Thursday 1 March 2012

New Comics - 29th February 2012

Two books for me this week. I nearly bought a few more but decided to be resilient and not buckle and settled for my usual books: The Amazing Spider-Man #680 and Justice League #6. On to the reviews:

Justice League #6



So the first arc of DC's flagship title Justice League is finally over. It's been a good run but there's definitely been something missing to make it the amazing series we were all expecting. The art by Jim Lee was superb (of course) but Geoff Johns's story felt bit underwhelming in the end. Issue 6 saw DC's finest pull together to send Darkseid back to whence he came and transform them from vigilantes into role models in a single fight. But this issue definitely lacked the resolution I wanted. Darkseid wasn't defeated, he was just sent back through his portal, which kind of sucked as an ending in my opinion - maybe I was looking for a more definitive finale. Jim Lee's work on the action scenes were terrific though. When Wonder Woman and Aquaman went for Darkseid's eyes, those characters have never looked so good.

Altogether, the first 6 issues of Justice League have been okay but they haven't been great. Now normally I'm alright with okay from my comics, but from the leading title in DC's New 52 relaunch I expected a little more. I think these issues will probably read better in trade format, instead of 6 week gaps inbetween issues. Also, maybe now the team has been established some real stories can be told and the characters can begin to develop, and the team come together properly. I really liked the scene with Superman breaking free (with help from Batman) from Darkseid's minions to join in the fight - he finally got some attention in this book. It felt like despite being DC's most recognisable icon and de-facto leader of the Justic League, he was barely used in these 6 issues, and we had to endure a lot of Johns's personal favourite Green Lantern instead (not necessarily bad).

Overall, Justice League was just okay when it really needed to be great. I'll still be buying this but in the future I'd like a little bit more story because most of these issues felt like a Jim Lee art exhibition. That's not all bad but I want some reading material in my comics from time to time too.

Rating: 3/5

The Amazing Spider-Man #680



Wow. This was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. Slott's run on ASM has been a lot of fun and pretty silly most of the time but when I saw that Spidey was gonna be in space, my first thought was "Oh God, please don't go down a really stupid road with this." It turns out I had no need to be worried because issue 680 was really, really fun.

The main reason issue 680 was so enjoyable is purely down to the fantastic writers. Yost and Slott are on fire here, especially during the scenes between Peter and Johnny Storm. In the past, some of my favourite Spider-Man stories have featured the Human Torch (which ones you say? Ultimate Spider-Man #69 and Spider-Man, Human Torch #5, coincidentally written by Slott). It's all about the witty dialogue, the constant back and forth bickering between Peter and Johnny. Their squabbles really make the issue a joy to read and I was actually laughing out loud on same pages. Fantastic writing and the book benefits immensely when the writers understand their characters completely. The art by Giuseppe Camuncoli was good, but nothing to write home about; it was solid stuff and better than Camuncoli's last issue on ASM (#675).

If you've been wanting to read some Spider-Man but have been hesitant to jump on because of his enormous history, fear not because issue 680 is the perfect issue to get back into the world of Spidey. It's a brand new arc and #680 has been the most enjoyable issue I've read since Spider-Island concluded. It's well worth trying out.

Rating: 4/5

Thanks for reading.

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