The Savage Critic: September
17th, 2003
By Brian Hibbs
Welcome
back, my friends, to the show that never ends...
Again,
I’m late and rushed and harried, so no intro – though I have noticed
that I get much less mail when I don’t write one... You’d think with
the umpty-thousand hits we get each week more of you would be writing
a LOC, or sending a PayPal donation. Shows you what I know, I guess....
AGENT
X #14: *shrug* It’s not all that funny for me, at least. Eh.
ARROWSMITH
#3: Warming up to this now that things are happening. Wonderful art,
too. Good.
BATGIRL
#44: Damn, that was terrible. I totally didn’t care about any character
or any action here, and the peril seemed forced and too easily resolved.
Awful.
BATMAN
ADVENTURES #6: Six issues in and I no longer see the point of this book
– it’s not very “kid friendly”, and this is the one title that I don’t
feel should have issue-to-issue continuity. Eh.
BATMAN
GOTHAM KNIGHTS #45: Why is this being published, again? What niche does
it fill, what need does it service? Oh, that’s right... none. Eh
BIRDS
OF PREY #59: Implausible wrap-up to the first arc. Want to like this,
but I’m not. Eh
BPRD
NIGHT TRAIN #1: Geoff Johns and Scott Kollins... but it doesn’t hold
a candle to their Flash work. Nothing wrong with this,
but it’s just pretty meh. Eh.
CAPTAIN
MARVEL #14: It’s almost like PAD has painted himself into a corner with
this arc. Jeff said on Friday that it felt like PAD had the first year
worked out for “U-Decide”, and now has no idea what to do with this.
If the protagonists weren’t so loathsome, maybe something could be done...
Awful
CINNAMON
EL CICLO #2: It’s pretty much 100 Bullets-lite. Eh
CREW
#5: No “crew” here... just a full-length “origin” of...wossname? Already
forgotten... Josiah X, is it? Pretty implausible, all things considered.
Eh.
DAREDEVIL
#52: I don’t like Echo. I do like David Mack’s art. Torn. OK
FILTH
#13: I need to read the entire thing from start to finish, I think –
this end didn’t make a ton of sense to me. Eh
HEDGE
KNIGHT #2: It’s a very good adaptation of George RR Miller’s story.
OK
HUMAN
TARGET #2: Took a while to find a book that I really liked this week
– this has a very clever idea about a man who faked his death during
9/11. Very Good.
ICANDY
#1: Jesus. The “New” DC (under Didio) would be a smidge more exciting
if it wasn’t for books like this and Cinnamon or Fallen Angel.
Took me maybe 90 seconds to “read” this one – it’s 8 pages for 2000
AD strrrrretched out to 22. No original ideas on display, either.
Crap.
LOBO
UNBOUND #3: The Joke’s gone old again. That was damn fast, huh? Eh
LUCIFER
#42: “New Arc Begins” says the cover, but I wouldn’t try jumping in
with this issue – in fact, I was pretty bored through most of it. OK
NAMOR
#6: Who to the what now? They’re drilling oil *in* Atlantis? This shit
doesn’t make any sense. I guess that’s OK when you’re the president
of the company. Crap.
OUTSIDERS
#4: I know this one is “hot” and everything... but I don’t really see
the appeal. PS: Brother Blood is WAY lamer than Monsieur Mallah and
The Brain. Even when I was 12 I knew that. Eh
PS238
#3: There’s a couple of funny moments in here (nothing like last issue),
but the Afterschool Special ending was a little saccharine. OK
PUFFED
#3: It has to be said: that was a shitty ending. Not that there was
much else that could have been done with that set-up, but I was disappointed.
Awful
ROBIN
#118: What to the who now? Alfred from the future? My head hurts, make
it stop! Awful
RUNAWAYS
#6: Hey! Look! They finally ran away!!! Way to go! Still, someone has
to tell me how in God’s name can’t parents recognize the handwriting
of their own children? That sinks the “twist” at the end pretty badly.
I don’t think this book will make it past arc #3, at best. Eh
SANDMAN
ENDLESS NIGHTS HC: If it wasn’t for this, I almost could have written
off the entire week of comics. I don’t really have enough superlatives
here for this. I think this book matches or surpasses the original run
of Sandman, because Neil has learned a bit about writing since
then. The collaborations are very well chosen, and absolutely perfectly
suited for the stories. I’m generally very very leery about giving the
enthusiastic thumbs up on big expensive books (as, sooner or later there
will be a cheap version), but mark this as one of the few cases where
I think the $5-8 dollars you might save is far outweighed by being able
to read this NOW. I really really liked this, and give it my most enthusiastic
recommendation. Excellent!
SMAX
#2: Good, solid stuff from anyone else... mildly OK stuff for Alan Moore.
OK
SOJOURN
#27: I’m getting crazily bored with this now.... the “plot coupon” part
is just dragging out. If it weren’t for the art.... Eh
SPIDER-MAN
& WOLVERINE #4: Dull conclusion to the mini, and the fact that the
artist hasn’t shown much forward growth from #1 to #4 is now bugging
me. When I first saw this in Spider-Man/Daredevil I thought “He’ll
be great once he gets some pages under his belt and tightens up and
gets a better grip on anatomy...” but he hasn’t. At all. A very disappointed
Eh.
SUPERMAN
BATMAN #2: What to the what now? The first 11 pages or so and I was
ALL OVER THIS. The banter was crisp, the cross-comparisons were strong
– but then, book, someone spiked Loeb’s coffee, and things started going
nuts. So the Kingdom Come Superman shows up says “You have to listen
to me before it is too late!” and then doesn’t actually say a THING.
Clark loads up a piece of kryptonite into a gun (!! Uh? HOW does he
expect that to FIRE? There’s this little thing called ‘gunpowder’ that
you might want to look into there, guys...) and seems to be shooting
a KILLING SHOT at the KC version. (!!!!!) Then Luthor says some insanely
mental stuff that makes George Bush look like a paragon of rationality,
and people seem to buy it? Plus I’m not even going to get into the sheer
rank gross STUPIDITY of even SUGGESTING that the crook who shot Bruce’s
parents was anything other than a common, run-of-the-mill, anonymous
street punk. As soon as you try to make it Metallo, you drain a massive
amount of the power from the concept. So from excellence to insanity
in 22 pages, this thing gave me whiplash. Awful
SUPERMAN
METROPOLIS #8: The Creeper shows up, and is used boringly. Can you name
a comic sin worse than that? Eh
ULTIMATE
SIX #1: Set-up, set-up, and some more set-up. Good as far as that goes,
but I’d like a story please. k, thx. OK
UNCANNY
X-MEN #431: Just another issue of Austen Uncanny. Eh.
WEAPON
X #12: Brutal, cynical and horrible. Why are you reading this? Is there
something wrong with you? Awful.
WOLVERINE
#5: Handled fine, but it doesn’t feel much like anyone’s heart is really
in this. OK
WOLVERINE
SNIKT #4: *shrug* If you want Manga wolvie, here it is. Eh
WONDER
WOMAN #196: Liked it, though not as much as the “first” issue – really
disliked Ares “new look”. 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...
AGENTS
#5
ARCHIE AND FRIENDS #75
BETTY #130
CANNON GOD EXAXXION #17
CASEFILES SAM & TWITCH #3
DARKNESS VOL 2 #5:
ELIZABETH BATHORY #6
GHOST IN THE SHELL 2 MAN MACHINE INTERFACE #7
GUN THEORY #1
LITTLE SCROWLIE #3
LONE #1
MEGAMAN #1
MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS #257
NEOTOPIA VOL 2 #2
NIGHTMARES AND FAIRY TALES #6
NODWICK #21
POSSESSED #3
POWERPUFF GIRLS #42
ROUTE 666 #15
SCION #39
SHREK #1
SIMPSONS COMICS #86
SMALLVILLE #4
TERMINATOR 3 EYES OF THE RISE#4
TOMB RAIDER #33
TRANSFORMERS GI JOE HOLOFOIL CVR #1
UNDERWORLD MOVIE ADAPTATION
VICTORIAN #20
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.
ABSOLUTE
AUTHORITY VOL 2 OVERSIZED HC
ALTER EGO #28
ART OF JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNERTP
BATMAN BLACK AND WHITE VOL 2 TP
BONEYARD VOL 2 TP
CAPTAIN MARVEL VOL 2 COVEN TP
CONFIDENTIAL CONFESSIONS VOL 3 GN
ERICA SAKURAZAWAS ANGEL NEST
EXILES VOL 5 UNNATURAL INSTINCT TP
FIST OF NORTH STAR MASTER ED VOL 6 GN
FIVE IS THE PERFECT NUMBER GN
GIANT ROBOT #30
INU YASHA VOL 5 TP 2ND ED
INU YASHA VOL 6 TP 2ND ED
JLA JSA VIRTUE AND VICE SC
JUSTICE LEAGUE PAINTED POSTER BY ALEX ROSS
KISSING CHAOS VOL 2 NONSTOP BEAUTY TP
METAL HURLANT #8
NEVERWHERE 2-PACK DVD
NEW X-MEN VOL 2 HC
PALEO TALES LATE CRETACEOUS TP
PETER PARKER SPIDER-MAN VOL 5SENSELESS VIOLENCE TP
PIP & NORTON FIGURE
PUBO TP
RAYMOND CHANDLERS MARLOWE TP
ROBOTECH THE MACROSS SAGA VOL4
SIZZLE #19
STAR TREK COMMUNICATOR #146
THOR VOL 4 SPIRAL TP
TICK GOLDEN AGE GIANT ED VOL 1
TOMARTS ACTION FIGURE DIGEST SEP 2003 #114
TRANSFORMERS ARMADA VOL 2 TP
TREASURY VICTORIAN MURDER VOL6 BEAST OF CHICAGO HC
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN VOL 3 HC
USAGI YOJIMBO DUEL AT KITANOJI TP
VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE VOL 1 TP
VIDEO WATCHDOG #99
WHATS MICHAEL VOL 8 SHOW TIMETP
WORLD WAR 3 ILLUSTRATED TAKING LIBERTIES
This Week’s TP recommendation is:
You’ve got some great choices this week: Batman Black & White
V2, The New X-Men and Ultimate Spider-Man HCs, Usagi
Yojimbo, but I think they’re all just edged out by JLA/JSA:
Virtue and Vice in SC.
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