Ultimate Avengers 2 Issue 1

If you live in the UK you will have only just managed to get your hands on the final part of Millar’s Ultimate Avengers 1 due to problems with a certain volcano. And if you’re anything like me and a lot of people I’ve heard from you were generally under whelmed by the whole thing (Ultimate Avengers not the volcano!).

The second part of Millar’s ongoing run on the Ultimate Avengers is based around the Punisher’s role in the Ultimate Universe as part of Nick Fury’s black ops team and this introductory issue definitely seems to be an improvement on the first series. I’m feeling increasingly hopeful for this comic, Millar absolutely nails the Ultimate version of the Punisher; brutal, dry, unforgiving yet still human enough to take a beating realistically – Millar wants us to see his Punisher as a flawed person, not some superhero, and does so starting with a simple, effective, single page origin.

One of the problems with the issue is that it does take eight pages before the story actually gets going. Millar uses this opening to exaggerate his Punisher, really emphasizing the brutality and how much of a man on a mission he is. But this is something we’ve all seen before and it just feels like a waste of pages, making the issue seem less than it could have been and focusing more or less completely on Frank Castle / The Punisher. The audience may forget that this is a team book and if it continues some of the other characters may not get their fair share of the page count in the series.

The main reason I bought this book after the let-down of the first series is the art by the unbelievable Leinil Yu, one of only a handful of artists I follow since discovering his work in 2005 in the mini-series Silent Dragon.

I’ve always said that a perfect comic book is an equal mix of great art and great writing. No amount of brilliant writing can save a book if it is drawn terribly and vice versa. And although Millar’s writing is not perfect, Leinil Yu’s art is as close to perfect as you might get. The scratchy style that he excels at is inked and coloured in a way that makes me believe the stuff in Ultimate Avengers is as good as, if not better than his run on Secret Invasion. Yu certainly does not shy away from putting as much detail as possible in his work and he produces some of the best facial expressions in the comic art business.

Yu draws one of the best depictions of Frank Castle that we have seen on the shelf in a long time; cold, calculated, with the classic costume and big guns. To be honest with this character there’s little more you could actually ask for.

This is a good introductory issue and it does what it’s supposed to – which is make you want for more. Hopefully it’s a return to form for Millar and we may get some more of the Ultimate style writing we know and love him for. If things keep up like this then Millar will again be giving us the only Ultimates book on the shelves that’s really worth buying.

Nemesis Issue 1

Mark Millar comes out with yet another creator owned series, this time with regular collaborator, Steve McNiven. This new book is based around the idea of what if someone like Batman was the bad guy? Extreme intelligence, multiple forms of combat training and close to unlimited resources but with a severe disregard for human life.

When I first read about Nemesis months before it’s release I have to be honest and say that I was very excited and I looked forward to seeing how Millar unleashed his brand new character upon the world. Yet it feels as though this first issue has fallen short at the first hurdle. I expected a subtle, intelligent, lone character avoiding the normal clichés of villainy to be something comic book readers aren’t used to – a realistic villain. If Kick-Ass was Millar’s attempt at bringing superheroes into the real world this should have been his attempt at real world supervillains. What we get in this introductory issue is something quite the opposite of that.

Nemesis the character is very over the top and behaves more like another over the top Bond villain rather than the Batman of villainy we were promised; boasting of his conquests, mocking his victim and having his henchmen refer to him as master. And not only is Nemesis a cliché-ridden character but so is his new victim; the hero cop from Washington D.C. – Chief Morrow.

Morrow’s way too cocky for his own good and completely unrealistic, going from being undercover and gunning down a room full of hostage takers to wearing his tuxedo and talking about having dinner in two frames. It’s difficult to believe in either of the main characters of Nemesis, and even harder to like them.

One of the things Millar does to hide the fact the lack of originality of Nemesis is to fill the book with over the top swearing and violence. He mistakes this as something to make a book appeal to an older audience rather than another tool, which should be used to tell a good story.

The best thing about Nemesis as both a character and a book is that while he may act like any other villain his intentions are a bit more unusual. Instead of a megalomaniac hell-bent on world domination or destruction, all he wants is to kill famous cops to prove he is better than them. This is the one part of the story that you can actually engage with, as you want to see if Nemesis can take down Morrow and exactly how he is going to do it.

Steve McNiven’s artwork is not what we have become accustomed too. The fantastic stuff he did in both Civil War and Wolverine: Old Man Logan had the brilliant Dexter Vines doing the inking. In Nemesis McNiven has no inker and the colours are laid on straight over his pencils. This is much like Ron Garney’s style yet it does not feel as good as that, it just looks like McNiven isn’t putting as much detail into Nemesis as he could be and the colour palette seems too washed out.

Nemesis is another fantastic concept from Millar. It’s just a shame the execution in this first issue just isn’t as original as he wants to be. It’s certainly a book worth picking up to give a try but everything relies on the second issue and the direction it takes. Introductory issues are always tough especially for creator owned comics and if Millar can step it up a notch with issue number two then I’m sure this middle of the road book can be turned into something fantastic.

Choker Issue 1

Choker - a detective story in a very Blade Runner-esque setting with plenty of science fiction, horror and some very, very dark comedy thrown in for good measure. What we see in this issue is the story of an ex-cop turned private detective living a life he’s not particularly happy with being offered one more chance to get back to the job he thinks he deserves.

McCool’s foul language and disgusting descriptions do not hide the fact that he’s an excellent writer. With writing that flows effortlessly and pushes the story forwards at a perfect pace his dialogue could compete with the likes of Brian Michael Bendis. Choker will no doubt draw comparisons with Fell due to the art and McCool’s style of writing but it’s funnier, darker and (hopefully) comes out on time and doesn’t just disappear from the face of the Earth. Yes, McCool might write like Ellis but more the on-form Ellis Planetary, Desolation Jones, Fell and so on not the stuff that generally just pours out of that big brain of his that Avatar put into print. A name like Ellis’ is a license to print money in the comic book industry and if Ben carries on like this he could be on track to building the same sort of reputation.



The second Ben on Choker is a certain well-known artist by the name of Mr. Ben Templesmith. Now if you like his style, then you’ll struggle to find a piece of work that isn’t incredible. With Choker each panel looks like one of his signature covers and would look fantastic framed on anybody’s wall. Using a mix of vivid colours in addition to his usual dark palette he brings Shotgun City and its characters to life, and sets the tone of the book perfectly.

This first issue is a must buy, a great introduction for what will hopefully be just the first of many Choker tales. McCool has a bright future ahead of him and Templesmith continues on track with the brilliant career he has carved himself out as one of the industry’s leading artists in the alternative sector.

Scalped 34

Scalped is the fantastic creator owned series written by Jason Aaron with the majority being drawn by R.M. Guera. The book is based mainly around the exploits of an undercover FBI agent operating within a Native American reservation.

The final issue of the five-part “The Gnawing” arc is exactly the way you expect one of the best books on the market to finish its best story to date. The issue starts as it means to go on - answering questions and leaving a bloody trail in its wake. The beating on the very first page is nothing compared to what we see later on in the issue and as usual Aaron uses the violence to drive his story forwards rather than to just fill his page count.

A true sign of Aaron’s writing skill is how readers have learnt to love Dash Bad Horse, Scalped’s main protagonist no matter what his actions. His actions in this issue, though more brutal than usual, are going to re-affirm most people’s feelings about him. This is due to the fact that much like another character Aaron is writing at the moment his reasons could be seen as just and fair.

Aaron’s ability to blur the lines between heroes and villains in Scalped, coupled with an awareness of exactly how and when to use a twist in the means that this culmination of 34 issues sees every plot twist and brilliant piece of careful characterisation come together perfectly.

R.M. Guera’s art gets better and better, ideally suited to the story and the dark colours from Giulia Brusco only help to cement the tone of this great book. Guera truly brings the brutality of both Red Crow and Dash to life, the ability to draw Dash at his scariest and yet being able to make him look calmer than we have seen him in a long time is truly an impressive thing to do.

All in all this is another brilliant issue of Scalped cementing it’s place at the top of the buy pile. There are six collections available and all are essential catching up. We are apparently at the mid-point with this series and this is certainly a book you do not want to miss as it reaches the build up to what we know will be a ridiculously good and bloody finale.

Detective Comics Issue 861

A change in direction for the covers of this book could fool you into believing that it is no longer based on Batwoman at all but back to being about the Batman himself. Now this is not the case but Batman does feature in this arc heavily and has his fare share of the page count in what used to be another of his very own books.

The arc is based around a new villain inventively named ‘The Cutter”. Not only is the name not particularly original but his methods have also been seen before a fair few times. Now do not let this put you off the book as we know that most things have been seen before and it just relies on how well they are done and in all honesty in this issue the staple villain is done justice. The issue is divided between both the Batman’s investigation into a missing girl and Batwoman’s investigation into recent murders of college students. After the first six pages starring Batman and with no explanation and no exposition we jump straight into Batwoman’s story of her taking on the previously mentioned perp. The writing can seem a little obvious; as we soon make assumptions that these investigations will be linked further down the line somewhere but Rucka does not give everything away straight off the bat.

Now normally reviews full of spoilers are bad reviews but what you’re about to read should not be seen as a spoiler. The Batman scenes are a flashback and this can be seen as a clever move on by Rucka and also a fairly useful storytelling device but the weakest part of this is figuring out that they actually are flashbacks. Although this could be a move Rucka makes on purpose but if not then you have to be a Batman buff to figure it all out. The only two clues are the fact Batman is wearing his old costume and a reference to Jim Gordon as being captain and not commissioner.

Crime fiction comic books are Rucka’s bread and butter and there is a reason for this, its because he is good at them (just check out his new series Stumptown from Oni press). Detective Comics should be a crime story above all else as there are enough books on the shelf that concentrate on the action side of Batman’s adventures and not enough on the crime solving anymore. The fact that this book is now more about Batwoman than Batman does not make the story any less great.

Jocks art and panel layout is as usual flawless. Bringing with him the a-game pencils and practices shown to us with his last work for DC, the fantastic Green Arrow: Year One. An incredible centre page double page splash is really the jewel in the crown for this issue of Detective Comics and could be one of the finest things Jock has drawn. People are going to compare the art in this to J H Williams previous run on Detective and that is the wrong thing to do. Not many people in the industry are on par with Williams (hence the reason he takes so long to draw anything) and Jock brings his own dark and heavily inked style to this book, which it suits perfectly.

Overall it will be interesting to see if the flashbacks are the big twist in the or whether we were supposed to work that out from the start. Either way it will be interesting to see if Rucka can continue making this one of the best Batman books on the shelf and whether he can side step the clichés and give us a surprise twist with the next part of this story. This is a perfect jumping on issue as after this arc Batwoman begins her very own ongoing series written by Greg Rucka.

Reviews

Right. I'm finally going to start moving the blog in the direction I have wanted it to go in since I started it a while ago.

Starting next week comic book and graphic novel reviews will slowly start appearing on the blog. Now I want the people who shop in the store and read the blog to have a hand in this so I am asking anyone who has a bit of spare time and an interest in writing reviews to send me some. This is not only so we have some audience participation but also because I obviously do not have enough time to read every release every week and review them and we want to know about as many releases as possible. What we do not want is hatchet jobs. I understand that not every book is going to be great but we have to remember that people have (usually) worked hard on the work that is out there. I don't want the reviews to feel like personal attacks on comic book writers or artists.

If you have a review and want it to have a chance to go up on the blog please send it to Superfriendsnostalgiaandcomics@hotmail.co.uk. They may get slightly edited. The content itself will not be changed I just want to double check the grammer and spelling and all that not-as-important stuff!