News! I got an email from Jinky Coronado of Banzai Girls regarding the Annual reviewed back here (check the comments link on that page for the full message from Jinky) - you'll recall (or not, but that's why I'm reminding you) that the Annual was a bit of a let-down, since its comic content was limited to eight pages, with the rest being non-comic extras like photo shoots. Well, turns out that was all Arcana's idea - the short comic was never intended to be the sole comic feature of an annual, while the photo shoots were done for a dedicated photo gallery issue, so the blame for selling them together as an unsatisfying 'annual' falls squarely on the publisher's shoulders. I'm certainly a lot more reassured about the earlier Banzai Girls stories, which I'll see if I can find - I don't think my primary comic shop has any (for all their good points, they don't keep a great number of back issues long-term), but there are others around Sydney to try. If you're curious, Jinky's website here is the place to go for more on Banzai Girls.
Oh, and as you'll have seen, the camera's back, so no more superheroines in bikinis on the pretext of 'holiday' graphics. Sorry.
Executive Assistant Iris #1 ~ This issue follows up on the promise of the preview issue #0 (reviewed here), delivering a fairly smart and elegant opening to what will hopefully be an interesting journey. Iris is the star, and narrator, the consummate personal assistant, trained from childhood to provide absolutely everything her employer could possibly want: information, protection, assassination, sex, or just the perfect cup of tea. She takes pride in the performance of her duties, but is cold and isolated from anything else - her sense of self is suppressed, although this issue lays the groundwork for her to presumably rebel against her role eventually. If that story is told as well as it's set up, it'll be an interesting read - it'll need subtlety, but the signs are good. Iris's narration is particularly effective, 95% cold delivery of information, 5% hints that there's a real person stirring beneath her icy exterior - instead of just being a mechanism for exposition, it adds to her character in subtle ways.
Batman: Streets of Gotham #1 ~ As you'd imagine I'm getting this for the Manhunter story - it amounts to nine pages this issue, so it's not really good value, but with a couple of other titles dropping off my list I can afford it for now; I plan to read through the main story (called 'Ignition') once it's complete in a few issues' time, and then see how I feel about reading Batman stories and whether to keep this. The Manhunter story makes good use of its limited space, explaining Kate Spencer's presence in Gotham as its new DA and starting her off on her first extra-curricuilar case as Manhunter, tracking down her predecessor's murderer. It also squeaks in scenes between her and her son, and with Oracle, helping to connect her back to her original title, and her ties to the Birds of Prey. With only nine pages it's pretty early to say whether this'll be a resurgance for Kate, who got progressively less interesting as her own comic went on - returning her to a prosecutorial role in the courtroom (which she never should've left) is a great start, but it remains to be seen whether we'll actually see her as DA - hopefully we will, and it won't just be an unseen excuse to have Manhunter in Gotham.
All New Savage She-Hulk #3 ~ This issue picked up, after the previous one was good but a bit uneven - here everything feels as it should, with the flashbacks to Lyra's alternate future quite gripping, and the present-day stuff quite a lot of fun to follow, even though it's not the final issue so we know it won't end here. What it does it twist in ways that aren't all what you'd necessarily expect, particularly near the end - the final page isn't exactly a surprise, since clues get dropped early on, but it's a revelation that's very well-timed, and impactful because of what the story has already set up. She-Hulk's somewhat pointless appearance in #2 gets redeemed somewhat by her return here, adding another element to what should be an interesting showdown. So, all systems green, so to speak.
Bomb Queen Presents All Girl Comics ~ It's a team up of all of Shadowline's leading ladies, which on paper sounds like a good idea, right? Sure, on paper. Unfortunately the balance is off - the plot is comedic (to the point of ridiculousless) but there's not a great deal of actual comedy in the dialogue, while Bomb Queen gets toned down to 'slightly risqué', never a good idea. She really doesn't belong in this story, sadly - there's no justification for her involvement, so it's probably just because she's the biggest name Shadowline have. The art is by Seth Damoose of I Hate Gallant Girl, and I'm still not liking it much - I tend to find that for get-together stories like this featuring multiple normally-separate characters, a more generic comic style helps everyone feel artistically at home, whereas what happens here is that everyone but Tempest looks off. I'm no artist myself, I should say, but I'm starting to question whether the guy needs more practise too - some of the backgrounds and compositions, and even a couple of foreground figures, just seem like they came out wrong and haven't been fixed. Overall, it's a disappointment, and coming on top of the lacklustre Gallant Girl and the uneven most recent Bomb Queen, it's not good for Shadowline.
Power Girl #2 ~ Aw geez, I had such hopes for this. The first issue wasn't spot-on, but it looked like it might be going somewhere - unfortunately, where it went is here. I suggested earlier that Gray and Palmiotti hadn't read Justice Society of America (y'know, where Power Girl is an important character?) since they're under the delusion that she doesn't meet 'normal people' there - I'd say that's confirmed, as JSA's thoughtful, intuitive and compassionate hero is here reduced to a king of Spider-Man with boobs, all smart-ass jokes and throwing punches without a plan. There's virually nothing of Kara in this issue - all she does is make quips and get beaten up (thanks for that guys, we don't see enough heroines being made helpless, really), and the rest of the issue is devoted to the idiots she employs in her company squabbling about the manner in which they want to run around like chickens with their heads cut off, and showing us how Ultra-Humanite wound up a supergenius gorilla. Funny though, I don't recall this comic being titled 'Ultra-Humanite' - oh hey, that's because it isn't! I don't mind the antagonist being developed, because it's not like it's much fun if they're one-dimensional, but a huge amount of space is wasted on exposition that should've been delivered far more efficiently, and there's nothing left for Peegee. I really don't understand why Gray and Palmiotti have such a reputation - aside from Daughters of the Dragon, which was years ago, everything of theirs I've read has been poorly plotted and boringly written, and sadly this looks like it'll be more of the same. I'll get issue #3, because it's Power Girl, but there are limits to how much good money I'll throw after bad, even for her.
Invincible Iron Man #14 ~ Tony's non-stop flight continues, this time in Russia where he runs into his old enemy Crimson Dynamo - I have to be honest, I'm finding Tony a little bit forced this month, but there's still some wry humour in his lines that keep him going. Overall though, I think a side-effect of him being written as 'dumbed down', as the gradual erasure of his brain progresses, is that he becomes less interesting to read - a pity. Pepper (besides acquiring a superhero name, 'Rescue') and Maria Hill hold up their ends of the issue though, and there's a really fun scene with Norman Osborn that I think nails his character spot-on, why he succeeds and why he fails. I'm not really familiar with how Bendis is handling Norman at the moment - my other main exposure to him is in Ms. Marvel, where Brian Reed writes him serviceably, but not as well as this - but if I stick with New Avengers long enough for the 'Dark Reign' thing to come to a head, which I imagine it will do in that title of all the ongoings it's a part of, I hope he's written something like this.
