Justice League of America Wedding Special. I’ve been eagerly anticipating the beginning of writer Dwayne McDuffie’s tenure on Justice League, but it gets off to a slow start in this special issue. Penciller Mike McKone turns in a solid performance— some dynamic work in the Firestorm/Killer Frost action sequence and a detailed and genuinely creepy depiction of a Jokerized Firestorm—that only stumbles a bit when it comes to the crowd scenes at the bachelor and bachelorette parties. These scenes that should pulse with movement and activity instead come of as curiously flat and stiff; some of the figures could be real leaguers, some could be commemorative statues of fallen heroes. These parties look lame, is what I’m saying, and boy, they shouldn’t be.
But the real issue here for me is that everything feels a little overfamiliar; the sposta-impress two-page spread of Luthor’s gathered villains yawningly recalls similar scenes in Villians United and Infinite Crisis, and no, a character’s comment that this feels like a re-tread doesn’t redeem it from retreaditude. I suppose I’m frustrated that I don’t get a sense of what McDuffie’s direction for the title will be from this issue—or, worse, that this is McDuffie’s direction for the title: generic team-up showdowns. It’s only the first issue, of course, and it may simply be the case that McDuffie has to get on past the whole tiresome Green Arrow/Black Canary wedding before he can really sink his teeth into the characters. Still, I expected to be wowed, and I wasn’t.
New Avengers #34. Remember how cool the budding Dr. Strange/Night Nurse relationship was in Brian Vaughn’s Dr. Strange: The Oath? Yeah, watch Bendis suck all the fun right out of it here, as all the sparks of their competitive Hepburn/Grant grace and style are smothered in the lukewarm dishwater of Sex and the City dialogue and Dr. Phil pop-psychology that characterizes Bendis’s approach to writing “realistic” characters.
Booster Gold #2. An enjoyable issue that doesn’t quite fulfill the promise of the series premiere last month, mostly because it neglects the most engaging aspect of the series’ premise: that Booster has to look like an incompetent screw-up in order to be history’s greatest hero. Though the script pays lip service to that conceit, that element is missing from this diverting but ordinary outsmart-the-baddie tale—one so old-fashioned that the villain literally twists his mustache. Perfectly okay, but lacking in any real tension—we know history probably won’t unravel, but we don’t know how Booster will deal with his new inability to be a gloryhound. Not spectacular, but I’m sticking around for a while yet anyway.
Suicide Squad #1. John Ostrander’s triumphant return to the characters he made great in the 1980s turns out to be a Roy-Thomas-tastic slice of continuity clean-up meant to explain how Rick Flag could pop up alive in recent issues of Checkmate when he supposedly died in an atomic bomb blast years ago. The answer, many of you will be glad to know, involves dinosaurs. I’m not sure how broad this series’ appeal will be—its joys lie largely in revisiting a cherished corner of DCU history, and readers whose nostalgia buttons aren’t set for “late 1980s” may not get quite the same charge. Plus, DC’s canceling of the Showcase collected edition of the Ostrander/McDonnell Suicide Squad can’t help—I imagine it and this mini-series were meant to bolster each other. In any case, Ostrander is clearly having fun revisiting his old friends and enemies, and I’m more than willing to tag along.
She-Hulk #21. The series bids a fond adieu to writer Dan Slott with an issue the hearkens back to the blend of humor, deft characterization, and gently satirical affection for superhero culture—both inside and outside the pages of the comics—that made his first couple of years on the title such a delight and that were so lacking from his crossover-muddled recent issues. Slott’s best idea over the years has been that if superhero stories occasionally have to tidy up continuity and resolve apparent contradictions, there’s no reason they can’t have fun doing it; indeed, if fixing them could be fun, his stories implicitly suggest, then readers might not worry so much about those errors when they crop up.
Last week’s All New Atom #15 was fun, too, and the series is hopefully now free of the Countdown debris that has littered its pages and slowed its momentum over the last few months. And I think I may be done with Daredevil after issue 100—no particular reason, but Brubaker seems to be spinning his wheels a little.
After your recent gushing about Dwayne McDuffie’s run on FF, I’m disappointed that you’re disappointed. Still, I’m going to pick this up (since I didn’t read VU or IC, maybe it’ll seem new!) and have decided to subscribe to the monthly. Yes, I’m picking up a new book! Hoorah!
How is the art on the new SS? Without Luke McDonnell (and where has HE been?), it’s just not the same. That guy used more ink that Frank Miller in a Sin City one-shot.
Javier Pina and Robin Riggs handle the art chores—you know them from Manhunter, maybe. The art is unspectacular but perfectly fine—DC House style circa right now. I miss McDonnell’s moody hues, though.
I will have to give the Suicide Squad a try. Goin to the shop now, maybe I’ll pick up another book or two that’s not on my list.