The Savage Critic: December 5th, 2001 By Brian Hibbs

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

Helluva good week for dem dere funny books this time, even if we discount DKSA. I’ve even actually been able to get a little ahead and I’m writing this on (get this!) Thursday morning rather than five minutes before my deadline on Friday.

100 BULLETS #31: Now that was a solid issue. Besides the Marilyn and Bobby issue, this might be my favorite single issue of the run. It also kicks off a new storyline, so if you’ve been tempted by the book, here’s a good jumping on point. Very Good.

100 GREATEST MARVELS COUNTDOWN #5 – 3: I just want to note that just about the last thing the market needed was another reprint of Jim Lee’s X-Men #1, Uncanny #137 and... oh jeez, I forgot. Either way it was Yet Another X-Men comic. This is what’s wrong with democracy, folks! No review, though.

ADVS OF BARRY WEEN 3 MONKEY TALES #5: From strength to strength. Another fabulous issue, with plenty of swearing and ass kicking and even some poignancy. Sweet stuff. Very good.

ALIAS #4: And this book gets back on track for me too. "Ach, my kingdom for superhearing." Very Good.

AUTHORITY #27: Was it worth the wait? Well, nine months, or whatever, is a damn long time... but yah, it almost was worth the wait. That Adams kid sure knows how to draw, don’t he? Our fourth in-a-row Very Good.

AVENGERS CELESTIAL QUEST #4: Well, all good things have to end eventually. Still, I don’t think I’ve seen four-in-a-row Very Goods anytime recently. This, however, rates an Eh.

BATGIRL #23: DC and Marvel are counter-programming stunts this month – this is the first of the "Full Coverage" titles while Marvel does "’Nuff Said"... and DC comes out the winner. Maybe I’m in just too much of a good mood, but I thought most of the DC books really did a good job in being solid "jump on here" issues. Batgirl, in particular does a nice job of "here’s where we’ve been, and here is where we’re going". I liked this issue quite a bit. Good.

BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #150: Fucking nice cover there. This is part 2 of the story, but it read really cleanly, and could have just as easily been part 1. JM turns in a nice script that made me think a little of Moonshadow. No, I mean, its not THAT good, but Tim’s narrative voice reminded me a bit of that seminal JMD script. Good.

BATTLE POPE CHRISTMAS POPETACULAR #1: Like I’ve been saying for the last few weeks, the joke is over. But, having said that, I really dug this issue for some reason. No, I’m not a hypocrite! Good.

CREEPS #2: Yuck. Awful.

CRUSADES #10: I have a real problem with this book. Not just the whole "This is a San Francisco with no relationship to the real SF" (Honestly, we don’t have an underground like this book posits – you can’t simply transfer city elements from, say, New York, blindly), but whole huge bits of this don’t stand up to any scrutiny. Have you ever worn plate armor? I’ve done a little smidge of SCAing in my life, and though I’ve never been in heavier than chainmail, trust me, this is not something you just do casually. If you’re wearing plate heavy enough to stop a bullet (ha!), you’re NOT going to be running around casually and jumping back onto a horse. Shit is HEAVY. And you need serious and sustained training to even begin to move around hauling that much tonnage. So, right there, this whole "second knight" idea is just plain dumbass. Sorry folks, do some research. Awful

DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN #1: Well. What to say, what to say? I liked the story. I liked it a whole lot. It was zippy and solid and clever and strong, and it gave me that Barton Fink feeling. Frank doing Batman is pretty much just going to yield you a solid comic. While I really can’t stand Frank’s sketchy new style in pinups and whatnot, it kicked a lot of ass here. It’s more.... oh, I dunno, representational, or something – getting to the core of the characters. In fact, just about the only thing I didn’t like was the coloring. And man, did I not like the coloring one teeny tiny bit. It pulled me out of the narrative in places, being so jarring to the mood that was being established. This was not the kind of project that I, personally, would have said, "sure, test out a technique you’ve never used and don’t really understand very well yet." It ended up knocking off a full grade for me, and it is rare that color alone can do that. Y’know what it reminded me of? Those prestige format New Universe books (The War, The Pit, etc.) when Paul Mounts first discovered computers... a decade ago. *shudder* But, either way, the story was strong enough to let me overlook that... Bottom line: it is worth your $8 for the tale. And, you know me, that’s saying a LOT. Very Good.

DOOM PATROL #3: Yah, the art is growing on me. A lot. The story is a bit thin, though, and I don’t really give a rat’s ass for any of these characters except Cliff, taking it down to a mere OK

DRIPPYTOWN COMICS 2001: I’m not positive what to make of this – seems to be a sampler-style collection of various alternative newspaper strips. There’s some fabulous talent involved here, and there were only a few strips I didn’t enjoy at least a little... but there wasn’t any focus, and I wanted to see more of what I did like. Still, as a sampler, I’ll give it a Good.

EXILES #7: Our first "’nuff Said" issue for the month, telling the story entirely in pictures. As an experiment, it succeeded fine, but I’m REALLY not sure that this was worth $2.25. The script pages in the back go a long way to making up for the quick-read nature of these however. Still, Judd at least tried something new, and it worked fine, so I can’t go less than OK

GIANT SIZE MINI MARVELS STARRING SPIDEY #1: I quite like the "Bullpen bits" (or whatever they were called), but a big ol’ collection of them is nearly overkill. The lead story was cute, but certainly not laugh-out-loud funny. Eh.

JOSS WHEDONS FRAY #5: Definitely shocked by the one-arm girl. Joss really understands how to make the beats of a comic story work. Very good.

LIBERTY MEADOWS #24: Cho can sure draw, and even when his comedy is lowbrow and four-panel-forced, I like it a lot. Good.

LUCIFER #21: It took more than a year to get there, but this is clearly the Heir Apparent to the Vertigo legacy. I’m digging this book more with each passing issue, which is how comics should be. Very Good.

RED STAR SPECIAL ED: Sure, solid enough. OK

SANDWALK ADVENTURES #1: Jay Hosler, who did the wonderful Clan Apis, produces this series about Charles Darwin explaining Natural Selection to a mite that lives in his eyebrow (!!!). Actually, very little Natural Selection in this issue (its all set-up), but I’m very fond of this Educational-yet-Fun comics story idea. If there is one book this week you should make a special point of checking out on the racks, this is probably it – it’s almost certainly below most reader’s radar, and that is a damn shame. While you’re at it, find yourself a copy of Clan Apis, too. Very good.

SAVAGE DRAGON #91: Lotsa blabbing, lotsa backstory. Gotta happen every once in a while. But my attention wavered around the point where Dragon says something like "this is giving me a headache." Yah, me too. Eh.

SOME TROUBLE OF SERRIOUS NATURE: Uh... what? In Tucci’s introduction he says something to the effect of "I started doing this as a comic book story, but then I realized it didn’t work, and am now doing a film." Well, I can’t say nuttin’ about the film, but, no, it didn’t work as a comic book story. At all. Awful.

SPECTRE #12: I don’t like Christmas stories. And the fabulous art (Sook gets better and better each issue!) can’t make me like them even one jot. Eh.

STAR WARS TAG & BINK ARE DEAD#2: The first one was funny – this one was just strained. Eh.

SUPERMAN #177: The pros: even a few pages of Kevin Maguire art is always welcome; and, despite not liking Christmas stories, I do like the annual tradition of Superman answering his mail. The cons: Apparantly someone believes this might be dull or something, so we interpose this with a pair of giant robots duking it out. Yuck. Eh.

SUPERMAN ADVENTURES #64: Batman Beyond guest stars. woo. Eh.

THOR #44: Our second silent Marvel... and this one failed for me. I don’t really like Asgard anyway (just like Atlantis-based stories),and while this structurally follows Exiles in following the thoughts of individual characters, I found a lot of the transitions to be confusing and unclear. Eh.

THOR GODSTORM #3: Steve Rude art is always fabulous to drool over, but the plot was pretty thin and dull. Total package: OK

ULTIMAN GIANT SIZED ANNUAL #1: I got about five pages into it before I got so deadly bored that I put it down. If you want silver age Superman, the World’s Finest Archives also came out this week. Why buy a pale copy (in B&W, yet), when you can have the real thing? Awful.

ULTIMATE MARVEL TEAM UP #10: Looks a bit more Ron Randall than John Totleben for most of it... but any thing that gets John drawing is a good thing. John also redesigns The Lizard... and it looks GREAT. It also looks like ONLY John could draw it without being a joke. Oh, if only this had hand-lettering... Good.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #16: Another solid issue, even if it seems there are too many elements rolling around for comfort. A seconding on the note about hand-lettering – these computer fonts look like fucking shit. Good.

ULTIMATE X-MEN #12: A decent enough (if telegraphed) ending to the arc. Speaking as a retailer, however, it is VERY fucked up to ship this two weeks after the last issue, and to ship all three Ultimate books in one week. That’s a sure-fire way to kill sales. OK

UNCANNY X-MEN #400: The Ashley Wood pages were a little jarring relative to the other artists, and the villain’s origin went on and on and on, but this was the first solid issue of the recent Uncanny run. OK.

WILL EISNERS THE NAME OF THE GAME HC: Will really IS a master – and I quite liked the generational aspect of this GN. On the other hand, I found the prose to be a bit jarring to the whole package, but this is Will’s strongest GN since, oh, I dunno, New York. Very good.

YOUNG JUSTICE #40: Not only is it a Christmas issue... but its poetry. Bad poetry at that. A few "hehs", but not a single real laugh. Only thing worse than poetry is Christmas poetry. 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!], 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.

ANCIENT JOE #2
ARCHIE #517
AVENGELYNE SHI FINCH COVER #1
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #62
BLUE EYES VOL 1 #2
CANNON GOD EXAXXION #1 STAGE 1
DALE KEOWN PITT SKETCHBOOK
DARKCHYLDE REDEMPTION #2
DORK TOWER #15
FIRST #14
INCAL #4
JUGHEAD WITH ARCHIE DIGEST #171
KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE HACKMASTERS #10
LITTLE WHITE MOUSE ENTROPY DREAMING SP ED #4
LOONEY TUNES #85
MARVEL KNIGHTS MILLENNIAL VISIONS
MYSTIC #19
NEGATIVE EXPOSURE #2
OUTLAW 7 #2
PALS N GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #63
SPACE COWBOY #1
SPIDER-GIRL #41
TICKS BIG RED N GREEN CHRISTMAS SPECTACLE #1
TWO OVER TEN #2
VERONICA #121
WEIRDLAND #1

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.

ABE VOL 1 WRONG FOR RIGHT REASONS
BANNER TP
CICADA GN
COMIC BOOK ARTIST #15
COMIC LIBRARY INTERNATIONAL VOL 8
DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN STATUE
EARTH X WOLVERINE BUST
HOW TO DRAW MANGA BODIES & ANATOMY ENG ED SC
MAXION BOOK 2 TP
METROPOL COLL ED VOL 4 TP
MR MAJESTIC TP
SILVER AGE GREEN ARROW AND SPEEDY DELUXE FIGURE SET
STAR TREK MAGAZINE #33
STAR WARS INSIDER #57
STARLOG #294
VOYEURS INC VOL 3 TP
WORLDS FINEST ARCHIVES VOL 2 HC

This Week’s TPB recommendation is: Not many choices there, huh? So, let’s give it over to Metropol Vol 4.

Average Rating for the Week: 33 books "reviewed" for an average rating of 4.33 (out of a possible 7.00). Y’know if EVERY week was this good, comics wouldn’t be a down market.

Pick of the Week: Oh, SO many choices to choose from this time! I count ELEVEN books I rated as Very Good. I actually think I have to give it to Dark Knight Strikes Again #1, but I really do want all of you to make a special effort to check out Sandwalk Adventures #1

Pick of the Weak: Like I said, I hate Christmas stories, and I hate poetry, so it is easy to give this week’s raspberry to Young Justice #40.