7.10.08 Reviews

Invincible Iron Man #3 (Marvel): Fraction and Larroca deliver some amazing opening visuals with Tony suiting up as he's being engulfed in flames. This book hums gleefully along with such a palpable sheer joy of storytelling and excitement from the creators that it's downright infectious. I love the infusion of geopolitics and legal issues, crafting the Son of Stane as a brilliant character foil to Tony, and the ways it dovetails so nicely into the recent film. The traumatic nature of Pepper's injuries dredges up painful memories of Tony's own "secret origin." The subtely with which this dynamic is played is perfect, with quiet and effective lines like "yeah" and "I know" in response to some of the doctor's status updates. This is shaping up to be one of the best Iron Man runs around, up there with Ellis' Extremis arc. Grade A.

Captain Britain & MI-13 #3 (Marvel): Hrmm. I'm still into this title, but there's not much to comment on here. It doesn't feel as charming or loaded with quirky subversive dialogue as previous issues and relies largely on the highly telegraphed return of the titular character. Competent, but not very engaging this time out. Grade B.

Secret Invasion #4 (Marvel): The opening scenes with Reed being tortured or examined hit their intended mark of being uncomfortable and creepy (really, what is that middle suction deal doing down near his groin?!), but otherwise this issue is really all over the place. Nick Fury is inexplicably back, there's some very overt commentary about the human race (read: US Imperialism), long-winded explanations about the paranoia that's been instilled in the heroes... err, something happening to Ms. Marvel, Natasha stepping up, random Wonder Man panels I didn't understand, a disappearing Jessica/Skrull, something about The Hood, and an interesting tease of an ending. Overall, a real shotgun blast approach with scattered pellets, few of which hit the mark. Yu's art is solid as usual, but nothing jaw-dropping. Grade B-.

I Kill Giants #1 (Image): Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura offer up a disjointed narrative, something about cow's milk, garbage men, elementary schools, and gamers (err, say what?). I never felt like I knew quite what I was reading. I like Niimura's page layouts a great deal and his mildly manga influenced facial features, but Kelly's protagonist isn't very likable. I wasn't always sure who was speaking and the core premise is quite obtuse, a first issue should really make more of an effort to connect with its intended audience. Grade C+.

I also picked up;

The New York Four (DC/Minx): Brian Wood? Ryan Kelly? Sold! Bonus points to everyone who catches the self-referential shout out to Local #3 in the form of a "Theories & Defenses" album cover!

Comic Foundry: Summer 2008 (Comic Foundry, LLC): My eye caught 7 typos (that's on pages 1, 14, 20, 40, 43, 59, and 62), that's an average of one per every 9 pages! I don't know if that's good or bad given standard editorial tolerance, but... it still sucks. That aside, Comic Foundry is successful in filling a market niche to me based on what it's not. It lacks the dick n' fart fratboy humor all too common in Wizard Magazine. It also lacks the sometimes inaccessible and haughty erudition of The Comics Journal. Perhaps the perfect modern fanmag with a nice balance of article types, great feature length for this generation, and nice balance of mainstream and indie coverage. With the exception of one page of video game stuff and being on the great typo hunt 2008, I read this puppy cover to cover and enjoyed it all. Grade A-.