January 16 Reviews

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Umbrella Academy #5
Dark Horse
Writing: Gerard Way
Art: Gabriel Ba
Colors: Dave Stewart
Cover: James Jean
4.5/5

Initially this issue seems underwhelming because of its change in tone. It makes no effort to be hilarious. There's no zany action. Most the pages are a bunch of standing around talking, and when the action does come it's obtrusively violent and dark and sucks most the joy right out of the series. To dismiss the issue would be a mistake however. Way has been steadily molding a solid character driven plot somewhere behind all the zippy chaos and dialog buffoonery. Here he lets it take the reigns and the story's carefree spontaneous nature immediately takes turns both drastic and severe, its ability to do so exposing the book for the detailed drama it is at its core. Way has got more than one voice in this thing and we're really starting to see the implications of that. This is the underbelly of what he's been doing, and boy is it fleshy. The finale can't come soon enough.
-Tom



DMZ #27
Vertigo
Writing: Brian Wood
Art: Nathan Fox
Colors: Jeromy Cox
Cover: Brian Wood
3/5

It's very much time for DMZ to get back on track. Not that this was particularly bad. It was a fun little story that played well against the DMZ backdrop. Wood has a knack for the stand-alone format. He has demonstrated as much in his Local series, as well as his previous work in this arc. Here he did a great job introducing and exposing these characters and their conflicts in a small amount of space. This time though the problem was that we're not really getting anything out of it. Sure we see more of the local culture, there's some glimpses into the structure of the political/power situation, and we get introduced to characters that could show up sometime down the line, but none of these are things that warrant their own issue outside the main narrative.

This arc was effective on several levels, but has grown weary and stopped having anything to say. Paired with guest art that's decent but not what I want for the series, this last issue was unfortunately the least inspired of the bunch. Thankfully, it's back to business as usual for Matty and friends from this point forward. *edit - No, it's not. There's one more stand-alone before the next six parter gets underway in March.
-Tom



Atomic Robo #4
Red 5
Writing: Brian Clevinger
Art & Cover: Scott Wegener
Colors: Ronda Pattison
4.5/5

Scott Wegener is a star. Lets get that right out in the open. Atomic Robo and Punisher War Journal (which he's also currently drawing) are both full of humor that leans heavily on expression and timing. Wegener absolutely nails both. The guy's style is cartoon-derived but has self respect and you can tell he just fucking gets it. I hope he keeps getting to work with such high caliber writers.

Speaking of which, Clevinger has really hit his stride. This is the most fluent issue so far and also probably the best. The big punchlines are funny but the in-between is just as enjoyable and there's no wading through awkward set-up. Some of the funniest lines are the ones least emphasized or nudged at. Atomic Robo is charming in more than concept and appearance. It's warm, funny and smarter than it looks.

Well-written and successful as it is, Atomic Robo has become Red 5's flagship title. It's also become one of my favorite reads each month. Hopefully after this run it'll come back and become other things as well. Read the last two issues in the upcoming months. None of them require you know anything about the others, though all will make you want to read the rest. There should be more books like this.
-Tom



Fell #9
Image
Writing: Warren Ellis
Art & Cover: Ben Templesmith
4.5/5

There's nothing all that spectacular about the stories this comic tells. They're rather simple actually. Yet that's part of what makes Fell the exciting series that it is. For less than two bucks you get a smart, simple, suspenseful detective tale that requires zero foreknowledge and gets right to the point before making it quickly.

The real joy inherent in this book though is observing Ellis. Unlike a lot of his current work it feels like he's paying attention here. It's interesting to see him work with and struggle around the 9-panel page grids. This is the least bloated project he's done, and seeing how much he can say in such a restricted arena is by itself worth the price of admission. Ultimately, Fell is spectacular because of what it is as a whole and what it represents. At its cost, everyone really should be on board each time this gets around to coming out.
-Tom



Amazing Spider-Man #547
Marvel
Writing: Dan Slott
Pencils & Cover: Steve McNiven
Inks: Dexter Vines
Colors: Morry Hollowell
4/5

I will admit there were points while reading this that I forgot about all the hooplah and any mention of a 'status quo' and was just reading a good ol' Spider-Man comic. Spidey's got a list of 'right' things to do and a bunch of meddling life issues and baddies in the way of getting them done. Will he pull it all off? Boy I sure hope so! It's carefree and warm. It's got modern lingo but has lots of old school feel and attitude. Though not true for every page, a majority of this fits the conditions of a fun worthwhile Spidey tale. Whether OMD was necessary to get us here is for each to decide themselves. However you/they/I feel about that however, I can't deny how much I'm enjoying Amazing more than I was before and that I do find myself looking forward to the next installment. Even with the context, Slott writes this quite well and a while from now it may turn into something really exciting.
-Tom



Immortal Iron Fist #12
Marvel
Writing: Matt Fraction & Ed Brubaker
Art: David Aja, Kano, Pulido
Colors: Matt Hollingsworth
Cover: Kaare Andrews
4.5/5

These friggin guys. When I'm reading this book it makes sense, I know what's going on, and I'm enjoying the hell out myself. Yet every month when it's time for another issue I find I've completely forgotten all the events of the the previous one. Immortal Iron Fist is probably the book I re-read the most simply because of how dense it is and my capacity to forget its mystical complexities. It's similar to Criminal in this respect. Both are slightly intimidating in a weekly stack, like hard literature amidst a bunch of pulp thrillers. Unlike Criminal though, Immortal also comes with the benefit of Fraction's loose and comfortable influence on dialog and once you're actually reading you forget it's such heady stuff.

There are several areas in this issue where Aja is given help on pencils and some of the smoothness is lost in the mix, but ultimately it's barely worth mentioning against the framework of all this title is doing right. Thankfully it seems everyone's starting to catch on to how good this book is. Praise for it is rampant and features highlighting its ascension have been popping up all over. Hopefully Marvel catches on correctly to what it is we like about it so much. They'd also better make sure Fraction and Brubaker aren't going anywhere - they're like half the starting lineup.
-Tom



New X-Men #46
Marvel
Writing: Kyle & Yost
Pencils: Humberto Ramos
Inks: Cuevas & Meikis
Colors: Edgard Delgado
Cover: David Finch
4/5

It hasn't happened to this point in the event, but this time Ramos' art got to me and was a distraction throughout the issue. A lot of this is attributable to the high levels of action now coming at us, an area in which he definitely doesn't shine. The story itself is at full throttle, yet despite unbridled chaos there's still loads we don't know and a lot of ground to cover. Hopefully next week's conclusion is thorough in hitting on all these points. The strength of the event suggests that it will be.

Quite frankly, I wish the X books could just stay correlated and weekly like this indefinitely. It's been such an enjoyable experience and it's too bad it's fleeting. I hope they're able to do this again periodically in the future, and that they pull it off with the grace and class as they have this time.
-Tom