Friday, April 24, 2009

Weekly Comic Reviews for April 22, 2009 -- SPOILERS

Let's get right to it shall we...

Elephantmen #18 -- This was a powerful issue. The story was pretty simple and the art wasn't overly complex in its detail which fit well. The reader is presented the story in its most raw form without interference from a preaching narrative. In usual "Elephantmen" fashion, it concentrates on the characters while giving the reader a glimpse into a larger story. I think reaction will vary depending on the reader's beliefs and feelings toward the subject matter but it's done extremely well. I'm probably starting to repeat myself with my reviews of this book but it's just been so good.

Detective Comics #853 -- In case you were wondering why I'm reviewing this, it was the second part to the Neil Gaiman story. This was a pretty weird storyline, which I probably should of expected of Neil Gaiman. After the first issue I tried to explain it to my brother and was having a pretty hard time. I don't think I'm any better off after this one. It's something you'd have to read to get it and to be honest, I'm not sure I do exactly. But that's not necessarily a bad thing here. For me, it left me with a fantastic story about what it is to "be Batman". Though I'm sure everyone else who reads it would read that last line and go "What? Did he read the same thing I did?" And if Neil Gaiman ever saw this review (yeah, I know he won't but just go with me here) he'd probably say "This guy just didn't get it" and hope I never review his work in the future. But in the end, I really think it's worth checking out, it's a pretty amazing two issues. And who knows, maybe you'll be able to come back and tell me what it's "really" about. :) Oh yeah, my favourite line had to be the "retire and golf" line. I laughed at that and now I'm curious, if Batman can put so much into his belt imagine what he could do with a golf bag.

Angel #20 -- I've been enjoying this series more with the new creative team but this issue felt a little bit like a let down. It wasn't that bad but there were parts that I thought could have been done better. It seemed like the story jumped a bit at times and things weren't exactly clear. Things seemed to jump between panels or pages and it was a bit disorientating. One example that comes to mind is when the character transforms into a rampaging animal only to be unconcious in the next panel. Maybe we're supposed to surmise what happened but it didn't feel right to me. And there were other parts, like when Angel says "Mine is defective" (or something like that), I didn't know what he was refering to. I'm guessing he was talking about his sword not working on a demon but I felt that could have been more clear in the art. And around that time, it looked like Angel had large claws (his fingers were large and to a point), that seemed odd. It was just a lot of these little things that seemed to take me out of the story a bit. The overall storylines I'm interested in, I just don't think the execution is where it needs to be.

So that's it for this week. And yes, I'm now twittering. :)

1 comment:

่”ฅ็ˆ†็‰›่‚‰Frank said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.