2/20/13

I enjoy storyarcs and crossovers. I thought Death of the Family was quite a good storyline, and just when you thought it was over you pick up your comics on Wednesday, Friday for me, and find "Death of the Family; Aftermath" in giant letters on the cover of all of the bat-titles. For me I say "YAY! More of the story I so enjoy." Yet as I sit down and actually start reading the comics I find myself thinking something different altogether. This weeks reviews:

• Catwoman #17

New story, great. Black Diamond Probability was subpar at best in Catwoman's title, I think we can all agree about that much. This issue finds Catwoman breaking up a kid's heroin dealing by whipping them senseless, a nice "I'm going to tell your parents." would have been appropriate to the situation, but Catwoman is rated T+ for some reason so the author just wants to throw in random, racy moments of violence for no purpose other than to prove it is rated T+ for a reason.
The art, as always, is neat but nothing outstanding and sometimes the scenes of action get a little hard to understand. My main problem with this title, however, is that the dialogue is poorly written. This includes cops making remarks that are so unlifelike that it's funny, and an endless slew of cat metaphors that make my skin crawl. Catwoman is a very interesting character, and her title could be very interesting, the writer just has to come up with more interesting enemies than a fat guy with a fishnet over his head.

Spoiler Alert: The scene depicted doesn't occur in the book.

• Nightwing #17

The title of this issue is The Long Week, and that pretty much sums up the entire issue. Dick is moping around complaining about the fallout of Jokers visit and feeling really sorry for himself. He visits the circus and some clown who is close to death blames Dick for the disaster for who-knows-what reason then Dick pretty muh goes crazy and violent while fighting crime. Of course it is Damien who stops Dick's spontaneous rampage and brings him to his senses. I felt that this was a decent way to show us readers how Dick feels after Death of the Family, my complaint about this issue comes from the art.

There is a new artist on the book who is not bad at all, he just can't cover up Dick's identity. That's right, for the first time since I started reading comics I think that the identity of a superhero might be at stake. Dick looks identical to Nightwing that even the youngest child could tell the difference.

• Thor God of Thunder #5

This is my first review of a Thor comic, I read the first four way after they came out, so I am pretty darn excited. The series has been awesome both in writing and in illustrations, and I couldn't wait for the finale to the God Butcher storyline.

Writing dialogue is hard. That is the main barrier that keeps great writers from being fantastic. Jason Aaron nails dialogue every single time, that's what makes him such a phenomenal writer. This finale is spectacular consisting of the three Thors dealing with the God Butcher in different ways. The present Thor fights the God Butcher head-on as he revisits his past encounter with the God Butcher through memory. This shows the past Thor and his decibels fighting Gorr in a cave. The future Thor gets a much needed visit from his confused, past-self and continues to fight Gorr's berserkers. The issue leaves us with just the right amount of answers and questions and leaves us wanting next month's Gorr-igin issue.

I can't get over how great Esad Rubic's art is.

• Indestructible Hulk #4

IH has been the best damn Hulk series I have ever read, Mark Waid captures perfectly the two very different characters of Hulk and Bruce Banner and Leinil Yu's art is the best the Hulk book has ever gotten. I think that this creative team is better at times when a scene has lots of thinking or dialogue, the beginning of this issue was one of those scenes. The last third of the book was a fast-paced action scene that was interesting but not very well laid-out. I give them credit, however, because the action is all underwater which is hard to write. Overall this was a good issue and I am very ready for the next.

• Red Hood and the Outlaws #17

Of all of the Death of the Family tie-ins RHO was my least favorite, yet the aftermath was the best thus far. Roy was annoying as usual but other than that the story was sad and moving. All of the reactions of the characters to both the other characters and the situation at hand. The art is OK but nothing special and the dialogue is also decent. I do think that Lobdell nailed Damien and Jason's relationship.

Thank you everybody for joining me for this weeks reviews and please come back next week for more.