Random Floppy Reviews

A quick look at a few issues out this month:

DC SUPER FRIENDS #15

To me, the best part about SUPER FRIENDS is that the script could have been written in the Silver Age. Batman has to solve a mystery presented by some new villain as one by one all the other Super Friends disappear around him. The only difference between this story and something from 1966 is the cartoony art style. It's a stylized look, but not at all stiff. Added fun for adults is to spot all the old school Batman references in the panels. Although I'm not sure I would ever visit a store called Finger's Toys (On Kane street!).



MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #51

By now everyone is in on the joke about how goofy a villain like Paste Pot Pete is. Even in the unjaded world of Marvel Adventures Spidey has a good laugh at Pete's expense. The villain is basically just an annoyance to the web-slinger, until he finally manages to beat Spidey and steal his web shooters. It's a fun story with a healthy load of Spidey quips and a good old fashioned ham-fisted moral tacked on the end.

Spider-Man has always been the strongest title in the MA line, but there's a change on the horizon. It looks the title is about to bring on the adolescent angst. I'm nervous because we've already seen every other Marvel title get bogged down in cheap melodrama. Let's hope the MA line doesn't lose it's charm.



MARVEL ADVENTURES SUPER HEROES #11: THOR

Louise Simonson delivers a standard life lesson framed with Norse gods and ice trolls and ass whuppings (And Tom Grummett delivers a fantastic cover. Mr. Grummett just doesn't get the credit he deserves. He consistantly delivers classic, dynamic work). Loki's latest scheme is to pit a couple of Asgardian monsters against his reviled half brother Thor. But Thor triumphs by reasoning with the troll and ultimately learns a little something about his own prejudices. The art is a touch unconventional for a superhero book. There's some bizarre foreshortening and cartoonish faces and hands, which is basically awesome.