Also this week:
BATGIRL #10 - Apparently Batgirl is actually one of the higher
selling Batman books, which is nice to see since, however contrived
the idea, it always seems to display a fair degree of effort. This
isn't one of the better issues, to be honest, since the main plot
about a dimwitted man who hasn't even noticed he's superhuman is
a touch predictable. But the usual great art, and the book's still
getting an amazing amount of mileage out of a character who was
one dimensional when they inherited her.
B+
DAREDEVIL: NINJA #1 - For those keeping count, Daredevil's regular
title squeezed out four issues in 2000. Let's see if they can
break the habit of a lifetime and actually publish the next issue
in time to stop the series becoming a de facto quarterly. In the
meantime, here comes the ubiquitous Brian Michael Bendis with a
story about Daredevil running into some ninjas which spends most of
this issue on set-up and could go either way. Art comes from
Rob Haynes, who did the fill-in story in Daredevil #12. His
rather flat and animation-like style looked out of place in the
middle of a Quesada-drawn storyline, but works rather better here.
Nothing earth-shattering, but hell, at least it actually exists,
which is more than you can say for the regular book.
B
FANTASTIC FOUR #37 - Johnny Storm is going to make a movie, but
runs into a bunch of Skrulls. What is this, 1964? Carlos
Pacheco's artwork can carry the book through a multitude of sins,
but the bland storyline leaves a lot to be desired. Only for those
content to admire the pretty pictures.
B-
LUCIFER #8 - After four months mucking around with Japanese gods,
Lucifer gets his wings back (in angelic form), and then pops back
to Earth. I say it every month, but if you're looking for a repeat
performance of what Sandman was doing circa Season of Mists, this
is the book for you. Perfectly good reading, even though it seems
not to have all that much to add. On the other hand, some would
argue that old school Vertigo ought to be a contradiction in
terms.
B+
PLANETARY #12 - Breaking with tradition, this is a plot-driven
issue rather than a genre pastiche. Anyone who hadn't guessed that
Snow what the Fourth Man should stand at the back of the class, of
course, but this neatly rounds off the first year with Planetary
making the transition from passive to active. (What is it with
writers using years as the standard length of storylines these
days, anyway? Surely they can't all be best suited for precisely
twelve issues?)
A-
PUNISHER #9 - You know the drill by now. Hardcore old school fans
will hate the fact that Frank's being played for laughs, while the
rest of us can enjoy the absurdity. The thick Russian assassin may
be a stereotype, but he's hilarious nonetheless. "Ten million?
Oooh. The Russian could buy many Levis for that amount. Many
compact discs." Great stuff.
A
STEAMPUNK #6 - Steampunk starts on its second story arc, and by god
that letters page is looking defensive about all the criticism the
series has had for being incomprehensible. Hint, people: we're
not finding it hard to understand because of the difficult writing,
we're finding it hard to understand because we can't work out what
in the name of god Bachalo thinks he's drawing. A tree? A stove?
A dog? The possibilities are endless and, albeit that the clarity
level is somewhat improved this time around, I still find Bachalo's
current art style a positive annoyance. Which is infuriating,
since I know how good he's capable of being; but his current line
of experimentation is not playing to his strengths at all.
C
SUPERMAN/BATMAN: WORLD'S FUNNEST - Despite the title, this isn't a
Superman/Batman story. It's Mr Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite touring the
DC multiverse and gratuitously wiping it all out. Rather like
Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe, only with more some actual
affection for the characters, more jokes about changes in style and
continuity, and an assortment of artists being chosen for their
own little corners of history. (The current WB animation is
represented by storyboards, which is a nice touch.) Since it's
Evan Dorkin writing, of course, there's a nice line in viciousness,
but enough affection for the DC Universe that the hardcore DC fans
should find it endearing. The rest of us can miss half the jokes
and enjoy the others.
A-
THOR #31 - More stuff about Asgard. How average.
C
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #3 - Hmm. I can see what Bendis is doing here.
He's playing off that sequence in the original story where Peter
beats up a wrestler in an open challenge, and conflating it with
Peter's brief career as a novelty act, in the hope of playing off
the success of the WWF. Perfectly reasonable, but Bendis' version
of the wrestling industry is so ludicrously out of kilter with
reality as to damage the story. Champion wrestlers doing open
challenges to the public? (Come off it.) Peter being allowed to
win the world title on his first night? (Come off it.) When the
promoter doesn't even know his name or whether he'll turn up for
the next show? (Come off it.) All hopelessly convenient, and
those bits of the story really don't work as a result. Wrestling's
a bizarre little world, but not so bizarre as to make all this
plausible.
B-
X-MEN: THE HIDDEN YEARS #14 - I'm giving up on trying to write a
full scale review on this thing. It's not that it's bad, and it's
certainly not as bad as Mutant X was when I relegated it, but it's
the same every damn month, as Byrne's storylines advance at a
total snail's pace. This is the first time we've not been in the
Savage Land in thirteen months; a fairly average storyline about a
girl and her pet Sentinel has now been going on for something
like four months. If Byrne would just stick to a single storyline
per issue, then it might actually feel like something was
happening. Anyhow, the usual stuff here. Same as the last couple
of months, doubtless the same as the next couple too.
B-
