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| Tuesday, August 7, 2007 02:33 PM |
| The Take |
 by Fëanor |
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #7
All the action in this entire story arc was pretty much crammed into this final issue, which naturally made it one of the more interesting in the series. But the story also felt a bit rushed here, with the death of a main character being jammed in at the end as if there were hardly enough space left to fit it in. Overall, this series just didn't really do much for me. Here's hoping I don't get sucked in by the next one and feel it necessary to collect it in its entirety, too.
World War Hulk #3
As I had hoped, there is much smashing in this issue, and it is good. Dr. Strange is pulling out all the stops in his attempts to bring down the Hulk, including [SPOILER]a creature called Zom that I had to Google. (Apparently he's allowed himself to be possessed by Zom?)[/SPOILER]
Meanwhile, the Hulk apparently plans to take the various superheroes he's defeated and pit them against each other in brutal gladiatorial combat - the same kind of combat he was forced to endure when he arrived on the planet he was banished to. That should make for some good comics!
The New Fantastic Four #548
This was definitely not my favorite issue so far. It wasn't nearly as clever, funny, and fun as recent issues. But it had its moments, and it looks like more action and beatings are in store next month, so...
A Tale of the Batman: Gotham by Gaslight
Finally got my hands on this and, I have to say, I am pretty disappointed. I hadn't realized, you see, that it was just drawn by Mike Mignola, and he had nothing to do with the writing. In fact, Mignola only drew the first half - the bit where Batman fights Jack the Ripper - and had nothing whatsoever to do with the second half. And sadly the guy who did write both stories (Brian Augustyn, I believe?) is pretty lacking in talent. The dialogue is often corny, the characters rather dull and stereotyped, and the plotting clumsy, predictable, and sometimes even nonsensical. Mignola's art in the first part is quite good, but the art in the second part is pedestrian and boring, and the villain in that part is completely stupid. I expected a lot more from a book about Batman vs. Jack the Ripper, especially with Mignola as a contributor. Ah, well.
Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. Volume 2 - I Kick Your Face
Volume 2 is more of the same - by which I mean AWESOME. Ellis' stated purpose with these books was to create pure comics, with all of the good bits and none of the bad bits, and he has succeeded with flying colors. I have to say these two books containing the collected Nextwave are right up near the top of the list of the best of the illustrated fiction that I own. They're just so crazy and fun that it's ridiculous. The last (or second to last?) issue is mostly a series of two-page splashes featuring gigantic, wordless battles between the Nextwave team and a series of increasingly insane villainous creatures - like a gang of flying Stephen Hawkings with laser eyes, and a group of giant monkeys in Wolverine costumes with Wolverine claws. It doesn't get much better than that, people.
The Irredeemable Ant-Man #10
Yay! I finally got my hands on this old issue of Ant-Man, which was the tie-in issue with World War Hulk that I've been looking for for what seems like forever (although it's probably only been about a month). I had to go to Boston to find it, but find it I did! And as it turns out it's... pretty fun, I guess. Ant-Man acts like a dick, as usual; gets his Wii looted from his apartment by his friend; and tries and fails to hurt the Hulk by beating and blowtorching his stomach from the inside. The Hulk doesn't even notice, but Ant-Man does manage to get crushed and captured. D'oh. I hear he continues to be irredeemable in #11, but #12 will be the last issue for him.
Casanova Volume 1: Luxuria
This is some earlier work by Matt Fraction that I also picked up in Boston, and I have to say, it is exceedingly odd. It has a bit of the irreverent flavor of Nextwave, but is more serious and less understandable. The storyline is ridiculously and mind-blowingly complex and surreal: Casanova is a spy who gets ripped out of his own dimension into a parallel one where he is also a spy for the government, but is also now a double agent for a terrorist organization. He has serious family issues, as his overbearing Dad is his boss at the government and his over-sexed sister is his colleague at the terrorist's. (His sister from his own dimension, btw, was killed by his sister in this dimension - woah.) There's also two characters with the same name, who are sort of the same sex-robot, but with different memories, and they look totally different. And then there's a creature who's actually three monks squashed together into one mind. And Casanova can fight with psychic powers, which are never explained. And so forth. The whole story is feverishly insane, and is possibly the product of stream-of-consciousness writing, done while on a bad acid trip. Parts of it I really enjoyed, but most of the time I just felt vaguely confused and uncomfortable. I don't imagine I'll be getting volume two (if it exists).
Animal Man Volume 1
Apparently after Alan Moore made a big splash with his update and reimagining of Swamp Thing, as well as his Watchmen (which itself was sort of an update of old comic book characters, except he changed all the names), DC went headhunting in Great Britain, looking for the next Moore, and stumbled upon Grant Morrison. They asked him to pick his favorite old comic book character and work his British magic resurrecting the guy and making him popular again. Morrison went back through the archives and decided on Animal Man, whose power is that he can absorb the strengths and abilities of nearby animals and use them for a short time. So, for instance, he can absorb the power of flight from a nearby hawk and then take off and fly around for about a half hour. Morrison explains Animal Man's disappearance from the comic scene for all those years by making him semi-retired, with a wife and family. As the story begins, dude decides he wants to make something of himself and get back into the superhero biz. It's pretty funny how he has to kind of build his rep, get an agent, try to get hired by the Justice League, etc. There's also some funny bits about Justice League benefits, and a very short run-in with Superman.
But the main storyline is Animal Man discovering himself, his powers, and his place in the universe - thus becoming a vegetarian and radical supporter of animal rights. Which leads to the book occasionally becoming rather melodramatic and preachy. It also successfully activated some latent meat-eaters guilt in me. My understanding from what I've heard is that Animal Man ultimately discovers that he is actually a comic book character, which is pretty mind-blowing, but that didn't happen in this collection.
There is, however, an equally mind-blowing one-shot that hardly has Animal Man in it at all, in which we meet a cartoon coyote (clearly meant to be Wile E. Coyote, though he is never actually named as such) who got tired of the constant punishment and agony of the cartoon world and demanded of his creator a respite for himself and his fellows. God decreed he should go and live in the hell of the real world and thus find redemption for his people. So we end up, in this story, with a giant coyote who keeps getting run over by trucks, falling off cliffs, and crushed by rocks, but somehow always regenerates and comes back to life again. Which is funny in a cartoon, but TOTALLY CREEPY and deeply disturbing in this comic.
Also in this collection are one or two cross-over issues with a giant multi-book story arc called Invasion, in which the Thanagarian people (you know, like Hawkman) invaded the Earth for some reason. It was funny seeing these and remembering that giant multi-book story arcs have been with us for a long time.
But anyway. There were things I enjoyed about Animal Man, and things I didn't. The art is generally dull and forgettable. The story is occasionally interesting, moving, and funny, but is also occasionally corny and overdone. Overall, it didn't really excite me all that much. It feels like early work from a guy who would become a lot more talented later on.
Bone Volume 1: Out from Boneville
I'd heard a lot about Bone, and enjoyed the artistry of its author, Jeff Smith, in other works (such as Shazam: The Moster Society of Evil), so I got this out of the library a while back and gave it a shot. I finally gave up on it entirely shortly after I got back from Boston. I just couldn't get a handle on what the point of it was, who its audience was meant to be, or what it was really trying to do. It has the look and feel of a comic strip, but unfortunately it's just as unfunny as your average comic strip. It seems like it's going to be abstract and symbolic, but then resolves into nothing more than a slightly surreal, but otherwise rather bland and childish, fantasy adventure story. About half way through, I stopped, scanned the rest of the book, and decided to give up. It just didn't grab me at all. I found little to care about or to enjoy.
100%
Unless it's very bad or very good, I normally don't notice the art in comics very much. I've been trying to pay more attention to it lately, but generally it's the writing that I really concentrate on, and the writing that will sink or save a comic for me, regardless of how good or bad the art is.
That being said, there's something about Paul Pope's art that has always captivated me and blown me away from the first panel of his that I saw (in Batman: Year 100). His work is unique, incredibly evocative, intriguing, arresting, beautiful. Oh, and his writing's good, too! As soon as I finished B:Y100, I knew I'd need to read more stuff by this guy, but I didn't get around to even looking for anything until I hit the shop in Boston and found 100%.
There are no superheroes in 100%. It's a book about people and relationships. Which normally would turn me away pretty hard, I have to admit. What helps keep me interested is the fact that it's set in the future, with all kinds of science fiction, post-apocalyptic elements. And the fact that the art and writing are, as usual, fantastic. I also actually noticed the work of a letterer for the first time in this book; it's John Workman, and he does a great job.
The only flaw in the book I can think of is that it's hard to visually work out all the details in certain panels, mostly due to the fact that the book is in black and white, and the fact that Pope's world is cluttered to bursting with things - objects of all sorts.
The story follows a bunch of people working in a club of the future, where everyone has done everything and gone everywhere and it's all become so boring that just having a naked girl dancing isn't enough; now they do a thing called gastro where they put a camera in the girl's stomach and you see its contents projected up on a giant screen. The main characters are three couples - a young woman who tends bar at the club and an artist; the artist's cousin Strel, who's the club's dance manager, and a giant boxer g-fighter*; and finally a dancer at the club and the club's busboy. The first and last couples we see at the beginnings of their relationships, while the middle couple has split up and is now getting back together. We see their dreams and desires, their flawed hearts and minds, and get a glimpse into their pasts and into what they find beautiful and meaningful. It's quite a bit different than most of the other comic books I've been reading, but it's a gorgeous little book, and I enjoyed it very much.
*Although what he does looks a lot like boxing, and is treated pretty much like boxing throughout the book, it's actually a future sport that's a fusion of boxing and wrestling, and that also involves the camera inside you projecting your interior to the audience, called gastro fight. |
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