Saturday, July 31, 2010

Comics this week

Artifacts #1- With only the Darkness, Witchblade and the Angelus in its current stable, the world of Top Cow is a little limited. Artifacts is the crossover that’s supposed to change all that. It has been written before that the Darkness, Witchblade and Angelus are but 3 of the supernatural artifacts scattered around the globe. There are others and now we know there are 13 in total. Each held by a bearer, they are to be kept separate at all cost or the universe will end. Heady stuff meant to draw in new readers. Which I guess was why writer Ron Marz started the whole thing trying to show how badass Sara Pezzini, holder of the Witchblade, is. Understandable but he tried too hard. This Sara was almost a different character from what’s in Witchblade. Story-wise it was interesting and the death of Sara’s sister was shocking but well executed, pun intended. I’m also very interested to know what happened to Aphorodite IV. I guess this issue will have to go under “interesting but will have to do better”.

Green Lantern #56- Let me put it out front. I think Hector Hammond is one of the stupidest looking villain ever. I know he’s supposed to be disgusting and scary but I just don’t get it. Luckily for me, the main star of this issue was Larfleeze. Writer Geoff Johns seems to love the orange Lantern and I must admit the character has started to grow on me. At times Larfleeze could be very funny and this issue shows why. His love for Santa Claus was hilarious and it completely overshadowed the entrance of Ophidian The Tempter. Geoff Johns even put in outtakes of Larfleeze’s life before he became the lantern of avarice. Good issue, but a great one if you’re a fan of Larfleeze.

Uncanny X-Men #526- One thing “Second Coming” did managed to do was get me interested in Marvel’s mutants again. Given how crappy they were in the past few years, this is really something. With the crossover over, I picked up Uncanny X-Men to see if Marvel could maintain the momentum. The answer is…not so much. "The Five Lights" is the hunt for the five new mutants that have cropped up across the globe after Hope had defeated Bastion. Unfortunately, it wasn’t! A good part of the issue was on Hope’s return to see the grandmother she never knew and the grave of her mother. Now, writer Matt Fraction did a pretty good job of it, but between Hope's biological family and the five new mutants, there’s no contest! I would much rather have known more about the five new mutants than Hope’s grandmother. A decent if slightly underwhelming issue but it was good to see Whilce Portacio back drawing mutants again.

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