The Weekly Haul: Reviews for June 5, 2008
Quite a top-notch week in comics, all in all. We had another Secret Invasion entry and the debut of DC’s Trinity (I’ll be doing separate weekly reviews of that one), as well as strong outings from other series.
There seemed to be a viral outbreak of silliness, though, as a handful of comics pushed the goofy too far and suffered for it. Only a couple of outright stink bombs, which are helping me kick off a new section for these reviews: The Dregs. Now, the reviews…
Book of the Week: Secret Invasion #3 — First, let me say there continue to be some serious problems with Skrullapalooza ’08. The series is not even remotely self contained, so any casual fan is probably going to be quite lost, there are a few too many unclear moments (lost either in script or art), and the Skrull invasion force still looks like they were designed by Toys R’ Us.
That out of the way, this issue merits top billing for a few big reasons.
First, the story actually moves ahead after stagnating in the Savage Land. Second, there are some huh-yuge fights, and Leinil Yu takes a bellows and pumps them full of hot air. Third…
We need a big SPOILER WARNING for this. Third, we learn the biggest reveal in modern comics memory, that this colossal, inconsistent prick of Tony Stark who has embroiled the Marvel Universe isn’t really Tony Stark. Gasp. He’s a Skrull.
Runners Up:
Abe Sapien: The Drowning #5 — This series ends with a graceful if unsatisfying issue, filled with more sparsely worded craziness (giant flying eel?!?) and Abe continuing to wonder how he stacks up. "You aren’t Hellboy and you never will be," he tells himself. But, like Hellboy, he learns the crucial lesson that guns usually don’t stop supernatural forces.
The shining light of this series is artist Jason Alexander, who lends everything a perfect ephemeral, abstract air. The good news is he’s going to be doing more BPRD work.
Omega the Unknown #9 — Jonathan Lethem and Farel Dalrymple’s bizarre cerebral odyssey is nearly at an end, and this penultimate issue brings the Omega and robot forces to a head in a big way, with the world at stake. Still, things are never too heavy, and despite a dramatic death it ends up being the most rambunctious issue yet.