Done-In-One Reviews for April 11th, 2007
Done-In-One Reviews are capsule sized reviews of some of the titles we missed covering from this week’s comic book shipment. This thread contains those reviews below.
Done-In One Reviews
Amelia Rules! #17 (Renaissance Press)
By Jimmy Gownley, cover by Terry Moore
Have I mentioned lately how great this comic book is? Jimmy Gownley's Amelia Rules! is one of the smartest, most intelligent young readers' comics on the stands, and this double-sized issue is the best yet. A long summer over, Amelia and her friends prepare for the first day of school, and the walk from home stirs up a lot of memories. Gownley uses the "walk to school" framing sequence to tell a lot of stories, including one about Amelia and a friend running away from home, her aunt's disappointment at her failed musical career, and just how Amelia and Kyle can relate to each other. While the book does depend on a lot of information from previous stories, but it's never in an inaccessible fashion. New readers will be able to get right in. As usual, Gownley deals with some relatively serious topics in a fun, entertaining way that will appeal to young readers and help them understand some of the harder truths about life (divorce, for example) without depressing or frightening them. His artwork, as usual, is great, and this issue the book comes with a great cover by Strangers in Paradise creator Terry Moore. It's double-sized, so it's more expensive than a usual issue, but Amelia Rules! #17 is worth each and every penny. Rating: 4.5/5 -Blake Petit
Bizarre New World #1 (APE Entertainment)
By Skipper Martin & Christopher Provencher
What would an ordinary guy do if he suddenly found himself with the ability to fly? Where would you go? What would you do? How would you test it out? In Bizarre New World, Skipper Martin delves into a real-world, spandex-free analysis of this question. It's a pretty good read, too. The story is clever enough, and the concerns our main character, Paul, finds while trying to study his new power are pretty realistic. There's also a good amount of humor in the book, which helps a lot. The only real problem is that the book feels a bit too autobiographical -- even before reading the text piece at the end, it's quite obvious Martin based the characters on himself and his friends. Not that this is a necessarily bad thing, mind you, but it's a little distracting when it's so obvious. On the other hand, it helps quickly establish some of the relationships very quickly -- the interaction between Paul and his son is some of the best stuff in the book. Christopher Provencher has a really strong style and the artwork looks great, particularly the scene with Paul walking on the ceiling. This is afun comic, one that really feels legitimately different. There's nothing else on the racks quite like it. Rating: 4/5 -Blake Petit
Dynamo 5 #2 (Image)
By Jay Faerber & Mahmud A. Asrar
Another of Captain Dynamo's old foes, Whiptail, is on the loose. The trouble is, Whiptail is in a nursing home, divorced from reality and totally unable to take part in any super-villaining. The Dynamo 5 kids proceed to stake out his family, anticipating that one of them has picked up where he left off. We also expand our cast a bit this issue, with Maggie's old secret agent partner showing up, and we see some of the team members begin to engage in brotherly bonding. This books is really proving to be the opposite of Faerber's other series, Noble Causes, which is a soap opera with superhero elements. Dynamo 5, by contrast, is a superhero comic with a few traces of soap opera. In both cases, playing with the formula is working extremely well. After just two issues, I find myself really interested in most of these kids. Each comes with a distinct personality, and furthermore, Faerber is really making an effort to defy stereotypes with these characters. While Noble Causes is the parent book, I really find this series has more in common with Top Cow's Freshmen series -- and I mean that as a compliment. Rating: 4/5 -Blake Petit
Friday the 13th #5 (DC/Wildstorm)
By Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, Adam Archer & Ryan Sook
The last few teens at Camp Crystal Lake's latest bloodbath try to find salvation -- but with Jason Voorhees on the loose, is such a thing even possible? This issue is pretty much the 15-minute final bloodbath before the conclusion of the movie, which works fairly well. There's a strange structural choice in here, though -- Palmiotti and Gray shift to a framing sequence with one of the survivors hospitalized as the authorities try to figure out what happened, with the rest of the story told in flashback. This would be okay if they'd used that format from the beginning, or if they pulled it out for the final chapter, but on the second-to-last chapter it's an odd choice and feels a tad clunky. The art is still impressive, and Ryan Sook's cover is great. This isn't a bad book at all, just one that didn't seem to find enough of an audience. Rating: 3.5/5 -Blake Petit
Mr. Stuffins #1 (BOOM! Studios)
By Andrew Cosby, Johanna Stokes, and Lee Carter
There's just something too adorable about a tough-guy teddy bear to pass up. At least that's what I tell myself. He looks awful mean. I don't think Mr. Stuffins would be very happy with me if I'd left his comic on the shelf – yes, I was intimidated by a fictional robot teddy bear. Just look at that cover. How could you not be? Mr. Stuffins fills the ever-important thematic void of 'comics that senselessly pervert childhood imagery.' It features a super-spy teddy bear (think Jack Bauer in furry, pint-sized form) who's fallen into the hands of Zach, a precocious child who suspects that his security-minded, gun-obsessed friend isn't quite right in the head – or programming for that matter. The humor is, of course, situationally dark – like some perverse version of The Odd Couple mixed with psychotic robot teddy bears. But for all its sardonic humor, the comic isn't without heart. Zach finds himself caught in the middle of his parents' separation, ignored and pushed aside while they bicker between themselves and his teen-aged sister. It's a startlingly well-written dose of reality set beside the absurdity of Zach's pit bull teddy bear companion. While there's not much to this concept that's truly novel – a practical decalogue of '80s movies dedicated to experimental weaponry falling into the hands of children proves that point – it doesn't make the comic any less enjoyable, Mr. Stuffins wouldn't allow that. Rating: 3.5/5 ~ S. A. Parvaze
Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #1 (Marvel)
By Jeff Parker and Mike Wieringo
When Spidey runs across one of the Fantastic Four's old sparring partners in New York, a momentary annoyance turns out to be just a herald of things to come. I enjoyed this book for a lot of reasons. For one thing, it's pre-Civil War, so it's a chance to see these characters all behaving as friends, like they should. Second, Jeff Parker has been increasingly impressive lately -- he's doing some of the best old-school, classic Marvel stories, and this definitely fits into that category. Third, Mike Wieringo has done fantastic work with both Spidey and the FF, and putting him on a book with both properties together is a no-brainer. The only real problem I have with this issue is that it's mostly set-up with Spidey, and the FF don't show up until a few pages before the end. The story is fun, though, and I'm eagerly anticipating a lot of fun in the three issues to come. Rating: 4/5 -Blake Petit
Tales of the Unexpected #7 (DC)
By David Lapham, Eric Battle, Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang & Art Adams
With just one issue to go, both stories in this series are finally firing on all cylinders. One of the residents of the run-down building the Spectre is bound to plans suicide, unable to cope with the memory of what he witnessed the night of Krieger's murder. Cris Allen, meanwhile, continues trying to control the Spectre -- but what will it take to get that kind of control? The threads of the mystery are finally starting to weave together, and the tapestry thus far looks pretty satisfying. The gore gets turned up this issue as well, further (in some scenes) than I would have expected in a DCU book. I'm really excited to see how this ends up. For the first time, though, the Dr. 13 back-up story is interesting me too. I'm not typically a fan of Azzarello, but the weird, metafictional thing he's conjuring up involving the 52 writers... well... it's bizarre. It's too strange to even really describe. But it's interesting. Which is always a plus. Rating: 4.5/5 -Blake Petit
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April 14th 2007, 03:24 AM
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