Comics

The Flash #5 Review

The Flash has so far been a surprising joy for me. I did not expect this series to be so great. It tells a great story for Flash and his supporting characters and always leaves us with a great ending for us to want to pick up the next issue. 

In this issue The Flash is still trying to learn how to control his new powers. Manuel is trying to figure out a way to save his clones, but it may end up killing himself in the process. When something goes wrong with Manuel and his clones the Flash is going to have to save the day and pay the price.

Astonishing X-Men #46 – Review

This issue has Scott and alternate versions of Wolverine, Emma Frost, Nightcrawler, Shadow Cat find out the reason behind Savior’s actions. Unfortunately it’s the cliche of the ends justifying the means that so many grey hat villains use. There was a huge catastrophe and of course only the energy that could be found in heroes was powerful enough to contain it! And that had me yawning. It also reminded me a lot of Final Fantasy 6.

Unsurprisingly, the mutants in this issue didn’t hear this and decide they should just got back into captivity and become living Duracells. So the team decides to fight their way towards a special jet that can travel between dimentions. I don’t want to give away the ending in this review, but the pacing also seems way off – this story arc will probably end up being about two issues longer than it needs to be to tell this story. And that decompression is what gives off the feeling of Marvel directing the write to leave the story in a holding pattern until Liu’s turn at the helm comes.

Deathstroke #5 – Review

This issue of Deathstroke, overall, leaves much to be desired but has enough action combined with depth to keep readers coming back for more despite the flaws. There is little progress with character development and the artwork is full of disproportioned bodies and environments that are almost hard to look at.

We step back in time to see a much younger Slade (much younger being 60) and his son Grant training with Peabody. After an ‘acceptable’ session, we return to the present to see Slade’s degrading condition and his fight with the new Legacy… who proves to be more of a challenge than any of the previous wearers of the Legacy suit.

Marvel Ends Moon Knight in April

Surprising many, Marvel Comics’ solicitations for April included the final issue of Moon Knight. The series is now set to end that month with issue 12. Brian Michael Bendis has confirmed this but also assured fans that this will be the end of his story that he and Alex Maleev intended from the start. The duo signed on for a twelve issue story, meaning this cancellation has no impact on their original plans.

Moon Knight was one of the three relaunches in Marvel’s Big Shots Initiative from 2011. This initiative paired three characters with three high profile creative teams in the hopes of giving each property new life. What this produced were three series generally well-received by readers and critically acclaimed by reviewers.

Batman, Inc to Pick Up Where it Left Off

On DC’s The Source editor Mike Marts had the following to say about the upcoming Batman, Inc:

“Grant Morrison’s new BATMAN, INCORPORATED series is the final, unbelievable act of a saga six years in the making,” said Marts. “Along with his artistic partner-in-crime Chris Burnham, Grant delivers twists, turns, punches and reveals no reader will see coming. Things pick up directly after the shocking cliffhanger of last year’s LEVIATHAN STRIKES one-shot—and only get crazier from there!”

Sweet Tooth #29 – Review

For our recent feature that wrapped up the best comics had to offer, I named Jeff Lemire the best writer of 2011. I admitted this was based primarily on his exceptional work with the Animal Man series, but I also noted that what little I had read of his original work, Sweet Tooth, certainly did not hurt his notoriety. Now that I have a few more books of the series under my belt, I’d say it’s about time a bit greater tribute was given to where it’s due. Sweet Tooth is a pretty great book.

Liefeld’s The Infinite Cancelled

Liefeld lovers (if you exist), cry, Liefeld haters, rejoice. The Infinite has been cancelled due to both parties of the creative team having issues deciding on how to move forward with the series.

Not only was the series running behind with no issues released in December and January as originally planned, but the ever-familiar “creative differences” were blamed on the blow-out between the collaborative team of Rob Liefeld (Image Comics co-founder) and Robert Kirkman (creator of the Walking Dead).