The Amazing Spider-Girl #1
Writer: Tom DeFalco
Artist: Ron Frenz
$2.99

A nice break from the recent trend of hyper-violence (see Civil War, Infinite Crisis, and other higher profile titles), Tom DeFalco’s The Amazing Spider-Girl is an old-school, feel-good superhero comic in the best sense. The dialogue is bouncy, the story moves fast, and even Ron Frenz’s pencils have a vintage vibe. There’s some cliche here, including the obligatory superpowered-teen-playing-sports scene — I’d argue that teenage girls are more likely to spend an evening on Myspace rather than on an outdoor basketball court — but overall, DeFalco makes Mayday (i.e. Spider-Girl, alternate reality daughter of Peter Parker and Mary Jane) a genuinely likeable character who wants to help others. And by showing us the battered face of Hobgoblin’s female prisoner, but not her actual beating, The Amazing Spider-Girl achieves a much greater sense of tension and danger than any of the gratuitously violent comics available today.
KFR Rating: B+

Batman #658 & “Batman and Son”
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Andy Kubert
$2.99

What started out promising — great, even — has quickly deteriorated into so-so. While Grant Morrison’s lightening-up of Batman throughout “Batman and Son” has been a welcome change, the characterization of his just-revealed son, Damian, has been severely disappointing. The kid is just plain annoying — it seems like even Batman, Robin and Alfred can’t stand him — and whether or not that was Morrison’s intention, it makes it hard to care about what’s happening. More fights with the army of Man-Bats (it was fun the first three times, not so much anymore) in #658 and a predictable ending don’t help. On the plus side, the Joker’s coming back next issue, and Andy Kubert is doing the best work of his career.
Batman #658 - KFR Rating: B-
“Batman and Son” - KFR Rating: B

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