Even a broken foot could not stop me from doing Between the Staples Best Bang… wait a sec… lets change things up a bit for this week. No Best Bang, lets do the Least Bang for your Comic Buck for the week of April 16th! This week Countdown to Final Crisis continues its horror show and Salvation Run drops to one of the worst of the week. X-Men: Divided We Stand has only one saving grace while The Dresden Files shows that you need to reading the books to know what the hell is going on, not great for a first issue. So Jimmy Olsen won’t die yet Darkseid does so their heads are the ranking from worst to best this week!
Most of this weeks comics came from Elfsar Comics & Toys where I kept the guys from working with my comic chat then I filled in the blanks at Hourglass Comics out in Port Moody.
Salvation Run #6 of 7 (DC) From strong last month to week this month, this issue of SR was very disappointing from the dialog, the art (which seemed very rushed) and the overall rushed storyline. The big face-off between Joker and Luthor was almost a backup tale to the big climax of Darkseid’s parademons attacking all those on the SR planet, specifically the villains home base. Overall this was a very poor issue and I am kinda worried that this book will not deliver in the end of its run which is too bad.
Countdown to Final Crisis #2 (DC) Seriously. Godzilla Jimmy vs Darkseid. How could this be a good comic in any way? I just want this title to be done.
The Dresden Files #1 (Dabal Bros Publishing) The biggest issue with this book is that it felt as if it was further along the Dresden cannon storyline than a first issue would be in that we needed to know much more of the Dresden world than some (like myself) may know given I am slowly reading through the first few books. I also thought he used to have a hockey stick as his “staff” and not a rune etched staff but that could be the character of late. I guess this book is appealing to those who have read all the books and wanted more.
X-Men: Divided We Stand #1 of 2 (Marvel) Not a bad issue of the emo characters of the Marvel U. Best story was the Matt Fraction & Jamie McKelvie about Nightcrawler and the clone of Scalpehunter. The rest were too angsty for me and soured the rest of the book for me.
Captain Marvel #5 of 5 (Marvel) Well I picked up these Cap Marvel issues as I wanted to know how this character was going to be apart of the whole SI world in the Marvel U. It is a very interesting concept and will be neat to see where they go with this character given the big spoilers of the issue in comparison to SI.
DreamWar #1 of 6 (Wildstorm) Okay I am excited about the idea of the DC Universe mixing with the WildStorm Universe but wow, does anyone know what the hell is going on? This is a poor first issue because if you know NOTHING about any of these characters, this book will do NOTHING to have you interested in picking it up. How does this help market both the DCU books and WildStorm books when we as the readers have almost no idea as to what the hell is going on? That made no sense to me and I was really excited about this series. I am hoping that the next issue gives us readers something else I will be wondering about picking this up any more.
The Perhapanaunts #1 (Image) I always love a good paranormal investigators book in which Todd Dezago & Craig Rousseau do not fail to deliver. I enjoyed the very crisp and clean artwork and fun story. I think this series has a great chance to be one of the jems of 2008! My only issue was that the artwork looked so small in comparison to the pages, as if the were drawn too small and did not take advantage of the full page size of the comic book which looked strange to me. Good solid lettering on the book!
New Mutants Classic #3 TPB (Marvel) As I said before these issues of the New Mutants was some of the best issues of the series. Very strong stories and crazy wild fun. Add in the then extremely popular Bill Sienkeiwcz and you got some very classic history of the Marvel U.
Batman & The Outsiders #6 (DC) Good follow-up issue with Rex in space and the team being organized by Batman to get a rocket to go aid Rex up in space. Again Dixon delivers a solid story with great artwork to keep this new version of the Outsiders fun and enjoyable.
Showcase presents: Legion of Super-Heroes #2 (DC) Big Robots, protoy and lots of Superboy, how can this collection go wrong in any way? This is good ol clean fun of these pre-teen future heroic kids! Well worth the money if you are interested in such great fun issues.
Gotham Underground #7 of 9 (DC) How do you keep up the momentum of a good book? Well look at each issue of Gotham Underground, it builds upon itself to a very deep, rich and tasty world of the Gotham underground. Good surprise of The Riddler and Penguin standing tall. Only issue I had was the ending where it was typical super-hero wam blam of Batman / Vigilant face-off.
Captain America #37 (Marvel) The Red Skrull storyline continues to build steam and Bucky/Winter Solider as Captain America keeps up the heated pace with guest stars of Hawkeye and The Falcon. Very enjoyable and parts of this issue really made me smile which makes this one of the best books that Marvel and Ed Brubaker is putting out next to Criminal.
Avengers: The Initiative #11 (Marvel) Slott and Gage deliver a semi-solid issue which did seemed very rushed. I believe that bloody Secret Invasion creep killed what could have been a more extended version of the ending of the MVP storyline. The entire issue seemed like I was running along side of everyone to get to the end of this story ’cause the next issue is SI related to show more of the Skrull Yellowjacket. All that said, it still made me smile and I enjoyed many parts of the issue from Gyrich & Blitzchlag, Slapstick and Rage plus I did like seeing that Jim Rhodes is all messed up after what happened to him (I think) in an issue of Black Panther. A nice attention to detail on War Machine, kudos Slott & Gage plus I love Rage. I want to see more Rage. ATTENTION (yes like they read this - not!): Slott & Gage — WE NEED MORE RAGE!!
Annihilation: Conquest #6 of 6 (Marvel) This is how you end a strong series! With the heroes coming up large, coming in charge and with the answers to boot. What a great slam bam issue of fun, action and excitement with all those involved coming together for the big climactic ending but is the ending? No this series just spins out the new Guardians of the Galaxy book which will tie into the whole Secret Invasion wrap up to Annihilation which I am very much looking forward to. Marvel needs to put out more mini-series like Annihilation over the recent crap like Messiah Craplex and World War Bunk!
The Incredible Hercules #116 (Marvel) I really did not think I would enjoy this series and thought it was a poor idea that spun outta World War Bunk. All that said, I really am enjoying how Greg Pak is writing Herc and this issue brings in the Eternals for Secret Invasion in such a great way that it had me laughing aloud (The Eternals finding Herc taking a leak on a tree). Solid artwork by Rafa Sandoval & Roger Bonet makes this issue very enjoyable. Can’t wait for the next issue which is Nanananana… God Squad!
Nixon’s Pals OGN (Image) I don’t know how but Joe Casey had me feel like I was reading the movie Payback with Mel Gibson. The main character Nixon Cooper is a parole officer to various super-villains. A great crime drama with a nice pervert suit twist. Extremely enjoyable and worth the money!
Planet Hulk TPB (Marvel) I forgot to mention this last week but I picked up the Planet Hulk trade and WOW is Greg Pak and Aaron Lopresti great team on this series! I can understand where the hype for World War Bunk started as Planet Hulk is a very solid and strong story. I will reread this trade a number of times as I found the writing to be so enjoyable and well written! I just wish World War Bunk was as strong but I wonder how much of WWB was editorially directed?
The Un-Men: Get Your Freak On! TPB (Vertigo) Collecting issues 1 - 5 of the wonderful fun, bizzare and insane Un-Men series by John Whalen and Mike Hawthorne. If you are not reading The Un-Men yet and want to jump on this great series, pick this up and join in on the fun!
On Sale next week (Apr 23, 08): Batman #675, Birds Of Prey #117, Checkmate #25, Glamourpuss #1 (Fashion Ed), Justice League Of America #20, Mighty Avengers #12, Ms. Marvel #26, Number of the Beast #2 of 8, The Secret History Of The Authority: Jack Hawksmoor #2 of 6, Supernatural: Rising Son #1 of 6, Supernatural: Origins #0 (TP) to name a few.
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