Jeff’s Comic Reviews, 6/17/09 releases, Conclusion

There’s a metric ton of books coming this week, so let’s get the rest of last week’s books out of the way…

Wolverine Origins 37: I just didn’t buy this – Romulus has supposedly been manipulating Logan’s life for a century, and Logan thinks he can find him by following his henchman? Of course it’s a trap. Aargh. Logan can be manipulated, but he should be way smarter than this.

Power Girl 2: There’s a new contemporary origin of the Ultra-Humanite in this issue. (There’s a reference to PETA, which was founded in 1980.) I’m a little bothered by this, but I guess there’s no real reason to keep him tied to the Golden Age without the GA Superman and I keep saying that I don’t expect companies to always hold to decades-old continuity, so I guess I should practice what I preach. At least he still retains his fetish for putting his brain in women’s bodies, which I always thought was amusing.

Green Arrow/Black Canary 21: Very good. There’s still no “sound” so Andrew Kriesberg tells the story using the characters’ inner monologues, giving him a chance to compare and contrast their points of view and to show how crazy Cupid really is. (“That strikes me as unusually cruel and unusual, Mr. Mixed-Signals!”) My only complaint is that, to me, Mike Norton’s version of Dinah’s face doesn’t look right.

War of Kings: Acension 3: A lot better than last issue, and very material to the main series. (The ending of this issue is the same scene as at the end of War of Kings #4, told from Darkhawk’s point of view.)

Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance 4: I still like the ideas, but Joe Casey’s just not making them gel in a way that makes sense to me.

Dark Reign: Mister Negative 1: The opening salvo in a Chinatown gang war between The Hood (hence the “Dark Reign” title) and Mr. Negative. We get to see Mr. Negative’s power for (I think) the first time, and based on the last page this might turn out to be of interest for “Amazing Spider-Man” readers.

War Machine 7: I liked the origin flashbacks, but I’m ready for the present-day Ultimo story to be done. It’s also hard to reconcile the Tony Stark appearance at the end, where he still seems to have a company, with what’s going on in Iron Man. (That’s the kind of continuity issue, between editors that currently work together, that really bugs me – not the ancient stuff.)

Punisher 6: We get the rules for the returning villains, as well as some nicely done scenes between Frank and his new sidekick. Also includes the info pages about the villains that ran on CBR, which have better looking sketches of the characters than what’s in the regular art this issue.

Outsiders 19: I’m confused – I thought the new Outsiders were supposed to be covert, so what are they doing fighting Deathstroke on a crowded street? I did like the leadership argument between Geo-Force and Black Lightning, though.

Dark Reign: Hawkeye 3: More of the same here, as whoever’s messing with Bullseye really ratches up the pressure. (Or maybe it’s his own psychosis – that’s still not clear.)

Dark Reign: Young Avengers 2: The best of the “Dark Reign” minis so far, by miles and miles. I already loved Paul Cornell’s work from “Doctor Who” and “Captain Britain”, but this and his FF miniseries (which I’ll talk about soon – it’s in my pile of read trades) prove that he’s not just good at British characters. The instigator of the “new” Young Avengers is an artist, and her scene with Norman Osborn in this issue works on so many levels that I read it twice. Highly recommended. (Amazon doesn’t have a listing for the trade yet, but I’m sure it’s coming.)

Vigilante 7: I’m not yet convinced that I’m interested, but at least this is finally completely it’s own thing without being involved with Nightwing or the Titans. (It would probably also benefit from not being tied to Adrian Chase at all, but now that it’s been explained hopefully we shall never speak of it again.) Good enough to give a few more issues, partially out of respect for Marv Wolfman’s work.

Young Allies 70th Anniversary Special 1: It’s the Roger Stern trifecta this week, as this is so far my favorite of the anniversary issues. I think it works better than the others because it’s actually a contemporary Cap (Bucky) story with flashbacks to the war. The original stories must have been pretty racist, because Stern explains them away as just “comic books” and the only one reprinted here is a prose story. Also includes a “Terry Vance, The School Boy Sleuth” reprint for no apparent reason.

Incognito 4: On the text page, Brubaker says this is “one of my favorite issues so far in the series, where the knife just keeps twisting.” I can’t say it any better than that. The “Pulp Hero” feature this month is “Operator #5”, who I had never heard of. (Jess Nevins, who does these articles, is working on a book about the pulp heroes – I assume these articles are part of his research.)