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Snapshots for 5/11/05
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.
ADAM STRANGE #8
by Andy Diggle & Pascal Ferry (DC Comics)
 From a slum in Gotham City to an all-out war between virtually all of DC's big space-faring characters and a super-powerful JLA foe, certainly one has to grant that the Adam Strange story has moved over the course of eight issues. To tell the truth, I preferred the relatively smaller scale in the beginning, which had Adam just trying to find his planet (which had been teleported away and was believed destroyed), and I know that doesn't sound very small in scale but when compared to a battle to prevent the destruction of the entire universe, it is kind of small potatoes. At any rate, the increasing number of guest stars, many of whom I couldn't pick out of a lineup, started to send my brain into dizzying spirals, but this conclusion does bring it all together pretty well. Featuring the last-in-line for cool spacefaring cops the Darkstars in a memorable if brutal guest-starring role, the classic arrival of the space cavalry and cool as hell moments for Adam Strange and his wife Alanna, this issue recaptures a lot of what I loved about the early issues of Adam Strange and has me forgiving the two or three odd issues I spent wondering "Now which Omega Man is which again?." The ending leads directly into Rann-Thanagar War, which is a little bit tiresome in that it feels like we've read not one eight-issue miniseries but an eight-issue prelude to a six-issue miniseries which is in itself part of a countdown to a who-knows-how-long miniseries called Infinite Crisis, but... the "more adventures to come" feel is perfectly in keeping with the pulp adventure feel that Diggle has gone for. And while the story wavered for me toward the end, the artwork by Pascal Ferry and colorist Dave McCaig never failed to delight, and these two really pull out all the stops in this giant cosmic cataclysm of a big fight in the final issue. Spacefaring fun in a tradition rarely seen at either of the big two these days, and another notch in the action writing belt of Andy Diggle, as well as a showcase for just how damn good Pascal Ferry has become. 8/10
BATTLE HYMN #2
by B. Clay Moore & Jeremy Haun (Image Comics)
 Battle Hymn has quite a bit in common with Marvel's The Ultimates. And no, I don't just mean that it's running late, although it is, I mean in tone and approach, it is reminiscent of Millar's not-quite-real but more hyper-exaggerated real take on superheroes in the world. Moore has approached the Golden Age of superheroes through a modern lens, examining the superhero team as propaganda tool and unwitting dupe of a government whose only goal is to win the war, whatever the cost. It's fairly cynical, and all of his characters are bastards for the most part, but it's fairly entertaining, and a look at an era of superheroes that rarely gets this treatment outside of the occasional Elseworlds special like The Golden Age. Another thing Battle Hymn has in common with The Ultimates is a terrific artist, and though Haun's work isn't the photo-real approach that Bryan Hitch uses (it's more a blend of Charlie Adlard and Guy Davis), it's absolutely perfect for this book and features some very impressive moments, such as the two-page spread of the Artificial Man's flame activation or a wonderfully claustrophobic two-page sequence with the team in a plane en route to their target. 8/10
GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH #6
by Geoff Johns, Ethan Van Sciver & Prentis Rollins (DC Comics)
 I'll admit, I was a little let down by what should have been the big centerpiece of Green Lantern: Rebirth, the throwdown between Sinestro and Hal Jordan in issue five, but this issue, which pits the rejuvenated Green Lanterns against a fighting mad Parallax entity just pushed all the right fanboy buttons. I'm annoyed that Batman has been presented as an angry, inflexible jerk, but I'm glad that Hal got to paste him one, because if that is his character, he certainly had it coming. I'm very annoyed that the JLA has been painted as callous by turning a blind eye to the mind rape of Dr. Light and others, but it did give a little extra punch to the Green Lantern Corps telling them to back off and let them handle this. Certainly the sequence in which Johns delineates the slight differences between how each Lantern uses their ring, a sequence that Van Sciver, Rollins and Moose Baumann execute with perfection, is about as good an action sequence as you get in a superhero book. Also, if seeing these guys recite that oath, corny as it is, doesn't give your fanboy backbone a little chill, than you're probably reading the wrong comic. I've been off the Green Lantern bandwagon for quite a while, but Johns and the rest of this creative team have made me a believer again, not just in the cool of Hal Jordan but the potential that remains in the Green Lantern concept, all the way back to Alan Scott and forward to Kyle Rayner. 8/10
GRIMJACK: KILLER INSTINCT #4
by John Ostrander & Tim Truman (IDW Publishing)
 John Gaunt fights killer mimes whose bodies are out-of-synch with real space in a memorable and often very funny fight sequence (check out the subtle eye movements on the last mime - now that's comedy!), but that's really just the tip of the iceberg for this issue. The remainder of the book might have a little more resonance for old school Grimjack fans, as it reveals how Grimjack came to own Munden's Bar, but there's something cool about the bar and its backstory even for those who don't know its resonance in the Grimjack mythos. In other words, like all the other issues of Killer Instinct, it's just a tiny bit better if you're a returning Grimjack fan, but if this is your first exposure to the character and the world of Cynosure, it still kicks ass. Truman (with colors by Lovern Kindzierski) is doing some of the best work of a very distinguished career, John Ostrander is proving that you can go home again by capturing the same spark of originality, fun and a noir-tinged tone that Grimjack had back in the day and the mixture of science-fiction, fantasy and good old fashioned genre-crossing ass-kicking is just about perfect. 10/10
NOBLE CAUSES #9
by Jay Faerber & Fran Bueno (Image Comics)
 Noble Causes always feels just a little bit too short to me. Every time Faerber gets a story going, we reach the end of the comic, and it kills the pacing to some degree. However, that's perhaps a necessary evil of the soap opera multi-layered plotting that Faerber is doing, and at any rate I can't deny that I'm always fascinated to see what's coming up next. This issue's highlights include some revealing flashbacks to Celeste's early days as a hero and a resulting shift in her modern-day character, as well as a quick wrap-up and further tease of the "robot Liz" from the previous issue. I'm still not entirely sold on Bueno's art, which has elements of guys like Mike Oeming and David Hahn but which is uneven, sometimes featuring a clean line and sometimes (as with her design on the cyclopses) looking too clunky and over-rendered. This issue is also a bit of a comedown from the focused spotlight issue seven and the packed-with-shockers #8, but there are still some interesting character moments and a continuation of intriguing plots that makes it very readable. 7/10
STAR WARS: REPUBLIC #75
by John Ostrander, Jan Duursema & Dan Parsons (Dark Horse Comics)
 Even as the Revenge of the Sith movie approaches, with all the buzz and hype promising a darker movie, Ostrander and Duursema are playing out the finale of their own darker tale of moral ambiguity and difficult choices in the pages of Star Wars: Republic. Ostrander has introduced a pretty hefty cast of Jedi and Dark Jedi, and they're not always easy to keep track of, but in this, the second chapter of "Siege of Saleucami," he brings all the players on both sides together for a story about whose loyalties truly lie with the Republic, who belongs to the Sith and who is still on the fence. Quinlan Vos, the undercover jedi introduced in the pages of Republic, takes an especially dark and tragic turn in these pages, but the most memorable parts of the story involve a complicated scheme to remove some of the Jedi's main players from the field of battle and a pair of striking lightsaber battles that result. Duursema, Parsons and colorist Brad Anderson deliver some spectacularly choreographed lightsaber fights against terrific backdrops, and the emotional payoff in these confrontations, courtesy of the story that Ostrander has been developing from the start, really helps to give them even more power. If you're a Star Wars fan who isn't reading Republic, you're missing out on some of the best Star Wars stories ever. 8/10
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