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| Monday, November 3, 2008 09:29 PM |
| The Take |
 by Fëanor |
Fëanor's weekly comic book review post.
This covers new releases from the week of October 22nd, as well as a few TPBs I got out of the library.
Back issues and old data
Batman: Under the Hood Volume One
This collects six issues of a Batman storyline set shortly after the death of Stephanie Brown (formerly Spoiler and for a short period the fourth Robin). Brown's killer, the Black Mask, is in firm control of the criminal activities in Gotham, and Batman is brooding over death and loss. The past comes back to haunt him in a big way when a new costume shows up on the scene calling himself the Red Hood. The original Red Hood was a man who, in his attempts to escape Batman, swam through a river of chemicals and came out the other end as the Joker. This Red Hood is someone else entirely. At first he seems to be trying to take over the Black Mask's enterprises, but then it becomes clear he's actually just trying to shut him down, using methods far more brutal than any Batman would ever employ. He's smart, he's well-trained as a fighter, and he's got lots of wonderful toys. But who is he? As Batman continues to fight him, he slowly begins to suspect the terrible truth - logic, reason, and his own heart tell him it can't be so, but detective that he is, he can't deny the evidence.
Bringing characters back from the dead is a risky business, but in this case it's actually a very clever story idea, with a lot of emotional resonance, and it leads to an interesting examination of death and loss, and of Batman's character. It's not explained in this volume how the character in question came back from the dead, but if anything that actually makes the story more effective. That he would choose to come back as the Red Hood is also interesting, given the history of the characters. His return, his methods, and the accusations he makes also force us and Batman to take a look at Batman's actions and ask if maybe sometimes if he had been willing to take one life, it might have saved many more down the line. A particularly funny and interesting sequence in the book is the part where Batman checks in with all the major characters in the DC Universe who have experience with resurrection (and there are quite a few!), trying to weasel out of them, without telling them exactly what he wants, just how the man under the Red Hood could have come back.
The writer on the book is Judd Winick, and although he definitely has a strong story here, his dialogue could use some work. The Black Mask is kind of funny, but Winick is tries too hard to make him a witty, gentlemanly psychopath, to the extent that sometimes the character speaks and acts entirely in villain cliches. The same can be said for Mr. Freeze. The other characters don't turn into stereotypes quite as often, but there's still a sense that something is missing. Meanwhile, the art, by Doug Mahnke and Paul Lee, is quite good throughout.
I think this could have been a better book, but as it is, it's entertaining and reasonably well done.
Thumbs Up
The Superman Chronicles Volume Two
This is the second volume of the collected Superman, presented in chronological order; you can read my illustrated review of the first volume here. This book includes the Superman stories from Action Comics #14-20, and Superman #2 & 3.
Let me tell you, there is just nothing like Golden Age Superman. So many times as I was reading this book I found myself laughing out loud or shaking my head in disbelief at the incredible things I was seeing. As the book opens, we are reintroduced to what I believe is the first recurring Superman villain: the Ultra-Humanite (his friends call him "Ultra" for short). In this first issue, he's continuing in his plans to dominate the Earth by... taking part in a scheme to build subway tunnels out of inferior material. Yeah, it doesn't really make any sense at all. Anyway, as usual Superman takes care of the bad guys by threatening them and beating them until they do what he wants. Somehow I doubt the coerced confession he gets from the one guy would really stand up in court. He sort of saves the day, but the Ultra-Humanite escapes to attempt to take over the Earth in another highly unlikely way at some future date.
In the next issue, Superman discovers that a wonderful refuge for orphaned boys called Kidtown is about to be foreclosed upon and they need $2 million in no time to save it. Superman resolves to get the money for them somehow and of course manages to collect it through a series of random and increasingly ridiculous chance events. First, as Clark Kent, he walks right into a bank robbery and, with no regard whatsoever for keeping his identity secret, allows the crooks to bounce bullets off of him, and then twirls them around like rag dolls. He gets a reward. Then he saves the life of a passing fellow who just happens to have tons of money and nothing to do with it; that means another reward! Next he learns of a fortune in gold trapped inside a sunken Spanish galleon. Everybody knows where the ship is, but nobody can get in to get the gold out. Nobody but Superman! So he takes a vacation from the paper, rents a boat, and hires a crew, whom he doesn't realize are a bunch of thugs who plan to take the gold from him the first chance they get. Meanwhile, other mobsters steal a submarine (!) and follow him. Clark is lowered to the bottom of the ocean in a diving bell. As soon as he reports he's found the galleon, his crew of villains cuts off his air (which of course makes no sense - they already knew where the ship was, so why kill him as soon as he finds it? They need to wait until he gets the gold out first!). But of course Superman has already pried his way out of the diving bell and is in the ship grabbing the loot. When the criminals try to come inside, he reenacts an episode of Scooby Doo by putting on old Spanish armor and pretending to be a ghost to scare them off. When he eventually gets back on his own boat he again shows no regard for the secrecy of his true identity, and lets the treacherous crew break a knife on his invulnerable skin before wiping the floor with them. Then it's off to save the orphanage!
There are actually multiple issues in this collection which feature Superman saving a man from committing suicide. In the first of these, the man is suicidal due to the gambling obsession that has ruined his life. This sets Superman on another of his insane crusades; as Clark and as Supes, he declares war on gambling, accusing the Police Commissioner of being soft on gambling (a lot of times he seems to forget to be a cowardly putz when he's Clark), then flies into the nearest gambling joint and tears the place to pieces. The customers are against him until he reveals the games were rigged (something it seems he couldn't have known ahead of time, but whatever). Next he threatens a gambler and a guy taking numbers bets with horrible violence if they continue in their wayward pursuits, and finally tricks all the big gamblers to leave town via a silly scheme involving a fixed deck of cards.
An interesting thing I noticed here and in other issues in this book: most people he meets don't seem to know who Superman is, and are completely unaware of his capabilities. Admittedly it's pretty early on in the character's history, but I still think at this point that most people all over the world would have heard of Superman by now. I mean, he's a super-strong, nigh invulnerable man who leaps about in a jumpsuit and a cape! But only a select few in Metropolis seem to have heard of him. I suppose it's just a device so they can explain why crooks keep shooting at Superman, and why they continue to be amazed by his feats of strength.
The next guy Superman saves from suicide is a boxer whose career and life have been ruined by a crooked promoter. Superman pulls an old trick from the first volume and makes himself up to look like the boxer so he can take his place and build the guy's career back up. When the time comes for the big title fight, they switch back. This story I actually found particularly entertaining and moving. The way Superman gives the guy his life and confidence back is pretty cool.
Next up, Superman learns that a war profiteer is going to steal an extremely deadly gas and sell it to the armies fighting a foreign civil war. After the profiteer mistakenly drops a vial of the gas, Superman stands by and watches the man die horribly of its effects (man, he was brutal), then ends the war by threatening the leaders of the two sides until they agree to peace. Kent testifies against the crooks involved in stealing the deadly gas, and they all get the death penalty. Superman gets another guy sentenced to the electric chair in the next issue by threatening him into admitting his part in a deadly scam to take over the construction industry in Metropolis. There's a rather clever and funny short prose story about Superman convincing a criminal to get out of Metropolis and letting the police chief have the credit, then it's on to another issue featuring the Ultra-Humanite. This time Ultra's blowing up a shipping company's ships and then blackmailing them for a huge amount of protection money. He needs the money to continue in his expensive schemes for taking over the world. Superman breaks up the protection racket, but once again Ultra slips through his grasp. Luckily he'll have another chance at him soon enough; after an intervening issue in which Superman stops a blackmailing plot against a politician, he finds himself up against Ultra again, but this time the madman is using disease as his weapon, spreading a deadly plague throughout Metropolis. Luckily Clark/Supes finds a scientist who has an idea on how to cure the disease, and protects him and bolsters his confidence until he can complete the formula. Ultra seems to die again at the end of this issue, but only two or three issues later, Ultra reappears, only now in the body of a beautiful young woman! It's crazy stuff. In between, there's also a couple of fun stories focusing on Lois Lane's hatred for Clark Kent, and the comedy that results from her being forced to work with him.
All of which is to say, it's another wild and crazy volume of Superman stories, featuring a Superman not at all like the one we know: a Superman who gets his way by threatening violence to anyone and everyone, who doesn't shrink from death and killing, and who hardly bothers to keep his identity secret at all. As Kent and as Superman, he's constantly getting into completely absurd and wacky adventures that are a boatload of fun. Highly enjoyable.
Thumbs Up
X-Men: Phoenix - Endsong
X-Men: Phoenix - Warsong
These are a couple collections of miniseries, one from 2005, the other from 2006, written by Greg Pak. When I originally looked at the books, I couldn't figure out which came first, but I made the assumption that the one with "end" in the title was probably second. I was wrong. D'oh! Luckily, as it turns out, reading them out of order didn't really matter all that much. But I'll talk about them in the correct order.
Endsong opens with some Shi'ar dudes stupidly reawakening the Phoenix (apparently before it's fully grown?) in order to try destroying it. But all they succeed in doing is fragmenting it, and one of the fragments, predictably, heads right for Earth. It's confused and goes looking for something familiar. Jean Grey's memories and essence are still fused with the Phoenix, so it gravitates to Cyclops, but then finally simply raises Jean's body and brings her back from the dead so it can inhabit her again. She messes with Wolverine a bit and then wanders off. The X-Men mobilize with the assumption that they'll have to destroy Jean yet again. But the Phoenix isn't their only problem; on its way through the mansion, the thing touched what was left of Quentin Quire, and he comes back to life, too, desperate to find Sophie, the Cuckoo he had a crush on way back when. Problem is, Sophie's dead. But hey, it's everybody-come-back-to-life day! Why not her, too? So Quire grabs her body and heads out to find the Phoenix so she can help him bring her back. Meanwhile, a Shi'ar spaceship is on the way to do whatever it takes to destroy the Phoenix. Everybody ends up smashing together up in the Arctic for a great big showdown.
The story includes an at once horrifying and ridiculous sequence in which Wolverine kills Jean/Phoenix over and over and over again, but she just keeps coming back over and over and over again. It's really kind of the whole story of the Phoenix in miniature, and defines what's annoying about this story in particular; it just keeps seeming to end, and then starting back up again, over and over; Jean keeps sacrificing herself over and over. There's also this whole weird thing where the Phoenix needs Cyclops' eye blasts to charge her back up - but why? I mean, there's a sun nearby that she could just fly into; wouldn't that charge her up faster and more effectively? It doesn't really make a lot of sense.
I'll admit, the end is rather moving, and there are some neat ideas in here, but overall it's just kind of ridiculous and annoying. Pak's dialogue is not all that good, the story feels forced and repetitive, and worst of all, Greg Land did the art. I hate Greg Land's work. It's got that whole uncanny valley thing going on; just realistic enough to be weird and disturbing, but not realistic enough to actually look real. And besides and beyond that, in a medium where many artists over-sexualize their characters, Land over-over-sexualizes them, especially the women. Any time a female character appears, she poses in some ridiculous way wearing some ridiculous outfit. After a while you just start to feel dirty even looking at it.
Thankfully, Warsong is not drawn by Land; instead, someone named Tyler Kirkham provides the pencils, and Top Cow Productions, Inc. is credited for the rest of the art. But Pak is still the writer, and the story is still ridiculous, repetitive, and disappointing.
This story picks up shortly after the end of the last one, with the Phoenix now choosing to attempt to inhabit the hive mind of the Cuckoos. But the three of them are not in agreement as to whether they should accept the Phoenix or not. And meanwhile, some new power set seems to become active amongst them, and, with a bit of what you might call retconning, we finally figure out where they came from and who they really are (it involves Emma and the Weapon Plus program). One of them wants to accept the power of the Phoenix; one of them wants to embrace the power inherent in their newly revealed past; and the third wants things to go back to the way they were. Meanwhile, the two dead Cuckoos pop out of their graves (as one might expect; when the Phoenix is around, everyone comes back to life!), and cause some trouble, too.
Again, the story has its moments, and includes some interesting ideas, but the dialogue is not very good; Kirkham's art, while it's certainly not as spectacularly bad as Land's, isn't great; and the story has the same irritating repetitive patterns as Endsong. The Phoenix is going to kill everyone! No, the Phoenix is trapped. The Phoenix is back! No, it's been imprisoned. Hey, there's the Phoenix again! And so on and so forth. We're up, we're down, we're up; it's like a roller coaster, but not in a fun way.
I've really enjoyed Pak's work in the past, but the more I read of it, the more I realize how uneven and generally mediocre he is. I think he wrote yet another Phoenix miniseries, besides these two, but I see no reason to track it down.
Thumbs Down
New releases
Aetheric Mechanics
This is a black and white "graphic novella" (in other words, a graphic novel, but shorter and cheaper) from Apparat that I've been looking forward to since I first read about it some months ago. It's Warren Ellis doing sci-fi steam punk alternate history featuring stand-ins for Sherlock Holmes characters. I suppose there are ways that premise could be more awesome, but it would be hard. It's hard to describe the joy and pleasure I experienced reading this book, as Ellis dropped me into this insane world and slowly revealed what and who it contains, and how it works. At the very end we discover that things are even more insane than we realized, and it all becomes rather disturbing and post-modern, but also very powerful, moving, and clever. It's a great little book, and I almost wish there could be a sequel, because the world it creates is so fascinating and deep, it seems it could bear more exploration. But at the same time, the story stands on its own very well, and I could see Ellis not wanting to go any further with it.
Thumbs Up
Captain America #43
At long last, the "Death of Captain America" storyline is over, and a new storyline begins in this issue, taking a look at the continuing adventures of our new Captain America. It opens up with a flashback to a mission Bucky ran with Steve and the Human Torch in China in 1942. We don't get to see the entirety of the mission, but I have a feeling in succeeding flashbacks in following issues, we're going to learn that they were betrayed and it all went awry. Anyways, in the present, Bucky and Natalia have been enjoying each other, but Bucky's too antsy to jump back in bed with her, so he goes out for a ride and inevitably finds trouble: ridiculous French supervillain Batroc the Leaper is robbing a secret UN facility. Bucky rather stupidly jumps into action without putting his mask on, but does end up showing off the shield, totally giving away his identity. What Batroc stole, and the identity of the villain who hired him to do it, have not yet been revealed, but it is clear that the mystery villain in question recognizes Bucky as the Winter Soldier, and he almost certainly is connected with the Chinese flashback mission. Interesting...
Thumbs Up
Criminal #6
The second to last part of the "Bad Night" storyline opens with our hero and his girl hiding the body from last issue and then splitting up while the heat dies down. Unfortunately for Jacob, the heat does not die down. Instead, his cop nemesis shows up asking about some other murder he actually had nothing to do with. What's going on? Is he being set up? If so, by whom? When he discovers the identity of his new girlfriend, the story takes another twist, and things become at once clearer and murkier. The ending sequence is powerful, tense, and dramatic, and just in general this is another brilliant issue of Criminal, and another great piece of crime noir. In the back of the book, there's an interview with Brubaker about Incognito, the new project he and Sean Phillips are putting together; man I can't wait to read that. It sounds so freaking good. After that is a neat article by Jay Faerber about an old detective show called Harry O. I'd never heard about it before, but now I'm really curious.
Thumbs Up
Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch #1
One of the questions that has arisen in the latest issues of Ghost Rider is, what the hell has Danny Ketch been up to, and how did he end up working for Zadkiel? This is a new miniseries by Simon Spurrier that's meant to answer that question. A mysterious creature that looks like a raven but is clearly much more than that provides the narration, catching us up on some of the general history of Danny Ketch before fluttering in and showing us what he's up to in the present time period of the story, which is apparently some time before the events of the most recent Ghost Rider storyline. We find Danny drunk and in the middle of a bar fight, and then getting shot down when he tries to hit on a girl. It's pretty sad and pathetic. But the girl he hit on is more than she seems, and things get even more sad and dramatic when Ketch goes outside and puts in a call to the techno-witch whom he employed to take the power of the Ghost Rider away from him some time ago. Now he feels empty without that power is desperate to have it back - but she can't help him. However, as it turns out, the raven can help him - or rather, the raven's boss can. The obvious assumption to make is that the raven's boss is Zadkiel, but that hasn't been made clear yet. The story is fascinating, the dialogue is pretty funny, and the art (by Javier Saltares, with inks by Tom Palmer, and colors by Dan Brown) is quite good. Definitely interested to see where this goes next.
Thumbs Up
The New Avengers #46
Why am I reading New Avengers again? Because it's a Secret Invasion tie-in again, that's why! This one is about the super-criminal group led by The Hood, how they discovered the Skrull invasion, and how they decided to respond.
There are some very cool moments here, with a daring rescue by the Hood, and then a bad-ass move by him that uncovers a Skrull in their midst (I'm a little surprised that the Hood's magic vision was able to uncover a Skrull when no other of the heroes' powers, including those of Dr. Strange, was able to do so, but whatever). And then at the very end, we finally discover the source of the Hood's mysterious powers. This was an interesting time and place to reveal that! Hmm... Anyways, another fun tie-in with an interesting story and decent art. I'm curious to read the continuation of this particular storyline; we'll see where that will pop up.
Thumbs Up
Scalped #22
Chief Red Crow, now burdened with Gina's soul, finds himself thinking back to the good times between them - and to some of the terrible things he's done. He's trying to be a better man for her, and keep things peaceful, at a time when perhaps it would make more strategic sense for him to go to war. Meanwhile, as I predicted, Dino has now sadly given in and started down the road toward a life of crime. It's an interesting turn for both characters, and a continuation of a great story.
Thumbs Up
Secret Invasion #7
Pretty much this entire issue is just one gigantic, epic super-fight, which is just as it should be. I'm still loving Leinil Francis Yu's pencils, coupled with the inks of Mark Morales, and Laura Martin and Emily Warren's colors. The Watcher shows up, which is bad news, and Jessica Jones makes an exceedingly bad decision about whom to leave her kid with (that's not going to go well). Then Noh-Varr zooms in and says some bad-ass stuff, and Hawkeye does some bad-ass stuff. But in the end the Skrulls activate their last ditch plan involving the Wasp. Not sure exactly what that's about yet, but clearly it's not going to be good for our heroes. Another great issue, and I can't wait for the conclusion.
Thumbs Up
Superman: New Krypton Special #1
This is a one-shot dealing with the aftermath of the events of the "Brainiac" storyline that just concluded in Action Comics. It has the "Sightings" logo at the top on the cover, which is meant to signify that it contains important events for the DC Universe as a whole. It also has a little Superman logo with a "one" in the middle of it in the top left corner of the cover. This is the return of an old feature, wherein Superman titles have a second numbering so that fans can follow the overarching storyline from title to title. They're bringing this back because they're going to interweave the stories of Superman, Action Comics, and Supergirl for the next year or so. This doesn't please me very much, as I don't like Superman or Supergirl, and I don't want to feel as if I have to now go out and buy them just to understand what's going on. I'm hopeful I can fight the temptation. But anyway, this book opens with Pa Kent's funeral (like, his tenth?), and then shows us Clark dealing with feelings of loss, rage, and confusion afterwards. Then we get to see a secret government organization making the mistake of studying Brainiac (don't study him! Dude needs to get thrown into the sun). Apparently they're also looking for ways to kill Superman. Meanwhile, Ma Kent convinces Supes she's okay and that he needs to go do his thing - that being, in this case, hosting a little El family reunion, and helping a whole city full of Kryptonians get adjusted to life on Earth. Nothing really terrible happens as far as that goes yet, but there's some creepy little foreshadowing here that strongly suggests these Kryptonians are not going to take well to Superman's attempts to make them follow the laws of Earth. Imagine hundreds of Supermen, all with a strong sense of their own superiority, and all without the moral upbringing provided by the Kents. Hoo boy.
Meanwhile, it turns out Lois and her sister (she has a sister?) have a rough history, and a father who's a general, and that general father is Superman's enemy. Dude, they totally stole that story idea from the Hulk! But other than the complete Hulk rip-off, this is a great story that promises even greater stuff in the future. This book was written by all the Super writers (Geoff Johns, James Robinson, and Sterling Gates), and apparently all the Super artists (Pete Woods, Gary Frank, and Renato Guedes). It's hard to say exactly who wrote what, but it's surprisingly well done all around - although I definitely like Gary Frank's work best, art-wise. I still plan to try to avoid picking up the other Super books... but we'll see what happens.
Thumbs Up
Thor: The Truth of History #1
This is an odd little one-shot written and drawn by Alan Davis which claims to tell a secret truth behind Ancient Egyptian history. It turns out that Thor and friends popped down into Ancient Egypt at one point in the distant past and had a little confrontation with the people, Gods, demi-Gods, and monsters that lived there. It's a silly story, but rather fun and amusing.
Thumbs Sideways
Wolverine: Manifest Destiny #1
I wasn't a big fan of the issue of the Manifest Destiny miniseries I read a while ago, but this new Wolverine-focused tie-in miniseries is written by Jason Aaron, which makes it a must-buy for me. It's set just as the X-Men are moving into San Francisco. As Wolverine settles in, he realizes he's going to have to go and face up to some stuff from his newly remembered past that happens to be lurking in the city's Chinatown section. He essentially walks into a ridiculously hilarious and awesome homage to old kung fu movies, and is forced to face off against pretty much everybody in town in a giant insane free-for-all. There's even a blaxploitation-style hero named Master Brown, and an old flame of Wolverine's pops up. This series is going to be fantastic.
Thumbs Up |
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Jim Genzano's books on Goodreads
