The Savage Critic: January
25th 2004
By Brian
Hibbs
Welcome back, my friends, to the show
that never ends.
Sorry for missing last week – had to
do Onomatopoeia and the order form. It’s always a hard week for me.
I’m late this week, too – trying to
get Tilting finished up and finding a spare hour and take care of my
portion of taking care of Ben is hard. Ben’s four months old this Wednesday!
The kid really rocks. He’s able to
stand on his own, already – holding his weight, that is, not balance
– and he really digs doing it. Nothing more fun then helping him up
to his feet then watching him laugh and laugh and laugh about it.
Babies laughing (a bit like a panting
yelp, really – kinda like a sea lion) is really the coolest damn sound
in the world.
What makes it harder is weeks like
this one where there’s really nothing exceptional. All I really have
is a buncha moaning this week….
GLOBAL FREQUENCY #11: Man, that took
a long time to come out, didn’t it? Which almost makes it worse when
it comes down to a variation on the Sexy Ninja Death problem. These
characters, especially Miranda and Aleph are so astonishingly competent
that there simply isn’t any suspense. There’s still an issue to go,
so clearly Aleph isn’t going to die, or be compromised in any significant
way. If we hadn’t had to wait four months, maybe I woulda liked this
better, but as it is? Eh
OPTIC NERVE #9: Whereas, even with
two years between issues (sheesh, how do these people make a living?)
because this is about actual humans experiencing actual human things,
the wait works against it far less. There’s a reasonable amount of
clichéd behavior here – though real people are more clichéd than not
– but at least Tomine is trying to get to subjects that are actually
revelent and even touching. I’ve long thought that Tomine’s strengths
as a cartoonist are less about what’s going on that what’s going on
in the silences, and from that point of view, this is a really strong
issue. Chances are your comic shop hasn’t received this yet – it’s shipping
so late that Diamond cancelled the orders and needs to resolicit. We
bought it directly from D&Q, however. Very Good.
TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE#24: The
absolutely best part of this issue was in the letter column where some
mouth-breather wrote in to ask if Balent would do the next “Three Little
Kitties” series in the new all-nekkid format. Balent responds with some
blibbity-blab about how no, that’s just for Tarot because many
witches perform magic “skyclad” (heh), and how he’s just trying to show
that nudity isn’t shameful or prurient or whatever. This reply would
have worked a lot better had it not been preceded by a story featuring
an octopus demon forcing the male character to “spill his spawning fluids”
before she makes him to perform octo-lingus, followed by the cat-girl
character getting drunk, stripping dancers of their clothes, spreading
their lips, then being finger-banged to sleep so she can be left nude
on the beach. I wish I was making this up.
Not that I want anyone
to be busted for selling comics (support the Comic
Book Legal Defense Fund, people!), but it might almost be
worth it if it meant Jim Balent had to get up before a court and try
to explain how this comic isn’t purely designed for prurience, y’know?
Tarot is very nearly in the “so bad it is good category”, but
it’s not – it’s just bad. Awful.
THE PUNISHER #2: This mighta been a
whole lot better if they hadn’t spend 22 pages saying oh what a fearsome
badass Castle was before the chubby balding guy takes him out with one
shot in the most comically inept ambush I’ve ever witnessed. Pray, pray
that Garth has somewhere he’s going with this. Awful
ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #2: This may
just be the fatal misstep of the Ultimate line. Now I’m willing to give
them the benefit of the doubt until the first arc is done (God, how
I hate this decompressed storytelling), because, lord knows, the U-line
has proven me wrong many times before – but none of this is working
for me at all. Can’t even say where to start: Sue and Reed being contemporaries
in both age and skill? The awkward bringing of Ben and Johnny into it?
(As corny as the space ship thing was, it had at least some creative
frisson – this negative zone thing isn’t being set up any more believably)
The “how would he have ever gotten the job in the first place?”
set up of the Mole Man? Victor Van Damme?!?! That last one is
certainly the biggest clunker for me. I keep thinking “Well, when is
he going to do the contractually-obligated butt-shot?” Given the soon-to-be
over-glut of FF material on the racks (three monthly titles? Are they
insane?!?), my interest in this is flat-lining swiftly. Eh
WALKING DEAD #4: I’ve missed commenting
on the first three issues because of the baby, and I just want to say:
This is really is a swell book. I mean, sure, it’s pretty much “just”
a zombie book, but Kirkman is focusing more on the practical now-wait-how-does-this-work
side of things that I prefer in my post-apocalypse fiction. Now, I’m
not sure I really buy the “scent” idea – certainly more than a few zombies
are drawn with their noses ripped off – but, still, I can give it a
Good
WANTED #2: Weird comic. I was pretty
much digging the ride until that last page (meta-references like that
are just way out of place), but, two days later I just don’t think anything
is there. I need something to show me that there’s a reason
to be reading this story other than gratuitous swearing and murder.
JG Jones’ art is ultra-swank, however. Let’s go with: OK
WONDER WOMAN #200: Rather disappointed
with the “the Gods do something to Paradise Island again”
thing. Is this the fourth time in 200 issues, or is it the fifth? Couple
that with running basically through Diana’s entire & meager rogue’s
gallery (No Cheeteh, thank god) and the faux-reprints make me go Eh.
I really thought Rucka’s first five issues (#195-199) were a good turn
on the Princess, so I’m hoping this was just a speedbump.
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:
AMAZING
SPIDER-MAN #503 (#62)
ARCHIE #545
BANZAI GIRL ANNUAL #1
BATGIRL #48
BATMAN #623
CAPER #4
CAPTAIN MARVEL #19
CARTOON CARTOONS #26
CATWOMAN #27
DEMO #3
EMMA FROST #7
FINDER #33
FLASH #206
GI JOE COBRA REBORN
GREEN LANTERN #173
HAWKEYE #4
HAWKMAN #24
HELLBLAZER #192
HULK GRAY #5
HULK NIGHTMERICA #5
INCREDIBLE HULK #66
JEWISH HERO CORPS #1
JLA #92
KINDERGOTH #1
LEGION #29
LOSERS #8
LUFTWAFFE 1946 #16
MARC SILVESTRI SKETCHBOOK
MIDNIGHT MASS HERE THERE BE MONSTERS #1
MYSTIQUE #10
POWERS #36
PS238 #5
REIGN OF THE ZODIAC #6
ROB ZOMBIE SPOOK SHOW INTL #4
ROMP ONE SHOT
SHIELD SPOTLIGHT #1
SILVER SURFER #5
STAR WARS EMPIRE #16
STAR WARS INFINITIES RETURN OF THE JEDI #2
STAR WARS REPUBLIC #60
SUPERMAN #201
SUPERMAN METROPOLIS #12
TEEN TITANS GO #3
TEPID
TUESDAY #4
TWO STEP #2
ULTIMATE SIX #6
ULTRAMAN TIGA #5
UNCLE SCROOGE #326
UPSIDE DOWN #1
VENOM #10
VERONICA #149
WALT DISNEYS COMICS & STORIES#641
WATERFALL #3
WILDCATS VERSION 3.0 #18
WILDGUARD CASTING CALL NAUCK CVR A #5
X-STATIX #18
X-TREME X-MEN #40
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.
2000
AD PROG 2004
ACCIDENTAL TAXIDERMIST
ANIMERICA EXTRA FEB 2004 VOL 7 #2
ASTRO BOY VOL 23 TP
CHRONICLES OF CONAN VOL 3 TP MONOLITHS & STORIES
COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE #108
EARTH X VOL 5 PARADISE X BOOK2 TP
GLENN BARRS LOWLIFE COMPANION
GREEN ARROW THE SOUNDS OF VIOLENCE TP
HELLBOY JUNIOR TP
IRON WOK JAN GN #7
JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #214
KINDERBOOK GN ENGLISH ED
KOLCHAK NIGHT STALKER PAIN MOST HUMAN GN
LOVE LUST DESIRE SC (A)
PEANUTBUTTER & JEREMY BEST BOOK EVER TP
PREVIEWS VOL XIV #2
PRIDE AND JOY TP
RANMA 1/2 VOL 25 TP
REAL STUFF TP
SPIDER-MAN LEGENDS VOL 3 TODDMCFARLANE BOOK 3 TP
STAR WARS RITE OF PASSAGE TP
STRIP SEARCH TP
THE BIBLE EDEN GN
WIZARD COMICS MAGAZINE BOLLAND WOLVERINE CVR #149
X-TREME X-MEN VOL 6 INTIFADA TP
This Week’s TP recommendation is:
A few things to at least casually recommend: Barry Smith’s Conan
V3 is classic-in-a-good-way, the second volume of Kevin Smith’s
Green Arrow and McFarlane’s Spider-Man v3 as fun reads
if nothing else. Hampton’s The
Bible: Eden is sure pretty to look at, and while Pride and Joy
is minor Garth Ennis, it’s at least minor Ennis from a very good period.
But I think the book I liked the best this week was probably Dennis
Eichorn’s Real Stuff TP. Denny tells some fun stories,
and there’s a veritable host of excellent alternative comics artists
doing work in here. By and large if people ask me “what else is there
that is like Harvey Pekar’s work?”, this is about as close as you’re
going to get in terms of one-writer, many-artists, focused on real life.
|
