Friday, April 12, 2013

Comic Book Weekly Reflection 4/12/13


I’ve been feeling lucky this week!  I’ve gotten a couple of A’s in my homework, books I ordered came in, I have done shockingly well playing Marvel: Avenger Alliance, and most importantly; every book I read this week (besides one) was very good.  No mehs or nays to be found!  As such, let’s dive in.
 
Be warned, there will be spoilers below!
 
Avengers #9: Okay, this is the one book I mentioned that I thought wasn’t good.  It continued Hickman’s tradition of slow pace story telling that’ll end up putting you to sleep while you wait.  However, this was one of the comics I reviewed for Adventures in Poor Taste, so go check out my full thoughts of there on this one:
 
 
Batman #19: The comic starts off with a bank robbery committed by none other than Bruce Wayne himself!  It ends with him running over Jim Gordon with a motorcycle at the end.  Flashback six days and we find Batman investigating the unexplained suicide of a friend of his.  Through his research into the case, he discovers that Clayface is responsible and has been impersonating his friend, even managing to match his DNA!  The issue ends with Clayface attacking Bruce Wayne, preparing to steal his identity.
 
Now this issue was very different than usual in comparison to the rest of Snyder’s Batman run so far, with it being rather small in focus and focusing more on Batman’s detective skills.  Also, the comic isn’t has overwritten has it usually is for once, focusing more on letting the images tell the story or normal dialogue scenes between the characters.  Sure, there are some of parts that tend to get over-wordy, but those moments are less and some of them are very interesting (like the stuff about Clayface for instance).
 
All of this change is actually rather refreshing and highly welcomed by me.  Sure, I have enjoyed the longer and bigger stories this comic has offered, but this smaller scale tale was really good.  Snyder really shines when his Batman stuff is like this, harking back to his Black Mirror tale.  Add in some great looking artwork and you have easily the best issue of Batman this year.  I have little compliants towards this and I’m proud to give this comic the pick of the week for me.
 
Constantine #2: Like Avengers, I covered this comic over on APT, so you can check it out over there.  I will say though that this comic was an improvement over the last one:
 
 
Saucer Country #14: And so the series closes out for now in this issue as the election night has been finally reached and the votes start to be tallied.  Like before, I’m going to keep quite on this, but I will say the final outcome was surprisingly to me.
 
I have really enjoyed this series while it lasted.  All the mystery, the characters, the interactions and dialogue, and world building in this series has been completely topnotch from start to finish in my book.  This issue continued this trend, though I do admit the ending still leaves a lot on the table and many questions left unanswered, which can be disappointing.
 
Still, the writer Paul Cornell promises us that the series will return in the future when he gets the rights back from Vertigo.  As such, this is not a real true ending, but a conclusion to one part of the series.  When this series returns, I’ll there and ready to return to its world.  I highly recommend this comic and hope you guys enjoy it as well.
 
Team 7 #7: Team 7 heads to a small island nation to put a stop to its leader and his growing metahuman weapons.  The team is backed by their new pilot, Steve Trevor, and their newest weapon, Majestic.  All seems to be going well until the team learns just how dangerous their mission is and ends up being in the way of Majestic ultimate plan to defeat the enemy, by wiping out the island with a giant tidal wave.
 
With one issue left after this, a glaring problem can be seen.  This comic feels extremely rushed as it tries to squeeze in every last bit of plotline and answers it can before it is cancelled.  It succeeds, but it’s kind of clunky.  There’s no time for character development, emotion, or other building of any kind as this story.  Heck, it ends feels a bit disjointed between this and the last issue, like we jumped ahead at least three issues.
 
Not to say this is an awful comic by any stretch, it’s just stretched far too thin.  I enjoyed the dialogue bits, the action, and how this is all coming together.  It’s just not completely firing on cylinders liked I hope it would.  Still, if you are still with this comic, I say stick it out to the end to see how it all finishes out.
 
The Fearless Defenders #3: Last issue we had Hela, Queen of the Dead, resurrecting the former leader of the Amazons, Hippolyta, to help aid Valkyrie’s mission of creating a new set of Valkyries and to now fend off the threat from the Doom Maidens.  Reluctant, Valkyrie and the others agree to letting her join them and track down where the Doom Maidens are being resurrected.  When arriving on the scene, they are a bit too late and the evil warriors have been resurrected, though they do manage to rescue Moonstar.  During their fight with the baddies, Valkyrie is shocked when they refer to her as their long lost sister, another Doom Maiden.
 
This issue was not as good as the last one, but was still enjoyable in my book.  The characters are all memorable and work great together, their interactions and dialogue scenes being a true highlight.  The action is good and the evil Valkyries all do have a nice and interesting look to them.  I do admit though that the true villain that resurrected them, Caroline, isn’t all that deep of a character, and that the facial expressions are extremely limited in the art.  All I kept thinking was: Dull Surprise!
 
Still, I would be lying if I was not enjoying this comic.  It’s quickly become one of my favorites that Marvel is producing and one that I really hope everyone is checking out.  It’s probably the best all female team book out there right now.

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