Hey everybody, Gregory Scott here.
So we took a week off last week - to catch up on some reading, learn a little yoga, and make a court appearance or two. And now we're back. Steel yourselves.
- Buzz Maverik tastes the sweet sting of BLACK WIDOW #1, and requires no antivenom whatsoever!
- Dave Farabee makes the hitherto unknown connection between DC's answer to Buck Rogers and John Lennon's DOUBLE FANTASY album with his review of ADAM STRANGE #1!
- Ambush Bug claws his way back onto Brian Bendis' Christmas Card list with all the nice things he has to say about DAREDEVIL #65!
- Cheap Shots, Tales from the Crevice, and More!
It's like we're going out on a high note - only we're not going anywhere!
(Click title to go directly to the review)
BLACK WIDOW #1
IN THE SHADOW OF NO TOWERS
AVENGERS #502
ADAM STRANGE #1
DAREDEVIL #65
SIX
ESSENTIAL AVENGERS VOL. 4
ASTONISHING X-MEN #5
ELRIC: THE MAKING OF A SORCERER #1
EX MACHINA #4
Cheap Shots!
Tales from the Crevice: GO GIRL! and SCOTT PILGRIM'S PRECIOUS LITTLE LIFE
BLACK WIDOW #1
Written by Richard K. Morgan
Art by Bill Sienkiewicz
Published by Marvel Knights
Reviewed by Buzz Maverikiewicz
Weird feeling . . . unfamiliar . . . yet, somewhere . . . way back in the past . . . I remember, Lord, I remember . . . this is what it is like to enjoy a comic book without reservations.
I can't think of one thing about the dialogue, plot, art, pacing or characterization in BLACK WIDOW # 1 to complain about. Writer Richard K. Morgan and near-legendary artist Bill Sienkiewicz have done everything right.
A series of mysterious deaths around the world. The Black Widow, Natasha Romanova, doing what all retired super spies do - rock climbing. An assassin arriving on the scene. I'm not going to wreck it for anyone if I tell you that he's no match for the Widow. A nasty billionaire type in league with former KGB operatives, out for the Widow's head. The Widow on the road with a disgraced SHIELD agent turned private detective. Action! Suspense! Conflict! Character!
Bill Sienkiewicz was one of the most interesting artists to emerge in the 1980s. He was best known for a stellar stint on THE NEW MUTANTS, which took him into the mainstream. He collaborated with Frank Miller on a DAREDEVIL/KINGPIN graphic novel. Best of all, he did the art for Miller's ELEKTRA: ASSASSIN. It was beautiful, strange stuff. Very impressionistic. Even on the more straightforward NEW MUTANTS, Sienkiewicz often avoided literal interpretation.
His work is a little more down to earth on BLACK WIDOW #1. We're still getting Sienkiewicz. It's still his take, but don't expect the near psychedelic experience of his ELEKTRA. In its own way, the art on this book looks like it will turn out just as good, though. Bill packs in a lot of visuals. His Widow is lean, beautiful and sexy but not the Land pinup on the cover. She looks like a beautiful woman just past, say, thirty, without make-up, living the outdoor lifestyle. She looks strong, like a believable killer. She's tough without being toughened. I've never seen her depicted as being so tall before. I always thought she was built more like the ultimate Russian gymnast.
It is to Richard Morgan's credit that she reads as heroic, moral, and ruthless without the simplistic exaggeration that often accompanies such female characters. I was prepared to be very critical of this book because the Black Widow is my favorite female Marvel character...hell, she's my favorite female comic book character.
Unless one of my fellow @$$holes steals it from me, I may just review every issue of this series just to keep raving.
IN THE SHADOW OF NO TOWERS
by Art Spiegelman
Published by Pantheon Books
Reviewed by Lizzybeth
I’ve waited long enough to review this book that a consensus already seems to have emerged, centered around that one equivocating word: "but." It goes something like this:
Art Spiegelman is great, but…
I support Spiegelman’s response to the events of September 11th, but…
There are some gripping moments in this book, but…
The book is certainly a beautiful object, but…
… and it seems to trail off from there. We all seem to agree that there is something in this project that fails to satisfy, but can’t quite articulate what it is. It’s like the same unimaginable enormous absence that haunts Art Spiegelman since September 11, 2001 haunts this work – but (ironically) instead of making it a genuine account, it keeps it from being entirely successful.
Expectations were probably unreasonable for Spiegelman’s follow-up work to his enormously successful MAUS. Given the universally enthusiastic response to that autobiographical project (not to mention the Pulitzer), who wouldn’t be excited to hear that Spiegelman was tackling the events of September 11th? An eyewitness account, no less! I don’t exactly demand a TV Movie for every tragedy, but it’s true that art is an important part of the way a culture processes changes and events. Sometimes there is epic poetry, sometimes there are paintings, and sometimes there are crappy blockbuster flicks starring Ben Affleck. Considering the inevitable, it seemed fitting for Spiegelman to be the first to really tackle September 11th head-on in a major work (aside from a few hastily produced television episodes and Springsteen albums). With these hopes in mind it’s probably no surprise that IN THE SHADOW OF NO TOWERS has been a minor disappointment; I don’t believe it’s (entirely) the fault of the author or the work. Perhaps, as some have commented, we simply don’t have enough space from the tragedy to really be able to face it artistically. Or perhaps at this point there isn’t much more that can be said than what Spiegelman says in this book, simply, “I was there, and this is how it was.”
IN THE SHADOW OF NO TOWERS is a huge volume in full color, and its pages are as thick as the cardboard covers of children’s books. In it, Art Spiegelman remembers what he witnessed on September 11th and in the days and months afterwards (living in Lower Manhattan and standing on Canal Street at the time of the attacks). The book opens with the image that he most struggled to capture, a haunting rendering of Tower One in the instant before it crumbled, its bones bearing an otherworldly glow. Art describes racing around Manhattan with his wife trying to contact his daughter Nadja, whose school was right below the WTC complex. These personal accounts are the most harrowing section, portraying terrors experienced as parents, as proud New Yorkers, and yes, as Americans. Spiegelman also pontificates a fair amount, perhaps feeling that the personal account would earn him the soapbox (which it does to some extent, but I’m sure the right-wingers among us would heartily disagree). Nearly 1/3 of the book is actually dedicated to beautiful reprintings of vintage comic strips, complete with commentary. Spiegelman, in his rush of affection for New York, chose to render his own pages in the style of the newspaper comic pages of the early twentieth century, and he publishes the reprints as a supplement, carefully chosen to augment his own original pages. His own Little Nemo parody, clever enough by itself, is echoed later by an actual Little Nemo in Slumberland strip that is almost eerie in its ghost-like portrayal of New York City, making the first strip somewhat unnecessary. The inclusion of this historical treatise on the development of comic strips is a nice surprise, but in a way inappropriate. A fine separate volume could have been produced honoring both NYC and these vintage comics, but as an appendix to Spiegelman’s reaction to a current tragedy it does not read well at either end. A similar doom-laden nostalgia was expressed in McSweeny’s comic edition earlier this year, to the degree of repeating a few of the very same strips, but the vintage sections were in contrast to the more modern productions, and consequently the newer works never appeared to be feeding off their predecessors. The original pages of IN THE SHADOW should have been allowed to stand alone, and by adding this last section Spiegelman as much as acknowledges that they don’t.
Myself, I think that IN THE SHADOW lacks one of the major elements that made MAUS so effective : perspective. MAUS approached the enormous subject of the Holocaust through the smaller subject of a son struggling to understand his father. IN THE SHADOW desperately needs this kind of humanizing pov, and almost finds it in Spiegelman’s frenzy to find his daughter’s school at the foot of the World Trade Center that morning. But he can’t seem to commit to this approach, and the body of the work is fragmented between remembrance of the day of the tragedy and commentary on things that followed, and some assorted ravings of a grieved New Yorker who just wants his peace of mind back. The predominant emotion I get from this book is panic, panic and frustration at not being allowed to recover from panic. The National Guard’s patrolling the neighborhood, there’s new health concerns appearing over the dust and asbestos in Lower Manhattan, continued terrorist threats and orange alerts, war in the middle east with “9-11” both covertly and overtly invoked – so when does the world end already? These are notes from the middle of a combat zone, from someone who doesn’t know the outcome and doesn’t have a really clear picture of the action either. That’s not as much of a criticism as it may sound, since that’s not so far from where the rest of us are at right now either. IN THE SHADOW OF NO TOWERS is in the end maybe a better portrait of 2004, and where we’re all at now, than of September 11, 2001. I can’t recommend it as widely as I do MAUS, and it will be of limited interest to many. But IN THE SHADOW is at times a powerful work and it pushes the boundaries of _expression in comics by invoking these old forms. I might like to see Spiegelman take another stab at it a few years down the road, when he might have a clearer idea of what he wants to express.
AVENGERS #502
Brian Michael Bendis: Writer
David Finch: Artist
Marvel Comics: Publisher
Vroom Socko: Dead
While I am probably the biggest Bendis booster among the @$$holes, my dislike of his work on AVENGERS is quickly becoming infamous. My review of the previous issue was, admittedly, an emotionally charged affair. I'd have thought that my reaction to this issue would be even more so. After all, this is the issue where Hawkeye dies.
What??
I'm not spoiling anything. Sure, the cover says "one of these Avengers will die," but when three of the four people on the cover aren't even in the issue you don't need to be a member of Mensa to know who's taking the dirt nap. As such, there's absolutely no suspense to this part of the story.
This leaves only two things to enjoy: Who kills Clint, and how does he go? Well, the who is the Kree. That's right, on the day where history is repeating itself ad nauseum, we get an alien invasion from the race The Avengers have faced in two intergalactic wars. Out of the blue (so to speak,) they show up. They claim they're there to destroy the Avengers, kill Hawkeye, and then they leave. But how does he die?
This is where Bendis has the chance to bring something truly memorable to this story. After all, death is one of his strong areas. When Bendis kills someone, it's usually inventive, unexpected, clever, and memorable. After all, he's not going to have Hawkeye shot in the back, or caught in an explosion where recovery of the body will be impossible.
No, Hawkeye is shot in the back, AND caught in an explosion.
Part of me is in disbelief that my favorite Avenger is dead, mainly because the guy's been featured in, what, seven different titles? Only Spidey and Wolverine have starred in more books than this guy. So my disbelief is that Marvel would kill off a cash cow of a character. But in the context of the story, I just can't bring myself to care. Hawkeye's death was just so blah, that it doesn't seem to matter. Hell, Marvel will probably just bring him back to life in a few years anyway.
Maybe it's because I expended all my piss and vinegar on the last issue, but I was bored to tears by this one. I can't even work up any solid hate over it. The alien invasion, the death scene - quite frankly it was all extremely dull. The action was flat, and Hawkeye's demise seemed so arbitrary and stupid that there's little point in getting pissed about it.
I'm a Bendis fan, I really am. But this storyline is so tedious I'm not even sure it's worth it to pick up the next issue, never mind NEW AVENGERS. I just don't get it. How can Hawkeye's last moments be BORING?
ADAM STRANGE #1 (of 8)
Writer: Andy Diggle
Artist: Pascal Ferry
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewed by Dave Farabee
There're a hundred ways this issue could've gone wrong.
For starters, it's an in-continuity update of a superhero concept as rooted in the past as test pilot origin stories and heroines in fishnets: the "outer space hero." Created in '58 – the sunset of that particular archetype, really – Adam Strange was DC's answer to Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and John Carter of Mars. He was derivative to begin with, and how much demand is there for space opera superheroes in the modern era? Aren't most readers and writers doing their best to forget the X-Men used to take trips into space at the drop of a hat? Trying to keep it as real as possible?
And "cosmic" doesn't sell, m'boys! Behold the still-warm bodies of the SILVER SURFER and THANOS relaunches! Notice the forgotten ADAM STRANGE miniseries of 1990, a very post-DARK KNIGHT venture that, despite the swank Andy Kubert art, could only appeal to those who thought that what space opera really needed was a big dose of dour introspection.
And into the breach comes writer Andy Diggle, lately of Vertigo's THE LOSERS. Good book there, but you've almost got to know instinctively that you don't cross Vertigo types with superherodom's own Buzz Lightyear, right?
A hundred ways the issue could've gone wrong…
But sure as Flash Gordon found a way out of Emperor Ming's inescapable Arena of Sport, that bastard Andy Diggle found a way to make it work! "Strange days indeed," to quote John Lennon. "Most peculiar, mama!"
What's the secret? How to make an old spaceman fly for a modern audience? Diggle begins small, begins in Gotham City with a jaded cop giving the third degree to an unshaven drunk who looks like a washed-up linebacker. This, we're led to believe, is Adam Strange, formerly of the jetpacks and raygun set. For the hipster crowd, it's an unthreateningly moody reintroduction devoid of corniness. For the traditionalists - decidedly less promising, but the mystery surrounding Strange is compelling enough to keep reading. And no one can dismiss Pascal Ferry's art – European detailing with an eye for kick-ass futurism, moody but electric colors ala THE ANIMATRIX, and he even finds a way to keep the fin on Adam Strange's costume without making him look like an out-of-date jackass.
You'll see Ferry's stunning designs in the expository flashbacks cleverly set up by the police interrogation, but the first half of the book still leans toward the grim 'n' gritty. The reason Strange has been hitting the bottle is that he believes his adopted planet of Rann to've gone the way of Krypton. He's gone for months without being able to teleport back there – to his wife, his child, and a planet who holds him as its savior – and it's Superman himself who delivers a first-hand account of the bad news: Rann is indeed gone. Vaporized. No teleporting there because there's no place to teleport to. This twist did nothing for me in and of itself – standard cheap drama, right? – but I had to appreciate Diggle's use of Superman in the role of the sincere military officer come to tell the family, "We regret to inform you…" Diggle rightly plays up Superman's sincerity as the reason for Strange's downward spiral. After all, Superman is the one guy you know you can believe when he tells you your world is gone.
Now in this era of…deliberately…paced…comics…(Zzzzzzzz)…a scene like that might have been the ending to the first issue. A crushing memory of the hero's anguish even as we cut to the police grilling him for a possible role in the destruction of an entire city block? It's got a bit of mystery, right? And plenty of gravitas? Andy Diggle ain't havin' that boring shit, though! As he put it in a recent interview: "Density is the new decompression, baby!"
So that's when he brings in the alien bounty hunters.
Not as a last page revelation, mind you. These trash-talkin' bug-men are there for the whole last third of the book, and Diggle brings the action with so much heat you've almost gotta be embarrassed for doubting him. It's not like he hasn't staged any number of ultra-slick heists, shoot-outs, and chase sequences in THE LOSERS, but the cynic in me was just so sure he was gonna Vertigo-ize Adam Strange. Expecting dour introspection, I was all but knocked on my ass when Strange suddenly turned on the old hero persona and took the battle to his home turf: the skies.
And I loved the aliens. Diggle plays 'em as interstellar mob heavies and had me laughing at the sheer audacity of the scene where one of them denies the destruction of Rann. He's grappling with Strange, trying to force him to explain where it went…
Strange: S-Supernova!
Alien: Don't gimme that! That nova was all faked-up!
Check out the balls on this writing! Friends, the day alien bounty hunters can growl about the destruction of an entire star system as being just a sly cover-up…that's the day space opera has become fun enough to earn your money again. Too many superhero relaunches of late have seemed to diminish their leads, grounding them in reality, stripping them of their genre trappings in the name of boring-ass accessibility, and dragging their stories out too long. Makes it a breath of fresh air when a guy like Andy Diggle comes in and actually empowers his lead – and all without falling back on Silver Age nostalgia! In Diggle's own words:
"That's what a comic book should be - a shot-glass of rocket fuel, knocked back in one gulp. Give the readers some bang for their buck, give them a fucking thrill ride!"
Mission accomplished, my man.
DAREDEVIL #65
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artists: Various
Publisher: Marvel Knights (Marvel)
Reviewer: Ambush Bug
Over the last few years, I have become somewhat notoriously known for reading and reviewing comics that I do not care for. "Why do you put yourself through this, Bug?" asked creators, comic book fans, and fellow reviewers alike. "Why continue to buy something that you know you have disliked for some time and will probably continue to dislike?" The excuse I provided had a lot to do with tradition. I am the type of comic book reader that can be best characterized as a traditionalist. I follow a certain character instead of a specific creator. I often continue to buy comics featuring said character in hopes that; given the rapid succession with which characters evolve, devolve, and become rebooted only to be revitalized yet again for the new readers, I may possibly like the next rendition done by the next creator with big plans for that character. In that way, I am a bit of a Marvel Zombie. I don't buy everything Marvel publishes, but I do follow characters that I have had an interest in for years simply because I have followed them for years, with the optimistic mindset that one of these days, I'm going to like the way this character is being portrayed once again.
Some of my most favorite comics that I grew up on featured Daredevil swooping in and battling the likes of Bullseye, the Hand, and the saw-fisted Gladiator. I was fascinated by the high octane martial arts and costumed adventures and loved it that the character was always grounded in Catholic guilt and legal responsibility. These were aspects of the character that always made DD stand apart from other swooping heroes like Spider-Man and Moon Knight (two of my other favorite Marvel characters from my youth). To me, DD has always been the comic I went to when I wanted a fully realized character doing amazing things and going through hell to achieve his goals.
Enter: Brian Michael Bendis. I've ripped on BMB pretty hard for a while now. I dislike the way he stretches out his story arcs to the thinnest of proportions, making the first and last issues of the arcs the only issues that lead to any consequence at all or procession of the larger storyline. The in-between issues simply supply filler to justify the existence of another trade paperback. I think, at times, while he has a gift for dialog, an editor should step in and do their job from time to time and say, "Hey Bri, how 'bout a page or two less of talking heads and a shot or three of DD doing something daring in costume every now and then." I think that by revealing to the world that Matt Murdoch is Daredevil was painting the character into a corner, and I was annoyed with the fact that someday, when Bendis is sick of the character, someone is going to have to step in and bring things back to status quo. And God, how I hate status quo re-establishing stories. I really do. But because I love the character, I stuck through Bendis' arcs and got pretty peeved at what I was reading.
The last arc featuring the Black Widow was especially infuriating to me, in that Bendis seemed to go out of his way to make Matt and everyone else in the story for that matter (Nick Fury, Black Widow, the Avengers) avoid breaking a single drop of sweat for four consecutive issues, not counting the panels where Black Widow and Matt were bumping biscuits. It was hard watching DD stand stoically as the Widow did all of the work. It was tiring to see one panel of action and then read a comic filled with people standing and talking and sitting and talking and laying down and talking.
And then along came issue #65 and I have to say that if the rest of this series was like this issue, I would not have so many criticisms for this book.
Titled, "The Universe," DAREDEVIL #65 fills in the gaps that have occurred in Matt's life over the last year. Bendis supplies information regarding the revelation of Matt's secret identity to the public, his declaration as the new Kingpin of Hell's Kitchen, and his relationships with the superhero community. Told Tarantino-style with a jump-around structure, the story moves from different points in DD's life and offers different perspectives from those affected by the past year's events. Nick Fury pays a visit to Matt's law offices in a well scripted scene and offers him safe harbor as a SHIELD operative. There is a wonderfully written text and beautifully painted illustration sequence by Greg Horn that lets us know how Spider-Man feels about Matt's exposed secrets. Matt meets with Captain America, we revisit the super-hero intervention scene with Reed Richards, Luke Cage, Peter Parker, and Stephen Strange, and there is an especially thrilling action sequence between DD (IN COSTUME AND FIGHTING!!! YAY!!!) and the Punisher. All of these scenes are well written and brilliantly drawn, especially Phil Hester's action sequence. All of them add to the vast fictional tapestry that Bendis has mapped out over the last year of this series.
One scene in particular stands out to me and it is the reason I have changed my mind a bit about this title (at least for now). In a sequence drawn by a reserved Chris Bacchalo, Matt meets with Stephen Strange and exchanges anecdotes. In the end, Matt asks the Sorcerer Supreme if there is anything he can do to change all of this and make things go back to the ways things were before Matt's identity was revealed. Stephen says no, and Matt simply says, "Guess this is it then…This is my life."
In that exchange, I realized that this is what Matt's character is right now. The character has evolved. No longer is this one of those superhero books where the hero has to worry if his mask is going to be ripped off in a fight. This is a story of how a man, revealed to be a costumed adventurer, can continue to be a costumed adventurer now that the world knows who he is. This book provides a unique slant to the basic formula of what we all believe a superhero is and has to be. This may not be a major revelation to some, but to me, in that exchange between Dr. Strange and Daredevil, a myriad of potential stories opened up and the true concept of this series came into a new light for me. Daredevil is now non-interchangeable with any other hero who swoops. And I like that. It seems as if, at that point in Dr. Strange's parlor, Matt accepted that this was his fate and the reader is supposed to do the same. This is Matt Murdoch's new status quo.
Now that Bendis has established this innovative slant on superhero-dom, the problem lies in writing situations where we still get to see a bit of Horn-play from the title character. The book's focus over the last year or so has been on how Matt is dealing with this revelation, and in my opinion, it is moving way too slow and going nowhere fast. Now that this conflict has been established to be part of what makes this character unique, it is time to shut the hell up and write some stories featuring that conflict. And that doesn't mean that the characters should be moping around and talking things out all of the time. I think we've had enough of those types of stories over the last few months, thankyewverymuch. I think this issue illustrates how the slow moments and the more action-oriented moments can work. Bendis has gone out of his way to keep Matt from fighting and beating us over the head with this conflict. In this issue, Matt accepts this as his plight. For a year, the character has been stalling and moping. It's time to move on and take a bit of action. Now that we've seen a fully developed, and in my opinion, overly detailed version of how a man deals with the revelation of his secret identity to the world, don't you think it's time to tell the story about how a superhero deals with all of this?
So what will Bendis do now that he has beaten us over the head with this conflict for the last year or so? More of the same? More moping about and finding a new way for Matt to avoid donning the horns? I hope not. I hope he sees this 40th Anniversary as a turned corner. It sure would make Matt's acceptance of his fate in this issue that much more important. In the final sequence (drawn statically by regular DD photo-referencer, Alex Maleev), which takes place in the present day, Bendis reveals a truly intriguing teaser for the next storyline focusing on the Kingpin who ran Hell's Kitchen before Wilson Fisk. I hope this marks the beginning of the shift of focus from ruminating on the problem to accepting the problem and moving on to some of the things that made DAREDEVIL such a daring read in the first place. If this issue is any indication, Bendis is heading in the right direction. Another issue of moping and avoidance will surely change my mind though.
One thing I have to point out is that had I taken the advice from the comic book fans and even Bendis himself, and walked away from this series simply because I didn't like an arc or an issue, I wouldn't have been able to enjoy DAREDEVIL #65. I stuck with this series because of love for the character. I have no doubt that this love is shared by many fans, including Bendis himself. I was simply vocal about some things that I felt Bendis could improve upon. In this issue we saw Matt in costume and kicking ass, we had some interesting exchanges between Matt and those he affected over the last year, and we had one hell of a cliff hanger. I liked this issue. My criticisms against this comic remain the same, but I think this issue stands out as something more attuned to the Daredevil I want to read about. Let's hope that Bendis chooses to continue to evolve this character as he did with this issue, he's been stagnant for way too long.
SIX
Written by Michael Oeming and Daniel Berman
Art by Ethen Beavers and Michael Avon
Published by Image Comics
Reviewed by Lizzybeth
Here’s something that could prove to be exciting. Written and inked by Mike Oeming (POWERS, HAMMER OF THE GODS), co-written by and drawn by newcomers Daniel Berman and Ethen Beavers, respectively, this black-and-white comic has an intriguing premise and excellent artwork. It reminds me in some ways of “Circle of Blood”, the first and roughest of David Mack’s KABUKI trades, with its attractively stark b+w and terrific full-page spreads. The character introduced in SIX is nowhere near as complex and sympathetic as Kabuki, but the book could prove to be.
Agent Six took control of a human body eighty-four hours ago. He has twelve hours left to complete his mission – to retrieve the rogue agent Nine from the human form that she refuses to give up. He’s already “scrubbed” four agents from their commandeered human bodies, and once his mission is complete, he can return to Galaxy One. If Six remains on Earth any longer than his allotted time, he will begin to be contaminated by the instincts of his human body, and will himself be scrubbed out of it by another agent. This is pretty much all the setup that we are given; presumably these agents are aliens and not, say, computer viruses.
These agents are on Earth to observe, or perhaps to scout, but not to involve themselves in human pursuits. As Agent Six is coming to the end of his time limit, he finds himself becoming introspective. He wonders about the body he has chosen to inhabit, which he traveled to through a dream state. His dream; our reality. An agent shouldn’t be wondering about anything, shouldn’t be introspective, shouldn’t doubt or fear. Those are human emotions. Agent Six is becoming more human, and the more aware he is of it, the more human he becomes. And he kind of likes it. But unfortunately he’s got a job to do, and someone’s expecting him to do it.
The real find is Ethen Beavers, whose pencils bring charm to the underwritten characters and a slightly confusing script. I’m sure Oeming’s inks are a big help, and the character designs are right out of the Oeming playbook, but the page layouts and panel designs reveal a strong talent. The cover alone will give you an idea of the collaboration. Beavers’ involvement brings a layer of expressiveness and emotion typically overshadowed by the design elements in Oeming’s work. I must say that Oeming has an excellent eye for collaborators, as side projects like BASTARD SAMAURI have shown. Although this issue stands alone, and is being described as a one-shot, the clear indication is that there will be much more to see from Agent Six. I’ll be looking forward to it.
ESSENTIAL AVENGERS VOL. 4
Written by Roy Thomas
Art by John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Neal Adams, Frank Giacoia, Herb Trimpe
Published by Marvel Comics
Reviewed by Buzz Maverik
The last time I reviewed one of the MARVEL ESSENTIAL volumes, an astute talkbacker mentioned that since Marvel is finally publishing their MASTERWORK series in affordable paperback, the ESSENTIALS are somewhat less than essential. The MASTERWORKS are great. They give us the early, classic Marvel stories in beautiful color, the way they were intended. I like black and white comics, but color does take the medium into a higher dimension.
So why continue with the ESSENTIALS?
As a consumer and a fan, you get a ton of comics for a relatively low price. If you're any kind of completist, or if have any interest in the history of comics or continuity, but you don't want to hunt down and buy back issues individually, the ESSENTIAL books are for you. You get almost 30 issues in one volume. The MASTERWORKS are far shorter.
Also, the ESSENTIALS are further along than the MASTERWORKS. If you've been following the X-MEN volumes, or AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, new ESSENTIAL Volumes are bringing you later stories. In a perfect world, Marvel would republish all their classic stuff in color and we'd have the dough to buy it all right now. But the world is less perfect for some people than it is for others.
An interesting, recent trend with the ESSENTIALS, thanks to the success of the two ESSENTIAL TOMB OF DRACULA volumes (a third is coming this month), seems to be using 1970s characters or series that had runs just long enough to fill a volume. I'll be reviewing ESSENTIAL IRON FIST and ESSENTIAL SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM UP in the near future. I like Iron Fist and am glad all those stories are being reprinted, but are they essential Marvel when only two DAREDEVIL and two CAPTAIN AMERICA volumes have been published and all the Lee/Kirby FANTASTIC FOUR has yet to be collected? I'd rather see ESSENTIAL MASTER OF KUNG FU before ESSENTIAL IRON FIST, and ESSENTIAL SUB-MARINER before ESSENTIAL SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM UP.
We probably got ESSENTIAL AVENGERS VOL. 4 to coincide with AVENGERS DISASSEMBLED. The early stories in this volume prove that all comics need disassembling once in a while. That doesn't mean they are any worse than today's comics, because they are not. They are no less intelligent, realistic or mature. But the stories you're going to see early in the volume belong to a somewhat stagnant period in the history of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Roy Thomas had been writing THE AVENGERS a long time by the time #69, the first issue reprinted here, appeared on the stands. For that matter, Thomas was writing tons of other high profile Marvel titles at the time, as well as editing more than a few. I can imagine his enthusiasm waning. I can see him relying more on his artists for plots and details. Marvel Comics, as created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, were never simple "Here's a bad guy, let's fight 'em, he's beaten" affairs, no matter what you're currently being told. Thomas kept up the fine characterization, the upsets, the tradition of the unexpected. But find 'em/fight 'em/temporarily defeat 'em stories did occur.
Early on, you'll wonder how a cool character like the Black Panther could make for such boring plots. Most of the stories centering on the Black Panther and the Black Knight are yawners, which surprised me. And why did anyone ever think Arkon and Zodiac were a cool villains? The stories only liven up when non-Avenger characters such as Daredevil and the Hulk guest star. This is understandable, since a main line-up of The Vision, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch and Goliath (Hawkeye on Pym particles) was so lame.
About halfway through, though, things pick up. Roy and his artists got a little imaginative. The Justice League knockoff villains The Squadron Sinister morphed into the Squadron Supreme and we were treated to the Avengers visiting an alternate universe ... probably a DC Universe. Harlan Ellison came in to plot an AVENGERS/INCREDIBLE HULK crossover. The groundwork for the classic Kree/Skrull war began to be laid. THE KREE/SKRULL WAR has been collected in trade form within the last few years and I highly recommend you seek that out. It contains the best stories in this volume.
Suddenly, around AVENGERS #89, Thomas seemed to become energized. Maybe he dug the Captain Marvel/Rick Jones characters, then-modern rip-offs of the original Fawcett CAPTAIN MARVEL and his alter-ego Billy Batson. Maybe he got into wacky, comic book science fiction plotting with the Kree devolving Earthmen (Hank Pym among them) and the Skrull taking the forms of Captain America, Thor and Iron Man to disband the Avengers.
Things got really good when artist Neal Adams came aboard on #93. Like Alex Ross, Adams has a realistic style always worked better for me when it was applied to Marvel characters rather than the DC icons. Marvel icons, mostly from the imagination of Jack Kirby, tend to be stranger looking, more visually startling that the DC characters, many of whom look like regular people with good builds wearing tights.
If you're a completist, I say go for this volume. If you just want the good stuff, find the special edition of SUPREME POWER # 1 which reprints the Squadron stories and pick up the KREE/SKRULL WAR tpb.
ASTONISHING X-MEN #5
Writer: Joss Whedon
Artist: John Cassaday
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Superninja
Alright, Whedon’s got chops. And I ain't talkin' lamb chops. I'm here to talk about writing chops. Given the strength of his work on ASTONISHING X-MEN so far, I'm looking to put him in the same category as Brian K. Vaughan, who, although not writing in a traditional superhero style like Johns or Simone, knows his audience, knows the characters, and has great instincts about both. I never meant to imply that TV/screen writers couldn't be good comic book writers, but rather that it's not a traditional superhero writing style. They're two different animals. And more importantly, screenwriting-style shouldn't replace traditional comic book style when you're dealing with superheroes (which is really where my concern with current Marvel lies, among other things they are doing).
The latest issue of ASTONISHING X-MEN was excellent. I like how Whedon is handling the characterization and that Piotr (Colossus) is back. It was a great moment when Piotr got the drop on Ord and how the others reacted to it. And even though I don't much care about the Scott/Emma relationship (simply because I think it's sort of boring and directionless), the moment between Scott and Emma, when he he realized she was worrying over him was so nice. It just kind of warms my heart to see Scott smile and it was a great little piece of writing that, in only four panels, gave a lot of insight into both characters. I wasn't won over by their relationship, but then again, I find with Whedon writing them, I don't miss Jean at all and find myself not caring about all of that past continuity stuff.
And art-wise, I like Cassaday, but his style comes with limitations. I expected Cassaday wouldn't work out in this series from my experience with his past works. Take PLANETARY, for example. Ellis' writing meshed with Cassaday's art, which is interesting, yet often very cold. And it's meant to be in that context. Kind of like if Stanley Kubrick wrote a comic book. However, Cassaday's art seems to have gone under some kind of metamorphosis to me when paired with Whedon’s writing. There’s more feeling here. These two creators could be the next Loeb/Sale if they wanted to take it to that level. They mesh so perfectly - a great team. It was unexpected.
I care about these characters right now. Because with Whedon, I don't think I really need to worry about mischaracterization. I don't have to pick up an issue with apprehension that he's going to ruin these characters I care about. He loves them as much as I do.
MICHAEL MOORCOCK'S ELRIC: THE MAKING OF A SORCERER #1 (of 4)
Writer: Michael Moorcock
Artist: Walt Simonson
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewed by Dave Farabee
Without a doubt, the absolute best thing about this new ELRIC miniseries is that it lets Walt Simonson cut loose with some of his most imaginative fantasy art in years. The story, I regret to say, is a pretty unengaging outing for Michael Moorcock's famed albino sorcerer, but the art…the art!
Simonson was, is, and always will be one of the legendary stylists of the industry, recognizable in an instant, graphically experimental, and totally inimitable. And while his craftsmanship's never wavered on recent projects like ORION, STAN LEE'S JUST IMAGINE, and the Julius Schwartz Hawkman tribute, there's just a richer artistic pleasure to be had when he's afforded opportunities for some big-time world-building. His famed THOR run, for instance, saw him merging Kirby's bold designs with ancient Scandinavian architecture to re-imagine Asgard with such vitality that his version all but superceded Kirby's as the blueprint for every artist since. And his various STAR SLAMMERS series have given him a whole universe to design - equal parts 70's space opera and samurai iconography.
His latest opportunity to break out the world-building imagination is a "lost tale" of fantasy hero Elric's youth, and just because it's another creator's story doesn't mean Simonson isn't pulling out all the stops. Click here and take a look at the first page, for instance. It's Simonson's sweeping take on Elric's home nation of Melniboné, an aerial shot so bold you've just gotta break out words like "monolithic" and "cyclopean" to describe it! Jump to the second page and we get a nice zoom on the architecture, a look at Simonson's seductively exotic layouts, and, in the dreadlocked female figure, a bolder treatment of ethnic diversity than we tend to find in fantasy epics. I don't know if that last item is strictly a Simonson interpretation or a quality of Moorcock's books, but we see more of it later in the story in a tribe reminiscent of American Indians, and I for one welcomed the break from, y'know, white European types.
Kudos, too, to colorist Steve Oliff for the blood-red hues on those opening pages. I haven't kept up with Oliff's work in a while, but I know him as one of the coloring greats, dating back at least as far as his gorgeous work on X-MEN: GOD LOVES, MAN KILLS. He was also one of the few colorists of the early '90s to quickly master computer coloring in books like SPAWN and the early years of LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT. Here Oliff sticks mostly to flat planes of color, the kind of coloring that works best for Simonson's fiercely geometric work. The handful of times Oliff adds a bit too much texture or airbrushy color gradation is when the art doesn't quite look right. 90% of the time, though, it's a stunning collaboration, easily the finest work I've seen from Simonson in a decade or more.
The story?
Oh, that.
It's not as exciting to talk about as Simonson's art, but I'll give you the gist of it Рas much as I can as someone with minimal knowledge of Elric and his world. This tale, we're informed, takes place directly before the first Elric novel. Elric himself is young and just beginning the sorcerous training that might pave the way for his ascension to the throne of troubled, doomed Melnibon̩. His father can't bear the thought of sickly Elric leading the nation, though, and so it's up to Elric's training over the course of four "dreamquests" to show whether he's got it in him for the job. In the meantime, schemers on all sides scheme, as schemers are wont to do!
Now this first issue has dragons as big as city blocks, swordplay with Elric's anime-sized blade, Stormbringer, and giants with distending jaws…yet somehow even a fantasy fan like myself found it to be a bit of a snoozer. I suppose the Elric stories have always run the risk of being populated with selfish, sometimes unappealing characters, but the main problem in this outing is the lack of dramatic flair. The story's told in an almost hurried fashion, jumping hastily from one high point of Elric's quest to the next, and stark visuals aside, it's rare for any one scene to stand out over any other. That's not good. There's little time to get to know these characters and little sense of threat because they seem to take all the weirdness in stride; and there are several magical deus ex machinas. I felt like I was reading a litany of Elric's early adventures, not experiencing them at his side.
The best stuff in the story is conceptual. Moorcock's central premise of this unlikely sorcerer hero remains the potent antidote to Conan-type adventurers it always was, and the sense of foretold doom in the air still gives it a unique tone. I liked the idea of the dreamquests, too, with Elric living out adventures seemingly on alternate worlds yet periodically intersecting back with his own. My favorite scene, though, has to be the instance of Elric magically binding a giant to carry him to a temple across a deep field of lava. Here's Elric impassively riding the giant's head as its body blisters and cooks in the lava below, the surreality of the crossing marked by the giant's simple warning as Elric steps off and it sinks below: "You will pay a price for your lack of mercy, Prince Elric."
Tolkien's world of classical virtues this ain't!
Still and all, the best I can say of the story here is that it was intermittently interesting, but never wholly engaging. Maybe if you're already familiar with the stories it'll offer more? Ironically, the best Elric story I've read in comics comes not from Moorcock himself, but from P. Craig Russell's adaptation of his stunningly dark final novel. That trade I'll recommend on every front. ELRIC: THE MAKING OF A SORCERER, unfortunately, only gets a modest recommendation, and that based almost wholly on its artistic virtues.
Which are, in fact, considerable.
EX MACHINA #4
Written by Brian K. Vaughn
Pencils by Tony Harris
Inks by Tom Feister
Published by Wildstorm (DC Comics)
Reviewed by Gregory Scott
Did you see that? That swooshing blur?
That was EX MACHINA zooming past Y - THE LAST MAN to become my favorite Brian K. Vaughn-written comic book. (Stunning visual metaphor - yes I know.)
My how things change. I can remember being so much more guarded in my praise when I reviewed EX MACHINA #2. Back then, my enjoyment of the book was essentially a qualification of my frustration with what I saw as an overly familiar ironic tone. (If you're too lazy to click the link to the old review to refresh your memory, A) I don't blame you, and B) the irony can be summed up with "the failure of smart people in the face of stupidity.") I worried that the book was more clever than it was smart, but that cleverness was still enough for me to enjoy myself, despite my irony fatigue.
And yet by now, the series has flat-out won me over. With #4, I found that EX MACHINA wasn't only clever, but genuinely smart and well-felt as well.
First let's talk about the smart. One of the things that always amazed me about EX MACHINA's TV cousin THE WEST WING was how smart writer Aaron Sorkin must have been. And I'm not talking about the snappy dialog. I'm talking about convincingly conveying expertise without sounding like a dilettante's gloss-over (which in so many cases, usually suffices), plus the snappy dialog. What seemed doubly amazing was that Sorkin seemed to be doing it single-handedly too. Of course, although he was credited as sole writer for so many of those episodes, it's come to my naive attention that he actually had a writing staff helping him out.
I don't think Vaughn has a writing staff. So somehow, he was able to write a scene where an artist gets pantsed in an evaluation of her career by mayoral aide, and write it all by himself. And make it sound convincing, clever, and yeah, smart. I was so impressed, I felt pantsed. Moreover, I felt like I learned a little something. I love that.
Now whether the story of EX MACHINA as a whole will be smart is something I can't completely guarantee at this point; however, there have been small pockets of brilliance along the way that give me faith. Like the final page of the first issue; or the final pages of #4. Throughout EX MACHINA, we've been following a pattern of murders, and by the end of #4 we've been given a reveal; a reveal that's not necessarily definitive, or even completely unexpected, but surprisingly effective. If the reveal holds up in the next issue, it's a daring straight line approach to the mystery that seems to prioritize story over convention. How refreshing would that be? However, although I have faith in Vaughn's ability to chuck the rules, odds are that the revealed suspect is ultimately a misdirection. Ah well, you can't have everything.
Whatever the case, the ending for #4 works pretty powerfully, especially the last page; one of those full page panels that seem to tell as much story as the preceding five pages: A man, sitting at a table listening to a radio receiver. It's really a well-executed image; enough of a cliffhanger for us to demand a resolution, but more importantly, enough to create a striking finale in and of itself. Kudos to Tony Harris and the rest of the EX MACHINA art staff for pulling that off.
I can understand if some of you may still be a little reluctant to approach a book like EX MACHINA. It deals with politics, and that tends to raise everybody's shields. And for Philistines like me, it's a bit more outside the more normal superhero milieu, even carrying the somewhat unpredictable Wildstorm imprint. (Ooooh.)
And yet the politics up to this point have been more procedure-oriented than ideological. It's more governmental than political (and interesting all the same). And it may not be a DCU superhero, but it is a superhero; and if you've enjoyed ASTRO CITY, there's no reason why you wouldn't be able to handle this. It's sharp, funny stuff, but not just sharp and funny; it's also smart material with unexpected dramatic bite.
In other words, be free my superhero reading brothers and sisters - free to read and enjoy EX MACHINA. Back issues are probably still available at your local shop. This is one you can easily catch up on, and I think it's worth it.
Cheap Shots!
THE WALKING DEAD #11 - Not the series' strongest issue, I'm afraid. On one hand, I loved the creepy premise of the farmer who's been rounding up zombies and keeping them locked in his barn. Writer Robert Kirkman convincingly portrays him as a man unwilling to mercilessly gun down the undead when no one knows what led them to rise up or even whether the possibility exists of returning them to normal ("I don't know about you, but the zombies around here didn't come with a fucking instruction manual!"). On the other hand, when things go bad in the issue and the zombies do get out, I had a helluva hard time keeping up with who was being attacked and who was dying. It's time for Kirkman to tighten the cast up. The ensemble's just too damn large. Yes, even with someone getting eaten every few issues. – Dave
LOSERS #16 – Jump on now, people. That's an order. Read the most well-written mainstream real world action comic on the shelves today. Don't like capes and spandex, but still want action and thrills? This comic is the one for you. Excellently scripted by up-and-coming comic book writing sensation, Andy Diggle. Bee-yoo-tee-fully drawn by Jock. And exceptionally colored by Lee Loughridge. This issue goes back to a time when the Losers worked for the government. It begins an arc that tells the tale of how they met the mysterious Max and became hunted by the government that they once served. This is the beginning of the origin of the Losers. It is the perfect jumping on point for anyone who has been curious about this title. Be a winner and pick up THE LOSERS. – Ambush Bug
RUNAWAYS #18 - Anyone nervous about whether Brian K. Vaughan will be able to bring Y - THE LAST MAN to a satisfying conclusion over in DC country should take heart from the series finale to RUNAWAYS. Vaughan's on the mutha. Of course RUNAWAYS is due to get a new lease on life in 2005, but when it comes to wrap-ups this is as good as it gets. There's a real sense that the likeable teens Vaughan created have actually accomplished something in their year-and-a-half run, even as the events of the previous issue cast a bittersweet light on the kids' kinda/sorta reunion. And, yes, even with the series' major crisis behind them, they still manage an action scene, a little huggin' and kissin', and an ending that might just make you think: Wow. Perfect. - Dave
A BLAZING WORLD: THE UNOFFICIAL COMPANION TO THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN VOLUME TWO (TPB) - That unwieldiest of titles shouldn't make you hesitate for one moment to buy this book if you're a fan of Alan Moore's LEAGUE series. Featuring the insanely meticulous annotations of Jess Nevins, additional notes and interviews with Alan Moore and artist Kevin O' Neil, and an index so well-referenced it actually has an entry for "Negro romance"…you couldn't possibly ask for a better book if you're, like me, an illiterate bum for whom a good chunk of Moore's references went over the ol' noggin. Who knew, for instance, that the reference to a gypsy woman who "services" Dr. Moreau's beast-men was actually a veiled reference to a 1970's lawsuit involving a naughty cartoon in an underground British magazine? Good stuff. - Dave
WONDER WOMAN #208 – Well, it's about time. This issue was simply superb. This single issue highlights the coolest aspects of Diana's character: delegate and ambassador, warrior and woman. Medousa's siege of the White House is truly thrilling, leading up to a cleverly executed battle between the serpent-coiffed myth who turns people to stone with her gaze and Wonder Woman, forced use her gauntlets to reflect the terror she faces. All this and an appearance by Steve Trevor. Too cool. Rucka has taken his sweet @$$ time to get to this point, but the payoff is good and I can't wait until the battle progresses and the stakes rise when Medousa strikes the Amazonian Embassy next issue. Rucks'a run has been painstakingly slow, but well written. It's too bad that we had to wait four issues to reach the intensity this issue accomplished. - Ambush Bug
DC: THE NEW FRONTIER #6 (of 6) - And so Darwyn Cooke's Silver Age opus comes to a close, and though the vignette-driven story fails to deliver a satisfying payoff for six double-sized issues of story, Cooke's clear-cut enthusiasm and brilliant art almost make the trip worth it. In the end, though, I was never able to reconcile the series' darker, Cold War elements somewhat harsh epithets ("son of a bitch", "God dammit!", etc.) with its cornier bits, like Hal Jordan's shouting out "Sufferin' Suzie!" all the time or Green Arrow flying around in his Arrow-Plane. The blend is just…strange. Awkward. I also had to wonder at the legion of obscure characters bandied about with little or no help to the reader as to why they were significant. For instance, Adam Strange and The Atom make eleventh hour appearances likely to only register for DC geeks, and is the sacrifice of Air Force pilot Nathaniel Adam likely to mean much if you don't know that he's the Charlton Comics character who would become known as Captain Atom? And was the series' obscure African-American hero, John Henry, supposed to be a retroactive Silver Age version of Steel from the Superman books? Sorry, just too many elements that failed to gel to give this one a pass. For the art, though, and for any number of scenes that work well unto themselves (if not as part of a larger whole)…worthy at least of consideration. - Dave
THE FLASH #214 - A sort of IDENTITY CRISIS tie-in, but setting up a mystery of its own for Wally. What is the big dark secret that his mentor, the late Flash Barry Allen, has left for him in a letter? I think all Flash fans were shocked to find out the answer: That he briefly sang back-up for Celine Dion. Okay, that's not the answer; we don't get the answer until the next issue. And despite all the ups and downs this title has had since #200 and the departure of Scott Kolins, I'm interested in finding out what the real answer is. Meanwhile, Johns throws in plenty of well handled guest shots, and yes, IDENTITY CRISIS references. (I think we can safely scratch Captain Cold off the list. If he was ever on it.) Howard Porter's art seems to be all right, but nothing near as impressive as the cover, drawn by Ethan Van Sciver, with a very vivid and tripped out Wally haunted by phantoms from the past. (Click the pick on the left to see it big!) All in all, a lower-key character-driven issue that really puts you in the DC World; a world I pay to get to every week. Nice to find it sometimes. - Greg
CATWOMAN: WHEN IN ROME #1 (of 6) - The venerated team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale are back, but I'm one of the few folks who didn't think much of their work on BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN, so I wasn't expecting much. What I got, though, was at least an effortless and well-drawn read. Once you get past the twelve page dream sequence that opens the book with what can only be considered an abuse of splash pages, the book
