Comic Reviews Week of 4/25/09

All right, another new week of comics, some good, some bad, all will be nit-picked unfairly, because that's just how I roll, as a hipper man than me might say.




X-Force (v3) #14
Written By Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost
Art By Clayton Crain

You know, there are certain characters that, if they form a central part of your story, ought to make you pause, reflect, and start over. Stryfe is one of those characters. I think the biggest problem with him as a character is that he looks ridiculous and doesn't have particularly interesting motivations for anything he does.

Anyway, this issue is part of a crossover the "Messiah War," wherein the X-Force and Cable must protect the possible mutant messiah from Bishop and Stryfe...also Deadpool's there, I guess because if you're bringing together everything else from early '90s X-books, you might as well pull him in too. In all honesty, it's not very interesting, if only because it features a bunch of characters no one particularly cares about fighting over the potential future, and since time-travel is involved, you can't help but wonder if any of it is going to count anyway.

But, hey, if you like your X-Men soaked in blood and dystopian landscapes, then this is the comic for you. As for me, I was kinding of hoping that they would leave this sort of thing in 1993, where it belonged.

Detective Comics #853
Written By Neil Gaiman
Art By Andy Kubert

Okay, so, if I understand correctly, this issue is about Batman, who had been "killed" by the Omega Sanction in Final Crisis, and thus condemned to die over and over again, and so that's how you'd square this story with normal continuity, I'd guess.

But anyway, I have to give Gaiman credit, because he is able to get to the core of who Batman is and is able to reconcile all of the myriad versions of Batman that have existed throughout the character's history.

Still, I can't help but feel that it's kind of weird to go to this much trouble burying Batman when Bruce Wayne will probably be back within probably about two years, and will most likely be basically the same character. Because of that, no one's going to see this story as the Batman equivalent of "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow," which had a certain amount of gravitas because that version of Superman was gone and never coming back.

But this story was much better than I thought it would be.





Outsiders (vtoo many) #17
Written By Peter J. Tomasi
Art By Lee Garbett

Peter J. Tomasi is being credited for both "Story and Words" which kind of seems lame, but that's really neither here nor there.

I don't know why this comic exists. I mean, God...it's not that it's really bad, though it's certainly not good, but I don't think that's what bothers me.

In this issue the Outsiders fight their new archenemies....the Insiders. Incidentally, that na,me has been used by a group of villains fighting against the Outsiders, but that was way back in...2005, when Judd Winick came up with it. And when you're cribbing ideas from Judd Winick, man, it's not going to end well. (Note: The Insiders in the earlier story are different from the Insiders in this story, but still, not a great move)

Anyway, the Insiders appear to be some sort of shadowy cabal who are fighting some sort of secret war. Oh, that sounds like a rather derivative origin story for a groups of villains, but did I mention that they're immortal? Okay, that doesn't make them less-derivative, I suppose, but, well, I'm trying.

I also still hate Owlman, more than words can express.



Astonishing X-Men #29
Written By Warren Ellis
Art By Simone Bianchi

You know, House of M may have been one of the worst ideas that Marvel has had in a long time, if only because so many bad stories have come out of it.

This is not a particularly bad story, but still, any story where the X-Men get involved with a secret war between artificial mutants and mutants from parallel universe is kind of...well, seems like one or the other should be enough, and throwing the two together?

I guess the only reason I chose to review this issue is because it ends with the least exciting cliffhanger in comic book history. I mean, the entire issue is littered with characters saying, "Man, Forge is crazy" and "You know, Forge often did some pretty questionable stuff" and then the team heads to his lair which is full of ominous looking devices and weapons. And then the issue ends with this page, coming after Storm claims Forge has always basically been a good guy:




That's a bold way to end a comic in the middle of an arc.
Cyclops: Maybe Forge is the bad guy
Storm:But maybe he's not
Forge: But maybe I am!




Supergirl (v5) #40
Written By Sterling Gates
Art By Jamal Igle

Who is Superwoman? Apparently Lois Lane had a little sister, and now she's in the military and evil and whatever. And she's Superwoman. Boy, we really needed four issues to get to thats fucking reveal. There, now go spend your $3 on a better comic.

Retraux Revieux

Titans #17-41
Written By Jay Faerber
Cover Dates June 2000-July 2002

How to ruin a character in one step:

1. Have him/her sleep with his/her mother's fiance.

You see, Jay Faerber, taken out of his natural habitat of characters he has created and has full control over tends to be unable to curb his soap operatic tendencies, and then you end with superheroes doing unfortunate things like the aforementioned example. This run is probably the worst in Titans history, if only because not only did Faerber not create anything new worthwhile, but he also broke what was already there. I mean, his run had Jesse Quick sleeping with her mother's fiance. Argent involved with a guy who was really a twelve-year possessing someone else's body, and annoying super-powered orphans, really annoying super-powered orphans. And the Titans have to fight the government in order to keep custody. It wasn't a good time for the Titans

Anyway, it's so bad that Faerber's run ends in the middle of the story, leaving Tom Peyer to pick up the pieces.

I just realized that Faerber's run also included a story about Donna Troy that managed to gum up her continuity even more, which sounds difficult...but he found a way. Which is a shame because most of Faerber's recent works have been good, and this was not.