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POWER MAN & IRON FIST #7
JUSTICE LEAGUE #3
NINJAK #18
VOTE LOKI #3
DEATHSTROKE REBIRTH #1
ALL NEW, ALL DIFFERENT AVENGERS #13
JUSTICE LEAGUE #3
POWER MAN & IRON FIST #7
Writer: David WalkerArtist: Sanford Greene & Flaviano
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man
Ok, the jury is in, this is Marvel’s best sleeper book right here. If you like superhero books, if you like fun comic books, you need to be reading this book.
Walker is doing a great job blending in Power Man & Iron Fist’s history with fresh new adventures. And I’ll tell you right now, I don’t even know that much Power Man & Iron Fist history! So Walker is doing a great job of making it fun and not confusing. For an interesting foil to what Walker is doing, another comic book website made a list about stuff Marvel shouldn’t put in the upcoming CAGE Netflix series. Well Walker is using just about all of it and it’s great. So never be afraid of your comic book history, even if it’s “uncool” and not the current “P.C.” flavor.
Getting into the spoilers of this issue, a group of low rent vigilantes have been attacking former villains. The families’ of these villains have come to Power Man & Iron Fist for help. When things got out of hand last issue, Iron Fist found himself arrested and tossed in jail. This issue (aka spoilers) Danny (aka Iron Fist) is dealing with being in jail and Luke (aka Power Man) is trying to see what he can do about it. Taking the story one step beyond, Power Man also discovers these low rent vigilantes have access to some very high level tech! Meanwhile Iron Fist, well of course he gets involved in a jailhouse brawl. But things really heat up at the end, when Power Man decides he must stop at nothing to free Iron Fist. Cut to the Civil War crossover, as Captain Marvel and current mind police Avengers believe Power Man will cause a jail break. So they set out to stop him.
Oh yeah, as much as I don’t care for the CIVIL WAR II, I dig this cliff hanger and hope to see Captain Marvel and company bash heads with Power Man next issue. Kudos to Walker, for making these new PM & IF stories inventive and entertaining as well. What at first seemed like a cute citizen revenger story, is starting to morph into something more big time. I look forward to seeing ‘the man behind the curtain’. Now to be critical, it was odd that Danny promised he could avoid trouble and then does nothing to avoid trouble at all. Now maybe that was humor, but the scene was pretty serious.
Series artist Sanford Greene is back, but he still needed a few pages assist from Flaviano. While their artwork styles don’t completely blend, it’s not a terrible mix either. Both do a fine job, though I thought Greene’s pages weren’t as strong as Flaviano. His usual inventiveness is missing from all his pages, maybe he was rushed- I don’t now. Either way, his cover looks great.
Again, you should be buying this book. Unless you don’t like fun superhero adventure books, then ya POWER MAN & IRON FIST isn’t for you.
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JUSTICE LEAGUE # 3
Writer Bryan HitchArtist Tony Daniel
Publisher DC Comics
Reviewer Russ Sheath
Three issues into their run and writer Bryan Hitch together with artist Tony Daniel, continue to do the impossible.....get me to read a Justice League book. Hitch just.....gets it! The superstar artist molding one of DC's flagship titles into a comic deserving of the name 'Justice League'.
In issue 3 Hitch continues to play to his own strengths and trademarks...telling tales of an epic, galaxy spanning nature that actually challenge the protagonists, something that I can rarely recall happening in recent years, where all too often it's been a case of 'Batman, Superman and some other characters who get an occasional look in'. Oh look, Superman saves the day.....again'. The End!
In Justice League, Hitch manages the ensemble cast well, not leaning too heavily on Batman, Wonder Woman or Superman but equally realizing their place at the head of the team, the characters experience, rather than their implied 'star status', allowing them to call the shots. When the inevitable chips come crashing down and it's Superman who the League looks to, it happens because Hitch allows you to feel you feel the weight of his experience. Superman could always save the day...but all too often he becomes the comics’ equivalent of Star Trek science....a lazy effort to close the story.
In many cases Superman IS the default setting, not just for writers but for also for his teammates who rely on the 'Last Son of Krypton to save the day. In Justice League Hitch manages to challenge, not just the Man of Steel, but the entire team, so the inevitable outcome seems less likely as the scribe layers the threats upon this less certain, less self-assured Justice League. Sure, you have the uber-confident Flash and stalwarts Cyborg and Aquaman, but with aforementioned newcomers, the rookie Green Lanterns Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz providing the audiences 'point of view', the League as a whole seem more human and the outcome less certain.
Hitch's other great strength is that he makes both the series and the characters accessible. I had no idea who the two newbie Green Lanterns were or what was going on with Superman....so contrived and impenetrable was the comic under the 'New 52' banner. Hitch knows that he has to make every arc and every issue accessible and while his trademark 'slow to the boil' build up could feel like he is dragging things out, what Hitch is doing (take note Zack Snyder) is making you care about and invest in the cast. To put that into context....
'I care about Superman'!!
I've not said that since the 'Simon and Garfunkel of comics' Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, gave us 'Superman For All Seasons'. With some 20+ years in the industry under his belt (remember his Image books 'The Tenth' and 'F5'), artist Tony Daniel continues to bravely allow himself to evolve as an artist. Hitch, never one to rest on his laurels as an artist or as a writer, challenges and makes Daniel a better artist and while I enjoyed Daniel's work on 'Deathstroke', the artists default setting of 'Image circa 1993' with endless splash pages of people hitting each other for entire issues, began to wear thin. In Justice League Hitch forces Daniel to escape his comfort zone and step out of the collective shadow of the number of Jim Lee-alikes who march in DC's army.....and the result is that Daniel has never looked better. I appreciate that, for a review, I've told you absolutely nothing about the book or story itself - but I don't think I particularly need or want to.
Hitch is reshaping the DC U from the inside out (wouldn't it be great to see Hitch write and draw a Batman book....that corner of the DC U once again in desperate need of resuscitation) and is challenging the DC U to live up to its full potential as the long established artist and emerging superstar writer, throws down the gauntlet.
Wouldn't it be a thing of wonder to see if the rest of the DC creative types are capable of rising to the challenge and picking up the gauntlet....as that would be the DC Universe I've been waiting my entire comics reading life to experience.
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Follow Russ Sheath's blog Russwords here and @russellsheath on Twitter.
NINJAK #18
Writer: Matt KindtArtist: Khari Evans
Publisher: Valiant Entertainment
Reviewer: Masked Man
Matt Kindt starts a new NINJAK story arc by jumping several years into the future with “The Fist & The Steel”. Colin King (aka Ninjak) is now an old man, on the outs with MI-6, and teaming up with Valiant’s Eternal Warrior, to track down an escaped prisoner.
E.W. and Colin never got along too well and Kindt milks this team-up for as much humor as he can. Ninjak is overly slick and techy and the Eternal Warrior is overly brutal and ax-y. Getting into more spoilers: E.W. and Ninjax first track down an informant, which turns out to be a dozen clones; for E.W. to go wild on. With info in hand, they track down their true quarry, Fakir. Who is working for the big bad as he searches for any scrap of DNA of the Undead Monk (who trained him and Ninjak). And if things weren’t weird enough, with a tons of clones and tiny extra arms, a floating pyramid comes down out of the sky to help Fakir escape.
The action is all reasonably done, as Kindt moves the story at a good pace. Although, fighting ‘faceless’ clones is kind of boring. Evans’ artwork is nicely done, although he does draw some mighty ugly faces. I’m also not a fan of the photo stat backgrounds. They just look like photo stats, and never blend well with anything else in the panel or page.
If you were more curious about what is going on in the present, after Colin’s last world shattering adventure, Kindt covers that with the back-up story. Artist Andres Guinaldo joins Kindt here, drawing Colin checking out the ruins of his castle home. MI-6 reaches out to him (twist here being he is done with them), to let him know an illness has struck some people he rescued and he maybe infected as well. Mind you, we just saw Ninjak in the future feeling fine so yeah, no need to worry about that illness.
Even though Guinaldo’s work is clearly just pencil line, I did find it more interesting to look at than Evans’ in the main story. Though each artist does a fine job. So not a bad kick off to a new story arc for Ninjak, as Kindt skips the set-up issue and gets right to it.
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VOTE LOKI #3
Writer: Christopher HastingsArt: Langdon Foss
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: MstrCpp
In the spirit of the trickster god of VOTE LOKI’s campaign, I’m going skip the lies and be brutally honest: I’m not that big a fan of VOTE LOKI. A series written by Christopher Hastings with art by Langdon Foss that’s lampooning our real world presidential race, I had high hopes that VOTE LOKI would provide some clever satire of our political process, but three issues in, and I’m a bit underwhelmed.
At the beginning of the issue, we once again find ourselves with the only person in America not drinking the kool-aid: Daily Bugle reporter Nisa Contreras. Once more do we see her scramble to find anything that will stick and bring down Loki, and be thwarted at every turn. Since last issue was about how Nisa couldn’t bust him using local scandals, this issue has a more global tack. Using Latveria, once again in shambles, as a back drop, Nisa tries her very hardest, but despite breaking the biggest story yet, she ends the issue the most dejected she has so far.
And that just about sums up the entirety of the comic. I’m sorry if that makes it a spoiler, but the reality is the book doesn’t really get much deeper than its summary; this issue was merely additional narrative points that further construct the timeline of events in this book. And that’s been the series fatal flaw; in a book that is pitched as political satire, there isn’t actually any substantive commentary on politics. No matter how many times we see Nisa disappointed by Loki’s antics, we have yet to really see any more articulation of her thoughts other than a surface level sadness and frustration that people “aren’t seeing truth”. She has yet to really have a substantive conversation with anyone with the exception of a very brief one with Loki in issue one. She has no friends, family, or even Daily Bugle editors of consequence beyond disembodied voices Nisa is talking to as she gets distracted by something she sees on her TV screen. It’s been such a long time since we’ve heard any of her thoughts or feelings that the character building they did in issue one has all but been forgotten, she’s losing her third dimension and she’s just become this one note foil for Loki.
As for Loki, we see him even less. Clearly, Hastings is keeping Loki’s machinations guarded on purpose. However, were we getting clearer hints, more interactions with Nisa, more than just “Loki on the TV, making a stump speech”, we as the audience could have fun trying to decipher his master plan. Instead, by keeping things this close to vest, we still don’t have much of an understanding of his motivations, and in turn, is making it harder and harder to be invested in his campaign. Even as we gained further confirmation in this issue that he is actively doing bad things, killing people and getting away with it, this just muddies the waters in unsatisfying way by generating mixed signals about what the endgame of this all is.
Foss is back on art duties, having retrieved the reins of the book from issue two guest artist Paul McCaffrey. His return maintains the storytelling style as set by issue one and two, though there is something just a little bit off about his return. I don’t know the whole story behind McCaffrey’s fill in, but it feels as if the month that Foss wasn’t drawing the book shook him up a bit. Most notably, the character design for Loki is just slightly off the model established in issue one; his face is longer, more gums are showing in his smiles. For some reason, Loki now doesn’t have the five o clock shadow that this “twenty-something” version of Loki has had throughout all of his appearances across the Marvel Universe lately (the omission of the curly, gross, patchy scruff that he’s been recently seen in is, admittedly, a welcome relief, but a weird inconsistency nonetheless). It’s mostly small details, but it’s because they are such small little inconsistencies, they stand out, and the book felt like a third artist’s attempt, rather than a part of a cohesive whole.
When it come down to it, VOTE LOKI is as tricky as its titular character. On one hand, it has a strong premise and is fun in its timeliness. But on the other hand, it squanders that potential in a lot of ways. At a time that people would be very receptive to a book poking fun at how ludicrous our politics have become, VOTE LOKI falls just short of saying anything of import. Instead, it’s another “Emperor’s New Clothes” story, so when it could be a study of how someone so duplicitous could still find success in today’s political landscape, the team is playing it safe and making it more about how weak willed, malleable and ignorant the masses of humanity are, which as a member of said humanity, is not that fun to read. Then, of course we have to remember this is a mainstream Big Two book, so how many jabs is editorial going to really allow thrown? Ultimately, the jury is still out on whether or not this is going to be a fun series, but until we see any real stakes from anybody beyond the obvious “it would be bad if a super villain was president”, then it’s just going to be as substance-less as one of Loki’s infamous illusion spells.
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DEATHSTROKE REBIRTH #1
Writer: Christopher PriestArtist: Carlo Pagulayan
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Humphrey Lee
Sometimes you’re a little late to a party and it becomes awkward when you come in yelling at the top of your lungs in excitement only to be met with the exasperated glare of those who have been at it for hours and just want to go home and get ahead of the hangover. Now here I am, a week late for the DEATHSTROKE rager because I assume my invitation just got lost in the mail (or it was one of those cases of “life happens”) and this shindig has barely died down. Sure, it’s filled with mass graves, abusive fathers, and more sword shishkabobbings than you can shake a Han Solo at, but aren’t those the signatures of every legendary banger? But, okay, enough with that metaphor and into the bloody heart of the matter: Slade Wilson, everyone’s favorite comic book assassin with his own fucked up code is back, roughly just a month after he was last here, but this time he brought with him crowd favorite and much missed writer Christopher Priest, making for a bit of a rebirth inside of a REBIRTH, Inception-style. And the results, as expected, are every bit as brutal, topical, and stylish as you could expect from this gift of a pairing of character and creative team.
The real success of this debut issue for writer Christopher Priest and artist Carlo Pagulayan on a character like Deathstroke is the perfect presentation of him. This is a character that balances on the edge of the anti-hero cliff on his best days and gladly base-jumps off into the amoral villain chasm when he really gets down to business. Making a figure like that a lead for their own title is about as difficult as it comes because you have find a hook in any way you can, even if it’s just by making them a such a badass you can’t help but be snared by their stylish lures, which is the brunt of the presentation here in this REBIRTH issues. There is a flashback framework that Priest and Pagulayan are using here to give glimpses into Slade Wilson’s fatherly past that gives dimension to the ultimate mercenary, but the majority of punches landed here are physical ones with a couple shots to the kidneys of social commentary. When four pages into a book your protagonist is uttering the line “These are black people, Matthew, the Marines aren’t coming” as he collects his bounty in front of that aforementioned mass grave, then you know the gloves are completely fucking off, not that I think Christopher Priest has ever donned a pair when on the comic book scripting job.
Being just a hardass that would make your average Schwarzenegger character say “Hey, take it easy there man” in his ridiculously overly exaggerated accent is not enough, though, and there is enough of a balance between Deathstroke’s contractual slaughter and using those flashback familial ties to drive this opening plot. Underneath the orange and blue chainmail suit there is a man that once did try the whole family spiel, even if he was as likely to slap one of his sons upside their head as he was to lend them some fatherly praise, and that’s a good enough inlet to somewhat humanize this highly efficient killing machine and give the starting point of this opening story arc, simply called “The Professional.” In between these moments, of course, simply lies more badassery, from Slade staring down and attempting to murder the Clock King literally in between seconds to his faking his demise so he sneak in and hack apart an outpost in stealth mode, dagger in his teeth and everything. Arnold and all his testosterone missiles of characters he played over the years have nothing on this Terminator, and this rendition of him is just getting started.
Wrapping up this knife-pressed-to-the-throat package of a debut issue is, of course, Carlo Pagulayan on an art execution that is pretty much everything you could ask for when it comes to a (relatively) grounded action-thriller like this title. Man-oh-man does everything just pop on the page under his fine detail and very kinetic panel-to-panel movement. It’s the perfect compliment to what Priest’s script is slinging in melding a charged and gritty actioner with just that slight amount of humanity bubbling under the surface. Everything comes together perfectly under this team in what honestly may be the strongest showing for a Rebirth title yet, and it’s not like this relaunch has been hurting for quality thus far, surprisingly. Slade Wilson is as cuddly a character as an oak tree covered in bees, but his dedication to his (oft times horrific) craft, his skill, and his own little messy code of honor make him a damned intriguing character when handled correctly and right off the bat here Priest and Pagulayan have shown they have the right grip. Add in Priest’s penchant for and willingness to get a little dirty with actual real world parallels and commentary in these fictional realms and you have the perfect vehicle for the man’s much anticipated return to the world of comics and hopefully just the beginning of a run worthy of his previous body of work. With such an inherently complex and intriguing character like Deathstroke as his focus and a talent like Carlo Pagulayan at his side the sky is the limit here, and I’m sure Slade will find a way to best even that stratospheric foe.
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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.
ALL NEW ALL DIFFERENT AVENGERS #13
Writer: Mark WaidArtist: Adam Kubert
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man
Well this was an odd little issue, as Waid gets back to dealing with the Vision (as you can tell by the cover). As you may recall, this new series started with the Vision messing with his programming (as it were) and then Kang used him as a puppet. Now it seems the Vision wants to go all AGE OF ULTRON (the comic) on Kang now.
Oh, how does it tie into CIVIL WAR II, it doesn’t- mostly. CIVIL WAR II does deal with the same topic as this does issue (stopping bad guys before they are bad guys). A topic we last saw in AGE OF ULTRON (again the comic), where they tried to kill Hank Pym before he could create Ultron (interesting to notice that Bendis wrote both AOU and CWII). Oh, and Vision talks briefly with Ulysses (the Inhuman who can see the future), the main character, if you will, of CIVIL WAR II. So that’s how deeply unconnected this issue is with CIVIL WAR II.
Back to what’s in the issue, yeah, the Vision is out to get Kang before Kang is Kang. Spoiler time: The Vision manages to kidnap baby Kang. Tune in next time to see what happens next!
Not the best idea Waid ever had, to be sure. But he’s carrying it off with enough character history (he really knows Kang’s history) and wrinkles (what are those things) to keep things interesting. I suppose we can all wonder how far Vision will go, but that answer is always: not very.
Kubert’s artwork is, well Kubert’s artwork. Sorry to say, that if you are looking to impress don’t call Kubert. If you looking to get a decent job done right and on time, call Kubert. Even the splash page of Iron Man and the Vision fighting is pretty boring looking.
Not a great kick off to a new story, but in general the AVENGERS have been stuck in neutral since their first story arc. 13 somewhat bi-weekly issues in and Waid has never really had a chance to pull off a good climax. Here’s hoping this story arc can finally get the job done.
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JUSTICE LEAGUE #3
Writer: Bryan HitchArtist: Tony Daniel
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man
DC’s Rebirth JUSTICE LEAGUE continues to roll on under the pen (if words alone) of Bryan Hitch. Although, the only thing Rebirthy about the JUSTICE LEAGUE is New 52 Superman has been replaced with Pre-New 52 Superman! Oh, and costumes, everyone isn’t wearing their New 52 outfits anymore.
In typical JL fashion, Hitch has sent some world ending menace against the World’s Greatest- well I guess DC doesn’t call them at anymore. Either way, hence the title “The Extinction Machines”. In a nut shell, ‘space bats’ have been attacking cities around the world, some people have had their minds taken over by something called the Kindred (a hive mentality thingy), and the League has discovered objects hiding under the Earth’s crust for centuries! To get into the spoilers of this issue: The people taken over by the Kindred, have merged together to form four Godzilla sized beings. But could they be good guys? GL’s Simon and Jessica head into deep space to discover where the ‘space-bats’ are coming from. The trail ends at a planet apparently worked over to death by the ‘space-bats’. Still alive Superman and Lois (in case you didn’t know, DC just killed New 52 Lois Lane as well) Lane have a heart felt goodbye. As he’s volunteered to head deep into the Earth and to see what those objects are. Lastly, Aquaman still has his small zodiac statues, not much more on that.
So Hitch has a lot of moving part here, which is cool. Although, I find it funny how much of this story lines up with his first, and yet unfinished, JL story from JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA. Check this (it’s spoiler too- kind a): Once again the Green Lantern(s) have been sent off world, discovering the origins of the current threat. Aquaman again, is hanging out by himself in Atlantis, dealing with the threat there. And Wonder Woman has been removed from the ‘game board’ (if I may) by the threat, again. So yeah, just weird that Hitch is using a lot of the same plot devises, for a lot of the same characters, again.
Overall, it’s typical Justice League action here. Hitch, as always, shows he has a good handle on these characters, but has of yet to doing anything particularly interesting with them. One slight negative, is the scene with Lois and Superman. Lois is tearing up over what Superman is about to do with the League, when just a few issues ago it was her telling him to join the League. Mind you, this would be fine if she or Superman pointed this out, ala “I thought this is what you wanted!?” Then Hitch could have had a real, in all its sloppiness, human moment instead of this canned one here.
Tony Daniel still does a superior job drawing it all. He’s got some really nice drawing here, selling the action. His backgrounds might not always be the best, but his figures sure are.
So while not a bad book, JUSTICE LEAGUE doesn’t do a whole lot to impress yet. The good note is, the new angle of Kindred. If Hitch is actually setting up a system of checks and balances, this could play out very cool.
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