Wednesday 1/7/09

My comic store didn't have Doktor Sleepless, sadly, so that will wait for another day. I posted my predicted opinions of these yesterday but sadly, my optimism has been let down by the contents. But first, the good...

Invincible Iron Man #9: As good as I predicted. This is (as far as I know) supposed to be a fairly lengthy story, tearing apart Tony Stark's world bit by bit and seeing what's left at the end, so I like how each issue is attacking a different aspect of his life. I get the feeling part of this story will involve removing Extremis from his system, or at least downgrading its capabilities quite a bit. Fraction's dialogue is spot on here, and I love his characterization of Stark as being cool & confident, even while desperate. Larocca's work on this book, I like a lot. I guess I can see why it bothers some people - overly airbrushed, overly photoreferenced, just too damn sterile looking - but for me, it fits the mood of this comic. This is a bright, shiny book about the absolute bleeding edge of technology, with witty characters discussing si-fi concepts that shouldn't exist till next year. It should look bright, airbrushed, and a little too clean, like the inside of a laboratory. That's where these characters live.
Predicted Rating: A; Actual Rating: A

Punisher #1: I said in my predictions for this issue that the quality of this book depended largey on which Remender was writing it: crazy time travel/paranoid conspiracy Remender, or way too macho superhero Remender. Unfortunately, this is the latter, which I suppose I should have predicted, but I was feeling hopeful. There's not really too much to this issue, and the $3.99 price tag gets you one 22 page story followed by a "Saga" style Punisher history, oddly ignoring all the Ennis stuff and even most of the recent Fraction/Remender stuff, which is just bizarre. The bulk of the main story is Punisher trying to avoid getting captured by the Sentry, which isn't all that interesting. Opena's art isn't even quite as good as his Fear Agent stuff, actually - it's a little too heavily inked and muddy looking, sporting an almost Mark Texeira look on some of the earlier pages. His body language and sense of movement is all there in the action scenes, though. Call this one a dissapointment, and that "D" rating stands for "dropped."
Predicted Rating: B; Actual Rating: D

No Hero #3: This issue is just a little on the thin side, but it's solid. A little bit more of the inner workings of The Frontline's organization is hinted at, and Ryp does some pretty nice horrific imagery. It even has a reasonably decent explanation as to why it's necessary, along with some very reasonable questions posed as to the POV character's mental stability and motivations. This one will read better as a whole, once we know what all the pieces mean, but thus far it's an interesting exloration of what kind of mentality it takes to want to change your biology, and what said changes do to your mind.
Predicted Rating: A-; Actual Rating: B