|
Also among this week's comics...
EMPIRE #1 - Mark Waid and
Barry Kitson finally restart their abortive Gorilla project
with this six-issue miniseries. The numbering is perhaps
a bit misleading, because if you didn't pick up the first two
issues - recently reprinted as Empire #0 - you're
probably going to struggle badly. That said, those first
two issues were pretty good, and I'd suggest hunting them down
as well. Waid and Kitson manage to build a more or less
believable version of a world conquered by a supervillain,
where the Emperor is living in a giant Kirbytech citadel in
New York while for everyone else, life kind of carries on as
before. A good idea, well handled. B+
GLOBAL FREQUENCY #10 -
Well, I liked Red, but I'm considerably less impressed
by this thing. Tomm Coker provides the art for what
amounts to a really long, violent fight scene.
Apparently it's full of film references if you know that sort
of thing. Otherwise, it's basically Lobo without the
jokes. Yes, I know it's meant to be funny. It's
still Lobo without the jokes. C-
JLA #83 - Sledgehammer
politics time, as the US President - which of course is Luthor,
in DC continuity - fabricates a war with the fictional
national of Qurac on the basis of alleged links to terrorism
which he can't or won't produce the evidence for. Cough,
cough. Basically a direct attack on the war in Iraq, the
catch being that it's really too direct. The actual
points being made - the importance of questioning the
government (especially the present one) - are perfectly valid
but the crashing brick-to-the-temple style is probably not the
best way of going about it. Artist Chris Cross seems a
little out of place on this material; epic is not really his
strong suit. B-
LOSERS #2 - There's not
really much to say about this that I didn't say when I
reviewed issue #1, but I really like the book, so I just
thought I'd remind you that it's good. This begins the
first storyline, "Goliath", but even in chapter one it's still
got plenty of good caper material at the end. This is
the sort of series where Mission Impossible style break-ins
work, and that's just great. I'm still far from clear
what it's doing in Vertigo, but that doesn't matter.
Definitely worth your money. A
ULTIMATES #11 - My
goodness, is it spring already? I was highly entertained
to see Mark Millar quoted this week as saying that he and
Bryan Hitch were starting work on the second year of
Ultimates. By my calendar, he's already halfway
through the second year of Ultimates. Perhaps
time moves slower in the universe where this book is created.
That would certainly explain a lot. Anyhow, this is not
the strongest issue in this series; it's the villains gloating
about the apparent victory before the heroes come back at the
end, and it features some really very ropey plotting.
("Ooh, we used to manipulate the entire universe but now we've
been very conveniently driven out of every but Earth.
Whoops.") It's okay, but it's not the blowaway stuff
that Ultimates ought to be. B
On Monday, another Article 10 at
Ninth Art. It's
another topical one, so Greg gets bounced back again...
Next week, New X-Men #144 continues
the "Return to Weapon Plus" storyline. Sentinel
#5 is the penultimate chapter of the first storyline. If
you're reading X-Men: Phoenix - and I'm not - then the
final issue is out next week. And X-Treme X-Men
continues the God Loves Man Kills II storyline.
back |
continue |
