ménage à trois: 4/6/05
[One Marvel, one DC, both published the previous Wednesday, plus a random indie from whenever I feel like it, each reviewed quickie-style: 1 Minute=bad, 10 Minutes=good. Connections, if any at all, may be forced purely for the experience.]
At this point, distracted by the passage of time, the filing of a pile of back issues and the arrival of some interesting Moonstone product, I’ve pretty much forgotten about most of the new comics I bought last week! Fortunately, I’d already set aside my threesome for the week and now offer them up, even quicker than usual.
Power Pack #1 is an “All Ages” comic done right. Screw all the cynical, Comic Book Guy, “I read Miller’s Dark Knight when I was six years old!” crap on the internet, Marc Sumerak nails this one to the wall, matching the fun and energy of the best Nickelodeon cartoons while capturing the spirit of the original Power Pack series I grew up with. Gurihiru’s art is as influenced by manga as it is by traditional animation and is a visual treat. The Franklin Richards backup story is a delightful bonus, making this issue a rare perfect read: 10 Minutes
Beyond his costume, I was never a big fan of the original Firestorm, so when they relaunched him as young black teenager a year ago, I ignored my usual policy of supporting minority lead characters and took a pass. Artist Jamal Igle, whom I met a couple of weeks ago at the Big Apple Con, convinced me to give it a try, though, and so Firestorm #12 made it into my stack for the week. Despite the fact that the issue is the midpoint of a three-part arc, it gets everything right, with a fast-paced story that delivers just enough exposition and a humanizing interlude to get a sense of what’s going on, while delivering a fun cliffhanger ending that likely means more to long-time fans of the original character than it did to a newbie like me. There’s been a lot of terroristfanboy chatter about this title online, typical complaints about it not being “the real Firestorm,” and I’m guessing DC listened as the “real” Firestorm makes a significant appearance here, despite his death in Identity Crisis. I don’t know if it’s indicative of the previous issues, but for this one, I’d say Jamal made a good call: 8 Minutes
From the DEMO school of double the hype for half the content, Dead@17: Revolution #4 brings Josh Howard’s Buffy the Reincarnated Demon Slayer tale to an overwrought, melodramatic end. Beyond the great covers and overall design, which I’ve lauded previously, I just don’t get the big deal about this comic. I didn’t hate it, but I barely liked it, which, in my opinion, is much worse. Maybe it reads better with the two previous arcs taken in one full dose? Don’t know, and not particularly inspired to find out: 5 Minutes
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I think the connection between Jason & Ronnie was intended from the beginning, which is why Ronnie’s deathin IC was shoehorned in. (And, funny enough, a lot of people think Firestorm was the character Meltzer was actually hired to kill, which is kind of funny, as it was almost incidental to the story.)