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The
Fanboy Planet Preview Spotlight 12/28/06
brought to you by FanboyPlanet.Comics
of Santa Clara
Maybe
it's because it's the week after Christmas and publishers
figure we're all using our money for the big ticket items
we didn't get. Maybe it's that I've been playing Ultimate
Alliance for the past two days and that's made me tired,
a little cranky and very annoyed at Arcade. (Pity Lon Lopez
for the late night phone calls demanding to know just what
the heck you're supposed to do with that random bumper car.)
At any rate, no book I read really fits the spotlight
criteria. There's some good stuff out there this week, no
question, but to get the spotlight a book alternately has
to:
a) be either a first issue, stand-alone issue or at least
a good jumping on point for new readers.
b) not have had its previous issue hit the spotlight a
month before.
c) not have some niggling flaw that bugs the crap out
of me so much that I can't put it in the spotlight.
So there you have it. Instead, here are the books I read
that are worth talking about this week.
Age of Bronze
#24: One of the most unique and worthy books being published
today, Age of Bronze takes the Trojan War and makes
its events believable. Creator Eric Shanower does this by
focusing on the humans, not the gods, and in some ways turning
The Iliad into what it was for its original audience:
a soap opera. It's beautifully drawn, but it also has the
drawback of many of its characters looking similarly beautiful,
and a complex plot that's rewarding but hard to tell the
players without a scorecard. Thus, it's worth your time,
but best to go back and start from the beginning.
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Anita Blake,
Vampire Hunter #3: At least on the interiors, the coloring
has changed so as not to have the supernatural characters
stand out so obviously from the normal humans. Score one
for a book that doesn't need my praise to sell insanely
well nor will be hurt by my scorn. Laurell K. Hamilton's
plot is obviously interesting to fans of erotic vampire
stories. But this book just isn't going to attract someone
who doesn't already know Hamilton's work. Everyone stands
around looking like they're either about to have sex or
recovering from having had sex, even when they're fighting.
The art takes an absolute backseat to the writing, anyway,
as artist Brett Booth definitely has style but little more
than pin-up drawing in his toolbox. Panels that should tell
the story get cluttered with word balloons and caption boxes,
while huge figure drawings pause for a pose. Hmm…sort of
like Jean-Claude.
Annihilation
#5: …and we go to a cover of Ronan the Accuser posing
erotically as battle armor gets forged onto him. Fortunately,
Andrea DiVito's interior art is about action and intrigue,
with Thanos lying dead, Drax being a tad embarrassed about
it and Galactus really needing a bite to eat. This Marvel
cosmic event really is changing the landscape, but again,
if you don't know who all the players are, it can get daunting.
The scope, obviously, is huge, and that, too, gets in the
way. We can see, for instance, that Nova will be redefined
at the end of this series, but as you read this issue it's
hard to remember that that's happening. It may just be best
to wait for it all to blow over and then buy the spin-off
series with the character you like…say, like Nova.
Civil War:
Choosing Sides: Yes, this is actually a second printing,
and shame on Marvel for including it in the retailer previews
as if it were a brand new book. Imitating DC books like
Brave New World but for $4 instead of $1, short little
stories fill in a few blanks for those series either launched
or deeply reworked as a result of Civil War. Venom
gets recruited for the Thunderbolts, Ant-Man sits on the
sidelines watching a crucial street battle, U.S. Agent heads
for Canada and Iron Fist tells us he's about to put on the
Iron Fist costume again. Only the Howard the Duck story
truly stands alone, as it's not spinning into a different
book. All the other stories add a bit of depth, but they're
not essential parts of their sagas. However, for collectors,
Marvel does have a Gene Colan cover spoofing Howard
the Duck #1
Daredevil
#92: Ed Brubaker reveals a mastermind whose plans go
back much farther than we might have expected. Along the
way, perhaps, the slow rehabilitation of Daredevil in the
public's eyes begin. This doesn't have quite the same throat-grabbing
tension of Brubaker and Lark's first arc, but it's still
good stuff, with a quieter sense of danger.
The Immortal
Iron Fist #2: Hopping around in time with different
artists depicting different Iron Fists, this book has made
me a fan of the character. Or at least continued my being
a fan of Brubaker and Matt Fraction. It's a good story upsetting
a status quo that I didn't know Danny Rand had - but it's
told so well that you can instantly grasp it and move on
to the action. If the first issue hadn't been my spotlight
last month, this would have been there.
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Onslaught
Reborn #2: I will not swear. I will not swear. I will
not swear. Completely ignoring what little has been done
with this world after Rob Liefeld got released from
the original project, this book at least sees Liefeld a
little more restrained for the first few pages. But it makes
no friggin' sense. Franklin Richards escaped into his little
world and once again dragged all his heroes into it, who
all immediately resume their false lives with no idea that
it's been TEN YEARS - though this world's Bucky DOES know
it. Halfway through a panel - a panel - Onslaught changes
his appearance. It makes Hulk's head hurt, which sort of
justifies HIS appearance at the end. I just can't blame
the fans anymore, so I'll blame Franklin. He's young. He
doesn't understand that this mini-series may make The
Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl look like Citizen
Kane.
What If?
Featuring X-Men: Okay, there are two of these this week,
so let's combine them. The Age of Apocalypse juncture
features Rick Remender's Marvel debut, and because of that,
it's worth recommending. But it's bleak, almost unbearably
bleak, which has never been my favorite tone with What
If -- ?. Not quite as bleak but more entertaining to
me is a retake on Deadly Genesis. It gets right to
the heart of what Ed Brubaker established in Kid Vulcan's
character, whereas Remender has to play with Nate Grey,
X-Man, a character that got constantly redefined and was
ultimately a cipher.
Wolverine
Origins #9: If you're into this sort of thing, let me
say that Mark Texeira draws one sexy Black Widow for the
variant edition cover. Luckily, the story within puts things
back on track and does that thing this book is supposed
to do - tell stories that illuminate Wolverine's past. With
Black Widow, it's tricky, but clearly Marvel is dumping
the World War II story that had her meeting Logan when she
was a little girl. Instead, Daniel Way's take makes more
sense in exploring both characters, though it also invalidates
Richard K. Morgan's excellent pair of Black Widow
mini-series. But those barely seemed to fit in the Marvel
Universe anyway. Oh, what are we continuity idiots supposed
to do?
Hey,
write to us and let us know what you think, or talk about
it on the forums!
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