written by Charles Soule
drawn by Ron Garney
inked by Matt Milla
Following a five-issue story line that was primarily a bunch of talking heads, writer Charles Soule puts Matt Murdock and his alter ego Daredevil right back in the thick of the action with a tale that brings Matt to China, in search of his protege Sam, aka, Blindspot, who, after being blinded by one of the Inhumans a few story arcs back, has disappeared. Matt has been taking up Blindspot's mantle as protector of Chinatown, thanks to Blindspot's sister, a struggling barista who has reluctantly taken on the task of translating the requests that people used to leave for Sam, when she finds a request addressed to Daredevil himself, or as the Chinese literally translates, "Night Devil Hero," and in fairly short order, Matt takes a leave from his job at the District Attorney's office, who are now hugely grateful to him for his incredible feat before the Supreme Court, and heads to China.
Following the engrossing "Supreme" storyline that was actually heavy on consequence but light on action, Soule, joined here by series mainstay Ron Garney, delivers a perfectly judged return to chop-sockey action for the hero of Hell's Kitchen, and while we only get the action towards the end, it promises to be a very interesting three-issue arc as we discover what has become of Sam.
Soule expands Matt's new world a little bit by introducing another new character, Sam's barista sister who flat out resents her brother for not helping her out more and brings a nice bit of variety to Matt's generally noble cast of characters. She doesn't get much "page time" but there's potential for this character.
Garney's in fine form here. He's no Stuart Immonen (the last person to draw a major Marvel book set in China), but it was really nice to see him render a new environment for DD in the form of the mountains of rural China.
Part of me can't help but wonder if Marvel, first with its "Parker, Inc." storyline over in the pages of "The Amazing Spider-Man" and now this, isn't taking a page out of Hollywood's book and deliberately setting stories in China in an attempt to hook Chinese readers and basically expand their readership. It's not too far-fetched an idea. Personally, I won't mind if the stories are well-conceived, like this one is.
8/10
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Astonishing X-Men #2 and #3
written by Charles Soule
drawn by Mike Deodato (issue #2), Ed MGuinnes (issue #3), Mark Morales (issue #3)
colored by Frank Martin (issue #2), Jason Keith (issue #3)
After being blown away by the first issue of this series, I found the second issue surprisingly underwhelming, even as the third one recovered a bit.
Essentially, the second issue continues the journey of five X-Men ("old man" Logan, Gambit, Fantomex, Rogue and Mystique, who was previously masquerading as Beast) to the astral plane, where they seek to confront and defeat Amahl Farouk, aka the Shadow King. Meanwhile, Psylocke, who is enabling them to enter the plane, remains in London, accompanied by Angel and Bishop, and all three of them are in a standoff with British authorities. Each of the X-Men has to fight off the illusions constantly being cast by the Shadow King in this realm.
In issue #3, the X-Men find themselves separated in the astral plane, and the focus falls squarely on Logan, who makes his way past Farouk's non-stop barrage of illusions, only to find himself confronting Professor X himself.
Personally, I don't get the merit of this concept of having writer Soule team up with one superstar artist after another; the narrative feels somewhat disjointed, and even though Soule tries to address this by giving each issue a "done in one" feel, for me it undermines the overall flow of the story. While he started out strong with the first issue, the second one kind of felt like it was treading water, though to my mind he recovered nicely with the third issue, which seems to finally give the story some direction, though I imagine he's only got two to three more issues to wrap up this story arc, at best.
I've never been much of a fan of Mike Deodato, but to my mind this is the best work I've seen from him in a while. Still, it didn't really help what I felt were some pacing problems. I am, on the other hand a fan of Ed McGuinness, though this issue isn't the best I've seen from him, even when compared to his recent work like Spider-Man/Deadpool.
Knowing as I do that this series won't regularly feature the work of Jim Cheung, as I mistakenly believed when I picked up the first issue, I'll probably move on after the first arc is done, unless someone amazing in the vein of Arthur Adams comes along.
6.5/10 for issue #2
7.5/10 for issue #3
drawn by Mike Deodato (issue #2), Ed MGuinnes (issue #3), Mark Morales (issue #3)
colored by Frank Martin (issue #2), Jason Keith (issue #3)
After being blown away by the first issue of this series, I found the second issue surprisingly underwhelming, even as the third one recovered a bit.
Essentially, the second issue continues the journey of five X-Men ("old man" Logan, Gambit, Fantomex, Rogue and Mystique, who was previously masquerading as Beast) to the astral plane, where they seek to confront and defeat Amahl Farouk, aka the Shadow King. Meanwhile, Psylocke, who is enabling them to enter the plane, remains in London, accompanied by Angel and Bishop, and all three of them are in a standoff with British authorities. Each of the X-Men has to fight off the illusions constantly being cast by the Shadow King in this realm.
In issue #3, the X-Men find themselves separated in the astral plane, and the focus falls squarely on Logan, who makes his way past Farouk's non-stop barrage of illusions, only to find himself confronting Professor X himself.
Personally, I don't get the merit of this concept of having writer Soule team up with one superstar artist after another; the narrative feels somewhat disjointed, and even though Soule tries to address this by giving each issue a "done in one" feel, for me it undermines the overall flow of the story. While he started out strong with the first issue, the second one kind of felt like it was treading water, though to my mind he recovered nicely with the third issue, which seems to finally give the story some direction, though I imagine he's only got two to three more issues to wrap up this story arc, at best.
I've never been much of a fan of Mike Deodato, but to my mind this is the best work I've seen from him in a while. Still, it didn't really help what I felt were some pacing problems. I am, on the other hand a fan of Ed McGuinness, though this issue isn't the best I've seen from him, even when compared to his recent work like Spider-Man/Deadpool.
Knowing as I do that this series won't regularly feature the work of Jim Cheung, as I mistakenly believed when I picked up the first issue, I'll probably move on after the first arc is done, unless someone amazing in the vein of Arthur Adams comes along.
6.5/10 for issue #2
7.5/10 for issue #3
Norman Osborn's Spiritual Journey: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #32
written by Dan Slott
drawn by Greg Smallwood
colored by Jordie Bellaire
I'll admit, when I saw the cover for this issue, I groaned. After all, Slott had only just finished a four-part story pitting Spider-Man against the Green Goblin, and for him to revisit the character so soon felt like a creative cop-out. I was pleasantly surprised by what I actually read.
Humiliated by his most recent defeat at the hands of Spider-Man, Norman Osborn agonizes over ways to restore his Green Goblin persona, which Spider-Man has since suppressed through the introduction of nanites into Norman's system which biologically suppress that part of Norman's personality. Therapy doesn't work, surgery doesn't work, and when Eastern medicine fails Norman as well he is at the end of his rope, when he receives a suggestion from his acupuncturist to visit a place somewhere in Asia, which Norman promptly does. He stumbles on a monastery where three old monks greet him and offer to teach him their ways...provided he can pass their test.
This issue doesn't really serve any narrative purpose and I think its only real point is to give the series' stellar regular artist Stuart Immonen a well-deserved break after consistently amazing work on the past two storylines. It's pretty much a throwaway issue, albeit a pretty good one, thanks in no small part to Greg Smallwood's excellent art and Jordie Bellaire's nicely textured coloring. Slott looks like he's taking easy here as well, having fun with this little done-in-one.
7.5/10
drawn by Greg Smallwood
colored by Jordie Bellaire
I'll admit, when I saw the cover for this issue, I groaned. After all, Slott had only just finished a four-part story pitting Spider-Man against the Green Goblin, and for him to revisit the character so soon felt like a creative cop-out. I was pleasantly surprised by what I actually read.
Humiliated by his most recent defeat at the hands of Spider-Man, Norman Osborn agonizes over ways to restore his Green Goblin persona, which Spider-Man has since suppressed through the introduction of nanites into Norman's system which biologically suppress that part of Norman's personality. Therapy doesn't work, surgery doesn't work, and when Eastern medicine fails Norman as well he is at the end of his rope, when he receives a suggestion from his acupuncturist to visit a place somewhere in Asia, which Norman promptly does. He stumbles on a monastery where three old monks greet him and offer to teach him their ways...provided he can pass their test.
This issue doesn't really serve any narrative purpose and I think its only real point is to give the series' stellar regular artist Stuart Immonen a well-deserved break after consistently amazing work on the past two storylines. It's pretty much a throwaway issue, albeit a pretty good one, thanks in no small part to Greg Smallwood's excellent art and Jordie Bellaire's nicely textured coloring. Slott looks like he's taking easy here as well, having fun with this little done-in-one.
7.5/10
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