DCU Quick Reviews
GOTHAM CENTRAL #18: My first reaction was that the art
looked
like what happens when you squash a widescreen movie to fit a TV
screen: Everyone looked really stretched out and
distorted. My enjoyment of this story was also hindered by the
fact that I'd forgotten what was going on in the previous two
issues. This is a series that I think I'll read in trades from
now on, if at all. Still, I did love the dig at Huntress'
horrendous new costume.
AQUAMAN #17: Not really interested. Some nice art
from
Patrick Gleason and Christian Alamy, and I liked the bit with Aquaman
using the sharks to corral the disobedient children, but why would
Aquaman
talk to a dolphin out loud? (I know, I know, it's a very small
nitpick, but the clunkiness of that scene really threw me out of the
story.)
HERO #15: Some great art from the new art team of Dale Eaglesham
and
Wade Von Grawbadger. This issue, Robby Reed meets up with Jerry
Feldon (the recipient of the HERO dial from the first arc). I'll
admit, I'm actually curious to see where this is going. I can
foresee about a dozen ways Robby's dark vision of the future could go
wrong but so far Pfeifer has
done a good job of keeping this series on track. Loved
Robby's line to Jerry about how the heroes of his time were "more
imaginative" than the stuff kids today think up.
BIRDS OF PREY #66: Hey, where'd the Alex Toth cover
go? OK,
the cover by Dan Brereton and Phil Noto isn't too shabby, but I was
promised a Toth cover, dammit! Anyway, I got this issue for the
Michael Golden art and it didn't disappoint. As for the story,
it's part five of six in some larger arc, but it's still relatively
self-contained as it deals with a flashback case involving the original
Black Canary. There are some interesting bits about the original
Black Canary being motivated to operate as a vigilante because the
Gotham police department wouldn't accept a female detective, but I
still felt as though I was missing a part of the bigger picture by
jumping into the story so late in the game. (Mainly because the
modern-day framing sequence makes it clear the old unsolved case still
has ramifications in the present, so if I ignore that, this was
actually a pretty nice stand-alone tale.)
HAWKMAN #27: Speaking of fill-in issues for series I don't
normally get, I picked up this "Past Lives" installment of
Hawkman
because of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. The story is basically
more of the creepy "fated love across intertwined lives" mumbo jumbo
that
drove me away from the series in the first place, but here it's dressed
up in noir trappings and served up stylishly by Phillips' moody
art. So: great art but entirely passable story.
WONDER WOMAN #203: I think just a couple months ago I was
mocking
those who complained that nothing ever happened in Rucka's WW series,
but now I'm starting to feel the same way. I mean, come on:
We already knew Stheno and Euryle were attempting to revive Medousa; we
don't need to see every little detail of Circe's spell along the
way. And I really didn't need to listen to Batman lecture on and
on about different bullet types in order to understand that he's an
expert at this kind of stuff. I think I'll be dropping this one.
ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #627: One of the revamped
Superman
titles. I haven't been following the Superman books for years so
I wasn't sure I'd be up to speed on what's going on, but it seems that
the line has regressed back to the concepts I remember from when
I was a kid: Superman playing Clark Kent as a bumbling, insecure
persona; Jimmy Olsen complaining that he's not treated like a "real"
reporter; even
Clark Kent falling out of helicopters so that he can change into
Superman (although now he actually lands in a dumpster before he
changes rather than making the change via superspeed in midair
(à
la Curt Swan)).
I'm not sure who the bad guy Replikon is (why do I want to guess that
he's from the 90s and Dan Jurgens is responsible?) but I actually liked
the image of a grotesquely deformed conglomerate Justice League
fighting Superman. (The mangled Hawkman wings were an especially
nice touch.)
