Mark Thomas Comic Reviews

John Romita Jr. has attracted a fair amount of flack online with his work on Avengers. I'm hopeful this issue will manage to convert the unimpressed. Romita delivers some gorgeously framed action in this issue, most notably in a double-page spread featuring Thor. Romita seems to be having a particularly huge amount of fun with the God of Thunder in this series. The rampant chaos in Bendis' script translates to intricately packed and visually diverse pages from Romita. That said, Romita's work does seem below his usual standard in certain ways. Figures are sometimes rendered too harshly and in too angular a style. Perhaps thinner lines and less heavy blacks from inker Klaus Janson, coupled with a brighter, more varied color palette from colorist Dean White, would help remove the harsher, flatter qualities of the art.

I'd say this issue is a much better effort than previous story arcs in terms of general dialogue, but the humor still tends to fall flat. A forced Heroes/i> reference stuck out as particularly lame. Karl Moline's artwork is also fairly underwhelming. There are some genuinely good close-up panels on display here, but whenever the camera shifts back very far, Moline's figures tend to become comically simplistic and poorly proportioned. Riley #1 is rough around the edges in some ways, and arguably not that necessary in the grand scheme of things. That said, this one-shot is a worthy read for those anxiously awaiting the final arc of Season 8.

Alex Cal's art shares the same strengths and flaws seen in the main series. It can be attractive and reasonably detailed in isolated panels, but frequently awkward and unnatural when scenes call for plenty of motion and action. Cal also has an annoying tendency to reuse art. Cobra Commander appears in the exact same fist-shaking pose several times in this issue. But outside of the art problems, Origins accomplished exactly what it's meant to do in this arc by introducing a classic Joe character and ensuring he's someone to watch for in the other books. It's hard to argue with results like that.

The only weak point in a generally slid script is some occasional awkward dialogue, particularly involving a scene between Cecil and The Immortal and Dupli-Kate. Ransom Getty captures the sleek look and feel of Ryan Ottley's art with a bit more emphasis on exaggerated musculature and fierce poses. The late addition of Cliff Rathburn on inks and the multiple colorists do hold the art back a bit, unfortunately. Guarding the Globe should please most Invincible fans looking for a lighter, less intense storyline.

Returning once more to the theme of duality, issue #24's greatest strength is how it manages to deliver an effective conclusion to a 24-issue saga. Hulk truly seems to have come full circle now, and issue #24 even directly parallels a few key scenes from issue #1. The script here occasionally flirts with feeling pointless or unnecessary given how the main event has largely wrapped up. Strictly in terms of endings, Hulk #24 outclasses Incredible Hulk #611 by a fair margin. That issue ended abruptly, whereas here the script allows enough room for the characters to begin picking up the pieces and moving forward to the series' next phase. Hulk #24 is uneven in many ways, but that's simply par for the course with this series, and I can't say I left this issue feeling disappointed. And as with Incredible Hulk, I'm fairly excited to see what's coming next.

Ryan Ottley's art is as beautiful to behold as ever, even if FCO Plascencia's colors are somewhat muted by the scene locations. Part of the fun with this arc in particular is picking out all the visual homages to classic sci-fi franchises. As "The Viltrumite War" continues to deal out death and suffering, readers will have to take humor wherever they can find it.