52 Week Twenty-Seven
DC Comics
Writers: Johns, Rucka, Waid, Morrison
Artists: Giffen, Moll
This week’s chapter of 52 has more punch than the last few weeks, with an odd revelation or two thrown in as well. The scenes with Ralphy Dibny, the Spectre, and Jean Loring have a creepier zing than anything this series has offered yet. Not since a progenitor of Booster Gold was trapped in a time loop has this tale deliberately played the anguish card. Combine that with more temporal oddities and another interlude in Nanda Parbat, and there’s something for lovers of almost any of the book’s multiple plotlines. The art of each segment of the issue varies widely. The Fate scenes have a gravity and heaviness that compliments the mood. The Waverider scenes have a polished and professional look that works with the science fiction cast. The shoddy-by-comparison scenes set in Nanda Parbat are really beginning to look out of place in this title at all.
Score: B
Batman #658
DC Comics
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Andy Kubert
This is the sort of romp that you just don’t see in comics anymore. We have an established villain written a bit too melodramatically, with a new threat to use in gleeful villain fashion. The monsters, the explosions, the damsel in distress, make this issue a more modern version of a movie serial or perhaps a Sunday Comics strip. The art by Andy Kubert sells the silliness like no one else could (save maybe Howard Porter or Scott Kolins) and so this book just becomes a great puff pastry with an explosion to finish everything off.
Score: A
Martian Manhunter #4
DC Comics
Writer: A.J. Lieberman
Artist: Al Barrionuevo
This chapter of The Others Among Us advances the espionage and anti-Martian plots while fleshing out quite a few of the supporting characters. This story’s high body count certainly pushes it further into the thriller category than mystery, but it’s still convoluted enough not to be thought of straight action. The new J’onn still doesn’t feel right; readers have yet to learn what changed him. But his new Martian cohorts are adequate enough sounding boards to prevent him from being a complete cipher. The art continues to excel in a muscular urban fashion, even if it befits a less fantastic cast of characters than a bunch of aliens and a malignant covert agency.
Score: C
