Hack/Slash Suicidegirls Annual ~ So this is what Tim Seeley's been up to while co-writers have been helping out on the regular Hack/Slash issues. As an exercise in product placement, I'm naturally a bit leery of this, but the comic itself is on solid ground - Seeley does his usual fine job of lacing the slasher plot with finely-crafted character subplots, although in this case they're a bit more stand-alone than is usually the case in the regular series issues. The tie to the Suicidegirls website is decently plausible - more far-fetched things have happened in comics without raising an eyebrow, so no harm done there - and the guest stars don't enjoy the usual immunity to nastiness that product-placed characters often get. This is a good, well-written and drawn horror comic, with a neat finale and denoument to tie the bow on top of it - as a Hack/Slash one-shot, I can't say I fault it.
The Suicidegirls side of things is a mixed bag. The final eight pages of the issue (the story itself clocks up 35 by my count) are a portfolio of images from Cassie's photo shoot, a plot element of the issue. Cassie and sexuality are a strange couple - in the course of most stories, she's gorgeous, but there's also a fragile little-girl-lost quality to her that makes her more than just eye candy, and defuses (in a good way) scenes that might come across that way. Still, if she were to go for sexiness, the 'photos' (they're artwork, of course) are pretty much what I'd imagine - she may have her issues, but once she commits herself to something, she goes at it no holds barred. There's blood and knives and haughty attitude and full nudity, in other words - it's good work. On the other hand, the full photo set - fifty-something images (24 are included in the comic) - is evidently available only on the Suicidegirls site, and requires paid registration to access. I know the whole point of this (from the site's point of view) is to get new customers, but given that this is Hack/Slash material, a show of good faith on their part by allowing general access to Cassie's 'photos' would have been nice. Still, as I said, the comic is what really matters, and it's got the goods.
She-Hulk #31 ~ Continuing on from X-Factor #33 (reviewed last week, Jazinda has tracked down the Skrull posing as Longshot, dragging She-Hulk along with her, and a brawl has ignited between Shulkie and various members of X-Factor. She's sure losing her temper a lot - but there are explicit indications this issue that it's not just an easy way to get fight scenes, but rather than Peter David is deliberately taking She-Hulk in this direction as part of an ongoing character arc. That keeps this from being just the annoyingly overused 'heroes fight by accident' cliché, and the story moves along at a decent pace - much of the page space is taken up with fighting, but there's enough genuine development to keep the issue from feeling shallow.
The other thing that lifts this issue is the art. 'GG Studio' is credited as the art team, with Vincenzo Cucca pencilling, Vincenzo Acunza inking, Barbare Ciardo colouring, and Guiliano Monni as 'team coordinator', which I guess means that everyone was working with a single goal in mind, art-wise. The main difference between this and regular art is that the ink lines are coloured, reflecting the base colour of whatever they're outlining rather than just being a uniform black. That may sound like just a technical matter, but - along with effective cel-shading in the colours - it creates a totally different look for this issue. Without black inks restraining them, the colours practically glow - with all of this issue happening outdoors, the sunlight is a physical presence, you can feel it warming the scenes (which neatly backs up the beginning of X-Factor #33, which mentioned that it was hot in Detroit at present). The look is not dissimilar to what you find in a lot of cartoons nowadays, but the pencilwork is steeped in the artistic traditions of comic books, so as a whole it's not a jarring transition from last issue to this. I hope GG Studio stays on for a while - this distinctive, quality work.
Avengers: The Initiative #15 ~ The cliffhanger from last issue plays out here, very cleverly in fact, leading into an issue focusing on Crusader, the Initiative's resident Skrull-in-hiding who isn't trying to take over the planet. We get glimpses into his past - a bit hokey, but with so little page space there's only so much subtlety can be managed, and it's rather endearing regardless - and a nice weaving of Crusader's current activities into the general Secret Invasion mayhem. I'm still finding some of the dialogue, especially the character thoughts, to be a bit on the cheesy side at times - thoughts are tricky, I'll grant - but to its credit, this issue managed a great sense of pace. As events unfold, you can feel the rush, the feeling that there's not enough time to think before acting, that delay would be fatal but equally that acting rashly may be just as bad. It's a nice complement to the similar pacing and staging techniques of Secret Invasion itself. All in all, a good tie-in, and a continuation of this title's recent trend of spotlighting lesser-known characters and doing interesting done-in-one stories with them.
Skrulls! ~ This is the 'handbook' issue that every big event seems to get - this one, naturally enough, is a dossier on Skrulls, from Anelle to Zuhn, from the unnamed 'Fantastic Four Imposters' of The Fantastic Four #2 right through to freshly-minted Skrulls like She-Hulk's Jazinda. From what I've read so far - at 61 pages of files, with plenty of text on each, it's no five-minute read - it's lively by the standards of fact-files, written as a dossier prepared for Skrull Queen Veranke (the regal and rather gorgeous one spearheading the Secret Invasion) by her Chancellor, and each entry reflects that, with comments on the subject's status with regard to the invasion, and what part they may play (if they're still alive), or that their activities played in the build-up (for the dead ones). The final two pages (after a couple of in-house ads for related comics) are a checklist of Skrull appearances - 'virutually' every one, so they claim, presumably because no-one's perfect and they're bound to have missed something - and a list of available trade paperbacks containing Skrull issues. I like fact-files anyway - I'm that detail-loving kind of geek - and this is a good onem with the Skrulls long history providing a glimpse into practically every corner of Marvel comics.
Madame Xanadu #2 ~ Nimue's story continues, happening around the edges of the fall of Camelot. I find myself glad that Camelot itself, and the battles and personalities therein, aren't given much more than a cursoty acknowledgement - it's a well-known story, and there's no real reason for it to be retold here. Nimue's story is the focus, and while it intersects with Camelot's, it's its own entity, and that's what we follow, giving the issue a strong sense of its own identity, and avoiding being overshadowed by the illustrious legend it's playing with. As before, it's a nice little sword-and-sorcery story - emphasis on the sorcery, with few swords, but it's that kind of setting generally - with some diverting writing and a nice sense of time and place. The non-glossy paper is still a source of irritation - as with the debut issue, there are many vivid colours here that wind up washed out by the paper quality.
The Art of Witchblade ~ I hadn't intended to buy this - art books aren't really my thing, and they're often quite pricey besides - but Witchblade, though I've stopped buying issues nowadays (I'm still getting it in trade paperbacks), still has a fond place in my heart as my first comic, and I don't think it can be denied that there's a lot of quality material there, not least the lavish artwork. And, as it turned out, this book was pretty darned affordable - AU$25 for 95 pages, all in lovely high-quality paper, super-sized to show off every little detail of the artwork. And as a visual companion to Witchblade, it's a lot more than just a bunch of gallery pages - the full range of the title is covered, including the comic in all the various eras it's gone through, plus the Takeru manga (which I must get around to reviewing one of these days), and the anime TV series - only the Yancy Butler live-action TV show isn't featured, and that's understandable, since it was, y'know, live-action, not artwork. The book is dedicated to Michael Turner, and opens with a portfolio of his Witchblade work - including some raw pencilled pages, alongside their finished versions. Not taking anything away from the quality inking and colouring on these pages, but I've always felt that Turner's pencils had a magic all their own when they were left alone, so it's nice to see them here. Then it's on to a whole slew of other artists, with Witchblade mainstays given prominence, but many other big names appearing besides. Interview pages add some background, and to close the book out there's a gallery of covers - all of them, from issue #1 through to #119, plus Tales of the Witchblade, Takeru, and alternates, reproduced in thumbnails, which on these extra-large pages are still big enough to get a good look at them. Witchblade fans will definitely want this; fans of comic art in general would do well to take a look at it too.
