comics 22 nov

Captain America 32: it's getting too long.

Shadowpact 19: the bizarre cast makes this the closest thing to Top Ten on the market.

Brian Augustyn returns in the Gotham by Gaslight (the first Eleworld) in Countdown Presents byt Greg Tochini is no Mike Mignola though he puts a good effort. This type of crossover is doomed anyway from the start.

Shanna the She-Devil 4 is a waste of time. Pick Cho's Jungle Girl instead.

Conan 46 is the last part of the siege of Venarium, shortly before Conan leaves Cimmeria. Kurt Busiek evokes with great eloquence this defining moment.

Captain America the Chosen 4 has the problem common to alternate stories: no involvement in them.

Franklin Richards Son of a Genius, is a Marvelian take on Calvin and Hobbes without Hobbes and Wihout Watterson's commentary on society.

Invincible is not as creative as it used to be.

Metamorpho Year One 4 loses a lot from Dan Jurgens' departure as a penciler. This series had been created as a parody of 60s Marvel, reflecting on how strange Marvel Comics looked then to regular readers of DC Comics and other companies. To be successful again it would require many allusions and references to popular culture, playing more on the quirks of the supporting, a Vertigo treatment, except Vertigo doesn't invest anymore in transforming former DC characters.

In Brave and the Bold 8, Waid and Perez continue to mix modern heroes with Silver Age. The Gothic elements of the Doom Patrol were cleverly used. Perez is still an amazing penciler. Few penciler have managed to remain favourites for 30 years.

Army@love 9 delivers great satire month after month.

Countdown to Mystery marks the return of Steve Gerber to US comics. Gerber is an underappreciated genius of comics. His new Dr. Fate strip seems to be an emotional and psychological trip dressed as magic. In issue 3, he introduces a charming character, Maddy (based on Neil Gaiman's daughter?). The Eclipso feature by Matt Sturges is intriguing.

In Action Comics 859, Geoff Johns continues to present us the classic Legion of Super-Heroes (pre-Crisis). It's great as I stopped caring about them after the reboot.

The Walking Dead remains Kirkman's best work, month after month. Adlard delivers great art.

In She-Hulk 23, Peter David doesn't disappoint for his second issue. I'll keep reading that title, the shark Absorbing Man was a great visual.

Hulk 111: The title looked better when Gary Frank was doing it but he's penciling Action Comics now. It seems the Hulk has become a secondary character since the start of World War Hulk and that the Renegades is the new feature. Apparently this is a marketing strategy to get us to keep buying this title and buy the new Hulk titles as well. It's intriguing enough to keep me looking if this is going somewhere.

Heroes for Hire stop at 15. This started as a spin-off from Daughters of the Dragon, which was a fun 70s/Tarantino B-movie flick but this evolved in the wrong direction.

Wolverine Origins 19 is a great Captain America and Bucky story. Daniel Way is making good use of Brubaker's Bucky. It's about the only time that title has not disappointed.

For a rather new writer, Chris Gage brings good characterisation. Warren Ellis' Thunderbolts already has spin-offs, such as Penance and the one-shot Breaking Point that acts as a fill-in while the regular title catches up.

While I like Gulacy as an artist, I have found the Penance limited series to be uninspired.