Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Comic Reviews -- For many weeks

How is this for great customer service, due to the transit strike I haven't been able to get downtown to pick up my comics (or anywhere else for that matter). So Dave, a friend who works at the shop I go to, offered to pick up my books and drive them out to me. I was a little reluctant as I'm pretty far out of the city but eventually I took him up on his offer. So I'm now caught up (almost). And since there is a whackload of reviews I'm going to be lazy and make these extra short. Sorry.

Hulk Family: Green Genes -- Yeah, I'm still looking for my Hulk fix since dropping the Hulk series. I wasn't expecting much from this book but it was actually decent. The art wasn't top notch or anything but it was pretty strong in comparison to similar one shots I've seen. And the stories were pretty good as well. I was a little surprised that She-Hulk didn't recognize the Hulk in his gray form and a little disappointed that we didn't get more of a conclusion on the Scorpion story but overall, it was a good book.

Iron Man/The Incredible Hulk/Nick Fury -- This was a movie tie in and I thought it was pretty good. The Iron Man portion didn't have as much Iron Man as I was expecting but it fit the mood of the movie well and was a good tale. The Hulk part at least had the Hulk in it briefly but I liked the Nick Fury connection. And the last story was sort of your typical Nick Fury story. Overall, it was a pretty decent book to read. Not sure it's worth picking up but if you're looking for something to read it's worth a look.

Elephantmen #14 -- The "Spore Wars" continue with the conclusion coming up in the next issue. And I'm on the edge of my seat, I didn't see the ending coming to be honest. We learn more about the virus at the heart of this story and a bit more about the Elephantmen's back story. Solid writing and great artwork keep this book on my recommended reading list.

Echo #8 -- The action picks up with this issue, that's for sure. Yet somehow, this book still feels rather... short. After finishing each issue I seem to ask "that's it?" I don't know why that is. It's still a great story and the art is wonderful. I just have to decide soon whether to keep up with it or perhaps go the TPB route for a while.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer #20 -- Hey, Angel makes an appearance! This little interlude is actually a nice departure I think. The show often had episodes that didn't necessarily focus on the main storyline of the season (though perhaps it had little tidbits connecting it to the storyline) but had great character moments. I felt this was like that. It was a nice little Buffy story. And the use of the two art styles (one being extra cartoony) was a nice touch.

Skaar Son of Hulk #6 -- First up, I think they made strong improvements on the art front with this issue. It doesn't seem to be as extremely sketchy as the previous issues. It looks like more work was put into cleaning it up. There's some promise with this issue that things are going to pick up big time really soon with a few surprise appearances and the Skaar's quest for the old power seemingly reaching its climax. I kinda hope things do pick up, we're six issues in already. So I'm seeing improvements here but it's still not quite enough to put me over with this series.

Runaways #5 -- The art continues to not really work for me here. I still find some stuff just too over the top in terms of cartoony-ness or just not quite clear enough in the story telling aspect. I seem to be spending too much time trying to figure out what's being shown in some panels and it's making the book a bit too much of a chore to read. I also find the story to be dragging on a bit at this point. It's not like I'll be dropping the series but it's a bit of a disappointment at the moment for me.

She-Hulk #36 -- Peter David has never really been one to pull any punches when it comes to pushing heroes to the brink. Quite a few questions are left lingering, never to be fully answered. And in the end, we're reminded that these real world situations don't have the simple answer sometimes presented by superheroes in costumes. So yeah, it's a deep story. On a lighter note, the art was a bit of hit or miss with me. Still, I'll be sorry to see this series go.

Angel After the Fall #15 -- Yeah, still not liking the art that much. Just had to get that out of the way. I felt a little let down with the events of this book, or at least one event that I don't want to spoil. I don't know what it was but it just didn't seem to fit with the book. With so much emotion being spent on other characters in this book, this character's situation just seemed to get washed over by everything else. Still, it sets the stage for the final two issues.

Angel: Smile Time #1 -- This one was a bit of a booboo as I wasn't really interested in picking it up but oh well. It's a nice adaptation of the episode with pretty solid artwork. But in the end, I think I'd just rather go re-watch the episode than read this series.

Naoki Urasawa's Monster -- I was happy to finally be able to finish this 18 volume epic. Things wrapped up very well in this final volume. There were a few twists and turns, some of which I expected, some I didn't. It's a pretty amazing series all things considered.

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