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Review Date: 02/12/2010
Good King Leonardo has decreed that we review this week
three titles from Marvel and DC Comics starring
some of our more longer-lasting, veteran superheroes, to
see how they're holding-up these days:
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Fantastic
Four #575
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Jonathan Hickman: Writer
Dale Eaglesham: Art
Paul Mounts: Colors
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Marvel's long-running Fantastic
Four title is up to issue #575 this month. The
current issue features a return of the Fantastic Four's
first super-villain adversary, the Moleman.
Marvel has also expanded the FF family over the past
few years; in addition to the original foursome of
team leader Reed Richards, Sue "Invisible Girl" Richards,
Johnny "The Human Torch" Storm and Ben "The Thing"
Grimm, the comic title now features Reed and
Sue's two pre-teen children, Franklin and Valeria
Richards.
Issue
#575 is entitled "Prime Elements 1: The Abandoned
City Of The High Evolutionary." The plot centers
upon the FF's old adversary the Moleman returning
to the surface world to seek the team's assistance
against a threat to his subterraneum kingdom.
It seems that a former mad scientist known as The
High Evolutionary had designed a fantastic underground
city, now abandoned but recently discovered by the
Moleman's "Moloid" sub-human subjects. The Moloids
are rebelling against the Moleman by moving to the
empty city, which has technology that transforms
them into independent, high intelligence people.
The mechanized city is also scheduled to rise to the
surface world in the near future. So its off to the
underworld with this new FF/Moleman alliance to check-out
the unfolding drama.
This is an action issue just packed with a wide range
of science fiction plot elements that are not seen very
often in your standard superhero-oriented comic book
tale. A strong sub-plot focuses on the rebellion
of the Moloids against the Moleman, exploring the
issue of the value of their freedom versus living
under the benevolent dictatorship of the Moleman.
The art is exceptional in this comic book, with very
impressive full-page and two-page panoramas visualizing
the grandeur of the underground abandoned city.
I was also very impressed with a two-page scene on
pages 4 and 5 of the issue, in which the Moleman makes
a grand return to the surface world by barreling up
from beneath the Baxter Building into the FF headquarters
lobby.
I loved the balanced blend of superhero
and science fiction elements in this tale. My
one question is regarding a one-page narrative at
the story's end, in which writer Jonathan Hickman
updates us on major story activities that continue
in the following two weeks after the issue's
conclusion on the previous page. I don't know
if this means that this story was a one-shot storyline;
if not, why not skip this narrative and spend a good,
fun portion of issue #576 giving us a comic book plot/visual
of those interesting upcoming two weeks?
Let's hope that the narrative is just a way of advancing
this very entertaining tale into another stage in
the next issue.
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The
Flash: Rebirth #5
Publisher: D.C. Comics
Geoff Johns: Writer
Ethan Van Sciver: Art
Brian Miller: Colors
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Issue #5 is currently available
in the 6-issue mini-series heralding the return to
the DC universe of Barry Allen, the original Silver
Age Flash. The story is entitled "Mother, May
I" and is written by veteran Geoff Johns with art
by Ethan Van Sciver and Brian Miller. I had
given a disappointing negative review to the first
issue in this series, and as such decided to return
to it with the current issue to see if the comic quality
has improved.
The plot in the current issue lays-out an issue-long
mega-battle between the evil Reverse Flash from the
future (always identified as wearing a yellow Flash
costume) versus all of the various Flashes and Kid
Flashes, led by Barry Allen. A parallel sub-plot
interweaves Allen's philosophical musings about feeling
alone in his role as The Flash, and lamenting the
loss early in his life of his mother. The mega-battle
climaxes with the Reverse Flash revealing that in
his time-traveling he was Barry's mother's murderer.
The issue ends in a cliffhanger as he time-travels
to the past to try and erase Allen's wife Iris from
the present.
While the plot in issue #5 isn't the dysfunctional,
scattered mess of issue #1, there's still very little
story plot to enjoy. It's rare for esteemed
writer Geoff Johns to trip-up, but everyone's human
and I guess he's due for a subpar writing performance.
If the constant action of this issue-long big
battle was interesting, that action could have carried
the lack of story, here. But it's not interesting-its
really hard to do anything creative with an entire
issue's worth of a bunch of Flashes running circles
around an evil Flash and being outrun and outclassed
by the guy. My advice would have been to split
the story layout 50-50 between action and real progression
of a story plot.
As a final review comment, there's a very weird segment
in the middle of the story in which the Wally West
Flash inexplicably, through some unrevealed power,
changes the fashion and color of every Flash's uniform
that they're wearing in the blink of an eye.
It made no plot sense, and just added to the jarring
feel of story action bouncing around for no good reason.
So with an unfortunate but firm thumbs-down,
my advice is to skip this subpar mini-series and either
check-out some Flash back issues available at That's
Entertainment, or wait for whatever D.C. chooses
to next publish in the way of a Flash title after
this mini-series wraps-up with next month's issue
#6.
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Justice
Society Of America Annual #2
Publisher: D.C. Comics
Keith Giffen & Matthew Sturges: Writers
Tom Derenick: Pencils
Rodney Ramos: Inks
Allen Passalaqua: Colors
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DC Comics has issued this past week Annual #2 of its
Justice Society of America (JSA) title. The
annual is written by the team of veteran writer Keith
Giffen and Matthew Sturges, with art by the team of
Tom Derenick, Rodney Ramos and Allen Passalaqua.
Followers of this title know that DC brought the JSA
back into its own title a few years ago, beginning
with a classic quality run by writer Geoff Johns.
As such, I was interested in reading this issue to
see how the title is holding-up quality-wise, now
that Johns is no longer writing the series.
The story is entitled "Walking Papers," and as an
Annual is an extra-long, 46-page tale. We're
thrown right into the action from page one, as the
JSA All-Stars arrive at a prison for supervillains
to quell a riot reportedly started by their incarcertaed
former member Magog. The plot quickly thickens
with three interweaving sub-plots. The main
story thread is a mega-battle which escalates as more
and more JSA members arrive on the scene. The
second stroyline focuses on Magog working to convince
the JSA as they battle him that he's not a bad guy
here, but rather in his own stubborn way is trying
to counter an evil conspiracy that the prison is merely
a camoflauged front for. A third storythread
focuses on tension between the "JSA All-Stars" and
the mainstream JSA members, who apparently have split
apart from each other in previous JSA issues.
It wouldn't be fair to review this comic in comparison
to the earlier Geoff Johns run of JSA, given the rare
classic quality of what Johns produced for the first
few years of this title. As such, reviewed on
its own accord, this is a decent and enjoyable comic
book. Writer Giffen's style is more old
school, giving us a traditional comic book plot that
reminds me of comics from about 20 years ago, with
less literate quality than some of today's comic
book productions. There's nothing wrong with
that when the effort and quality are o.k. Here,
we have a very detailed and entertaining tale that
combines well-presented action with an interesting
story. I liked both the mystery of what the
prison was really hiding, as well as the growing tension
between the older JSA members and their split-off
younger JSA All-Star rivels/allies. So its a
definite thumbs-up for this Annual #2 JSA issue, with
the $4.99 price worth spending for its extra-length
story.
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Ongoing
Contest Reminder!!!
Just a quick reminder that
you have until Wednesday, February 10 to e-mail us at Gordon_A@msn.com with your entry for our current
contest, in which you're telling us about your favorite
non-superhero oriented comic book character or comic book
title. So whether its a western, romance, horror,
or any other genre in which folks don't fly around wearing
capes and using heat vision, drop us an e-mail and tell
us what you like to read. First prize is a $10.00 gift
certificate to That's Entertainment.
That's all for now, so have a great comic book reading
week and see you again next week Here In Bongo Congo!
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