Mixed Plate Comics- Week of 9.23.2010

In what was a glorious week of comic-BOOM!  Along with a much needed Indian Summer hitting us in the wild west I got my read-on in these dirty dozen of books:  Justice League of  America #49 / Black Widow #6 / Nemesis #3 / Titans #27 /Secret Avengers #5 / Power Girl #16 / Justice League: Generation Lost #10 / Superman Batman #76 / Green Lantern Corps #52 / Fantastic Four #583 / The Avengers #5 / The Flash #5

5   The Avengers #5  Brian Michael Bendis & John Romita Jr.

The time-displaced Avengers get to play Bill Murray ala Groundhog Day-- having to relive events that lead to the meeting with old man Stark, the Maestro and future Young Avengers-- all thanks to dumbass Kang.  But with that we get to see some of the most ill sequences of action like Thor vs. Galactus. 

The Starks play Rip Hunter/Booster Gold from 52 trying to pinpoint where, what, when and how to end the deadly cycle of time rebooting itself with the uber-fab concept of The Ultron War (hasn't this happened before?)

JRJR is really fleshing out some other level shit with his illustrations-- making art-pieces fly off the pages whether it is close up shots or widescreen action panels-- and what a perfect complement having finishes via the living-legend Klaus Janson.

Bendis is living up to the much hyped reboot of the primary Avengers squad though again my only complaint is a bit more X (only Maria Hill and Spiderwoman) to complement the Y chromosome on this otherwise superior teambook.



4   Justice League: Generation Lost #10  Judd Winick & Joe Bennett
We see just how maniacal and powerful Max Lord is with the near revelation of Alfred, PG and Bats learning of his reappearance (love the connections made between both of Winick's books!) only to find themselves forgetting what they were talking about, despite what we see clearly on the screen in the Batbunker-- the haunting image of Wonder-Woman playing twister with Lord's neck.

Though I am a fan of Bennett's work, I find that many of his lines and character renders are just rushed, especially all of the doods- like whaddup what with those old-school Booster goggles Joe?!  Or maybe it's the case that Aaron Lopresti is just so good that I feel this way..nahh.

There is a touching scene when Ice tells Fire how she is sticking around with the team afterall, because of her.  In the future time-jumps showing a more extreme Justice League, led by no other than Magog, we see more and more pieces come together on Lord's big plan-- meanwhile the JLI are on the chase for their old boss only to be faced by the Metal Men!

3   Power Girl #16  Judd Winick & Sami Basri       
PG finds 3 things.  The chick that embezzled all of her companies skrill (though dead), she keeps getting beaten down by all of these no-name-powered thugs (we should find out who this dood is in the next ish) and thanks to Batman a whole lot of tech for her new technophile (appropriately Asian) partner.

The shakedown scene between Karen and Nicco is fun and highlights how important it is for her to have some more brains to back the blonde powerhouse.  Come on, lets agree that its all good to have some less than genius-level Kryptonians running around especially since Kal-El has gone all science-guild on us right?!  Anyways, I am beginning to feel that Karen has found her Jimmy Olsen and look forward to see how their dynamic evolves.  Basri's style is really phenomenal and I just wish we could see more of his work beyond just this monthly.  Oh wells!

2   Fantastic Four #583  Jonathan Hickman & Steve Epting
With the opening salvo of the countdown to 3, my hopes are that Reed goes away...perhaps to join up with his otherselves (I coulda went

South with this real easy, yeah) and have Valeria step in well from the background as the new resident genius leader.

Yeah, its a long-shot but Hickman has done such the remarkable job-- no surprise there on elevating both Franklin and Valeria's role in the book-- though not directly within the peripheral of the Fantastic 4, but we all see it and all the possibilities it holds.

Hickman also showed how Mr. Fantastic can still be used as a staple of the team, though only as a holo-projection, Epting makes him look cool as hell. 

And who better than to take out one of the most powerful heroes of the Marvel U than another demigod-- The Silver Surfer.  You gotta get this ish and jump on the arc if you haven't already for reals.


1   Secret Avengers #5  Ed Brubaker & Aja/Lark/Gaudiano
Despite my earlier claims on how lame I thought a tale that centered on a clone of Nick Fury would be, Brubaker and his 3-party of illest-rators proves why they are just so damn good at storytelling and why I am

 

not a gypsy, fortuneteller.  For all the the comicbook-magic that we have seen highlighting Fury-- we have never seen him quite like this.  Yes.  Fury is a master strategist, hard-nosed, no bullshit war veteran turned head honcho of SHIELD.  But, imagine him as a solo, black-ops, splinter-agent with an agenda of his own which just involves a whole lotta bullets and bloodclot (mostly on Hydra).

So you don't need to use your imagination on this anymore, just read on in these Brubaker'd pages and enjoy.

Now, lets imagine this clone-- Max Fury-- taking on the Secret Avengers.  Yeah, if I was Steve Rogers I would be hella pissed at Nick Fury too!  This book, like any of the recent Brightest Day issues shows that a team of multiple artists can weave together a compelling, structured story regardless of different styles being articulated on various pages.



This post was written by:
big O