PULL LIST 05-29-08 Final Crisis #1 Batman #677 All-Star Superman #11 New Avengers #41 1985 #1 Angel: Revelations #1 Fables #73 Dan Dare #6 Judenhass

Final Crisis #1
You can read a longer review for this one here, (Comic Review: Final Crisis #1), but I thought I’d chime in with my own thoughts on DC’s big event book, and I have to say, my thoughts kind of mirror those of MajorJJH. There’s a lot going on here, but very little that I care about. It might not help that I didn’t read Countdown, or anything that tied into that series, but I’ve got enough info that I can follow the basic story. I wish the issue had centered on Det. Dan Turpin because he had the best moments of the story, and the issue felt more focused when it was dealing with him. All the nonsense with Metron, and the Monitors, and Libra was just boring. It’s typical Grant Morrison, and while I’m not the biggest Morrison fan in the world, my opinion of this issue was colored by another of his books I read this week, which I’ll get to in a second. I do get the feeling that this will make more sense once the whole thing is done, which is kind of why I’m thinking of just waiting for the trade on this one. I will give it up for J.G. Jones‘ art, which looks fantastic, and assuming that he does all the art on the series to this caliber, it’ll make for a great looking trade. I’m giving this the benefit of the doubt though, based on Morrison’s track record, and the beautiful art. And to be fair, my interest is pretty low in the series and in most DC books as a whole, so I might not be the best audience for this. I can appreciate the craft put into the issue though. —3 out of 5

Batman #677
This was actually the third Grant Morrison book I read this week, and it changed my opinion of Final Crisis #1 a bit. See, I bought the first part of the “Batman R.I.P.“ story when it came out a few weeks ago, and I was a little disappointed by it, because I couldn’t understand what was going on. To be fair, I haven’t been reading Morrison’s run up to now, so I figured there would be stuff I missed, but I was disappointed all the same. Well, with this issue, we’re given a bit more information as to what’s going on, and I found myself enjoying the story much more, and that gives me hope for the rest of Final Crisis. Still, there’s a lot going on with this issue. Batman may be schizophrenic, his new girlfriend may be walking him into a trap, and Alfred may be his father. Lots of big revelations are hinted at, and now I’m actually interested in what it all could mean. So, kudos to Morrison for keeping me around for one more issue of Batman. Tony Daniel‘s continues on art, and he does a pretty good job still. The art is very reminiscent of Jim Lee, without being quite so over-rendered. So I’d say if you want to check this out, give the first two issues a shot. Hopefully the story will continue to improve as it goes on. —4 out of 5

All-Star Superman #11
And then we come to the Grant Morrison book I never have any problems with, because it’s totally accessible and completely well done. Yes, All Star Superman is still one of the best books from DC, regardless of how long it is between issues. This issue finds Lex Luther breaking out of prison, Superman fighting a rogue Red Star, and the possible death of the Man of Steel. Not that I really believe that will happen, but with this story, I never know what to expect. It’s more silver age madness, and with this being the penultimate issue, those waiting for the second collection won’t have to wait too much longer for the rest of the story. The art by Frank Quietly is up to his normal standards, which makes the wait between issues worth it. Look, it’s issue 11 so I’m not going to convince readers to jump on at this point, but this is going to make a beautiful Absolute edition, and it’s hands down the best Superman story I’ve read in years. —5 out of 5

New Avengers #41
Switching gears, we come to a series I care less and less about with each passing issue. I’ll tell you how little I care about the series; I just had to go to Marvel’s webpage to remind myself what actually happened. This issue flashes back to the first arc of New Avengers and shows what the S.H.E.I.L.D. agents were doing there. Not surprisingly, they were all Skrulls looking for vibranium (Marvel’s other magic metal). Yeah, we needed a full issue to explain a plot point from three years ago? The art by Billy Tan is passable, just standard Marvel house style these days. The script has a few fun moments between Ka-zar, Shanna, and Spider-man, but this is just boring to me. It’s time to move on and show us some action. —2 out of 5

1985 #1
Mark Millar‘s fumetti dream project finally comes to light, although they’ve had to drop the photo comic style, in favor of traditional art from Tommy Lee Edwards. The transition is pretty seamless, as Edwards uses a realistic style, in the vein of Michael Lark, Alex Maleev, or Michael Gaydos; although I still wish they had stuck with the original plan, just for uniqueness sake. Still, this is a decent first issue, setting up the story of a young comics fan who learns that the villains of the Marvel universe may have stepped into the real world. Think of it as the flip side to Millar’s own Kick-ass series, and like that series, Millar does a good job of establishing the characters, and more importantly, making the reader care about them. It’s a human drama with fantastical elements placed on top, but Millar makes the right decision in never straying to far from the main character. I’m curious to see where this goes, so I’ll be picking up the next issue. Could be a fun, but interesting ride. —4 out of 5

Angel: Revelations #1
Kind of the odd duck series of the week, this one I picked up due to the art by Adam Pollina, since I always enjoyed his work many moons ago when he was working on X-force. Well, he’s back now and his style has gone through a fairly big shift. It’s still very unique, all his figures are kind of distorted and overly skinny, but he makes the style work for him in this story. Unfortunately, the story is just kind of a boring retelling of Angel’s origin, detailing his life in a New England boarding school as his wings begin to emerge. The script by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is perfectly fine, but is similar to the story being told in a different Marvel Knights story right now, Jonathan Lapham’s Spider-man: With Great Power in that while the stories are perfectly fine, there just no new or interesting additions being made to the origin stories. Still, this is just a first issue, so there’s time for something interesting to be had, but I can’t really recommend this. The art and coloring look great, but the story is just too boring to suggest buying the issues. Wait for the trade on this one. —3 out of 5

Fables #73
I can’t write a review for this book. Each issue hardly changes at all in terms of quality, but it’s hard to recommend new readers to jump on at this point, since this is kind of getting to the end of writer Bill Willingham‘s master story that’s been going for the last few years. I guess this is as good a jumping on point as you’re going to find at this point, but really, the easiest place to jump on would be about the 4th or 5th trade. This issue starts the official war between the forces of Fabletown and the Adversary. Willingham seems to love these kinds of stories, detailing how each side is going to fight the war, and I always get a kick out of them too. It’s just more good stuff from one of the best series around. You’ve heard this before so I’ll just go with my normal score of —5 out of 5.

Dan Dare #6
Who knew that Virgin comics could actually put out a decent series, but here’s the evidence. I wonder how many people are reading this series, but any fan of science fiction should be reading this. Dan Dare continues to turn the tide in the battle against the Mekon, and this issue sees his plan start to come together. I’m as surprised as anyone to find myself really enjoying a book that’s a resurrection of an old British property, but Garth Ennis has done a great job explaining the characters to new readers and what makes them interesting. Dan Dare is a great character, and represents everything you’d want in an actual hero, and I can’t help but get choked up whenever he makes one of his speeches. I now that Ennis won’t be writing the next series, I only hope that the next writer can keep the quality up on this book. —4 out of 5

Judenhass
I wanted to bring this to people’s attention, because it’s the most important book to be released this month or possibly this year. This is Dave Sim‘s look at the history of anti-Semitism, and the horror of the Holocaust. The art is heartbreaking and breathtaking at the same time. Sim uses his photo-realistic style that he’s also using on Glamourpuss, but instead of using that style to show models, he reproduces historical figures and photos of actual Holocaust victims. Over the powerful artwork, he uses quotes to show how far back anti-Semitism. History fans will be riveted by this, but this is a book that everyone needs to read, just to remember what happened so we never let it happen again. Honestly, this is a book that everyone needs to look for and buy, and at 4 dollars, it’s well worth it. —5 out of 5