Cyblade #1 ~ The first of two victors from last year's Pilot Season finally arrives as an ongoing series, and it's both encouraging and disappointing. Encouraging because it's very much of a piece, in just about every regard, with its Pilot Season issue - and since the other three winners from 07 and 08, Velocity, Genius, and Twilight Guardian, all had terrific Pilot Season issues, we can theoretically look forward to terrific series out of them too. Disappointing because, honestly, I didn't think much of the Pilot Season Cyblade issue, and nothing's changed, except perhaps the art which I don't recall being this slipshod, with lacklustre faces, poor composition, and pretty dull imagery all around. The story is the same old 90s mutant/superspy/conspiracy whatnot that the Pilot Season issue trotted out, and with the two main characters hampered by being comatose most of the issue (Dominique) or being a yawn-inducing Mary Sue (Rashell), I can't find myself feeling anything for either of them, which isn't a great feeling to have at the end of a debut issue. Furthermore there's no less than five pages of Dominique naked, having a shower mostly, and of course obscured by convenient steam - guys, if you're not willing to show a nipple or something (which is apparently worse than using the F-word or blowing a gory hole through a guy), don't draw full-figure nudes and then half-ass it with special effects - it just looks childish. A disappointing debut on all counts, but I'll stick with it to see if things improve.
Ms. Marvel #32 ~ With Secret Invasion still going on but this title having finished its tie-in, it's flashback time in order to avoid having to spoil the ending of the big event - although the 'previously in' page, presented as a letter from Carol's Air Force commander, is cleverly constructed with many censored words to hint at a possible outcome without committing to anything. SO what we have here is a story of Carol Danvers, Air Force pilot - no superheroes (although Tony Stark makes a fun cameo), just a soldier who gets shot down in enemy territory and is captured. This issue treads a fine line, staying basically true to its Ms. Marvel heritage of heroics and looking good (Carol in her flight suit, hot damn), but taking the story into somewhat unfamiliar territory for a mainstream superhero comic, with genuine brutality in the later interrogation sequences, and surprisingly well-realised use of nudity (not full nudity, but the bad guys strip Carol down to her undies) as a tool of intimidation by the bad guys, and to underscore for readers her vulnerability and the brutality of what they do to her, without coming off as crass or expoitative. Cyblade take note. Carol is well-written throughout, and while she's courageous and intelligent, she's also younger and sometimes less composed than the Carol we know - yet she also has the confidence in herself that comes from knowing her role as a soldier, which contrasts interestingly with her later insecurity about her less defined role as a superhero. This storyline is a bold step for this comic, but so far it's working.
Final Crisis #4 ~ Finally this story's going somewhere. Morrison's still far too much in love with his own ideas, which are sadly nowhere near as elegant as he thinks they are (and sometimes just plain silly - Green Arrow's retort to it was a nice moment, but otherwise "Anti-life justifies my actions!" is the dumbest menacing chant since "Hey, who turned out the lights?", and at least that had a genuine concept behind it), nor can he write the majority of his cast with any sense of character - the Green Arrow/Black Canary scene was good, but not great, and that was the high point - but having spent three issues farting about 'setting stuff up', we finally get Darkseid taking over the Earth, and all hell breaking loose for the handful of heroes left in their right mind. It ain't new and it ain't clever - heck, Lex Luthor did the same thing decades ago, and turned everyone into Bizarro clones to boot - but you can't argue with a good ol' zombie apocalypse, which is what this basically amounts to. Incidentally, news came through this week that J.G. Jones, despite having Carlos Pecheco and Jesus Merino helping him on art, won't be drawing the final issue; can't say I'm bothered, I haven't yet found the art in Final Crisis to be extraordinary in any way, and in fact in a lot of panels I've found myself studying them to try to work out what's going on, motion-wise. Still, this issue is an upswing for DC - about time, but at least the signs are good.
Secret Invasion #7 ~ In the same week as Final Crisis improves a bit, Secret Invasion puts in a slightly lacklustre performance. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the fighting, but it was just that - fighting, no real drama, just a bunch of punches thrown and popcorn moments deployed. Some of them were good - Clint Barton picking up the Hawkeye bow again worked - some so-so - couldn't really care less about the baby - and some I just shrugged and move on from - Noh-Varr, who as I said in last week's Mighty Avengers review I don't know much about nor do I really care. And the final cliffhanger... okay, sure. It's not bad, it's just a bit hollow, since even if the worst happens, I don't really care - it's a bit like Hank Pym being the 'big' Skrull reveal, he's just not major enough for it to be that much of a shock. Still, having said all that, I enjoyed the hell out of this issue, because the preceding six issues have built up goodwill and trust in me - I trust that, so-so feelings about this issue notwithstanding, the finale will be a good one. So I'm happy, which is all I really ask of a comic like this.
True Believers #4 ~ More flashbacks, as a comatose Payback recalls how she recruited each of the True Believers - each encounter is sketched out, too brief to be really interesting, but entertaining enough not to count as a negative overall. Meanwhile the rest of the team are on the trail of whatever it is the bad guys are up to, which turns out to involve a couple of Hydra goons - it wraps up by the end of the issue, leaving the big cliffhanger to lead into the next (and final) issue. I can't say I'm that excited about it - it aims to be a big shock, but in a shared universe like Marvel we know that a little title like this isn't going to change anything, so the effect is undermined by the knowledge that it'll all just go back to status quo, plotwise. I'm still basically enjoying this, and I'd really like to see the True Believers more, in other Marvel books when their modus operandi is appropriate - but this particular story doesn't seem like it's really giving them the grand debut it wants to.
Birds of Prey #123 ~ The big confrontation between Oracle and Joker... doesn't really materialise. I know that could seem a bit of a spoiler, but I feel that the cliffhanger of the previous issue promised something that this one didn't deliver - not that it contradicts itself, it just uses some fancy footwork to delay the showdown - so I don't feel bad about 'revealing' that. For the rest, as the cover says the Calculator is in this issue fairly substantially, and we get more background on the Silicon Syndicate, or whatever they're called. That I had to check their name drives home a bit of a weakness about this arc - who cares about these villains? This issue trots out a number of ghastly crimes and bizarre perculiarities the bad guys are into, but ultimately they're still just random goons for the Birds to fight, and apart from bringing in the Joker to face Barbara they're yet to spark any genuine drama. It's issues like this that really make me regret Gail Simone's absence from this title - all the same elements are there, but the elegant, character-driven writing that used to glue them together just isn't.
New Avengers #41 ~ Yet more backstory filling-in, this time revealing how The Hood and his band of super-criminals got wind of the Skrull invasion, and how they got to the point they're in in the Secret Invasion miniseries, which is basically just jumping in to grudgingly lend a hand on Earth's side. There's nothing here that's really surprising, and since I wasn't reading New Avengers back when the Hood's gang was part of it I don't have any real connection to any of these characters, but what's here is written with a bit of flair, and presented in an entertaining way. The dialogue between the Hood and his minions is quite enjoyable, making him a somewhat interesting mix of criminal thug and visionary. The issue ends with what may be a bit reveal, but since I a) don't even know if this is something new, or if regular readers have known it all along, and b) don't much care anyway, it wasn't a big moment for me. This issue falls into the middle-ground of Secret Invasion backstory tie-ins - not essential and enriching to the big event, but nor was it pointless and bland.
Soulfire: Shadow Magic #0 ~ This week's random pick. What we've got here is a mystic fantasy kind of story - the main characters seem to be various kinds of fairy or something (they've got wings, anyhow), divided into the Rahtumi - good guys - and Sethori - bad guys. A war is brewing, with the nasties poised to launch some big offensive, and in this issue we meet some of the characters who, one assumes, will be players in the big story to come - Grace (the cover girl), a woman with some kind of dragon as a pet, and her lover Kelsyn, a soldier; Reyna, a rebellious teenager in a hunter-gatherer kind of village (a Sethoru tribe, showing that they're not all malevolent witches - could be an interesting angle to the conflict), and some evil Sethoru witch who's going to kick off the whole war with the aid of Praedus, who I gather is a Rahtumi general or something who's going to betray them. It's just a zero issue, so there's not a great deal of explanation, but it looks like this might have the makings of an interesting fantasy story - I'll get issue #1, at least, to see where it stands.
She-Hulk #34 ~ That cover is just such a winner for me. I admit I don't know much about Valkyrie, but Thundra's always been eye-catching for me, and I've always wanted to see Sue Storm cut loose and kick arse, without having the rest of the Fantastic Four around (I'm not that interested in any of them). And, of course, I adore She-Hulk. This issue, following a similar gathering of heroines in Hulk #7 - which I'll go take a look at now, and buy if it looks good - has Shulkie calling in her girlfriends on a humanitarian mission, to see that relief supplies get to those who need them in some flea-bitten tin-pot dictatorship that'd suffered an Earthquake - El President of said nation is an overblown cliche of a villain, but the concept stands up well as an echo of any number of real-world crises caused or perpetuated by repressive regimes, and largely ignored by wealthy nations because there's no oil in it. It's an interesting setup for a superhero story - I'm curious to see where Peter David will take it politically, because there's a lot about the scenario that could be explored - but it's particularly fitting for She-Hulk in her current state, where she's still bitter about the whole superhero thing, but her urge to do good is fighting back, and a cause like this is understandably tempting. David writes all the guest stars with the humour and insight he delivers every issue on the regulars - Valkyrie quickly became a favourite, with a fun mix of olde worlde cliche-speak and knowning sarcasm - and GG Studio once again delivers exciting and unique artwork. All in all, another great issue - don't change a thing.
