Trinity #1: Hmmm, I’m not totally sold on Chip Kidd’s blurred three-tiered logo design for this Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman team-up book, but at least it’s a solid break from the now-tiresome 52-Countdown logotype. The cover design spotlighting one of the three main characters on each successive tryptych piece doesn’t really grab me either, failing to convey instantly what this series actually is — this basically looks like a Superman book at first look, and second look too — rather than showing all three characters together. Inside the pages of DC’s 52-part newest weekly series, Mark Bagley hits the ground running moving over from Marvel and Ultimate Spider-Man, stepping comfortably into the DC Universe with spot-on renditions of DC big three as well as a good chunk of the current Flash cast. Writer Kurt Busiek doesn’t go for the big bang opener out of the box here, not even having any of the main characters in costume until two-thirds of the way through the main story, but opts instead to lay enough solid groundwork to get one intrigued. If they can keep up this level of quality in the main story, it shouldn’t be too much trouble holding that attention from here. The backup is slightly less satisfying, and a bit less lucid — it took a couple readings to be clear exactly what was going on — but the glimpses of things to come are pretty successful at whetting the appetite for what’s to come this series. I’m onboard this title (for the near future, at least) and looking forward to the ride.
Secret Invasion #3: This series hits its full stride bigtime with this issue, a solid improvement over the slight letdown of the last one. Leinil Yu’s art (sharpened nicely by Mark Morales’ inks) is uniformly excellent, while Bendis keeps the action coming page after page, including some fairly graphic Authority-level violence. It does get a bit rough keeping track of all the characters at times, especially as the B-listers are brought solidly center-stage here, followed by the “who were they again?” gang at the cliffhanger end. Still, the level of execution here is such that if this issue doesn’t hook you, this series is just not for you.
Kick-Ass #3: I’ve been enjoying this Mark Millar satire (far more than the first issue of his saccharine 1985, anyway), and the visceral John Romita Jr. art is pure pleasure. A comic starring a moron who gets beat up a lot is not for everyone, admittedly, but the laughs keep coming here, even if they’re somewhat evil laughs. The last few pages betray, once again, Millar’s failure to accurately capture the flavor of American slang, and the events contained on those pages worry me that I may count that as the point where the series went horribly wrong (not to mention Millar’s nauseatingly self-congratulatory text page that follows), but I’ll wait until next issue to judge that.
Ultimate Origins #1: I’ll admit I’ve largely lost interest in the goings-on of the Ultimate Marvel Universe lately, but if any team can catch my attention again it’s Bendis and Guice. This mostly flashback to 1940s wartime issue fails to reignite my zeal for the Ultimate U as a whole, but it’s piqued my interest for whatever supposed long-held secrets are to be divulged here. If nothing else, Guice is doing great work, on a level with his recent Captain America fill-ins. Can’t help but feel somewhat disappointed that the secret in the first issue is exactly what I thought it would be , though — not to mention disappointed that “James Howlett” is apparently set in stone as Wolverine’s real name now. Oh well.
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