UPDATED - Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews for 11/04/09

The Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews gets back on schedule with a Wednesday set of reviews for a change.  Things just kept piling up over the past few weeks since I took that trip to Toronto.  Only managed a couple of quick reviews for you, one for Assault on New Olympus and another for Black Widow: Deadly Origin, but I'll be updating with the other two or three books I bought this week before the weekend for those looking for more reviews.  Hit the jump to see what I thought of these two books.

UPDATE - Added reviews for Amazing Spider-Man, Secret Six, Ghost Riders: Heavens on Fire, & Deadpool Team-Up.

ASSAULT ON NEW OLYMPUS PROLOGUE #1
Written by Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente

Art by Rodney Buchemi

Assault on New Olympus begins here with what read more like a regular issue of Incredible Hercules than a prologue to a major (well, I'd like to think it's major, what with the whole "extinction of all life" as the central problem our heroes have to deal with) event which is both a good and a bad thing.

The good part is that Incredible Hercules is a comic you should be reading.  The fact this issue has the same quality and charm as a regular issue of Incredible Hercules is more than enough reason to recommend it to someone.  Add a Spider-Man that is actually fun to read to the mix and you've got the makings of a great issue.

In fact, the Spider-Man parts of the issue outshine the Hercules ones, from his kissing Hebe and the Spider Sense going off as Hercules sees him kissing his wife to his reference to the classic 'trapped under mountain of rubble', it was the first time Spider-Man had made me smile while reading his dialogue in a long, long time.

Other great parts dealt with Hebe finally slapping some sense into Hercules and everyone pointing out how he's a womanizer before the two finally reconciled.  I'm not sold on the whole Herc settling down with one woman deal, especially after the romp with the Dark Elves in the Mighty Thorcules story that just wrapped up, but it was a well written moment that makes me want to see more between the two.  Although, she did, up until recently, have a crazy stalker girl shrine to Herc and went off to lead a cult or something before ending up at the homeless shelter.  Maybe Herc should stay a little clear of the crazy lady.  But, then again, Wonder Girl did the same thing and is now hooking up with Superboy again, so who am I to judge?

However, getting back to the bad part of being 'just another iHerc issue' is that this one-shot lacked any kind of impact or snare for new readers, which I imagine was the whole point of making it an event like this and tossing Spider-Man, Wolverine and others into the mix instead of just restricting it to the pages of Incredible Hercules.

Personally, I look at Marvel's cosmic events of late for my standard for "prologue" issues.  Annihilaton, Conquest and War of Kings each had a mind blowing setup in their prologue issues that provided ample reason for sticking with the event.  Annihilation had the Annihilation Wave wipe out the Nova Corps and had Annihilus ride a wave of destruction into our universe, Conquest had the Phalanx take over the Kree homeworld and War of Kings had Black Bolt lead his people to the decimated Kree and conquered them while sparking a war between them and the Shi'ar. 

While you don't have to have a big, jaw dropping reveal or universe altering moment in a prologue, there should be something unique and compelling that makes you want to keep reading that event no matter what.  Assault on New Olympus had none of that.  There was a short summary of events for new Herc readers, Hera hinting at what Continuum is (we still don't know what it physically is, just what it does) and how it will lead to the extinction of mankind.  We needed some cold, hard facts here or some kind of demonstration of this threat, not platitudes and monologuing.  Even that was limited to little more than a cameo by Hera and not even a focus to the issue, which was more about Herc fighting Spider-Man before getting back together with Hebe.  That's great for an issue of Incredible Hercules, but lackluster in terms of an event prologue designed to sell new or casual readers on following this event.

One thing of note was that this was the first issue with the Agents of Atlas backup.  I've tried to get into AoA a few times, but, outside of a few random moments or funny/awesome panels, it's just never clicked with me.  As such, this backup really didn't do anything for me, though it did have a couple of those odd little panels that I like to spotlight in the Moments of the Week, such as a huge, ancient god speaking perfect English, which was commented on by the always sarcastic Gorilla Man only to have it explained as the creature speaking 'God', which everyone can understand.  Never thought of it that way before, so was amused at the explanation.

Verdict - Check It.  While I personally enjoyed the issue a great deal, I'm only giving it a Check It for the simple fact that it fails to accomplish what I perceived as the objective of the one-shot - to sell people on the concept of this new event and get new readers on board.  Hercules fans and most that pick it up will likely enjoy the book, but enough to buy into an event?

BLACK WIDOW: DEADLY ORIGIN #1
Written by Paul Cornell

Art by Tom Raney & John Paul Leon

As someone who isn't overly familiar with Black Widow's origin, I've actually been looking forward to this, especially with Paul Cornell listed as the writer.  It's not that I was unfamiliar with Black Widow, but I had just never really read or bothered to learn what her origin actually was outside of being a Russian superspy.

I'm happy to report that I was right - she is a Russian superspy.  Go me.  However, there is a bit more to it than that.  For instance, I did not know she had a super soldier-like serum that's kept her young for all these years (she was born in the early 1900's).  I imagine it's the same stuff that Nick Fury must have used, since he's as old as dirt, too, and still kicking and looking rather spry. Other than that, though, she's just your typical orphaned girl that grew up to become a spy for the Russians during the early World War era of history.  She trained with people, went AWOL from her handlers and fought nazis.  Pretty much everything I had expected or knew of her origin.

It seems the catch for this minseries is how Cornell is playing off present day shenanigens with things that happened in her past.  It seems someone or, possibly due to the mission Black Widow started the book with, something has caused an "icepick protocal" to be activated on some Russian computer, which is purging Black Widow and her loved ones.   This began with the death of Ivan, Natasha's father figure of sorts, and ends with Natasha vowing to hunt down whoever killed him and getting revenge.

Ivan's death, of course, segued into the 'origin sequence' of the book, which was, by far, my favourite part.  Tom Raney does a serviceable job on the art chores for the present day part of the story, but John Paul Leon, channelling a style not unlike Tommy Lee Edwards (Marvel 1985).  It was quite a surprise seeing this style of art and it really fit the type of story they were telling.  Add some top notch panel composition, especially in regards to a sparring session between Wolverine (just Logan here) and a 12 year old Natasha as well as another sequence where a combination of the colouring and art really set off the focus for the action during a scene where Logan kills the young Natasha's handler.  It's really hard to describe the latter one, but, as it's a relatively simple scene, it's just shocking at how effective the technique was.

However, it wasn't just the art during the origin section that impressed me.  The way the origin was told and how it cut between time periods and even the inclusion of Logan, which didn't feel like a forced Wolverine appearance.  They actually make reference to the old Uncanny X-Men issue with Wolverine and Black Widow in it, though you'd probably need to have read that issue to even notice as it's very subtle.

Which brings me to what I disliked about this issue - the present day framing sequence.  I don't know why we need to have some overly dramatic spy thriller framing and tying into the origin.  It feels contrived simply to give them a reason to tell the origin.  Maybe the present day story will get better as the miniseries goes on, but at this point, I'd prefer if it had just been Cornell and Leon doing 22 pages of the flashbacks instead of adding in the present day happenings.

Verdict - Check It.  More present day than actual origin story, which disappointed me, but the six or so pages of origin were fantastic, especially in terms of art.  I like Black Widow, but have never really read her origin before, so was looking forward to that aspect. Wish it had been played up more than it was. 


UPDATED - New reviews start here.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #610

Written by Marc Guggenheim

Art by Marco Chechetto and Luke Ross

 Holy crap, did this ever go south fast.  The first two parts of this story weren't especially great, but they did a decent job of reintroducing several aspects of the Clone Saga after Marvel's decade long ban of any and all mention of it outside of the Spider-Girl series, which still kept any mention of clones to a bare minimum for the most part.  They even had an serviceable mystery plot that shed some light on Ben Reilly's and Kaine's past.  The only down side, really, was the whole Raptor villain, but I was able to overlook him for the most part.

 Jump back to this issue and it's just gone completely off the tracks.  The big mystery fire that killed Raptor's family?  As expected, it was due to Kaine's involvement in the past, but amounted to Ben Reilly throwing Kaine into a fire place, which happened to be off in some random room of the house for no apparent reason (anyone else keep a fireplace in the upstairs spare bedroom/storage/lab room and at a roaring pace when no one was in that room?  No one?  Just checking.).  Absurdity of the location and Ben throwing Kaine into a lit fireplace aside, the rest of the mystery amounts to Ben confronting Raptor, punching him around a bit, Raptor begging Ben to spare his family and then Ben revealing that Raptor had already killed them while Ben was fighting Kaine.  Yes, Raptor left the room after Kaine bust in to go slaughter his family and now blames Ben Reilly/Peter Parker for it. 

But wait, it gets "better".  Kaine, who has done everything in his life to help Peter Parker live the life he couldn't and hated Ben for being a better clone, is now working with Raptor in the present day because he believes the screw up doctor that hasn't done any science or lab work in years can help cure Kaine's clone degeneration.  Kaine is a smart guy on a Peter Parker level.  He should know Raptor is an idiot that injected himself with freaking dinosaur DNA and has no knowledge of cloning or the possible degeneration side effects, yet is only working for him so he can antagonize Peter and get his degeneration problem fixed. 

On top of this, Kaine, who was willing to turn himself into the police so Peter would not reveal his identity during the Trial of Peter Parker (Kaine had framed Ben, but Peter was taking the fall for the same finger prints/looks) and changed his life to help Peter (even supposedly recovered Peter and MJ's baby, though that subplot was completely ignored with all things Clone Saga), yet here unmasks Spider-Man to that Z-list villain, Raptor, for shits and giggles. 

Verdict - Avoid It.  Just about everything about this conclusion was awful and I can't even put to words my disappointment with how this debacle turned out.  They had a golden opportunity to reintroduce some of the better parts of the Clone Saga and turned into into a complete waste of paper.  Even me, a Clone Saga fan, does not even want to see any more of this garbage if this is the best they can muster.

DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #899

Written by Fred Van Lente

Art by Dalibor Talajic

While there was no beer drinking contests with Thor and Wolverine, Hercules and Deadpool did end up going to Tijuana and got completely plastered whilst wearing ponchos and subreros and drinking tequilla with bloodshot eyes (Moment of the week?  Definitely.), so I'll let the promised keg party that cover implied slide this time.

As for the rest of the content from this new Deadpool ongoing, all I can say is, combined with his work on Deadpool #900, Fred Van Lente should be writing a Deadpool book on a regular basis.  He writes an acutally funny Deadpool and when Van Lente has him break the 4th wall, it's not just for a cheap gag, but actually flows with what is happening in the book.  Too many times, writers seem to feel it's their job to make Deadpool break the 4th wall, but take no time to really think of a unique or funny way to do it.  They just throw it in there at random and expect it to be funny for the simple fact that it breaks the 4th wall.  Nice to see some actual thought go into its useage for a change. 

On the plot side of things, Arcade and Nightmare team up to entrap Hercules and Deadpool.  Arcade hates Deadpool because he's more popular than he is and is getting all the assassination contracts while Nightmare has issues with Herc.  They lure both heroes to one of Arcade's Murderworlds, which is modified by Nightmare's powers, and that's the basis for the story.  It works in so far as it brings Herc and Wade together, both of which play off each other surprisingly well. 

Speaking of surprises, with Van Lente on writing chores, I was surprised to see Hercules acting more like older versions of the character.  He wasn't speaking in Olde English or anything, but was, for lack of a better description, acting more like a Greek god than he does in his own book, which Van Lente co-writes.  He was still Hercules, but his dialogue seemed off a bit.  Nothing that overly distracted me from the story, but worth pointing out. 

The only real disappointment I had with this issue was the art.  Dalibor Talajic's art was average at best and I was honestly expecting something a little better from the first issue of a new series.  It almost feels like they are literally cashing on Deadpool's surge in popularity and aren't even trying now, simply letting the book run on Deadpool's name alone.  It had a rushed, Countdown-like feel to it.  Backgrounds were, in most cases, non-existent or consisting of a solid colour background.  The only good thing I can say is that I really enjoyed the facial expressions, such as Arcade's look when he sees Deadpool lobotomize himself. 

Verdict - Buy It.  An enjoyable, done-in-one tale that reminded me of the old Cable & Deadpool series (with Herc replacing Cable).  I'm not sure if I'll stick with the ongoing, as Van Lente is only doing this first issue, but I'll be sure to check in on it from time to time whenever the story or creative team appeals to me. 

GHOST RIDERS: HEAVENS ON FIRE #4

Written by Jason Aaron

Art by Roland Boschi
+ Enjoyed the issue, but felt like we didn't really go anywhere in terms of plot (more on this in the negatives).  Curious about these villains, whom I have no knowledge of, and regret not having read the rest of the series (again, more on this in the negatives) after seeing them here. 
+ Roland Boschi is really impressing me on the art for this title.  You won't see his name mentioned with the McNiven's or Quitely's, but it's still very solid work with great expressions, detailed backgrounds and it's a very dark and moody look that lends itself well to the demons and other craziness of this book.
+ The last page with Kowalski/Vengence.  He really is my new favourite character.  He's just so over the top insane with a mad on for the Ghost Riders.  Looking forward to seeing him in action next month.
- Felt like a "middle chapter", which, at issue four, it technically is, but I'm referring more to the middle chapter syndrome of modern day decompressed storytelling to fit trades.  This is compounded by the fact the two Ghost Riders do not even show up in this issue (Danny and Johnny are shown in a one panel cameo) as the story focuses on the side characters.  The big bad, Zadkiel, still has yet to make an appearance or really show any kind of presence in the book aside from the various Ghost Rider villains that have been recruited. 
- I had no idea who either of the villains were nor what their powers were and was given no clear indication of what kind of threat they pose.  For instance, there's a crazy guy with a child's bubble gun. The bubbles were fired, there was some dynamic panelling showing shock on Jane Cutter's face, but then she just punched the guy in the face.  He later uses some kind of mind control/penance stare on her and I still don't know what happened.  Was it just a regular bubble gun?  Didn't need a wikipedia entry, but some kind of indication of their power/threat level would have been nice, but this is also an 'end of run' event aimed more at longtime readers than people like me jumping on right at the end, so I can't complain too much.

Verdict - Check It.  The negatives seem to overpower this quick shot review, but I did enjoy this issue.  I just felt that not much happened to drive this "event" (more of an extension of the now-cancelled Ghost Rider series) forward and I was a bit confused over the villains and their powers.  However, I imagine longtime Ghost Rider readers are loving it as I'm still quite impressed with what I see here. 

SECRET SIX #15

Written by John Ostrander

Art by Jim Calafiore

John Ostrander and Jim Calafiore take over for Gail Simone and Nikola Scott for a few issues starting with this Deadshot centric story.  Ostrander wrote some definitive Suicide Squad stories in the 80's and is particularly associated with Deadshot, having fleshed out the mercenary's character throughout his run.  It is for this reason that a lot of people have been anticipating this issue. 

With that said, how was Ostrander's return to the character he is most associated with?  It was good, but felt like a one-shot/filler issue.  There are vague references to previous Secret Six stories, but it didn't read like an issue of Secret Six and felt like something out of Paul Dini's Streets of Gotham.  Again, this isn't a bad thing, per se, but this isn't the same style of book that made my top 10 list of 10 Comics You Should be Reading either. 

The issue revolves around Deadshot meeting an old pastor from his time in prison and discussing new urges to kill that are gradually overtaking him.  There has been no indication of this behaviour seeded by Simone and he still felt quite carefree throughout the last arc.  It also was set up so as to stem out of the death of Batman and Deadshot's history with the character and guilt from the death of his brother. He's apparently projecting the fact that his brother and Batman, both good people, died while he, a bad person, gets to live.  It's a very safe story and ties into Deadshot's background that worked as a simple done-in-one character piece about Deadshot. 

Speaking of Dini's Streets of Gotham, the urges to kill that Deadshot are feeling were illustrated identical to Dini's interpretation of Zsasz's urges to kill from that book with the shots of living people talking followed up with the same scene filled with how Zsasz would kill them and the panel coloured with blood red and black.  In this case, Deadshot sees everyone shot or himself shooting up the location and the same blood red colouring.  If I had not seen it with Streets of Gotham already, I'd probably be impressed with it.  With how comics work, I imagine this was mere coincidence as these are written and drawn months in advance and this is handled by a different editor as well.  Still, lessened the impact of what more than likely would have been a strong and original narrative if it had come first. 

Verdict - Check It.  Ostrander tells a safe character driven story that fleshes out Deadshot's past for readers unfamiliar with it, but it also reads unlike what Secret Six fans are accustomed to and is more like a one-shot for Deadshot than a continuation of the series.  After the bombshell conclusion to last issue, I was disappointed there was no follow up here, too.  All in all, a good story, but not up to typical Secret Six standards either.

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