Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The Week of July 19th- July 25th

Hellblazer #257
This book must sell big in England or something, otherwise I'm not sure why it still exists. Andy Diggle rejuvenated the series during his stint, but will it survive since he left? Writer Peter Milligan has written seven issues so far, and so far his run is almost as good as Diggle's. It's less serious but still sadistic. The artist on this current arc is Guiseppe Camuncoli. He draws more cartoon-like than the artist that did Diggle's run. I love Guiseppe, though. His stuff is phenomenal. This is the best issue yet in Milligan's run. The storylines have all merged and exploded. Constantine tries to slip his ex-girlfriend a love potion. She catches on. Constantine also slips his demon-girl friend the potion so that he won't have to pay for her dead-skin ailment cream that he's become addicted to. He loses the addiction but the demon-girl is so in love with him that she shows up at the ex-girlfriends flat to presumably rip her to shreds. Terrific storyline that hopefully will end in a gratifying conclusion. Awesome painted cover by Simon Bisley as well. Constatine looks like Marv from Sin City: beer in one hand, cigarette in the other, peering out of a window while a slutty girl looks on. This is really as good as it gets in the comic book world. ****

The Amazing Spider-Man #600
About a year ago I started buying and reading more comics. Where to start? I began to read the greats: this book, Batman, and Action Comics (the last one has Superman in case you didn't know). The new thing that they're doing is having this book come out three times a month. They have a revolving door of artists and writers. I stopped reading the book when John Romita, Jr. stopped drawing it and have only came back when he came back. He's back. He drew 61 pages in this issue. The rest is mostly filler. The 61 page story by Dan Slott has the wedding between Aunt May and J. Jonah Jameson, Sr. He's the father of the ex-publisher of the Daily Bugle. J. Jonah Jameson, Jr. is now the mayor of New York City. Dr. Octopus also comes back, albeit riddled with cancer and near death. Doc Ock takes over the city by controlling the street lights and computers. Spiderman gets help with the Avengers. There's a big fight and a wedding. Mary Jane Watson shows up on the last page to catch the boiquet at the wedding. Really, though: if they did away with Mary Jane and Peter's marriage...why keep having her pop up? Why get rid of her in the first place? And as much as I liked Dan Slott's “Paper Doll” storyline last year...this story is very boring stuff. The art is incredible as usual. John Romita, Jr. has to be one of my favorite artists (and he's drawing Punisher next). The back-up stories aren't very good, though. This issue is very long. Stan Lee writes a short, amusing storyline that's kind of funny (Stan Lee pretty much makes fun of Marvel for killing off the Green Goblin and then bringing him back...among other stupid developments over the years). But the main story is just not very compelling. **

The Incredible Hulk #600
This is also a one-hundred page behemoth. Sadly, the main story is not a 61 page epic. They also threw in the first issue of Hulk: Grey from a couple of years ago which is cool. As much as the fanboys and critics online have hated Jeph Loeb's writing so far on the Red Hulk vs. Green Hulk storyline...I've thought it's been a lot of fun. The art by in-your-face Ed McGuinness is big and bold and very nice (he draws a very cool Spider-man). A lot happens in this issue that could be considered “big.” The Red Hulk's identity is not revealed, though. Red Hulk does destroy Bruce Banner's ability to turn into the Hulk. I guess that's big. There's also a big fight between the Hulks and Spider-man at this military base in the desert. It's stupid stuff, sure, but it's a fun superhero book. Now there will be two Hulk books: The Incredible Hulk and Hulk. I kind of think that one is enough, but I will be sticking around to see what Ed and Jeph do on their so far solid run. ***

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