Hey y’all. Welcome to this week’s early addition of Comic Reviews. Typically, I would be releasing these tomorrow, but it is the anniversary of Avengers Endgame and I wanted to take another look at that movie as some of my opinion of it has evolved in some ways. So that will be out tomorrow. But today is for comics and we only have a couple. I planned to write about the new issues of The Flash and Way of X as well. Unfortunately, the latter is so character focused that it is hard to review in this shortened format as opposed to a Featured Review and the former is boring with nothing interesting to discuss. Except how overwritten it is.
Anyway, let’s get to the reviews!
Justice League #60
Writers: Brian Michael Bendis; Ram V
Artists: David Marquez; Xermanico
Colors: Tamra Bonvillain; Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Letters: Josh Reed; Rob Leigh
Cover: Marquez and Bonvillain
The Justice League is in a
strange place at the moment. They have once again shrunk to a handful and have
begun debating expansion. It appears they have already voted to let Naomi in as
she has been hanging out with the team. This issue features a debate about
whether Black Adam should be allowed to join. The Justice League Dark backup has
a debate about Etrigan’s potential membership. We know from last issue that the
final team will comprise this current roster (minus Flash) and Hippolyta, who
makes a brief cameo here. That is as far as the expansion is going for now. So
why tease it out as though it is some mystery?
The villains are from Naomi’s home world, so the League decides to take the fight to them. They also hold the aforementioned debate. That is it. There are some interesting character moments sprinkled throughout and Bendis’ has a good handle on the crew, so it never feels light on plot despite not having much.
The real star here is Marquez. He
is a supremely talented artist and that comes through in every panel of this
comic. Once again, his knack for interesting layouts shines through, especially
on the penultimate page as the pages is rotated several degrees.
The backup is also light on plot
and heavy on character as Etrigan debate happens. Eventually it is decided he
will join, and it seems Ragman will also be uniting with them as his appearance
is the cliffhanger. Ram V writes a particularly good Batman-Zatanna
relationship, understanding the respect the pair or each other. As always,
Xermanico’s art is quite good, though less stand out than usual. Next issue
promises a magical library (or bookstore), so it is sure to be entertaining.
Nightwing #79
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Bruno Redondo
Colors: Adriano Lucas
Letters: Wes Abbott
Cover: Redondo
This team gets it. They just do.
They understand the way Dick Grayson thinks, acts, and moves. Both his insecurities
and his drive to help people are on display in this issue in a way they have
not been since Tim Seeley left Nightwing in 2017.
Not a lot of plot in this book. It does reintroduce the Marconi family and gives a tease of new villain Heartless. Both are effective despite being small parts of the issue. Most the issue is spent on Dick and Babs’ date, on which he decides to feed a houseless group because he is rich now and can do that. This leads to the realization that he is rich now and can do more with his money to help the less fortunate with that than as Nightwing. It is an interesting direction to take the care, though it to be seen how well the execution will be.
As mentioned above, Redondo gets
it. His art is fun and kinetic while also being able to shift gears to the more
intense moments like when Heartless first appears. He also gets credit for
making some of the best-looking covers on the market at the moment. Whether it
is the main covers or alternates he does, they are fun and inventive.
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