Week in review (comics released 16/01)

Whilst this is not an attempt to review everything that’s come out in the week I’ll use it to do a brief rundown of the highlights and the low-lights of the week. From there, you can make your own decisions (or post replies to argue otherwise). I’ll try not to post much in the way of spoilers without some sort of warning beforehand.

In order of publisher (because that’s the list I work from):

UMBRELLA ACADEMY APOCALYPSE SUITE #5 (OF 6)
Really enjoying this series. It’s self contained and yet has a history of its own. It feels a lot like Hellboy in the early days but has a distinct sense of identity. Super-hero kids all grown up in a world with talking monkeys and doomsday machines.

BIRDS OF PREY #114
An interesting issue and Oracle spirals into obsession... again. The series seems to have lost its way a little (maybe since Black Canary left) and there’s no real point to it anymore. Nicola Scott’s artwork is looking better and better though.

BOOSTER GOLD #6
I still can’t work out if this series is going to be pivotal to Final Crisis events or not. Time is broken, Rip Hunter and Booster Gold try to fix it. The return of Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) in this issue and there looks to be a happy ending. That said, it’s time travel and I guarantee it will all be bad next month (that and I read the synopsis for the next issue, Max Lord rules the world)

CATWOMAN #75
Tie in to Salvation Run. You need to read one if you’re reading the other. Catwoman, who’s been more on the side of angels than not over the last few years in trapped on Death World with a who’s who of bad guys.

CHECKMATE #22
Second part of a two-part fill-in story. Its about one of the secondary characters so doesn’t really engage all that much. Checkmate as an ongoing series remains interesting, however. It’s SHIELD for the DC Universe but works a lot better.

COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS 15
14 issues to go. We find out what Ray palmer’s really been up to (and whilst I’m sure it’ll be relevant in the next few months it was very much a ‘huh, what?’ type moment). Monarch is still a poor choice of villain. It just doesn’t makes sense that Captain Atom is inside the suit, I’d say he was a skrull except it’s the wrong company. All the disparate threads are tying together slowly though and the ending should be worthwhile.

FLASH #236
The last part of the re-introduction of the Flash story, with his super-powered kids in tow. It has aliens, the JLA, back story and a happy ending, but again I just didn’t care too much. I really enjoyed Waid writing Flash last time he was on the title, this time it just fails to grab me.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #17
The cover means nothing. Black Lighting is not composed entirely of lightning, despite what it implies (yes, that was a spoiler, kind of). The story, however, is good set-up to JLA vs Suicide Squad and keeps the team book in the middle of the DC Universe still.

ROBIN #170
All the bat titles are undergoing a slight revamping (new creative teams) after the Ra’s story. Robin’s not going anywhere yet.

SHADOWPACT #21
Losing interest. Unfortunately most books about teams of magic heroes just look like poorly written books about teams of normal super-heroes. This follows the same vein.

WILDSTORM REVELATIONS #2 (OF 6)
Maybe if this leads into another re-boot of the Wildstorm Universe they’ll get it right this time. I’m not holding my breath. The story suffers from the fact the reader isn’t allowed to know anything until the end of the story, despite what the characters might think they know.

FELL #9
Outstanding as usual. Story and art are the perfect package, proving that you don’t have to write 80pg specials or charge US$5.99 to sell a good story.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #547
Spider-man is the biggest disappointment of this year.. and it’ll be hard work for anything to replace it even though its only Jan. If you liked Spider-man in the 80s, then read this because that’s all marvel has done to the character. Kinda makes me wonder why they bother with Ultimate Spider-man now.

IMMORTAL IRON FIST #12
Highlight of the week. Iron Fist is in my top 5 these days. Solid story, good use of characters, everything you’ve come to expect from Brubaker (and Faction). If you’re not reading it, read it.

INCREDIBLE HERCULES #113
This is fun. There’s some foreshadowing in here as Hercules talks to his sister and is told Amadeus Cho could be the next big hero or the worst villain on the planet. Herc vs Ares. Amadeus vs SHIELD. Chaos ensues.

NEW EXILES #1
Claremont and mutants. The only guarantee is it will be a story with a thousand sub-plots. Throw in travel between alternate dimensions as well and it has the feel of being Claremont’s playground rather than a solid story.

NEW WARRIORS #8
Disappointing after a relatively strong start. NW is being set-up as the opposition to the Initiative, that later being government sponsored, the former being rebels (made up mostly of de-powered, now power-suited mutants). It’s no where near as well written and feels as b-grade as the team itself.

NEW X-MEN #46 MC
Messiah Complex continues to impress. An X crossover that’s solidly written, has characters acting for ‘real’ reasons and enough surprises to make you want to buy the next issue just to find out what happens next. A credit to Brubaker and the others involved. (the predator X involvement feels like a forced plot device but can be forgiven)

PENANCE RELENTLESS #4 (OF 5)
So Speedball was a joke and now Penance can potentially destroy a country, out-thinks Doc Doom, Stark and Osborn. It’s a stretch to say the least. One issue to go and I’m interested to see where it goes but have a feeling it won’t have any lasting effects.

WOLVERINE ORIGINS #21
Deadpool vs Wolverine. The biggest problem is the fact that they’ve remained true to Deadpool as he’s bee written for the last few years, ie. an insane humorous character. Unfortunately, up until now, this book has been nothing but serious. It just feels wrong.

WORLD WAR HULK AFTERSMASH WARBOUND #2 (OF 5)
Uninspiring. The characters are too new to care about and the Master just can’t be taken seriously. Read Un-Men from Vertigo if you want outcasts in an isolated town.

ANGEL AFTER THE FALL #3
The comment ‘just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should’ has been used to describe both the new Buffy and Angel series. LA is in Hell and divided up by various demons. Rather than a continuation of the story from the TV series the creators (Whedon included) have used this as an opportunity to put all the characters in new situations which have you wondering what’s happened over a period of time to get them to that state. Its an over-used writing technique these days (see Heroes, Lost, etc) and doesn’t work all that well here. Mostly its just confusing.