Quick Comic Takes

Hellboy Volume 1 : Seed of Destruction - After enjoying the movie I was looking forward to trying to comic series it was based on. I hope it gets a lot better than this first volume though, which has very stiff dialogue and an incredibly dull narrative.

A lot of the elements from the movie are from here, but what on screen was big and impactful, seems rather tame and rather dull here. A lot of this may be due to the scripter being John Byrne whose writing I've never really gravitated too.

I hope so anyway as characters that were witty and fun in the movie, just lack any spark in this first volume, but I'm willing to give future volumes another look.

Planetes Vol. 4.1 & 4.2 - These volumes make me wish the story would have just stopped with volume 3. While there are clever and touching scenes here with Fee and her son, and the executive at the memorial services for people killed during by an accident caused by his company.

That's all they read as to me was a collection of scenes, with no real story built around them to provide resolution of at least forward movement. The many text pages may be of interest to those who want to know the history of the Planetes world, but it made me feel as if I was reading some type of source book instead.

I'm just not interested in the fictional history of a series, unless it is used in the story, textual detailing of such as if in a history book holds no interest for me.


Spider-Man/Human Torch #2

I usually appreciate writer Dan Slott's work, but this series is nothing but a mimic of the old comics it is based on. I can look back at those old comics and appreciate them for their time, but when I see a writer today do the same exact kind of work it just isn't entertaining.

Perhaps I'm just not the target audience for this though, as I was hoping for a modern spin or at least observation of the time period instead.

That is one wonderfully fun cover though, I wish it would have been incorporated into the story somehow.

7 Soldiers of Victory #0 - I had some high hopes for this project by Grant Morrison. He seemed to have such enthusiasm for the work and with his super imagination playing with so many characters should really play to his strengths.

Which is why I'm surprised by how rather generic and boring this whole issue is. With characters that have no personality or even an interesting set of powers, brought together for equally dull reasons. Only to go out under circumstances that I wasn't made interested in enough to care about.

Cheeky Angel Book 2 - To show I'm not a complete grouch though, I did enjoy the second volume of this gender switching even more than the first. As Meg, the boy who was turned into a girl at a young age, continues to hunt for the book that will make her a boy again.

I like how Meg has questioned even herself if she really wants to go back, and what the nature of who he/she is really is defined by. The gender observations and breaking of cliches has been interesting and most importantly fun.

The introduction of Meg's dad, who is creepily jealous of the teenage boys interested in his daughter, and another teenage boy named Kobayashi, who's a good fighter but has very old fashioned beliefs in how women should act. Has introduced new nuances for the creators to play up for comedy, and keep things from become too repetitive.

This book along with Legion of Super-Heroes #3 really made my week.