Aug
1
2009
I Have Issues 7.29.2009
Author: bassoonjediWarning: SPOILERS
Well it was a light week with three titles. Since it was a light week I’ve been taking my sweet time reviewing them, and one of the titles wrapped up a “Highly Anticipated, Life Altering, Internet Shattering Event”, so I wanted to read that ending issue, and then the series in it’s entirety to wrap my head around what the series wanted to accomplish. I have also decided to adapt the rating system from iFanboy.com.
Justice Society of America #29
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #29
Written by: Bill Willingham
Art by: Matt Sturges
A new era dawned on Wednesday, and after almost ten years JSA was written by someone other than Geoff Johns. I started collecting this series after “Infinite Crisis”, and was never disappointed since. I really enjoyed the idea that the JSA was building a society of super-powered veterans, who were trying to teach the rookies the social responsibility of helping others. After Johns’ run wrapped up nicely with a visit to the dentist office, I closed the book thinking the next creative team had a hell of an act to follow.
And they were up to the task.
My previous experience with Bill Willingham’s writing has been with his own series “FABLES” over at Vertigo, and his earlier work writing about characters in the Dreaming. After the announcement that Willingham would be following Johns, I thought that was a good choice from DC, but was leery. He seemed to be able to follow a past top writer when he followed Neil Gaiman writing the “House of Mystery” and “Sandman Presents” series, and his ability to balance a large ensemble of characters in Fables, but that was in the more mature Vertigo universe.
Willingham follows his winning formula, and introduces a mystery that involves the entire cast. Starting with narration from Jay Garrick (Flash I) the JSA tries to unravel the mystery of a dark egg, and winds up walking into a trap. The character dialogue matched the voices from previous issues, and there wasn’t the cheat of “5 months later…” that some books use to bridge a change in creative teams. The battle in the back end of the book was well thought through, and I was happy to see some c-class villains both familiar and foreign take on the combined strength of this large super-group, and logically meet them in battle.
Another great reason this issue works is the art by Matt Sturges. Matt effectively illustrates both the quite dialogue scenes, and the large battle near the end. Although I could have used a few more Flash-centric effects like seeing him spirit the hostages away, or 2 or 3 different images of Jay per-panel in the battle, Sturges illustrated the book to match the important beats. You can feel the sneering sarcasm from the young illusionist, and I liked the details that were drawn on girder.
This book assuaged my fears of a JSA book without Johns, and I am looking forward to seeing this story play out in the coming issues.
Writing – 4/5
Art – 4/5
Blackest Night Tales of the Corps #3
BLACKEST NIGHT: TALES OF THE CORPS #3
Written by Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi;
Art by Rags Morales, Chris Sprouse, Ivan Reis, Doug Mahnke and others
Wrapping up this miniseries, the third issue was actually my favorite. The first short story was written by Peter Tomasi, and was about Killiwog’s training experience in the Green Lantern Corps. I’m sucker for a few things Green Lantern:
1) Sinestro is my Wolverine. When ever they put Purple Hitler on a cover, or featured in a story, I have to buy it. I just love his back-story, and the character.
2) When one ring slinger is battling another, I have to read that. I really like evenly matched battles, and with rings that wield the ability to realize your imagination, I am always going to see what the outcome is.
3) I love to see Green Lanterns in training. The idea that the ring selects the being of a planet that has the ability to overcome fear, and then put them through boot camp is fascinating. I like to see how recruits learn how to use this new power, how they interact with the rest of the universe, and where they go from there.
So this series started out with a story to show how Oa’s top drill sergeant got this start, and it didn’t disappoint. As a teacher, I can relate to how we adapt saying and techniques from our teachers, and it was fun to see where the term “poozer” came from. Tomasi could have approached this story from several angles by adapting “officer and a Gentlemen” or “Full Metal Jacket” (Although there is a nice Easter egg in the beginning scenes), but he writes a good short story of how someone who is supposed to protect the universe gets their training.
The other story was just as well crafted, and had yet another thing I am a sucker for: 4) Glimpses of OA. One of my favorite scenes in the “Sinestro Corps War” was the lunchroom scene in the beginning. This story didn’t quite resonate with me, and I’m not a huge follower of Arisia, her little story line of following in her father’s footsteps will probably resonate later in the Blackest Night tie-ins. The strongest part of this story for me was the pencils by Mike Mayhew, and the beautiful coloring by Andy Troy. It walks the edge where it’s not cartoony, but not photo realistic either.
The third space was reserved for a “Director’s Commentary” on “Blackest Night 0”. The black and white pencils are always a bit fascinating to look at, but I could have done without this, and would have liked to have seen a good teaser story with some weight behind it to tease readers to read on in Tales of the Corps.
Overall this 3-part series rates a mediocre “meh”. I think this mini series accomplished the goal of introducing some side-characters and giving depth to the different fraction of the colored corps for the uninitiated. As a long-time reader, I could have gone without reading it, and came away with the same knowledge. If you haven’t bought these, wait for them to appear in the trade, or if you see them in a discounted 3-pack at your local shop.
Issue #3
Writing: 4/5
Art: 4/5
Series
Writing: 2.5/5
Art: 3/5
Ultimatum #5
Marvel Ultimatum #5
Written by Jeph Loeb
Art by Rags David Finch
Craptacular
I have encountered a few disappointing ends recently. Endings are normally difficult, and rarely are they jubilant. If you love something, it’s hard to let it go without feeling angry or upset. Recently, I watched the BBC’s stellar comedy “Coupling” and was warned not to go near the 4th season for fear of disappointment. Out of curiosity, I queued up the series on Netflix Instant Play, and sure enough, my favorite character, Jeffry, was given the same indignity as Chrissy on “Three’s Company” with the exception that he NEVER appeared on the show. Only mentionable telephone conversations. It was an outrageous way to teleport all the best parts off a program.
The latest Harry Potter movie had a great 130 minutes, and then the last 20 just delivered such a disappointing ending, that it ruined the entire experience. I was about to launch into Battelstar Galactica, but was warned off that as well. Being late to the party on that, I was going to wait for the series to end, and then see everything on DVD or Download, but again, the last episode had apparently pooched the ending for the legions of fans, and I have foresworn that experience.
And so it goes for the Ultimate Universe.
I feel it would only be fair to give you good readers some background on my tastes, since that is apparently what you are interested in these reviews. I have never been much of a Marvel Zombie. My mantra isn’t “Make mine Marvel”. It’s simply, “Make it good”. So when I started getting back into comics heavily around 2005, I lucked out and found a shop in Port Charlotte that slowly nursed me back into the groove. Void of any pretentiousness, the good folks at the now deceased comic book shop Slipping Into Fiction made recommendations that both fed my curiosity, and their add-on sales.
“I notice you read a lot of DC, do you read any Marvel books?”
“Nope. I just don’t know where to start, and half of their characters are retarded.”
“Ah, well have you read Ultimates?”
And then they showed me the first trade of Ultimates by Millar and Hitch. For the first time I saw Marvel in a new light. It was a cinematic, epic adventure that easily explained these weird people without delivering half-assed one-liners, and dopey do-goody mantras to live by. It was a beautifully illustrated look at how the late 1990’s would embrace a group of people who could do extraordinary things, how out of place a WWII hero would feel if he missed the last 60 years of “progress”, and what kind of collateral damage these people could inflict.
I was hooked.
I devoured the Ultimates. Ultimate Spiderman I am still collecting, and the prime achievement of the Ultimate Universe for me: Ultimate X-men. For any newbie who has never set foot in the X world, this is the collection for you. All of the crazy continuity was melded into a grand story arch, and is put in an easily digestible fashion. Currently, there are 5-7 different X books happening in the 616 marvel universe. You could read one book where wolverine is fighting magneto, and in another X book he could be knee-deep in a murder mystery across the globe. There’s no continuity, which is what we DC readers cling to. If these heroes wander in and out of other books, it affects them.
The Ultimate Universe was the best and brightest Marvel had to offer. The best writers and artists all retold the classic marvel tales of how the Avengers were formed, how Professor X created a group of young mutants to raise a positive influence against mutant hatred, or how Spiderman would lose the battle, even if he had won the fight. It was everything a new Marvel reader could ask for.
Then someone shit in the bed.
Millar and Hitch left Ultimates to Jeph Loeb’s writing and artwork by Joe Maduriera. The story was contrived and filled with eye-roll-inducing one-liners. The detailed artwork by Hitch was replaced watery caricatures. There was nothing “ultimate” about Ultimates at all. The X-men found themselves a downward spiral of silly adventures after they had barely defeated Lord Apocalypse, and no one seemed to want to pull the trigger on the classic Dark Phoenix story. And after sales began to decline in the Ultimate Universe it looked like the Top brass had had enough. Thus, Ultimatum, the tragic ending to the Ultimate Universe. And like the celestial Uatu, the faithful readers who had invested time, money, and energy into this universe, watched as our Ultimate Universe was ended in bush-league fashion.
Here’s the summary of the first four issues:
Apparently the Scarlet Witch is killed. Out of revenge, Magneto uses a version of Mjonner, and resets the Earth’s magnetic poles, thus creating a disaster across the globe. Magneto goes on a power trip like he is God in a Noah Story. Naturally, New York is flooded killing many of our heroes. Wasp is flooded , and then partially devoured by Blob. Giant-man bites the Blob’s head off. Magneto just snaps Xavier’s neck. Captain America is rescued from drowning by Ironman, only to fall into a coma for some reason. Valkerie is drowned, but Thor gives his life mystically to save hers. Sue and Jonny Storm and taken out by magical forces and exhaustion. Hulk punches the Brownstone unleashing God only knows what that “teleports” Spiderman into another dimension. A few Xmen die in the flood, and after all is said and done, the rest of the crew that survives take on Magneto.
This fifth issue was more of the paltry crap we had been subjected to for the previous four issues. This main story mainly suffers from too much compression. The scenes jump around so sporadically, that I feel like I have missed whole issues between pages. The main idea of the story isn’t bad, it’s the execution. How is it that Captain America is fine one minute, and comatose the next? How is Spiderman nearly drowned, and then halfway across town the next? How did Namor go from kicking Reed’s Ass out in the Atlantic, to being Doom’s prisoner? To help you understand how ridiculous this series is, Wolverine kills magneto. Someone with metal all over him eventually kills the master of magnetism.
Eventually in the big fight, the banded group of heroes defeat Magneto, Scot Summers pays tribute to Professor X by blasting Magneto’s head off in the end, and Quicksilver kills Scott by ramming a bullet through his head at super speed, and looking like he’s 80 years old at the end. Frankly, this story ends leaving the Ultimate U with a few of the main characters we care about behind, and a pantload of open questions. The art is solidly done, and I only hope that certain panels that really bothered me are due to the editors, and not the artist.
Frankly, If you love the Ultimate U, skip this ending. Leave Ultimates at the end of Volume 2. Leave Ultimate X-men at the end of Volume 18. Spiderman is a solid series written by Bendis continually, but I’d stop at volume 21.
Writing: 2/5
Art: 4/5
