The Savage Critic: May
21st 2003
By Brian
Hibbs
Welcome
back, my friends, to the show that never ends...
Y’ever
have one of those days where you think “Ah, finally I have a day off...
I can just get a few more hours in to Dungeon Siege and generally take
it easy?” And then you suddenly realize it is Sunday and you haven’t
even written word one of your comic reviews?
No?
Lucky
bastards.
I
almost held it off for another day, but, then, I need to get Onomatopoeia
finished tomorrow (ha! More liked “started”), plus I have to get the
Diamond order form done before Tuesday, so if I push it off, I’m likely
to choke.
However,
because I really do want to at least pretend to get a “vacation day”
like the rest of America (Given I’m *reading* all of the comics on Wednesday
and *reviewing* them on Sunday, I therefore get NO days TRULY “off”
in a week), I’m only going to “review” “significant” things this week.
I started typing out my review for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #53 (the first
book, alphabetically) and I realized I could have just said “same as
last issue” and saved myself a bunch of time... then I saw the same
was true for lots of the books on the list this week, and decided to
be just a little lazy. Next week I’ll be back to full form, hopefully
with Jeff Lester back in tow...
As
a general reminder, and as a terrible segue since I’m being slack this
week, you can always feel free to donate a little money to our efforts
here, by PayPal-ing to brian@comixexperience.com. One of
these days really really soon now I’ll get off my lazy ass to figure
out how to set up that little boxed link you see places like ComicCon
or ME’s site, so I can stop actively shilling each week. Still, when
we get up over $100, sometimes co-writer and general all-around web-guy
Jeff Lester gets 25% of what I take in. And then I also won’t feel as
stupid plugging during this kind of cut down reviews....
Oh,
and hey, are ya’ll reading AK’s Title Bout over on Movie Poop Shoot?
This week’s (up, I presume, until Thursday 5/29) was one of the funniest
damn things I’ve ever read – he’s usually pretty great, but this week
I was especially howling. (http://www.moviepoopshoot.com/titlebout/index.html)
Right,
what else? Oh, yah – because of Memorial Day, don’t forget that comics
will arrive in your local store a day late this week, on Thursday, rather
than the usual Wednesday. Don’t say I didn’t warn you....
So,
on with the (shortened) show!
ARKHAM
ASYLUM LIVING HELL #1: The art was super-nice, but I’m not sure the
story has anyplace to GO – the lawyer guy “protagonist” isn’t, really,
that interesting, and either way he’s clearly a piece of shit. So, are
we supposed to root for the guy? Or hope he gets comeuppance? Either
way, I don’t really see that this is enough to hang five more issue
upon. Still, two “new” Batman villains were introduced this issue –
both of which seem like they could be interesting enough to return in
the “real” Bat comics at some point. Overall, I’ll give this a possibly
wavering Good.
BEWARE
THE CREEPER #2: Really liked this. I was a smidge iffy on the first
issue, but this one kicked ass. Bennett said it reminded him of Sandman
Mystery Theatre, and I think that’s a fairly apt comparison. Very
Good.
BPRD
THE SOUL OF VENICE ONE SHOT: I may be the only one who thinks this,
but I don’t really believe that Trying to Be Like Mike is the best of
all calls for these Hellboy spinoffs. Mignola’s style is so singular
and specific that I generally find it weird when other people “ape”
it. Certainly it was well done here (and I quite liked the story as
well), enough so for me to say Very Good, but I think it would
have worked just as well without all of the close-ups of statuary and
whatnot.
CREW
#1: Reasonably strong start to this new team book. Not quite enough
to judge it’s long-term legs, but enough to make me curious and want
to come back and read the next issue. A strong OK
GREEN
ARROW #26: Last week I gave some shit to Judd for letting “Claremontisms”
creep into his scripting lately (That is, captioning that Tells, not
Shows), so let me give it up this week for his avoiding that entirely
in this first issue of his new arc here. I enjoyed this quite a bit
– more than I thought I would even – and it is almost 100% caption-free.
Good.
MARVILLE
#7: It’s actually almost a shame this is called “Marville #7” and is
a periodical comic – this could almost have been called “How to WRITE
comics the Marvel Way” and been kept in print indefinitely. Jemas’ “rules”
are actually all fairly OK (except, see the next “review”) and are pretty
straight forward guidelines to aspiring writers. I just don’t know how
to feel about Epic. On the one hand, I think this is potentially the
most exciting opening prospective creators have been given in a real
long time – a company the size of Marvel saying “Here’s how you submit,
here’s the rules, our doors are open” is pretty damn HUGE; while, on
the other hand, my gut thinks that a large chunk of what will come out
of this kind of cattle call will be fairly mundane. I also don’t think
that they really have any idea what they’re in for when they throw the
doors open. I expect the first week submissions alone to be well north
of 1000 – too many people who read comics believe they have the skills
to do them, and the overwhelming majority of those people are going
to be wrong.
Isn’t
it kind of insane that Marvel is doing this though? I mean, would you
have ever guessed the largest comics company in America would take this
kind of new talent initiative? I think it is great, mind – but just
a little nuts.
I
also think the messages being sent are a little mixed – in large part
they seem to be saying that they are looking for NEW voices, to attract
NEW readers. And theoretically, Epic could do that, but I don’t really
think that Marvel has the infrastructure or, more especially the MANPOWER
to crack new markets like this will need to have done in order to be
a rousing success. I mean, you can publish all of the titles aimed at,
say, teen girls that you want... but without the bodies and structure
to get them TO the teen girls, what’s the real point? However, the EXAMPLES
that are given of “how to be different” are all basically Marvel super-heroes
gussied up a smidge.
Look,
there’s nothing WRONG with that, per se – I happen to think that the
“Ultimate” line is, creatively, a real home run overall so far – but
I think the suggestion Jemas makes that Ultimate books are selling to
a demographic other than the traditional Direct Market audience is unsupported
by any facts, one way or the other.
This
is going to be a fascinating thing to watch from the outside, whether
it becomes a beautifully unfolding flower, or a slow-motion train wreck,
and I really really hope the editors on the inside are taking strong
and carefully notes, because 15 years from now, there could be lots
of meat for a really entertaining book on the subject....
One
other thing: If you’re thinking of submitting, please make sure that
you speak to a lawyer before doing so, and that you clearly understand
your rights and risks and potential rewards. Also, examine sales charts
very very carefully, and be aware that most Epic launches will probably
NOT crack that first royalty level – THOR and IRON MAN don’t even consistently
cross it.
NEW
MUTANTS #1: There are two of Jemas’ “rules” which I think might be wrong
for a lot of stories. The first is “Start at the beginning”, for which
he used an example of (his own) NAMOR #1, while the second is “Write
in arcs”. Now I think that what he means to say is “write your story
as a self-contained story”, which is wholly right, but the thing is
that following the LITERAL interpretation of those rules tends to yield
things that are unsatisfying COMICS. A good example of this is right
here in NEW MUTANTS #1. Here we start that the very beginning of the
story, and, clearly, this is being written with the TP in mind... and
despite, well, no, BECAUSE of that, I found it dreadfully dull. In many
cases, actually, you don’t want to start at the VERY beginning of your
story, because most of that is superfluous. Here we have a “new” New
Mutant introduced, to act as our POV character. A fine choice. Yet,
we really never get to the “View” part of POV by the end of the issue
because all of the 22 pages are introducing one character. I’m sure
that as 1/6th of a TP, this’ll be fine, but as a reader shelling
out $2.50 for a single issue, I wasn’t give sufficient reason to come
back for #2. I know this one character fairly well, but I haven’t ANY
idea what the SITUATION is going to be. Yes, write towards a TP, but,
folks, each 22 page installment needs to ALSO be a satisfying read,
in and of itself – otherwise, your audience won’t stick around, and
you may not GET your series of trades. I’m afraid I have to give this
one an Awful. I really need a word that conveys “Poor, but not
wretched”, because the next grade up, “Eh”, is really too neutral, despite
“Awful” being a smidge too harsh in this case....
NEW
X-MEN #141: Hey, a long-term ongoing series review? What th’?!?!?! Well,
no, I just wanted to bring up just how much I love the lunacy of the
end of Murder at the Mansion. Half a dozen wonderful, loony ideas all
get played with here to great effect. Very Good, but stripped
from the “Excellent” because a lot of the dialogue seemed “generic”
– that is, dialogue came sounding the same from most cast members, and
lines seemed to be delivered by whomever Jimenez had the panel focusing
on at the moment than who SHOULD be saying them.
RUNAWAYS
#2: Also a victim of “tell an arc”. I mean, here we’re on the second
issue and they’re still not doing the action that is the title of the
book, y’know? Despite that one little flaw, however, I’ll give this
a Good, albeit one on the low side.
WOLVERINE
#1: A reboot that really didn’t deserve a reboot. This would have been
equally as good if it had been issue #190. I think it would have sold
as well, too, really. Either way, a satisfying enough first issue from
Rucka and Robertson, and one that makes you curious as to what comes
next (well, OK, I think we KNOW what comes next, but still, I’m interested
to SEE it... which is really rare for a Wolverine comic) – 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
[this can include being shorted by Diamond as well]; 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. There’s also the occasional “whoops we forgot
it!” in here as well...Or, like this week a beg for a partial vacation!
AMAZING
SPIDER-MAN #53
ARCHIE #536
BATGIRL #40
BATMAN ADVENTURES #2
BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHTS #41
BIRDS OF PREY #55
BLACK PANTHER #59
CROSSOVERS #5:
CRUX #26
DAREDEVIL #47
DEVILS FOOTPRINTS #3
DOGWITCH #5
DUNGEON #6
EXILES #27
GHOST IN THE SHELL 2 MAN MACHINE INTERFACE #4
GI JOE FRONTLINE #7
HOW LOATHSOME #2
INVINCIBLE #4
JUDGE DREDD VS ALIENS INCUBUS#3
KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #79
KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE ILLUSTRATED #22
KODT EVERKNIGHTS #6
LEGACY #1
LONE WOLF 2100 #8
LUCIFER #38
METAL HURLANT #6
POISON ELVES #72
POWERPUFF GIRLS #38
REAR ENTRY #3
ROBIN #114
ROUTE 666 #12
SCION #36
SIMPSONS COMICS #82
SLEEPER #5
SMALLVILLE #2
SOLDIER X #11
SOLUS #3
STAR WARS EMPIRE #8
SUPERMAN METROPOLIS #4
TECH JACKET #6
THREE STRIKES #2
THUNDERCATS THE RETURN #4
THUNDERBOLTS #79
TRANSFORMERS GENERATION ONE VOL 2 #2
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #41
ULTIMATE X-MEN #33
VAMPIRE YUI VOL 5 #2
VAMPIRE YUI VOL 5 #3
VERONICA #140
WITCHBLADE #64
WONDER WOMAN #192
X-MEN UNLIMITED #47
Y THE LAST MAN #11
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.
ANIMERICA
EXTRA JUNE 2003 VOL6 #6
BATTLE ROYALE MANGA V1
BTVS WILLOW & TARA TP
CBLDF NEWSLETTER BUSTED #14
DAREDEVIL VOL 6 LOWLIFE TP
HARD THROB COLL TP
MARVEL MANGAVERSE VOL 3 SPIDER-MAN LEGEND SPIDER-CLAN TP
PROMETHEA BOOK THREE TP
ROBOTECH THE MACROSS SAGA VOL2 TP
SIGIL VOL 4 TP HOSTAGE PLANET
SOJOURN VOL 3 TP
SUPERMAN CYBORG ACTION FIGURE
SUPERMAN DOOMSDAY ACTION FIGURE
SUPERMAN SUPERGIRL ACTION FIGURE
TOMARTS ACTION FIGURE DIGEST MAY 2003 #110
TRANSMETROPOLITAN VOL 8 DIRGETP
UNCANNY X-MEN VOL 2 DOMINENT SPECIES TP
YU GI OH VOL 1 TP MILLENNIUM PUZZLE
This
Week’s TP recommendation is:
It’s a hard choice this week, lots of great (Promethea V3, Daredevil
V6), or at least near-great stuff (Transmetropolitan V8, Sojourn
V3), but I think my recommendation will be Battle
Royale v1. Giffen’s adaptation of the script was really good.
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