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Snapshots for 4/23
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.
THE AGENTS #1
by Kevin Gunstone & Ben Dunn (Image Comics)
 The Agents has an interesting high-concept (spies in the post-apocalypse) but the approach is a little bit vanilla, as Dunn and Gunstone really don't do much to set apart their post-nuclear world from the pop 1960s world their characters seem to come from. The book seems very much derived from The Avengers, with a dash of James Bond and G.I. Joe thrown into the mix, and the one element of true originality, the setting where the spies failed to prevent a nuclear catastrophe, is used to deliver an interesting opening sequence and then tossed aside entirely in favor of visuals that border on copyright infringement and dialogue that is a little clunky, especially when everyone either introduces themselves or talks to others in their full names, making it read like badly-translated manga rather than a comic originally created in America. The Agents starts off on the basis of being a pastiche of spy genre stuff, but it never gets beyond that basis and launched into something more original or interesting. 4/10
ASTOUNDING SPACE THRILLS: THE CONVENTION COMICS #1
by Steve Conley (Day 1 Comics)
 I've been reading Astounding Space Thrills from the beginning, whether it was in print from Image or online at Conley's own site, and it's always a sort of optimistic and fun science-fiction story. It also has a tendency to leave the reader with unresolved cliffhangers, and both of these qualities are to be found in The Convention Comics #1. Conley tells a story of a daring high-tech theft, a double cross and a variety of players looking for the dangerous object of the theft in a plot reminiscent of the Maltese Falcon but with an execution more like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. There are some fun gags here, notably the informational balloons about the Globbins, some great (if brief) action and some intriguing notions about reality shifting gems introduced into the plot. I would have been happier with the story if it had ended about two pages earlier, leaving the reader with a more-or-less complete story rather than with two big cliffhangers that call the rest of the story into question, but as always, AST is a fun ride, and it's my hope that we'll see more convention comics throughout the year that will answer some of the questions left hanging at the end of this issue. 7/10
AVENGERS #66
by Geoff Johns, Olivier Coipel & Andy Lanning (Marvel Comics)
 I'm having a little trouble with the introduction of some realistic elements into the Avengers, but "Red Zone" has certainly given way to some interesting character development and some fantastic artwork. So while seeing something like Al Qaeda mentioned alongside Hydra and AIM is ridiculous and it's strange to see the Avengers battling a bio-weapon, a fight they can't really win so much as hope to minimize, I'm still enjoying "Red Zone" quite a bit. Johns does some terrific work with the rivalry between Iron Man and Black Panther that Priest introduced, is well on his way to turning Defense Secretary Rusk into the new Gyrich while turning the old Gyrich into something else and has some important moments for Warbird, Vision and She-Hulk. He's backed up by some gorgeous work from Coipel and Lanning, and the slow, methodical examination of the bio-weapon and its effects this issue leads to a pretty solid cliffhanger, tying nicely back into Rusk as potential bad guy. 7/10
FANTASTIC FOUR #68
by Mark Waid, Mike Wieringo & Karl Kesel (Marvel Comics)
 When it comes to the family stuff and cosmic adventure, this creative team has been the one to beat, but I'm still wary of their big return of Doom story. There are some great ideas here, including a creepy use of Valeria (best depicted with Wieringo's spooky cover) and Doom turning to an old weapon for much heavier use, but I still find that the most enjoyable parts of the book for me are the cosmic family aspects. Using the Inhumans and teleportation for babysitting as casually as someone else might leave the kids with an aunt. Engaging in a war of practical jokes (the Thing water balloon is a priceless visual image). And the husband and wife banter between Reed and Sue has never, ever been this good. However, the plot with Doom, the sense of foreboding we're supposed to get, is fighting a battle against Wieringo's artwork, which is terrific but perhaps a little too cartoony in some aspects to really frighten. A stronger redesign of the Doom armor to make him look less like a child's robot toy and a shift away from the cartoony style and into a darker one for the last few pages of the book could have made an enormous difference, but as is, the spooky atmosphere is being carried solely on the strength of the script. And while Waid has some fantastic moments (Valeria's first word is chilling, even with all the cuteness on the page), he needs some more support from the art if this aspect of the series is going to be as good as the rest of it. 7/10
FIREBREATHER #4
by Phil Hester & Andy Kuhn (Image Comics)
 I had no idea going in that Firebreather was going to be this much fun, and now that it's over, I find myself looking forward to the next mini-series featuring the character. Hester, Kuhn and Crabtree do a great job in this final issue of delivering what is essentially a super monster smackdown but still making it a character-defining moment for Duncan. Hester's take on Duncan, as something of a sourpuss externally but someone with a big heart, pays off nicely in the finale, as he stands up to a physically dangerous foe as well as to his own father, and still gets to learn something about being his own person. It's the big fight, however, that wins me over in this issue, as the creators really go all out on Duncan's brawl with the monster that has taken his mother. Developing a couple of key new powers to complete the look (and earn his title) is given some truly spectacular imagery, and the brutality of the battle comes through as well. There's been a great balance here between the story of an adolescent growing up and fitting in and a monster trying to be at ease with his place in a world of humans, and the potential in this book was well-realized. 9/10
HAWAIIAN DICK #3
by B. Clay Moore & Steve Griffin (Image Comics)
 It's a little late, but Hawaiian Dick winds up in fine style with more than a few plot twists and character revelations along the way. Moore continues to write a fantastically creepy bad guy in Bishop Masaki, and the revelations of who was behind the whole kidnapping thing threw me for a loop, providing another somewhat twisted character for the mix as well. The story finishes up with a gunfight on a rainy pier and some nice poetic justice, paying homage to its crime and horror roots, and there's plenty of character-building for Mo, Byrd and Kalani along the way. Griffin's artwork looked a little rushed, particularly in the overly-dark rain scenes, as if the coloring wasn't quite as finished this time out, but it still looks really good, even if it didn't quite match the high standards set by the previous two issues. Hawaiian Dick has been a treasure from start to finish, and I'm anxious to see more. 9/10
INCREDIBLE HULK #53
by Bruce Jones & Mike Deodato Jr. (Marvel Comics)
 I'm starting to think that I'll be able to write these reviews on autopilot, which doesn't say a lot about the repetitive nature of the Hulk lately. But just for grins and giggles, let me say it again: We need some damn answers, and some closure. The conspiracy/fugitive nature of the Hulk had a lot of promise, but one issue is beginning to look much like any other, and I'm not seeing much of a need to keep reading, because what we're getting is a lot of questions and no answers, and a lot of mood but not much story. Jones and Deodato Jr. do a phenomenal job of establishing the Abomination as big and scary, or building the Bruce and Nadia's relationship, but I'm yet to be convinced that I should care. Banner has been on the run now for about 20 issues, and we still don't know why, who's hunting him, who's helping him or any of the other fundamental questions that could have made the story move forward rather than moving in circles as it has been. The new Hulk is gorgeous to look at, full of great atmosphere and even some interesting dialogue, but ultimately empty. 5/10
LUCIFER #37
by Mike Carey, Peter Gross, Ryan Kelly & Dean Ormston (DC Comics/Vertigo imprint)
 Every so often with Lucifer, there's an issue that comes along that feels like it's going to be important in the grand scheme, but which might not be as strong a read individually. That's the case with this issue, which has some interesting moments and plenty of development on the twin quests driving the "Nagalfar" story, but which feels like it's moving character relationships and plot points into place more than anything else. Of course, part of my dip in interest might come from the art, which seems more uneven than usual. I'm not generally a fan of Ormston's work on the book, but I was surprised to find less substance and more shadow to the work by Kelly and Gross on this issue as well, particularly on the potentially-impressive but ultimately somewhat bland threat that attacks the ship in the latter half of the book. However, while I might not be as entranced as usual, Carey still serves up some fine characterization amongst Mazikeen's crew, and I'm especially enjoying Bergelmir's character. 8/10
MUCHA LUCHA #1
by Eddie Mort, Ricardo Garcia Fuentes & Mike DeCarlo (DC Comics)
 Well, that was just damned odd. I'm not the target audience for this one, it's aimed at kids who have enjoyed the Mucha Lucha cartoon, but it was a little disturbing to see that maybe I am getting older, as I'm starting to question what the hell these kids are seeing these days. This issue is a story that reads basically like Toy Story meets mexican masked wrestling, and while I enjoyed the former, the latter is just bizarre and unapproachable for me, despite the appeal it obviously holds for many comics creators (Holy Terror, Somnambulo, etc.) Like many of the Kids WB! and Cartoon Network tie-ins that DC publishes, I found this to be well done but with a sensibility that I just can't quite get. Which might be exactly the point, and who knows, maybe in a few years my daughter will be begging me for Mucha Lucha comics... hey, better that than Yu-Gi-Oh! 6/10
UNCANNY X-MEN #422
by Chuck Austen, Ron Garney & Mark Morales (Marvel Comics)
 What the hell happened? Really, a few months ago, this team turned in a somewhat flawed but reasonably entertaining X-Men story in the old school manner, and now, they're churning out badly plotted, horribly dialogued soap opera melodrama that can't even stand up to some of the stronger stories from the Lobdell era. Leave aside the idiocy of a Canadian super-group being called in to kidnap American citizens with the authorization of the governor of New York and some of the clumsiest fight choreography I've seen in recent years, and you've still got creepy and poorly thought-out love triangles, ugly costumes and characterization that isn't even remotely consistent with past portrayals of the characters. Austen has a few neat ideas here, with some strong potential in the relationship between outcasts Sammy and Cain (even though Cain is wildly out of character) especially, but it's hard to ignore the unfunny (and sometimes self-congratulatory) banter or mischaracterization, or the lack of dramatic tension that comes from an inability to lay groundwork for these big dramatic stories. Meanwhile Garney and Morales come off well in the first few pages, with a cartoony style reminiscent of Mike Wieringo, but once they've left the dig site, they're saddled with some of the ugliest X-Men and Alpha Flight costumes known to man and they give us a fight that is spectacularly dull to look at. 2/10
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