Unreachable Star Reviews May 3rd, 2006 (SPOILERS)

This is our 167th edition, with only two books this week, and I'll
also be reviewing a TPB I got a few weeks back.

This week I also picked up Y: The Last Man, Vol 6: Girl on Girl TPB,
though I haven't read it yet.

This week, we have...

Civil War #1 - 3 Stars
New Mutants Classic Vol 1 TPB - 3 Stars
Teen Titans #35 - 3.25 Stars

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Civil War #1 - "Part One of Seven" (Writer: Mark Millar, Penciler:
Steve McNiven, Inker: Dexter Vines)


The New Warriors attempt to take down a group of supervillains, but
one of them causes an explosion that kills hundreds, including many
children. This turns the tide of public sentiment against costumed
heroes, and lawmakers rush into law their proposal to make all
superheroes register with and work for the government.

It's Marvel's big summer event, hyped for months. Civil War.
Heroes against heroes! It's gotta be good, right?

Well, no. It's okay. The art's certainly nice, anyway. In all the
hype for the event, Marvel said that they'd do their best not to
portray one side as 'right' over the other. Unfortunately, the
method they've chosen to acheive this goal is to make people on both
sides idiots. In fact, making characters idiots seems to be required
to kick off Civil War too. Nobody seems to make the good arguments
for their side, nobody seems to suggest alternate ideas that are more
palatable.

The story's also peppered with strange bits, like the Watcher showing
up to see superheroes discussing the proposed bill. Really? It's
_that_ big a deal that the Watcher will personally show up and make
himself known, but not say anything other than sit and watch? Does
he peek over people's shoulder in the voting booth when people are
electing a president, too? Then we have SHIELD attacking Captain
America for refusing to actively hunt down and arrest heroes breaking
a law that hasn't even been passed yet. If it was after the law was
passed, the scene would have been a bit over the top, but at least
reasonable, but as it stands it just seems bizarre.

Most importantly, the first issue just doesn't sell the premise. I
can get behind the idea of the accident and the Registration Act
itself. Millar fails to convince me that the idea is so contentious
that heroes will willingly go about fighting other heroes about the
whole thing. Spider-Man's been wanted by the law dozens of times,
as have other heroes, so I can't see what this should be any
different. Hell, for the most part, many superheroes not sanctioned
by the government should have been _already_ illegal (since they'd be
vigilantes), but the police don't expend a lot of effort on them
because, well, there's the actual dangerous criminals out there,
including a whole batch trying to destroy or take over the world,
that these guys stop.

So, it's a bad sign for the first issue of Marvel's event miniseries.
It's not terrible, it's just... less than impressive. It's a good
idea but, as is too often the case at Marvel nowadays, not executed
all that well.

Review: 3 stars

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New Mutants Classic Vol 1 TPB (Writer: Chris Claremont, Pencils:
Bob McLeod, Paul Smith, and Sal Buscema)

Donald Pierce Hellfire Club hates mutants, and when he detects a bunch
of new mutants manifesting, he decides to kill them. Professor X also
seeks out some of these mutants and decides to take them under his
wing.

I'm a big fan of the New Mutant characters, but I actually have very
few of their early issues. So I knew I had to get this TPB when it
was solicited, just so I could see how these characters came to be.

Compared to the standards of the time, it might not be too bad, but
it all reads pretty dated. Not only are there some pretty hokey
plotlines, there are lines of dialog and aspects of character that
are hamfisted even for Claremont. Of course, there's also a lot of
dated pop culture reference, but I didn't actually mind those at
all.

More positively though, even despite all the awkward elements, it's
admirable how quickly Claremont established a bunch of new characters,
gave them each a voice, interesting powerset, and plot hooks (either
in those powers or their backstory) that could become fodder for many
years to come.

I was also quite pleased with the art. I'm unfortunately not one of
those who liked Sienkiewicz, but all of this is before that, and it
all looks pretty good even compared today (although the coloring is
a lot more simplistic, of course).

Overall I can't say I'd recommend it to a casual fan of today's
comics, but for those who like the comics of the time or are, like
me, fans of the original New Mutants, it's probably worth a look if
you don't already have the issues.

Review: 3 stars

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Teen Titans #35 - "New Teen Titans, Part 2" (Writer: Geoff Johns,
Pencils: Tony S. Daniel, Inks: Kevin Conrad)


The Brotherhood of Evil are attempting to gather information and
resources on cloning, and Wonder Girl breaks into the Titans Tower
to see if they have any information on the group she can use.
Together, they respond to another attack by the group.

Well, this one's my Pick of the Week pretty well by default. But
it's actually fairly enjoyable... Johns has made the first steps
in making the new team members Kid Devil and Ravager appealing.
I'm still not sure if I'll stick with the title, but the signs are
looking up at least. There are also a few genuinely funny moments.

It's probably about an average issue of the title, but it was still
the thing I enjoyed most this week.

Review: 3.25 stars

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Well, that's it for this week folks. Next week, according to the
shipping list, we have four books. There's Cable & Deadpool #28,
New X-Men #26, X-Men: Deadly Genesis #6, and X-Men: The 198 #5.
Also I might review one or more of the Free Comic Book Day
offerings.

See you next week...

Peter Dimitriadis
http://www.unreachablestar.net
The Unreachable Star - Comics & SF News/Reviews/Opinion