Comic Reviews for June 5, 2002

Sit back and relax. This will take a while, so enjoy your freedom while it lasts. I did.

30 Days of Night 1 (of 3) *New*
By Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith; Published by IDW Pubblishing
Why I pick up random things? I don't know. Actually, I've been waiting for this to come out for a while. Basically, the northmost point in the USA has entered a period of darkness which lasts 30 days. Note the title. It's a tale of two cops involved with a little thing called Big Bad Monster Control. Not really big, but rather bad. The story itself is quite interesting, with the whole setup and crazy weirdness like that. Templesmith's art sets the whole mood though, and it's freaky reading it. He is much better setting a mood than Ashley Wood, an obvious influence. Good start.

Score: 7/10

Alias 10 *New*
By Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos; Published by Marvel
Core decided to collect this book. I've only heard nothing but praises for this and this was the perfect jump on, figuring this was a self contained issue. It's fun to see JJJ blow his top. Bendis makes this work. The story is written in somekind of illustrated prose format with painted pictures and the dialogue in script format. The art is splendid. The story itself is very excellent. Only Bendis can make this kind of thing work. My pick of the week.

Score: 10/10

Call of Duty The Brotherhood 1 (of 6) *New*
By Chuck Austen, Bruce Jones, David Finch and Art Thibert; Published by Marvel
Marvel's big release of 2002 is here. I have a conflict with this though. It seems to revolve around a little ghost girl. Can't understand why, especially when she says the same thing three times over. Besides that, the story is all right, not real good though. It's that plot point that throws it off. There is also a slight problem with how the story is told. It reads kind of like a fireman information piece. Not sure why this needs six issues to get through. Maybe that plot point explains something. Art is all right at best. I'm not jumping for joy over that too much.

Score: 6/10

Classwar 2 (of 6)
By Rob Williams and Trevor Hairsine; Published by Com.x
Hmm, and people thought that the last issue couldn't be followed up. Well, it has, somewhat. There's a bunch of people quitting Congress and there is also going to be some kind of attack on this place called Glenada. Oh, and some poor chap got his jaw knocked clean off. Read it. It's better written in the comic than by my words. The art's nice as well. All in all, the story is going along nicely.

Score: 8/10

Deadline 3 (of 4)
Part 3 - By Bill Rosemann and Guy Davis; Published by Marvel
The Judge and Kat Farrell explore the Judge's motivations. Really strange and surreal, all told. Rosemann continues to craft a rather splendid story, with the story and dialogue clicking on all gears. Oh, she found her fish at the end. See where that goes. Davis continues a splendid job on art, and I really enjoyed the entire Dead Dimension sequence. All told, all solid.

Score: 8/10

Defiance 3
The Messenger Part 3 - By Kanno Kang, Zack Suh and Douglass D. Barré
The story moves along this month some, but it really isn't that much to it. It's pretty much diversionary tactics...and a boat load of messing everything up in the path. Still surprisingly good though, just not as good as it's been the past two outings. Still, I can't complain, even when the art is this freakin' good.

Score: 8/10

Exiles 14
I Cover the Waterfront - By Judd Winick, Mike McKone and Jon Holdredge with Livesay
Well, there's a better sembelance of a plot here this time, as Namor comes along and tries to take over the world. The Exiles, meanwhile, find help in Victor Von Doom. The strongest part of this issue comes with Mimic's past. The narration is top notch throught this section, and the art reinforces it nicely. I'm going to take it like last month though, where the parts are greater than the collective whole.

Score: 7/10

Filth 1 (of 13) *New*
Us vs Them - By Grant Morrison, Chris Weston and Gary Erskine; Published by DC/Vertigo
I think I'm beginning to understand Grant Morrison. Just when I thought it couldn't get any weirder than that '11th-hour plot device' in New X-Men 126, he goes and pulls this off. And what a strange oddity this is. To put it nicely, Greg Feely is a hermit who wanks off to shemale porn and basically has no life. Then some whacked out people come along with another dude who looks exactly...you get the point? I didn't. I honestly don't understand. Hell, scratch that top sentence. I don't understand him comepletely, but with the way he does this stuff, it's very good. His dialogue and storyline is very strong. Just too friggin weird. The art is very nice by the way.

Score: 10/10

Hawkman 4
Beasts of Burden - By Geoff Johns, James Robinson, Rags Morales and Michael Bair; Published by DC
Puzzled, to say the least. Hawkman fights with the Hindu elephants and ends up getting their home back. Hawkman, himself, ends up going home anyway. I'm kind of perplexed. This really isn't that interesting. It's all right, but nothing spectacular. Art remains solid though, which is a plus.

Score: 6/10

Marvel Magnaverse 3
The Evil Entity - By Kevin Gunstone and Ben Dunn
Well, better than last month, but still some difficulties. For example, if the Skrulls have no previous knowledge of the Magna Fantastic Four, then how the hell is there a friggin Super Skrull? And Doom doesn't look different at all. Which is kind of a pain, where some characters don't look any different than their MU counterparts. The plot is a bit of a mess here. The majority of the issue is spent in a fight with the various species located on Galactus, which is all right. There are some rather shaky plot moments, the biggest one being where the hell did the original Captain Marvel come from? Art ranges from very good to iffy this month.

Score: 5/10

New X-Men 127
Of Living and Dying - By Grant Morrison, John Paul Leon and Bill Sienkiewicz; Published by Marvel
Xorn gets a personality. Well, some traits of one. Morrison set up this character with a fragile one with a fractured soul because of who he is. And it works nicely. The story itself works to a degree. The art works like a charm: dark and moody. Leon and Sienkiewicz work together nicely. Good solid product all told.

Score: 7/10

Transformers Generation One 3
By Chris Sarracini, Pat Lee, Rob Armstrong, Erik Sander and Ferdinand Poslete
Megatron evil plot begins! A good one at that too. It'll be interesting to see how this one plays out. The cliffy at the end is nice as well. Sarracini is crafting one heck of a solid story here, and I'm enjoying it every bit. That thing about nostalgia; screw that now. Seriously, this is good. The art remains excellent as ever.

Score: 9/10

Ultimate Spider-Man 23 *New*
Responsible - By Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley and Art Thibert; Published by Marvel
Two words: mind games. Norman's back, and he means business. Apparently, Parker is going to be his little buddy from now on, which doesn't sit well with our friendly neighborhood spider. Things get really bad as Peter starts to go a slight bit paraniod. Bendis makes all of this work. The story and dialogue click nicely. The art is great as well. Excellent book all around.

Score: 10/10

Uncanny X-Men 407
Gläubiger, Heiler, Gefallener - By Joe Casey and Sean Phillips
Well, it takes a self contained issue to get something good from Casey. This is definitely better than the best issues from the 'X-Corps' arc, namely because it deals with the fallout of the attack on Paris, but also the problems that Kurt has to deal with. That little cliffhanger from issue 400 is addressed to a degree. There seems to be a budding relationship between Jon and Stacy, from first glance. It's the details this month that helps this book out better than it has in recent times. Phillips art is good at times, with detail here and there. This being a slow story kind of takes away from his pencils this month however.

Score: 7/10


Thank God that's over with. Next week, the big thing is the return of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon to Punisher. Joyness of joys. The only other thing to worry about is the beginning of the Sabertooth mini. See how that bloodbath is. Other than that, just a normal week of comics. More sane than this week at least. Geez.