Quickie Reviews (Mar 10 2010)

Four books to briefly discuss this week:

Batman and Robin #10: Man, this is a return to Batman-style writing for Morrison. It got me excited in that "Batman RIP" kind of way. Andy Clarke's art is very good -- a little unpolished in places, but definitely suits the writing. I'm sure Tim and I will have things to say about this in the podcast this week. [****]

Criminal: The Sinners #5: A solid conclusion to this story. I wasn't feeling it for most of this series and this issue isn't any different. It ended a little too neat and tidy for my taste... even Lawless's supposed sacrifice isn't much of one because it's the lesser of two evils. Fantastic art as always. Maybe I'll enjoy this more on reread. [***1/2]

The Mystic Hands of Dr. Strange #1: Man, that Kieron Gillen/Frazer Irving story is fantastic. Really strong, thought-provoking, weird stuff. The sort of Dr. Strange story I would love to see in an ongoing series. The Peter Milligan/Frank Brunner one was also pretty good. The Ted McKeever story had cool art, but the story was... there? Haven't read the prose thing at the back yet. Overall, a rather strong issue. I've liked the black and white books from Marvel that I've seen, this one the most. [****]

The Unwritten #12: I liked this issue more than any in a while. The book seems like it's back on track with the last few issues more a detour. The end had me genuinely wanting to see what happens next. Even the conclusion to this two-parter was intriguing as Tom gained knowledge and seems a confident lead of sorts. I did like Jimmy Broxton's contribution to the art, giving it a different feel while maintaining Peter Gross's baseline look. It would be interesting if they did that in the future with other artists to sort of mix Gross's style with theirs. That could be really cool. [***]

Sorry, things are even briefer this week as I'm swamped with work. Later