Comic Reviews for November 23, 2002
Ah, welcome to another edition of weekly reviews. Right now, Drew and I are planning next Wednesday night. Harry Potter will be the choice of movie for the evening. He's trying to help me out with us driving separately. Don't bother to ask; it's confusing right now.
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Amazing Spider-Man 47
The Life and Death of Spiders - By J. Michael Straczynski, John Romita Jr. and Scott Hanna; published by Marvel Comics
More of the same this week. This mystical stuff really doesn't work all too well for Spider-Man. There are some good super heroics, but I can't stand too much for all of this happening.
Score: 6/10
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Battle Angel Alita: Last Order 1:3
Phase 03: I Am Not a Robot - By Yukito Kishiro, English Adaptation by Fred Burke; published by Viz Communications
Alita tells some people that she isn't a robot, but human in her own way. Kind of strange explanation, but I don't see a big problem with it, since she really can't figure it out on her own. Nothing too much to complain about though. My complaint last month still applies, but barely now.
Score: 7/10
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Call of Duty: The Wagon 4
By Chuck Austen and Danijel Zezelj; published by Marvel Comics
Just one more week...just one more week...
Score: 5/10
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Fate of the Blade 3
By Chris Sarracini, Job Yamen and Erik Sander; published by Dreamwave Productions
Well, it's not really all that bad. It's still not good though. Still issues with the art, but it's too late now to ask for it to change. I'm not real big on this story though. I'll just let Core buy this now, since I haven't that much interest left in it.
Score: 5/10
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Filth 6
The World of Anders Klimakks - By Grant Morrison, Chris Weston and Gary Erskine; published by DC Comics/Vertigo imprint
More insanity, and it's just the way I like it. This issue really isn't one of the better ones though, since it has a tendancy to hop around a lot, and the plot makes a little less sense than normal. Still, it's all pretty good, and Weston's art really does a great job of all the insanity happening.
Score: 8/10
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Fused! 3
Canned Heat Part Three - By Steve Niles and Brad Rader; published by Image Comics
God, the trade of this is going to look ridiculous. The art change here isn't all too bad, since Rader's art is sort of consistent with Lee's. Templesmith is on the art whenever issue four comes out, and we all know what that looks like. Hopefully he'll do some kind of panel layout for it which will remain intact with what the first three issues do. Besides that, another good issue. I'm just hoping for a consistent art team on this book.
Score: 7/10
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New X-Men 134
Kid Omega - By Grant Morrison, Keron Grant and Norm Rapmund; published by Marvel Comics
Pretty much a setup issue for the 'Riot' arc. Nicely done by the way. The mutant designer that gets killed isn't all that important, since we really don't care for who he is. There are certain things that revolved around it though, one of them being Beast and Cyclops talking about gay issues. It's a rather interesting discussion, and it has some really good characterization from Morrison's part. Also good is the introduction of Quentin Quire, an antagonist that we may actually like, if only because he actually has a point with what he's saying. Be interesting to see what occurs during this upcoming arc. Art this month is from Keron Grant, and he does a great job filling in for Van Sciver. He would be a good regular artist, if they ever get that going again on this book.
Oh yeah...Quietly is back. Woo hoo!
Score: 8/10
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Soldier X 5
The Siege of Saint Lenin - By Darko Macan and Igor Kordey; published by Marvel Comics
Holy god, that opening shot is beautiful! Interesting issue, and it really makes me wonder why Macan and Kordey isn't sticking around. It finally takes a bit of talk from Geo to get Nathan back on the right track (repeatedly calling him a hero of all things). It kind of sets a path for Nathan though, and I'm really pleased to finally see that. The only thing really troubling me is why Blaquesmith had him do all this in the first place. No reason to complain though.
By the way, I'll be really pissed of at Marvel if they make him a brainless soldier, ala Liefeld, again. Oops, too late.
Score: 8/10
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Ultimate Spider-Man 31
Black Van - By Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley and Art Thibert; published by Marvel Comics/Ultimate imprint
Okay, I've been to modest with the score. This is some freakin' good stuff. I have no idea why I haven't given this arc a higher score. Just simply an excellent issue, and with a nice cliffhanger to boot.
Score: 10/10
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Y - The Last Man 5
Unmanned: Conlusion - By Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan Jr.; published by DC Comics/Vertigo imprint
Well, it's a conclusion, but not really a conclusion in a sense, since not a great deal many things get done. It's all much more setup for the bigger picture. All very impressive stuff though. Can't complain for something that has blown away many things that have been released this year.
Score: 9/10
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Following up on last week, I will change to a letter-grade system at the start of next year. The number scores of this year will remain here though. It would require changing a great deal many things to accomadate the new system.
On to next week...three books? That's sad. Oh well. If it remains that way, I might just do full length reviews. Ultimate X-Men 25 is double length, so I might just talk about something extra with that. Midnight Mass finishes up its first run, and Thundercats...might be Thundercats again. Until then, peace.
Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving too. Eat your turkey and enjoy being with your families.