Published on March 29th, 2009 | by Cosmic Comix and Toys

Korch’s Kritique #4

Busy past couple of weeks for me. I’d like to announce the arrival of my son Oliver Grayson. Name origin is as follows: Oliver taken from Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) and Grayson taken from Dick Grayson (Nightwing and Robin). Funny enough, I never really got into Invincible until I learned that the half-brother of Invincible is none other than Oliver Grayson.

Since I had a lot of time off thanks to the new boy, I decided read a lot of books this past week. I read some old events (X-tinction Agenda), checked into some new ones I had been avoiding (Dark Avengers) and decided it was about time I looked into this whole WildStorm Planetary phenomenon. I did review some titles from this week’s new releases. Here are my thoughts.

DAREDEVIL #117: A great book and so far it has yet to disappoint me. Missed Aja’s pencils, but Lark and Gaudiano’s art don’t seem to miss a beat. Looks like there are some rumblings going down in the Kitchen. Are DD and Kingpin looking to form a truce against the Hand? You’ll find the answer to that question in the book, which I have to say I’m really digging. Not only is Brubaker telling a great story, but this a one of the few Marvel titles where Dark Reign hasn’t intruded. Meaning Bendis hasn’t gotten his grubby-sweaty paws on it…YET.

INCREDIBLE HERCULES #127: Good Dark Reign tie-in. I really liked seeing ol’Normie loosing his cool with Hera. Aegis is brought back for nothing other than some history fill-in and a bridge to bring on the upcoming battle between Herc’s group, the Olympians, and ol’Normie’s Dark Avengers.

WAR OF KINGS: DARKHAWK #2: Decent book. Kind of an "Eh" character. Bit of a stretch with the idea that Darkhawk is part of a group known as the Raptors and that they are tasked with steering and guiding the galaxy. I did, however, love the pencils and coloring. There’s a lot they can do with this character, but I just haven’t heard very much buzz, leading me to believe that very few people care about the Darkhawk character. Am I wrong? Any Darkhawk fans out there?

X-FORCE/CABLE MESSIAH WAR PROLOGUE: Don’t know what’s up with Marvel, but Deadpool is seriously making a case for being the new Wolverine. I mean he’s popping up in everything. Is it good or bad? I say it’s good, especially in this issue. I mean, X-force and Cable are such a happy-go-lucky bunch of wiseacres, aren’t they? Not much happened here, as it is your basic jump-off point comic.

X-INFERNUS #4: I really have little connection or desire to become invested in Illyana Rasputin. Sorry, the character is C-list at best. However, I did enjoy seeing two of my favorite X-men (Nightcrawler and Colossus) in another series. This series really only served to help with the re-launch of New Mutants. I think this would have worked better as the first story arc for the yet-to-be-released New Mutant monthly series. They could have had Cannonball, Sunspot, Magma, Karma with a couple elder X-men (i.e. Colossus) help track down missing or presumed to be living former New Mutants. This idea could have gotten at one or two years worth of issues from this search and at least made Illyana relevant enough to be re-included in ongoing X-men storyline. My worst issue of the week.

BATMAN BATTLE FOR THE COWL COMMISSIONER GORDON #1: Loved, loved, LOVED the opening panel in this book. Great pencils, great ink, great everything! A great one shot! Jim Gordon has to finally taken off the rose-colored lenses (because they’ve been frosted over by Mr. Freeze) and realizes that Batman is gone (for now). It’s a well told story from beginning to end without any crap filler. This issue is about Gordon rediscovering that he is one damn good cop and quite capable of outsmarting a nutcase like Freeze. And, while Batman may by Gotham’s Dark Knight, Gotham is not without its day-to-day heroes and protectors. Bullock and others at the Gotham City Police Department have known this for a while; it just took Jim Gordon some time to reacquaint himself with that truth. I think a lot of comic fans are going to realize that Battle for the Cowl will help out the Bat franchise more than muck it up. Well that’s my opinion anyway. This was my favorite book of the week. I’m looking forward to hearing the choices of the C3 (Cosmic Comix Conversations) panel.

ORACLE #1: I love having the "B" characters stepping up and out (in this case rolling out and logging on). I like where the Oracle storyline is going. Maybe Oracle and Grayson rekindle their romance, Dick takes over the Mantle of the Bat and Oracle becomes his new Alfred with benefits. Hey get your minds out of the gutter!

SUPERMAN #686: I definitely thought Action Comics had the better storyline. Not sure how I feel about Mon-El. Again, I liked the B characters coming into play: Guardian, Steel, Olsen, etc. I didn’t hate the issue, but it just felt too contrived and slapped together, not fluid. I’ll stick it out, though. This was my most disappointing issue of the week.