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BATMAN VS SUPERMAN: THE DAWN OF JUSTICE (2016) Movie Review
AVENGERS #7
NOWHERE MEN #9
SUPERMAN: LOIS & CLARK #6
X-O MANOWAR #45
BATMAN VS SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE Movie Review
Director: Zack SnyderCast: Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Jesse Eisenberg, et al.
Produced by Warner Brothers Entertainment
Reviewer: Humphrey Lee
Not to mix nerd jargon, but there was a disturbance in the force this past weekend, as I’m sure anyone who is reading this has been well exposed to at this point via their social media app of choice. For the first time in live action movie history Batman and Superman met on the big screen, kicking off a six week stretch of live action superheroes versusing each other with this here movie, this week’s race between The Flash and Supergirl on the television screen, and the Team Cap v. Team Stark showdown that will be Marvel’s CIVIL WAR. Buildings were shattered, sound systems were hitting the Richter scale with bass, and icons were trading punches and terse words through gritted teeth. And all through the cacophony was a brigade of movie reviewers, sharpening their knives in unison to win their own duel of the mightiest as everyone seemed to up the ante with their vitriol and hyperbolic wit as the week progressed from embargo forward.
Let me say right now that that previous line is not any sort of shots fired, and that this is some sort of “fuk da h8rs!!” screed I’m warming up right here to defend this latest Zack Snyder joint. “Batman Vs.Superman: Eyeroll-Inducing Subtitle” is a bad movie. I hate to type that as a fan of the characters involved, as a man who loved pretty much all the casting decisions made here, and as an admitted enjoyer of this movie’s predecessor, 2013’s “Man of Steel.” It isn’t some sort of a complete abomination of filmmaking. It isn’t hands down one of the worst movies ever made, as I’ve seen written about it in several places and is a sentiment that is, to me, a completely laughable statement to say about this sensory-pummeling piece of entertainment. Such statements like those ARE why I have started building up this review the way I did, because they seem absurd considering how many absolutely dismal movies I’ve been exposed to in my days, and I do not watch these productions for a living. But, yes, BVS is indeed a bad movie, and not only an indicator that Warner Brother’s centerpiece for bringing these properties to life – that scamp Zach Snyder – is marching to the beat of a drum that only he’ll interpret however the hell he will, but it is a sign that I don’t think anyone was awake at the wheel for this movie except for the casting director, whose choices salvaged some legitimately positive aspect of this overall disappointing milestone of a motion picture.
I’m sure a couple of the points I made above are clashing in some minds right now, so I’ll address them right here: yes I liked “Man of Steel”, and yes, I think Zach Snyder’s presence loomed greatly over this film and may be troublesome as this movie DC universe advances forward. I make no bones that I think “Man Of Steel” is a flawed film but I can be malleable in how well I take interpretations of a character to a certain point. I was – and still am – fine with an approach to Superman where he stumbles on his was to being that big symbol of hope they made such a fuss about in the film. The character is literally a god amongst men that was actually raised by humans, and I could easily buy into a plot that features that clash of two worlds hindering his development into the big blue beacon of salvation that always saves the day. He was raised in a very tiny part of the world, by people that were so focused on their own miniscule portion of it they were afraid of what the rest of that big, bustling globe would do to their special little miracle from the sky if they discovered what he was capable of. I could buy that fear causing them to take what should have been the light of the world and wanting to somewhat obscure it from the world’s gaze for fear they would try and extinguish it. Unfortunately, that attitude was a bit mishandled in its selling, especially when it came to instances of Kevin Costner’s Pa Kent, and I know why it rubbed diehard Superman fans the wrong way. But I was intrigued nonetheless at a different take of a Superman who grew up wrestling with how much he should imbue himself onto the world and, because of it, was not as good as he should have been when the stakes became played on his godly level.
The problem with my swallowing this at the time is that his failure at the end of “Man of Steel” to minimize damage because of his rank amateur status when it came to the fight with Zod and how he had to go to extremes to eventually stop the rampaging Kryptonian meant he would come back in further movies realizing how important he was to the world as its defender and inspiration--at the least as part of an atonement for his mistake, but also a recognition that he was in a unique position to protect the world and give its occupants something to aspire to, for he found out how flawed he was despite his powers, just like all of them. Obviously, all that shit went out the window. This movie, what obviously had to be a second Superman film before the WB/DC higher ups wanted to go all in on getting that “Avengers” chedda, presents none of that as a step further. Not only is Superman no longer the headliner, but also he’s still as pensive as he was in MoS, if not more so. He’s gotten better at what he does, at least; that is a sin that Snyder and company rectified a bit in this follow-up even though it still has its share of property damage, but what little overall screen time he gets to himself in what ends up being a grossly crammed production, he still struggles to accept his mantle of being that great big hope in the sky for humanity. Superman not only fails to learn his lesson and grow from it, but so also fails Snyder, and he permeates this same mistake into almost every aspect of this film.
“Batman Vs. Superman” is a culmination of ideas that almost make sense if you just take them as they are, then shatter like a Metropolis skyscraper when you aim some more comprehensive brainwaves their way. We’re introduced to a new incarnation of Batman, brought to life by the iconic chin of Ben Affleck, that is some rendition of Frank Miller’s THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS with the character taken to an even more aggressive end. And this version of the character, which truly is a fantastically executed performance by Affleck (who knows a thing or two about having to reinvent yourself), is taken to a very aggressive place that makes sense to a degree, until you put some thought into his operation because this Batman, just like this translation of Superman, which is a line that most incarnations of the character say is a big no-no to cross, even though (like Superman, again) there is precedent for such an attitude in the Caped Crusader. The problem here lies in that, with the setup they have in place for this version of the bat, that attitude at the least makes him a hypocrite and truly makes no logistical sense if you take those actions to their ultimate end. This Batman is completely enraged and paranoid of this alien being who had a hand in one of the most destructive events in human history, to the point where he is willing to take no chances of him being on the side of the angels, despite what the Superman’s actions since the Metropolis incident may indicate. Meanwhile, this Batman is not willing to show any sort of regard for human life of a criminal nature. And then that prompts further a line of logic that if this variant of the Dark Knight is willing to be executioner to his judge and jury due to his longevity in the crime fighting business stripping away at his humanity a bit, then why is this Joker we’ll be seeing come August once “Suicide Squad” rolls into theaters still breathing? Like many a decision made in the process of putting this film together, it’s obvious that Snyder and the scripting team wanted to bring to life certain aspects and interpretations of these characters without bothering to do the detail work of applying naturally evolving logic to them to see if they would hold up to scrutiny.
Because at the end of the day, this titanic tale of titans titanning is all about the spectacle and no willingness to do the groundwork to achieve the payoff of this title card. This should be a watershed moment for these comic properties brought to the big screen, and yet this one film is more or less treated as a dirty necessity to get to a “Justice League” production that WB needs to be huge for them and duplicate that hugeness a couple more times over the next decade or so, while enabling them to launch successful spinoffs as well. You already have a director who showed that subtlety was a part of his game he sorely needed to work on in a “Man of Steel” film that would have greatly benefitted from it, and then you let him make a movie that’s kind of a sequel, kind of a Batman relaunch, and then a whole lot of set up for this “Justice League” future. And like an overly hyperactive child lacking their Ritalin, you wonder why there’s dozens of broken toys strew about the floor. Even the slower, more introspective moments of this film shudder with impatience as it tries to get to the next big set up for the next movie and have an excuse to blow out your eardrums ramping up the bombastic Hans Zimmer score. The ultimate shame of it all isthat I really do feel now as I type this as I did a few days back when I left my viewing of BvS that there really was a good movie in all of this if some of the people tasked to bring it to life showed some restraint or, as I said earlier, had bothered to think some of the decisions they made plot- and character-wise through a couple steps more beyond “what would make this badass” or “what gets the job done here to get us a Justice League?”
Nearly every positive thing about this movie is just straight up marred by a bad decision or lackluster execution somewhere in the process. I already hit on some of the themes of our titular characters, but it goes pretty much across the board. Amy Adams’ Lois Lane gets some solid work done on the beat as she chases down a series of leads that brings her back to Lex Luthor himself, but all her scenes are basically slammed in the bigger picture slapdashedly and all her work as ballsy, intrepid reporter gets nullified as she becomes a convenient damsel again as the movie starts to wind up. Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor also had aspects of a performance I overall liked but that someone needed make a decision on to restrain a bit. His rendition of Luther in its jittery, scatterbrained methodology presented a big mind with an inferiority complex stemming from his relationship with his father and then the all-powerful alien on the scene, but at some point dropped the ball. Primarily, the dialogue written for the character is mostly god awful, and then like how Snyder failed to advance on themes from “Man of Steel” to this flick, there could have been a great correlation about how fathers shape their sons in the Luthor and Superman relationships to their respective patriarchs and what it means to live up to those ideals but to also become your own man and break away from them. Instead, Eisenberg’s Lex becomes kind of sniveling about it and then as his plan comes to fruition and then ultimately falls apart, starts developing a cavalcade of annoying ticks that mars what I feel like could have been another great performance in a movie that could at least hang its hat on having a cast that mostly brings its a-game to a production determined to bring its c-game.
That brings me to finally (!!!) starting to wrap this thing up and get to the real heart of why I wanted to write about this should have been a slam dunk epic of a movie turned disappointment in this space where us @$$holes usually bring talk about comics each week. Because despite all of my disappointment laid out above, there’s still some good in this movie. Anyone spewing this “disgrace to cinema” level vitriol is blatantly overdoing his or her jobs as wordsmiths. Hell, this movie isn’t even a disgrace to superhero movie productions; and I’m not even talking about the embarrassing fare that was a decade ago and movies such as “Elektra” and “Catwoman”. Like, even some really recent capes and tights have had the same glaring flaws as what we are presented with in this bloated piece of work. Opinions on these and comparisons are all relative, but it feels to me we’ve had a few of these types of movies in the past couple years where the pacing and plotting of these bigger than life characters was similarly terrible. But they’re getting the Rotten Tomatoes pass because they are a breezier, somewhat more light-hearted affair as opposed to this film, which definitely has earned its Rotten stripes but isn’t completely devoid of redeemable factors.
As much as I just outlined why this movie just did not work above, I’m thinking about the last forty-five minutes or so of this film and recalling an honest-to-goodness, pretty faithful and awesome fistfight between the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight where we all know Superman could just wipe the puny human out where he stands but between his ingenuity and his almost psychopathic willingness to spit in the face of the odds, Batman teaches a god a lesson in what it’s like to be merely human. We got what really might be the best live action Batman we’ve ever had – much as I do not like the overall extremes they take the character to – and as much as they were awkwardly slammed into the middle of the biggest stretch of action the film had, the few minutes of gratuitous montage we get of Aquaman, Cyborg, and Flash for the next movie were pretty exciting. Ill-conceived and horribly planned in their placement of the grand scheme of this particular movie, but exciting nonetheless. Jeremy Irons’ turn as Alfred is likewise brief but also highly amusing.
And, saving the best for last, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in this film was the beacon of hope we were all really clamoring to shine. While almost every aspect of the movie had a yang to go with their yin, the Amazonian Warrior Princess was flawless. She showed elegance and grace out of costume and an addictive tenacity in the unfortunately brief amount of time we see her showing up the dynamic duo once their machismo party comes to an end. I may have my apprehensions about the overall dynamic and execution of these productions going forward, but performance-wise my trepidation dissipates, and Gadot is at the top of my list of reasons why. Hopefully her solo outing next year will reflect what upbeat energy she instilled in this feature and will signal a shift in the fundamental attitude of these adaptations.
At the end of the day, though, what we are left with on BvS, despite all its aspirations and compact plot points, is a product that feels rudderless, or being helmed by a man who thinks his initial gut reaction to a situation is the correct plan of action. That is the truly disheartening facet of it all is that I feel like someone is asleep at the wheel here, and that’s kind of horrifying when you factor in the time, money, and history a project and the ones that will permeate from it entail. I’ve said before here that sometimes when I really think about what I’m cobbling together for this site I feel like a hypocrite because, at the end of the day, who am I to criticize pieces of work like this that I have never personally created? You combat thoughts like that, though, by acknowledging that even though you don’t have the firsthand experience of making the product you have consumed such a massive amount of the material in question over the years to understand what goes into making a good version of it and you dissect it accordingly, knowing that all said and done even the worst crafter of the material is probably better at it than you would ever become. The failure and kind of terrifying nature of Batman versus Fucking Superman overall is that I don’t feel that way here. I see the barbershop horror show that is the editing job and hear the just sometimes cringe-worthy lines and motivations coming from the script, and I absorb an unbelievable amount of hubris in Snyder’s tonality on the screen and I think “yeah, I think I could maybe have done better than some of these folks.” Or at the least you realize there were supposedly knowledgeable people in the production offices that were seeing this as it unfolded and just nodded approval and gave it the old “looks great Zack!” and your heart sinks a bit that there’s people getting paid a lot of money and signing off on humongous budgets letting this material pass. There’s supposed to be a line-wide vision to guide everyone here, and this entire process of building a universe, and yet almost everyone seems to be blind (blinded by mone,y most likely, after this weekend’s box office take). And that, right there, is more damaging to these icons than any diabolical plans a Lex Luthor could unleash upon them.
Humphrey Lee has been an avid comic book reader going on fifteen years now and a contributor to Ain't It Cool comics for quite a few as well. In fact, reading comics is about all he does in his free time and where all the money from his day job wages goes to - funding his comic book habit so he can talk about them to you, our loyal readers (lucky you). He's a bit of a social networking whore, so you can find him all over the Interwebs on sites like Twitter, The MySpaces, Facebookand a blog where he also mostly talks about comics with his free time because he hasn't the slightest semblance of a life. Sad but true, and he gladly encourages you to add, read, and comment as you will.
AVENGERS #7
Writer: Mark WaidArtist: Adam Kubert
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man
So Marvel’s latest Avengers crossover event, STANDOFF, is on. We’re a quarter of the way into it all, as the All-New, All-Different AVENGERS get into the fray. The architect of the crossover is current CAPTAIN AMERICA: SAM WILSON writer Nick Spencer (who is writing the bookends of the series - AVENGERS STANDOFF: WELCOME TO PLEASANT HILL #1, AVENGERS STANDOFF: ASSAULT ON PLEASANT HILL ALPHA #1 & AVENGERS STANDOFF: ASSAULT ON PLEASANT HILL OMEGA #1- isn’t it awesome that they found a way to start and end the series with #1 issues?). But for this tie-in, regular writer Mark Waid handles the script.
So what’s it all about, you may ask? In the great comic book tradition of taking non-superhero good guys and turning them into villains, Agent of S.H.E.I.L.D. Maria Hill has stepped up to the plate. Using a little bit of the ever-popular Cosmic Cube she has created Pleasant Hill, a cute little suburb filled with brainwashed supervillains with altered appearances. She of course keeps this a secret from everyone who might find this a violation of the supervillains’ civil rights (i.e. the courts and The Avengers). Now just as The Avengers (all three different teams of them) find out about Pleasant Hill, the villains (surprise, surprise) are starting to break free of it all.
As to this specific issue, Waid first covers some subplot ground of things he’s been working on: Captain (Falcon) America and (Jane) Thor coming to common ground, as are the Vision and Ms. Marvel. On a side note, I learned every time Jane turns into Thor, she undoes all her cancer treatment, so when she turns back into Jane, she has to start all over again. A.) How messed up is that, and B.) does that really make any sense?!? But soon, The Avengers discover Pleasant Hill with a begrudging Maria Hill and bump heads with The Uncanny Avengers, who apparently have their own begrudging Maria Hill (cue shock music). Lastly, big spoiler time, yup skip now, The Avengers wind up inmates of Pleasant Hill.
All in all, this is a fine storyline. Sure Spencer appears to be borrowing from a few recent DC stories, but what can ya do? This issue, though, really seems like Waid is phoning it in. He pretty much has everyone just going through the motions here. Not that anything in the issue is bad, but he doesn’t do a great job of selling the story either. Makes me wonder how much he cares about being forced to write the crossover. He does attempt some interesting visual plot reveal pages, but if Waid doesn’t seem to care much about this issue, Adam Kubert cares even less. Talk about phoning it in. If you want some really good examples of boring comic book artwork, just check this issue out.
So while Marvel probably thought it was an awesome idea to tie all the Avengers book together three months after their relaunch, Nick Spencer is the only writer who seems to care about it.
NOWHERE MEN #9
Writer: Eric StephensonArt: Dave Taylor
Publisher: Image Comics
Reviewer: MstrCpp
Eric Stephenson and David Taylor have gotten themselves into a bit of a tough spot. With series co-creator Nate Bellegarde, Stephenson crafted six issues of this slow-burn, methodical book that had an elegant depth to its world. Not a whole lot of forward narrative happened in those six issues, but the issues were so dense with gears of different sizes and shapes, all turning in together in synchronicity, that it’s hard to even notice how many scenes are just people having meetings, which was impressive. They then ended that first arc with most of their plot threads colliding together rather explosively. It was an exciting climax and many a cliffhanger was left to be addressed in issue seven--suspense made even crueler by a three year hiatus.
But now, they’re back, and those tantalizing questions have started to get their answers. And while that’s certainly exciting, what has also come back is the methodical pacing. Once again, we’re back into the world of meetings, which is where issue nine mostly sits; scenes set in a lab, scenes set in a different lab, one set in an actual office. People discussing things, a couple people finding things, more conversation, and the all too familiar “talking head video interview clips in which each person articulates their own character traits” convention breaking things up. Nothing particularly new, just elaborations on what has already been established.
And on one hand, that’s what this series is. It’s has always been more interested in how people react instead of what they’re reacting to. But the problem that started in issue seven and is continued here in issue nine is that the what, this mysterious illness that has infected the cast, is trying to pick up steam--and the characters aren’t letting it. Stephenson and Bellegarde really lit a fuse with their first arc, and instead of really activating and letting the high stakes set by this potential pandemic affect the characters, Stephenson is instead more interested in letting the weight of their circumstance crush them into moping around at each other, pondering how life will be now and explaining their powers to each other and the audience. It’s as if THE WALKING DEAD did their character study of how people would react to zombies…while living in a hermetically sealed room where they were completely safe and protected from the zombies. NOWHERE MEN is currently stuck in that hermetic void. They just keep telling instead of showing, bouncing exposition off each other and announcing their feelings back and forth, despite the “TV News Reporter reporting news conveniently pertinent to the story” trope insisting that there is more going on out in the world.
On the art side, Dave Taylor has kept a very even keel, not rocking the boat, and just trying to keep matching Bellegarde’s style. As much as I appreciate this attempt at preserving their aesthetics in the transition between artists, right now all the art is doing is reminding me that Bellegarde isn’t on this book anymore. While Taylor is certainly executing to the best of his abilities and generating perfectly solid work, he’ll never be the guy before him and so consequently the best compliment for his work is that his characters just look mostly on model. Meanwhile, the back matter of posters and magazine clippings that are what has made the book unique are now bland imitations as well. A big shift in style mid-series is usually jarring, but in NOWHERE MEN I would actually prefer to see what new choices Taylor could bring to the table. Bellegarde and Stephenson built the world so well for us, the audience, I want to see how Taylor interprets it. So far we know he can imitate well; what is it that he can create himself?
The first six issues of NOWHERE MEN were really good. The characters put in this world with these circumstances looming over them, supported by ads and articles from the world that added an engrossing depth made for a fun read. At issue nine, though, they’re halfway through their second arc and they haven’t quite hit the same buttons as they did in their first attempt. Right now it’s still feeling like the book is struggling to figure out what its next move is going to be, sitting on its hands too long. That said, the notches that were kicked up in the first arc were only kicked at the last second, so perhaps I’ll be pleasantly surprised when things get suddenly turned up to eleven in the issues to come.
SUPERMAN: LOIS & CLARK #6
Writer: Dan JurgensArtist: Lee Weeks
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: The Kid Marvel
SUPERMAN: LOIS & CLARK is a refreshing reminder of how much fun and how uplifting a Superman story can be, especially considering the bastardized and almost unrecognizable version that was on display in “Batman Vs. Superman”. This series has been phenomenal in its short run thus far and issue 6 is no different.
In the previous five issues, Dan Jurgens has laid out a lot of plot pieces and has been weaving a variety of storylines in order to present the landscape and atmosphere that the Pre-Flashpoint Lois and Clark have had to settle into. SUPERMAN: LOIS AND CLARK #6 takes on just about every plot thread that has been building, with Intergang discovering Lois’s identity and kidnapping her, as well as her son, Clark trying to rescue his family while simultaneously still having to take on his responsibilities as “secret Superman”, and Lois and Clark’s son, Jon, realizing there is some connection to this Earth’s Superman or Clark Kent, as well as Lois Lane, the reporter who released Superman’s identity.
It’s an interesting take on the classic Superman/Lois Lane dynamic or formula. Lois, as the renowned investigative journalist, has pissed off the bad guys by bringing to light their crimes, and gets captured, thus Superman must find and save her; all the while Lois knows in the end, it’ll all be ok because Clark will save her. However, this time you throw into the mix their son Jon and you get a slightly different take on the classic story without being completely clichéd, which, I think is one of the reasons this series has been so well written: Jurgens is willing to revisit the classic elements of Superman without becoming too attached to them in order to stay fresh. Jurgens is less focused on the plot, but rather more focused on the character elements of how Lois and Clark must reinvent themselves while at the same time staying true to what makes them who they are. I’m honestly not sure if this is a meta-commentary on the current state of the two characters, in how DC has been trying to reinvent Lois and Clark in the New 52 and why it’s generally failed with the readers. But even if it was not done on purpose and could just be me looking deeper into the story than necessary, Jurgens has made these classic characters interesting by focusing on the characters themselves, rather than pushing an empty plot.
It also helps that the script is made that much better by Lee Weeks’ artwork, really capturing this story’s emotional and character-driven elements. Superman isn’t fighting Doomsday or Darkseid, so there is no need for over the top action sequences to make the art interesting. Rather, the action-related scenes shouldn’t be more than an annoyance to Superman, and how the characters feel about their current situation is the important part, which Weeks completely captures. Everything is largely emphasized in order to capture the emotions laid out in the story itself and the implications of what is at hand in the current situations.
Overall, this was an excellent book and a super entertaining read. SUPERMAN: LOIS AND CLARK seems to be one of the only series that captures who and what Superman represents, other than SUPERMAN: AMERICAN ALIEN. The writing, the art, the plot, basically everything about this issue is solid across the board. I honestly think this title resonates with both longtime and new readers of DC. It’s just that good, and Jurgens really created something special in SUPERMAN: LOIS AND CLARK.
X-O MANOWAR #45
Writer: Robert VendittiArtist: Robert Gill
Publisher: Valiant Entertainment
Reviewer: Masked Man
Checking back in with Valiant 2.0, although have they been around long enough now to stop comparing them to the original Valiant company from the 90s, probably, though on some level Valiant has the worst reviews to sales ratio in comics right now. They constantly get gold stars for the quality of their books, but they just can’t seem to get a top (industry) selling book. Whose fault is that? Well, we all should probably look in a mirror. Meanwhile, in Valiant’s flagship title X-O MANOWAR, things are getting crazy.
Written by Robert Venditti, whose biggest claim to fame is getting a movie based on his comic book SURROGATES (yeah, you remember it), has X-O mixing it up with The Vine again, the aliens who created the battlesuit.
Getting you up to speed, The Vine (yeah, not the best name for an alien race) is now on hard times, and they have come to Earth ALIEN NATION (or if you prefer, DISTRICT 9) like. But just like Warlord Krang, who pounced on Namor every chance he could, Commander Trill wants no peace with humans and sets in motion a takeover. X-O Manowar and his good buddy Ninjak are off to put a stop to him.
In this issue (are you ready for the crazy) Trill’s followers cold-bloodedly kill a bunch of their own kind to blame it on the humans (mainly X-O Manowar). Meanwhile, X-O himself is slaughtering dozens of enemy Vine, so you can see how easy it would be to pin mass murder on him. Even Ninjak was impressed. With Trill successfully taking command of The Vine, the war is on and the human stabbing begins.
So just a truckload of blood and violence in this issue. But you can see the point Venditti is trying to make with it all, so it doesn’t feel gratuitous. As a neo-superhero action book, Venditti continues to do a good job. This is some solid plot-driven action. The only things that struck me as odd were: Why are a large number of Vine fighters, with no chance of hurting X-O, dumb enough to attack him over and over again, and why does The Vine only have a bunch of spears to revolt against the humans with? Methinks that revolution won’t last long.
New artist Robert Gill, who has worked on a bunch of Valiant titles and a few issues of New 52 BATGIRL, draws his second issue of X-0 MANOWAR here. While I find some of his layouts a bit boring, his overall work is quite good. He does well with all the action and the large body count.
Venditti’s X-O MANOWAR continues to impress as a solid action comic with enough special sauce to keep it all interesting. I am curious if X-O can put a stop to Trill’s plan without killing every last single Vine.
Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
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