8.26.09 Reviews (Part 2)

Wednesday Comics #8 (DC): Batman artistically possesses accomplished coloring, sly use of perspective and shadow, but is a little middling on story despite some dots connecting. There's clearly a lot happening between issues. Grade B+. Kamandi was a little hard to slog through this time with dense text, but still visually stunning to take in. Grade A-. Superman does nothing except repeat itself, yup, we’ve got Supes fighting an alien and then whining about being an alien… again. Hardly a definitive or memorable take on the character. Grade C-. Deadman is still nice to look at. I always seem to be drawn to the page layouts, but can’t make heads or tails out of the story. Something about the rune-stone, hellfire, Kalak, and Nanda Parbat. Bo-ring. Grade C. Green Lantern has a nice display of not only Hal’s power as GL, but his humanity and creativity as well. There's a real sense of movement to the action. Grade B+. Metamorpho brings us a cool logo placement and the Periodic Table of Elements page that Mike Allred teased at the SDCC Wednesday Comics Panel. It’s not quite what I expected, but is sort of admirable for the sheer energy and thought it took to pull it off. Though the Java jokes at the end are just bombing. Grade B+. Teen Titans has no story to speak of, just random names littered about from Titans history, cluttered panels, lifeless expressions, and Galloway’s trademark skimpy backgrounds. Grade D. Strange Adventures combines classy Paul Pope lines like “the subtle arts of rhetoric and persuasion” with his heavy, inky lines and effectively captures DC’s Bronze Age Kirby glee. Grade A. Supergirl feels a bit like filler again, not nearly as funny as the previous two issues, and is merely cute again, minus the actual funny. Though it was sort of endearing to see Kara close her knees to avoid an up-skirt shot. Grade B. Metal Men feels repetitious, flat, and boring, despite some action, and is just not progressing. I sat there staring at it; it stared back. Grade C. Wonder Woman is getting… better is a strong word, so let’s go with less awful. I was able to read about half of it this time before tuning out. It had only 22 panels instead of the typical 60. Though the middle 1/3rd page panel was really odd, the coloring continues to be more accessible and I could actually see what was going on in some of the miniscule panels. At this rate, I might actually like this strip by issue 12. Grade C. Sgt. Rock still moves at a fairly slow pace, but every line brings meaning. This is a good story for aspiring artists to study, noting the anatomy of the figures and general panel composition. Grade B. The Flash stuff about the speed force (or whatever) is not terribly interesting, but visually this is still getting stronger and growing on me. There’s some wonderful detail in Brendan Fletcher’s pencils and interesting perspective choices. Grade B+. Demon & Catwoman makes some attempts at alluring dialogue which come off as cheesy. There’s odd aerial perspective (check out panel 4) which is awkward and off-putting. The story is still… umm, well I can’t tell you a thing about it. Grade D+. Hawkman has some ships around the JLA Satellite that look a bit Trek-ish for my taste, but it was definitely a treat to see Baker’s Batman during this pause issue. Grade A-. Once again, our visual stack goes a little something like this;

Strange Adventures
Kamandi
Hawkman
The Flash
Batman
Metamorpho
Green Lantern
Supergirl
Sgt. Rock
Wonder Woman
Deadman
Metal Men
Superman
Demon & Catwoman
Teen Titans

That gives us 47% in the top tier thanks to The Flash and Metamorpho making some interesting jumps, 13% in the rapidly diminishing middle thanks to Supergirl slipping and Sgt. Rock staying flat, with 40% bringing up the rear because of the usual suspects. Overall quality was down quite a bit this issue, straight averages coming out to a Grade C-, getting the bump for experimentation to achieve a Grade B-.