The Savage Critic: January 22nd
2003
By Brian Hibbs
Welcome
back, my friends, to the show that never ends.
Back
to solo, this week.
I
hate five week months. I especially hate five week months during months
that publishers apparently decide they don’t need to ship comic books.
Though,
in a way, it was like going back to 1989.
When
I first opened CE there weren’t as many books on the racks as there
are now. Our “new comics rack” used to be split between “this week”
and “last week” until some time in the 90s when production soared up
so much that we HAD to use both racks JUST for “this week’s books”
Well,
the last two weeks have been so lackluster that we went back to “split”
racking just to make it look like, I don’t know, we weren’t going out
of business or something.
There’s
something disheartening about making half of your normal sales because
there just isn’t anything new being released TO sell.
There.
That was your glimpse behind the comics-retailing curtain.
ADVENTURES
OF SUPERMAN #612: Going 2 weeks for 2, I’m starting to reasonably enjoy
Superman again. Huh. I would have preferred if even a token explanation
of how the old teacher guy has his books come to life; and the 22 page
format worked startlingly against trying to compare and contrast
the original Superman’s methods and the current one (most of the OG
Superman’s dialogue was from Superman #1... or at least the first
Archives edition) – because especially in the week where more
Americans than we have soldiers in the region peacefully protested a
war that hasn’t yet begun, I really do think Superman should
be more about social justice than fighting aliens. But that might just
be me. Anyway, I’ll give this one a low Good.
AMAZING
SPIDER-MAN #49: It’s a contest. Who can fit more words on to one page?
JMS or Kevin Smith? I think JMS takes the lead with the splash page
for this issue. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many words that ended
up with so little said. Lotsa romantic-angst setup for next issue, with
virtually no “action” of any kind. This is fine with me, though I can
imagine some hero fans will hate it. My only real problem is that I
never really understood why Peter and MJ broke up in the first place
(other than editorial fiat), so this is a lot of work to go to for something
that shouldn’t have to be reversed. Unless they don’t reverse it, in
which case, then this issue was a “waste”. Still, despite this being
“unnecessary” (whichever the turnout), I still think it was a solid
enough Good.
BATMAN
#611: I think you’re going to accuse me of going soft on the funny books
here – three hero books, three recommendations. Soon you’re going to
think this is the Fourth Rail, or something. But, yep, I liked this
too – Jim Lee’s art is yummy, the arc running through this is compelling
– other than my instinctive dislike of introducing a childhood friend
of Bruce’s who is almost certain to turn out to be the “mastermind”,
and the bit of a groaner of that last page (Superman is an alien...
why would Ivy’s touch work on him... and besides, even the farm boy
should be smart enough to not touch the mind-controlling villain, sheesh!)
this is Pure Fun comics. If more mainstream books were more like this,
this business would be in SUCH a better place. Very Good.
BATMAN
GOTHAM ADVENTURES #58: I’m sure the Creeper will make a lot of people
happy. Here’s a perfectly serviceable story with him. A strong OK
BIRDS
OF PREY #51: If you only have 22 pages to tell a story, double-page
splashes should really be used for something BIG. A waste of real estate
here, I’m afraid. Otherwise, here’s some All Middle that could have
been compressed into 6 pages without losing a thing, really – still,
Hernandez’s love for Metamorpho is pretty apparent. Eh
CAPTAIN
AMERICA #8: I’m not really sure why this was chapter 2, and not chapter
1, but I guess the fact that 3 & 4 will be written by someone other
than Reiber give us some clue. Adequate, but not compelling, I tend
to think I’m going to see a big nose-dive happening on sales starting
around.... now. Eh
CASTLE
WAITING #16: I was really really enjoying this until I hit the text
pages and read this might be the last issue. Foo. Quick, everyone send
Linda Medley $20! This book is too charming to not have on the shelf
regularly. Very Good.
CATWOMAN
#15: Wait, when did this become a “Mature Readers” title? Super solid
(and creepy) storytelling, but torture and beatings and eyeball eating
isn’t exactly what I’d call appropriate subject matter for a “not MR”
comic. Still, Very Good
CROSSOVERS
#1: And I really liked this one, too – the concept is amusing, the dialogue
crisp, if I had to quibble it would be that the cover is non-commercial
in the extreme, and this is an extremely commercial comic. I swear,
I’m going soft in my dotage. Very Good
CUSP
ONE SHOT: Cartoonist Thomas Herpich is extraordinarily talented – beautiful
line work, great understanding of panel flow and the “invisible language”
of comics... too god damn bad the actual content was more or less pretentious
gobbledy-gook. I don’t WANT this to be a pan, honest to god, this is
just wonderful stuff to look at, and Alternative should be commended
for bringing it to market, but as the old saw goes, “there ain’t no
there, there.” Still, having said that, I will EAGERLY be looking for
more work from Herpich – his captioning and panel flow shows he could
be a massive talent. Eh
DAREDEVIL
#42: I’m reminded of an old Fawlty Towers where John Cleese’s
character has several German tourists staying at his inn, and admonishes
the staff “Don’t mention the war!” Of course, he then gets hit on the
head and proceeds to goose-step around the room with those absurd stork
legs. I really want to buy the “his identity has been revealed!” thing
for DD, but every three pages it seems like Bendis is rubbing our face
in the sheer implausibility of it all. I have tons of faith in Bendis’
ability to make this work in the end, but DON’T MENTION THE WAR! OK
FANTASTIC
FOUR #65: Hey, hey, Johnny Storm has a brain! (well, or most of one,
at least…) The interplay between the characters was great (especially
Ben and Reed), and the payoff(s) of the last few pages were huge fun.
A very solid Good.
INVINCIBLE
#1: More of the new Superhero books from Image – this one is “my dad
has superpowers”, but takes it in the opposite direction than what you’d
expect. This is a loving relationship where dad HELPS his fledgling
son “come out”. 3 points for not descending into cliché. A strong, but
tentative, Good. Tentative, only because I wonder where this
can go with the usual source of conflicts, and because I wonder out
loud how many more superhero comics one really needs.
JLA
THE SPECTRE SOUL WAR #1: Blabbity-blab blab. Nice try, but I didn’t
buy the setup at all, and for $6 I expect tons more. Plus the narrative
captions were stunningly overwrought and it took far too long to go
anywhere. I’ll assume this was published to clear out the ol’ inventory
drawer. Awful.
PARADISE
X RAGNAROK #1: Can’t they fucking just finish the main book without
these dozens of side projects that aren’t adding a thing, and, at this
point, are working against all of the cleverness of Earth X?
This padded out shit has got to END.. and, good lord *choke*, this is
a two-parter?!?! Crap.
SLEEPER
#1: Because the Brube offered a money-back guarantee from consumers,
I actually read this a second time to see if I liked it any better.
And while it improved on the second go, the narrative is too fragmentary
and the protagonist too passive for me too care. I wanted to like it,
but I can’t muster more than an Eh
SUPERGIRL
#78: Heh. That’s a pretty clever little twist, and the shame of it is
that just as Supergirl gets as good as it’s ever been, the title is
cancelled. PS to Peter David: don’t announce your cancellations
before they appear in the catalog, please. For some odd reason, people
stop buying cancelled books. Crazy, huh? Anyway, Good
TITANS
#49: As solid of an issue of Titans as this volume of the run has produced,
I’ll give it a strong OK
UNCANNY
X-MEN #418: I think I have a problem where the house with the three
most powerful telepaths on Marvel earth can have children’s Astral selves
being lost, and civilians nurses being attacked by crazy fallen heroes.
The first of Austen’s run where I just went “Wha--?” Eh
WEAPON
X #5: If this title is not the grossest, most cynical, most bleak-hearted
degradation of the human spirit published this year, I couldn’t possibly
tell you what is. I don’t want to read about concentration camps and
immoral bastards doing wicked things, thanks. I wonder if the producers
of the proposed TV series with the same name have actually seen
the comic they’re naming their show after. If I were them, I’d drop
the option in a hot second, because some crusader will eventually find
this book, and here comes Wertham again. I can not begin to tell you
just how much I despise this filthy and despair-filled book. Not even
worthy of being called Crap, this is Ass
WILDCATS
VERSION 3.0 #6: Did I mention in earlier reviews how the idea of a battery
that never wears out doesn’t strike me as the path towards global domination?
Most business (even high end things like cars) is looking towards to
creating a repeat customer. Anyway. Sure this is solid enough (despite
that one quibble), and even somewhat intriguing in places, but I find
that I don’t really care if I read the next issue or not. Or, in other
words: Eh
Y
THE LAST MAN #7: I think I would have preferred if the agent had died
(my favorite apocalypse book is King’s The Stand – at least up
until they head to Vegas – and my favorite chapter is the “No great
loss” one where people die from the lack of civilization itself),
and I think it strains credibility a lot that Yorick’s long-lost sister
just happened to be in the right time and place to go towards finding
him, but despite that, this book is definitely getting stronger with
each issue. Good.
For Sake
of Completeness, here’s a list of all of the OTHER comics that CE got
in this week, that I did NOT read (and, therefore, am unlikely to review!).
Note, that in most cases this is limited to 1) Manga, which I try to
read as it is collected; 2) “Kids” comics like most of the Archies;
3) titles that were subs-only, either by design or accident; 4) Porno
[oh, like you need me to REVIEW it!], 5) Things that looked SO bad on
the racks that I didn’t bother, and 6) stuff that I’ve assessed before,
and I care so little about that I don’t want to waste my time reading
anymore. You decide which is which.
ARCHIE
DOUBLE DIGEST #140
BATTLE ANGEL ALITA LAST ORDERPART 1 #5
BETTY & VERONICA #184
CRUX #22 KEY ISSUE
DILDO #1
DRAGON ARMS #2
DUNGEON #4
LITTLE GLOOMY ADVENTURES #1
LUFTWAFFE 1946 #5
MUTANT TEXAS TALES OF SHERIFFIDA RED #4
NEOTOPIA #1
PARADIGM #5
PUBO #2
REAR ENTRY #2
ROUTE 666 #8
SCION #32
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #119
SPIDER-MAN LEGEND OF THE SPIDER CLAN #4
STAR WARS REPUBLIC #49
SUPER MANGA BLAST #28
VAMPIRELLA #16
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.
ALTER
EGO #20
ANIMATION MAGAZINE FEB 2003
ANIMERICA FEBRUARY 2003 VOL 11 #2
AQUAMAN ARCHIVES VOL 1 HC
CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL 1 THE NEW DEAL HC
CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON GN #2
FIVE STAR STORIES ENG LANG MANGA #5
FIVE STAR STORIES ENG LANG MANGA #6
GREEN LANTERN EMERALD DAWN TP NEW ED
INTERMAN GN VOL 1
KOLCHAK NIGHT STALKER FEVER PITCH GN
METAMORPHO DLX ACTION FIGURE
POPBOT VOL 1 COLLECTION
PUNISHER VOL 3 BUSINESS AS USUAL TP
ROBOTECH THE MACROSS SAGA VOL1 TP
SPIRITED AWAY VOL 4 TP
STAR WARS INSIDER #65
STORM RIDERS GN #8
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