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Snapshots for 1/21
There's no way that Don and I can cover all of the material we have for review in full reviews, so these capsule reviews will offer some brief comments on other recent releases.
ARROWSMITH #5
by Kurt Busiek, Carlos Pacheco & Jesus Merino (DC Comics/Cliffhanger! imprint)
 I know it's the wrong war, but I've been watching Band of Brothers on DVD lately, and it's really put me in the mood for a story like Arrowsmith once again. Busiek does a frankly amazing job of blending together the horrors of war and the sense of adventure that keeps the book compelling, and he has also nailed the key ingredient of a good war book, namely that no one, not even the protagonist, feels safe. Much as I love Busiek's characters and the sweeping story of a young boy caught up in events much bigger than himself, the star of this issue is really Pacheco and Merino's artwork. Pacheco has a great sense of design, extending from the airman uniforms to the way-cool dinosaur-mounted artillery patrolling the streets of Paris, and he also really captures the feel of these European cities, steeped in magical lore but nonetheless set in a World War I era. This issue also has that classic war comic staple, the realization that war is hell and neither side is completely in the right, this time in the form of an atrocity that the protagonist is complicit in, and Pacheco creates an unflinching scene of violence and magic gone wrong that really reinforces Fletcher Arrowsmith's heartsickness when he realizes what has happened. 9/10
BEAR #1
by Jamie Smart (Amaze Ink/Slave Labor Graphics)
 I've read enough just enough Jhonen Vasquez to be able to call Bear Vasquezian. Which is a made-up word indicating "twisted, funny and appealing in large part to teenage girls at Hot Topic," really. Or at least, that was my first impression, but it turns out that Bear cracked me up. Smart's crazy, idiosyncratic style sometimes veers into that territory of the girl you knew in high school who would gleefully and annoyingly tell you she was so weird and so crazy, but at the same time, there's a definite joy to be seen in the bizarre premise of a guy living with a sarcastic talking bear and a psychotic cat. Smart just throws a ton of gags at the wall and sees what sticks, and a surprising amount of the dialogue and art is hilariously funny. I particularly enjoyed the panel that summed up Looshkin the cat with "I blew up the house. It wasn't as funny as I thought it would be, but I did it anyway." If you've already gone through Jonny the Homicidal Maniac and Squee!, Bear should probably be your next stop. 7/10
FANTASTIC FOUR #509
by Mark Waid, Mike Wieringo & Karl Kesel (Marvel Comics)
 Death in super-hero comics is not and never will be permanent, for a variety of reasons. However, that doesn't mean that good stories can't be wrung out of the death of characters, and in fact Waid is using the very notion that death is escapable in the Marvel Universe as the jumping-off point for "Hereafter." Waid and Wieringo have a natural style that would seem best suited to the more exuberant, adventurous side of the Fantastic Four, but they both do an excellent job of bringing the pathos and sorrow of the current story to life as well, showing how each member of the team deals with the loss of one of their own. And although there's a sense that the decisions made near the end are dangerous and maybe even wrong (as voiced by Sue Storm), at the same time it feels like the kind of thing the team should be doing, challenging barriers that might seem blasphemous in the real world but which seem more approachable in the Marvel Universe. These days, Fantastic Four is always surprising and always builds from the previous story into something bigger, and "Hereafter" is another escalation for this team. 9/10
IRON MAN #76
by John Jackson Miller, Jorge Lucas & Norm Rapmund (Marvel Comics)
 You know, I've never really thought that a Senate confirmation hearing could be really interesting, and I certainly never thought it would make a good Iron Man story, but Miller proves me wrong in this issue. "Best Defense" is still a little light on action and super-heroics for my taste, but Miller does some interesting exploration of heroic morality intersecting with political realities in this issue, and the finale of this issue does provide an unexpected twist in the Tony's road to the Cabinet. Also, though the action elements of the book are light, there are some foreboding developments in the story of Tony's rival Burch, developments that allow Lucas and Rapmund to do some excellent Iron Man illustrations. At this point, I'm still looking for a little more balance between talking heads and superheroics, but at the same time, Miller is telling an unpredictable and intriguing story here. 7/10
JSA #57
by Geoff Johns, Don Kramer & Keith Champagne (DC Comics)
 After a very strong start, "Black Reign" had a bit of a dip with its second chapter in Hawkman and now seems to have risen slightly back up to the level of solid super-hero tale. It's still not quite as good as that opening chapter lead me to hope, but Johns is doing some very interesting stuff not just with the impending conflict between Black Adam's team and the JSA but with the internal conflict within each team. Hawkman's relentless jerk personality is grating, but it does make for an interesting catalyst for the team, and I liked that Johns could write team conflict without degenerating into a shouting match that took up too many pages of story. Ditto for the potentially cliched but instead very interesting conflict within the "villain" team that sees two of them hooking up for a casual affair, one struggling with his personal demons and another seeming like the potentially dangerous manipulator being smacked down by an unusually smart and driven team leader. Quite honestly, I find myself rooting for Black Adam to win this one at this point, because he has one of the clearest visions of what he's doing of any character in the book right now, and I don't think that's an accident on Johns's part. Meanwhile, Kramer and Champagne have the enviable task of living up to the art standards set by Hawkman artist Rags Morales, and they do a fantastic job, not just with the action sequence at the end of the book but with the creeping doubts plaguing Atom Smasher or the anger and hurt feelings that erupt in the JSA meeting. 8/10
NEW X-MEN #152
by Grant Morrison, Marc Silvestri, Joe Weems & Billy Tan (Marvel Comics)
 We're in full-tilt Morrisonian weirdness mode for this final arc, as Morrison throws out big, mad ideas (or nonsense words, depending on your point-of-view) to indicate how strange this world has become, even as the conflict once again boils down to X-Men versus the bad guys. There's an interesting last page revelation about the bad guy here that worries me a little, as it's not one of my favorite villains from Morrison's run, but it does make Beast's actions make a little more sense. And there's definitely a sense of heroic last stand in the double-page splash of the X-Men heading off to battle which is one of the stronger moments of the issue. All told, though, I continue to wish that the story was being told either with art by Frank Quitely or Igor Kordey or Phil Jimenez, or even Marc Silvestri without his Top Cow inkers and colorists, because there's a stiffness and scratchiness to the art that is unfortunate. Whatever quibbles I might have with New X-Men however, it never fails to meet the "I can't wait to see what happens next" test, and "Here Comes Tomorrow" is no exception. 7/10
OUTSIDERS #8
by Judd Winick, Tom Raney & Sean Parsons (DC Comics)
 Outsiders falls into a weird category for me: It's way too dark to be classified as straight-up super-hero, but it's got enough old school trappings that you can't really put it into the Ultimates/Authority category either. At times, this dedication to spandex super-heroes and darker tone seems to conflict a little, but it does make for compelling reading, and honestly, these days I'd rather someone err on the side of not being embarrassed about spandex and codenames. Winick opens the story with some truly depraved acts by the villains, including a two-page development of a character only so that we'll feel worse when she's slaughtered for nefarious purposes, and then he jumps into somewhat light and funny character stuff. It's a difficult mix to pull off, but it worked for the most part with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Outsiders reminds me in a lot of good ways of that show. The bonding sequence between Rex and Indigo is almost worth the price of admission all by itself (and I can't believe I didn't like the latter character at first) and Huntress's attitude with Nightwing is a lot of fun and nicely dovetails with her characterization in Simone's Birds of Prey. Outsiders also continues to have a nice mixture of action storytelling ably executed by Tom Raney and Sean Parsons in with the character work, and though the villain this issue is one I've never heard of, he's got an interesting visual and his origin fits right in there with classic super-villainy. I'm still never sure what I'm going to get with Outsiders on a monthly basis, but I guess that sort of unpredictability can be a blessing, even if it means I'm still not entirely sure what to make of the book. 8/10
ROBIN #122
by Bill Willingham, Rick Mays & Aaron Sowd (DC Comics)
 I wasn't crazy about Willingham's first issue of Robin, and thought that maybe my initial instincts, that I just didn't like Robin enough to read his solo book anymore, were correct. This second issue, however, is a lot of fun, with a terrific scene that shows Robin as both expertly trained and yet still a novice in some respects and a really creepy origin for the newest bad guy in his life. I'm also quite fond of Robin's new transportation and his brief moments with the Spoiler, a character I've always liked. On the other hand, Willingham's take on high school seems weirdly old-fashioned and inaccurate, and most of the scenes with Tim and his high school pals are kind of painful. Rick Mays's artwork is a mixed bag for me as well, terrific in terms of action and excellent in terms of depicting the younger characters but a little bit sparse in terms of backgrounds and not so great at depicting older characters. 7/10
STAY PUFFED #1
by John Layman & Dave Crosland (Image Comics)
 Puffed, the 3-issue miniseries by Layman and Crosland, had a weird premise, but it was a solid one: Guy in dragon costume gets dumped in the 'hood, hilarity ensues. Stay Puffed is a little more ill-defined, being the story of the bully that dumped said dragon-costumed guy in the 'hood, and as a result isn't quite as hilarious as the first miniseries. I thought that with the war setting and Layman's reputation for speaking his mind, we might get some biting satire of the war, but instead this is mostly an exercise in turning psychotic plot device Seaton into a protagonist of sorts and explaining that he hated the lead character not because of jealousy over a girl or just because he was crazy but because he has some sort of deep-seated hatred of plushy costumes. It's a weird conceit that doesn't quite work, although Layman does get some funny moments out of how much Seaton's comrades-in-arms hate him and Crosland has way too much fun with the names of the porno mags that the soldiers find in Uday Hussein's stash. Stay Puffed is sort of a one-issue epilogue to a story that really didn't need one, and as such it's fun, but pales in comparison to the whacked-out original. 5/10
TRUE STORY SWEAR TO GOD #7
by Tom Beland (Clib's Boy Comics)
 True Story Swear to God is coming out more frequently, which is the good news, but the most recent story of Lily trapped in a hurricane has not been quite as engaging as the love stories and the fish-out-of-water travel tales that Beland has told previously. However, given the high standard that I hold the book to, that just means that the stories are good instead of great. This story is obviously one close to Beland's art, and anyone who has come to know the two lead characters through reading this book can't help but get involved in the story of Lily and Tom suffering through separation and a hurricane even though the outcome is pretty well guaranteed to be a happy one. Beland experiments with his art this issue, a cross-hatching style based on Carla Speed McNeil's work that I honestly didn't feel worked with Beland's style and work on the storm based on Jeff Smith's similar work in Bone that works quite well. As True Story Swear to God shifts from the almost too good to be true story of the meeting of these two characters, it loses a touch of magic, and while one can hardly call a hurricane mundane, I'm sort of glad to see the back of this one, and I look forward to seeing more of the stories that are alluded to here about Tom and Lily deciding how they're going to change their lives to accomodate one another and the inevitable comedy and drama that will come from such adjustments. 8/10
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