Comics for 3/10/12

Animal Man #13

Rotworld finally begins as both Animal Man and Swamp Thing try to find their bearing in a world over run by The Rot

It's incredibly hard to review these two issues separately since both follow the exact same pattern, in that both heroes find themselves in the new Rotworld, get picked up by the last pockets of resistance to the rot, each story is interlaced with what happened to those who were left behind outside the portal, and then they find themselves in the last safe haven of their respective colours. However, this doesn't mean that these issues were bad, quite the opposite in fact. Each issue gives us a look at how Rotworld came to be, as well as the how most of the superheroes fell. Both of the double spread pages in each issue we probably the highlight both issues. What we see is the gruesome takedown of the superheroes as the rot began to take over, animal man's in particular being super brutal as Steve Pugh's art really drives home how nasty this sequence is. It should also be mentioned that these sequences actually confirm the presence of a lot of characters that may have been lost in the new 52 reboot. Another way positive to Steve Pugh's artwork is that we finally get some Yanick-esque panelling in Animal Man, very similarly to how he did it during his time on the one or two issues of Swamp Thing. That and we see the return of the Shepard......who is somehow in the real world? Not that I'm complaining. This is a raw, dark world we read our comics in now, and we're gonna need all the comic relief we can get. That, and I love Buddy Baker being called ''BUTTER BAKER BLONDIE MAN!''. On the other hand, back over in Swamp Thing, we get to see the ''Rotted'' Teen Titans take on the last remains of the green.

There is however, one big concern about Rotworld in general. It's that I feel like none of this will have any affect on DC's greater continuity. It may just be the cynic in me talking, but I think that by the end of this event, everything will be back to normal, no one will of died, and both books will kick off a new arc and act as if nothing has happened. It just feels like they've done too much, too soon for anything to have any lasting effect. I could be completely wrong about this, I want to believe that Scott Synder and Jeff Lemire have the balls to make this arc have some real consequences, but I just feel like DC won't let them get away with it, so long as they continue to kill and turn the superheroes into Rot heroes. I may be cheating slightly, but I think that I'll enjoy Rotworld a lot more so long as I treat it as a Elseworlds story.

Detective Comics #13

With a new creative team onboard, Detective Comics kicks off a new arc focusing on the penguin as he makes big changes to his organisation

A lot of hype has been made about John Layman's jump on to Detective Comics, . Mostly known as the creator of Chew (One of the smartest and best series run by Image today, GO GET IT), this is his debut on DC. The main focus of this issue is Penguin building up a positive image to the public, similar to the way Bruce Wayne has built up his image. While it's a plan really well suited for Penguin, It just seems like a silly thing to do in the long run. It's not like everyone is just gonna forget all the years of organised crime, right? It doesn't help that he hires an assassin to kill Bruce Wayne. It kind of feels like John Layman's trying to make this story a lot smarter than it actually is, but the writing itself is actually quite good. It also has to be mentioned that John Layman is trying to give this series a bit more humour than the other Batman titles. On one the first pages, we see Bruce Wayne making a donation to Gotham's Orthodontic Association, and in the panel below we see Batman smashing a guy's face with a box above saying ''At least I won't feel bad about this''. I'm all for humor like this, and it'll give this series a much needed sense of fun. There's not really much to say about the art since it's very standard capes-affair art, passable but nothing special. Ignoring the pretty bad story, I'm kind of looking forward to this series since John Layman has some real writing chops and once he gets a bit more room to write with (He only has issues 13 and 14 to write a short arc and then he has to write a tie in to the Death Of The Family crossover) he may be able to turn this into something special.

Before Watchmen: Rorshach #2

IT'S TIME TO SHIT.........JUST NOT AS MUCH THIS TIME

After a bit of a shaky start last month, I think this series is starting to find it's feet. The big issue of Rorshach acting really out of character is somewhat relieved in this issue. He's much less willing to talk to other people, but his character is still somewhat off though. When he's dealing with the thugs who beat him up he's much more closer to how he acts in Watchmen, lots of intimidation, but then he throws in 80's styled action hero quip and it just doesn't settle right. It kind of feels like Brian Azzerelo is either writing him at face value or he's just writing for a pay check, and I feel like it much more the latter than the former. The lazy writing seems to extend to the villain as well, who for all intents and purposes, is just a typical gruff and gritty crime boss. There are still nice touches in the writing every now and then, like the blood spots appearing the narration as Rorshach's condition gets worse. The art is still fantastic, with the colours in particular adding that extra level of sleaze that some of the scenes really need. The last scene of Rorschach interrogating the man about the Crime Boss' location was DIRTY and really hard to look at, as Rorshach puts the broken glass into his mouth. It's pretty clear that Lee Bermejo is putting loads more effort into the art and covers (Which are both tight BTW) than Azzerelo is into the writing I am starting to enjoy this series, but I feel like it'll be anything more than a decent series. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if Brian Azzerelo had something big up his sleeve that no one sees coming.

Dail H #5

The continuing adventures of COCK-A-HOOP AND HIS DAIL-HER'S

 

We finally see the first arc of Dail H come to a close as we see the end if the Abyss and the first appearance of the Dail Hunters. Compared to other past issues, this one is surprisingly coherent, more because this is the big climax to the arc, which means we need much less exposition to explain what's going on. We see everything come together, all the characters join up, and we also get a bit of a clear out as some characters leave the fray. The art is psychedelic as always, with the first appearance of the dial hunter being my favourite part of this issue. On this double spread, we see crazy panelling along with some super kinetic art as the dial hunter swaps between about 5 different heroes. Mateus Santolouco is just killing it in each issue and his art is slowly becoming my favourite part of the series, besides the some of the most imaginative heroes I've seen in comics in along time (Cock-a-hoop just edges out Pelican Army). I may not understand what happens in each issue, but I always enjoy what I'm reading.

Daredevil: End of Days #1

Bendis' long awaited Daredevil story finally comes out

For all the flak Bendis get's for his run on avengers (and his writing in general), people forget how great a writer he can be. Apart from his ongoing on Ultimate Spider-Man, his writing has been pretty lacklustre recently, but we might be seeing an end to this trend with this issue. This story takes place in the theoretical future where, after a desperate encounter with Bulleye, Matt Murdock is murdered in front of the public he swore to protect. The story is mostly told from the perspective of Ben Ulich, a journalist from the Daily Bugle, as he tries to figure out what exactly set off the chain of events that lead to Daredevil's death. Bendis' quick witted and fast writing style actually works really well for the story as helps properly articulate Ulich's thinking process. Also his typical ''Bendis-isms'' are cut down to a minimum, resulting in a much more easily flowing narrative. Another aspect of the story I like is how this might a much better take on ''what happens when a hero crosses that last line?''. It's revealed towards the end that Daredevil finally got tired of dealing with Kingpin, and in a very public display of force, brutally beating him to death, simply stating ''You don't understand......I've tried everything else''. I feel like Bendis will be able to do a real good job with the story if he continues to take this angle. The art on the other hand, was a lot more inconsistent. Klaus Janson has a style that is very reminiscent of Frank Miller, very gritty and detailed, but on a lot of pages it just turned into a scribbly mess. I didn't even realize that it was Bullseye tho Daredevil until I re-read the issue. There were even some moments of Liefield-styled bad limbs appearing, I'd turn the page suddenly Daredevil would have rickets! The art direction and panelling itself was actually very well done, in a sort of noir style, but the bad pencils just keep cropping, damaging my love of the issue.

This feels like a real passion project for Bendis, the sort of stories that writers want to write, rather than following the guidelines set by the creative departments. It been so long since we've seen his writing this strong, and if it keeps up this level of quality, and maybe the art gets a little better, it could be one of the big highlights of the year. 

What I listened to during the writing of this post:

-Tame Impala, Lonerism

-Death Grips, NOLOVEDEEPWEB

-Rolo Tomassi, Astraea 

Comics for 29/8/12

Before Watchmen: The Minutemen #3

With this issue, we begin to see the cracks forming in the Minutemen's armour

By now, it's very clear that this is the Before Watchmen title that's head and shoulders above the others. It seems to be one of the only BW titles intend on telling it's own stories about the Watchmen universe instead of recreating the big moments of the original series. However, while Brian Azzerello's Comedian series has just turned into a confusing mess by following this path, Darwyn Cooke's Minutemen series continues to exceed all expectations of the Before Watchmen titles.

The greatest strength that this series has is that Darwyn Cooke is the sole contributor to it. In addition to giving this series some of his classic golden age artwork, he uses it to make some of the strongest storytelling I've seen in comics for a long time. The scene as Silhouette explains what happened to her during a rescue of a child is a prime example of this, with the colours in particular standing out during these pages. Another good example of this is how Darwyn Cooke includes panels from a Minutemen comic made in this universe, which highlights exactly how broken the Minutemen are as we compare the current situation with the idealized versions of each Minutemen from the comic panels.

While I was worried about this series when the first issue came out, these past 2 issues (This weeks in particular) have shown me exactly how well you can do a series like this.

Captain Marvel #3

Captain Marvel fights some Kree ships, talks about war, and fights some more Kree ships...........Not a right lot happens in this issue

It's really hard to comment on what happens in this issue since the plot doesn't really advance that much further and this issue is mostly just fights with the Kree ships. One thing that did really bug me about the story was Carol's plan of action, which was to basically send off a messenger to find all the best fighters they opposing force has and fight them again. It's probably done as a show of strength to prove to the Japanese that they're better than them, but it seems like a silly plan when you remember that one of the Banshee Squad members was killed in the last fight with these ships, so for Captain Marvel (Someone with considerable strategic intelligence) it seems like a bad idea to put the Banshee Squad at risk again. I can say however, that the art for this series is still great, with some fantastic muddy colours, but it is starting to suffer as the fight scenes do start to look very stiff and lifeless. It may just be down to how Captain Marvel fights (with lots of lasers and beams), which naturally wouldn't give her fights much kinetic force behind them.

I'm gonna assume we've just had an off issue, and by next month we'll be back with a much stronger issue.

NCP: The Looker

The National Comics Presents line continues as we get a story about vampires, supermodels, romance.......YOU'VE ALL HEARD THIS BEFORE

I really don't like writing a review where I just bash something over and over again, but there was absolutely nothing good about this book. I should of seen this coming, but after last months one shot (written by Jeff Lemire) I was prepared to anything by the NCP line a go. It was just cliché after cliché, nothing that we haven't seen before and done much better in other series. Super stiff art and boring art and unlike-able characters just made it so hard to finish reading. I'll highlight one particular thing before I finish. During the introductory monologue, the main character makes a big point about how vampires are evil, vicious predators, you know, the opposite of what we see nowdays in the mainstream media. We start to get the idea that series might be different with it's vampires, but that idea gets shot down almost immediately when we find out that the main character used to be a supermodel, and if it wasn't for the fact that she wouldn't show up in pictures, she would still be after her transformation. Soon after that we see her being romantic with another character ''who she shouldn't be with''......Sound familiar? Be very glad that this was a one-shot.

And go read American Vampire instead.

Phantom Lady and Doll Man #1

As Phantom Lady, Jennifer plans on taking revenge on the mob that killed her family at a young age

DC'S really digging for obscure characters and series lately, huh? Between this and NCP, DC seems to be taking some chances with new 52 titles. It's a shame that this one probably wasn't worth the chance. Not to say that this issue was awful, the concept behind Phantom Lady's power is quite interesting, with control over shadows, and it gives a lot of room to do some cool sequences with them, but this issue just has so many flaws, which leads to everything feeling a little lazy and half-hearted. One of the biggest problems with this is the masses and masses of exposition that gets thrown on the reader. Just boxes upon boxes of information gets told to us as the Phantom Lady explains nearly every aspect of the story though narration. It's really bad during the opening scene as we watch her take down a group of thugs, along with a running commentary of her explaining her powers. It doesn't allow for any organic evolution of the story, and it just carries on as the issue continues. I want to see a series like this do well, but it really hasn't given me any reason to come back for when the next issue is released.

Prophet #28

We continue to follow Old Man Prophet as he looks to repair his robotic friend and begins his plot to free his race from the people who enslaved them

IGNORE THE 90'S-TASTIC COVER

Possibly one of the biggest surprises of 2012, Prophet was originally a 90's series created by Rob Liefield. It wasn't anything special, just your typical 90's EXTREEEEEEEMMME comic series that was eventually cancelled. It wasn't until the start of 2012 when Brandon Graham rebooted the series with a completely different artistic vision for the series. Gone were the guns and EXTREEEEEEEMMME, in were sprawling landscapes and high-concept sci-fi stories. What we now have is one of the best ''new'' series of the year and a real treat to read each month

With issue 28, we seem to be settling in what might be a much more standard storyline. Instead of following a random John Prophet for an issue or two, we continue to follow Old Man Prophet as he searchs the galaxy for the missing parts of his robot friend. It's a nice change of pace since we might be with Old Man Prophet for a while since his narration suggests a much more deeper plot than we might realize. We may not fully understand exactly what happens each issue since Brandon Graham seems intent to keep things vague, but the story get told in such a way that I always feel satisfied at the end of each issue, hungry for more.

    As I mentioned before, one of the biggest changes to the series is how it implements sprawling landscapes to tell the story and show us parts of this world, and some of these are just astounding to look at, particularly a page from this weeks issue:

The art by Giannis Milonogiannis is absolutely fantastic, with a very prominent European comics influence in this issue's art. Everything isn't necessarily minimalist, but there's a lot of empty space in the panels, giving a real sense of the size of the world John Prophet lives in.

There's literally nothing else like this series being released nowadays, and it's a fantastic series that I can't recommend enough.

Avenging Spider-Man #11

For Spidey's 50^th anniversay, Avenging Spider-Man #11 gives us a re-examination of Peter's relationship with Uncle Ben

This will probably be a very marmite sort of issue. On one hand, we get a much closer look at a character we've who we've never really known much about beyond that immortal mantra of his, and on the other hand, Zeb Wells is messing around with Muthfuckin' Uncle Ben, possibly the most untouchable character in comics ever. Some moments of this issue will likely cause a lot of fan uproar, for example Aunt May laughing at the idea of Peter starting a scholarship in Ben's name since she says that he barely finished high school. There are a couple of moments like throughout the issue, but they're not as damaging as they sound. The real message told in this issue is that Peter can't keep beating himself up over the guilt he feels for letting that mugger go, that he the world will keep spinning and that he just needs to move on with live. It doesn't mean however, that he should forget him, because he'll need those lessons and the strength Uncle Ben gave throughout his superhero career. This last message is done though a very touching sequence as we look over important moments in Spidey's life.

I haven't mentioned anything about the art yet, but there isn't much to say. It's Steve Dillon. He was a very odd choice considering it's a Spider-Man book, but luckily the whole issue is mostly just Aunt May and Peter talking. He still uses that trademark Dillon Sameface for each character, but the art isn't awful, just unsuitable for a book like this.

What I listened to during the writing of this post:
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Mature Themes (over and over and over....)
Andrew Jackson Jihad - Knife Man 

Comics for 1/8/12

Animal Man and Swamp Thing #12

Prologue To Rotworld begins as Animal Man and Swamp Thing decend into the Rot's home to strike at it's source

Starting off with Animal man, this issue mostly establishes the current situation and what they intend to do, and it unfortunately suffers quite a bit from it. A lot of the issue is spent going over past events in the current Animal Man run and it just feels very pointless. However, there are a couple of cool moments in this issue, most importantly, Buddy Baker finally connecting properly with the Red to find Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing's creative panelling is used to great effect during this moment and the colourist just kills on that page, so I'm hoping that we start to see Buddy's connection to the Red start to grow as the series continues. The art was a good as it has been so far in past issues, but something odd I have to note is that Buddy's partial animal transformations from last issue seem to of been completely ignored. I'm not too sure whether or not this is a plot point I missed, or laziness on Steve Pugh's part, but it has to be said, giving Buddy wings when he flies makes flying pose much less goofy looking.

It's in Swamp Thing where we reach the main meat of the story. Almost immediately, people on both sides of the portal are fighting for their lives against the Rot. While Animal Man and Swamp Thing's fight is a mostly normal (or at least as normal as a fight that includes a man with control of plant and another channeling SPEED....OF THE PUMA can be), It's Abby, Ellen and Maxine's fight that shines. It's a much more frantic affair with the panels being made very thin to give a sense of real close quarters combat. Another really note worthy moment is when Animal Man and Swamp Thing begin to descend down the bone ladder. The panels disappear and all we can see is the heroes and the ladder, with the background turning into a muddy void. It was genuinely unnerving to read and it shows exactly how alone they are in this adventure. We also reach the big twist at the end, where Arcane (A villain I still don't really like) reveals that them coming to Rotworld as all part of a plan to allow the Rot to take over the surface world and for Arcane to become the most powerful entity of the Rot. After revealing that a year has passed since they entered Rotworld, he ejects them back on to earth, where both out heroes see a world ravaged by the Rot. Arcane's plan was quite well thought out and no aspect of it felt like Scott Synder has to pull it off last minute. In addition to this, it gives us a great hook for the next issues. If both these series can keep the high level of quality of past issues in this new setting, then Animal Man and Swamp Thing are going to be THE series to watch as the 52 enters it's second year.

Before Watchmen:Nite Owl #2

This issue follows Rorschach and Nite Owl as they begin to investigate a murder and we get more insight into Nite Owl's childhood

It seems strange for this series to have so much focus on Rorschach considering that he'll have his own book in the second part of the Before Watchmen series, but JMS does such a good job of writing him so it doesn't feel like it should be part of this book. An example of this would be Rorschach wearing the mask because of how disappointed he is in the human and that by wearing it, he doesn't feel part of it any more. It does a great job of showing Rorschach's character and just how little personality he has outside of the mask JMS also does a great job of showing parallels between Nite Owl and Rorschach, in that both come from a broken household, but responding to the situation differently, with Nite Owl focusing on the old Nite Owl and Rorschach retreating into himself. I do feel though that we can only focus on Nite Owl's childhood for so long until it gets tiring and I'm already feeling like JMS is trying to push forward a point we fully understand. Despite that, I'm still really surprised how much I like this series. It always seems to delve much further into the characters than it needs to and it really helps properly flesh them out.

Dail H for Hero #4

The Squid and Nelson team to rescue Manteau and stop the Abyss

I always look forward to read this book each month, It's one of the most creative series, in both how it's written and how it's drawn, I've read in a long time, and this issue is no exception. The Abyss (him? Her? Itself?) finally makes an appearance and It's a full on Morrison-eqsiue figure, spouting broken sentences and space nonsense. It's a surprising powerful presence as it nonchalantly strides past the heroes. This is also the first issue to start showing some real character growth, mainly from the Squid and Nelson. With the Squid, we see him undergo a role reversal as he teams up with Nelson to stop Doctor Wald. As he tells Nelson about his history with the Abyss, we see him start to become a much more sympathetic character. With Nelson, he realizes that even with the dial's aid, he has to save Manteau and decides to don an outfit of his own making, Rescue Jack (Imagine a fat Batman with a sledgehammer). This doesn't mean that we don't see any new heroes however, as Doctor Wald is running loose with Manteau's dail, becoming what might be my favourite hero to date, TAP-OUT. If you're looking for a series with real creativity, give this a go. If you aren't, then give this series a go anyway, It's that good.

Hawkeye #1

A new series focusing on the day in the life of Clint Barton when he isn't taking down global threats and Hydra, some villain with an inferiority complex, etc

Matt Fraction is an immensely frustrating writer. He'll always try hard on his own projects like Casanova, but when the higher ups at marvel give him something bigger like Iron Man or Fear Itself, he just seems to write on auto pilot. Don't get me wrong, these series will sell well and they aren't horribly written, but It always seems like he's just wasting his potential. It was hard to avoid this fact coming into this series, but I'm glad to be proven completely wrong in this case. Like so wrong. Really wrong.

Bringing together Matt Fraction and David Aja (Whom he worked together with on ''that'' run on The Immortal Iron Fist), this series aims to show the life of Clint Barton, otherwise known as Hawkeye, on his days off. Immediately, we see Clint trying to pull off the exact same building swing move he does in The Avengers film.....Except it doesn't end so well. In the film, he manages to land the hook, swing through a window and carry on fighting. In this comic he clips a wall, falls a couple stories down and lands on a car, with leaves him bed ridden and in recovery for 6 weeks and this sets the tone for this book. He isn't a larger than life superhero with amazing world bending powers, he really just a bloke who's a good shot with a bow. Throughout this issue, we see Clint being very down to earth, whether he hanging out with his neighbours on the roof of his apartment block or feeding the dog of a mobster, and this is what makes him so interesting in this issue. You could see someone like Captain America doing all these things, regardless of how nice he is. I'm not a Hawkeye expert but I can safely say that none of this feels like a big betrayal or huge change in his character, it's just that no one's ever gone into so much detail about him. Besides, we still a couple moments in this book that scream classic jerk Hawkeye. So far I've only talked about the writing of this issue, but the art needs the props it deserves. David Aja is a perfect fit for this book, since he manages to use some really well thought out panelling and art to showcase his prowess for accuracy (I should note that he doesn't even mention his bow at any point), but also gives Clint some of the best expressions I've ever seen in a comic for a long time. The colourist, Matt Hollingsworth, also adds so much to David Aja's art, showing a noticeable difference to the day and night scenes as well as giving this issue some really bright colours that don't intrude on the art.

I can't recommend this comic enough. Matt Fraction, in one issue, has made Clint Barton one of the most well written characters in comics today. The art is fantastic and If it keeps this level of quality, it might just knock Saga off it's spot as my favourite currently running series.

Seriously, good guy Clint Barton. What a guy.

Avenging Spider-Man #10

Miss Marvel's re-introduction as Captain Marvel continues as her and Spider-Man try to Protect the mysterious Robyn Hood from a private security team

So far, Marvel's reboot of Miss Marvel is going pretty well. Her own series has kicked and while that was pretty good, I think I prefer this as her proper re-introduction. Throughout this issue, we see writer Kelly Sue DeConnick make a lot of commentary about the authority control and the occupy wall street movement as it is revealed that Robyn was made to aid in it. In a lot of writer's hands, this commentary could of felt very heavy handed and forced, but KSD manages to pull this off and make it feel appropriate for the story. She also nails the classic Spider-Man wit as he tries to keep a giant sized Robyn under control. Both the art and colours are top notch in this issue, that really complement Captain Marvel's bold attitude.

Avenging Spider-Man (bar #4) has been one of the most consistently good series of the past year and this issue is no exception.

Besides, Square Cube law. Who says comics are a waste of time?

I don't want to give a full review on either of these but go read Harvest and Black Kiss II. Be warned that Black Kiss II is a serious NSFW title, but you'll still be surprised at what you'll find in that comic

THIS WAS A FANTASTIC WEEK FOR COMICS, WHY CAN'T ALL WEEKS BE LIKE THISSSSSSSSSS?

Soundtrack of this blog post

Dananananaykroyd- There Is A Way

Holograms- Holograms

The James Cleaver Quintet- That Was Then, This Is Now

Comics for 25/7/12

Amazing Spider-Man #690

The ''No Turning Back'' arc continues as the lizard prepares a new serum to turn him back into a true lizard.

The main problem I've had with this arc is that I get the feeling that Dan Slott really doesn't care about it. It's obvious that he's having to do this just to tie in with the new Amazing Spider-Man film and it really reflects in the writing of this issue. A lot of exposition is used to move the story along and it stops the story from ever becoming engaging. The art isn't doing any favours either, Guiseppe Camuncoli's art is just way too angular, which causes the characters to look incredibly stiff. However, one thing that should be noted is that now Kingpin and Hobgoblin are now involved in the story, possibly for the build up to #700. It a real shame that this has been such an boring arc, 2010's Shed arc had a very similar set up but was so much better, and actually was an actual no turning back point for Kurt Connor's as his last shred of humanity left him. It was even referenced in #688.

Before Watchmen: Comedian #2

The comedian sets off to Vietnam to aid the war effort, as well as an insight into why he wants to be there

This series just continues to get more vague and confusing as Brian Azzerelo proceeds to make sure that the Comedian could have been involved in as many conspiracies as possible. While the main objective of the Comedian is clear enough, it's the details that make this story a mess. It's never clear what exactly is going on. What Azzerelo does well however is making sure that the titular character is as unlikeable as possible. From the start, he shows that the Comedian is in Vietnam not for pride of his country or for any greater good, but simply because he enjoys conflict and revels in the bloodshed of war. It is odd to note however, that this series is supposed showing us Blake before he completely lost his sense of moral compass, depsite the orginal series telling us that he was bad from the start, leaving us with a huge contradiction in this series. I can only see this series getting more and more confusing as we go on. Plus.......I still sorta.......wanna......know whether or not BA is trying to make the Comedian gay. That particular thread seems to of been completely left out of this issue.

Debris#1

In a ruined world inhibited by robotic animals, a small colony of humans struggle to survive.

It's really hard to care about this series. It isn't bad or good, but falls very much in the middle, leaving us with a very average book. The post apocalyptic setting isn't very interesting or well fleshed out yet, and neither are the characters. The art's fine and does a decent job, but there was a small thing that really bothered me as I read this. The colours in this really didn't suit the setting, everything was just too bright and colourful, especially the uniforms of the humans. Bright baby blue shouldn't exist this universe.

National Comics presents: Kid Eternity (one shot)

As part of the forensics division of the police force, Christopher Freeman must use his special connection with the dead to find out who murdered them.

This seems like Jeff Lemire's attempt at making a tv pilot. I mean it works as a comic, but it seems really familiar to sooooooooooo many other shows that get pumped out for day time tv. Regardless, Jeff Lemire does an excellent job making an interesting story from a done to death concept. A smart move from Lemire, we power through the origin in about 2 pages and dive straight into the meat of the story as we see Christopher pull out his first ghost of the day. The art does a good job of visualizing the paranormal parts of the book without getting loose and always showing us exactly what is going on. It has to be noted that for a one shot, Lemire has packed in so much into this. We a hook for a possible next issue, a mysterious character who could oppose Christopher and the entire world of hell to properly explore. I would like to see more of this series, since I'm such a writer with as much talent as Jeff Lemire could really bring out the best of the ghost whisper concept.

Ultimate Comics: Ultimates V6 #13

Captain America makes his grand return in the aftermath of the Reed Richards and the Children's invasion of earth.

I am extremely worried about this series. Hickman has left. Sam Humphries (the one responsible for THAT awful ending in #12) is now the main writer. I really don't think that Humphries will be able to take this series back the heights that Hickman lifted it up to. We can only hope. Anyway, this issue establishes the current state of the ultimate marvel America, with most of the states divided and Mad Max styled gangs popping up everywhere. We also get to see Captain America's new costume.......which doesn't look great at all. It's very blocky and makes him look like a blue coloured S.W.A.T. Member. It was nice to see Thor back in Asgard for the first time since the invasion, still visibly dealing with the death of his entire race and really nails home the point of how alone Thor is now that the ghosts of Asgard stopped seeing him. I'm still have my doubts about this series, but maybe Humphries will fare better with a story completely written by him.

Not a great week for comics, but next week is guaranteed to be better.

ANIMAL MAN

SWAMP THING

CROSSOVER

ROTWORLD

AND DAIL H FOR HERO

YYYYEEEAAAAAHHHH BUDDY

Comics for 27/06/12

Amazing Spider-Man #688

(By Dan Slott, Guiseppe Camuncoli, Klaus Janson and Frank D'Armata)

So, after finally concluding the Ends Of The Earth storyline, it's time for Dan Slott to start steering the story towards a lizard-based direction in preparation for the Amazing Spider-Man film. Honestly, ''Ends Of the Earth'' wasn't as great as everyone was anticipating so its nice to move towards a much more simpler story. In this issue, Spidey and Morbius hatch a plan to return Kurt Connors back to his human form through the use of HUGE FUCK OFF NEEDLE SPEARS AND HIGH VOLTAGE, because, you know, SCIENCE! Ignoring that, what we have here is a really well paced and dynamic story, which is greatly needed after the last story arc. Guiseppe Camuncoli does a great job in this issue, and while his art isn't as detailed as past ASM artists, its erratic and unique enough to give it a distinct charm. Here's to hoping a solid arc before we move on to ,*Shudder*, the Alpha storyline.

Spider-Men #2

(By Brian Bendis, Sara Pichelli and Justin Ponsor)

I really want to love this series. Spidey's ma boi and I only want to see him succeed in the comic world, but it doesn't help that both versions of the mainstream Spider-Men are on a money grab title like this. This issue takes off straight after Miles and Peter meet for the first time and almost immediately Peter picks a fight with Miles. It seems really out of character for Peter to throw the first punch in a situation like this, especially since he knows that he isn't the only webslinger around (Spider-Woman and kaine at least). Considering this is only a 5 issue series, the pace is ridiculously slow. For example, all that we achieve in this issue is that Peter and Miles fight for a bit and that Nick fury meets 616 Peter. This series could have so much potential, like Peter meeting Gwen and Aunt May of the Ultimate Universe or the reactions of some of the ultimate villians when they see Peter again, but it just doesn't feel like this series is going to explore any of these possibilities. It has to be said though that Sara Pichelli's art is fantastic, even if the Spider fight really wasn't that dynamic. I hope at least that she ends up on a Spider-Man book and gets a bit more freedom to do what she wants, because I think that with the right writer, she could make the best looking Spidey comic ever.

Before Watchmen: Nite Owl

(By J. Michael Straczynski, Andy Kebert and Joe Kubert)

Wait a minute.......A Before Watchmen comic.........THAT I LIKED?

So far, the Before Watchmen series has been really underwhelming. Minutemen just went over things we already knew, Silk Spectre was really boring and Comedian was.....really confusing (IS HE GAY FOR JFK, OR HIS SONS?), and I was ready to write this off as another really boring comic, but I'm really glad to be proven wrong on this one. BW: Nite Owl focuses on the second Nite Owl and how he became the hero he idolized. In a stark contrast to the other BW titles, SO MUCH happens in the first issue. We see Daniel find Nite Owl's hideout, get taken under his wing, take on the title of Nite Owl and the beginnings of his relationship with Rorschach. It's the last point in particular that I'm interested in since we never found out what their partnership was like before the original Watchmen comic takes place, and I believe that this is what will make this comic stand out from the rest of the BW comics. It's a fair point to make that perhaps the pacing was too quick (we span about 5 years throughout just the first issue), but I think that it worked in it favour and made the comic feel much more exciting than it really should have been. It's odd that this might end up being my favourite BW comic as this was the one that I was sure would be the average, middle of the road story.

Ultimate Comics: Ultimates #12

(By Jonathan Hickman, Sam Humphries, Luke Ross, Ron Garney, Butch Guice and Matt Milla)

Damn.

Just Damn.

What started off as one of the most interesting story arcs of last year, has finally lead to one of the most unsatisfying ending to a story ever (Legend of Korra go nothing on this). Without going into too much detail, Tony's plan of tricking the city into working against Reed (by using his sentient cyber tumor?) works and Thor and Sue Storm charge into the city and slap Reed's shit. Reed is then locked away in some kind of super forcefield by Sue, Thor returns to Asgard to.......mope, I guess, and Tony decides to let the marines do their thing, go to a party and wait for this to all blow over

There's really nothing more to say about this.No matter which way you look at it, you will be disappointed by this ending.

However, if there's one positive thing to take from this issue, it's this

''IS THE HULK AMERICA'S NEWEST THREAT AGAINST THE IDEALS OF FREEDOM? FIND OUT AT 11''

So how's that for a first blog post? I'll probably look back at this in a couple months time and cringe at this......

''Fucks sake, That Watchmen joke was way too obvious''