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Snapshots for 12/15/04
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.
AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES #3
by Joe Casey & Scott Kolins (Marvel Comics)
 I remain deeply torn on this book. On the one hand, seeing the old school characters rather than Bendis's lame pretenders gives me joy, Casey has an interesting take on the more real-world problems a new superteam would suffer and Kolins's artwork is drop-dead gorgeous. On the other, I really don't have any interest in seeing the Avengers dragged down by slimy government operatives to where the plot tension is about whether or not they'll get their clearance rather than whether or not they'll drop-kick the Masters of Evil into next week. I find it ironic that Casey recently co-wrote an excellent column on fun in superhero comics, but rather than injecting that into his Avengers, he's doing a riff on the same "gotta be realistic" style that is dragging down too many mainstream superheroes at the moment. For what it's worth, though, this issue does feature a really gorgeous knock-down dragout between the original Masters of Evil and the original Avengers, and with Kolins and colorist Wil Quintana on the case, both teams have rarely looked better. Quintana's colors are a tad more dark than Morry Hollowell's, but they're still pretty solid, and Kolins's ultra-detailed style continues to impress, particularly when it comes to those splashes of Iron Man flying over the city of the Black Knight turning his energy lance on the crowd. Visually awe-inspiring but shackled a bit too much to the real world for my taste, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes is running a solid 50-50 for me on whether I'll pick up the trade or not, and if Casey would just lighten up and have a little more fun with it, I think that ratio would slide up quite a bit. 6/10
BIRDS OF PREY #77
by Gail Simone, Tom Derenick & Bob Petrecca (DC Comics)
 The second chapter of "Hero Hunters" finds the Birds of Prey setting down in smalltown Kansas and mixing it up with a vigilante out of the urban legend/Ghost Rider school while dealing with their own prejudices about the "flyover states." Simone, a resident of one of them states, nails the dichotomy between legitimate smalltown redneckism and the arrogance of the city folk that makes it seem worse, such that the big selling point of the issue is not so much the confrontation between hero and villain but between heroes, locals and the prejudices of both. As always, Simone has some breezy humor to her work, particularly in the bar scenes and the excellent scene-stealing moments from Lady Blackhawk, but she's also got some great character insight, with the developing bond between Black Canary and Huntress and the worrying tendencies of Oracle back onboard her plane. The vigilante of this one reminds me of something like a Jason Voorhees, especially in that evocative splash page from Tom Derenick early on, but a couple hints directed at the Sheriff's baby daughter leads me to believe it's going to be more complicated, and more tragic, than that. Either way, it's another neat idea for a vigilante, and Simone is two for two on this arc. The art this time out is from Tom Derenick, who has done more than his fair share of fill-in work on... well, everything. Derenick is at his best when he lets his own style develop, but he usually plays the role of artistic chameleon in his fill-in work, and his work here is a pretty good approximation of Ed Benes, albeit clearly an imitation rather than the original article. 8/10
CATWOMAN #38
by Scott Morse, Paul Gulacy & Jimmy Palmiotti (DC Comics)
 Honestly, Catwoman pretty much ended for me when Cameron Stewart departed, as I never thought that Gulacy clicked with what Brubaker was doing on the book as well. However, I'm a Scott Morse completist, so I had to at least check in on what he was going to do on his short run. As it turns out, what he's doing is a pretty straight crime story introducing a bizarre new villain named Wooden Nickel. This character could easily be laughable, except that Gotham could use some more colorful freaks in a city that's been populated instead by dull psychopaths like Hush and Black Mask, and I have to admit that Gulacy does a pretty good job on the character's unusual gimmick and the fight scene that develops between him and Catwoman. The art is still too vanilla for me compared to the stylistic flair that it had during most of its run, and Morse's story is likewise pretty straightforward except for the introduction of this new villain, but it's a solid read at any rate, up to the level of what Brubaker and Gulacy have been doing on the book. 6/10
HUMAN TARGET #17
by Peter Milligan & Cameron Stewart (DC Comics/Vertigo imprint)
 And speaking of Cameron Stewart, here's his guest art issue of Human Target. I've found that Milligan's one-off stories have been his strongest on the book in general, so I was a little disappointed that this one was only good and not great, a look at Christopher Chance from the viewpoint of a woman who is undergoing an identity crisis of her own. The plot involves a neat twist on Chance's abilities, and Milligan writes some fun action scenes as usual, but the conflict is predicated on Chance's romantic entanglements, and he's become such a distant character in general that I don't buy into the emotion required to make them resonate. That said, while this doesn't have the dark, affecting storytelling of "Crossing the Border" or the rapid-fire fun of "Five Days Grace," it does have solid story construction and plenty of great moment-to-moment writing, accompanied by Cameron Stewart doing his excellent job on art. The subtle transformation of Maggie into Virginia, and the true reason for it, is accomplished in the visuals, and so some key moments fall to Stewart to pull off, and he delivers in fine style. 8/10
USAGI YOJIMBO #80
by Stan Sakai (Dark Horse Comics)
 While I've enjoyed pretty much every issue of Usagi I've ever read, it is the single-issue stories, particularly those centered around a quirky new characters, that tend to stand out as my favorites. This issue sees Usagi run into an inventor who seeks to fly, someone clearly inspired by the western works of Leonardo Da Vinci. The absent-minded yet brilliant inventor is a cliche, but Sakai plays it for enjoyable laughs and makes him very sympathetic. The gang of thugs bullying the person is another Usagi staple, but it doesn't feel tired or played out thanks to Sakai's clever ending, a nice variation on "fate takes care of evildoers by itself." With a stirring action sequence involving aerial hijinks in front of a great waterfall and Sakai's always polished and beautiful artwork, this is a terrific standalone story, and one of my favorite Usagi issues of the year. 10/10
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