Each week we take a critical look at some of the best books on the stands, courtesy of Big Guy's Comics (the unofficial comic book store of FanboyPlanet.com). If you publish a book that you want us to be covering, contact us. Or contact Derek. He doesn't have enough to do.

Hey Kids! Comics!

Batgirl Secret Files & Origins #1
writers: various, artists: various

Like most of the Secret Files books, this one is a mixed bag. It has a little something for everyone, but not necessarily enough to justify its $4.95 price tag.

Scott Peterson writes the bulk of the book, contributing two stories that offer little new about Cassandra's character. If, however, you are a casual reader looking to see if Batgirl is worth your time, everything you need to know would be here, artfully told by Phil Noto and Guiseppe Camuncoli. (Though Noto's interior work so far has not held a candle to his cover art; he needs an inker more willing to let the pencils show through.)

As often happens in Bat-based Secret Files, DEO Agent Chase shows up in a story contributed by her creators Johnson, Williams, and Gray. For fans of the character and her late lamented title, it's always a treat to see her in action, but this story falls short of the psychological intrigue that usually accompanies her appearances.

Most of the "file" pages feature art by series regulars Damion Scott and Robert Campanella; as I'm not much of a fan of the two's style, these pages don't really work for me as pin-ups. What is becoming obvious with these pages (and not just in this book) is that they allow writers to fill in exposition about new characters that either the readers or the writers themselves are not patient enough to allow to unfold in the pages of a regular title. This does not bode well for either side. With Batgirl, it only underscores my suspicion that the title exists only to show a young girl in fight scenes; story is less than secondary.

Rating:

Birds Of Prey #44
Deadly Convergence
writer: Chuck Dixon, artists: Dave Ross, Andrew Pepoy, and Nelson DeCastro

If you're looking to see this book's subplots advanced, forget about it for the next few issues. In his last run on the title he created, Dixon is pulling out the stops to bring a bunch of his favorite characters together for one big blow-out of an adventure. Luckily, this tends to be what Dixon does best.

Black Canary and Oracle have been called in to drop onto an island that, like Brigadoon, fades in and out of existence. This isn't mere reconnaissance; somewhere on that island lies a miracle cure for a variety of diseases. The two think they're performing an act of social good for S.T.A.R. Labs, but once Dinah runs into Slade Wilson, a.k.a. Deathstroke The Terminator, on the island, she realizes that, as always, greed outweighs altruism.

Also working to get the cure are a team consisting of CIA operative Eddie Fyers, villain Camorouge, and the Connor Hawke Green Arrow (essentially Dixon's creation). Hopefully, this means that Kevin Smith hasn't killed off Connor as the most recent issue of his run implied. If Smith has, it's good to see the guy have one last hurrah.

And the island? Straight out of silver age issues of Star-Spangled War Comics, it's The War That Time Forgot, meaning dinosaurs and World War II soldiers from both sides of the Pacific unaware that they have nothing left to fight over.

Though it has an edge of cynicism you wouldn't have seen forty years ago, this issue is a throw-back to a time when, for a dime, you could read impossible adventures for their own sake.

Rating:

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Reunion
writer: Jane Espenson, artists: various

As might be the case for all of Dark Horse's Buffy books, this one-shot is strictly for fans of Joss Whedon's television shows. And even for them, this book proves wildly uneven.

Set shortly after Buffy's resurrection on the show, this comic gives the rest of the Scooby Gang the chance to speculate what happened when Angel found out she had returned to life. (On both television shows, the two left to meet at the end of one episode, and refused to say what happened at the beginning of the next - damn this UPN/WB Montague/Capulet thing….)

Aside from the speculations being pretty uneventful, Espenson (a writer for both shows) applies television story-telling to comics, and it doesn't really work. Without any explanation, the gang is able to "see" each other's narratives, a deus ex machina which allows for the intrusion of the same supernatural menace in each one. It just doesn't make any sense, especially in the panel in which Xander, naturally, assumes that Buffy and Angel went at it like rabbits (sorry, Anya).

Though it does offer another glimpse at the growing corruption of Willow, by this time it's not so much cool as obvious. We've already seen Willow go around the bend on the series.

At least the different narratives offer some more alternative artists a chance at wider exposure, just as Marvel attempted with Ultimate Marvel Team-Up. It's commendable, but still not worth $3.50. (Or $5.99 for you Canadians.)

Rating:

Daredevil #34
writer: Brian Michael Bendis, artist: Alex Maleev

The secret is out, and Matt and Foggy's debate over what to do plays second fiddle to a staff meeting at The Daily Bugle. An understandably outraged J. Jonah Jameson bellows and blusters, and tries to beat down reporter Ben Urich.

Much to Jameson's surprise, Urich confesses that he knows who Daredevil is, and claims that it isn't Matt Murdock. He gets backup from a certain freelance photographer, and a long overdue conversation between the two occurs, handled quietly and cleverly by Bendis.

We also get snippets of public reaction to the "news" of Matt Murdock's dual identity, all of them echoing the kind of soundbites we get in real world news stories. But then, one of Bendis' key strengths has always been in capturing the tone of the man on the street.

As always, Maleev's art is great, though Jameson melts between looking like J.K. Simmons and R. Lee Ermey. More astounding is that this is all done on computer; we've come a long way since Shatter.

Rating:

For page two, Gotham Knights to Micronauts, click here.

Derek McCaw

 

 

 

All comics were reviewed by Derek McCaw unless otherwise noted.

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