total sell out

by Brian Michael Bendis and various

original graphic novel

the premise:  Kind of the Bendis errata book.  This is a collection of much of his unpublished or oddball work, featuring everything from pinups to editorial cartoons to collaborations with Warren Ellis, James Hudnall and more.

the lowdown:  At one point in the book fictional Bendis shows up to tell the readers he doesn't want to hear the word "padding".  This book could be looked at as filler by a cynical eye.  There's no story or unifying theme - it's just stuff Bendis did that you probably haven't heard of.

I think Bendis' comedy is underrated, and the autobiographical pieces at the beginning are mostly humorous.  They're interesting slice of life bits - I laughed at loud at the Food Channel story.  The book then segues into stories allegedly told by real people.  Those have bits of humor as well, but they're really there more because they speak to people's psychology - some of them are really good, some mundane.  The book wraps with some stories Bendis did with Ellis and others - those are excellent short stories for the most part.  The book is filled out with pinups and some intros Bendis wrote for various things - not much of substance there.

The art is passable, but there's a reason Bendis is better known for his writing.  A lot of the stories, particularly the personal anecdotes, don't really need the art - you just get panel after panel of the speaker looking at the camera.  Bendis tries to add nuance through facial expressions and body language, to some but limited effect.  It's actually a pretty thick read due to the heavy dialogue - if you're expecting a quick, breezy read you'll be surprised.

the verdict:  I liked it but I'm kind of a Bendis mark, so take that with a grain of salt.  It's not a must-read but I like Bendis' indie stuff, and this is kind of like hanging out at a bar telling stories.  

pistolwhip

by Matt Kindt with Jason Hall

original graphic novel

the premise:  An illegal alien forced into a life of crime, a femme fatale trying to escape a brutal past, and an amateur detective collide with violent and unexpected results.

the lowdown:  I picked this one up based on a recommendation over at comicbloc after enjoying Kindt's Super Spy.  This one shares a lot in common with that work, particularly the non-linear storytelling style.  Kindt opens with the climax (shortly after a heckuva opening scene), and then fills in the backstory after the fact.  It's an interesting technique, because it allows the reader to form first impressions of all the characters, and then turns those perceptions on their head. It's particularly effective with the fourth main character, who I did not identify above but who pulls the strings of everyone else in the book.

The art, in B&W, is also by Kindt (Jason Hall's contribution was a writing assist), and like Super Spy has a cartoonish look but with a hidden sophistication.  At first glance it appears minimalist or unpolished, but the visual storytelling is impeccable.  Kindt's characters evince a wide range of emotions, and the work is kinetic enough to flow from one panel to another.

The only flaw was it seemed like it all ended too soon.  I was left wanting to know what happened to the characters next, even if their lives wouldn't intersect again - or maybe they would.  

the verdict:  A nice crime drama, a nice homage to the old radio dramas, and a nice little character piece.  This is a good book.  Recommended.

house of m: avengers

by Christos Gage & Mike Perkins

collects HoM: Avengers # 1-5

the premise:  In a world where mutants have become the dominant species, Luke Cage assembles a small band of freedom fighters to protect the people of Sapien Town.

the lowdown:  Although the mutant/ human conflict generally bores me to tears, I quite liked House of M - it was a fun alternate universe story that had some pretty well-done character moments.  So I think it's kind of cool that Marvel is revisiting that world, apparently due to the HoM trades doing really well in libraries.

This book is a sort of "behind the scenes" tale of the HoM world - its events clearly occur before the events of the HoM series itself, and it details the formation of Cage's team of "Avengers".  It features a pretty wide variety of Marvel heroes and villains reimagined in a world where "sapiens" are being extinguished.  Mike Perkins draws the heck out of it, in a style that reminds me of Greg Land back before Land got too stiff and swipey.

The story, though, falls short in a number of areas.  For one thing the characters don't really have distinct voices.  Cage in particular speaks a lot like. well.. Cage did in the 70's - that's not really a good thing.  The narrative suffers from a bit too much "tell" and a bit too little "show" - we're told that Cage and Tigra care for one another, for example, but other than some occasional flirting the script doesn't really sell that idea.  Likewise, Misty Knight's character arc seems to be told in broad strokes without really being convincing.  Failings like that make it extremely difficult to invest emotionally in the outcome of the book, and although the story presents some interesting themes about race relations and activism, they don't resonate if the characters are ciphers.

the verdict:  It's not bad but really not something I'd recommend.  I suppose it adds a little texture to the HoM world but it lacks the character moments that made the original series stand out.

untouchables

by Joe Pruett & John Kissee

collects Untouchables # 1-4 & Crime Wave #1

the premise:  Twenty years after the fall of Capone, prohibition is still in effect and has been expanded to include tobacco and firearms - but gambling has been made legal.  This series follows the rise of a new Chicago underworld, and the newly minted g-men trying to bring them down.

the lowdown:  This B&W volume collects the Pruett/ Kissee stories originally published by Caliber Comics.  It's an interesting alternate-history noir tale with a stylish art deco look.  I've always found something a little goofy about alternate history stories, specifically their tendency to revive real-world characters outside of their historical context.  And sure enough, this book does exactly that, and frankly in an unnecessary way.  

That ends up detracting from an otherwise well-done crime series.  The reimagined Chicago, its skyline dotted with casinos, is visualized quite well, and although none of the characters are particularly gripping individually, they form a nice tapestry when viewed as a group.  This is pretty good pulp - violent in places to be sure, but never gratuitously so.  It's loaded with mobsters and cops and femme fatales and just feels like something that's best read on a cold winter night.  

the verdict:  Flawed but enjoyable.  Fans of crime fiction will enjoy this one.  It's a nice period piece - just not of a period that actually happened.

shadowpact: darkness & light

by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, Tom Derenick and more

collects Shadowpact # 14-19

the premise:  Just after Blue Devil quits the team to try to recover his soul, the Shadowpact is attacked by the creepy Doctor Gotham and his villainous Protege.

the lowdown:  Ah - marketing gone wrong.  See, this is the problem with DC these days.  This is a perfectly good volume of a perfectly good series.  It's well-written, looks good, has interesting conflicts.  Nothing genre-busting, but a very solid, enjoyable read.

So of course it got cancelled, after pretty much dying on the vine for two years.

What gives?  Well, I do have some thoughts.  What this series lacked is the same thing lots of DC books lack - a hook, and a distinct tone.  This is a good superhero book, but it doesn't really have a marketing hook beyond that.  Yeah, there's the supernatural element, but frankly most of the villains might as well be costumed baddies - they're not so much different from Eclipso or whatever.  The heroes all have powers derived from mystical sources, but y'know... so what?  What we've got is a very traditional, very straightforward superhero series, and DC's got a bunch of those.  Who's going to buy it other than people who just have to know what happens next to Ragman and.. well... me?

When I was a kid it always annoyed me that the Marvel books all seemed to have the same tone - that over the top Excelsior stuff.  DC feels that way to me now, and that crushes a book like Shadowpact, which features lesser-known characters, by creators who (except *maybe* Willingham) don't have large fanbases, and which needs to draw attention to itself in order to build an audience.

Shame.  It's a good book, and I recommend it.

the verdict:  See above.  Good stuff.

showcase presents batman vol. 3

by Gardner Fox, Sheldon Moldoff, Carmine Infantino and more

collects Batman # 187-201 & Detective # 359-375

the premise:  Batman and Robin (with the occasional assistance of Batgirl) square off with the Penguin, the Catwoman, Blockbuster and more in these late 1960's tales.

the lowdown:  These stories are from the somewhat awkward era where the fad of the campy Batman was sort of over, but the show was still on the air, so the comics were still paying it lip service but also trying to distance themselves from it a bit.  So this volume features the introduction of Batgirl, Mr. Zero's first comic appearance as "Mr. Freeze", Aunt Harriet, and so on - but for the most part the stories are played relatively straight.  They fall into two camps - the largest consists of stories that are structured like puzzles.  Batman would have to figure out where the bad guy would strike next based on some arcane clue.  (And one wonders why exhibitors kept displaying rare jewels in Gotham for one night only, in light of the fact that they ALWAYS got robbed.)  Those stories range from startlingly mediocre to pretty entertaining.

The second camp is stories that try to emulate the wackiness of the Silver Age Superman mythos, with contrived stories revolving around the characters' secret IDs being exposed, or bizarre plot devices like Robin ditching Batman to hang out with Batgirl.  (A story which, mind you, has no homoerotic subtext at all.  No sir.)  Those stories are cute and usually good for a laugh, but lack the over-the-top ingenuity of the Superman stories.

The issues drawn by Infantino really look good, especially in the B&W.  Moldoff draws most of these issues, and is a step down from Infantino but does solid work in a similar style.

the verdict:  A fun way to kill a rainy Sunday.  Not all of these stories are winners by any means, but there are enough good ones to make it worth the money.

hero squared vol. 2: another fine mess

by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis & Joe Abraham

collects Hero Squared (ongoing) # 1-6

the premise:  Slacker Milo Stone tries to co-exist with his alternate universe double, the heroic (?) Captain Valor, while trying to repair his relationship with his girlfriend Stephie, whose evil alternate is trying to ruin Captain Valor forever.

the lowdown:  The thing that's most notable about the latest (and apparently the last) bwah-ha-ha book from Giffen & DeMatteis is that it's really not very funny.  There are some chuckle-worthy moments but little of the slapstick hilarity that people associate with this creative team.

What this is instead is a sitcom.  In its heyday JLI was a sitcom, too - the superheroics were almost incidental to the interpersonal situations and the way the characters behaved like... well, real but doofy people.  And since real people ARE doofy a lot of the time, it rang true.  This has that same feeling, but magnified.  Many of the issues have no punchy at all - it's ALL dialogue and conversation, and frankly it's remarkable that Abraham keeps that interesting to look at.  And it's GOOD and interesting conversation.  Essentially there are four key characters, Milo, Stephie and their alternate-universe versions.  All four of them get lots of screentime and all four of them are fleshed out really well by the end of the book.  Moreover, in the guise of something that appears absolutely goofy, Giffen & DeMatteis deconstruct elements of the superhero genre in a very subversive way.  It's smart and gloriously stupid at the same time.

The ending is a little bit of a buzzkill, in that a lot of the plotlines don't really get resolved.  I'm not sure if that was due to the series ending somewhat prematurely, but in a way it works as one of those subversive elements I mentioned earlier.  After issues # 1-5, it would feel a little dishonest, frankly, to have issue #6 be a big punch-up.  Nevertheless, the story ends feeling like there's much more to be said about these characters, and readers looking for a clean resolution will be disappointed.

the verdict:  On a bwah-ha-ha comparison scale, this one's among the better works from this team, anticlimactic ending aside.  As far as sitcoms go, it's no Cheers but it's at least a smarter Herman's Head.  (Yes, that's right.  Herman's Head.  When's THAT coming out on DVD?)

district x vols. 1-2

by David Hine, Lan Medina and more

collects District X # 1-14

the premise:  Bishop and his partner Ortega patrol the streets of Mutant Town, where mutants who aren't quite as photogenic as the X-Men live, love, and commit lots of crimes.

the lowdown:  This short-lived series was Marvel's attempt to publish a Gotham Central or Powers-style book, only tied to the mutant franchise.  The series begins with what appears to be a police procedural before morphing into something a little more akin to a soap opera.  

It's perhaps useful to compare this series to the two that inspired it.  There are more powered characters running around here than in GC - mutants are in every issue.  In that sense it's more like Powers, except that the leads aren't as developed as Walker and Pilgrim.  Bishop fades more and more into a supporting role as the series progresses, with Ortega assuming the lead role.  That's not altogether a great choice, because Ortega really isn't that likeable, and gets less so as the series goes on.

As an X-book, though, this actually stays IMO a lot closer to the X-Men memes than the last few X-Men books I read.  Mutant Town is grimy and weird, and Hine and Medina capture that very effectively.  In a way it's easier to see, say, Mr. M as an example of the things the world hates and fears.  (Would the world *really* hate Emma Frost?  Do we have a history of hating gorgeous blondes in skintight outfits?)  Medina and others render this pretty well, although with a little more traditional comic-booky look than the story probably deserves.  

Of note: this series continued into House of M: Mutopia X, which flipped the premise on its head and made the mutants into celebrities again.  Worth reading just as a capstone to this series, but if you skip it you won't miss anything vital.

the verdict:  A fun little series that unfortunately did not catch on.  Despite its flaws it was an unusual take on the mutant mythos, and a nice blend of superheroics and street crime.

the walking dead vol. 8: made to suffer

by Robert Kirkman & Charlie Adlard

collects TWD # 43-48

image shown is not actual cover

the premise:  The evil Governor attacks the prison's residents, causing them to take drastic measures in their own defense - and leading to a major turning point in this series.

the lowdown:  So this is where the shit really hits the fan.  Just as the series started to feel a little hackneyed and repetitive, Kirkman turns everything on its head in this volume, focused primarily on the assault(s) by The Governor and his people, and the prison's response to it.

With the exception of the Michonne-Governor fight in volume 6, this is the most violent installment of this series to date, but it probably has more character moments than the other volumes combined.  The underlying theme of the series has been the development and re-development of civilization after the zombie-induced collapse.  This go-round sees the zombies as a minor background element - instead the conflict is between the living, between people who by rights ought to be working together, but cannot because of the evil of one man.  It's not only a commentary on the nature of evil in the world, but also on the fragility of our social structures.  Not exactly an inspiring message, but boy it's fun to watch.  As for those character moments, we see several of the relationships between the characters irrevocably altered - obviously in some cases by death - but it'll be interesting to see how the survivors put things back together, or if they can.

The book's biggest flaw remains the dialogue, which is more annoying this time than usual.  Lots of exposition where it's not necessary.  "Look!  [spoiler]'s been shot!"  Well no shit Tyreese, too bad no one else here can SEE!  It's a very old-school style, and reads like a 70's or 80's Marvel comic.  Problem is, those books were written by people who did not trust their artists to tell the story, and Kirkman shouldn't have that problem after 40+ issues of working with Adlard.  Presumably he doesn't, because it's his book and if he didn't like Adlard's work someone else would be drawing it.  One must conclude, then, that the stilted dialogue is an affectation borne of reading comics.  I guess if the worst thing you can say about a book is that it sounds too much like a comic, that's not so bad - it does grate at times, though, enough to knock one out of the story on occasion.

the verdict:  Clearly a major turning point in this series, a conclusion that is not to be missed.  Not a perfect comic by any means, but a very good, suspenseful one.

all-star batman & robin vol. 1

by Frank Miller & Jim Lee

collects All-Star Batman & Robin # 1-9

the premise:  Dick Grayson's parents have just been murdered by gangsters - but he's barely had time to grieve before he's recruited/ kidnapped by a cackling maniac known as Batman, and thrust into a brutal noir world.

the lowdown:  I thought I'd try something a little more extensive with this book, because it lends itself to something a little more in-depth than my usual fare.  This is really one of the most interesting books I've read in awhile, because it's done something that transcends the page - it's become a phenomenon.

The story itself is pretty straightforward - frankly a little light for nine issues worth of material.  It's laced with Miller's usual pulp-inspired dialogue, very similar to Sin City except, if anything, even more over the top.  Everything about this book is just - loud.  The violence is really violent.  The sexual imagery is prevalent and really intense.  Each issue comes up with something, whether it's a line of dialogue or a situation, that stands out.

There's of course been a ton of discussion of this series, most of it centered around trying to figure out exactly what Miller's trying to say.  Does he mean this to be ridiculous?  Is it the Batman mythos filtered through Sin City?  Or is he just having a laugh at all of us by being intentionally absurd?  Is the whole thing a parody, or if so what is it mocking?

My 1/50th of a dollar - it's a little of all of the above.  There's no doubt Miller is enjoying tweaking his critics, upsetting the yahoos who hate this book but compulsively continue buying it like crack-addicted lemmings.  But there's more to it.  There actually is a serious story here - it becomes very clear by the final issue.  This IS the Batman of DKR, just at an earlier point in his career - even if it doesn't seem that way in the earlier issues.

There's a bit of cognitive dissonance at play with DKR and fan expectations.  DKR has widely been thought of as the future (or "a" future) of *our* Batman, the guy who beats up the Riddler every month.  But it's not that guy's future, and it never really was.  The point of DKR isn't that Batman got more violent as he got older - the story is about him re-discovering his tao, his purpose.  It's about him returning to being an anti-establishment figure - much like he is in Year One and in this story.

DKR Batman didn't get more violent because Jason Todd died or because he got old and bitter - lots of people inferred that from DKR but it never says that.  What Miller's showing us here is that Batman was *always* uber-violent and more than a little nuts.  He has to be to live in the extreme world where he operates.  "The world only makes sense when you force it to."  It's true in DKR and in ASBAR, and in an odd way it's a variation on the interpretation of Batman most often offered as a counterpoint to Miller's - Steve Englehart's notion of Batman being the most sane man in an insane world.  Miller takes that even further - what is a sane reaction to an insane world?  That's his Batman in a nutshell, and it's why all the other heroes are doofuses or hangers-on - they either lack the chops to handle an insane world, or they're not smart enough to see it for what it is.  A nihilistic message, maybe, but it's the world Miller's created.

And into that is thrust Dick Grayson, the true star of this tale.  What Miller has established is that Dick is the only person other than Batman who can *potentially* handle this.  Whether he *will* is another story, and that's where IMO this is headed.

On the one hand Jim Lee is an odd choice to tell that story.  His Batman looks like the action hero of Hush, not a creepy gargoyle of a man.  But somehow it works, with Batman as the ultimate alpha male, and everyone else highly exaggerated.  The women are overtly sexualized - femme fatales in a pulp backdrop.  Like the script, the art improves as the volume progresses, culminating with an excellent last sequence.

the verdict:  Like all Miller's work, this book will make you uncomfortable in places.  It doesn't read like what we expect Batman to be.  But although it's an outlier interpretation of the character, it rings true by the book's end.  This isn't the instant classic that DKR or Year One were, but it's one of the more thought-provoking Batman books you'll read anytime soon.

the safest place

by Steven Grant, Victor Riches & Tom Mandrake

original graphic novel

the premise:  War photojournalist/ hardcore badass Matthew Castle has been asked to rescue a child kidnapped by her father, who happens to.. shall we say... dabble in the slave trade.  Badassery ensues.

the lowdown:  Steven Grant's latest crime story also features the comics debut of writer Victor Riches, as they craft the tale of Matt Castle, who has a really cool name.  Castle is a journalist who, due to some psychological trauma experienced as a child, cannot feel physical pain.  This assists him in his badassery, but not as much as you might think - just because he doesn't feel pain doesn't mean he can't be beaten to a pulp.  In the story Castle grapples with his conscience and his sense of justice as he tries to rescue a kidnapped little girl, all while struggling with his feelings for a woman he's just met.

It's all darkly illustrated in B&W by Tom Mandrake, who lends his usual shadowy artwork to the tale.  I'm a big Mandrake fan, and his art is a nice mix of noir and horror.

The story itself has some flaws.  It probably could have benefited from more space, such that the relationships between the characters could be developed thoroughly.  Instead there are definitely cases where we're told and not shown - for example, the budding relationship between Castle and his femme fatale.  Despite the flaws, though, this is a pretty good little crime story - nice mix of action and drama, a really really despicable villain, and an interesting backstory.  

the verdict:  Recommended for noir/ crime fans.  It's pretty disposable but still entertaining and worth the coin.

nextwave: agents of h.a.t.e. vol. 2: i kick your face

by Warren Ellis & Stuart Immonen

collects Nextwave # 7-12

the premise:  Nextwave tracks down H.A.T.E. - which is secretly powered by S.I.L.E.N.T. - now the team must beat up lots of stuff in order to save the world.

the lowdown:  This is sort of like volume one - except with more Forbush Man.  And less Fin Fang Foom.  Still lots of splodey, though.

Very little in the way of character development, because character development is boring.  Instead, things blow up.

There's superheroes made out of Captain America's pee.  Headless doctors.  An imaginary town.  And a zombie.

This book will make you laugh out loud at least six times.  I counted.  

Immonen draws the heck of out it - his goofy backgrounds are half the fun.  Plus there's a sequence where the heroes all have hallucinations drawn in different styles, and where Immonen shows off his depth and versatility.

And there's an issue that's almost entirely double-page splashes of Nextwave hitting Elvis M.O.D.O.K.s and such.

the verdict:  Elvis M.O.D.O.K.s - need I say more?  Buy this.

the programme vol. 1

by Peter Milligan & C.P. Smith

collects The Programme # 1-6

the premise:  In the closing days of WWII the Axis' plan to create superhuman soldiers was co-opted by both the Americans and the Soviets.  Now one of the soldiers stolen by the Soviets has re-awakened on the battlefields of the Middle East, creating a dangerous shift in the world balance of power.

the lowdown:  This is a standalone series from Wildstorm that was mostly ignored when published in the issue format, but it's actually a neat, if offbeat, superhero tale in the tradition of Rising Stars or Supreme Power.  Essentially the point of the story is to illustrate the dramatic way the presence of superhumans affects global politics, and it's presented in the slightly askew way Milligan generally works.

The story takes awhile to get into, in part because the art is an acquired taste.  Smith's work is murky in places, certainly 180 degrees removed from "standard" superhero art, and that combined with a non-linear narrative makes the opening sequences pretty confusing.  Readers who stick with it, though, are rewarded, as things fall into place by the second or third issue.  Smith's art also settles in nicely, becoming more photorealistic.  It resembles a mix of John Van Fleet and Alex Maleev, and by the book's end I was enjoying it immensely.

This is only the first half of the full arc, and it reads very much like a part one of two.  I found it got more and more intriguing as it went along.  I'm not sure exactly where Milligan is going with this - clearly there's a good bit of subtext, but at this point it could be the superheroes as metaphors for the nations, superheroes as metaphors for warpower itself, the progression of the Soviet heroes as parallel to the shift from the Cold War to the War on Terror, or just an exercise in showing why superheroes are batshit insane.  I'm not sure just yet, but I'm definitely hooked by the story, and interested in seeing it through.

the verdict:  Recommended for fans who like their superheroes a little different than the norm.  This is sort of like if Supreme Power was viewed through a funhouse mirror.  Good stuff, and worth checking out.

punisher: welcome back, frank

by Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon

collects Punisher # 1-12

the premise:  Frank Castle has returned to the Marvel Universe after being dead and an angel and stuff - and is ready to resume his mission to kill every scumbag who deserves it.  Plus: the police are having nothing of it, and want to bring the mass-murdering Punisher in once and for all.

the lowdown:  First off - the angel stuff?  Best left forgotten.  There's exactly one reference to it in this story - all you really need to know is that it was a horribly flawed revamp attempt.  Not really important to this story - all you need to know is that Castle has returned after being away for some time.

This was the arc that began Ennis' work on the Marvel Knights Punisher, prior to the current MAX series.  Fans of the MAX work will find something a little different here.  Although this story doesn't feature lots of the capes n' tights crowd, it's set firmly in the Marvel Universe, and it's somewhat different in tone from the MAX stuff.  For one thing, it's more over-the-top.  MAX Punisher is probably insane.  MK Punisher is *definitely* insane, and it manifests itself in a more traditional comic-booky way.  Not that he's a cackling lunatic, but he's more of an action movie cliche.  Totally lacking in social skills.  Totally single-minded.  Hard.  Core.

The violence and the storylines are even more extreme in some ways than the MAX stuff - just less mature.  The crime is less "realistic", the violence a bit more widescreen, the villains less devious and more blatant.  The cops are imbeciles because, well, wouldn't they pretty much have to be?  In comparison to Ennis' other work, this is more like Adventures in the Rifle Brigade and less like Pride & Joy.

Dillon's art is, as always, superb.

the verdict:  This story was so refreshing when it first came out - a back-to-basics take on the character that stripped away many of the accrued barnacles and got back to the sorts of stories that made him popular in the first place.  It still holds up well and is a good read with a lot of dark humor.

whiteout vols. 1-2

by Greg Rucka & Steve Lieber

collects Whiteout # 1-4 & Whiteout: Melt # 1-4

the premise:  Agent Carrie Stetko is assigned to the coldest post in the world - Antarctica - and must solve murder mysteries while battling the elements and her own inner conflicts.

the lowdown:  Soon to be a major motion picture that probably won't come close to capturing the real appeal of the comic, this was the debut work for Rucka when he broke in at Oni.  Teamed with Lieber, Rucka delivered these two B&W series about law enforcement at the South Pole.  The setup of the series is probably pretty familiar to fans of Rucka's work.  A tough-as-nails female protagonist, a murder or two, some intercompany politics - most of Rucka's usual tropes are on display here.  The thing that sets it apart is the setting, which allows for an extra degree of difficulty in solving the crimes and capturing the killer.

What it also does is really show off Lieber's work in B&W.  Set in the South Pole, the white space in Lieber's work isn't white space - all of a sudden it's snow and it looks great.  This allows Lieber to concentrate more on figure composition and visual storytelling than detailed backgrounds, and the results are quite nice.

Obviously Carrie shares many traits with Tara Chace of Queen & Country (or, for that matter, Renee Montoya or Sasha Bordeaux), but she's a little less damaged than most of those characters.  She's somewhat emotionally fragile, but more in a Sasha way than a Tara way.  Rucka, for my money, writes women better than anyone in comics, and although he gets grief for returning to the same angry-woman trope, his various characters are nuanced enough that they don't seem redundant.

(ps I don't care what anyone says - there IS an appearance by Tara Chace in the first volume.  I suspect the denials currently are a way to preserve the Q&C franchise for its own eventual movie option - but that's Tara.)

the verdict:  A tough, hard-boiled read in an interesting setting.  Rucka shows polish as a comic writer beyond what was then his level of experience, and Lieber delivers excellent art.  Check these out before the movie (and the planned volume 3).

justice league of america vol. 3: injustice league

by Dwayne McDuffie, Ed Benes, Joe Benitez, Mike McKone and more

collects JLoA # 13-16 & JLoA Wedding Special # 1

the premise:  Lex Luthor assembles a new Injustice League and strikes at the JLA on the eve of Green Arrow and Black Canary's wedding.

the lowdown:  In a way it's a shame that a story like this almost seems ho-hum - the characters even comment on the fact that Luthor's done this exact same thing several times before.  I say that's a shame because this is really cool.  Lots of heroes.  Lots of villains.  Big melees.  What kind of world do we live in where that's ho-hum?

McDuffie hits a lot of notes here that just resonate with me.  The Joker in an oversized purple coat and tophat - WITH a squirting flower.  The JLA dividing into groups of two or three, who then appear in a panel along with their logos.  Strange mismatches of heroes vs villains, like Green Lantern fighting Poison Ivy.  Firestorm.  

At times it's a little too retro - the dialogue is mostly pretty snappy but occasionally over-expository.  The short stories at the end are pretty much a waste of space.  And the art is not so great - some talented folks who do less than their best work (McKone), some less talented folks who do better than their worst work (you know), and way too many scenes where female heroes react to the bad guys by twisting and sticking out their butts.

So not perfect - but pretty darn good.  McDuffie "gets" the JLA, and shows us that without having them cry all the time or go on and on about how they're BFFFs.

the verdict:  Good show - I'm digging it.  I'm back on board with JLoA.