She-Hulk #23 ~ Peter David wraps up his introductory two-parter, and it must be said, he's done a great job of doing what an introduction should do. We know now where She-Hulk is, in terms of personality and outlook, and we've got a pretty good idea of how she got there - in general, if not the specifics - in a way which fits in very well with the end of Dan Slott's run. Shulkie has been changed by what she's gone through - realistically - and she behaves differently - also realistically - but she's the same person she's always been, just reacting to new circumstances. At the same time we're treated to a very entertaining battle between the Jade Giantess and the Absorbing Man - entertaining both in terms of its flow and excitement and ingenuity as a fight sequence, and in terms of the regular stream of witty humour David weaves into his writing, which should be quite enough to satisfy fans of Slott's comedy-focused take on the title. Shawn Moll delivers more solid, punchy art, good-looking and dynamic - the book would be fortunate to have him (and inker Victor Olazaba and colourist Rob Ro from Avalon) comitted for a good many issues.
Heroes for Hire #15 ~ For starters, let's confirm what many fans have suspected - it does seem that this is the final issue of Heroes for Hire. Their World War Hulk tie-in arc - arguably their best issues - comes to a conclusion that's very satisfying in itself, doesn't lean on WWH itself for closure, yet fits quite nicely into it. As a story about the heroes who make up H4H, it's powerful and in some cases life-changing - but ultimately a bit unsatisfying, because I really want to know what happens next. With Gray and Palmiotti more or less phoning in their early issues, it's been left to Zeb Wells to come in and salvage things, but he only had two arcs - the brief Savage Land story, and then this - since the lacklustre previous issues mean that the character-based storytelling really started with Wells, they're just gathering momentum, not drawing to a close. I hope this book and/or its characters will continue in some form - Misty and Colleen are at a really interesting place, Tarantula was a surprisingly inteiguing newcomer (more or less the only character Gray & Palmiotti gave any attention to), and Black Cat (who G&P really shortchanged in the early arcs) was just starting to find her feet in this book.
Ultimate Vision #5 ~ It's about time. The good news is that the finale of this entertaining little sci-fi thriller holds up to the standard set by the other issues - despite the rather lengthy wait for the conclusion, it's a solid, fluid miniseries that will read great as a single volume. There's intelligent use of Vision's abilities, with some entertaining technobabble (about as much scientific basis as Harry Potter, of course, but this is the genre that gave us the radioactive spider bite, so all's fair) and a solid emotional core to her story in the mini. The art is good work, dynamis and visually interesting but with a polished layer of realism that suits the general mood of the book. The down side is, well, the same as it's been all along for me - maybe I'm jaded, but a bunch of dinky purple bug-ships (let alone just one of them) just can't deliver the sense of holy awe and dread conveyed in issue #0, where all we saw were shadows amid a global holocaust, and Viz delivered the quite neat line "Nothing may see Gah Lak Tus and survive." Not this miniseries' fault, of course - Ultimate Galactus is what he/it is - but it does take away something that I think it was striving for. And, rather sadly, I suspect this will be the last I see of Ultimate Vision - to my knowledge, this miniseries has been the only Ultimate title ever to star a woman (robotic or otherwise), and the core titles are just too male-centric (among other shortcomings I tend to see in them) for me to feel like reading.
Dynamo 5 volume one: Post-Nuclear Family ~ This one was highly recommended on Comic Geek Speak (episode 311, if you want to hear their thoughts and interviews with the creators), and it was cheap, at an rrp of US$10 for a trade containing seven issues - checking it out wasn't a difficult decision. Well, it's everything it's cracked up to be: a well-written, well-drawn, intelligent, fun superhero team book. The origin story is logical, but quirky and novel - an everyone-loves-him superhero by the name of Captain Dynamo has died, and going through his effects his widow Maddie Warner discovers that, in the case of his female fans, he had a tendency to love them right back. She being a resourceful type - a journalist, and unknown even to her late husband, a former government agent - when Captain Dynamo's enemies start taking advantage of his terminal absence, she locates five teenagers he fathered early in his superheroic extramarital affair spree, and doses them with the same type of radiation that empowered him. The result is Dynamo 5 - Scatterbrain, Slingshot, Scrap, Visionary and Myriad, five reluctant and somewhat dysfunctional heroes, each with one of their father's powers: telepathy, flight, strength, super-vision, and shapeshifting, all led and trained by Maddie, who finds herself part den mother, part drill sergeant.
It's a setup with intriguing possibilities - as well as having to deal with suddenly discovering four siblings and a stepmother (more or less), each of the kids already has a life of their own, which they suddenly have to juggle with being a superhero. Throw in Dynamo's rogues gallery, Maddie's old friends - and enemies - and the government's superhero agency taking a rather hostile interest in the new team that's suddenly sprung up, and it's a book that won't run short of stories to tell in a hurry. The seven issues in the first trade are used well - the introductions are fast and fluid in the early issues, telling you everything you need to know with rather impressive finesse, and also throwing in a few complications to be used later on, while a handful of villains are merrily thrown into the mix, developing organically into a big showdown in the seventh issue. The art is vivid and full of energy, but equally capable of subtlety and conveying emotion, to support scenes where the kids' personal concerns are more pressing than who's about to hit them with a laser. From the heroine standpoint, Scrap and Slingshot are both interesting characters, well-written late teenagers/early 20s - young enough to be young, old enough to not be irritating about it, and have at least enough self-awareness to keep their emotional stories moving at a pleasing pace. Maddie is the surprising standout character though, something of a rarity in any medium: a middle-aged woman who doesn't lean on a man's shoulder, is strong, capable and intelligent, can be bitchy when she wants to be without being just a bitch, has a sense of humour, and can be quite attractive in her own right too.
I also managed to score a copy of Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman-Prime - a decent read, though I imagine for anyone who's read Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis, it may be a bit of a rehash of background you already know. I just got it for the Cyclone appearance, which - aside from the variant Eaglesham covers on JSA, which cost four times the price of an issue, and I'm not that insane - means I now have every appearance of Cyclone, ever. And this one almost managed to get her costume right - there was just one tiny colouring flaw in one panel that kept up her almost unbroken record of costume screw-ups (Countdown, ironically, is the only one to buck the trend).
