This Week’s Reviews: 1st week of Dec. 2008

Taking some time out from Christmas decorating (Thanksgiving’s numerical placement this year kind of threw my timing off), because it’s time to review my new acquisitions. Sadly, Shattered Glass, the Transformers Club story, won’t arrive here until next week, although I’ve read that some already have it. (Stupid Diamond. I miss Advance Comics.) Hopefully I’ll also have the Iron Man Digest with the final Marvel Adv. story. Considering how many comics I had to read, however, it’s not so bad.

To save some space, I’m going to link to my less spoilery ComiXology reviews in the titles. I’ll see how well that works.

 Supergirl: Adventures in the 8th Grade #1 (DC)

WRITER: Landry Q. Walker

ARTIST: Eric Jones

LETTERER: Pat Brosseau

COLORIST: Joey Mason

EDITOR: Jann Jones (so that’s where Martian Manhunter’s gotten to?)

The Girl of Steel gets a kiddie makeover for her new friend Johnny DC, as the pre-to-early-teen makes her new first appearance on Earth, accidentally rescuing Superman and crashing Luthor’s party. Unfortunately, accidents seem to be her big problem. After an argument with her Mom, young Kara decides to sneak aboard the rocket headed out of the pocket dimension Argo’s (a moon of the extinct Krypton) trapped in, but ends up getting launched with it. Now unable to return to her home, Kara takes up the name “Linda Lee” and tries to fit in with Earth kids. No such luck.

What they got right: A good origin that doesn’t involve being driven mad by Kryptonite chunks, urges to kill her cousin, or any other origin oddities. (Now they just need to not change it every few issues, and they won’t need the first one there to fix things.) The character isn’t oversexualised like her DC Proper counterpart, so that’s good. They even come up with an explanation for her wearing a match to Superman’s costume. (The Argoians(?) know about Superman, and was hoping he could rescue them. The outfit was part of a cheering squad for the rocket launch.) Kara is a fun kid, even giving us a less than accurate description of how she came to Earth that was funny. (As is Kal-El’s “yeah, right” expression.) The way she accidentally destroy’s Luthor’s robot (nice to see him as the mad scientist criminal again) and her reaction to new powers (“I can see through everyone’s clothing! I don’t want to see through everyone’s clothing!”) is just comedy gold (or at least silver). At the same time, you feel sorry for her trying to adjust to school with her powers and lack of Earth culture. (Really should have stuck around a while longer, Clark.) If Bully isn’t declaring this comic fun, I may have to question what he’s stuffed with.

What they got wrong: I don’t expect a major supervillain in the first issue. However, Superman makes the same error he did when Kara first appeared in a DC Comic. He kind of drops her off just after she arrived. He may have had the same reasons he did then, and I know Landry was trying to insure all focus was on Kara/Linda Lee (who seems to have worse luck that Peter Parker), but it still seems an error on her part as she tries to adjust to school, where the other 8th graders have heard of money, New York, and cows. I’ve heard complaints about the character model for Kara, which actually works rather well for “Linda”. While I agree with others about the hair, she is only 12, so her body’s not going to be as well…developed…as her older counterparts. Plus there are plenty of akward, lanky teens older than her, and I think it matches her personality rather well, mostly seen in her Linda identity. But yeah, the tomboy hair seems rather Smallville-level off for her design.

Recommendation: I’m not as excited for this book as much as was after Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! #1, but only by a small margin. It’s funny, it has heart, and I like the art style better than Billy Batson. I’m keeping a very close eye on this comic.

Doctor Who: The Forgotten #4(IDW)

WRITER: Tony Lee

ARTISTS: Kelly Yates, Pia Guerra with Kent Archer; Nick Roche (cover)

COLORISTS: Kris Carter; Charlie Kirchoff

LETTERER: Richard Starkings

PRODUCTION: Neil Yuetake

EDITOR: Denton J. Tipton

Martha takes on another old fodder, the Metebelis spiders (I really should watch that episode), and the Doctor remembers events of the Six and Seventh Doctors. Some more data is revealed about the “Nemesis” of this arc, but sadly, my poor memory isn’t really getting in gear. The Sixth Doctor’s tale involved the Doctor acting as defense at a murder trial, with Peri as the accused. The Seventh Doctor and Ace (saw that companion coming) find a planet where one side has used a Gallifreyan virus against the other side.

Before I get to the reviewing, I’d like to direct you good people over to the Pull List for this week. Tony Lee himself (unless it’s an internet prank–I’m a bit of a cynic, what can I say?:)) posted a comment, which is pretty neat for a new blog. Also I corrected an error. I messed up the guest artist’s name for the previous issue. This is why I’m an idiot.

What they got right: Tony still does a good job capturing the attitudes of the previous incarnations, such as 6’s inflated ego. (I believe Colin once said that had he continued on that would be toned down as the problem regeneration would be righting itself.) This issue has a few more clues to what’s going on, mostly from Martha that puts this story in a different place in time that I had thought. Confirm that with the spoiler on the last page. I can hear all the actors in my head again, even when 7 seems to talking directly to 10, which itself is fascinating, and Lee really takes stock of the little things, like Ace’s stereo. There’s a love not just for the new series but the “classic” Who that you can feel in the stories, unlike the previous mini that seemed a bit overcharged in the wrong spots.

What they got wrong: Storywise and artwise, nothing. Yates’ style doesn’t match Pia’s as well as Martino did last issue, but it’s still good. Any complaints are just personal ones. Granted that much of my interest in Peri is for the “wrong” reasons (I’m straight and single–that says it all :D), but I would have liked to have seen more of her (not that way, you perverts!) in the story. Admittedly, she hardly had Ace or Martha’s presence as a companion, so I can’t fault that. I do wish we had seen more of the classic TARDIS control room. One panel last issue and I think there was a shot with the First Doctor but I can’t remember. I’m just not a fan of the new series TARDIS control room, and the next two Doctors don’t use the classic layout. (I am curious to see if they use the 8th/Fox room somehow in the story.)  I’m also hoping that we get a maxi-series someday like “All Hail Megatron” that the Transformers are getting. Then each Doctor could have their own story, perhaps with a connecting event, like a huge “Key To Time” style story. However, these are just to cater to my personal tastes, and I doubt anyone at IDW is thinking “I wonder what Troy wants to see in the next comic”, or the next Transformer comic would be a Bumblebee/Swoop buddy story. 🙂

Recommendation: If you can’t find all of the previous issues, wait for the trade to come out. This story is proving to be a must for any Whovian. Hopefully the payoff is better than Russel T’s last two season finales.

Iron Man/Hulk/Fury  (Marvel)

WRITERS: Paul Tobin, Frank Tieri, and Joe Caramanga

ARTISTS: Ronan Cliquet, Salva Espin, and Hugo Fetras

COLORISTS: Chris Sotomayor, Guru eFx

LETTERERS: Nate Piekos, and Rus Wooton

COVER: Dave Bullock & Steve Lieber

PRODUCTION: Anthony Dial

CONSULTING: Ralph Macchio (I’ll stop doing Katate Kid jokes now)

EDITOR: Nathan Cosby

Three stories set in the Marvel Studios universe follows the friendship between Tony and Rhodey, Fury meeting the Hulk, and a solo mission for Fury. I think the stories used to be online at Marvel Digital.

What they got right: Three seperate stories. It’s nice to see further stories involving the movie characters. The pre-armor Tony and Rhodey are a hoot and Paul captures the magic between the two characters well. (Between this and the various Marvel Adventures stories, I’m really liking this guy’s work.) Sadly, having not been able to see Incredible Hulk yet (I hate this year), I can’t comment on how well it was done. In the last story I can certainly see the “Samuel L. Jackson” version (used because of the Ultimate version of Fury, I’m betting) having his own movie.

What they got wrong: The art wasn’t that exciting overall. The Hulk story just seemed flat. I can appreciate it on the concept level, and I can tell Frank tried, but even within the limits of a short story it just didn’t work. I also felt I should have been more excited in the Fury story, but I just wasn’t that jazzed about it.

Recommendation: If you really like the movies (and I love the Iron Man movie), it’s worth getting. However, it’s not exactly a must have, even then.

Transformers Animated: The Arrival #5 (IDW)

WRITER: Marty Isenberg

ARTISTS: Dario Brizuela, Leandro Corral, and Boo

COLORIST: Liam Shalloo

EDITOR: Denton J. Tipton

COVER “A” ARTIST: Marcelo Matere (color assist: Pricilla Tramontano

It should be noted that Marty Isenberg is head writer for the animated series. Here he gives us another “old days” Cybertron story where Optimus battles Megatron..sort of. In the modern tale, Scourge plays Daffy Duck to Blitzwing and Lugnut’s Foghorn Leghorn and the Dog.

What they got right: The art and style are consistent with the cartoon. I do love seeing what Cybertron is like in the Animated Universe, and anytime somebody wants to let Blitzwing and Lugnut take each other out (although if I had to choose the survivor, it would be Blitzwing, as Lugnut makes me want to scrap him) is doing fine with me.

What they got wrong: One review for the newsgroups said he would have liked the first story to be the dominant one, as the “backup” is actually longer. Frankly, I didn’t think we needed the backup story. Looney Tunes did it much better. (They had Daffy, after all.) Watching Optimus take part in survival training would have been a far more interesting story on it’s own, which made have made the surprise (if we hadn’t seen it before) ending more interesting. At least it doesn’t feel like a cop-out.

Recommendation: Don’t lose any sleep if you miss this issue, but as an obsessed Transformers comic fan I kind of like having it.

The Dreamland Chronicles #5 (IDW/Blue Dream Studios)

Writer/Artist: Scott Christain Alva

Alex is attacked by pirates, but rescued by the last of his three Dreamland friends, Nastajia, now queen of the elves in place of her missing parents. Big fight happens.

What they got right: Not much story, since this issue was mostly fighting. The 3-D art is as beautiful as always, and these pages were made back in 2006. You have to figure he’s improved by now through repitition alone. It’s also nice to see a comic fight nowadays that isn’t about violence, cursing, and bloodshed. That’s why I like “all-ages” stories.

What they got wrong: I don’t know how strongly it qualifies as “wrong”, but there’s not much story. Maybe it works better when read alongside some earlier stories (the comic is updated online weekdays and Blue Dream originally released them as a set of graphic novels still available at Amazon, with new IDW printings coming out soon), but on it’s own it feels just like a big fight comic. Nothing wrong with that and it is a well done fight comic. The definate flaw, however, comes not from Scott Sava, but from the publisher. Online the reveal of Ashendel was two pages, sadly published that way. However, the print version could have put the two pages across from each other, like so:

{click for larger view}

However, they’re on opposite sides of the same page, ruining the view. This is a mistake that should be corrected in the upcoming compiliation.

Recommendation: Get the individual comics. Go online. Wait for the new compliations, or track down the old ones. Just get this comic. It’s one of the best series out there!

 Best Scene of the week award!

Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade #1

Never tell someone your weakness. If it doesn't exist yet, it will!

Honorable mention: Doctor Who: The Forgotten #4

Leave it to the Doctor to find a new way to talk to yourself.

And that does it for this week’s reviews. I hope all your purchases were good ones. Now back to making the Attic HQ all festive and stuff.