5/16/12
Wonder Woman 9/Daredevil 13/Supergirl 9/Fury MAX 2
Wonder Woman #9
Not new-reader friendly. That’s the way I’d describe this issue. It opens with two characters I don’t know, and ends with several others I don’t saving Wonder Woman from a threat I’m not sure about. These characters are, for the most part, Brian Azzarello’s and Cliff Chiang’s reimagining’s of the Greek pantheon. But who is who is not at all clear. Hades looks like a frail old southern gentleman, and Hermes is…some guy I guess. I’d have no idea if they hadn’t eventually said his name. The Hades redesign is actually rather striking and an interesting departure from his last, more cliché look, but again I didn’t know it was Hades on the cover until it was specifically mentioned. I’m commending them on their choices, and I like quite a few of them, but this issue can be very frustrating. Hades is preparing to marry Wonder Woman, and I didn’t know why she seemed so okay with it until the last three pages.
Chiang’s missing and the title has a fill in artist, Tony Atkins, whose art is nice enough but a disappointment since Chiang is the big reason I wanted to try out the book. Hades upon his grotesque throne is a very impressive page though. I’ve heard mixed things about title (and I’ve had my own frustrations with Azzarello projects), but even without the regular artist I think this book could have been really good, if it had only had some sort of recap page.
Daredevil #13
Daredevil, unlike Wonder Woman, made itself easy to follow along with. I’ve only read the one issue prior to this, and the whole plot deals with the fall-out from a previous multi-book cross-over. But Mark Waid manages to explain the situation in a few panels, as well as introduce FIVE warring crime factions into the title. This is with a clever ending, and then a surprise cliffhanger to boot. It’s new reader friendly, without being grating for long-time readers. It’s how you do it.
Daredevil just can’t seem to keep a regular artist, and this week’s fill-in is Khoi Pham. His work is close enough to Samnee’s here that the shift won’t be jarring to the trade-waiters, and Javier Rodriguez’s colours help give this title a unique look I hope it keeps for a long while.
This was another fun issue, with a lot more action then 12 had. I liked 12 more, but this was a blast and I’m really, really curious about the Foggy subplot here, and just what’s going on with the reveal at the end of the issue.
Supergirl #9
Supergirl is the first book I’ve picked up since I started buying singles where I couldn’t tell you who a single member of the creative team was. I simply have a great affinity for Kara Zor-El, which mostly stems from Jim Mooney’s silver age pencils. Unfortunately, this issue shared some of the same problems Wonder Woman did.
Michael Green and Mike Johnson’s story opens with a flashback, which gives us a look at Black Banshee’s encounter with the family of Siobhan, the Silver Banshee and Kara’s new friend. What follows for the rest of the pages of the book is a desperate fight scene, so in that regard it’s a step-up from WW. Not a lot of facts or story gets thrown around, but mixed with all the action and a small cast of characters (three mostly), there’s enough room to get a chance to find out what’s going on and a little of why.
Mahmud Asrar draws a really cool fight between the three, and there’s almost always some action going on. The Black Banshee, who at least to me is a new character, comes off as a legitimate threat. Thanks to being magic in nature, he wreaks havoc on Kara’s powers and the issue ends with a last-ditch failure. I may ot have understood exactly why things were happening, at least it was a good time. And let me add I’m a fan of this costume Supergirl wears.
Fury MAX #2
Garth Ennis’ Fury Max continues just like you’d expect, and the body-count does indeed rise after a fairly quiet first issue. I’m really enjoying the Steinhoff character, as much as you can an unrepentant Nazi. There’s a moment where he actually tries to explain that he had nothing to do with death camps, he just lined up people and shot them. He’s treated like a prick, that’s for certain, but he’s not really the enemy yet. And this is after being a part of two brawls in the issue, the foremost one being with Nick Fury that’s only interrupted by a guerilla attack.
The colours, by Lee Loughridge, are especially good during this night raid, with bright yellows splashed into the black. And as you can see, the cover is once again perfection, better than last months, and Goran Parlov follows it up immediately with some sex, something else I expected wasn’t far off after issue 1. Another good issue and I have no idea where the story is going, but as long as we keep getting awesome one-liners from Fury I’m in.
“I like tits. You being attached to them is just a bonus.”