Incredible Hulk #110 -- Wow! Pak decides to state with some conviction that despite what Millar and/or Bendis may have written elsewhere the Hulk has never killed an innocent on purpose or by accident (except for the time he was turned into a mindless savage by Doc Samson). Though there have been the self-defence deaths and killing in a war. As a Hulk fan I kinda like that. As Slott wrote in a She-Hulk book, Bruce Banner wouldn't have been allowing things to go on like that if the Hulk had killed. And all this was to prove that the Hulk is not a killer and won't kill Black Bolt, Reed, Tony, et al. Prove to who (those watching or the Hulk himself) is questionable I suppose. Now I know some comic readers will take Amadeus explanation of the no deaths and say what a load of BS but as a Hulk fan, I kinda like it. As much as the Hulk should be seen as a monster for me, I don't like the idea of him crossing that line. So although it seems somewhat shoe-horned in, I like it. So overall, I enjoyed the writing of this issue. It was well spread out with a lot happening (though it kinda doesn't feel that way until you go back and recap exactly everything that was laid out). Amadeus' plan for the Hulk (building a giant dome shield over his land in New Mexico) seems somewhat too simple and doesn't factor in some situations but I'm sure Amadeus was just giving the brief summary and not the itty bitty details. But overall, it's inline with the characters and the story and I enjoyed it. And the art, at times I had been critical of the Pak/Pagulayan team on Planet Hulk and said it seems rather choppy but this issue was nothing like that. It was a solid effort by both. It makes my recommended reading list.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #6 -- Woohoo! Faith! She's back and doing the dirty jobs that regular slayers don't want or can't do. Need a home of vampire children killed? Send in Faith. And we even get a Principal Wood appearance. At times, you really can hear Eliza Dushku's voice coming out of the page. Vaughan really nails the dialogue and expressions. The art isn't quite as impressive but solid enough to get the job done. And Faith's task, to take out an uber-slayer gone bad, well it had to happen. Not everyone who got the slayer power would be goody-goody and it doesn't help that there would be those out there to manipulate and make use of the slayers. And I suspect there's even more to the story. I was also happy that it wasn't entirely a Faith issue. The Buffy/Xander part, though short, was nice just to tie things in to the overall narrative. So yeah, this series still rocks for me and makes my recommended reading list. I almost forgot, the cover by Jo Chen is her best yet in my opinion. Simple but she nails Faith's look and attitude perfectly.
She-Hulk #21 -- Dan Slott's last book and I'm kinda happy it's over. Don't get me wrong, I loved this series to start but I think it's been going slightly downhill. And this issue just rubbed me the wrong way throughout. It's Slott's attempt at poking fun at continuity issues while making an explanation (albeit an incredibly silly one) for them. The explanation: Reed Richards of Earth-A (not the regular or "616" Marvel Universe, this Reed actually looks like the Thing) created a device to teleport regular people to Earth-B (the regular or 616 Marvel Universe) while giving them the appearance and powers of Earth-B heroes and villains. It was a sort of vacation (kinda like Total Recall if you've seen it). So the She-Hulk that slept with Juggernaut? That wasn't the 616 She-Hulk it was the Jennifer Walters from Earth-A on vacation as She-Hulk. And then you get Reed saying he actually wants to take out the nanites that Tony injected She-Hulk with but saying they're permanent. What? They were temporarily turned off by Amadeus who said he could permanently wipe them out. Tony temporarily deactivated them for World War Hulk. But now Reed says that they are permament??? That just seems weird. And the entire idea that Reed is okay going behind Tony's back to remove them doesn't seem to fit either. But in the end, he does figure out a way and we get She-Hulk back to her normal self. Okay, this review is becoming a bit of a mess (just like the book felt for me) so I'll say this, this issue does not make my recommended reading list. Though the best line I think was when the geeks said something like "Two Star Trek references in a row? Wow, this is like some sort of Peter David book" and the second geek saying "I wish." I'm with that second geek, I do wish and eagerly await Peter David and the new artist taking over this book.
White Tiger #6 -- Well, this series finally comes to an end. I was wondering when we'd get to see an end to it. Personally, reading this series has made my head spin at times so I had to read over the recap of the story a few times to get things straight before jumping into this issue. We start off with the Lizard making his quick appearance and then after a brief setup we get down to business with the White Tiger being joined by Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Spidey, and Black Widow. At least we see a bit now why some of these characters appeared earlier in the series, it was to give them a bit of a history with the White Tiger before this get together. Though the earlier encounters still seem forced and out of place. Again, this issue just doesn't seem to be as polished as it could be. We get quick jumps in location and shots of a guy chopping of another guy's head without any clear reason why we are seeing it. I'm sure there's something I'm missing in a few scenes but it just doesn't seem to be as worked out as it could be. And the art is okay to look at but kinda misses the mark in some places. There is one panel that has the White Tiger jumping over a guy but the way it's done (with her greyed out a bit while in mid-leap but solid in front of him) it looks like she's jumped in front of him (given that she's drawn solid at that point you figure that's where the action has ended) yet the next panel has her kicking him in the back. And when the second artist takes over things get a little weird. Luke Cage seems to change to some skinny black guy. Some of the layouts also don't work where the artist seems to break from a traditional left to right, top to bottom way of laying the page out and all you get is tiny little arrows between the panels (which I missed on my first couple readings of that page) to show you that it's changed. Overall, this series and the character have a lot of potential as the character is an interesting one with a distinct history and personality, but it just wasn't executed as well as it could have been. I have to say that the series doesn't really make my recommended reading list though I do hope to see more from both, the character and the writer. She got a lot of good characterization done, I just don't think the storytelling was as strong as it could have been.
Last but not least, I was fortunate enough to meet Olivier Coipel, artist of House of M and Thor, at my local comic shop on Sunday. It was really cool. I got to chat with him for quite a bit (probably too long for his liking). He was a really really nice guy and I got this sketch from him which I absolutely love:
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