Hey Kids! Comics!! 02-07-07

I missed last week, so I have a double batch of comickey goodness this week. Yay!

Fantastic Four: The End #5 (of 6)

Alan Davis is the geeks geek. He set out to create a comic starring the FF and every other character in the Marvel Universe. Guess what, he succeeded. I worked in the Bullpen for several years and I can only identify about half the characters crammed into this book. So I guess Davis should be commended for attempting to create the ultimate Marvel fanboy miniseries. That being said, it's a shame the story didn't live up to Davis' aspirations. Until now, that is... This is the best installment of the series thus far, and the first I didn't feel was work to get through. This issue is pure fun, packed with battles between all the heroes and villains Davis spent the last four issues introducing to the rather complicated story. Of course, that was the failing of those first four issues as it almost sunk under it's own confusing weight and got tedious at times. Only Davis' excellent art and obvious enthusiasm for this project has kept me coming back for more. I'm glad my patience has been rewarded as the cliffhanger ending promises that the last issue of this series will be a whole helluva lot of fun. Pick it up or wait for the collected.

Jonah Hex #16

Jonah Hex meets the female version of himself. Of course, being that this is comics, she's still a hottie despite having her face and body and (presumably) her genitalia carved up and disfigured during a particularly nasty rape by a typical scumbag common in Hex. Her scars are much more delicate than Hex's, but run just as deep, if not deeper. It seems as if writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti sometimes wants to portray Hex as an indestructible spirit of vengeance. He wanders the West hiring himself out as an assassin to the highest bidder, but somehow only kills the bad guys in the end. Right now, the writing duo is handling this take well. I just hope Hex doesn't turn into some Spectre-like, unkillable vengeance machine with no humanity left to make the character interesting. So far that hasn't happened, and I doubt it will, but I just want to cover my bases now in case it does so I can say "I told you so". Anyway, this issue centers around this new girl. Disfigurement and opium addiction aside, she wants Hex to teach her how to efficiently kill those who have wronged her. Judging by her almost sociopathic disregard for herself and those around her, I get the feeling she'll have no problem picking up the curricula. As you might have guessed, these two crazy kids are clearly made for each other. I smell romance in the air and being that this is Jonah Hex, I'm sure everyone but Hex will be totally dead by the end of this arc. It's a shame, because I already like his new lady friend. The art by Phil Noto is really nice. It's almost too pretty and skillful for such a gritty book, but considering how much crap there is out there, I not going to complain when art is too well done. Jonah Hex is consistently one of the best monthly books out there. Pick it up!

Mystery In Space #6 (of 8)

Captain Comet gets his ass kicked by a bunch of insect assassins and The Weird finally realizes that the religious fanatic scumbags, the Eternal Light Corporation, who he's been shacked up with for the previous five issues are, well, scumbags. He's not that bright, the Weird. I'm not sure if I like the fact that Captain Comet gets beat up by everyone and their grandmother seemingly every month. I mean, what kind of superhero is he? This series is keeping me entertained, though I'll honestly be happy when it ends. As I've said before, Jim Starlin has enough plot for a four or five issue series tops. It's just too thin. Unfortunately, Shane Davis isn't drawing this issue, which is a huge negative. How do you not lock a guy up, especially one as good and in demand as Davis, for the whole freaking mini-series? Get with it, DC! He's replaced by Ron Lim who actually does a much better job than I expected, but still, he's no Davis. Not even close.

Shazam!: The Monster Society Of Evil #1 (of 4)

I have a friend who complains that origin stories are way too drawn out nowadays. That what used to take Kirby and Lee five or six pages takes most modern creators four or five issues. But what did Kirby and Lee know anyway? They could never understand the pathos, melodrama and important, endless minutia that could only be explained at a nice slow pace over the course of a year-long miniseries. Who cares if nothing happens for the first ten issues? Today's creators need their space, man! That hack, Jack Kirby, just never "got it"! In all seriousness, I usually have a hard time getting through origin issues as well. I'm starting to realize a good one is really difficult to pull off successfully. You have to grab the audience and introduce the character and his motivations quickly or said audience (or at least me) will get bored quickly. Luckily, Jeff Smith, creator of the amazing Barks-inspired Bone, understands this. I had some apprehensions about Smith re-imagining one of the most famous superheroes of all time, but that was clearly an idiotic assumption on my part. His writing is so tight that this first issue zooms by at a lightning pace. Smith, as he's shown time and again, simply knows how to tell a great story. Captain Marvel flashes in about halfway through, something of a record considering the hero doesn't even make an appearance in the first issue of a lot of today's origins. Besides Marvel himself, the other two main characters from the Captain Marvel universe are introduced here as well: Billy Batson and Shazam the Wizard. Smith immediately gives the Wizard more personality than he's ever had before. Batson is drawn a little too cutesy and young for my taste, but that's a minor quibble. Overall, this is a great start to what promises to be a damn fun series. Smith's art sometimes seems better suited to "funny Animal", Disney style stories, but that too, is a minor complaint. This is a great comic and worth the ridiculous $5.99 cover price.

The Walking Dead #34

Yet another month of unendingly grim zombie action. Sigh. I'd like just a touch of levity to counter the overwhelming dreariness that confronts the audience every month in this series. I know writer Robert Kirkman's capable of mixing comedy and Armageddon, (just look at the excellent — and superior — Fear Agent) and I'm not saying this book needs pie-in-face slapstick; but just once in a while, it would be nice to have something good happen. Please give us a break, already.

War Of The Undead #2 (of 3)

More undead insanity from the creative team of writer Brian Johnson and artist Walt Flanagan. I said the first issue was the best "undead-Nazi-devil worshiping-scientists-steal-Hitlers-nutsack and try to sustain the third Reich by inventing an unstoppable zombie army" comic so far this year, and it still is. This issue centers mostly around an american werewolf the Nazi's have kidnapped for some reason or another. Somehow this is tied into sticking Hitler's soul (or brain, I'm not sure) into the Frankenstein Monster so the Nazi's and their satanically-powered undead army can take over the world. At the end, Dracula wakes up! Bully for him! Flanagan's art is crude but that suits this book to a tee. It's obvious no one involved is taking anything very seriously. Neither should you. Just enjoy.

Fables Volume 6: Homelands

Bill Willingham continues to surprise me. While March Of The Wooden Soldiers was the best Fables collected volume, he almost topped it with this trip back to the Fable's Homelands. The only reason this doesn't quite beat March is the opening story about Jack, of Beanstalk fame, which almost seems like a throwaway when compared to the epic stories that surround it. Not that it's bad — in fact, it's quite entertaining on it's own merits — it's just that it seems out of place when compared to the more fantastic (and more interesting) stories we're used to in this series. In the title story, we discover that Boy Blue is way more deadly and cunning than he regularly lets on and Prince Charming, though he's a lousy administrator and Mayor, is particularly adept at planning underhanded cloak and dagger operations. This makes sense as Willingham has always portrayed him as a sneaky little shit — imagine Otter with the conscience of Greg Marmalard... Willingham finally divulges the identity of the Adversary. If you read March, I doubt you'll be all that surprised as plenty of clues were dropped along the way to make it obvious enough who that person is. Somehow, this bothered me a little. Granted, I wasn't expecting a "Luke, I am your Father" type revelation, but considering the consistently high levels of storytelling Fables usually reaches, I was hoping for some sort of surprise. Either way, I'm quibbling, as this story is as good an arc as any in the entire series. Check it out!