The Savage Critic: October
2nd, 2002
By Brian
Hibbs
Welcome
back, my friends, to the show that never ends.
Five
week months always give ya’ at least one really shitty week of comics.
I seem to have drawn the short end of the straw this time. And when
I have to do it solo, too! Ah well.
21
DOWN #2: Second issues are often the Big Test for new books – the balls
are in motion, now you get to see if there’s anything behind them. And
I don’t see much here. It may be that I don’t like the protagonist very
much – he’s got a year to live, but I don’t think I care if he makes
it that far or not.. he’s a big mope. Or it may be that every female
character in the books seems utterly distasteful – the over-sexed agent
chick, or the user girl introduced this issue. All I know is when I
got to the cliffhanger, I found myself hoping that they beat each other
to death and made this a three issue mini-series. Crap
ALIAS
#15: The super-weird thing about Bendis’ career is that he got where
he is almost purely by dialogue and relationship – he’s a middling action
director, and “action” is most of what mainstream comics are all about.
We’ve got 22 pages of standing around in a hallway followed by a dinner
date with Ant Man, and absolutely nothing “happens”, and yet this was
one of the most enjoyable comics I’ve read all year. That’s a sign of
a pretty immense talent, really, and I’m as eager as eager as to read
the next issue. Excellent.
APACHE
SKIES #3: Looks nice, reads fine. I liked Blaze of Glory better,
but there ain’t enough westerns in the world, so I can’t be too harsh.
OK
BIG
DADDY DANGER #3: I’ve done with this now. Surprise-free and cliché-ridden,
I really don’t get how this made it to market in the first place. Awful
BIPOLAR
#3: The latest chapter in the suicide-afterlife story had me for a couple
of pages – the new character seemed like it could lead interesting places,
but I’m still not sure, despite the rapidly increasing signs of sureness
in storytelling, that the story is really going anywhere. The second
story in the book left me pretty cold and scratching my head as to the
point. But then, I’m cynical this week. Eh
DOOM
PATROL #13: Seth Fisher is a really good artist – I find myself lingering
on small little details that really have little to do with the main
thrust of the story, like that tree with all of the curlicues. I just
wish he’d get matched to a story that was worth a damn. The premise
of the story seems fun enough – the “new” DP becomes the “old” one –
but I’m still waiting for a point behind the weirdness to show itself.
This book just seems directionless, and if it wasn’t for the superlative
art all the way through, I imagine the cancellation would have been
long since announced. The art gives it a Good, the story a Eh, so we’ll
split the difference and say OK
ELEKTRA
#15: Giving Elektra a moral center is almost certainly the only way
to sustain this book for any amount of time – however, the character
somehow becomes less interesting to me WITH that center. I very much
liked the execution of this issue, but I don’t think it’s leading any
place useful. OK
EXILES
#18: I hate Mojo. With a passion. Maybe Judd can find a twist that works
when Longshot returns, but if so, he’s a better man than I. Awful
GREEN
ARROW #17: It’s weird: I liked this, it has good character beats, a
fine use of continuity, and well told. I’m going to give it a good final
mark. But I don’t find myself caring about what happens next. Maybe
because it’s looking back, rather than forward? Or maybe it’s because
Ollie is a better supporting character than a lead? Good
GREEN
LANTERN EVILS MIGHT #2: The setting is interesting, and it’s a clear
script with nice art... but I can’t say it’s worth $6 an issue. OK
HAWKMAN
#8: Feh. We also have a dinner conversation here (ala Alias),
but by the end I don’t have a better understanding of either character,
nor any real understanding of why they’re friends in the first place.
Which, it being the Atom and Hawkman, is a real shame. Again, I’m not
sure these are solo-worthy characters, and this might have been better
placed as background within JSA. Eh
JUSTICE
LEAGUE ADVENTURES #12: On paper, it almost sounds good: team-up all
the cold-based villains. But every character was a cipher, and the plot
twist was far too obvious to work. It could also be that I just watched
the Demon 2-parter of the cartoon and thought it rocked AND rolled,
and this was a pale joke compared to that. Awful
LUCIFER
#30: Beautiful Craig Hamilton artwork coupled with the usual good Mike
Carey script and lots of politics and intrigue. Lucifier may well be
the best comic you’re not reading. Very Good.
NOBLE
CAUSES FAMILY SECRETS #1: Peyton Place starring the FF. It’s not really
my thing, but I’ll grant you it is done competently enough. OK
PUNISHER
#16: The first couple of pages and I was “Uh, what?”, until I got to
the Yosemite Sam reference, and everything clicked in to place and I
started laughing my ass off. If you like and respect Wolverine, you’re
probably going to hate this, but Garth’s found a way to make a Wolverine
and Punisher crossover be wonderfully subversive fun. Very good.
QUEEN
& COUNTRY #12: Solid ending to the arc, and the art has improved
by leaps and bounds. I’m really looking forward to Speed doing the art
on the next storyline. Good
RISING
STARS #20: Could be that too much time has passed between issues, or
it could be that I knew exactly what was going to happen this issue,
beat-by-beat, scene-by-scene, just by looking at the cover. Either way,
nope I didn’t care for this at all. I don’t see how this can all be
resolved in four issues, either. Awful
RUSE
#12: Have I mentioned that I don’t like the double-page spreads all
the way through, and I find them often difficult to track? Well, now
I have. Twelve issues in, and I’m still trying to find a reason to care
about these characters. Lots of 19th century widescreen action,
which is kinda cool, but there’s no heart. Eh
SPECTRE
#22: I betray my inner fanboy by being actually more excited by Sinestro
than any of the metaphysical claptrap that usually infects this book.
I LOVE the P. Craig Russell covers, but, commercially, Sinestro should
have been on them. No, really. Good
STRAY
BULLETS #26: Su-fucking-perb. Wonderful Amy Racecar madness and surreality
and yet it still fits into the main storyline like butter. Lapham is
at the top of his game, if you ask me. Excellent.
SUPERMAN
#187: The fuck...? This wasn’t even a story. Just a padded sequence
of fight scenes strung together. If it wasn’t for the pretty clever
Mxyzptlk one-page sequence, I could have declared this the most singularly
empty comic book of 2002. Even with that, it’s still crap
ULTIMATE
SPIDER-MAN #28: Heh. Clever and fun. Very good.
ULTIMATE
X-MEN #22: Too much focus on the Brotherhood for my tastes, then we
switch to Scott/Jean/Logan for the rest. Felt like marking time. Well
done marking time, to be sure, but I want more momentum. OK
UNCANNY
X-MEN #414: There’s a few ham-fisted moments (the scene between Stacey
X and Angel seemed forced after the elegance of last issue), but, overall,
I’m enjoying this just fine. OK
WOLVERINE
NETSUKE #2: It looks beautiful, and it looks to be well-researched,
but I can’t say that I was entertained particularly. Wait for the TP,
and show it to your art school friends. OK
X-MEN
ICONS CHAMBER #3: Oh, like that was a surprise! Probably would have
been better being one issue shorter. OK
X-STATIX
#3: It’s good and well-told, but I’m almost starting to think that the
freshness has gone away. 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; 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.
BETTY
& VERONICA #180
BETTY & VERONICA DIGEST #133
BLACK TIDE #2A MIKE MILLER CVR
B-SIDES #2
DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS #5
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS BLACK AND WHITE #3
HOLLIDAY #1
JUGHEAD #147
JUGHEADS DOUBLE DIGEST #89
KISS YU CVR #3
LAB RATS #7
LOONEY TUNES #95
MAC AFRO #4
MERIDIAN #28
OH MY GODDESS #91
PATH #7
RETRO BLAST #1
SKINWALKER #4
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #115
SPIDER-GIRL #52
SPIDER-MAN LEGEND OF THE SPIDER CLAN #1
STAR WARS EMPIRE #2
TOMB RAIDER JOURNEYS #7
VOGELEIN #4
WARLANDS AGE OF ICE #8
WITCHBLADE #59
ZOOMS ACADEMY FOR THE SUPER GIFTED #3
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.
2000
AD #1306
2000 AD #1307
ABEL GN NEW ED
ARCHIES CLASSIC CHRISTMAS STORIES VOL 1
BILL SIENKIEWICZ PRECURSOR TP
BILLI 99 TP
BIRDS OF PREY TP NEW ED
CINEFEX #91
CRUMB COMICS VOL 16 SC
DIRTY PAIR SIM HELL 3RD ED TP
EL HAZARD VOL 2 TP
ENEMY ACE ARCHIVES VOL 1 HC
ENEMY ACE DLX ACTION FIGURE
HAMMER OF THE GODS MORTAL ENEMY TP
INCREDIBLE HULK VOL 2 TP BOILING POINT
JLA FIRST APPEARANCE THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD GIFT SET #28
JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE VOL 4 #15
KOLCHAK NIGHT STALKER GET OF BELIAL GN
MAD MAGAZINE #423
NARCISSA GN
NO PASARAN VOL 2
OH MY GODDESS FINAL EXAM TP
PATH VOL 1 TP CRISIS OF FAITH
PHANTOM VOL 3 GN TREASURES OFBANGALLA
RESIDENT EVIL CODE VERONICA VOL 3
ROSETTA COMICS ANTHOLOGY GN
SPAWN SERIES 22 VIKING AGE THUNDERHOOF DLX FIG SET
SPIDER-MAN PETER PARKER RETURN OF THE GOBLIN TP
STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATIONFORGIVENESS SC
TORINTH BOOK 1 HC FOOL WITH NO NAME
This
Week’s TP recommendation is:
difficult. Not much leaps at me. I’m really glad Billi 99 is
back in print, but it’s a bit dated all of these years later. Equally
dated, but somehow very cool is the Enemy Ace Archives.
If it wasn’t a $50 book, that’d be the easiest recommendation in the
world.... but it’s only a partial because, y’know, it’s $50.
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