Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
One year. Seems like it’s been a lot longer, actually, and I mean that in a good way. AICN always manages to grow and change, and contributors come and go. I’m so pleased with the way the TalkBack League has handled this past year of columns, and I am excited about what we’ll see from them next. Let’s see what they have to say for themselves one year in...
Cormorant here! Wouldja believe we @$$holes have been around for a year now? It’s true, and screw all those Nostradamus quatrains that predicted otherwise! That bearded quack was the king of hedging his bets, and although the “house of the red-headed stepchild” has indeed been interpreted by most scholars to represent Ain’t-It-Cool-News – come on, people - references to a “legion of back-talking sphincters” could mean just about anything.
In short: Yay, us. Boo, Nostradamus. We ain’t goin’ nowhere. Too many great comics in need of praise, too many stink-o comics in need of juvenile insults, and too many egos in our little band to go gentle into that good night.
Fans, detractors, fellow @$$holes, lend me your ears…
THE POWER COMPANY #15
Kurt Busiek – Writer
Gary Chaloner – Guest Artist
Published by DC Comics
Reviewed by Village Idiot
As research for this review, I just flipped through my TPB of THE ULTIMATES, and revisited The Hulk’s delightful rampage through New York. (Everyone remember that?) There’s a lot of action in the scene; a lot of things breaking, and a lot of things hitting and being hit. But no sound effects. No “Braaaaaak!” No “Chofkp!” No “Ooof!” I wonder whether this means anything significant. The thought balloon has certainly become a thing of the past, replaced by the more pensive and poetic (and actually more reflective of actual thought) captions. The thought balloon’s demise could optimistically be looked at as an indication of comics’ increased sophistication. But what about the sound effects? Are the colorful action sounds of comics a similarly simplistic or immature relic of the past? Did the Batman TV show take what was originally a subconscious aspect of the comics, and by satirizing it and bringing it to the forefront, ruin it? What the heck happened to “Bam!”?
For the sake of comparison, I decided to check on some comics from the past, specifically those in the anthology SUPERMAN IN THE SIXTIES. And to my surprise, the Silver Age, at least for Superman, seemed relatively quiet too. There was a “Pow!” here, and a “Bump! Crash!” there, but the sounds weren’t as ubiquitous as I was expecting. In fact, the story with the most audio _expression was the WORLD’S FINEST Batman/Superman team-up drawn by Neal Adams. Maybe that says something right there: perhaps the sound effects were more of a Batman phenomenon.
Which fits in perfectly with the idea of POWER COMPANY #15-as-homage, since Batman is one of the issue’s protagonists. The story opens with the “spish-spash-spish-spash-spish-spash” of Power Company team member Manhunter running across the rainsoaked rooftops of Gotham City at night while chased by a large shadow in the shape of a bat. Manhunter soon runs out of roof and “Sssssssshhhhhhh,” he leaps across to another building with the “Honk” and “Beep” of the traffic far below. He manages to grab the ledge of the next building with a painful “Hunf!,” only to discover Batman is already waiting. Manhunter barely has time to catch his breath before “Baf!” and “Chock!,” a terrific fight takes place.
Okay, my description may be annoying, but trust me, the real thing is actually quite good. The fight and chase go on throughout the entire issue, interspersed with brief flashbacks that reveal why they’re fighting and chasing. And it’s quite a fight: grueling and with more than one surprise along the way. You can keep your “Superman versus Doomsdays”; this wasn’t a slugfest; this was better. All the while, Kurt Busiek delivers with a good deal of deliberate, and very present sound effects. The choice is stylish and unusual, yet never overbearing or unfun. Drawn by guest artist Gary Chaloner (who has a really appealing style reminiscent of THE FLASH’s Scott Kolins), the sound elements are woven into the visual presentation of the story smoothly and surprisingly well.
And importantly for your purposes, o @$$hole reader, the issue comes with no strings attached. YOU DON’T NEED TO HAVE READ ANY PREVIOUS ISSUES OF POWER COMPANY TO ENJOY THIS ISSUE, NOR DO YOU NEED TO READ ANY POWER COMPANY ISSUES IN THE FUTURE. I suppose it helps if you have an appreciation for Batman and action-noir, but it’s not essential. When you buy POWER COMPANY #15, you’re buying a work unto itself. And for that reason, it almost feels like a classic.
The main downside is that for a super-hero story, the overall mood is pretty low-key. Yes, we have two fantastic characters beating up on one another, deftly, cunningly; but the weirdness, the fantasy, the superhero gestalt is toned down. Again, it’s action-noir, and fairly straightforward. It’s enjoyable, even satisfying, but just not exhilarating. It’s one of those comics that doesn’t light you on fire, but you’re glad you have it, and you go back to read it every so often.
I’m reminded of the GREEN ARROW one-shot that featured Count Vertigo that Jon Quixote reviewed recently, but POWER COMPANY #15 is more basic, and in the end, I found it to be more satisfying. It was a good ‘un. Strangely enough, this week there is a new issue of POWER COMPANY due to be shipped, POWER COMPANY #16. I don’t know what #16 will be like. However, if you’ve got an inclination to get something a little extra this week, check out the issue that’s behind it, POWER COMPANY #15. And the next thing you know, Bam!, you’ve got a good comic book.
HAWKMAN #15
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller: Rags Morales
Inker: Michael Bair
Reviewed by: superninja
Geoff Johns, in my mind, is the current king of superhero comics. He's carrying the old torch. Everything he writes has a solid grasp on nostalgia, but with a freshness that makes you take a deep breath and say, "Damn it's good to read superhero comics!" I'm not kidding. After putting down his first Hawkman trade, or one of his JSA or Flash trades that's how I feel. Money well spent. The satisfaction of having read a good story that's a terrific blend of characterization, soap operatics and superhero action/events. He's not trying to be hip or sensationalist; he's out to tell a good story and almost always he delivers.
That said, his Hawkman run has become something of a letdown to me. I bought the first trade and completely fell for the characters and their karmic loop of love and death that allowed them to be reborn over and over again, and the fates of the unfortunate people who were sucked in with them. Seems like a formula with endless possibilities, right? Well, here we are only on issue #15 and it feels like Johns' is already running out of steam. This issue reintroduces Hawkwoman, but a whole lot of nothing happens - mostly verification of things anyone reading the title already knows because Johns has gone to great lengths to clear up the continuity. So I must ask, why on Earth is he revisiting it again so soon? Hawkwoman (the Thanagarian cop Shayera Thal) returns to Earth (or not, she describes herself as an immigrant) after learning that Carter Hall has returned and taken the mantle of Hawkman. This presents a problem, as last she knew, Hall was trapped in limbo with her partner and lover (the previous Hawkman, Katar Hol) and wants to figure out what happened to that guy (Hol not Hall. Ha Ha.). Johns again re-explains the reincarnation bit about the Hawks, has the two female Hawks rough it up, and Shayera figures out Hall's not her old partner by planting a kiss on him. The cliffhanger is that it appears that the last Hawkman before THIS Hawkman’s resurrection…has returned! Yikes! I SEE HAWK PEOPLE.
This issue was solicited, I believe, as a good jumping-on point. If you've never read the title, perhaps. However, I suspect that like me, you would be extremely bored with convoluted continuity brought back into play. Issue #15 and already Johns' is circling back to the continuity he left behind in bringing the character back. To be honest, it's not a bad issue - he gets around to clearing up all of the confusion as everyone stands around and jibba jabbas. It's kind of fun to see Shayara and her Thanangarian personality. It's just that Johns has set my expectations very high. I've been hoping to get to know more about Carter Hall, but he hasn't really been the main focus since the first trade. The title is Hawkman. Not "Hawkgirl's Revenge" or "What Happened To That Other Guy That Used To Be Hawkman?" I've been thinking about dropping the title for awhile now, but I've been hanging on because Carter Hall is a very appealing character. I have the feeling that Johns would've been better off doing a miniseries and ending it on a high note, something he could come back to when he had some enthusiasm instead of trying to find a place for it among his other writing chores.
One last thing: the art of Rags Morales. Classic superhero stylings, as good with action as he is with a subtle _expression. Rags and the art team never let you down. It's a great-looking book.
XENOZOIC TALES VOL. 1 TP
Writer/Artist: Mark Schultz
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Reviewed by Cormorant
Although I’ll bitch about the excesses of long-form comics on occasion (you know, those five, six, and seven-issue story arcs that have come to characterize so many titles), I’m generally a proponent of the depth they allow for. At the same time, there’s something downright amazing about what a truly talented comic book storyteller can do with just a handful of pages. Will Eisner, for instance, cut his teeth on tightly-paced eight-pagers with his SPIRIT comic strip in the 40’s before eventually becoming the father of the modern graphic novel. EC Comics, easily the most creative and talent-packed line of the 50’s, ran stories with similar page counts. Hell, one of the greatest Spider-Man stories of all time, “The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man,” was a mere twelve pages long.
Short stories can kick your ass, and XENOZOIC TALES VOL. 1 has about a dozen of ‘em.
Okay, okay, by the end of the trade, writer/artist Mark Schultz begins running 20-pagers, but many of the stories in this collection (the first of two) are eight or twelve-page gems. Schultz has studied masters like Eisner and especially the EC boys, and he makes every single detail-packed panel count. The most curious aspect of all this? That a storytelling style rooted in the classics actually comes across as blazingly new and innovative simply because it stands out in such sharp relief against the ubiquitousness of long-form comics. Even though I’d read these 80’s stories when they were first reprinted by Kitchen Sink, rediscovering them in Dark Horse’s new trade was a genuine rush.
So here’s the skinny: it’s several hundred years in the future, and massive geological upheavals have kicked the hell out of the Earth. Civilization has slowly begun to emerge from subterranean shelters to discover a world that’s one part ROAD WARRIOR, two parts Arthur Conan Doyle’s THE LOST WORLD, and three parts Edgar Rice Burroughs. Cities are in ruins, but small tribal communities have begun to rebuild and re-learn simple farming, fishing, and mining techniques to stay alive. Bandits are common enough, but the most visibly spectacular danger is the dinosaurs.
Yep, dinosaurs. No gloomy, punked-out BLADE RUNNER clichés to be found here! The sun’s brightly shining in the world of XENOZOIC TALES – it just happens to land on the backs of pterodactyls, triceratops, and T-Rexes as often as humans! Hero #1 of the story is Jack “Cadillac” Tenrec, a roughneck hero from the Harrison Ford/Humphrey Bogart school (with just a touch of John Carter). He’s a mechanic - one of the few who can make the old cars run – as well as an adventurer, a guide, and even a political hot potato for the regional governors of his city. See, Tenrec’s one of the city’s most valuable assets, but he’s also a liability because of his near-religious devotion to maintaining balance between man and nature to stave off future cataclysms. Hero #2 is Hannah Dundee, the gutsy, independent Marion Ravenwood to Tenrec’s Indiana Jones. She’s a scientist and ambassador from a neighboring kingdom, and even in this first volume, she becomes a serious challenger to the charismatic Tenrec for the lead. In fact, she’s one of the strongest heroines I’ve encountered in comics, period. In the tradition of fantasy stories, though, she’s also a looker. That brings us to Hero #3:
Mark Schultz’s art.
As sharp as Schultz’s stories are – tightly-paced and marked by punchy endings, great action, and characters revealed through their actions rather than cumbersome introspection – the first and last thing that will be running through your head when you experience XENOZOIC TALES is the jaw-dropping art. Schultz comes from the detailed, realistic school of art that dates back to Golden Age American illustrators like Howard Pyle and N.C. Wyeth, a style that would later influence FLASH GORDON’s Alex Raymond, THE ROCKETEER’s Dave Stevens, and E.C. greats like Wally Wood and Al Williamson. Fans of artists such as Brian Hitch, Butch Guice, and Frank Cho (when he’s in illustrator mode) will find a kindred talent in Schultz, and I’d even go so far as to say that he trumps the whole lot of ‘em. But, hey, this isn’t a contest folks – these are all great artists, but if you haven’t experienced Schultz then you can’t honestly say you know the full pantheon of modern greats. And Schultz has crafted a world in which he can indulge in all his favorite subjects: dashing pulp heroes and heroines, exotic cityscapes and badlands, monstrous dinosaurs, souped-up 50’s hot rods, and scurvy brigands galore.
XENOZOIC TALES is, in fact, the best modern pulp story I’ve encountered. It bridges classic adventure themes with modern touches of political strife, moral ambiguity, and depth of character, all without losing its sense of fun. Its post-apocalyptic world is as defined as any I’ve seen, fleshing out more over the span of a few issues than most CrossGen titles have managed over several years. And XENOZOIC TALES will surprise you; Jack’s code of honor is part of what makes him a hero, but Schultz isn’t afraid to reveal that it’s also a somewhat simplistic worldview. As for Hannah, she comes on like an interfering busybody in early issues, but by story’s end, she’s revealed to be smarter and more multifaceted than anyone guessed. The slow-burn relationship between she and Jack is one of comicdom’s best.
Final judgment: If I haven’t convinced you to buy XENOZOIC TALES yet, then consider that it garnered five Harvey awards and two Eisners during its original run. Folks, that means Schultz’s little adventure comic was going toe-to-toe with Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN. If you have any love of pulp adventure, of self-contained stories that build upon each other (see also, ASTRO CITY), of new twists on the post-apocalypse sub-genre, or simply of great, great art, then XENOZOIC TALES damn well better be among your purchases this week.
PERSEPOLIS: THE STORY OF A CHILDHOOD
Marjane Satrapi
Pantheon Books
reviewed by: Lizzybeth
If you haven’t heard French import PERSEPOLIS compared to Art Spiegelman’s MAUS, you will soon. It’s not because Marjane Satrapi’s lovely volume imitates that seminal graphic work in any obvious way – there are no animal portrayals, no flashbacks, and no Holocaust connection – but PERSEPOLIS does resemble its Pulitzer prize-winning predecessor in both approach and, at times, quality. Both authors tell an autobiographical and at times painful tale set mostly in faraway lands and other languages, using imagination, bits of humor, and a wonderfully complex and entertaining protagonist to bring humanity to the historical events they describe. PERSEPOLIS is especially relevant today, set in that least-discussed member of the “Axis of Evil”, Iran, and tells the story of one little girl growing up during the Cultural Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war.
In our image-obsessed culture, where clothing is intended to describe your personality, it is easy to forget when looking at the identically shrouded women of Iran that beneath each veil is a thinking, breathing individual. Satrapi gets us past this idea right away, portraying a much wider range of personalities, politics, and religious ideologies than I had expected from people of this region. The child Marji is a spirited, funny, believably curious heroine who is very easy to identify with. She is forced to accept a great many things that seem just as foreign to her as they would have been to any of us: the sudden separation from her male friends, the imposition of the veil, the imprisonment of her family members, and the continued trauma of the war. With such distressing changes in her country it is almost shocking to see the characters carrying on their normal lives through it all, and to see Marji grow into a confident teenager who wears punk-rock clothes under her veil and mouths off to her religious teachers. Probably the most satisfying part of the book is watching Marji’s family circumvent the rules, such as when her parents smuggle an Iron Maiden poster into the country for Marji’s birthday. Since it’s printed on the jacket, I don’t consider it too much of a spoiler to reveal that Satrapi eventually had to leave Iran, both to pursue further education and because of her refusal to conform to the rigid demands of its fundamentalist leaders. After being expelled from several schools and nearly arrested for wearing a denim jacket with a Michael Jackson button, Marji’s parents sent her to France to study illustration.
This education definitely paid off. Satrapi’s artwork is beautifully accessible, with a storybook quality that maintains the feeling of innocence in Marji’s younger days, and a spirit of vivacious determination at the conclusion. A reader may do well to have a history book handy, however, as Satrapi is all too convincing in portraying a child’s perspective on the war, and it will probably leave you wanting to know more (not necessarily a bad thing!). The translation is impeccable. Despite any cultural differences involved in taking this story from Iran to France to the US, PERSEPOLIS allows us to relate to and empathize with a family from one of the more inscrutable parts of the world, bringing a new immediacy to the remote events of twenty years ago, not to mention what’s happening there now. Watching history through the eyes of one opinionated, defiant family and one rebellious young girl humanizes their situation more than news footage ever could. It’s a terribly interesting, mournful, often entertaining and even laugh-out-loud funny book that will appeal to comic and non-comic fans alike.
Title: UNCANNY X-MEN #423
Writer: Chuck Austen
Pencils: Ron Garney
Inks: Morales, Nelson, & Green
Publisher: MARVEL
Reviewer: Ambush Bug
************THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER FILLED, SO IF YER ONE OF THEM YELLA-BELLIED PURISTS, MOVE ON TO THE NEXT RANT.***********
In an attempt to gather more readers and cash in on all of the hoopla from X2, issue #423 of UNCANNY X-MEN bears a 25-cent price tag. Which is groovy to me because I’ve been spending way too much of my beer money on comics lately. It’s a great strategy, making books affordable enough for virtually anyone to pick up. I’m not old enough to remember when all comics cost a quarter, but I do fondly remember picking up 60-cent issues and Big League Chew at my corner discount shop as a youngster. I know the bigwigs say that the cost of paper and printing is the reason behind the variable $2.25 to $2.99 price tag that most of MARVEL books bear these days, but every time one of these bargain issues comes out, I am reminded of exactly how overpriced comics have become. Especially since many of the stories being told today in mainstream comics are barely worth a dime, let alone 12 quarters. Take UNCANNY X-MEN #423 for instance.
Since Grant Morrison is busy writing about everyone but the X-Men in NEW X-MEN (i.e. the Stepford Cuckoos, all of the other new mutant students, the guy with a star for a head), it is up to Chuck Austen to tackle around twenty established characters running around the X-Mansion. For a while now, Austen has done a pretty competent job of writing the adventures of our favorite mutants. He’s recruited Juggernaut onto the team, awakend Havok from his coma, and made Archangel something more than just a pretty boy with wings. I like what Austen has done with the characters. They aren’t the stone-faced ciphers we read about in NEW X-MEN; Austen’s mutants have feelings. They get hurt, emotionally as well as physically. The turbulent relationships and personal, down-to-earth storylines remind me of my favorite Claremont issues of old. I was beginning to think that UNCANNY finally found a writer capable of telling character-driven stories centering on interesting relationships between interesting characters in interesting situations. That is, I felt that way until I read issue #423.
Okay, I’m not going to get all Cormorant on you guys and say that the violence in this issue was too over-the-top for me. It is gratuitous. Quite a few mutants are crucified on the lawn of the X-mansion by religious fanatics convinced that mutants are unholy. A few mutants die. But in order to make an omelet, eggs must be broken. It is just too bad that after reading this issue, this omelet tastes like @$$.
The shockeroo opening with a bunch of mutants makin’ like Jesus on the front lawn is a decent way to set up a pretty emotionally charged intro. As expected, the X-Men are pissed. They are shocked that 2nd tier mutants like Jubilee, Magma, Skin from Generation X, and what looked to be Thunderbird from X-Treme X-Men are either dead or near death. Wolverine goes apeshit when he finds out Jubes is one of the victims. This is something I would expect Wolvie to do and he is about the only character in this issue that acts like he should.
The rest of the cast are non-existent. Oh, they are there. Prancing around in their costumes. Talkin’ words. Doing stuff. But these are not the characters I remember. The problem is that in order for Austen to move his convoluted plot along, he forces these established, well-known characters to do and say things that they wouldn’t do or say in a million years.
Case in point: Havok—the newly-revived brother of Cyclops and walking solar power battery. Havok has been a part of the X-Men longer than most. He has been friends with Nightcrawler for ages. But when Nightcrawler tells Havok that he has become an ordained priest, Havok repeatedly brings up how people were not going to trust a devilish, demon-looking mutie with their sins and problems. Does this sound like the Havok who grew up around the X-School where tolerance and acceptance of mutantkind was taught? Don’t think so. The only reason these words are coming from Havok’s mouth is because of the religious themes Austen chose for this story. This is not Havok, ladies and gents. This is a writer who has a story to tell and is using the characters in any way possible to tell it.
And don’t get me started on Havok’s new costume. LAME.
Let’s move on to Cyclops. In order for a major revelation to unfold, Austen casts Cyclops as a heartless drill sergeant. Sure, a bunch of X-Men are in mortal danger and tension is high, but Cyclops has always been the one who kept it together under pressure. For him to go off on Nightcrawler in the way that he does, browbeating him verbally into submission, is not only out of character, but it’s kind of cruel. The only reason Cyclops behaves in this way is to push the story along. Do you see a trend forming?
Finally, let’s look at the fuzzy elf himself. Nightcrawler’s pretty much the whipping boy of this entire issue. He’s put down because of his appearance by Havok. His abilities as a leader are challenged by Cyclops. And then he finds out that the one thing that he believes in, the one driving force that allows him to carry on despite his mutations, does not exist. He’s been convinced that he has become an ordained priest when he actually hasn’t. So all of the character development; all of the stories over the last few years dealing with Nightcrawler’s faith are thrown down the shitter. To top it off, this character, who is one of the most compassionate on the team, responds to the sight of the crucified mutants with this line: “We really shouldn’t disturb the forensic evidence.” That’s not the gentle, caring fuzzy elf from days of old. That’s not even Alan Cumming’s inspired, yet subtle performance from X2. This is a writer with an agenda, and he doesn’t care how he has to manipulate the characters to tell his story.
Austen did the same thing in the PETA-meets-the-X-MEN-UNLIMITED issue that Superninja reviewed two weeks ago. He found something to write about and then crammed the X-Men in there in order to tell the story. This b@$$-ackwards approach to storytelling is sloppy and the work of a rank amateur. Why not just let a story unfold using the rich characters that have been developed throughout the span of many years? Austen makes just about every character in this book either a victim or a mutie-bashing racist, and we haven’t even met the bad guys yet?!??!?
Throw in an ending so abrupt that I had to go back to the comic store to see if I had bought a misprint with the last few pages missing, and you have a twenty-five cent issue that isn’t worth a dime. And that’s my two cents.
Christina Shermot’s 100% Guaranteed How-To Manual For Getting ANYONE to Read Comic Books!!!
Myatt Murphy: Writer
Scott Dalrymple: Artist
Second 2 Some Studios: Publisher
Vroom Socko: Free Comic Freak
Out of all the books available on Free Comic Book Day, this is the one I want available for free at every shop 24/7. Of course, thanks to the Internet, it’s still free, but the Net isn’t the same as print. You can’t just hand someone a web site.
Basically a series of two to three page samples, the book is centered on the efforts of the titular Christina Shermont to get four distinct people to read comics. The first is a teenage girl. The second is a nineteen-year-old male that’s “too cool for comics. The third is a middle-aged man. Finally, she goes to work on your mother. Young and old, male and female, Christina gives each of them an example of what the medium is capable of that’s targeted directly to them.
While the story samples range from the okay to the quite good, the real winner is the interaction between Christina and her stereotypical non-comic readers. The verbal beat down given to the young male is particularly satisfying. I think it’s because the guy reminds me of my cousin. But that’s not really the point.
The point is, this book could work. If it managed to get itself into the hands of non-readers, some of them will be convinced to give more a try. That’s what the last page is for. It’s an index along the lines of “if you like this TV show, try this comic.” Quite simply, it’s the best part of the book. I tried something similar once, (go here and scroll down to the Comics For People Who Hate Comics section to read it,) but this list blows mine out of the water. Well, quantity-wise at least.
Now here’s the deal. I want you readers to break a few copyright laws for me. Go to the comic’s online version and print out a few copies. Leave them on bus seats. Leave them on cafeteria tables. Give them out on street corners next to the guy with the Chick tracts. Do your part to bring in more readers. Your comics will thank you.
SPIDER-MAN: BLUE (Hardcover)
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Tim Sale
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewed by Cormorant
Friends, it’s without question time to forget all the retro-80’s comics, but let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water and place a moratorium on nostalgia. Nostalgia’s not inherently evil. I mean, who didn’t enjoy GALAXY QUEST? Only dumb jocks and tobacco lobbyists. If handled with wit, class, and (this is very important) strong craftsmanship, nostalgia can actually be great in small doses, and Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale are the guys who continue to show folks how it’s done. In the long term, this means I’m chomping at the bit for the pair to follow-up DAREDEVIL: YELLOW, SPIDER-MAN: BLUE, and the pending HULK: GREY with IRON MAN: GOLD, ANT-MAN: RED, PROFESSOR X: BALD & FLESH-TONED, or whatever the hell they want. In the short term, it means that, yes, I’ve been suckered into buying another very pretty Marvel hardcover and will once again be eating ramen noodles for dinner. I can live with that.
SPIDER-MAN: BLUE is Loeb and Sale’s tribute to and reflection on Peter Parker’s bittersweet early college years. It’s the period that was covered in the comics during the early 70’s, marked by Peter’s growth from introverted teen to semi-assured young man, his first experiences with true love, some kick-ass art by John Romita Sr., and, of course, the landmark showdown with the Green Goblin that resulted in the death of Gwen Stacy. It’s also a period with which I’m largely unfamiliar. I grew up reading Spider-Man in the 80’s (great stuff from Roger Stern), and read lotsa MARVEL TALES and MARVEL MASTERWORKS reprinting material from the 60’s, but the 70’s? Outside of the DEATH OF GWEN STACY TRADE (in which Peter wore a totally stylin’ fringe vest, for the record), I don’t really know the era at all. One of the things I always wondered about was why Gwen Stacy was so highly regarded. She kinda seemed a little…whitebread…in the brief glimpses I caught, with spitfire Mary Jane a far more entertaining foil and girlfriend for ol’ Pete.
Well, first and foremost, SPIDER-MAN: BLUE shows me exactly what Peter saw in Gwen Stacy. Tim Sale’s first image of Gwen’s smiling face – a killer blend of sugar and spice – is almost reason enough, but Loeb actually structures the entire story around Peter’s memories of her. It’s the same framing device he used in DAREDEVIL: YELLOW, with the hero seeking peace by reflecting on his early loves and adventures in a message to his doomed lover (a letter in DAREDEVIL: YELLOW, a tape-recording in SPIDER-MAN: BLUE). It’s borderline plagiarism, but it works. And besides, who’s Loeb gonna sue? Himself?
But these stories are more than love letters to old flames; they’re Loeb and Sale’s love letters to bygone eras and the comic creators that inspired them. SPIDER-MAN: BLUE opens with a classic confrontation between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, with Loeb and Sale channeling Stan Lee and John Romita Sr., respectively. The scene feels so right that I can’t help but reflect on the modern Spider-Man books and think to myself, “They’re good, sometimes really good, but they will never recapture this greatness.” Whether you agree or not, it’s pretty amazing that Loeb and Sale can tap into that particular heyday so well. From Peter’s penultimate battle with the Goblin, the story delves quickly into his college years and a particular problem that most guys would kill to find themselves in: balancing the rival affections of Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy. At the same time he’s getting his first apartment, staving off repeated contract assaults from some of his coolest animal-themed bad guys (the Vulture, the Lizard, and the Rhino), and competing with Harry Osborne and Flash Thompson for the affection of the ladies in question. How does Pete manage it all?
He buys a motorcycle.
Okay, I’m all but certain this is a retro-addition to Spidey’s college years, courtesy of Loeb, but it’s one I really like. It’s an overt symbol both of Pete’s growing maturity (big purchase!) and his slowly developing coolness (it’s still a motorcycle!). The story’s recurring theme, however, can be found in Peter’s assertion that “things have to get really, really bad before they can get good.” Simple concept, but it certainly fits the melodramatic blender that is his life. What’s more, I think it’s about as axiomatic an insight as I’ve chanced across in a superhero book, and identification with that pattern is probably the key to Spider-Man’s longstanding appeal. To be honest, the physical threats in SPIDER-MAN: BLUE, while terrifically entertaining, don’t really comprise the “really, really bad.” It’s Peter’s personal relationships that take a beating, with the most dire threat being that Pete might miss out on his first opportunity for real love. In the end, the story is about growing up, with all the accompanying pleasures and pains. And the occasional attack by the Rhino.
Final judgment: Did I mention that SPIDER-MAN: BLUE is a really sexy book? I’m not talking cheesecake, though Sale’s depiction of Mary Jane and Gwen Stacy is by god mouth-watering; no, I’m talking about the sexiness of growing out of teenage flirtations and into real passion. It’s not present throughout the story, but when it flares up near the end, you’ve got a serious contender for one of the hottest scenes of the year. Where the story finds real bite is in following that scene up with perhaps the book’s most mature scene, a melancholy exchange between a contemporary Peter Parker and wife, Mary Jane. That seems to be the key to Loeb’s particular blend of nostalgia – the excitement of recreating the old, balanced with a meaningful tone of reflection. He even manages to avoid the trap of over-intellectualizing the pulpy source material, instead opting for simple but potent moments of insight. Sure, I wish the sketchbook and commentary pages at the end were two or three times longer (think “DVD special edition” people!), but otherwise I have no complaints a’tall. Spider-Man fans of all stripes should seek this baby out.
INDIE JONES
A Jon Quixote Usurption
This job. Yeah, it’s tough sometimes, what with the Alan Moore curses and the incessant phone calls from Busiek who can’t seem to wait a week to find out what I thought of the latest Astro City. But there are some major perks. Like the Cuervo-fountains at Casa de Knowles, or getting to watch the new Robert Rodriquez film with the AICN strippers while getting lap dances from Moriarty (man, are you sure it’s just Cuervo in those things?).
And then there are the days that make it really all worthwhile. These days, they don’t happen that often, not nearly often enough. The days where you come home after a long day of logging onto message boards and making fun of peoples’ EPIC pitches, and look in your mailbox and find – Holy Shit! – FREE STUFF!!!
It’s especially nice when you look through that free stuff and get completely blown away. When you’re flipping through the pages of that comp comic by a struggling creator and think, “Wow, I’m looking at what could be the birth of the next big thing.” The next great artist, writer, letterer. It’s gratifying. Gratifying to know that, out there, there are new talents toiling out of sheer love for the medium, just waiting to break through and reaffirm my own love of the medium with their own infectious devotion. Gratifying because maybe I can play a small part in helping them break through by getting the word out on their efforts. And extremely gratifying, because when they hit it big and are a household name breaking sales records on X-MEN, that comp comic I got in the mail is going to be worth, like, a million billion dollars and I’m gonna be all, Hey Cormorant, remember when that guy sent me that comic and I sold it for millions of dollars and now you’re my butler? You call *this* a dry martini?? SMACK!!
That’s gonna be so sweet.
The comic is called THE SPARTANS, created by Fred Reyes, and – I’m going to be honest with you – it’s a pretty generic superheroes-fighting-dinosaurs thing. Written by Adam Massano, it’s a breezy romp through the standard superteam motions elevated slightly by a pretty solid dose of chuckle-worthy wit.
But it’s really the artist Reyes – who, by day, works in television animation – who I want to talk about. It’s hard to use words to describe art, so forgive me if I resort to HOMMINA HOMMINA WOO WOO YOWZA!
This is some of the best classic comic-book style art I’ve seen in a long time. Clean lines, dynamic pacing, a jaw-droppingly excellent use of panels. Reyes’s animation background really shines through; the whole enterprise has a sort of Bruce Timm meets the Kuberts feel (of course, can you draw soldiers and dinosaurs and NOT be compared to the Kuberts?). It’s so vivid that it took a character commenting on a red button before I realized that what I was reading was actually in black and white.
Honestly, I was hesitant to bastardize Lizzybeth’s column title for this review. THE SPARTANS is so polished, so incredibly professional looking and feeling a comic book that I’m not sure if it even qualifies. The production values are impressive, and the level of talent displayed in this book…well, let’s just say if THE SPARTANS finds its way into the right hands, you’re not going to be hearing the words “indie” and “Fred Reyes” together for too long.
Reyes will be selling THE SPARTANS and Spartans related posters and postcards at the San Diego Comic Con (July 17-20 in, duh, San Diego), as well as the LA Comic and Science Fiction Convention at the Shrine Center in Los Angeles on June 8. If you happen to be there, you could do a lot worse than scraping up the $1.75 it will take to walk home with a copy of this comic. Or you could email Reyes himself at boltstrike@ix.netcom.com, and deal with the man directly.
But I’d suggest getting your hands on this puppy any way you can. I don’t want to be the only one with a Cormorant butler.
