Hervé St-Louis Comic Reviews

Using more traditional grids helps Benes anchors his storytelling better, although it still is difficult to follow the story even when it's nothing but talking heads. The inking continues to be inappropriate for this series as it only highlights the artist's weaknesses, and not his strengths.

Ed Benes continues to not be the man for the job by working on this series. DC Comics is convinced that a popular artist of the month is what it takes to sell this series. But I always wondered why both DC Comics and Marvel Comics relied on artists with poor anatomy but pizzaz to sell their books. A classically trained artist would have been a better choice for this series. A few years from now, when looking at the team's centerfold, it will look dated and a sales drive pitch. The problem is, when half your audience doesn't like the artist' work, why do you even bother?

The artwork is weak and instead of making people care about the Martian Manhunter, it's turning him into a character no one can recognise. The new look is less than appealing and lacks the iconic effect. At the very least, giving him his normal forehead would have been fine. His old creepy Martian form was also much better than this humanoid version. The team working on this series is throwing every thing that made the character cool and replacing it with stuff that weakens the character. But if one goes by the logic of this series, if the Martian ever returns to his old looks, he will be betraying his roots. Odd choice.

The artwork is also improving with better inking by Bit. Artist Barrionuevo is improving a lot this issue and his characters seem more solid and heroic than previously. Whereas Superman looked awful in the first issue, here, even Vixen looks fine.

The artwork continues to be middle of the road with some panels looking better than others. I'd like to know since when can Martians shoot energy out of their hands? Is that what they call an artistic license?

Su is a good Transformers' artist, but poor with humans. They just don't fit and feel like cartoon characters mixed in with realistic technology. He does a decent job with a car chase scene but all of his work is weakened by poor colouring.

The less we see humans, the better the artwork is. The Transformers look fine, although I would encourage the SU to add so ink to his line work. It seems a bit thin. He does use shadows, but only on background objects and never on Transformers. The colours continue to be poor as the artist spends too much time on soft edges. Robots and Transformers, particularly, always look best with limited and contrasted colour palettes.

The artwork is improving and the storytelling makes for a gripping tale. The inking is still too thin for the Transformers, but Su makes them look dynamic, well except Optimus Prime.

The artwork is good and dynamic. The humans continue to look odd and Manga-like, which doesn't quite fit the rest of the story. The major flaw in this story is the colouring. The application is fine, but the contrast between the colours is not enough. As the Transformers are, metallic creatures and the are stylized with the humans, greater contrast in colours would have made them look brighter. Subdued colours are not enough.

Marcus Tos work was good in this issue, but the colouring left and odd taste. It is different from other issues and somewhat closer to the Civil War series. It looked dirty and washed. It was not a good mock up of the Civil War. As for the cover, it seems like Michael Turner is finally figuring out how to draw new posed. Its about time.

The artwork is uneven. Portela shines in some pages but his work looks awful in others. It almost seems like two pencillers worked on this issue. I guess I just dont like his rendition of the Black Panther who looks like a 300-pound guy instead of a lean fighting machine.

The artwork is good. Eaglesham gives a Golden Age anatomy look to his characters. They seem to be flowing and fighting like Lou Fine characters. This style is a good choice for a series like the Justice Society.

Like I wrote before, Eaglesham has a classic look to his work which makes it look right for a series like the Justice Society. He fares well in the action scenes too. The quality of his work reminds me of Rags Morales but with better storytelling skills.

Eaglesham continues to be the most appropriate artist for this series. I just love how his characters look like they come from a 1940s comic book. But more than that, Eaglesham proves that he can draw an interesting swamp and good backgrounds. Another thing that I liked about his work, is that the characters interacted visually without needing writer Johns to add any captions. For example, how Star Girl helps Maxine gives a hint of their friendship. The colouring by Jeremy Cox also has to be mentioned. It's a perfect complement to Eaglesham's work.

Mallev is a great artist and the cover offer hints of what makes him special. It feels like one of those Renaissance statue where the Virgin Mary was opening her arms and holding a wounded adult Jesus Christ. Well, for all the glory of the cover, the inside is almost as good. My main criticism concerns the rendering of Maximoff. She looks like Jean Grey. Maximoff is not Jean Grey. Where are the coarse curly hair and high cheek bones that have given the Scarlet Witch her renown gypsy look? Here, she looks Irish.

The artwork is inconsistent. Some panels look very gorgeous while some others are off. A few even have cartoon hints about them. There are lots of useless full page spread that do not advance the story nor provide any useful information. Yu should keep to telling the story and not creating poster shots. The fights choreography could use some work as it is all disjointed. Comic book artists should always favour telling the story rather than featuring it.

I don't like Yu's work for a series like the Avengers. He's not iconic enough to handle a large cast. Sure, the artwork is fine and he renders each character well, but he just doesn't fit the story. It feels like one is reading a ninja comic book or Street Fighter as opposed to traditional super hero antics.

So far the story fits Yus style, although hes not my favourite artist. He has a lot difficulty in making fight choreography that move with the story. Besides his week storytelling skills, he makes his characters look less than appealing.

Butch Guice does a god job this issue with the underwater fight. It is quite odd to see giant robots and floating Atlanteans at once in the same panel in an underwater cave. In past issues, it seemed like the Altanteans were not submerged, but Guice has fixed that this issue and the action, including the characters' hair do seem to be underwater.

I really like how the Atlanteans have adapted to see life. Some have tentacles instead of hairs. Others have weird appendices that look like coral. Still, Mera's underwater dress looks odd. As for the outpost keeper, he looks like a 19th century British explorer in Africa, not an Altantean civil servant. The inking is uneven, although the art is graceful and really make the characters feel like they are underwater.

The artwork looks like modern age Don Heck work. The underwater shots work best though. The surface shots appear weaker and lack support from strong backgrounds. Speaking of backgrounds, in his underwater shots, Villagran uses negative space effectively to tell his story. The main problem with Villagran is that his work would suit another type of comic book than an Aquaman adventure.

As with the rest of this story, the artwork is filler material that does not resonate with readers. It's not that the art is ugly or badly executed. But it has no spirit. Seeing Aquaman tangled up in some creature's tentacles does not encourage me to seek out what lies beyond the splash page. In all this is a poor exit from a creative team that wanted to change Aquaman's status quo.

McManus takes some time to adjust to. His work is more comedy relief than super hero action. Although his characters look good underwater, the scenery of the destroyed city of Atlantis, lacks charm and architecture. When I think of the grandeur of Atlantis and its people, I am reminded of the Atlantis Chronicles and the tough characters of Patrick Gleason. McManus gives us weird looking Altanteans instead. Only time can tell if this new spin on Aquaman will work.

Chos work is great. His character designs are solid and the story is engaging. The backdrops are not as crispy as his characters though. His Manhattan feels like a bunch of digital boxes. The colouring gives it that digital feel. As for the villain, I find it odd how they absolutely refuse to draw her nipples and conveniently cover them with a puff of smoke.

Chos work continues to charm with strong compositions and character designs. He also does quite well in the fight sequence. Its rare to see an accomplished artist master both rendering and storytelling at once. Here he gives the Avengers a wide-screen budget for a comic book series that should be a television series. Its really impressive that he can keep up the quality unaided.