Star Wars: The Clone Wars #1 ~ I've never bought a Star Wars comic before... actually that's not true, I've got the Force Unleashed TPB, but just to find out what my Lego Rogue Shadow could do, and I've got a couple of those pack-in comics you get with the action figures. So let's amend it to: I've never bought a Star Wars comic in order to read it before - I like Star Wars (the original trilogy, anyway), but I've just never really felt compelled to get more of it. Until the Clone Wars movie came along, which I expected to dislike, got a ticket to because it was half-price and I had time to kill, and ended up enjoying a hell of a lot (more than any of the prequels, at least). I expected to like Ahsoka - she's adorable, and it takes a lot for me to dislike a heroine - but what surprised me was that I quite liked Anakin. I couldn't stand him in any of the movies, yet in the role of Ahsoka's instructor/mentor, a whole new side of his character got to come out and play, and he was nowhere near as irritating as I'd expected.
Anyway, that's a long intro to why I picked up this issue. In short, this is a bite-sized bit of exactly the same stuff the CGI movie provided - even down to the issue's plotline, which mirrors the events of the movie's first arc, with a bit of general battle to start off, then Obi-Wan doing some creative 'negotiating' while Anakin and Ahsoka run around dismantling the villain's scheme. The flaw to this issue is that, not only is that plotline recycled, it's not even very ingeniously recycled - Anakin and Ahsoka's task is simple, and Obi-Wan just goads his opponent (who is, charitably speaking, a moron) into a fight, and spends the rest of the issue just engaging in fisticuffs to waste time. There's nothing clever going on, which is a real shame. On the up side, Anakin and Ahsoka are as appealing a team as I found them in the movie, and there's a good sense of Anakin trying to be a teacher to her (which the movie underplayed, I thought). The art is good as well, slightly cartoony (making it a good match for the CGI-derived character faces), but with a hard edge to it that plays well in the battle sequences. And this issue also foreshadows a larger storyline to be played out in the miniseries, which has the potential to be more than just a retread of Clone Wars's plot. Overall, it's enough to get me to come back next month for more.
Secret Invasion #6 ~ "My god has a hammer!" It's actually a bit of a clunky line (it's not like Thor is really the god of the Marvel world), but it's just fun, y'know? (It makes a good point of comparison between this and DC's big event Final Crisis - what'd you rather have, Morrison wanking on about the 'anti-life equation', or a hammer? I'll take the hammer.) This isn't highbrow entertainment, though part of its success is that it does contain interesting conceptual elements, like the paranoia and betrayals of the initial sleeper-agent revelations, and (especially in this issue) the approach the Skrulls are taking to Earth, trying to win hearts and minds with a massive propaganda campaign encouraging humanity to "embrace change" and be a part of the Skrull Empire, rather than engage in supposedly-futile resistance. That I really like, because even though in this story it's obviously not what we want to do, there is an element of good sense to it - it's not a bad idea. Ignoring the fighting with the Skrulls attacking superheroes - what they claim to be about, taking a paternal, guardian role above humanity for our own good, it's not an idea without merit, and (unlike Darkseid's silly mind-control equation) it's easy to see how it'd actually make sense to people. Let's face it, we're not doing that great for ourselves - can we really insist that we'd never be better off with someone keeping our more extremist tendencies in check? Of course the Skrulls aren't as nice as they paint themselves in the media - almost as soon as we're done with the propaganda, we see their front-line troops ready to blow the hell out of anyone in their way - but the plan they have is a plan that makes sense, and that adds to their power as an antagonist.
So that's the intellectually-satisfying parts, and they work, more or less. But at its heart, what Secret Invasion is is a summer blockbuster - it's about action, adventure, heroes fighting impossible odds, spectacles so awesome they have you leaning forwards on your figurative cinema seat wanting to see what comes next. From a sequence showing the extent of the struggle, all over the world (and on the moon) - which cleverly underlies the narration of the Skrull propaganda - to the smoking cityscape of battle-torn Manhattan to the huge double-page spreads of everyone available rallying to the battle-cry "Avengers assemble!", and then another one of a seriously huge knock-down drag-out fight, Earth vs Skrull in all its glory... holy crap, there's a Skrull Galactus in that scene! That's crazy. You've got to love it, though. It's not philosophy (though it's a smart story), it's an in-your-face action spectacular, and it is good.
Final Crisis: Revelations #2 ~ I'm not enjoying Final Crisis, so this suffers a kind of Crap By Association. The solo parts of this story - which is basically a reuniting of Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen, now The Question, deeply involved in battling the cult of the Dark Faith, and The Spectre, God's spirit of vengeance - have potential in themselves, and sustain this issue for about three-quarters of its length. Then the Anti-Life Equation rears its stupid head, and things get shaky - I'm sorry, it's just not a clever concept, it's nothing more than a pretentious re-wording of Lex Luthor's Brain-Control-O-Matic from an old Superfriends episode. Getting back to the good bits, there are some interesting exchanges between Renee and Cris, and Cris and Sister Clarice (God's spirit of mercy, apparently), but the story suffers from being a mystery where everyone already knows what's going on, but won't tell the audience. Something horrible happened with/to Renee after she unwillingly got elected to leadership of the cult, the Spectre knows about it, and they're all chasing a prophecy which we only get to hear about as it's happening. I'm not a fan of prophecy in general - too often it's just shorthand for 'what the writer wants to happen', without any actual in-story rationale, though in this case I'm not sure whether to be annoyed at Rucka for using such a trite trick, or Morrison for building the dumb structure of Final Crisis that, really, doesn't give Rucka much else to work with. Really, my main sentiment after reading this is that I hope no-one's encountering the Question or Batwoman for the first time here, because they'll go away with the impression that they're not very interesting, and their other appearances have shown they're better than this. (But yeah, I bought both covers anyway... c'mon, Renee Montoya or Batwoman, I can't make a choice like that!)
Red Sonja #37 ~ This is a decent sword-and-sandal action comic, but I'm not happy with it. Why is that? It's the whole 'new direction' idea, much touted when Brian Reed joined the title as writer - the idea that he was going to do something new and different with Red Sonja, and indeed started out by having her reborn into an entirely new life. The problem is that the previous issue, and this one, have been all about yanking her back to a carbon-copy of her old life just as fast as is humanly possible - it's not bad work, but given the premise of the new life, it's about as unimaginative as it could possibly be, and I just can't shake that feeling of disappointment, no matter how much individual scenes and exchanges of dialogue might be well-written (in that regard, I found the grave-digging scene, and the idea behind it, especially good). I don't know how long-running readers of Red Sonja might be taking this, but me, I'm wondering if it's worth getting this as monthly issues - if there's nothing much compelling about it, nothing that makes me want to find out what happens next as soon as I can, there's really no reason not to just wait for the cheaper trade paperbacks to arrive.
Wonder Woman #24 ~ The cover says it all - 'Wonder Woman the movie?!?', and Diana herself looking bemused and a bit peeved. That's the middle of the issue - the beginning is unconnected with the movie storyline, and after about the two-thirds mark things take a turn for the dramatic (not Hollywood drama), which puts the story back on firmer footing. Not that I'm averse to the idea of a 'lighter' concept like Wonder Woman having to deal with people making a Wonder Woman movie - especially since Gail Simone takes the opportunity to address some of the more media-image-related issues surrounding Diana (and tweak the noses of anyone who's protested that her costume is 'too revealing') - but it seemed, when I saw the solicitations in Previews, the kind of thing that would be better suited to a one-issue story, rather than a multi-issue arc. But as I say, that's not an issue, since Diana's trip to Hollywood turns out to involve a lot more than just know-nothing executives and shallow test-audience-driven rewrites. It's too early to really comment on the unfolding storyline - especially for me, who had to hit wikipedia to even identify the antagonist - but Simone's never let me down yet.
The first third of the comic, the bit not to do with Hollywood, is another sequence forwarding the Nemesis romance storyline - and I know I've said it before, but Gail's writing makes all the difference. I remember when I couldn't stand Nemesis's presence in this comic, especially his then-forced attraction to Diana, and now I not only tolerate him, I enjoy sequences like this, where he bumbles through the Amazon versions of the familiar relationship perils. In this case, meeting the parents - any parent is an imtimidating prospect for a guy, but when your girlfriend's mother is Hippolyta, it takes on a special air of mind-numbing anxiety, and of course amusement for the rest of us. Gail gets a lot of praise for how she writes female characters, and well-deserved, but if you ask me, she's got Nemesis nailed as perfectly as any comic book male I've ever read. And that, along with the rest, makes this my favourite issue of this week's haul.
Ms. Marvel #30 ~ Carol's personal Secret Invasion arc wraps up, with her discovering a really-Super-Skrull on Ryker's, a Skrull that's not just copying one or several superpowers, but a whole load of them, like the Super-Adaptoid on steroids. The majority of the issue is a straight-up duel between Carol and Super-Duper-Skrull, and so far as fight scenes go, it's not bad - it has logical ups and downs, a couple of interesting strategies from both parties, some visually spectacular sequences, a dash of subtext relating to Carol's recent struggles re: superhero morality, and the end game is satisfying. That's about all there is to say, really - good fight, well presented, good work from Brian Reed (better than Red Sonja, at that). Melo, Benes and Sotomayor provide attractive and energetic art - it's not really anything new, but for some reason while I was reading this issue I noticed how much I like how Carol's black costume is coloured. The issue wraps up with a 'several months later' snippet, foreshadowing an upcoming plotline - apart from guessing there's not much to be gleaned from it, though Paolo Siqueria, providing the art for these pages, evidently believes that Carol's already ample breasts put on another couple of sizes in the near future.
Patsy Walker: Hellcat #3 ~ This is a weird, weird comic. In fact, I have only the vaguest idea what the hell happened this issue - Patsy and various talking animals and spirits seemed to dart about making random statements and decisions, following no discernable logic, and chatting or fighting at random. And yet, I didn't finish the issue thinking "Why the hell did I buy this?" - and I'm not really sure why. I'm not averse to experimental story-telling, but overall I like a solid basis of a straight-forward story, and I can't find one here, much - yet I like it. I guess it's just a matter of charm - Kathryn Immonen's dialogue may not make much sense, but there's a fun rhythm to it, kind of like a trippy music video, and David Lafuente's art matches it very well, with darting motion and whimsical composition, and... it's hard to explain. Maybe I'm missing the deeper meaning of it all, but to me, it makes as much sense as a kitten chasing its own tail - yet it's just as cute, too.
