Legacy Shorts: Comic Book Reviews for 4/29/09

Green Lantern #40

Creative Team
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Philip Tan
Inker: Jonathan Glapion
Colorist: Nei Ruffino

Story - Agent Orange Part 2

Review
Geoff Johns has taken Green Lantern into an interesting position. Unlike the other cosmic titles going on right now (Green Lantern Corps, Nova, and Guardians of the Galaxy) which even though they are tying into events Green Lantern is much more focused on building up the event than telling a good old fashion cosmic tale that builds towards a big event. This isn't a bad thing but it also isn't a good thing either.

The thing that really hurts Green Lantern right now is that Johns is taking such a methodical approach with this title is that because most of the focus of this title is on Hal I am starting to become annoyed by him. I really would like to see Johns develop other Green Lantern members like John Stewart for example and not just focus on building up Hal and the other Lantern Corps. Don't get me wrong Hal is a great character but he really needs characters like John or Kyle to balance him out because as a character he is a bit dull with his serious militaristic type character.

The one thing I am enjoying is how creative Johns is with creating each Lantern Corps and giving each Corps their own vibe to them. The Orange Corps as one of the scariest and most dangerous of the Corps with Agent Orange Larfleeze being the only member that uses the bodies he kills to be the members of his Corps. And Tan's artwork only helps to give off that creepy vibe of the Orange Lanterns and does a great job playing up the horror movie aspect of this story as Larfleeze has a Freddy Krueger vibe to him.

Issue Rating
Story: 7.2/10 - Though I am digging how Johns is building up all the various Lantern Corps I would like to see him actually try and focus on other Green Lanterns instead of treating this title as a way to make Hal into a messiah.
Art: 8.6/10 - Tan's style perfectly fits this "Agent Orange" story as his artwork makes you feel like you are watching a horror flick.
Overall: 7.9/10 - "Agent Orange" continues to be a great story but the slow methodical pace that Johns is taking to not only build up the Orange Lanterns but all the plotlines for Blackest Night are hurting this title going into that mega-event.

Nova #24

Creative Team
Writer: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Artist: Andrea Divito
Colorist: Bruno Hang

Story - This World & The Next

Review
With this issue the Nova Corps are pulled into the Shi'ar and Inhuman war. Though this the Nova Corps had to get involve with the War of Kings event unlike the last issue of Guardians of the Galaxy were the reader was familiar with all the characters in the book in Nova DnA have yet to have enough time to build up the characters that compose the new Nova Corps. And for this reason I could have cared less who the Gladiator took down as I did not know much about any of the characters in the Nova Corps. Also it does not help that I found Divito's artwork felt like it was rushed during the scenes with the Nova Corps and the Shi'ar.

Though the part of Nova I continue to enjoy is of course what is going on with the true star of this title Richard Rider. I loved who even though Richard only recently became the new Quasar he handled all of his new powers like a pro. And unsurprising we find out that Ego has taken over Worldmind and I am looking forward to see Ego vs Richard in the next issue.

Issue Rating
Story: 7/10 - DnA continue to do a great job developing Richard's character and it is to bad they did not have enough time to develop the Nova Corps before they were thrown into War of Kings as the lack of development of those characters hurt DnA's ability to make me care about the Corps members.
Art: 7/10 - Divito provides dependable artwork though his art in this issue felt a bit more rushed than previous issues.
Overall: 7/10 - While this is no where near being the best issue of Nova it was still better than what we get in other titles and I am looking forward to the Richard vs Ego fight in the next issue.

Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk #5

Creative Team
Writer: Damon Lindelof
Artist: Leinil Francis Yu
Colorist: Dave McCaig

Story - As Told in Five Parts

Review
Lindelof continues to do his best Bendis impression with this series, and that is not a good thing. Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk #5 was filled with Bendis speak as there was plenty of unnecessary dialogue. Though I did find the opening of to this issue to be pretty funny with Wolverine fighting a panda. It was a good opening scene and it was to bad that Lindelof could make the rest of the issue as fun as the opening.

Though I have not been a fan of Yu's artwork I have to say that his artwork on this mini-series continues to look much better than his previous work on New Avengers. While Yu continues to overuse shadowing on his artwork I like how he draws Wolverine as actually looking like a Canadian mountain man and the Hulk as the monster they are suppose to look like.

Issue Rating
Story: 5.9/10 - Though Lindelof continues to fill this story with unnecessary dialogue I enjoyed the Wolverine vs the Panda opening.
Art: 6.6/10 - Yu's artwork is much better than in his previous work though I am still not a fan of his style of artwork
Overall: 6.25/10 - Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk continues to be an odd read as each issue does not have the natural flow issue to issue it should have. But what has been really disappointing is that five issues in and we have yet to see much action on this scene, other than the what might or might have not been a sex scene between Hulk and She-Hulk in this issue.