Quickie Reviews (Feb. 3, 2010)

As always, quick thoughts on the comics I got this week that I'm not reviewing for CBR...

The Boys #39: Another quiet character-based issue. The sex stuff between Hughie and Annie made me laugh, especially Hughie's homophobia being followed up with him stopping the porn on the lesbian scene. Mother's Milk's couple of pages were... yeah, pretty much what you'd expect Ennis to show after revealing his origin. John McCrea and Keith Burns did the art and it's serviceable, but just makes me long for Robertson. The payoff at the end is done well. Let's get into the second half of this book's run! [***]

Criminal: The Sinners #4: Man, Tracy is a stupid guy sometimes. A gorgeous comic as always. Glad that it's back on a regular schedule. [****]

Ghost Riders: Heaven's on Fire #6: A minor complaint: no letters page for this finale? Damn. The Irish Ghost Rider made me laugh quite a bit. Roland Boschi knocks it out of the park with Dan Brown's orange/red colours almost hurting the eyes on some pages they're so dominant. The conclusion to Jason Aaron's run on the character is good, not great. He doesn't give us the all-out brawl we expect, but it's an intelligent and smart conclusion. If there's a book likely to be discussed in this week's podcast, it's this one, I imagine. [***1/2]

The Great Ten #4: An enjoyable issue that answers some questions and raises others. The story behind the Immortal Man in Darkness is good and a nice spin on the Blackhawks that's a lot more subtle than last issue's Superman/Thundermind thing. I do love the energy of Scott McDaniel's art, but the finishes aren't as polished as I would like. [**1/2]

Greek Street #8: One of the better issues of this series as things seem to be moving in a direction. The first arc was a lot of promise of an eventual direction, but this one has shown movement as the characters converge and interact more. Still not a great read, though. [***]

Siege #2: No one saw that coming. I know I didn't. It's not unusual for violence of that scale to happen in superhero comics now, but, in this case, it was done well -- and was shocking. The look on Hawkeye's (Bullseye) face tells it all. The final page was going for a certain effect, but was reaching for it too much. I liked this issue more than the first. It hasn't exactly progressed beyond the concept yet, but it's executing it in a suprising manner. The text piece at the back of this issue adds to the story in a way that last issue's text piece didn't. Good stuff all around. [***1/2]

Later