Review: Planetary #22

Planetary #22
DC Comics/Wildstorm Comics
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: John Cassaday

Planetary remains one of Warren Ellis's better works, and perhaps one of the better comics out there right now. If only it came out more regularly! It's hard to remember what happened the last few issues, one almost hopes for a recap page or something.

William Leather of the Four was captured in a recent issue and now we learn more about his background and why he's part of the Four and what their motivations are. This issue is very strong, with a great backstory for Leather, who provides the primary narration. The art is beautiful as usual, and Planetary has once again bought itself a few months of me gushing before I get upset that it's so long between issues again. We must be in the home stretch since now only two members of the Four are at large.

One other side note - I noticed the Wildstorm imprint puts out about eight to twelve regular titles. Oddly enough, I buy four of them (Ex-Machina, Planetary, Sleeper, The Authority), making that the largest percentage of any "line" that I buy. Also, most of these books are high quality. Throw into the mix Alan Moore's line, America's Best Comics, and there are some really good comics being made at the Wildstorm group, with a wide range of genres. Too bad the titles don't sell that well.

New Heroes

You ever wonder what will happen once all the various comic book super heroes/stories have been mined and made into movie franchises? There doesn't seem to be too much new stuff coming down the pipe.

Review: Sleeper: Season Two #8

Sleeper: Season Two #8
DC Comics/Wildstorm Comics
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Sean Phillips

Ed Brubaker is writing some good comics right now. I've caught a glimpse of Gotham Central, which I thought was a dopey concept, but is a great crime comic. His relaunch of Captain America has been top notch. The Authority: Revolution isn't quite as good, but it's the best version of that comic that hasn't been written by a jaded fellow from the UK. That brings us to Sleeper, the book everyone loves to praise but nobody loves to buy.

We're in the home stretch for Sleeper, and one thing I enjoy is that it's totally unclear what the outcome will be for Holden Carver. With other titles, the protagonist is expected to survive the end of the series because his name is "Superman" or some other equivalent. On the other hand, Holden's story has an ending, but we do not know if it will be at the end of this "season" and we also do not know if it will be a happy ending.

This series has the same quality Planetary does, in that each issue is a self-contained story within a larger framework. This works really well for the monthly comic books and doesn't have the same feeling as some of the decompressed storytelling that's so popular these days. In the first series, Brubaker took each issue and used it to spotlight a different character. This time around, he's managed to create little stories within the bigger espionage conflict.

Miss Misery gets a little focus in this issue, and here's a character that's well conceived -- a villainess who has to do bad things or else she will wither up and die. A tragic villainess - a woman whose physical well-being is dependent on her actions. It's strong characterization and the game of trust and knowledge that is Sleeper continues on.

I've never seen the tv show Alias, but from what I heard it's like Sleeper. If that's true then it's probably a pretty good show.

Review: X-Men #166

X-Men #166
Marvel Comics
Writer: Peter Milligan
Artist: Salvador Larroca

Uncanny X-Men #240 and Wolverine #1 (Claremont/Buschema) were the first two comics that started my comic book collection. Sometimes, it feels like I still buy these titles just to keep getting them.

This X-Men book started with Chris Claremont and Jim Lee then continued on to lengthy Fabian Nicieza and Scott Lobdell runs (with a little Mark Waid sprinkled in). Joe Kelly then came on board, followed by Alan Davis and a forgettable/confusing Chris Claremont return. Lobdell came back, killed Colossus, and then Grant Morrison took over for a bit, changing the title's name, and writing a somewhat contraversial story. After Morrison, the title changed back to plain old "X-Men" for Chuck Austen (about whom enough has been said). Now we bring in Peter Milligan, who by my crude count is about the eleventh regular writer on X-Men.

For the most part, this book has had some fine caretakers. The lowest moments have been the Claremont "Revolution" and Austen runs by far. Now Milligan tries to follow up the Austen debacle with "Golgotha."

I've never read any of Milligan's material, save for a few X-Statix issues. X-Statix was a pretty novel book, but also a niche book, and I've never seen Milligan on anything mainstream before. I must say, I'm hopeful for something good here, but you can't judge a story very well on just one issue.

On to the issue itself -- it's not that interesting. There's a lot of set up and a number of X-Men who usually take the back seat in terms of action. I'd like to see where this goes, because even if it just was average super hero/adventure fare, that's better than it's been in a while. I could really go for the X-Men just going on random missions here and there about now.

One other side note: I never liked how the characters' accents were written out, like Rogue's "It's okay sugah, ah'll take care of it." or Gambit's "Dis is a tricky situation, chere." But in this issue (and who knows how long before that) the characters haven't been doing that, and oddly enough it's taking away from their individuality a little. At this point I think it's a subtle contribution to the characterization, and probably one that only as a long time reader that I've missed. I don't read Rogue or Gambit's solo books. I wonder if they have those mannerisms in those titles.

Review: Wolverine #24

Wolverine #24
Marvel Comics
Writer: Mark Millar
Artist: John Romita Jr

Mark Millar. A writer who has written some of my favorite stories (Ultimates Volume 1, Ultimate X-Men, The Authority), and this month wrote four comics that I purchased.

Wolverine is one of those comics, and it's part five of a twelve issue arc by this creative team. These twelve issue arcs are all the rage, and Millar is part of that trend. In fact, he is currently in the midst of twelve issue story arcs in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man and The Ultimates vol 2.

For the most part, this works. The twelve issue arcs are wearing a little thin, but Millar is parading out a series of Marvel heroes to quip about. This month, Daredevil gets the treatment. Lines like, "You're the biggest himbo that ever wore a pair of tights" or "How can you be getting so damn much of something I barely had in years?" are examples of typical Millar lines. They still generate the chuckle, but are starting to get a little tiresome.

Romita's art is suited well for action and lots of Hand assassins. This is a pretty fun story, basically summed up by Wolverine fighting a ton of people. Not too deep other than that. I think Wolverine can be written on two levels where there is brute violence and some characterization thrown in. We've gone from heavy characterization under Rucka to strict brute violence under Millar. Hopefully the next person can try for down the middle.

Pull List - January 24, 2004

Here are some titles I'm reading these days.

Hopefully, I'll have a quick review on X-Men #166 and Wolverine #24 before the week is out. Also, I'm planning on reading the Peter David Madrox mini-series.

I'm not sure if I'm going to get the issues for Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers or wait for the trade paperbacks. Same goes for the upcoming DC Countdown event. Finally, Age of Apocalypse, one of my favorite all-time stories, will be celebrated in March with a number of one-shots and mini-series. Not sure if those will be on my pull list either.

Recently, I've stopped reading Amazing Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man. I can't say I feel much of a void. Also, I haven't been excited about an X-Men title in quite some time, aside from Astonishing X-Men.

In tpb form, I'm still following Powers and Y: The Last Man. Both these series have been excellent.

In issue form, here are the monthly titles I'm reading. I must admit, the DC titles have been more to my liking of late.

Marvel Comics

Astonishing X-Men, Captain America, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Marvel Knights: Spider-Man, Secret War, The Ultimates 2, Ultimate Fantastic Four (I know I said earlier I'd stop getting it, but N-Zone has been quite good), Ultimate Nightmare, Ultimate X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine, X-Men, X-Men: Phoenix Endsong

DC Comics

Authority: Revolution, Ex-Machina, Green Lantern: Rebirth, JLA, JLA Classified, JSA, Planetary, Sleeper: Season 2, Superman, Superman/Batman, Teen Titans

Upcoming:
Runaways, X-Men: The End Part 2, and DC's All-Star Batman and All-Star Superman

A few of the books I'll stick around on until creative teams change, such as MK: Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, JLA, JLA Classified and Superman.

Books I look most forward to each month (in no particular order):
Runaways, Planetary, Teen Titans, Superman/Batman, Astonishing X-Men, The Ultimates 2

Review: Wanted #6

Wanted #6
Image Comics
Writer: Mark Millar
Penciller: JG Jones

Well, much like Wanted and Wolverine: The End, I've been taking a lot of time off from putting out new material. So here's a third post in the last 24 hours.

This issue concludes the six-issue Wanted mini-series. According to an interview with Mark Millar, there won't be a sequel to this series, and it's already been optioned for a Hollywood picture.

There are some great concepts in this series, such as what happened to the heroes, how all the villains interact, and the backstory with Wesley and his father. The art is beautiful as well. But there's something about Millar's cynicism that gets sort of annoying. In the beginning of the series, he did an excellent job of portraying Wesley Gibson as a loser, but now that he's bad, he's not at the uber-cool that Millar thinks he is.

Jones does a beautiful 2 page spread towards the end of the story. The interludes drawn by Dick Giordano are also very nice. This is a clever little concept/mystery, but it's not the "Watchmen for villains" as I've seen it billed elsewhere.

On a side note, I noticed that I'm reading three other books by Millar, Wolverine, Marvel Knights: Spider-Man and The Ultimates 2. His style is starting to get a little repetitive, I think. Ultimates is by far the best of his works. Wolverine, MK: Spider-Man and Wanted are all not as complete. The characterizations are a more varied in Ultimates and the suspense has been greater. Also, one wishes for a little more variety in material --his themes of corporate super-villains (found both in MK: Spider-Man and Wanted) seem a little repetitive.

Review: Teen Titans #20

Teen Titans #20
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller: Tom Grummett

First off, I read on the 'net that Tom Grummett and Mike McKone have both signed exclusives with Marvel. That's too bad, is Marvel plucking Titans pencillers away? I like both these guys and their clean styles.

Something about the DC universe in general that I'm enjoying more than at Marvel is the integration of the stories. On the Marvel side, it seems like things operate in a vacuum much more than DC these days. They're trying to have tighter integration (for example, Pulse/Secret War, Wolverine/New Thunderbolts/New Invaders, Spider-Man/New Avengers) but it's still a bit off, especially, for example, when all three X-Men books seem to operate in different realities.

But DC is pretty tight in the books that I'm reading at least. Case in point, mentioned this issue are the death of Robin's father (Identity Crisis), some teenager finds Lex Luthor's armor (Superman/Batman), Starfire goes to the Outsiders and the new Speedy joins the Teen Titans (Green Arrow).

This book continues the super quality of the Teen Titans series thus far and injects some emotional elements into the storyline as well. Characters are developed while plot lines (some long running) are continued. And the art looks great. Another great issue for one of the better titles on the shelves these days.

Review: Wolverine: The End #6

Wolverine: The End #6
Marvel Comics
Writer: Paul Jenkins
Artist: Claudio Castellini

Could it be? Wolverine: The End and Wanted both concluded this week? It's true, it's true!

Wolverine: The End has been a major disappointment and this final issue is no different. The delays haven't done this book any favors, but the story is not very good. Wolverine is a character with ties to so many different people and so much mystery and what does his "last" story deal with? His long-lost brother? Dreadful.

I've always felt that the core of Wolverine is the man/beast conflict, made even more interesting with his ties to Japanese culture and honor and twisted by the Weapon X project. Then, there are his experiences and relationships with the X-Men, adding further depth to the character. Very little of this has been touched upon in this series, and it's all not very memorable at all. The character designs for both Wolverine and his brother aren't terribly inspired either.

And since this is a "The End" book, it should end with Wolverine's death, right?

How did this mini series go so wrong?