ZacWilliam’s Comics in Review 3/1 Amazing Fantasy 18 Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis 40 Detective Comics 817 Green Lantern Corps Recharge 5 of 5 Infinite Crisis 5 of 7 Marvel Team-up 18 Amazing Fantasy 18 – I’m buying this title because I’m a huge Transformers fan and the original (and still best) Death’s Head began as a TF supporting character, added to that this revamp is written by Simon Furman (long time TF scribe) and drawn by James Raiz (who worked on Dreamwave’s TF books). So far the story, set in a 2099 like future, has some interesting potential, but is developing quite slowly. Perhaps too slowly for those not invested in the character. Still, I’m interested to see where it all goes. The art is fairly good, but not quite at the level of coolness of Geoff Senior or Liam Sharp on either of the previous two Death’s Head books. This Death’s Head so far lacks the fun quirky personality of the original or the 90’s badassitude of DH2, He remains a slightly sympathetic and massively destructive blank slate. Really the most interesting thing about him, and this series, has been the unexpected link to the first issue of Planet Hulk. There’s potential here that I would love to see reached, but”as is” I doubt it’s drawing in many folks not already attached to the Death’s Head legacy. GRADE: C Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis 40 – Aquaman is one of those characters that everyone wants to work in a solo book but who has a hard time doing so in practice. I enjoyed Peter David’s run, which succeeded probably as well as anyone ever at making him interesting and fun, but I can see the argument that it took the character too far away from his iconic roots (which are important to big pop-culture heroes like the DC A-list). Kurt Busiek is a creator known for both great stories and capturing a book’s classic heart, combine that with a sword and sorcery vibe he’s been nailing on Conan and there’s a lot of potential here. The result is… interesting. Went in expecting an all new Aquaman from the interviews, and that’s KINDA what we get but… There’s a mystery and a twist here perhaps not as in your face dramatic as his classic blindside from Thunderbolt’s #1 but just as deep and drawing. Who IS the new Aquaman? Why does he have some similarities too close to the old to be coincidence, and if the end of issue reveal is to be believed what’s happened to the old to change his status-quo so greatly? Out of all the books this week this is the one I wish I had the time to give a full multipage review. The art by Butch Guice is a bit muddled in a few places, but of a style that’s well suited to capturing the underwater world of the new Aquaman. This is a book I’m definitely buying the next issue of just to see where things go from here. GRADE: B+ Detective Comics 817 – I’m not a Batman reader generally, but I am a fan of James Robinson’s Starman and all the Infinte Crisis stuff has me interested where Batman ends up, so I decided to give this a try. I like it. This issue is the kind of Batman I could find myself reading and enjoying. He IS Batman and Gotham is a crime filled place, but this Batman seems to have his adventurousness back, this Batman can smile slightly as he talks to Jim Gordan about what he does. This is not Batman light, but Batman FINALLY not insuffereably dark, repressed and inhuman. The most classic Batman I’ve read in quite a while. I’ll pick up the next part. GRADE: B+ Infinite Crisis 5 – On the whole I think the Infinite Crisis event has been masterfully conceived, but the series itself hasn’t been quite as flawlessly executed. It’s really felt to me like the book just hasn’t had quite as much space as it needed to cover everything that’s going on, leaving some bits feeling more rushed than would be ideal. Ah well. I was hoping this issue would also shed some light on the reality fragmenting Superman vs Superman fight that’s been going on in his (their?) titles. No real luck. I guess those issues must happen during their fight here, but there’s nothing to let you know that’s the case. The ending of this issue would have been more dramatic and exciting if not spoiled by a DC toy solicitation a good while back. Wonder where he stopped to grab that armor? Hope the Flash will explain where they took SP, where the speed force went and why, and where Bart (assuming this is Wally) is. The number of artists/inkers this issue is noticeable but not distracting, as they maintain a mostly uniform style. I’m still very much enjoying the event and quite interested to see where things go, but I have to say again, I really do think it would have been greatly improved by upping the size of each issue. I know we all bemoan overly decompressed comics nowadays but this great story could’ve used just a bit more space to breath. GRADE: B Green Lantern Corps Recharge 5 – This books been a surprisingly good read. This issue basically comes down to one climactic giant battle but it’s been well set up and is well told and fun, giving Guy Gardener of all lanterns a chance to really show why he was given the ring. Then new lanterns introed have really shown as well. Great stuff that makes me eager for the ongoing if it can keep up the quality of excitement and characterization. GRADE: B+ Marvel Team-Up – This storyline surpassed even Runaways as my favorite Marvel read for the last few months. Kirkman’s told a wonderful fun classic Comic Book story of Marvel’s lovable C and D-listers proving themselves real heroes when the chips are down. It’s great to see characters like Darkhawk and Sleepwalker and Speedball get a moment in the sun (that last one especially given the coming of Cival War ). Even better, Kirkman ends this great time-travel story WITHOUT hitting the reset button I assumed was destined to be there at the end. The Legion of Lossers ( go with Speedball’s name suggestion guys) Lives! And are there primed and ready for more stories whenever Kirkman gets the chance. For the same reason I love Dan Slott’s She-Hulk this book has ruled: classic fun comic book super hero adventure like not enough people seem to know how to right anymore. GRADE: A
Sleepwalker WTF? I remember buying three or four copies of issue one when I was a kid thinking that someday it would be worth a lot of money... I cant believe they dusted him off and put him in a comic, what a terrible character.
