Snap Judgments: Reviews of Invincible, Liberty Comics, War Heroes and More

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

There are probably some minor SPOILERS herein.

Liberty Comics: A CBLDF Benefit Book gets an A- from AHR
Mark Millar's tale of Vampire ennui is reason enough to get this book. I've been asking Albo for a while why Mark Millar is considered such hot shit when all I've read by him concerns former-nerd baddasses in rubber suits, but this five page story surprised me. I do wonder why it's the only story in here with nothing to do with censorship. The minus grade is only for the Criminal story, which is as emotionally bloodless and by the numbers as every other issue of Criminal I've ever read.

Ambush Bug: Year None #1 gets a B from Albo
I usually don't like humor books, but this book is full of genuinely funny gags. I'm sure I'd get even more out of it if I wasn't such a Marvel Zombie, because most of the humor is DC in-jokes (Ambush Bug inspiring Jean Loring to kill Sue Dibny, for instance--and even accidentally suggesting the method!). Anyway, some of it is very meta (Ambush Bug wondering why his thoughts don't appear in clouds anymore), which is always exciting to me. Recommended for you DC freaks.

Reviews for Avengers: The Initiative #15, Invincible #51, Two-Face: Year One #1, War Heroes #1, Joker Asylum: Scarecrow #1 and New Avengers #43 after the jump!

Avengers: The Initiative #15 gets a B from Albo
Dan Slott's finding a way to make his Avengers book relevant to Secret Invasion but compelling on its own, something that Bendis isn't quite managing over at Mighty and New. This story, brilliantly titled "The Only Good Skrull..." is about just that--the only good Skrull. It's a little hokey in execution, but somehow I think that's the style Slott's going for. It's like an after school special about a closeted gay teen. Except this one's about a Skrull who's been in hiding and operating as an Earth hero and who worries that the current Skrull invasion might reveal his true colors, at which point it'll be too late to convince the Earthlings he's a good guy. Anyway, far from perfect, but Super-Mega-Colossal-Event tie-ins are so tough to do well that I'm giving it serious props.

Invincible #51 gets a C+ from AHR
"Jump on!" they said. "The new story starts here!" they said. Feh. Only having read a bit of Invincible before, about half of this issue felt like talking heads, and heads that belonged to people I didn't know. The half that followed Invincible and his kid brother, however, was fun enough and the art in this book is appealing enough to get me through. Don't like the new costume though, and I don't even remember what the old one looked like.

Two Face: Year One #1 gets a C from AHR
It's always nice to see some familiar faces from Gotham Central (Maggie Sawyer, GCPD lezforce go!) and it's neat that they integrated the crime boss from Dark Knight, but then they destroy any continuity with the movie by offering the tried and true split-personality acid origin Harvey's always had. Throw in some really strange writing choices in which white-collar characters brush-off random acts of agression by their colleagues like it happens every day, and this feels like a rush-job.

War Heroes #1 gets a C from Albo
I believe I'm getting Millar fatigue. Maybe I still have a bad taste in my mouth from Wanted. I wanted to like the film, some reviews said I would like the film, but... ugh. Anyway, there's been so many Millar books recently (Fantastic Four, Wolverine, 1985, Kick-Ass, on and on and on) and more often than not I like them. But I think I've reached my saturation point, because I found very little to enjoy in War Heroes. Just that same slick Millar attitude with not much below the surface. I might be being too harsh, as it's only the first issue, but... Millar has wowed in the past with first issues (Kick-Ass, for instance). It doesn't help that in the back of the book he spends half a page declaring how awesome he is.

Joker Asylum: Scarecrow #1 gets a C- from AHR
It's really cheesy that all the issues in this miniseries are #1's, even though they're all part of a sequential anthology. Also the plot is like one of those teen horror movies from the mid-90s, except instead of a killer in a black cloak the bad guy is the Scarecrow. What a sad excuse for a spotlight issue. But I couldn't bear to give a book with such awesome art a D. It's chunky and colorful and very web 2.0. Sure it's not very scary, but with a script like this it was never going to be.

New Avengers #43 gets a D from Albo
Bendis, you have really blown it. You spend years setting up the Marvel Universe for one huge event, and then when it's finally time for shit to hit the fan--you hit the pause button. Let's see, what has happened in Secret Invasion thus far? A ship of Skrulls posing as heroes have crashed in the Savage Land and are fighting our heroes. A handful of Skrulls have appeared in Times Square and are fighting our heroes. That's it. Oh, sorry, last issue of Secret Invasion had Nick Fury show up and fight. Bendis' Avengers books, meanwhile, are stuck in the past, telling us all about how we got to this moment but not progressing the "event" in any way. I'm sure this Invasion stuff will make a great hardcover one day, when the stagnancy of it is softened by the absence of month long waits between issues, but for now it's growing more and more fetid.

Snap Judgments: Dead, She Said #1, Amazing Spider-Man #560 and More

Short comic reviews based on initial, lizard-brain opinions. There are probably some spoilers herein. Arranged from BEST to WORST.

Dead, She Said #1 gets an A from Albo
The more of Steve Niles' work I read the more I like the guy. I picked up 30 Days of Night when it was on the stands back in the day and came away feeling it was a little thin. But Simon Dark, among other things, has made me take another look. This horror noir story starts with a private dick waking up and cracking his way out of rigor mortis... That's right, he's "dead," shot through the belly and he's determined to figure out why. Giant ants may be involved. Smart, original, well worth your dollars.

Reviews for Amazing Spider-Man #560, Mighty Avengers #14, and Fantastic Four #557 after the jump!

The Amazing Spider-Man #560 gets a B from Albo
Not much more to say that I didn't say in last week's review of #559. Just a solid Spidey story from Dan Slott with killer art from Marcos Martin. We learn a little more about "Paper Doll" this week, and she's turning out to be a pretty cool villain. Different, at least. Also this ish contains the return of a major Spidey character we haven't seen since this whole Brand New Day stuff started...

The Mighty Avengers #14 gets a B from Albo
Frank Cho being so slow of an artist forced Bendis to approach his Avengers books in an interesting way--he was trying to thread the two books into one ongoing story, but since Mighty was taking so much longer than New he ended up creating a lot of flashback stories as filler for New in order to keep the books on roughly the same timeline. Well now that's become a real style of his, as most of his Secret Invasion tie-in stories skip around in time more than a season of LOST. I say it works, even if it does get a little tough to put all the pieces together in my head. This ish in particular is about how the Skrulls have approached the "problem" of the Sentry, and it's a testament to the new era of comics that their solution isn't just "hit him really hard," because as we (and they) know, that never works for the bad guys. Well, except maybe Doomsday.

Fantastic Four #557 gets a C from Albo
Ahem. To defeat a giant robot that pummeled every Marvel hero in existence and destroyed dozens of military complexes around the globe, Mister Fantastic builds a bigger robot (which he inexplicably dubs "Anti-Galactus"... wtf?) in an AFTERNOON and bases his whole battle strategy on the ASSUMPTION that the robot's creator included him in a list of people that it couldn't harm. When he could have, oh I don't know, CALLED HER JUST TO MAKE SURE. Lazy storytelling from a guy that's probably too busy out promoting the movie adaptation of Wanted to give a damn. On a positive note, there is a really sweet scene at the end (which I woulda given an "A" if it were a standalone story) where Reed takes Sue out on an anniversary date--back in time to the moment they first met. And as a gift he gets her a ring with a "stone" that's actually a micro-galaxy with "over forty trillion couples ... all loving each other like I love you." What kind of softy have I become when I open a comic and prefer the date scene to the giant freaking robot fight?! Am I losing my Geekanerd touch? Or is Millar just better with character moments than action?

Weekanerd NYC: Comic Signings, Text Messaging and Drunken Game Shows

Monday, April 14

• Signing w. Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction & Jen Grunwald
• FREE! 6:30-7:30pm @ Jim Hanley's Universe, 4 W 33rd Street, Manhattan

The hottest writer in comics is joined by other big names for this quickie signing. A scheduling conflict came up last minute that keeps this event restricted to one hour, so get there early or you'll be crying all the way home with your un-scribbled upon comic books.

Text messages, drunken game shows and dolls for boys after the jump...

Tuesday, April 15

• Unprotected Text LIVE
  
• FREE! 2:30-10:30pm @ 42nd St b/w Times Sq and Broadway, Manhattan
  

Unprotected Text is a comedy performance troupe that collects text messages and then acts them out. Sounds like regular improv but without the yelping audience, right? Well maybe so, but they also have loftier goals, such as "conducting a video study of what role text messaging plays in participants lives." You want loftier? Something with more loft? Ok, how about "We want to explore the use and relations with have to technology that is already intergrated into our daily live." Throw about four [sic]s in there and you'll understand. If you're still unconvinced you can check out their YouTube channel, but I'm willing to bet it'll be more entertaining live so don't get discouraged.

Wednesday, April 16

• Dick Swizzle's Sudden Death Game Show
  
• FREE to watch/$5 to play, 8pm @ Union Hall, 702 Union Street, Brooklyn
  

This boozy Jeopardy-style game show is a significant upgrade to the standard bar trivia night. Buzzers, multimedia, all that jazz. The winners of each round get free shots; the finalist wins money; and the losers win a bottle of Budweiser and a special prize. Expect a sprinkle of raunch. Must be 21 or older, so stay away my young friends.

Thursday, April 17

• Captain Action Signing w. Fabian Nicieza and Mark Sporacio
  
• FREE! 6:30pm @ Jim Hanley's Universe, 4 W 33rd Street, Manhattan

It's back to JHU for another signing tonight. Don't know who Captain Action is? Well, he's "the original super-hero action figure," created by the same guy that created G.I. Joe. You would buy the "default" figure and then clothe him in sold-separately outfits that would turn him into Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America and a slew of other heroes. He proved popular enough to get a comic book from DC, but they disappointingly dropped the "I can be anyone" gimmick and instead gave him some magical coins that granted him generic powers. Some big names worked on the five issue series, including Wally Wood, Jim Shooter and Gil Kane. Well anyway, Fabian Nicieza is resurrecting the franchise and he'll be on hand with the artist Mark Sporacio to sign issue #0.

Albo's Comic Book Pick & Pan for March 12, 2008

Pick of the Week: The Mighty Avengers #10
Story by Brian Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley, Danny Miki, Allen Martinez & Justin Ponsor

I’ve been feeling like this book has gone off the rails a bit since artist Frank Cho left, with bullet point storytelling and some seriously ugly art by Mark Bagley. But this issue was a nice side adventure that did away with both of those problems. It was rather self-contained and well-paced, and somehow the 70s era coloring (this is a time-travel story!) vastly improves the look of Bagley’s linework. The story itself primarily follows The Sentry, who doesn’t realize he has traveled back in time to the 70s and is trying to make sense of everything—there’s no Avenger’s Tower, Thor is alive… It’s all very confusing for a man with a history of severe emotional disorders, and he starts freaking out a bit. What’s cool is that he hasn’t traveled back to the Marvel 70s that we remember, but the one that REALLY happened, before everyone forgot The Sentry ever existed (Confused? Go read his Wikipedia page). The Sentry’s unique position in the universe is integral to Iron Man’s plan to get back to our time without mucking up the space-time continuum. It’s just good storytelling when things can come together so elegantly.

Hit the jump to see what got panned...

Pan of the Week: Avengers: The Initiative #10
Story by Dan Slott & Christos N. Cage
Art by Stefano Caselli & Daniele Rudoni

I don’t even know what to say about this book other than that I’m just not sure what I’m supposed to get out of it anymore. This was a really fun series back when it was about these kids training and whatnot, but now we’re building towards the end (?) and I’m not sure what the hell is going on. I mean, I know who is fighting who and all that, but there’s a lack of import to the proceedings… For some reason I just don’t care about all these people dying (and gruesomely so!). There’s so much crap going on at once that I can’t focus on the characters… And not to spoil anything, but if the whole point of this series was to re-introduce the New Warriors with D-List characters then consider me swindled.

These reviews were originally published as part of Pop Culture Shock's Picks & Pans.

Weekanerd NYC: The Orphanage, Bendis and Brubaker, Danny Glover, and Movie Geek Deathmatch

Monday, December 17

• The Orphanage Preview
  
• 7pm @ AMC 34th St, 312 West 34th, Manhattan

The new film by the director of Pan's Labyrinth, this is another children in fantastic metaphysical peril story. Tickets are $18 (cheaper if you're a member of the Museum of the Moving Image, but who is?), and you get the added value of director Jaun Antonio Bayona, writer Sergio G. Sanchez and actress Belen Rueda live and in person.

Bendis & Bru, more screenings and movie trivia, after the jump...

Tuesday, December 18

• 20% Off Sale
  
• All Day @ Jim Hanley's Universe, 4 West 33rd St., Manhattan
  

New York's only live comic book talk show is celebrating their one year anniversary with some serious NAMES. Comic giants Bendis and Brubaker (gape), along with Casanova scribe Matt Fraction and SNL upstart Bill Hader. Obviously it's sold out, but if you're in it to win it, there will be a limited number of tickets available at the door that'll go on sale at 6pm; get in line early. This is the best comic talk you're going to see round these parts outside of Comic Con, and it's all for five measly bucks.

Wednesday, December 19

• An Evening With Danny Glover
  
• 7pm @ The Times Center, 242 West 41st Street, Manhattan
  

Apparently Danny Glover is starring in a new John Sayles movie called Honeydripper. How'd I miss that? This evening will mostly be Glover talking about his career, plus an intro by Sayles, scenes from the movie and a blues guitar performance by Gary Clark Jr. And maybe someone will persuade Glover to say "I'm getting too old for this shit", but probably not. Tickets are $18.

Thursday, December 20

• Movie Geek: Tournament Of Champions
  
• 8pm @ Ars Nova, 551 West 54th Street, Manhattan
  

Movie Geek is not so much a show as an off-Broadway phenomenon that will not die. I know, because I've done video work for it's various incarnations for the last, oh, three years? Help me. This newest version takes the form of a movie-trivia game show, and will likely resemble a berserk live-action version of Scene It. Tickets are $15 bucks, but if you participate you stand to win prizes that may or may not be equal in value to $15, so there's that..

Snap Judgments - Mighty Avengers #5, The Umbrella Academy #2, The Sword #1, The Programme #4

Mighty Avengers #5
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Frank Cho, Colors by Jason Keith
Gets an A- from Albo

As much as I want to give this book a negative review for being so late all the time, I can't resist its charms. Cho's art is so clean and clever and beautiful (helped immensely by Jason Keith's colors) I'm tempted to take the book apart and hang the individual pages on my wall. The panels alone tell the story, Bendis' words are just icing on the cake. Flavor text, if you will. I will give Bendis credit for making Thor-lite B-stringer Ares into a really fun character. The problem here is that the first issue came out almost eight months ago and this is only the fifth issue, and only a couple of hours have passed in the story. It's slowww going. Cho has announced he's leaving after issue six, which makes me really sad because this book won't be nearly as good with Ultimate Spiderman's (gag! spat! yak!) Mark Bagley behind the reigns. But considering that the next arc has to do with the symbiote invasion that is happening RIGHT NOW in New Avengers, I guess things have to get moving.

The Umbrella Academy #2 and The Programme #4, after the jump...


The Umbrella Academy #2
Written by Gerard Way
Art by Gabriel Ba, Colors by Dave Stewart
Gets an A from AHR

Some people, both on the internet and amongst the Geekanerd staff, have complained that this book is hard to follow. The script has an unrefined energy of a writer not too concerned with three act structures, but this is more a strength than a weakness. Judging from these first two issues, The Umbrella Academy is a book about ideas. Ideas about violin-based superpowers, highly destructive robots that look like Weebles, and the perils of underage time travel. Gripping stuff, and it would be a shame to lose any of it for simplicity's sake. Besides, all the plot threads are wrapped up pretty neatly by the last page, setting the stage for a big old fight scene in issue three. Be there or be square.

The Sword #1
By The Luna Brothers
Gets a C from AHR

You know how trailers for thriller movies always start out with syrupy music and a shot of a the lead actor lifting his four-year-old into the air..."James Roman had the perfect life." The first half of this issue is like that. Protagonist Dara is a handicapable young art student, with a ridiculously happy home life that includes the sort of pleasant family dinner conversations that only occur right before tragedy strikes. So of course tragedy does strike, and while it's suitably upsetting (particularly due to the Lunas ability to capture subtle, realistic facial expressions), it's also very well worn territory. The bad guys are typically cold and nasty, and Dara comes off as a typically nice, innocent, heroine who reluctantly receives the call to adventure. Where's the hook?

The Programme #4
Written by Peter Milligan
Art by CP Smith, Colors by Jonny Rench
Gets a C from Albo

I guess my love affair with the book that no one else is talking about couldn't last forever. I've been on board for the first three issues because the story felt like it was building towards something big and the art had such a unique mood to it I couldn't resist it. But now it appears the story isn't going anywhere fast, and this issue's art lacked a certain spark the past issues had. In fact, it comes off looking sparse and extremely confusing. It was fun while it lasted, Programme. Best of luck to you.

Snap Judgements: Brawl #1, Batman Confidential #10, New Avengers #35, Simon Dark #1

As always, Geekanerd brings you Snap Judgements: short, spoiler-free, and... I forgot the other S...

Brawl #1 (of 3)
Gets an A from AHR
I already read both the stories contained in this comic on Act-i-Vate, an online comix collective where creators put up their comics page by page, as they finish them. It's awesome. But I got this print version because Immortal is the sort of story that should really be read in a suitably moody location, say, an empty beach or a end-of-the-line bus station. Dean Haspiel has created a truly memorable character in Billy Dogma, a hard man with a heart of gold who inhabits a stylized world of crazy love and sexy absurdism. The high romanticism and abrupt action creates a mood you can sink into like a waking dream. Cut into pieces for this three issue series, the first chunk of Immortal is over all to soon, and it would have been nice to sustain the mood by releasing the story as a one-shot. But then we'd be missing out on the second story, Mike Fifee's Panorama, a gritty, surreal noir rendered in splattery black and white that really benefits from the transfer to good old fashioned scratchy paper. I enjoyed Fiffe's story more the second time around, particularly the inner monologue narration which, in contrast to pulp patter of Immortal, ticks along to a realist beat even as the hero's flesh drips off his face and takes on a mind of it's own.

Another Brawl opinion after the jump, plus Judgments for Batman Confidential #10, New Avengers #35 and Simon Dark #1

Brawl gets a C from Albo
I hate being a negative Nancy, but Immortal made no damn sense. I liked alot of the individual panels, but the storytelling was so scattershot I honestly thought maybe they printed the pages out of order. Panorama shared this tendency a bit, but by the end I was with it and really enjoying the bizarre reality Fiffe had crafted. All told, from my POV you would be wise to stick with the free online version. (side note: The clerk at Midtown very politely asked me why I was buying this book. I've never been asked that before. I suspect he had already read it.)

Batman Confidential #10
Gets an A from AHR
I'd like to say that Confidential scribe Michael Green is currently writing one of the best takes on the Joker I've ever read. But I can't, because the character that Green has been writing is the man who existed before mutating into the mass murdering clown we all know and love. This allows Green to sidestep the "unreliable narrator" problem common in writing the Joker - because the character doesn't take the literal plunge into craziness 'till close to the end of this issue, Green has this Man Who Would Be Joker tell his own story without having to interrupt the thought process with non sequiturs and jokes just to stay in character. Green makes the most of this lucidity, demonstrating a Frank Millerian ability to offer insight into action sequences with present-tense narration, while maintaining a sense of chaos and violence. Denys Cowan's art continues to impress, although neither he nor Green manage to make the fully realized Joker as disturbing as the awesome cover might have lead readers to expect. But we've got two more issues to see how they handle the J-Man in his all his psychotic glory, and I for one expect great things.

New Avengers #35
Gets an A- from Albo
The minus in my score is solely because the image from the cover has nothing to do with the contents of this issue. Last ish ended with a big symbiote invasion, then we see this cover and of course we flip: It's goddamn Venom Wolverine! Well, instead of telling that story, this issue flashes back a few months and tells the tale of the Red Hood gathering a bunch of D-rate villains (seriously, I know some Marvel mythos and I recognize maybe two of these guys) together and organizing them into a new crime syndicate. And it's awesome. Bendis' common sense originality (as in, "duh, how come no villain's ever done ____ before") shines, his dialogue snaps, his pacing... I'm out of flashy verbs, but it's good. This is the centerpiece book of the Marvel Multiverse, the only place where shit is really going down. If you care at all: buy it.

Simon Dark #1
Gets an A from Albo
Gotham City has a new protector, and he's... different. 30 Days of Night creator Steve Niles writes this book about a guy who doesn't really know who he is, but protects the innocent by decapitating suckas with a wire. He's also homeless, begging for money from those he saves so he can buy some food. He is the anti Bruce Wayne. He's apparently been prowling this little outskirt of Gotham for a while, and the people seem to love him even though he doesn't want much to do with them. Not out of contempt (he's actually quite sweet), but some teensy social phobias. I really hope The Bat ignores the headless corpses, because he would kick Simon's ass. And I like Simon. A lot. It's original, moody, and I can't wait to see where it goes.