Spider-Woman #1 ~ I've never read much about Spider-Woman - I've got some of her old issues somewhere, from a big bunch of 80s and 90s stuff I picked up dirt cheap a while back, and the Spider-Woman: Origins trade is on my shelves, but I haven't found a moment to read it yet. Still, I know of her, and I'm generally willing to give any heroine issue #1 a shot, so here we are. Bendis writes a tight script, as is often the case, so within a few pages we're up to date on Jessica's current state of affairs and briefly why it's so, and she's already being offered a mission by Agent Brand of S.W.O.R.D., who is evidently now in charge after surviving their space station being blown up (I'm not sure how that tallies with Norman Osborn's activities, but maybe the upcoming S.W.O.R.D. series will explain) and is now operating kind of like Agent Zed in 'Men In Black', but a lot more prejudicial. Her task for Jess is to track down aliens on Earth and deal with them - whatever it takes for homeworld security to be maintained, that kind of thing - and since Spider-Woman's got all kinds of aggression that needs working out, she's got herself a job. Really this issue is about Jessica's state of mind - which offers ample potential for future stories to get into - and it's told effectively, visually as well as with words. I do have one concern with the art, though - not that the colours are muted and shadowy to the point of ugliness sometimes (that's obviously intentional, and while it's not my preferred look, I have to say it suits the story) but that the use of a live model results in a bit of laziness; overall the effect isn't too bad, with the model (Jolynn Carpenter) obviously having the acting skills to look like she's in the story, not just being photographed for it, but Maleev really needs to exercise his camera more - there are several repeats of the same photo base, including one trio of identical shots on one double page, which just jolts you right out of the story. Still, a good start, and I'll be reading more.
Detective Comics #857 ~ Batwoman's first real story reaches its finale here, and overall I have to say I'm much relieved that she lived up to the expectations I'd had since her debut in 52 (and the loooong delays in getting her into print afterwards). The last four issues have been a solid basis to build on - we've had action and intrigue, a freaky new villain (who here gets an extra twist), an interesting working/family dynamic for Kate as Batwoman, with her father supporting her superheroic activities, and good continuation of existing ideas, with the Crime Bible people back, splintered into two factions in an interesting way. In this issue, well, it's the finale, you know what that means - evil plan in action, heroine swings in to save the day, conflict as the seconds tick down, thrills 'n' spills - it's all here, with Kate getting a notably awesome 'stunt' sequence, and the climactic moment coming about very cleverly, not focusing on an arbitrary doomsday device, but instead on a more immediate, character-driven struggle that comes out of nowhere and opens up fascinating possibilities. Plus, the art is spectacular. As usual (unfortunately) the only weak link is the backup Question story, which again lacks the page length - or the density of storytelling - to get any momentum going, or really capitalise on what went before. For Batwoman though, at last, it all looks good.
Farscape: Gone & Back #3 ~ The 'unrealised reality' trip continues, with Roiin the big feature of this issue - for those keeping score, he's the scary glowing-eyed nemesis who, back in the regular universe, has been stalking John and co. and taking pot-shots at baby Deke. One universe over we've learned that he's a bounty hunter, and here it turns out that he's an amiable enough guy - provided you're not his target. That provides the meat of the issue, essentially - the implications of the situation Crichton's in, with so many things in the universe the same but not the same, are intriguing and somewhat mind-bending to contemplate, but trust Zhaan to cut straight to the heart of the matter. At the same time, I think I'm glad that (assuming this miniseries follows the usual pattern) next issue will wrap up this particular adventure - unrealised realities are fun for a quick jaunt, but in story terms, they're ultimately not 'real', so there's only so much you can invest in their inhabitants, and with comics taking four months to tell an 'episode', rather than one a week, it's a long time to be away from the regular 'verse. Cute (and appreciated) note, though - Coron, the Moya crewman we've never seen before to remind us this is another universe, is written with a very Australian speech pattern, which fits in nicely with how the TV show, drawing its guest cast (and several regulars) from here, used to have a lot of Australian accents around the Uncharted Territories.
Beautiful Creatures #1 ~ Already reviewed back here thanks to Red 5 comics sending me a preview PDF of this issue - I hope you all got your copy, but at least they can be confident they sold one more than they might've otherwise. No further comments to the original review - there's no extra content in the issue, but it's 48 uninterrupted story pages, so even at US$4.95 that's a bargain compared to many other titles.
Ms. Marvel #45 ~ More war-of-the-Marvels, more unfortunately underdeveloped Ms. Marvels flying around - it's just difficult to really care about 'Catherine' when her whole raison d'etre (yeah I'm not bothering with the accent - I can speak French, I'm just lazy when it comes to ASCII codes) being that she and her superpowered alternate self are going to become Ms. Marvel again. This issue throws a couple of bones my way though, first with an elaboration on how this situation came to be and why (interesting, although I wouldn't want to see it dewlt on too much), and second with a twist at the end which, if not riveting, at least shakes things up a bit. Unfortunately the art takes a dive this month, with Sana Takeda (who I was just praising last issue and hoping for more from) absent - Philippe Bridnes steps in with what would be fairly eye-catching lines, but Ikari Studios muddies them with an ill-chosen mess of wannabe-watercolours that really sap the energy from the action scenes.
Power Girl #5 ~ Aw jeez... Really, this comic is like watching Star Trek: Voyager - even when it's good, I'm left thinking "So that's the best you can do with that concept?" With Peegee in charge of the Justice Society - and having been shown, briefly, taking centre stage in that title in various fascinating superhero-related debates and leadership questions - it just seems such a waste to give her her own title featuring her meanderign around New York aimlessly, tinkering with an R&D company as a kind of executive toy to keep herself amused, and 'defending' the place by just waiting for something alien to crash into it, then punching things randomly until someone tells her what's going on. This issue is a perfect example - essentially Palmiotti and Gray are firing on all cylinders, because if they meant to write this story they certainly wrote it well, but... it's not the story I want to read, it's the brain-damaged made-for-morons version of what Power Girl's own comic should be. Amanda Conner has some fun with the art (though we've had two issues in a row with bare-footed superheroines, that could be construed the wrong way, y'know), but really, if this were someone like, say, Spider-Woman (who I don't really have any connection to) rather than Power Girl (who I adore) I'd already be contemplating dropping this, at least until some writers with real ideas are brought onto it.
Guardians of the Galaxy #18 ~ Peter Quill's half of the Guardians, last seen a thousand years in the future with the universe ceasing to exist, return this issue, conveniently being popped one parallel reality to the left, into a future where Earth is ruled by aliens who've read H.G. Wells, and the handful of superheroes left are fighting a guerilla campaign on behalf of the surviving 'freemen'. It's a fun romp, and the opportunity is taken to introduce some time-related complications to the Guardians' adventures (specifically they're aging randomly: Quill is old, Mantis is a baby, Bug's a teenager, and Cosmo is a puppy, albeit still a riotously powerful telepathic puppy), but ultimately it doesn't really go anywhere - it's only at the end of the issue (and one universe further on) that our heroes reconnect with the main storyline, so ultimately the whole War of the Worlds side-adventure is just that, a sideshow. Still, the final sequence is worth a bit of time-wasting to get to, and sets up hopefully a very cool next issue or two.
Amazing Spider-Man #606 ~ My impulse buy of the week, courtesy of a quick flip-through in the store proving that Black Cat has a substantial role, and isn't just on the cover. Peter Parker's got a spot of romantic bother, with several women mad at him for various reasons - he's got his world's-greatest-loser thing going on (I do wonder if regular readers ever get frustrated by the deliberate engineering of bad luck he goes through at the writers' hands), and then Felicia turns up while he's out catching random muggers, and his love life gets even more confused. Felicia is more or less the same character I grew to adore while reading The Evil That Men Do, although one issue (two-thirds of one, really) is brief acquaintance with this version of her; still it seems to ring true. Her bad-luck powers are back in play, which makes me wonder whether that's meant to be the case in Marvel canon generally now, and how (it at all) that'll affect her role in Marvel Divas; her being a detective is referred to, but seems to be ditched, which is a bit disappointing if her own independent life is being retconned away just to put her back in the status quo Spidey requires of her. Mike McKone draws her well, very saucy and attention-grabbing. I don't expect I'll continue buying ASM issues just to see her, but if this storyline is collected in a volume, I may think that worth buying for her sake.
