Solar Flare: Science Fiction News

Five comics up for review this week and the Marvel bias remains. I actually do want to review some of the Vertigo titles (specifically Fables and Y The Last Man to begin with) but in order to give them a fair review I need to read a decent run of those comics as they are very much a continuing story.

Detective Comics #823
Writer: Paul Dini
Artist: Joe Benitez
Publisher: DC

Paul Dini gives us a stand alone poison ivy story in this issue. He has a good take on the psychotic Ivy, who is at once alluring and completely unrepentent for her murderous behavior. While Dini’s grasp of the characters is good, the story itself is pretty weak, and by the time the threat has been built up and defined, we are left with only a handful of panels to resolve it which makes for an unsatisfactory conclusion.

I enjoyed Joe Benitez’ cartoony but detailed artwork. His Poison Ivy is suitably lush and his Batman suitably menacing. Some of the facial ticks are a little over the top mind you.

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Annihiliation #2
Writer: Keith Giffen
Artist: Andrea Divito
Publisher: Marvel

The battle heats up as Annihiliation continues, but this issue still feels like it’s maneuvering the pieces into place. Which considering how many mini-series we had leading up to this thing seems kind of strange. Still you have to be impressed by the image of Galactus shackled and blindfolded.

I have a feeling that they’re setting us up to have the Super Skrull come back to life, which seems rather pointless considering they only just killed him.

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Image via Wikipedia
Captain America #21
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Steve Epting
Publisher: Marvel

I mentioned last week that Ed Brubaker was becoming one of my favorite writers. His take on Captain America is another reason to be impressed. Though I do have my reservations about the return of Bucky.

Steve Eptings dark and moody artwork makes a perfect tonal match for the story that Brubaker is mapping out here. In some ways the Red Skull is a predictable villain to use, but Brubaker is handling him well and his manipulations help to keep the individual stories interesting.

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The Incredible Hulk #98
Writer: Greg Pak
Artist: Aaron Lopresti
Publisher: Marvel

The 12 part Planet Hulk storyline moves into its second half with part 7, the middle of the Anarchy chapter. This particular issue is essentially just two very big fight scenes strung together and it progresses the overall storyline in a very very small way.

While I’m enjoying this change of direction for the Hulk, the problem with a year long story is that really at this stage, it’s going to be hard for anyone to get into the story. There’s just no practical jumping on point here.

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Thunderbolts #106
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artist: Tom Grummett
Publisher: Marvel

Thunderbolts continues to frustrate me. The huge cast of characters and the seemingly never-ending cross/double cross/triple cross/swerve that each issue throws at us, makes it very hard to figure out what’s going on and almost impossible to really care about characters when you can pretty much guarantee that they’re going to switch motivations and directions at the drop of a hat.

Sure it’s an old school superhero comic in some ways, but that in itself isn’t enough to make it fun to read.

Eoghann Irving is amongst other things the creator and Editor of Solar Flare. He has a life long interest in all forms of science fiction and fantasy and a pressing need to share this interest with anyone who will listen. Find out more at his personal website eoghann.com..

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