Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews for 03/19/08

Sorry about the rather short set of reviews, but things ran late today and I only had time to whip up three reviews and I barely got a rather light load like that done for you. I'll make up for it in tomorrow's Quick Shots or maybe even update this sometime tomorrow with more reviews, but hopefully I won't get sidetracked like this next week.

I won't bother make a separate post on it, but the Scott Pilgrim movie (it rocks, you should look for the first trade) seems to be gaining some traction with Michael Cera being cast to play Scott. He's the awkward, nerdy guy from Superbad and Juno (among other typecast roles he's had). Not sure he fits Scott's personality though. As much as I dislike him, Shia LaBeouf would probably be the ideal Scott Pilgrim if they were going for a "named" actor. Not sure how they'll capture the crazy Scene Girl-using attacks or psychic powered vegans and other insanity from the book, but I hope they get Jason Lee to play the evil ex-boyfriend based on him that they were afraid to use his actual name for. Probably won't be anything like the comic, but should end up an entertaining movie regardless with the names attached to the scripts and what not.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #36
Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Butch Guice & Steve Epting

With the introduction of the new Captain America, I figured we'd see the action and plot progression ramp up on this Red Skull storyline, but, so far, it seems to have slowed to a snail's pace.

It's not that the book isn't good anymore. Far from it. It's still probably the best comic coming out regularly from the Big Two. I'm just a little disappointed, if you could call it that, with how little has happened in the last three or four months.

Every issue since Bucky has taken over as the new Cap has consisted of some minor rioting or random strife in America caused by the still unknown Red Skull plot. On top of that, these only served to give Bucky a reason to show boat in his new costume and make cool poses while showing he's not the same as the old Cap. These aren't poorly written and are still entertaining, as is, but they lack and real impact in a monthly series and are clearly written with a trade in mind. This sounds quite negative, at least to some, but this is not like other books that consist of 22 pages of pure filler or "decompression", but it's clearly not the meat and potatoes of this storyline.

With that said, we get some more progression for Bucky's claim as the new Cap. We've seen him strike poses, fight riots and take on nameless henchmen, but now he gets to go up against honest to goodness super-villains in the form of Sin lead Serpent Society. Showcasing how he's not like the old Cap, Bucky doesn't take these scrubs down in seconds, but pulls out a victory. Before he can enjoy it, Crossbones takes him to task, nearly killing Bucky, and forces him to resort to drastic measures as he unloads an entire clip into Crossbones, nearly killing him.

There was nothing wrong with the action scene, but, as a monthly, this slow and methodical pacing makes it blatantly obvious Brubaker is just going from point A to B to C, etc in easing Bucky in as the new Cap and showing the different tactics a non-Super Soldier serum Cap must use as well as the influences of Bucky's time as the Winter Soldier. I sound like a broken record, but it is good despite the plodding pace and 'wait for trade' writing.

Other than the fight scene, there was very little else going on in this issue with the one execption being Sharon Carter. The Skull knows about her baby and her desire to protect it is overriding the Faustus programming and she tries to escape. While looking for an emergency escape, she stumbles acrosss a conveniently placed "Steve Rogers in a vat of unknown liquid". I highly doubt it's the real Rogers, but the whole Skull / Cap clone body has been done before, so I'm not sure if Bru will go down that route. This will most likely be that Cap on the cover to the upcoming issues facing Bucky-Cap. Is this the unknown item Dr Doom gave the Skull way back when in the early issues or something Zola cooked up on his own for the Skull or is it the real deal?

Verdict - Must Read. Hard to fault a book for telling an entertaining story that may go down as one of the best runs on any single title, even if the story has slowed to a crawl. I was thinking of giving it a Check It for how slow paced the plot has been, but this issue's super-villain throw down was much more satisying than the previous Hydra henchmen and rioter "fights" on Captain Bucky's part.


IMMORTAL IRON FIST #13
Written by Matt Fraction & Ed Brubaker
Art by David Aja

Ed Brubaker went two for two this week with the Cap / Iron Fist combo. Matt Fraction has a lot to do with this title as well, so I guess it should be 1.5 for 2. Either way, this was probably my favourite book this week and, while it didn't deliver any real fighting, so much happened this issue and with that awesome ending, I can hardly fault them for it.

The only problem with this review is where to start. I suppose the best parts would suffice and that would lead to the true star of this book since he was introduced, Fat Cobra. He and the other Immortal Weapons were great this issue and I'm glad to see they won't become throw away characters, or at least not in this arc. Hopefully they show up in future stories.

But I'm getting off track. All the Immortal Weapons were gathered around a dinner table listening to Dog Brother #1 tell a story from his past, of which we only hear the last few bits of, and it was just fun seeing such an ecclectic group of characters sitting around eating, drinking and have "normal" conversations. When Prince of Orphans shows up and asks if he can sit down, Fat Cobra practically throws Tiger's Beautiful Daughter out of her seat to make room for him in the most comical scene of the issue.

The entire sequence was set up to have the Prince invite the other Weapons to help defend the Immortal Cities from the impending Hydra attack. Yes, even Davos, who seems unaware of Hydra's intention of destroying all the cities and not just coming to help kill Danny and exact Davos' revenge. Davos declines and seeks out his father, the Thunderer, to discuss this revolt, which ends in a short battle between the two.

Then we have Danny confronting K'un Lun's leader, Yu-Ti, and demanding he step down as leader and tell the people of his crimes and the use of the Rand Gate to travel back and forth between Earth and K'un Lun in an intense scene that should come to a head in the next issue.

Finally, we see Hydra's final preparations and their opening of the gate to K'un Lun from their side. This leads to the epic ending where the Heroes 4 Hire team, captives of Hydra, point out the proverbial shit has hit the fan to the Hydra boss as they all look to the portal to see all the Immortal Weapons ready to come through the portal as Danny explains so elloquently puts that the portal isn't letting Hydra in, but letting them out.

Verdict - Must Read. I'm sure I left something out, especially with how many words I devoted to some small scenes, pagewise, but this was just a great issue and definitely gave the story the kick in the pants it needed as the supposed tournament was turning into a yawn fest with a bunch of talking heads. Great stuff all around.


IRON MAN #27
Written by Daniel Knauf & Charles Knauf
Art by Carlo Pagulayan

After last issue's epic fight with the Mandarin, it was to be expected that this issue would fail to live up to it, but I wasn't expecting the pace or momentum of that story to practically grind to a halt this time around.

This is definitely a result of the exceptional last issue, but I can't help but feel disappointed here. Nothing happens here. We get to see how Tony survived the miniture black hole (I honestly forget what that zero point blast they set up was called) to nobody's surprise and the rest of the issue deals with the fallout from that.

There's some entertaining scenes with Tony, Dugan and Maria and another with Doc Samson and Norman Osborn, but nothing I'd call noteworthy. It seems whenever something bad happens to Tony as the Director of SHIELD, the response will be "Do it Nick Fury style!". This is good once in a while, but they've pulled this stunt a few times now and it's getting old fast. If they want it "Nick Fury-style", why not just bring back Nick already?

As for the plot, and there is one if you remember the whole Extremis / Mandarin wiping out 97% of the population thing (and you wouldn't be faulted since the issue deals with court marshalling Tony for the whole nuke thingy I mentioned earlier and barely mentions this little detail out side some footnotes), Mandarin pulls a neat mental illusion out of rings to fool Maya into giving his "Tony Stark" the codes to unlock the airborn Extremis. It sounds corny, but it was well done, although I saw it coming a mile away with how the scenes were set up.

Verdict - Check It. Not as bad as I make it out, but, nonetheless, a real let down after last issue. I expect things to ramp back up next issue though.

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