Since it's Comic Book Day we've got a review, but I also thought it would be cool if I did a double article and make it a Worth Every Penny as well. Today we've got two Marvel books, since Marvel released the most books this week let's see which one is worth your 3 bucks plus tax shall we.
Ghost Rider #15 - Daniel Way has managed to make the Ghost Rider the new Peter Parker, where life just dumps on him constantly. If you haven't been reading Ghost Rider I'll recap briefly for you. The Devil has escaped Hell, but has been shattered into... you guessed it 666 pieces, and these pieces have taken over recently dead's bodies. Ghost Rider is tracking down and killing each body which makes the remaining bodies that much stronger. In this issue two angel's are born over night from a teenage girl, her Mom who was ripping the shit out of her in the last issue all the sudden wants to take care of her and when the girl has to leave on a mission with the angel babies the mom gives her, her muscle car that's probably worth more than the house they're living in. Devil set's GR up with two problems: Stop a stadium of people from blowing up (which he doesn't actually know about yet) or save a little league group of kids that are being held some where. It's a quick read but frankly that's due to the fact that it's not very interesting and Way's strong point isn't dialog and never will be. I've decided to stop reading Ghost Rider with this issue since it's become the same thing over and over each issue. Whereas the initial idea was cleaver, tracking down a new piece of Satan each issue gets rather boring when they all end the same way. Also I get the fact that GR doesn't care if the innocent get hurt because he'll just have more avenging to do, and the Johnny Blaze aspect of it just isn't interesting enough to keep me caring. All it takes to stop Johnny's control of GR is a bonk on the head and GR pops back in. We'll see how long this latest series lasts, but for me the road to vengeance stops here!
Punisher War Journal #11 - For starters don't let the cover fool you Olivetti is not doing the interiors of the book which is a shame because he really makes up for a lot of story telling aspects that Fraction isn't able to write and or director the artist to do. This is one of those issue where the main character isn't even in half the book. I don't know who started this trend, I remember when I first read an issue and the character wasn't in it I was like wow that's a good writer to be able to do it. Let's just say Fraction isn't there yet. The book spends most of it's time with G.W. Bridge and Ian the fake cop from some issues back. Iron Man is trying to talk Bridge out of retirement and Ian is being brainwashed into possibly being the next Punisher. Both stories where pretty boring and I've really have found myself not caring about Bridge, I don't like his character and whatever Fraction is trying to do with him just isn't interesting. Every time he shows up I let out a big sigh and wait for it to be over. As far as Ian the fake cop is concerned, I don't even know his character to care about what he's going through. The Punisher and Winter Soldier do not square off in this book, they barely have a tussle if you can call it that so don't expect the few pages they spend together to be action packed or the battle you've waiting for because it's not. Overall this was a disappointing issue for me since I've just read the last six issue of the series all in a row, when I got to this one it was kind of a road block and I'm left wondering if I should pass it.
The Winner: And not by much is Punisher War Journal #11, at least the few pages of dialog between the Punisher and WS were more interesting then the whole of Ghost Rider, and Punisher's "shock ending" might lead to a better storyline in the next issue so spend your 3 bucks on Pun rather than the Rider.
Preview Pages after the break.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Worth Every Penny and Comic Book Day Double Header
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Worth Every Penny?
Something I've wanted to do for a while now is an article that asks which book of the week did I want my money back after reading. Unfortunately I'm still so behind on my reading that it makes it hard to do that. Instead I've decided to pit two relatively new books together and see which one was actually Worth Every Penny. Today it just so happens to be DC Comics Countdown to Adventure, and Aspen's Iron and the Maiden.
First of all there was no adventure in this book so I don't know why it's called that. In fact this is a cheap cash in on the space characters from 52, and they thought, "Oh hell just throw our new character Forerunner in the mix as well." Not only did the writer not have any sense for who these characters are, but he seemed to not know what to do with them either. I didn't get the point of anyones story. Buddy's wife thinks he's in love with Starfire, his son snapped at him when he yelled at him for taking a picture of Starfire sleeping seductively. Adam Strange is retired by an Ultimate Fighting Champion. Really everyones just hanging out in this book, while the writer tries to figure out what made them interesting in 52. Forerunner's story was okay but not great. Monarch starts off saying, "We've got a few minutes and just so happen to be looking at our Army while hanging out all cutiesy on this cliff, why don't you hurry up and tell me about yourself." No he doesn't say that, but yes that's basically what he saying. How forced of an opening do you need? Really the story could have just been told to us the reader, buy Monarch had to drop the bomb shell on Forerunner and tell her she's the last of her kind and that the Monitors killed the rest of her people. I don't know what DC's obsession with everyone being the last of their kind is. First Superman, then Martian Manhunter, then Lobo, now Forerunner. With the exception of the latter two, they always have someone else show up so it's pretty worthless to say they're the last of their kind. I'm sure some other Forerunner will show up some day and blah blah blah will happen.
Don't be fooled by the cover art, Joe Mad didn't draw this issue. I have to wonder though, if he's been giving classes because the inside art screams of his style. Really this book belongs in the 90's and hell maybe that's why it'll work. Micheal Iron works for the mob, he's an enforcer and all that mob stuff. He busts up a church in the beginning and it's pretty boring, then he gets sent with 2 other guys to get some money from a family. One of the guys (Who likes purple) begins shooting up the family. Iron's tries to stop him, some how he gets his arm blown off and is left for dead. The wife has a doctor magically show up and requests that the doctor save him as well. I have three problems with this book. One, the story was boring and typical. Two, they use the over-used Syndicate BS for the mobsters and the over-used Order for the Church, please think of something that I haven't heard in every mob inspired comic and movie in the last 10 years. I thought I was watching Payback with Mel Gibson all the sudden. Three, it felt like there was panels missing. I was reading and then I'd turn the page and something completly different was happening, I kept turning back and forth wondering what the hell happened. The art's there but the story has a long way to go before it's A interesting or B original.
Since the point of this is to decide which is actually worth every penny, I'm going to base it mostly off the art. Adventure's art was actually really good, so it was disappointing that the story was so bad. Same thing with Iron's art, really good but the story wasn't there. I'm going to have to go with Iron and the Maiden, because the art was 90's good and I'd like to give it another issue before casting it aside. As for Adventure, I will not be counting down any further with it.
Winner: Aspen's Iron and the Maiden