Secret Avengers #1: This is the book that Avengers #1 should have been. Strong character voices, intriguing situations, and excellent pacing make this not only one of the best books of the week, but a strong candidate for best book of the Avengers franchise. It is only one issue but I'm tremendously impressed with how Brubaker structured this book. Popular characters are left only to their introductions while characters that may be more unfamiliar to new readers. Figures people may not know like Moon Knight or Ant-Man are the subject of short yet poignant flashbacks that both explore their motivations for joining the team and relating to their actions in the present day, subtlety illustrating why Steve would want them on his team and Ed would want them in his book. Mike Deodato is providing stellar work, hot off of Dark Avengers and he continues to deliver. His action scenes are paced well, his layouts and storytelling remains top-notch and while his normally shadow-heavy and darker style of art is perfectly suited for the book, the brief taste of Mars we got with his pencils were satisfactory as well. If you are buying one Avengers book, it needs to be this one. A
Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #2: Grant Morrison's masterpiece Batman run continues here and I don't use the word lightly. Grant is the absolute king of comics writing right now and no one comes close. No one else matches his imagination, his scope, his plotting and his eye for details. Casual readers will certainly enjoy this issue of a Puritan Bruce Wayne battling the narrow minding zealots of the Salem era Witch Hunters but for fans of G-Mo and stronger readers there is a deeper end to this pool. No longer limiting himself to the story threads of his Batman and Final Crisis works, there are a number of references to older Morrison works including Animal Man, 52, Seven Soldiers and potentially All-Star Superman as well. Grant is both an absolute genius and totally nuts, elaborating on space, the multiverse and laying out intense concepts about the construction of time. The Puritan story is solid as well, it was fantastic to see Bruce's detective skills on serious display after a long time away and while it remains fairly predictable, it still manages to generate some further questions as we move towards Wayne's inevitable return to the present. Irving's art is solid, fantastic in some areas and questionable in others. I'm not the biggest fan in the world, but I can certainly understand why people like it and try not to let it affect my perception of the comic negatively. Another strong issue and I'm looking forward to Batman and Robin in a few weeks. A
Amazing Spider-Man #632: In all honesty, I was VERY, VERY tempted to simply place a page here and let that stand as my review, but at the end of all things, I do try hard to avoid spoilers and this particular piece is just so absolutely bonkers and key to the whole Shed arc that to do so would ruin a lot for anyone looking to check it out. That said, I ranted about this arc before it began, I continue to do so week after week. This is the best Spider-Man story in the middle of the best Spider-Man long-story in forever. If you have a vague interest in Amazing Spider-Man, please, please, please, pick up this arc. A+++++
Secret Warriors #16: Hickman kills on this book but it should be a sin that it only comes out once a month. There is so much going on sixteen issues in that you almost HAVE to re-read the previous parts of the arc just to stay on your toes. This is going to be a guaranteed omnibus when it finally finishes, an absolute tome of espionage, intrigue, and action that is filled with crosses, double crosses and crosses that you've never even heard of. Keeping up with the BKV tradition of always closing on a cliff-hanger, Secret Warriors does everything in its power to keep you interested, guessing and reaching for old issues. Jonathan has a hold on these characters, Nick Fury especially that no one else will likely ever be able to match and it will be very interesting to see what project he moves on to next. If the book has one weakness however, it is in the art. Until this point, Vitti and Caselli have been the only pencillers to have worked on the title but it looks like time has caught up with them as this month's issue features fill-in work by Gianluca Gugliotta who was selected for a style that matches the other two and while he gets the story told, it is not visually impressive by any means. Next month concludes "Wake the Beast" and it is going to be huge for sure. B
X-Force #27: Funny what a difference a week can make. 7 days ago I was terribly down on Second Coming, the story was slowing a bit, Greg Land was on art and things were fairly boring. Then I popped open X-Force this week and was quite impressed. Mike Choi and Sonia Oback handle the story telling for the first ten or so pages to the point that I almost wondered if there was a printing error. There are no words and there is no real need for them either. The art team is by far the best of the crossover and they've handled the strongest bits powerfully. Given that the story has really been the brain child of Yost & Kyle, I expected them to bring no less than their A game and they did not disappoint. The plot has begun moving again, the characters are interacting well, the mood is as grim as expected and the mandatory amount of Young X-Men were properly harmed. All is well in the Mutant World again. B+
Green Lantern #54: It is an absolutely insane week when Green Lantern is like the fifth or sixth book getting reviewed by me. That isn't an indication of its quality just that it somehow got lost in the stack. Continuing the Spirit Animals arc of the new Brightest Day status quo, the book continues on as wonderfully as always. Things are progressing at a satisfactory rate as Sinestro continues his task to gather the New Guardians while the original Guardian continues hunting down energy beasts. I have a few qualms with the writing, particularly some of the Johnsian Literalism (copyright David Uzumeri 2010) found throughout and the last page left me scratching my head but I'm curious to see where it goes for sure. Doug Mahnke continues to shine with his absolutely awesome art, capturing both human and alien flawlessly and is perfectly suited in every way for this book. One thing that has stood out to me is that the Green Lantern franchise is really turning into just that as some threads from Green Lantern Corps are picked up here and some of the characters will no doubt be featured in the other books as Johns, Bedard and Tomasi expand the Lantern Line into something that may potentially rival the Bat books. All in all, another solid outing. A-
Ultimate Enemy #4: This book has frustrated me beyond belief. I understand that it is part of a trilogy of minis, but the last page has The End. on it. With a period. Then right underneath it, it says "TO BE CONTINUED!" how does that work? How do you put "The End." on a cliffhanger? If you consider this to be just another issue in an event book, it is a lot of fun. Populated by plenty of great character moments and dialogue it carries on the standard quality of a Bendis book, but in the end it has been four issues and the heroes only have the vaguest idea of what they're dealing with. Rafa Sandoval continues to dominate artistically, visually solid, Sandoval continues to prove himself as an excellent storyteller and it is quite clear why Bendis would enjoy working with him. Frustrations aside, I have been enjoying this series to a degree, maybe not a 3.99 degree, but to a degree. A finished trilogy will no doubt cast some better light on this story, so I'll definitely anticipate re-reading it in the coming months. B+ as en event issue. C+ as a miniseries.
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