The Back Stack – February 7, 2012

And here we are once again.  Welcome to the Back Stack where I take a look at the previous week’s comic offerings and give you my perspective on them.

Unlike previous Back Stacks, I wanted to take a moment to discuss some comic news that came my way late last week.

Six titles from the New 52 are going to get cancelled including Blackhawks, Hawk and Dove, Men of War, O.M.A.C., and the two I’m bummed a bit about, Mister Terrific, and Static Shock.  While I did drop Mister Terrific reluctantly out of financial reasons, it and Static Shock were generally decent books.  It’s a shame for me particularly because Static Shock’s been having a really tough time just getting a monthly series and once they reach #8, it’s done.

I’m not nearly as broken up about this as I was when Spider-Girl got unceremoniously cancelled with issue #8 last year, and yes, I am planning a Grave Issues where I review the Family Values trade, for whenever I figure out images on these blogs.  However, I do empathize with people when a well-liked, albeit possibly not popular, book gets cancelled, whether I read it or not.  I think it hurt most with the DC Comics re-launch and the end of the old series’.  While titles like Green Lantern and Batman were generally unaffected, we lost Power Girl, Teen Titans, Wonder Woman, Superman, and so many others as they became reformed to meet the new environment of the relaunch.

Sure, we still HAVE a Superman book.  Sure, we still HAVE a Teen Titans book.  Sure, we still HAVE a title that CLAIMS to be a Wonder Woman book.  However, they’re not the titles or, arguably, the characters we’ve followed for generations.  People on the outside looking in were probably looking in because of what they’ve heard about the characters and stories from others or in the media.  The principle behind the relaunch is that it was made to keep new readers from worrying about continuity issues as they jumped into a book that was far beyond 600 issues.  I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again.  The only ones who make continuity a barricade for new readers are the writers themselves.  It’s extremely possible for a comic to not only be continuity-light, but also be engaging for the reader who has been reading for decades.  That’s just the failure of the writers for not making them accessible.

Even after the relaunch, I have a hard time recommending DC comics for people who just want to get into comics because the first story arcs have either been all over the place or an absolute mess.  There are only a few titles I’ve had no fears with recommending to new readers and telling them “don’t worry about the continuity.”  However, I also need to criticize some of the new readers and tell them that some of them are being really unreasonable in terms of how much they expect to be spelled out for them.  Comics want you to buy MORE comics.  A good comic will help you along so you aren’t lost, but a GREAT comic will make you interested in what happened before or what happens next.

Okay, I’ve ranted long enough on this.  What are the titles coming out?

Batman Incorporated (by Grant Morrison, art by Chris Burnham):  I’m semi-interested.  On one hand, Grant Morrison absolutely de-railed Action Comics, but on the other hand he has a recent track record with Batman, including the previous Batman Incorporated series.  While I hesitate to add too many more books to my list, this one I may take a peek at.

Earth 2 (by James Robinson, art by Nicola Scott):  …and I had such high hopes for this book.  The return of Earth 2 was something I’ve been anticipating since Justice Society of America and JSA All-Stars went under in the relaunch.  Unfortunately, it appears to be helmed by the man responsible for Justice League: Cry For Justice, which murdered long-time supporting characters left and right, featured moronic heroes, had some flimsy pro-active hero message, and a villain who flip-flopped between genius and idiot.  I really hope this is more of a return to form with him, but I’m hesitant to say the least.  I’ll check it out, but I’m not expecting much from Robinson.

World’s Finest (by Paul Levitz, art by George Perez):  Something else I’ve waited for since the relaunch.  Power Girl!  And she’s being joined by Huntress as two Earth 2 wayward heroes trying to find their way home.  I’ve read that this is going to be a much more serious, darker Power Girl, but we’ll see how long that lasts.  My biggest concern is that they turn two inarguable sex symbols in all of comics into… well… sex symbols.  I hope that Levitz and Perez keep the cheesecake down and focus more on character and action since these are two who can deliver.

Dial H (by China Mieville, art by Mateus Santoluoco):  Talk about mouthfuls in writer/artist names.  This is apparently a take on the pulp hero mechanic from way back when.  I’m… going to pass on this one unless the reviews blow me away.

G.I. Combat (by J.T. Krul, art by Ariel Olivetti):  So, we lost Men at War for… Men at War.  Well, I didn’t buy Men at War, so why should I buy G.I. Combat instead?  Pass.

The Ravagers (by Howard Mackie, art by Ian Churchill):  Apparently a spin-off from Teen Titans and Superboy, making me think Rose Wilson gets herself a crew of heroes to fight against N.O.W.H.E.R.E.  I’m semi-intrigued by this, but I’m cautious as to WHICH Rose Wilson will show up.  The one who was reformed from her past, or the one with a chip on her shoulder.  Like Dial H, I’m going to take a wait and see approach, but I’ll be more inclined to check this one out then that one.

One more thing before we get rolling.  Since this is the first Back Stack to be posted by my local comic shop, Big Ben’s Comix Oasis, I wanted to give a quick rundown of my ratings system that I seem to have inadvertently developed, since I hope this results in an influx of new readers.  It should be simple enough, but here is what to expect.

Highly Recommended – The cream of the crop, or just the stand-out for the week.  If you’re on a limited budget, choosing these books is a safe bet.  To avoid fanboying out, I’m going to try to limit myself as to how many I say are Highly Recommended.

Recommended – A book that I enjoyed.  There may be some nagging issues here or there, but it’s not enough to drag the book itself down.  These are generally enjoyable reads and while not good enough for me to enthusiastically tell you to go out and buy, I’d definitely say that you’d more than likely enjoy them.

Cautiously Recommended – A book much more flawed, or there may be a controversial issue surrounding it (i.e. sex, heavy drug use, etc.).  While these books may be good, they may not be books I’d point out as being go-to buys.  Or, they could be bad, but not that bad.  This is a bit of a middle ground rating, so please treat it as such.  Also, a warning, I am a bit sentimental with some series’, so if you see this and the review doesn’t wow you, please don’t hesitate to pass on them.  I won’t be offended in the slightest and, as with all ratings, these really are your call in the end.

Pass – Whether it just misses the mark or is an absolute disaster (may be accompanied by an appropriate adjective), these are the books that I can’t, in good conscience, recommend.  Sometimes it may come down to pricing, sometimes it could be atrocious artwork, a dumbass story mechanic, crappy characterization, or a combination thereof.  However, one issue usually won’t put it in the pass category alone, unless it hurts the book that badly.

Also, yes, I will review trade paperbacks as I read them.  Currently, I have Avengers Forever, The Dark Knight Returns, Blackest Night, and others to read, so as I finally get through those, I’ll be sure to share my thoughts as older trade paperbacks or hardcovers are far easier to find than old single issues, which I may or may not review.  If I do review old single issues, rest assured that they’ll likely be extremely good… or so bad that I just need to vent about it.

That out of the way, let’s get this show on the road!  Finally!

Amazing Spider-Man #679 concludes the “Bad Tuesday” scenario where New York City is completely destroyed at 3:11.  When we left our hero, Spidey had no idea how to save the day and there was one minute to go… one minute and 12 hours.  That’s right.  The watch he found previously was an analog watch and it was, in fact, 3:11 AM, not PM.  This is kind of a fun little “Wah-Wah” moment, but it’s sort of cheap too.  Most analog watches today have a date or day setting on them, so if it did go past midnight, it would technically be Wednesday.  Then again, there was the newspaper highlighting Tuesday’s events and it may have been an old watch, so whatever.  What was a bit of a treat was the return of Silver Sable, who liplocks with Spidey mid-book.  In addition, Peter Parker has a pseudo-date with Mary Jane.  While that does feel forced, it combined with the Silver Sable kiss makes me think of how much of a lady’s man Marvel really makes him out to be.  Mary Jane Watson, Gwen Stacy, Carlie Quesada (I mean Cooper, silly me), Black Cat, Silver Sable, Ms. Marvel, Jessica Jones (sort of), Kitty Pryde (Ultimate universe)… I’m sure I’m missing SEVERAL, but you get the picture.  Spidey doesn’t have to be a perpetual downer all the time to be interesting.  He just needs to be human and the good along with the bad.  This story was a good balance of human, hero, and story.  While the overall impact on the series is likely minimal, and while not the best Spider-Man story, it is one I enjoyed.

Verdict – Highly Recommended

Avengers Academy #25 continues the awesome ride that has been Avengers Academy.  This issue concludes the story involving return of the villain known as Hybrid and the future Reptil.  We get some good character moments and some well-noticed characterization from the typically apathetic Finesse.  Also, it’s cool to see characters who aren’t a part of Avengers Academy step up, especially Sentinel.  It ends with a good mystery revolving the recently suspected deceased Jocasta, the return of Veil, and an ultimatum about Avengers Academy being a bad idea and needing to be shut down.  If I had one complaint about the west coast move, it’s that, having seen Spider-Girl in the first issue of the move… she was nowhere to be seen and that was a huge bummer for me since she’s probably my favorite superhero right now.  But, that’s just me and, taking that out, you have one of Marvel’s best books continuing strong.

Verdict – Highly Recommended

Avengers X-Sanction #3.  I was going to skip reviewing this one in my Back Stack because I missed issue #2, but felt it might make things a bit more fair for people who are new to comics and may consider picking this up as their first comic… though why you’d pick a middle-to-the-end issue in a mini-series, limited series, or even maxi-series is beyond me.  Good news if you do decide to make this a first comic pick-up for you is that this issue doesn’t require a whole lot of prior knowledge about the characters or the other two issues.  Everything is clean and precise, to the point, and even if you only have pop-culture knowledge of certain Marvel heroes, you won’t be left in the dark.  Sure, it may be jarring to know that Cyclops has a son he rocketed into the future in Cable and that Cable has an adoptive daughter from his relative past in Hope, comic family trees are funny like that, but it’s still a story that people can just pick up and not feel like they need a lot of prior comic knowledge to understand the situation, and that is the hallmark of great comic writing.  The issue is solid, good action bits, and the pacing is wonderful.  The complaints are few and far between and… well… now I gotta find issue #2 just out of pure interest on seeing how Cable brought down Iron Man.  Next, we get Marvel’s big moneymakers showing up for the fight in the final issue.  Cable vs. Spider-Man and Wolverine.  One thing on that, though?  The last panel where Wolverine came in with Spider-Man, ready to fight Cable, he seemed pretty... gun happy.  Almost like he was happy to be here to do some killin'.  Really, I thought Wolverine was passed that.  And on the cover preview page, he and Spider-Man have different costumes on.  What the heck?!  Still, you can bet I’ll be reviewing the last issue, especially since I'm looking forward to Avengers vs. X-Men.  So much for my resolution not to buy into any more random side-series’ that aren’t the summer event comics, huh?

Verdict – Highly Recommended

Defenders #3.  Again, I missed issue #2.  I was late getting to my comic shop that week and I hadn’t updated my pull list to reflect new requests at the time.  Same principal as Avengers X-Sanction #3, only this one I think is a better candidate for someone’s first issue… in principal, at least.  This issue seems to be a polar opposite of X-Sanction #3 in that it is pretty well-woven with its plotline, but the art and character falls short by comparison.  Defenders has a lot of potential, but I find a lot of it is unrealized.  I want this book to succeed just so we can have teams other than Avengers and X-Men with different adjectives, verbs, or nouns thrown in with it as the only means of differentiation.  Sure, we have the Fantastic Four, but variety really is the spice of life.  Part of why I’m sad Young Alies got cancelled after only six issues some time back.  This book is decent if you’ve been following, but unlike X-Sanction, it’s not as catch-up friendly or as exciting.  Still, though, there are some fun bits to be had and some fun things on the horizon, it seems, but for now, the team itself still needs to find its legs.

Verdict – Cautiously Recommended

In spite of my movement to cut down on my pull list, I decided to try out Doctor Who #14.  It was a pretty decent story.  Admittedly, I’m dropping in on the second part of a four-part story, so it’s probably part of why the story didn’t totally wow me.  On one hand, the characterization was pretty good, but on the other hand I felt that the artwork was just awful.  Now, I’m a believer that story and character trump artwork, but this book is really putting that mindset to the test.  This is just my personal feeling, but while you can tell what is supposed to be what, it’s just not appealing to look at.  I don’t know if I’m going to stick with it, but it’s not a bad story, especially in this newly-minted Who-vian’s opinion.

Verdict – Cautiously Recommended

Fear Itself:  The Fearless #8 of 12.  I think the biggest problem with this series is that it’s just too darn long.  I mean, how much needs to be told and just how wordy do you need to be?  Nothing particularly interesting happened until the last couple pages when Valkyrie went to Utopia to get the hammer that the former Juggernaut was using.  We also get a fairly creepy moment where a guy is lusting over a naked Sin.  Speaking of Sin, we see she’s amassed an army… of Marvel Universe low-tier villains who’ll probably be brushed aside in the end.  The series remains high-stake, but again, far too long for its own good and this is an issue you can just skip.

Verdict – Pass

Hulk #48 continues to be solid, but I can’t help but wonder how much shelf life he has.  Lately, it’s been his villains and supporting cast that’s kept the book intriguing, which isn’t a bad thing, especially when you’re bringing in sub-D-list characters who are sparsely seen and inventing new ones.  However, that kind of takes away from Red Hulk since, well, he’s the star of this series.  This issue was decent, continuing the assault from Zero/One from last issue and Red Hulk’s confrontation with his daughter, the Red She-Hulk.  One thing I need to say, though, I’m starting to miss the “Lil’ Hulks” backups.  Decent issue, just not a whole lot to say about it.

Verdict – Recommended

Justice League International #6 follows up on the events of the first issue where bomb-crazed activists blew up the Hall of Justice for one stupid reason or another.  We get some great character moments here and it continues to affirm to me that THIS is the premiere team book in the DC Universe right now.  Great characters, intriguing plotlines that don’t talk down to the readers, and pretty darn good artwork.  The JLI finally gets approved by the United Nations council who originally put them together and, at their coming out party, they get blown up by the masterminds behind the activists (supposedly).  Incidently, Batman was absent from the coming out party, which may lead to the “way out” from the blast, even though Booster Gold has a force field, but I’m not exactly perfectly well-versed in his tech, especially in the new DC Universe.  Good issue, hope you’re reading it.

Verdict – Recommended

Sonic the Hedgehog #233.  This issue is a great example of what I’ve said about Ian Flynn’s writing for so long now, especially in contrast to what we’ve gotten recently from him.  He’s good in short burst stories and this one was actually pretty good.  I’m not thrilled with the structure of the legal system of New Mobotropois, especially since it’s more or less EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE UNDERDEVELOPED KNOTTHOLE VILAGE.  I mean, seriously, a city that found an even balance between its royal monarchs and a diplomatic democracy couldn’t grow its legal procedures up from an underground rebellion’s makeshift methods?  Was this just to get fanservice from having seen Hip and Hop again?  Seriously, who was begging to see Hip and Hop again?

Anyway, we learn the extent of King Nagus’ grip on the city and kingdom, as well as learning some of the artificial backstory for Geoffrey St. John.  It’s very vague and, honestly, things seem a little forced at times, leading me to believe he’s lying about a lot of it or this is even worse written than I thought.  As for the art, while it’s still not my favorite art in the history of Sonic, it does seem to be getting better... slowly.  I think I like it best in the follow-up story that brings back another throwback character, Harvey Who, and all the ominous shading and texturing that is shown.  A big problem happens in the beginning of the first story, though, when word balloons don’t have a cohesive flow to them.  Typically, balloons in American comics are read left-to-right while going downward.  In this one, sometimes it’s top-to-bottom while going rightward.  This creates some disorientation and I think it really could have been fixed if the editor was just doing his job.

Overall, a much, much, MUCH better Sonic affair than we’ve had recently and one of the best issues Ian Flynn’s done.  Then again, he hasn’t exactly had a very high bar to meet, has he?

Verdict – Recommended

Sonic Super Special #2, on the other hand, was an expensive wreck that only had one redeeming quality for me personally.  It featured an issue of Sonic that I’d sadly missed out on once upon a time.  The issues collected are in celebration of Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast.  WHY this issue chose to celebrate the game that can be argued as the beginning of Sonic the Hedgehog’s DECLINE is beyond me.  Now, that’s not to call Sonic Adventure itself a bad game, but it did start a pattern of hub-world oriented, speed-over-platforming centric, new characters every game who add nothing to the universe, Sonic 2006-esque console messes.  That is until Sonic Colors for Wii.  As for this, it’s good if you’re a fan of Sonic Adventure, but I think it’s still far overpriced.

There are things even worse than the price, though, and that’s the insight to the psyche of the likes of Ian Flynn, namely his disregard for the character Bunnie formerly-Rabbot.  It seems he has plans for her, but if we know Flynn, drawn-out stories aren’t his strong suit and this could end very disappointing.  Also, we get a bit of a love-fest for Amy Rose and it recommends stories for fans of her via order form advertisement.  Problem?  THOSE STORIES SUCK (except Sonic #25)!  The next “Super Special” is supposed to be tied in with Sonic 4 Episode II, so new material may be nice to have… then again, it could only be issue length and we could get more rehashes.  Look, if I want old stories, just put out the trades like you have been, Archie.  Otherwise, stop treating these mega-sized magazines like new material.  Then again, this stuff’s so old by the last magazine’s comparison that it probably IS new material to some readers.

One last thing.  Tracey Yardley.  For the past while, I’ve been calling Tracey “she,” “her,” and the like.  Tracey is apparently a male.  So… sorry, my bad.  This doesn’t make him a better writer by any stretch though.

Verdict – Pass

Static Shock #6 is the conclusion to Static’s first trek in New York City.  We get some clarification about the clone of his sister, although I still think the angle was a bit heavy for asking readers to accept it right off the bat in issue #1.  Static remains an entirely enjoyable character, but I feel this storyline was just all over the place.  It lacked coherency and everything didn’t have a nice flow to it.  I really feel that this one was rushed.  While I’m still enjoying this series, the first story arc was a real hit or miss over the first six issues.  If you’re interested in the series, I say wait for the next issue.

Verdict – Pass

Our last item of the day is the continuing adventures of mutant awesomeness in Uncanny X-Men #6.  This issue continues the battle with the Immortal Man, a one-off from the Uncanny X-Force series.  We also learn of a character named Savage, a higher-learning sentient being who was part of an ancient race.  He had a partner who is tied to the Immortal Man and is, long story short, in a world-overthrowing mood.  We get some good character moments with the disappearance of Magik and Colossus’ quick movement to recover her as the Juggernaut, the next issue will probably be very action heavy.  I also liked the dynamics between Magneto and Psylocke.  I don’t know why I’m getting ship-happy with this book, but I’ve seen Cyclops hooking up with Storm down the line and I’m sort of starting to see a bit of Magneto and Psylocke.  Probably will face some protests from Rogue if that happens, but hey, even I read too much into things.

Verdict – Recommended

Whew, some week, huh?  I think we broke a record for how many “Highly Recommendeds” I had here, but there were a lot of good books… and a lot of really bad ones too.  I think last week may have been a kinder week because of fewer bad books, this week was well worth it if only because the good ones were worth looking for.  And I finally got to say something good about Sonic the Hedgehog for once!

Until next time, this has been The Back Stack reminding you that sometimes, you just need to sit down, relax, and enjoy some good comics.

Cheers;

Master Graveheart

#SaveDerpy