Quickie Reviews (Apr 7 2010)

Back after a week away. Yay. Eight books to briefly discuss, so better get to that...

Batman and Robin #11: I like the cover's callback to issue one. A nice, briskly-paced issue that dropped a lot of hints about things, and ended strongly with the revelation of who was now in control of Damian's body. The pacing of the part where Damian asks if Oberton Sexton is Bruce Wayne is fantastic. The pacing in general was very good here. Andy Clarke's style is growing on me -- and I liked it last issue. Reminds me of that classic-looking style the cover artist of Marvel 1602 used with the vertical lines to show shading. Good stuff. [****]

The Boys #41: Man, I enjoyed the hell out of this issue. It just hit all of the right notes for me. The reveal of Auntie Sis as the social worker/nurse of the Legion parody team was good. The cat rescue just made me laugh. Bobby Badoing is a spot-on mockery of a character I've always thought was really, really, really stupid. It's a gentle mockery, though. Ennis makes you feel for the team and uses that to make Hughie's actions at the end seem even better -- and Butcher's reaction that much worse. Mother's Milk catching on that something isn't right and Annie's talk with Hughie definitely make it seem like the shit is hitting the fan soon there. I also love how well Robertson drew the alternating scenes between Hughie's training and actually doing the tracheotomy. [****]

Detective Comics #863: I bought this issue really because why not buy the last issue of the run...? Meh. Nothing special. Not bad, but not much to say here that I hadn't already said about the previous two issues. [**]

Gødland #31: Ah, Gødland... what can I say about you that I haven't already said? You rock my world, dear comic book. You make me laugh, you make me cry (well, not cry), and I love you every time I get to spend $2.99 on you. Never change. Except when you want to, because change is good. Just ask Basil Cronus. [****]

Rasl #7: It continues to come together and just makes me want to go back and reread it all. Really dug Jeff Smith's art here with the contrasting timelines and the wild theories in the writing. He draws human emotion really well here. [****]

S.H.I.E.L.D. #1: I liked this, but didn't love it. After seeing a day of people mess their pants over this issue, I'm stuck in the position of looking like I hated the comic by comparison since I thought it was good, not great. It felt like a prologue, a overture, a preview... not an issue. And that's okay, I know this is a longer game and I'm fine with that, but this issue didn't wow me. The jumpy nature was nice, but didn't share much that wasn't there in the concept. The end of the issue was really strong, though. Liked Dustin Weaver's art, but it was wildly inconsistent, some pages and panels absolutely gorgeous, others looking rushed and not fully rendered. Really liked it, just not as much as everyone else. (Which I hate because, fuck, look at the rating I gave the book... and I'm still Mr. Negativity. Weird. Whatever.) [****]

Sparta, U.S.A. #2: An entertaining issue that shed a bit of light on the town of Sparta. The weird cutthroat politics behind the scenes makes for some entertaining stuff. As does the army of women Godfrey McLaine had sex with coming to his aid. The art is good and continues to improve. And the end of the issue is fantastic. Probably my favorite final page of the week. [***]

Spider-Man: Fever #1: Some fun stuff. Entertaining and weird and definitely McCarthy having fun with the characters. I really like the way he draws Spider-Man as a skinny, twitchy, weird guy. I was kind of expecting Spider-Man to be tacked on since he originally wanted to do Dr. Strange, but Spidey works well here. Really enjoyable. [****]

Really strong week since I enjoyed the other books I got, too -- but I'm reviewing them for CBR. And, no doubt, some expanded versions of my thoughts will show up in this week's podcast for some of these books.