|
|
|
Also this week:
BLUE MONDAY: PAINTED MOON #2
- Thankfully, it looks like this series is going to be
steering clear of magical ferrets and going back to the teen
comedy angle that made the earlier books work. So, in
one of those stories that you only really get in indie comics,
Bleu becomes addicted to masturbation. One of the best
issues in quite a while, actually - Chynna Clugston-Major
knows how to play this material to avoid the easy laughs.
Well, okay, not all of them. But to go for some of the
less easy ones as well. A-
HARD TIME #7 - The
remaining DC Focus books are the comic book equivalent of the
walking dead, and if they make it to issue #12, I'll be
astonished. And that's a shame, because Hard Time
is really very good indeed. With Ethan Harrow off in
solitary confinement for the whole issue, the supporting cast
get their moment in the sun, and carry the book perfectly well
without him. I'm also delighted to see that that
godawful monotone colouring has been dispensed with, and
they're now colouring the book normally. The improvement
is tremendous. A
PLASTIC MAN #8 - Another
walking dead title, to judge from the sales figures, and to be
honest I haven't even looked at it since issue #1. But
this is actually pretty decent. It's an absolutely
shameless attempt to purge continuity of all attempts to take
Plastic Man seriously, particularly the recent Joe Kelly story
in JLA about Plastic Man's kid, which comes in for an
extremely severe kicking. ("You're telling me that I - a
man whose obsession with being orphaned has driven him to risk
his life, dress like a bat and compulsively adopt fatherless
boys - would voluntarily assist a deadbeat dad by frightening
his child? That would be completely out of character!")
The opening two pages are absolutely classic, as are the
continuity-glitching Silver Age JLA, who can't quite believe
that there's a black Green Lantern around and write it all off
as one of Green Arrow's crazy, left-wing ideas. ("Laugh
all you want!" replies Green Arrow. "I still say Negroes
and women should have equal rights with the rest of us!
Even the right to vote!") Seriously, this is really good
stuff. Worth giving the book a second look. A
RUNAWAYS #17 - The
penultimate issue, but this seems to be the big pay-off for
the first run. And very satisfying it is too, complete
with the exposed traitor going into full-blown delusional
villain mode. There's a bit of obvious deck clearing
going on, to pave the way for next year's revised version, and
I rather doubt that the big showdown with the parents was
really meant to come along quite this quickly. But it
works, and hopefully the relaunch will give the book another
chance to find its audience. After all, everyone who
actually reads it seems to like it. A-
WATERLOO SUNSET #1 - One
of those intimidating-looking prestige format things from
Image, with an equally intimidating-looking price tag of
$6.95. To be fair, though, you're getting 52 pages for
that, so the value's actually pretty good. It's a
post-apocalyptic thing with humans and aliens sharing the
world, and London remaining in a low-tech state while the rest
of the world has apparently moved on. I have credibility
problems with the entire premise - it's never made clear why
people don't just leave, and one gets the feeling that a lot
of plausibility gaps are being smoothed over in the name of an
undeniably good image, namely a rundown population living in a
kind of switched-off version of modern day London. B
WILDCATS VERSION 3.0 #24 -
Is this the final issue, then? It's a shame that
WildCATS had to go out with this uncharacteristic, and
rather unsatisfying, action storyline. I suppose it
might have been planned as a last-ditch attempt to get the
readers in, but it clearly hasn't paid off. Still, the
final page is cute - a wink to readers as Spartan gives us a
little "don't be downhearted" speech, thinly disguised as a
comment on the plot. The rest of the arc has been
entirely forgettable, unfortunately, but I'll miss the title
nonetheless. B-
Last week's Article 10 is still
up at
Ninth Art.
Next week, District X #4 continues "Mr M";
Emma Frost #14 follows her university years; and because
you demanded it... X-Force #1.
back |
continue |
