I tend to agree with this assessment of Simone's Birds. I have been considering dropping it. Not because it sucks. It clearly doesn't. But because it didn't totally captivate my attention (and my pull-list already has more than 30 titles).

I am unfamiliar with Marz.

Mark - It was less the coloring in The Programme for the various eras, which worked, but that some of the panels were almost black. It just seemed way too murky, although I understand your point.

Modok's 11 was way really good fun. I thought I'd be annoyed that it was an obvious (and refernced) unofficial movie tie-in... But it was breezy and enjoyable and FVL gave at least 7 of the 9 an identifiable personality. (Although Nightshade, who's one of my favorites, seemed way off. She's basically this super genius child, driven by pure id, but still filled with this kind of wide-eyed wonder.

Cover Girl was fun, too, but the art was often more'n a little off, and very occasionally (page 18, panel 2) downright terrible. But the dialog was fun and snappy, and at least a solid 80% of the gags worked.

I liked the coloring in the Programme. It's a book about secret histories, so not everything should be obvious to first glance. And I thought the different color-coding for different eras worked well, giving 'em all their own unqiue (and uniquely spooky) look.
Had the same problem with you putting the whos, whats, and wheres together, though.

I picked up the first three issues of the "1 Year Later" storyline last month after you reviewed Catwoman and mentioned that nobody buys it, and I asked you for a good jumping on point to sample the series. Boy, I want to like the book, but Pfeifer's terrible habit of bolding multiple words in every sentence of dialogue (and don't get me started on the underlining in captions) makes for some of the most excrutiating dialogue to plod through this side of Bendis.

(In Marz's case, I'd think Greg might have meant more along the lines of "Workmanlike"...he goes in, does the job, then leaves....Hack tends to denote more of just tossing whatever out without care.)

All artists have those days when it doesn't feel right. For whatever reason, it's lacking the passion. And often, you can let that day pass, and come at it again at another time. But when you're involved in the creation of something by many people, you sometimes have to just play along and work through it. Even if you're not rocking, you gotta give them a backbeat.

And I think that's all that Greg's implying. And I don't think that's harsh, in the slightest.

Just saying that

A. Simone is really invested in these characters

and

B. Saying she's not is the sort of thing that I think will piss people off more than you intend to...

that's all.

re Checkmate. it's shallow, I know...but I really wish the artists would draw Fire prettier. Despite Rucka retconning her into an assassin, she was still a Brazilian super model...a Brazilian super model who used to be drawn by Adam Hughes, no less.

For the quintessential BoPs Gail, I'd recommend the second trade, "Sensei and Student." You really get the whole shebang there: strong character work, continuity roots, vivid locales, sharp humor, popping action, and a last-minute stumble in the plot. Every subsequent story works on the same principles, but "S&S" is the strongest. IMO, Gail seems to put more of herself into BoPs than anyone outside of Animal Morrison, so if you don't see it there, you just can't see it.

Talk about a pay-off! I can imagine why it wouldn't have the same impact if you weren't reading it recently, but still, following that great fight, the issue got even better. I literally cheered out loud when we got to that great four-page reveal. And I don't do that very much. At all. Superb moment! Excellent characerization. Practically perfect all the way 'round. I wish she were sticking with the title, or writing the upcoming BC/GA ongoing, But I can't wait to see what she does with Wonder Woman.

And Nicola Scott is the quality penciller this title's been longing for. (I actually stopped buying for a while, because of Benes.) Highly recommended.

And I don't "get" Daryn Cooke either. He's got extraordinary chops as an artist and absolutely brilliant panel-to-panel storytelling sense, but he seems to lack real experimetalism (outside, perhaps, of Batman: Ego) and as a writer he's...well, there's that word "adequate" again. He's managed to spin some moderate writing abilities and an affection for the more charming aspects of the Silver Age of Superheroes into some kind of critical acclaim, and it really makes no sense to me.