Comics I Bought This Week: March 22 2007

Slow week at Ye Olde Comic Shop. I only picked up one comic:

Walking Dead 36

Since I couldn't get just a single comic I also picked up the collected version of "Edgar Allan Poe's Haunt of Horror". It's from Marvel's Max line. I've been meaning to get it because I think Richard Corben has been doing some really great work lately. When It comes to Marvel I've only been picking up collected volumes so I didn't get this one when it was first published. Ill let you know how it is. And now a review of last weeks Buffy.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight 1 - I've been a Buffy fan since I caught the first episode way back in 1997. I even have some of the issues of the former Buffy series (issues 32-46 to be exact). Not all of the former series was very good which explains why I don't have many of them. But I do recommend the ones I have.

I haven't seen any of the TV episodes since the series went off the air (2003) so I couldn't quite remember how it ended. It took me a few pages to catch up and remember but Buffy saved the world and now there are 1800 slayers all around the world instead of Buffy being the only one. So now Buffy is the head of some big vampire and demon slaying organization. Without the constraints of a TV show budget the scope is much bigger and more "comic booky".

I generally like Buffy: TVSSE 1. The plot and script were smart and snappy as is usual for Josh Whedon and he has set up some interesting things to enrich the Buffyverse.

The art in the issue was a little uneven. This can be a plague on licensed book as capturing a likeness consistently is a tough thing. Strange thing is that wasn't this books problem. The penciler (Georges Jeanty) wasn't really going for a photographic look but captured the actors general types quite nicely with his character designs. My complaint is about the inking.

The inking style seemed to change from page to page. The "no line weight" style pages were okay (seriously how can you mess that up) but blacks were spotted poorly and a lot of the time when line weight was called for it was executed haphazardly. It wasn't the worst inking I've ever seen but it was uneven and distracting.

I'm not sure how someone who's never seen Buffy will like this book. There is a lot to catch up with and the end reveal will be meaningless to those unfamiliar with the TV show but it is a quality comic. I'll be buying some more issues.

Week Thirteen of my reviews of recent DC Comics.

JLA Classified 29 - The JLA as an undercover black leather jumpsuit wearing team of spies? Not in their masks and costumes and barely using their super powers? It has something to do with world politics and a Latin American country being used as a testing ground for super soldiers. I fail to see the point of this book. It is a story that would be much better told if it didn't star Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern. But they sell comics so that's who we get. It's a well crafted comic. The art and script are okay. It's the plot that left me out in the cold. Covert ops and the JLA don't mix well. I have two more issues of this story (30-31) but I'm not going to even bother with them.

JLA Classified 32-33 - Ahhh... a change of writers and a change of opinion. Dan Slott writes these two issues and they are much more to my liking. They are the first two parts of a story about a loser who gains power and takes on the JLA. That is far too simple of an explanation because the plot is really more clever than that and involves dreamscapes and the laws of probability. This is a good JLA story though it focuses more on the loser guy's tale. Dan Jurgens and Trevor Scott provide the art. I want to see what happens next. Check it out.

Martian Manhunter 1,4 - Another super-powerful DC character with a goofy weakness. Martians are vulnerable to fire. Like everybody else isn't? Anyway, there is not much to like in these two issues. The art is only so-so and the story telling worse plus the script has a lot of whining. Oh those poor Martians; humans hate them because they're different but still Martian Manhunter will protect the humans because deep down inside they have good hearts. Yawn.
There is also some kind of mystery going on with evil government experiments on Martians, super weapons being made because of said experiments, and oh yeah, did I mention all the evil government people? Yawn. I still have another two issues of this book (5-6) but have no plans to ever read them.