It’s time once more for a new installment of “Comics That Piss Me off!”  I’m just back from my local comic shop (the Comic Cellar in Monrovia, CA) and I have to say this week is a bit better than last week.  Here is the quick list:

Clandestine #3
Young X-Men #1
Project Super Powers #2
Action Comics #863
Green Arrow 13″ Figure from DC Direct

For those of you who are completely stunned by the lack of Secret Invasion #1 on my pull-list, don’t you worry your little heads.  You see, I was so…um…impressed…yeah, that’s a good word for it…I was so IMPRESSED by Secret Invasion #1 that I’ve decided to do a second, all-Secret Invasion edition of Comics That Piss Me Off.  So, just hang on and I’ll be following up with that very soon.  Until then, let’s get back to this week’s haul.

First up is Clandestine #3, written and drawn by Alan Davis.  This series is a follow-up to the original series by Davis from 10 or 12 years ago.  And, as always, the art of Alan Davis is fantastic.  He is easily one of the best comic book artists around — and has been for 20-some years now.  His writing on the book is decent.  The only real problem with it is that you need to be familiar with the earlier series AND Davis’ run on Excalibur from the late 80s.  If you’re not then you’ll be scratching your head trying to figure out who everyone is and why Captain Britain and a bunch of X-men are running around in old costumes on a strange train.  Clandestine is most assuredly not for new readers.  For me, it was a fun read and Alan Davis still draws some of the best boobies in the business.

Next, I was a little adventurous and picked up a copy of Young X-Men #1 by Marc Guggenheim and Yanick Paquette.  I’ve tried to stay away from the X-Universe for the past 10 years or so but thought this new series and new #1 issue might be a good jumping on point.  I was wrong.  So very very wrong.

Guggenheim sets up the story with a flash-forward sequence where a group of new X-men are fighting an old X-villain and someone gets killed.  The set up was done with about as much emotion as I used in my synopsis - zero.  For something that had the potential to be a great beginning, the writing fell flat.  From there, the creative team introduces (or re-introduces, I’m not sure which) the members of the new team as someone who looks like Cyclops is recruiting them.  I say “looks like” because the Cyclops in Young X-Men #1 isn’t acting like any Cyclops I’ve ever known.  I’m assuming this is the case of a new writing either not being familiar with a character he’s writing or just not caring. 

The mutants Cyclops recruits aren’t introduced well enough for new readers to know or care about them.  It all reads very flat and uninteresting.  To me it seems like the creative team was asleep at the wheel and I’ll only be picking up future issues of Young X-men if I’m in need of something to cure insomnia.

The next goodie in my pull pile is Project Superpowers #2 by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger and Carlos Paul.  I really think this should have been called issue 3 because the zero issue really wasn’t a stand-alone introduction as much as it was the first issue of the story.  I’m guessing the #0 was a marketing ploy along the lines of chrome foil covers to get a quick sales burst and to keep sales numbers up for an extra issue. 

To start I want to say the art by Carlos Paul has a lot of potential.  It’s very dynamic and his storytelling is solid.  I do wish they hadn’t just taken the art from pencils directly to “painted” coloring because the lack of solid blacks in it really flattens the work out.

As for the story, like a lot of modern comics, there’s not a whole lot there.  It’s more a bunch of semi-related scenes than anything else.  I can see the creation of this book kind of like this - Alex Ross is talking to Jim Krueger and saying “I really love comics but I’m way too lazy to do them anymore…how can I keep my name out there and have people think I’m more creative than I really am?”  To which I imagine Jim Krueger says, “Dude, people will buy anything that has your name on it — they bought that Earth X crap, remember?  Just throw together some character drawings and we’ll find another artist to draw it.”  And then Ross would say, “But, Jim, I don’t really have any ideas of my own and I’ve already ripped-off Squadron Supreme once so I doubt the fans will fall for that again.”  TO which I imagine Jim said, “Dude (because in my head he says “Dude” a lot), lets just take some Golden Age characters, since everyone else is bringing back public domain Golden Age Characters right now, and we’ll do a Watchmen thing.  No one will notice because fans don’t read your stuff anyway…they just look at the art.”  And then Ross said “Cool” and they both went back to drinking hard liquor. 

Now, I’m not sure if it really happened that way or not, but in my head that’s how it all played out.  I’d recommend Project Superpowers if you’re a fan of Golden Age Heroes or the work AC Comics puts out.  I might suggest waiting for the eventual trade paperback collection because it’s had less happen in the first three issue than “All-Star Batman and Robin” did.

The fourth comic in my stack, luckily, is worth buying.  It’s Action Comics #863 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank.  It’s funny, last week I panned both Geoff Johns on Green Lantern AND Jim Shooter’s new Legion of Super Heroes Run, while this week I really enjoyed a Legion of Super Heroes story by Geoff Johns.  Strange world.

Action 863 is the end of a 5 part story which took Superman back in to the 31st Century to meet up with an older Legion.  I won’t give away the ending, but Superman was brought into the future to help the Legion fight a menace using Superman’s legacy to pit Earth against the rest of the Galaxy…and I really enjoyed the entire story.  Johns and Frank put together an incredibly solid and fun Legion story that could take place right after the end of Legion of Super Heroes #63 from 1989.  Johns is very faithful to the characters and the essence of the Legion and I’d absolutely love to see DC trash the current Legion series and pick up where this issue of Action left off.  I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I look forward to seeing this version of the Legion pop up again in Final Crisis later this year.

Last, but not least by a long a shot, is the new 13″ Green Arrow figure from DC direct.  I don’t know about you, but I love this line of figures.  So far almost every one DC Direct has released has been fantastic — with the exception of a rather crappy Superman figure — and the new Green Arrow is no exception.  It even comes with 10 arrows, including a kick-ass boxing glove arrow, that all fit into his removable back quiver.  The figure totally rocks.  I’ll be busting it out later on to team it up with my 13″ Green Lantern to fight the forces of evil.  Here’s hoping a Black Canary figure isn’t too far away.

That’s it for this episode of Comics That Piss Me Off.  Check back later for a special episode dedicated to the train wreck that is Secret Invasion.

-Mat N., the Nifty Nerd
http://www.TheNiftyNerd.com