One-paragraph reviews: Spider-Man, Fear Itself, Last Mortal, Supergirl

Amazing Spider-Man #661
Written by Christos Gage, art by Reilly Brown; Marvel

I probably wouldn't have bought this issue if I had noticed that it was written by Christos Gage before leaving the store. I read the first few issues of Avengers Academy, and while I like the characters, the weak scripts and occasionally even worse art prevented me from enjoying it. I've always been a bit puzzled by the generally positive reviews of it I see online. Here, we get the same level of quality I've come to expect from Gage: an all right story, mostly bad dialogue, and scenes that somehow ring false. No complaints about the art, though.

OKAY

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Fear Itself #2 (of 7)
Written by Matt Fraction; art by Stuart Immonen and Wade Von Grawbadger; Marvel

I had mixed feelings about the first issue. The story was better than I had expected, but I was really turned off by the pretentious attempt at "relevance" that steered clear of any actual political commentary. In the end, although I was curious to see what would happen next, I decided not to bother with the rest of the series or crossover event. Then I started reading Journey into Mystery and was surprised by how awesome it was. Since it seems like an important tie-in, I figured I would give the main series another try. Aside from the annoying and utterly pointless soundbites from the news that occasionally intrude on the narrative, Matt Fraction seems to have abandoned any effort to connect this story to what's going on in the real world. In fact, there isn't much of a story here at all. We see various characters pick up the hammers that fell from the sky and get transformed into different beings, which is repetitive and boring. Meanwhile, the Avengers are in full crisis mode, but it's not clear exactly what they're reacting to. In one of the most unconvincing pep speeches ever delivered, Steve Rogers talks about "incident zones" and tells his troops that people will be hurt, scared and panicking. I guess these "incidents" occurred in other books. I'm not going to start buying more titles to figure out what's going on. In fact, I regret buying this one. I'm just going to stick to Journey into Mystery from now on and hope that the story remains self-contained enough for me to be able to make sense of it without paying any attention to this.

AWFUL

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Last Mortal #1
Written by John Mahoney and Filip Sablik; art by Thomas Nachlik; Image

Nice black and white art, but I couldn't really bring myself to care about the characters or what happens to them in this issue. The hook of this series is that the main character apparently can't die, so it was a bad idea to not explore that in the first issue. As an idea, it's not really strong enough on its own to just throw it at the reader on the last page. It might work once this is collected in a trade, but for now if the goal is to keep me buying the issues, I need a little more to go on. Especially considering this wasn't much of a twist, since I already knew what the series would be about based on the promotional material. I may or may not pick up the next issue. It'll probably mostly depend on how heavy my pull list happens to be next month. I know how unfair it is to judge a book on a single issue, but unfortunately that's the economic reality I have to deal with.

OKAY

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Supergirl #64
Written by James Peaty; art by Bernard Chang; DC

This concludes the "Good Looking Corpse" story that Nick Spencer started four issues ago. Looking back at the full story, I have to say it was pretty disappointing. We'll probably never know what Spencer intended to do with it, but we know that he left after only one issue because his editors apparently didn't like what he was giving them. So Peaty was almost certainly following an editorial mandate here, which makes it hard to hold him responsible for the story's failure. Does it really come as a surprise to anyone that when you take one writer's idea, have an editor twist and bend it out of shape, and then hire someone else to hack out the scripts, the results are not very good? What you get is a flat, somewhat pointless story that feels like nobody's heart was really in it. Bernard Change's art is pretty good, although this last issue feels a bit sketchier than the others, and there's a lot of ugly digital blur effects (the bane of my existence) added by the colourist.

NOT VERY GOOD

One-paragraph reviews: Wolverine and Jubilee, Supergirl, Teen Titans, Silver Surfer

Wolverine and Jubilee #4
Written by Kathryn Immonen; art by Phil Noto; Marvel.

I'm really sad that this is over. I would have kept buying it if it was an ongoing instead of a limited series. What originally attracted me to it was Phil Noto's amazing artwork, but I think I might even keep reading if another artist took over (depending on who it was, of course), just because I'm enjoying the dynamic between these two characters so much. Kathryn Immonen's writing is really good and I like her sense of humour, so I'll keep an eye out for her other work from now on. The story here got really crazy in the third issue, but it comes to a fairly satisfying conclusion in this one. when the series started, I almost expected it to end with some kind of permanent cure for Jubilee's vampirism, but I guess it's no surprise that Marvel would want to keep this status quo for a bit longer. I don't know how much I like it, but Immonen certainly found a way to make it interesting, proving that in the right hands even fairly idiotic editorial mandates can be turned into good stories. It'll be interesting to see what else Marvel has in store for this character.

EXCELLENT (writing and art)

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Supergirl #63
"Good-Looking Corpse part 4"
Written by James Peaty; art by Bernard Chang; DC.

I have almost no recollection of what happened in the previous issue and I think it's because I fell asleep while reading it. Not because it was so mind-numbingly boring that it put me to sleep or anything. I was just really tired. Sometimes it happens. Anyway, I guess I should have gone back and re-read it before reading this issue, but somehow it didn't seem worth the trouble to dig it out of my shortbox. Bernard Chang's art is pretty good. The story is all right, though I have a hard time figuring out how it all fits together - the iPhone app, the mind-control, the genetically engineered DNAlien, the robots, the energy shield holding Supergirl prisoner. I have no idea what this villain's plan is, but I guess that'll be explained in the next issue, which concludes this story arc. My favourite part of the issue was probably Damian resisting the mind-control longer than Blue Beetle or Miss Martian (though that made some fans grumble), until the bad guy uses his worst fear against him, which ends up being a vision of him siding with his mother and defeating the entire Bat family. I guess this kind of characterization of Damian is not too original, as we've seen those same themes explored in lots of other books, but it's nice to see this version of him gaining popularity in the DCU, as opposed to the kind of superficial and off-key characterization we've seen in Teen Titans, for example.

OKAY (writing) / GOOD (art)

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Teen Titans #94
"The Power of Myth"
Written by J.T. Krul; art by Nicola Scott and Doug Hazlewood; DC.

Speaking of Teen Titans, I'm enjoying this title a lot more now that out-of-character Damian is out of it, though I'm still kind of bitter about the way he was basically just used to set up the return of Tim Drake to the team. This is a bit of a tangant, but I'm sick of Tim Drake. Fabian Nicieza ruined the character for me and now I just kind of want him out of this book, too. Anyway, the story here is nothing mindblowing, but it's all right, and Krul seems to be doing okay with the characters. There are a few things that are probably going to ultimately determine whether this is a hit or a miss for me. One of them is what happens with Cassie. Since she and Superboy broke up, she's given up leadership of the team (a role Tim of course took over, *groan*) and seems to be a bit off her game. I hope this is only temporary. I don't really care if she gets back with Superboy, as I find this kind of romance pretty boring in comics, but I just don't want her character to be damaged by this heartbreak. Second, I'm anxiously waiting to see what Krul does with his new character, Solstice. I hope she will join the team as a permanant member, as she brings a much needed element of diversity to the team, but I'm a little nervous about the effect she's having on Raven and where that's going. This story concludes in #97, and the solicitatin for #98 gives no clue as to whether Solstice will still be in the book or not. Which of course could just mean that DC is actively trying to avoid spoilers. Speaking of solicits, there's a different artist listed for #98, and I'm hoping it's just a temporary fill-in. Nicola Scott is absolutely killing it on this book, and I'm not sure I would bother to keep buying it with someone else doing the art.

OKAY (writing) / EXCELLENT (art)

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Silver Surfer #3
Written by Greg Pak; art by Harvey Tolibao, Iban Coello and Sandu Florea; Marvel.

The art team on this series is all over the place. In just three issues, we've had 3 different pencillers (with multiple pencillers on two issues) and 4 inkers. It's hard to judge exactly who is responsible for what, but I'm just going to say that overall I'm not a fan of any of the art in this series. Which is really too bad, because I am really loving the story. I thought Greg Pak did an amazing job in the first issue, both in terms of capturing the Silver Surfer's melodramatic internal monologues and ending on a really dramatic moment with him getting depowered. Since then, he's brought something new to the table with every issue. #2 focused on Norrid Radd getting reaccustomed to his physical (and vulnerable) body and all the strange sensations he'd been deprived of as the Silver Surfer. This issue deals with the understanding of the "balance of the universe" that came with the Power Cosmic and the moral responsibility that came with having to decide which worlds to feed Galactus. The High Evolutionary has hacked into Galactus's Star Sphere and is using it to create life instead of destroying it, but in doing so he's upsetting not just the Earth's ecosystem, but "the balance of the universe." (I've noticed this "balance of the universe" thing comes up a lot in comic books and I'm not really sure it makes any sense. But I'll save that for another rant.) Anyway, I'm probably not doing it justice with my brief synopsis, but it's good stuff and it ends with a nice twist that really makes me look forward to the next issue.

VERY GOOD (writing) / POOR (art)

One-paragraph reviews: Supergirl, Wolverine and Jubilee, Marvel Girl

Wolverine and Jubilee #2
Written by Kathryn Immonen; art by Phil Noto; Marvel

I've already mentioned how infatuated I am with Phil Noto's art in this series. It's beautiful and the characters are expressive in really subtle ways. Kathryn Immonen's script is good, also, although I found some of the conversation in the first scene a little bit confusing. Overall, this issue is maybe not quite as strong as the first one, but it's still highly enjoyable and it was my favourite comic this week. I'm looking forward to the rest of the mini-series.

VERY GOOD

Supergirl #61
Written by James Peaty; art by Bernard Chang; DC

I was a little bit worried when Nick Spencer left the title after just one issue, but this issue reassured me that the book is still in good hands. James Peaty is presumably still working from Spencer's notes (although unlike JMS in Superman and Wonder Woman, Spencer is no longer credited) and continues in the same direction that was hinted at in the last issue. Peaty seems to have a good handle on all the characters, including Lois Lane and Damian Wayne who both have guest appearances. Supergirl's not a character I've had very much exposure to in the past, so it's a bit hard for me to judge how well Peaty is writing her compared to how her character has been previously established, but so far nothing strikes me as being off-key. Bernard Change's art is really nice, too.

GOOD

Marvel Girl (one-shot)
Written by Joshua Hale Fialkov; art by Nuno Plati; Marvel

Hmm. I didn't realize when I bought this that it was some kind of tie-in to the X-Men: First Class movie. At least I think that's what it was, 'cause I don't really see why else this comic would exist. This wasn't bad, but it wasn't really anything special either. Nuno Plati's art is okay, if a bit cartoony. It would be perfect for an all-ages title, but I'm not sure it was the right fit for this story. My biggest problem though is I have a hard time really understanding what purpose this comic served. As a self-contained story, it feels very incomplete, but on the other hand it's not really leading into anything else, other than a movie I have very little interest in seeing. Unless you're a huge fan of the character, I'd say this one-shot can be safely ignored.

SKIP