Weekly Comic Book Reviews 8/27/06

I know, the weekly comic book reviews seem to be a day later every week. I should probably aim to have them published on Sunday or Monday each week instead of trying to rush my reading and reviewing into 3 days. Just another couple of reviews this week.

Daredevil #88
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: David Aja
Publisher: Marvel
Image via Wikipedia
On the surface, putting Matt Murdock, AKA Daredevil in prison seemed like a dead end storywise. Ed Brubaker has already already proved otherwise. First he presented several good issues set inside the prison and then he had Murdock break out which sets up a whole new dynamic for the Man Without Fear.

This issue Brubaker gives us some insight into a key member of Daredevil's supporting cast and what it must be like to live in a world dominated by a superhero. It doesn't really move the plot very far forward but as a character peice its very strong and guest artist David Aja manages to match the mood of the story perfectly.

Thunderbolts #105
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artist: Tom Grummett
Publisher: Marvel

The Thunderbolts is probably the closest thing to an old-fashioned superhero comic that Marvel is putting out these days. Almost every aspect of the title from the colors to the art style to the verbose writing and captions scream it. Almost everything.

Except the actual plot. The core concept of the Thunderbolts has always been villains who are now looking to become heroes. But rather than simply portray them as heroes, Nicieza has them constantly struggling with their instincts. And just to ramp up the complexity a few notches there are crosses, double-crosses, triple-crosses, and I think I read one quadruple-cross, but it's getting hard to keep count.

The downside of that is that it's a very hard book to start in the middle of. I've been reading it for about 6 issues now and I'm still not really fully up to speed on what's going on. Rather frustrating really.