Snap Judgments: Reviews for Kick-Ass #3, Locke & Key #5, Wonder Woman #21 and Red Mass for Mars #1

Short comic reviews based on initial, lizard-brain opinions. Arranged from BEST to WORST.

Kick-Ass #3 gets an A from Albo
No really! I didn't like the second issue either! But I promise, this one picks the story back up in a big way. There are a lot of refreshing story bits that support the "real world" setting. For instance, after our hero's first successful outing as a vigilante he comes back to school acting like a total badass, showing his classmates a YouTube video of the dustup. He doesn't reveal that he is "Kick-Ass," but it's refreshing to see a teen superhero that doesn't keep acting like a dork and go to great pains to disassociate himself with his alter ego. I mean, what teenager actually HAS that kind of discipline? I don't think I'd even be able to keep my secret identity secret for a week. Anyway, the book's only OK for the first 15 pages or so, but the ending... I haven't audibly exclaimed in surprise at a comic in a long time, but the end of this issue is a real "holy shit" moment that adds a nice wrinkle to the world of Kick-Ass.

Reviews for Locke & Key #5, Young Liars #2, Red Mass for Mars #1 and Wonder Woman #21 after the jump!

Locke & Key #5 gets an A from Albo
If you're not already reading this book I pity you. You're missing out on one of the most consistently good reads on the shelves right now. And forget catching up, back issues of this are tough to find (though a couple of recent reprints do help). Joe Hill's storytelling is very fresh for the comic book world, and his characters are shockingly well developed after only five issues. Also, where many of these non-superhero books written by non comic book writers tend to work better in their collected format, Joe Hill shows a surprising adeptness at maximizing the monthly issue format. Every time you pick up the book you know you're going to get a complete experience, not just an arbitrary slice off the story's timeline.

Young Liars #4 gets a B from Albo
This book is killing me. I hated the first issue, loved the second, used the third as toilet paper... And now I like issue four. I don't like being in this limbo where I'm not sure if I like a book or not. Love it or hate it, I just want to know! Like the second issue, this one stays in one setting long enough for actual story progression to take place, rather than using the supremely confusing time-hopping format of what I shall henceforth call "The Odd Issues." It's a bit of the problem that none of the characters are likable in the least, but there's almost enough wild adventure to make up for it. So I guess I'll be back next month. *sigh*

Red Mass for Mars #1 gets a B from Albo and a C from AHR
AHR: Does anyone actually enjoy reading a character who can see the future? It's always so much smugness and "I know" jokes. I don't like it in Layla Miller and apparently I don't even like it from Jonathan Hickman, who had two major hits with me in Pax Romana and Transhuman. On the plus side there's a fun recap of the various ways that humankind will attempt to destroy itself in the next 100 years, and I enjoyed wannabe National Front superhero who uses his power to force English on the entire world. I'll probably stick with this series if just for tangents like these.

Albo: What is Jonathan Hickman's problem? Why does he feel the need to write so many books at once? Why doesn't the poor bastard take it easy? I feel like every time I pick up an Image comic there's an ad for a NEW Hickman book. What a crazy. Anyway, after having mixed feelings on the other two books of his I've read (wowed by Pax Romana, bored by Transhuman), I'm happy to say that this was a really enjoyable read. Hickman has a real knack for pulling extremely complex societies with rich histories and interesting power players out of thin air. Some bits I found distractingly unbelievable (the superhuman trying to destroy all languages but English), but as a whole I'm totally pumped to see where this goes.

Wonder Woman #21 gets a D from AHR
Wonder Woman meets Beowulf, much olde thyme englishe ensues. Even Gail Simone can't make me enjoy this armored-men-on-horses stuff. When I pick up a superhero comic, one of DC's "big three" no less, I want to see some superheroing.

Locke & Key #1

This book begins as a sort of Straw Dogs tale of rural violence, with disgruntled teen Tyler walking in on his mother being raped over the body of his dead father while a second psychopath looks on. The terrified boy is driven to murder one of the killers with a brick, and his mother takes the other one down with a hatchet. Needless to say, the whole experience shakes him up a good bit. Not helping his mental state is the fact that he knew the killers, and maybe even had a conversation with one of them about a hypothetical dad-less existence. And just like in Strangers on a Train, the other guy took it a little too seriously. His father also seemed to know something was going to happen to him, and had arranged for his family to go live at Keyhouse, an old house in Lovecraft (ahem), Massachusetts that has been in his family for generations. And if you couldn’t guess, there’s something about that house…

Writer Joe Hill is doing a great job setting up a real world with just a hint of the mystical, and I’m hoping as the series progresses it stays like that without ever going too over the top with fantasy. The art, by Gabriel Rodriguez, is clean and expressive and aside from the occasional amateurish bits it’s top notch. He puts an excruciating amount of detail into every setting–there’s not a single throwaway background in the whole book. I’m very excited to see where this one leads.

This review was originally published as part of Pop Culture Shock's "Picks & Pans".