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| Tuesday, February 19, 2008 05:51 PM |
| The Take |
 by Fëanor |
Fëanor's weekly comic book review post.
I got everything I was looking for this week except Star Wars: Dark Times #9. It didn't look like it had actually come out, which didn't surprise me that much, as those Star Wars books often seem to miss their release dates. Anyway, I was surprised to see it listed for this week in the first place, as I'm pretty sure I just bought #8 not that long ago.
Batman Archives Volume 4
Some time ago, my brother was good enough to lend me the fourth volume of the complete collection of Batman's adventures in Detective Comics, and I just recently got around to finishing it up. If you're interested in what I thought of past volumes of the collection, I was able to dig up my reviews of volumes 1 and 2. I can't find my review of volume 3, however, which either means I forgot to write one, or I skipped reading that book entirely! Either way, it doesn't really matter, because at this point in his career, Batman's adventures are still extremely episodic. This volume covers issue #87 through issue #102 of Detective Comics, and sees Batman and the boy wonder battling mostly petty criminals, although they do have the occasional run-in with the Penguin, the Joker, and even the Cavalier of Crime, who is such a lame villain that I never expected to see him again (although in this book they make him a little more interesting by turning him into sort of an evil version of Bruce Wayne/Batman - a lazy socialite by day and a costumed criminal by night). Just because most of the bad guys are petty criminals doesn't mean their schemes are typical, though - there's some pretty weird plots in here, like the criminals on the showboat with a travelling swimming exhibition who rob the towns they visit with the help of a clock that runs slow; a gang that hijacks a sight-seeing bus to get the loot on it, originally stolen by another gang; the criminals who do all kinds of ridiculous things in order to outsmart each other and get all the loot from a robbery, including faking their own deaths and hiding the loot in a safe with seven switches on it, six of which set off a bomb, and only one of which will safely open the safe; the story with a mystery writer, jewels, and a secret passage that's more like a Hardy Boys book than a Batman comic; and then there's the one that I can't really even make sense out of about the rich guy and how the money in his safe gets robbed and he becomes king of the hobos. And of course the plots that Joker and Penguin come up with are even stranger and more complex, and involve creating life-like dummies of people to trick their families into paying for fake miracle cures; and kidnapping an entire house.
There is some pretty serious violence occasionally, but overall the tone of this volume is much lighter than that of earlier volumes - and that of the contemporary Detective Comics, for that matter. This version of Batman is clearly the one the creators of the TV series were thinking of: here Batman and Robin are fun-loving pals who revel in taking down the bad guys, and do it with smiles on their faces and jokes on their lips. They're also not really vigilantes, but essentially special operatives of the police force in all but name. In one rather odd sequence, Commissioner Gordon even presents Batman with a diamond-studded version of the bat logo as a token of thanks, in front of a cheering crowd of new police recruits.
Despite some of the weird and varied plots Batman and Robin stumble upon, the action sequences in all of the comics in this volume follow pretty much the same formula: during the first fight, either due to a mistake that Robin makes, a twist of fate, or the treachery of one of their foes, Robin and Batman are knocked unconscious just long enough for the villains to escape, or for the villains to tie them up and put them into a death trap from which they will later escape. In the second fight, this does not happen, and Robin and Batman are triumphant. Throughout both fights, Robin and Batman beat the bad guys with fists, feet, and whatever else happens to be lying around, making silly jokes and puns all the while - but they never use guns, and never purposefully kill anyone.
Although most of the characters at this point in Batman's history have become at least recognizable versions of themselves, Alfred is still quite a different animal. They changed him from skinny to fat overnight in an earlier volume, but his dialogue still retains the odd spellings that are apparently meant to suggest a British accent (although I've never heard anyone, from England or anywhere else, talk like that), and his character is still that of a bumbling idiot who yearns to be a great detective like Batman, but has none of his physical strength or reasoning power. This is not at all the dryly witty, eminently efficient Alfred we all know and love. Still, this version of Alfred is actually pretty entertaining in his own right, and works well as comic relief and as a foil to Batman.
These comics are most definitely a product of their time (that being 1944 and 1945). Although DC decided not to allow their superheroes to fight in WWII, a number of the covers of these issues promote war bonds, and inside there are occasionally some pretty harsh words for the Japanese. In one fight sequence a thug, as he is brutally beaten by our heroes, cries out, "It shouldn't happen to a Jap!" And in another fight sequence, Robin tells another thug: "Jiu-jitsu, my friend—-the only good thing that ever came out of Japan!"
Still, overall this volume is full to brimming with good clean fun. The stories are rather silly, but often surprisingly clever and unique, and always entertaining. Plus, all the good guys always get happy endings, and the bad guys always get put away in jail, and there's something to be said for the pleasant simplicity of that. This Batman is lacking the complexity and realism of today's Batman, but he's still a true hero whose adventures are a joy to read.
Booster Gold #0
I am pleased and relieved to report that I have tried Booster Gold, and decided definitively that I do not like him or his story, and there's no need for me to worry about collecting his comic. Whew!
This issue is apparently a direct continuation of the story that's been ongoing in Booster Gold #1-7, but it also includes a re-telling of Booster's origin story, and ties in with DC's Zero Hour event, which I guess explains the whole #0 thing. It features Booster travelling through time with about four or five different incarnations of the Blue Beetle and having some rather boring adventures that don't really amount to much. The story is, Booster has just broken the laws of time to save the Ted Kord Blue Beetle from his fated death by bullet so he and Kord can team up again like old times and save the universe and the time stream and what not. And now some kind of OMAC robots are after them, or something? I don't know. I don't really care, either. There's just nothing going on in here that I find particularly interesting. Booster Gold as a character is completely dull and uninteresting, and none of the Blue Beetles are really grabbing me, either. Booster's origin story is slipped in here almost as an afterthought, and it's a dumb, melodramatic thing about throwing a football game. Booster becomes determined to stop it from ever happening, and then talked out of stopping it, all in the space of a couple pages.
Anyway, I'll stop going on about this issue. The point is, it's really not very good, and now I feel totally okay about ignoring Booster Gold from here on out.
Nova Annual #1
This is very cool. They start things off with a sweet, old school-style cover, which is wrapped around an interesting and exciting comic that weaves together two stories - one set in the past, revealing Nova's origin, and another set in the future, revealing one possible end of the war with the Phalanx - before finally dropping back out into the present, where we're still following Nova on his quest to explore the Technarchy's homeworld and perhaps find the secret to defeating the Phalanx and curing the Transmode virus. Each different time period/section of the story is drawn by a different artist, but all are written by the usual duo of Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning, who do their usual excellent job. Sure, the future and present stories get a bit corny at times, but they pretty much earn the right to be corny with the great story and ideas they have as a backdrop. It was great to finally read an origin for Nova, as I was pretty much in the dark on his past until now. And the story, although it owes a lot to other superhero origin stories like those of Spider-Man and the Green Lantern, is told very well, with funny and clever dialogue and exciting action sequences. And the way it's woven together with the future sequence - which is itself very moving, clever, and effective - is quite brilliant. And that two-page splash right near the middle of the book that's populated with pretty much every Marvel superhero, and a lot of the villains, just took my breath away. Fantastic. Yep, still loving the Nova!
The Punisher: Force of Nature #1
This is a one-shot printed under Marvel's MAX label, which means they get to show boobies and curse, and there's more blood than usual. The cover shows the Punisher holding a harpoon and standing in a tiny boat on raging seas, facing off against a giant, evil, vicious whale who is about to eat him. I picked the comic up because it's written by acclaimed local author Duane Swierczynski. In it, the Punisher gets wind of a big criminal operation that's been split into three parts, with each part given to a nobody, and each nobody sworn to secrecy. The Punisher needs to figure out the details of the three parts and take them all out at once, or else the people behind it all will get wind of him and move the whole operation somewhere else. It just so happens that the three nobodies get together every once in a while to go fishing and drink beer together, so the Punisher cleverly rigs their boat and supplies so that they'll all be stuck together in a bad situation that gets rapidly worse, in the hopes that they'll eventually crack and give everything up. And, I don't want to spoil it for you or anything, but, they do. Then, randomly, a whale shows up.
The opening of this comic - which features a rope spread across the sky going taught, and the Punisher saying in a narrative box: "Harpooning a man isn't as easy as you think." - is completely brilliant. And it remains quite good as it goes on, using brutal and funny combinations of narrative text and panel images to make it clear that the Punisher is a bad-ass motherfucker not to be messed with. Then his plan to break the three men goes into action and moves forward like clockwork, with the Punisher revealing to us in more narrative boxes just how carefully he's planned the whole thing out. It's clever and amusing.
So I'm not sure why I found the comic as a whole slightly unsatisfying. Maybe it's the sudden and seemingly pointless appearance of the whale at the very end. Or the fact that the whole thing is so relentlessly brutal and dark and disgusting. Or the fact that I don't like the way the artist - Michael Lacombe - drew the Punisher. Whatever it is, it left me a little disappointed at the end. Still, even if the whole is less than the sum of its parts, some of the parts are really quite neat.
BPRD: 1946 #2
This is just plain freaking fantastic. Holy crap do I love this series. In this issue the relationship between Bruttenholm and the soldiers assigned to him gets a bit better, thanks to some hard drinking and honest talking. Then he finally gets a useful tip that leads him to a really creepy thing in a barn. Some shit goes down, then the really creepy Russian girl shows up, does some really creepy stuff, and tells Bruttenholm a couple of really fantastic stories that fill in some important and fascinating background information. Then it's back to the asylum for what I assume will be some seriously nasty vampire fighting next issue.
Did I mention that this is fantastic? Great story, great characters (especially Varvara, the creepy Russian girl), great art. Really chilling sequences. Just an excellent comic. If anything, this series is even better than I hoped it would be - which is pretty impressive, because I was hoping it would amazing.
Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure #1
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby produced 102 consecutive issues of Fantastic Four and also worked on a 103rd issue, but Kirby quit Marvel before it was finished. The work Kirby had completed on the issue was later altered, cut up, and inserted into FF #108 as a lengthy flashback. This special, extra-long, one-shot release includes: 1) a brand new, completed version of the 103rd story, as Kirby intended it, making use of his original art (with additional pencils by Ron Frenz, "embellishing" by old Lee compatriot Joe Sinnott, and colors by Chris Sotomayor), and a new script by Stan Lee himself; 2) a look at Kirby's recently discovered original pencil sketches and margin notes for the 103rd story, arranged into what's believed to be his intended order and placement; and 3) a reprint of FF #108.
The last time Marvel did something like this - a new FF book by Stan Lee called The Last Fantastic Four Story - I really didn't like it. But this Lost Adventure just sounded like a really interesting piece of comic book history, so I had to pick it up. And the book as a whole actually turned out to be interesting, fun, and entertaining, if also plagued by the ridiculousness, melodrama, and bombast that's typical of classic Marvel work.
The main event - the new, completed version of Lee and Kirby's 103rd Fantastic Four story - is a rather odd story about a man calling himself Janus who blazes into the city in a strange craft and smashes his way into a bank in order to rob the vault. The Thing and Johnny Storm both happen to be nearby and try to stop him, but his Mega-Power is too strong for them. Afterwards, Reed gets an idea and tracks down a guy he used to know named Janus. It looks like the same man, but this Janus is weak and tries to warn Reed of some danger that he can't explain. Soon enough the mystery of the two Januses becomes clear, and the FF save the day, as usual.
I say "mystery," but there really isn't much mystery to the story. The frame story and the name Janus pretty much give away the only plot point in the story right off the bat. And the way that Reed ultimately beats the bad guy ([spoiler]by sneaking up behind him and stealing his remote control from him[/spoiler]) is pretty lame. When you strip away all the overdone dialogue and narration, and the half-assed Jekyll/Hyde plot device, it's essentially a story about a guy with a cool weapon who's using it to steal stuff, and how the FF stop him by taking away his cool weapon. Still, it's great to see Kirby's crazed, dynamic art refurbished and accompanied by brilliant, lovely colors. And some of Lee's dialogue and editor's notes are really quite funny, as he works in some rather clever pop culture references. I particularly like some of the bad-ass dialogue he gives The Thing. Overall it's a fun little story.
The next part of the book consists of Kirby's original sketches and margin notes for the story, put back into the order Kirby intended by noted comic book and Kirby scholar John Morrow, who also provides an interesting introduction that gives a bit more background information on the history of the story and its various incarnations. Morrow also gets in a little jab at the modern Marvel: "These seemingly minor details make the FF seem like real people, and were a big part of the sense of family fans felt reading the comics of the Lee/Kirby era. The very lack of this type of storytelling detail is one of the reasons the FF has never reached the heights it attained while Kirby was on it."
The sketches and notes that follow seem to tell a story extremely similar to the one we've just read, but of course with a lot of the details and dialogue either left out, or slightly altered. It's an interesting look at what goes into making a comic book.
The last segment of the book is the reprint of #108, which is a clumsy and rather nonsensical comic that has most of the 103rd story jammed into the middle of it as a painfully long flashback. This version of the story has the evil Janus as a negative version of the good scientist Janus, born out of the Nega-Power of the Negative Zone. Which is actually a slightly cooler idea than the evil twin concept of the original. But the flashback construction is just irritating, and the idea at the end of the good twin now being somehow partially immune to the Negative Zone, which turns him invincible when he enters it, is just odd and silly. The original tale isn't exactly a brilliant and amazing piece of storytelling, but this cobbled-together version really feels cobbled-together - a clumsy collection of plot elements glued to each other in a desperate attempt to make something usable. It has some cool concepts and some neat art, but it's the least entertaining part of this book.
Still, like I said, overall this issue surprised me with how much it was able to fascinate and entertain me.
Marvel Adventures Hulk #8
I decided to give Marvel's All Ages Hulk title a shot, and picked up this, the latest issue. In this series, the Hulk is accompanied by two comic relief sidekicks: teen Rick Jones, who narrates and offers silly commentary laced with pop culture references; and Monkey, a former lab monkey of Dr. Banner. The story is pretty simple: Dr. Strange discovers a monster invasion is on its way, and he can't take care of it all by himself, so he gathers together a bunch of tough guys to help him, including Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Silver Surfer, and Hulk & friends - in other words, the classic line-up of The Defenders. Namor, as usual, is not interested, but once the Hulk engages the enemy, the Sub-Mariner decides he can't just walk away from a fight, and the Defenders get to work on their first mission.
It's a fun enough little comic, with some decent action and some reasonably amusing comedy. But it's also very simplistic, and sometimes the humor feels a bit forced. The inclusion of references to the Wii and Dumbledore feels not so much casual and realistic as it does a desperate attempt to appeal to kids by mentioning the things they're into these days. I'm not sure I'll be picking up another issue of this. Even though it did have another amusing episode of "Mini Marvels" in the back, in which a character named Elephant Steve saves the day...
Ultimate Iron Man II #3
Every issue of this miniseries lowers my opinion of it more and more - so it's a good thing there's only one left! The bad guys' plot in the book just feels confused and mostly pointless. The various geniuses are also not looking very much like geniuses here. They're instead constantly screwing up and coming up with rather simplistic and poorly thought out plans. One of the things I really enjoy about most Marvel comics is how good they tend to be at portraying the super-human intelligence of characters like Tony Stark and Reed Richards. But Card fails to do that here.
There are some funny and clever scenes in here, and it kept me turning pages, but all in all I'm just finding this series pretty boring and disappointing.
Green Lantern Corps #21
Our first look at an Alpha Lantern in action is a story about Lantern Boodika, who is ordered to return to her home planet when a new Lantern goes missing after being ordered to investigate the disappearances of starships in the region. But flashbacks reveal that Boodika had a falling out with her people when she originally became a Lantern, and the homecoming is not a happy one. (It certainly doesn't help that she's apparently part robot now.)
This isn't a great issue, but it's interesting, with some fun action and art, and I'm definitely still enjoying the whole Green Lantern universe, and the Alpha Lantern saga in particular.
The Goon #21
Although my lack of knowledge of most of the Goon's history didn't affect my understanding of issue #20, I did find myself at a bit of a disadvantage this time around. I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to understand what this new priest is talking about when he refers to some questionable things in the zombie priest's past. I also think I'm supposed to recognize this Willie Nagel character, who appears to be a smart, good zombie, as opposed to the usual brainless, evil ones.
But I think I understood most of what was going on. It involves a new priest coming to town to punish the zombie priest for various offenses. He also reveals that the town has a strange curse on it - like the Hell Mouth in Buffy, it attracts monsters and misery and magic - and he wants to use it in some new way, with the help of a new agent of evil yet to be introduced. Meanwhile, the Goon tries to blow up a building but has to take a short detour to fight a giant tranny. And Franky has a terrible dream about a horse and a bear that may not be a dream.
So on the one hand, it's pretty much business as usual on Lonely Street, but on the other hand, it sounds like Powell has some interesting changes in mind for the series. There's plenty of the hilarious, bizarre comedy and brutal action that made me fall in love with The Goon in the first place. My only problem with this issue is there are a couple of conversations - when the new priest is talking with the zombie priest, and when Franky is talking with Nagel on the last page - that are a bit heavy on the explanations and exposition. The Goon isn't about explaining! It's about zombies getting their faces beat! Still, overall, a great issue, and I'm fascinated to see where the story is headed next.
Ghost Rider #20
This is the first of two new entries in series that I've been collecting that have new issues this week with entirely new creative teams taking over (the other being FF, below). GR is now being written by Jason Aaron of Scalped fame, with art by Roland Boschi and colors by Dan Brown. Aaron is picking up the story right where Daniel Way left off, with Blaze having just discovered he's an angel, and that Zadkiel turned him into the Ghost Rider on purpose to make him his pawn on Earth. Now he's looking for a way into heaven so he can show Zadkiel how he feels about that. Aaron writes Blaze with a down-home Southern accent, which kind of threw me at first, but I'm getting used to it. There's an amusing bit in the beginning of this issue about how Blaze tried to contact some of his old pals to help him get into heaven and came up with nothing. Later on he stumbles upon a small town in the middle of nowhere with a couple of strange secrets - a haunted highway and a hospital that's a lot more than just a hospital. The next issue is entitled "Machine Gun Nurses-a-Go-Go or A Montana Mountain Murder Mystery Starring Deputy Kowalski." Um, awesome. After the main body of the issue, there's a page-long letter from Jason Aaron to the fans, explaining what he loves about the character; reassuring us that the Ghost Rider is not going to become all touchy feely, even if he is an angel; and giving us some hints as to where the story is headed in the near future. There's some arrogance to this letter that I find a little off-putting, but mostly the whole thing is just really exciting. Right near the end of the story, this issue takes a couple of turns that I absolutely did not expect and that I absolutely loved. I can't wait to see what Aaron does next.
Fantastic Four #554
The other book this week with a new creative team on it is this one, and the team consists of Mark Millar on writing, Bryan Hitch on pencils, Paul Mounts on color, and Paul Neary on inks. And I couldn't be happier with their work. This issue starts out with an insane homage to Back to the Future 3, as Reed, Sue, Ben, and the kids escape the Old West on a time-travelling train - apparently it's all a family vacation gone wrong. Johnny shows up and reveals his plans to become a rock star; Ben ropes Reed into visiting his old school (and Reed turns it into a chance to make a hilariously boring lecture about his idea for an anti-Galactus suit); Sue has a meeting of a new all-girl superhero charity group she's starting; and Reed's old flame shows up to recruit him for a breath-takingly huge science project she's working on. Despite the fact that, as you can see, the issue is absolutely packed with story, it never feels rushed or poorly paced. It is funny, entertaining, surprising, and exciting throughout. The art is excellent, and all the characters feel right - they're all their lovable selves. I am so pleased with this new Fantastic Four, and I look forward eagerly to the next issue.
Wolverine #62
Wait, Wolverine and Mystique were both alive in 1921? The hell? Why did I not know that?
But let me back up a bit. This is another book that sees Jason Aaron taking over writing duties this week, which is the only reason I picked it up. It's set after all that Messiah Complex bullshit, and features Cyclops ordering Wolverine to track down and eliminate Mystique for her part in betraying them during that storyline. As we watch Wolverine track her across the world in the present, we also get to see flashbacks that reveal the circumstances under which these two characters first met. The flashbacks are set in Mexico in 1921, which really threw me off, as mentioned above; I hadn't realized these characters were meant to be that old. Clearly my knowledge of X-history is not as great as I thought. Anyway, the story is a good one, with some clever ideas, some suspense, and a neat little twist in the middle that shocked me for a few moments until I realized what was really going on. Part of what made the trick work is the fact that I don't know how Aaron writes Wolverine - I thought maybe his version of the character is capable of more terrible things than the Wolverine I'm used to. Interesting.
This isn't a great comic, but it's good enough that I will probably pick up the next issue.
Captain Marvel #3
It's all about the Skrulls this issue! And I have to admit, I'm loving it. This is a great comic. Great art, a fascinating mystery, and Mar-Vell's obsession with, and visions of, Charles De Brun's painting of Alexander entering Babylon is really interesting and well done. And how about that surprise ending? Good stuff. |
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