Previews #245 ~ New stuff that caught my eye this month, including reasons (where there is one - some things I just order because they look cool):
p38 Empowered volume 5 (one of my favourite books)
p82 Justice Society of America #26 (argh, I want all three covers! I'll go with Cyclone, and hope that the art gets released as a poster eventually)
p146 Pherone graphic novel hardcover (intriguing, but I'll wait and see if a softcover shows up)
p155 Dawn volume two reoffer (may be of interest to some, but Dark Ivory soured me on Linsner)
Marvel p35 Spider-Woman #1 (might be worth a look)
Marvel p45 All-New Savage She-Hulk #1
p212 Fathom: Kiani trade paperback
p212 Fearless Dawn #1
p223 Legend of Isis: Dogs of War trade paperback
p226 Farscape: D'Argo's Lament #1 (D'Argo and Jool were a great pair)
p234 Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose #51 signed deluxe edition (just beyond my meagre price range, but I'm very tempted by the bonus colour art)
p296 Atomic Robo and the Shadow from Beyond Time #1 (looks awesome)
And in the merchandise section:
p130 Blackest Night action figures (Boodikka looks a bit rubbish, but check out the Indigo Lantern in series two!)
p132 Wonder Woman Deluxe Collector's Figure - a warning, not a recommendation, these 13" dolls are mediocre at best, and Diana sadly looks like a pretty bad one.
p368 Futurama series 5 action figures - Amy Wong and Leela as Clobberella
p370 DC Heroes wave 8 - argh, a female build-a-figure (Giganta), there's no way I'll be able to even find all those figures to get all the pieces of her, let alone afford them
p373 Bionicle - never seen them advertise in here before, but they're great toys.
p376 Battlestar Galactica Leoben/Starbuck 2-pack action figures
p432 Captain Felicity Bliss statue (I can't afford it, but it looks sooo awesome, summing up everything that's great about pulp sci-fi adventure)
Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose #54 ~ I've always been a fan of Raven Hex (Tarot's shadowy sister), so this issue is just a delight for me. Out of nowhere (though it's explained by the end) Raven finds herself in a variety of fairy tales - Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Red Riding Hood, Cinderella - and being Raven, she doesn't just sit idly by and watch events unfold around her. Instead - having always thought that the women in fairy tales could do with some improvement - she sets about trying to drum some sense into them, encouraging good girls and wicked witches alike to quit trying to conform to society's expectations of them, and just be themselves as big and loud and proud as they can be. And let's face it, fairy tales could stand a bit of improvement, especially when it comes to women - being essentially cautionary tales designed to reinforce lessons of morality, and originating from far more patriarchal times (not that we've got that problem solved now, but at least we've made progress), it can be disquieting to realise the messages our beloved fairy tales tell young girls, about how they must conform to society's expectations (or suffer the often grisly consequences of 'straying from the path'), and all too often how the path to true happiness lies in changing themselves to meet the preconceived notions of Prince Charming.
Raven is the perfect vehicle for this re-interprative romp through Grimm's classics - not only is it wickedly funny to see her teach Red Riding Hood to hunt the wolf, berate the Evil Queen for caring what her mirror thinks of her, and fit Cinderella out with a see-through glass corset that ensures that she can go out and get her Prince instead of waiting for him to come to her, but it's very true to Raven's own character as well. In a sense, this issue is a follow-up to issue #48, which brought Raven to re-examine and re-affirm her commitment to her way of life - here we see the result of that re-affirmation, a Raven Hex who's more in tune with herself and her goals, more balanced than the fiery, 'evil' witch she was when she first appeared, yet having lost none of her strength or individuality. The artwork and scripting of the issue, too, is flat-out gorgeous, with each page presented as a crinkled well-read page of an old children's book, and the composition of the pages carrying through the style and flavour of illustrated tales. It's convenient that I've been reading a little of the Grimm Fairy Tales comic lately, because it lets me say this with confidence - if you're a fan of Grimm, you must read this.
Wonder Woman #28 ~ Zeus continues to put in motion his plan to save the world from itself, which of course can only lead to disaster on a grand scale - Gail Simone writes Zeus very well, with a real flair for recreating his 'historical' self, so much so that you feel genuinely sorry for him, and his inability to understand the world he's returned to, in spite of the madness he's going to cause. Meanwhile Diana has rallied the troops - herself, Donna Troy, and Wonder Girl, each in their own versions of her 'eagle' armour (making for a terrific scene when they take to the field of battle together) - and in spite of her injuries, and the very real prospect that she could die, sets about battling Genocide before it can kill half the Justice League. Everything about Wonder Woman is perfect, the way Simone writes her - I don't mean 'idealised', I mean she's exactly what (I believe, anyway) she should be, noble and kind and fierce and human. There's a scene early on between her and Nemesis that's almost heartbreaking - and this is Nemesis, for heaven's sake, the guy I most wanted to see kicked out of the title when he first turned up in Heinberg's issues. Shows what great writing will accomplish, huh? Cheetah adorns the cover as part of DC's 'Faces of Evil' thingy, but luckily Simone's got more sense than to derail her storyline just to placate the editors - Cheetah's around, as part of the Secret Society plotline behind Genocide, and she even gets a very cool moment in the issue (that manages to further draw in pre-Simone material and make it cool - I'd have been happy had she just ignored everything that happened from #1 to #13, but instead she seems set on redeeming it all, and so far she's doing it), but the issue isn't a Cheetah spotlight or anything of that sort. As before, Genocide's physical appearance remains the only quibble I have - Aaron Lopresti, who puts in a great job in every other area of the title, really should put some work into refining the way he draws Genocide, because I just don't think the thing's looking as horrific as it's supposed to.
She-Hulk #37 ~ Sigh, I'm going to miss this so much. Peter David's writing is just so damned good, not only does he come up with interesting ideas, but the way he puts them on paper, the words he chooses, makes those ideas get up and dance for your entertainment, rather than just sitting on the page waiting to be read. This issue, following the Lady Liberators escapade, finds She-Hulk in jail for violating all kinds of international laws - and who should come to bail her out but Mallory Book, her old nemesis from Dan Slott's run. David's used her before, bringing her in a few issues back as part of explaining how Shulkie found herself out of her job as a lawyer, but the way he handles her here is something else - it's just spot-on, and much as I respect Slott's writing (which is really the basis for She-Hulk as she is now), I have to say I think David's portrayal of Mallory is matchless. Meanwhile - or rather later, since the issue jumps between 'earlier' and 'now' timeframes - the Man-Elephant, reborn in dramatic (and impressively non-laughable) fashion as Behemoth earlier in David's run, has caught up with his old arch-foe, intent on battling it out for his own peace of mind, and the enjoyment of the general public - shades of Byrne's self-aware Shulkie, as Behemoth explains that he's fighting because the fans want to see heroes and villains fight. Under David's deft writing, Behemoth is funny without being laughable - in the end, you kind of feel happy for him, when a clever set of circumstances contrives to give him what he always wanted, deep down.
Incidentally, there are hints here that - at least in the Marvel world - the idea of the modern Liberators has caught on, and that people are hoping they'll become a regular team. I really hope that's not just a pipe dream - writing as good as this deserves to be read, and a Peter David-written Lady Liberators title (maybe dropping the 'Lady', though keeping the all-female line-up) has been my fond hope ever since I found out that She-Hulk was being concluded.
Aspen Showcase: Ember ~ Although I read Shrugged #8, that was a whimsical purchase and I hadn't read any of the prior issues, so Ember - one of the villains of the piece - remains rather a mystery. This issue shows her rise to power, and casts her in a rather sympathetic light by making her frustrations understandable to a degree - you can see how she's not so much a villain as a misguided hero, led astray by her own impetuousness (a bit like early Raven Hex from Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose), and also by being a bit naive when it comes to letting people manipulate you. Nevertheless it's not a bad little tale, told in a cute framing sequence, and with some fun pokes at contemporary politics.
Ms. Marvel #35 ~ The threads of recent issues really come together here - now that the nature of Dark Reign is out of the bag, Brian Reed is free to lay his cards on the table concerning Carol's vendetta against Norman Osborn and how it ties to the events we saw in the big flashback to do with Ghazi Rashid. To this Reed now adds a big dose of Captain Marvel, with strong ties to the pre-Secret Invasion miniseries and the Church of Hala, and Noh-Varr, now one of Osborn's Avengers. Carol's emotionally involved in the Church of Hala crisis, due to how she feels about the Captain Marvel legacy - it's an interesting side of her to explore, since (as we were reminded in the 'Family' issue recently) she doesn't really have a lot of emotional ties at all, and the storylines so far in this title have been largely about Carol's opinion of herself - positive and negative - and the kind of person that makes her. This kind of continuity-related story is a bit of a new angle for me - I guess it might be a good time to go hunt down a copy of Essential Ms. Marvel and read up on her origins a bit more.
Justice Society of America #23 ~ My only complaint with this issue is that Power Girl is almost completely absent - I know she had a rough time, being stuck in Earth-2 and then losing her newfound surrogate cousin figure Superman-22, but come on Geoff Johns, you made her the Society chairwoman, let's see her at least have something to say in the dramatic conference room scenes. It's left up to the reader to even assume she's there - we never see the whole room at once, but it looks like a lot of the Society is present, not just the featured characters. Otherwise this is a solid issue, serving as a bridge between the concluded Gog arc and the next big thing, which is evidently Black Adam, a longtime JSA antagonist. Isis is back (yay!), and still in the betrayed-by-the-world mood she was when she died in Adam's arms, telling him she was wrong about hope and mercy and all of that - being resurrected only to be abused by Felix Faust can't have helped either (she takes gleeful revenge on him - you go girl). This Isis, who's been beaten down by the evils of the world and lost the inner equilibrium that used to sustain her, is an interesting idea - I only hope, with Johns' tenure on this title drawing to a close, that his replacement won't just use Isis as a villain. I'd really like to see her and Black Adam explored in a balanced way, and her sense of mercy eventually rekindled, at least enough to serve as a balance to her now-wounded psyche, if not completely (let's face it, she was pretty over-the-top compassionate in 52 - she could use a bit of darkness). Between the Black Adam/Shazam family, and more about Damage, this is really an issue that'll appeal most to people who read the previous JSA series, as well as this relaunch.
Ythaq: The Forbidden Planet #2 ~ This is just superbly entertaining - not to mention the best value-for-money comic Marvel puts out, with a US$5.99 price tag getting you sixty pages jam-packed with sci-fantasy adventure, as Callista negotiates her fortunate but precarious situation posing as a local ruler, and Granite and Narvath - who think Callista has been taken prisoner, rather than taking over the place - make plans to rescue her, so long as they can survive long enough themselves. At every turn there's fun and excitement, with a varied supporting cast building up, exotic locations, daring action and suspense, and plenty or humour, all illustrated by lavish artwork full of vibrant colour and exacting detail. I really can't think what else to say, except 'buy this comic' - it's impossible that you'll regret it.
Final Crisis #7 ~ I really shouldn't be reviewing this, because I'm not going to say anything I haven't said about previous issues, and all I'll be accomplishing is to annoy people who liked it - but it's the final issue of the miniseries, so it'd be strange to omit it. I'm not entirely able to wrap my head around what it is the fans see in Final Crisis, though I suspect it's got a lot to do with the sheer volume of references to DC lore in it - with the actual storytelling kept to a minimum (and often entirely absent) Morrison is free to have panel after panel of characters turning up for no real reason, so he covers a lot of ground. But if you're not the kind of person who could enjoy reading a DC Encyclopaedia for its own sake, I hate to be harsh, but this story is kind of worthless. There are no heroes or villains, no plan, no counter-plan, no human beings or human choices at all - just a series of random special effects montages and people in costumes spouting dialogue or taking actions which have no connection to who they are or what's going on. What really annoys me, I think - if you're a fan, skip to the next review, because I think I'm just going to go into rant mode - is that it's really obvious from the writing that Morrison believes that he's created something deeply profound, when... it's just not. It's preaching to the choir taken to an absurd extreme - I can't imagine anyone even slightly outside the target audience (which is the DC fanatics, I guess) finding any meaning in what Morrison's done here, except in the abstract sense of noticing the points he's trying to make and figuring out what he thinks his story is about. It's not really a story, even - it's more like Rip Hunter's blackboard, a series of 'things' with no meaning in themselves, only in their relevance to other stories; in truth, Final Crisis is just a giant, garbled slideshow advertisement for DC comics, cramming as many characters and situations in as it can without any effort to construct a story around them. I mean, a giant space vampire being defeated by living solar batteries? DC fans may abuse Civil War and World War Hulk and Secret Invasion for being simplistic, but at least they're about human beings making real decisions - Final Crisis is just Morrison throwing ink at a page and telling everyone that the splatters mean something if you're smart enough to see it. Drugged enough, more like.
Final Crisis: Revelations #5 ~ This lacklustre miniseries gets a boost for its last issue, thankfully, with the aimless exposition regarding the Spectre finally grounding itself in some real human drama, as crunch time comes for Crispus Allen, and we see what it is that the Spectre wants of him, and what it'll take for him to be a part of it again. It's not exactly a seamless story, but for a reader of Gotham Central it has a neat sense of continuity to it, and justifies Renee's presence, in spite of all the supernatural silliness surrounding her and the Spear of Destiny. Note to DC: drop that (and that ridiculous 'Global Peace Agent' crap) and let her be the Question, a detective. The Spirit of Mercy is a bit annoying, moping about whining about how God's abandoned them - I found I had little patience with that, and was wishing she'd just get up and take some action herself, rather than waiting for God to hold her hand the whole way - but the Spectre side of things held together well enough, and good dialogue (finally) between Renee and Huntress kept things enjoyable. Overall, a weak Question story, but it saved itself from worse in the end.
Avengers: The Initiative #21 ~ I'm not sure I like Ramos's art - the anime influenced style fits okay with earlier artists this title has had, but when he gets carried away with everyone having pin heads on huge shoulders, and baring enormous amounts of teeth when they shout, it distracts me from the story. Luckily the story's pretty decent - still following the aftermath of Secret Invasion, Gauntlet is more or less stuck being in charge, various other characters moving about with nods to the various 50 State Initiative teams and who's on them, and of course 'Clor', the cloned Thor, getting loose and going on a rampage. What I would like to see from this title, though, is a bit more seriousness - not 'dark themes' or any of that nonsense, but more of a focus on the fact that this is a military training camp, and what that entails. Read Starship Troopers (ignore the movie), that kind of thing.
Victoria's Secret Service: Nemesis Rising ~ Okay, I admit it was the cute title that got me to order this way back when it appeared in Previews. Surprisingly, it's not all eye candy - of course, there are the quartet of lovely secret agents in their skintight outfits, but it's much more low-key than you'd find in, say, Danger Girl, which in other respects this closely resembles. What sets it apart is that it's very British - while DG is a loving homage to Bond (who's a Brit, yes, but he's also kind of Hollywood) and Mission Impossible and all that, VSS harks back more to the Avengers TV show (John Steed and Emma Peel, not Steve Rogers et. al.), Danger Man, the old cold war spy adventure genre, with all their double-crosses and plots within plots. There's also a very strong focus on royalty, in the main story in this volume - on the one hand it's a fun and fantastical spy adventure, but it's also rooted in the monarchy and the media circus around them, which elevates the story above just fun-adventure status.
New Avengers #49 ~ Not pictured in the group photo up the top of the column, since I picked it up late along with the action figures, once they'd unpacked. With all the Avengers teams reshuffling due to Dark Reign, I followed Ms. Marvel here and bought the issue for a look. It's largely about Luke Cage, which is okay with me - Bendis writing Cage is pretty fun, and the other characters get a look-in. Since this book now has Ms. Marvel, Spider-Woman, and Mockingbird, I'll probably be buying more - if they stick around - but it'll be on thin ice just due to the US$3.99 price tag; if that continues, with only 22 story pages per issue, it'll take a lot of Carol and Jessica and Bobbie to keep me from switching to trade paperbacks on this one.
