Sketch Reviews (November 3 2011)

Part three of the first Direct Message is below. Finally have two days off in a row, so these may be extra brief. I just began the final season of Married... With Children and have the urge to just plow through it. Then there's 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami and the time spent listening to Lulu by Lou Reed & Metallica (review at 411mania should be up tonight or tomorrow)... busy days. But in that good way.

Action Comics #3: What a cynical comic. The media turns everyone against Superman and the cops in Metropolis are openly corrupt. Is Morrison still in Batman mode or something? Also: goddamn, Rags Morales's art is awful. Sloppy, shitty work. (That's not terribly 'professional,' but it's about 300% more accurate than any 'professionally' worded critique.) The first issue that didn't quite work for both tonal and artistic reasons. [**3/4]

Animal Man #3: You know what DC loves more than Crises? Putting their heroes into longstanding legacies and groups. Every hero falls somewhere in a line. No one is new. No one is original. Everyone is in a family or a corps or a league that stretches back to the beginning of time. Hey, fuck you, Alan Moore. You ruined it. You fucked up. (Actually, I dug this issue. Foreman's art continues to get more fucked up and crazy, which suits the horror writing of Lemire. Lemire avoiding long bits of exposition is also impressive.) [****]

Avengers 1959 #3: Man, even before Doom, Latveria was fucked up. Two soldiers see an attractive girl and immediately begin arguing over the order in which they plan to rape her. What I love is that their argument sounds more like they're arguing over who will get the next round of drinks. Just a casual, friendly argument, because raping women together is not something out of the ordinary for these guys. That's fucked up. (In Chaykin-related news, I also got a full run of Cyberella, the comic he did with Don Cameron for the short-lived DC sci-fi imprint Helix. The complete run was marked at $10, but Retailer Tim gave it to me for five bucks. Good man that Retailer Tim.) [***1/2]

The Boys #60: The opening two pages are harsh. Wolverine killed the president. Mother's Milk life continues to be fucked. The revenge of the '90s. Decent issue. [***1/2]

Fear Itself #7.1: James is alive and I don't mind one bit. I love the people annoyed because it was a fake-out... when were they supposed to tell you? It only happened, like, four months ago. That's how fake-outs work. If they tell you right away then it's not a fake-out. The art here is fantastic. The writing was serviceable, though. So plot-driven that there wasn't much room for anything else. Good comic that was a nice little surprise with a great character still on the table. I assume Winter Soldier will replace Captain America & Bucky, because no one is stupid enough to think three ongoings featuring those characters could last. Two is pushing it. [***1/2]

Men of War #3: Just enjoy the ride, son... [***1/4]

Moon Knight #7: Oh, that guy an issue or two ago was meant to be Count Nefaria. I totally didn't get that, because, while talented, Alex Maleev doesn't draw characters so that they look like previous depctions. Ever. Entertaining comic. [***1/2]

Swamp Thing #3: The exposition train keeps a'rollin'... The art fill-ins were decent, but the writing was a bit plodding in spots. Snyder needs to find a way to either cut down on the exposition dumps or make them fit more organically into the book. Then again, this issue has that fantastic single page. You know which one it is. [***1/4]

Later