by Chooch on August 21, 2011, 09:07:42 PM
Welcome to Hey Kids! Comics! As always, PM your reviews to Chooch by 9pm Mountain Time every Sunday.
by Chooch
 Avengers #16
$4/22 pages - 18 cents/page
Having to put your book on hold for seven months while an event plays out must really suck, but generally Bendis does a good job of exploring some small facet of the larger story. Not so much this issue. Steve Rogers gets rooked, making the plot points skippable and we essentially see Cap sad that Bucky died. Granted we haven't had a lot of time to see that in the main event, but leave that to Brubaker to follow-up on and concentrate of the reactions of those without their own books. 
Avengers Academy #16 - Bad Guys
$3/20 pages - 15 cents/page
The worst of the kids are all that's left to fight off two hammer wielders, so they decide to embrace their inner-evil. Or do they? Gage is getting quite crafty. 
 Thunderbolts #162
$3/20 pages - 15 cents/page
In the midst of chaos, half of the 'bolts escape. Oops!
Captain America #2 - American Dreamers pt. 2
$4/20 pages - 20 cents/page
Steve McNiven looks downright Travis Charestian at several points this issue. The story takes a turn for the strange, but it needed it to differentiate itself from Brubaker's last Secret Avengers arc.
 Green Lantern Corps #63 - Now and Forever!
$3/20 pages - 15 cents/page
The Corps fight amongst themselves until they're reminded of their duty. 
Batman Retroactive 1990's #1 - One Night in the Rest of my Life/Trash
$5/48 pages - 10 cents/page
The main story is a fairly by the numbers Bat tale, but we get to see Norm Breyfogle either inking himself or having the art go straight from his pencils. I don't know if it's the inking/lack of inking or that it's many years later, but his style is much more animated and rounded than it used to be. The back-up is a reprint by the same creative team from the 90's. Breyfogle is much more angular (and my heart went pitter-patter when I got a glimpse of my favorite Batmobile in action), but the real story is how different the Bruce/Batman dynamic was back then. Bruce pines after a girl during the day and then changes into an entirely separate being to become Batman at night. It's been so long since we've seen that dynamic that it was quite refreshing.
 Nonplayer #1
$3/25 pages - 12 cents/page
The central idea is that we're seeing some kids play an MMO in the future where play is far more immersive and the titular NPC might be getting a mind of his own. The fantasy elements remind me of Battle Chasers or Warlands where the art really steals the show, but the story here gets an opportunity to shine by following the female player into her real life. Sadly the artist admits at the end that this single issue took a year to complete, so who knows if we'll ever see a second issue.
 Shadow of the Giant MMPB
The end (for now) of the Bean offshoot series of novels from the Ender series. This one's a bit odd. When writing for short-form media such as movies, TV episodes, most comics, etc. there's an unwritten rule that you know whose story it is that you're telling. If you tell the beginning of one person's story and the end of another, the reader will ultimately feel cheated. With novels the writer has much more room and will often tell multiple people's stories. In this sub-series of novels we get to know nearly a dozen characters fairly well and get to see them grow, but Card is kind of choosy about when he concentrates on certain characters. It left me with the impression that I didn't get the end of some people's stories, the middle of others, and the beginnings of still others. Card does manage to stick with a central theme that humans struggle between a need for personal achievement versus a need to give yourself to others by having a family. It plays out differently for different characters, but Card comes firmly down on the side of making babies being the noblest goal humanity can achieve. I tend to agree, but I could see where it would irk some people.
Talk about it here! 182 Views
|
Ongoing Features - Member Stuff
