Comic Book Reviews 07.20.2020

Hey y’all! Welcome back from the brief hiatus. Let’s start this off with an announcement: The blog is going to have a new weekly Featured Review (Name not finalized) every Sunday. This will be a comic I want to spotlight. Typically, it will be a Big Deal comic like Empyre or the final issue of Joshua Williamson’s Flash comic—and likely the first issue of the new creative team (More on that coming Wednesday in a comic news roundup). Sometimes it will be a neat indie comic I’m reading or one of the smaller Big Two series. 

Dark Nights: Death Metal is some BS

It all depends on what releases each week and what I want to spotlight. On the rare week where I don’t have anything to review—usually the fifth Wednesday of a given month—I’ll find something to share like a manga or an older comic. Plus, they’ll be longer than the bite sized ones I do in this column.  I’m really excited and I hope y’all join me Sundays!

 We’ve got some interesting comics to look from the last couple weeks, although not as many as I expected. I just don’t have much to say about Empyre #1 (Generic first issue of an event), The Flash #757 (Fine but nothing happened), or Death Metal #2 (The worst comic I’ve read in a year). I should be jumping back into at least two of those series next week though, so stay tuned.

 

Spoilers For: Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys: The Death of Nancy Drew #2, Young Justice #16, Saban’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #51

Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys: The Death of Nancy Drew #2

Writer: Anthony Del Col

Artist: Joe Eisma

Colors: Salvatore Aiala

Letters: Crank!

Cover: Eisma

 

This comic is moving at a snail’s pace. One-third of the way in and nothing has happened. This issue explains how and why Nancy faked her death before the trio takes a trip to find a mafia accountant and wind up murdering him. Luckily, all the character moments and small details make this quite the enjoyable read.

The standout of this series remains Joe Eisma, one of the best artists working today. His mastery of body language and facial expressions really shine in a moody book like this. Whether it is the uncertain way the Hardys stand near each other or the anguish on Nancy’s face when she sees her father but can’t let him know she is alive. It’s excellent. There are maybe too many shadows in this book. Its going for a noir style but it feels like its trying a little too hard.

Sometimes the shadows are cool

There has to be something more to Frank and Joe’s relationship. They are constantly taking small jabs at each other. Something must have happened to really make them become so estranged. It makes for an interesting dynamic and gives the Boys more personality than they ever had in the novels though. Nancy fits in well even if she is forced into a den mother type role that doesn’t suit the character, her personality mixes well with the Boys.

Young Justice #16

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis and David Walker

Art: Scott Godlewski

Colors: Gabe Eltaeb

Letters: Wes Abbott

Cover: John Timms and Eltaeb

This is it. This is when we learn how and why Bart came back. Except it doesn’t track. He got trapped in the Mirror Dimension by Mirror Master, Flashpoint happened, then Bart escaped and landed in the future before returning to his own time to search for Young Justice. Except, The Flash #50 makes it clear he is only freed once the Speed Force Barrier is broken. How does that match up with this version of events? It doesn’t. This story doesn’t even match with the last appearance of Bart prior to that issue of Flash.

The Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost miniseries was the best part of Flashpoint and created a tragic, heroic ending for that version of the character—which is technically this version too. In that series, Bart gives his life to help his grandfather fix Flashpoint. But I guess that didn’t happen anymore? And Bart has reverted all the way to 2003 before he became Impulse for some reason. It’s a mess and incredibly disrespectful to the best Flash. 

They know his history so why ignore it?

Everything else in this story is bland and uninspiring. At least the art is nice. This comic has struggled to maintain a regular artist since Patrick Gleason moved to Marvel. I have no idea why, but it is a huge detriment to the series. Eltaeb deserves a lot of credit for keeping the dozen or so artists from looking completely different and out of place. I don’t know what the problem has been but hopefully the three-month delay on comics has allowed the creative team to catch up.

All of this is a long way of saying, I waited 16 issues to find out mystery at the heart of this series and it was bad. Don’t expect to see anymore reviews for this comic here as I won’t be buying. I just can’t any longer.

Saban's Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers #51

Writer: Ryan Parrott

Artist: Moises Hidalgo

Colors: Walter Baiamonte with assistance from Katia Ranalli

Letters: Ed Dukeshire

Cover: Jamal Campbell

 

The start of a brand-new story. Picking up from the cliffhanger of last issue, Drakkon has landed on Earth and is warning the Rangers about a coming foe that is stronger than he is. The Rangers ignore him for some reason and just go about their lives. You know, the usual stuff like going to school and fighting giant slugs. Meanwhile, Bulk, Skull, and Candice are hanging out in the background and Zed has turned his minions into a new version of the Dark Rangers with Rita as the Green Ranger. 

Big fan of Naruto Kid

There is a lot going on in this comic and Parrott just needs to chill. He just finished a huge 24 issue, year long story. Let it breath. Send the Rangers on some small adventure before ramping straight into the Next Big Thing^TM. All this is leading into a relaunch in November (Again, more on that Wednesday) where it seems even more big stories will be coming straight away. Chill. The thing that turned this series into a hit was Kyle Higgins’ slow ramp up into the big story. Try doing that. All of the ideas are very cool, just chill out a bit.

New artist Moises Hidalgo is great. I think the fashion choices for some of the Rangers is a little off—Rocky dresses exactly like Jason—but everything else continues the tradition of this being one of the best-looking comics around. The action is framed and told perfectly, page layouts are interesting, and the art carries through on the vibe of prior artists. Of course, that is certainly helped by the continuation of Biamonte and Ranalli still working on the series and they do a wonderful job. It’s good stuff, y’all.

 

As always, feel free to give your thoughts in these comments or on Twitter at @alexraysnyder. And if you like what you read here, consider throwing a couple bucks my way on Patreon to help cover costs.