Solar Flare: Science Fiction News

Welcome to the latest edition of my weekly comic book reviews. It was something of a quiet week for me as far as new books are concerned, so I went looking a little further afield for things to review and the end result is my largest review column so far (plus it’s not all Marvel books so a bit of variety)

Uncanny X-Men #248
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Billy Tan
Publisher: Marvel

Brubaker is rapidly becoming one of my favorite writers at Marvel. Not only is his take on Daredevil very interesting to me, but he’s also presenting a galactic X-Men story that doesn’t suck. I can’t remember the last time that happened. My basic belief is that the X-Men generally do much better when on earth, but I’m really enjoying what I’ve read of Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire. Billy Tan’s art is very easy on the eye too, and unlike some other X-Titles, I find his layouts easy to follow.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #12
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Tod Nauck
Publisher: Marvel

Sometimes even with all the right ingredients, stories just misfire. I think this is one of those. I like Peter David’s work, I usually find his humor funny but this time it just came off as very forced. And really, three Mysterios? That’s got to be at least 3 to many. Until someone takes the time to modify his costume and actually make him at least vaguely threatening, this is a Spider-Man villain I never need to see.

Regressing Flash to his earlier Parker bullying persona is an interesting idea, but in this issue almost everyone is reduced to a few one-liners so it’s hard to care about anyone.

All-Star Superman #5
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Frank Quitely
Publisher: DC Comics

Morrison and Quitely’s take on Superman plays heavily off the classic interpretation of the Clark Kent character as a bumbling coward. This issue examines the relationship between Lex Luthor and Superman through the lens of Clark Kent. It’s a clever conceit and the bombshell that Luthor drops right at the end makes for a hell of a cliffhanger.

I don’t think this is Quitely’s best work. I don like how his Clark Kent looks and also Lex Luthor, but a lot of the minor characters looked very very similar to each other. Its as though Quitely only has one head he can draw.

Battlestar Galactica #0 & 1
Writer: Greg Pak
Artist: Nigel Raynor
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Image via Wikipedia
Comics based on TV shows are problematic. For a start you have the issue of whether the characters will look the same, but then you have the even larger problem of how to tell stories around a show which is ongoing. Battlestar Galactica is going to be particularly tough as the ground shifts with every season.

Nigel Raynor makes a decent job of the art problems, presenting us with people who like generally like the actors, without actually being the actors. Meanwhile Greg Pak spins a tale that appears to be set some time in the middle of season two. It’s an interesting concept, but hampered by the fact that he has to be very careful what sort of backstory he makes up to avoid contradicting anything that the tv show itself may reveal.

The bottom line is that it really isn’t providing anything for me that the tv show itself can’t do better.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #33
Writer: Mike Carey
Artist: Pasqual Ferry
Publisher: Marvel

A new team comes aboard Ultimate Fantastic Four and it’s going to take some getting used to. I’m really not going for the new art style that Pasqual Ferry brings with him. Neither the line art or the pastel coloring appeals to me I’m afraid. On the writing side, Carey is using one of my most disliked science fiction techniques, which is to have his aliens speak in a “futuristic” dialect which I then have to interpret somehow. It’s just irritating.

The story itself may be interesting, its a little early to say really since half of the issue was taken up by action scenes and right now plot advancement is pretty minimal. I’ll keep an open mind at least until the end of this story-arc though.