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Snapshots for 12/10
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.
100 BULLETS #48
by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso (DC Comics/Vertigo imprint)
 While this team is doing Batman, 100 Bullets has gone bimonthly. I almost wish that DC had taken this chance to do something really radical, and move 100 Bullets into straight-to-trade publication, which is really the way it reads best. This issue is a great read as always, with Risso doing some exceptional work on the movements in the shadows or the feral power of the tigers and Azzarello continuing to paint an interesting portrayal of junkie loser Jack, but I did feel like some of the payoff of the story was lessened by not being able to immediately reconnect with everything that was going on. Azzarello writes complex, multi-layered stories that play off previous tales, and that depth of storytelling is hard to appreciate without reading the story in larger chunks. At any rate, though, this arc is tangentially related to the conspiracy stories, more of a crime story off to the side with a few players who are involved in the larger stories, and it's got the same moody modern noir take that made me fall in love with the book in the first place. 8/10
B.P.R.D.: THERE'S SOMETHING UNDER MY BED
by Joe Harris, Adam Pollina & Guillermo Zubiaga (Dark Horse Comics)
 This B.P.R.D. special is by a writer and penciller who have been out of comics for a while. However, Harris and Pollina have both done work that I've liked in the past, and I was curious to see what we'd get when they collaborated on B.P.R.D. As it turns out, what we have is a beautifully illustrated story that has a really good central idea and some exceptionally confused execution. The general idea reads like something out of Pixar, as monstrous toys seek revenge for being abandoned, but we never really get the whole shape of things, and we're left instead to work out what happened from our impressions of the story. There's an interesting message about whether monstrous appearances have to mean monstrous attitudes, but that seems like a point that's been driven home in all manner of stories, and more suited to kids comics than to the B.P.R.D., which is aimed at an older audience. Though the story disappointed, however, the artwork was terrific. Pollina's artwork was a favorite of mine during his run on X-Force, and I love the change in style that he showed here, no doubt helped by the inks of Guillermo Zubiaga (a new name to me). Fantastic monster designs and expressive, distinctive-looking normal people makes for a beautiful looking book... I just wish that the story was a little more coherent, or maybe had more room to explore. 6/10
FALLEN ANGEL #6
by Peter David, David Lopez & Fernando Blanco (DC Comics)
 Fallen Angel is not at all what I expected when I heard Peter David was doing a new book for DC, and while I'm a long-time David fan, I mean that as a compliment. Some of David's intricate (some might say overly complex) plotting has shown up in this arc, but Fallen Angel is still very approachable, due in large part to the way the mysteries and these fascinating characters draw you in. David's story is a blend of psychological horror, super-hero and noir crime, and there's a sort of haunting H.P. Lovecraft touch in this particular arc and issue that fit right in with that weird mixture of ingredients. It's a story that would benefit from reading all at once rather than serialization, but it's still great from moment-to-moment and I continue to love the moral ambiguity of the book's protagonist. I'm also pretty impressed with the work that Lopez, Blanco and colorist Nathan Eyring are doing on the book, with some particularly horrifying effects on the telekinetic explosions that erupt several times and some dazed, horrified expressions on the Angel's face that serve to illustrate the effects that the monster haunting Bete Noire has had on her. My hope is that David will move back to more self-contained tales for a while after this arc, but either way, I'm onboard Fallen Angel for the forseeable future. 8/10
FRANKENSTEIN MOBSTER #1
by Mark Wheatley (Image Comics)
 A combination of '30s era mobsters and Universal monsters? Sounds like a great idea. Unfortunately, while Frankenstein Mobster has a great concept, a great name and some nice painted art, after two issues (this one and issue zero) it hasn't really hooked me. Wheatley's storytelling style, with omniscient third person captions, seems a little dated, and the dialogue isn't too much better. He's also got a really nifty idea for a city here that is ruled by crime and monsters, ever since the latter started moving in during World War II, but it's mostly left in the background so we can get "crooks rule this town" cliches. The artwork is also a little disappointing, nicely painted and with an unusual color palette but a little too rough, lacking in defining lines, like a sort of blurry version of the work Mike Oeming is doing on Powers. Frankenstein Mobster isn't a bad comic, but I was hoping for something either a little more hard-boiled or a little more clever and funny, and instead we've got something that's sort of middle of the road. 4/10
JOE R. LANSDALE'S THE DRIVE-IN #2
by Joe R. Lansdale, Christopher Golden & Andres Guinaldo (Avatar Press)
 The first issue of The Drive-In was largely about establishing the norm for the characters. The Drive-In #2 wastes no time in completely upsetting that particular apple cart, such that by the end we've seen cannibalism, hangings, orgies, riots, several murders and of course two people merging into one truly deranged thing. It is the height of bizarre, and it's very much over-the-top, the kind of thing that Joe R. Lansdale is known for and the type of thing that Garth Ennis fans at the very least should give a look. To be honest, it all got to be a bit much for me here at times, like Lansdale, Golden and Guinaldo were just throwing too much weirdness and overloading the senses, but for every overcrowded panel or unclear act of madness there's something gruesomely entrancing like the slow transformation of The Popcorn King, the disturbingly evocative open air orgies and violence or the strange dreams the protagonist has about mad aliens. At the very least, I can say that I'm exceptionally curious about what's coming next, and that's certainly not a bad thing. 7/10
MARVEL 1602 #5
by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert & Richard Isanove (Marvel Comics)
 We're now well into 1602, and while I'm not quite as disappointed as I was early on, I'm still not as taken with this book as I'd hoped to be. Gaiman has gotten the story moving, and provided a few twists (the alliance of Fury, Xavier and Strange is a lot of fun), but it is still playing out very much like a traditional Elseworlds, albeit one with a higher quality of prose and artwork than those generally get. Essentially, this is what we might have gotten if Gaiman had gone into super-heroes instead of dark fantasy, and I find myself glad that my first exposure to his work was through Sandman rather than 1602. Gaiman, Kubert and Isanove do provide some pretty impressive moments, however, including the flight at the end of the issue, the melancholy march of Xavier's Witchbreed into Fury's custody and an evocative series of portraits about the Fantastic Four's journey in this world. 1602 is fun but forgettable, a good solid comic where I had hoped for more. 7/10
NYX #3
by Joe Quesada & Josh Middleton (Marvel Comics)
 In the publicity for this book, it was mentioned that one of the characters might be related to a famous member of the X-Men. Without giving away the surprise of the issue, I will say that this issue hints pretty broadly at who that X-Man is, and it is believable that the team member could have a child he doesn't know about. More importantly, Quesada builds an interesting character around this possible parent, and the hard life and particular skills that the young girl possesses are an intriguing blend with the powers and personality that her parent has (and has passed on, at least to some degree). Meanwhile, the central story of Kiden and her former teacher is going into something of a weird area, as the two of them are bonding a little more quickly than I would expect given their past relationship, and I'm having trouble seeing how Kiden is going to become one of the homeless kids that the story is meant to be about, given that she has so many ties to a different life. While the story is intriguing, though, it's the artwork that is the big selling point of the book. Middleton's art continues to deliver what feels like inappropriate sexuality of teenage girls, but it's much more fitting (and intentionally creepy) in terms of what he's drawing this issue. In general, his expressive and haunting art style really draws the reader in, which makes me much more forgiving of his cheesecake tendencies. 7/10
SWORD OF DRACULA #2
by Jason Henderson & Greg Scott (Image Comics)
 As with my review of the first issue, I'm still of the feeling that Sword of Dracula is not quite there yet. However, this issue adds much needed clarity to a lot of the artwork, deepens the story and gives some stronger development to some of the lead characters, which has me more interested in seeing what happens next. Henderson packs an impressive amount of story into this issue, giving his origin of vampires, raising a bigger threat to overshadow Dracula, using a nice tense action scene to develop two of his characters and really establishing the atmosphere of the story. Henderson has a way with words, but he's at his best when he's doing work with Dracula. The briefing about his mindset, the ruminations on the nature of his castle and Dracula's interrogation of a potential new recruit are all fantastic scenes. Scott's artwork is clearer this issue as well, reminding me in places of the work of Charlie Adlard, although he could still serve to scale back the inking quite a bit and let the detail of his art shine through a bit more. 6/10
THE WALKING DEAD #3
by Robert Kirkman & Tony Moore (Image Comics)
 Yep, that seals it... this is pretty much one of my favorite new books of the year. Kirkman's story unfolds at a leisurely pace, avoiding the obvious slam-bang style of your average action-horror movie or gorefest, and instead he's sort of telling a story of people in the midst of a horrifying situation. The result is a bunch of really strong characters that are easy to relate to despite the extreme nature of their surroundings, and tension that develops naturally, whether it's worrying about human foibles like jealousy over Rick's wife or wondering when the next zombie attack might hit. Kirkman writes a story that really develops this camp of people in a world gone mad, and he's laying groundwork here with believable relationships and reactions, making the horror elements all the more creepy and effective. In addition, Tony Moore's artwork continues to impress, beautiful and detailed and absolutely great in black and white, and the strong characters are as much down to his distinctive designs as they are to Kirkman's writing. This is not, as I would have expected, an in-jokey tribute to zombie flicks, but instead a fascinating take on the concept that has all the welcome familiarity of classic zombies but a humanistic approach that makes it seem fresh and new. 9/10
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