This (and Last) Week's Comics: October 22nd and 29th, 2021

 

Not much of a haul considering that I didn't make it to The Great Escape last week, but all three were at least pretty good.

Checkmate #5 was showing signs of Bendisitis, especially with respect to the dialogue. The man has no ear for how real adult people speak. Although I have to admit that he captures pre-adolescent banner to a T. It's just disconcerting to have our grown up super-heroes talking that way. And the art...which so enchanted me at first ...just looks stiff now. Not to mention murky. I was surprised to see that Dave Stewart was doing the colors, as I have admired his work in the past, but maybe he's under orders to make the artwork look kind of shitty for this book. Anyway, despite all of my disdain, there were parts of this book that I did still enjoy. For instance, when the Checkmate team transports to the basement of the Hall of Justice, then just kind of hangs out there bickering because they don't want to tip off the bad guys as to their location. That was a nice little plot twist. So I am kind of looking forward to issue #6, but I'm also glad that that will be the end of it. This isn't the Checkmate I was looking for. Guess I'll have to go back and read The Janus Directive again if I want to get that. 

Fantastic Four #37 Yes, I did come back for more after all. Thought that the Nico Leon art was kind of shit, I'm sorry to say. And the Halloween cover was just sad. But Dan Slott's story was actually pretty good. It was also nice to see Spider-Man pop up to chat with Johnny Storm...who is now wearing a containment suit because he can't flame off, but still manages to melt the arm off of the Statue of Liberty. Since I've been out of it with respect to the Fantastic Four for some time, I still don't really know where we are with the characters, but if I stick with this title (a possibility) for a few more issues, I think I'll get the hang of it. 

Usagi Yojimbo #23 I've bemoaned the repetitive nature of Usagi stories in the past, and that's no less true here, but still...in the context of the above mentioned (and not bad bad) comics here, I really appreciated Stan Sakai's book. The dialogue was natural and suited to the characters. The art was lovely. The colors were bright and pleasing to mine eyes. Definitely the book of the week. Or of the two weeks, actually.

Next Week's Comics:

Dark Knights of Steel #1looks interesting. Short version: Batman is a knight. Not a Dark Knight, but a knight knight. And I'm guessing that  our man Superman will be in there somewhere as well, right? At any rate...it's a Tom Taylor production, so there's a high probability that it will be well-written. 

Static: Season One #4 No need to say more than: Great book, sorry that it will be ending soon, glad to hear that it will be coming back for a Second Season.

Icon and Rocket: Season One #4 Yes, two Milestones in the same week (if the previews is speaking truth), which makes it a good week, for sure, but I wish that they were spread out a bit more so I'd get one per week (more or less). 

I would be interested in Airboy #52 (written by Chuck Dixon, who always brings home the bacon), but this 40 page comic book sells for $6.99, which is just ridiculous. Here's hoping Hoopla adds this title at some point. (Right now they only have the four issue James Robinson / Greg Hinkle version, and that wasn't really my cup of tea.