal tangles of this can be worked out right in the end. OK

DEADMAN DEAD AGAIN #4: Is it just me, or did the plot completely forget about Flash and Robin trapped in their cages in limbo? Hope they remember in next week’s 22 pages.... Also, this seemed to veer pretty sharply from the stated premise of the book... but, what the hey? My sell-through on this went straight into the toilet, so I don’t think most of my customers are really enjoying this either. Eh.

DEADPOOL AGENT OF WEAPON X #1: Slap a BWS cover on it, change the name to suggest Wolverine, and watch sales soar! Of course, sales were pretty awful to begin with. Whatever. Eh.

FUTURAMA COMICS #5: Not lousy. But not good either. Eh.

GIRL GENIUS #4: The color threw me for a few pages. Foglio really doesn’t need it, IMO. OK

IRON MAN 2001 ANNUAL: 24 hours after I read it, and it’s fallen out of my head. That’s not a good sign. Awful

JETCAT CLUBHOUSE #3: Precious. OK

LEGION WORLDS #5: Ut? Steve Dillon? Weiiiiiird. OK

MARVEL KNIGHTS #14: Whatever, its almost cancelled anyway, so who cares? Eh.

NEW X-MEN #116: Dear god, why does Emma Frost have a unit?!?!? This is how you emotionally scar an entire generation of children. Whatever happened to "X-Men don’t kill!"? I wouldn’t exactly call this a SATISFYING ending to the arc, but it’s definitely Morrisony work. Good.

ORION #17: There are some neat ideas, and Simonson is ON FORM... but it’s just Orion. OK.

POWERS #13: Clever use of "People magazine in a superhero world", but it felt a smidge thin. Good.

PROMETHEA #16: Almost certainly one of the best "monthly" comics being produced. You knew that already, though. Excellent.

ROBIN #93: "Buzz has a secret... he likes to lift costumed boys above his head." Well, it was funny when Jeff Lester cracked it at 8am on New Comics Morning. The recitation of everything strange that has happened at Tim’s school in the last few months dragged me right out of the story though. Eh.

ROGUE #1: Continuity implant mini-series. I miss Rogue’s green overcoat thingy, though. And I thought the Julie Bell cover looked better with her own color choices in the background. Why would you hire Julie Bell, and then cut and paste her art? OK

SANDMAN PRESENTS DEAD BOY DETECTIVES #3: Yah, this should have been 2 issues. Or maybe just a one-shot. I LIKE it, but it still feels padded. OK

SAVAGE DRAGON #88: Another fun issue, though that ending was a bit abrupt. Good.

TANGLED WEB #5: I expect much much stranger from Milligan and Fergado than this. Still, well crafted. Good.

TITANS #32: This storyline with these kids is dragging on and on. Eh

US AGENT #3: A better ending than the beginning suggested, but who the hell cares about the character? Anyone? Eh.

USAGI YOJIMBO #51: As always, Very Good.

WILDSTORM SUMMER SPECIAL: A bit content-thin for $6. The Hawksmoor story didn’t particularly say anything new; the Engineer story didn’t seem to have a point; and the Zealot story, while pretty, seemed pointless to me. It is a gorgeous LOOKING comic, and I liked it fine.... but I would have been MUCH more satisfied if it had be saddle-stitched, on lesser paper, for $3.95. OK

WONDER WOMAN #173: Too much detail! Heh. Well, not REALLY, but it is insane, all of those little lines. And Amazons shouldn’t be in space, damn it! Still like it, though. Good.

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!], and 5) Things that looked SO bad on the racks that I didn’t bother.

ARCHIE AND FRIENDS STARRING JOSIE & PUSSYCATS #51
BETTY #103
BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #100
CHASTITY SHATTERED #3
CYBERNARY 2.0 #2
DEXTERS LABORATORY #25
GO GIRL #4
KAMIKAZE 1946 #6
METABARONS #14
MONSTER WORLD #4
NOVAVOLO 2001 ANNUAL
PALEO TALES LATE CRETACEOUS #3
SCION #15
SEXY SYMPHONY #3
SO YOU WANT TO BE A SUPER-VILLAIN #1
SOJOURN #2
STAR WARS #33
WARRIOR NUN AREALA DANGEROUS GAME #1
WHITECHAPEL FREAK
ZED #1

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 #1252
2000 AD #1253
2001 APRES JESUS CHRIST HC (Moebius)
ARNOLD ROTH FREELANCE
ART OF DANIEL TORRES SC
BALLAD HALO JONES VOL 1 GN
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL GATHERING TP
COFFIN TP
COMICS JOURNAL #236
DREADSTAR TP VOL 4 SECRET OF Z
FUTURAMA 2002 WALL CALENDAR
INU YASHA VOL 9 TP
JACK COLE AND PLASTIC MAN TP
JUDGE DREDD EMERALD ISLE GN
JULINE VOL 2 MIXX MANGA GN
MAN WHO GREW YOUNG TP
SERPIERI FORGOTTEN PLANET GN HC
SFX #81
STAR TREK MAGAZINE #28
TOMARTS ACTION FIGURE DIGEST #90
TOMB RAIDER NEWSSTAND ED #5

This Week’s TPB recommendation is: Finally back in print, and even better than I remembered: The Ballad of Halo Jones. Every once in a while I have this distant fantasy that Moore and Gibson might go back to Halo and do the projected nine books.

Average Rating for the Week: 3.06 (of 7.00)

Pick of the Week: No contest. Promethea #16

Pick of the Weak: Also no contest: Brotherhood #3