A weekly column in which Jake gives
short blurbs about the comics he’s
picked up that week. Reviewed in the order read, which varies but generally by
increasing anticipation. Disclaimer: he
knows very little about art, at least not enough to considerably honor such
tremendous undertakings, so…yeh,
there’s that.
Star Trek/Green Lantern #1
Writer: Mike Johnson
Art: Angel Hernandez
Colors: Alejandro Sanchez
Letters: Neil Uyetake
IDW/DC Comics
Because you demanded it, I give you a
DC comic on the Pull List. Kinda. Anyway, as you can tell by the cover, sadly
this is not Next Gen Star Trek but rather…New Gen Star Trek but at least it means Karl Urban and Simon
Pegg. As with any crossover of this
nature, the goal should be a fun adventure that highlights the best of both
series and it seems like that is Johnson’s aim. The first
issue is set-up in any case and focuses mainly on the Star Trek side of things
but throws in enough mystery to keep things interesting. Hernandez does a serviceable job though his
faces sometimes feel ill-defined.
Sanchez does a splendid job beyond the customary ring effects, using
atmospheric lighting to set many a scene.
Overall, the Spectrum War looks to be a fun and rare crossover between
the two properties.
Spider-Verse #3
Writer: Mike Costa
Artist: Andre Araujo
Color Artist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Marvel Comics
As the Sinister Six closes in, our
spider-heroes are betrayed by one of their own.
Costa chooses Spider-Man U.K. as one of this issues focal points,
through whom we get his evaluation on his teammates proficiency, which makes
for an interesting and entertaining breakdown.
Costa also moves the plot along significantly as we learn something of
why Osborn wants to capture the webbed warriors (answer not what you might
think). Overall, Costa does a good job
capturing the voices of the characters and navigating through the mystery of
the title. The same cannot be said,
however, for the art. The problems that
have nagged at the title from the start, awkward faces and dimensions, continue
and are more noticeable here. Araujo’s facial work appears so
cartoon as to be jarring (perhaps that’s
why his Spider-Ham feels the most natural).
Further, his body proportions are inconsistent at times and his Kraven
the Hunter looks less like an Eastern European badass and more like Carl from
Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Spider-Verse is
a difficult sell as is, with somewhat obscure characters and an ill-defined
(though eventually rewarding) plot. The
art certainly isn’t
helping matters.
Ghost Racers #2
Story: Felipe Smith
Art: Juan Gedeon
Colors: Tamra Bonvillian
Lettering: VC’s Travis Lanham
Marvel Comics
As Ghost Racers heads into its second
issue, we get the customary backstory of Robbie Reyes, how he became involved
with the Killiseum, and his relationship to the Spirit of Eli. Naturally, there are some significant differences
from All-New Ghost Rider and that, along with some sharp writing by Smith, keep
the backstory segments fresh and relevant.
In the present, Arcade’s
scheme to force Reyes to lose begins.
Gedeon and Bonvillian get some new Ghost Riders to play with both in
present and past, and the results are pretty fun and exciting (one racer
appears to be riding a shark?!?!) Some of Gedeon’s faces are less-detailed than they should be in some
scenes, but overall the art sells, particularly when Bonvillian gets to splash
some new colors amongst the requisite orange firestorm. With a second issue in the books, Ghost
Racers looks to be hitting its stride in top form.
BOOK OF THE WEEK
Spider-Island #14
Writer: Christos Gage (Tom DeFalco
& Ron Frenz)
Artist: Paco Diaz (Ron Frenz w/Sal
Buscema)
Colorist Artist: Frank D’Armata (Andrew Crossley)
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Marvel Comics
Spider-Island is easily one of the
better Spider-themed events in recent memory and this book, written by frequent
Spider scribe Christos Gage, is basically a What If The Heroes Lost
Spider-Island?. Which means it’s Marvel Zombies but with
Spider-People, which is pretty damn fun.
Venom, Spider-Woman and Vision lead the last vestiges of human
resistance in one (or two) desperate plan(s) for a cure. Gage nails Flash Thompson, host of the
symbiote, and effortlessly catches up new readers on the long-past event while
avoiding stale narration. Venom here isn’t as wantonly depressive as he
was under original writer Rick Remender despite the circumstances, seeming more
like a man with a plan that probably won’t mean anything than angsty morose shell of a man, which is
a very good thing, run-on sentences aside.
The art is something of a puzzle.
While very nice when it comes to action and character expression, the
colors aren’t necessarily
flush with the expected tone, appearing more superheroic than apocalyptic
(which may be a misguided personal expectation rather than a soundly based
one). Diaz for his part, manages set a
grim and desperate mood through choses of perspective and panel composition,
which a very neat effect. In the back up
story, we’ve got a
Spider-Girl: May Parker tale spinning right off the heels of the Spider-Verse
event (not the current book), which makes it feel oddly misplaced. Like it should be attached to the actual
current Spider-Verse book or, more appropriately, come out right after that
event. In any case, it’s a decent tale, one fans of
the character are sure to enjoy, as May deals with the emotional fallout from
battling the Inheritors. Spider-Island
may be a pricey book, but with Gage penning the always cool Flash-Venom, it’s honestly worth the cost.
So what did you pick up this week?
Agree or disagree with anything said here?
Let us know in the comments.
Labels: Comics, DC Comics, Ghost Racers, Green Lantern, IDW Publishing, Image Comics, Marvel Comics, Spider Island, Star Trek
