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Snapshots for 4/2
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. I know there's a lot more Snapshots than regular reviews this week, but with the new baby, I just haven't had as much time to review this week.
100 BULLETS #43
by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso (DC Comics/Vertigo imprint)
 When I read the very first issue of 100 Bullets, my impression was that Azzarello might have gone a little too "street" on us, as the heavy use of slang made it very tough to figure out at times, even though it gave such a verisimilitude to the series. I had something of that feeling with this issue as well, which portrays prison life in a brutal and real manner with plenty of unexplained slang terms. However, it's easy enough to follow along if you pay attention to the context, and the story of Loop Hughes fitting into prison and surviving its brutal brand of politics is fascinating, and thanks to Risso, realized exceptionally well visually. Azzarello and Risso spend a lot of time in this issue setting up Loop's new status quo, and then they introduce a familiar and dangerous face to upset that status quo in future issues, signalling that things are about to get very, very interesting. 8/10
ACTION COMICS #802
by Joe Kelly, Tom Derenick, Bob Petrecca & Norm Rapmund (DC Comics)
 Behind the terrific-looking pulp-ish cover of Action Comics #802 lies a story that mixes international politics and ongoing Superman subplots into an intriguing, if somewhat flawed, tale. Kelly definitely got my attention with some of the ideas in this issue, including the use of biological terrorism to create superhumans and the notion of Superman acting for the U.S. Government, which is all the more intriguing when you consider that it's run by his arch-enemy Lex Luthor. Unfortunately, while the scenes of normal people using their metahuman powers in petty ways and the political interaction got my attention, the inclusion of some of the least-interesting elements of current Superman continuity (particularly Zod) and a sudden shift in the story at the end left me less impressed. Especially when Kelly trots out the old evil twin trick. I was impressed throughout by the artwork, however, as perennial fill-in artist Tom Derenick turns in some beautiful, classical style super-hero artwork with the help of Petrecca and Rapmund on inks. 6/10
BATMAN: NEVERMORE #1
by Len Wein & Guy Davis (DC Comics)
 I'm a big fan of Edgar Allen Poe and Guy Davis, but I've never been a huge fan of Len Wein's work, so you can imagine my surprise when Batman: Nevermore turned out to be such a great read, not just because of the subject matter and the artwork but because of the imaginative script and the clever interweaving of Poe's great stories with an Elseworlds tale about Batman. Wein casts Poe as an apprentice reporter looking into the mysterious murders amongst a gentleman's club, and in between the story of Poe finding potential romance and more mystery in the form of a cloaked Batman, he sprinkles any number of references to Poe's own stories. It's got just the right gothic, spooky tone and characterization, and it's all served up in beautiful style by Guy Davis, who frankly has yet to do any comics work that I haven't found absolutely breath-taking. He's especially good here, however, with great period clothing and a nifty re-invention of the Batman costume for these times, as well as a grip on the grim and gothic look that must inform the story of Poe's investigation. I know that Elseworlds, especially those of the "what if Batman were X?" variety can get tedious, but Batman: Nevermore is well worth a look. 9/10
DAREDEVIL #45
by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev (Marvel Comics/Marvel Knights imprint)
 Bendis and Maleev are doing something very different with Daredevil, but I'm starting to realize that they're building on the past at the same time. The villains and general feel of Matt Murdock living slightly on the edge is very similar to the well-regarded work that Frank Miller and Ann Nocenti have done on the book, and that last page gives a sense of something big about to happen, because we know that some major players are about to come back into his life. At the same time, there are some interesting new elements such as the relationship with Milla, Foggy recanting on his angry screed earlier in the development of the book and the Kingpin seeming about as scary as he was when Miller was writing him. And underlying great plotting and characterization we've got terrific dialogue and Maleev's grungy, photo-referenced artwork. Bendis and Maleev do both show off a bit of weakness in a stiff, posed-looking fight scene between Daredevil and the Owl, but the fights and super-hero stuff are so little of what this book is about at this point, it hardly matters. 9/10
G.I. JOE #16
by Josh Blaylock, Tim Seeley & Cory Hamscher (Image Comics)
 Blaylock and company embark on a new story arc in this issue, and I have to admit that my interest is once again piqued, just as it was when the renegade robot trooper was the focus of a previous arc. Time will tell whether my interest ends in disappointment, as it did with that story, but this is a pretty decent start, introducing a small group (including a Cover Girl who actually looks as beautiful as she was supposed to be) of characters and a mysterious plot involving a small boy with a gift for science. The dialogue is more often than not a little flat and goofy, but the plot is intriguing and the artwork by Seeley & Hamscher pretty solid, if not terribly flashy. I'm curious to find out what happens next. 6/10
G.I. JOE: FRONTLINE #6
by Dan Jolley, Drew Johnson, Tom Feister & Ray Snyder (Image Comics)
 I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the first part of this "G.I. Joe meets The Thing/Aliens" story, and I am equally happy with the second part. Jolley has married the squad camraderie and claustrophobia of Aliens with the familiar faces of G.I. Joe quite well, and he gets by the potential landmine of being unable to kill any of his main cast with the upside that these more established characters have room for more characterization than a bunch of grunts he would have to personalize in such a short time. It's simply cool to see old favorites like Duke, Scarlett and Snake Eyes facing off against monsters of the man-made variety, all the more so when Johnson, Feister and Snyder are serving up exaggerated but workable monstrous forms for the monsters. Credit should also go to JD Mettler, who switches from cool blues to hot reds to indicate the cool temperatures and intense red lights that define the setting, giving the book a touch more of the all-important atmosphere it needs. I'd like it better if I thought Jolley had the freedom to kill off characters as many good horror movies (or even some of Hama's best G.I. Joe work) had, but this is a pretty solid outing for Joe fans. 8/10
HAWKMAN #14
by Geoff Johns, Don Kramer & Prentis Rollins (DC Comics)
 As Hawkman goes on, Johns and Robinson are adding more and more layers onto the backstory of Hawkman and Hawkgirl, but I must confess that at this point I'd rather see them looking forward instead of back. The tie-in of the Gentleman Ghost into their history is a neat idea, and makes for a really dangerous and creepy bad guy, but the story comes with some downsides as well. For one, Chief Nedal as a villain seems far more effective than he probably should be, and I thought the Ghost's actions in this issue in regard to Nedal wound up undercutting a lot of potentially interesting material about whether or not heroes should kill or what drives people to be bad, and it seemed (as with last month's JSA) that it was basically giving easy answers to hard questions. I also missed Rags Morales on art, which is not to say that Kramer and Rollins are bad, but just that they don't have the same power, grace and detail that I've come to expect from Morales. 6/10
JAMES KOCHALKA'S SKETCHBOOK DIARIES VOLUME 3
by James Kochalka (Top Shelf Productions)
 One gets the sense from reading Kochalka's sketchbook diaries, whether online daily or in these collected form (or in my case, both), that he lives on a different plane of reality from the rest of us. The mundane mixes easily with the fantastic, and the daily diary entries could as easily be an almost zen-like bit of fluff like being tired and sitting around as it is about an angel kissing him while his wife watches television. Kochalka does not censor himself, opening up about his moods (good, bad, horny or otherwise) and firing off ideas every day. As a result, some of the strips are non-starters, but a surprising majority of them either make you think, make you laugh, or both. This particular volume includes his reaction to the events of 9-11, which is fairly low-key when you consider all the relief efforts that went on in comics but which also shows how deeply it affected all of us, and it exists alongside events in his 2001 life like the San Diego Comicon, fights with one of the papers publishing his strip or the success and pressures of Monkey vs. Robot. It's a delightful and weird compilation, and one of my favorite releases from the prolific Kochalka. 9/10
MORTAL COILS #2
by Dan Lewis, Jason Copland, Evan Quiring & James Cosper (Red Eye Press)
 I quite enjoyed the first issue of Mortal Coils, and the second one is a pretty strong offering as well. The book is reminiscent of the Twilight Zone or Outer Limits, telling stories that focus less on special effects and more on neat ideas and solid characters, and while Lewis's reveals often leave me scratching my head a bit, he definitely knows how to do a build-up. This issue features two stories, one about a hard-nosed network executive who finds that the producer of her number one show has created far more than just a TV show and the other about a pair of old friends who want to quit their family business, which is also something along the lines of the fantastic. In both cases, the artwork is strongest when depicting the reactions of the characters but also perfectly capable of conveying the fantastical nature of the stories, although I'd give a slight nod to Copland's cleaner, sharper style on the first story as my favorite of the two. Also in both cases, Lewis leaves the reader with a fairly ambiguous ending, so that while each story is certainly enjoyable, I felt like there was a lot more to be explored in each tale as well. 7/10
MYTHSTALKERS #1
by Douglass Barre & Jiro (Image Comics)
 Mythstalkers is playing around in somewhat familiar territory, with cryptozoology showing up in several comics fairly recently and the 1800 period setting evoking a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen feel. However, Mythstalkers is certainly not a carbon copy of an already-extant book, and it's stronger than most of the "exploring the unknown" books that we've seen recently, with a well-realized cast, hints of conspiracy underlying the entire thing and a couple imaginative monsters to start the whole thing off. Barre promises in his text page in the end that this is a "44 issue limited series," and as a fan of the long-form serial with a definite end in mind, I'm certainly intrigued by this first issue. 7/10
SENTINEL #1
by Sean McKeever & Udon Studios (Marvel Comics/Tsunami imprint)
 The first of the Tsunami line is Sentinel, which has been likened to the Iron Giant based on its high concept, that a young boy finds a giant robot and befriends it. So far, however, Sentinel is less about robots and more about teenage boys, and it reminds me quite a bit of the manga comics that were the inspiration of the Tsunami line. McKeever's dialogue doesn't always ring true with me, as the teenagers sometimes seem a little sophisticated and smooth for their age (the overly cute scene between Justin and Jessie being the worst offender), but I find myself liking these characters for the most part. Certainly McKeever has some rich material to work with, including the notion of living in a small town which served him so well in The Waiting Place, the notion of a father raising two tech-savvy boys alone which should play nicely into the discovery of the Sentinel and of course the old nerds vs. jocks fight that has driven so many high school stories. Udon provides artwork that is very much in the manga vein, and while I'm not blown away, there's certainly enough interesting material to make for something pretty nifty here. 8/10
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