It was a fantastic week for comics this week! Get it .. "fantastic"? Well, you will once you get to the inside of this post (where, of course, there are spoilers):
So I read not one, not two, not three, but four Fantastic comics this week. How appropriate! Let's start the run down there.
Fantastic Four 553: While I read every other issue of the McDuffie/Pelletier run, somehow I missed this one when it came out. Anyway, this is the culmination of their run, and a fine culmination it is. McDuffie gets these characters. Here, Marvel's first family is caught between a future version of Dr. Doom and a future version of ... the FF? Great stuff, full of nice character bits and jam packed with action. McDuffie and Pelletier are perfect for this book.
Fantastic Four 554: So, of course, Marvel jetisoned them in favor of Mark Millar and Brian Hitch. Neither of them gets these characters. Let's start with Hitch. His Thing has a 30 inch waist and his Reed looks nothing like Reed (although he does look kind of like Ioan Gruffudd, so maybe that was intentional). As for Millar, he writes all of the cast completely out of character and adds all sorts of "cute" bits that aren't particularly cute (does anyone who has ever read an FF comic before really think that Reed would build a fleet of HERBIEs with Doctor Doom's face). Plus, you know how I said that McDuffie/Pelletier issue was jam packed with action. The closest thing we get to action here is a 3-page sequence lifted straight from Back to the Future III. Plus, the cover really sucks.
Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure: Back when Jack Kirby quit the Fantastic Four, he left behind pencils for a story that didn't wind up seeing print, at leats not as Kirby drew it. Instead, it formed the nucleus of an early issue in Buscema's run, with some modifications and a new framing sequence by Big John. Marvel has dusted off the original Kirby pencils, had Stan Lee dialogue them, and had Joe Sinnott ink them. The results -- presented alongside the as-published version of almost 40 years ago -- is a classic Lee-Kirby FF issue. The tail end of the Lee-Kirby years are definitely not the book's heyday, and I actually don't think the Kirby version is any better (or worse) than the Buscema version, but you can never go wrong with Lee-Kirby FF.
Fantastic Comics 24: aka FANTASTIC comics twenty FOUR. Or not. Anyway, this is the premiere issue of Image's Next Issue Project, in which Image drags a public domain Golden Age comic out of obscurity and publishes ... you guessed it, the next issue. Here, we pick up some 66 years after the last issue of Fox's Fantastic Comics and gives us the latest adventures of the various characters from that title. The stories are not at all in the Golden Age tradition -- nobody would ever think that this is a comic from 1941. Still, they are a decent mix, ranging from "Eh" to "Pretty Good." Plus, any time you get Bill Sienkiewicz and Fred Hembeck in the same comic, you must be doing something right.
Amazing Spider-Man 550: From the Fantastic Four we move to the Amazing Two. First, Spider-Man. The second issue of Marc Guggenheim's debut arc improves appreciably on the first. I thought the first was just OK, barely intriguing enough to get me to buy the second. I'm glad it did, though, as this is just a fun comic, very much in the classic Spidey tradition. Plus, while there's plenty of room for Marvel to backpedal and prove me wrong, they don't go the direction I had feared with Jackpot, the all-new red-headed superheroine who debuted last issue (or last spring if you count the Free Comic Book Day giveaway).
Amazing Spider-Girl 17: Another issue of the DeFalco/Frenz book that refuses to die. And like last issue (and, I predict, next issue), this is another solid, 80s-style Spidey story. Oh, sure, this Spidey is a -Girl, not a -Man, but otherwise, it's the same webspinning action DeFalco and Frenz were giving us 20-odd years ago. These days, Spider-Girl is caught in a crime war between the Hobgoblin and the Black Tarrantula, and new arrival Crimelord gets in on the act.
JLA Classified 52: The Watchtower Era Justice Leaue fights Titus. It's basically one long slugfest, but Byrne sure draws it pretty. I'm definitely enjoying this, and would love to see more Stern/Byrne collaborations when this is done.
Nova Annual 1: Who knew they even did annuals any more. This issue gives us a gratuitous re-write of Nova's origin, although it may just be a fever dream. We also get a flash-forward into the future, where a 60-something Nova and various allies are still fighting the Phalanx. Somehow, I don't think Annhilation: Conquest is going to end with the war going on for another four decades, so let's count this in the "possible future" column. Leaving aside the fact that I'm an anal-retentive codger who resents gratuitous changes to previously published stories, this is a perfectly fine Abnett/Lanning comic.
Bat Lash 3: This is just a great western comic. Bat almost gets hanged but (apoiler alert) manages to escape. As in any good western comic, horses gallop, spurs jingle, and guns blaze. And -- I know I mention this every time a new issue comes out -- but John Severin is an artistic treasure.
Suicide Squad 6: The Squad takes on Halliburton and Dick Cheney ... I mean Haake-Bruton and their overweight, balding director Chambers. Lots of action and, in true Suicide Squad tradition, plans within plans. It's usually a recipe for disaster when a beloved creator comes back to his signature title, but Ostrander has managed to recapture lightning in the bottle.
Astro City Special: Beautie: Wow. Just ... wow. I saved the best for last this week, and it is by far the best. Here, Busiek and Anderson (and cover artist/character designer Alex Ross) turn the spotlight on Beautie, the Barbie-doll hero who has shown up in the background of Honor Guard scenes almost since day one, but has never been in the foreground. Busiek rectifies that, in a story built on a classic comic book concept, and as usual, Busiek leaves it just familiar enough that you recognize it, but different enough that he makes it new. And he does it in service of a story with a stronger and more moving emotional core than anything else he's done since the book began. Yes, stronger than the story about the guy whose marriage was erased during the cosmic crisis. Go buy this comic.
Posted by Jason Fliegel at February 15, 2008 9:52 PM