August
2 Superluckymegareviews

Finally starting to make a dent in the pile of books collected in the weeks leading up to Comic-Con …

Justice #1, by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger and Doug Braithwaite (DC, 40 pages, color, $2.99) is a harrowing read: The story begins with the Earth being destroyed in a nuclear holocaust that not even the Justice League of America can stop. That turns out to be a dream, but with Ross finishing the art over Braithwaite’s pencils, it’s a very vivid one. Justice follows very much in the footsteps of Krueger and Ross’ previous project, Marvel’s Earth X series, and Ross’ work with Mark Waid on 1990s classic Kingdom Come. While Ross’ art on its own evokes joy with its photorealistic superheroes, the story and script here are superserious and bleak to the point of joylessness. The 12-issue series will no doubt be popular and it’s amazing to look at, but the story won’t do much to convince readers that superheroes and hyperrealism are the best match. Grade: C

Northwest Passage, Vol. 1, by Scott Chantler (Oni Press, 72 pages, b&w, $5.95) is an unusual mix of comedy, drama and Canadian frontier history. Set in 1755, when Canada was known as Rupert’s Land and the Hudson’s Bay Co. ruled the land, this tells the story of fort commander Charles Lord, who is about to retire back to a desk job in England having never achieved his dream of finding the mythical seaway that would give Europe a quick trade route to Asia. Though offering little more than setup storywise, Chantler’s story is full of humor and convincing characters and his art is polished and attractive. Grade: B+

Nat Turner #1, by Kyle Baker (Kyle Baker Publishing, 48 pages, b&w, $3) is the first of four issues devoted to the true tale of the slave who led a rebellion in 1831 Virginia. Baker begins his nearly silent story (only one page has any text to read — a short entry from the journal of a slave ship captain) with a kind of action setpiece as a slaving party in Africa captures villagers to be sent to American shores. Baker’s storytelling is magnificent and he really lets the story breathe, rarely using more than three panels per page and designing lots of white space to give the book a unique, non-comicbooky look. Further setting the book apart from other Baker projects such as Plastic Man or Birth of a Nation, each panel is drawn in a pencil/charcoal style that makes the eye linger on each page. An excellent book. Grade: A

Defenders #1 (Marvel, 32 pages, color, $2.99) and Hero Squared #1 (Boom! Studios, 32 pages, color, $3.99) both spring from the kings of superhero spoof writing, Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis. Defenders sees the pair try the approach they used on DC’s Justice League on yet another revival of Marvel’s perennial D-list team. Along for the ride is artist and JL-collaborator Kevin Maguire, and the results are predictably hilarious: A villain who likes the sound of his own voice, a suffering straight man in Doctor Strange, an unusually whiny Bruce Banner, pomposity personified in the Sub-Mariner, and a good laugh at the misplaced profundity of the Silver Surfer and his surfing soul mates. If you miss Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and the rest of the old JL, this is right up your alley. Hero Squared is a concept owned by Giffen and DeMatteis and takes their playful banter to an alternate universe superhero who comes to this dimension only to find his doppelganger is a regular-guy slacker with vague dreams of making movies and a tendancy to play too many videogames. Of the two, Hero Squared (drawn by Joe Abraham) is more satisfying because the creators are freer to do weird and strange things with characters that they own. Grade: Defenders, B; Hero Squared, B+

The Sacrifice storyline running through Superman #219, Action Comics #829, Adventures of Superman #642 and Wonder Woman #219 (DC, color, 32 pages and $2.50 each) spins out of The Omac Project #3 and is a must read before even looking at The Omac Project #4. This storyline, in which the now-evil Maxwell Lord takes control of Superman and makes him think he’s battling villains when he’s really beating up Batman, is most notable for the brutal choice Wonder Woman makes at its climax. The story is unavoidably uneven in terms of quality, with five pencillers working on the Wonder Woman issue alone and three writers (Mark Verheidan, Gail Simone and Greg Rucka) penning the episodes. Early installments are confusing to the point of frustration, but this is a case where sticking with the story pays off with resolutions for the confusion and a great twist at the end. These books have been selling well, with DC going back to press on all four issues and offer the most significant plot development in the buildup to Infinite Crisis. All this will please die-hard fans (unless they’re really into the Giffen-DeMatteis Justice League), though the need to know a lot of backstory that plagues all longrunning stories will keep this from breaking out until the inevitable multi-volume reprint collections arrive to help new readers put these events in context. Grade: B-

Daredevil vs. Punisher #1-2 (Marvel, color, 32 pages, $2.99 each) is the most recent venture into mainstream comics by Stray Bullets creator David Lapham. While readers shouldn’t expect a story with the depth of Bullets on a superhero project, these characters are a great match for Lapham and his gritty style of crime stories. Appropriately violent and seedy, Lapham writes, pencils and inks a story that evokes the feeling of Frank Miller’s classic confrontation between these characters so many years ago. The weak point comes from the coloring, which has a brightness that detracts from the unique look of Lapham’s work in black and white. Grade: B+

Y: The Last Man, Vol. 5 — Ring of Truth (DC/Vertigo, color, 192 pages, $14.99) is a nice, thick collection that starts to offer some explanations for the plague that wiped out every male on earth except Yorick Brown and his pet monkey, Ampersand. Writer Brian K. Vaughan and artists Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan Jr. continue to make a fascinating story from an old concept that has never been taken this seriously or done this well before. The book looks great, the characters are all well-rounded and unusually convincing. While the thrill of discovery that early issues evoked has faded (as it has with other Vertigo series such as Preacher or Transmetropolitan) the maturity of this work remains a breath of fresh air in a medium that recycles even its most innovative ideas all too frequently. Grade: A