Hey @$$holes, @CR editor Greg Scott here.
Okay, I'll admit it. We're pooped.
After last week's ULTRA SUPER-HUGE MEGA-MONSTER COLUMN and this week's @$$HOLES ABROAD WIZARD WORLD 2004 Report, we're a little worn out. Add the fact that our columns keep getting bumped halfway down the front page almost as soon as they're posted, and we're a little demoralized too. Almost makes a guy want to give up.
But are we giving up? Who said we're giving up?
Did we "give up" when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? HELL NO!
Sleazy G.: Germans?
Ambush Bug: Forget it, he's rolling.
And we aren't giving up now!
- Attention Mark Millar Fans: We have not one, not two, but THREE positive Millar reviews this week! Three! Even we can barely believe it!
- Buzz Maverik takes a sobering look at the latest CAPTAIN AMERICA, and discusses the impact of Batroc the Leaper on 21st century Franco-American relations!
- Our IDENTITY CRIS@$$ series continues, albeit with dramatically less fanfare, with Jon Quixote's review of IDENTITY CRISIS #3!
- Plus Buzz Maverik's Book Club, Tales from the Crevice, Cheap Shots, and More!
All right, who's with me? Let's Go! Come on! AAAAEEEEEGGGHHHH!!
(Click title to go directly to the review)
MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #5
CHOSEN #3
Buzz Maverik's Book Club: THE SAVAGE TALES OF SOLOMON KANE
BMWS FILMS' THE HIRE #1
IDENTITY CRISIS #3
CAPTAIN AMERICA #30
GOTHAM CENTRAL #22
Cheap Shots!
Tales from the Crevice!: THE GIFT
MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #5
Written by Mark Millar
Art by Frank Cho
Published by Marvel Comics
Reviewed by Buzz Maverik
Marvel Knights? Isn't that the imprint for people who want to pretend that they're not reading superhero comics?
Snarky remarks? They make me feel like a big man!
So Marvel is publishing another title called SPIDER-MAN? That's cool. The old SPIDER-MAN title was cool in kind of a crappy way. I loved the first issue, written and drawn by Todd MacFarlane, where all Spidey does is fight the Lizard in the rain. The art was great and I had to admire someone who, at the time at least, could not write or even tell a story doing it anyway with such confidence. I checked out the title much later when Erik Larsen was doing it, to find Spidey and the Hulk and a bunch of other characters fighting the Sinister Six. The characters were armed with some big, comic booky guns that somehow still didn't kill anybody. Why the hell would Doc Ock need a gun? Those issue sucked in kind of a crappy way.
But this is a new title that I never would have known about if some of my friends here hadn't reviewed it. The reviews, positive and negative, were interesting enough to make me check out those issues in the shop, and the issues looked good enough to make me want to read the comic.
Writer Mark Millar thinks we hate him here at AICN. Okay, so we're not exactly MillarWorld, but we don't hate him. ... Okay, I don't hate him, anyway. In fact, I think he wrote a damned excellent issue of Spidey here.
What did Mark do so well? The opening Venom gag for one thing. His Mary Jane dialogue for another. I don't read many monthly issues, being more of a first issue/mini-series/trades kind of guy, but Millar has given us the most human, likable, intelligent yet slightly sardonic Mary Jane I've seen in my entire six months of comic book reading. Stan Lee is my idol, but his Mary Jane always gave me the creeps because she was essentially Stan's persona in a go-go dancer's body. And most writers aped that, even to this day. I liked MJ's reactions to the Black Cat. You could tell she was a little threatened, but she acted like a mature person would when forced to be around their spouses ex. Personally, I always hated the wish fulfillment thing of MJ being a supermodel. That was over the top, '80s b.s. to me. There's millions of great looking women who aren't supermodels. When I find an element in a comic that I can't stand (like Jean Grey being alive or Emma Frost not being a villain) I make up my own continuity. So MJ Parker was never a supermodel. She was a wannabe actress who came close but didn't make it and she works the perfume counter at a nice department store in the city. Anyway, Millar's MJ is great! And she's caused herself and her husband some very interesting, very real, very adult grief. Not big, dramatic "I screwed the Rhino" grief. Real grief that married people can relate to. And Pete's reaction was beautiful. It wasn't high drama. It was the reaction of man who loves his wife, which made it good drama.
Millar is also one of the few writers aside from Stan who has made me feel like the Peter Parker stuff isn't just tacked on to try to be intelligent or for filler. It all works together with the Spidey stuff. It was superb.
We get to see Pete in a state that most superheroes would walk around in about 90% of the time: shredded. Like Bruce Willis at the end of DIE HARD when he says, "Hi, honey" to Bonnie Bedeilia.
What else? I dug that Doc Ock was out of character and that he was supposed to be that way. And Frank Cho's cover was old school cool because it depicted action from the book that wasn't really like the action inside the book!
Frank Cho did a great job this issue! First rate perspective and motion. Destruction that was both dramatic yet restrained. I don't like the way he draws Ock's tentacles, though. They don't have the raw power of Romita Sr.'s or Gil Kane's classic Ock. On the other hand, his Mary Jane and Felicia Hardy are good examples of work by an artist who can draw beautiful women who don't look completely ridiculous.
Since this isn't MillarWorld, though: I hated the Courtney Cox joke. C'mon, Mark, why'd you pick Courtney Cox of all the names to drop? Nothing against Ms. Cox, but there are surely fresher names out there with more meaning to the younger dude readers. And the SWAT team's actions at the end are the sort of thing that bugs me in movies, TV, comics, etc. I won't SPOILER it for anybody, but let's just say that the team is motivated into their actions by something that would be prohibited to police officers in the line of duty. A cop might try to do something like they're doing, but it would be on the sly. As a lefty, I'm sure Millar sort of dislikes cops; but as a writer, he should try to figure out what kind of dirty deeds they'd only be able to do in secret.
SPIDER-MAN #5 or MK SPIDER-MAN or whatever you're calling it ... I just call it a really good Spidey comic.
CHOSEN #3
Written by Mark Millar
Art by Peter Gross
Published by Dark Horse Comics
Reviewed by Lizzybeth
Would you believe this is the first Mark Millar comic I've read? I've certainly heard a lot about him from my fellow @$$holes, but he doesn't really write the kind of comics I'm interested in these days (i.e., superhero stories, supposedly trading on shock-value). Then I find this comic.
This is the kind of shocking I can go for.
Not that I gravitate towards sacrilegious images, exactly. I didn't read PREACHER, and that's pretty much the standard for these kinds of irreverent religious excursions. But CHOSEN has two things sorely needed in comics right now: balls, and brains. Putting out a miniseries about a modern 12-year-old Christ figure, in a year where the biggest film draw was watching the original bleed for 2 hours? Balls. As for the brains, that's where this issue, CHOSEN #3, comes in.
See, CHOSEN #3 is where you learn how Millar has toyed with our expectations from page one. With actual insight, he spins a new and interesting story with all the common ingredients of the Christian Apocalypse. I hate to even mention a twist, which tends to ruin the fun, but it's hard to recommend this comic without mentioning that the ending made me go back and reread the entire series on the spot - and after that, to start shoving it into people's hands, literally.
The sad thing is how many will shy away from the confrontationally edgy cover images. Millar has gotten a reputation for empty shock tactics I mentioned earlier (whether it's deserved or not) and the covers seem to send that same message.
Readers, do me a favor: Read the book before you judge.
This isn't brainless Christian-bashing, Millar is up to something else, something entirely appropriate to these times. Here you have a kid who's acting according to his destiny, but with no idea of what his destiny really means. Even at the end, it's not entirely clear why Jodie Christiansen is still following his path. Is it his will, or his Father's will? Or is he simply playing out the hand he was dealt, with the same brutal sense of purpose as an abortion clinic bomber?
I have to mention Peter Gross's art, which is a marvel in itself: Clean, cold, and chilling. That Committee member on page 5, with his too-white grin, gives me the heebies. Even the coloring is excellent. Jeanne McGee does a wonderful job with the muted tones in the balance of the series, making way for the rush of color in Jodie's big miracle, and the steel-gray of the final pages.
Dark Horse did well to make room for Millarworld, where perhaps the Scottish phenom's talent will be better spent. Seems a shame to waste him on costume-retreads when he could be writing stuff like CHOSEN instead.
THE SAVAGE TALES OF SOLOMON KANE
by Robert E. Howard
Published by Del Rey
A Buzz Maverik's Book Club Fightin' Puritan Selection
You damned hippies keep knocking the Puritan work ethic that made this country great. That and your damned peace marches make me sick! Thanks to CONAN creator, pulp genius Robert E. Howard and the folks at Del Rey who have kindly published a new edition of the Solomon Kane stories, we get to see a Puritan who goes around killing pirates, demons, monsters, and ancient civilizations!
Put that in your bong and smoke it!
Robert E. Howard is my favorite writer. Sure, he wasn't the best writer who ever channeled a pre-Celtic warrior-king, but he strikes a chord. And he was the best pulp writer (the rules being that only writers who never transcended the pulps are eligible in this category). He could write action and horror. He had a flair for language and imagery that is unmatched.
You know Conan. My governor played him in a movie. Of course, that Conan was in many ways more similar to Howard's hero King Kull. In fact, there were almost as many elements of Howard's Bran Mak Morn (e.g., trading sex to a lonely, but hot witch/changeling for information on an enemy) as there were true Conan moments in the movie. But that's okay. It was a good movie anyway.
As a pulp powerhouse, Howard wrote it all. Sword 'n' sorcery. Horror. Humorous boxing stories. Westerns. Historical adventure. Pirate tales. Supervillain, or weird menace tales. What was called, at the time, "Oriental Adventure," would now be likened to INDIANA JONES and THE MUMMY movies.
Before Conan, Howard wrote a series in WEIRD TALES, a pulp where most of his writing was published, about a wandering Puritan named Solomon Kane. Kane was a master swordsman and a crack shot with his flintlocks. Many of his adventures took place in Africa where he also armed himself with a mystic, cat-headed staff given to him by a witch doctor. In some of the best stories here, such as "The Moon of Skulls," Kane would take up long, dangerous quests simply because it was the right thing to do, and - like many a semi-modern superhero to follow - because no one else could do it. Not that Solomon Kane was a superhero, or even a Conan. He's one of Howard's few civilized heroes, and that includes all of the 20th Century boxer characters named Steve Costigan. In "Wings In The Night," Kane is helpless to save an African tribe that trusted him to protect them from winged men. Kane can only avenge.
The weakest stories, such as "The Footfalls Within," rely on the old Howard/pulp standard of a tomb or cairn being opened and a demon coming on and slaying everyone except the hero. The hero doesn't die because he makes the same sword strokes that everyone else made. There is, also, a certain inherent racism in these stories. Why do the Africans always need a white guy to save them? Yeah, there's a real historic precedent for that. Understand that this was writing from the 1920s and 1930s by a man with recent, southern plantation roots who was deeply interested in his own genealogy. That's no apology, but it is the case.
Kane is cool, but not as much fun as Conan. I have a theory that Howard, a curious combination of intellectual, brawler and recluse, probably hadn't had sex when he wrote the stories of Solomon Kane and the virginal King Kull. But I'll bet he got his cherry busted in some border town bordello while on a road trip with his buddies before he came back and created Conan.
The great thing about this 2004 Del Rey edition is that it is heavily illustrated by artist Gary Gianni. Gianni's biography notes that he did an INDIANA JONES series for Dark Horse comics and well as creating a back-up feature in HELLBOY. He states that he wanted to do a book with timeless illustrations. He succeeds here! The artwork could be from the best pulp artists or from classic 19th or 20th century illustrators. The opening plate of Kane with sword and pistol in hand, killer scowl on his face, must have delighted Howard up in pulp heaven.
BMWS FILMS' THE HIRE #1 (of 6)
Writer & Artist: Matt Wagner
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Reviewed by Dave "Cormorant" Farabee
Everyone here seen those BMW short films from a year or two back? A series of witty, action-packed car chase vignettes from directors including John Frankenheimer, Guy Ritchie, John Woo, and Tony Scott? If you passed 'em up just because they were essentially big commercials and you're some anti-capitalism stick in the mud...pal, ya missed out. There're a few duds (Ang Lee's outing is a sort of prelude to the quality of his HULK movie) but most were a blast-and-a-half, and BMW's especially to be congratulated for letting their cars get trashed and generally shot to shit in many of 'em.
So did you miss out? If so, go here and put your high speed internet connection to some non-porn use, then get back to me.
The premise behind Dark Horse's THE HIRE is pretty much identical to the BMW films: done-in-one stories from high profile creators, each one centering on an unnamed but badass driver for hire. The opening entry comes courtesy of writer/artist Matt Wagner. He's best known for MAGE and GRENDEL, but since those slipped under my radar back in the day, I just know him for the excellent LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT arc, "Faces," and his phenomenal writing on SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE. Dude's definitely one of the underrated greats (and I promise to buy that MAGE hardcover when it hits).
Wagner's story concerns a Paris Hilton type wrapped up in scandal over a sex tape gone public. She's holed up at a hotel besieged by a ravenous press, and the driver's job is simply to get her the hell away from 'em. A lightweight premise, but like those CLONE WARS shorts on Cartoon Network, these things are all about the twists and turns within the action. True to form, the high-speed fun kicks off as soon as the driver and his hot-but-dimwitted charge hit the open road. There's some amusing banter between the pair, but I got a bigger grin from the pack of gun-wielding motorcyclists who overtake them such that we see that each passing rider in turn has a sign taped to the back of his jumpsuit. Together they read:
"PULL OVER"
"WE WANT"
"THE GIRL"
"OR ELSE!"
Fun! And that's the tone of the chase the follows, replete with well-choreographed jumps, skids, bootleg reverses, and the occasional cactus impact. Visually, Wagner's take on "The Driver With No Name" has more in common with grizzled wheelman Clutch from the old G.I. JOE comics than with "Brit-rugged" Clive Owen from the BMW films, but the car chase stuff is all aces - cleanly depicted, easy to follow, good sense of motion, and we even get some gear-shift close-ups for some of the maneuvers.
If THE HIRE has a flaw, it's simply that it's not manga. No offense to Americans comic creators – I love you guys to pieces and your writing generally trumps what I see in manga – but, dammit, you just can't depict car chases with anywhere near the visceral quality of those wacky Japanese guys with their obsessive vehicle fetishism and ultra-cinematic stylings. They've got GUNSMITH CATS (babes in cars), AKIRA (future punks on motorcycles), INITIAL D (street racers) and even the speeder bike chase in the RETURN OF THE JEDI manga...but I can't think of a single truly great car chase in an American comic. Wagner's stuff is good, and I think I recall a pretty decent chase from an issue of CHECKMATE in the '80s, but this is one area of the comic book Olympics where the best we can possibly hope for is a bronze medal.
So...to Matt Wagner, I award the bronze – not half bad! – and I've got three or four more for pending writers Kurt Busiek, Mark Waid, and yes, the single greatest evoker of geek man-love, Bruce Campbell.
But the issue of THE HIRE I'm really waiting for is the one by Katsuhiro Otomo of AKIRA fame, and yes, it is going to happen. If he gets anything less than a gold I vow to renounce Eastern comics forever!
IDENTITY CRISIS #3
Written by Brad Meltzer
Art by Rags Morales & Mike Bair
Published by DC Comics
A Jon Quixote Review
I want to write about IDENTITY CRISIS.
I don't want to write about violence, misogyny, and women in refrigerators. I think it's a very real trend, and IC#3 throws another victim into the morgue here (umm…spoilers), and it probably should be addressed. But not in this review.
When I read the death of Sue Dibny, it was like somebody punched me in the gut. Meltzer put me in Ralph's shoes just enough to get a taste of what it must be like to have the thing you most love in the world murdered. Devastating. And now, another DC hero gets to go through that. It's awful, but it has to be.
I don't want to write about a Mature Readers label. I think that this series probably could have used something, but there's also the commerciality of such a thing and questions about the audience and the topic is really complicated.
I'm not a kid. And if I was giving a comic to a kid, I'd read it first. I know lots of parents won't, and it's not their fault for not knowing they should. But it's not my province.
I don't want to write about the ramifications IDENTITY CRISIS will have on the DCU, whether or not it will swing the world permanently away from its relatively innocent roots. I don't want to speculate about whether or not black & white morality has a place in comics anymore.
It might make for an interesting editorial. But maybe tomorrow.
I just want to talk about IDENTITY CRISIS. The issue in my hands, the two that came before it. Meltzer's words, Rags's pencils. The engrossing mystery. The thrilling fight scene. The really interesting moral questions.
The pretty flippin' cool comic book. Not perfect though.
I enjoyed Meltzer's run on GREEN ARROW, but I couldn't shake the feeling that the guy was slumming it just a little. Not that he didn't like his work or appreciate the canvas upon which he painted, but that it didn't seem to be crafted with the attention one would expect a New York Times Bestselling Mystery Author to bring to the table. It was a little all over the place, but harmless. Forgettable.
I have no such complaints about IDENTITY CRISIS, which has obviously been composed with a great deal of love and attention. And talent. I'm hooked. This is weighty stuff by a man who knows his craft.
But perhaps the danger here is that there's too much craft. Because my main criticism about this issue, and to a lesser degree the last one, is that it seems a bit overwritten. And that invites overanalysis.
As much as I want to just dismiss the rocking fight scene between Deathstroke and the JLA that opens this book as "kewl," Meltzer won't let me. He breaks down Deathstroke's methodical take-down of the league methodically. He invites us to think about exactly how Deathstroke plotted and executed his strategy, and the more we think about it, the more we realize that it doesn't work.
I wouldn't care, except Meltzer breaks it down in such a way that I have no choice. It requires the JLA to stand around like they're fighting Bruce Lee. I hate that! The fight is so freakin' well thought out – the narrative is cool! The takedowns rock! Deathstroke is a badass! So why does Green Lantern stand around waiting for his 6 teammates to attack and drop, before deciding that the way to win the fight is to THROW A PUNCH? Even if Kyle was dumb enough to punch the martial-artist mercenary killer, how does Deathstroke grab his ring hand and break his fingers through the ring? Fuck!
The willpower thing was pretty cool though, but why could Meltzer come up with all these cool ways to dispose of each hero, and not a single excuse to explain why some of them have to stand around and wait for their turn?
That's the thing about a good, talented writer trying to write entertaining and thought provoking stuff: he's going to get scrutinized a lot more thoroughly than the guy who just writes the story where Superman punches the robot. We start to expect more
Want hate? Write something controversial and weighty and fill it with holes and stupidity. Promise something grand and then let them down.
Of course, pull it off and the world is yours for the taking.
IDENTITY CRISIS started strong. But over the past few issues, we've got a lot of exposition, a fight scene that is either retarded or awesome or both, and not a whole lot of plot movement. The momentum and goodwill garnered by issue #1 has slowed somewhat. It kicked off with a beautiful heartwrenching issue filled with love and shock and tragedy, morphed into a fascinating mystery that encompassed the DCU…and hasn't really done much since. These aren't crushing criticisms, but on something this ambitious the need for precision is amplified.
It's really quite nice. It's nice to have a comic from which I'm demanding so much. And at this stage, I'm reasonably hopeful that the end will be accompanied by my satisfaction. Reasonably.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #30
Written by Robert Kirkman
Art by Scot Eaton
Cover by Dave Johnson
Published by Marvel Comics
Reviewed by B.U.Z.Z.
In CAPTAIN AMERICA #30, Kirkman brings in an old Cap foe, Batroc the Leaper. Many fans view Batroc as a punk; as a lame villain. They're not wrong, because as a fictional character, when portrayed as lame punk, Batroc will be a lame punk.
However, because comic book fans are known for their open minds, I recommend that you check out ESSENTIAL CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 1 & 2 for Joe Kirby's Batroc. The character was a French mercenary with a high level of martial arts and acrobatic skills. Sure, he's been written with the stupidest accent this side of Chris Claremont dialogue, but he made a great sparring partner for Cap. He had a sense of honor, and yet he was just in it for the dough. I have a 1976 Marvel Superheroes Calendar with a great Batroc gag: "I fight for ze honaire, ze gloree...ze monee!"
Kirkman wisely avoids writing Batroc's accent. We know he talks funny. Before he became a joke himself, Jean Claude Van Damme was an action star and a martial artist. He could kick all our asses combined. That's how I see Batroc. Van Damme gone bad ... or is that an oxymoron? No, wait, he's not Steven Segal. And I do enjoy a character that is just a regular person with an extreme skill and personality who puts on a costume to either commit crimes or fight them.
Batroc's caper is kind of lame: A big heist at a baseball stadium. It could have been DIE HARD GOES OUT TO THE BALL GAME. Could-have-been.
Meanwhile, there's a subplot involving a cabal of evil SHIELD agents scheming to take over SHIELD itself. They don't convince me: Nick Fury will wipe his @$$ with their heads. They have an encounter with the Red Skull that reminded me of a story in Frank Miller's original DAREDEVIL run in which Foggy took on the identity of "Guts" Nelson to try to get info on the Kingpin. He kept trying to brace hoods for the skinny and they'd tell him to get lost and he'd say, "Okay." It's too bad these renegade SHIELD agents don't have Matt Murdock there to back them up.
In that encounter with rogue-SHIELD agents, the Skull reminds me more of a SUPER-PATRIOT nemesis than the Nazi/subversive we know and despise. He's in some sort of exo-skeleton, which is pointless because he's got a cloned Captain America body. I don't like him as a hulking brute. Also, he's not evil or arrogant enough here. Like Dr. Doom, he would not have left these dark SHIELD guys alive. And he would have never thanked them. In thanking them, he reminded me of a talkback troll who also makes sure to say "please" when he tells me to go away.
More Skull-like was Skull's use of Diamondback, Cap's ex-supervillain ex-girlfriend. I'm not sure I care for how Diamondback is being depicted, but I like the story. It does seem like the Skull would have people to work with her instead of having to do it himself. Also, Gru's Red Skull was a bit of a lady's freak and would have probably had sex with her. Fortunately, Cap does.
I dug the killer ending with the return of some old villains! I hope they are a major threat and not half-issue villains the way Mr. Hyde and Batroc have been. The ending reminds me of a Kirby issue from the recently tpb-ed MAD BOMB story arc, in which Cap and the Falcon are forced to compete in a ROLLERBALL type game (the Norman Jewison ROLLERBALL, not the John McTierran CRAPBALL ) and one of the opponents does something that really gets Cap pissed.
Scot Eaton's art is bold and clean, a perfect look for CAPTAIN AMERICA. His action is bigger than life, but he is talented enough to include scenes from life. I always find it interesting that realism a big buzzword among modern comic fans, but so much of the art is less realistic than ever. Eaton's stuff is realistic when appropriate and fantastic where it should be!
Artistically, though, Dave Johnson's cover which I'm sure you can see here is a stunner. It looks like a superhero version of a poster for a concert at the Fillmore. Wildly pop-art with the impact and fury of manga. Look at the cover and you'll say, "That's a pretty cool villain."
GOTHAM CENTRAL #22
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Michael Lark
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewed by Dave "Cormorant" Farabee
Let's take a sec to talk about the GOTHAM CENTRAL recap page first – you know, the "what came before" reminder that's the first page on a fair number of comics these days? It's only a recent addition to GOTHAM CENTRAL, but I've already noticed one poster on Brian Bendis's message board daring to champion it as the best recap page in comics.
Strong words? In the fiercely contested field of recap pages, hell yeah.
But I think the claim just might be legit. See, what differentiates the GOTHAM CENTRAL recap page from most others is that it's not a boring ol' text recap, but rather a series of visually stimulating highlight panels from previous issues. Hey, that's pretty cool! This is a visual medium, right? So it's closer to the recaps you get on your favorite TV shows, bringing you up to speed concisely but giving you an actual taste of the preceding events rather than a dry description. I like it a lot. I still see the need for a roster (maybe once per story arc?), but I can't deny the elegance of the visual recap. Hats off!
And speaking of hats...
When last we tuned into GOTHAM CENTRAL, habitually lame villain Mad Hatter was seeing perhaps the best portrayal in his fictional existence courtesy of writer Ed Brubaker. Hatter was suspected of playing a role in a recent suicide that might've had ties to an old, unsolved case involving disgraced cop, Harvey Bullock. Hatter's been behind bars since the arc began, and as it turns out, that's where he's scariest. I'd break out the Hannibal Lecter analogy, but that's not quite right. Lecter was an immediate threat, cold and calculating, but Hatter's more removed from reality, with the cops having to really work to draw out answers and keep him from retreating into his bizarre psychoses. His interrogations haven't been scary so much as unnerving, and I for one appreciate the subtle distinction.
As of last issue, though, we know Hatter's not the sole source of danger in the arc. But even as the plot has thickened, a good deal of the spotlight has shifted to Harvey Bullock and I've enjoyed the hell out of all of his scenes. As a casual Batman fan, I only really know Harvey from a few '80s comics where he was the slovenly rules-breaker who got results, and the '90s cartoon where he was a wonderfully pissed-off foil for Batman. Brubaker's depiction hasn't been nearly so larger-than-life, but his Bullock is still a commanding presence. He's at his lowest ebb ever, still haunted by a case from years ago, still reeling from leaving the force over quite the accurate suspicion that he had a hand in offing the cop who shot Commissioner Gordon years ago.
The previous issue was highlighted by an emotionally-charged confrontation between Bullock and former partner, Renee Montoya. This issue is even worse for Bullock. Where the resurrection of an old, unsolved case could've been the first step on his road to redemption, in point of fact it's just caused him to spiral ever downward. He's truly friendless and fucked-up, his last shred of hope being to go out in a blaze of glory. Bullock's the scene-stealer here, actually undercutting some the mystery aspects of the finale because dammit, who cares who's behind the killings when Harvey Bullock's got a gun to his own head?!
It's definitely one of the most powerful finales we've yet scene for GOTHAM CENTRAL. I'm not sure I bought Detective Josie Mac's sudden change of attitude – one of the key dramatic payoffs to the story – but I may yet warm to it when I re-read the entirety of the arc. All in all, though, a truly compelling story, and one I'd suggest for newbies interested in sampling this GOTHAM CENTRAL series that all the snooty types are (rightly) telling them is good.
Starts with issue 19, wraps with 22, features the "Vic Mackey" of Gotham City. You go read now.
Cheap Shots!
NEW X-MEN Vol. 3 (Hardcover) - Just wanted to remind all you Morrison geeks out there that this hardcover wraps up the reprints of his run in this fancified hardcover format. Unfortunately, these are the weakest stories from his run – the Fantomex-saturated "Assault On Weapon Plus," the occasionally satisfying return of Magneto in "Planet X" (already all but irrelevant due to retconning), and the largely indecipherable finale featuring characters no one gave a hatful of crap for. Oh well. Even Morrison's fuck-ups are pretty damn readable, and there remain some inspired moments in these stories, including Wolverine and Jean Grey's plunge into the sun on Asteroid M. On the art front, Phil Jimenez's realism is quite nice, Chris Bachalo's work alternately inspired and arcane, and Marc Silvestri's art typically Top Cow bad. Frank Quitely, where were you when we needed you?! My request to Marvel: quit skimping on the extras for these hardcovers! You've got me suckered with the format, but when the best bonus material I get is a few scans of Phil Jimenez's cover pencils, the objectively bad scribble-layouts of Marc Silvestri, and an utterly out of place Silvestri X-Men pin-up from '80s...geez, it's like buying one of those DVD's where the only extras are cast profiles and "Other Movies You May Enjoy." – Dave
TOMMYSAURUS REX (TPB) - What we've got here is an original graphic novel from Doug TenNapel, creator of the cult videogame, EARTHWORM JIM. It's his second comic book outing, the first having been CREATURE TECH, an endearingly curious mixture of monsters, aliens, and faith affirmation. I mostly enjoyed CREATURE TECH, not the least because TenNapel is a bloody talented cartoonist in the Bill Watterson tradition, but TOMMYSAURUS REX left me cold. It's about a boy getting over the death of his dog, the discovery of a trainable Tyrannasaurus Rex going a long way towards helping him. Unfortunately, the mixture of IRON GIANT-esque sweetness, poop-based humor, and a weirdly grisly final act don't mesh. That and the heavy-handed message about letting go of anger means I can't really recommend this except for the stunning art, but Moriarty wrote otherwise a few weeks ago, so I'll do the democratic thing and point interested readers to his review as well. Mr. Bigshot has lots of art scans if you're into that kind of stuff. - Dave
HEAVEN'S DEVILS #4 – There have been some good moments in the past 3
issues, but this series really comes into its own in this last
installment. The Voodoo-Environmentalism killer-virus saga finally
clicks into place with one additional element: romance. It's sort of
last minute and matter-of-fact, but it adds the human dimension that
was missing. We also get the last bit of background tying
doctor/magician Alan Wells to a killer virus in Mexico - his nutty
environmentalist mentor and former boss, who believes that the best way
to rescue the Earth is to eliminate its worst enemy – humans. Their
last confrontation paints Alan as more ruthless, and even more
interesting, than I had previously suspected. I'm not sure this series
flows very well from the first issue to the last, as it only seemed to
be finding its voice in the last two issues. Still, there are some good
ideas here. The execution wasn't perfect, but hey, it sticks the
landing. (Sorry, the Olympics are on.) - Lizzybeth
AQUAMAN #21 - So begins Will Pfeifer's second arc on AQUAMAN and I'm still not sure whether I can recommend this book. Certainly it has its moments. The beginning, for instance, gives us a truly twisted mob-style killing on the outskirts of the new underwater city of Sub Diego. It's a reversal on the classic "cement overshoes" drowning, the water-breathing victim instead being lashed to a buoy and left to suffocate in the open air. There's also a neat scene where a Sub Diegan woman gives birth to a baby who doesn't breath water, leading to a tense race to the surface with the kid in Aquaman's arms. The art from Patrick Gleason remains excellent. On the other hand, the book is still painfully sluggish overall, Aquaman's no more likeable than he's ever been, and his pending battle with aqua-mobsters doesn't exactly scream excitement. Ah, but I do love the setting of Sub Diego – it's so shadowy and well-realized! Gah, mildly recommended! - Dave
SUPERMAN ADVENTURES Vols. 1 & 2 - Before Mark Millar wrote the cannibal Hulk in THE ULTIMATES, gave us young Aunt May doin' the nasty in TROUBLE, and had Peter Parker jerkily dismissing Ant-Man for being too geeky in MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN...he wrote some of the squeaky cleanest Superman stories DC's ever published. No bullshit! They appeared in the SUPERMAN ADVENTURES comic (the one based on the '90s Superman 'toon) and, who'da thunk it, they're actually very readable. Action's the name of the game here, and Millar's always excelled at that, but there's also plenty of cleverness to these all-ages tales, especially the one where Jimmy Olsen and Superman switch minds. It's ideal reading for kids (and affordable priced at seven bucks per five-issue digest), but adults looking for some breezy upbeat reading should give 'em a look too. In many ways these two supervillain-packed volumes are truer to classic Superman in pacing and tone than any of the current Superman line. Subversive bonus points go to artist Aluir Amancio, whose Lois Lane wears the most ridiculously tight clothes you'll find this side of an issue of BETTY & VERONICA. - Dave
Wow. It's been a while since I've done one of these, hasn't it? To be honest, I haven't really seen anything worth talking about lately. No under appreciated or oddball comics that screamed out for the Crevice treatment, nothing that wasn't already hyped to hell and back. Thank God that I was sent along this title then, one of those little guy making it big stories that I love… and that's just what's going on with the creator!
Published by Image as of the upcoming issue #8, THE GIFT is one of those comics that manages to stick into your brain and never get out. The premise is one of those things that is instantly familiar, yet feels fresh and original. I just KNOW I've seen this sort of thing before, but I can't peg down where or when. The premise just seems to have been sitting there in the ether, waiting for someone to discover it. And once it's revealed, the rest of us slap our foreheads and say "Of course! Why didn't I come up with that?"
The series stars a character known as The Ancient One, a Phantom Stranger-style hombre who, without apparent rhyme or reason, is bestowing a supernatural gift of some form or another to people in need. Just what sort of need, and what sort of gift, varies from issue to issue. A serial killer can be granted monstrous strength one issue, and the next can feature a child given the power to stand up against his abusers. The thing is, most of the time these gifts have a way of turning on their recipients. That serial killer, for example, ends up hunting down a young stripper with a few tricks up her sleeve as well. So to speak.
Series creator Raven Gregory is on to something with this book that's sure to make him the next big up-and-comer in the industry. Every issue to date has had a creepy as all fuck story with a great twist at the end, something that's not easy to do. Sure, I've seen some doozy twists in comics before, but to have them not only on a regular basis but make them work out of the story in a way that feels organic and deserved, not trite and cheap, is a tough task. Throw in plotlines that are genuinely chilling, (and honestly, when was the last time a comic scared the piss out of you?) and this is a book that is destined to have a loyal, vocal following.
The best thing, though, is how these stories are structured. So far each issue has been self-contained, but when you look at the series as a whole, there's definitely a buildup happening. To what I have no idea, but if the story so far is any indication it's going to be one helluva ride. Gregory's got a real TWILIGHT ZONE sort of unifying plot waiting in the wings on this book, and I for one can't wait to see it.
NOTE: Issue #1 is now sold out, but the complete issue is reprinted online right here. Also, the first TPB is available for preorder in the next PREVIEWS in the Image section. Preorders are your friends.
Question for Discussion
What is your favorite comic book twist ending?
