Sunday Reading 6-17-12

Welcome once again to Sunday Reading. This week I’m taking a look at three books from the comic world: Green Lantern #10, Fantastic Four #607 and X-Men Legacy #268.

X-Men Legacy #268

It’s an X-Men versus the Avengers tie in, but not really, and that’s a good thing. Frenzy takes the spotlight and we get a little insight into the character while also exploring her past. Frenzy is character that has been around for a long time (X-Factor #4) but mostly her past is unexplored because she has a been a minor villain for much of that time.

Here we get a good look at the different sides that make up Frenzy. On one hand she is still that self-centered villain who hates “flat-scans” and displays the bad attitude to go with it. On the other hand she is someone who has found a life in being a hero and doing whats right, even if it sometimes takes a little pushing or proper motivation to do so. She doesn;’t come across as a character in balance but rather a character with extremes in her personality and it works well.  Some of the story comes across as very typical, the abusive father the situation that just happens to remind her of her past and so on, but over all it works. The AvX stuff is merely background here and considering what I have thought of a lot of that storyline I’m glad it didn’t show up here more.

The artwork by David Baldeon is fine but nothing spectacular. Some of his facial expression seem strange but he shows that he can draw characters with different body types and is good at conveying emotion. While the panel layouts are pretty basic they do a good job of telling the story and are easy to follow.

Fantastic Four #607

Hickman’s Fantastic Four has been a great read for me in the past and while that doesn’t really change this issue it does seem a little weaker than previous issues. The Fantastic Four along with the FF children all go off to Wakanda for  a visit with Black Panther and Storm. The interaction between Reed and T’Challa is very well handled and is of course the center around which the rest of the issue flows. The main problem I had with the story came with all the back story introduced, while I’m not that familiar with Wakanda history it felt like a lot of this was “new” or possible retconed information that left me a little out of the loop. I guess technically I got everything I needed to enjoy the story but the inclusion of Egyptian “history” with Wakanda’s more African heritage seemed strange.

The artwork suits the story well with clean line work and nice panel layouts. I really enjoyed the use of different page boards for the flashback sequences, while it seem like such a small thing, it’s sometimes those little things that make all the difference. I actually think the art teams style works better on the mythical flashback sequences than they do on the modern parts of the tale, but either way I enjoyed it.

 

Top Recommendation: Green Lantern #10

Truthfully this issue comes as a surprise for me, I got the feeling we we’re looking at a more let’s see how great Senistro is kind of ending. Hal has been shown as pretty, well for lack of a better term, stupid lately. He has been second string character in what is arguably his book. Here in the finial chapter of Secret of the Indigo Tribe we finally get to see Hal shine and finally take charge. Hal may not be a great long-term planner but when things are going bad and you flying by the seat of your pants that’s when Hal really takes off. His instincts kick in and he knows he has to get the Indigo Tribe back under control and he instantly takes steps to see that is what happens. Even Senistro has to acknowledge Hal’s take on the situation and give in to his way of thinking. This series could use a little more of that, while I have always enjoyed Geoff’s writing he sometimes gets to focused on building interesting villains that he forgets to build interesting heroes.

Doug Mahnke really delivers on the artwork and his style really fits this kind of book. Everything from the alien locals, the numeros alien characters, or the more down to Earth ring creations all of it is handled wonderfully. Really enjoyed the scene with Indio 1 (Irogue) coming back on-line and that finial page with Black Hand really gets me excited about the next story line.

With that my ability to comment on comics for the week has come to an end. Hopefully you have enjoyed the journey and I ask that if you have partaken of my wit and (hopefully) wisdom, then please take a moment to share yours. What did you read this last week that made your Sunday Reading worth talking about?

Till next time, I’ll see you on the Bloc