Weekly Comic Book Pulls for 9-26-07

In an effort to save time and my own sanity there are several great books out this week that I'm not going to write about, because I have no superlatives left in me. So, just know that Ultimate Spider-Man #114 and Criminal #9 were great, whether you buy them in monthly or in trades, you need to be reading both. Green Arrow: Year 1 #5 still looks great and this issue has more trademark Ollie, with the invention of some of his trick arrows. It's really coming together now, but wait for the trade.

The Spirit #10
To get it out of the way, yes, this is another well drawn and impeccably designed book. Actually, I really need to point out how well thought out the design is. No other book right now is as visually interesting as The Spirit is. This issue has some panels looking like YouTube frames, as the story deals with a serial killer taking out newsmen. My problem with this issue was the story. The mystery was pretty boring, and the reveal at the end is completely out of left field and feels a bit tacked on. And the commentary that Darwyn Cooke was making about the U.S. media was very pedestrian (we know, cable news is more about ratings than actual news, we get it). I like a good smart comic that examines a topic, but this is pretty much a one-sided attack on conservative media figures and it was just boring. Too much space was devoted to making fun of TV personalities and not enough space was given to the actual story to make me care. The art gives the book some redeeming qualities though, so it's not a total failure. --2 out of 5...come see what else Henchman21 has been reading at GEEKS OF DOOM!

Comic Review: X-Men: Supernovas

X-Men: Supernovas
Writer: Mike Carey
Artists: Chris Bachalo, Humberto Ramos, Clayton Henry, and Mark Brooks
Marvel Comics

This is part 2 of my delving back into the X-Men universe, and I have to say I didn’t like it quite as much as Ed Brubaker’s epic, but it’s still fairly decent. It tells a different kind of X-Men story, more spandex and super-villains than space adventure, and does itself credit by following a different trail than Uncanny X-Men. Mike Carey is telling a more conventional X-Men story, and does a decent, but not great job.

This book has the first three story arcs of Carey’s run (issues 188-199), along with this year's X-men annual. The first arc deals with the team coming together and dealing with the Children of the Vault. They’re kind of a mix of Grant Morrison’s Weapon X concept and Chris Claremont’s Neo concept, basically humans who have been in a time compression chamber and have advanced weaponry and technology, and possibly some powers. I don’t know, as it’s not terribly well explained. They’re fairly generic stock villains, and they don’t leave much of an impression. The story brings the team of Rogue, Iceman, Cannonball, Cable, an Omega Sentinel, Mystique, Lady Mastermind, and Sabertooth together in an organic way and it creates a nice dynamic with the heroes not really trusting the villains. It also sets up a few subplots that are revisited in later stories...continue reading this review at Geeks of Doom!