No time for blog, Dr. Jones. With an Independence Day that involved a flooded toilet, family visits and absolutely no time whatsoever to sit down and write about The Black Diamond and Criminal as originally planned, you're going to have to wait a little bit longer for new reviews from me, I'm afraid. How did everyone else enjoy the holiday yesterday, anyway?
Happy Independence Day, Americans. Congratulations on getting rid of all those British bastards, other than those of us who came back years later because we, too, were sick of Britain. Do you mind if I take advantage of the day-later-new-comic-shipping to finish up with this week's books?
DAREDEVIL #98: Hey, look! She's not dead after all! Brubaker and team follow up on the advertised peril for Matt's wife Milla with a tense one-issue take on the "a hero pushed to the edge" theme that works because it is only one issue, and because it doesn't end the way you might expect. Good, but - and this is nitpicking - that cover was kind of generic and off-putting after some of the great ones we've seen lately, wasn't it?
FANTASTIC FOUR #547: Dwayne McDuffie, you are to be congratulated for taking a book like the FF, bringing it back to its old school roots and making it work - Finishing this issue with the explosion of... well, something, alongside a caption from the Wizard (of all people) proclaiming "the end of the Fantastic Four!" was a wonderfully welcome piece of cheese that capped off a pretty Good issue overall. McDuffie manages to convey the idea that the FF are an extended family rather than traditional teammates without having someone come out and tell the audience as usually happens, and the mix of comedy and drama here - ably handled by the equally old-school Paul Pelletier - feels more in tune with the series (and the Marvel Universe in general) than all of the police state nonsense happening elsewhere. I'm dreading what happens after this team leaves, though.
THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST #6: Really, remarkably Excellent; I can't get my head around the fact that this book has become one of my favorite titles out there right now, but this final chapter of "book one" (according to the last panel of the issue) is a perfect example of the mix of action, humor and fast-moving mysticism that keeps me coming back issue after issue. The fact that David Aja's art is really something special (and keeps getting better) doesn't hurt either.
SHE-HULK #19: So, wait, this all happens after World War Hulk? Doesn't explicitly stating that a couple of times, kind of... I don't know... suck a lot of tension out of WWH, considering that the Earth seems to be pretty much the same as it did before the Hulk invaded, and Iron Man's definitely not dead and all? Not that I expected anything else, but it seems somewhat self-defeating to have one of your books come out and outright state those things before the second issue of your massive event comic has even come out. That said, I see why that swerve had to be done; it'd be hard to leave the series on the same comedic tone as you started within the current MU framework... Shame that the results are so Eh, however.
SILVER SURFER: REQUIEM #2: You don't need to read this (beautifully-painted, but essentially boring) comic; I'll summarize it thusly: "So, Spider-Man: Would you like to ride my surfboard?" "No thanks, but I'm sure my wife would." "...Okay then." "Awesome!" That's pretty much all there is. It's very pretty, but Eh on every other scale, cosmic or otherwise.
SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #31: New writer Tony Bedard may think that he's tying up some loose ends from Mark Waid's run, but "where is Cosmic Boy" really isn't one of them - What happened to him in Waid's last issue was one of the best things about that issue, and it's depressing to see it discarded so quickly, especially in favor of what looks to be a pretty Eh new status quo.
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS #1: The problem with this book isn't the execution - Jeff Parker's script is very cute, and Roger Cruz's art has some really nice touches (Remember when he was a Jim Lee clone? He's a million miles from that now, thankfully) - but with the lethargy about the concept in the first place. Monthly retro tales from when the series wasn't popular at all? How do you sell that to the legions of readers out there who would rather read about Wolverine's mohawked son? It's a shame, because this is a fun little book that deserves a wider audience than it'll probably receive, thanks to the crowded X-franchise and the not-especially-outstanding Eric Nguyen cover. For some reason, I think that digest collections will be where this series will prosper; charming one-offs seem more weighty in anthologies, if you ask me. Good, if light.
PICK OF THE WEEK is Iron Fist, and even if the whole comic hadn't been awesome, Misty's line about loving "that crazy white girl so much I could holler" would've probably gained the crown alone. PICK OF THE WEAK is Return To Wonderland, because, well, ick. TRADE OF THE WEEK for me is tough, because I've been working through Green Apple purchases, so for me it's probably been the Comics Journal Library Vol. 1: Jack Kirby collection of essays and interviews, because you can never have too much Kirby. Tomorrow: The New Comics Mainstream. Or something.
So, really, now that we're at #44, can we start to think about what's wrong with COUNTDOWN? Eight issues in, and there's only one plot that really working for me - Jimmy Olsen discovering his crazy superpowers and not being all angst-ridden about the whole thing. Which, considering all the other plots that are also in the book at this point (Mary Marvel gets her powers from Black Adam, the Flash villains do... um... something, Holly from Catwoman also does something, and there's lots of multiverse things going on that are somewhat unclear), isn't a really good sign. Maybe not so coincidentally, Jimmy's story is also the only one in the series that doesn't rely on you reading another comic to understand it - Even if you didn't know who Jimmy was, you could still understand the basic "someone seems to get magic powers when they least expect it" sequence of events. Everything else in the book fails to hold onto your interest because it's not about anything other than other comic books, and in order for that old trick to work, it takes more skill and humor that this book offers.
That's what's so depressing about this comic, I think; that so much of it feels as if it's the comic equivalent of a circle jerk. When more than half of the comic reads as though you have to have read other comics to understand it and read plenty more to understand what's going to happen - And with at least three spin-offs with "Countdown" in the title due to appear in the next few weeks, there's definitely the feeling that you'll be needing plenty more than the next 44 issues of this series in order to get the whole story, which seems more than slightly overwhelming at this stage of the game, considering how offputting and insider the story itself seems. The idea of keeping up with this series just in terms of what's happening, never mind being sympathetic to any characters or whatever, is exhausting in and of itself in a way that 52 never was. This was something that I seem to remember Dan DiDio using as a selling point for Countdown, pre-launch; that it would be able to interact with the rest of the DC Universe instead of staying in its own missing-year "bubble". The only problem with that is that what should be used as an occasional easter egg and/or gag seems to have become the entire purpose of the whole enterprise, replacing things like "plot" or "characterization."
(Also, am I the only person who's surprised at the way that Countdown seems to be so devoid of either of those, considering the writers involved? Sure, Tony Bedard, Sean McKeever, Adam Beechen et al may not be Grant Morrison, Mark Waid or the other 52 writers, but they're still not exactly talentless - Even allowing for the group voice model, I'm surprised that we've not seen flashes of each writer's personality come through at any point yet.)
I ended up buying the first issue of Countdown (much to Hibbs' amusement, given my review of it), thinking that it was something that I'd want to reread down the line in bigger batches. The second issue put paid to that notion, but at this stage, two months in, I kind of wish I'd kept up with it and could read the first eight issues all at once to see if the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts. Despite everything, I want to like the book, partially because of my continued 52-related goodwill. It's just that, with every Awful issue, I feel as if that gets harder and harder.
Remember: because of 4th of July, comics will be on THURSDAY this week. If you go into your LCS on Wednesday, they will only point at you and laugh.
2000 AD #1541 2000 AD #1542 A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #61 (A) ACTION COMICS #851 ACTION COMICS 3D VAR #851 ALL NEW ATOM #13 (CD) ALL STAR SUPERMAN #8 AMERICAN VIRGIN #16 ASTOUNDING WOLF-MAN #2 ASTOUNDING WOLF-MAN DIRECTORS CUT #1 BETTY & VERONICA #228 BLACK CANARY #1 (OF 4) BLACK DIAMOND #2 (OF 6) CAPTAIN AMERICA #25 DIRECTORS CUT CITY OF OTHERS #3 (OF 4) COUNTDOWN 43 CREATURE FROM THE DEPTHS (ONE SHOT) DANGER GIRL BODY SHOTS #4 (OF 4) DAREDEVIL BATTLIN JACK MURDOCK #2 (OF 4) DARK TOWER GUNSLINGER BORN #6 (OF 7) DETECTIVE COMICS #834 DEVI #12 DYNAMO 5 #5 EXTERMINATORS #19 FAKER #1 (OF 6) FALLEN SON DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA IRON MAN FANTASTIC FOUR AND POWER PACK #1 (OF 4) FINAL GIRL #3 (OF 5) GARTH ENNIS CHRONICLES OF WORMWOOD #5 (OF 6) INTO THE DUST #1 IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN #10 WWH JONAH HEX #21 JUGHEAD AND FRIENDS DIGEST #21 JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #35 LONERS #4 (OF 6) LOONEY TUNES #152 MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #29 MARVEL ZOMBIES ARMY OF DARKNESS #5 (OF 5) MIDNIGHTER #9 MS MARVEL #17 CWI NEW AVENGERS TRANSFORMERS #1 (OF 4) NEW WARRIORS #2 CWI NIGHTWING #134 OUTSIDERS #49 PALS N GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #113 PIRATES VS NINJAS II UP THE ANTE PIRATE CVR #1 (OF 8) PS238 #24 PUNISHER #49 PUNISHER PRESENTS BARRACUDA MAX #5 (OF 5) RAY HARRYHAUSEN PRESENTS 20 MILLION MILES MORE #1 RUNAWAYS #27 SCALPED #7 SIMPSONS SUPER SPECTACULAR #5 STAR TREK KLINGONS BLOOD WILL TELL #3 SUPERGIRL #19 SUPERNATURAL ORIGINS #3 SYNCOPATED COMICS VOL 3 TALES FROM THE CLIT (A) THOR #1 TRUE STORY SWEAR TO GOD IMAGE ED #7 (NOTE PRICE) ULTIMATE POWER #6 (OF 9) UNCANNY X-MEN #488 UNCLE SCROOGE #367 WALT DISNEYS COMICS & STORIES #682 WARD O/T STATE #3 (OF 3) WELCOME TO TRANQUILITY #8 WHO WANTS TO BE A SUPERHERO FEEDBACK (ONE SHOT) Y THE LAST MAN #57
Books / Mags / Stuff 10 20 & 30 VOL 1 GN (RES) AMAZING TRANSFORMATIONS OF JIMMY OLSEN TP ANITA BLAKE VH GUILTY PLEASURES VOL 1 HC DM ED BATMAN EGO AND OTHER TALES HC CAPTAIN AMERICA WAR & REMEMBRANCE TP NEW PTG CATWOMAN 13 INCH DELUXE COLLECTOR FIGURE COLLECTED NORMALMAN TP CONAN HALL O/T DEAD & OTHER STORIES VOL 4 TP DAMNED VOL 1 THREE DAYS DEAD TP DRAGON HEAD VOL 7 GN (OF 10) ESSENTIAL DEFENDERS VOL 3 TP FOLLOWING CEREBUS #10 (RES) GEN 13 BEST OF A BAD LOT TP GIRLS & GODDESSES PIN UP ART OF JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNER HC GOLDEN AGE DR FATE ARCHIVES VOL 1 HC GOOSEBUMPS GRAPHIX VOL 2 TERROR TRIPS SC GUNSMITH CATS BURST VOL 2 TP INVADERS CLASSIC VOL 1 TP INVINCIBLE VOL 8 MY FAVORITE MARTIAN TP JUDGE DREDD COMPLETE CASE FILES VOL 8 TP KODT BUNDLE OF TROUBLE VOL 19 TP MARVEL VAULT MUSEUM IN A BOOK SPIRAL HC OUTSIDERS VOL 6 PAY AS YOU GO TP PTOLUS CITY BY THE SPIRE VOL 1 TP REX LIBRIS TP SILVERFISH HC TEZUKAS BUDDHA VOL 8 JETAVANA SC UNION JACK LONDON FALLING TP USAGI YOJIMBO VOL 21 MOTHER OF MOUNTAINS TP
We also recieved (from Baker & Taylor) FLIGHT v4, Douglass Wolk's READING COMICS, and... hm, what was the other thing... oh yeah, a Fox?atomic prelude to THE HILLS HAVE EYES. That doesn't count what will come in tomorrow from B&T either...
What looks good to you?
-B
WONDER WOMAN #10: Poor Jodi Picoult. I know that her run hasn't been met with anything resembling critical acclaim, but holy crap, was she given a pretty shitty set of circumstances to work in. First off, she ends up having two fill-in artists within her five issue run, and then a crossover comes in midway through her run completely derailing anything close to whatever coherent story she was attempting to write - The fact that her final issue on the book offers no sense of resolution (and, in fact, ends with a cliffhanger that I honestly have no idea in which book it'll be followed up on - Here or Amazons Attack? Or neither?) just kind of offers a perfectly scale model of why Picoult was pretty much screwed on this gig no matter how great her writing was. Way to go, DC. Your first female writer on Wonder Woman's solo book, and you made sure that she had a completely unsuccessful run that you're still putting out as an expensive hardcover collection with her name in big letters on the cover to try and convince people to buy it nonetheless. "Sigh," as they say.
This issue is pretty much Crap, for multiple reasons, almost none of which have anything to do with the talents of any of the creators involved. Because of what the editorial powers-that-be at DC want, pretty much nothing actually happens in this issue, with the one plot development managing to be undone in the issue of Amazons Attack! that also shipped this week (which, to be complete, is Eh, and equal filler. But at least it's the middle of a run), and the feeling of "who cares?" pretty much dominates the entire experience (DC definitely doesn't seem to).
Poor Jodi Picoult. Gail Simone, I hope you get better treatment.
GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES: RETURN TO WONDERLAND #1: There's something about this comic that makes me feel guilty in a way that not even the ridiculous breastage of Madame Mirage managed. I was amused to read the Newsarama review of the book and see the reviewers address, and then apologize for the gratuitousness of the book: "I just think the outfit and look of Calie on the cover screams SuicideGirls. That's what I thought when I saw it, and call me "horndog" if you must, but it caught my attention, and it appealed to me. The interior art had one questionable moment with the thong in question, but, I will say it was preceding actual sex, not a peek-a-boo as Calie was getting ready for school, or some such. I can guarantee that girls her age, in her shoes, wouldn't be wearing granny panties."
So maybe it's just me that thinks that it's kind of... offputting... to see the shot of the teenage girl half-naked, her ass on show to the audience, taking up half of the page by the second page of the story. Or, you know, the upskirt shot of the teenage girl a few pages later (which apparently isn't questionable, according to the reviewer above). Or perhaps it's all the cleavage shots of the teenage girl - including the shot from above, peering down into her cleavage - and the way that the artist continually accentuates her breasts even when it's a shot from behind the character (but when you show her from behind, then you get to show her thong peeking up from her low-riding jeans! "Bonus!"). Maybe I'm not thinking SuicideGirls enough, when I wonder what the all the T&A actually adds to the story, and all, but still. Dude. It's cheap thrills from a fictional high school girl's breasts and ass for no reason other than cheap thrills. Is it so wrong of me to feel like that's kind of... wrong?
I could go on about how bad the story is, and how unoriginal the entire story is, but it's really not worth the effort - We've all read multiple "dark takes" on Wonderland before, and we've also read the stereotypical troubled teen dealing with disaffected youth and uncaring parents thing, as well. The only thing that's worth mentioning is how unconvincing the whole thing is, and how little the writing attempts to make any of the characters sympathetic or even three-dimensional. It's entirely lazy and convinced of its own genius even as it lacks any shred of same. Add that kind of writing to such generic but exploitative art, and you're left with a book that's completely self-satisfiedly Ass.
WORLD WAR HULK: FRONTLINE #1 and WORLD WAR HULK: X-MEN #1: Yeah, and see, this is where the event starts to fall apart. You see, I can buy (and, for that matter, can enjoy) the whole “Hulk comes back to Earth and tears shit up” idea from what I’ve seen in the core book and the Iron Man and Incredible Hulk crossover issues, because it all ties together relatively well – the Hulk lands back on Earth with his alien buddies, and they’re all pretty pissed. They give the world 24 hours of warning, and then it’s on, including Iron Man getting beaten to crap. Fine. That makes sense.
But the idea that the Hulk has time for a side trip to Xavier’s School for Wacky Mutant Children and Adults, because he wants to ask Xavier whether he would’ve voted with the Illuminati members who sent him off the island… Yeah, that doesn’t really work for me. And it doesn’t work for multiple reasons – When did he decide to do this? How does he know that Xavier was part of the Illuminati in the first place (I thought he just knew that the four characters were responsible for sending him off-planet, not that they were four members of a secret society for which he knew the entire line-up)? Why does it matter whether Xavier would’ve voted with the other members or not (If Xavier says “No,” then is the Hulk going to say “Yeah, okay. Thanks,” and then leave?) – Doesn’t it seem a bit calculated to think of doing this in the first place, therefore cutting down on the “He’s mad as hell and not going to take it anymore!” pitch of the event? That’s really the main problem of the X-Men spin-off; that it feels like an add-on, as opposed to something that’s part of the main event, and an add-on that doesn’t really care about story logic or consistency as much as it cares about shoe-horning another X-Men series into the sales projections for the year. Awful
That said, the Frontline series is even worse. After a reasonably suspenseful opening – I like the paranoia of wondering where the pigeons have gone – the book that loses focus entirely. The aliens are giving people their guns in exchange for beer? Manhattan doesn’t get entirely evacuated after all (Wasn’t that a plot point in both World War Hulk #1 and the Iron Man tie-in, that it was completely evacuated)? Or, weirder still, the police department is working with the alien invaders after someone steals something from one of the invaders? What the Hell is that? And, maybe more to the point, if Paul Jenkins didn’t have anything resembling a coherent plot for this series, then why is he the one writing it? Very, very Crap, and more proof that it never pays to be optimistic about the possibilities of Marvel not managing to run an enjoyable crossover into the ground with unnecessary and badly done spin-off series.
SILENT WAR #6: I admit, I picked this up in the store the other day by mistake. I’d managed to almost entirely forget that this series existed, having been relatively underwhelmed by the first issue’s story – That Frazer Irving art sure was nice, though – so the fact that this final issue was a relatively taut status-quo changer for the characters (while, in a weird way, protecting the overall status quo for the series; the plot ends as it began, with the Inhumans poised to declare war on humanity, albeit a different kind of war) that made me want to check out the earlier issues to see what I’d missed came as a surprise.
Part of what worked for me about the issue was that it’s easily the most beautiful-looking Marvel book in a long time – Irving’s art is, maybe more than any other artist handling the entire package around these days, made by his intelligent and atmospheric color choices, which manage to make the linework seem more detailed and evocative than it arguably is, and his work in this series manages to entirely convey the alien, off-kilter, claustrophobic tone needed for what turns out to be a political and psychological thriller rather than a rock’em sock’em action book. It’s that tone that piqued by interest in terms of the story of the book; not that I was expecting all out punchin’ hawtness in a book with “Silent” in the title, but there’s an expectation for a book that also contains “War” in its title that was reinforced (for me, at least) by the terrorists-exploding angle of the first issue. It came as a pleasant surprise, in that case, to see that the war in the title really was much quieter than my expectations, and on a much smaller scale – Some more familial and intimate, despite the (these days, almost obligatory) “massive changes” that will inevitably result from it.
Something that stuck with me once I’d finished the issue – and something almost separate to the issue itself, as Good as it was – was the way in which the Marvel Universe these days is all about fear. You could, and I’m sure that Joe Quesada and others will if pressed, argue that that’s almost traditional for the publisher and the characters, but right now, any sense of wonder or awe has been replaced by a sense of terror and threat: We have Atlantis launching sleeper cell terrorist attacks, we have the Inhumans declaring war on humanity and wanting to take over the world, we have mutantkind facing extinction and infighting, America becoming a police state because superheroes might accidentally blow up a school full of kids, and by the way, your best friend or anyone you know might be an alien invader undercover. There’s an incredible and depressing lack of openness to “the other” in Marvel’s books, these days; nothing is seen as new or different or unusual in a good sense, because everything that isn’t “us” is a threat (as opposed to even being a potential threat). Whatever happened to the days of The Impossible Man appearing and aliens being goofy nuisances? Or Spider-Man being misunderstood and really a good guy, not a public menace, you know? There used to be a time where it was awesome (in both senses of the world) that there was a race of superhumans living on the moon, instead of it being another band of people who want to kill us. Yes, there are a few exceptions (Iron Fist and Fantastic Four come to mind), but overall: Is it really post-9/11, post-Afghanistan invasion and post-Iraq civil war insularism informing what the Marvel writers are coming up with, or something else? And, either way, is there any way that optimism and, well, good fun could come back to these characters again?
Well! I *finally* got the pre-populated database for MOBY (took nearly a month because I had some fussy requests for them, and I wanted a go at the data without having to use MOBY itself to access it -- MOBY is nice as a POS program, but kinda of mediocre as a let-me-edit-100k+ items; I'm using Excel to manage the data), so this is now my life for the next 2-4 weeks. The MOBY database goes back something like 5 years, and has something on the order of 140k items in it. Now, of course, AT LEAST 70k of those items aren't things I'd EVER stock in my store of my own volition (like, say, games, or cards, or XENA t-shirts), but it's nice to have them in the database on the off chance that anyone might want them one day.
Of course, 140k items? Yeah, that's a LOT.
So, step #1 was to hack that into more manageable chunks -- I started by sorting out the database by Diamond "category" codes: code "1" is comics, "2" is magazines, "3" is books, and so on. 1, 2, and 3 each have their own files right now, so I don't "cross the streams", while the final 12 or so categories I split into two files. For the most part, I probably will barely touch the final 12 categories (since we're, pretty much, a PURE comics shop), but I'm still going to have to at least look through each and every item to make sure.
Step #2 was to loosely sort the "chunks". Actually, that took all of five minutes per file, if that -- sort the "comics" by publisher, then by title, then by issue #, so that, say, all of the DC books are together, are alphabetical within the "DC" listing, and are in proper alpha numeric order.
This, of course, assume that the data is both accurate and complete, but of course it isn't precisely. Probably 98% looks pretty perfect, but there are definitely holes and problems and miscategorizations. As an example, it appears that every book with a "APR07" code either lost, or never was given its "publisher" field, which means that sorting through data is a two-step process: step a: look at the publisher's bit; step b: look at the "no publisher listed" bit. Oh well, shit happens.
Step #3 is where I am right now: going through those files and looking for things that do or will have. For example, the "comics" file has 36,298 items in it. I'm going to get that down to probably under 2k items, really, since "Back issues" aren't going to be individually tracked through the POS.
So, today I started going through the store with two goals: a) strip some of the "sludge" from the racks, stuff that's been sitting there for (likely) a year or more, almost all of that "indy" or "alternative" books, because, generally, a book comes OFF the rack when the "next issue" is there to replace it. Much of the "indy" stuff never GETS a "next issue", so it tends to accumulate longer. This goal is "pretty much" done (for COMICS) in the 4 hours I was at CE today -- I ended up with a shortbox of "unsalable crap" (estimate: $400, my cost)
Goal b) was to set up a new column in the database that's basically either a "1" or a "0". "1" = "do inventory on this". I almost finished the comics on the right side of the store. I'm going to go in 'round 9am tomorrow to take advantage of 90 minutes or so of no-customers-underfoot, but I'm hoping by, dunno, 3 PM or so I'll be basically finished with the "do we have this in stock/do we anticipate it being in stock soon" marking up of the comics file.
Once that's done, then we move to Step #4 which is going through and editing what needs to be edited in the portion of the comics list I'm "keeping" (we'll keep the data of the OTHER 34k-ish items, but basically trusting "MOBY Defaults" are all correct) -- there I'll be setting reorder points, primary/secondary/tertiary distributor, genre and so on.
There are, by the way, 52 (!!!) columns in each row of the database that I could edit if I wanted/needed to. Though I doubt I'll edit more than 5-10 of them for most items.
There's also Step #5: Look for things that I DON'T have on my rack, but that I WANT to have, and have "slipped through the cracks" over the years. That's a day's work, I think (I'm doing that semi-concurrently, and have finished all of the publishers that begin with an "A")
Then after that, is Step #6: printing a list, organized by rack (genre), and doing a hard physical inventory; followed by Step #7: entering that data into the computer; followed by Step #8: POS goes live (#6 & 7 will happen "concurrently", hopefully in one single day. #8 should be the day after)
I have to do much of those same steps for the "magazine" and "book" files. (much less for the two "everything else" files)
Mags will be pretty simple, actually -- again, don't carry most of that, and I think Books will go smoother as well because I won't have to keep running to the rack to say "Wait, what issue is this on?". Books are largely binary in "do I carry this or not", while periodicals are "I carry this, but not issues six months back" (or whatever), and I have to constantly keep checking, for instance, "what issue is WONDER WOMAN on?"
Based on my progress today, I'm going to tentatively believe that I can accomplish all of this over 3 weeks or less, and my HOPE is I'll be able to "go live" with MOBY on or about 8/1. (I actually *think* I can get it done in around 10 days, and *could* be "live" by 7/15, but I'm still going to settle for 8/1 or later, because "pad" is always better)
So that's what I'm doing, work-wise, for the 11 of you that care. Lots of pain now in exchange for some powerful tools for the future.
I'll try to get in 1 or 2 reviews this week, but don't count on it, given the above.
-B
After reading the Endangered Species one-shot last week and then this week's X-MEN #200, I've come to the following obvious conclusions: Mike Carey writes really good mid-80s Chris Claremont stories. It's up to you whether you feel that that's an insult or a complement, however.
(The interesting thing was reading this after reading Carey's Re-Gifters, and also starting his "The Devil You Know" novel - Carey's clearly a very gifted writer, and looking at the different voices in each project makes it clear that the Claremontisms in his X-Men work are intentional choices, as opposed to just the way he writes in general. The question may be whether it's intentional for them to be so similar to Chris Claremont's work, or whether the way that Carey feels the characters should be written just coincidentally seems so strongly Claremonty.)
Reading Carey's special anniversary take on Marvel's Merry Mutants - and when was the last time they were called that, I wonder - really is very much like stepping back in time to Claremont in his prime. All of the themes are there - the X-Men as a family, the X-Men as outcasts, the X-Men as tortured individuals (Poor Rogue, now more tortured than ever), and interpersonal conflicts and betrayals. It's all in this story, but to such an extent (The X-Men get betrayed by three of their members, and - speaking of conjuring up Claremontisms - all of them are women) that it seems somewhat more ridiculous than you remembered it. Was this really what it was like, back then, or do the plot twists seems more over-the-top because the comic landscape was different (and more melodramatic) in those days? Maybe I was just younger and more forgiving back then.
The thing is, this is a perfectly Good comic, despite it feeling twenty years old. Everything hits all of the right soap operatic points, even down to the dramatic return of fan favorites and unfortunate hook-ups, but moves along fast enough to gloss over the weaknesses in plot or execution. Humberto Ramos and Chris Bachalo prove a good pairing of pencillers, with their individual quirks complimenting each other without there being a massive break in visual continuity. It's weird to think of the X-Men books being old-school nostalgiafests in a sea of otherwise uncomfortable Marvel books, but this issue really gives that impression. Mike Carey, you've got a lot to answer for, if I end up reading this series again on a regular basis...
GREEN LANTERN: SINESTRO CORPS #1: Wow. Between this and last week's exit for Bart Allen, it's looking as if the stereotypical "Dan Didio must hate characters from [enter fan-favorite era here]" meme is going to be able to add Zero Hour-era DC to its quiver. Poor Kyle, never before has a turn for the worse seemed so random or so much a set-up for being undone at a later date.
For all of the similarities (Double-size oneshot opener for a crossover event set in outer space and all), this book is in many ways the opposite of last week's Annihilation: Conquest Prologue... Where that one was all about starting something from relative scratch and quickly ramping up the tension by hook, by crook or by expositionary dialogue, this issue sets up what's to come as the culmination of long-running and unfinished plots all the way back to, it seems, Green Lantern: Rebirth (adding in threads from the regular Green Lantern book and Infinite Crisis along the way, as well as Crisis on Infinite Earths, if that ending was to be believed). Unlike most DC books recently, however, it doesn't make you feel as if those books were all required reading before you even get to the first page of this one, which is a nice change. For all the shit that gets thrown at Geoff Johns, he can be a good writer at times, and at least he knows that the basics exist, such as reminding your audience who Superboy Prime was before he gets the double-page spread of danger at the end of the book (And, no, that's not me ruining the surprise). He also has the Morrisonesque ability to suggest a scope and danger beyond what's visible on the page, which comes in handy here - Concentrating an attack on the entire Green Lantern Corps by showing us only a few characters watching the rings of dead Lanterns flying past, looking for replacements, for example - in quickly building the idea in your head that something important is happening here and making you want to pick up whatever comes next.
That isn't to say that everything is clear - or even sensible - in the book (How does the whole "feeling fear" thing work, anyway? Why does it take a lot to make Kyle fear anything, when Rebirth seemed to say that he was the greatest Green Lantern EVAR because he knew fear normally?), but at least there's a sense of momentum and of there being a story beyond just continuity rearrangement. Ethan Van Sciver, meanwhile, gets to channel his 1990s mojo in what, surprisingly, seems fitting for the story being told; if you're going to do a story that is, in a way, a shout out to "Emerald Twilight," then why not have the sideways double-page spread at some point? I still think that he over-renders everything and uses that to hide some dodgy anatomy, but it's still more appealing than Michael Turner, Ed Benes or anyone on Countdown.
In the summer of big story burn-out - Marvel feels like Event Central right now, what with World War Hulk, Back In Black, Fallen Son, Initiative/Skrull World, Annihilation Conquest and Endangered Species, but DC is getting there with their Flash storyline/JLA-JSA crossover, Amazons Attack, Countdown and now this - it's a sad thing to admit that even a Good comic like this feels unusual and a happy surprise. Even though this storyline will inevitably not end but just lead into the next big DC Universe-changing miniseries, the goodwill this book has earned by merely not sucking means that I'm almost looking forward to the next installment. And somehow, that still feels like a win.
Because comics are "hot", I guess it isn't any real surprise that there's more and more "proper" books about comics, or by comics people. Not like I even have enough time to read comics, dang it!
But, I plowed through two books in this spectrum this last week, and here's my report for you:
SOON I WILL BE INVINCIBLE: is kind of an odd duck -- it's straight prose doing Marvel-style superheroes. Its not that there hasn't been superhero-prose before -- I'm a pretty big fan of the WILD CARDS series of books for instance -- but, usually, those try to set their superheroes in the "real" world. This novel is pretty unapologetically a story set in a "superhero" world, where the logic of the superhero comic is presented at face value.
There's two main threads of story here, one that focuses on the villain, Dr. Impossible (no, not from JLA), as he battles his foes in The Champions (no, not from Marvel.... or Heroic, either for that matter); and one that does the hero team-POV from a new cyborg member, Fatale.
Its reasonably effective at what it does, though one has to question why the reader wouldn't just read CIVIL WAR instead -- there are JLA or Avengers-style analogues on display here, and the prose is zippy enough, but its not like it breaks any new ground, or adds anything to the genre that the actual comics cover. Its a fast read, and highly OK, but there was a pretty large sense of "just do the real ones" to this reader.
THE DEVIL YOU KNOW: is Mike Carey's first novel. It is going to be inevitable to compare the protagonist here to John Constantine, Hellblazer -- and it would be just as inevitable had not Carey had a successful run on HELLBLAZER. There's certainly differences -- Felix Castor isn't a mirthless bastard for instance; and the world-building going on points to a very different world than JC's London -- here the set up is that for some unexplained reason, the dead have been reappearing en masse (as ghosts, or zombies, or loup-garou [explained as animal spirits rewriting the flesh of their hosts]), so there's a whole class of exorcists who are there to put those spirits down -- but, other than that, yeah, this could have easily fit into JCs world just fine.
Carey is a strong writer, and the prose drips with Britishisms like "All Mouth and Trousers", and what I liked the most about the book is that it ends up in a place that JC probably never would have. That is to say: I'd very much like to read a second book with these same characters and to see what it goes from here.
It is solidly GOOD work, but I think you're going to have a really hard time, like I did, separating out FC from JC. If you've never read a JC story before, this might work even better.
SOON I WILL BE INVINCIBLE is available now; THE DEVIL YOU KNOW I read in galley form -- the front cover says "Hardcover publication July 2007", so I guess it will be out real soon.
Not that you've probably read either of these, but if so, what did YOU think?
-B
Lightning round! Unlike Bart Allen, I'm still alive, and the fastest reviewer from the 31st Century there is! 3X2(9YZ)4A and awaaaaaayyyyyy!
THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #4: For some reason, I'd become convinced that this book had dropped off the face of the earth recently - Maybe this issue is late, or maybe my sense of time has just become horribly distorted, but either way, this is worth a wait either real or imaginary. Mark Waid's sense of pacing and characterization, mixed with his ability to juggle tones, continues to make this book a fun and exciting joy each time 'round. Very Good.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #27: Now deeply entrenched in the moral ambiguity that made his Catwoman and Sleeper books so good, Brubaker has managed to make Captain America's series much more interesting without its star. As good as the book used to be, pre-murder, spreading the storylines around the supporting cast has raised the level in a way that I wouldn't have expected. You really don't miss Cap here at all, because his death manages to keep him an active presence, even as everything spirals out of control for everyone involved. Very Good, and enough to make you hope that Cap never comes back...
COUNTDOWN #45: Donna Troy with a machine gun. When you're trying to make that work seriously, as opposed to on a campy level, then that's your problem right there. Awful.
EX MACHINA #29: For all the hints about there being some kind of larger plot point happening behind the scenes, this issue - and all of the current storyline, actually - has felt curious unfocused, and the resolution reads as if working on Lost has given Brian K. Vaughan their inability to resolve a plot without a frustrating question that suggests that he doesn't have a direction. Disappointingly Eh.
THE HIGHWAYMEN #1: Mailed to me by the good folk at DC, for which I'm very grateful... Especially since this opener about some kind of retired special op agents being reactivated by the legacy of now-dead Bill Clinton is a surprising amount of fun. It's not likely to inspire anyone to change the world, but as a summer movie-type romp, it's a high Okay.
MADAME MIRAGE #1: Pretty much a disappointment; while Kenneth Rocafort's art is actually more attractive than the T&A images released may suggest (It's highly stylized, and the men actually get a similar over-the-top treatment - if less sexualized - to the women), it's the lack of clarity in Paul Dini's script that lets the book down hard. Awful, especially to fans of Dini's other work.
THE SPIRIT #7: While Darwyn Cooke's only involvement with this issue is the cute cover, the quality stays pretty high as the fill-in gets split between three different creative teams. Walt Simonson and Chris Sprouse play it the most straight, and to be honest, come off worst as a result, as light and amusing as their story is. Hitting a fine middle-ground is Jimmy Palmiotti, with a story that's very Eisner-esque in scope and humanity and paired with wonderful artwork by Jordi Bernet. Best of all is the Sin City parody by Kyle Baker, another example where he decided to play it broad and it works despite itself. Overall, Very Good.
For old times' sake, I'm going to give PICK OF THE WEEK to Captain America, because I feel as if it's defying the odds by not being bogged down by all of the hype around its central storyline, and that's an extra achievement outside of just being a good book in and of itself. PICK OF THE WEAK is Countdown because it's almost becoming depressing to read it each week at this point. But what did the rest of you think...?
Another big week: AMAZONS ATTACK #3 (OF 6) ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #180 BART SIMPSON COMICS #36 BATTLESTAR GALACTICA #11 BETTY #166 BLACK GHOST APPLE FACTORY BLACK PANTHER #28 CWI BLUE BEETLE #16 (CD) BOYS #8 (RES) CABLE DEADPOOL #42 CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #34 CASTLE WAITING VOL II #7 COUNTDOWN 44 CRIMINAL #7 CROSSING MIDNIGHT #8 DAREDEVIL #98 DEAD AT 17 VOL 2 #4 DEADMAN #11 FALLEN ANGEL IDW #17 FANTASTIC FOUR #547 CWI FRANK FRAZETTAS DEATH DEALER #3 (OF 6) GREEN LANTERN SINESTRO CORPS SPECIAL #1 GRIMM FAIRY TALES #15 (RES) GRIMM FAIRY TALES RETURN TO WONDERLAND #1 (OF 7) HAUNTED MANSION #6 HELLBOY DARKNESS CALLS #3 (OF 6) IMMORTAL IRON FIST #6 INVINCIBLE #43 JACK OF FABLES #12 JSA CLASSIFIED #27 JUGHEAD #182 KISS 4K #2 KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #128 LEGION OF MONSTERS SATANA LIVING STATUES MAGICIAN APPRENTICE #8 (OF 12) MARVEL ADVENTURES AVENGERS #14 MARVEL ILLUSTRATED LAST OF THE MOHICANS #2 (OF 6) NIGHTLY NEWS #6 (OF 6) NINJA SCROLL #10 PHANTOM CVR A #17 RED SONJA #23 SHEENA #1 (OF 5) SHE-HULK 2 #19 SILENT WAR #6 (OF 6) SILVER SURFER REQUIEM #2 (OF 4) SNAKEWOMAN VOL 2 TALE OF THE SNAKE CHARMER #1 SPAWN GODSLAYER #2 SPIDER-MAN FAIRY TALES #2 (OF 4) SUBCULTURE #1 (OF 4) SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #31 SUPERMAN BATMAN #37 TEEN TITANS #48 (AA) TEEN TITANS GO #44 THUNDERBOLTS #115 CWI TRAILER PARK OF TERROR COLOR SP #6 (RES) ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #43 ULTIMATE VISION #4 (OF 5) ULTIMATE X-MEN #83 WALKING DEAD #38 WETWORKS #10 WITCHBLADE #107 WOLVERINE ORIGINS #15 WONDER WOMAN #10 (AA) WORLD WAR HULK FRONT LINE #1 (OF 6) WWH WORLD WAR HULK X-MEN #1 (OF 3) X-FACTOR #20 X-MEN FINCH GATEFOLD VAR #200 X-MEN FIRST CLASS VOL 2 #1
Book / Mag / Stuff 52 THE NOVEL TP ANT MAN VOL 1 DIGEST TP ART OF BONE HC BLEACH VOL 20 TP BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER OMNIBUS VOL 1 TP COLLECTED TOUPYDOOPS TP CONAN HALL O/T DEAD & OTHER STORIES VOL 4 TP CROSSING MIDNIGHT VOL 1 TP DISNEY JR VOL 4 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN GN DWIGHT T ALBATROSS THE GOON NOIR TP FLASH BANG GN (A) FOREVER NUTS THE EARLY YEARS OF MUTT & JEFF HC FOX BUNNY FUNNY TP G FAN #80 GEEK MONTHLY #5 HEAVY METAL SUMMER 2007 KODT BUNDLE OF TROUBLE VOL 18 TP LONE RANGER VOL 1 REG CVR TP MACEDONIA GN MAINTENANCE VOL 1 ITS A DIRTY JOB TP MEGAMANGA VOL 23 SEX WARRIOR ISANE XXX TP (A) NEIL GAIMAN AND CHARLES VESS STARDUST HC (RES) PREVIEWS VOL XVII #7 RICHARD MATHESONS I AM LEGEND TP SHOWCASE PRESENTS BATMAN VOL 2 TP TO TERRA VOL 3 TP TRIALS OF SHAZAM VOL 1 TP ULTIMATES 2 VOL 2 GRAND THEFT AMERICA TP V FOR VENDETTA 12-IN TALKING AF WITCHBLADE TAKERU VOL 1 GN WIZARD MAGAZINE MIGNOLA HELLBOY CVR #190 WOLVERINE BLOOD & SORROW TP
What looks good to YOU?
-B
There are times that I just have to say that I'm wrong. Like, for example, when I said that I didn't really see what that whole Annihilation thing had to offer after reading the Annihilation Saga oneshot. I mean, sure, I wasn't really wrong about that - There was nothing special about that recap that would make you want to read any further into Marvel's particular brand of new space operatics. What I was wrong about was assuming that the whole Annihilation thing in general wasn't worth my time or attention. Thanks, then, to ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST PROLOGUE for showing me the error of my ways.
(And, no, I'm not being sarcastic.)
Interestingly enough, the thrills and spills in the issue come from just plain old solid good work - There're no showboating creators here, no out-of-character quips or overblown splash pages or plot twists that rely on the reader having read about these characters for the last twenty years. Everything that you need to know about the book to get it is in the book itself, and it still manages to be enjoyable. The tension builds because of the events of the book itself (although the old-school writing skills of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning manage to work in some classic, enjoyably goofy, moments just to underscore moments; when Starlord says "Annihilus and his das't wave was a one-in-a-gazillion situation," it's a wink to the audience, the writers saying "Yeah, we're going to do it again. And bigger"), and the threat is understandable and familiar through pop-cultural memery - It's the Borg but moreso.
Mike Perkins is a strange choice for the book; his down-to-earth style initially at odds with a science-fiction book like this. But it works, because of that discrepancy; the alien eyes seem that much stranger and disturbing, and his ability to sell emotion gives the story the punch that it needs to be sold to the reader. Of course, the novelty aspect helps, as well - because you don't expect to see art like this on a book like this, it's a welcome surprise that endears you to the book that he's here.
It's a strong and intriguing start for (yet another) event book, and the ball could be dropped in the follow-up series. But for now, it's a Good story that makes me curious to see what happens next.
You have to wonder where Marvel's traffic co-ordinators are these days. This week saw the release of five books starring Spider-Man. Now, I know he's got that whole movie thing going on and everything, but that's just ridiculous. I completely ignored Sensational Spider-Man because, well, it's about to be cancelled very soon anyway, but of the remaining four books, one thing became very clear very quickly - the only regular book of the bunch was the one that bore least relation to the Spider-Man I know and love.
There are multiple problems with AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #541, and the whole "Back In Black" storyline in general. One of them is that we already know the ending to one of the main plot threads, because we've been told that this story takes place prior to Brubaker's last Daredevil arc, where the Kingpin was alive and well, and released from prison... which kind of removes any tension over that whole "Will Spider-Man go too far and kill the Kingpin?" thing. Another is that that whole question existing in the first place shows how wrong-headed the storyline is: Of course Spider-Man's not going to kill the Kingpin; that's not who the character is. But then, he's also not the kind of character who says things like "Tell everyone... Tell the people you work with... Tell everyone in the whole wide world... that my family is off-limits. That nobody - - nobody - - touches them. For any reason. Ever. Tell them. Make them understand - - that anyone who tries moves to the bottom of the food chain... and becomes prey. And down here, in this food chain, the rats aren't the predators. The men with guns aren't the predators. I am." without it being a bluff, and yet we get pages of him being the "man pushed too far" here played entirely straight. I get that Peter's been pushed too far here, but I just don't buy his reactions at all. To me, he should get angry and then get over it, quickly, and end up questioning himself and wallowing in self-pity, making references to "The ol' Parker luck" or something.
...Which may be why FALLEN SON: THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA - SPIDER-MAN worked so well for me. Sure, David Finch's art has never been my thing, but Jeph Loeb gets Spider-Man in a way that J. Michael Straczynski doesn't. This Spider-Man gets angry and over-reacts, but does so in character, and realizes it, ending up all doubtful and feeling sorry for himself (and remembering Gwen Stacey, which is something that surprises me about "Back In Black" - Shouldn't he be thinking about Gwen a lot more? You know, the first person who died because he was Spider-Man? And no, I don't count Uncle Ben in that list, before Matt Craig suggests it - I'll get to that next). The character is recognizable as the same one that's been around since the sixties, and because of that, the reader is more involved and invested in what's going on. That's what makes Fallen Son a Good comic, while Amazing is pretty Eh.
MYTHOS: SPIDER-MAN, meanwhile, has Paul Jenkins and Paolo Rivera doing their painted origin thing for Peter Parker, and it works very well. It helps that Spider-Man's origin is so simple (and originally so short) that you can do it all in one issue and still make it work as a story as opposed to a recap, but there's a nice attitude to the writing, and even nicer artwork, behind this Good, if unnecessary, issue that shows that Peter Parker only really became Spider-Man (as opposed to a guy with some powers in a suit) when he started dealing with his responsibilities (Which is, to get back to my earlier thing, why I didn't include Uncle Ben on the list of people killed because of Peter being Spider-Man. To me, Ben died because Peter wasn't Spider-Man yet).
Meanwhile, over in SPIDER-MAN/FANTASTIC FOUR #3, Jeff Parker proves that old math formula (Anything) + Doctor Doom = Fun. The late stage addition of the good Doctor to this miniseries gives it a kick of the familiar that's been missing so far, and even though I'm not so drawn to the overall storyline, this particular issue was Good fun. Parker has a good handle on all of the familiar characters even if his big plot doesn't work for me (I'm secretly hoping that he's one of Steve Wacker's new Spider-writing team for when Amazing gets relaunched as the thrice-monthly Spider-book), and Mike Wieringo is just one of the best superhero artists out there, period. Cautiously recommended, I guess.
Wow, we're in the second week proper (After the odd "one month early" branding of the two prologue books) of World War Hulk, and it really does seem to be shaping up to be the little crossover that could, judging by the two crossovers that I read. Of course, this doesn't mean that the Heroes For Hire issue and Ghost Rider issues aren't crap but, I mean, come on. Ghost Rider's never been that good in the first place.
(And now I wait for the angry comments from Dan Way, even though I'm joking...)
INCREDIBLE HULK #107: Here's something I am slowly coming around to in this crossover - and it's almost entirely down to Greg Pak's writing in both this and the main event book, as opposed to anywhere else: The idea that the Hulk is a monster. Not in the traditional, misunderstood tragic, sense, but in the "He's just a bastard who is going to attack his friends who come in peace just because" sense. I knew that things weren't going to go well when Amadeus Cho (who I'm also warming to very quickly, as well; he's a very Marvel character, if that makes sense - Someone who still has to learn that whole great power = great responsibility thing, but who's extremely likable nonetheless), but for some reason, the way the scene plays out surprised me in the way that the Hulk comes across. The unpleasantness of the central character is offset by the new (and, sadly, probably only temporary) supporting cast, who are so much more enjoyable than they've been in a long time - the Angel is a likable character all of a sudden! Hercules is played for laughs without undermining the character! - that I kind of wish that the new not-Champions series had starred a reunion of the original team and been handled by Greg Pak and his artist of choice. Also managing to both undermine the current status of Hulk as "other" and keep the book interesting is the introduction of those who want to see the Hulk win for their various reasons; Pak's definitely taking the rough concept of the event and moving it into some more interesting areas in this particular book, leaving us with something Very Good, happily enough, and also something that almost makes me want to go back and check out Planet Hulk after all.
But I definitely want an Amadeus Cho series, if he comes out of this alive.
IRON MAN #19: Even though this issue is clearly marking time - allowing for the main World War Hulk series to conclude the "Hey, Tony's been beaten to shit!" cliffhanger from #1 of that book - Christos Gage manages to make lemonade with his first fill-in tie-in, helped substantially by Jackson Guice's artwork (the coloring? Not so much of a help - It seems very murky in places), showing both the events of WWH #1 from another perspective, but also a Tony Stark who comes across as less of a dick than he's been portrayed elsewhere but also less idealized than he normally comes across in this series. It's not enough to make me enjoy where Iron Man is these days, but it's definitely a Good step in the right direction.
(Also, the internal narration in this issue will make it really hard for Marvel to say that Tony's a skrull, if they end up going down that route - Gage clearly is writing this assuming that this is the same Tony Stark we've always known, and perhaps more importantly, manages to make the reader think the same thing. We haven't seen that in quite some time.)
It's still early in the whole thing, of course, and we haven't seen such unpromising series as World War Hulk: Gamma Corps and World War Hulk: Frontline yet, so there's still time for this whole thing to go south, but right now, I'm weirdly optimistic about this...
In lieu of a review today - Writing Onomatopea and another dental visit (I can eat again!) this week has kind of killed any chance for me to write about the various Spider-Man books today like I wanted to - I'm going to point out that Hibbs has a new Tilting At Windmills up at Newsarama today, about this very store: "I opened Comix Experience in 1989, when I was 21 years old, and I’ve seen the market change a whole lot in the meantime. I still have a copy of my first Diamond order form, all of 32 pages long in 14-point type, while now the order form (not Previews, but the order form) is usually over 130 pages in something like 8-point type.
"There were less in-print graphic novels back then than how many that come out in a typical week today. You could buy an entire month’s output of X-Men or Batman family comics, and still have plenty of change left over from a five-dollar bill.
"So, yeah, a different world.
"There was a time where it was not only easy to keep track of everything by pen and paper, it was actually probably easier that way – there weren’t that many SKUs, most books were ongoing, not minis or one-shots or whatever, so why not have a streamlined data system?
"But, things change.
"I’m going to be making the move to a Point-Of-Sale (POS) system this summer, because we’ve reached the tipping point to where it is no longer practical to have a diverse and wide-ranging stock, and not be computerized. Honestly, I should have made the move a year ago, but I thought I could still handle it."
More in the link, as they say.
X-MEN: ENDANGERED SPECIES is a very, very strange event book, if only because nothing really happens in it, and yet it still feels long overdue. Partially, it's because it feels as if this is really the first time that we've seen the X-Men books actually deal with the "No More Mutants" thing and what that means in a real sense. I mean, yeah, we got "Decimation" for a couple of months after House of M finished, but even that was, it seemed, quickly forgotten, and the X-Books quickly returned to the same old same old that we'd read hundreds of times before; it was as if the loss of so many mutants was less a brand new status quo than it was getting rid of Grant Morrison's brand new status quo. And so, purely for using the idea that there are now less than 200 mutants on Earth, and that number is getting lower all the time, as a springboard for a new story, then this book feels worthwhile in some sense.
It's just that nothing really happens in it. The X-Men go to the funeral of one of the 198, who died in a traffic accident, and then think about their own mortality. There's no story here, as much as there is a collection of scenes roughly about the same thing starring characters from different books in the franchise - Perhaps more worryingly, there's nothing in the book that makes me think that I have to pick up the fourteen-part spin-off back-up strip crossover that's going to thread through the X-Books for the next few months, mostly because I have no idea what it's going to be about. Fourteen short pieces about Cyclops and Wolverine crying on each other? Some more scenes featuring characters from New X-Men who get no introduction whatsoever? A plot that got its start here in such an understated manner that no-one even noticed?
Despite the complete lack of story, I can't say that this is any worse than Eh; it's a reminder of the calm, quiet issues back in the day that followed the big fight issues. Mike Carey does a convincing Claremont-esque scene, and Scot Eaton's art is nice enough. I'm sure that it'll be an entirely galvanizing and exciting book for the X-Faithful; I just wish that there was something here for new readers to consider.
I've just read the worst comic I've read so far this year -- which is kind of saying a lot. Well, maybe its not as bad as all of that, maybe my reaction is amplified because the book is trading on a glorious reputation, but I really really hated the new Papercutz version of TALES FROM THE CRYPT #1.
EC has a pretty amazing reputation, the kind of line of comics that was loved fairly universally by almost everyone who has read them, but there's certainly a lot about them that can't be replicated today -- in particular the narrative style of incredibly text-heavy captions that (mostly) just describe the action going on in the panels is probably not something that a modern, "Bendis-trained" reader is going to stand for.
But the ECs did a lot right that CAN work in today's world -- short short stories, none (?) clocking in at over 8 pages: get in, make your point, have a twist, and then get out.
EC also had some truly astonishing artists working for them: Ingles, Wood, Kurtzman, Elder, Craig, Williamson, and so on and so forth, most of these cats were amazingly talented.
A lot was made of the "twists" of the ECs, and, yes, most of the best stories (though not all!) had a clever twist. But here's the thing that seems to get missed with both the ECs and the often similar TWILIGHT ZONE: the twist needs to come FROM character and setting and plot, building organically, and ending ironically. So, if for example, you decide to murder the old lighthouse keeper and his wife by throwing them in the ocean, then OF COURSE they're going to return from their watery grave wrapped together in kelp (*gasp* *choke*) because that follows from the story logic.
THe second story in this new TALES FROM THE CRYPT #1 is kind of the prefect example of how NOT to do it -- a toy collector buys a cursed toy, without knowing it, which destroys his other toys. Collector blames his mother, destroys one of her toys (a hummel-style figurine) and she has a heart attack that he didn't plan or intend, then his cursed toy kills HIM. The end.
That might, maybe, could work as a Twilight Zone story, but not as a TFC/EC one -- there's no ironic punishment, the events don't connect to one another, and there's no baser motivation than "I want that toy".
Now, if the guy had MURDERED his mother in some toy-related fashion, and then she came back in the form of a vengeful toy, that'd be a whole lot closer to an EC story (though even that's not quite right, is it?)
The first story, about a couple that steals art, kills the painter, then gets attacked by the dead models of the painter is a little closer to it -- but there's like 16 pages of build-up which spins and spins and spins its wheels, all the while COMPLETELY telegraphing its own ending the second you see the art.
And that's the MAIN problem here -- these stories are ENTIRELY too long. 20 pages? Are you mad? That's not a sustainable length for these kinds of tales. These should be 8 pages, maybe 10 max.
Another issue: the art. It's pretty bad for a book trading on the legacy of the ECs. The first story, drawn by "Mr. Exes" is sorta charming in a mid-80s B&W bust kind of way, but it is wildly inappropriate for a horror story, while the second story, by "Tim Smith 3" (what, no roman numerals?) is plain plain plain.
One HUGE problem is the coloring -- man, I don't want to be looking at an EC-inspired comic that is bright lime green in places. Yikes.
I don't know, maybe there's a huge demand in book stores just for the very TFC name, but I don't see it -- this is going to completely die in the comics market, however, and I can't really imagine it will make it to issue #4, let alone issue #6.
It's really really AWFUL.
What did YOU think?
-B
