Comic Reviews 07.27.2020

Hey y’all. Welcome back! We’re adding some new comics to rotation this week in Empyre: X-Men and Amazing Spider-Man. Those are both spin-offs, but they’re related to the ongoing stories of their respective series so I’ve decided to add them. There will also be more X-Men comics in these reviews going forward.

Couldn't find anywhere to put this in the Featured Review

Yesterday marked the debut of the new Featured Reviews column and I took a deeper look at Power Rangers: Ranger Slayer #1. It was a very interesting story to take a look at and was a ton of fun so I’m looking forward to doing more of those in-depth reviews. On a separate note, I’ve dropped both Empyre and Dark Nights: Death Metal because they blow. Empyre has a cool story and beautiful art but no heart. Death Metal has nothing interesting going for it. As Scott Snyder’s (And maybe Greg Capullo’s?) big finale to his ongoing time at DC, it’s a massive disappointment.

Of course, it’s fine because the events following those two have already been revealed. King in Black, the follow-up to Absolute Carnage, has a prelude issue that also functions as an epilogue to Empyre. That’s maybe putting them too close together. As I don’t have much interest in Knull, I will be skipping this event. As for DC’s Endless Winter, we don’t have anything other than a logo and an end of year start date.

 

Spoilers for: The Flash #758, Empyre: X-Men #1, Amazing Spider-Man: Sins Past #1

 

The Flash #758

 

Writer: Joshua Williamson

Artists: Christian Duce (pg. 1-18) and Scott Kolins (pg.19-20)

Color: Luis Guerrero (pg. 1-18) and Hi-Fi (pg. 19-20)

Letters: Steve Wands

Cover: Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona, and Hi-Fi

 

The end of Joshua Williamson’s Flash run is off to a rough start. While last issue ended on the fairly harrowing cliffhanger of The Flash’s greatest(ish) foes pulling off a coordinated assault on Central City, this issue just decides they’re done with that. Not for any reason. Just so Barry has time to push away his family and friends—something he resolved not to do last issue. All the villains just go hang out in Reverse Flash’s basement and talk shit to each other.

Why? Also, there's no sing of him doing this.

The villains lure Barry into a trap where the Evil Tornado Twins are introduced to group. Thawne gloats for a bit before… doing something and taking control of Barry’s body. It is not explained how or why he is able to do this, or even to what end he would want to. He just does the thing and it’s done. This has been a huge problem of late in this series. Maybe it’s a signal that the comic needs a change in direction (Which it is getting).

At least the art is good. Duce never fails to impress. I do wonder why the art is never a consistent team from issue to issue though. 757 had Rafa Sandoval and I’d be willing to bet he will do everything Kolins doesn’t in 759 or 780. By the way, Scott Kolins does two pages in this issue and it looks very rushed. It’s quite poor which is extra sad because there is literally no background. At least he didn’t draw anything besides the Speed Force or Barry’s Mindscape or wherever that is.

 

Empyre: X-Men #1

 

Writers: Jonathon Hickman and Tini Howard

Artist: Matteo Buffagni

Colors: Nolan Woodard

Letters: VC’s Clayton Cowles

Design: Tom Muller

Cover: Mike McKone and Chris O’Halloran

 

As mentioned above, Empyre has been bad. On the upside, this comic is good. Nothing else should be expected from Hickman, Howard, and Buffagni though. Buffagni (And Woodard) especially brings his A game. From the X-Men to their surroundings to the plant people, everything is luscious. It’s clearly laid out and cleanly displayed. Real good art team they got here. Plus, Magik gets to wear a trench coat and huge sunglasses—while still wearing her costume underneath!

The setup for this issue is that Scarlet Witch is still overcome with grief about that whole No More Mutants thing and she’s found the perfect way to atone for that (Forget that she already undid it): Revive the dead mutants of Genosha. I’m sure all these people are on The Five’s list of people to resurrect but there’s a lot of them and it takes time to revive 16.5 million people. So Wanda is just trying to help speed up the process. Except she brings them back as intelligent zombies. Oops.

I love them

Elsewhere, Angel, M, and Magik are doing X-Corp stuff and Prof. X let’s Angel know that he loves him very much when Angel is feeling insecure. It’s a nice moment between two characters that go literally all the way back. They’re informed there’s shenanigans happening on Genosha and Angel takes a team to check it out. Turns out the Zombie Genoshans are fighting the Cotati, those plant people from Empyre no one cares about. Then Horticulture shows up to fight some plant invaders.

Overall, it’s a fun setup issue that ties into both the Empyre story and the ongoing X-Men story, exactly what I want from a tie-in like this. Hopefully the following issues can make good on the promise here. Also, there’s an insanely funny Plants vs Zombies joke. It’s a good comic.

 

Amazing Spider-Man: Sins Past #1

 

Writer: Nick Spencer

Artist: Guillermo Sanna

Colors: Jordie Bellaire

Letters: VC’s Joe Carmagna

Cover: Ryan Ottley and Nathan Fairbairn

 

I’ve been so excited to add Amazing Spider-Man to these reviews, but I haven’t been able to catch up. Until last week, that is. Because of that, coverage is going to start with one-shot prologue to the Sins Rising story. It is unfortunate that this is the first issue being covered because the main series has been exceptional since Nick Spencer took over--and the decade before that under Dan Slott—but this issue is bad. It is, by no means, the worst comic ever (Or even this week) but it is bad.

This look nice at least

Of course, the art doesn’t help with this. While the art mostly looks palatable (Sanna’s style is not one that I enjoy), the storytelling is mixed. About two-thirds of the time, events are very clear, and it is easy to tell what is happening. The other one-third is nearly incomprehensible. Regrettably, those moments mostly coincide with the least clear parts of the script to make it certain sections of this comic completely unreadable. Props to Jordie Bellaire for his incredible use of reds and blacks in this issue. He really sets the mood here better than anyone else on the book. It and s a cool layer to the proceedings.

 

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