Jeff’s Reviews: Week of 4/22/09, Part 1

I’m still busy with work, so I haven’t had a lot of time this week, but I’ll go through what I’ve read (and watched) so far and do another post later.

Iron Man: Armored Adventures (Nicktoons, Fridays @ 7pm): I saw the first 2 episodes of this on the Internet a few months ago after they aired in Canada and I didn’t care for it, but I watched it again when it premiered here this week and I liked it better the second time. I’m still not in love with the “Teen Tony” idea, and the computer animation is still a little stiff (though it has improved a lot since the MTV Spider-Man series a few years back) but the writing is pretty good. Kids will probably like this more than adults, but I plan to keep watching it for now. (Write your own joke about my maturity level here.)

Doctor Who: The Forgotten TPB: This is mainly of interest to long time fans of the TV show, but I mention it here because it is artist Pia Guerra’s first published work since Y: The Last Man ended. Unfortunately, she couldn’t draw the entire series because of a family emergency – this is one of those cases where the publisher should have waited for her because the middle chapters by another artist are not as good has her work.

JSA Thy Kingdom Come Part Three HC: This is a part 3, and an ongoing series to boot so you probably already know whether you’re buying it or not, but there are a few things that might make it of interest to people not following JSA that I want to mention. (1) It contains the Kingdom Come Superman special written and pencilled (not painted) by Alex Ross. (2) For Kingdom Come fans, there’s some actual sequel material here – Ross paints some scenes of what happens when the KC Superman returns to his world. (Not a spoiler because he was plucked out of the middle of the KC story.) Some of these scenes are reinterpretations of the original, but they extend into the future beyond what has been shown before. (3) All the beautiful Dale Eaglesham alternate covers that you may not have seen are included.

Marvel Apes HC (oversized): Mock me if you will (and I know you will), but I actually like this. Not the silly Spider-Monkey story that’s at the front, or the goofy “History of the Marvel Apes Universe” backup stories, but the actual miniseries itself. It’s a real story, not a vehicle for the writer’s sense of humor (*cough* Marvel Zombies *cough*), and it has something to say about how the ape world is different from and more brutal than our world. There were also some plot twists that surprised me and almost any story that can do that these days makes me happy. Of course, all the "monkey variant” covers from across the line are included too. (The one below is my favorite.)

Amazing Spider-Man #592: When I have more time, I want to talk about how those of you who are still pissed off at this book are missing out, but for now I’ll just say that this issue has a last page that you never expected to see in a Marvel comic. I also had a (somewhat spoilery) question about the events of this issue that I asked Mark Waid on his message board here.

Trinity #47: Not much to say here except that I thought Mark Bagley’s art was especially good this week, and that I look forward to those of you who have been waiting for the collections being able to enjoy it. Those of you who are reading this (Shane) may enjoy Tom Bondurant’s weekly annotations over at Robot 6. (Be sure to check the comments, because Kurt Busiek often responds.)

Supergirl #40: I wish I had predicted Superwoman’s identity publicly, because it is revealed this issue and I was right. (Not that it was that difficult.)

Detective Comics #853: Second half of the Gaiman/Kubert story, which I liked better than the first. I think they will read well together in the hardcover that’s coming in July. (Which I would wait for if you don’t already have the first half of this – the art alone is good enough for the permanent shelf treatment so why pay for it twice?)

Buck Rogers #0: The first few pages of this really annoyed me, but it turned out that was intentional and I really enjoyed the rest of it. I’m not in love with the Adam-Strange-meets-Tron character design, but I’ll definitely check out the ongoing series when it starts.

Daredevil #118: Another book you don’t need a recommendation from me about, so I’ll just say that this issue has one of the best Matt/Foggy scenes ever and that I think I’m starting to see the outline of what Matt’s situation will be when Andy Diggle takes over.