Jake's Timely Reviews
Since this is one of the few times I'll actually visit the store on new comic day and have my books read by Wednesday afternoon, I figured I'd finish off the trifecta and actually post reviews of said books here as well.
DAREDEVIL #83Whoa, they actually killed Foggy. At the end of the last issue, there was still a chance he might just be really badly injured, but, nope, he's dead.
This issue is more legal maneuvering by the gubbment against Matt Murdock in an attempt to get him killed rather than go to trial. Matt confronts some inner demons and finally agrees to go into general population, which is where things take off just in time for the book to end.
Highlight: Owl walks into Matt Murdock's cell "and there are no cameras or guards around."
Lowlight: The crime boss who tries to recruit Matt to work for him after paying a guard to let him meet Matt in solitary. Didn't we have this scene last issue? How lax can security get around there?
Rating: Four outta five.
X-FACTOR #5Still a great title and probably the best thing Marvel is putting out, but this was kind of a filler issue about a psycho ex-mutant who kidnaps and tortures Siryn while he complains about losing his powers. Dennis Calero's art is decent, but I really liked the famous art references... which I'd scan and link if Blogger would let me...
There was one part of this story I didn't like. Siryn's perfectly timed, perfectly aimed scream to save Rictor.
First off, the story was about a former mutant who is upset by losing his powers and decides to take it out on someone who still has hers. Rictor, another mutant who lost his powers, comes to the rescue. The theme seemed to be a perfect set up to show how two men in the same rotten situation could follow very different paths. Instead, it hinged on the sudden mutant scream to save the day.
Second, can Siryn really aim that precisely? How about when she's injured like this? It seems she would have taken out Rictor and Dr. Leery in one shot instead of just the doctor.
Highlight: Death by sandbag noose.
Lowlight: The scream.
Rating: Five out of seven.
SQUADRON SUPREME #1It's unclear what's happened since the end of Supreme Power when Hyperion made it clear to the government he could pretty much single-handedly destroy the planet if they didn't leave him alone. Now, he's joined their superpowered team. (It just occurred to me, if I'd read Supreme Power: Hyperion, would my questions be answered? I know Nighthawk didn't address any of them.)
The issue deals almost entirely with the military guys sitting around discussing the team members and listing their powers like this:
"Arcanna Jones, with her ability to bend quantum possibilities, Emil Burbank, supra-genius IQ, and Raleigh Lund, the proverbial immovable object... they've all had little to no public exposure."
Yawn.
Highlight: Finally getting Gary Frank's art back on the shelves. It's been too long without it.
Lowlight: The Blob and Zatanna ripoffs and the really smart guy. I'm rooting for at least one of them to be killed on the first mission.
Rating: Fifteen out of fourty-one.
BATMAN #651This was a pretty straight forward "Batman dodges the bad guy's defenses, confronts said bad guy, seems to be in trouble, but has a trick up his sleeve the whole time" story. Nothing really special, but indicative of Batman get more back to old school basics instead of being a prick to everyone in the DCU.
Also, there was lots of set up for the next six issues. Were this story arc a meal, judging at this point would be like writing a restaurant review based on the bread basket.
On the plus side, the meat of the story is in the killing of lameass Batman villains. KGBeast in Detective Comics, Magpie here. Clean the pool, James Robinson, clean the pool.
Highlight: Batman and Robin's side by side panel layout as they both ventured through Poison Ivy's herbal defenses.
Lowlight: The whole thing just was too quick. If you're fighting Poison Ivy, apparently just pack an herbicide and you can be home in time for dinner.
Rating: Thirty-six out of seventy-three.
9 Comments:
Squadron Supreme: It was a slow read, but I actually liked this long setup/introduction because I have never been introduced to anything remotely Squadron Supreme, other than seeing them vs. Avengers.
Its another alternate universe, which those are really beginning to bore me also.
However, I like JMS, even though he can be....wordy at times. I"m a groupie, ever since Bab 5.
Snore. Yes. But informative.
X-Factor: Also, a verrrrry slow read. I think after about the 5th panel into the theater, I really didn't care what was going to happen, because I was far more bored with this than Squad supreme. Far more. The art panels were a very nice touch though. And you knew there was going to have to be a scream in there somewhere, or she was simply toast.
Daredevil: Yummy. An excellent book. Someday, I do hope Mr. Matt pulls his head out of his ass. That is sooooooo old now. Gloom and doom is now snooze. can someone give this guy an emotion transplant please? Anyone?
Anyone?
hmm...verification...smenita...somehow I keep seeing dementia!!
The thing about Squadron Supreme's introductions was that more than half of those characters haven't been seen outside of a montage in the last or second to last issue of Supreme Power.
Is this outside the regular Marvel Universe? Because someone showed me the Squadron Supreme HQ is shown in Exiles.
I also need to go back and look at the original SS, because I thought it was a straight up JLA knock off (Hyperion=Superman, Nighthawk=Batman, etc.) but I can't figure out who Inertia or the Blob-guy or the super genius are supposed to be.
The Hyperion series does cover the ground between Supreme Power and the debut issue of Squadron Supreme. As much as it was about Hyperion it was also really the prologue for this title.
Jake - you're right about SS being a JLA analog. But Marvel has played pretty fast and loose with alternate earths and alternate realities, so I don't think JMS is bound by anything resembling continuity at this point.
Shape was introduced by Mark Gruenwald back in the 80’s as sort of a Plastic Man/Elongated Man riff. So far he’s definitely more of a Blob-type character.
Wasn't Magpie killed already? Batman mentions it to Superman in one of the World's Finest issues. If you tell me Superboy punching reality brought her back to life, I swear you'll be able to hear me yelling from there.
On a completely unrelated point ilike the new rating system. 34out of 49.5!
Andihavent read any of those comics as i get all my stuff at the end of the month :_(
The super-genius in SS is their version of Lex Luthor. Which I suppose constitutes a spoiler, but he's so sinister in this issue that it's clear he's going to turn on them.
This version of SS, it turns out, is set (sort of) in the Ultimate Universe, and will share the same relationship with the Ultimates as the original team did with the Avengers (i.e. to pop in from an alternate dimension to cause trouble every now and then). This is all going to be explained in a, you guessed it, crossover called Ultimate Power.
(technically, the Ultimate Universe is in the MU, but it's tricky and convoluted and unofficial at this point, so...)
Any other versions of the Squadron you've seen are unrelated to this one.
What the fuck is a "lowlight" genius?
what the fuck is a lowlight, genius?
The opposite of a highlight. Should I draw you a picture?
What's the best way to illustrate your superior intelligence when making a point? By proofreading your whole sentence for punctuation before you post so you don't have to repeat yourself, dumbass.
Thanks for being a loyal reader, anonymous!
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