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| Monday, October 8, 2007 10:57 PM |
| The Take |
 by Fëanor |
UPDATED. See below, after Hellboy.
Hellboy Volume 6: Strange Places
This collection isn't really one arc, but two short interconnected arcs, the second one picking up right where the first leaves off. The first story is called "The Third Wish," and the second is called "The Island." "The Third Wish" is simply excellent - it's a creepy re-telling of the original "Little Mermaid" story with Hellboy inserted into it. But before it gets into that, there's a really neat little prologue in Africa featuring some wonderful bits of African folk tales. Then the rest of the story takes place in a beautifully, hauntingly illustrated underwater domain, and there's plenty more fantastic fairy tale type stuff. It's just another wonderful piece of art from Mignola.
Then there's "The Island." In his intro, Mignola points out that he had a very hard time writing this one, and started it three or four times before finally settling in and getting it done. And indeed it feels a bit... off. There's a LOT of exposition - in fact, the thing is really mostly exposition - and the conclusion is confusing, sudden, and a bit anti-climactic. Of course, the drawing and writing are very good, so I actually found myself really enjoying the expository sections, especially since they were finally revealing the history and origin of the Ogdru Jahad and Hellboy's mysterious stone arm. And we learn that Hellboy is a lot more indestructible even than we thought. But the confusing ending really bugs me. Hellboy is outside a castle, standing in some water; he reaches down, and then the next panel is all black with a sound effect written across it: "SHUNK." The next thing you know, the giant monster is dying, and the villain is crumbling into a skeleton. So... what did Hellboy do? Did the African guy help out somehow? Did the ghosts of the Inquisition priest and his soldiers somehow finally act to defeat their enemy after all this time? I don't know. Either I'm dumb, or this is just very unclear. I hate to throw around phrases like "poor storytelling," especially when it comes to Mignola, but... dude, what the heck happened? I've read the end of this story three or four times and I just can't piece it together.
Anyway, after the story there's an epilogue, original to this collection, that helps connect this to the current Hellboy story arc that I've been collecting in issues. Then there's a couple of finished and unfinished sections from previous versions of "The Island," which are interesting. So it's a neat collection, and the story is important to the understanding of Hellboy and his history, but I wish "The Island" were a little more polished.
[UPDATE: Poppy and I looked over the ending of "The Island" slowly and carefully and traded theories back and forth and finally, after picking up on some details neither of us had seen at first, we think we figured out what's really supposed to be happening. (Spoilers) As the giant worm thing is dropping down on Hellboy, he ducks out of the way, and it impales itself on the mast of a wrecked ship. Its death - because it is inextricably linked to the villain in the castle - also leads to his defeat. I feel better now that I think I understand this, but I still say those panels could have been drawn in such a way to make that much clearer. It shouldn't have taken two people a lot of re-reads and discussion and careful examination just to determine what is supposed to have physically happened in your comic book.]
The Authority Volume 4: Transfer of Power
Ho-lee crap. I have to say, I didn't expect much of this book, as half of it is written by some guy I'd never heard of (Tom Peyer), and I read in Wikipedia that this arc was plagued by missed deadlines and censorship of art and writing. But this is easily one of the best Authority books I've read yet. It's actually composed of two four-part stories: "Brave New World" by Mark Millar, with only the first part drawn by Frank Quitely, the two middle parts by Art Adams, and the final one by Gary Erskine; and "Transfer of Power" by Tom Peyer with all pencils by Dustin Nguyen. But oddly enough these stories do not follow one after the other; instead, you get part one of "BNW," then parts one through four of "ToP," then parts two through four of "BNW." And they actually together all tell one connected story. So, confusing structure, but a brutal, hilarious, disturbing little tale about (spoiler warning) the Authority getting removed - and then replaced - by the world's major governments, who hire a twisted, psychopathic hillbilly named Seth for the job and give him a couple hundred superpowers to do it with, thus turning him into the ultimate assassin. It's actually understandable that the governments of the world would want to take out the Authority - they're tired of getting threatened and preached to and controlled by this gang of super-powered bastards. But what they do to them after defeating them is really hideous (more spoilers): Apollo is set up as a punching bag for the new Authority, and the others have their memories warped and brains washed and are inserted into horrible and humiliating new lives. All except the Midnighter, whose apparent death scene is seriously one of the most awesome things I've ever seen. What did he go to an air force base for? To get a jet, sucker! Oh my God, I love the Midnighter so much.
But the twisted new version of the Authority that takes over is awesome in its own horrible way, too, and reading their adventures is just as entertaining as reading the adventures of the real Authority. Last Call, an extremely heterosexual Midnighter whose homophobia saves the world; the Colonel, a male version of Jenny Sparks, who's far more irascible and hateful than she ever was; Teuton, an Apollo who is constantly upset and weeping. And then of course there's the team chaplain: CHAPLAIN ACTION, HE-MAN OF THE CLOTH! That shit is hilarious, man.
The idea of the people of the third-world stealing the wealth of the first world and building a paradise from their wishes, including a reborn version of the original Authority (which is a clever fake-out) is pretty wonderful. And I love the awful things that the new Authority does - like paving over the collective unconscious, building mini-malls there, and killing all the old Gods - including shooting Jesus over and over. One of my favorite touches was the way they hung huge advertisements on the Carrier - that's just so brilliant and awful.
Really the only weak part of the whole book is the very ending. I don't really like the way the universe is saved off-screen by the regular human governments of the Earth, while the Authority sits by and does nothing. It's an interesting concept, but it ends up being just rather odd and anti-climactic. Then there's the almost too-happy ending, where everything's better and everybody's back and all is well again. Don't get me wrong, I did want my old Authority back, and I did want them happy and well. And it was great to see Midnighter and Apollo get married (I loved their couple-bickering in the first story). But it all felt a little too easy and too sudden, and Hawksmoor's final monologue is pretty corny.
Perhaps I would have been more willing to accept the rather shaky ending if the art had been better, but in an unfortunate coincidence, the worst art of the entire book shows up at the same time as the worst writing. Not only are Gary Erskine's people rather clumsy and ugly looking, they're also almost unrecognizable; the only way I could figure out who the two characters were who were talking to each other on the final page was from context clues; they didn't look at all like the Engineer and Jack Hawksmoor to me.
But aside from that dip in quality at the very end, Transfer of Power is just another absolutely brilliant storyline for The Authority, which is definitely, as whole, one of my favorite comics of all time.
Buffy Season 8 #7
The mighty entertaining Season 8 continues, and we learn more about Gigi and her plan - which, perhaps unsurprisingly, has Buffy at the center of it. And of course the story is told with the clever and funny dialogue we've come to expect from Buffy as a franchise, and BKV as a writer.
Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus #2
The real villains begin to reveal themselves, and some backstory - which I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be familiar with or not - rears its ugly head. There's also a lot of explosions and fighting and violence. Good times! But, uh oh - has Lobster Johnson been cursed by evil sorcery such that he cannot fight the villain directly anymore? Only time will tell...
The Vinyl Underground #1
This is that vaguely Invisibles-style book about a rather random group of folks who solve supernatural mysteries with their interesting set of skills. This series is definitely trying to be something unique and cool, and occasionally it succeeds. I particularly like that the tank of the group is the skinny hot chick; she takes out a whole gang of toughs single-handedly, brutally and permanently incapacitating them in a matter of seconds. But overall, it's just not all that interesting, and the writing is rather bland and weak. I don't think I'll waste any more money on this title.
Omega: The Unknown #1
Peccable took a look through this before I did and wasn't very impressed by it. I read Chris Sims' review after I was done, and he didn't seem very impressed by it, either. But I thought it was truly fantastic. I love Farel Dalrymple's wonderful art, and I was pleased to discover that Lethem - whom I was afraid might be too wordy, what with his background in fiction - knows when to be silent and let the images speak for themselves. And when he does write, his work is really on a different level than I'm used to in comics. It's subtle, it's highly intelligent, it's filled with many wonderfully large vocabulary words. Lethem also manages to really create some fascinating voices for his characters; the boy and his family are particularly excellent, with their stilted, overly polite language. I love these characters, I love the mystery of the boy and the alien, I love the poetry of the words. This is good comics, people. Here's hoping Lethem can keep up this level of quality throughout the series.
Usagi Yojimbo #105
Usagi Yojimbo #106
Chris Sims will occasionally mention this series just to remind everyone how excellent it is and that they should be reading it, so I've thought about picking it up a few times, but I've been turned away by the extremely cartoony art on the covers. But since it was a slim week for me this week in terms of new books coming out, I decided to go ahead and buy the two most recent issues (I would have just picked up the most recent, but it was number two in a story arc, so I figured I might as well start with a number one).
So what is Usagi Yojimbo? Well, it's essentially like reading a samurai movie where all the human characters have been replaced by talking cartoon animals. It's weird at first, but you get used to it pretty quickly, and then you realize that you're reading a great period action story, with multiple inter-woven plot lines that feature humor, fighting, and creepy supernatural elements. I was entertained and intrigued by these two books, and I think I'm going to go ahead and keep collecting this one. |
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Jim Genzano's books on Goodreads
