The Savage Critic: October 3rd, 2001 By Brian Hibbs

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

If you care, I’ve started write again after a fallow 6 weeks or so – 4300 words this week. If I’m not finished with this stupid book in a month I will (quite possibly) kill myself!

In the meantime, I have to get these "reviews" out before I go to work this morning.

100 BULLETS #29: Getting better and better every month. I would read just about anything that had Risso art. Very good.

AGENCY #3: Violence-as-porn. Yuck. I love Hotz’s artwork, too, but in this case the content is driving me away massively. Awful.

ALIAS #2: I liked this issue much less than #1. Still good, but it seemed fairly aimless. Plus, isn’t the conceit that the lead was a member of the Avengers (if even for a minute)? If so, that scene in front of the mansion doesn’t even begin to work. Anyway, I liked it fine, but the jury is back out for deliberation on whether this will last in my "must buy" pile. Good.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #35: Damn it, I was just starting to warm to JMS’ run, too. But this was a pretty awkward ending to the "biggest fight of his life". I guess the cliffhanger was a grabber, but I’ve always been of the "Nah, Aunt May can’t be THAT senile" school of thought... Eh.

AVENGERS CELESTIAL QUEST #2: Read like a simple rehashing of Englehart’s ‘70s run on Avengers. Which, I’m sure, is needed because most of the audience for this never read those original stories. Still, not very entertaining for me. Awful.

BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #148: "Bad" was correct. It’s really too easy when they make all of the jokes as obvious as this one... Awful.

CODENAME KNOCKOUT #5: Again, a smidge better than the previous issues, but I don’t care too much, and I can’t really see this making it past the first year. Eh.

CREEPS #1: I suppose a team of "super powered" homeless was inevitable, but that was a pretty hackneyed plot to wrap them around. Big problem: I don’t care one whit what happens to the cast. Eh.

CRUSADES #8: I’m tired of counting SF-based mistakes (No, there aren’t any Victorians underneath the Presidio – there aren’t even any Victorians ABOVE the Presidio. It was an ARMY base, kids; No, you can’t fit an ambulance under the transbay tunnel. Ride it once, and you can see) and I’m growing even more tired of gratuitous T&A. I can think of a dozen ways Anton would have been arrested for that impersonation of the knight, too... Sloppy and ugly and pointless, and I really hate it. Crap.

DAREDEVIL #25: Um, OK. That seemed like a long way to go for such a mediocre ending. Matt and Foggy were a little too underconcerned about the impersonator getting attacked by DD’s old enemies. Brother will be dead within a month. Hm, well, I guess that gives them another story hook... Eh.

DOOM PATROL #1: Not a bad launch, but, once again, Cliff is the only likeable character in the group. The art is fine, but I don’t see the whole "he’s the second coming!" tone of the editorial. I don’t see much long-term potential for the title, but in the short-run it might be an amusing enough ride, I guess. OK

EXILES #5: Goofy fun, with the ongoing "What if...?". Nothing great to say about it, but nothing bad, neither. OK

EXPO 2001 ANTHOLOGY: Regardless of anything else, it’s a STEAL for $7.95. Decent sampler of a wide variety of cartoonists, but like all things of this nature, you’re only going to like half of it. Still, for $7.95, you can’t go wrong at ALL. Fave piece was the spiegelman on Schultz color spread. Very good.

FANTASTIC FOUR #48: Abraxas might be the stoopidest villain ever, but, regardless, this was a solid enough issue. OK

HELLBLAZER #166: Eh.

ICEMAN #1: And here’s the newest X-men-mini-without-a-real-point. Competently done, but who cares? Eh.

I PAPARAZZI HC: Oh, how I want to be able to give a positive review. I kinda like the look of the photo-digital comic, clearly a TON of work went into this, and I liked the concept of the protagonist. But... the shifting time perspective in the writing was awkwardly handled, and the sci-fi aspect of the plot didn’t at all work injected into leave-nothing-to-the-imagination photographs. If this was a $6 comic, I might pass it with an "eh", but for $30, I have to go down to Awful

JOKER LAST LAUGH #1: I fucking hate crossovers. I fucking hate cynical money-grabs. Now, look, I understand that we haven’t read part 1 of the story (the running-late JLL Secret Files), but this really didn’t make a lot of sense – first off the Joker ISN’T going to die. You know that, I know that. Which kinda moots any possible drama one could derive from this. Second, a combination of chemicals used in a SUPER-POWERED PRISON creates Joker "gas"? As fucking if. There’s really no possible review except for Crap. Oh well, better luck with NEXT quarter’s crossover ($!#@%)

KABUKI #1/2: It’s pretty. Shallow, yes, but pretty. OK

KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #59: Still just about the consistently funny comic on the shelves each month. I wish they’d just go publishing a gaming magazine for all of the text gaming material in here, but, as the editorial notes, they haven’t trimmed the comics content at all, so I guess I can’t bitch too much. Anyway, for the comics half: Very good.

LUCIFER #19: Ah, the other Vertigo title that gets better with each passing issue. I am really enjoying this title. Much more than I thought I could. Very good.

ORIGIN #2: Actually, not too bad. I figured out the ending by page 4, but it was a "clever" twist nonetheless. OK

ORION #19: Yow! You see, THIS is why line-wide crossovers are bad. Awful (which is HARD to rate a Simonson comic)

STAR WARS TAG & BINK ARE DEAD #1: Heh. Nice homage to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Lightweight, but entertaining... esp if you’re a Star Wars geek. Good.

SUPERMAN ADVENTURES #62: I’d go to OK if it wasn’t for the fact that Lex pretty clearly, provably, and with two living witnesses, is guilty of attempted murder, and Supes doesn’t say a word about it. That’s too direct for business-man Lex. Eh.

THOR #42: Actually, I kinda liked this one (a first for this creative team on Thor). Can’t even say why exactly, really. OK

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #14: Probably the comic book that has most defied my expectations. I really like USM. Really, really. Only complaint from me: that AWFUL LOOKING font used this issue. Wow, kept me at arms length. Very good.

ULTIMATE X-MEN #10: Y’know, if this wasn’t called "X-Men", I might be loving this. It’s just too far from baseline for me. My flaw, not theirs, though. OK

UNCANNY X-MEN #398: Plot-wise, this sucked. The rockstar story kinda just coasts to a halt, with the protagonist being utterly passive; the underground story... that’s it? A crummy fight scene with Wolverine? Yikes. The art was kinda nifty in places though – I really liked the rendition of Nightcrawler. But, damn, the writing brings it all the way down to Awful

UNIVERSE X X: A better ending than I thought it might be with a couple of very nice individual scenes (the Peter and May one in particular), but I still don’t care all that much. Eh

WILDCATS VOL 2 #28: Yup, another decent issue. I’m looking reasonably forward to v 3. OK

WONDER WOMAN #174: Er, so Circe turns GL (and others) into animal, and sets super-powered villains after him to slaughter him. They have at least however long it takes WW to gather all of those female heroes (but, er, wouldn’t the Moly help ANY defender regardless of gender?), and for them all to make their speeches. So... GL (and others) is dead then, right? Too many plot-farts for me. Really just an excuse for Jimenez to draw EVERY female character in the DCU (including a few that even I couldn’t place) – which he does well. But still, didn’t make much sense story-wise. Eh.

X-FORCE #120: Wow, morals! Who expected that? I’m enjoying this book, despite the gratuitous Wolverine appearance. Good.

YOUNG JUSTICE #38: Oddly, this may be the most character-driven issue of YJ yet, and I liked the main bits quite a lot. But the JLL crossover felt both contrived and pointless. Did I mention I fucking hate crossovers? Still, I’d surprisingly give this a Good for the character stuff.

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.

10TH MUSE #6
ARCHIE AND FRIENDS STARRING JOSIE & PUSSYCATS #52
AZRAEL AGENT OF THE BAT #83
BAD KITTY RELOADED #1
BETTY & VERONICA #167
BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #101
DEADBEATS #49
FIRST #12
FLASH ANNUAL 1963 #1
INSANE CLOWN POSSE PENDULUM #11
KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE HACKMASTERS #9
LEGEND OF THE SAGE #3
LOONEY TUNES #83
LUFTWAFFE 1946 TECHNICAL MANUAL VOL 6
MECH DESTROYER #4
PLEASURE BOUND #8
POISON ELVES LUSIPHUR & LIRILITH #4
RETURN OF ALISON DARE LITTLE MISS ADV #3
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #102
SPIDER-GIRL #39
TICKS BIG HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2001
US WAR MACHINE #4
VAMPI #10
VICTORIAN #10
VISITE GUIDEE GUIDED TOUR
WITCHBLADE #51

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.

ADRENALYNN WEAPON OF WAR TP
ANIME ENCYCLOPEDIA TP
ANIMERICA VOL 9 #11
APORIATICA GN
BATGIRL A KNIGHT ALONE TP
CEQUIT FAIT TOURNER LA TERRE WHAT MAKES WORLD GO ROUND3
CINESCAPE SPECIAL NOVEMBER #11
DESIR DESIRE
ECLIPSO ACTION FIGURE
FUSHIGI YUGI VOL 5 RIVAL TP
KIMOTA THE MIRACLEMAN COMPANION TP
LA NOUVELLE AUX PIS
LAPIN COLLECTION VOL 26
LITTLE LIT STRANGE STORIES FOR STRANGE KIDS HC
MARQUIS DANSE MACABRE TP
PUNISHER CIRCLE OF BLOOD TP
SIMPSONS TREEHOUSE OF HORROR SPOOKTACULAR TP
SPIDER-GIRL TP
STAR WARS INSIDER #56
THOR ACROSS THE WORLDS TP
VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE VOL 1 GN TOREADOR
VIDEO WATCHDOG #76 

This Week’s TPB recommendation is: Kimota! is a cool and important document of Miracleman and its convoluted legacy. The net effect is really, "sorry, you’ll never see this again. No two people seem to agree on the story of ownership." Hopefully someone (Marvel?!?) will be able to clear this up. Seems to me that step #1 is seeing if Dez even cleared the UK legalities in receivership. If he didn’t, whoever buys that would seem the winner. But what the hell do I know? Still Kimota! isn’t really a "TPB", it is a historical document. It gets the nod, regardless.

Average Rating for the Week: 34 books "reviewed" for an average rating of 3.62 (out of a possible 7.00)

Pick of the Week: No "excellents", and none of the Very Goods really are all the way into PotW range. So, the coin-flip method gives it to Lucifer #19.

Pick of the Weak: Obvious, really: Joker’s Last Laugh #1. God, five more weeks of this to go... SHAME!