I hope everyone had a good Free Comic Book Day Saturday. I’ll skip over the FCBD comics, mainly because I haven’t had the time to read them yet. Last week was a little overwhelming not only because I was exhausted from Free Comic Book Day but I had to get my car inspected (rejected) and deal with a pesky chest cold. On top of that I read something like 20 titles last week and the stack is a little overwhelming when trying to do reviews. This week is a bit more manageable with a bakers dozen. Enough with the chit chat, on with the reviews!

There were four titles this week with “The Initiative” emblazoned across the top of the cover and that doesn’t include Amazing Spider-Man with is tied into it but has its own “Back In Black” marquee. Before I get into the rest I want to start things off with my Pick Of The Week: NOVA! I have to admit, before Annihilation I wasn’t the biggest Nova fan. I read New Warriors for years but I never really warmed up to Richard Rider. During the big outer space war with Annihilus Rider was left as the last member of the Nova Corps and was imbued with not only all the power of the corps but also the Worldmind, a vastly powerful computer that holds the entirety of history or some such craziness. This issue finds Richie headed home for some well deserved R&R and as he reunites with his parents 2/3 of S.H.I.E.L.D. Shows up on his porch to arrest him. I was a tiny bit disappointed because I was hoping to see Nova beat the living hell out of Tony Stark and sadly that did not happen. What did happen was a reunion or two between Richie and what’s left of the New Warriors and a whole lot of old Jewish lady guilt when he asks Iron Man what he had been doing while he (Nova) was saving the entire universe. There is a lot of great human drama in this book, far more than any other “cosmic” book i’ve read in years. The art in this book is of the kind that you rarely hear about. It helps tell the story without being flashy. Artists like Sean Chen rarely get the high profiles but they tend to be the backbone of a company. Mark Bagley was a workhorse for Marvel before he broke out with Ultimate Spider-Man. I expect Chen to be around decades after guys who are “hot” but can’t meet a deadline are gone and forgotten (I’m talking about you Dale Keown but I’m looking at you Steve McNiven). The first issue of Nova should still be available at your local comic book retailer. I highly recommend anyone who likes some human emotion in with their cosmic powered adventure stories pick this up.

For those of you not paying attention, DC’s year long weekly “fill-in-the-gaps” event 52 ended last week. I have to say I didn’t expect to enjoy 52 as much as I did and I plan to get more in depth with that story in the not too distant future but for now I want to talk about DC’s NEW year long weekly series, Countdown. I had mixed feelings about this series from the moment it was announced. 52 was a surprise not only for fans like me but I think for DC as well. I can’t remember a weekly series that ever worked and I fear that DC is putting too much faith in the average comic fan. We are easily distracted and unless Countdown can give us characters who are both interesting and well written (Renee Montoya, Animal Man) I fear a huge fall off of readers after the first month. Having read the first issue I am somewhat underwhelmed and mightily lost. Half the characters in this series I lost track of in the One Year Later batch of crap. Mary marvel was in a coma and Duela Dent (the Joker’s daughter) knows who Jason Todd is. WTF? I remember Duela from 52 as a momentary Teen Titan but I didn’t know she knew that much about the Bat family. On top of that I think Darkseid shruck Desaad and gave him AIDS because he’s really tiny and has lost a LOT of weight since I last saw him. On top of that multiverse cops show up and argue over killing Jason Todd and then the source wall tells them Ray Palmer (the Atom) needs to be found to save the universe. I feel like this issue should have had a lot more exposition because I was a little lost and if a guy who reads as many comics as I do is lost I can’t imagine what the average person thought of this. I think DC needs to look at what Marvel is doing with its recap books. A couple of weeks before Joss Whedon’s first issue of Runaways (#25) hit the racks Marvel released Runaways Saga. The book was written as if the rest of the kids were reading Molly’s diary and while fans of the series got nothing new out of it, the book hit every major (and a few minor) plot points that people picking up the book for the first time would know who these kids are and what’s going on. Last week we got something similar in the World War Hulk preview and this week Annihilation Saga dropped at $1.99 to catch up people for the new wave of Annihilation books starting later this month. I have faith that Paul Dini can deliver a good story so I’ll keep picking this up until he proves otherwise. I’ll keep you posted.

Keeping the DC theme let’s talk about One Year Later. It sucked, a lot, especially for Nightwing. Why was Nightwing so horrible OYL? He was supposed to be dead so DC didn’t know what to do with him. It seems that the original plan for Dick was to die in the crisis because Dan Didio felt like Mr Grayson was superfluous as long as there was a Batman and Robin in continuity. Luckily Geoff Johns and several other writers sat Dan down and explained that Dick Grayson was essential to the DC universe. Before Infinite Crisis Nightwing was having a crisis of a more personal nature. He was injured and working for a mob boss trying to infiltrate the criminal underworld and save some people at the same time. After Bludhaven was turned into a toxic swamp Dick traveled the world with Bruce and Tim (as seen in 52) and OYL he and Jason Todd were both in New York being Nightwing. The story made little sense and I honestly have retained only the most basic of plot points from it. This weeks #132 is the last part of a storyline that I expected to be the final straw for Nightwing and myself. I expected a clean break after the first part of the Bride and Groom story arc. The preview images and blurbs made it sound plain awful but something happened that I didn’t notice. Marv Wolfman is writing Nightwing. I read the first two parts of this story before it actually hit me. The man responsible for arguably the greatest Teen Titan stories in the history of the Titans was writing the premiere Titan again. No wonder the book seems brand new! Wolfman has managed to make Dick fresh and acessible again. There is just enough angst to make his motives understandable but for the most part its all straight up GOOD storytelling, the kind I’ve rarely seen in this One Year Later world DC has built for itself.

Speaking of Nightwing, Outsiders #47 is the second part of the crossover with Checkmate cleverly called CheckOut! In the first part Checkmate systematically captured every member of the Outsiders expect Nghtwing in an attempt to get him to come to the Checkmate HQ to try and bust his pals outta jail. In a completely shocking and not at all predictable twist of fate, Checkmate is actually looking to recruit the outsiders to take down the nutballs still on Oolong Island building giant robot insects and what looks like a Godzilla sized Lagoon Boy (last seen in Young Justice if my memory serves). This is now TWO issues of setup and while they were both well written I think they need to get to the mad scientist fighting already. Greg Rucka (Checkmate) and Judd Winick (Outsiders) are co writing all the parts of this crossover which I really like. Both writers, while being two of my favorites, really understand the voices of the characters in their respective books. Keeping those characters consistent is one of those things most crossovers don’t really seem to care about. I can’t wait until next month’s Checkmate. This story should be a lot of fun.

Back to that Initiative overload I’m having this week I want to talk about New Avengers. I’m a huge fan of Bendis and I’ve been reading this series since day one. Having said that I think Leinil Yu’s artwork is nearly enough to make me stop reading. It’s all sketchy and feels rushed and unfinished. Rarely does an artist completely take me out of the story but Yu can do it. I would enjoy the art more if it was on a darker book. Maybe a Savage Land Wolverine adventure or a crazy Punisher romp full of blood and broken people but not a book where Spider-Man is making quips every five seconds and Hawkeye comes back. Oh yeah, Clint Barton is officially on the team and dressed as Ronin and no one is surprised. Next issue is supposed to be the biggest book of the millennium or some such according to Joe Quesada. I honestly don’t have a clue what going to happen. Maybe baby Cage will kill Elektra and then have sex with Spider-Woman. GAH! I just flipped through the book again to see if I had anything else to add and I realize I do. Adding a million tiny lines to your art doesn’t make it look detailed if the million tiny lines are just randomly placed. Everyone looks a hundred years old and they all have the same chin. Except baby Cage, he looks like Charlie Brown.

Now that I’ve bitched about really shitty art, let’s talk about some good art. I’ve never been a fan of the Punisher but Matt Fraction’s version of Frank in Punisher War Journal has a lot of heart and humor in it and Ariel Olivetti’s art is just stunning. Every panel feels like an intricate part of the story and Olivetti nails facial expressions like very few people in the industry right now. This issue (#7) came with a 50/50 cover split. One has the Punisher in his traditional black with skull body armor outfit and the other has the red white and black homage to Captain America I’m sure we all saw floating around the internet a month or so ago. I have to say I really dig the Cap inspired threads as they give you a really nice visual of where Frank’s head is these days. I love that Fraction pulled one of Captain America’s old villains, Hate Monger, out of mothballs and updated him as something of a crazed minutemen border defender who really like killing Mexicans. Both parts of this storyline have been told in flashback as Frank is tied to a fence post with along the Mexican border. The real payoff for those of us who have been following this book the last six issues happens in the last panel of the last page of this issue. I won’t spoil it here but I can’t wait to see what happens next.

QUICK HITS

Several great Trade paperbacks dropped this week including Ed Brubaker’s crime/action book Criminal. I can’t even begin to explain how awesome this book is.

• Black Panther #27- T’Challa and Ororo arrive home to the Baxter building along with their teammates Thing and Torch after their adventure that began in the last issue of BP and continued in Fantastic Four #545 and will finish up in FF #546 which isn’t out yet. I’m not sure why the Panther carried around a magical frog for the whole issue but Storm gets horny after an outer space adventure so I don’t really care.

• JLA Classified #38- This is the second part of the Kid Amazo storyline and I have to say I’m digging it. The only odd thing is that Batman is telling Superman how the kids deserves the benefit of the doubt. I like Peter Milligan but I think he has his heroes confused.

• The Amazing Spider-Man # 540- Aunt May is gonna die! Lots of angst in this issue although it isn’t nearly as emo as eyeliner Peter Parker from Spider-Man 3. Good lord did he need to be slapped. Mary Jane cries less than Peter both in this issue and in the movie. Also, Peter is angry and breaking the arms of assassins so look out for that if you’re an assassin.

• Ultimate Power #5- The issue where nothing happens except Hyperion gets naked and we learn that Cap and Peter have a special Skipper/Gilligan dynamic that makes Nick Fury crabby.

• Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #24- I started getting these for Logan but I have to say, single issue self contained stories that are packed with action are still awesome no matter what age range they’re aimed at.

• The Immortal Iron Fist #5- If you aren’t reading this book do so. I will get in depth when the next issue drops as it should be the end of the first story arc. Great plotting an the art is moody and atmospheric and works really well with this book.

• DMZ #19- Again, this is smack in the middle of a storyline that would make no sense unless you’ve been reading this book from the beginning. It is a continuity heavy book but its only 19 issues in and you get get caught up in trades so please go do that. I will talk much MUCH more about DMZ and its importance in our current culture of fear sometime in the future.

1. I agree with Emo Spidey in 540, but still I am enamored with the whole marketing gimmick we call Back in Black — but that stems back to my first spidey experiences… which will be coming soon in an article Ive been working on…. so keep an eye on!

   Posted by Stevo | May 14, 2007, 6:18 pm