World War Hulk #4

Written by Greg Pak

Art by John Romita Jr, Klaus Janson and Christina Strain

Marvel Comics $3.99

Though I hate to jump on the anti-blockbuster even bandwagon, I really am starting to miss Planet Hulk’s storytelling and interesting themes, characters and settings.   Outside of Dr. Strange letting a demon possess him, turning into a ten foot monster and kicking the hell out of the Hulk until he, of course, lost, this issue was more of the same.  Virtually everyone has known how this last issue is going to unfold, so the build up has seemed incredibly pointless and bland and even myself, an iron man hating, kill reed richards sort of reader can’t even stand the constant beat downs and unfair fights.

By showing the Sentry as a terrified schizophrenic sad guy in his apartment for four issues, they’ve made the final showdown next issue seem even dumber than it really is.  And, conveniently, at the end of this issue, he’s in his doorway looking like a bad ass and ready to fight, instead of a 8 year old girl who just saw a spider in the bath tub, like he has for the entire rest of this series.

I just hope that, when this is all over, Greg Pak is going to get back to those good Hulk stories.  This has become so stale, I can’t wait for November.

Action Comics #855

Written by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner

Art by Eric Powell

DC Comics $2.99

Finally, after that painful-to-read Busiek arc, Johns is back with Richard Donner and in less than 30 pages we get to go to Bizzaro World, Pa Kent gets kidnapped and an entire Bizzaro Metropolis storms Superman.  It’s good, classic Geoff Johns storytelling and Richard Donner helping out doesn’t hurt.  I’ll be excitedly following this arc as it progresses and I hope Action continues to ship at such an astoundingly fast rate.  If my count is right, they put out three issues last month.

Eric Powell’s artwork is really great and well suited for this sci-fi type adventure story.  Nothing looks too realistic, but not entirely cartoonish either.  It’s a happy medium and I don’t think ultra-realism would help this story out, the whole story of going to another crazy backwards(and cubed!) world isn’t meant to be realistic, so Powell’s art works great with John’s fantastic setting and highly personalized version of Superman.

Don’t miss this arc.

World War Hulk X-Men #3 of 3

Written by Christos Gage

Art by Andrea Di Vito

Cover by Ed McGuinness

Marvel Comics $2.99

I had thought that someone was going to be taken prisoner or something would actually happen other than non-stop action, but no, not really.  Cessily gives a speech to the Hulk about how he doesn’t get to decide who’s been hurt more and he retreats back to his ship.  And that’s it.  A lot of action sequences of X-Men, including all of the various teams, ineffectively fighting the Hulk.  After a while, it just gets really boring watching Hulk throwing the various characters off of him.  One could read this issue without actually being literate until the last three pages, because there’s virtually zero dialog with meaning to it.

World War Hulk: Gamma Files

Written and illustrated by various writers and artists

COVER BY MARKO DJURDJEVIC

Marvel Comics $3.99 

In the Marvel universe-wide crossover of the summer, I’ve been introduced to a whole army of characters that have been around for a whole lot longer than I have been alive.  Though Wikipedia has provided me with a constant onslaught of information on these new(to me) characters, but an entry can often be a long diatribe involving the history of the character’s appearances.  When a character has been around for sixty years, it can be incredibly difficult to sift through all of the history to see how this person related to the Hulk, New York and the current situation.

This alleviates that problem entirely.  A dossier of sorts, Gamma Files has descriptions, abbreviated histories, explainations of their relationship to the Hulk and usually a new piece of art showing the character in action.  There are dozens of characters, from Hercules to The Sentry, all described, explained and shown without having to get online and sift through all of the old stories.

For four dollars, it’s well worth the small investment because you get a reference book to grab every time someone comes into a scene where you don’t know what the hell is going on.

Batman #667 & 668

Written by Grant Morrison

Art by J.H. Williams III and Dave Stewart

DC Comics $2.99 

Grant Morrison has made a name for himself in mainstream comic books by taking old ideas that many people have forgotten about, revamping them, exploring old characters and concepts and making them very VERY relevant and fresh to the modern reader.  I’ve noticed that there are a few creators who are interested in old ideas who make them incredibly interesting again.  Alex Ross would obviously be an easy name to come up with when talking about old ideas being recreated.  Morrison’s work on Batman is no different, as far as resurrections of the past, than his work with Uncle Sam or Metal Men.  It’s different, great and pretty fucking entertaining.

Revisiting the Batmen of all nations in what would seem like a weekend getaway for Batman, Robin and a handful of “second rate wannabe Batmen” as Robin put it, Morrison turns this three part arc into a murder mystery weekend with a bunch of incompetent heroes who are past their prime and incredibly suspicious of each other.  It’s incredibly entertaining to see all of the various Batmen from different countries and how some of them resent Batman’s success, but they all have to work together, as they’re trapped on an island with a murderer on the loose.

Williams’ work is immediately satisfying and only gets better upon multiple viewings.  He’s particularly successful at rendering costumes that look like cloth, instead of the weird porno-spray painted bodies that usually dominate superhero comics.  He has a firm grasp on shadows and dark/light balances, which is great because most of this story takes place at night in a big mansion full of old relics and costumes.

Meanwhile, boring comic book nerds everywhere are crying because this story doesn’t have any typical villains and its’ not formulaic enough.  I think it’s fantastic and I think I see where this is leading and if Morrison is planning on a big family get together, it’s going to be one hell of a summer-ending arc.  I’ll also be excited if they keep cranking out two issues a month like this, it’s great for a manic reader like myself.

Batman/Lobo: Deadly Serious #1 of 2

Written by, drawn by and cover art by Sam Kieth

DC Comics $5.99 

YES!

Okay, so I was really excited when I saw this in my pile on Wednesday.  First of all, I was obsessed with Kieth’s The Maxx when I was younger.  I stopped reading comic books around the age of 16 when I started to become obsessed with music, but I continued to reread the Maxx series and eventually ended up buying a bootlegged version of the television series from Ebay.  It was well worth it.  I had noticed though, in my previous two years of rediscovering comic books, that Sam Kieth seemed to be missing entirely from the scene, but Jim Lee, the Kuberts, Chris Claremont and most of the people who were making my favorite books in the nineties.

So, again, I was seriously fucking jazzed when I saw this in Previews a few months back.  It comes at a time when I’ve been reading Grant Morrison Batman for almost a year, so I feel like I’m not at a point where Batman is strange territory for me.  Another great writer/artist on a character I’ve come to like quite a bit.  Excellent.

So, Sam Kieth, Batman, Lobo, Spaceships, Alien disease that makes women turn into homicidal maniacs, explosions, lots of guns, aliens.  As long as you aren’t expecting a super serious Batman story, this is made of 100% win.  Batman, against his will, is brought to a spaceship light years from earth to stop a disease that makes women act out and go on insane killing sprees.  All the men have left the ship and so all of these women are being killed.  Kieth’s women are, of course, beautiful and the story is fun as well as morbidly funny.  Of course, Lobo just happens to be there for some reason, trying to make some money.

Although this is only a two issue series, it’s being published in the prestige format, so each issue is 48 pages.  That means this won’t be a short little story, it will be almost 100 pages, easily the size of four or five issues published as a regular comic series.  I think it’s going to be a blast.

Cat Woman #70(and 69 too)

Written by Will Pfeifer

Art by David and Alvaro Lopez

Cover art by Adam Hughes

DC Comics $2.99 

Checking out a new book is incredibly fun for a few reasons that don’t really transfer to an old favorite.  First off, you don’t actually know what you’re getting into.  If you’re familiar with the writer, in this case, Pfeifer is the lead writer of the wonderful DC mini-series that wraps up next week, Amazons Attack, which I’ve been reading.  So I had an idea what I was getting into, strong characterization based around solid action scenes and a script that relies on a well-balanced mix of dialog boxes and scenes that make effective use of an action-based story.  I also knew David Lopez from the first 20 issues of Fallen Angel, back when it was being put out by DC Comics.  I knew his pencils were a good match for a strong writer because they tend to be mild and mellow, instead of screaming for attention, they add to the overall story without really grabbing the reader with the tackiness that some pencilers for superhero books tend to use.  So, I had an idea that this book had the potential to be pretty entertaining.  Plus, this Adam Hughes cover didn’t hurt.

I really love that cover, it’s beautiful and the simple background makes her stand out even more.  That image is from the official DC page about the comic, which is slightly different from the final product that actually appears on the issue I have.  But you get the picture.  I went and looked up Adam Hughes and realized I have a whole bunch of covers by him and I generally really enjoy his work.  And he has a thing for big breasts, in case you didn’t notice.  I really like the shades of light reflecting off of the costume, so you can tell it’s leather and not spandex, the detail of the zipper, the goggles and the fact that there’s actual detail to her face, which makes her look like a real person, not just a thieving sex symbol.

The issue ended up being an Amazons tie-in about Selina’s workings with the Bana, the Amazon offshoot terrorist group.  It was really good.  I found out that she had a kid and had semi-retired from crime, had become friends with Batman and had allied herself on the side of the heroes since the Amazonian war had begun in the states.  The issue relied heavily on dialog boxes and let Selina narrate the story in reverse, which was an interesting change.  I liked it enough to go  out and pick up the issue before, which was also good and featured all of the same talent, down to another Hughes cover.

I think I’ll be reading this on a regular schedule if this book continues to be as entertaining for a few more issues.

Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. #20

Written by Christos Gage

Art by Butch Guice, Dean White and Gerald Parel

Marvel Comics $2.99

This was really good, you should do yourself a favor and buy it if you’re out there reading World War Hulk. Even if you aren’t reading any of the other tie-ins, this is good, all by itself. First off, Chris Gage is a fantastic writer, check out Stormwatch P.H.D. if aren’t reading it yet, it’s one of the best superhero team books going right now outside of JSA. In addition to the great writing, the art is top notch, especially since this is a marvel book and so many of their books are populated by the formulaic mainstream comic book format that lack proper light, shading, texture and personality. Guice does all of that and more, quiet well. If you see this in the store, just crack it open and take a took at the art, that alone is worth taking a look at. The cover should grab your attention as well, it’s ominously depressing to look at, which really works with the remorse that isn’t being expressed in the actual WWH series.

If all of that wasn’t enough to excite you, in this issue Iron Man has been captured and imprisoned by the Hulk and the warbound, the Hulk storms S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ship and demands to see Nick Fury, when it is revealed Nick Fury is hiding from the government somewhere underground and it’s likely that the Fury that lead Hulk onto the space ship was an android built by Stark to deceive him and Tony has planned an armagedeon plan for S.H.I.E.L.D. to carry out in his absence. Stark manages to contact his first officer from inside of the prison, where he gives instructions to carry out some kind of apocalypse mission against the Hulk. In the lead up to this moment, about half of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been talking about how they’re glad Stark is gone and they thought he wasn’t the man for the job, but in the stark(lawlz) reality of his capture, they are willing to carry out his final, desperate doomsday plan.

Go buy this, it’s so good. And I HATE Iron Man.

The Martian Manhunter: The Others Among Us TPB

Written by A.J. Lieberman

Art and Cover by Al Barrionuevo

DC Comics $19.99

Collecting the entire 8 issue mini-series, “The Others Among Us”, this trade is a great read and served as a good introduction to the Martian Manhunter to me last year. Though it has no additional features, the 208 page trade collects everything you need to know about this great series written by A.J. Lieberman with help from Grant Morrison and, if you didn’t grab the mini-series, as DC did so many of them this past year, it’s a great way to get the full story.

In this series, the manhunter realizes a group of other Martians, though he has believed his entire life that he was the last surviving member of his race, on earth. There’s an interesting dialog throughout the series about what it means to be the last member of a race on an alien planet and how that would affect your entire personality. It is revealed that the manhunter has been using his psychic abilities to make himself appear more human to everyone, but when he discovers he’s no longer the only one, he stops trying to conform. I thought this was one of the most interesting aspects of the entire series, because it’s such a unique look, similar to that of the Superman story, but it rejects the conformity that the Kent character bends to.

The main focus of the story revolves around manhunter breaking out the aliens, a conspiracy to cover them up and the rebellion and hatred directed towards manhunter by the newly discovered Martians because he’s conformed to humanity’s demands. The manhunter’s assistance in breaking out the martians leads to an interesting conflict and stand off with key members of the Justice League, leading manhunter to feel even more alien and misunderstood. This all changes and causes him much shame what the Martians attack him, blame him for their problems and continually try to kill him, leading him to feel guilty for not trusting Clark and automatically trusting people who share his race instead of his friends on Earth, who he has known much longer.

In the end, this series is more about allegiance, isolationism and government conspiracies more than it is about superheroes or aliens, really, and for that, it is better than most superhero comics.

Justice Society of America

Written by Geoff Johns

Art by Fernando Pasarin, Rooney Ramos and Alex Ross

DC Comics $2.99

I’m fairly sure this is my favorite DC title. Alex Ross’ covers would be incentive enough to buy this, as would Pasarin’s great pencils that suit superheroes so well, but Geoff Johns is so good at writing conflicted characters and the trio is so incredibly pleasant. Thought I had never read a Justice League-oriented comic book before this new series started, I was lucky enough to catch it as it began. The past eight issues have felt like two years worth of story because Johns’ writing is so character driven while the art concentrates on high tension action. It works rather well.

I am really happy to see the focus of this book get back to Citizen Steel, because it’s not only an exploration of the bitterness that comes with a disability, showing how his youth was robbed by the loss of his leg, but it functions as the complete opposite of the common superhero story. I really like the idea of a superhero who doesn’t want to be a superhero but still feels responsible for doing his job. It really reminds me of the old Spider-Man stories I grew up on in the 1980’s.

The back story in this issue, as one would guess, is Liberty Bell, and how her childhood shaped who she has been at different points in her life. And they also kick the shit out of some Nazis.