This post is Filed Under:
Home page Highlights,
Interviews and Columns,
Product reviews
Wayne Markley
by Wayne Markley
I am going to return to examining a lot more regeneration titles this week as well as a very great quartet of books by the underrated mark Crilley that came out some years ago but I missed and they were pointed out to me by a reader of this blog when we were going over Crilley’s Akiko. regeneration continues to be quite good and Crilley’s Miki Falls is just wonderful.
Action Comics #958
Action Comics #958 continues my enjoyment of the revived Superman titles. once again written by Dan Jurgens with terrific art by Patrick Zircher. Ii is generally a battle between Superman, Lex Luthor Superman and Doomsday. It is nearly an all fight issue with a few moments of life back on the farm. They still do not describe how Lex became Superman but that did not detour my enjoyment of this issue. now a side note. also this week DC released Justice league #52. It was clearly a fill in issue to make the run 52 issues as none of the regular creative team were involved but it did have art by the highly under used Tom Grummett (and three inkers) and it was beautiful. It also describes why Lex Luthor is Superman and what happened to the new 52 Superman – two weeks after action #957 came out which debuted Lex as Superman and followed up the events of Justice league #52 which shipped two weeks after it. discouraging way start to a new world.
Aquaman #1
Aquaman #1 is by the new team of Dan Abnett, Brad walker and mark Hennessey. This was a great improvement over the new 52 Aquaman as Arthur and Mera are back together and Aquaman is treated like a king once again. This first issue sets up what is to come with Atlantis and the surface world with a lot of politics and, of course, the Black Manta. I really liked this as a first issue and the art was really nice. My only complaint, and this is a carryover from the new 52, was how violent it was. There are people being stabbed all over the place and the blood is flowing. I have no problem with this in general but as a first issue in an attempt to bring in new readers it seemed a little over the top. especially as the other regeneration titles seemed to have toned down the violence quite a bit. but as my co-hort AquaFresh Jeff pointed out they are going for a game of Thrones type story so maybe the violence is needed.
Detective Comics #935
Detective #935 continues the storyline from #934 with “Batman and Gang.” In this book, Batwoman and Batman are leading a group pf Bat characters (Nightwing, Robin, Clayface and others) against a never ending tide of villains in Gotham City. I find it a bit odd that Clayface is now one of the good guys, but at least it is explained here and it makes sense. The issue opens with an army of Jokers and it just goes fast forward from there. James Tynion IV does a great job with the script mixing in the action with some great personal moments and the art by Eddie Barrows and Eber Ferreira is really sharp.
Flash #1
Flash #1 picks up where Flash regeneration ends and is very good. The basic story is what makes the Flash. It is very well thought out as it explores why Barry Allen does what he does. It reminds me of the kind of storytelling mark Waid was doing with Daredevil (but not quite that good). Joshua Williamson and Carmine De Giandomenico combine to tell a fast paced story with a great mix of thoughtfulness and action. The art style is not my favorite, but it works for this story. It ends with a cliffhanger which I did not care for, but I am not going to go into that as I do not want to spoil it. but let me say, and I will go over this in a later blog, it ends with something I think DC is doing far too much with Rebirth.
Wonder woman #1
Wonder woman #1 is by Greg Rucka and art by Liam Sharp. The plan for wonder woman is to have two stories running every other week, this one which is a filled with military intrigue, and brings back a lot of familiar faces and asks questions about who wonder woman is. The second story is going to be generally her origin story. For a first issue I found this to be a good read and appealing enough to make me want to read more. I am not sold on the idea of a completely different story that is continued every other week, because if you are going to do that then why not have two monthly wonder woman books instead of a bi-weekly book? but we will see where this discusses time. The first issue is well done.
Miki Falls: Autumn
I have been a fan of mark Crilley’s work for lots of years now; from the first time I saw Akiko through his a lot of recent work, Brody’s Ghost. somehow I missed his four part graphic novel called Miki Falls. It is published by Harper Collins and has a copyright of 2007 so I missed out on this for a number of years. It is a fairly conventional manga inspired tale about a young girl named Miki who falls fMARKLEY’S FEVERED BRAIN: lost and found (###) This post is Filed Under:
Home page Highlights,
Interviews and Columns,
Product reviews
Wayne Markley
by Wayne Markley
I am going to return to examining a lot more regeneration titles this week as well as a very great quartet of books by the underrated mark Crilley that came out some years ago but I missed and they were pointed out to me by a reader of this blog when we were going over Crilley’s Akiko. regeneration continues to be quite good and Crilley’s Miki Falls is just wonderful.
Action Comics #958
Action Comics #958 continues my enjoyment of the revived Superman titles. once again written by Dan Jurgens with terrific art by Patrick Zircher. Ii is generally a battle between Superman, Lex Luthor Superman and Doomsday. It is nearly an all fight issue with a few moments of life back on the farm. They still do not describe how Lex became Superman but that did not detour my enjoyment of this issue. now a side note. also this week DC released Justice league #52. It was clearly a fill in issue to make the run 52 issues as none of the regular creative team were involved but it did have art by the highly under used Tom Grummett (and three inkers) and it was beautiful. It also describes why Lex Luthor is Superman and what happened to the new 52 Superman – two weeks after action #957 came out which debuted Lex as Superman and followed up the events of Justice league #52 which shipped two weeks after it. discouraging way start to a new world.
Aquaman #1
Aquaman #1 is by the new team of Dan Abnett, Brad walker and mark Hennessey. This was a great improvement over the new 52 Aquaman as Arthur and Mera are back together and Aquaman is treated like a king once again. This first issue sets up what is to come with Atlantis and the surface world with a lot of politics and, of course, the Black Manta. I really liked this as a first issue and the art was really nice. My only complaint, and this is a carryover from the new 52, was how violent it was. There are people being stabbed all over the place and the blood is flowing. I have no problem with this in general but as a first issue in an attempt to bring in new readers it seemed a little over the top. especially as the other regeneration titles seemed to have toned down the violence quite a bit. but as my co-hort AquaFresh Jeff pointed out they are going for a game of Thrones type story so maybe the violence is needed.
Detective Comics #935
Detective #935 continues the storyline from #934 with “Batman and Gang.” In this book, Batwoman and Batman are leading a group pf Bat characters (Nightwing, Robin, Clayface and others) against a never ending tide of villains in Gotham City. I find it a bit odd that Clayface is now one of the good guys, but at least it is explained here and it makes sense. The issue opens with an army of Jokers and it just goes fast forward from there. James Tynion IV does a great job with the script mixing in the action with some great personal moments and the art by Eddie Barrows and Eber Ferreira is really sharp.
Flash #1
Flash #1 picks up where Flash regeneration ends and is very good. The basic story is what makes the Flash. It is very well thought out as it explores why Barry Allen does what he does. It reminds me of the kind of storytelling mark Waid was doing with Daredevil (but not quite that good). Joshua Williamson and Carmine De Giandomenico combine to tell a fast paced story with a great mix of thoughtfulness and action. The art style is not my favorite, but it works for this story. It ends with a cliffhanger which I did not care for, but I am not going to go into that as I do not want to spoil it. but let me say, and I will go over this in a later blog, it ends with something I think DC is doing far too much with Rebirth.
Wonder woman #1
Wonder woman #1 is by Greg Rucka and art by Liam Sharp. The plan for wonder woman is to have two stories running every other week, this one which is a filled with military intrigue, and brings back a lot of familiar faces and asks questions about who wonder woman is. The second story is going to be generally her origin story. For a first issue I found this to be a good read and appealing enough to make me want to read more. I am not sold on the idea of a completely different story that is continued every other week, because if you are going to do that then why not have two monthly wonder woman books instead of a bi-weekly book? but we will see where this discusses time. The first issue is well done.
Miki Falls: Autumn
I have been a fan of mark Crilley’s work for lots of years now; from the first time I saw Akiko through his a lot of recent work, Brody’s Ghost. somehow I missed his four part graphic novel called Miki Falls. It is published by Harper Collins and has a copyright of 2007 so I missed out on this for a number of years. It is a fairly conventional manga inspired tale about a young girl named Miki who falls f