As promised, COMIC REVIEWS! Woo Hoo!
1. LUCIFER 32: In which most of the complex machinations of the last couple of issues come to fruition, and there's still a lot more dangling threads left to go. Nobody in comics right now is writing better stories that Mike Carey, and though I have often been critical of the team of Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly, they did outstanding work this time out. A
2. DAREDEVIL 39: This book-length courtroom scene was more gripping than anything in the last two seasons of the Practice. Have to wonder why Al Roker was moonlighting as a prosecuting attorney, though. Nice Doc Strange cameo. A
3. JLA 75: Well, the big wham-bam-thank you ma'am el finale grando has come and gone. I think Obsidian Age should be subtitled "Nitpickers Delight"...for every good thing Kelly did, it seems like he did two not so good things. I'm still not sure I really get all the time travel paradoxes, one reason why nine times out of ten I can't stand time travel stories... but overall, I think it was a ripping good adventure, with lots of nice character interaction and was one of the few big multi-issue epics that stayed interesting from beginning to end. I only wish Mahnke & Ngyuen could have drawn the whole thing, or at least the big finale...I was never all that impressed with Guichet & Propst. And this issue was a total artistic hodgepodge. Even the golden (in my eyes, anyway) team of Mahnke & Ngyuen was inconsistent...exactly how long are Aquaman's arms supposed to be in that splash page near the end of the book...! A-
4. SHANG-CHI, MASTER OF KUNG FU 3: My initial joy at seeing Moench and Gulacy together again, doing one of my favorite 70s characters and the character that they did the best, is becoming tempered somewhat by the realization that nothing of note is really happening. It's all nicely (if a tad inconsistently) drawn and well dialogued, but when you get right down to it, it's Shang, Leiko, Reston, and Tarr-again-versus the resurrected Fu Manchu-again-and we get a big James Bondian subplot-again. The one novel thing, the sexual tension between the married-to-Reston Leiko and Shang is addressed, and that's the highlight...and I'm not so sure that it should be. A-
5. THE TRUTH 1: When you overlook all the hoo-hah surrounding this clever "What If" style limited series, what you get with this first issue is a nicely scripted, though somewhat leadenly paced, story with irritatingly indifferent art and ghastly color by Kyle Baker. After I Die at Midnight, King David, and this I wish someone would take Baker's Wacom tablet and computer with Photoshop and throw them into the Hudson Bay. His actual drawing is OK, but looks rushed and sloppy, like he's trying to get finished so he can go back to drawing caricatures or animation or whatever yanks his crank these days...'cause it sure ain't comics. B+
6. THE FILTH 6: Grand, glorious incoherence as only Morrison can write. Problem is, I don't have a lot of patience for incoherence for its own sake, so this better kick in real soon. As usual, nicely drawn and colored. B+
7. Y: THE LAST MAN 5: I still say that this doesn't deserve half the praise it receives, but in spite of myself I actually enjoyed this chapter. Guess I'll be buying #6 after all. B
Music today so far: Redd Kross-Phaseshifter, T.Rex-The Slider.
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