chezkevin

Trade for today: Superman: Birthright

Guess who's back -- back again. chezkevin's back -- tell your friends!

That's right guys, with the new year, I am getting back into blogging. I haven't bought a comic book in a while, but hey, you know me, I just paid a visit to my local library. And guess what, just because I like you guys, I also brought Superman with me.

Superman: Birthright
by Mark Waid and Leinil Yu

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Three years after 9/11 and the premiere of Smallville, it was time to retell the origin of Superman. Birthright is that origin. Aside from the usual, Waid includes sentiments of the cultural legacy of Krypton, Lex and Clark as childhood friends, and a carefully woven allegory to post-9/11 fear.

WHAT I LIKED: This would be "just another Superman origin story" if not for Waid's direction. The way he weaves fear into Metropolis, as terrorism has in America, is masterful. In fact, Clark Kent's first lines as Superman are, "Don't be afraid," a call to the Metropolitans as well as the readers. Other small touches include the re-emphasis on the S-shield. There's a chilling scene in the first issue, where Jor-El, Superman's original father laments that no one will ever remember Krypton.

The S-shield doesn't just represent the heroics of Superman, a beacon of light for those around him. It also represents Clark's heritage, his birthright if you will, and the heights that his race achieved. By wearing that shield, Superman pays homage to his family and his culture.

Not only that, we get a treat of a pre-Secret Invasion Leinil Yu. His style is very consistent, and spanning the story into 12 issues really allows the guy to get in these majestic splash pages. It's absolutely beautiful.

EXTRAS?: Intro by Alice Gough and Miles Millar (producers of Smallville), cover gallery, story notes from Waid on his vision for Birthright and sketch art from Yu. The notes are the most interesting part, but even then, they're not much to write home about.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Birthright replaced John Byrne's Man of Steel as a canonical origin for Superman. I've never read Man of Steel before, so I can't say much about that, but Birthright is one heck of an story that fills in a lot of interesting blanks in Superman's story that I hadn't thought of before (ie, Lex Luthor's brief childhood residence in Smallville).

It's too bad that it too was replaced by Geoff Johns's Superman: Secret Origin in 2009. Which, eh, I also haven't read. So sue me. For this reason, I only recommend Birthright if you're invested in the many origin stories of Superman.

Cyborg Santa says:

Merry Christmas to all!

Hey look I review The Amazing Spider-Man: SHED

Amazing Spider-Man #633
by Wells, Bachalo, Rios

In this issue:

Manhattan goes Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!

Aunt May is attacked by Kirby dots!

Spidey vomits on the Lizard's face!

But naw, I'm mostly playing with you. Issue 633 is part four of SHED in the Spider-Man title, and it closes the arc. In a single-sentence story summary: Curt Connors becomes a new, shed lizard that induces the reptilian brain over the mammalian brain across Manhattan -- dudes grab ladies to mate with them and people jump off buildings and such. It's a pretty odd premise that I think is treated too seriously by Wells, killing off poor ol' Billy Connors, resulting in a pretty tasteless story. In the last issue of SHED, Peter goes to May for some old-fashioned consoling, but she's still under the influence of Mr. Negative, and her internal conflict is portrayed as really graceless and tacky.

Which is to say: the writing is positively awful. Wells has done better work, like his Peter Parker, Spider-Man stuff from the past. The art, on the other hand, is positively brilliant. Chris Bachalo draws a frightful Lizard, a frenetic Spidey and some great paneling.

It's a shame that he needed a fill-in artist. It's also a shame that the issue came in late and had to ship with 634, the first issue of Joe Kelly's "Grim Hunt." It's another shame that the writing couldn't match the art. I gotta give it 2 Foam-Finger Freddies out of 5.

Spectacular art. Awful writing.

The menacing premiere of: the lil lizzies!

A new week means new comics! And what a week it is, bringing the return of Gail Simone with the Birds of Prey. It seems like only yesterday that Zinda Blake, Lady Blackhawk was showing us how to call a cab, and today she's showing us how to shoot terrorist kidnappers in Greenland.

Birds of Prey #1
by Gail Simone and Ed Benes

Gail writes the birds as they were meant to be written: head-on in the 11th gear, kickin' ass and makin' jokes. It's the perfect mix of action and humor that keeps me on my seat, and dude, in the middle of the issue, Huntress takes out a goon and then throws him at his pals approaching on motorcycles. Hardcore:

Which isn't to say that BoP was just an adrenalfest. The core birds, Oracle, Canary and Huntress have to deal with a mystery dude who apparently has files on all superheroes: where Oracle's dad goes to walk every morning, the addresses of every student that Huntress has ever taught in school. They ruminate over this before they're attacked by "the White Canary."

And that's not even the half of it! Gail for sure is making her money's worth, introducing Hawk -recently brought back from the dead in Blackest Night- and Dove, hinting at some character conflict there. With how they're working off the past, and bringing in new characters, I couldn't be happier that I got this big 'ol issue number one. It reads like a dream.

Amazing Spider-Man #631

by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo with fill-in pencilling by Emma Rios

Part number dos for "Shed," covering the return of the demon inside Curts Connors, THE LIZARD! It reads like every other return the Lizard's made, but with one exception: the stylish scribblings from Chris Bachalo. He is for sure an acquired taste; I disliked it at first, saying he made characters look way younger than they ought to, but it works, especially in the half-jokey, half-serious tone that overtakes Peter Parker and Spidey stories. Here, Bachalo blows the Lizard up as a giant bipedal croc with arms. I think he overdoes some panels of Lizzy's face, but check this out:

Yeah! That is one visceral, raw picture! I love it. I don't know if it was Zeb's idea, or Chris's, but they also introduce Lizzy's little iguana minions, "lil lizzies," who look totally menacing and adorable at the same time. Check it out, he's on top of the Lizard! Absolutely adorable.

AW YEAH LIZZY AND PALS!

Anyways, near the end of the issue, I think the Lizard eats his son, Billy Connors, who's been a plot point and a vestige of the Lizard's humanity ever since. . . Stan's run on Spidey, uh, thirty years ago. It's pretty ambiguous, but they seem to imply it with a really vague two-page spread that zooms in on the Liard's scales, then on the debris flying in the street. I definitely find it hard to swallow, so we'll just have to wait and see. All in all, the issue as a whole felt rushed and read too quickly. It doesn't help that Emma Rios pencils in some scenes, making the issue feel disjointed, and that she'll be doing some of next ish too.

Not as strong an issue as part one, but I think the Lizard's teeth have hooked me on this story. Bachalo's art is worth it, so I'll be finishing the arc.