The Savage Critic: September
24th, 2003
By Brian Hibbs
Welcome
back, my friends, to the show that never ends...
Sorry
this is up a smidge late – I decided I really needed one actual day
off this week, and Sunday won.
Tzipi
is a little less than a month a way from dropping the baby, by her due
dates, and things have been accelerating around here; putting central
heating and repairing the windows in our house so baby doesn’t get a
chill, that kind of thing. Just a reminder that once the baby is out
(or, at least, on it’s way out), I’ll be taking at least a month’s sabbatical
from here.
Also,
your friendly reminder that you can always throw some money this poor
reviewer’s way via the PayPal link you’ll find on this page (Thanks
this week to Kevin P and Robert L for both being very generous!)
Anyway,
let’s do it, to it....
AMAZING
SPIDER-MAN #58: Clearly JMS and the editorial team disagree with my
assessment that Spidey and hoopty magic stuff don’t mix, because this
is wall-to-wall magic crap. It’s weird because this seems like such
a fundamental misfire from what Spidey is all about when JMS otherwise
gets it all right with the character. Eh.
BATMAN
#619: The big end of “Hush” and, while the wrap up does suffer pretty
badly from the far-too-obvious villain “reveal”, there’s a SECONDARY
reveal that is actually surprisingly satisfying. My recommendation,
however, is don’t “flip through” the issue because the second reveal
is on a right-hand page, and it’s far too easy to “see” it before you
read it, if you see what I mean. Ultimately, this may suffer a bit too
much from I’ve-read-comics-too-long and if-you-have-a-gun-in-chapter-one-it-must-fire-by-the-last-chapter,
if you see what I mean, but, overall, this was a solid and entertaining
read. Very Good.
BATMAN
LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #171: Batman Versus Beavis concludes, and,
surprise against surprise, actually does it better than I thought it
could. What’s kind of funny is that LDK was originally intended
to be the “Top creators have ONE good Batman story” book, and it looks
like they’re moving that sense over to Batman, itself. LDK
really, thus, needs to go away. OK
BATMAN
TENSES #2: If this was an arc in LDK, say, I would have ultimately
said “OK” or maybe even “Good”, but for $6.95 an issue, I don’t see
how I can be more generous than an Eh.
BORN
#4: Jeff said something really funny on Friday... and maybe if we’re
lucky he’ll jump in and clarify – but it boiled down to “I want them
to try this again.” In other words, he liked the idea, but he thought
the execution didn’t pull it off. Me too, when it comes to it – but
I thought the execution was horrifically flawed from issue #1. Garth
does Punisher fine, Garth does War comics fine – but this mix of them
devolved too far to really work. Eh
CAPTAIN
AMERICA #18: Dave Gibbon’s writing run continues – and it reads about
on the level of an issue of What if? – my problem here is the
pacing where we’ve had 44 pages of comics now and we’ve barely advanced
to the first act. If it were me I would have started issue #1 with Cap
breaking out of parallel-Nazi HQ, falling in with the resistance no
later than page 8, and filling in the back-story from there. Instead,
it’s been padded out to this. OK
CATWOMAN
#23: Selina and Bobo was a nice pairing, but I did sorta want to see
Jack Knight, even if just for a panel or two. Enjoying the road trip
arc here, and I’d like to see it go on for awhile – still tons of DCU
space left to see, and Catwoman works just fine outside of Gotham. Kinda
better, actually, as it’s playing against type. Very Good.
CRIMSON
DYNAMO #2: I have a somewhat hard time believing that the soviet government
didn’t have some sort of fail-safe in place for the CD, especially given
the climate it came out of. But, whatever, that’s quibbling I think.
I still don’t buy the setup all that much, nor do I see many logical
ways in which they can get out of it, but the biggest problem for me
is current Marvel TP-based storytelling where things happen soooo slllllooooowwwwlllllyyyy.
Periodical comics are too expensive for that, and Marvel editors should
reabsorb in media res storytelling. OK
DOMINO
#4: Gotta give them points for the twist there. I didn’t see that coming,
and I think it worked great. Good.
EMPIRE
#3: Hrm... I got a huge problem with this issue – showing the hero character
as still being alive, conscious, and at least thinking about rebellion
does rather change the “tone” of the arc. I’m sure Waid will not
have him break free and save the day, but the fact that he could
makes “villains win!” less satisfying to me. Why? Because comic reading
brains are wired to think of changing creative teams and loose threads
and all of that... even when a title is creator-owned. Just introducing
the possibility that this could have a (standard) “happy ending”,
I think, works against the central premise of the book. Eh
EXILES
#34: Very nice use of the torrid love affair to underline the premise
of the book. Good.
FABLES
THE LAST CASTLE: Simply scrumptious art by P. Craig Russell and Craig
Hamilton here. There’s also surprisingly touching story given that the
results were preordained. If you haven’t tried an issue of Fables, there
probably isn’t a better place to see if you like the concept and execution.
Very Good.
FANTASTIC
FOUR #504 (#75): I read this and thought, “how the heck are they going
to resolve this before Waid and Ringo leave the book”?, and, thankfully,
we won’t have to find out. I can’t believe they’re going to try to do
three concurrent FF series though – that’s the kind of thinking that
lead to Marvel’s 90s downfall. This was a solid issue: Good.
FLASH
#202: I can’t stand the art – it doesn’t “flow” enough for a book that’s
about speed. I also think the pacing on this new arc is a bit languorous.
Two issues, and almost nothing has happened.... Eh
GREEN
LANTERN #169: Getting things back towards the right track, yes, and
giving us back a Corps, but, again, going a smidge slow. OK
HELLBLAZER
#188: There’s a lot of unexplained mumbo jumbo in here, but this was
the most solid issue of Carey’s run yet. A very solid OK
HUMAN
TORCH #6: A couple of against-expectations moves here, but this still
doesn’t belong as a monthly book. I can’t be the only one thinking that
because ICv2 reports it selling less than Spider-Girl. OK
INCREDIBLE
HULK #61: God, is this overall arc ever going to end or reach
anything even resembling a conclusion? Will the Hulk ever star in his
own comic book again? Folks, the emperor isn’t wearing pants!!!!
Eh.
INHUMANS
#5: Liking it, though it’s veering a little close to sitcom territory
for my tastes. I can practically here the muted trumpet “uh-oh” in a
few places. OK
JLA
#87: I kinda have a hard time believing a few of the conceits here (like
the Guardians involvement), but as far as big hero action goes, I’ve
certainly read much worse. OK
JLA
Z #1: I can’t believe how much of an easy touch so many of you are –
we sold out instantly of this, and with that price for a bunch of crappy
pinups (I don’t think I especially liked any of them) and text that
could fit on a trading card, with room to spare, you’re all insane for
doing so. Massive waste of money. Awful.
LEGION
#24: Stand-alone spotlight on Shadow Lass (or Umbra, whatever). OK
LOSERS
#4: This isn’t working for me – I think it might be the art; or it might
be that I don’t have any affection for any of the characters. Eh
LOVE
FIGHTS #4: Pretty inconsequential stuff, but I like Andi’s art enough
to enjoy it just fine. OK
MYSTIQUE
#6: I tend to think that Mystique, as she’s previously been portrayed,
would have had no problem cacking the little girl – basically, one could
substitute almost any other character here and the story probably would
have worked as well. Eh
PROMETHEA
#27: Damn nice nostalgic cover there. However, this was the first time
I’ve read an Alan Moore comic and I really didn’t have the foggiest
notion of what was actually happening. So... Eh
PUNISHER
#32: 22 pages of Soap... and it didn’t really add a thing to the character
that we’ve not already seen. A marked improvement from the last few
issues (Steve Dillon returning to the art will do that), but it still
feels like treading water to me. Eh
REIGN
OF THE ZODIAC #2: Like with last issue, this is the absolute best I’ve
ever seen Coleen Doran’s art – terrific, evolutionary stuff – but I
could not care less about the characters or these situations. Shame,
that. Eh
STRANGERS
IN PARADISE VOL III#60: I’m glad it didn’t resolve in the expected way,
but it’s kinda unclear to me where this book is heading, or what it
might be able to pull out for the future. This could almost be a last
issue. OK
SUPERMAN
#197: Marking time to #200. Is anyone enjoying this? Eh
SWEATSHOP
#6: Have we discussed the reason for the book’s failure? I mean, sure,
it’s not much above sitcom level to begin with, but the real mistake
was doing it monthly – Peter Bagge’s core fans aren’t the people who
come in to shops monthly. They come in 2, maybe 3 times a year at best.
We’ve now sold more copies of #1 than we did in the first 30 days of
it’s release, and the big companies just aren’t in position to understand
this buying dynamic and properly support it. Next time something like
this is tried, Joey, don’t go more frequent than quarterly. OK
TERRA
OBSCURA #4: I don’t care about these character or the world especially.
Still, noble failure and all. Eh
THOR
VIKINGS #3: “Chin chin”. Max doesn’t mix with mainstream, does it? Nice
art, but Eh.
WILDCATS
VERSION 3.0 #14: Not a huge fan of corporate comics, but this issue
worked better for me than the last few. I tend to think I’d like to
see a five-year jump forward, maybe – where thisis leading seems to
be more interesting than where it is, yes? OK
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...
BLOWJOB
#7
BRATH #7
BTVS #61
CARTOON CARTOONS #22
DUNGEON #8
FORLORN FUNNIES #4
GLOOM COOKIE #17
GRENDEL GOD & THE DEVIL #8
HEIRS OF ETERNITY #5
HOW LOATHSOME #4
HULK NIGHTMERICA #4
LONE WOLF 2100 #9
PATH #18
SILKEN GHOST #5
SKULLY UNDERPANTS #1
SOLUS #6
SPAWN #128
STAR WARS REPUBLIC #57
STRANGERS GARCIA CVR #6
TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE#22
THUNDERCATS DOGS OF WAR #4
UNCLE SCROOGE #322
VENTURE #4
WAKE THE DEAD #1
WALT DISNEYS COMICS & STORIES#637
WITCHBLADE #69
X-TREME X-MEN #31
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 OCT 2003 VOL 6 #10
BIG DUMB FUN SC
BORDELLO NIGHTS VOL 1 GN
CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL 1 THE NEWDEAL TP
CINEFEX #95
COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE #105
COURTNEY CRUMRIN & THE COVEN OF MYSTICS TP
DORK TOWER COLL TP VOL 5 UNDERSTANDING GAMERS
HEAVY METAL LIVE VOL 1 PHOTO OF JULIE STRAIN SC
LEONARD & LARRY VOL 4 HOW REAL MEN DO IT TP
LONG CRUEL WINTER SC
MIKE HOFFMANS TIGRESS VOL 1 JOURNEY TO CALDATHERA
MIRANDAS CHERRY BLOSSOM ASSIGNMENT SC
NEW REALMS OF SORCERY ART OF MIKE HOFFMAN SKETCHBOOK
NODWICK CHRONICLES COLL NODWICK VOL 3 TP
ONE PLUS ONE VOL 1 TP
PARADIGM VOL 1 SEGUE TO AN INTERLUDE TP
PREVIEWS VOL XIII #10
SOUTHPAW GN
STARLOG #316
SUPERMAN DAY OF DOOM TP
TOR VOL 3 HC
VERTIGO VISIONS TEN YEARS ON THE EDGE TP
WIZARD COMICS MAGAZINE #145
X 1999 VOL 11 TP INTERLUDE
YOUNG WITCHES VOL 4 ETERNAL DREAM TP
This Week’s TP recommendation is:
A pretty bad week for trades – I’ll go with Courtney Crumrin &
The Coven of Mystics. It’s solid stuff, and good fun for people
who want Harry Potter-“style” comics
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