Single-Issue Reviews, August 2010, Part One

For this installment of Single-Issue Reviews I'll look at the new issues of Angel and Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne, as well as the opening issue of Time Masters: Vanishing Point. Read on to see what I thought about these issues.

Angel #35

• Written by Bill Willingham & Bill Williams
• Art by Elena Casagrande
• Colors by Ilaria Traversi & Arianna Florean
• Cover by Jenny Frison

• In this issue, we get Spike trying to work prophecy writing to his advantage, a little more insight into Conner's protectors (the Sisterhood of Jaro Hull), and James's soul-eater makes her move.
• I've really been enjoying Bill Willingham's tenure on Angel, and this issue is no exception. He keeps getting better and better at the voices (and he started out well, too).
• The only real problem I've had with his characterization is with Spike, as he hasn't seemed himself, lately. This, however, seems to have been the plan, as it looks like we get an explanation at the end of the issue. If this sticks, kudos to Mr. Willingham.
• I've been liking the art recently, but this issue has some problems, with the biggest of them being the shading. It's very sloppy and distracting. The beginning of the issue is fine (as most of the shading is done by the colorist), but it gets progressively worse throughout the issue. Especially on some closeups, it looks like Elana Casagrande just did some scribbles in place of actual, thought-out shading.
• There were also some inconsistencies with faces, but these were minor compared to the shading issue.
• The writing, however, is top-notch. The idea of Spike trying to create prophecies for himself is great, and the exchange between one of the members of the Sisterhood and the police is fun without being too cliché. He also plays the tension well while we wait for the soul-eater to strike.
• In the Eddie Hope backup story, Gunn tries to not get shot and Eddie gets a phone call.
• Really, that's all that happens. The plot creeps forward ever so slightly, and we find out that Eddie's not as much of a lone wolf as he thinks he is. That's not to say it's not enjoyable: the writing's fine, it's just not very meaty. This sequence would work fine in a full issue, but as an entire backup, it feels too short and too thin.
• The art here is much better than in the main story. There's not as much on the page, but it's much more consistent than the Angel part.
• Overall, this is another solid issue of Angel. Putting the art problems aside (as I don't remember such problems in earlier issues), I've really been liking the direction this title has taken recently, and this issue does not disappoint.

Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne #4

• Written by Grant Morrison
• Art by Georges Jeanty
• Cover by Andy Kubert

• After caveman Batman, Puritan Batman and pirate Batman, we now get cowboy Batman, avenging the murder of a child and being hunted by Jonah Hex.
• “Cowboy Batman” is a pretty cool concept, but I'm not sure how that actually works. Isn't Gotham DC's version of New York City? Why does it look like a Wild West town? A large one, but it still seems wrong to me.
• I still see no reason the bounty hunter had to be Jonah Hex except that he's a DC property with a movie out and he looks a bit like Two-Face. He's just a generic bounty hunter here.
• I do like the inclusion of Vandal Savage again. I'm wondering if he'll be playing a larger part in Bruce's return or if he's just here because he can be.
• Unfortunately, the story is a pretty generic tale of vengeance and we don't get any of the growth of Bruce's character that we've gotten in some of the other issues. It largely seems to be about showing how Bruce's ancestry and the Bat People come together. Not that that makes it a bad issue, it just makes it not much more than a “Let's have fun with Batman as a cowboy” issue.
• I know and like Georges Jeanty's art in Buffy, but it seems rushed here. I don't know if this is because he was filling in, but this is not his best work. Going in to this issue, I was a little apprehensive about how his style would fit the book, but that seems to be fine. It's just a little sloppy.
• Overall, this is the weakest issue of this series, so far. There wasn't any character growth, the only plot developments were incidental, and Jeanty put in a weak effort on the art. I'm still enjoying this series if for nothing else than the fanboy pleasure of seeing Batman in these different roles, but the first issue promised much more than that, and we've only seen glimpses of that since.

Time Masters: Vanishing Point #1

• Written by Dan Jurgens
• Art & Cover by Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund
• Colors by Hi-Fi Designs

The opening installment of Time Masters: Vanishing Point finds Rip Hunter, Booster Gold and Skeets taking Superman and Hal Jordan on a trek through time to find Bruce Wayne before he accidentally destroys time itself. Or something like that. There's apparently some place (at the end of time?) called “Vanishing Point” which seems to be the literal vanishing point of the timestream or something. I'm a bit hazy on the details, as I've never read anything with Vanishing Point in it. But, regardless, it's falling apart, that's a really bad thing, and it seems to be because of Bruce.

We've seen a bit of this search in the Return of Bruce Wayne title, so it's neat to see the other side of things. We find out what that fuzzy black thing from ROBW #2 is, and looking at both books, it seems like Time Masters is well behind ROBW chronologically. That makes for a little confusion, but also it makes me excited to find out when (and how) this team will get to those points.

I recently read 52, and I really liked Rip and Booster (and Skeets), so I'm enjoying seeing them. That series is the only thing I know about these characters, so I didn't know Booster Gold is Rip Hunter's father (or that Rip Hunter is an alias). This turned a couple of moments into “reveals” for me, as I'm sure it would be for others who haven't followed the character. I'm glad this back story was included as it really helped flesh out Rip's relationship to Booster and added another layer between Rip, the unknown, and everyone else.

Rip Hunter is obviously the most experienced time-traveler of the bunch, so he gets to lay the smack down a couple of times, especially to Superman, about the number one rule of time travel: don't change anything! (Anything significant, I guess, because just being there is changing things.) This is kinda funny, but Superman and Hal Jordan seem a little too clueless about how time travel could affect things. Haven't they ever even thought about this before? Still, it shows how the standard superhero mantra of helping all in need (which Superman and Hal embody) doesn't work here.

The art is good: nothing off-the-wall amazing, but very solid. It reminds me a bit of 52, actually. The intro leads into a very nice splash page of Rip Hunter, except his left leg is either ten feet long (which would explain the amazing level of foreshortening) or underdeveloped. That's the only noticeable problem, and I only saw it on a second (third?) look through.

This issue has a whole lot of establishing the characters and the mission, but not so much of the search itself. This is to be expected from an opening issue of a six-issue mini-series, but it looks like it'll be a while before we catch up to Return of Bruce Wayne, and that's not, I think, what people picking this up are looking for. I know little about the characters, but I can still follow the story well, so kudos to Dan Jurgens for bringing me up to speed and keeping me along. I wasn't sure about this title when I got it, but, for now, it looks like I'll be seeing it through.