Month: August 2010

Welcome to Tranquility: One Foot in the Grave #2

“Homecoming-Part Two: Of Cabbages and Kings” (No Spoilers)

Gail Simone does know how to write a fun comic. This little venture back into the town of Tranquility has her in top form as she crafts another great mystery while not skimping on the humor.

The opening pages are great! They offer more back story on the characters of Tranquility in fun and unique ways just like Simone did in the original series. But don’t think these little nuggets are just for fun. If you pay attention you can start putting together some of the mystery. This is especially true with the last page. I thought it was brilliant.

Gen 13 #37

Pocatello-Part 3: We’re the Good Guys (No Spoilers)

This is definitely turning out to be one of the most interesting and unique Gen 13 stories ever told.

Phil Hester I think is doing a good job of using the Armageddon environment. Plus, he moves the story along rather nicely in this issue which works well since there’s only two issues left in his arc. We get to find out some interesting info about the new character Hester introduced in this run, Pathcutter. As for the other characters, even though the ones that constitute this Gen 13 are not all the originals, Hester continues to allow them to evolve and really begin to mesh well with each other in ways that don’t just mirror the old team members.

Sparta U.S.A. #6

“Beyond the Mountain” (No Spoilers)

Why? Why? Why! Why did we have to waste so much time on those first four issues when there was such a great story to be told here at the end? The final issue of Sparta is what this entire series should have been, compelling, action-packed, and spinning off of what turns out to be a very cool premise!

This story could’ve easily been told in three issues, maybe four, but certainly not the six we got. Issue 1 was good as an introduction to this world, Issue 2 did a little better at setting up the mystery and solidifying the characters, but I could’ve completely ignored Issue 3 and 4 and just skipped to 5 and 6. I’m all for setting up characters, especially when you’re introducing a unique world like this, but there is such a thing as too much set up. I feel like I’ve sat through an hour and a half worth of a lackluster movie only for the last 30 minutes to be totally awesome!

The Authority #25

“This is Gonna Suck” (No Spoilers)

Don’t let the title of the issue fool you. It does everything BUT suck! But rest assured, Tom Taylor finds a clever way to present the title too. I personally thought it was hilarious how he did it.

After the events of the last few issues I figured things would show down a bit here and I was partially right. Taylor does take the first half to the issue to fill us in on the mystery of Jack’s secret weapon. There is also time to get genuine reactions from the other team members concerning Jack’s weapon. Each of their reactions makes perfect sense and you’re either going to feel really sorry for Jack at the end or hate him for being such a jerk. I personally felt sorry for him.