In case anyone was wondering, I plan to get the '28' series back on track after missing last month's post. The same 'lack of desire' that struck my Comics Should be Good work hit there, too. I've been keeping the basics going, but definitely needed to step back. Not sure if the stepping back is entirely done just yet, but it's been nice.
Batman, Incorporated #7: Chris Burnham's art seemed more in sync with Morrison's writing in this issue. A pretty great done-in-one comic that I can't help but see as drawing some inspiration from Scalped. One of my favourite issues of this series so far, honestly. [****1/2]
Detective Comics #878: A good issue and good conclusion to this little story. Tiger Shark is an interesting villain and one I'd like to see more of. In a couple of places, Jock's art really confused me, but that's nothing new. Snyder's narration was rather strong and the voice Dick put on when talking to James was appropriate and... yet, surprising. In a good way. Between this and last week's Gates of Gotham, I'm feeling more confident about my decision to add Batman to my pull list come September. [***1/2]
Flashpoint: Project Superman #1: An interesting issue that didn't quite land. This seems like the sort of book I'd be all over: a man slowly losing his humanity to superhumanity, but... I never get the sense that Sinclair is the one who changes so much as it's everyone around him that changes how they relate to him. He simply gains powers and people react differently to him until he loses control. It's not so much that he loses his humanity as it's taken from him. It kind of reminds me of the X-Men and how I never quite bought into that 'different non-human species' line of thinking, but understood how, after so many people treating you as something other than human, you'd begin to think of yourself as something different. Sinclair never reaches that point, though. That doesn't make it bad, just less interesting than it could have been. Gene Ha's artwork is a little disappointing in its minimalism. When he pairs down his art, it comes off as sloppy and only partially rendered a lot of the time. The stuff with the X-Ray vision worked quite well, though. I'm intrigued enough to see this one through. [***1/4]
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #8: I really like Nick Dragotta's art, but that little blast from the past story at the end of the comic added nothing. It was five pages that Dynamo had already summed up in a few sentences. I still think that those '60s sequences would work better integrated and this issue definitely seemed to have that problem. At least the pace picked up from issue seven. Still a somewhat humdrum story so far... aside from the debate between Len and Bill, which was quite well done. [**1/2]
X-Men: Prelude to Schism #4: Professor X, Magneto... Cyclops, Wolverine.... seems like an obvious enough pattern. It occurs to me that the hints provided seem like they're pointing to the Celestials. I thought Earth had 50 years until the gold one in San Francisco woke up, but, hey, why wait? This series suckered me in with a pretty good first issue and then did nothing by let me down the rest of the time... but, hey, I imagine some people are happy to see Jenkins revisit Logan's past... maybe? [**1/4]
The New Avengers 100 Project: I bought this off of the Hero Initiative's eBay page and it finally arrived with the mail lockout ended. Nice little collection of art. It's fun to see the same ideas pop up again and again or callbacks to an artist's previous tenure on the book like Steve Epting drawing that '90s team featuring the Black Knight and shaven Hercules... except he left out the leather jackets! I only flipped through it so far, but definitely worth it, especially since it supports a good cause.
The Incal: Classic Collection: This finally shipped this week after a while of waiting. The next best thing to that deluxe, oversized hardcover Humanoids put out last year and, if you didn't get that one, FUCKING HEAD OUT AND FIND A COPY OF THIS ONE! The original colouring is back and I already found one panel that's made two hundred times better for it. It's a shot of Animah with purple skin and blue hair because of the lighting and it stands out so well. Just a perfect little panel. My only hope is that Humanoids keep these coming. A hardcover like this with the original colouring of Avant L'Incal would be a fantastic companion piece -- and, then, maybe Apres L'Incal and Final Incal? Please?
Later
Storm #2 annotations
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