The Savage Critic: August 15, 2001 By Brian Hibbs

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends.

No long preamble this week because I want to get this column done quickish. So, let’s get straight into it.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #34: Not too bad. I still wonder why Morlun walked away just when he could’ve killed Peter, or just how is it the weaker Ezekiel was able to make him bleed when Peter couldn’t even tear his clothes.... but what the hell, it’s just comics, right? Good.

AMERICAN CENTURY #6: Solid enough Chaykin-style comics. Ok

BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHTS #20: Deceptive cover, and a couple of pretty jarring transitions, but all in all a solid enough issue. I liked the backup story quite a bit, too. OK.

BIRDS OF PREY #34: I don’t buy the premise of the story for even one second, but, yah, that last page was pretty cool. OK.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #46: Jesus. Is this book even edited, or are they figuring "Who cares, it’s Marvel Knights in a few months anyway"? I mean, Christ, false cliffhangers, bad physics, awkward framing device, and convenient trap doors.... this is shameful comics. Truly shameful. Crap.

CAPTAIN MARVEL #22: Bad pun to end it, but otherwise a funny, solid issue. Good.

CRUX #5: Lots of decent character stuff... no real plot movement at all. OK.

DEADMAN DEAD AGAIN #3: Well, less offensive than last issue, but this is going nowhere, albeit going there quickly with the weekly schedule. Eh.

DORK #9: God damn, Dorkin’s stuff is dense. Smart autobio, funny sitcom, a clever piece on the healing power of geekdom. And it’s DENSE. Took me a full half-hour to read this, compared to, say, 7 minutes for Captain America. On rare times like this I wish I had a rating above "excellent", but I don’t, so Excellent.

ELEKTRA #2: Relying so much on her "sooper magic ninja mind powerz" is going to hurt this book in the long-run. (if everything can be an illusion, then what’s the point?), but it was competent enough, I guess. OK

FANTASTIC FOUR WORLDS GREATEST COMIC MAGAZINE #9: Yah yah, whatever. Awful.

FLASH IRON HEIGHTS: A little clumsy in introducing all of the new bad guys, and I think that an "all nasty Rogues Gallery" is not precisely the right idea, but there was some very solid work and keen artwork in this special, and it sets up the next year of flash stories. Good.

GEN 13 #68: Clever and reasonably charming. I still think the black-bar strike-throughs on the naughty words is obtrusive and ugly though. OK.

GHOST RIDER HAMMER LANE #3: Better than the first two, but still nothing special. Eh.

HARLEY QUINN OUR WORLDS AT WAR #1: Heh. Well, I liked this better than most of the other OWAW specials, and its always nice seeing Paul Grist get some commercial work. Paul Chadwick too. Goofy fun story, but I still can’t fully recommend it, as its all over the map. OK

HOPELESS SAVAGES #1: I really disliked the color story in the Oni special, but I really liked the full-length black and white version. Not sure if it has legs, but it was a strong debut issue, and I want to read more. Good.

INCREDIBLE HULK #31: Clever turn on the Leader, wrapping up the "banner is sick" plot line a little too fast, and the Leader’s font is butt-ugly. But, still, I liked the turn. OK.

JIST WITH JIM LEE CREATING WONDER WOMAN: Why is this "JIST" rather than "JISL"? Mmph. Anyway. Yah, big whatever. Nice art (no surprise) hackneyed and awkward story (no surprise). The "on the street" backup was more confusing than enlightening. $6 is way way too much for this. Awful.

JSA #27: I’ve told you before: my guilty superhero pleasure. That big "T" on Mr. Terrific’s face is so incredibly stupid, though. Good.

MEASLES #8: Any comic with Joost Swarte, the Hernandez Brothers, and Ribs has to be cool. Especially the Joost Swarte stuff – so little of it comes to the States in an affordable format. But... I can’t say I necessarily LIKED any of the stories except the Swarte. Still, just for the Swarte... Good

MONARCHY #6: I’m done. I don’t get it, I have no clear idea what’s happening or why. Awful.

NEW X-MEN 2001 ANNUAL: In the "widescreen" (sideways) format. Here’s the thing, though – given that 99% of comic racks are designed for the REGULAR format, it might help to print the comic so it doesn’t fall into a pile, or get all bent and mangled. A cardstock cover would have been a MUCH better idea. But that’s a retailer thing. As for the comic itself... well... I thought it didn’t make especially good use of the format, I didn’t like the fact it referenced things that haven’t happened yet in the parent book, and it didn’t seem like Yu and Morrison were at all on the same page – the story is fragmentary, awkward and rambling. But it does have some very good lines. As much as I like the Morrison/Quitley material, I can only give this "annual" an Eh

NINJA BOY #1: Competent enough American manga. Not my thing, but there’s nothing wrong with this execution. Eh.

OUTLAW NATION #12: So, here we are at issue #12, and I FINALLY think I see the story that Delano wants to tell. Solid enough, but I can’t see it lasting to the point where he actually DOES get to tell it. OK.

PETER PARKER SPIDER-MAN #34: By the way, when you have two in-continuity books in a line, it is generally considered a VERY BAD IDEA to ship them BOTH in the same week. Marvel REALLY needs to work out their uneven shipping issues. Having said that... decent self-contained story, though I thought the monks were pretty implausible. OK.

RISING STARS #16: And we continue with superheroes change the world. Not bad... in fact way way better than this sort of tale usually manages... but still, too darn pat. OK.

SECRET MESSAGES SILENT INVASION ABDUCTIONS #2: Mm. To quote the final line of the book "There’s something going on here... and I don’t know what it is" Eh.

SHADOW REAVERS #1: Since we know how it ends, I’m not sure what the point of reading it is. I could have also used an editorial pass to clean up things like the physical placement of that plot-important fish tank, but for all that it is competent enough. Eh

SIMPSONS COMICS #61: That’s two issues in a row that I thought almost matched the quality of the TV show. Hm, and the writer is the same: Ian Boothby. He Gets It. Backup story didn’t suck like last month’s, either. Again, go check this out. Good.

SUPERBOY #91: Nice idea, awkwardly handled. The difference in tone between the three narratives was jarring, and I don’t think they matched up very well. Nice character stuff, but this would have been improved immeasurably by a second draft. OK

SUPERMAN THE MAN OF STEEL #117: Kinda the same problem here: a second draft would have helped a LOT. Guess that’s not a luxury that can be had in monthly comics. Because of the "novelistic" approach to the narrative, more plot got packed into here than the first two months, combined, of OWAW, but some of the clunky and awkward transitions downgrade this to OK

SWAMP THING #18: Wow, big-time whatever. I’ve just recently gone back and reread the Vietch Swampys, so maybe that’s coloring me. Anyway, eh.

THUNDERBOLTS #55: Er, so this is a background plot for something like, what, 30 issues... and its resolved this fast? I don’t much care for characters acting so stupid, myself. Awful.

ULTIMATE X-MEN #8: Its not the X-Men, but its not unclever. OK

UNIVERSE #1: Wow, not a single thing besides the potential lure of $25k to bring a reader back for another issue. Awful.

VANDALA II #1: Right, so you’re a publisher with a low critical rep, and you somehow manage to lure a "name" writer like Peter David to write a comic for you. And then you DON’T EVEN PUT HIS NAME ON THE COVER. Mm, that makes sense. Then he turns in a script that is utterly indistinguishable from all of the rest of your line, lacking ANY of the normal cleverness in his writing. On the upside, you’ve got half-nekkid chix. Awful.

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!], and 5) Things that looked SO bad on the racks that I didn’t bother.

ARCHIE #513
BTVS OZ #2
DAWN OF THE JUNGLE #1
ELVIRA #100
GUNSMITH CATS MISTER V #11
HOW TO DRAW MANGA #7
INU YASHA PART 6 #4
LITTLE RED HOT BOUND #2
OUTRAGE #2
POWERPUFF GIRLS #18
RANMA 1/2 PART 10 #5
SHADES OF BLUE #3
SIGIL #15
STAR WARS JEDI VS SITH #5
SUPERMAN ADVENTURES #60
TRAPDOOR SPIDERWOMAN
UNDAUNTED BURNING BLUE #0 CGICVR ED
VERONICA #117

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 #1250
2000 AD #1251
ACTION FIGURE NEWS AND TOY REVIEW #106
BONE VOL 7 GHOST CIRCLES SC
CAPTAIN AMERICA NICK FURY OTHERWORLD WAR GN
CITIES OF FANTASTIC BRUSEL
COMPLETE MADMAN VOL 4 HEAVEN & HELL TP
DAREDEVIL SPIDER-MAN TP
ELEKTRA POSTER
FARSCAPE NEWSSTAND ED #2
FORTEAN TIMES #149
GALERIE MORPHEUS 2002 CALENDAR OF FANTASTIC ART
GRASSHOPPER AND THE ANT HC
GREEN LANTERN NEW JOURNEY OLDPATH TP
JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #32
JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE VOL 4 #1
LEGAL ACTION COMICS VOL 1
LEGION OF SUPERHEROES ARCHIVES VOL 11 HC
LENORE LUNCH BOX
LITTLE NEMO SLUMBERLAND LUNCHBOX
LORD OF THE RINGS 2002 16 MONTH WALL CALENDAR
LOUIS LYING TO CLIVE SC
MAICO 2010 VOL 1 #4
NECROTIC DEAD FLESH ON LIVINGBODY GN
PLANET OF THE APES 2002 WALL CALENDAR
SILVER AGE WONDER WOMAN AND WONDER GIRL DELUXE ACTION FIGURE
STRANGERS IN PARADISE BOOK 3 PART 3 HC
SUPERMAN GEN 13 TP
TRIPWIRE MAGAZINE #6
TWISTED TOYFARE THEATRE VOL 1TP
ULTIMATE UNOFFICIAL ANIME 2002 WALL CALENDAR
WEED VOL 1 #2
WEED VOL 1 #3
ZARA HC

This Week’s TPB recommendation is: Oh EASY – Twisted Toyfare Theatre Vol 1. "A dead Spock without pants is the least of our worries, Sue." Absolutely the funniest thing to come out this week. I only wish they hadn’t reprinted so patchily (#2, 7, 11-13, 22, and so on)

Average Rating for the Week: 3.71 (of 7.00)

Pick of the Week: It might be the pick of the year... Dork #9

Pick of the Weak: Captain America #46. Yuck!