Punisher 15. This title continues to be goofy lightweight fun, and I really like Wegener on the art. Cartoon-y is the wrong word for him, because you don't think of this as ever being animated. He just does funny comic book images, if that is not a completely stupid thing to say. Anxiety of Influence is a funny thing on this title -- I bet this would not be half as lightweight, funny, and wonderful if Ennis was not doing serious work on his Punisher. Fraction's knowing he cannot do what Ennis does has made him completely himself here. This is my favorite arc so far.
Hulk 1. The number 1 here has less meaning that I have ever seen a number have. The normally un-flaggable Ed McGuinness is not doing it for me here, and he was the only reason I got it. It could be the inker. I like McGuinness at Maximum Cartoon-y, as he was on JLA Classified and Batman/Superman. There are some almost great images here, but too many dull, lifeless ones. Don't get the guy who makes old Saturday Mornings look like Sunday Afternoons draw a weak-ass superhero CSI thing that, really, good God, no one needed. Also I remembered to like Matt Fraction on the Order more -- I remember thinking that a Russian Bear Bad Guy was intrinsically awesome, but no, it is the writing of course. Jeph Loeb has no idea how to capture the brilliance of a Russian Bear Bad Guy (for example -- no jet-pack). But my biggest pet peeve? This sentence "Rick Jones, what've you gotten yourself into This time?!" There is only two people who talk like this. Douche-bags, and people who are trying really hard not to loose the audience that they are supposed to not be aware of. No. More. Of. This. Please.
EDIT: Also, what on earth is going on with his neck on the cover. I mean I am no anatomy expert, especially when it comes to monsters, but come on.
In comics news Spider-Man: One More Day: The Schadenfreude Saga continues. Schadenfreude, from the German, literally, "Damage Joy." Yeah, that's about right.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
8 comments:
I personally dig the art in Hulk #1, I just think Jeph Loeb is the most overrated writer in comics. His writing is always the worst part of any project he is part of but, he almost always picks amazing artists for his projects so no one immediately notices how terrible the writing is. I think as the years go by though this approach is wearing thin. Ultimates 3 is awful and was uniformly noted as such. And as for Onslaught Reborn, well, Liefeld so...
I think he's also sort of why Heroes is the way it is. According to Loeb, he helped Tim Kring develop Heroes, and it shares many of the same flaws Loeb's comic work has. A lot of messy soap opera plotting, loads of needless false turns and extremely shallow characterization.
The Twelve actually wasn't bad this week. But Hulk? UGH. And Brand New Day? Just awful. Damage Joy, indeed.
Yeah...have to disagree. Brand New Day started all-right. I have to be careful to keep my complete distaste for One More Day from coloring how I feel about Dan Slott's turn at the Spidey-helm. For a 1st ish, Amazing Spider-Man was fine...for now.
Hulk...passable. I'll give it one more issue, but Loeb never fails to disappoint.
I'm posting this here because Free Form Comments have already passed this week. Shadowline and Image comics are hosting a contest that gives fans a chance to create their own female superhero. The winner will receive partial ownership of the character and their story will be published by Image Comics.
I'm curious as to what kind of superheroine that the readers and posters of this blog would come up with.
Want To Create A Superheroine?
Everyone wanted Brand New Day to be a clean break from the horrors of One More Day, but Slott is at pains to remind us of that story. Peter Parker balks at the idea of his being married ("too young"), he "doesn't date models any more", and so on and so on. And apparently Mighty Avengers opened the floodgates, because Amazing Spider-Man now has Thought Balloons. But where Bendis uses them like you'd expect Bendis to (to reveal character and make jokes), Slott uses them like Stan Lee and Chris Claremont did. Also, I now hate that double-page status quo thing that I liked 2 days ago, because no one knows who Spider-Man is anymore, not even Daredevil or the Avengers. Blehhhhh. Steve McNiven's pretty good though.
Hulk 1: Yeah, I mean, I was kind of pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as awful as Ultimates 3, so I guess that's positive? I liked Ed McGuinness's art, but Geoff's obviously right that the subject matter is all wrong for him. There's an unintentionally hilarious bit when all these super-powered titans are going at each other with mega-gamma-punches and repulsor rays, and General Ross gets their attention by firing his revolver into the air. Dumb.
Punisher War Journal: Scott Wegener's okay, but he feels like a poor substitute for Cory Walker who did the first part of this arc. It looks like Howard Chaykin is going to be drawing at least one future story, and I'll think he'll be a good fit. You've got to be happy for Fraction, getting to write for one of his heroes.
Fraction has already written for Chaykin once; the Iron Fist Annual.
And yes, Jeph Loeb is one of the worst comic book writers that has worked on books I like. Superman/Batman is retarded fun without the fun.
The preview for Slott's Spidey looks like fun. I hate the whole idea of One More Day, but if it's what it takes to get good writers on Spidey, I'm all for it.
I'm a week late as usual, and I can't remember any of them now, so I won't comment.
christian: True, I'd forgot the Iron Fist annual. I'm sure it's still nice though.
I am always late to Comments. Just to say that I was depressed to admit to myself that Brand New Day really wasn't very good.
Douglas Wolk's review at Savage Critics got at why for me. It's because it's not very new. And as testament to this he somehow linked it, rather keenly, to the fact that it's almost entirely located indoors/in restricted space. I am not posting a link because I am lazy (I would be rubbish at blogging).
Post a Comment