The Savage Critic: February 4th 2004
By Brian Hibbs
Welcome back, my friends, to the show
that never ends.
Late again, but, ah well, at least
I’m getting it done….
30 DAYS OF NIGHT ANNUAL 2004: Not too
shabby – at least this brings things back to Barrow, so “30 Days
of Night” at least makes some sense as a title. I’m really not sure
how much longer they can keep spinning stories in this milieu – I’m
kinda shocked they got 2 arcs out of what was, at best, a clever high
concept, but I thought this was stronger overall than “Dark Days”.
OK
BE A MAN #1: Heh. Jeffrey Brown’s followup
to “Clumsy” spins it in exactly the opposite direction. Instead of being
sensitive and touchy feely, it’s like Beau Smith or Chuck Dixon wrote
this set of vignettes. Brown’s art is adequate (doesn’t have to be much
more than that), but I laughed, out loud, at, at least, half the gags
in this issue. Good.
COUP DETAT SLEEPER #1: The Brube writes,
and some new hack illustrates the first bit of the latest attempt to
tie the WS universe together and make it mean something. I do hope this
doesn’t end up like every other attempt to do this kind of thing where,
at the end of the day, nothing really changes. If you want to read some
good shared-universe fiction about super-powers and how they can dramatically
change a world, I strongly recommend the Wild
Cards novels. Like I do every Presidential election year, I’ve started
rereading the series so I can get to v 6….
Jim Lee’s art is really
strong here – more in his “Deathblow” style than his “Batman” one –
and the story is decent too… still, though, really only about 2 pages
of “Sleeper” in here, so the title is a smidge deceptive. Also, in terms
of plot points, I thought it was extraordinarily awkward how they fit
the Sleeper stuff in, and this absolutely guarantees that Tao knows
everything that’s going on. If the lumpen-headed Authority cats can
break into that broadcast (heh), you know Tao has it TIVOed. Whoops!
Either way, a decent start, so Good
HARD TIME #1: The first book of the
DC “Focus” line (Sorry, I have to be the first to pull a Simpson’s Comic
Book Guy here: “Worst. Universe. Name. Ever.”), and I’m mixed. On the
one hand, it’s certainly an original premise. It’s really nice looking.
The color palette is wonderful. The covers are great. On the other hand
I hate mixed-case fonts, and I thought a lot of the dialogue sounded
horrifically turgid and overblown when rendered in that font.
On the other, other hand, this was a great value with a full lead story,
and the preview material at the back for a mere two-and-a-half.
But the real problem is,
this isn’t what people want. I can’t imagine this finding any significant
audience, because no one is buying new super-hero imprints. People like
books, not lines (as CrossGen, our most recent example, found out –
their successes are the things they launched outside of the “sigil-verse”:
Sojourn and Way of the Rat), and when you sell something
as a line, people don’t really see the trees for the forest, if you
see what I mean.
We’ll see if DC nurtures
the series(es) or not. I liked it. A very high Good.
INVINCIBLE #8: After the punchline
of last issue, I think I was expecting something more this issue. Ah
well. New artist is nice, though. Solid book, Good
MONOLITH #1: Nice Phil Winslade art,
mostly covered by some murky coloring. Decent enough story, though I
think a lot of space was wasted (I would have cut the flashback sequence
in half, at least). I don’t think the end was really strong enough here
to necessarily compel me to come back for issue #2, but the overall
setup has something to it. Maybe it’ll depend on how much you
like Winslade… OK
SANDMAN PRESENTS THESALY WITCH FOR
HIRE #1: The first mini was funny – this seems to be, so far, much the
same. So, Good.
WOLVERINE CAPTAIN AMERICA #1: They
need to add a “(and Warbird)” to the title, really, because she’s here
as much as the other two. She really doesn’t look much like a “Warbird”
to me anyway… she should go back to Ms. Marvel. I always liked Ms. Marvel.
What a great name, y’know? So perfectly 70s And what a great god-damn
cover that had… here, let me google a copy
Cool floaty heads, way way
overfilled cover text boxes, and that costume! Farrah’s hair, and hot
pants, and those sashy-things! Man.
See, that’s how good lousy
comics are supposed to be. That 20+ years later you want to link to
them and remember them and celebrate the horrible pandering past.
No one will remember this
Wolverine/Captain America #1 in 20 years. Awful
X-MEN UNLIMITED #1: See, these books
exist purely to siphon more money from the hardcore, who buy everything
related to a character/team, as long it is at least of minimum quality.
The problem is, these line expansions completely turn off anyone who
isn’t part of the hardcore, unless it is of highest quality. And this
isn’t. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s professionally done, neither
story was “bad” or anything, but why would anyone want yet another x-book
that doesn’t add anything new or fresh? The content was only Eh,
but I’m giving this book a Crap because of it’s cynicism towards
the market. Bah.
Below is a list of everything else
Comix Experience received this week, but that I’m not reviewing because
my brains are leaking out of my head trying to take care of my life
and my baby! Just for completeness sake, and all that:
ARCHIE
AND FRIENDS #80
BABYSITTER
#3
BATMAN CITY OF LIGHT #5
BETTY #135
BRIAN PULIDO LADY DEATH #11
CEREBUS #299
COURTNEY CRUMRIN IN THE TWILIGHT KINGDOM #2
CRUSH #3
DETECTIVE COMICS #791
DRAGONLANCE THE LEGEND OF HUMA #1
ELIZABETH BATHORY #7
EXILES #42
FOOTMAN 15 THERAPY ONE SHOT
FRANKENSTEIN MOBSTER #2
FUSED #2
FUTURAMA COMICS #16
INHUMANS #9
JSA #58
JUSTICE LEAGUE ADVENTURES #28
LOBO UNBOUND #5
LOONEY TUNES #111
LOVE FIGHTS #7
MAD MAGAZINE #439
MANGA CALIENTE #2
MERIDIAN #43
MOONIE #2
MY FAITH IN FRANKIE #2
PLASTIC MAN #3
ROBOTECH INVASION #2
RUNAWAYS #11
SAM AND TWITCH #26
SEX WARRIOR ISANE #5
SHONEN JUMP VOL 2 #3
STEVEN GRANTS MY FLESH IS COOL #1
SUPER MANGA BLAST #38
SUPERMAN BIRTHRIGHT #7
SUPREME POWER #7
TALES OF TEENAGE MUTANT NINJATURTLES #1
THANKS & LOVE LETTERS FROM JOEY FOOL #1
THANOS #6
TOM STRONGS TERRIFIC TALES #9
TRANSFORMERS GENERATION ONE VOL 3 #1
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #53
UNCANNY X-MEN #439
USAGI YOJIMBO #72
X-TREME X-MEN #41
Y THE LAST MAN #19
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.
BIRDS
OF PREY OF LIKE MINDS TP
BORN HC
CLASSIC SILVER AGE CATWOMAN PENGUIN DLX ACTION FIGURE SET
COMIC ART MAGAZINE #5
DONALD DUCK ADVENTURES VOL 4 TP
DORK TOWER COLL TP VOL 6 1D6 DEGREES OF SEPARATION
EDGE 10TH ANNIVERSARY ED
GIRLFRIENDS BOOK OF RED FLAGSTP
LOVECRAFT HC
PARABLES AN ANTHOLOGY TP
PUNISHER VOL 6 CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES TP
REX MUNDI VOL 1 GUARDIAN OF THE TEMPLE TP
SCI FI ENTERTAINMENT APR 04
STARLOG #320
TRUTH RED WHITE AND BLACK TP
VADEBONCOEUR COLLECTION OF IMAGES #7
This Week’s TP recommendation is:
God, it’s like they’re trying to make it that comic book shops can’t
make any money the last few weeks, huh? With this pack of stuff, I guess
I’ll give it to the Lovecraft HC. Drop dead gorgeous art,
and a solid and creepy story. I’ll recommend this more if it
had come out in SC.
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