First off, a quick word about my selections this week.
I had intended to pick up copies of All-Star Superman #4, Astonishing X-Men #15, and the re-launch of The Flash. I even checked out Flash artist Ken Lashley on the
Gallery of Comic Art, just to see what I could expect. I liked what I saw, and actually got a little excited about picking up the book.
Then I saw what they did to his art.
Flash #1 is without a doubt one of the ugliest comics I've ever seen (and I own a few Rob Liefeld books). I don't blame Lashley at all. Here's an example of his uninked work:
Not flawless, but kind of dynamic. Certainly not the screaming mess that it turned out to be. Coloring, since it all went digital, is a hit or miss proposition in comics these days. When done well (Jamie Grant, for instance in All-Star Superman), it can really propel a book's art into another realm of realism or fantasy. But when done
this poorly, it can ruin a book completely. I'm not the only person that left Flash on the shelves because of it.
ETERNALS #1This is what I bought with the money I'd planned to spend on Flash, and I think I made the right choice. I'm not familiar with Neil Gaiman much beyond 1602 (which is just ok), I never read Sandman or any of the other billion things he's written on his way toward becoming one of the most respected names in the business. So I picked up Eternals not because of his contributions, but because even on a cursory flip-thru read in the store, I was impressed with John Romita Jr.'s artwork.
The Eternals are a Jack "King" Kirby creation, which was quite obvious even as I cracked the book open in the middle. You can tell a Kirby character immediately, even through another artist's vision. One thing I'll love forever about the King was that he was a cigar chomping New Yorker who created a pantheon of space age gods and goddesses. Here was a guy that appreciated how deeply the thread of mythology runs in our lives, and used it to create some of the most memorable characters in comics history, side by side with Stan Lee.
But I'd never heard of The Eternals, which was Kirby doing for Marvel upon his return what he'd done at DC with the New Gods. Wikipedia tells me it ran for what looks like two years under The King's hand, starting in 1976, then popped up sporadically through the decades.
This version of The Eternals, anyway, is off to a good start. Gaiman has a good grip on Kirby's world, distilling a lot of information (and I mean
a lot) but making it all fairly digestible. Again, not being a long term reader of the Eternals, I don't know if they were always trapped in these modern day lives, having forgotten their true identities as immortals. If not, this move by Gaiman is more than a little similar to Grant Morrison's treatment of DC's Kirby crew, the New Gods, over in the Mister Miracle mini. Though when it comes right down to it, that may be the only way to introduce these kind of characters in a modern context.
Regardless, this is a good issue, and the art is stunning in places. I can't quite tell if it's Romita's pencils I'm responding to, or if if Danny Miki's inking, but the whole operation strikes that balance between Kirby homage and something brand new. If Romita Jr. still resides under the shadow of Kirby
and his father, it's no great knock against him, as practically every comic artist since those two has been aping one of them.
This is a book with energy and life. I'm not sure I could see this world existing past the six-issue mini Gaiman's planned, but I'd be pleasantly surprised if it did.
ETERNALS #1:
BASTONISHING X-MEN #15As anyone who saw Serenity (and is being totally honest with themselves) knows, Joss Whedon has a tendency to spin his wheels a bit. His storylines are set up like a sitcom, set-up:punchline, set-up:punchline, drama, set-up:punchline, climax. Which is all well and good when you're on the punchline or the drama or the climax. But when he's setting up, sometimes your patience wanders.
This issue seems rushed is what I mean. Everything, right down to John Cassaday's art, feels like we're just doing
this to get to
there. On whatever end, also, whether it's Cassaday or Whedon's fault, this is a poorly "directed" issue as well, in that scenes begin before we need them to and end before we need them to. This is disorienting, when we've got several strands of story to follow: Emma's turn, Scott's coma, Kitty sinking down to the abyss, the X-kids and their dire predictions, Wolvie and Beast's fight, the rise of Hellfire, the return of Danger (the sentient Danger Room from Whedon's last Astonishing arc which will interesting, but poorly executed), and the imminent peril of Breakworld.
Whedon's X-Universe is bursting at the seams, and it doesn't always seem like he has it under control.
There are fun moments as well, who doesn't love seeing Logan making paper dolls?
And the last page in the book is a nice reference back to Claremont and Byrne's Dark Phoenix/ Hellfire run.
Again, though, Whedon's cramming this whole 'Kitty Pryde as potential badass' thing down our throats. Buffy she will never be, Joss. I half expected her, as she turned to 'camera' to be saying, "Do you know who I am? I'm Shadowcat,
bitch."
Get it together, guys.
ASTONISHING X-MEN #15:
B-ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #4Thankfully, some things in this world you can count on. All-Star Superman
delivers, issue after glorious issue.
This time, our focus is on Jimmy Olsen (Superman's Best Friend, as the silver age title told us); here transformed from naive, freckled sidekick to ultra-modern, metrosexual adventurer.
Everything about Jimmy, his hair, his apartment, his luscious gal-pal, seem like a culmination of what people in the 60's thought people would be like in the new millennium.
To contrast specifically to Astonishing X-Men, here we have an issue that deviates from the central storyline of Superman's seemingly unavoidable death and doesn't feel like mere filler, but an expanding of the universe (wanna bet Krypto gets his own issue somewhere down the line?). Superman appears in the issue, but only as a Super-foil for Jimmy's adventures. While running Leo Quintim's P.R.O.J.E.C.T. for a day, Jimmy stumbles across Black Kryptonite which, they soon discover, turns Superman evil.
I love the way the effects are revealed, with Superman carving his symbol into the desk like a truculent teenager in detention:
Evil Superman was the kind of thing that happened every other week in the silver-age, and everything about the fight is exciting. To go back to what I said above, just look at what Jamie Grant adds to these scenes with his coloring:
One thing I'm loving about Quitely's layouts in this series is that even though he doesn't deviate from the standard 'block' format panels, his pages feel expansive, unlimited, because of the composition
within the panels, a valuable lesson for most modern comic artists. Instead of trying to make the page look dynamic with jagged and ugly panels and exaggerated musculature, just learn solid anatomy and motion, fellas. What you end up with is so much more elegant.
Grant is unloading every silver-age fantasy he ever had into this series. This another title bursting at the seams, but Grant is able to make it all run smoothly. He knew going in exactly what he wanted this book to be, and his vision is being carried out phenomenally by his collaborators.
As usual, this is the best book on the stands right now.
ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #4:
A
The Eternals are a Jack "King" Kirby creation, which was quite obvious even as I cracked the book open in the middle. You can tell a Kirby character immediately, even through another artist's vision. One thing I'll love forever about the King was that he was a cigar chomping New Yorker who created a pantheon of space age gods and goddesses. Here was a guy that appreciated how deeply the thread of mythology runs in our lives, and used it to create some of the most memorable characters in comics history, side by side with Stan Lee. 
But I'd never heard of The Eternals, which was Kirby doing for Marvel upon his return what he'd done at DC with the New Gods. Wikipedia tells me it ran for what looks like two years under The King's hand, starting in 1976, then popped up sporadically through the decades. 
This is a book with energy and life. I'm not sure I could see this world existing past the six-issue mini Gaiman's planned, but I'd be pleasantly surprised if it did.
This issue seems rushed is what I mean. Everything, right down to John Cassaday's art, feels like we're just doing this to get to there. On whatever end, also, whether it's Cassaday or Whedon's fault, this is a poorly "directed" issue as well, in that scenes begin before we need them to and end before we need them to. This is disorienting, when we've got several strands of story to follow: Emma's turn, Scott's coma, Kitty sinking down to the abyss, the X-kids and their dire predictions, Wolvie and Beast's fight, the rise of Hellfire, the return of Danger (the sentient Danger Room from Whedon's last Astonishing arc which will interesting, but poorly executed), and the imminent peril of Breakworld. 
Again, though, Whedon's cramming this whole 'Kitty Pryde as potential badass' thing down our throats. Buffy she will never be, Joss. I half expected her, as she turned to 'camera' to be saying, "Do you know who I am? I'm Shadowcat, bitch."
Everything about Jimmy, his hair, his apartment, his luscious gal-pal, seem like a culmination of what people in the 60's thought people would be like in the new millennium. 
Evil Superman was the kind of thing that happened every other week in the silver-age, and everything about the fight is exciting. To go back to what I said above, just look at what Jamie Grant adds to these scenes with his coloring:
One thing I'm loving about Quitely's layouts in this series is that even though he doesn't deviate from the standard 'block' format panels, his pages feel expansive, unlimited, because of the composition within the panels, a valuable lesson for most modern comic artists. Instead of trying to make the page look dynamic with jagged and ugly panels and exaggerated musculature, just learn solid anatomy and motion, fellas. What you end up with is so much more elegant.
As usual, this is the best book on the stands right now.
Every one of these blockbuster events promises to shake its respective universe to its very core. Usually that means a minor character is bumped off, a team or two splits up, but the status quo is held intact. But this. 
It's an extremely cinematic scene, but at the same time it works in the language of comics, something that many other artists can't seem to get the hang of. Especially that second panel above, with Patriot leaping from building to building: you feel the silence, you feel time slow down for the terrified young man. This book is Steve McNiven's coming out party. 
If there's a glaring weakness to this book so far, it's that Millar and the editorial crew are so clearly on Cap's side. But that makes the plight of Tony Stark all the more compelling as he's swept along by his own self-doubt into battle against his brothers. 
The only time he takes any notice of her is when she reaches for his disk marked '42' (is Millar giving a nod here to Hitchhiker's Guide?) and Reed grabs her wrist (not her hand, her wrist) and says "I'm sorry Susan. But I'm afraid that's classified information."
Earlier today, we reached visitor 1,000 on GEEK U.S.A., and as promised that person will receive a lovely prize. 
It seems that everybody and their mother (but not mine, she's too Catholic) is sounding off about this lesbian Batwoman nonsense. 
Let me tell you something about our man Peter David:he needs to work with talented artists because he is wordy as fuck, and in the hands of amateurs his pages can be stilted and boring. That, unfortunately, is what we've got going on here. 
There is the all-important continuation of the Singularity storyline. 
Yeah, that's what I thought.
All the expository hoop-a-joop in the world isn't gonna make this storyline any more plausible or any more interesting. The revelation that The 'Hobgoblin of 2211' is the daughter of that timeline's Spidey is a great big who cares, and the costume they give to that Spidey is so ridiculous as to be distracting to what is, ostensibly, a dramatic story.
There's some lovely art here; Mike Weiringo brings his A-Game as usual, but this issue is dead from page one, and our own Spidey doesn't make his first appearance until the very end of the book, and then mainly used as a kind of un-funny comic relief. One of the things I like best about David, his corniness, derails here.
Ion, it seems, is the DCU's Dark Phoenix. 
What I really loved about this issue, though, was the impressionistic, sketch-like art work of Greg Tocchini. His work in this issue reminded me of those 70's life-drawing instruction books, and I mean that as high praise. All the more appropriate because Kyle is an artist, the style of the book mirrors the unpredictability of its central character.
This book was far better than I'd hoped it would be. 
Donna Troy does get to play at being Wonder Woman for awhile. And, thanks to Terry and Rachel Dodson, she looks perfectly adorable while she does it. Yes, the Dodsons are known for their gorgeous women, but they (unlike, say, Frank Cho) understand how to make a comic page feel vibrant, not just scandalous. 
Heinberg has found a way to make Wonder Woman interesting without breaking anybody's neck, and that's no small feat. 
