Tim’s reviews:

Haunt #1

Wow, that’s a lot of famous names at the top of this comic. Robert Kirkman, Todd McFarlane, Ryan Ottley, and Greg Capullo all worked together on this book and it kind of shows. The art seems to veer around from one artistic style to another. I can almost recognize which artist liked drawing what (Capullo liked the gore, I think, while McFarlane spent the most time on the actual costumed Haunt). The story has been bashed a bit online, but I actually liked it. Haunt is a combo of two brothers, one a hard drinking, jerkish Catholic priest and the other a skilled soldier. The priest and his brother’s ghost merge and become Haunt. It seems the dead brother is in the driver’s seat while in super-hero form. I like the twist of very different guys sharing a heroic ID, and making them brothers adds to the drama. I actually found the whole cast fairly interesting. Not necessarily likeable, but interesting.

The comic is certainly violent and “adult,” but it does subscribe to a little more tell than show, which I prefer. We know how horrific the soldier’s death was based on dialogue, not because we saw every cut rendered in loving detail.

The guy doing the heavy lifting is Ryan Ottley. Most of the story-telling is done in his style, the people look like they stepped out from Invincible. There are some panel compositions where I think I see Greg Capullo’s layouts, but for the most part, this looks like an Ottley book. McFarlane does get more involved in a few action sequences. I’m not totally sure I’ll follow this series though. How many issues is it again?
Grade: C+

Deadpool #16

Daniel Way has a nice balance going of amusing plot and comedic dialogue. I don’t dig on every joke in each issue, but enough are hits that I enjoy the overall comic.

This issue has DP arriving on the X-Men’s island where he attempts to join the team. They brush him off, of course, but Wolverine quickly warns Cyclops that Deadpool is the kind of guy you’d rather have with you than against you. He’s got a good point. The story isn’t a huge threat and doesn’t have huge ramifications to the X-universe, but it is a clever, immediate story that shows the reader a lot about all the players involved. It’s good stuff.

Paco Medina is still just a bit too cartoony for me. He tells the story competently enough, but I’d love to see someone with a bit less animated take. I think this title would actually benefit from two artists, one handling the real world and the other (probably Medina) handling the crazy animated world inside DP’s head.
Grade: B-

Batman & Robin #5

Grant Morrison is a weird dude. In a good way. Convinced that Batman is nothing more than a successful logo, Jason Todd is out to become even more popular with his hardcore ways. He’s out to prove that crime doesn’t pay, and he’s willing to kill to do it. What makes this version of Jason Todd so interesting to me is that he thinks he’s being a hero even as he continues to be the callous jerk he’s always been. My favorite bit of oddness this issue is that Red Hood is reading a book on marketing. It’s also a curious choice to have Todd reveal that Bruce Wayne had Todd dye his hair to look more like Dick Grayson. That’s got to do some psychological damage to a kid like Jason Todd. Plus it makes Bats seem a little… weird doesn’t it?

Dick Grayson/Batwing and Damian are still a good team. They are nowhere near as effective as Bruce Wayne and any of his sidekicks, on a couple occasions this issue the Red Hood gets the better of them. I like that type of vulnerability, it adds to the sense of danger for the leads. The big threat here is Flamingo, the mob enforcer brought in to take on the Red Hood. He’s appropriately horrific, but again, I can’t believe some of the stuff in a mainstream comic these days. Flamingo cuts off and eats the faces of the people who rode his plane into Gotham. Cut off their faces. Ate those faces. In a comic book.

Phillip Tan’s art just can’t compete with Frank Quitely. Characters like Penguin, Jason Todd, and even Batwing and Damian look off-model. The dramatic debut of Flamingo is somewhat ruined by the muddled look of his face. It’s like Tan uses too many pencil lines and smudges up the faces of the people he draws.
Grade: B-

Charles’ reviews:

Planetary #27

This issue the perfect bookend to one of the greatest series ever written. Elijah Snow has one left task left to do: rescue Ambrose Chase from a time frozen bubble he created to protect himself when he got shot in issue 9. In order to do this, Snow must create a time machine that may just end the world. Normally time travel is hokey at best in most comics but in this issue Ellis uses real science to create a very believable and scary time-travel machine.

The greatest part was the last panel with Snow holding Ambrose’s arm and telling him it’s only the beginning. A fitting wrap up and this may be one of the greatest last issues ever.
Grade: A+

REBELS Annual Starro The Conqueror #1

Starro is one of those villains that I could just never get into and really believe is a Galaxy-conquering threat. Maybe it because he is a mind controlling starfish. Starfish are just not that really scary. Maybe it is because he has been beaten by Snapper Carr. Yes, Snapper Car whose power is he snaps really well. What type of cosmic threat gets his ass kicked by some who snaps really well? When I first heard REBELS’ main villain was going be Starro, I groaned. Then Starro and his crew appeared in the comic and everything changed. Starro became a bad-ass villain with a killer, kick-ass crew. It turns out the Starro whom the JLA and Snapper Cater battled were just wimpy advance scouts for the real Starro, sent to find new worlds for Starro to take over. Starro is a bad-ass, galaxy-conquering threat and we were just duped all those years by a bunch of pathetic prawns. Er… “pawns”. This was a fantastic origin story and hopefully the DC Powers That Be will continue to use this retrocon of Starro and not the pussy Starro, who got his ass kicked by Snapper Carr. Starro! Snapper!
Grade: A-

Deadpool #16

If you love pancakes, then you love this issue because Deadpool cooks up a whole lot of them. You might not be happy with what he does with the pancakes, he is Deadpool after all, but you will enjoy this issue. Deadpool is in normal crazy form as he attempts to join the X-Men in Utopia with the normal bad results. Of course, the X-Men reject him, but then something happens and they are forced to reconsider letting him join them in Utopia. This is where the pancakes come in. A fun issue with some bust-a-gut laughs. Deadpool keeps coming up good. Deadpool!
Grade: A-

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #3

An average issue for Ultimate Spider-man. Not bad but not great either. The big fight between Mysterio and Spider-man was a real dud. Very little action and very trademark Spider-man behavior. What saves this issue is Parker’s life. Parker can’t catch a break, his job stinks, Mary Jane is mad at him, and on the home front Johnny Storm is muscling his way into his house. I can’t wait to see the next issue as we will see just how well Spider-man and the Human Torch get along.
Grade: B

Sean’s reviews:

Astonishing X-Men #31

To bastardize Tim Gunn, “that’s a LOT of blur.” If there was one thing I came away from this issue with, it would be that. It’s not amazingly revelatory or even a truism, but it could be a cautionary example of what happens when interns in the Finishing Department are left alone with Photoshop: they go ca-raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazeeeeeeee! It’s sad because I like Phil Jimenez’s art (especially here where it’s not as Perezish as it usually is) and to have it be obscured by overuse of the Gaussian filter was disappointing, especially since I stopped reading this title months ago (or was it a year?) because Bianchi’s art was so muddy. Maybe the title should be “Astonishing When It’s Clear X-Men”. However, the real astonishment here is that I am the only person I know who enjoyed Cloverfield exactly because it was blurry and herky-jerky. That being said, just because it works for Cinéma vérité doesn’t mean it’ll translate well to comics vérité.

And speaking of “Cinéma vérité” the story was decent enough for only having one thing happen in real-time detail. I know Ellis enjoys his “exploded moments” as much as the other guy… hell, probably ten times more than the other guy, even to the point of sending them love poetry and heart-shaped boxes of lewdly molded chocolates, but, oh my, this Run, Lola, Run levels of real-time porn storytelling. There is a certain cinematic something in Elli’s writing paired with Jimenez’s art, but it’s somewhere between Ang Lee’s Hulk and Michael Bay’s Transformers. Let’s call this the awkward first collaboration. I’m hopeful within a year they’ll be up to Merchant/Ivory standards.

Finally, I have a feeling the slogan for the next few issues is going to be “Let loose the mutants of war and cry, ‘Darling!’”
Grade: B-