AARON GLAZER:
Time for Two Guys Talking about Comics again! I’m Pulse Glazer and am joined by everyone’s favorite around these parts, Grey Scherl! Howdy Grey.
GREY SCHERL:
What’s going on Glazer?
AARON GLAZER:
Today we’re reviewing 1 DC book and 4 Marvel books. It seems like a lot of DC is filler right now until the 52 #1s, no?
GREY SCHERL:
Not at all, you just aren’t reading enough of it for us to joint review it.
Personally, I would love to talk about Wonder Woman and the Furies or The Outsider!
AARON GLAZER:
Hm, fair enough. Well, at any rate, like last week, let’s begin with the big GL event: War of the Green Lanterns Aftermath #1.
GREY SCHERL:
I reviewed it yesterday, and I quite enjoyed it. It wasn’t as good as the finale, and there was a definite lack of action, but definitely achieved it’s goal as a cool down issue.
AARON GLAZER:
I like that it helped make sense of the new direction of the line. The Guardians giving in to fear and so turning to Sinestro makes a lot of sense.
GREY SCHERL:
The Guardians completely caved into fear, but I’ll say that, PTS or not, the Corps had every right to be furious there. Krona almost destroys the Corps and kills the Guardians, and the Guardians reaction is to be upset that someone was actually able to stop him.
AARON GLAZER:
I understand. I’m happy that for once the grunts on the GLs are standing up for themselves. Usually it’s just the Earth ones speaking out.
GREY SCHERL:
Yep, it was really nice to see them take a seat in the back for this issue.
I said it in my review, but Ganthet completely steals the show in this issue.
AARON GLAZER:
Ganthet being the one Guardian not scared is interesting. Poor Salaak, too. He looked so crestfallen.
GREY SCHERL:
Salaak is a favorite of mine, you know this.
Ganthet, Salaak, and Sora came out of this issue the best, but with Ganthet we also see Bedard put him on the path for his new status quo. Back with the Blue Lanterns? I can definitely live with that.
AARON GLAZER:
I also like that they’ve set up a rift between Kyle and the Lantern who should be dead.
GREY SCHERL:
The encounter between them furthered along my usual anger with the writers at DC ignoring all of Kyle’s actual history, but it accomplished what it needed to. John gets to be the angry bad ass with a giant chip on his shoulder, and Kyle…yes, Kyle is a dreamer, but not to the point of absurdity.
AARON GLAZER:
Right – DC seems to have decided Kyle’s personality is very similar to Peter Parker’s.
GREY SCHERL:
I hope that with Kyle’s new book he’s going to get back some of the characterization he’s been lacking lately. Like, I enjoy Tony Bedard’s take on him, but I hate the way he plays off of John. If they want to make him a Peter Parker everyman, that’s cool, but they just need to push him in that direction and not tell us he’s already there.
What about the art? I loved the art.
AARON GLAZER:
It was a very attractive issue, especially given how little action there was.
AARON GLAZER:
A rating?
GREY SCHERL:
Sepulveda was great for his parts, very stylized, a good level of gritty, and the Ganthet scene was gorgeous.
And they brought Kirkham in at quite literally, the perfect time. Giving him the splash page and the cheesecake.
I gave it a 7.5 yesterday, but if I could go back I’d bump it to an 8.
AARON GLAZER:
I think a 7 is fair. It was a good book, but ultimately, I won’t really remember it.
GREY SCHERL:
I’ll remember the Ganthet scene, but I know what you mean.
AARON GLAZER:
From DC’s big event to Marvel’s Fear Itself: Invincible Iron Man #506.
GREY SCHERL:
Fucking drunken Tony, I hate it, I hate it, but I’ll be damned if this issue didn’t have me laughing the entire way through. I was supposed to be laughing, right?
AARON GLAZER:
I didn’t like any of it. The dwarves were crude humor, but it was crude humor with an extremely serious issue at the core. I wanted it handled more maturely, not just with a couple of caption boxes.
GREY SCHERL:
That is the flipside, yes. This issue wasn’t supposed to be a twenty-two page joke.
Had this issue not been part of Fear Itself, I think the Tony stuff would have worked better.
On the other hand, are you getting sick of Detroit Steel or is it just me? I want Grey Gargoyle to just kill every last one of them.
AARON GLAZER:
I have been sick of Detroit Steel. Seriously, enough with the fake Iron Mans. This book went from a top 10 for me to barely being worth reading amazingly quickly.
I’m sick to death of Grey Gargoyle, as well.
GREY SCHERL:
I like that he’s getting props and is a big threat, but…these Worthy guys just aren’t getting the right kind of vibe. You know that Marvel wants you to see that particular character as a threat, but it’s just the damn hammer. I’m sick of the damn hammers, sick of Detroit Steel, and I wish Frac could just be untouched by crossovers to do his story.
AARON GLAZER:
Except that it’s his crossover.
GREY SCHERL:
Yeah, but with his shittier book. Iron Man was doing fine for a while!
AARON GLAZER:
For years. And the forward momentum is gone.
GREY SCHERL:
Fear Itself has stalled so many titles, I’m almost glad I didn’t get to read Avengers Academy this week (shipping error with my shop) so I didn’t get to say the same about it.
AARON GLAZER:
Ha. Well, rating for Iron Man, then onto the second Fear Itself book we’re covering.
I’d give it a 3.
GREY SCHERL:
I’ll give it a 5, it made me laugh.
AARON GLAZER:
Fair enough… and now we go to Uncanny X-Men #541.
In this issue, Juggernaut shows up in San Fran and starts ass kicking… but doesn’t kill anyone.
GREY SCHERL:
I got the feeling that the people Emma tried to save were all killed.
AARON GLAZER:
No, just threatened. It’s one of those Cyclops has a ton of plans issues… I love those.
GREY SCHERL:
I thought when Juggernaut smashed the crowd and all of the baselines went flying that there was death.
And I agree, Cyclops with plans is awesome. He out Batmans Batman.
AARON GLAZER:
I like that the plan essentially works, but Juggernaut is now just too powerful. The action was all around fantastic. Even though Land usually is pretty terrible, this is the kind of story he does well with.
GREY SCHERL:
I wish it was the Dodsons, I’ll leave it at that
AARON GLAZER:
Ha, I do too, but he did well, particularly with the Magneto and Hope scenes.
GREY SCHERL:
I’ll give you that.
I also like how Gillen maintains the same level of humor that Fraction was giving these characters.
AARON GLAZER:
I think Gillen is funnier and has a better grasp of the characters… and mind you, I liked Fraction’s run.
GREY SCHERL:
Fraction’s run was great, but Gillen is showing early promise if not just for the change over being so fluid you almost can’t tell the writers changed.
AARON GLAZER:
True there. Gillen, so far, is my favorite X-Writer in a long while.
GREY SCHERL:
He hasn’t hit my minimum length of time on a core X-Book, but he could wind up making the list.
AARON GLAZER:
This is one of my favorite Fear Itself tie ins. The threat being a Fear Itself tie in is almost immaterial. It’s just a really good story with a cool fight scene.
Rating?
GREY SCHERL:
I’m giving it an 8, this and Avengers both did great jobs of putting the books over with the event as a setting instead of sacrificing the book for the event (i.e. Iron Man).
AARON GLAZER:
I didn’t read Avengers… I dropped it long ago, but this gets an 8 for being such a good use of the Utopia concept.
GREY SCHERL:
I don’t blame you for dropping Avengers, but Bachalo art is worth the price of admission.
AARON GLAZER:
Meh to Avengers. From one X-Book to another, it’s Generation Hope #9.
GREY SCHERL:
This book lives for the one and done formula. Seriously, that’s where it thrives.
AARON GLAZER:
I agree totally. It’s just old-school comics. Here’s a story in 22-pages, with a nice amount of subplots in the background.
Hope’s relationship with Velocidad get’s some nice time, while Zero is awesomely being developed further than just maniacal nihlist.
GREY SCHERL:
It’s a better way of establishing these characters, because the few actual arcs that have run in this book just haven’t added up to the one and dones.
Zero is quickly becoming the star of this book.
AARON GLAZER:
I don’t know. As much as I like Zero, Teon is fantastic, and Oya is growing on me.
GREY SCHERL:
Teon did steal the show with his arc a few issues ago, but Zero is just made out of awesome…and Idie is cute, but I actually liked her in Schism more than the last few issues here…save for the Kitty Pryde stuff, that was awesome.
AARON GLAZER:
Well, next issue we see what the Schism big deal is. I like the idea.
It’s semi-spoiled in the “next issue” space. Apparently, Idie murders someone. The difference in handling that for Scott and Logan is something I can see causing a problem.
GREY SCHERL:
Idie killing someone doesn’t surprise me at all, she’s the least likely person on the team to do it on purpose, thus she has to.
AARON GLAZER:
Doesn’t surprise me, but it does make sense.
GREY SCHERL:
Anyway, Gen Hope, I give it a solid 7
AARON GLAZER:
I give it a 7 as well. It’s not the strongest issue, but this book is extremely consistent. It actually reminds me of Batgirl.
GREY SCHERL:
It’s like Marvel’s answer to a team version, with fewer characters this book would have no trouble being consistently in the 8 or 9 range.
AARON GLAZER:
Give it time. I truly think it’ll get there. And now it’s time for the final book of the week, Daredevil #1!
GREY SCHERL:
I’m going to flat out say that this is the book of the week. I haven’t finished my stack, I’m saying this is the top book of the week. Sooooo good.
AARON GLAZER:
I agree totally. Waid nails it. Paolo Rivera is a home run.
It’s fluid. A beautifully drawn, fun superhero story that actually reminds me a bit of the feel of Thor: Mighty Avenger.
GREY SCHERL:
I remember last year when I was saying that using Paolo Rivera and Marco Martin on Spider-Man was a waste of two perfectly good Daredevil artists, and then low and behold, they’re both here.
GREY SCHERL:
Waid does something with Daredevil we haven’t seen in years, pushing him away from the grimdark-Noir hybrid that he’d become and reminding us that “Hey, this guy is a superhero. And a fun one too!”
AARON GLAZER:
Yes, absolutely! That spot fight scene is gorgeous.
And Cap for next issue so he can join Avengers? Awesome.
GREY SCHERL:
Now we just need Waid to write Avengers.
AARON GLAZER:
True. God, that would be perfect.
GREY SCHERL:
This book is everything Daredevil could and should be, it’s not endless hole digging to see just how dark and no-coming-back it can be. It’s…it’s a superhero book!
AARON GLAZER:
Daredevil needed to not be so dark for a long, long time. Brubaker and Bendis were good, but they weren’t topping Frank Miller. This is a 180 in the best way possible.
GREY SCHERL:
This is where Daredevil needs to be, this is where he deserves to be, and it’s my favorite rendition of the character since before Bendis made him Kingpin of Hell’s Kitchen.
GREY SCHERL:
They’d gotten to the point with him where they needed to either dump him into MAX or…well, do this.
Kinda like what happened with Punisher.
AARON GLAZER:
Yeah, which is exactly where we are…
So, Waid is a top 5 comic writer of the past 15 years, right?
GREY SCHERL:
Come to think of it, Big Shots is Moon Knight, Punisher, and Daredevil, all three are characters who needed a certain kind of touch…and god Moon Knight sucks and I can’t finish this thought.
I’d say 20 years.
AARON GLAZER:
His resume is ridiculous at this point.
GREY SCHERL:
15 doesn’t cover his Flash run well enough.
AARON GLAZER:
And with that, we’re done for the week – Thank you mark Waid!
GREY SCHERL:
This book is a solid 10.
AARON GLAZER:
Unquestionably.
