Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Weekly Rankings For 04/08/09
Here are this week’s comics ranked prior to reading them:
6. Mice Templar Sketchbook #1
5. Wolverine Weapon X #1
4. Transformers Spotlight Drift #1
3. Batman: Battle for the Cowl #2
2. Green Lantern #39
1. Ultimate Wolverine versus Hulk #4 of 6
I passed on Warlord upon realizing it wasn’t a reboot but picked plot threads up from twenty years ago. In its place I picked up Mice Templar because it had an original short story in it.
Here are the rankings after the first read through with a mini-review:
Glass, Oeming, Santos and Gandini
How do you review a sketchbook? Well, you don’t really, but this one has a ten page original story that is actually worthwhile to pick up if you can stomach paying $3 for something so small in quantity. Karic and Cassius have to fight their way out of the sacred tree. Why? Because the priests are playing dirty politics and the one who knighted Karic is in a heap of trouble. The story was very good because it really made sense of the final issue that came out last year in regards to why the priest decided to knight Karic and it sheds some light about the mythical prophecy. It’s got a new art team and it doesn’t skip a beat at all. In some ways the art is more clear now than ever. The sketch material is nice but the captions are important because it reveals some information about characters we haven’t yet seen. It’s funny but with the sketches I can see a real clear resemblance between Avon and Mike Mignola’s style on Hellboy. The cover even has frog creatures ala Hellboy! This was a good issue to have if you are into the Templar.
5. Transformers Spotlight Drift #1
McCarthy, Coller and Lafuente
This story is the bridge between Drift finding his new religion and joining the Autobots. It’s a good story about him and makes some good use of Kup. The story really lays out exactly what happened to the Decepticon named Deadlock that became Drift. The story itself has some oddities that I couldn’t quite get past. At one point during the battle, Kup and Drift fall into a hole on the ship and no ever comes looking for them while their friends all escape. Plus, one of the Autobots is left behind, but not killed off by the Decepticons. It could have been a little tighter on the storytelling. The art has some great shades of gray, just like the character. Having read this issue I may consider picking up All Hail Megatron when it’s all done with as Drift appears in that story as opposed to the Simon Furman one.
Johns, Tan and Glapion
Boy is it hard to like the Guardians these days. This issue deals with Hal trying to get the blue ring off of his hand. He is basically told to empty the power by Ganthet but the Guardians decide to try to draw it out of him in some type of exorcism. While this goes on the Orange Lanterns emerge. The comic is the start to an arc so it doesn’t give too much away. It’s a little hard to follow exactly what’s going on with the Orange guys and who’s monologue we are reading but I am sure more will be rolled out later on. The art is great but is at its best when the orange constructs appear. This issue may be the last jump on point heading into Blackest Night.
3. Batman: Battle for the Cowl #2
Daniel & Florea
This comic has an awful lot going on and it feels like it is including characters simply to make it more epic without really wanting to use them. The story is so much better when it stays focused on Batman versus Batman versus Nightwing. The subplot with the villains feels half baked and comes across as just a set up for a future arc. The easy thing to do is to compare this to Knightfall, but in that series Bruce wasn’t dead and it presumed he was coming back. Here, we don’t know the story with Bruce and the characterizations are being put on steroids to force the confrontation while Knightfall had months to grow them. The comic presents an interesting showdown at two points in the comic that save it from being mediocre. The art is very good and helps the issue, but provides way too many grandiose images. I just felt like the comic was trying way to hard to convince me of its importance. Just let the story tell me! I like the series but I am not loving it. Hopefully the resolution will blow my mind.
2. Ultimate Wolverine versus Hulk #4 of 6
Lindelof, Yu & McCaig
Now this was completely unexpected and is a good reason why I like this series. This issue barely has Hulk or Wolverine in it at all. Instead it tells much of the story from issue one where Fury recruits Wolverine to kill Hulk from Betty and Jen’s perspective. In the process we find that Betty has a lot of power with SHIELD, Stark and with the serum that created the Hulk. Jen wants her hands on the serum and before you know it this comic turns into a great She-Hulk origin story with a terrific twist and betrayal. The art is great and if you like cleavage then this is the comic for you. I enjoy stories told out of order and I really like stories that retrace over the story and show it to you from a different angle so this is my kind of comic.
Aaron, Garney & Keith
Jason Aaron gets Wolverine. With Wolverine in so many comics it’s impossible to nail down how he should act. However, this version is the one I like. Wolverine is funny, doesn’t walk around trying to pick up every woman and isn’t constantly telling people that he’s the best at what he does. Instead, his monologue tells the reader about him. For example, Wolverine meets someone from his past that lets him know the blueprints of how they made Wolverine were stolen. Rather than Wolverine telling the guy how he’s the perfect killing machine, his monologue explains how his mission has been done countless times before because he has to remind people that the perfect killing machine was already created. It’s so much more effective when told this way. One of the best scenes is when Wolverine confronts a couple of muggers on the train. This can be seen in the free online preview and really displays just how great the page layouts are and how the art tells a great story all on its own. This issue may have been light on the action but it introduces readers to Wolverine and allows for a new baseline for the character. Despite the cover price I picked it up and I am hoping for a long run for this creative team on the title.
