I Have Issues Pick of the Week 12.2.2009

I Have Issues is a comic book review on the previous week’s new releases. SPOILER WARNING: if you haven’t read your books yet, read no further. These reviews will be posted a few days after comic book release day to give you time to read them so that you can throw your two cents in about what you thought of these books. The picks are currently limited, due to the small selection available in my local comic book shops, but hopefully that will change in a few months. Feel free to visit the Giggaheim.com Forums and start your non-censored, no-holds-barred thread on your favorite books. On with the reviews:

SIEGE CABAL
WRITER: Brian Michael Bendis
PENCILS: Michael Lark
INKS: Stefano Gaudiano
COVER BY: David Finch

I have a confused view of Bendis’ event books. I also have dropped almost every title I read in the Marvel 616, and haven’t really been curious about what’s going on. A few things turned me off from it, and only recently, have I become interested in this universe again. Every “Event Book” needs to reshape the universe it is in. Crisis is known just as crisis because of its massive scope, and how it changed the DCU forever. There have only been runners up in the history of comic events since 2000:

• House of M: No more Mutants
• Infinite Crisis: Welcome Back Multiverse
• Civil War: Red Scare Redux
• Final Crisis: ????? Superman Loves us?
• Secret Invasion: Welcome back Norman
• Blackest Night: Who’s Dead-Dead?
• Siege: No idea yet

Now say what you will of these events, but they were all good in their own right. Millar particularly took a lot of flack, but his event really reshaped the Marvel Universe. The heroes don’t trust each other, Cap is dead, and the good guys were splintered enough to let the Skrulls come out to play. Bendis has reshaped he Marvel Universe as well by thinning the Mutant Herd, and now he is showing all the Marvel Universe and its zombie readers what’s its like to be Peter Parker. Now we are all waiting for Norman to go apeshit, let the Goblin back in the drivers seat, and everything we have read for the past 2 year will come crashing down around him.

So why is “Siege Cabal” pick of the week? Well, it was a damn god book, and certainly had more bang for its buck than other title that came out this week. Bendis writes great dialogue, and here we get some great tense exchanges between Doom and Norman. Ultimately, the puzzle that Marvel faithful have been trying to figure out: Who does Norman have in his pocket, still isn’t resolved, but we did learn a few things that will lead into this new event:

1)    Norman is losing it, and fast

2)    Norman just burned his bridge of friendship with Doom, and that isn’t a good thing

3)    Loki is probably the architect of all of this, and it isn’t going to end well for anyone.

4)    Siege will resolve many of the open “Thor” questions

Like all Marvel books, this one left me with some continuity questions. Like where the fuck is Asgard? I thought it was in Latveria. But it’s still in Kansas? I’m starting to see why JMS left. Art-wise, Lark’s work here isn’t my style, but it do like the way he illustrated Doom underneath he mask, and the panels of Loki made up for the Megatron faces, and splotchy inking. These thick lines were probably intended for illustrating the “darkness” of the cabal, but only made the book look messy. I’ve never really been a fan of Finch’s scratchy illustration style, so the cover didn’t work many wonders for me either, but the preview art for the actual “Seige” book looked fantastic, so I’m looking forward to Coipel taking over the art. So Mr. Bendis, I am all in for Siege. I’m curious to see if this will change the Marvel U, and make me a constant reader again.

BLACKEST NIGHT THE FLASH #1
Written by Geoff Johns
Art and cover by Scott Kolins
Variant cover by Francis Manapul

This latest tie-in for Blackest Night was good and bad. It follows the formula of all the tie-ins by doing the first 4 pages of catch-up for the reader in case they don’t follow the book, and it’s a nice quick summary. The book moves right along to Barry between the pages of Blackest Night #5, and we get to see him catch up on events he missed since his death.

While this book does its job of setting up the action in the next two books it does achieve a few good things: We will get to see how the bad guys of the DCU contribute to this crisis, and it makes sense to have the Rogues do it. After all, they are the only villain group that work well together, and I really enjoy the books where the band together and kick a little ass Dirty Dozen style. Lex Luthor will go underground, and I imagine that if a Black Lantern looked at the Joker, the emotional colors would look like a psychedelic trip. So it’s up to Flash’s Rogues to represent the maligned characters of the DCU, and I think we will see some fireworks in the next 2 issues. We’ll finally get to see some more details about Barry’s resurrection, and why he was able to come back from the dead.

We get some good moments of Johns and Kolins back together again. Some bad points: The artwork isn’t the best work I usually expect from Kolins, and it gets a bit distracting. I like his lighter cartoonish style, but I’ve been spoiled lately by Van Sciver’s work, and it doesn’t look like Kolins is contributing any original ideas to this story. He just seems to be aping panels from Van Sciver, and Reis. I may not be the sharpest on continuity, but if this reverse Flash is just resurrected, and the reverse Flash is in Rebirth….Why does Barry feel he needs to dupe a program of Thawn OW! my head hurts. Not a bad book. I enjoyed the Final Crisis Rouges book, and this looks like more of the same.

BLACKEST NIGHT WONDER WOMAN #1
Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Nicola Scott
Cover by Greg Horn
Variant cover by Ryan Sook

I don’t read Wonder Woman. I tried when Heinberg re-launched her book, but like everyone else, the schedule torpedoed my desire to read the book, and Amazons Attack just destroyed any interest I had. The only Author I felt really “got” her so far has been Darwin Cook, and he hasn’t written anything for her in years. Rucka however, has done a spot on job of writing Wonder Woman, and I’m looking forward to this 3 issue mini. Like all the Tie-ins, we are treated to a 4 page catch-up, and then the story kicks in full gear as we finally get to see Diana and Maxwell Lord come to terms with the murderous events that lead up to “Infinite Crisis” Rucka does a fantastic job of writing Diana as a compassionate woman, a fierce warrior, and a determined hero. I grabbed this title because I’m pulling all the tie-in titles, but the cover by Greg Horn is fantastic. The violence and darkness is fantastic, and the art inside the cover by Nicola Scott illustrates Rucka’s script well. If you are like me, and haven’t read anything about Wonder Woman that you have liked lately, pick this title up. You’ll be surprised.

THOR #604
WRITER: Kieron Gillen
PENCILS: Billy Tan
INKS: Matt Banning
LETTERED BY: Chris Eliopoulos
COVER BY: Billy Tan

Last week, I reviewed JMS’ last issue of Thor Giant Sized Finale, and stated that I felt bad for anyone trying to pick up the reins. Gillen had his work cut out for him, but unlike the state he left Spider-man in JMS left plenty for Gillen to work with. Gillen seems to have eagerly taken the toys he was left with, and will craft a good tale from the open threads of Asgard in a Doom’s land, and Thor banished. I have a feeling much of it will be plotted out by Bendis with the upcoming “Siege” event, but regardless, Gillen seems more than capable of keeping a skeptic like me onboard. The little exchanges between the gods and the folk of Kansas are still great, and even though Thor only shows up on the last page, it seems like Gillen won’t write any radical character departures. Tan’s pencils are quite good, and I especially like the panels illustrated with Heimdall in them. The coloring and inks are exceptional as all three departments are clearly making a good effort to set up the coming event, and keep us skeptic readers onboard. I only wish #605 would come out next week as well.