| #35 | 1/18/06 | #4 |
(Click title to go directly to the review)
BIRDS OF PREY #90
ESSENTIAL AVENGERS VOL. 5
IDENTITY CRISIS #4
SHE-HULK #4
FIRESTORM # 21
TRANSFORMERS: INFILTRATION #1
TESTAMENT #2
ALL STAR SUPERMAN #2
Comics Catch-up featuring NIGHTWING
Big Eyes for the Cape Guy presents SAMURAI EXECUTIONER
Big Eyes for the Cape Guy presents ANNE FREAKS V.1
Indie Jones presents…
CHEAP SHOTS!
BIRDS OF PREY #90
Writer: Gail Simone
Artists: Paolo Siqueira & Adam Dekraker
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewed by Dave Farabee
It’s been well over a year since I’ve read an issue of BIRDS OF PREY. Got derailed by the crossover gloom of “War Games” and a general declining interest in DC’s line – no biggie, just lost the enthusiasm for it.
This week I decided to sneak a look back. Curiosity was the lure, and not because of events in the book, but because of the reaction it provoked in one of our TalkBackers: vitriolic would be an understatement (howdy, Lady C.!). In fact I was reminded of my own heated responses to the likes of IDENTITY CRISIS or Kevin Smith’s SPIDER-MAN/BLACK CAT.
Naturally, I had to read the issue.
And I did.
The end result?
Well…
I feel like I should drag out the tension for a moment.
Is that long enough?
Maybe now?
Oh, alright, I thought it was a pretty damn good issue. It actually made me want to backtrack and catch up on the book with how good it was. TalkBackers, please don’t hobble me.
The story I came in on was just hitting its climactic chapter. The interwoven subplot has Batman in the midst of a verbal showdown with Oracle over a mob operation involving the oft-unstable Huntress. Oracle’s backed by proud papa, Commissioner Gordon, though, and she’s not backing down. Front and center on the action side, we’ve got Huntress, Black Canary, and a few walking-wounded friends facing off against enemy agents. They’ve been sent by Oracle’s villainous, info-gathering opposite, The Calculator, in an effort to drive her out. Batch #1 apparently failed, as they’re unconscious when the story opens, but Calculator ups the ante to the tune of DC’s current master villain du jour: Deathstroke, The Terminator.
Now I can’t speak to continuity issues or even the flow of the story arc – I’m an outsider looking in for this review – but on its own merits BIRDS OF PREY #90 rocked. I’m a sucker for stories where the small, unlikely band of heroes takes on a menace entirely over their heads and really has to bust their asses off to keep up – and that’s precisely what happens. Deathstroke as currently characterized is ridiculously über - I never bought his takedown of the entire JLA in IDENTITY CRISIS – but he meets his match in a pair of really determined super heroines and one highly-motivated gay bodyguard (long story). Honestly, it’s a great showdown. Deathstroke is clearly holding back early on, not looking to kill over a simple mission to retrieve the Calculator’s henchmen, and that gives the good guys just enough of an opening to survive.
And really, that’s about all they do.
Through Black Canary’s narrative captions we see that she’s desperate just to find three seconds to enact a particular plan. Problem is, finding a three second window against a fighting machine like Deathstroke is next to impossible. Reminded me a bit of Marv’s grueling fight with serial killer Kevin in the original SIN CITY, and I wonder if that might’ve been a conscious or subconscious influence on Gail Simone’s handling of Canary’s desperation. In the end, my only complaint about the battle was one doofy line from Deathstroke (the milkshake thing). The heroes win the day, but only just, and not without some broken bones for their efforts. I’ll tell ya, Deathstroke’s always been a favorite villain, but even my favorite scumbags shouldn’t be regularly humiliating the heroes. Unfortunately, that’s been DC’s default approach since IDENTITY CRISIS, so if this is a small example of overturning that, I can only applaud.
I also enjoyed every moment of the Batman/Oracle face-off. Batman’s another character, like Deathstroke, who’s become gratingly über. I want him to be shown to be fallible, but not so much so that he ends up looking like a schmuck…or worse yet, falls into an editorially-driven funk that’ll take a thirty-part crossover to resolve. And again, Gail strikes the right balance. The motivations behind Batman’s confrontation with Oracle are dead-on – Huntress has been an unstable factor in Gotham crime fighting in the past – but maybe, just maybe, he doesn’t have all the facts in this case. Cool thing about the scene is that you can’t tell whether Oracle’s arguing with Batman in true defense of Huntress of just because she’s bristling under his controlling nature. I enjoyed the emotionalism clouding the issue, which leads to a beaut of a pay-off that I certainly didn’t see coming. It actually made me smile, and coupled with the Deathstroke resolution, gave me hope for the first time in many months that maybe DC hasn’t abandoned the underlying optimism of superheroes completely.
Or maybe I just like Gail’s approach in particular. Probably that.
As for the resolution to the Calculator’s scene, a particular bugaboo of our esteemed TalkBacker, I saw nothing more than a classic case of villainous hubris come back to haunt the villain. Pretty standard melodramatic twist, actually, and one I’ve seen applied to even the biggest guns (your Luthors, your Doc Dooms). I’m sure Calculator will survive to commit evil again, same as they did.
Art’s by two fellas, both unknown to me, but there’s a surprisingly unified effect – I didn’t even realize I was looking at two different artists in the mix till I read the credits. Nice, clear action staging, the heroes and villains all look suitable cool, and I see a bit of Michael Golden and Chris Sprouse in the detail-work and spotted blacks. Very easy on the eyes.
And all told, a highly recommended issue. If there’s a perception that villains got short shrift, I think that comes down to a level of fan investment in them that will nearly always lead to disappointment in a corporate environment where writers and editorial directions are constantly changing. I mean, I’m still smarting from the shoddy treatment Captain Boomerang got before his ignominious death in IDENTITY CRISIS – and that’s based on fondness for the character dating back to his 1980s characterization in THE SUICIDE SQUAD! Writers shouldn’t be above being called out on mischaracterization, but you’ve got to allow for at least some leeway when you’re dealing with as big an ensemble of creators as DC. Without that leeway, Deathstroke wouldn’t be as powerful as he is now in the first place, and the Calculator would be a forgotten Batman villain with a computer strapped to his chest.
ESSENTIAL AVENGERS VOL. 5
Written by Steve Engelhart, Roy Thomas, Steve Gerber, Harlan Ellison
Art by Barry Windsor-Smith, Rich Buckler, Bob Brown, Jim Starlin, Don Heck, Sal Buscema, John Buscema, George Tuska, Sam Kweskin
Published by Marvel
Reviewed by Buzz Maverik
Stan Lee used to say that every comic was someone's first. I suppose that it's also true that every comic book review is someone's first. Up front, let me tell you that I'm a Marvel Zombie in the truest sense of the word. I review the old shit, the comics preceding the time in my childhood when I first started reading comics because I got sick of reviewing comics I didn't like.
If I were going to review new comics, I'd review something new and different. What would be the point of reviewing PLANETARY every time it came out? Well, PLANETARY got old for me, so it's a bad example. Anyway, here I am, reviewing comics that I know I'm going to love, or at least comics that will make me smile a little.
Volume five of the non-new Avengers opens up after a major bit of disassembling, in the form of the first Kree-Skrull War and an artist by the name of Neal Adams who greatly influenced the plots of the books he drew. The big treat here is that for the first three issues, Barry Windsor-Smith is the penciller. You know these are black and white editions, but here is an artist whose work is even better without color. Just wait until you see the magnificent splash page for AVENGERS # 100, in which the Black Knight, aboard his winged horse Aragorn, lands in front of a castle. This immediately followed panels of a powerful Captain America in stealthy action on the next page and appearances by every character that had been Avengers up to that point.
It's good to see something you hate vanish so quickly. In this case, we have Hawkeye, who'd gone MIA during the Kree-Skrull conflict, return in a god awful tunic and bare legs. We're talking Zap Brannigan from FUTURAMA or Sharon Stone from BASIC INSTINCT. If Bendis would have shot him in that state, there'd be no "Hawkeye lives, motherfucker..." movement. Yeesh.
Hawkeye leaving the Avengers is one of the big themes here. Probably what excited me most about this volume was the inclusion of a DAREDEVIL issue (then titled DAREDEVIL & THE BLACK WIDOW). DD from that era has yet to be reprinted. HOWARD THE DUCK creator Steve Gerber, a true Marvel genius, wrote that one. Hawkeye turns up to try to win Natasha back and Matt kicks his ass. To make matters worse, the Avengers arrive to recruit DD and the Widow as replacements for their archer. It was enough to make Hawkeye join the Defenders, except that you can't really join the Defenders. You can only sort of hang out with the Defenders.
Artist Rich Bucker, creator of DEATHLOK and penciller of Kirbyesque FANTASTIC FOUR issues, immediately followed Windsor-Smith. Like Adams and Windsor-Smith, Buckler brought really strong art to a title that badly needed it. He gave us some mutant/Sentinel shenanigans that followed up Adams' definitive X-MEN stories.
You'll also see Steve Engelhart, one of the greatest superhero writers of the era, begin his long run on the book in this volume. On his own site, Mr. Engelhart talks about trying to write Roy Thomas style AVENGERS stories and sort of floundering until he started doing Steve Engelhart stories. These centered on the introduction of martial arts babe Mantis and former villain/loser hero the Swordsman as new Avengers. The next volume will bring a great series with these characters. Mr. Engelhart was teamed with an excellent artist named Bob Brown who did an incredible, moody, noir-ish, BATMAN-ish pre-Miller run on DAREDEVIL.
Toward the end, though, I had to remind myself that every comic, even an Essential, is someone's first. Reprinted here is the legendary Avengers/Defenders war, with Mr. Engelhart writing both books. I'd heard about these comics for years, longed for them as a kid ("Man, if I could have been buying comics in first grade!"). They were reprinted in color in AVENGERS/DEFENDERS WAR. Last year, they were reprinted in ESSENTIAL DEFENDERS VOL. 1. We get 'em again in ESSENTIAL AVENGERS VOL. 5. I had to skip them this time.
The great thing about the stories here is that they are entirely pose free. If you really like story and character, with the strange beings behaving like real people and not the inhabitants of the freshman dorm's geek wing, this is the book for you.
INFINITE CRISIS #4
Writer: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Phil Jiminez, George Perez, and Ivan Reis
Inks: Andy Lanning, Lary Stucker, George Perez, Marc Campos, Oclair Albert, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Drew Geraci
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Ambush Bug
Plant me firmly in the camp of loving this miniseries. I feel as if Geoff Johns and Co. have really kept this miniseries together. It’s a massive effort to coordinate these types of things, but so far, most of DC’s books have shipped on time and in accordance to the plot development in this main title. And I find that to be an impressive task and one worthy of mentioning at the beginning of this review.
Like the last few issues, this issue was packed with great comic book moments. The Society stages a cataclysmic attack on Bludhaven. A new Spectre is born. There’s a great character moment between Batman and Nightwing and an exceptionally powerful sequence involving all of the speedsters of the DCU. The plot involving the new Blue Beetle is developed a teense. The villains’ plan is revealed. And we are treated to one of the most contextual battle royales I have been privy to in ages.
Now I know this issue sparked a heated debate about comic book violence in last week’s Talkbacks. Some pointed out the outrage cried when Sue Dibny was raped in IDENTITY CRISIS and the admiration the same community seems to be having with Superboy’s meltdown in this issue. I see some people’s point in that these characters are world-wide icons. If a ten year old would pick up IDENTITY CRISIS #4 and see an incarnation of Superman punching the head off of one hero and slicing another in half with his heat vision and that was one of his first experiences with the hero, I’d have to say that this representation of Superman is not really a healthy way to promote a hero loved the world over.
Then again, I have to look past the concerns for that 10 year old kid and say that this 33 year old was thoroughly entertained with this issue. I’m in the camp of loving interesting stories, especially interesting stories involving some of my favorite heroes. Stories that matter. And this one surely does. It matters in the context of the story Johns is trying to tell. The further into this series we get, the more fascinated I am as to where Johns is going with this.
At first, I thought that INFINITE CRISIS was going to be a commentary on the dark turn the current DCU has taken in recent years. It seemed to carry the message that “enough is enough with all of this dark shit, let’s see our heroes acting heroic!” So when the first issue of this series came out and the idealistic heroes of the alternate earths were revealed to be involved, part of me was rooting for these “classic” heroes to swoop in and teach this current batch how it’s supposed to be done. But Johns pulled a switcheroo in issues two and three. Seems these heroes’ idealism is a bit blinding. More and more, it seems that the world these original heroes once lived in is gone forever, that any attempt to bring back that world would surely destroy the world we know. As the story progresses into this issue, it seems that the “good old days” don’t really have a place in the DCU and as illustrated in the above-mentioned Superboy meltdown, these guys are as easily corruptible as the heroes of today.
So what is Johns saying here? I know I’m confused and intrigued. So I guess the story is doing its job. Is he trying to say that DCU is a reflection of today’s society and cannot be changed by the idealism of the past? Is he saying that there is no crisp, clean heroism left in the DCU and that dark times demand harder heroes? Or is there going to be another development in the next three issues which will throw everything else we know and love on its ear? I don’t know.
I do know that I’m hooked. I do know that Phil Jiminez, George Perez, and Ivan Reis are doing a phenomenal job of illustrating this powerful story. I also know that every issue so far in this series has been better than the next and all of the hype that led up to it was well worth it. I don’t know what direction DC will be taking after this series reaches its conclusion. It could be a better, brighter, more heroic place or a darker place than ever before. There are some who long for a return to simpler times for DC’s heroes, but I don’t know if these same fans will be around if that actually happens. All I know is that, whatever the outcome, I’m going to be there, sticking with this Crisis till the end.
SHE-HULK #4
Writer: Dan Slott
Artist: Scott Kolins
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewed by Dave Farabee
It’s common knowledge that writer Dan Slott can bring the funny. Anyone who’s read the SHE-HULK where Spider-Man told a jury that J. Jonah Jameson hated him because he was black knows this. Anyone who’s read the SPIDER-MAN/HUMAN TORCH where the Red Ghost’s super-apes stole the Spidermobile knows this.
The question is, can Slott bring the serious, too?
He’s dabbled with drama, of course, amidst all the lighter outings he’s had, and I’m 90% sure his ARKHAM ASYLUM mini for DC wasn’t a yuk-fest, but I haven’t read it yet (soon, soon). To use a little She-Hulk legalese, though, none of it amounts to a preponderance of evidence. That’s what made SHE-HULK #4 an interesting test. It’s a flashback story to events that preceded his run on the book, events from Geoff Johns’s not-so-highly-regarded AVENGERS run. Remember Hank Pym shrinking down for a gooey trip to the Wasp’s nether regions? Yeah, that run. But the only relevant thing to know about it for Slott’s story is that events within conspired to send She-Hulk on a rampage that tore up a small Idaho town. In short, her actions were much closer to those of her better-known and more destructive cousin, and we’ve never really seen how she dealt with that.
The framing device for the story is that She-Hulk’s filling in some gaps in the record of her life for the Time Variance Authority (cosmic time-travel bureaucrats from her current storyline). The biggest gap, we learn, represents a series of many months she spent in Idaho doing recovery work in the wake of her destructive tear. Slott introduces a neat idea here – the “Green Cross” - a charity organization created specifically to help out at the site of Hulk-related disasters. And because She-Hulk’s powers aren’t functioning during this period, she’s volunteering for the Green Cross strictly as alter ego Jen Walters.
This is pretty dark territory for a largely tongue-in-cheek adventure book like SHE-HULK. Jen’s got a lot of guilt to deal with, all the more so because she’s secretly attending a support group for victims of the disaster. Worst of all, the shroud of possibly having murdered someone in her rampage hangs over her head. Captain America told her there were 72 injured but no deaths, but new evidence seems to indicate otherwise. She-Hulk’s not sure if she can live with that knowledge – even given that the rampage was beyond her control.
This leads to an interesting observation on She-Hulk’s part, one I ended up jawing about a bit with a friend of mine: she’s of the firm belief that her cousin, Bruce Banner, the king of all gamma-related rampages…has never taken an innocent life amidst these rampages. From She-Hulk’s internal monologue:
“It’s a fact. And I can prove it with a simple, apagogic argument. Proof by contradiction.And this, for me, is proof positive that Dan Slott gets the Marvel that I like: the Marvel of my youth, the Marvel that Lee, Kirby, and Ditko founded. Because to me, the Marvel setting, for all its tragic turns and occasional losses by the heroes, is and must be a setting founded on optimism, on the belief that a world of superheroes would ultimately be a world with less tragedy than our own. My friend had a problem with She-Hulk’s certainty on the matter because he just couldn’t buy into the notion of no one ever dying while Hulk smashed; whereas for me, that’s an essential component of the suspension of disbelief that accompanies the character. It’s essential to the character ultimately being a hero, if only reluctantly, in a world where the Avengers would surely put him permanently out of commission if he’d inadvertently killed.
I know my cousin. And if he ever took an innocent life, he would take his own. Because he would never take the chance that it could happen again. That’s who he is.”
Should Slott have stated it so unequivocally? Well, we’re still just getting Jen’s subjective perspective, not a factual account, so I suppose those on either side can believe what they want. If your head can’t accept a Hulk whose tantrums never resulted in death, then you need only presume She-Hulk doesn’t know her cousin so well as she thinks.
Me, I believe her.
Still and all, it’s just a few panels in the story. But where She-Hulk’s sure Bruce would end his life if he’d killed, she’s not quite so resolute. That’s the central dilemma and mystery of the story, with guest appearances by Doc Samson and a little magicking by the Scarlet Witch (pre-breakdown). The Scarlet Witch casts a peculiar spell on She-Hulk that seems a little far-fetched in its power and specificity, but I suppose it matches up with what Bendis would later do with the character. Slott’s sensibilities may seem old-fashioned, but the man’s a team player through-and-through and not one to overwrite what others have done. And I have to admit, the Witch’s spell plays out pretty interestingly as a component to the mystery.
Art is by Scott Kolins, a cool bit of continuity since he drew the original AVENGERS story with She-Hulk’s rampage. For some reason, I’ve never been so taken with Kolins’s work after his defining run on THE FLASH – maybe I miss that book’s muted coloring? – but his detailed, Euro-style penciling is quite effective at conveying a town ravaged by destruction. It’s good work.
In fact, the whole issue is. I wanted to know if Slott could handle drama, and the answer is an enthusiastic “YES!”. In addition to everything else he gets right and the strong emotion of the finale, by issue’s end he’s even come up with an inspired call-back to the first ever issue of THE INCREDIBLE HULK – the tragedy that kick started it all. It takes the issue beyond mere anecdotal seriousness to establish it as a key moment in the Hulk’s larger mythology, and that’s something special. Hey, it’s not as if I needed another reason to like Dan Slott’s writing, but if I did…
Why, it’s even enough to make me forgive the fact that the promised Avengers resurrection from the previous issue wasn’t the character I was hoping for. Somehow I’ve got a feeling Slott’ll still do right by ‘im.
FIRESTORM # 21
Written by: Stuart Moore
Pencilled by: Jamal Ingle and Eddy Barrows
Published by: DC Comics
Reviewed by: superhero
Well, with this issue of FIRESTORM they’ve roped me back into the series for at least a couple of issues. When they brought the Firestorm book back I was one of those severely disappointed fans that was disgusted that they had replaced Ronnie Raymond with a surrogate. I, for one, loved the old Firestorm. To me he was always DC’s answer to Peter Parker/Spider-Man and in the 80’s I ended up really liking Raymond and Professor Martin Stein as characters. I admit I didn’t read every issue, mostly due to finances at the time, but when I did get to read Firestorm it was a book I’d thoroughly enjoy. So when the heralded return of Firestorm made its debut and all we got was some new kid with Firestorm’s powers and appearance I was heartbroken. I tried to stick with the book but after several issues but I just couldn’t justify it. They’d replaced the fun-loving Ronnie Raymond I knew with some wuss who I could’ve given a rat’s ass about. In short, the new Firestorm sucked.
With this issue at least the creative team of the current FIRESTORM book brings back an element of the original that I actually enjoyed. It seems that Professor Martin Stein is back…or at least his disembodied spirit is. In a bit of comic book silliness Jason Rusch, the kid who currently has Firestorm’s powers, comes across Stein’s essence right after he’s mortally wounded following the events in IDENTITY CRISIS #4. Apparently the good Professor has become a Galactic Elemental wandering the cosmos. Because of his past connection with Firestorm, he was able to sense that something was wrong with the “Firestorm Matrix” (whatever the hell that is) and he came to aid Jason in his hour of need.
The long and short of it is at least one element of the old Firestorm is back and that’s enough for this fan to check out a couple more issues of this series before dropping it again. Sure there’s some really stupid elements introduced here like the fact that Jason is one in a long line of Firestorms (I mean, seriously, didn’t the writer of FIRESTORM see how badly that went over in the Spider-books?) but there was enough heartfelt writing here that it actually reminded me of the good old days with Ronny and the Prof. Therefore, FIRESTORM will be getting another couple of issues out of me. I’m sure that it’ll only be a couple of issues that I’ll need before dropping this book again, but this issue gave me hope for a new direction, so that’s something. If this writer can recapture the old days for me in this one issue maybe he’ll be able to continue doing it for a while. I have my doubts, but at least right now I have hope for the re-vamped FIRESTORM and that’s better than what I thought of it before I read this particular issue.
TRANSFORMERS: INFILTRATION #1
Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: E.J. Su
Publisher: IDW
Reviewed by Dave Farabee
Didja catch that purportedly-leaked ILM footage from the Transformers movie that made the online rounds a week back? Turned out to just be talented fan work, but it definitely tripped my nostalgia-switch, and just in time for the relaunch of the TRANSFORMERS comic. The license is now in the hands of the increasingly eclectic IDW Publishing, and I even came up with a positive review of the zero issue preview some months back. Does the early promise of quality maintain?
Mostly, yeah, and yet…
If there’s any real problem with this first issue – an all-new continuity, incidentally – it’s that it plays it as coy as the preview issue in regards to the Transformers themselves. Oh, they’re around – almost exclusively in vehicle forms - but they’re not exactly front and center, and the number of actual transforming instances? Big ol’ zero. To paraphrase Jeff Goldblum in JURASSIC PARK: “Now eventually you might have transforming in your Transformers comic, right? Hello? Yes?”
Try and hear that with Goldblum’s stammering mannerisms.
So, okay, counting transforming sequences is a bit like counting fight sequences in a superhero comic, but the Transformers franchise is hardly a place where one goes looking for subtlety. The shiny trappings and cool robots ARE half the story, and holding out on ‘em is a definite risk. Writer Simon Furman knows it, too. He addresses it several times in the letters page (responses to the zero issue), promising plenty of robots to come but standing by the need for some good human characters for scale and to re-establish some awe for the Transformers. Good theory, but not exactly the stuff of a gangbuster opening issue. I think IDW should’ve sprung for a double-sized opener with a second half that delivered more robot punch.
The actual content is far from actionless, though. Picking up right on the heels of the zero issue, we’ve got hacker-girl/runaway Verity Carlo and conspiracy-dude Hunter on the run from a pair of decidedly homicidal vehicles. Apparently they’re some lesser-known Decepticons named Runabout and Runamuck – I didn’t even know the Decepticons had any members who turned into cars. And I like that, breaking out some obscure names for cool face time. Even as a kid, I was the one wanting to see more of dudes like Wheeljack and the Insecticons (geek moment), less of Optimus Prime and Starscream. Furman seems hep to the approach, and has as the Autobot of the issue Ratchet (the ambulance Transformer).
Since the series is distinctly playing up the old “robots in disguise” slogan, the robots pretty much remain in vehicle mode for the entirety of the issue – they really seem to be trying to keep their existence under the radar to humans. And so we get an extended chase sequence, the kids riding in Ratchet, the bad guys in hot pursuit. Furman handles the action in fine style, with miniature missiles blasting away and some very cool gadgetry on the part of Ratchet. Ratchet’s characterized as the rebel Autobot here, disobeying orders from on high to help the humans he empathizes with. He communicates with ‘em via a lifelike human hologram that appears as his “driver”, but Hunter’s on to the truth. Definitely liked Ratchet’s characterization; would actually have liked to see more of him.
The story’s MacGuffin is a datapad that Verity swiped randomly from a bus passenger, a datapad that just happens to have evidence of the Decepticons’ existence on it. That’s what’s bringing both the Decepticon heat and the Autobot protection, and it works just fine as a plot jumpstarter. There’s really not much more to the issue than that, with the chase sequence taking up the first half of the issue and downtime hiding out at a hacker pal of Verity’s for the second half. It was watching Verity, Hunter, and the new guy interact that I started to get a bit of that little-kid movie theater antsiness. Not only was a wanting to see more of Ratchet out there in their garage, but I wasn’t wild about the teen dialogue. I don’t often pine for more Bendis influence in comics, but I could’ve done with some of his ear for language here. Something to take my mind off the lack of transforming robots!
On the art front, E.J. Su’s slightly manga-influenced work is nice, but nothing spectacular. I like his work over the over-detailed muddle from the Dreamwave Transformers books, but his style’s a little flat, his depiction of cars a little “meh.” And you want someone who can draw cars on a Transformers book.
All told, though, I’m happy enough with Furman’s pacing, his moment-to-moment writing, and his “robots in disguise” approach to give TRANSFORMERS: INFILTRATION a few issues to snag me. The art’s workable, and the finale sets up a robot beatdown for the very next issue.
They just should’ve gone double-sized for the opener.
TESTAMENT #2
Writer: Douglas Rushkoff
Penciler: Liam Sharp
Publisher: Vertigo/DC Comics
Reviewed by Humphrey Lee
TESTAMENT is definitely one of those special reads that comes along to the world of comics once in a rare while. If you don't know by now, the premise of TESTAMENT is that of drawing a parallel between Biblical events and showing them as recurring phenomena in a slightly futuristic society. That slight blurb of a description does this book no justice, and quite honestly, this review itself is hard pressed to give any sort of full scope on this title, but it really is starting to become a dense and engaging read.
The first issue of TESTAMENT set the table of what this book is by detailing the old tale of Abraham and his testing by God as he is asked by God to make his son Isaac a sacrifice to him out of faith and loyalty. Rushkoff uses this event to dictate the "modern setting" as a period where the government is taking more control in the everyday lives of its citizenry. The government is making orders for its more youthful citizens to have devices implanted in them for the purpose of monitoring their activities and also making it a failsafe way of locating draft dodgers in a time of war. The main character of the story, Jake, and his father take center stage as Jake's father is actually a leading designer in the implant device. Long story short, Jake's dad is told to implant his son as a sign of loyalty to his bosses, and then takes up an act of defiance as a much more agreeable solution rears its head. The writing was solid, the parallels were actually very well established and never felt heavy handed, and a jolly good time was had by all.
Now here comes the second issue where we move onto the area of "Sodom and Gomorrah". Basically the government (i.e. God) is very dissuaded by a wide outbreak of recent protests over their implanting policy I just described, and now they plan to use some of the technology in those implants to hopefully quell any further outbreak. And Jake and a bunch of his friends we were introduced to in the first issue all become caught in the crossfire. If you know your Sodom then you can pretty well see (hopefully) the link between these two events in just that little description. While, again, I can't really do this kind of writing justice in this, the way events are shown to be playing out next to each other is very interesting. Books with thinking on this line can sometimes go over the reader's head, but Rushkoff does a very good job of giving said reader the information needed to follow along. In fact, if anything is wrong with this issue it's that it seems at times like he's spoonfeeding you what you need to know instead of letting you fill in the gaps more yourself. But so far I've never felt like I need to pop open the old stolen hotel bible and sit down and look out for references that I may have missed or whatnot.
This tale is very in your face, and actually quite scary as Rushkoff's view of society in the near future definitely doesn't seem to be without merit. The relevance of this story, or more accurately both of these stories, is very apparent and definitely gives one food for thought. If the narrative can be reigned in a little more and the reader allowed to expand his mind around these concepts a little more, this could easily become the standard for "high art" in the comic book form. I gladly wait for the next issue as I can't help but wonder what he's got in store for us next.
ALL STAR SUPERMAN #2
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Frank Quitely
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewed by Dave Farabee
I’ve always loved Superman the concept, but the only time I ever liked Superman stories for any length of time was when John Byrne was writing and drawing ‘em during the mid-‘80s relaunch. Byrne’s approach was pretty much classic superhero adventuring, with his Marvel influences leading to a Superman that felt a bit more sci-fi than fantasy. For instance, Byrne would drop little hints here and there about the realistic workings of Superman’s powers: his flight was posited to be a mechanism of telekinesis, and his costume never tore because his body generated a very thin protective aura that left only the cape as shredable. I liked the approach. It appealed to my Marvel sensibilities, and it only occurred via minor asides - rarely if ever key to a story - and never stood in the way of good old-fashioned superheroing.
But soft sci-fi or no, it was still sci-fi, and some fans prefer the more fantastic approach to Superman. I’m talking the Silver Age approach; the Julius Schwartz approach; the approach where Superman can fly faster-than-light to travel back in time, where his Fortress of Solitude is locked by a door with a key the size of an APC, where he can move planets should the need arise.
This is Grant Morrison’s approach in ALL-STAR SUPERMAN, and for the first time ever, I’m starting to warm to its appeal.
In the first issue, we saw Superman rescue a group of explorers on the sun, only to find himself dying as a result of absorbing so much solar radiation. By issue’s end, he chose to reveal his true identity to Lois, and yes, they’re obviously far, far from married in this continuity - a clear-cut nod to Superman’s Silver Age days of pining in secret for her. I was a bit lukewarm on Morrison’s approach, brilliant at times, but marred slightly by his fire-and-forget idea-fetish and the fact that I walked away with questions like, “Shouldn’t Superman be a bit more troubled to see scientists making clones of him as some sort of super-slaves?”
Issue #2 opens with Superman whisking Lois to his Fortress of Solitude to talk through his big reveal. The first three pages are stunning. Artist Frank Quitely gives us a close-up of Lois in her car, seemingly driving along mountain roads until the camera “pulls back” to reveal she’s actually flying past the mountains as Superman supports the car on his back. She’s nonchalant – typical Lois - even reading a paper, but Quitely and colorist Jamie Grant give the backdrop a stunning majesty. It’s a neat encapsulation of the push/pull between the down-to-earth and the fantastic that drives this approach to Superman. It’s a world where near-magical occurrences are the norm around the character, but a cosmopolitan girl like Lois takes it as in-stride as she might a helicopter ride.
And she’s a bit pissed. As if all of Superman’s Silver Age identity trickery is canon once again, she thinks Superman is pulling some kind of cruel prank on her with this “I’m Clark Kent” business. She’s tried for years to prove the connection, never succeeding, and so she’s in full-on denial:
Lois: What about the time Clark was a witness in the Boss Grimaldi trial and you accompanied him everywhere as his bodyguard?
Superman: Batman was standing in for me.
Lois: …Or the time Clark presented you with the “Metropolis Man of the Millennium” award?
Superman: A robot.What I love about this approach is that Morrison isn’t being tongue-in-cheek or kitschy – he’s just having fun. That’s a damn rare thing at DC these days. When was the last time superpowers were treated with a buoyant quality? With anything more than stern-faced solemnity? Dare we imagine that all the bright costuming and childlike ideas might be embraced with a smile rather than shoehorned into adult sensibilities?
Well Morrison is taking that dare and running with it maniacally. In this particular issue, his playground is Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, its strangeness rendered with casual conviction by Quitely (think Moebius). Here’s a place where Morrison’s ideas fit perfectly, and alongside Lois, we get the grand tour. Gone is the old, giant key (though it is referenced), replaced by a standard-sized key…that just happens to be constructed of the super-dense innards of a dwarf star, weighing in at half a million tons. Robots, of course, are everywhere, along with the classic mixture of souvenirs and even a space shuttle (poignantly, one might note that it’s the Columbia). There’s also a baby Sun-Eater Superman found prowling around Jupiter – this scene’s so good I won’t even think of spoiling it with a description.
And there’s a bit of mystery. As Superman plays the gracious host, not quite able to confess to Lois that he’s dying, Lois begins to suspect more than just a prank is going on. Why is one room in the fortress off limits to her? Is there some sinister warning to be had in the garbled message from the future she sees in Superman’s “Time Telescope”? Underlying it all is a framework of genuine emotion between Superman and Lois. The eerie harbingers she sees in the Fortress seem to mirror more personal relationship fears. If Superman is telling the truth, would a serious relationship really be what she wants? And could even a man like Superman be harboring some dark secrets? Without any self-consciousness the story leaves some nice metaphors lying around, like the door to the off-limits room as a metaphor for secrets in a relationship.
But it never gets too weighty or overwrought – I think that’s what I like best, that “pop” approach that Grant Morrison so clearly treasures. It’s there throughout, right down to the giddily cool last page surprise, but I think I loved it best in the scene where it most confounded expectations. Lois is asking Superman about a team-up with Batman, and in a beautiful subversion of the character’s perpetually angsty characterization, we get this…
Lois: How is he?
Superman: Batman? Great. You know Batman.
Lois: Robin?
Superman: Great kid. I always wondered if I should have taken a partner.Now that’s havin’ some fun!
So, okay, I can’t say that Morrison’s perfect, that he never does anything I don’t like, but just at the moment…is he the man with the plan or what? He’s managed to work up a melding of modernist and Silver Age sensibilities where the Silver Age wonder for once comes out on top.
That does my heart good.
Because I am busy dividing my time between saving the world and reviewing comics, I just can’t read everything I get on a weekly basis. Pretty soon, numerous issues of the same series stack up. As the size of my comics stack on my nightstand grows more monumental, the need for the Comics Catch-up is more and more evident. This week I sat down to catch up with NIGHTWING.
NIGHTWING #112-116
Writer: Devin Grayson
Artists: Cliff Chiang, Phil Hester, Ande Parks
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Ambush Bug
Dick Grayson AKA Nightwing is one of those heroes who, although he may not be one of the most iconic heroes of the DCU, he’s definitely one of the big guns. Nightwing was the first to don the Robin costume and act as sidekick to the World’s Greatest Detective. After graduating from the Batcave, Dick ventured out on his own, led the Teen Titans and the New Outsiders, and firmly removed himself from under the shadow of the Bat. Chuck Dixon gave Nightwing purpose years ago, establishing a new home base of operations in Bludhaven, a harbor town that made Gotham look like Wallyworld. Since then, Nightwing has made it his personal mission to clean up Bludhaven and prove himself to his scrutinous mentor. It has been acknowledged many times recently that Dick Grayson is liked by virtually everyone in the DCU.
Although Judd Winick portrayed him as the carrier of a permanent stick up his @$$ in his OUTSIDERS run, everywhere else, anywhere you go, everyone loves Dick…
*ahem*
NIGHWING was once one of my favorite comics. Chuck Dixon’s mix of spandex and noir was evenly peppered and his story of the former sidekick finding his place in the world was pretty intriguing. Because Batman was such a strict mentor, Dick constantly felt the need to prove himself. Dixon established a complex character in his Dick Grayson. When Chuck left the title and Devin Grayson came onboard, I wasn’t too thrilled. It was one of those shifts in creative teams that I hated. A writer who was able to write almost 100 successful and interesting issues leaves. I was used to Chuck on NIGHTWING. I liked his stories. For someone else to come along and try to substitute that didn’t sit well with me. Although I wasn’t a fan of her writing in the past, I knew that Devin Grayson loved the character of Nightwing, so I figured I’d give her a chance. And at first, I was glad I did. Like many writers today, Devin Grayson seemed to have a good time destroying Nightwing’s life. She seemed to have a hell of a good time kicking down the intricate sandcastle that Chuck spent a whole lot of time establishing.
In one arc, Devin killed half of Dick Grayson’s cast, destroyed his career on the police force, killed his main villain Blockbuster, had him raped on a rooftop by a female vigilante, and basically cut all ties the hero had with the city he had sworn to protect. As much as I hated to see this utter decimation to what Chuck Dixon did, I have to admit that this arc entertained me in that I just wanted to see how far Devin would go to destroy Nightwing. And she went pretty far. It was a ballsy move filled with much emotion and understanding of the character and it wasn’t that badly written either. I was feeling pretty good about Grayson’s run after that arc ended.
But the true challenge was ahead of Devin Grayson. Now that she destroyed Nightwing’s life, she had to put it back together. With all of the Disassembling and Identity Crisis-ing, there has been a lot of sandcastle kicking these days. It’s easy to destroy something, but it’s pretty hard to build something back up. Just try taking apart your computer monitor and putting it back together. With the damage done, Chuck Dixon returned to the title with a Nightwing: Year One story. I found this arc to be interesting, but not as powerful as Dixon’s previous work with the character. With the Year One arc over with, Grayson stepped back in on the writing chores and tossing Nightwing into one of those “bold new directions” that we all hear so much about. And that, my friends, is where the problems started.
For the last year Devin has been trying to build her hero back up from the ashes after destroying his life. She’s been putting him into one offbeat and completely different situation after the next. The problem is that these situations have not been that imaginative and at their core go against everything that Nightwing is all about.
After “Year One”, Nightwing left Bludhaven and moved to New York where he took up as an enforcer with a mob family. Grayson tried hard to make this decision make sense to Nightwing’s character. Grayson’s honorable and loyal characteristics came into play greatly in this arc, but putting Nightwing on the other side of the line between good and bad just didn’t sit well with me. Especially after Devin Grayson illustrated this wire walk so elegantly when she paired Nightwing and Tarantula in a previous arc. Putting Nightwing in this type of situation again shows that he basically learned nothing from his disastrous pairing with Tarantula and really took a lot away from the character.
This leads us to the story arc at hand. The “Deathwing” story arc, if you will, where Nightwing dons a new red costume and is blackmailed by Deathstroke to teach his daughter, Rose Wilson, how to be a more honorable warrior. Apparently, Deathstroke is too busy with all of the Society business and can’t teach her these things himself. For the last few issues, Nightwing (or “Renegade” as he wants to be called these days) has been taking Rose with him on patrol, teaching her non-lethal ways of disposing of the opposition and helping her develop into a more honorable warrior.
All the time, Deathstroke is holding the daughter of Nightwing’s previous mob boss employer as hostage and leverage over the misguided hero. Nightwing and Rose run into Superman, Arsenal, and a bunch of baddies throughout her training. The two constantly are at odds and Rose doesn’t know why she can’t just kill her opponents like her pop does. It all leads up to a big stand-off between Nightwing and Deathstroke (to be resolved in the next issue *#117* before a new creative team comes on board for One Year Later).
My problem with the NIGHTWING series as a whole is the fact that the rest of the DCU treats Nightwing with respect. They see him as the one thing Batman did right. He is a hero that is well liked, respected, and looked up to. But in his own series, Nightwing isn’t like this at all. He’s a constantly defeated man. Always conflicted. Never understanding his purpose or place. Making mistakes that he shouldn’t and acting in an utterly ineffectual manner. This isn’t the Nightwing that DC is trying to promote in the rest of his books. I understand that solo series help flesh out a character, but when all that flesh is morose, indecisive, and unappealing, you have to rethink your strategies. In trying to rebuild Nightwing back to something heroic, Devin Grayson has gone the opposite way and made him more unappealing by depicting him as things that he obviously is not. Nightwing is no mob enforcer. He’s no lackey to Deathstroke. He’s a strong hero. One of the best. An icon that stood his own as the only sidekick in the Justice League. Devin Grayson isn’t writing him in this way.
Art-wise there’s no complaints.
Former HUMAN TARGET artist Cliff Chiang and GREEN ARROW artist Phil Hester both share a clean kinetic style that is necessary for a fast-mover like the Nightwing. Both artists are fully capable of illustrating the bounding and bouncing the character does from one rooftop to the next. Both are strong storytellers, making the best out of the material they have here. I prefer Hester’s more conceptual images to Chiang’s, but as these two artists alternated from one issue to the next, I had trouble picking out the one I liked better. The fact that both artists were inked by Ande Parks didn’t help distinguishing between the two. All in all, a great looking set of books.
I’m looking forward to the change in creative team on NIGHTWING. Devin Grayson kicked the sandcastle down pretty damn well, but really, anyone can do that. The building is the hard part and these last two arcs proved that Devin Grayson wasn’t the one able to do that. Bruce Jones takes over the reigns for “One Year Later.” Those of you old timers who’ve been reading the column for a while know that I’m not a big fan of his HULK work. This will be my first experience with a non-Marvelized Bruce Jones. Here’s hoping he can do a better job with one of DC’s brightest stars than Devin Grayson has in the last few arcs.
SAMURAI EXECUTIONER
Writer: Kazuo Koike
Artist: Goseki Kojima
Publisher: Dark Horse
Reviewer: Dan Grendell
"Hoping the day will come when history curses me, I cut off heads. Praying that my acts today will make it end tomorrow, I cut off heads. ...Thus I, too, am a demon, now and forever.SAMURAI EXECUTIONER is an odd book, in that it is as much about philosophy as anything else. The main character, Yamada Asaemon, is o-tameshiyaku, the official sword tester for the Shogun, and often that testing is done on the necks of live criminals. Much of the story centers on his actions and morality, and the decisions he makes. Just as important, if not more so, however, are the people around Asaemon, often the people he is to execute, and how he affects them.
- Yamada Asaemon
Asaemon is a proper samurai, trained from birth to replace his father as sword tester. He has been performing those tests since the age of ten, slicing through dead bodies over and over. That's got to screw you up, right? And it did, for a time - but now, it has given him a unique view on the world. He sees how people hurt each other, how they hurt themselves, and does his best within the constraints of his life to help everyone he can. Killing is wrong, he thinks, and he is condemned for doing it - but he hopes that someday he will be condemned enough that his job is made obsolete. In the meantime, he does it with compassion and honor.
Each volume has several self-contained stories in it, and recurring characters do develop, some just as interesting as Asaemon. Here's a short breakdown of each volume, spotlighting a few stories in each:
1- When the Demon Knife Weeps: In the title story of this book, we meet Asaemon and (briefly) his father and learn how tough his life has been. The others reveal his skill and you begin to see his strength of character.
2- Two Bodies, Two Minds: The title story showcases his compassion as he rescues a nun from assault and ensures her attackers face their proper end, even in the face of political pressure. A Takadaimono for an Irezomotsu, the final tale of the book, involves Asaemon's discovery that he has executed an innocent man and what he does to help ensure that it does not happen again.
3- The Hell Stick: To stop a plot against a clan's daimyo, Asaemon's skill is needed by a desperate woman in the title story. Catcher Kasajiro introduces the policeman Sakane Kasajiro, an admirer of Asaemon's who cares as much about people as the executioner and who learns from him how to put that compassion into practice.
4- Portrait of Death: A bloodthirsty artist tries to get permission to draw executions in the title story, while Asaemon makes a condemned prostitute feel beautiful one last time in The Season of New Straw. In The Set-up, a halt on executions by the government to save money leads to a prison riot of huge proportions.
5- Ten Fingers, One Life: In Matta, Asaemon investigates the final cry of an executed man. "Catcher" Kasajiro returns in Spark Umbrella, learning to think outside the box.
6- Shinko the Kappa: Two powerful organizations conspire to stop an execution in Gobari Sandosu, and the ending is real surprise. In the title story and A Couple Of Umbrellas, "Catcher" Kasajiro hunts the thief Shinko the Kappa, who embarrasses the police in an effort to save her father from death. Once she is caught, though, what will they do with her? The answer is surprising...
7- The Bamboo Splitter: In Heading To a Festival, Asaemon's deprived childhood allows him to empathize with a criminal. The title story stars "Catcher" Kasajiro as he tries to catch a clever killer and burglar, but in the end, he needs a little help from family.
8- The Death Sign of Spring: An overzealous policeman tries to stop crime with faceless fear in Demon Kageyu, a condemned criminal compares life to a series of winds in the philosophical A Death in Spring, and Asaemon helps Kasajiro's wife leave the past behind and enjoy the now in Okashiratsuki.
Goseki Kojima's art is incredible. I've always thought so, since I first saw it in LONE WOLF AND CUB, and I'm not changing my mind now. His attention to detail is amazing, and his use of lines and hatchwork to give clothing different looks is really incredible. Action flows smoothly from panel to panel, and facial expressions are always perfect. It takes a master to really sell what Koike is writing, and Kojima does it on page after page.
SAMURAI EXECUTIONER certainly isn't for kids, but it is for anyone with an interest in feudal Japan (it's quite informative) as well as anyone who just wants to read something great. It may not be light-hearted fun, but it is good, solid reading, the kind that finds a home on my bookshelf.
ANNE FREAKS V.1
Creator: Kotegawa Yua
Publisher: ADV
Reviewer: Dan Grendell
Young murderers doin' it for the shorties!
Teenager Yuri Kitagawa has problems just like everyone else. His position as student council secretary is stressful, his classical dance classes are boring, his dad ran out on him when he was young, and though he finally got his mom off his back by killing her, burying her is just turning out to be a huge pain. Okay, so maybe not all of his problems are normal. Luckily, Anna comes along to help him out and show how to do it right - and a partnership is born. He agrees to help kill her father, and off they go, happy as can be...
But wait. What about Mitsuba Maezono, tough teenager from Kyoto? Why are all those strange masked guys trying to kill him and his parents? Once again, Anna is there, this time with Yuri in tow, and Mitsuba is saved. Turns out the attackers were from a strange terrorist organization that Anna and Mitsuba were connected to as children, and they want the kids dead. The pair becomes a trio, and they set out to murder Anna's father, the head of that terrorist organization, and if they feel like it, protect some people along the way...
Wow. When I got this manga in the mail, it included a note that among other things compared it to BATTLE ROYALE and LONE WOLF AND CUB in quality and coolness. I laughed quietly to myself, thought "unlikely", and moved on. After reading it, I gotta change that to, "Good call." And I don't say things like that lightly. I just name-checked two of my favorite manga ever. Now, ANNE FREAKS is a different beast from those manga, but it is of the same level of quality. The artwork is almost entirely realistic, with very occasional one-panel trips into absurdity that serve to make the rest of the art look more sobering by comparison and add a little levity to what is, really, a disturbing story.
And I gotta tell ya, this is great art. These people look dead on good, and they look right. I felt like these could be real teenagers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Kotegawa Yua doesn't have her own style. She does. Her style just involves drawing people that feel like they belong in the real world. And for a story like this, that rules. It's pretty creepy to think that the pretty girl or mild guy walking next to you could have disposed of a corpse without a second thought before school that day.
So I guess I'm not pro-murder, but I am pro-murder-based manga. Or at least this one.
Note: This manga has not yet been released. It is slated for release in March of 2006.
HOLY SHIT OR…PAT ROBERTSON IS THE ANTI-CHRIST
By Mike Luoma
Reviewer: Ambush Bug
HOLY SHIT OR…PAT ROBERTSON IS THE ANTI-CHRIST. Well, with a name like that, you have to stand up and take notice. When I first laid my eyes on this book, I thought it was going to be one of those political/religious commentaries with bite. Kind of in the same vein as Al Franken’s RUSH LIMBAUGH IS A BIG FAT IDIOT. Turns out I was wrong.
You see, Original @$$hole and all around great gal, Lizzybeth, started this here Indie Jones column quite a while ago. Through many emails, Lizzy talked to my fellow @$$Holes and myself about what she believed the Indie Jones section should be about. It shouldn’t be about ripping into independent books. These guys are fighting an uphill battle as it is. Small press publishers are the true warriors of the modern comic book age. Against great odds, these guys are printing out books from their computers and waiting in line at Kinko’s, spending their hard earned money on an idea that they firmly believe in. Lizzy wanted this section of the column to be more of a spotlight on smaller books that usually don’t get that type of attention in this world of WIZARD-hyped events and crossovers. This was a section for those selling their books from the corner of the comic store or from the internet or from the artist
