By some amazing miracle (that is, I didn't blindly buy crap for the hell of it), I only managed to buy good books this week!
Aquaman. The Trench things are really cool-looking, and kinda scary; I question, given how much the scene where they eat people echoes Jaws, the decision to just show them in good lighting and out of the water so soon, but it's Geoff Johns. No subtly expected.
I found the attempts to make Aquaman cool to be little more entertaining than a forum post defending Aquaman with a bullet point list. I already know that Aquaman's cool, Geoffrey. Relax. Take it down a notch already. It's also
very hard to believe that Aquaman would be an in-universe joke. Yes, he's no Superman. But by that same token, he could break your face. No skinny nerd's gonna give him shit like that right in front of him.
C+. I'd give it a B- if I could, but that's just not how my grading scale works and structure is important.
Firestorm. Really kind of great right up until the last few pages, which culminate in a cliffhanger without much inherent interest and feels like sub-Green Lanterny crap. It's like Gail Simone wrote the first 17 pages of script and then Ethan van Sciver wrote the last three, possibly because Simone was sick or something. Somehow this justifies his name on the cover. But it's not bad in a ruiny way, just a sort of "WTF? this might suck" way. Anyway, was Jason Rusch always kind of an asshole? He flat calls Ronnie Raymond a racist for pretty much no reason. I still like him though.
And some overlooked gems from previous weeks:
B+.
Demon Knights. Is fun! Buy it while it's still at full price so as to fill the coffers of Paul Cornell and the excellent artist whose name escapes me. Madame Xanadu is neat. This also reminds me I forgot to buy JL Dark, but you know what? Fuck it.
B+. It'd get an A, but fantasy sucks.
DC Presents Deadman. Yeah, this was totally off my radar till someone said it was depressing and I was like, "All right!" It is indeed depressing. Good book. Remember when Paul Jenkins wrote good, interesting comics, like The Inhumans and (the first several issues of) The Sentry? It's like that. Bernard Chang's a good artist, too, although maybe not the best fit for this story? Nah. My only real complaint is that the colorist seems to think this is the Flash. Ironically, I think the Flash' colorist seems to think his book is Deadman. Wake up!
A.
Back to this week:
I almost bought
I, Vampire because the art is very, very inky in that way that I like--someone cloned Jae Lee--but I remembered I hated vampires, and of course the cover is hilariously goofy, but I'm not sure it's
self-aware about it. I'm still really tempted and maybe I'll get it when it's cheaper.
NR.
Flash. Barry is still kinda dull but less dull than usual and while the mystery/weirdness Manapul and the guy who checks his spelling is setting up doesn't feel like a "#1" type of story, it's nevertheless pretty great. The art is gorgeous.
A, but it's four credit hours, and is therefore: BEST OF THE WEEK.
Flash #1 was awesome! Then again, maybe I am just a little too much in love with Francis Manapul's art.
It's pretty gosh darned awesome, yeah.
The over-exposition wasn't nearly as bad as the preview made it seem in my opinion. I also think they tried a little too hard to make everything seem all hip and updated. Though the new direction is interesting, I felt it was presented in a "in your face/shove it down your throat" manner instead of having it roll-out in more of a smooth manner. Also, Morgan Edge is now black. Countdown to the internet exploding in rage in 3...2...1...
