Hibbs reviews some 1/11/06 stuff

No, see, I DO do reviews, sometimes. Course, I had to pick the worst week for comics out of the last 52, right?

ELFQUEST THE DISCOVERY #1: How long has it been since a new Elfquest story saw print? And how long since it was actually WaRP doing it? Probably too long because I really couldn’t follow this very well – it was like halfway through the issue before I saw a character I remembered/recognized. The Discovery, for me, is that, huh, I don’t care any longer about this world and these characters, once oh so beloved. I’m probably being harsher than I should be, but, ugh, AWFUL

ED THE HAPPY CLOWN #4: Last one I “reviewed” was issue #1 which really bothered me for being way over-priced on toilet paper. Checking back in here, yup they fixed that problem, and I remembered how fond I am of this absurdist story of dead vampire girls and Presidential penises. We’ll probably all be happier when this is available in book format again, but this really is wonderful, VERY GOOD, stuff.

BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #199: Nice end to a nice little story. Won’t win any awards or anything, but it felt a lot more like Batman than anything else I’ve read lately. GOOD.

GREEN ARROW #58: Here’s the thing, I don’t really care how often you say he’s a bad-ass, Dr. Light just isn’t a fearsome baddie. And this way-too-dragging story (What? It STILL isn’t over?!?) isn’t doing shit to change that impression. Hint #2: Meryln isn’t scary, either. A big, yawny EH.

HAWKMAN #48: or, as Graeme put it “The Rann/Thanagar war is over so the Hawks fuck!” Yup, that’s pretty much it. I pretty strongly don’t care about that either. AWFUL.

JLA #124: And on and on it drags, with everyone insisting there isn’t a JLA, but they’re all working more-or-less together. Feh and more feh. The Grant Morrison version of The Key was only interesting when written by a head, and even then, not really. The end of the story is all sidetracked by the out of left field appearance of a 7 Deadly Sin (Despite them all being recaptured last week), and the whole thing feels like it was plotted by pulling scraps of paper out of a hat. CRAP, al a mode.

VERONICA #167: I want to echo Graeme a bit here – the last time I read an Archie comic was at least a decade back, and I sure remember them having more plot and characterization than this. Perhaps only notable for the appearance of the band “The Veronicas” who Archie Publications just finished suing. Talk about rubbing salt in the wounds! Anyway, I don’t really expect much from an Archie comic, but I gotta tell you, based on this sample, I think it will be another decade before I try again. Totally AWFUL.

BOOK OF LOST SOULS #4: I find myself oddly bored by this – maybe it is the feels-too-much-like-better-Vertigo-comics presentation, I don’t know, but I still don’t have any real sense of the protagonists or their motivation or why I should care, really. My customers seem to be at the same conclusion, as we’re only selling about 4 copies an issue at this point (down from 20 of #1). I guess I think there’s a real passivity to the set-up and characters, and what this needs is a more dramatic forward-momentum through line of plot like MIDNIGHT NATION had. Very very EH.

DAUGHTERS OF THE DRAGON #1: Surprisingly entertaining for me – unlike Lester and McMillan I never really carried for Power Man and Iron Fist and their supporting casts. It ain’t Shakespeare, but it was definitely OK

GHOST RIDER #5: Pretty padded, but pretty nonetheless. OK

MARVEL MILESTONES BLOODSTONE X-51 and CAPTAIN MARVEL II: Wait, why did I order this again? Was this a joke? Joke’s on me!

SHE-HULK #4: Actually, I sorta wished they switched the numbering over to #101 with this one – that would have been funny. A profoundly unfunny issue of the funny super-hero book, but as a continuity implant it worked fine. OK, though on the lower side.

ULTIMATE EXTINCTION #1: I was with this until the long-ass sequence with Ultimate Misty Knight. Too long! Enjoying the ride, otherwise. OK

DESOLATION JONES #5: Too much info-dumping, but I at least enjoyed the flashback portion of the info-dump. God damn gorgeous art, however, makes this at least a GOOD.

DMZ #3: Reads like a final issue, actually. Not really sure how/if this should continue, but this was basically OK.

FABLES #45: anti-climactic, if you ask me, but done with skill. OK

CAPTAIN ATOM ARMAGEDDON #4: Meet someone, fight, meet someone, fight. Lather, rinse, repeat. I was wondering why this was 9 issues, and not say 4, like the plot seemed it demanded. And the reason why is puh-puh-puh-padding! Not badly done, but still pretty dull, EH.

X-MEN THE 198 #1: “Mister M” is, actually, not a very interesting character. No, really. EH.

PICK OF THE WEEK: Hm, let’s go with ED THE HAPPY CLOWN #4, that shows what kind of a week this was… a decade+ old comic wins "Best of 1/11/2006"!

PICK OF THE WEAK: So many choices…. But, nah, going with JLA #124.

BOOK/TP OF THE WEEK: a big part of me wants to say KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE BUNDLE OF TROUBLE VOL 14, but I know it is a specialized taste, so I’ll be more crowd friendly and go with DC UNIVERSE THE STORIES OF ALAN MOORE, despite it missing the “This is an imaginary story” caption in “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” story, AND despite it closing with “The Killing Joke” (WHttMoT would have made a MUCH more satisfying close) – on the plus side it is on MUCH better paper than its previous no-WHttMoT&TKJ version, plus that cover makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

What did you think?

-B