Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Weekly Rankings For 08/06/08

Here are this week’s comics (last week's actually, posted late due to a well deserved vacation for Brandon) ranked prior to reading them, based upon past performance and advance information released on each issue:

2. Hulk #5
1. Cable #6

Here are the rankings after the first read through with a mini-review:

I passed on a bunch of other stuff, including Hawkman. I don’t get what they are trying to do there so I'd rather not open that can of worms.

Anyway:

2. Hulk #5

Loeb & McGuinness

I am dumber for having bought this. Where to begin…. let's start with the art. I picture a conversation between McGuinness and Hulk's editor going something like, "Hey, I'm late on my art." and the response being, "Don't worry just stop drawing backgrounds and we can copy and paste some of stuff you've already drawn onto different pages." "Cool!" Yes, there are no backgrounds. And it stinks. The coloring is really nice though. The story is garbage. Red Hulk fights Thor. Threatens to kill him over and over again. He gets his hammer (yes that's right) and leaves him for dead on the moon. Doesn’t kill him. Why? Dude, your guess is as good as mine here. Green Hulk pulls himself out of San Francisco Bay and is still an idiot. He teams with the other idiot, A-Bomb. Iron Man enlists some help to take down Red Hulk. I mean this comic stinks. Stinks bad. There is no story. No motivation. No plot. No reason for the characters to be fighting. No reason for green Hulk to be an idiot. A character built over years of great stories is a tub of goo inside five issues. I loved the "Hulk Splash" comic in the back. Can’t say it was worth $3 though. I can’t even compare this to a crack habit because crack must have something good about it to the user, right?

1. Cable #6

Swiercyznski, Olivetti and LaCombe

Here's a nice surprise. In this one issue of 30+ pages I got more good story here then the whole first arc. Cyclops talks to Emma, Hank, Sam and Logan trying to piece together a way to help Cable in the future. It's excellent. It fills in some gaps and gives a ton of character development for Cyclops that comes in the form of guilt. Cable shows his softer side and proves out he is not just all soldier now. He is a foster dad who has to apply skills for the most basic needs of the baby - no matter how dumb they may seem to him. The art duties are split and I felt they were okay. Each seemed rushed, but I felt it helped set a somber mood with the drab coloring. I had this title on the chopping block, but I really did like this story. Also, dare I say, it is a jumping on point for a new reader. God knows you didn’t miss anything in the first five issues.