One-paragraph reviews: Detective Comics, Action Comics, Secret Avengers, Abyss: Family Issues

Detective Comics #874
Written by Scott Snyder; art by Francesco Francavilla; DC

When Scott Snyder and Jock took over Detective Comics a few months ago, I was immediately impressed by their work together and have been saying ever since that this is the best Batman ongoing currently being published. With Francesco Francavilla on art, this continues to be true. The story picks up where the back-up featured in the first couple of issues left off. (All back-ups were cut from DC books for their "Drawing the Line" initiative, which saw page counts as well as prices reduced.) The first eight pages of the book feature Commissioner James Gordon and his son sitting at a diner and having a conversation. This may sound like a pretty boring opening, but it's anything but, thanks to both Snyder's dialogue and Francavilla's amazing art and colours. The rest of the book features Batman (Dick Grayson) and Red Robin (Tim Drake) on a little adventure, which follows more directly from the previous story line, with Dick still suffering from the effects of the drug he was infected with last issue. I'm guessing that this part wasn't originally supposed to be drawn by Francavilla, as it seems to be more of a prologue to the story arc that kicks off next issue, with Jock back on the art. While it feels a little disjointed here, it's nice that it provided Francavilla with the opportunity to draw a really cool action sequence in addition to the more noirish material in the James Gordon Jr. story. Presumably, both of these seemingly separate plots will come together in the next arc.

AWESOME

Action Comics #898
Written by Paul Cornell; art by Pete Woods; DC

It makes sense that Larfleeze would show up near the end of this story, since what triggered all of this was Luthor's brief stint in the Orange Lantern Corps during Blackest Night. That fight brings everything full circle as Luthor draws closer to his goal of acquiring new power from the mysterious black orbs. But as has been the case since the beginning of this story, for me the real start of this issue is Robot Lois Lane, the most complicated, fascinating and oddly sympathetic character in the book. We've known for a while now that she's been manipulating Luthor since the beginning, and at the end of this issue it's finally revealed who she's been working for. I won't spoil it, but let's just say it should come as no surprise to anyone who's been paying attention. Surprise is not the point though. What's great is the way this adds depth to her character. Robot Lois is very much her own person - she has a personality and her own will and possibly even feelings. But there are aspects of her programming that force her to be subservient to her "master," even though she resents him for it. My only fear is that her character will be killed (or destroyed) at the end of this story. I think that would be a real waste. She's my favourite new character since Damian Wayne and I think there's a lot of potential for great storytelling with her after this ends. Fingers crossed. (PS: I love Robot Lois's fashion sense. Those head scarves!)

GOOD

Secret Avengers #10
Written by Ed Brubaker; art by Mike Deodato and Will Conrad; Marvel

The second story arc concludes and I come to the conclusion that this title really does nothing for me. There's really nothing terribly wrong with the story or with the art or with the characters. I'm just not interested in any of it. I don't really care what happens. I've been reading this for 10 issues waiting for something to really grab me and make want look forward to the next issue, but it's just not happening. I'm dropping this, but I'm not giving it a "DROP" rating, because I think my lack of interest has a lot to do with the fact that this is Marvel and I'm not really invested in any of these characters. (On the other hand, if this was really good, it should have made me like these characters enough to keep reading, no?)

OKAY

Abyss: Family Issues #1
Written by Kevin Rubio; art by Alfonso Ruiz; Red 5

I wanted to give this title a try because the premise sounded good and while I haven't read the previous mini-series (or volume, as Red 5 calls them), this seemed like an easy enough jump-on point. While the story isn't very original, with the right execution this would've been easily overlooked. Unfortunately, neither the writing nor the art rise to the challenge. The attempts at humour fall completely flat and a lot of the exposition is clunky (and jokey editor's notes about the necessity of this exposition don't really make up for the clunkiness). But it's the art that really kills it. Some of the sequences are difficult to follow because the continuity between panels is unclear. Faces are inconsistent and there's a general lack of detail in the backgrounds. A long scene in the middle of the issue features two characters sitting in a room having a conversation, which is the kind of thing that an artist like Francesco Francavilla (see Detective Comics review above) can make visually interesting, but here it's just boring and repetitive. The most offensive part, though, is the obvious photoshopping of photographs found online and planted in the background. I think it happens throughout the issue, but it was most jarring in the scene at Stanford University, where a quick Google Image search allowed me to find the exact photo that was being swiped:

(Click to enlarge)

This is just incredibly lazy and, frankly, kind of insulting. I would have expected more from Red 5, considering how awesome their Atomic Robo titles are - hilariously funny, original and featuring consistently strong art. I was hoping for something similar and I really wanted to like this, but Abyss: Family Issues just isn't any good. (The publisher provided a PDF of this issue for my review.)

AWFUL

Too Much Awesome: Comics in January

Time to look at the January 2011 solicitations, as listed in Previews #266.

DARK HORSE

Hmm, there's not a single book from Dark Horse I'm interested in this month.

DC

The DC solicitations start with a bunch of random one-shots, none of which look all that interesting to me. Depending on whether or not Krul's Teen Titans gone south by then, I might check out the Wonder Girl one-shot that ties into it, otherwise I think I'm going to pass on all of these.

The new anthology mini-series Weird Worlds features "a kind-hearted monster called Garbageman." I think that speaks for itself, but you can read more about that wonderful creation in this interview with Aaron Lopresti, who will be writing and drawing that story.

Batman: Europa is a new mini-series based on a story by Brian Azzarello and Matteo Casali, with painted art by "many of the industry's top talents. This first issue is by Jim Lee, and if that cover is any indication, it's going to be really, really ugly. Not interested.

I'll probably be getting the new issues of Batman Inc, Batman and Robin, Knight and Squire, Red Robin, Birds of Prey, Action Comics, Superboy, The Flash, Adventure Comics, Legion of Super-Heroes and Teen Titans, all of which are on my regular pull list at the moment.

Superman/Batman #80 is the conclusion of a two-part story by Chris Roberson and Jesus Merino, taking place in the 853rd century, and I'm looking forward to that as well.

In the collected editions section, I noticed that the first collection of Paul Cornell's Action Comics run is going to be titled Superman: The Black Ring. Now why would they put "Superman" in the title when the character is not even featured in the story? I know, I know, the answer is probably just that his name sells better than Lex Luthor's, but that seems really disingenuous, even by DC's low standards. Is it possible that Superman does make an appearance at the end of the story Cornell has planned? I'm also confused by the fact that there's no "volume 1" attached to the title, since that collection only includes issues #890-895 and the story will not have concluded by then. Very weird.

Notice a bunch of Wildstorm titles at the end of the DC Comics section. Mostly these are mini-series that haven't yet concluded, but it's nice to see a seamless transition into DC's main imprint instead of a bunch of abrupt cancellations.

VERTIGO

Daytripper gets a trade paperback collection. I bought all the single issues, so I won't be getting this, but I highly recommend this beautiful story by Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon.

I'm going to be picking up the new issues of Northlanders and Sweet Tooth. It seems like there are fewer and fewer Vertigo books of interest. I hope they're going to announce some new titles soon.

IDW

I'm not going to get sucked into this Infestation mega crossover event, featuring zombies across IDW's various licensed properties (Star Trek, G.I. Joe, Transformers, Ghostbusters), but I'll admit it's a pretty clever marketing stunt. Of course, it would maybe have a bit more impact if we hadn't seen major zombie crossover events at DC and Marvel recently. Coupled with the surge in popularity of Kirkman's Walking Dead due to the new TV series, I'd expect most people to be really sick of zombies by January. I'm pretty sure I will be.

I bought the first issue of Steve Niles and Kelley Jones' Edge of Doom mini-series this month and didn't think much of it, so I'm dropping this one.

There's a trade paperback of something called Off-Road, written and drawn by Sean Murphy. I'm assuming this was previously released as a mini-series, although the solicitation doesn't say. It's the first time I notice this title, but I'm probably going to look into it, since I really love Murphy's art.

IMAGE

I dropped Morning Glories after issue #3. I don't understand where all the positive reviews are coming from, as I found both the art and the writing to be mediocre.

And yet, here I am looking at Nick Spencer's new series, The Infinite Vacation, thinking it looks pretty cool. Art is by Christian Ward and it looks a lot more up my alley than Joe Eisma's work in Morning Glories. I'm intrigued, if not completely sold on this one.

And depending on how I like the first issues of Halcyon and Marineman (coming out in November and December, respectively), I may or may not continue reading them in January.

MARVEL

I will be getting the new issues of Avengers: Children's Crusade, Secret Avengers, and Thor. I think that's it. I dropped Avengers Academy because it hasn't been very good (and the last issue, to put it politely, sucked cock) and I'm not really tempted by anything else at the moment. Which is not a bad thing, considering my budget is already stretched thin as it is.

There's a Magneto one-shot written by Howard Chaykin and pencilled by "TBD." Awesome.

ICON

Casanova continues, with Fabio Moon taking over art duties from Gabriel Ba. They're both amazing artists, so that's cool.

I'll also be getting Mark Millar and Leinil Yu's Superior, unless something goes horribly wrong in issue #2 or #3.

BOOM!

By January, all three of Stan Lee's new series will have launched: Soldier Zero, Starborn and The Traveler. I read the first issue of Soldier Zero this week and I'm currently working on a review of it. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to continue reading it or check out those other two books when they launch, but for now I'll just say these are worth keeping an eye on.

RED 5

I have Atomic Robo and the Deadly Art of Science #3 on my pull  list.

12 GAUGE

I'm picking up the first issue of Magus in December. Depending on whether or not that's any good, I may or may not pick up the second issue in January. The premise is interesting.

And that's all for January, folks.