PULL LIST 07-30-08 Spider-man: With Great Power #5 Justice Society of America Annual #1 Batman: Death Mask #4 Ultimate Spider-man #124 Spider-man: Brand New Day – Extra #1 Northlanders #8

Spider-man: With Great Power #5
Last week, in regards to War Heroes #1, I asked how Tony Harris can be drawing two minis and a regular series. Well, I got the answer this week when I opened this issue to find that he was only drawing one mini and a regular series, and this wasn’t one of them. As it turns out, the final issue of this series was drawn by series writer David Lapham. Now fortunately, Lapham is a decent artist himself, and he managed to do a pretty good imitation of Harris’ style, and the coloring certainly helped to ease the transition. Unfortunately, I still can’t help but feel a little ripped off by this change, since I was primarily buying this on the art. It certainly doesn’t help that the story for the entire series was not very good. This is meant to fit in between the time when Peter Parker first got his powers and when Uncle Ben was shot, and I never got the feeling that this story was adding anything to his origin. I know as a Marvel Knights series, the story is meant to live in the fringes of continuity, and I’m not really concerned about that, it’s just that the story says nothing new about the character. This means I have to look at this as a creator showcase kind of thing, and that brings me back to feeling ripped off by the art change. I would have recommended the trade based on Harris’ art, but now I can’t even really do that. This is a mini that will be forgotten six months from now, and really I was hoping for more. It’s really a 2 out of 5 based on the quality, but my bad feelings lower it to a —1 out of 5.

Justice Society of America Annual #1
This issue picks up from a plot point in last months JSA #17, wherein the ultra-powerful Gog transports Power Girl somewhere else. As it turns out he has sent her to what would be the modern day Earth 2, Power Girl’s once original home world (I could try to explain it, but it would take too much time). Once there, she meets the members of the Justice Society Infinity, a mix of the Golden Age Justice Society, and the members of Infinity Inc (old series, not the new Peter Milligan series). She has the biggest connection with the Huntress (daughter of the Earth 2 Batman, who’s been dead for a while.) Huntress has parted with the JSI, mostly because she is trying to track down the Joker so she can kill him. Huntress and Power Girl are able to reconnect with each other, but are soon split back up by a surprising arrival.

This is kind of a weird issue. I can see why they writer Geoff Johns needed the extra room provided by an annual, as there is a fair bit of exposition to be had, explaining who the Earth 2 heroes are, how they connect to each other, and what Power Girls relationship with them is, and to his credit Johns’ does a good job of keeping the action moving while not confusing readers who may not know what is going on. However, it’s not really a self contained story either; it’s the first part of a subplot that will continue in the main JSA book. So if you’re reading the main book, you pretty much have to pick this up in order to keep up with the story. Which I suppose is fine for me, but others might be put off by it, especially considering the artist on the book. Jerry Ordway provides the pencils for the issue, and while I don’t have any particular issues with his art, and I can understand his connection to these characters, his style is not my favorite. It’s a nice, classic style; it’s perfectly readable, I just don’t happen to be a big fan of it. Other people may enjoy his style, other’s may dislike it more than I do, as they say, your mileage may vary, and your opinion on the art is probably going to be the biggest deciding factor in whether you pick this up. Ordway fans and JSA completists will want to read this, others may want to give this a pass. I give it a —3 out of 5.

Batman: Death Mask #4
I’m generally a sucker for any book where a manga creator works on an American superhero, so I’ve gotten a kick out of this whole series. It’s not a particularly great story, but it’s been a fun little Batman story, and I’m glad to see DC take a chance on this kind of thing. If the issues haven’t sold well, I hope that a collected edition does well enough to see either a sequel, or maybe a project in a similar vein with a different DC character. The final issue of the series reveals who Batman has been fighting and then wraps up the story in a neat little package. Not an overly complicated story, but it was done well enough to keep my interest, and between this and the Gotham Knight DVD, I’ve had a good fill manga/anime batman stories. The art by Yoshinori Natsume has a distinctive look, but it’s traditional enough that readers who don’t normally enjoy manga shouldn’t be thrown off. Batman fans should give this one a look, if only to see a different take on the Dark Knight. —3 out of 5

Ultimate Spider-man #124
Yep, still as good as ever. Great art, good story, good dialog. This remains the only Spider-man series you really need to read. Spider-man battles the Ultimate Beetle, while we see the Wild Pack take out Venom. I guess this is kind of a weird story, since it’s basically retelling the plot of the Ultimate Spider-man video game from a few years back (I never played it, so I don’t know). Fortunately, my not having played the game has not affected my enjoyment of the story. Still, there’s no reason to not read this series, and I’ll keep reading it as long as Brian Bendis and Stuart Immonen are on it. —4 out of 5

Spider-man: Brand New Day – Extra #1
As much as I will talk up Ultimate Spider-man as the only Spidey series you need to read, I have been enjoying the regular adventures of Spider-man in Amazing. What we get here is an extra chunk of stories that probably could have made it into the regular series, but for whatever reason were put into this book. There’s an interesting collection of stories. The lead story features the return of old time villain Hammerhead, and looks to redefine him in a way that is frankly unnecessary. The story does help to keep the long running Mr. Negative sub-plot going, and features some decent art by Chris Bachalo. Then there’s a short story by Zeb Wells and Patrick Olliffe that shows a bit of the relationship between Peter and Harry Osbourne and helps to explain how much people know about him in this new world. Again, not terribly important, but not a complete waste of time. The final story is a bit that ties into stories about 20 issues down the line, so its placement here is really weird. Still, it’s got a Spidey in court story, which are always fun (seriously, have you ever read a bad story when Spidey is in the court room?) Plus, it feature art by Marcos Martin, who should be drawing Spider-man all the time. It’s a decent collection of stories, with a nice preview of the stories to come, so I can’t really complain. I’ll give it a 4 out of 5 for the last story by itself.

Northlanders #8
Brian Wood’s always enjoyable Viking comic reaches the end of its first story arc with this issue, and I have to admit, I was a little disappointed. After the action of the last issue, this story ends with a bit of a whimper, regardless of how logical it is to the story. Sven makes a deal with the Saxon invaders that will keep his people and himself safe but forces him to give up the reason he came back to the northlands. Fortunately, he doesn’t leave empty handed, and we get a bit of a happy ending, such as the story and time will allow. Overall, I’ve really enjoyed the series so far, but I have to admit I was hoping for a bit more action in the grand finale. Still, I’m looking forward to what Wood does with the series next. And as with the previous seven issues, I can’t say a bad thing about the art. I’m curious to see people’s reaction to this series now that it has reached the preferred format for Vertigo series, the trade paperback. I think people will get a kick out of it, but a Viking story is still probably going to be a hard sell. This particular issue gets a —4 out of 5.