Panel of the Week 2/24/10

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It was a week of highs and lows for me. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the titles I took a chance on this week. Blackest Night came back strong after its hiatus but the three Siege titles that dropped were lackluster. Read on to see what action is in the Panel of the Week.


Batman and Robin #9
At this point I have to admit that I’m only still reading Batman and Robin because Frank Quitely is coming back to the book at some point. Not that I have a problem with the artwork of Cameron Stewart. I happen to like it plenty. There was a pretty good sequence of panels where Batwoman and Batman beat the tar out of evil clone Batman. I think it’s just that I’ve given Sir Grant Morrison all the slack I can. When the injured Damon defends himself by throwing a computer mouse I couldn’t believe it. There was nothing else laying around? Problem was I couldn’t stop looking at this panel. I would heft my mouse and ponder and move onto another book from this week. Then I would go back and look at this panel again, and again. After the third time I knew I had no choice but POTW this preposterous impromptu weapon.


Choker #1
I was never a huge fan of 30 Days of Night so my exposure to the art of Ben Templesmith is limited. I do enjoy some noir detective stories so I rolled the dice on Choker #1. This panel really caught my eye. It appears to be a man with five heads who was attempting to commit suicide. When we see him he had already shot (I presume) himself in three of his heads. I gotta imagine that numbers 1 and 5 are the hardest to do. I bet he wanted to end it all after blowing through his paycheck every week on toothpaste. For those of you who love Templesmith there are a few pages at the end of the book that show his creative process from pencils to digital inks.


Blackest Night #7
I now know why this book took a month off in January, it has a cast of thousands. The typical page in this issue features dozens of different characters. Issue #7 is crammed with action, it must have taken forever to finish. In all that action though, this one scene with Kilowog is what stood out to me. A gentle reminder that you simply do not screw around with the drill sergeant of the Green Lanterns.


Secret Warriors #13
Baron von Strucker is an old school Marvel bad guy. He takes something as undeniably cliched as fighting multiple henchmen and then losing his temper and makes it ok. Cool even. I mean, yes, he has that Satan Claw right hand going for him but let’s face it, he punches this guy’s head off with style!


Ultimate Enemy #2
This series is nothing special and I’m only really picking it up out of blind allegiance to the Ultimate imprint. This series of panels near the end of this issue spoke to an obsession I have with Spider-Man’s eyes. I think there are three schools of thought when it comes to drawing the black and white eyes of the Spider-Man costume. There are the original small eye holes of the original Spider-Man associated with Kirby/Ditko (and in recent years with the very talented Gabriele Dell’Otto). There are the huge eyes of the late 80’s and early 90’s that I associate most with Todd McFarlane. Finally, there are the emoting magical mask eyes that can change shape and size depending on Spider-Man’s mood. Up until now when I see this I think mostly of Humberto Ramos and his run on the Spectacular Spider-Man. In this book Rafa Sandoval has followed in Ramos’ footsteps and I think I like it. I appreciate that Spidey can express emotions while at the same time I realize that it’s ridiculous and impossible.