A Few Thoughts on Comics from this week

Some generally interesting books this week but no real 'whoa!' of excitement, which is fine.

The first issue of the ongoing Doctor Who book was fun, with a twist or two, and gets extra points for being set in the time period at the end of the silent movie era with a not-quite Charlie Chaplin star. The story's there, fitting together nicely in a traditional sort of way, with a cliffhanger that's both serious and funny at the same time; a moment of danger that you know the Doctor will escape from but is amusing because it's a cliche of sorts from the time period in question. The art is good but Tennant's likeness is just a bit off more than I'd like. This is generally an issue with licensed books like this; the art either needs to accurately depict the look of the characters we know from the other medium they normally inhabit or needs to be individual enough so that this 'other' look for the characters feels right. I point to the recent Muppet Show comic for an example of the latter. Still, in all ways, this is a good start and I can see where I would recommend the DVD in a few months, err, I mean trade paperback collection. Not quite the same thing.

I need to give a nod to the Mighty Avengers #27 as well this week. For the past couple issues we've been reading about Hank Pym's big project and this issue we finally get to see it: the Infinite Avengers Mansion. It's another dimensional area for the Mighty Avengers to stay that has doors leading to different areas in space for them to pop in and out of as they need to respond to situations. It's essentially a TARDIS that doesn't travel in Time or Space but allows the users to travel in Space to some degree. The issue also introduces a 'forgotten' character from Inhumans history that will either be very interesting indeed or very, well, forgetable.

Punisher #7 shows the recently revived super-villains adjusting to this new time period and their enhanced power set. Frank's already working to return them back to the land of the unliving. I believe the art here is by a different artist than normal for the book. It's not bad but it's a bit looser than I'm used to seeing.

Speaking of loose art, it took three artistic teams to complete Amazing Spider-Man #599. This must be the price for having Amazing be three times a month; less time to cover for creative team changes. The letters page indicates that the team on the first issue of this five part story hopped over to Astonishing X-Men after completing that first issue. If I was still getting Astonishing I might not mind but, as I'm not, I shall politely boo and hiss for awhile here. I did enjoy the story and ended up not minding the art we got, so that's why it's all meant politely. There's no point in getting too upset by what I 'could' have gotten because it didn't happen. Unless of course in ten years or so they have the original team redraw the books like they were supposed to do, kind like the 'Clone Saga' mini that they're soon doing. Then I could compare and contrast and be annoyed if I want.

Marvel Adventures - Avengers continues to be fun. Issue #38 has a third grade class spending the day on a field trip with the Avengers and the Mandarin uses the children as a shield for his attack. The Hulk is running the part of the field trip at a petting zoo, which is a good way to keep the Hulk calm as he likes animals and knows how to be nice to them. How he can be this calm and still the Hulk is not important really. Hulk referring to sheep as 'dogs with funny sweaters' is good stuff.

Simpsons Comics #156 is set in the year 2194 and the Simpsons are the most important family in history! A museum tour explains why as flashbacks explain how Our Favorite Family brought peace to the world and saved the environment. Of course, it's never as non-complicated as it sounds. Saying anything more would give it away so I shall stop here.