April 2011

Secret Six #32

/ / Comics

The Secret Six continue their journey through Hell, to rescue Knockout and find Ragdoll, and Catman takes a side trip to poke a demon in the eyes and visit someone from his past. I’ll be glad with this storyline is over.

It’s not a bad story, in fact it has a couple nice turns, but every story that takes in Hell, be it DC, Marvel, or any other comic publisher, is limited by design. And too often writers trying to tell a tale in Hell quickly write themselves into a corner. I’m hoping that’s not the case here with Gail Simone, but I’ll admit after two issues I have my doubts.

I’d much rather see the Six back in action in Gotham City than traipsing through the underworld. The storyline I enjoyed most was the all-too-short look into Scandal Savage‘s recent squeeze which seems far more ominous than the team’s struggles down below.

The last panel does give us a bit of a surprise and should make the final issue of this storyline worth reading, but I’ll just be glad when things get back to “normal” for the team. Hit-and-Miss.

[DC, $2.99]

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Fear Itself #1

/ / Comics

fear-itself-1-coverAlthough I liked this issue more than I thought I would, I was surprised at the amount of effort writer Matt Fraction went to try and convince me how epic Marvel’s latest summer event Fear Itself will be (ex: giving seemingly everyone who works at Marvel Comics credit on the title page). For a story centered around Odin and the Red Skull’s daughter, you’ll have to forgive me if I’m not yet ready to drink the Kool-Aid just yet.

The story begins with Sin, having adopted the persona of her late father the Red Skull, breaking into a secret Nazi base to retrieve the Hammer of Skadi. On taking possession of the hammer Sin is tranformed, still herself, but also imbued with the presence and power of the former god. Sin uses the hammer to release the “true All Father” from his prison and help him take his revenge on Odin and Asgard.

Also in this first issue we get the falling out of Odin and Thor, Tony Stark‘s determination to help the economy by rebuilding Asgard on Earth, and the total ineptitude of Steve Rogers to prevent a riot. Although the Sin story works well enough, I had problems with each of these pieces.

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Deadpool Family

/ / Comics

deadpool-family-coverIt only took me a couple pages of this one-shot to remember why I stopped reading Deadpool Corps. Sometimes stories featuring these characters can be fun, but sometimes they can be excruciating to read.

The issue is broken into four separate stories surrounding various Corps members. Kidpool attempts to join in on robot fun with the other kids (mildly entertaining), Lady Deapool and Zombie Deadpool go to counseling (I wanted to stab out my eyes), and Deadpool himself is presented in a serious cheap Frank Miller style noir that has far less gravity than it should given the choice of main character and the rest of the antics on display here (all around bad idea).

Although the Kidpool one is passable (barely), the only one of the four stories that I can actually say I enjoyed was the insanity of Dogpool going against Sunny the Sentry Dog, written by James Asmus. Yeah, that was fun. The rest I could give or take (or line a birdcage with). Hit-and-Miss.

[Marvel, $3.99]

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