Tpull's Weekly DC Comics Review

March 8, 2010 2:05 AM | Comments:

Adventure Comics 8

Sterling Gates, Travis Moore, James Robinson, Julian López, and Eric Trautmann and Pier Gallo

Let’s start with the cover, by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato. It’s a split-image that shows the team sent to the past on the left, and other team members on the right. The images meld together, but you can make out the English word “Daily" for Daily Planet, while on the right it turns into Interlac. People unfamiliar with Legion lore might not catch it, but it is an appreciated Easter egg for the old fans. As clever as the image is, the faces are a little cartoony for me, and it feels a little rushed. For such a neat concept, I would have preferred more oomph to it.

The three stories inside make for a nice anthology of sorts, with Brainiac 5 discovering the source of a time/space disturbance created by the original Brainiac. It threatens their current time, and shows us the reason for the Legion sending a team to the past to help fix things. The Sturges/Moore team is a good one, as each of the Legionnaires gets a little something to do, yet we still get a little glimpse into the mind of Brainiac 5 which rings true. For longtime fans used to getting snapshots of our favorite Legionnaires, this feels like old times.

The next story is with Robinson and López, who does a good job with the visuals, even though there isn’t much in the way of action. Element Lad reveals himself to Superboy, who then runs off to fetch Mon-el from superman 697. The reason they give here, though, is a last will from Chameleon Boy’s father, RJ Brande. This frozen future is part of the threat from Brainiac, but the two stories here read as if the Espionage Squad had already been given their marching orders before Brainiac 5 discovered the source of the threat. Which may be true, although it would be nice to get a better sense of the chronology of events.

The third story has a Kryptonian sleeper agent managing to infiltrate General Lane’s ranks, giving him all the right answers, and making herself have just enough value, so that Lane wants to keep her around. In this small space, Trautmann shows us a human soldier’s viewpoint of Superman, that of a threat that brings harm and invites attacks, with humans left to clean up after the casualties. And protecting humans is his job. Gallo’s style fits with the semi-cloak and dagger routine, helped by the colorist. I notice that most of Trautmann’s writing jobs have a military feel. Whether that’s him constantly bringing something to the page, or that the powers at DC recognize his skill and keep giving him military-associated assignments, I don’t know. But he’s very good at it, and none of it ever seems out of place. It will be interesting to see if tat style carries over when he has to tackle a story that has no military element involved. As it is, his treatment is very enjoyable.

Some people might be taken aback at this title, and see it as filler for things we didn’t need, trying to wrap us up in the wider universe. I tend to like how it went down, still giving us a little Superboy with the Legion, and setting the stage for the next big confrontation. Out of all of their comics, this one should be ripe for experimentation with different story lengths and formats. Why else would you call it Adventure?

Detective Comics 862

by Greg Rucka and Jock

Lest people get confused, it is not Hush masquerading as Batman in the beginning. This is a past tale of the real Bruce Wayne, acting like a goofball to throw off any suspicion he might be something more. Most of the reviewers try to be nice about Jock’s art, but the fact is, he’s no J.H. Williams, and after the rare treat we’ve been given, Jock’s style is depressingly bare. The tricks are mostly using color to try to hint at the time changes, as we switch from the past with Batman to current day with Batwoman. While some like the lack of narration boxes to tell the reader about the time shift, I suspect a lot of people will be confused at first.

The attempt is to show the beginnings of a serious threat, as Batman first confronts him, and then to see his evolution as Batwoman tackles what this guy has become in the present. It’s ambition suffers from the art, which is just not suited for this type of thing.

The second feature is actually better for a change. Cully Hamner doesn’t spend all his time showing us gun casings ejecting from a weapon. Rucka’s dialogue is snappier and amusing, as their trail takes them to Oolong Island. They choose a blunt approach, stepping right off an airplane to be arrested. Considering all the nasty stuff on teat island, they have more guts than I do. I’m sure I’d be dead before nightfall. Since this is comics, though, I’m sure they’ll be fine. But it’s still kind of stupid. I’d be calling up Superman. I don’t care if he’s off-planet.

The Great Ten 5

by Tony Bedard and Scott McDaniel

In the spotlight finally is August General in Iron. His origin comes from fighting a crashed Durlan ship and becoming exposed to something. Half the team has powers form alien tech one way or another, and they figure out that these fake deities are probably Durlans, souped up with powers. McDaniel’s style is growing on me finally. I still think he was the completely wrong choice for this project, but he did better here than anywhere else so far.

The touching part is his first encounter with Ghost Fox, as they find a way to alleviate their loneliness, even though it can never go as far as normal people. We also find out that Celestial Archer is still siding with the Great Ten. Whether his intention was always to go with the enemies as a spy, or if he sided with them at first, only to change his mind once he realized they weren’t who they were presenting themselves to be, is unknown at this moment. The story is taking a while precisely because they break into it to showcase each character, but it works well. Most of their origins have a relation in some part to the current threat, which is some good storytelling technique. The propaganda-style cover that evokes old Soviet socialism is also a nice touch. If you are not getting this monthly, please consider getting the trade, it’s good stuff!

Justice League: Cry for Justice 7

by James Robinson, Mauro Cascioli, Scott Clark, and Ibraim Roberson

Okay, stop me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the entire point of waiting for this late comic was so Cascioli could give us the entire series in his style? This final issue, atrociously late, has help by two others, and a team of inkers. It’s like they want to add insult to injury. The art is weird, with Starfire shown holding up some rubble one page, then shown in a remarkably similar position two pages later, only holding up the wall for the side of a building! Did they just run out of choices to show women in sexy poses, that they had to use her twice? The heroes are all bumblers, outwitted by their prisoner, help helplessly captive.

Prometheus will not give in to physical torture, and nobody can think to remove his freaking helmet. They bring in Miss Martian to read his mind, and she gets hit with a psychic backlash. Hello? TAKE OFF HIS (CENSORED) HELMET!! It’s just depressing writing.

Some of the art still has the familiar problems. On one page, Flash looks like he is a frozen painting, even in a running position. The rest of the issue is random characters shown at random cities, all stymied by Prometheus’ plan. They finally agree to let him go free for the codes, but only after a ton of destruction and thousands of lives have been lost. The whole issue makes zero sense. He even figured out how to counter Captain Marvel’s magic approach.

At the end, from out of nowhere, this guy is plotting to strike again, and Green arrow shows up out of nowhere. He gets into Prometheus’ HQ in-between dimensions, and plants an arrow right in his head. Green Arrow stands there and says, “Justice.” Yes, that’s what you were waiting this whole year for, folks. No explanation of how he found him, of how he got there, nothing hinting at a story. DC just spent a whole theme with “Faces of Evil” to tell us that Prometheus was going to be a big factor in the lives of the heroes, and all we got was this.

Words fail me to describe how disgusted I am at the lack of an ability to tell a story that makes sense. From the quality of the style that Cascioli uses, you might buy this just for the pretty pictures, but he really needs to have some good lead time on a good project, not this dreck. Where is the whole theme of justice? Is this all that comes from Hal’s big talk about being proactive? He’s going to crawl back to the regular team? There was no purpose for any of this except to kill Prometheus. And they can always claim it was another stooge later, because the concept behind him is a little too good to waste a neat villain in such a lame manner. Ugh.

JSA All-Stars 4

by Matthew Sturges and Freddie Williams II

It’s weird to see Williams’ style, and to know that he can almost draw Dr. Fate well, but then see Steel next to him, and realize that he’s doing a bad impersonation of Bart Sears. It just doesn’t work, and the whole concept for a second team is still not clicking. The writers didn’t feel they could handle a large cast, and thought the characters needed a second title, but the fact is, the Legion used to be very successful with their large cast, and the JSA title didn’t have any problem cracking the top ten on the sales chart with all of them in one place. It was after they broke them up that sales dropped, which should give them a clue.

Sand approaches Stargirl with some visionary help, and later Johnny Sorrow tells her to break her cosmic rod, to save the lives of everyone else. She ends up stranded, but found by Atom Smasher. It’s not a coherent story yet, but it might be saved next issue. It reads like you have to have the whole trade in front of you, which is never good.

Jen Van Meter writes the second feature, which is mostly additional fighting by the same characters, and it’s taking them a really long time to get on the same page. Travis Moore’s art can’t save me from being bored. If I drop another title, it will probably be this one next.

Warlord 12

by Mike Grell and Mike Grell

Warlord realizes Deimos lured him out of Shamballah, but he heads back to handle everything. Deimos’ obsession is an aphrodisiac for him, greater than any other vice, and it’s a little creepy how the terminology used is slightly sexual. Tinder decides he just cannot let Warlord go off to fight, and he does this by… fighting him?!? It’s a little lame, actually. Still, we learn that Tara was ale to switchout their original baby with a duplicate created by Deimos, so long story short, Tinder is actually Joshua, Warlord’s real son.

The instance creates a horrible parallel to the worst time in Warlord’s life, and an eerie symmetry plays itself out, as he hesitates this time, and instead of Warlord skewering what he thought was his son, his real son skewers him. Tinder takes up the mantle immediately, going off to fight Deimos alone… which was exactly what he fought to stop his dad from doing! Seriously, when I want someone not to go fight, I don’t pick up a sword and try to kill him to make him stop. I can’t wrap my head around that.

That one glaring defect aside, the rest reads pretty well. They telegraphed this possibility in the last couple issues, and I’m of two minds about it. On one hand, the lack of a character with the cool name of Travis is bad, and fans make not attach themselves to the son. However, it does seem like Grell had run of out original stories to tell, with most of this year being a big (albeit artistically pleasant) flashback to Morgan’s old life and old series. This will give him the chance to start relatively fresh and give us some new adventure. I’ll hang around and see if he succeeds.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

It’s true that some days you’re the pigeon… other days you’re the statue. I keep wanting to post reviews earlier, but I got laid out by a violent bout of food poisoning. Ah well, still better late than never!\n\n Adventure Comics 8 \n\n Sterling Gates, Travis Moore, James Robinson, Julian López, and Eric Trautmann and Pier Gallo \n\nLet’s start with the cover, by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato. It’s a split-image that shows the team sent to the past on the left, and other team members on the right. The images meld together, but you can make out the English word “Daily\" for Daily Planet, while on the right it turns into Interlac. People unfamiliar with Legion lore might not catch it, but it is an appreciated Easter egg for the old fans. As clever as the image is, the faces are a little cartoony for me, and it feels a little rushed. For such a neat concept, I would have preferred more oomph to it.\n\nThe three stories inside make for a nice anthology of sorts, with Brainiac 5 discovering the source of a time/space disturbance created by the original Brainiac. It threatens their current time, and shows us the reason for the Legion sending a team to the past to help fix things. The Sturges/Moore team is a good one, as each of the Legionnaires gets a little something to do, yet we still get a little glimpse into the mind of Brainiac 5 which rings true. For longtime fans used to getting snapshots of our favorite Legionnaires, this feels like old times.\n\nThe next story is with Robinson and López, who does a good job with the visuals, even though there isn’t much in the way of action. Element Lad reveals himself to Superboy, who then runs off to fetch Mon-el from superman 697. The reason they give here, though, is a last will from Chameleon Boy’s father, RJ Brande. This frozen future is part of the threat from Brainiac, but the two stories here read as if the Espionage Squad had already been given their marching orders before Brainiac 5 discovered the source of the threat. Which may be true, although it would be nice to get a better sense of the chronology of events.\n\nThe third story has a Kryptonian sleeper agent managing to infiltrate General Lane’s ranks, giving him all the right answers, and making herself have just enough value, so that Lane wants to keep her around. In this small space, Trautmann shows us a human soldier’s viewpoint of Superman, that of a threat that brings harm and invites attacks, with humans left to clean up after the casualties. And protecting humans is his job. Gallo’s style fits with the semi-cloak and dagger routine, helped by the colorist. I notice that most of Trautmann’s writing jobs have a military feel. Whether that’s him constantly bringing something to the page, or that the powers at DC recognize his skill and keep giving him military-associated assignments, I don’t know. But he’s very good at it, and none of it ever seems out of place. It will be interesting to see if tat style carries over when he has to tackle a story that has no military element involved. As it is, his treatment is very enjoyable.\n\nSome people might be taken aback at this title, and see it as filler for things we didn’t need, trying to wrap us up in the wider universe. I tend to like how it went down, still giving us a little Superboy with the Legion, and setting the stage for the next big confrontation. Out of all of their comics, this one should be ripe for experimentation with different story lengths and formats. Why else would you call it Adventure?\n\n\n Detective Comics 862 \n\n by Greg Rucka and Jock \n\nLest people get confused, it is not Hush masquerading as Batman in the beginning. This is a past tale of the real Bruce Wayne, acting like a goofball to throw off any suspicion he might be something more. Most of the reviewers try to be nice about Jock’s art, but the fact is, he’s no J.H. Williams, and after the rare treat we’ve been given, Jock’s style is depressingly bare. The tricks are mostly using color to try to hint at the time changes, as we switch from the past with Batman to current day with Batwoman. While some like the lack of narration boxes to tell the reader about the time shift, I suspect a lot of people will be confused at first.\n\nThe attempt is to show the beginnings of a serious threat, as Batman first confronts him, and then to see his evolution as Batwoman tackles what this guy has become in the present. It’s ambition suffers from the art, which is just not suited for this type of thing.\n\nThe second feature is actually better for a change. Cully Hamner doesn’t spend all his time showing us gun casings ejecting from a weapon. Rucka’s dialogue is snappier and amusing, as their trail takes them to Oolong Island. They choose a blunt approach, stepping right off an airplane to be arrested. Considering all the nasty stuff on teat island, they have more guts than I do. I’m sure I’d be dead before nightfall. Since this is comics, though, I’m sure they’ll be fine. But it’s still kind of stupid. I’d be calling up Superman. I don’t care if he’s off-planet.\n\n\n The Great Ten 5 \n\n by Tony Bedard and Scott McDaniel \n\nIn the spotlight finally is August General in Iron. His origin comes from fighting a crashed Durlan ship and becoming exposed to something. Half the team has powers form alien tech one way or another, and they figure out that these fake deities are probably Durlans, souped up with powers. McDaniel’s style is growing on me finally. I still think he was the completely wrong choice for this project, but he did better here than anywhere else so far.\n\nThe touching part is his first encounter with Ghost Fox, as they find a way to alleviate their loneliness, even though it can never go as far as normal people. We also find out that Celestial Archer is still siding with the Great Ten. Whether his intention was always to go with the enemies as a spy, or if he sided with them at first, only to change his mind once he realized they weren’t who they were presenting themselves to be, is unknown at this moment. The story is taking a while precisely because they break into it to showcase each character, but it works well. Most of their origins have a relation in some part to the current threat, which is some good storytelling technique. The propaganda-style cover that evokes old Soviet socialism is also a nice touch. If you are not getting this monthly, please consider getting the trade, it’s good stuff!\n\n\n Justice League: Cry for Justice 7 \n\n by James Robinson, Mauro Cascioli, Scott Clark, and Ibraim Roberson \n\nOkay, stop me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the entire point of waiting for this late comic was so Cascioli could give us the entire series in his style? This final issue, atrociously late, has help by two others, and a team of inkers. It’s like they want to add insult to injury. The art is weird, with Starfire shown holding up some rubble one page, then shown in a remarkably similar position two pages later, only holding up the wall for the side of a building! Did they just run out of choices to show women in sexy poses, that they had to use her twice? The heroes are all bumblers, outwitted by their prisoner, help helplessly captive.\n\nPrometheus will not give in to physical torture, and nobody can think to remove his freaking helmet. They bring in Miss Martian to read his mind, and she gets hit with a psychic backlash. Hello? TAKE OFF HIS (CENSORED) HELMET!! It’s just depressing writing.\n\nSome of the art still has the familiar problems. On one page, Flash looks like he is a frozen painting, even in a running position. The rest of the issue is random characters shown at random cities, all stymied by Prometheus’ plan. They finally agree to let him go free for the codes, but only after a ton of destruction and thousands of lives have been lost. The whole issue makes zero sense. He even figured out how to counter Captain Marvel’s magic approach.\n\nAt the end, from out of nowhere, this guy is plotting to strike again, and Green arrow shows up out of nowhere. He gets into Prometheus’ HQ in-between dimensions, and plants an arrow right in his head. Green Arrow stands there and says, “Justice.” Yes, that’s what you were waiting this whole year for, folks. No explanation of how he found him, of how he got there, nothing hinting at a story. DC just spent a whole theme with “Faces of Evil” to tell us that Prometheus was going to be a big factor in the lives of the heroes, and all we got was this.\n\nWords fail me to describe how disgusted I am at the lack of an ability to tell a story that makes sense. From the quality of the style that Cascioli uses, you might buy this just for the pretty pictures, but he really needs to have some good lead time on a good project, not this dreck. Where is the whole theme of justice? Is this all that comes from Hal’s big talk about being proactive? He’s going to crawl back to the regular team? There was no purpose for any of this except to kill Prometheus. And they can always claim it was another stooge later, because the concept behind him is a little too good to waste a neat villain in such a lame manner. Ugh.\n\n\n JSA All-Stars 4 \n\n by Matthew Sturges and Freddie Williams II \n\nIt’s weird to see Williams’ style, and to know that he can almost draw Dr. Fate well, but then see Steel next to him, and realize that he’s doing a bad impersonation of Bart Sears. It just doesn’t work, and the whole concept for a second team is still not clicking. The writers didn’t feel they could handle a large cast, and thought the characters needed a second title, but the fact is, the Legion used to be very successful with their large cast, and the JSA title didn’t have any problem cracking the top ten on the sales chart with all of them in one place. It was after they broke them up that sales dropped, which should give them a clue.\n\nSand approaches Stargirl with some visionary help, and later Johnny Sorrow tells her to break her cosmic rod, to save the lives of everyone else. She ends up stranded, but found by Atom Smasher. It’s not a coherent story yet, but it might be saved next issue. It reads like you have to have the whole trade in front of you, which is never good.\n\nJen Van Meter writes the second feature, which is mostly additional fighting by the same characters, and it’s taking them a really long time to get on the same page. Travis Moore’s art can’t save me from being bored. If I drop another title, it will probably be this one next.\n\n\n Warlord 12 \n\n by Mike Grell and Mike Grell \n\nWarlord realizes Deimos lured him out of Shamballah, but he heads back to handle everything. Deimos’ obsession is an aphrodisiac for him, greater than any other vice, and it’s a little creepy how the terminology used is slightly sexual. Tinder decides he just cannot let Warlord go off to fight, and he does this by… fighting him?!? It’s a little lame, actually. Still, we learn that Tara was ale to switchout their original baby with a duplicate created by Deimos, so long story short, Tinder is actually Joshua, Warlord’s real son.\n\nThe instance creates a horrible parallel to the worst time in Warlord’s life, and an eerie symmetry plays itself out, as he hesitates this time, and instead of Warlord skewering what he thought was his son, his real son skewers him. Tinder takes up the mantle immediately, going off to fight Deimos alone… which was exactly what he fought to stop his dad from doing! Seriously, when I want someone not to go fight, I don’t pick up a sword and try to kill him to make him stop. I can’t wrap my head around that.\n\nThat one glaring defect aside, the rest reads pretty well. They telegraphed this possibility in the last couple issues, and I’m of two minds about it. On one hand, the lack of a character with the cool name of Travis is bad, and fans make not attach themselves to the son. However, it does seem like Grell had run of out original stories to tell, with most of this year being a big (albeit artistically pleasant) flashback to Morgan’s old life and old series. This will give him the chance to start relatively fresh and give us some new adventure. I’ll hang around and see if he succeeds.\n\n Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

Tpull's Weekly DC Comics Review

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