The Savage Critic: January
14th 2004
By Brian Hibbs
Welcome
back, my friends, to the show that never ends.
Little
late this week, sorry, but you get what you pay for. Or something.
Hey,
and I should remind everyone to go over and reading the new Newsarama-version
of Tilting at Windmills,
my column about the business of funnybooks.
BLACK
HOLE #11: I’ll give away the game here, and anoint this the Pick of
the Week – Charles Burns story of teenage alienation-via-allegory just
goes from strength to strength as violence adds to the mix of sex. It’s
sorta hard to believe this has been going on for ten years now, and
Burns hasn’t gotten any more removed from the frustration of adolescence.
When I was 16 I walked into DC Comics offices trying to pitch a teenage-driven
comic that actually dealt with how teenagers felt and acted – here at
age 36, there’s no way I could ever tap that feeling again. Excellent
HERO
#12: While I’m still a little concerned about the particular plot twist
of Robby Reed (Me being
of the “don’t shit on the past just because it’s goofy” school), this
is clearly my favorite “new” super-hero title launched recently because
it’s just all over the map in terms of character and presentation. This
issue starts an arc with a construction worker guy finding the dial
and becoming a female super-hero. Some, maybe even many, of the gags
are pretty obvious, but there’s definitely a constant sense of “why
hasn’t anyone done this before?” in this book. Very Good.
KISS
KISS BANG BANG #1: Those hoping that the string of post-“sigil” CGE
hits continues on will be disappointed by this. Unlike Sojourn,
Way of the Rat, or El Cazador there’s nothing inherent
in the set-up to propel this comic forward (ie, “a quest”), making this
a huge step backwards for the CGE “style”. CGE’s over-hype of this book,
too, I think bodes poorly for the post-restructuring company. “Anyone”
could have produced this comic, and I’m not excited by it’s long-term
prospects because of that. Well, that and that the lead isn’t merely
“unlikable” (like, say, WotR’s Boon), but is a down-right loathsome
individual. As a general rule people aren’t interested in paying to
read about people they hate. Awful.
SUPERMAN
SECRET IDENTITY #1: Awfully, awfully nice looking. Dunno about the story,
though – it might just be my inherent mistrust of the central coincidence
of “What if a kid named Clark Kent got all of the powers of Superman?”
Plus I thought the keeping of the title at the fair just didn’t work
– far too big and far too public. But, damn it, it looked like a million
bucks. Based on the cover price I just can’t recommend this. OK
THE
PUNISHER #1: (You’ll note that Diamond’s computer system sorts this
alphabetically under “T”. *sigh*) Garth Ennis takes Frank back to his
original roots and adds in a whole lot of swearing and explody-heads.
A step, I think, is a giant one back. Much like Elektra and what we’ve
previously dubbed the SND (SexyNinjaDeath) effect, there really aren’t
any real layers to The Punisher. Not just from a human-level “Does this
character have character?”, but much much more importantly for a monthly
comic book: “Can this book sustain itself?” To restate the SND theory,
if your character is a perfect, emotionless killing machine, then the
character must continue to be a perfect, emotionless killing
machine at all times. Therefore, there really can’t be any jeopardy
within the story. Nothing actually threatens the perfect, emotionless
killing machine. How can it? And the perfect, emotionless killing machine
makes it nearly impossible to sustain a supporting cast. That’s why
Elektra or Punisher (or Venom) were perfect antagonists… but are very
poor protagonists.
This is why Garth was so brilliant when he originally recast the book
as a black comedy. Suddenly, the fact that every story ended in exactly
the same way (“Frank kills everyone”) didn’t really matter – Bugs Bunny
always wins, too.
True, Garth lost steam there by the third year, but I can’t see Garth
having more than 2-3 good arcs of this direction. Anyway, well-drawn,
basically well-written (though I thought the “I wonder if he has a big
dick” conversation was a bit much), but not at all my cup o’ tea. Eh.
ULTIMATE
ADVENTURES #6: Ok, NOW is “U-Decide” over? And can someone give Captain
Marvel the public props? This took a real long time to come out,
and, actually, while it ended up not-so-bad, it’s just not worthy of
the “Ultimate” branding.. Eh.
ULTIMATE
X-MEN #41: A nice done-in-one story about the downside of some mutations.
To discuss it is really to give it away, so I’ll just say very nicely
done. , and you should check it when you next go into your LCS. Very
Good.
Below
is a list of everything else Comix Experience received this week, but
that I’m not reviewing. Just for completeness sake, and all that:
ACTION
COMICS #811
ALICE IN SEXLAND EXTREME #5
AQUAMAN #14
BATMAN DEATH AND THE MAIDENS #6
BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #175
BLOWJOB #8
CAPTAIN AMERICA #22
CAPTAIN MARVEL #18
CVO COVERT VAMPIRIC OPERATIONS ARTIFACT #3
DEAD AT 17 #3
DEMON DRIVEN OUT #5
FABLES #21
FALLEN ANGEL #7
GOTHAM CENTRAL #15
GREEN ARROW #34
HAWKMAN #23
HEAD #6
HEAVEN SENT #1
INCREDIBLE HULK #65
KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE ILLUSTRATED #30
LAUGH DIGEST #190
LONE WOLF 2100 #11
MANGA CALIENTE #1
MARVEL 1602 #6
MATRIXXX #2
NIGHTWING #89
POGOSTICK #2
SCOOBY DOO #80
SEAMONSTERS & SUPERHEROES #2
SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #9
SPIDER-MAN AND DR OCTOPUS NEGATIVE EXPOSURE #4
SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED #1
STORMWATCH TEAM ACHILLES #19
STRANGERS IN PARADISE VOL III#62
SYN #4
TALES OF THE VAMPIRES #2
TEEN TITANS #7
THOR #73
THUNDERCATS HAMMERHANDS REVENGE #4
TOMB RAIDER #36
TRANSFORMERS ENERGON #19
TUESDAY #3
WAKE THE DEAD #3
WAY OF THE RAT #21
WEAPON X #17
And,
for even MORE completeness sake, here’s a list of books, TPBs, GNs,
magazines, and other things that CE got this week. I generally haven’t
read any of this by the time I post these reviews. Though I generally
attempt to give at least one recommendation amongst the TPBs each week,
since I HAVE read the material at SOME point.
ALICE
GN
ALTER EGO #32
ANIMATION MAGAZINE FEB 2004
DAN CLOWES GHOST WORLD ENID HI-FASHION GLAMOUR DOLL
FOODBOY GN
GLOBAL FREQUENCY PLANET ABLAZE TP
HEAVY METAL MARCH 2004
ICARO BOOK 2 GN
JLA ZATANNAS SEARCH TP
JUDGMENT DAY TP
LEES TOY REVIEW JAN 2004 #135
MAD MAGAZINE #438 DIRECT MARKET VERSION
MEGAMANGA VOL 6 CO-ED SEXXTASY 2 TP
MEGAMANGA VOL 7 SEX PHILES 2 TP
MEGAMANGA VOL 8 VOICE OF SUBMISSION GEHENNA TP
OUTSIDERS LOOKING FOR TROUBLETP
RUMBLE GIRLS VOL 1 TP SILKY WARRIOR TANSIE
SAGA OF SEVEN SUNS HC
SHANGRI LA GN
TOMARTS ACTION FIGURE DIGEST JAN 04 #118
TOO MUCH COFFEE MAN MAGAZINE #19
TOYFARE #79
ULTIMATE X-MEN VOL 7 BLOCKBUSTER TP
WARREN ELLIS BAD SIGNAL VOL 2GN
WARREN ELLIS STRANGE KILLINGSBODY ORCHARD TP
This
Week’s TP recommendation is:
This month’s Twisted Toyfare Theatre in Toyfare #79 was
particularly funny, but that’s not a TP, is it? I’m flipping between
JLA: Zatanna’s Search because it’s fun Silver Age stuff, the
somewhat uneven Global Frequency v1, or what I think I’ll give
it to: Judgment Day. Alan Moore retunes Rob Liefeld’s
entire universe, stirs things up so dozens of possibilities are open
for any other WFH creator to come along and spin, and then nothing gets
done with it. I’m really glad Checker is doing these Moore Awesome reprints.
Ignore the ugly cover, this is prime Moore hero work.
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