Summary: Bruce Banner alive again discovers that he wasn't the only doctor to play with gamma radiation and feel the burn.
Plot: After reading the first issue of Al Ewing’s new book The Immortal Hulk I was just completely bowled over; this was the Hulk book I had been wanting for so long, the new relationship between Bruce Banner and the Hulk that Ewing brough us was just that great. The introductory issue perfectly opened up the series with a mysterious, horror feel that gave the titular character a unique place in the Marvel universe; one that I felt that he should have  always had but was seldom written that way. He was a monster and this was a horror book; you'd think it would have been done long before but now that it had finally been done I was in love. Second issues are tricky though, especially after such a stunning first issue as Ewing gave us and while there was a lot to love here with the fantastic character work with Bruce in  the beginning and the over all 70's horror movie feel was beautifully sustained I did feel it was lacking in one key factor: The Hulk talked too much.
  With any horror creature, less is always more. When you show the monster too much the shock wears away and you start to nit pick, your mind starts to find the unrealities in the situation and what was once scary becomes obviously fake and thus safe. In this case it's not that you start thinking the Hulk is just a big guy painted green, or just a cartoon character like you might when seen too much on the screen, but rather on the page the more he talks the more he seems rational; the more you feel he could be reasoned with even if he's being horrifying right now and that takes a serious edge off the character and really dampens the mood. And the thing is...you didn't need to do it that way. I understand why Ewing made him talk here, he needed the other Doctor to tell his story in order to make the ending as dreadful as it was but Ewing easily could have gotten a confession from the doctor through the mere presence of the Hulk with out any dialogue from him at all. If he had relied on the art he could have preyed on the Doctor's remorse and fear as the Hulk stalked him first in the shadows and then slowly lumbering towards him, as the Doctor then tried to attack the Hulk only to realize the futility of his efforts he would have revealed more about who he was and why he did what he did as he tried to reason with the creature. But the Hulk wouldn't reason, he was only judgement which had already been passed when Banner uncovered what happened earlier. It would have been great, and the only difference is you have to ignore all the speech bubbles given to the Hulk here and you'd have just what I described with no other alterations to the book. It was that close to horror perfection.
Maybe my case of "what could have been" isn't exactly fare, but I can't separate that from my reading here and so it falls short of it's promise to me...but still I love the concept and I'm excited for more.
Art: What I really love about Bennett's art are his faces, not only are they well done and expressive pieces of art in their own rights but they truly enhance the narrative.  His use of close ups convey to the reader a real sense of reality, you've seen that face before in your mirror, on that guy in the subway every morning every day on your commute. It's simple and real and it brings you comfort...and then a guy with a glowing desiccated visage shows up and faces off against a a green Goliath with an other worldly wide face, beady eyes, and deep lines that look like their hewed from granite and the world goes side ways real quick. It's a fantastic bit of visual storytelling that really sells you on the other worldly by first grounding you in absolute reality. It's a subtle trick that's hard to pull off but Bennett does it beautifully and effortlessly which really makes me feel like he could have sold a silent Hulk menacing the Doctor into spilling his beans on who he was and what happened . Oh well, what could have been...

Grade:6/10

 

Summary: Superman's battle concludes and we finally learn the fate of Jon and Lois.
Plot: Just when I thought I might stop sounding like a broken record last issue, we get this "conclusion". I put that in quotations for an obvious reason...there is no conclusion here. I understand that this was meant to be a primer for his coming run but even so at six issues I expected some kind of denouement that made the mini series worthwhile on its own...and it didn't. The bad guy got unceremoniously stuffed into the phantom zone without us ever learning anything worthwhile about him enough to look forward to or dread his escape, and again we didn't get enough about Jon and Lois' trip with Jor El to give it any emotional impact. That said, it's frustrating because once again there were many singular moments that were great, I absolutely loved the family scenes while Lois, Clark and Jon were discussing Jor El's proposal and Superman's monologue while going up against the alien were spot on with his out look on life...but there was nothing really tieing it all together. All in all I think this would have been much better served as a one issue advertisement for his coming run then a full blown mini as there wasn't enough to really say in and of itself to make it all worth while.
Art: Unlike the previous installments the art here was nothing fantastic. Don't get me wrong, Fabok is all well and fine and a competent artist but he  doesn't wow...he just does a good, basic super hero look.
Grade 5/10

Summary: On their quest for vengeance Dag and his daughter encounter a serial killer who takes orders from the gods.
Plot: Brian Wood has done a variety of comics in a lot of genres, but by far my favorites are his histories; he just as a way of making distant points in time truly come alive and that's on full display here with characters and places that seem to truly breath life into the period. As I said in the review of the last issue, although the tone and subject are fantastic there are some uneven areas and while some continue here(I still don't care for how easily Dag understands his daughter) Wood corrected one major fault in giving some serious characterization in Dag, so much so that I remember his name which is always promising. However, although he improved that element and gave a sense of scope to how far the duo needs to travel in order to reach their destination and how trying that will be as they do not have a boat of their own it also proves the the episodic nature could be troubling as each chapter, no matter how much character work we get and how excellent the mood may be, will only be as good as the central incident and in this case we've seen the killer acting on the voices of the gods before and unfortunately Wood didn't add anything compelling to that trope. So we could get excellent issues with this format...or just okay ones like this issue. Still the characters are coming along, the dreary mood matches the weather and the world before us is exciting so there's no reason to fret. 
Art: Chater’s rendering the town on the coast at the start of the book is seriously one my favorite things I've seen in a comic in a while with just how excellently it develops a real sense of place. It looks highly realistic and the subdued colors by Jose Villarrubia do a fantastic job casting a dreary and hard living tone that just seeps into you making you really feel like you're there.
Grade:7/10

Summary: Just as it seems like the Rebels are finally on a winning streak, their luck runs out as Queen Trios and Vader spring their trap shut.
Plot: I think this will most likely mark the end of my Star Wars journey for now; maybe I'll try again when they change creative teams but we'll see. It's not that Gillen was horrid or anything...it's just that it's all a little rote at this point and his perchance for overly long stories that drag in the middle has just really ground me down. I was hoping that with the last seven part story over we'd get a change of pace but no, with this issue he's right back at it with solicitations for part 2-5 on the back page...and I just can't put myself through that.
Art: Maybe it was the new colorist, Guru-FX, but Larroca's work here wasn't nearly as traced and flat looking as it had been but it wasn't winning me over to read more though.
Grade: 6/10