The Savage Critic: May 16, 2001
By Brian Hibbs
And So it Begins!
Shit, no wait, that was LAST week’s books.
But this is the first Savage Critic in several
years since my CIS heyday. It may take me a few tries to get fully into
the whole Savage Headspace.
Heh. One thing I can tell right away from my opening
joke is this is going to be dated SO fast. Woot!
AMERICAN CENTURY #3: Eh. I suspect
this will read a lot better in bigger chunks; but in small doses Chaykin
Doing Chaykin (again) just doesn’t do much for me. Actually I quite
liked LAST issue, maybe because there were less characters involved
and the scenes were longer, dunno. Anyway, part of this might also be
the art. 3 issues in Marc Laming has lost some of the stiffness I saw
in the first issue. Its also lost a lot of the "foregroundiness"
it had then too. But, like this book is set in the 50s, and everyone
looks pretty much alike, and I’m just not with it.
BATMAN #591: OK. Ed’s a good writer
(and he gets better as he goes along), but, really, Deadshot is just
a problematic character. I mean, his power is his name, and if he DOESN’T
pop a cap in Batman’s head, what’s the point? Plus, if you’re going
to give a nod to continuity (in the form of Bruce Wayne’s "bodyguard"),
then you kinda have to go all the way – last week’s Detective showed
she knew that Bruce is Batman. Heh. Fanboy!
CABLE #93: Crap. God, Cable is a trainwreck
of a character to begin with, but Robert Weinberg just doesn’t have
the pacing skills for comics. Plus that whole preachy "I’m not
black, but the cops pulled me over and abused me" thing. E-fuckin’-yuck.
Note that, what, 2 months after having a pull quote from---erm,
was it Dean Koontz?---on the cover, Weinberg’s name isn’t anywhere to
be seen on this issue’s cover. He’s being replaced by Chaykin’s collaborator
Tischman...next month? The lettercol and ending were less than clear,
but that’s still pretty damn tight.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #43: Awful. So Cap
is tied to two tractors, by his arms and his legs (if there were four,
I’d call it "being drawn and quartered"...but what do you
call two? "Drawn and halved"?), suspended over a nuclear missle.
And yet I don’t feel the SLIGHTEST amount of tension. Foo!
CAPTAIN MARVEL #19: OK. But, y’know,
I don’t WANT Rick to be old and one-armed. Really, I don’t. The "visitation
rights" exchange was real fun though, even if I think ChrisCross
makes poor panel choices a lot of the time.
CASTLE WAITING VOL 2 #5: Very Good.
This book is charming, and witty and fun, and you should be reading
it.
CEREBUS #266: Very Good. Annnnnnnd
the story is moving again. Big ass time jump. And even if Dave’s politics
are leaking in, its still work by a master of the form. PLUS! THE RETURN
OF THE LETTERS PAGE (woo!)
CRUX #2: OK. First CrossGen book I’ve
liked. The art is nice, the story moves along....but it still reads
like "product". "Here are a handful of characters that
are fairly obviously characters." This doesn’t feel especially
like personal work....and Waid has long been the master of making corporately-owned
characters FEEL personal.
DEFENDERS #5: Eh. Pretty formula.
I can see why Kurt can write this while sick :) Shocked how well it
sells at CE though.
EDDIE CAMPBELL’S BACCHUS #59: OK.
Bacchus isn’t even in this issue. Heh. I really really liked the seven
pages of new Eddie Campbell....that material is Excellent, even. But
the rest was OK or worse, and it’s the majority of the issue.
FANTASTIC FOUR WORLDS GREATEST COMIC MAGAZINE
#6: Eh. It "feels like" old Marvels...but don’t
people have better ways to spend their times than with copies, no matter
how "accurate" they may be?
GEN 13 #65: Eh. The black bar over
swear words looks like shit...I much prefer the "scrawl" the
Milestone books had.
GENERATION X #75: OK. Adequate end
to the series, all things considered. The characters felt "real"
enough, even though it was obvious they were being forced by plot.
GREEN LANTERN DRAGON LORD #2: OK.
Gulacy is always nice to look at, but, like its clear to me that he
and Moench just don’t care about Green Lantern. Would have been better,
thus, without the minor GL trappings.
JUST A PILGRIM #3: OK. Its above-average
work by two talented creators, but I still don’t give a rat’s ass about
the characters.
KANE #30: OK. I’d give any Paul Grist
Kane collection a "good" or better...this might just be a
matter of "too small a dose, too irregularly"
LADY DEATH ALIVE #2: Awful. I needn’t
say more.
LAST SHOT FIRST DRAW #1: Awful. SNL
had a joke once about "Beatle-Mania-Mania: Not Beatle-Mania, but
an incredible simulation!" This is Manga-Mania-Mania. Or possibly
Manga-Mania-Mania-Mania.
LEGEND OF THE SAGE PREVIEW BOOK: Eh.
I mean every Chaos! book is basically the same, right?
LEGION WORLDS #2: Eh. Will you just
bring back the damn Legion already? This feels like treading water.
LUCIFER #14: OK. I don’t think this
was the right issue to overship.
MIDNIGHT NATION #7: Very Good. This
book has steadily been growing on me. And I quite liked this issue.
In fact, with only minor changes, this really COULD (and probably SHOULD)
have been issue #1. If you’ve never read Midnight Nation, this is an
excellent "jumping on point"
NEW X-MEN #114: Excellent! I haven’t
said that about an X-Men comic in a decade. More, probably. I mean,
this was just everything you could have possibly wanted from an X-Men
comic. And, for the first time in...well a LONG ASS TIME...people seem
to be trying to "speculate" on a comic. Lots and lots and
lots of two-copy sales.
OBERGEIST #2: Good. But it reads like
the "middle of four" (and hey, it is!) – bet this will KICK
in a TPB. But as a single issue, its "merely" good.
ORION #14: Awful. I sorta like the
whole using-the-Anti-Life-for-peace thing, but, yeesh, either Byrne
or Austin or BOTH just "phoned in" the art job.
OUTLAW NATION #9: Eh. I Just Don’t
Get It, I guess. Plus the lettering is too damn big.
PETER PARKER SPIDER-MAN #31: Eh. "....with
a broken neck!" Yah, whatever.
POISON ELVES #65: Eh. Not my book.
RANDY ODONNELL IS THE M@N #1: Eh.
Same. "Hoo hah"? Marvel-90s-House-Style is more like it! (and
duh, since its DeFalco)
SCARY GODMOTHER #1: Good. Much Jilly-goodness.
SECRET MESSAGES SILENT INVASION ABDUCTIONS #1:
OK. Torn here – I liked it...but I wouldn’t spend $2.95 for it.
But I would spend $9.95 for the whole thing compiled. That may or may
not make sense.
SIGIL #12: Awful. I mean, every character
is clearly introduced, and the plot moves along, and the art is clear....but
there’s no "there" there. Its not actually BAD... but its
SO middle-of-the-road that it's offensive.
SPYBOY #17: Awful. How did this make
it to #17, anyway? And is there a new inker, or did Pop Mahn take some
‘luudes or something? Art is just dull...on a book where "frenetic
art" was all it had going for it to begin with.
STEAMPUNK #8: Awful. I just can’t
follow it. Maybe its me. It clearly has craft, but I leave each issue
going "huh?!?" Plus, free tip: colored lettering only "works"
if its used very very sparingly.
SUPERMAN ADVENTURES #57: OK. Kinda
Rashomon with a more inter-woven story. Art was "too" cartoony
in places though.
SUPERMAN WHERE IS THY STING: Awful.
Uh. What WAS that? Bleh.
SUPERNATURAL LAW #30: Eh. Not poorly
done, but I don’t care about the character.
THUNDERBOLTS #52: Awful. Yah #50 was
the time to quit.
TOM STRONG #13: OK. It’s "fun"
but there is just no weight to it.
TRANSMETROPOLITAN FILTH OF THE CITY: Excellent!
Oh, yah, that was sweet. The best part about a book like this is "which
page(s) did I like best?!?" Jacen Burrows, I think (WHO?!), followed
maybe by Ramos, or Bendis! Or...or...or... Plus, it read well.
ULTIMATE X-MEN #6: Eh. Just...this
isn’t the X-Men. Ugh. Go back and read New X-Men #114.
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) Things that looked SO bad on the racks that
I didn’t bother.
AQUA KNIGHT PART 3 #3
BETTY & VERONICA #162
DRAGONBALL Z PART 4 #6
EL HAZARD THE MAGNIFICENT WORLD PART
2 #4
GUNDAM WING BLIND TARGET #4
GUNSMITH CATS MISTER V #8
POWERPUFF GIRLS #15
RANMA 1/2 PART 10 #2
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #97
STAR WARS JEDI VS SITH #2
WHATEVER PRESENTS #2 ROAD MOVIE
And, for even MORE completeness sake, here’s a list
of books, TPBs, GNs, and magazines 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 #1238
2000 AD #1239
ALL STAR COMICS ARCHIVES VOL 7 HC
ANIMERICA EXTRA VOL 4 #6
COMIC BOOK ARTIST #13
COMIC RELIEF #138
COMICS JOURNAL #233
DARKMINDS VOL 1 PARADOX TP
HITMAN VOLUME 5 TP WHO DARES WINS
JUDGE DREDD FETISH GN
JUDGE DREDD PIT GN
PAKKINS LAND VOL 2 TP QUEST FOR KINGS
PALEO TALES LATE CRETACEOUS #1
READING THE FUNNIES
RED STAR TP VOL 1 BATTLE OF KAR DATHRAS
GATE
SFX #78
STAR TREK MAGAZINE #26
SUPER FRIENDS TP
TOMARTS ACTION FIGURE DIGEST #87
TOUCH OF HORROR #1
TREASURY VICTORIAN MURDER VOL5 MYSTERY
MARY ROGERS SC
WINGS OF TWILIGHT ART MICHAELKALUTA
HC
WONDER WOMAN THE GODS OF GOTHAM TP
This Week’s TPB recommendation is: a tie!
ALL STAR ARCHIVES V7 HC, just because it would cost a TON to
get the originals, and I have a serious JSA fixation; and HITMAN
V5 because it kicks your ass.
No nod, sadly, for RED STAR V1, because no
matter HOW nice looking it is, its still TWENTY-FIVE BUCKS for FOUR
issues. Ugh, perceptual ripoff!
|
