Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Station456 Comic Reviews - July 18th, 2012

Introducing... "Station456 Comic Reviews"!

Every week, I will get together all of the new release comics I pick up and throw together a post giving my thoughts on each. There can only be one "STATION456 PICK OF THE WEEK"! This prestigious award is reserved for the most entertaining book of the week. The focus is on new releases, but I will sometimes discuss older comics and other comic-related goodness in the "Station456 BONUS ROUND." 


-- Without further adieu, let's get to this week's books! --



Justice League #11:

The New 52's Justice League was good-old-fashioned dumb comic book fun up until issue #9, in which the new villain "Graves" was introduced. Graves wrote a book evangelizing the Justice League, calling them modern day gods, but shifted to a new perspective once they failed to save his family from their devastating deaths. He's a cool villain with a badass design, and subsequently the new arc has been great. Justice League #11 seems to be firmly establishing the vision and scope of this new arc, and gives us some entertaining pages in doing so. 

Graves uses his powers to make each member of the Justice League see loved ones die in spirit-form in front of their eyes. We of course see the obligatory death of Bruce's parents, but what I thought was really interesting was Cyborg seeing himself, since he's half-dead. This is further explored when the Justice League reaches the source of all this madness and only Cyborg can see the entrance because he's walking the line between life and death. I loved all of that.

Wonder Woman's love interest Steve Trevor - along with his family - is being targeted by Graves as he has a link to the Justice League, which causes our heroine to attempt to go rogue saving him in a rather brutal, murderous fashion. This leads to some really fun tussles between Wonder Woman and members of the Justice League; particularly Green Lantern and Superman. This not only highlights the detail-rich and jaw-dropping artwork, but also the book's clever writing seen through jabs members of the Justice League throw at each other. I especially enjoyed Wonder Woman's quips at Green Lantern's sexual performance.

There's a pretty awesome last-page reveal, too, that really has me curious as to where the next issue is taking this story.

Oh, and there's also a continuation of the SHAZAM story that has been backing up Justice League for more than a few issues now, but I didn't read it and don't quite plan on doing so.

But.

Surprisingly, considering an issue of Saga came out this week, this is my...
STATION456 PICK OF THE WEEK

Nightwing #11:

The current run of Nightwing has been a little all over the place, really. It started with a slight crossover to Scott Snyder's Batman, then headed into a story about the new villain Saiko, then took a break from that to do a Batgirl crossover, then went back to the Saiko story and finished that up, and after that there were the two issues for the Night of the Owls crossover - ALL IN JUST 9 ISSUES. Issue #10 started a new arc that I can only hope it's going to stay focused on. Nightwing has been framed with the murder of two men, whom happen to be brothers in a group known as the Republic of Tomorrow.

This was a fun issue, and when I say fun I don't just mean entertaining. It's purely fun. It's not deep or thought-provoking and Dick Grayson isn't in deep shit, it's just fun. Dick is characterized a lot like Spider-Man in this issue, handling himself in a loose, comedic fashion.

Half of the issue is action-oriented, which is entirely fun. The other half is an assortment of short scenes giving more information about Dick's circus he's running, his relationship with Damian Wayne, the cops investigating the crime that he's framed of committing, and the group of villains that Dick is fighting against, which adds an appropriate amount of fun drama.

It's fun. I thoroughly enjoyed it, "We're both trying to solve who killed the your friends" and all.

Saga #5:

Saga is the brilliant story of star-crossed lovers in alien quarters of space. And when I say brilliant, I mean it: This book is funny, creative, gut-wrenching and gorgeous, making it an incredibly enthralling read. It's quite possibly the best book I follow month to month, at the moment. This week's chapter may be my least favorite so far, but that really isn't saying that much: Saga #5 is great.

Our two star-crossed lovers battle their way out of their predicament that we were left with at the end of the last issue, delivering the most action-oriented scene we've seen in Saga thus far. It looks impressive and shows us what our leading man can do when it comes to combat, and also, afterwards, gives us what's almost certainly the most heart-warming scene so far, through a cute family moment amongst the two and their baby Hazel.

We also see progression for two of the fellows that are out to get the small family. IV, a member of Saga's TV-headed species, is further characterized here as a common military general who doesn't quite understand - or perhaps just blocks out - the horrid implications of his work. The Will, a human who travels alongside his lie-detecting cat, is further characterized as a ruthless assassin that stands wholeheartedly against especially evil things, despite doing quite evil things himself for a living.

All of the progression of these two folks is excellent character work, and the artwork throughout the whole book is colorful, stylized, expressive bliss. The last-page reveal is fittingly shocking, albeit a bit anti-climactic in its build-up. This last page could mean we have to say goodbye to one of the established characters - one of my favorites, actually.  

Saga #5 is great, with it's top-notch artwork and impressive characterization. I was never amazed like other issues have managed to do for me, but at the end of the day, it's Saga, which is a good thing more-or-less intrinsically.

***

STATION456 BONUS ROUND:

Retro Comic Review - Twisted Tales #9 (November, 1984):

My local comic shop had a special going on awhile ago, that allowed you to get a free mystery set of five or so Mature Readers comics hand-picked by the staff with select trades and graphic novels. I was glad to take advantage of this deal and was impressed by the seemingly high-quality of the freebies, but never actually read any of them. Until last week. Or so. I read one of these comics. Just one.

A flip through Twisted Tales #9 enticed my feeble teenage boy mind with glimpses of its violence and sex. An actual read left me quite satisfied. This comic is a compilation of four unrelated "twisted tales," and it's rather entertaining.

The first of which is a silly, wacky story following two comic creators are writing the very pages that they occupy, at one point shoving a finger at the audience. It's dumb cheese that I'm tempted to call an excuse to show naked breasts to its probable, secret target audience of adolescent boys. The second is a classic-style ghost-story about a set of car-less headlights that haunt a certain road, and it's really exactly what one would expect. Which isn't to say that it isn't enjoyable to read, because it is. The third is probably the most interesting, with its unreliable narrator telling a story about subject matter that he's prone to falsely see due to a mental illness of his. This adds a rather brilliant layer to what would have been a standard story about horrific happenings while off to the countryside during summer break. The fourth is by far my favorite, as it spearheads the "twisted" label more than any of the other issues. A man already going through the growing pains of his new lifestyle with the woman he just married is depressed by the unexpected death of his daughter. The end shows us that his new wife is far from who he thought she was, and is really satisfying. 

All of the stories are well-written and look great with their colorful, expressive artwork that is distinctively retro to my modern eyes. I enjoyed my read, and I'd say it's worth hunting down if it won't run you too much.

Showing Off - New Daredevil Poster:


Pretty nice, right? I complimented the poster when I saw it in one of the windows of my local comic shop and asked if I could buy it. They told me I could have it for free in a few weeks like the good chaps that they are, and here it is.

Ah. ^_^

***

Okay, that's it for this week! Overall I was quite impressed by each of the comics I picked up this week, and the things discussed in the STATION456 BONUS ROUND more than pleased me. My comic shop didn't get Daredevil #15 and Catwoman #11 in today, but they're holding them for me for next week, so expect them in the STATION456 BONUS ROUND then. But, until then, tell me what comics you picked up this week and anything else going on in your world of comics in the comments below!

-I'm out!-

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