RELEVANT CONTENT WEEK epilogue

Today we have a special Relevant Content Week epilogue. I thought I would round out my week/fortnight of commentary on new comics with a quick summary of the comics I got this week. That sounds positively gripping, doesn’t it?

CAPTAIN AMERICA #25 - OMG WTF CAPS DED!!! That ain’t right, man. That ain’t right. Actually, I thought this issue was pretty well put together – Ed Brubaker is a solid writer and the book struck an appropriately reverent/solemn tone. The story telegraphed the hell out of the actual shooting – they might as well have had a countdown caption on each page: “CAP GETS SHOT IN T MINUS 5 MINUTES”

I don’t know if I can really complain – the plot points of Civil War had backed the character into a corner and the logical storylines were either a) Cap in prison, b) Cap hitchhikes across America getting back in touch with Joe Sixpack and Jane Nascar, or c) Cap dies for 25 issues. Now it seems like there are three options for NewCap: a) Winter Soldier, b) Hawkeye, or c) The Punisher. I’m going with “a” on this one.

FANTASTIC FOUR: THE END #6 - Alan Davis’s futuristic FF fable end on an emotional high note, but the big galactic threat sub-plot was too handily resolved by divine intervention – Galactus ex machina, if you will. What is this, a Bendis book? In hindsight FF: The End suffers from some of the same overpopulation and diffusion of focus as Davis’s DC series Another Nail, but the excellent art and upbeat story overshadow the flaws. And at the risk of sounding too adolescent: The Invisible Woman and her Aryan pixie haircut are hot.

THE MIGHTY AVENGERS #1 - I’m going to leap to writer Brian Michael Bendis’s defense for his use of thought balloons in this comic. Bendis breaks a little from the traditional use of thought balloons and uses them in this issue not as expository tools, but rather as a means to enhance dialogue and reveal character traits. Frank Cho delivers the goods in the art department – despite the guy’s reputation as a cheesecake artist, he’s clearly a well-rounded and inventive comic book artist. This issue has giant monsters rampaging, Wonder Man’s safari jacket, a cameo by Godzilla, and a cute flapper hair style for The Wasp. How can I not like it?

DYNAMO 5 #1 – Jay “Noble Causes” Faerber’s new series gets off to a fun start and has the requisite SHOCKING ENDING that I’ve come to expect from the man. Dynamo 5 is the story of the teenage offspring of a big shot superhero with a Wilt Chamberlain-size libido and a Zeus-like proclivity for inseminating mortal women. Each bastard child of the (now deceased) hero inherits one of the hero’s many powers, i.e., super strength, eye beams, shape shifting, etc. and they band together to form a fledgling super-team. It’s a great idea and the story and art for this first issue was crisp and peppy – I’m giving Dynamo 5 a thumbs up.

There you go! Now we’re up to date and we can properly put Relevant Content Week to bed. I ran out of stock photos of exultant, rhapsodic business people, so you’ll have to settle for a picture I call, “Chuffed Grandparents.”