Comic Reviews for September 18, 2002 (Part One)
You know, I'll think I'll try something different this week. I'll split what I have on me now as part one of the book reviews. When I get my ass home this weekend, I'll bring you the rest of the books. I'll see how this goes.
Might not last long though. I don't have all the money in the world.
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Battle of the Planets 3
Trial by Fire Part 3 of 3 - By Alex Ross, Munier Sharrieff, Edwin David, Wilson Tortosa and Shane Law; published by Image Comics/Top Cow imprint
The G-Force defeat the Iron Terrapin, though not as a cohecive unit. The mission is declared a disaster by the top people in the place. Tensions within threaten to break up the team.
Well, a real oddity this was. The main plot was rather weak, finishing up in the first three pages of this issue. The rest is left to the subplots, which are actually pretty good. If they weren't, then I might have hurt someone. Art's good, very anime like. I should have said that two issues ago. Oh well.
Score: 7/10
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Captain Marvel 1 *New*
Shards - By Peter David, ChrisCross and Chris Sotomayor, published by Marvel Comics
Captain Marvel has gone insane. Given full control of his "cosmic awareness", he travels around the cosmos stopping threats before they occur. Though at one instance, he is given two choices, where he later learns that the girl he neglected to save would have grown up to bring the next era of peace in the galaxy.
Yeah, it does sound far fetched. It works nicely though. In case the four of you don't know, Marvel Comics is doing this stupid contest known as the "U-Decide" event. Just to let you know, despite the decent reviews his book is getting, I really don't like Zimmerman from what I read. And Jemas doing a pointless parody of the DC Universe is troubling as well. Back to the review. I decided to try this out because of the many good reviews this book has gotten, even though it wasn't accessable to the newbie, only to the Peter David crowd. Now that it got a "#1" slapped on it, it wouldn't hurt to give it a try.
David makes this issue completely accessable, explaining everything about Genis (Captain Marvel) through Rick Jones, his Microverse/Nega Bands counterpart. There are some pretty intense events happening here, with a Muslim woman preparing to detonate a bomb - and the following action from one of the buses passengers - to the severe beating mentioned above. The last two pages are very troubling indeed. The only thing I have to say about David's writing is that some of his jokes flew over my head. I'm not going to search for anything specific, but they're there.
The art in this book is splendid. It's using the same coloring process that X-Treme X-Men does, which is doing them directly onto the pencils. Three reasons it works better. One, Claremont isn't writting this book, which, in effect, means lesser panels for ChrisCross to draw. Two, Sotomayer's colors are much softer than Liquid!'s, allowing for a much clearer look. And ChrisCross leaves the black lines in, making sure that the colors don't mix together. But then, without this comments, it works much better here. There are some confusing moments, like the page in the Microverse and the corpse Genis picks up. Overall though, very nice.
Highly recommended.
Score: 9/10
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Elektra 14
Introspect Part Four - By Greg Rucka, Carlo Pagulayan and Danny Miki; published by Marvel Comics/Marvel Knights imprint
Elektra wakes up in the desert, surrounded by special ops forces. She wipes them out, then one of the coalition members before making her way back to Locke.
Rucka turns up the heat, turning a bunch of army men into cannon fodder by Elektra. The direction of the way he is going remains the same, with Rucka trying to establish Elektra as something more than an one-dimensional killer. He hasn't accomplished that yet with the way this issue went. Still, the book has been much better since he has come on. The art continues to be excellent. Solid book overall this month.
Score: 7/10
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Soldier X 3
The Virgin of Krasnaya Polyana - By Darko Macan and Igor Kordey; published by Marvel Comics
Nathan reaches Krasnaya Polyana, still unclear of his mission, other than to recover the mutant healer girl. He does so, but gets a punch in the face from some masked fellow in the end.
Three for three so far with the relaunched book. I think I'll just stop saying that, if I have said it before for this book. It's clear that Macan definitely needed that relaunch to go on his own tangent with the book, and so far he's delivered. Nathan still has little in the ways of personality, but this issue helps some. Macan is forcing him to use his old fighting tactics to get things done, which will probably always get him in trouble. One thing that looks to bring some interest is Nathan's sudden intention to bring about Askani. Tischman did that in his brief run on Cable, but he overcomplicated it with all of his political agendas and such. It's much simpler here, even if we really don't know what Nathan's goal is.
Which brings us to our babbling straight talking Yoda, Blaquesmith. The opening page recap where he's talking to the editor is golden. There are other humorous spots in this issue, like the postman talking with the healer's father, though that shows the grim reality of things happening. It all works though.
Of course, I can't finish off a review of Soldier X without mentioning Kordey. In one simple, short phrase: he continues to rock. Very nice issue overall.
Score: 8/10
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Thundercats 2
Reclaiming Thundera - By Ford Lytle Gilmore, Ed McGuinness and Jason Martin; published by DC Comics/Vertigo imprint
Tygra brings the samurai warrior Hachiman to Thundera, asking for the water in the Garden of Thundera to heal him. Meanwhile, the mutants head off to Thundera to destroy the Thundercats. In typical fashion, the mutants get defeated.
Well, a bit better from last month, though those Thundercats that I didn't see before in the series aren't there this issue. I guess all I can say about it is that it's fun and a light read. Nothing much else besides that.
Score: 6/10
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Well, that's part one of this week's reviews. In part two, I'll review Y-The Last Man (which will probably end up being the pick of the week again); Ultimate Spider-Man, which I believe ties up the current Green Goblin arc; Uncanny X-Men, where Austen writes a self contained story about the institute; the Hood; All New Tenchi Muyo, a book I've lost complete interest in; Midnight, Mass., a book that I hope to find elsewhere this week; and Call of Duty: The Wagon, which in one issue has nearly bested every other issue of The Brotherhood and The Precinct. Sigh. Look for them on Sunday.
On to Part Two