Patsy Walker: Hellcat #1 ~ Well, here's something you don't see every day. Actually, if you read Hellcat's story in the first four issues of Marvel Comics Presents (reviewed here, here, here and here), you'll have an idea of the style of this story: quirky, fun-loving, unusual but difficult not to like. The good news is that, unlike MCP, the storyline seems to be on firmer ground (and of course, unlike MCP the cover price is decent). Patsy Walker, who signed up with the Initiative (in She-Hulk, as a matter of fact) and got a secret identity (which includes being an amateur fashion model for her designer neighbour, which is just nuts to her, though I don't know that this story needed that much of it), is tapped to lead the Alaska team of the 50 State Initiative - or rather, to be the Alaska team. This isn't a procedural kind of story, with Patsy getting intel and a high-tech base and all that - she gets a SHIELD flyover, sets down when she spots something that twigs her psychic sense, and pursues this nebulous lead solo, recruiting a guide from a nearby town and meanwhile being amusingly oblivious to how out of place she is. There are hints of the larger storyline that'll presumably swing into play, but for the moment there's little revelation, so it's difficult to judge it. All I can say for now is that, if Hellcat or writer Kathryn Immonen are unknowns to you but you don't mind an unusual but fun comic, this might be worth a look when it comes out as a trade paperback, but if you know Immonen's work and are tempted to buy the issues, there doesn't seem to be any reason not to.
Manhunter #32 ~ Manhunter's solo mission to find out what's been happening to disappearing Mexican day workers continues, with the cliffhanger confrontation with Blue Beetle thankfully not degenerating into the generic Superhero Misunderstanding Fight - there's some fisticuffs, but with an interesting (and consistent to both characters) reason, and everyone behaves intelligently. With that out of the way Kate pursues her few leads, and doesn't get a lot of answers yet - it's only the second issue of the storyline, after all - but there's enough information to draw some conclusions, so this issue isn't just spinning its wheels. There's also a dramatic conversation between Kate and Director Bones that should play out interestingly in future issues, and the subplots get a bit more attention, each moving forward a step. Michael Gaydos's art continues to be strong and suitable for the title, with a heavy ground-level realism - Jose Villarrubia's colours complement this - especially evident in the four pages in which Kate's in her underwear, and not striking eye-candy poses.
Not related to the story at all, the centre double-page spread of the Women of the DC Universe art is a nice inclusion, though it's odd that they chose to crop off the right-hand third of the image, especially seeing as Vixen and Huntress (that's her, right?) are still partially visible - they could have cropped off the left side almost seamlessly, if they just wanted to fit the figures on the page height-wise. But perhaps they have a reason for wanting Catwoman, Oracle, Zatanna and/or Black Canary visible - not that I'm complaining.
Paolo Parente's Dust ~ Here's a curious thing, a trade paperback collecting only two issues. What gives? Well, it's not the raw deal it may seem value-wise - the price is low (at my local bookshop, anyway), and there's 40 pages of extra material to bulk out the book, cover galleries and pinup art and lavishly-illustrated profiles of characters and troop types and vehicles and so on. And the art by Parente (with Alessia Zambonin and Davide Fabbri - specific credits aren't given, but I guess we can assume they're the inker and colourist respectively) is lovely work, full of eye-catching imagination in design and presentation, with gorgeous textures adding tremendously to the sense of historical realism. Not that this is real, since there are cyborg apes and mecha-zombies and bipedal tanks aplenty, but it's all framed as a WWII tale, and the art combines with the presentation of the WWII-derived alliances and power blocs to provide a convincing illusion of historical verisimilitude.
That said, it's not flawless - even allowing for there being only two issues of story content here (47 pages), the story is a bit lightweight. Much time is taken up with action scenes which, while entertaining and well-rendered in their own right, don't do much for drama and characterisation, and by the end of the story the lead character Koshka really isn't very well defined - she gets a couple of pages of introspection to begin with, and spends the rest of the time just fighting or running around. The whole world of Dust, its characters and conflicts, on both the immediate and global scales, seems fascinating, but we only get the merest glimpse of it. And there's some curiously gratuitous nudity along the way - I'm not one to complain about attractive women getting their gear off (or men, if that's your thing), I read Tarot and Artesia after all, but here it's on the one hand rather exploitative and demeaning, and at the same time half-hearted, with careful positioning of angles or foreground objects keeping any bare nipples from appearing. It's actually kind of jarring for a story featuring gory violence - not to mention implied rape and sexualised violence, in the villain's nebulous plans for her captive - to turn around and chicken out on showing a nipple. I guess that's a concession that had to be made to get an American publisher to sign off on it, but it cheapens the work a bit nonetheless.
So overall, this isn't a comic for someone looking for story content in a value-for-money kind of way - there's not a lot, and what's there is a bit flawed. But the art is wonderful, and the setting is imaginative and well-presented, regardless of how lightweight this particular story is in terms of setting depth. If you're a fan of alternate history along these sci-fi/steampunk/WWII lines, if you flip through a couple of pages and like the look of the art, or if you're a seasoned comic reader looking for something a bit different, this is worth your time to look at. I really hope we'll see more of Dust.
American Dream #5 ~ This amusing little miniseries wraps up in a manner pretty consistent with what's come before: not especially deep, not especially surprising, but entertaining enough by its own standards. Looking at the mini as a whole (as it'll appear in trade paperback form), we don't really get beneath the skin of the titular heroine - we learn her backstory and motivations, but the writing is a bit formulaic, and there's truly not a great deal setting this aside from any generic superhero story. The dialogue and narration is likewise nothing special, sometimes lapsing into dated exposition-speak - you know the kind, where the heroine self-narrates her situation so readers can catch up, or villains provide helpful clarification of their plans - but there aren't any awful howlers, and there's a certain retro charm to this. The art throughout is lively and colourful, with the crystal monsters getting a distinctive touch with greyed-out ink lines. And the subplot of immigration, while not explored in anything like the depth that Manhunter's treating the same subject at the moment, lends American Dream a bit of interest beyond just standard superhero hijinks. Experienced comic readers looking for something fulfilling will probably find this too lightweight to satisfy, but younger readers, or those just looking to be entertained without demanding too much, shouldn't be disappointed.
Red Sonja #34 ~ This is a title I've been meaning to check out for some time, and with Brian Reed (of Ms. Marvel coming on as writer and promising a good jumping-on point for new readers, this seemed like a good time. This issue seems to be a coda of sorts to the previous author's run on the title, but even though the 'fresh start' only really kicks in on the final page, setting up #35 to be the easy jumping-on point, it's a worthwhile prelude so far as I can judge. Sonja has fought her arch-enemy Kulan Gath to the death - both of their deaths - and is now in the underworld, faced with the kind of supernatural metaphoric challenges you get in the underworld, but the appearance of a generic afterlife story is undone with a clever reveal, and the true purpose of the issue then becomes clear. I don't think this issue will be vital to the forthcoming story - no doubt, if there's anything we need to know we'll be told it - but reading it sets up a nice mythic undertone to what's to come, revealing the depth of Sonja's determination and selfless courage. Mel Rubi's art (Frank Martin Jr. on colours) is appealing and energetic, with plenty of different visual moods in play, but always an eye to Sonja's striking beauty - she's a fantasy warrioress who gets around in a chainmail bikini after all, I think it'd probably be a bit silly to try not to go for eye candy, so long as it can be done without undermining the drama of the story. All in all, it's difficult to guess what's to come storywise based on this issue, but it shows off quality writing and art, which makes it an easy choice to take a chance on the title.
