QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE 05-13-09

QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE 05-13-09
By John Judy

ACTION COMICS #877 by Greg Rucka and Eddy Barrows. Nightwing and Flamebird versus Ursa, Round Two. Expect twists that will actually make you care about Nightwing and Flamebird. Because Rucka really is just that good.

BLACK PANTHER #4 by Reginald Hudlin and Ken Lashley. Morlun, Devourer of Totems is back to mess with the Black Panther and eat your tiki bar! Hope Spidey doesn’t find out because of all that radically altered Spidey continuity biz!

CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI13 #13 by Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk. More vampiric intrigue among the British super-set. Continually better than it has a right to be with strong characterizations and clever twists adding life and undeath to a bunch of folks who have never really popped like this before. Well-worth checking out.

DARK REIGN: HAWKEYE #2 of 5 by Andy Diggle and Tom Raney. Already well on its way to being a seriously guilty pleasure this mini focuses on the bloodthirsty assassin Bullseye not really even half-trying to pass himself off as the iconic archer of the Avengers. Recommended.

DARK REIGN: YOUNG AVENGERS #1 of 5 by Paul Cornell and Mark Brooks. I would normally not give this title a look, but it’s by Paul Cornell who’s doing such interesting things over in CAPTAIN BRITAIN. Anyway, “Evil kids take over the franchise from the good kids.” Let’s see what Cornell and company do with this.

DARK TOWER: THE FALL OF GILEAD #1 of 6 by Peter David, Robin Furth and Richard Isanove. Roland kills his mom over a grapefruit. It’s a magic grapefruit, you see… Stephen King really knows his stuff but why did he have to call it “Maerlyn’s frickin’ Grapefruit?” It just kills the moment, y’know?

FINAL CRISIS AFTERMATH: ESCAPE #1 of 6 by Ivan Brandon and Marco Rudi. Wonder Woman’s boyfriend is being tortured, but when you’re Wonder Woman’s boyfriend that’s not so bad. Nope, not so bad at all….

LOCKJAW AND THE PET AVENGERS #1 of 4 by Chris Eliopoulos and Ig Guara. Somebody at Marvel lost a serious bet. Was a short straw involved? Will this result in mandatory drug-testing at Marvel? Questions and more questions….

PUNISHER FRANK CASTLE MAX #70 by Duane Swierczynski and Michel Lacombe. Frank really needs the antidote to that poison he’s been dosed with. It would be quite a shame if an army of punks, gangsters and lowlifes were to find themselves between Frank and his object of desire, would it not? Recommended, especially if you’ve ever lived in Philadelphia.

SECRET SIX #9 by Gail Simone and Nicola Scott. Two of our group join the Battle for the Cowl. They want to be the new Batman, you see. It’s sort of like Sarah Palin wanting to be President. Fun to watch.

THOR: TALES OF ASGARD BY LEE AND KIRBY #1 of 6 by A Couple of Guys Named Stan and Jack. Collecting the legendary back-up stories from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #97-104, re-mastered with new coloring and six new covers by red-hot THOR artist Olivier Coipel.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #132 by Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen. MJ versus Kitty. Girl-fight at the end of the world.

UNWRITTEN #1 by Mike Carey and Peter Gross. The story of a guy who may or may not be a world-famous fictional boy wizard. Fun stuff but contains some of that famous Vertigo adult content.

WALKING DEAD #61 by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard. The zombie comic that urges you this month to “have a bit of priest!” Yum!

WOLVERINE #73 by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. NOT!!! It’s actually a “70th Anniversary Issue” in honor of Wolverine’s first appearance in 1939. Okay, really “Old Man Logan” is taking a two issue hiatus to make room for two two-parters, one by Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert and the other by Daniel Way and Tommy Lee Edwards. I am torn on this because I hate fill-in issues and Daniel Way but I have a complete fan-crush on Jason Aaron. Recommended. Mostly…

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