Comics / Comic Reviews / More Comics

One shot for the week of March 28th 2012


By Troy-Jeffrey Allen
April 1, 2012 - 18:10

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Avengers vs. X-Men #0
Marvel
$3.99
As I opened AvX #0 , I was primed and ready to go on and on about how undefined a character Hope Summers is, then writer Jason Aaron went and added a new wrinkle. I won’t spoil it but it is the small shift that I needed. Especially if Marvel wants a fringe X-Universe reader like me (or readers like me) to be curious about the character as we roll exhaustively into this Avengers vs. X-Men mega-event.
However, Aaron is the back up story. Opening the book is Brian Michael Bendis (Alias, Ultimate Spider-Man) with a quick tale about Scarlet Witch’s failed redemption. It’s a bit wooden, and Bendis does that once endearing but now annoying thing where everyone talks out the side of their mouth like Spider-Man. But you have to take the good with the bad when it comes to these annual events. There is some eye-poping, technicolor-ed Frank Cho art. Am I reaching? I'm reaching. Yaaaaaay.

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Lady Mechanika #0
Aspen
$2.99
With maybe a hint of bias, I can’t help but notice that most artist-turned-writer/artist seem to operate purely on storytelling impulse and not on actual storytelling.
This Lady Mechanika #0 reprint (which has a slight price hike from the previous printings) involves some sewer-dwelling creature, an evil arms manufacturers, and a pouty-lipped, Victorian-era, amnesiac detective. It looks super-slick, but reads like lower corners of SyFy Channel
Maybe the biggest crime of all is that while artist-turned-writer/artist Joe Benitez is clearly just letting his affection for steampunk get the best of him, he shows little care for drawing action or backgrounds. Pretty much anything outside of sexy poses.

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The New Deadwardians #1
Vertigo
$2.99
Speaking of pre-Victorian/post Victorian era yarns, Dan Abnett’s Deadwardians is like Downton Abbey meets gothic horror. Written with deliberate words and drawn with deliberate lines, the book is what happens when an artist and writer truly come together to execute a tale.
Chief Inspector Suttle runs the homicide division in early-20th century London. When his housemaid is splayed open on the kitchen floor, Suttle’s demeanor indicates an inconvenience and little else.
Apparently, England is in the midst of one of those pesky Zombie epidemics, and such violence is business as usual for Scotland Yard’s crime investigator.
By the final page, Abnett and artist I.N.J. Culbard make it clear that they are taking a very protracted approach from issue to issue. Admittedly, the reveals come maybe a little too slow. To the point that the Vertigo 2012 Preview found in the back of the book has to present a major plot detail. One that is all too delicately hinted at within the pages of the actual book, but might arrive too late to maintain interest.

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Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12

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