Review: Sleeper: Season 2 #1

Sleeper: Season 2 #1
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Sean Phillips

Ed Brubaker is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers. I've read a smattering of Batman stuff he's done and also seen his work on Gotham Central. But Sleeper has to be one of the finest books out on the racks. I'm looking forward for when he takes over the Authority.

Sleeper: Season 2 picks up right where the first mini series ended. The protagonist, Holden Carver, originally a secret agent planted deep within a super villain's organization now no longer knows his role in the world. The best part of this book is how each issue tells a complete story but also fits within the larger framework. The pacing is like a serial drama. This is the best book that's not being read right now. Here's hoping that this strong start is indicative of the rest of this Sleeper "Season."

Short Movie Review: Spider-Man 2

Exellent movie. As with X-Men 2, the story hits the ground running. The effects could be a little better and some of the science is fishy but the performances are great and a lot of the gags are super. A great movie -- not just a great comic movie -- and definitely worth the $10 at the theater.

Fun with Sept solicits

Marvel and DC September solicits... Things that catch my eye.

Marvel
I wish I could get more caught up with the Marvel Knights 5th Anniversary, but I can't. 2099? Doesn't really matter to me.

Daredevil #65 looks pretty good - some great guest artists lined up. Hopefully they'll have more than just one panel.

Wolverine #17 is Greg Rucka's last issue. In some ways, his run has been very enjoyable - full of action and certainly more interesting characterization than the Tieri run that had a lot of bizarre ideas (such as ripping off Survivor, Mortal Kombat and the vampire villain). But on the other hand, there hasn't really been much about the character Wolverine himself. I've always liked the inner monologue but here, I feel like Wolverine is just another character in his own book. We don't see as much of what he's thinking. Not sure if that's Rucka or a Marvel mandate on no-monologues. Millar is coming onto this book next, hopefully it will be great.

Pulse #5 concludes the book's first arc. Between this and Secret War, the pacing is so slow! This book is once each 2 months and Secret War every 3! I must be getting old, I can't remember the events of each book issue to issue.

Uncanny X-Men #448-449 feature Oliver Coipel filling in for Alan Davis. Hopefully this means Davis is working on a #450 extravaganza.

Jubilee gets her own book this month. I think it'll be cancelled by issue #20.

Nightcrawler and Gambit also get their own books this month. Likely, these will outlast Jubilee but Nightcrawler will end first. With Nightcrawler, I like Darick Robertson's art but both the character and Aguirre-Sacasa are not enought to draw me in. As for Gambit, haven't we heard this song before?

Overall, seems like a relatively slow month for Marvel.

On to DC Comics...

The Batman books will be fully engulfed in the War Games crossover. I'll wait for the trades, thank you very much.

Superman/Batman will feature art by Carlos Pacheco. The first few issues of this series was great but then the story got sort of weird where Luthor went nuts and there was the kid Toyman. Thus far I haven't enjoyed the Supergirl story too much, but the parade of great artists is too much to resist on this book.

Ex-Machina had a great first issue, I'll definitely be on board until this series ends. From the first issue, it seems like this will be the type of series that has a finite number of issues in mind.

Read Sleeper: Season Two since if more people read it will be back for a third season!

Hmm... Not too much I'm excited about for DC Comics either. Maybe Sept is a slower month.

Review: Amazing Spider-Man #509

Amazing Spider-Man #509
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artist: Mike Deodato

A new artist is on board with Amazing Spider-Man, Mike Deodato who recently was working on Incredible Hulk. The smooth curves and lines of Deodato are a stark contrast to the previous artist, John Romita Jr. In some sense this change of style marks a new era for this title. No major gripes about the art which is pretty good - Deodato works the dialogue and action pretty well. My only question is, what are all those muscles Spidey has on his left arm in the cover? I don't think that's quite right...

As for the writing, we'll have to see where this goes. The story starts off innocently enough but depending on where it's headed, the events could be a red herring or could be somewhat scary. The book was pretty good, but time will tell how the arc plays out.

As a side note, Astonishing X-Men #2 by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday was quite good. Not spectacular but pretty enjoyable, with clean art and some snappy dialogue.

Update to June 16 Reviews

Ex Machina #1
I was on the fence about getting this book BUT I'm glad that I did since it was quite good in about every respect.

JLA: Another Nail #2
Usually I don't like DC cosmic powers stories, BUT this so far has been a solid follow-up to an excellent Elseworlds miniseries and is worth the high cover price.

June 16 Reviews

Bunch of reviews, I'll do them in the format of:

I liked such and such, BUT these other things stunk.

Or,

Such and such stunk, BUT that's ok because of these other things.

Amazing Spider-Man #508
End of the Ezekiel and stories I was really excited about, BUT the payoff was a huge disappointment in my opinion.

Authority #13
The story's confusing and I doubt I would have been pleased no matter the outcome BUT Ed Brubaker will be on this book soon which I think is great.

Daredevil #61
Seems like they retconned a lot of the recent Daredevil stuff by sweeping it aside, BUT Alex Maleev draws a great Black Widow.

Ex Machina #1
Haven't read it yet, BUT all the other Vaughan stuff I've read recently is great. (I'll add an update after reading)

Fantastic Four #514
The Frightful Four seems like a good concept, strong villains, BUT I don't know anything about FF continuity and it's sort of confusing.

JLA: Another Nail #2
Haven't read it yet, BUT the other 4 issues in this world were great. (I'll add an update after reading)

JSA #62
This story didn't really hold my interest, BUT the Spectre always confuses and bores me.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #7
Warren Ellis gives a great intro to Doom BUT I can't help but think this will be another long dragged out story.

Ultimate Spider-Man #61
Intriguing story BUT do we really need to make "Ultimate" versions of everything in the "regular" Marvel Universe?

Ultimate X-Men #47
More alternate versions of tons of X-characters (see Ultimate Spider-man) BUT Vaughan also creates more character interaction in this issue than perhaps in any of the previous 46 issues.

Wolverine #16
The Native story is kinda boring BUT there's a ton of action and some great Robertson art in this one.

Wolverine: The End #4
I don't know why they felt they needed this to tie in so closely with Origin BUT I'll give it another chance once I re-read both Origin and this series in full.

X-Men #158
More weird characterization from Chuck Austen BUT for the first time in a long time, I read one of his issues without wanting to vomit afterwards.

X-Men Reload and ALL CAPS

ALL CAPS lettering seems to have made it back to a number of Marvel books. I can't reiterate how happy that makes me. Something about the lowercase lettering just looks plain wrong.

Thinking about X-Men Reload... Not much really changed did it?

Before we had:
New X-Men by Grant Morrison and various artists
Uncanny X-Men by Chuck Austen and Salavador Larroca
X-Treme X-Men by Chris Claremont and Igor Kordey

Now we have:
Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday
X-Men by Chuck Austen and Salavador Larroca
Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis

So pretty much the writers are just continuing their old stories and we just have a new writer and two new artists over the three books...

My current titles: Update

Currently, I'm following:

Amazing Spider-Man, Astonishing X-Men, Authority, Daredevil, DC Identity Crisis, Fantastic Four, JLA Another Nail, JSA, Marvel Knights: Spider-Man, Secret War, Superman, Superman: Birthright, Superman/Batman, Supreme Power, Teen Titans, Ultimate FF, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Wanted, Wildcats, Wolverine, Wolverine: The End, X-Men

Upcoming, I'm excited about
Avengers, Ex Machina, Sleeper Season 2, Ultimate Nightmare, The Ultimates vol 2, X-Men: The End

I also follow but don't know when to expect the next issue of:
Daredevil: Father, Daredevil: Target, Planetary, Spider-Man/Black Cat

In trade paperback form I collect:
Alias, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Powers, Y: The Last Man

Three Reviews: MK Spider-Man, Batman: DATM, Identity Crisis

I thought I would have a negative review, but I actually have three overall positive reviews. I'll try to keep spoiler free, although Identity Crisis is hard to discuss without giving some things away so BE WARNED. It'll be at the bottom.

Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #3
Marvel Comics
Writer: Mark Millar
Artists: Terry and Rachel Dodston

This series might just be the best Spider-Man series out there right now. Millar's got action and wisecracking that exceed those in Spectacular or Amazing. Millar's Spidey also has a maturity that the Ultimate version lacks -- there's no MTV talk in here. Issue #3 continues a fight that was started between Spider-Man and Electro. The art, full of smooth curves, is quite nice and keeps the kinetic pacing fo the fight. The mystery that was started is still left unsolved. Three issues in, this book has been pretty exciting, hopefully it can be continued.

Batman: Death and the Maidens #9
DC Comics
Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: Klaus Jansen

Overall, I thought this was a pretty nice Batman story, but I'm left wondering if the changes are going to be permanent or temporary. If they're temporary, then this is pretty much another Batman story. My guess is, the way the Batman folks tend to be fine with making relatively long standing changes, that the result of this series is permanent. At times, it felt like the story dragged on a bit but there were parallels drawn between Nyssa and Bruce Wayne that kept some of the personal elements going. In the end, this reads better as a collection and perhaps was one or two issues too long.

DC Identity Crisis #1
DC Comics
Writer: Brad Meltzer
Artist: Rags Morales

DC Identity Crisis doesn't live up to the hype while just one issue in, but it's still an entertaining read. I never read Meltzer's Green Arrow run, and I've had trouble starting one his novels. But the story presented here is pretty good. With the publicity surrounding this series, it would have been impossible to live up to the hype. On the other hand, my impression was that the death of a major characater would occur, and that hasn't happened here. The death scene is worked in well, but it borders with cheesy. My favorite part is how all the heroes had already built contingency plans for this sort of situation after Superman died. I'm certainly on board for the rest of this ride, although I suspect at 7 issues, this story will be longer than necessary. You can also take to the bank that the first suspect isn't the real one. I've seen too much Law and Order to fall for that trick!

Review: Secret War #2

I think what I will do each week is try to review a book, and alternate in tone - positive or negative.

This week, I'm in a pretty decent mood and feel like writing a positive review. My favorite book of the week was Secret War #2. These reviews will try to avoid spoilers. As time goes on, I imagine that I will get better at doing this.

Secret War #2
Marvel Comics
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Gabriele Dell'Otto

This is the second part of a five issue limited series. Each part comes out every three months. If you've read works by Bendis before, then you'll be familiar with his drawn out storytelling style. Because of this, the book is not helped by the quarterly release schedule. But the story is still compelling -- the major players of the mini-series are revealed, and it's an all-star lineup of Marvel heroes just as promised.

The art is spectacular. The painted style works really well. This must be part of the reasons for the long time spans between each issue but I think it's worth the wait. The first issue of the series revealed a conspiracy and now the "powers that be" are going to do something about it. Overall, I'm pretty impressed.

I wonder, maybe this series would have been better released as an oversized hardcover. Perhaps the profit margin just isn't the same. But if it continues as promised, this series will have major effects on the Marvel U. And just once in a while, it's nice to be reminded that all these heroes work in the same places.