Archive for the ‘reviews’ Category

Reviews

Saturday, March 21st, 2009

Reviews of Box and The Bishop’s Boys are up on Bell, Book, and Candle.

Into the Longbox

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

I’ve been busy, so once again a couple weeks worth at once.

Madame Xanadu #8, Wagner, Hadley, Friend. The first couple issues of this had great promise, but nothing essential seems to happen and the characters haven’t developed any nuance. Even the art that I found so compelling early on is becoming more pedestrian and dim. Last issue for me.

Anna Mercury #3-5, Ellis & Perico. I finished up the first run all at once. I hadn’t put this on my pull list and missed a few issues as they came out, but was able to catch up. All things considered I liked this quite a bit. It was evident Ellis was trying to end each issue on a cliffhanger, and just seeing how he’d pull that off every issue was fun. At the heart this is a pretty conventional SF thriller and, other than the style points, doesn’t aspire to be much more. It would be more gripping if the visuals of the action sequences were more tightly meshed. It’s often difficult to take in the layout of the areas and see where all the players are. As a result the scenes often seem like Anna dodging about in a hail of bullets until she’s magically where she needs to be, rather than a tense progression across a well-defined place. Even with that shortcoming, this is stylish genre fun.

Captain America #47, Brubaker, Guice, D’Armata. Still superior genre fare, but not a lot beyond that this issue. Not much else to say.

Batman #686: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader, Gaiman & Kubert. Apparently Batman’s dead at the moment in DC continuity, and DC’s taking the opportunity to let Gaiman tell an end-of-Batman story. It’s a little more complicated than that, of course, with a supernatural wake of some kind and several nested tales. It’s all well executed and there’s great attention to the detail of the Batman mythos(es). I’m enjoying it, but it doesn’t have the same feel to me as Moore’s Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow. Perhaps that’s a function of the multiple intentionally inconsistent stories that give the whole thing a feeling of meta-fiction rather than a superhero story. But, I am enjoying it.

Incoginto #2, Brubaker & Phillips. The volatile mix of noir and superhero tropes begins to bubble here, with more than a gritty setting coming from the noir side. There’s a lot to like here from Brubaker’s hard-boiled narration and twisted plot to the expressive blacks and whites of Phillips’s art (yeah, it’s a color book, but the colors aren’t the best part…).

Secret Six #7, Simone, Scott, Hazelwood. The Six’s cross country run and passage through the gauntlet of crazed superhuman killers ends this issue with a little more whimper than bang. We learn what Deadshot was up to, and it is unexpected for him, and most of the immediate plot tangles are resolved. Unlike Madame Xanadu above, these characters are being more defined with each off-the-cuff comment, and changing as the series progresses to boot. I only care a little about how these adventures are plotted out and affect the rest of the DC universe, but these characters are interesting enough to keep me coming back.

Into the longbox

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

Will Eisner’s The Spirit #26, Uslan, DeSanto, Justiniano, Wong. Another new creative team with a slightly different take on our cast. I liked the fast pace and the winks at the Spirit conventions. More compellingly, their Octopus seems like the sort of person who actually could recruit and motivate an international team of terrorists, rather than just being a generic megalomaniac. I also liked the genuine romantic connection between The Spirit and Ellen. A few things seemed a little clumsy – the Spirit’s secret identity isn’t something he’s terribly good at keeping, for example – but really not bad for a new team. I’m worried about the hints that the Octopus and The Spirit share a dark secret will drag things too far into traditional melodrama, but overall this is a promising debut.

Captain America #46, Brubaker, Epting, D’Armata. Despite the underlying links with the past, this issue is all business. A group of professionals is reacting to a threat as professionals, despite the old ghosts moving around. I like how well Brubaker captures the veneer of business that covers the characters’ shared loyalties and beliefs. The exchanges all underline how together they are without coming out and saying much that isn’t directly related to the operation. It’s a nice bit of characterization. I can’t say I’m terribly worked up about this storyline, but I am enjoying the execution well enough.

Top Ten Season Two #2 & #3, Cannon and Ha. I’d missed talking about these when they came out, and may have missed more issues. Cannon and Ha are really doing a good job keeping the spirit and tone of the Moore issues. The pacing seems a little fast to me, but a lot happened in the original run as well, and I may be remembering it different than it is. Still there’s a lot going on here, and some of the characters seem that little beat off-model. It remains better than many super-books out there. And the art functions both as an effective storytelling vector and as a source of in-jokes in the margins. Fun stuff.

Sandman: The Dream Hunters #4, Gaiman and Russell. A gorgeous finish to a beautiful collaboration. There’s nothing in this issue that haven’t been in the other three, but it’s still a joy to read. Russell’s compositions beautifully complement and focus Gaiman’s script. Great stuff. I imagine there will be a retelling under one cover that’s clearly worth buying.

Secret Six #6, Simone, Scott, Hazlewood. Woosh, what a ride. Big plot twist that I didn’t see coming, and am still not sure how I interpret. The problem isn’t that the twist is unbelievable – it’s that many possible interpretations are all believable. There are genuinely dark goings-on this issue, but it’s a natural progression. The humor up to know has definitely been whistling past the graveyard, and this issue kills the streetlights. I haven’t been this surprised by a genre comic in a long time. Great stuff.

New Review: Me of Little Faith

Saturday, February 7th, 2009

My review of Me of Little Faith is up on Bell, Book, and Candle.

Review of Now The Drum of War

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

My capsule review of Now the Drum of War is up on Bell, Book, and Candle.

New Review

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

I just finished Made In America, Bill Bryson’s treatise on American English.  A short review is up on Bell, Book, and Candle.

New Reviews

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

Reviews of When You Are Engulfed In Flames and The Stuff Of Thought are posted on Bell, Book, and Candle.

New review

Saturday, December 20th, 2008

I posted a capsule review of The American Presidency on Bell, Book, and Candle.

Into the Longbox

Monday, November 17th, 2008

Will Eisner’s The Spirit #22, Aragones, Evanier, Hardin, Faucher. The creative team is finally starting to grow on me. If anything the plot was a little too needlessly intricate, but overall a good Spirit yarn that moved right along. A nice issue.

Captain America #43, Brubaker, Ross, Laguna, D’Armata. A new arc begins, and things seem a little posed. Presumably that’s to let new readers climb on here, and it seems like a good place to do so. Ross’s pencils seem a little stiffer than Epting’s, which underscores the stiff nature of the story. Still, no issue with Batroc the Leaper in it can be all bad. A good place to hop on a fun title.

Madame Xanadu #5, Wagner, Hadley, Friend. The art’s still gorgeous and integrated tightly to the story. However, I’m finding myself less and less interested in the story as we go. I suspect that Wagner’s laying groundwork he’s going to need later, but each arc feels the same. We check in to a historical period, the Stranger shows up, something bad happens that Madame Xanadu plays a role in, some DC Universe connections are made, and then we’re off to the next period. Unfortunately this leaves us little room for a supporting cast. Worse yet, I find the relationship between the two leads difficult to fathom. Wagner makes it clear that Nimue is intelligent and well versed in the occult, but she’s both obsessed by and unable to find out anything about one of the most powerful beings in the magical DC Universe. It doesn’t seem consistent somehow. Hopefully either I’ll figure out what I’m missing, or things will improve. It’s still gorgeous.

Sandman: The Dream Hunters #1, Gaiman and Russell. I have the version of this that Gaiman and Amano did a few years ago. The story is great, but I know it. I’m primarily buying this to see how Russell interprets the goings on. It’s beautiful and interesting to see how Russell attacks the same problems Amano did.

Secret Six #3, Simone, Scott, Hazelwood. Great fun. There’s nothing particularly deep about Secret Six, but it’s consistently entertaining. The characters are all lively and fun, and the action is completely over the top. And behind the fun is the understanding that these folks are not the good guys, whatever decency they may occasionally show. Anything can happen to a villian, and these folks are playing way out of their league. It’s tough not to admire their pinache as they do it, though.

New reviews.

Friday, November 7th, 2008

It’s been a while since I put up a review.  Capsules for The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights, The Wordy Shipmates, and Crooked Little Vein are up on Bell, Book, and Candle.