Reviews

Captain America #29
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Art: Steve Epting & Mike Perkins
Colours: Frank D'armata

We open with Tony Stark and Maria Hill reviewing CCTV footgae of last issues rescue of Crossbones from a subcarrier by Sin and the Serpent Squad. They were in full disguise, with access cards and hologenerators making their faces look like murdered SHIELD agents. A SHIELD officer let them on board, and poses for the cameras kissing Sin even after the alarms have gone off, when you'd expect them to be racing for the exit

Tony realises this means there's a mole inside SHIELD, and he sets out to 'find it and trap it'

Black Widow continues her hunt for Winter Soldier. Shaking down criminals, arms dealers etc. produces nothing so she tries to figure where he'll go and when.

Winter Soldier relaises there's a connection between Lukin and the Red Skull and sets out to confront Lukin about it.

Lukin & Red Skull argue inside Lukin's head. Lukin wants more time when he's in control, but the Red Skull won't yield.

Sharon Carter & Falcon attack an AIM facility. an AIM soldier catches falcon with a flamethrower, hence the fiery cover. When an agent begs Sharon to not kill him, she says she's not a killer and then suffers a flashback of Steve Rogers' death and throws up. falcon gets there before the agents drawn gun can be fired

Winter Soldier confonts Lukin, asking after the Red Skull's whereabouts. he relaises he's made a mistake when Crossbones and Sin appear, guns trained on him.

…

It's a solid issue. Nothing to get over-excited by but more general goodness with everyone hunting the Winter Soldier and WS playing his own game.

Good to see so much follow-up on the SHIELD rescue - I'm guessing Doctor Faustus psych manipulation and dreading Skrulls

Sharon's flashback scene works really well - it's brief, and the writing's taut. It's not clear that she remains it was her that shot Cap, or just remembers being right next to Cap when he was shot, but either way, it's a short and powerful scene.

Perkins & Epting work on different plotlines, and i'm really enjoying the work of both artists. in some regards Perkins is a little better than Epting - his Black Widow looks great, for example - but when Falcon tears off his costume you can see the difference in the quality of the anatomy

It's a solid issue with little exceptional about it but little to criticise either. A fun ride that will doubtless read better by trade, due to it being a mid-section issue that progresses the plot without having the crucial key moments to make this chapter stand out.
7 out of 10

Uncanny X-Men #490
By Brubaker + Christos Gage & Larroca + Tom Grummett + Andrew Hennessy
Colors: Jason Keith + Raul trevino

A figure who looks like Magneto, face partially obscured by a purple hat, overhears a news report about mutant terrorism

Skids tells Storm about a Morlock named Qwerty whose power meant she saw the consequences to all her actions, how 'all the options of every choice' would work out. "Then one morning she saw it ... saw M-day coming. Saw her powers vanishing. She saw the world changing before her. In more ways than she could grasp ... and she finally did something. She wrote the book.' Qwerty is seen writing on a wall, presumably the wall Masque and co. destroyed a few issues back.

Ororo shares this with Xavier telepathically; he tells her to 'try to contain things and I'll be there as soon as possible' and says his search for Magneto will have to wait.

Warpath and Hepzibah wanderer through the sewers. Hepz wants to do bad things to the terrorist cell and very bad things with Warpath. They'r einterrupted by a 'Boom' and flying rocks - it's Masque and friends. Hepz tackles Erg, who electrocutes her and the two X-Men run off. Warpath says it's because they need to fight smart & he speculates they have Leech in a power dampener and they might be able to use that.

Skids takes Storm and Caliban to the book Qwerty wrote. It's in a big cavern full of Qwerty's pacifist followers. They say they've been expecting Storm. Qwerty's friend Delphi says 'Choices are stones thrown into a vast ocean. We see the ripples we cause. Qwerty saw the ocean.'

Warpath explains his plan to hepz, which involves getting the collar off Leech to shut down the Morlocks' powers and then beating them up. They drop down on top of them - Warpath uses his knives to impale erg's clothes to the wall. Hpaz kicks the woman with the weird mouth. Warpath charges into Litterbug and chases after a fleeing Masque, who's carrying leech. Warpath hits masque and tries to get Leech. Leech isn't wearing a collar - Masque has somehow had time to shapeshift so he looks like Leech and swap places with Leech. He distorts warpath's face so that he can't breathe. Hepz is distracted, allowing the female morlock the opportunity to bite her. She tells Masque 'that went just as predicted' - he says it'sbecause 'we got us an owner's manual to the world'. Warpath is suffocating, and the woman says he's dying. Masque reverses the transformation, apparently because 'This ain't how the book says it goes'. He tells Bliss - so that's her name! - to 'give these two enough of a dose to keep 'em down - I'll go set off the bombs'

Delphi lets Storm read the book. Storms says 'it contradicts itself on every page.'Delphi calls Storm the witness. There's a' Pooom' sound and storm asks Delphi what she's done. Delphi says it's masque - 'this is when they come to bury us' - and everything collapses on top of them.

Xavier picks up Storm's distress, saying all he can 'hear is screaming' & we cut to Storm, in the dark, illuminated only be a small lightning effect in the palm of her hand. It diminishes over two further panels before a final panel of pitch black

Endangered Species

Bishop takes beast to a MGH dealer, Charlie Hustle. Dealer says all his samples are inert, sorry. He did have a stash from Whirlwind, who kept his powers, but he auctioned them off. He offers Beast 'fifty grand a pint' and suggstes they could all get 'filthy rich'. Beast pushes Charlie through a window in anger.

beast says Bishop doesn't seem 'terribly bothered by the extinction of the mutant race'. beast says he's not, he doesn't believe it will happen because there are plenty of mutants in his future. Beast comments that he's froman alternative future and that his 'presence here makes it unlikely that it will ever ... wait. That could be it.' - To be continued in X-Factor #23

City Lights Books:

All Over Coffee
By Paul Madonna

[i]All Over Coffee[/i] reprints 151 of what are usually one panel sketches & accompanying text which appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle from 2004 onwards. Madonna refers to them as strips and I guess they are, but they're unlike any you'll find in the British newspapers

They're scenes of the city - not the touristy scenes you might expect, but ordinary homes, cafes and any interesting view that caught Madonna'seye and fitted the text he was working on. The inked images and ink brush wash are muted, almost sepia, and are superb, whether they're depicting unusual, twisted or run down architecture or representing summer heator autumnal chilliness.

The narrators and characters never appear, but their voices do - the text is always something Madonna imagines might have been said - or might have happened - over coffee. poetically tight vignettes that usually stand independent

There's a terrible sadness in many of the sketches, and a desperate humour in others. just occasional the text isn't as clever as Madonna seems to think it is, or steps into therapy-speak for a moment, but most the time these are everyday conversations which, outside of their original context, throw up the absurdities and mudanities of life and the things people make important in their daily life.

The minutiea of life.

and therein lies my love for it. rarely does a city seem so desolate, so lonely, the people so small and depressingly but inoffensively but unsympathetically petty than here. The artwork is a triumph - it's another side to San Francisco than that we usually get to see, even though it's clearly the same city - and the writing haunts me just as much

If Madonna was British, we'd hail him as a national treasure. I'd like to think we'll cherish [i]All Over Coffee[/i] and Madonna anyway

I'll struggle to read a better book this year.
9 out of 10

DC/Minx

The Plain Janes
Writer: Cecil Castellucci
Art: Jim Rugg

The start worried me a little, feeling a bit cliched, and it worried me how soapy it was going to get, but once the Jane's get together the story takes off and it's a real pleasure

There are times when it feels like the only out gay guy in the school, James, is just there for comic relief ("I have to start planning my outfit now!") but he has a few scenes when his personal courage makes him stand out - such as him being the first to sing when the time comes, despite singing having been banned - and he becomes a warmer, rounded character that I can embrace

The backstory of Jane writing postcards to the bomb survivor is never really developed, and that's not a bad thing: the real story is Jane's journey into art 'terrorism' and the way the chaotic and secret frightens authorities because they can't control it.

If you get to the end of the book without feeling an urge to slip out later that night and wrap shiny paper around a litter bin then I don't think we can be friends
7 out of 10

Gullywasher:

A Late Freeze
By Danica Novgorodoff

I really enjoyed this. First read through, I was a bit unsure, but interested enough to go back and let details sink in.

I'm the kind of reader who's led by words more than art & sometimes I miss things on the first read-through because I'm not paying the art enough attention & I like wordless or nearly wordless books like this because they force me to take a little time and absorb the artwork in order to follow the narrative.

So first time through I missed the face that the robot was escaping custody at the start, and wondered why he was arrested as a fugitive two-thirds of the way through

After the second read through, I was moved and satisfied, but needed to dip into selected pages a third time to get the a fuller understanding of what was going on.

By that time I'd fallen for the book. It's one of my favourite selections thus far, and a nice marriage of unpretentious art and words

8 out of 10

 

Jonathan Cape:

Fluffy hardcover by Simone Lia

I picked up Fluffy yesterday - having been pleased to see it selected because previous Page45 reviews have had me intrigued and tempted - and found it quick, easy read with some cute observational moments - I particularly like how Fluffy gets upset at his dad for saying he's a bunny rabbit, not a boy, then gets off the sofa and Dad wipes away a small pile of rabbit droppings; it's funny and cute in that scene, but the joke gets old fast (perhaps because this is a collected hardcover - it may be less noticable if you bought Fluffy as the single issues came out). Defecation jokes two months in a row, heh

It's enjoyable enough, but it all feels a bit lightweight. One of the plots in Jeremy Tinder's Cry myself To Sleep has a superficially similar concept - a human acting rabbit with human parents - and that's much more to my taste. I'm really tough to please with comedy, in any medium, so while this is a nicely put together book and a lovely edition, it's not quite to my taste, but I certainly don't dislike it.

Having reflected upon this, I quite like Fluffy, but it falls between too many stools - it's a little bit cute, a little bit surreal, a little bit silly, a little bit observational comedy/drama, a little bit whimsical - it does a lot of things quite well, and does a little bit of them, but it's not outstanding for any one of those things, and that makes it difficult to love.

I think there's a flaw in the concept, too - the central dynamic is that Fluffy thinks he's a human being, a little boy, and treats Michael as his dad; and Michael humours him in this to a very large degree, and only every so often does he challenge Fluffy on this and say he's not a boy, he's a rabbit. However Fluffy is no ordinary rabbit - he walks on two legs, he talks, he carries books, cuts pictures out of magazines, he steals steak off his dad's plate. He's neither rabbit nor boy, and we don't know what he is - and that lack of knowledge restrains my reactions because as readers we don't know if Michael is more right than Fluffy, or vice versa.

and we're left with significant and unanswered questions that blunt my emotional connections to the narrative: how did Michael find him, and come to take him into his family? Where did Fluffy come from, and how did he gain (or was he always this way?) his human qualities? These questions wouldn't matter all that much if we weren't reading the argument as to whether Fluffy's a boy or a bunny.

I did enjoy the pages of holiday photos, and when Fluffy wanders off to talk to a man he thinks is the farmer in his book about tractors (Fluffy loves tractors). There's some cute material here, but for me it's a little too much of a soft centre. I like a bit more bite in my books.
5 out of 10

Marvel:

New Avengers #31
By Bendis & Leinil Yu
<+> Lots of fighting ninjas, and the discovery of a big secret about Elektra. This over-hyped issues means little if you've not been following Bendis' interviews. The dialogue is hackneyed and weak and the plot insubstantial, while the sketchy art has characters looking old and haggard. While nowhere near as bad as Mighty Avengers, this book's struggling.
3 out of 10

Criminal #1-6 (Icon)
By Brubaker & Phillips

I think Criminal is a good example of a book that works better by trade - being able to read the whole story in one sitting makes it more satisfying

I don't think there's anything particularly original about it & the art doesn't do much for me but the writing generally succeeds. shame it doesn't avoid some of the more obvious cliches, but it's a generally enjoyable book and given how awful Ed's Uncanny X-Men has been, it's good to be reminded of his strengths. I know, we can enjoy them every month in Daredevil and, lesserly, Captain America, but Uncanny leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.

back to Criminal - I don't find the relationship between Leo and Ivan credible, but otherwise the relationships work and it's a nice piece of modern day noir
7 out of 10

eXiles #96

Writer: Chris Clarmeont
Pencils: Clayton Henry
Inks: Norman Lee
Colours: Wil Quintana

Psylocke falls asleep at the viewscreen while the rest of the team are on a mission to a world on which Victor von Doom leads the Fantastic Four.

She has a dream (or is it?) in which she trips across the universe and has tea with a nice couple (apparently Dave & Paty Cockrum) who tell her time and space is starting to unravel and 'someone's gotta save it'. Psylocke asks why they can't fix things and the man replies 'Not our job anymore, child, our day's done'. Psylocke's confused by this, wondering how she, a human, can do what they, gods, can't, and the scene ends.

The eXiles speak with the Fantastic Four (Victor, Sue, Johnny and an intelligent green Hulk). Victor reassures his team-mates that they're not hostile and 'instinct tells me they're here to help'.

Blink teleports atop an adjacent building and tries the same 'I'm a friend' line on She-Hulk and Mole 'Reed Richards' Man who are skulking up there.

Sabretooth tries to warn Blink that the body language is off & things are going wrong. Mole Man fires a weapon at Blink & she's stunned. Blink & Spider-Man 2099 move to confront her attackers, and fight. She-Hulk gets knocked to the ground & is defeated by Sabretooth. She-Hulk is clearly scared of Victor, who says they've fought before.

Mole Man has escaped with Blink. Victor promises to help find her, and welcomes the team to stay at his house.

The crowd applauds Victor and co. Morph is confused - they're not scared of them, not even a little bit spooked by his shapechanging

Blink wakes up strapped to a rock & surrounded by 'little guys' who 'all look like ben grimm'. Reed's revealed to be a short guy in a suit that makes him look taller. Reed asks why Blink isn't scared & realises she's 'different'. Reed's puzzled that she tells jokes because Victor has erased humour from the human genome. Reed speculates Blink's from the future or an alternate universe. he says it doens't matter which - Doom will find out where she's from and see it as a new world to conquer - 'and he won't rest until he wins'

Meanwhile Doom provides the team with new clothes & hosts a reception in their honour. Sabretooth flirts with Doom's 'girl'. Morph tells Longshot there's a problem, and relaises Longshot disappeared inbetween two panels.

Psylocke wakes up, wondering if it was a dream she had, or something more. she says 'why do I have the feeling ... things around here are only going to get worse?' In the foreground is the image of a woman who goes un-named

...

Nice issue, easy, undemanding read with a couple of cool touches and while the future direction of the story is fairly predictable it's smooth and fun. The art's mostly a supporting feature - it moves the story along neatly, only occasionally irritates, but only standing out on the 'Psylocke across the cosmos' double page spread at the start. That sums up the issue & this story - nothing special, but enjoyable enough, with a certain charm, and worth a flick through.

5 out of 10

 

Thor #1
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Pencils: Olivier Coipel
Inks: Mark Morales
Colours: Laura Martin

I was worried JMS would ignore the end of Thor's most recent solo book (in which the Norse face Ragnarok and Thor hangs himself on the World Tree in order to stop the creation/destruction cycle from continuing), but he fronts it by showing what happens when someone on Earth picks up Mjolnir

The guy - a new Donald Blake - says it's not up to Thor to decide the gods no longer exist, it's up to humans to decide whether they want them to continue or not, and that so long as someone believes in them the Norse will exist. Given the choice, Thor then chooses to live.

It's all a bit contradictory and ill-defined, however, as JMS tries to explain away the existence of a Don Blake (who Odin had previously revealed to be his own creation, and removed him from existence by removing the spell that created him) by saying that when Odin ceased to exist, so did his magic. but it's Odin's magic that infused Mjolnir, which is used to summon Thor from limbo. so you'd think that would have lost its enchantments too. I think it's an oddity we just have to live with for now, ditto the very existence of Mjlonir. maybe JMS will explain this in time, but for now it's a bit confused.

One possible direction this may be heading in - Thor looks an awful lot like Sentry on page 5, in a panel where he's show in mirroring Don Blake, and it's said Thor's been in the void until this issue. so maybe there's a hitherto unsuspected link between the two characters

The art surprised me - it's okay, some of the splash and 'impact' panels are really nice, and JMS uses a lot of text, even of splashier pages, ensuring it's an issue that needs a little time to read - which is cool, given the amount of splash and portrait shots inside

I'll be generous and give it 5 out of 10, with the caveat that it could well get much better and might well surprise me by turning out to be a decent book

X-Men #200

Writer: Mike Carey
Pencils: Humberto Ramos and Chris Bachalo
Inks: Carlos Cuevas and Tim Townsend
Colours: Edgar Delgado and Antonio Fabela

Endangered Species back-up by:

Writer: Mike Carey
Pencils: Scott Eaton
Inks: Drew Hennessy
Colours: Raul Trevino

I thought it was good issue - a nice tense build up, especially when the X-Men realise someone's approaching but they don't know where they are

odd that the professor says there are two people in Providence, when there are three. Unless the prof doesn't include Cable in it's calculations?

Not all of the art works, but there are some great individual pages, especially the one of Rogue's mind, a descent into hell, a la dante's Inferno

maybe Mystique did null Bobby's powers, it's the obvious explanation, and maybe she has done a similar thing to Rogue & she'll lose her powers but be cured of the insanity thing that's going on. and maybe that's why Mystique shot Rogue (and prevented Scalphunter from shooting her - showing some maternal instinct). Iceman's power loss may be the work of Lady Mastermind - Bobby and Emma are clearly the biggest threats, so it makes sense to do anything you can against them first

For those thinking Mystique's always been a traitor and is in league with the Marauders - please note she's the one who first alerts the X-Men - insistently so - to the presence of cloaked multiple targets, who she assumes to be hostile. The last panel tells us she is in league with them, but I think it's clear that she has her own agenda and may be trying to help the X-Men, as much as she feels she can

The fight scenes, when they come, are chaotic and tricky to follow. that's okay to some degree, we know this is a chaotic, almost panicked fight, but it's not helped by failings of the artists. Presumably it's a mistake to show Iceman all ice in the panel in which Scalphunter shoots him; and I'm guessing it's Karima who shoots Cyclops and A.N. Other, although it's not all that clear that it's Karima, and the identity of the second person she's frying is even harder to decipher. It reminds me of Bobby in his old leather waistcoat look, but it could be Wolverine if that's costume on the torso and not a bare chest

It's a nicely written scene for Iceman & Mystique - she plays Bobby beautifully - and Rogue's mental disintegration is nicely presented with her not remembering they left Cable in Providence, and her roasting the Caldecott house before Mystique has chance to disable the sensors. We've no idea why Rogue does that in the first place, nor why she headed out to Caldecott - but I'm confident Mike Carey knows
6 out of 10

 

World War Hulk/X-Men #1
Writer: Chris Gage
Art: Andrea DiVito
Colours: Laura Villari
Hulk demands to know how Xavier would have voted had he been present at the Illuminati vote to exile him. The inevitable fight scene is just about excusable, as the New X-Men and Beast team buy Xavier time to get the youngest students to safety. I suspect this mini will be an extended advert designed to attract X-readers to the primary World War Hulk story, and despite that it’s a decent read that might surprise.
4 out of 10

 

Uncanny X-Men #488

Writer: Ed Brubaker
Art: Salvador Larroca

Back-up:

Writer: Mike Carey
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Inks: Mark Hennessy
Colours: Raul Trevino

slow, but gathering pace, the modest improvement of last issue continues. The art's okay, nice in places, but better on atmosphere than detail. but there's little sense of energy yet, it's mostly build-up. Ideally, this would have been combined with the previous issue as an ominous intro to the arc - on it's own, the plot's too thin. The Endangered Species back-up is another story full of build up, with Beast spending far too much time climbing Wundagore to allow the plot to adequately progress, but the art's nice and the overall plot is at least advanced a little. An improving
4 out of 10

Self-published:

Summer Ball
By Oliver Smith
£2 from www.idlechild.com
Schoolfriends reunite for their graduation prom. Oliver Smith’s ‘end of an era’ piece may not break any new ground but from the Reservoir Dogs referencing opening to the ‘left behind’ ending the writing is brisk, vivid and well vocalised. The artwork is more crude and the plotting more superficial than the magical Hazy Thursday, but glimpses of the magic are visible, especially in the detail. Strong dialogue, layouts, page construction and a strong ending make this a memorable read.
7 out of 10

 

Each review is scored out of ten, roughly broken down into a maximum of 5 points for art and 5 points for writing.

10 out of 10 - Only a truly perfect book - which has immaculate plotting, scripting, pencils, inks, colours, lettering etc - should ever receive a perfect 10 score, reflecting that you cannot think of a single why by which the issue could have been improved. A 10 should almost never be awarded.

9 out of 10 - An exceptional score to give and a comic that excels in both writing and art. A superb issue that is almost flawless.

8 out of 10 - A great read that has at least above average art and writing and excels in at least one area. An 8 is an excellent, recommended comic and should be the highest mark most comics can receive.

7 out of 10 - A strong issue with much to praise

6 out of 10 - The comic is above average; maybe both the art and the writing are good but not brilliant (3 points each), or either the art or the writing excels and the other is okay (4+2); in a situation where one of the art and writing is magnificent but the other is appalling (5+1) we would usually mark it down to a 5 because if either the art or the writing is that bad it can't really be described as an above average issue.

5 out of 10 - We consider a 5 to be a decent book, with either the writing or art to be great and the other to be weak (3+2 or 4+1) or nice but unexceptional art and writing (2 1/2 + 2 1/2).

4 out of 10 - This is not necessarily a terrible book; let the text of the review guide you. It might not be a classic but it can be enjoyed by many readers.

3 out of 10 - A book that disappoints in both art and writing (2+1) or has above average in one aspect but is appalling in the other (3+0). If you have a strong preference to art over writing or writing over art, you might still find a lot to enjoy in an issue rated 3 out of 10.

2 out of 10 - A score of 2 indicates that we think it's a poor read overall, with both writing and art falling significantly below what the reviewer wants from a comic.

1 out of 10 - The reviewer disliked the book on every level, and struggled to find anything to praise about it. An exceptionally bad comic in every way.

0 out of 10 - A book scoring 0 should have no redeeming features, and that's almost impossible to say about any comic.

Archived Reviews:
Web Comics Report by Magnus Brors
Emerald City Comic Con by Andrew Poleon
The Sandman Presents: The Furies by Allen Shepard
Top 10 of 2006 by Ian Murphy