@ the Mothership: Reviews of Captain America, Thor The Mighty Avenger, Rasl, Brightest Day
Here are quick excerpts of the last couple of reviews that I've done at Newsarama. Click on the title and scroll through the page to find the full reviews.Captain America: No Escape--
Rasl #9
Brightest Day Volume 1
Just as the final art is a bit haphazard, never quite coming together fully, Brubaker's story never lives up to the potential of the first few pages of the book. Opening with Baron Zemo, a former Thunderbolt and longtime Captain America adversary, commenting on the failed reign of Norman Osborn, Brubaker builds on the works of Fabian Nicieza with the character. In the pages of Thunderbolts, Nicieza transformed the character from a two-dimensional villain into the hero of his own story, with his own goals and methods that, while not always right, were at least justifiable to him. Zemo became a sort of hero trapped by his own villainous legacy. Or maybe he was really a villain with heroic aspirations. Largely absent during the Dark Reign era, Zemo is back, able the view the wasted opportunities that Osborn had— probably similar to the opportunities Zemo had back during the earliest days of the Thunderbolts. Zemo can see the chance that Osborn had to change the world and the waste that it was that Osborn’s ego couldn’t get out if it’s own way.
Thor: The Mighty Avenger #7I have trouble thinking anything with mutton could be simple. It’s one of those exotic Scandinavian meats after all. That’s just part of why Thor is the best boyfriend. Let’s just say that instead of running out to investigate this weird sudden darkness or the absence of any rain, Thor stays in with Jane, eats a bit of mutton, drinks a bit of wine and doesn’t sleep on the couch, if you catch my meaning.
Rasl #9
Each issue of Jeff Smith’s Bone was packed with story. In the end, he had many characters and story lines to juggle and he did a wonderful job with that. Even though it features small, cute little Shmoo-like characters, Smith built the story up to be a Tolkienish epic and each issue, particularly by the end, had many life-or-death circumstances. Rasl is a different creature as Smith is taking his time. He’s maybe just under halfway done with this story (he says in the letter pages that there’s maybe 12 issues left) and it feels as if he’s approaching this book must more deliberately than he did with Bone.
Brightest Day Volume 1
The problem with Brightest Day Volume 1 and Blackest Night before it is that neither book embraces its core concepts nearly enough to have any fun with them. In superhero comics, we’ve seen the ideas of life and death become meaningless as no one ever really stays dead except for Bucky and Uncle Ben. And we all know what ended up happening to Bucky but at least Ed Brubaker had a unique twist on that character’s return in the pages of Captain America. There was a story there at the beginning, right when the Winter Soldier was introduced and Brubaker carried it through with moving the character forward at a brisk pace. Johns and Tomasi really had an opportunity with Brightest Day to do something new with the idea that all dead characters will eventually come back but instead they treat these resurrections like every other resurrection we’ve ever seen before. The resurrection of dead characters continues to be a cliché in Brightest Day, with this story being nothing more than what we’ve seen when characters like Superman or Wonder Woman have returned from the grave.