Day: August 26, 2013

2000 AD 17 (18 June 1977)

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This issue has some strange turns. Mostly when Flesh all of a sudden become about dinosaurs teleporting to the future and having Fly-like effects with the guys’ heads ending on a dinosaur. It’s the cliffhanger and it’s dumb, but Gosnell writes a decent enough story before it.

Invasion is a little weird too. Finley-Day plots the opening somewhat backwards, leading to a confusing story.

Gibbons has some good panels and some really bad ones on Harlem Heroes. The bad ones outweigh the good, unfortunately.

And Moore doesn’t have much going on with Dan Dare. It’s basically a bridging story–but all action. It’s not good. And Belardinelli can’t decide on Dare’s hair.

Allen and Redondo do an almost incomprehensible skiing M.A.C.H. 1. The art’s good, but confusing.

Wager and Gibson play Dredd mostly for laughs. There’s a big fight, where Gibson fails; luckily, he does the comedy well.

CREDITS

Invasion, Slaves; writer, Gerry Finley-Day; artist, Mike Dorey; letterer, John Aldrich. Flesh, Book One, Part Seventeen; writer, Kelvin Gosnell; artist, Felix Carrion; letterer, Tony Jacob. Harlem Heroes, Part Seventeen; writer, Tom Tully; artist and letterer, Dave Gibbons. Dan Dare, Hollow World, Part Six; writer, Steve Moore; artist, Massimo Belardinelli; letterer, Peter Knight. M.A.C.H. 1, Spotbox; writer, Nick Allen; artist, Jesus Redondo; letterer, Knight. Judge Dredd, Robot Wars, Part Eight; writer, John Wagner; artist, Ian Gibson; letterer, Knight. Editor, Gosnell; publisher, IPC.

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Prophet 32 (January 2013)

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I always except Prophet to do something completely weird with its narrative. Simon Roy tells the tale of a female Prophet–still John, of course–and her adventures on a planet where the human populace has devolved.

There’s a lot of action, a little exploration, some of the regular Prophet grossness with nature, and then Roy gets to the unexpected conclusion.

It’s unexpected because Roy makes a bunch of judgements about the rest of the series so far. He shows things from the other side–there’s a lovely page where he juxtaposes panels showings the devolved humans on the planet and the female John’s childhood–and it gives an unexpected perspective.

Prophet is full of wonders–gross and not–and Roy takes the time to show the side effects. All while doing awesome sci-fi too.

Really fun backup from Daniel Irizarri. It’s fast-paced, consistently funny, rather nice artwork.

CREDITS

Prophet; writer, artist and colorist, Simon Roy; letterer, Ed Brisson. Greetings From Verde Luz; writers and colorists, Daniel Irizarri and Andrea Pecinkas; artist and letterer, Irizarri. Publisher, Image Comics.

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Ultimate Spider-Man 105 (April 2007)

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And there we have it. A somewhat new ground situation–Aunt May knows Peter’s Spider-Man, he’s living with Mary Jane, Kitty Pryde is mad–not much else though.

There’s nothing on Doc Ock, there’s nothing on the U.S. government hiring bad guys to genetically engineer clones and kill teenagers, there’s nothing on… something else, I’m sure. I sort of forgot.

Oh, Nick Fury’s a big sweetheart it turns out. He’s not tough enough to use Captain America and Iron Man on the bad FBI guys, only threaten the Fantastic Four with them. But he’s a pushover and a stooge now.

The Jessica Drew thing is mildly interesting. Bendis seems to realize she’s the best character to come out of this arc, just because it’s very strange and he has good observations with her.

Still, it’s unfortunate Bendis had to write so many bad comics for so little change.

CREDITS

Clone Saga, Epilogue; writer, Brian Michael Bendis; penciller, Mark Bagley; inker, Drew Hennessy; colorist, Justin Ponsor; letterer, Cory Petit; editors, John Barber and Ralph Macchio; publisher, Marvel Comics.

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Star Trek 17 (February 2013)

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The Bones McCoy origin issue. Not sure if Johnson doing origin issues is such a good idea after this one.

Definitely not if the art team of Claudia Balboni and Erica Durante continues. It’s sometimes a little amazing the artists IDW gets for Star Trek. It’s one of the oldest licensed properties out there and they get these not ready for prime time players on it.

In other words, the art is bad. So bad one occasionally pauses to bewilder at the terrible faces, especially on poor Bones McCoy.

Johnson–he brought an M.D. relation along as cowriter, though there’s almost no medicine discussed, only shown in montage–doesn’t have a story for Bones. I thought it was going to be about his father dying. Nope, it’s about what made him join Starfleet. It’s not convincing.

The writing’s not bad, just misguided and pointless. The art is bad though.

CREDITS

Writers, Mike Johnson and F. Leonard Johnson; penciller, Claudia Balboni; inker, Erica Durante; colorist, Claudia SGC; letterer, Chris Mowry; editor, Scott Dunbier; publisher, IDW Publishing.

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Half Past Danger 1 (May 2013)

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I’m really impressed. I’d never even heard of Stephen Mooney before Half Past Danger–I hadn’t heard of him so much I thought the names were separate (based on the cover credit). I’m shocked to see it’s just one guy doing this comic and one I haven’t heard of.

Danger is highly derivative. Little Sgt. Rock, little League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, little Jurassic Park. G.I.s versus dinosaurs. It works. Mooney makes it work. His art style is perfect for the kind of period piece he’s doing and he also goes out of his way to keep it unexpected.

He opens the issue with this sergeant being the topic of his men’s conversation, switches focus to said sergeant, then makes the encounter with the Jurassic tyrannosaur so crazy he’s keeping everyone in danger, even the “safe” characters.

The finale, set in 1940s New York City, is just fantastic stuff.

Danger’s great.

CREDITS

Bite the Bullet; writer, artist, colorist and letterer, Stephen Mooney; publisher, IDW Publishing.

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