New Comics - May 17th - Part One

Here's what it looks like when I try to be more timely with these posts. I'm exhausted and I have to wake up in six hours, so if there are some typos, bear with me and I'll fix them tomorrow. On to the books.

• Moon Knight 2 (Marvel) - I don't think that in the long run this book will hold my attention. Last issue I talked about David Finch assuming Todd McFarlane's long since abdicated throne, and this issue supports the argument even moreso. This issue, layout- and rendering-wise, could have fit easily in McFarlane's Spider-Man run. This is good if that fits your taste, bad if it doesn't. The only real problem is that it's not breaking any ground, and for a script written by someone outside the comics field, it shouldn't feel like McFarlane wrote it as well. The more I think about it, the more likely the long run might end up the short run.
• Wonderland 1 (Slave Labor Graphics) - This is the first issue of the third title to spin out of Slave Labor's acquisition of the Disney licenses, and has, by far, the most attractive art and story. Artist Sonny Liew's (below) pencils appear to be uninked, but it serves his art well. The story is interesting enough. I'm not much of a Disney fan, and I mostly grabbed this title for the fact that the art is so nice, but the story was interesting enough that I will continue reading, and actually look forward to the story building in the next issue.
• Fell 5 (Image) - Warren Ellis continues to impress in this 20 page, done-in-one issue. That's part of his self-imposed structure for this title and I think it pays off handsomely. He tells a simple, straight-forward, character driven story, and it never feels slight. Lite, maybe, but this is genre comics, and gravity is not the order of the day. Ben Templesmith, who's always underwhelmed me, is improving issue by issue. There were very few panels that seemed rushed (an occasional problem in previous stories) and I think his character appearance consistency is improving. More than worth the $1.99 cover price.

More tomorrow...