This Week’s Comics – 7/27/11

It’s been a while since we’ve been able to do a review round up of this week’s comics; and we’ll try to stay on top of them when possible.

This week brings the second part of the big X-Men crossover of the year, Schism; a couple new Green Lantern books and Detective Comics.

Marvel

The Amazing Spider-Man #666

Writer: Dan Slott
Art: Stefano Caselli
Colors: Marte Gracia

The Good

Marvel’s “Spider Island” crossover kicks off this week with a solid prelude in Amazing Spidey #666. The book, while actually quite meaty for a prelude, just sets the stage for the large event where bead bugs in Manhattan are infecting people with Spider-Man’s powers. The story follows Spidey over a day of crime fighting, labwork, meeting with both the FF and Avengers, and then back to the lab while those who will oppose him during the crossover put their plans into motion.

Lots of cameos from FF and Avengers characters to MJ and Venom pepper the issue, and even though it’s just a prelude to yet another crossover; the issue gives you enough Spidey. Stefano Caselli’s art is also great, and is some of the better art the title has seen over the last year or so.

The Bad

Spider-Man without his Spidey Sense still rubs me the wrong way. They make a point to bring that up in this issue, possibly for people who have been away from the book for a while, and I can understand why they thought it’s a good idea; but it still feels so strange to have that element of Spider-Man be absent from the character.

The Ugly

A Twitter hashtag on the cover? Really, Marvel?

X-Men Schism #2

Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Frank Cho
Colors: Jason Keith

The Good

The first issue of Schism just really set up the story where the world’s nations are once again turning against mutants and unleashing Sentinels to track them down. From Iran (specifically not named funnily enough) to North Korea (specifically named funnily enough), everyone was activating their Sentinels to hunt down mutants.

What that first issue didn’t really give was the seeds of what will tear apart the X-Men with one team siding with Cyclops and the other with Wolverine. That initial schism is started here when Wolverine wants to turn in Quentin Quire to Steve Rogers and Cyclops wanting mutants to try him themselves.

The issue also has a hilarious line referring to Fantomex, and starts to build up the tension, and I think we’ll start to see things really explode in the next issue.

The Bad

I’m still not sold on a team of twelve-year olds poised to cause so much trouble for not just mutants, but the entire world.

The Ugly

Frank Cho has his fans, and he does do some good work (such as the cover), but it really bugs me that Marvel is going with a different artist for each issue of the series. I want some consistency in my comic art, and Marvel doesn’t seem to care about that at all.

Uncanny X-Force #12

Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Mark Brooks
Inks: Andrew Curry and Mark Brooks
Colors: Dean White and Richard Isanove

The Good

Remender’s run on Uncanny X-Force continues to be the best comic Marvel is producing, and the fact that it sells out every month is proof of that. He continues is run by taking the team back to the Age of Apocalypse universe in order to save Angel’s life. More than a decade has passed in that universe, and the team is reunited with Jean Grey and Nightcrawler; who are both dead in our universe.

Aside from a Sentinel attack and the finale, it’s a relatively uneventful issue (aside from what the cover spoils) that has the team meeting up with their AOA allies and planning on how to track down the Life Seed to save Angel and Kill Apocalypse. Age of Apocalypse was a hugely popular crossover in the late 90s, and Remender updates that setting perfectly and if mutant fans aren’t already picking up Uncanny X-Force, they probably will want to for this storyline.

The Bad

Nothing really to report here. As usual, Uncanny X-Force delivers what most Marvel books fail to these days. Great writing, great art, and great characters.

The Ugly

The Blob’s nipple rings. Ew.

DC

Detective Comics #880

Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Jock
Colors: Dave Baron

The Good

Scott Snyder’s run on Detective is running down before he moves over to Batman with the DC relaunch in September, but he’s making sure that he goes out with a bang.

This issue continues the Gordon storyline where it’s believed that the Joker is the one causing all the chaos in his life. When his wife is brutally attacked and placed in the hospital, Gordon and Dick begin to track down the Joker with a little help from Oracle on the computers. As Batman confronts the Joker we learn that it wasn’t him that was responsible for the attack and on the final page Oracle is the first to find out for sure.

It’s a classic and tense Detective Comics tale and the perfect one for Snyder to finish up his time on the book with. It’s one of the best DC books of the week. Check it out.

The Bad

I’m not the biggest fan of Jock’s art. I personally feel more abstract art like his works better in a graphic novel format than a monthly comic.

The Ugly

Wait until you see what the culprit did to Barbara Sr…yuck.

Green Lantern Corps #62

Writer: Tony Benard
Art: Daniel Hdr
Inks: Keith Champagne
Colors: Nei Ruffino

The Good

Even though I’m a huge Green Lantern fan, I don’t care much for Kyle. Even saying that, I can put up with Kyle when he’s in a good story with some meaning. But this one is really meaningless. Daniel Hdr does some decent work here, nothing mind blowing, but it doesn’t look cheap or rushed. So even with a ho-hum story, you at least have some okay art to go with it.

The Bad

The story is set after War of the Green Lanterns Aftermath #2. Mogo is dead (which pissed me off) and the Care Bear Lantern Corps have been driven crazy after what Krona did in that awesome story line. So Kyle, Sora, and Tomar-Tu are basically summoned to a planet by a whacked out Star Sapphire and they have to defeat her…only her whole attack on the planet was a ruse to get Kyle and Sora back together; even though they end up at odds at the end of the issue.

It’s a pretty pointless filler story that just feels deflated after the epic that preceded it.

The Ugly

The fact that you have to pay $2.99 for a filler story this poor.

Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #12

Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Art: Chris Batista
Inks: John Dell
Colors: Rob Leigh

The Good

After the disappointing Green Lantern Corps #62, I was really hoping this week’s Emerald Warriors would deliver the goods; and it does.

Following the “death” of Mogo; Lantern-powered shards of him are flying through space and one crashed through a prison holding a mythical beast. The Guardians charge Guy with taking out this thing, so he puts together a team to wipe it out. What follows is a classic space tale of a Lantern team taking out a big ugly monster. It’s simple, but it delivers the epic action you want from a GL book.

The Bad

Chris Batista’s art this week is only passable. It’s not overly impressive; and there’s times when Guy almost doesn’t look like Guy.

The Ugly

The belly of the beast…complete with digesting Green Lanterns.