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| Tuesday, March 11, 2008 11:17 PM |
| The Take |
 by Fëanor |
Fëanor's weekly comic book review post.
I didn't pick up as many books as I have been this week, but almost every one I got was fantastic, so I must really be separating the wheat from the chaff now! Either that or I just had a lucky week... Oh, and I also supplemented my reading with a couple more of Star's old comics.
Star's comics
Justice League: Midsummer's Nightmare
This is a trade paperback collection of a Justice League miniseries from 1996 written by Mark Waid (of Kingdom Come fame) and Fabian Nicieza, with pencils by Jeff Johnson and Darick Robinson and colors by Pat Garraway and John Kalisz. Kevin Maguire and John Dell are responsible for the horrible, horrible cover, which features the official "Worst. Superman. Ever." As far as I'm concerned, anyway. Have a look for yourself, and be sure to click for the larger version so you can get the full power of the ugly Superman (and also be sure to note the nearly-as-ugly Wonder Woman):
I don't know about you, but that guy doesn't look like the defender of freedom and the American way to me. He looks like a greasy, arrogant pimp desperately in need of a punch in the nads.
Thankfully, the inside of the book isn't as bad as the cover - although unfortunately it's pretty close. Grant Morrison praises this thing as nothing less than the second coming of comics in his introduction, but I think it's quite awful. I'll admit that the premise is pretty intriguing, though. We open on a world where none of the Justice League can remember his/her past as a superhero. Instead they're all living their lives as ordinary people. Meanwhile, ordinary people are experiencing a phenomenon being referred to as "sparking," which is causing them to randomly gain super powers. It's essentially an inversion of the world we know: the superheroes are normal people, and the normal people are all superheroes.
The problem is, they're not really superheroes. They're just people who suddenly gained super powers and are now fighting each other and blowing things up, just for the heck of it. The world is plunging into chaos, and unless the League can wake up, remember who they are, and find the one responsible, it could soon be too late for humanity.
It's a pretty cool premise. But it's also distressingly similar to the premise of Waid's Kingdom Come, which, if I've done my research right, came out in the summer of 1996; this book came out in the fall of that same year. Both books feature a new group of super-powered people fighting and breaking things with none of the sense of right and wrong, and law and order, that the old guard of superheroes had. And so those old superheroes need to come out of hibernation to fix things, but will they? And will their interference be for the best after all?
When you point out all the similarities like that, it sounds like Waid is just writing the same book again. But of course, it's not exactly the same. It's not an Elseworlds story; it's set in the present time of the "real" DC Universe. Also, the heroes involved are different; we're focusing here only on the incarnation of the Justice League that includes the one-armed Aqua Man, Kyle Rayner's Green Lantern, Wally West's Flash, the basic trinity of Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman, and finally Justice League stalwart the Martian Manhunter. Also, this time the heroes have been put out of commission thanks to the combined powers of (spoilers from here on out) two enemies: Dr. Destiny and the ridiculously named Know Man. Somehow these two guys together are changing the whole world. Know Man says it's for the best; he had to put the regular super-powered guys out of commission and power up everybody else to prepare the Earth for a mysterious, long-prophesied threat, which he's been preparing to fight for hundreds of years. Which doesn't really make a lot of sense - why not get the Legion's help if you can? And maybe try to power up specific people and train them carefully? But anyway, when the League manages to change the world back, Know Man seems only mildly annoyed, and says, "Okay, well, you save the world then," and leaves. Um... what? They stop him from doing the thing he's been trying to do for hundreds of years, and he just walks away? Why didn't he spank their asses? He seemed capable of it. Also, the comic creators seem to want to make us uneasy about what the League does at the end here, and unsure as to whether this guy is really a villain or not. The problem is, the creators themselves also seem unsure whether he's supposed to be a villain or not. Sometimes they depict him with an evil villainous smirk, and sometimes he seems to clearly be working for the common good. It further confuses an already confusing, clumsily told, hard to believe story.
And did I mention the dialogue is really corny throughout? Yeah, I didn't like this book. Sorry, Grant Morrison!
Robin #126
This is an issue of Robin from 2004, written by my friend Bill Willingham of Jack of Fables fame, with art by Damion Scott, which takes place directly after Tim Drake quit being Robin, at a time when Batman is in need of a new partner. Who will he choose? Well, they make it easy to guess by slapping the subtitle "The Girl Wonder" on the front cover. The girl being referred to is Drake's sometime girlfriend, Stephanie, who knows about his secret identity, and who is, as the book opens, already patrolling the city under the name Spoiler. A soap opera plot device involving Stephanie seeing Tim making out with another girl pushes Stephanie over the edge and convinces her to infiltrate the Batcave and present herself as the new Robin. Batman admires her spunk and hires her on the spot. Alfred is horrified.
There's actually quite a bit of soap opera-like stuff going on in here, focusing on Tim and Stephanie and their relationship. But then of course Robin has always been a book, and a character, that's aimed at tweens and teens, and the cartoonish art just completes the picture. Still, the story is handled pretty subtly and well, and the book as a whole is reasonably entertaining. Not entertaining enough to make me want to track down any Robin trade paperback collections, but entertaining enough to kill 15 minutes or so in a pleasant fashion.
New releases
Buffy Season 8 #12
I was a little worried about the new guy taking over the writing duties on this issue (Drew Goddard), but as it turns out, he's fantastic - and I'm not saying that because he put lesbian sex in. Well, not just because he put lesbian sex in, anyway. It's actually a great little story with all the comedy, action, surprises, suspense, cleverness, and soap opera elements we've come to expect from Buffy. It picks up pretty much where we left off last episode, but a couple of characters are now in bed together, and a couple of other characters seem headed generally in that direction. Then a bunch of goth Japanese vampires with strange new powers suddenly attack, and it turns out that Buffy's weapon is more powerful and important than we were originally lead to believe. There's also a surprise at the end suggesting that Xander has some interesting secrets in his recent past that have yet to be revealed. This issue convinced me that the Buffyverse is once again in good hands, and I eagerly await the next one.
Cable #1
Thank goodness, I've finally read a Duane Swierczynski comic that I really enjoyed! And luckily it's the first issue of his new ongoing series for Marvel, focusing on once and future X-Man Cable and his new quest to protect the first mutant baby born since M Day. To do this, he's jumped into the time stream and traveled forward into a post-apocalyptic future. Of course, because it's Duane Swierczynski, he's also near Philadelphia - just over the bridge in New Jersey, to be exact. In this issue, Cable tries to make his way in this strange new world, fights to protect the child, and runs into a familiar character who, in the final scene, seems to have already ended Cable's quest almost before it had begun. (Don't worry, I'm sure they'll all be fine.)
I wasn't particularly familiar with the character of Cable, so I looked up his history, and it is seriously crazy. Apparently he's a super-strong, super-intelligent, time-traveling cyborg with psychic powers and telekinesis who's the son of Scott Summers and an evil clone of Jean Grey. He didn't really exhibit any powers in this issue, so maybe he lost them on M Day? I don't know. He's still a big tough bastard who can fight like hell, so it doesn't seem to matter that much. Anyway, he seems like an interesting guy. Plus, this issue has some awesome, bad-ass action, and it's intriguing, well written, funny, and moving. Also, as usual, I really enjoyed Ariel Olivetti's art. I'm definitely going to keep following this.
Green Lantern #28
It's official: I love Green Lantern. This was another great issue that moved forward the huge, over-arching plot of the rise of new lantern colors, the ten new laws in the book of Oa, and the progression towards the fulfillment of the Blackest Night prophesy. It also features the result of Laira's trial for the murder of Amon Sur, and a little capsule history of the Guardians of Oa and the Green Lantern Corps. That may all sound like it's taking place on a pretty distant, epic scale, but writer Geoff Johns never loses sight of the human element, and definitely keeps us grounded with a number of moving, emotional scenes. I particularly like the conversation between Hal Jordan and Sinestro in this issue. Sinestro is a really interesting character. His actions essentially corrupted the Corps, but he sees that corruption as a strengthening of the Corps; a way of preparing them for the oncoming war and the resulting Blackest Night. Also, while most of the Guardians of Oa proceed down a dangerous and wrong-headed path, one is working on a secret project of his own. It's all totally fascinating stuff and it's being handled really well. I'm hooked.
Justice League: The New Frontier Special
I described this in The Setup as a tie-in book that was created simply to trick me into spending more money, but in fact it's much, much more than that. It's a brilliant addition to the New Frontier universe, and a truly fantastic little book. It kicks off with a hilarious, bad-ass little introduction/disclaimer from Rip Hunter, who reminds us to stop worrying about what universe we're in and just have fun. Then there are three stories, all written by New Frontier creator Darwyn Cooke, and those are followed by some behind-the-scenes info and art from the recently released straight-to-DVD New Frontier movie.
The first story (also illustrated by Cooke, with colors by Dave Stewart) tells in detail an event that was only touched on briefly in the original New Frontier graphic novel: the legendary battle between Superman and Batman. It's already been made clear to us that the public battle was faked, but here we learn that it was preceded by a real (awesome!!) battle, and that eventually peace was made between these two characters by the third member of DC's trinity, Wonder Woman. Everything in this story is perfect and beautiful: the incredibly stylish drawings, the gorgeous colors, the sharp dialogue, the thrilling action. It's just absolutely great. If I have a complaint it's that the characterization of Superman seems a little off to me. He's surprisingly proud, to the point of arrogance, and that line about how he can't let himself be beaten by a human seems particularly odd. But then again, this is the Golden Age Superman, and that Superman was a little crazy. And anyway, the characterization is otherwise spot-on, as is that of Wonder Woman, and that of my beloved Batman, who is as brilliant and bad-ass as ever.
The next story has Cooke on the script and Stewart on the colors again, but this time David Bullock provides the pencils and Michael Cho the inks. It's called "Dragstrip Riot," and it essentially tells the story of the birth of the Teen Titans, in the form of a little case of theft that turns into a big case involving national security and is ultimately solved only when Robin and Kid Flash team up together - after they've gone undercover and infiltrated the teen drag racing scene. The story is loaded with '50s slang and references. It's clever, funny, and action-packed.
The last story (with Stewart and Cooke this time joined by J. Bone on art) is a very funny, but perhaps rather politically incorrect, fictional retelling of the origins of the '60s feminist movement in the form of a team-up between Wonder Woman and Black Canary. Wonder Woman gets pissed about the fact that idiotic sexist men are subjugating women and decides to do something about it by crashing the launch party for the Playboy Club that's opening in Gotham City, along with Black Canary, who basically just tags along for fun. In the process, Wonder Woman starts a movement. Although the story is clever and amusing, it does kind of end up poking fun at and belittling the feminist movement to a certain extent, which is a bit troubling. But hey, like Rip Hunter said, it's just a comic, so let's have some fun!
The final section of the book is a behind-the-scenes look at the art of the New Frontier movie, and it's packed with lots of really snazzy, stylish stuff. It's amazing to see how much work went into the designs of the characters, gadgets, and backgrounds.
In conclusion, this little book is a great addition to anybody's New Frontier collection - and really, to anybody's comic book collection in general.
Logan #1
Of all the books I picked up this week, this one was probably the most disappointing. Of course, considering the high quality of the other books, that's not as bad as it sounds, but still. Logan is a new Marvel Knights three-issue miniseries written by Brian K. Vaughan, with art by Eduardo Risso (in fact, Vaughan and Risso are credited together as the "storytellers," so I guess Risso had a hand in developing the plot, as well). The frame story is set in the present, and sees a Wolverine newly gifted with all his memories heading out to settle a score from his past. Then we quickly flash back to Logan awakening in a Japanese POW camp during WWII. He meets a fellow prisoner, also apparently a mutant, and together they break out. They disagree about what to do with a Japanese civilian that they meet, and end up parting ways. Then an unlikely relationship develops between Logan and the woman.
And my problem with the book is basically that relationship. It seems like a rather insulting cliche to me - the good Westerner sparing the beautiful foreign maiden, and the two of them falling into each other's arms. Plus, pretty much all the dialogue between the two of them is seriously corny. I'm really not sure if I'm going to pick up another issue of this.
Omega: The Unknown #6
Yep, just another wildly creative, insane, hilarious, brilliant issue of Omega: The Unknown. Once again we get intriguing narration from the mysterious Overthinker, some very funny scenes about the Mink and his gang, and some possibly even funnier panels from the Mink's aggressively trademarked comic book (which look like they're going to lead Omega down a new path that's fascinatingly meta), followed by some interesting, creepy, and also very amusing sequences featuring the Mink's disembodied hand and the weird cyborg Fonzie. Then, Alex goes to college! Unfortunately, it looks like the evil robots have already infiltrated there, and I'm worried about what his new textbook might do to his friends.
It's great, great stuff. It finishes up with a nice little tribute to Steve Gerber, the original creator of the Omega character - so I guess he must have just died. Which would be sad in any event, but it seems particularly sad to me that he passed away before this series ended, as I would have liked to have known what he thought of it.
Scalped #15
This is one of those series that elevates the comic book from a piece of disposable pop culture to serious art. In terms of story, not all that much happens in this issue. Bad Horse's relationship with the child of the dead woman deepens; he makes a wrong move with the chief and gets an illuminating reaction out of him; and the incredibly creepy and brutal Mr. Brass gets some information out of a prisoner that might get them closer to Diesel. But story is less important here than character. This issue is a deeply moving and emotionally shattering character portrait of Officer Bad Horse. Writer Jason Aaron and artist R.M. Guera are just knocking it out of the park with this one. I'm in for the long haul. |
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