September
22 Reviews: 'Fringe,' 'Scott Pilgrim,' 'Air,' 'Greatest Hits' ...

The first of six issues spinning off from the new Fox series, Fringe #1 (Wildstorm, $2.99) feels too much like a place for the show’s writers to dump their back-story notes. Two stories here — one about the past of Walter Bishop; the other a seemingly stand-along “fringe science” case — don’t feature either of the show’s lead characters. The comic also, by focusing on the past, seems to violate the show’s promise to avoid complicated mythologies. And it still feels far too disconnected from the show to add much to the experience. Grade: C

Scott Pilgrim: Full-Colour Odds & Ends 2008 (Oni Press) is a modest package that nevertheless epitomizes everything cool about the game-playing slacker’s graphic novel series. Of special interest is seeing creator Bryan Lee O’Malley’s work in color — done so well Dean Trippe and Jason Horn that it’s a shame the rest of the series isn’t done this way. Grade: B+

An ongoing series from “Cairo” creators G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker, Air #1 (DC/Veritgo, $2.99) is a interesting mixture of fantasy, romance and air travel, centered around a flight attendant named Blythe who meets a mystery man and visits countries that no longer exist. It evokes the direction “Lost” has taken in recent seasons, but with more of an international flair and an appealing mix of romance that allows it to overcome a few growing pains in the writing and the art. Grade: B+

Greatest Hits #1 (DC/Vertigo, $2.99) is an oddball concept — a 1960s superhero group analogous to The Beatles that is a surprisingly conventional revisionist superhero comic. Glenn Fabry’s art is always welcome, but the flashback framing sequence involving a Hollywood movie about the team and the slightly sleazy and cynical take on era all feels stale and lacking any of the charms of the era its trying to evoke. Grade: C+

Judenhass (Aardvark-Vanaheim, $4) is not really a story as much as Dave Sim illustrating a series of short observations and quotations using the photorealism techniques he’s taken up of late. The art is, as always with Sim, stunning and accomplished — and in this case, suitably evokes the horror. The text is slim, but worth reading for the way Sim’s hoice of quote reinforce something often forgotten today: the ways in which anti-Semitism was accepted and easily observable in the governments and cultures of the nations that came to later defeat and condemn Hitler for his actions. Grade: B+

Archie #587 (Archie Comics, $2.25) kicks off the five-part Freshman Year storyline, in which the Riverdale kids look like they’ll be split up even before they start high school. Archie comics remain light, fun family entertainment — and this is no exception, doing a good job at the same time of feeling current and relevant. Grade: B.

DC’s Minx line offers more sophisticated takes on being young with “Token” (by Alisa Kwitney and Joelle Jones, $9.99) — about a young Jewish girl tempted by shoplifting and romance with a dashing mystery boy — and “The New York Four” (by the “Local” crew of Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly, $9.99) — in which a college freshman learns to live with her friends, herself and deal with life away from her cell phone. Both stories are emotionally honest while having just a slight edge in tone and look — especially Kelly’s wonderfully gritty take on the Big Apple — that should appeal to teen readers. Grade: B (“New York Four”), B- (“Token”).

Simpsons Super Spectacular #7 (Bongo, $2.99) features a pair of clever superhero parodies, saddling Bartman with an unwanted sidekick called the Salesman, and sending Radioactive Man into “The House of Westinger!,” a friendly poke at the 1950s and 1960s Superman comics edited by Mort Weisinger. Goofy fun with a few moments worthy of out-loud laughs. Grade: B

I finally got around to reading Mark Evanier’s excellent “Kirby: King of Comics” (Abrams, $40) an illustrated biography of Jack Kirby. Evanier gives an excellent and entertaining overview of Kirby’s life and conveys in a relatively short text a compelling portrait of Kirby’s life, personality and motivations. Here’s hoping the wait isn’t too long for the more detailed bio of Kirby that Evanier plans to write. Grade: A+.