Comic Book Review 01/20/07

Continuing with the catch up of recent purchases over the last few weeks.

Ultimate Power #3

Pencils – Greg Land – Greg land knows how to draw women although they all tend to look the same.  Like uber-hot versions of Lego people where the face looks the same and you just change the body/costume and pop on whatever colour of hair you want.  I’ve always found that his guys tended to look a little on the soft side and if being a superhero didn’t workout they’d always have a safety net of being the next new “teen hottie” on the cover of People or one of those other idiotic magazines.  Good news is that his guys are starting look quite good now, and not quite so soft and pretty.  I don’t have anything bad to say about the art here.  I enjoyed it.  Looking at Land’s art is like looking at porn.  Interesting and entertaining but it’s nothing that makes me run around whooping with delight.

Words – Brian Bendis – There are Bendis-haters out there but I’m not one of them.  Beyond that; I am really, REALLY enjoying Ultimate Power.  I really dig the Ultimate Universe and I adore the Supreme Power universe with their grittier, nastier, updated version of Squadron Supreme.  I like the premise of this cross over and I like the pacing so far because at times Bendis’ stories can be a bit prolonged. 

This is a great read but not that relevant to the reader unless you’re an Ultimate fan, or a Supreme Power fan.  I’m really not sure how many are actually pulling this title but all in all, this issue scores a 9 / 10 from me.  Land’s art just doesn’t always sit with me despite the fact that it’s great  I know…that doesn’t make any sense but deal with it.  I’m not here to make sense.  I’m just here to throw my opinions at people foolish enough to read them and make as many sweeping generalizations as possible.  ;)

Ultimate Spider-Man #104

T.S. Elliot wrote in his Hollow Men poem.

 “ This is the way the world ends; Not with a bang but a whimper. “

Interestingly enough this is how the stellar reign of Bendis & Bagley on Ultimate Spider-Man ends.  With a whimper.

I’ll explain why when I get to the story.

Pencils – Mark Bagley – This cat is a robot.  When I say robot I don’t mean to speak negatively of his drawing style because I really, really like his drawing style.  When I say robot, I am referring to his ability to always meet a deadline.  Ultimate Spider-Man is a monthly comic BECAUSE of Bagley.  It’s not unheard of to go two months, three months…SIX months from issue to issue in today’s industry and in fact it’s pretty much accepted fact now.  Not Bagley though.  The guy is on, all the time, every issue.  His art work isn’t as flashy as some but for me it’s like a warm blanket that you always, always find comforting.  Ultimate Spider-Man is the comic you save for last when you’re reading all the new comics you buy each Wednesday because the art is never disappointing, always well above average and easy to follow.  Bagley leaving the title is incredibly disappointing for me.  104 issues is a long, long time.  I think since 2000, he’s been on it and I simply can’t imagine Ultimate Spider-Man with someone else behind the pencil.  I for one will miss Bagley and I wish all the best to him in whatever he plans on doing in the future.

Words – Bendis – Alright; I love Bendis’ work.  Pretty much all of it.  I say this because I hated the “Clone Saga”.  I stopped collecting Spider-Man comics because of the Clone Wars and even now when it’s mentioned I always throw up a little bit in my mouth. Bendis did the Ultimate-verse version of the Clone storyline and perhaps I’m jaded from my past experience but I found it too outlandish.  I know I’m reading a comic about a guy that has spider powers and complaining about “outlandish” seems pretty stupid, but there it is.  Five different spider-clones running around and a Gwen Stacy clone and a middle-aged Peter Parker clone thinking he’s his own dad and Mary Jane getting injected with Oz and turning into a red-haired version of the Hobgoblin and Dr. Octopus having Magneto’s powers for all intents and purposes.

It all sucked.  Sucked hard.

This was the conclusion of the Clone Saga and it was EIGHT issues long.

I think Bendis is working on too many titles.  Ultimate Spider-Man used to be brilliant and slowly the story arcs started to get more and more unpleasant.  There have still been a few excellent arcs of late but this one truly sucked.

It might just be my past experience with spider-clones that is poisoning my view of this story arc…nah…it sucked.

All in all, I’m scoring this a 5 / 10 .  Buy this issue if you’re a complete-freak like I am and you want a full run of Ultimate S-M.  This isn’t Bendis’ best work by a long shot and I think he and Bagley have two, maybe three issues left together on this title before they start up with new talent.  Hopefully their last arc together will eclipse the frantic foolishness of the Clone Saga.

Oh, and best part?  There’s an Ultimate Scarlet Spider running around.  A Peter Parker clone that’s a girl.  Also to spoil it entirely, Peter’s offered a chance to give up his powers and it ends with a big “Oh my golly-gosh! Is he really gonna give up his powers??” moment.

Which we all know the answer to that.  No.  Otherwise, no more Ultimate Spider-Man.  Bendis MIGHT have Peter give up his powers and then focus on normal Peter and follow the She-Peter-clone as she runs around the city fighting crime but just writing that sounds idiotic, not to mention how many fanboys on Newsarama.com would freak-the-fuck out.

So…all in all, an eight part story with zero relevance to the overall Ultimate Spidey-verse.  Disappointing.

Ultimate X-Men #78

Pencils – Ben Oliver – Not ugly but not pretty.  Closer to ugly.  There’s no sense of flow to the art, and no sense of motion during the fight scenes.  The fights look stilted and awkward and a knockdown, drag out fight between Cyclops and Cable.  A fight that’s supposed to be a coming-out party of sorts for Cyclops and show how exceptional he is and I could get more excitement from watching the Backyardigans on television.

Words – Robert Kirkman – I really, REALLY like his work on Invincible and LOVE his work on The Walking Dead which is why I can’t understand why his X-Men work leaves me a  bit cold.  I almost stopped pulling this title after the last arc but the promise of Ultimate Cable was intriguing enough to keep me buying Ultimate X-men.  I think it might just be the subjects.  I’m pretty scathing when it comes to the X-Men.  I think they need to have about five more House of M’s and wipe out all of the mutants except for about six.  That would be a manageable amount in my opinion.  They’re just not interesting characters.  Whedon has to work like a bastard to make them great and his Astonishing stuff isn’t considered canon.  Which is too bad because once Whedon is done the X-Men will go back to being sub-par.  Kirkman has some great ideas.  His angle on Ultimate Cable is interesting, and the big “death” at the end of this arc could prove to be interesting which will keep me around long enough for the two issue arc called “Aftermath”.  After that I think I’ll be dropping the Ultimate X-Men unless the next two issues absolutely blow my doors off.  The character that died…well…I doubt they’ll stay dead, but I said that about Beast when they put him six feet under a year or so ago.  Maybe they realize the title is failing and maybe they’re trying to shake things up?

All in all, between the art and the storytelling, I’d give it a 6 / 10 .  Buy it if you’re a complete-freak, otherwise take a pass.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #37

Pencils – Pasquale Ferry – Ferry draws a great Thing, and a great Thanos…and uhm…that’s it.  His work is a bit too cartoony for me and I haven’t enjoyed this run of his at all. ‘Nuff said about that.

Words – Mike Carey – WTF??!!??!111?/1/!1/!???  This is the fifth part of the six-part “God War” arc.  Pretty much the entire time I’ve read this arc I’ve been confused by the story.  The more reviews of mine you read, you’ll find how I hate the whole cosmic, alternate reality-hopping storylines and well…that’s pretty much the Fantastic Four’s bread and butter.  Maybe if I went back and read the first four parts of this run, I’d have a better grip on the whole story but it kinda sucks and I can’t bring myself to read four issues of a run that I’ve already read and wasn’t interesting enough for me to want to remember…or try to understand in the first place.  The Ultimate Fantastic Four is “ON NOTICE”.  They’re one more sub-par issue away from getting dropped.  Tune in next month to see how it goes.

All in all, I give this issue a  4 / 10.  Unpleasant art with a who-how-what-the-fuck storyline buried it.  Buy it if you like the old school Fantastic Four and their reality-bending cosmic highjinx.  Not my cup o’ tea.

Spider-Man  Reign #1

Pencils & Words – Kaare Andrews – People are already comparing this to Miller’s Dark Knight storyline and well…that’s not a bad thing.  In fact, as far as I am concerned every comic made from here till I die could emulate the Dark Knight storyline and I’d be a happy pecker.

Andrews’ art is definitely an acquired taste but I think it perfectly suits the story.  It sets the mood and evokes such a sense of pathos when you see what Peter’s been reduced to.  There are a few moments in the comic with Mary Jane that just gutted me.

The story itself follows what might have happened a number of years after the Civil War and what might have happened if the registration act had been fully implemented.

I’m actually not going to write about this anymore.  I love Spider-Man, always have.  I have way, way way too many Spider-Man comics.  At moments when I read this comic I was angry over what happened to Peter as well as saddened.  I’m also filled with hope that maybe, just maybe in this story you’ll get to see a shining glimmer of what he used to be.  I’m already hooked if you can’t tell yet.

If you like Spider-Man, get this.

If you like something a bit different when it comes to your taste in comics and you want to dip your toe into the mainstream comic scene, get this.

If you want something slightly tied to Civil War and you’re a Civil War freak, get this.

All in all I’m giving this a 10 / 10 .  I love what it is.  I love what it could be.  I love the way it slaps me in the face and messes with the hero I have loved for decades.

More reviews coming…