Previously… In Comics (Books Released on 4/27/11)

THE MIGHTY THOR #1 (Writer: Matt Fraction, Artist: Olivier Coipel): I miss Pasqual Ferry. With THOR becoming JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY again, THE MIGHTY THOR is Thor’s new solo title debuting just in time for the hero’s new movie. Olivier Coipel, best known for his run on THOR with J. M. Stracynski, is on-board as penciller. I’m a huge fan of Coipel’s work and his previous run on THOR, but Pasqual Ferry was the perfect match for Matt Fraction’s storytelling. Stracynski’s THOR was very down to earth, Fraction’s has been a sci-fi epic. Ferry’s Kirbyesque approach to the art was the ideal fit. Apparently, Ferry will be drawing the next arc, so I don’t want to go overboard criticizing the decision to go with Coipel here, but I do think it hurts the story a tad.

This is intentionally a very accessible first issue. If you come out of the movie theater on Friday craving some Thor comics, this is definitely a good place to start. However, if you’ve been reading Fraction’s run on THOR, you might find the straightforward storytelling a little disappointing. As with any first issue, there’s a lot of set-up here, hopefully next issue we’ll see some real fireworks.

RUSE #2 (Writer: Mark Waid, Artist: Mirco Pierfederici): I never read RUSE when it debuted as a Crossgen title. Two issues into this new series, now I’m very disappointed I didn’t. RUSE has a Sherlock Holmes meets Doctor Who vibe and I’m loving it. RUSE’s male lead, Simon Archard, is a socially-inept genius who subscribes to the Whovian method of problem solving: leap off the building and then figure out how you’ll land on the way down. The female lead, Emma Bishop, is nearly Simon’s complete opposite and perfectly complements his emotionless pragmatism. RUSE’s is a tried and true formula and Mark Waid executes it brilliantly.

ACTION COMICS #900 (Writer (main story): Paul Cornell, Artist (main story): Pete Woods): 52 of this anniversary issue’s 96 pages are taken up by the main story written by Paul Cornell, so let’s start there. So often a year long story arc, like Cornell and Woods have crafted here, has fallen apart in the final issues; that’s not the case with ACTION COMICS #900. Cornell delivers a strong finale to a great Lex Luthor tale. All along, this has been Lex’s story, so even with the reintroduction of Superman into the mix, Cornell takes care to keep the focus on Luthor. We see Superman through Lex’s eyes as he tries to bring the Man of Steel to his breaking point. While I don’t want to spoil the ending, Lex’s downfall (no, shocker, he doesn’t succeed in killing Superman) is tremendously believable and in-character for the villain.

Onto the back-up stories: Damon Lindelof and Ryan Sook’s Jor-El story is probably the strongest. It’s a shame Ryan Sook can never meet the deadlines on a monthly book because his style is unique and pretty consistently gorgeous. The controversial 7-page story written by David Goyer is arguably the worst in the book. I have no real issue with Superman renouncing his American citizenship (if teabaggers thought this issue was bad, they need to read Mark Millar’s SUPERMAN: RED SON about Supes growing up in Communist Russia, I fear their heads might explode), but the story just isn’t that good. I’ve always thought Goyer was an overrated screenwriter and he doesn’t prove me wrong here.

Blog-A-Day Challenge: Day 23

Previous Previouslies:
4/20/2011 Releases
4/13/2011 Releases
4/6/2011 Releases
1/21/2009 Releases

Previously… In Comics (Books Released on 4/20/11)

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #503: $3.99 (Writer: Matt Fraction, Artist: Salvador Larroca): If you’re a regular reader of INVINCIBLE IRON MAN like myself, you were probably a little baffled to see the FEAR ITSELF cover dressing gracing this issue. This is the third part of an ongoing Doctor Octopus storyline and I couldn’t imagine how exactly the finale of that arc would tie in to FEAR ITSELF. Well, it really doesn’t tie in to FEAR ITSELF at all. Sure in the last few pages Tony Stark pitches his concept for building a new Asgard on Midgard for Thor and friends, but that storyline has been running through this book for months. So if you loved the first issue of FEAR ITSELF and you’re ready to scoop up a bunch of tie-ins, don’t pick this one up. It will only disappoint you. As a conclusion to the Doc Ock arc, the issue isn’t particularly satisfying. Part of that is clearly intentional, but part of that is also the art doesn’t do a solid job of portraying what exactly is going through Tony Stark’s mind at a key moment of the story. Though I will give Larroca credit for so effectively switching up his style for the flashback elements of the book.

THUNDERBOLTS #156: $2.99 (Writer: Jeff Parker, Artist: Kev Walker): This month’s THUNDERBOLTS jumps between two stories: the T’bolts first mission with new member Satana (daughter of Satan) on-board and the recruiting of the T-bolts minor league squad, the Underbolts. These stories on their own may have worked well, but together the narrative fails to get going. I love those issues when a new team is formed, but here the process is so very bland. Speaking of bland, let’s move on to Kev Walker’s artwork. I love Walker’s style, it’s incredibly unique and fun, but the current Thunderbolts line-up is full of villain/heroes with bland white, grey, brown, and black costumes, there’s no pops of color in the action scenes. Everything feels so muddy. This line-up desperately needs some cool colors (bright blues, greens or purples) to even it out.

GREEN LANTERN #65: $2.99 (Writer: Geoff Johns, Artist: Doug Mahnke): Sometimes a comic book has a brilliant cover that entices you to buy that book. Sometimes that same cover gives away the only worthwhile plot point of the entire issue and makes you regret buying the comic. This is one of those issues. On the cover of GREEN LANTERN #65, Hal Jordan stands with a yellow ring on his finger and wearing the full Sinestro Corps uniform. The entire issue just feels like filler until, in the final pages, he finally puts the ring on. It’s rare you can call Geoff Johns out for using decompressed storytelling, but he does it here, and after you’ve seen the cover, there’s no real reason to buy the book.

Blog-A-Day Challenge: Day 16

Previous Previouslies:
4/13/2011 Releases
4/6/2011 Releases
1/21/2009 Releases

Previously… In Comics (Books Released on 4/6/11)

Last week saw the release of Marvel’s new event book, FEAR ITSELF. I’m not much of a Brian Bendis fan anymore and I’ve been dying to see some of the newer writers at Marvel get a shot at one of these event books. On the top of my list were Jonathan Hickman and Matt Fraction. So I was psyched to see Matt Fraction getting his chance with FI. This week also saw the release of the FI tie-in FEAR ITSELF: THE HOME FRONT. The fifth issue of Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung’s AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE hit shelves. And to keep you from thinking I’m just a huge Marvel fanboy, I’ll also review THE BOYS #53.

FEAR ITSELF #1 $3.99 (Writer: Matt Fraction, Artist: Stuart Immonen): I know the first issue of FI was good because, even with an oversized page count, I was so upset it was over when I reached the last page. This is the first issue, so there’s a lot of set-up here, but it’s certainly not short on action as we get an Asgardian smackdown and a massacre of Nazis. Immonen’s arguably the best artist working in comics right now, sadly he’s been paired with Brian Bendis for a while now, so I haven’t seen any of his work since he left Ultimate Spider-man and I subsequently dropped the title from my pull list. Immonen’s work here is gorgeous. He’s second to none when it comes to pencilling action. His panels appear to have more movement than some animated series. His facial expressions range from utterly hilarious (Steve Rogers annoyed with Volstagg) to truly menacing (the Red Skull’s daughter, Sin, killing everyone in her path). Fear Itself is a perfect pairing of writer and artist, and issue one gives me high hopes for the series.

FEAR ITSELF: THE HOME FRONT #1 $3.99 (Writers: Various, Artists: Various): I had no plans to pick up this anthology tie-in title, but I flipped to the table of contents, saw the first two stories featured Speedball and the Agents of Atlas, and felt obligated to buy it. The main feature, taking up about half of the page count, is a strong Speedball story by Christos Gage and Mike Mayhew. Gage uses a combination of traditional narration and Twitter messages to tell the story. The narration shows Speedball’s remorse for the events that occurred in Stamford, CT at the beginning of Civil War, while the tweets reveal how much Speedball is still loathed by a large section of the public. The tweets as a storytelling device don’t always work perfectly, but it is effective at displaying the fear and hate seeping into the Marvel Universe. Mayhew’s art is stellar here. He has a rare photo-realistic style that doesn’t feel stagnant or overly photo-referenced.

The Agents of Atlas story is the first time I’ve ever seen these characters written by anyone other than Jeff Parker, so initially it was a bit jarring. That’s not to say Peter Milligan does a bad job, he’s written quirky characters like this before in his brilliant run with Mike Allred on X-Force/X-Statix, but the voices of these heroes feel just slightly off. Maybe that’s intentional though, as almost all of the members of Atlas are on-edge. Possibly because of that, a lot of the humor that Parker brought to the Agents is gone here. There is one really compelling element in the story involving Jimmy Woo and his acclimation to modern day (or lack thereof) that gives the Atlas leader much more depth as a character.

The other two stories featured in Fear Itself: The Home Front really aren’t worth talking about. A Fear Itself checklist would’ve been preferable to Howard Chaykin’s one-page J. Jonah Jameson story.  And Jim McCann’s story about the residents of Broxton is quite forgettable.

AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE #5 $3.99 (Writer: Allan Heinberg, Artist: Jim Cheung): Avengers: TCC #4 ended with the return of the founder of the Young Avengers, Iron Lad. Iron Lad is the teenage Kang the Conqueror, and so the entrance of Iron Lad to the story also means the entrance of time travel. Time travel always makes for tricky storytelling, so when it’s done well, it should be recognized. And Heinberg makes great use of time travel in this issue. The Young Avengers travel back to the time of possibly the worst Avengers story ever told, AVENGERS: DISASSEMBLED. Heinberg does tweak continuity with this adventure, but he does so very cleverly. Jim Cheung’s art is stunning as usual. Heinberg’s script gives Cheung plenty to work with, as the issue opens in the midst of a huge battle and then switches gears to some hugely emotional moments. The release schedule of Avengers: TCC has been frustrating but every issue has been full of top-notch storytelling from both writer and artist.

THE BOYS #53 $3.99 (Writer: Garth Ennis, Artist: John McCrea): The Boys is often a mixed bag. Ennis likes to put his characters in truly over-the-top scenarios. Sometimes it works and sometimes it’s cringe-worthy.  The Boys #53 has a little bit of both. This issue is told almost entirely in flashback, as Mallory fills Hughie in on his experience with superheroes in Germany during World War II. Ennis knows how to write war stories and all the military dialogue is quite good. But Ennis’s WWII heroes (two clearly based on Captain America and Bucky) are just too grossly incompetent. I like Ennis’s pessimistic take on what a world with superheroes would actually be like, but if he just toned it down just a notch or two, it would be so much more effective. There’s one bit involving an unsanctioned recon mission involving the flying supes that’s smartly written. John McCrea is by far the worst of The Boys three rotating pencillers, but this issue happens to be the best he’s illustrated thus far.

Blog-A-Day: Day 2

My Favorite Comic Books of 2010

I read way too many comic books. My attic is full of long boxes of comics that I’m sure one day will come crashing through my bedroom ceiling, killing me on impact. The autopsy will read “cause of death: comic books.” On the bright-side, it means I can put together a decent “Best of” list when it comes to the medium of word balloons. The last time I put together a list of my favorite comic books was in 2008, you can find that here. The list has changed quite a bit since then. These are my favorite comic books of 2010:

1.SHIELD: Leonardo da Vinci as a superhero. Galileo saving the planet from Galactus. Jonathan Hickman’s SHIELD could’ve just been THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN using historical figures instead of literary ones, but it is so much more than that. The only problem with the book is its bi-monthly schedule, making the wait between issues unbearable.

2. UNWRITTEN: A brilliant concept brillianty executed. What started out with a simple question (is Tom Taylor a fictional character come to life?) has evolved into a significantly larger story.

3. FANTASTIC FOUR: Jonathan Hickman, in his 2nd appearance on my list, has taken the Fantastic Four to a level unseen since the Kirby/Lee days. It is that good.

4. SECRET AVENGERS: Ed Brubaker’s last attempt at a team book (Uncanny X-Men) was a disaster, but apparently it wasn’t the team dynamic that was messing with his mojo, he was just working with the wrong characters. Using Steve Rogers, Black Widow, Moon Knight, the Irredeemable Ant-Man, Valkyrie, Beast, and War Machine as a covert-ops team, Brubaker is delivering one of the best books of his career. And Mike Deodato’s art is the perfect fit for Brubaker’s patented noir stories.

5. BATMAN AND ROBIN: I downright loathe about 1/4 of Grant Morrison’s work. Whether it feels like there are panels missing, or that I need to partaking in some sort of illegal substance to follow what’s going on, that 1/4 of the Morrison’s work drives me insane. For me, most of Morrison’s run on BATMAN fit into that category. BATMAN AND ROBIN, however, is much more reminiscent of Morrison’s brilliant run on ALL-STAR SUPERMAN than of that confusing mess his wrote in the pages of BATMAN. I love the dynamic between Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne, and many of the new villains Morrison added to Batman’s rogues gallery are perfectly creepy.

6. DAYTRIPPER: I wasn’t sure how Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon would make this formula work for ten issues, I’ll admit I was worried around issue 4 or 5, but the last few issues of the miniseries were probably the best.

7. ATLAS: No matter what writer Jeff Parker titles a book featuring the Agents of Atlas, it gets cancelled. Shockingly, the addition of the new 3D Man didn’t bring in new readers, but the adventures of Namora, Jimmy Woo, Gorilla Man, the Uranian, Venus, and M-11 will always hold a special place in my heart. Next time I’d call it THE ADVENTURES OF SPIDER-MAN, WOLVERINE AND THE AGENTS OF ATLAS. Maybe then it’d make it past 5 issues.

8. THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN: While this year on Iron Man wasn’t as flashy as the writer’s previous two years on the title, Matt Fraction still delivered some tight storytelling in the rebirth of Tony Stark. And I love Pepper Potts as the iron maiden, Rescue.

9. JONAH HEX: If you want great standalone stories, Jonah Hex is one of the only titles on comic book store shelves that will fill that need.

10. THOR: While I’m really digging Matt Fraction and Pasqual Ferry’s new Kirby-esque run on THOR, Kieron Gillen was knocking it out of the park with very little fanfare before the new super-team took over the title.

My Favorite Comic Books of 2008

If there is any “best of” list I feel eminently qualified to write, it’s the one for best comic book series of the year. There are a few rules about my list, mini-series are not included (sorry “Marvel 1985″) and it has to be a series I read in the single issues and not just in the collected trade format (sorry “Y: The Last Man”). If there’s a theme to my list, it’s that it features a bunch of Marvel characters I never cared about as a child. At various points in my childhood, I was obsessed with the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and Spider-man. The one corner of the Marvel universe I could never get into was the Avengers’ books. And now I’ve made a list that includes the big three of those Avengers: Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. Here’s the list:

1. Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 8 (Writers: Joss Whedon, Drew Goddard. Artists: Georges Jeanty, Karl Moline.): Feel free to scream, “Bias!” Yes, I’m a huge Buffy fan, but if you had ask me to make this list last year, Buffy would not have received the top spot. While the first year was pretty good, there were some growing pains in switching mediums in those first issues. This second year, however, has been near perfect. Goddard’s arc, “Wolves at the Gate”, bounced between hilarious and tragic with ease. And Whedon’s return to the world of future slayer Fray did not disappoint.

2. Captain America (W: Ed Brubaker. A: Steve Epting): Ed Brubaker has to be given credit just for writing a book called “Captain America” for so long without the title character appearing. This year ended the 30-plus issue story arc that started Brubaker’s run on the title and finally introduced us to the new Captain America, Bucky Barnes. Brubaker has a knack for taking absurd villains and turning them into credible threats. There’s actually a robotic bad guy with a television in his chest and a camera for his head. I never knew Cap had such a lame rogue’s gallery, but Brubaker makes it work.

3. Thunderbolts (W: Warren Ellis, Andy Diggle. A: Mike Dedato, Roberto De La Torre.): For the record, I’m choosing to ignore the disappointing Secret Invasion tie-in issues. Warren Ellis’ reboot of T’Bolts was a thing of brilliance. I know hardcore fans of the old Thunderbolts may not love the distortion of the original concept, but the idea of an Avengers-style team of villains worked perfectly in Ellis’ hands. With his noir style, Dedato, who I’m not a huge fan of normally, was the perfect artist for the book. Ellis’ decision to leave the book left me worried, but then Andy Diggle came on board and managed to deliver some of the darkest, most intense issues of the reborn series.

4. The Immortal Iron Fist (W: Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker, Duane Swiercynski. A: David Aja, Travel Foreman.): Here’s another book, like Thunderbolts, where there was a mid-year switch of creative teams and the quality of the book didn’t suffer. Before Brubaker and Fraction started this book, I didn’t have any feeling one way or the other about Iron Fist. After their first story arc, I painted him on my closet door. Duane Swiercynski took over the writing duties and with his first arc managed to continue the momentum started by Fraction and Brubaker. And then he wowed me with a futuristic Iron Fist issue which I’d list as one of my favorite single issues of any comic this year.

5. All-Star Superman/Astonishing X-Men (W: Grant Morrison. A: Frank Quitely. / W: Joss Whedon. A: John Cassaday.): This may totally be cheating, but I can’t give these books separate spots on this list. Combined, five issues of the two series were released in 2008. That being said, those five issues were insanely good. Morrison/Quitely and Whedon/Cassaday were two of the best creative teams over past few years (both their runs are now complete). They also seemed incapable of sticking to any kind of strict release schedule. While both books are brilliant, they couldn’t be more different in terms of structure. All-Star Superman consisted of a series of very elaborately plotted stand-alone stories. While Astonishing X-Men was basically a giant 25-issue story arc driven almost entirely by great character moments. Both series are available in beautiful hardcover formats now, go pick them up!

6. Thor (W: J.M. Stracynski, A: Oliver Coipel.): 2008 was the year of Thor. Not only did he star in this brilliant title, but he also appeared in a great series of one-shots by Matt Fraction. Growing up, I never understood the appeal of Thor. And I certainly didn’t get why a Norse god spoke like a character out of Shakespeare. But Stracynski decided to drop the ‘thou’s, recreated Asgard as a floating city in the Midwest, and transformed Loki into a woman. Stracynski is at his best when he’s creating a new world or recreating an existing one, and he does that perfectly here.

7. The Invincible Iron Man (W: Matt Fraction, A: Salvador Larroca.): More than any other book on this list, I’m recommending Iron Man exclusively based on the writing. I really dislike Larroca’s work here. If an artist is going to rely so heavily on photo reference, why not use reference of the actors from the hugely successful film featuring these characters? Larroca casting Nicole Kidman as Pepper Potts is just distracting. Fraction, however, wrote one of the best Iron Man stories ever in his first arc. And if you were a huge fan of the Iron Man movie, the first trade serves as a great introduction to the Iron Man comic books.

8. Criminal (W: Ed Brubaker, A: Sean Phillips.) If you like noir, this is a must read. Actually, if you like noir, you’re probably already reading it. But even if you’re not a big noir fan, it’s worth checking out. Currently the book is on hiatus while the creative team works on their pulp title INCOGNITO, so now is the perfect time to catch up by reading all the trades.

9. Captain Britain and MI:13 (W: Paul Cornell, A: Leonard Kirk.): I know Marvel publishes a ton of team books. So why should you read this one instead of one the 5 Avengers titles or 6 X-Men titles? Well, first it’s set in Britain, so you get cool British slang. Second, it features one of my favorite underused Marvel characters, Pete Wisdom. Third, it spun out of a huge crossover event (Secret Invasion) and managed not to suck. Fourth, the villains powers are all based in magic, so it has a very different feel than all those other Marvel team books. Fifth, it’s written by a television writer who can actually finish his scripts on time! And sixth, it’s just plain awesome.

10. The Boys (W: Garth Ennis, A: Darick Robertson.): Was is often juvenile? Yes. Did it often enter the realm of bad taste? Absolutely. But Ennis loves to deconstruct the super-hero genre and he does it with great success here with each and every issue. And that’s why The Boys makes my list; it’s like Watchmen with excessive violence and plenty of dick and fart jokes.

Honorable Mention: Ex Machina, Daredevil, Jonah Hex, Booster Gold, Action Comics, Wolverine: First Class

Previously… in Comics

 I haven’t done any blog posts about comics yet. I’m rectifying that now. Time for some comic book reviews! I have no idea if I’m going to do this on a weekly basis. Last week saw Marvel’s Dark Reign really kick into gear. Dark Reign’s flagship title, Dark Avengers, launched. Dan Slott introduced us to the bizarre new team over in Mighty Avengers. Andy Diggle began revealing the new roster of the Thunderbolts. And Matt Fraction gave us a glimpse into Emma Frost’s mindset in the Marvel Universe’s new status quo.

The following books were all released on January 21st. They’re listed in the order I read them. Spoilers will be kept to a minimum.

Thunderbolts #128 (Writer: Andy Diggle, Artist: Roberto de la Torre): In the previous two issues, Diggle did a spectacular job writing the Thunderbolts as Warren Ellis had reimagined them. It was an incredibly dark and intense story that lead to the dismantling of that team’s roster. In this issue, Diggle pulls back the curtain on his team of Thunderbolts. Sadly, judging by this issue, his T’Bolts aren’t quite as interesting as Bullseye, Venom, and company. It’s obviously way too early to start panicking here. Only a fraction of the team has even been introduced. But this group seems to lack much of the personality their predecessors had in spades. I do have to give props to Diggle though for his Obama appearance which both made sense for the story and established Norman Osborn as a lame duck appointment by the outgoing Bush Administration. Dark Reign is all Bush’s fault!

Dark Avengers #1 (W: Brian Bendis, A: Mike Deodato): You ever have a favorite band break up and then the lead singer puts out a solo album? The music sounds similar to that of the band you so loved, but it’s just not nearly as good. That is Dark Avengers. I flipped open this book and it looked remarkable like Warren Ellis’ Thunderbolts. Mike Deodato’s drawing all the same characters: Norman Osborn, Venom, Bullseye, Moonstone. If only the characters didn’t have to speak, because those word balloons pointed at their mouths are not nearly as engrossing. But even if Brian Bendis could channel Warren Ellis perfectly here, I’d still have to question the overall concept. Basically, we have a team of villains dressed up in the costumes of unregistered heroes like Spider-man, Wolverine, and Iron Man. Supposedly in the Marvel Universe, Iron Man is despised for his role in Secret Invasion. Spider-man and Wolverine are fugitives.  Why would Norman Osborn dress up his team like these social pariahs? It’d be like the Democrats trying to win the White House by nominating a George W. Bush clone. It doesn’t make any sort of sense.

Mighty Avengers #21 (W: Dan Slott, A: Khoi Pham): Thank you Dan Slott. Thank you for giving me a classic Avengers title to love. I adore this book. Going into the issue, I knew very little about the new team. I knew it involved Hank Pym and I could see Scarlet Witch and Jocasta were on the cover. That’s it. The roster Slott has chosen, assuming this is the permanent roster, is almost Nextwave insane.  And like Nextwave, it’s also brilliant. The dialogue is tight, often funny, and perfectly in character. While I’ve always felt Brian Bendis has trouble with team books (his best issues of New Avengers always only deal with 1 or 2 members of the team), Dan Slott’s writing shines when the scene is full of costumed crusaders. I do have to say Hank Pym’s new costume is atrocious; I have no problems with his new codename though. 

Uncanny X-Men Annual #2 (W: Matt Fraction, A: Mitch Breitweiser and Daniel Acuna): I’m sure I’m not the only one who was completely baffled by Emma Frost’s inclusion in Norman Osborn’s Dark Reign inner circle. She’s a good guy now! She’s been one of the white hats since the mid-nineties when she mentored Generation X along with Banshee. So while Brian Bendis did very little to justify her place at the table, Matt Fraction has taken up the challenge in this Uncanny X-Men Annual and does an admirable job of explaining her motivation. In addition to learning more about the White Queen’s thinking, we also get insight into her relationship with Namor. Pairing these two together was a genius move on Fraction’s part. Having two of the most arrogant members of the Marvel Universe interact, often through some intense flirting, brings out the best in both characters. I look forward to seeing these characters together more often. The art here is gorgeous. Mitch Breitweiser handles the present, while Daniel Acuna deals with the flashbacks. It’s unfortunate such a beautiful issue has to be marred by a fairly awful cover from Terry Dodson.

X-Factor #39 (W: Peter David, A: Valentine de Landro): I’m going to listen to Peter David’s plea on the recap page of this issue and not play spoiler. What I will do is implore you to pick up this issue! From the cover, I’m sure everyone knows this is the issue where Siryn and Madrox’s child is born. And like most of the best X-Factor stories David’s written, there’s a ton of humor, there’s some tragedy, and there’s no big superhero battles. The art is a vast improvement over the last story arc that introduced Darwin to the group. And, yes, there’s a huge twist here. A huge gut-wrenching twist that would be impossible to spoil without just outright saying what happens. Rarely in any creative medium do you have a moment so original, so unique, that your jaw just drops because you did not and could not see it coming. That is what happens in this issue. It’s impossible to over-hype.

Final Crisis: Superman Beyond 3D #2 (W: Grant Morrison, A: Doug Mahnke): The last issue of this book came out roughly forever ago. I don’t know if it was by design or because of delays, but the span between issues means I had no clue what was going on when I started reading this issue. Frankly though, that’s hardly a new feeling for me when reading a book written by Grant Morrison. I did remember enjoying the first issue, even though I didn’t remember what the heck was happening in it, so I decided to pick this one up despite the $4.50 price tag. It’s your fairly standard Grant Morrison issue. There are some great moments and other moments when you inevitably say to yourself, “what the hell was that?” Personally, I’ll be happy if I never have to read another book in 3D again. In addition to having to wear the ridiculous glasses, trying to read word balloons while looking at 3D images is a recipe for a splitting headache.

Trade of the week:
Fables: War and Pieces (W: Bill Willingham, A: Mark Buckingham): I finally got around to reading the latest Fables trade this week. If the title didn’t make it obvious, “War and Pieces” is the final battle between Fabletown and the Adversary’s forces. I loved the Cinderella story that leads into the war. She should really have her own Alias-style secret agent book. The main story, however, I found lacking. It’s anti-climactic, perhaps intentionally so, but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing. I thought Boy Blue’s post-war narration was a mistake. It took all the suspense out of the conflict. The last chapter feels rushed and really could’ve been expanded into an additional issue. There’s one moment featuring Boy Blue towards the end of the story that truly deserves a full page, but receives only a small sliver of one. If there was one aspect of this story that I loved, it was Prince Charming’s arc. Charming is really the star of those four chapters. And his relationship with Sinbad is also a huge highlight.