Friday, November 26, 2004

Quick Comic Reviews

Superman; Adam Strange; Amazing Spider-Man

Superman #211
by Brian Azzarello, Jim Lee & Scott Williams
If you're looking for a comic with pretty pictures of Superman & Wonder Woman having a smack-down in the Fortress of Solitude, then this is the book for you. If however you're looking for anything resembling a plot or characterization, the you're going to be disappointed. Lee does draw a nice Wonder Woman--muscular and feminine--but I can't help but think that Diana would have shown up for a battle with Supes wearing her battle armor, and not a skirt and long cape.
Rating: 2 (of 5)


Adam Strange #3
by Andy Diggle & Pascal Ferry
After two rather slow-moving issues, the plot starts to pick up a bit as Adam is rescued from the ruins of Rann by a Thanagarian warship that has also come to investigate what happened to the planet. The Thanagarian commander gets a couple of dimensions to her character, arrogant yet concerned about Adam, wanting to know the truth yet not willing to risk her career for it. The final scene is not much of a cliffhanger, since we know that the title character isn't going to die halfway through his own miniseries. The art by Ferry & colorist Dave McCaig remains as gorgeous as ever, and I especially appreciated the alien bird-like qualities of the Thanagarians. I'm glad to see such a good-looking comic finally moving the plot along.
Rating: 3 (of 5)


The Amazing Spider-Man #514
by J. Michael Straczynski, Mike Deodato & Joe Pimentel
If you ignaore the complete ludicrousness of the underlying plot, this is actually a rather good resolution to the "Sins Past" arc. A new Goblin faces off against a weakened Spider-Man, giving us an actual sense of peril--even though we know that Spidey won't die, it's very possible that he could be defeated (and if we hadn't seen the solicits for upcoming issues of Spectacular, then Sarah's survival wold have been in doubt). But however well done "Sins Past" has been, I imagine that most Spidey fans wish that it would just go away; and I suspect that after Straczynski is long gone this is one of those things in the character's history that will be ignored.
Rating: 3 (of 5)

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