We Kill Monsters #1 ~ Red 5 Comics sent out a PDF of this issue for review; you'll recall if you read the Free Comic Book Day Spotlight article that I wasn't that impressed by the nine-page preview of the title in Red 5's FCBD issue, but my problem with it was that its storytelling was too page-hungry to really contain a worthwhile chunk of material in those nine pages. The good news is that the full issue has allayed that concern: there's a solid, interesting story in this, about two brothers - yes, they wind up fighting monsters, but it's really about their relationship, the positives and negatives of how these two guys work together. As a matter of fact, the FCBD preview's problem was that, in order to show some actual monster-fighting, it had to skip the earlier stuff that establishes a lot about the guys - once you read the whole thing you become a lot more invested in them, and thus the monster-fighting is suddenly interesting because characters you care about are at stake. Despite the fantastical concept, and animationesque art, it's a very down-to-earth story. I'm not sure off the top of my head what to compare it to, to give an "If you like insert-name-here you may enjoy this," endorsement (it strikes me as being a bit like 'Evil Dead', only with two guys instead of just one, and neither of them are insane), but there's a website at wekillmonsters.com with more about the comic, so you can have a look and see for yourself. The Previews code to order this issue is MAY091014, and it'll hit the stands on July 8th.
The Voyages of SheBuccaneer #5 ~ This issue is the second of the three-part 'Eye of the Jade Dragon' storyline - with issues #1 to #3 setting up SheBuccaneer's quest and presenting a couple of done-in-one episodes to establish the flavour of the book, the groundwork was laid for longer adventures such as this one, in which the Captain and her ragged crew are beset by all manner of foes, from powerful Asian wizards and witches to their recurring nemesis Ben Claggart (who varies from untrustworthy ally to traitorous foe - he's from the Captain Barbosa school of pirates) and the Dutch governor who had the Captain's lover put to death initially, and is just itching to make it a double. Regardless of having three issues instead of one to play with, the pace doesn't let up - it just throws in three times as many obstacles in the Captain's path, giving her the opportunity to get really beat down and still keep on fighting. She's one of those heroes who, while they may not always outgun or outsmart their opponents, just will not give up through sheer stubborn force of will - there's a really cool scene part-way through this one where she essentially uses pure unmagical pirate gusto to defeat an enchantment, which is really fun (speaking of fun, so is Benjamin Franklin interrupting Mr. Featherbone's narration of the story). By the end of the issue the Captain is in trouble up to her neck, with yet another foe come out of the woodwork to beset her - as the ad for issue #6 says, the more they try to beat her down, the cooler it'll be when she kicks their asses. Besides the story (24 pages) there's the usual centrefold, by Howard Shum this time, plus a few more pages of extra features, including a couple of pages from writer Heidi Hughes that go into the origins of SheBuccaneer as a comic, and mention the magic words 'trade paperback' (yay!), and a two-page guest art gallery featuring some very saucy renditions of the Captain. Like I keep saying, this is indie comics done right.
All New Savage She-Hulk #2 ~ I'll say right away that I'm still enjoying this enough to keep buying it - I want to make that plain, because the rest of this review's probably going to be complaining. See, this is still an enjoyable superhero action story, dividing its time between Lyra roughing it up with present-day heroes getting in the way of her mysterious quest (as the cover suggests, with a rather unsubtly eye-candy layout reminiscent of the movie poster for For Your Eyes Only, it's the proper She-Hulk this time), and a flashback to Lyra's own time/dimension filling in the background of what she's doing. The flashback is far more interesting, it must be said - She-Hulk is fun to have around, but her dialogue isn't up to Peter David standards, and the fact is that what happens betwee her and Lyra doesn't matter: it's not the final showdown for this miniseries, so Lyra isn't getting defeated, end of story. The stuff in her own world is much better - the writing isn't more refined, but it's freer to play with ideas and have fun, leading to terrifically warped stuff like the devolved tribes of men mindlessly aping present-day superheroes like totemic deities, and the implications of the 'U-Hero' relics; I don't want to say it's as outright good as the legends of science fiction, but it's got the same kind of fascinating otherworldliness as the future of The Time Machine, or Planet of the Apes once you know the twist. The good news is that the present-day stuff, the new Dark Avengers specifically, seems to be heavily tied into this alternate future, so while it's pretty much a given that this miniseries won't affect 'Dark Reign' in any real way, it does look like more of that interesting alt-world material will be involved in the next issues.
Action Comics #877 ~ I'm still following on with this storyline as best I can - it contains the necessary information to figure out what's happening and why - but the fact that I'm not reading other Superman titles, and I know pretty much nothing about this New Krypton thing, is a big hindrance here, in terms of me really caring about what's going on, since whatever it is it doesn't seem to be affecting any other DC titles I read (except Superman fussing about it in Justice League of America, but that's crap so who cares), so it can't be that big a deal. There are rogue Kryptonians around, the military's being all jerkass, Lois Lane's dad is a general (was that always the case, or did they just nick it from Betty Ross in Hulk?), but since it's obvious the Earth will endure it comes down to whether you care about the characters - and the female half of the dynamic duo spends the whole issue in a coma, so that ain't great. Also there's a big scene done with that Kryptonian text, which y'know what DC: no-one's impressed. Seriously, has anyone bothered to learn the silly symbols so they can read Kryptonian? Because it's just a swap-the-symbole cypher, not a real language. Just put the actual English text in the speech bubbles, with pointy brackets or a weird font or something to indicate they're speaking alien, and be done with it. At present it looks kind of like this is leading towards Christopher Kent becoming Superboy, in which case I think I'll drop it - I don't care about Superboy, and if that's what happens, I doubt Thala will get equal page time as him.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars #6 ~ The final issue - for me anyway, I'm not interested in the next thing to come, three issues of Plo Koon or whatever - more or less maintains the elevated standard of #5, finishing this story off on a high note that helps overshadow the somewhat unambitious and meandering first four issues. I don't feel it's unfair to compare this directly to the TV show - normally a comic just can't cover as much ground as an episode, but Clone Wars eps are like 22 minutes anyway, so it's not such a big difference - and the difference is really one of pacing: on TV, this whole slave storyline would've been a three-parter at most, kind of like the 'Malevolence' trilogy. Spreading it over six issues just thinned the material too much - putting Anakin back in the role of a slave, and seeing him deal with that, is a good and interesting idea, but seeing as this comic isn't willing to go into huge (and, given the subject matter, adult-oriented) depth about it, it was never going to sustain six issues. Having said this issue was good though, it wasn't quite up to the standard of #5 - the final assault by Anakin seemed a little clumsy, as if the Jedi ended up winning more by luck than skill, and some of the technical details of the art (which is pretty important when you're doing something as well-known in technology terms as Star Wars) are off-model, like the blocky gunships, or just plain wrong, like the 'Hyena' bombers that are just Vulture fighters with bomb bays, not the twin-hull Hyenas seen in the TV show (and in Lego form, which is where I know them from). The Clone Wars show was a surprise to me - I didn't expect to like it much, since I didn't like the prequels or the first Clone Wars cartoon, but it's become a favourite of mine through sheer fun. This comic version isn't up there - it's okay, but like all the other Star Wars comics around, nothing I can't do without.
Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers #1 ~ Well the cover says it all (or would, if I had the camera to do the usual photo of the week's comics): a bunch of the assorted animal sidekicks Marvel has accumulated over the years get together for an adventure. It's a silly idea, and I like silly ideas when done well, so obviously I had to take a look at this. Unfortunately it's not quite done well, it's just done okay. There's basically two avenues you can take with a silly concept: play against type, ignoring the silliness and telling a wholly consistent, coherent story, or play to type, running with the silliness and having non-stop fun with it. This tries to have it both ways - there are sections that aim for genuine depth, like the human-tragedy backstory of Throg (Thor Frog), or Lockheed's depression at the deaths of everyone he holds dear (I guess some X-Men died, I wouldn't know), but there are also flat-out silly bits, like Hairball (formerly Niels, Speedball's cat) having an ongoing argument with a dimwitted poodle, and the entire introductory sequence which uses Reed Richards and the Infinity Gems to kick-start the plot, without acknowledging that it's almost as contrived a story opening as a bunch of adventurers meeting in a tavern where the landlord tells them about a ruined temple nearby. It's not Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, where the jokes and twists keep coming fast enough that you don't pay attention to the thinness of the actual story, and it's not the 'Galactus's Daughter' segment of the recent Marvel Assistant Sized Spectacular, where the story and characterisation is strong enough not to need constant laughs to distract the reader from anything. Maybe it'll get better next issue, but I don't know if I'll keep buying - this was an on-a-whim buy anyway, so failing a knock-out first issue I don't feel obliged to stick around.
