Weekly Comic Review for November 26th, 2008

Woohoo! I have comics to review. Actually, this was a pretty busy week in comparison to most weeks. I had a whopping 5 books come out.

She-Hulk #35 -- First off, let me just say that I'm going to miss this series. I usually find that even a not-so-good issue of She-Hulk more enjoyable than most other books I see coming out of the big two companies right now. Having said that, I didn't find this issue to be one of the stronger issues of Peter David's run. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty good. The story was a pretty solid Peter David story (and I say "Peter David story" because the blending of superheroes with real world problems in this issue seemed similar to the stories he did in the Hulk or Captain Marvel) and despite She-Hulk and friends taking the moral high ground you have to give credit that the Red Guardian wasn't portrayed too poorly given the stance he was forced to take. But I found the problems I had with the issue were mostly in the art/story telling side of things. There were a few panels that I thought were rather weak in terms of anatomy and such but I could get by those, but there were moments where the art just didn't feel right. It didn't seem to be telling the story very well. The part with Crimson Dynamo seemingly putting Thundra to sleep with no dialogue seemed weird, almost as though the dialogue was missing or the art just wasn't portraying what was actually happening. And there were quite a few times where the expressions and body language just didn't match with what was going on. It was too bad, I think this issue could have been a lot better.

Skaar Son of Hulk #5 -- This may have been the strongest issue of this series in my opinion. The art was less distracting to me (though I still had some problems with the overall sketchiness of it and it being hard to figure out who's who at times) but more importantly, I felt this issue flowed a bit better and when combined with the second story presented, I finally feel like I understand what's going on. I hope this is a sign that the series is on track (at least for me). I'm looking forward to the next issue more so than I have in the past for this series.

Runaways #4 -- This issue was a bit weird for me. I did like parts of it but after I was done reading it I felt a bit let down that really the story didn't seem to progress very far. There was some reinforcement that the team's disfunction is due to her spell as they battle a big green ball of snot (okay, it wasn't snot but still) but that was about it. And I felt let down by the art at times as I couldn't quite tell what was going on, especially during the afore mentioned battle with the snot. Maybe I'm just getting too used to reading TPBs where this would just be one part of the story and I could keep reading to the next part and now, reading it monthly, it feels like I'm only getting a small portion of the story and it just wasn't enough for me. Having said that, I'm still interested to see where things go.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #19 -- This issue had some pretty huge moments (at least for me, and no, I won't spoil it by saying what those moments are) but some moments I had to go back and forth to figure out and it was a little distracting. Early on there was a scene I had to flip back and forth from page to page to see if maybe I missed something (like a full page or two). And for the reveal of Twilight's latest ally, I had to go back to the start of this storyline to see what he was referring to and to see if there were any clues as to who he was (some people recognized him from the art, I didn't, I guessed based on what we knew and from what I've read online afterwards it looks like I was right). And Xander's story felt like it was just getting in the way here as it ended rather abruptly. The ending felt a little weird at first as more questions are raised and only a few are answered but once it settled in it felt like a good chapter of an ongoing story. So overall, it felt like a good important chapter of a bigger story but the execution maybe could have been better.

Mouse Guard Winter 1152 #4 (of 6) -- It actually didn't take me too long to get back into the story. With the delay, I was expecting it to be worse. Though I did forget that one of the mice was a female. :) The art is really amazing here and there is a surprising amount of story to be absorbed in this one issue. I just hope the wait for the next issue isn't as long as the wait for this one. This really is a great series and well worth checking out. Though I think I'll go back to reading the collected versions with the next series. Oh yeah, I forgot about the Millennium Falcon being hidden in the cover. So keep an eye out for it.

My reading pile just grew a huge amount. A friend lent me the first two volumes of Akira while another friend keeps wanting to lend me non-comic stuff to read thinking it's stuff I may be interested in. I don't mind having a decent reading pile but I hate it when it's filled with loaned books because I tend to be a slow reader.

And I don't know when I'll be posting next week's reviews. I'm flying out on Tuesday for a conference and won't be back until Friday. So I may not get a chance to pick up my books until the following week.

Take care!

Inside joke and quick review

So I dropped by my usual comic shop on Saturday which is somewhat unusual for me, I usually go on Thursdays. But I was downtown and figured why not. This would be the shop I've been going to for about 8 or 9 years now. And upon entering the manager looks at me and yells "CARL!!!"

*sigh*

As for the review, volume 11 of Fables was awesome in my opinion. And that's all I have to say about that.

Weekly Comic Reviews for November 19th, 2008

A whopping one book for me this week. Though I did order a few TPBs including a few more volumes of Conan and the first volume of Powers. But as for this week's book...

Angel: After the Fall #14 -- I felt this issue did resolve a few things that I've been trying to figure out and moved the story on but I still feel this series is lacking for some reason. I just can't seem to get into it, it doesn't seem to have any energy to it. I can't get into the dialogue nor the art and a lot of things seem disjoint. I know a lot of people are loving this series and overall I think there's a solid story in there somewhere, but I just don't like the execution of it.

Weekly Comic Reviews for November 12th, 2008

Woohoo! I bought some comics this week. Okay, it was one regular comic and the latest volume of the Manga series Monster. And to make it sadder, the comic was Mice Templar and I'm probably going to drop it. *sigh*

Mice Templar #6 -- From what I can remember of the first 5 issues (it's been a while) I think this was my favourite so far. It was a pretty easy book to read with good storytelling and good resolution to some of the storylines while introducing new stuff along the way. I didn't find myself fighting through it as I did previous issues. I still had a bit of trouble knowing who's who in the book but it seemed a bit better here. But unfortunately, I just don't think this book is for me. Maybe down the road I'll go back and pick up the TPBs but as it is, it's just not keeping my interest. When the first TPB comes out it may be worth picking up as I think the series has some potential and could connect well with some readers, it just isn't for me.

Monster Volume 17 -- I know, I don't normally do reviews of TPBs or the Manga stuff I pick up but I need to do something on this blog don't I? So I'll keep this short. I think this series has dragged on a little too long for my liking. At least with this issue we're starting to reach the climax of the story but I felt a bit let down as most of the plot twists were pretty obvious several volumes ago. There are still a few surprises or twists along the way but I think it could have been shortened a bit. I still think it's a pretty good series, I just think it drags on from time to time.

Anyone see ER last night? I wasn't expecting the cameos and they were a very, very pleasant surprise. I haven't been liking the show all that muchh for a while now but I did like last night's episode.

Weekly Comic Reviews for November 5th, 2008

PSYCHE!!! Another week of no new comics for me. I know, it's getting really sad that I have this blog yet I don't seem to even be buying comics anymore. Though I am still buying TPBs and I really should be reviewing some of those. But for today I'll just have to find other stuff to talk about...

First up we have the shake up on Heroes with Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander being released from the writing and executive producing duties. My opinion, they need to change things up, at least for me. Although this season has been a step up from last season (which I thought was a mess) I still find it lacking in comparison to the first season. Though there have been some great portions to it (I kinda like Parkman's initial storyline and his relationship with the speedster, Noah's interaction with Sylar, Hiro and Ando's initial stuff, and a few other things) I find myself disliking the main storyline with the Petrelli's and the battle of the companies. I liked how in the initial season every character was important and had a role to play. Now, it seems if you aren't one of the uber-powers (especially the mind-control or power stealing/borrowing ones) you just don't have a place. I really do hope things turn around though.

Zuda celebrated it's one year anniversary a short while ago. Things seem to be going well over there and I'm happy about that. It's a great platform for new talent to get their work out there and to attract readers to some different book ideas.

Hmm... I know there was more I wanted to talk about but it's not coming to me at the moment. And now I have to get back to work. Oh well, I can always post again later.