Sketch Reviews (May 5 2011)

Well, the Jays got destroyed this afternoon. Price pitched a great game and, in the top of the ninth, I stopped wanting the Jays to make the comeback and win because it's the team I cheer for and shifted to wanting the Jays to win just to stick it to the Rays' manager who took Price out of the game with two outs because the Jays managed to score a run that wasn't Price's fault in any way. John MacDonald got on base because of a throwing error by the shortstop that left him at second. He got to third off a sacrifice fly and scored on a groundout. It should have been three outs. I so wanted the Jays to win just to stick it to Maddison, the Rays' manager. You know you're making odd calls when fans of the opposing team sit out and go "That's stupid!"

Annihilators #3: I'm not sure if I really like this comic. The lead story is fine -- I liked the second issue's portion quite a bit. The second one has left me cold until this issue. I don't know. One issue left and, if that was just the end of the first arc, I think I'd stop there anyway. It's a fine comic, just not one that connects with me. [***]

Fear Itself #2: Um... we're still in set-up mode? What bugs me is that this tried to have a 'everything is falling apart' feel to it and it never lands for me. The final pages are good, but, fuck, this felt like where the first issue should have ended. Seriously, two issues in and the prologue feels more useless, the first issue feels like a prologue, and the second issue feels like the first... [***1/4]

Moon Knight #1: Wow, I like Alex Maleev's art a lot more here than I did on Spider-Woman and Scarlet. More crazy energy, less focus on photorealism, and the colouring doesn't have that same neon glow. It's a fine first issue. It introduces the concept well enough. Nothing here that blows my mind beyond some great art. [***1/2]

Wolverine #8: Missed it when it first came out, but my shop ordered me a copy. I don't know why, but that this story came down to the men trying to kill Logan while the women try to save him makes me laugh. So did the different rooms inside Logan's head. Him surviving for the sole purpose of wanting revenge is a decent idea, I guess. Undecided if I'll continue with this book. I really just popped in for what looked like an interesting storyarc -- and it has been. I guess we'll see. [***3/4]

Weapons of the Metabaron: I really should have got this last week, but my retailer forgot that it had come in. He called me later on Thursday last week to tell me that he'd forgotten in case I wanted it right away. It's an okay book. I shouldn't be surprised/amused that Travis Charest's name is the biggest on the cover -- then again, I'm buying this for Jodorowsky, so... The story is straightforward and incomplete: the Metabaron gathers weapons to defeat an enemy and kills everything in his way through intelligence, skill, and awesome technology. Not a mind-blowing book. I dunno. Jog wrote a good review of it, while Tim told me that he didn't actually read it, he just looked at the pictures. Personally, I preferred the Janjetov pages... [***1/4]

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