Green Lantern #53: Hot off the conclusion of Blackest Night, Green Lantern dives right into the Brightest Day with the beginning of the "New Guardians" arc that introduces the next big threat to the universe. With Green Lantern Corps and the Guy Gardner book on the way, it looks like Green Lantern is going to become the Light Spectrum ensemble book, as this particular issue continues to follow plot threads involving Larfleeze, Hal, Atrocitus and the rest of the Light brigade. Johns has hinted that this story will revolve around the emotional entities explored briefly in Blackest Night and begins to nurture those seeds by showing us where exactly Parallax was taken after Green Lantern #51. Mahnke continues to absolutely dominate with his pencils, immediately capturing the alien feel of our new hidden enemy, re-defining the grotesque Hector Hammond and of course giving us some fantastic action sequences, both with planes and with Lanterns. While his portrayal of Sayd's new situation may be the most difficult thing to cope with that Johns has presented us yet. Brightest Day is off to a fantastic start. A+
Siege - Spider-Man: Once a year I take a risk and buy a Brian Reed comic and once a year I am disappointed. While I can't fault the guy for being a fan, he has once again managed to get his hands on the character and proceeds to shoe-horn everything he has written recently into the issue, which means a supporting role for Ms. Marvel, making Venom the enemy of the book, and constant references to stories he has written for each, including his push for Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel to date. Toss in some internet one-liners and you have the makings of a fairly mediocre comic that does absolutely nothing to tie into Siege, and doesn't really touch on anything not related to "The Sinister Spider-Man. The real hero of the issue is Santucci who doesn't have a lot to work with, but certainly puts in the effort, doing a fair job of keeping up with the constant kinetics that Reed's script calls for. I didn't buy Siege: Captain America, so I'm not sure why I felt obligated to pick this up, I'm sort of unhappy I did. C
Hercules - Fall of an Avenger #2: Pak and FvL continue to put out one of Marvel's best books. Funny, full of wit and incredibly well written, Incredible Hercules has been one of the most under celebrated long runs in comics over the last few years. Continuing on with it large cast, Herc this week carries forward the transition of Amadeus Cho from nerd to Prince of Power while including some references and plots from other comics in a non-obtrusive manner, providing a highly entertaining read that although feels a bit shallow, is necessary to carry the story to the next step. Even Ariel Olivetti, with his usual computer-painted style, turns in a fairly solid issue, carrying the story quite well and keeping the goofy faces and animations to a minimum. If you have any interest in the character, I highly recommend starting at the beginning and following the journey of Amadeus and Hercules to what feels like a fairly natural conclusion. B+
Ultimate Comics Avengers #6: I've prepared a piece to discuss what I feel hypothesize is the next step in comics for Mark Millar, and this issue was very much the catalyst for that. Incredibly shallow plot wise, UC Avengers continues Mark's tradition of delivering some explosive summer action movie fun on one page, and then making you palm your face on the next. What was supposed to be the event book for the Ultimate Universe has been anything but that. Pachco of course does all of the heavy lifting in this issue and while his work is beautiful, it isn't anything impressive. I don't know why I'm surprised, but at 3.99 a pop, I expect a lot more than I've been getting. Hopefully volume 2 with Leinil Yu delivers. D
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #9: On the other hand, Bendis's Ultimate Spider-Man has been quite solid since the Ultimatum re-launch, but this issue really takes things to the next level, primarily with the help of David Lafuente. I have to admit, I was amongst those who were absolutely scathing in my critique of Lafuente's art early on, but the tweaks to his style make things more streamline, slim and less round and it flows incredibly. One of Bendis's strongest scripts in awhile, combined with some imaginative layouts and panels make this one of the best books of the week. A+
X-Men Legacy #235: One of the primary reasons I hopped off the Uncanny X-Men bandwagon was the absolutely horrible art from Greg Land. Land of course is a topic of constant controversy for various tracings, swaps and such that he has performed over the years, and turned me off from the book quite quickly, so you can imagine my horror as I picked up Chapter 4 of Second Coming this week and saw his name on the cover. Thankfully, everyone involved with the project so far has upped their game in a significant fashion, and even Greg has managed to control himself, pulling his art from "goddammit" to "serviceable." Mike Carey continues the great writing by the X-Staff, although constantly writing Rogue's accent wore on me after the first few pages. I'm sure that is normal for her, I just haven't read a comic with her in sometime. Plot wise, Second Coming has started to ramp up in a serious fashion with the X-Men of course having survived the initial onslaught and now get ready for their counter attack. There is still a long way to go, so while anything can happen, I'll wait patiently for Nightcrawler to eat it. B+
Amazing Spider-Man #628: Normally I would be thrilled for a week where I buy three Spidey comics, but this issue of ASM just doesn't do it for me. With Michael Lark and Chris Bachalo coming up to run out "The Gauntlet" and "The Grim Hunt," I know those guys needed some breathing room, but this "Something Can Stop The Juggernaut" story isn't it. Almost completely abandoning the dark and overwhelming feel of The Gauntlet stories that have come before, Stern taps into the older days of thought balloons and Spider-Man constantly webbing guys in the face for a not quite light-hearted, but neutral toned story. After two issues I'm still not certain why these dudes are feuding, and this issue felt like little more than an extended and drawn out chase scene for no reason other than filler. Luckily, Lee Weeks and Dean White put together an absolutely gorgeous book for us to look at, almost channeling JRjr at times and White reminds us of why he is one of the best. The extra story from Mark Waid was entertaining enough, but nothing really special or worthwhile unless you needed a reminder that Peter is unemployed, broke and webbing costs a lot of money. I'll sigh and grit my teeth here, but only because I've guaranteed to people that the upcoming Lizard story is going to be absolutely fantastic. C+
Guardians of the Galaxy #25: For two years now has been one of my favorite team books. DnA have put together one of the most fun groups of characters in Marvel's stable right now and while the story is often in flux due to the constant stream of cosmic events, it has never wavered in its quality. The lead in to the upcoming Thanos Imperative, this week's Guardians continues to explore the damage being done to the universal time line, as well as reuniting the team after the split of recent events and getting everything into place. Artistically the book has always been shaky, but Brad Walker does some solid work, although there are some inconsistencies that stood out fairly easily. It would be fantastic if DnA would lock down a singular art team though. My chief problem with this book however is that even after 25 issues, the book is so swamped down by events that it may be impossible to read this book on its own, something I hope will be corrected as Marvel Cosmic heads into the Heroic Age and all the cosmic books go on hold for The Thanos Imperative, a perfect time to iron everything out and let the Guardians start to flourish on their own as a standalone title. If you aren't reading this yet, wait a month and check out The Imperative, if you are, I think you may agree with everything I've said so far. B
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