The Weekly Crisis - Comic Book Review Blog

Moment of the Day - Punks Through the Looking Glass

2012-02-01T11:00:00.000-04:00

Detention Comics, by Ruben Diaz and Joe Phillips

Guy Gardner tries to be a substitute teacher to some meta powered students at his old high school, only to have it turn into something right out of the film The Substitute.

Post-Crisis Comic Book Previews for 02/01/12

2012-01-31T09:46:00.001-04:00

Happy Post-Crisis Previews everyone! To kick off February I have somewhat of a glut of books coming my way, with them being almost perfectly divided between Marvel and DC, which is a rarity for me. So why don't you hit the jump to check out some of the books I'll be putting my dirty mitts on this week, including Animal Man #6, Punisher #8, and Ed Brubaker's newest entry at Marvel, Winter Soldier #1!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #679

Written by Dan Slott

Art by Humberto Ramos

• With time running out, SPIDEY makes a last ditch effort to save time itself!

• Can Spidey win this race against the future?

Grant: So I was a little down on the opening issue of this Spider two-parter. It had lots of the things that I've loved about Dan Slott's run, but it didn't quite work in my mind. Things felt just a little too routine and a bit too formulaic. However, consider how much goodness Slott has delivered with his year on the title, one off issue is nowhere near enough to turn me off this title. I certainly hope that part two reads with a bit more excitement, but I'm sure things will pick up either way.

ANIMAL MAN #6

Written by Jeff Lemire

Art by John Paul Leon, Travel Foreman, & Jeff Huet

Before he and his family became hunted by The Rot, Buddy Baker starred in a low budget indie Super Hero film. Now we get to “watch” the movie, courtesy of director Jeff Lemire and guest cinematographer John Paul Leon!

Grant: The opening arc of Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman's Animal Man accomplished what only Grant Morrison has managed before: it made Buddy Baker interesting and relevant again. Of particular note is the way that they've included the whole Baker tribe in this book. Horror seems to be a family affair for Bakers, and I'm mighty eager to see how that plays out in the "movie" we'll be seeing this issue.

BATWING #6

Written by Judd Winick

Art by Ben Oliver

The past looms large as Batwing’s early days as a crime fighter come to light, gaining the attention of Batman. In the present, the adventure comes full circle as Batwing faces off against Massacre in the shadows of the Pyramids of Egypt. The mystery of Massacre begins unfolding as the truth of Africa’s greatest Super Hero team, The Kingdom, unravels.

Grant: Batwing is quite possibly my favourite new series from the New 52. David Zavimbe is probably the best addition to the Bat-family since the introduction of Damian Wayne. Each and every issue tells another piece of the intriguing mystery of who the members of The Kingdom truly were and why Massacre wants them all dead, all the while providing the reader more information about our new Bat-themed hero. The whole thing has been a mighty enjoyable ride thus far, and I'm ever eager to see what comes next.

PUNISHER #8

Written by Greg Rucka

Art by Marco Checchetto

• The face to face you've all been waiting for as ex-Hydra and AIM agents work together to bring down the Punisher.

• Frank is up against a soldier who is more like him than either of them realize

Grant: While I came into it with some (grossly misplaced) doubts, Punisher #7 was an absolute revelation. The fill-in artists of the past few issues have really shone, especially when it was Michael Lark reuniting with Greg Rucka last issue for some Gotham Central-esque reunion. Still, I'm glad to see Marco Checchetto back on board. This series started strong and it's been getting better with each and every number. I cannot wait to see what happens next. Whatever it is, I know it won't be disappointing.

O.M.A.C. #6

Written by Dan Didio & Keith Giffen

Art by Scott Kollins & Scott Koblish

A quiet double date for Kevin Kho turns into a battle for O.M.A.C.’s life as he faces the seductive menace of the ever so deadly Sweet Leilani! Meanwhile, Max Lord reluctantly joins Brother Eye in his search for answers about the creature known as Zero Patient! Featuring the work of guest artist Scott Kolins!

Grant: From the get go, I've felt that O.M.A.C. was the kind of book where you could turn off your brain, flip through the month's adventure, and have a rip roaring good time while doing it. This is the kind of book that doesn't bother taking itself too seriously and is just as happy to enjoy the ride as the reader is. All that being said, I wasn't terribly surprised to hear that the series would be cancelled with issue #8. The sales were never that great, and it just didn't seem to strike the right chord with the majority of the comic buying public. We'll miss you, O.M.A.C., but at least you have three more issues to dish out wacky comic book violence. OMACTIVATE!

SWEET TOOTH #30

Written by Jeff Lemire

Art by Jeff Lemire

After last issue’s startling revelations at The Dam, the girls struggle to survive as Jepperd learns the truth about Project Evergreen. But can he make it back in time to save them? And even if he does, how will he get inside the impenetrable Dam? “Unnatural Habitats” amps up and heads toward a stunning conclusion you’ll never see coming!

Grant: The double dose of Jeff Lemire is one of my favourite ways to start the new month. Unnatural Habitats has really been raising the intensity for Gus and company. As always, I love to see Jeff Lemire drawing his own books, and it's even better when the book is as good as his creator owned Sweet Tooth. So happy that books like this exist.

VENOM #13

Written by Rick Remender

Art by Tony Moore

• PART ONE OF A SIX PART EVENT!

Grant: What the heck is this? This solicitation tells you absolutely nothing about what's going on in this book. What more, looking ahead at the rest of the month, there's going to be an issue of Venom coming out every single week. I don't care what book you're talking about, virtually none need to have five issues in a single month. That's just too much. Also, what the heck are we doing with so many characters in Venom's book? This looks like it might be something of a hot mess. Marvel's choice often leave me scratching my head, and this is one of the strangest ones. Where do they expect people to find the money for so many issues of the same title? I have strong doubts that I'll be able to pony up that kind of cash.

WINTER SOLDIER #1

Written by Ed Brubaker

Art by Butch Guice

• Winter Soldier and Black Widow are the super-spies of the Marvel U!

• Ex-Russian Sleeper Agents awaken, but under who's control?

• Is that Dr. Doom? Uh oh.

Grant: While I've lost all interest in Ed Brubaker's Captain America & Bucky, I'm willing to give him another shake with the new Winter Soldier series. The previews have been pretty sweet, with this book looking to fall more within his usual noir stylings rather than the superheroics that one might expect. When Brubaker's name is on the cover, it's usually worth giving it a shot. I'll let you know how this one turns out.

That's me this week. There's a few books I'm on the fence about, including the second issue of Brubaker and Phillips' Fatale from Image. It'll be a last minute decision, so we'll see how it all plays out. What are you pulling down this week and why?

The Weekly Crisis vs. Solicits for April 2012

2012-01-30T21:00:00.001-04:00

April showers bring Phoenix colored flowers this month as we look at the Weekly Crisis solicitation picks for April. It's the beginning of the big AvX event, owls start to pick on bats, and much more appear this month, so hit the jump to see what's on the menu.

Ryan L's Thoughts

The Best Things in April

Amazing Spider-Man: Hooky

Oh, man, I even missed this one on my first look through the solicits. For those who don't know, Hooky was a Graphic Novel printed years ago (way back in the glorious year of 1986 my google fu informs me) and I have spent decades since seeing adverts for this beast in old comics and have never been able to track this one down.

Now we all get it in this one-shot for $4.99. I am 100% in for this one.

Oh, did I mention it's drawn by Bernie Wrightson. Yeah, there goes that five spot out your wallet.

Mitch Breitweiser on The Defenders

I like Breitweiser. I like The Defenders - maybe not love it but I'm diging what little of it has come out so far. I like Terry Dodson but I love Brietweiser so let's see what Fraction does to earn such an artist.

Daredevil: Season One HC - With Vol 3 #1

I'm keen for the Daredevil: Season One HC, natch, but this tells me the #1 issue from Waid and Paolo Rivera will be collected in it and that's just a wicked smart play. Shine on.

The Strange Talent of Luther Strode TPB

This wickedly violent and insanely fun book from Image has six issues collected for $15. If you can't get down for that then you're doing something wrong. This is one hell of a great book and if you didn't buy in already then this is a bargain. Enjoy.

The Worst Things in April

Marvel's Point Ones

I'm just not getting the point on some of these. "Hey, remember that title you didn't pick up 10 months ago, well maybe now you want to jump on in." Or giving a title a second .1 issue. It barely makes sense.

Now, I'm all for getting another great issue of the book I already love, or am curious about, but I want the issue to be good. Hell, I just don't want modern numbering to become a joke in ten years. I want future readers to be able to easily track these things down in trade instead of tracking Daredevil's numbers to Black Panthers and then having .1s in the mix, and other in continuity minis. It just seems like Marvel really don't want to just have a title and have the numbers count up logically and have something easy to track and enjoy.

Batman Back Up Story

I have no issue with paying an extra dollar for extra pages for a back up in my titles. I especially love it when that back up is by quality talent - and Rafael Albuquerque is all sorts of quality talent. I don't mind any of that, in fact, I'm really looking forward to it.

My problem is that the back up in Batman seems to be interacting with the back up in Detective Comics and I don't pick up that other title. I pick up Snyder's goods and now I'm thinking I'm going to have to miss out on half of this story because I don't see myself picking up Daniels' run. Guess I'll just have to enjoy Albuquerque's art on its own.

Northlanders Ends

This is just a good place to say how lame it is that DC let Brian Wood go and thusly we don't get anymore Northlanders. The bright side is, Wood is picked up at both Dark Horse and Marvel so we'll get plenty more comics out of him just yet.

The Coolest Things in April

Jeff Parker in Creepy #8

Jeff Parker is a Marvel writer (Thunderbolts, Atlas) but he's also a hard man to pin down. He does all sorts of random stuff and I really dig that. I also dig horror anthology titles so this should be a very great mixture for the month.

Secret Warriors Omnibus

This one was a no brainer to make and should be a pretty decent pick up for you to buy. I loved this series when it started and some arcs continued to wow me and some left me a little off but in the end, it's this mammoth cohesive story and it ends pretty damn strongly.

If you count yourself as a Nick Fury man then you need to get on this.

The Omega Effect

Am I an idiot for liking this storyline because it's internally touted as 'important' and thus I will buy it? Maybe, but it's also an easy way to point a new reader toward this good stuff. I also don't think you really need to know anything from before to get in on this mini-event. Daredevil has the Omega Drive - it has important files on it about secret criminal organisations. That's it, so enjoy.

Oh, and I'm aware the last time Daredevil did this we got Shadowland. Whatever, I have way more faith in Waid.

Men of War #8 - Lemire and Kindt

Hmm, this is the final issue of the title and they're going out with a strange WWII issue featuring Frankenstein and all sorts of fun. I'll pony up for this one, I do believe.

Ken's Thoughts

The Best Things in April

Thunderbolts vs. Thunderbolts

The first 75 issues of Thunderbolts were some of the best comics I've ever read, so any chance to go back to that era, specifically the Busiek and Bagley era, is welcome. This time travel arc has felt rather listless over the past six issues, but hopefully they're saving the best for last here. Any chance to go back to the start of Zemo's big character arc is welcome (PS Marvel, please bring back hero Zemo and not generic Cap villain Zemo)

The Worst Things in April

Marvel's New Solicit Schedule

And by solicit schedule, I mean lack of one. Instead of pushing out one solicit a day, or showing off variant covers for these silly appreciation months, why not provide everyone with the material needed to determine how much money they want to spend on your product? It seems like this is some weird retaliation for how DC have done their solicits since the reboot, where they deliver them all over the course of one day, instead of breaking it down by group over a week or so.

________ Appreciation Covers

I get it, you have months where a big movie premiers or it's a milestone anniversary for certain characters so you have covers that have nothing to do with certain books, and some of the covers are actually pretty neat and clever like this Gurihiru one. I just think it's a concept that is run into the ground and just completely shameless in trying to be a money grab for completionists. And it just seems completely out of place to have this Gurihiru cover for Wolverine #304, a book that has always been on the violent side of things.

America's Got Powers

I don't knock Ross and Hitch for wanting to do something creator owned, it just feels like a concept that is as dated as the reality shows it's trying to poke fun at. All this book makes me wonder is why we can't get more of Todd Nauck's WildGuard.

The Coolest Things in April

Roger Langridge Writes Popeye

At first I was wondering why Popeye, but the more I thought about it the more I like this. The cartoons have always been great, and Langridge has shown repeatedly how to do fun comics, I'm actually more surprised it wasn't thought of sooner. IDW has really been on a tear lately in the past few months.

Batwing Joins JLI

Or at least it looks like he joins JLI with issue #8, and this is a much better way to introduce new characters to the audience, being members of ensemble books. And when the book deals with international heroes, well, that's kind of common sense in this case. This probably means Batman will be leaving, but it works because we now have the other lovable B-listers ready to show Batwing the ropes.

Grant's Thoughts

The Best Things in April

Skullkickers is Back!

Skullkickers is back in action come this April with issue #13, and that's music to my ears. Clearly D&D inspired, this book succeeds both because it plays on fantasy tropes without being beholden to them. Jim Zub, Edwin Huang, and Misty Coats have combined for a great book is both dependably funny and expertly crafted. A lot of time, effort, and thought goes into each and every issue, and it shows. That sometimes means we have to wait a little bit between storylines, but it is invariably worth it. See also: pirates! What's not to love?

A Whole Lot of Secrets

Okay, I don't know if it'll necessarily be a "best", but I'm rather intrigued to see what Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons manage to come up with with their new title, The Secret Service. Everything I've heard thus far has been kind of vague while also being kind of interesting, in trademark Millar style, but who knows? Maybe these two gents will be able to collaborate something amazing. We'll see.

The Worst Things in April

Avengers vs. X-Men

I'm not really sold on the basic concept of this series. I've gathered from bits and pieces of current Marvel continuity that it isn't super ridiculous from a story perspective for the Avengers and the X-Men to be getting into a big fight, but that does nothing to mask how much this whole thing smacks of desperation. The last few failed events (I'm looking at you Flashpoint and Fear Itself) have really emphasized how readers have long grown tired of constant event-mania, but instead of trying something new, Marvel has decided to just have their biggest franchise face off against their other biggest franchise. It might have some of their best creators on board, but I can't get past how creatively bankrupt the whole thing feels.

AvX: Vs.

Speaking of creatively bankrupt, we have Marvel's much touted tie-in to Avengers vs. X-Men, which jettisons all that pesky story in favour of dedicating every single panel to showing off the fights. Personally, I think this sounds kind of dumb, but I guess it could be kind of cool. However, the fact that they didn't bother to solicit any creators for the first issue seems like a strike in the "kind of dumb" column. Maybe I'm wrong though. Maybe people are tired of words. But if that's the case, it might not bode well for us at The Weekly Crisis...

The Coolest Things in April

Black Beetle's Big Breakthrough

Francesco Francavilla is one of the most exciting artists in the industry right now, routinely offering readers a pulp-noir-inspired style that never fails to impress. While he's been wowing the comic book world while playing in the sandboxes of various company-owned characters, he's apparently been finding ways to get his own creations into print, with the Black Beetle headlining Dark Horse Presents #11. If you haven't seen the character before, I invite you to check out an earlier story that Francavilla did featuring the character. I think you'll quickly understand my excitement on this one.

More Secrets!

April is set to be the most enigmatic month ever! Not only do we have the aforementioned Secret Service dropping, but Image is publishing the simply-titled Secret from Jonathan Hickman. Secret is one of Hickman's new creator-owned books (following in the steps of The Manhattan Projects, which debuts the month before), and it looks to be a doozy. In what seems to be classic Hickman style, it looks like a whole whackload of unrelated stuff is going to happen, there will be some crazy mysteries, and then all that unrelated stuff will end up being way more related than you ever thought possible. As someone who seems to be continuously on the lookout for a Hickman book to get into, maybe this one will be for me!