Comics I read this week:

Usually I post these on Fridays. I hope nobody got too worried that this post didn't show up until today. Spoilers inside:

Mavis 5: The latest tale of Wolff & Byrd's secretary. If you're not reading Wolff & Byrd, aka Supernatural Law, you really should be. It's about two lawyers who specialize in representing supernatural clients. In this issue, their secretary Mavis deals with Wolff & Byrd's latest clients, a trio of ghosts being sued for breach of contract. Writer/artist Batton Lash never disappoints me.

Detective Comics 841: When he's not stuck writing part 4 of the latest crossover, Paul Dini has been delivering great single-issue Batman stories during his run on this title. This issue is no exception. I'm not a huge fan of artist Dustin Nguyen, but the art doesn't detract from the story -- a team-up between Batman foes The Mad Hatter and TweedleDee & TweedleDum (something I've been waiting to see since I first read about the Tweedles in Who's Who some 20 years ago).

Buffy 11: Written by Wheedon and pencilled by series regular Georges Jeanty. This was average Wheedon, which is to say it's a very well written and witty comic. We get a good insight into Buffy's head (nothing surprising if you're familiar with the character, but it's good to see her doing a little self-analysis) plus Buffy fights this "Season's" Big Bad.

Amazing Spider-Man 549: Having enjoyed Dan Slott's maiden run on the title, I picked up the first issue of the next arc, this time by writer Marc Guggenheim and artist Salvador LaRocca. This was a mediocre comic. The story is OK. Spidey teams up with the mysterious new (attractive red-headed) super-heroine, Jackpot and wonders the same thing most of us are wondering: did they turn Mary Jane into a superhero? The art is bland and stiff, the way a lot of art in Marvel comics is these days. Plus, LaRocca makes Spidey look like a 12-year-old kid on the cover. On the other hand, it does read like a Spider-Man comic, which is a definite improvement from the last decade or two of Spidey.

Atom 20: A lot goes on in this issue and it's somewhat disjointed. Atom is trapped in a Black Mercy vision, thanks to the machinations of his evil Dean and Chronos, who are working together. Kind of. I think. There's enough "Neato!" in here to get me past the "Wha --?" so I guess that's a plus.

Annihilation: Conquest 4: More space opera action from Marvel's forgotten offworld characters. I'm enjoying Conquest more than I enjoyed the original Annihilation, but then again, I'm one of the few people who didn't go absolutely ga-ga over the original.

Twelve 2: Issue 1 ended with a flash forward to Phantom Reporter standing over Blue Blade's body. This issue starts with that same flash forward, then promptly goes back to 22 pages of everyone adjusting to waking up 60 years after World War II. Plus, I don't know if Straczynski just has that bad an ear for dialogue or he's trying to make our narrator, the Phantom Reporter, sound like the world's worst journalist, but man ... some of those narration boxes stink on ice. I mean, the dialogue sounds fine, so I have to believe it's intentional.

Jonah Hex 28: This issue didn't work for me. Hex gets indignant -- dramatically so -- over something I just don't see him caring that much about. A rare miss on this title. In other news, this title has # different ads for actions figures or statues: there are figures based on the All-Star series, figures based on the Killing Joke, statues based on the Ed Bennes cover to the first issue of the new JLA series, figures based on the entire Meltzer/Benes JLA run, and figures based on Matt Wagner's Trinity series. It seems a little silly and excessive to me, but I suppose if I were a huge fan of Brian Boland, I'd want the Killing Joke Batman action figure and none of the 843 other Batman action figures would do it for me.

ClanDestine 1: I never read the original Clan Destine series, but I heard enough good things about it that I decided to give this revival a try. This issue could have been a little friendlier to people unfamiliar with the title, but I think I figured out enough to muddle along. In any event, I'm intrigued enough to check out the next issue, though I really hope Marvel reprints what has come before.

So what did everyone else read this week?

Posted by Jason Fliegel at February 9, 2008 4:36 PM