| #39 | 2/16/05 | #4 |
(Click title to go directly to the review)
ULTIMATE AVENGERS: THE MOVIE
I HEART MARVEL: WEB OF ROMANCE #1/I HEART MARVEL: AI #1
JUSTICE #4
DAREDEVIL #82
ACTION COMICS #836
X-MEN: DEADLY GENESIS #4
BIRDS OF PREY #91
SPIDER-WOMAN: ORIGIN #1-3
Big Eyes for the Cape Guy presents CRIMSON HERO V.1
Big Eyes for the Cape Guy presents SEQUENCE V. 1
Indie Jones presents SANCHO’S LAST CASE and SANCHO: VAMPIRES OF DUBLIN
Indie Jones presents MOUSE GUARD #1
Indie Jones presents…
CHEAP SHOTS!
REMEMBERING SETH FISHER
THE ULTIMATE AVENGERS: THE MOVIE
Reviewed by: superhero
When this project was first announced, Marvel's hype machine went into full effect making big promises of what their new direct to DVD animated movies were going to be like. ULTIMATE AVENGERS particularly had some very big shoes to fill. The press releases from Marvel said that the production team on ULTIMATE AVENGERS was doing some amazing, cutting edge things for this project and that fans would be blown away with what was coming down the pike. In particular the statement was made that this straight to DVD movie would be the closest thing you would see to seeing pages from THE ULTIMATES (upon which ULTIMATE AVENGERS is based) come to life. Fans were going to be treated to top quality animation and storytelling. Finally, Marvel fans were going to see an animated project that would do its source material proud. As a matter of fact, the hype machine promised that what would be released would be just as compelling as the series it was based on. For the first time in a long time Marvel fans had an animated project coming down the pike that would make them proud. What was coming wasn't going to be your average run-of-the-mill Saturday morning cartoon. This was going to be different. If you don't believe that this is what was promised you can click either here or here to see what the Marvel blowhards said their newest pet project would deliver.
Now as soon as the trailer was released online I knew that Marvel had dropped the visual ball big time. While there were fans who were excited to just see THE ULTIMATES characters being animated, I was pretty much let down by what I saw. For all intents and purposes the animation looked pretty much like what you'd actually see on modern Saturday morning television. As a matter of fact what surprised me the most was the fact that, if anything, the style of the whole thing looked like it was lifted directly from the now defunct X-MEN: EVOLUTION cartoon. Not that I hadn't liked X-MEN: EVOLUTION, as a matter of fact, I actually ended up liking it a lot. But if you look at an issue of THE ULTIMATES and you look at an episode of X-MEN: EVOLUTION any moron can pretty much see that stylistically they are not even close. That was actually my first disappointment with this release but I was willing to let it go because, as I said, I pretty much liked EVOLUTION. Maybe, just maybe, Marvel might just do something interesting with ULTIMATE AVENGERS even if the look of the whole thing was completely wrong for an ULTIMATES adaptation.
Well, unfortunately, it's pretty much a disappointment all around.
Look, I realize that making an animated film look exactly like Bryan Hitch's amazing artwork would be pretty much impossible if not cost-prohibitive. But when you’ve got people on the production team saying that they're going to be faithful to the feel of the source material and they're making an animated film based on a comic book the visual feel of the original is not the first thing you want to toss out! What ULTIMATE AVENGERS ends up looking like, feeling like, and being like is an average run of the mill Saturday morning cartoon. Nothing about the visual style of this movie is interesting. Nothing. It's pretty much the same flat, uninspired look you'd get out of any cartoon you'll see on kiddie TV today. There's nothing in the visual palette of ULTIMATE AVENGERS that impressed me in any way, shape or form.
I'm wondering if anyone remembers the first time they saw the Bruce Timm Batman cartoon. Does anyone remember how fresh the approach was at the time? How compelling the design was? How ultra-cool everything looked and felt? How the first time you looked at it you went, "Wow. This is different."
That's not what you get here.
And that's a damned shame. With this release Marvel had an opportunity to really make fans sit up and take notice. But like their feature versions of Daredevil, The Punisher, and The Fantastic Four they took the cheap way out. The look of ULTIMATE AVENGERS is the first thing that people will notice and if it looks like everything else on the boob tube how interested do you think people will be in it? It's not even just the look that I had problems with either. The animation is completely stiff and uninspired. The characters, at times, look like they're moving through molasses. Not only that but much of the shading looks like it was done with the Photoshop airbrush setting set to 11. As a matter of fact the direction in general throughout this whole thing is tired. Many shots in the movie are completely static with characters just standing around talking to each other and they're boring as hell. There's no interesting POVs or editing techniques to make up for the fact that the animation doesn't flow as well as it could. Say what you will about anime but at least many of the better animation directors working in Japan know how to cheat in their animation techniques to make their cartoons interesting when they don't have the budgets they need. ULTIMATE AVENGERS lacks imagination in everything from the design to the animation pretty much from the get go.
So the look of it all is pretty much just average, right? OK, fine, then what about the story? Well, true believers, that pretty much ends up falling on its face as well.
It's not that I was expecting a literal translation of the story in THE ULTIMATES but I was expecting something a little more complex than your regular superhero antics. What we end up getting here is not even ULTIMATES-lite. The whole story of THE ULTIMATES has been taken to its most basic, bottom of the barrel superhero 'toon level. Yes, there are aliens. Yes we have Captain America, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the whole ULTIMATES gang but the stuff that made the book unique is completely missing. Gone is the scope of the original story. The "widescreen" effect that THE ULTIMATES gave Marvel superhero comics has been stuffed right back into its square shaped TV box. There's no humor here, no wit. Hell, there's not even a sense of danger. The story is distilled almost beyond even being recognizable as THE ULTIMATES, which leads me to ask why did they even bother basing it on THE ULTIMATES in the first place? Why not just make a straight up AVENGERS cartoon? But I'm guessing that's why they called it ULTIMATE AVENGERS because that's what it comes across as: an average AVENGERS story. Sure, there are elements of THE ULTIMATES in there but it's been reduced to being what THE ULTIMATES as a superhero book was trying to expand upon. All the "Holy Cow" moments are gone. All of the characterization has been made two-dimensional. For anyone who loved THE ULTIMATES for what it was I'd be surprised if they were actually impressed with what this movie turned out to be. God help any comic retailer who gets a kid requesting to read THE ULTIMATES after seeing this. Hopefully they'll be able to avoid the wrath of said kid's parent when he comes down to ream them out for selling the tyke an adult themed book.
And that's just the thing. THE ULTIMATES is skewed towards an adult audience but ULTIMATE AVENGERS is obviously reaching for a kids market. Good thinking there Marvel. That's smart planning indeed.
What really killed me is that at the end the credit sequence is animated actually using images from THE ULTIMATES book. Yeah, it's primitive animation but the look of it was far more compelling than anything I'd looked at for the past 70 minutes or so! It's almost like I just watched 70 minutes of average animation and at the end I get to see the artwork it was based on and my mind is going, "I want to see THAT!"
After I watched what the credit sequence was able to do with just still images of Hitch's art I actually went and pulled out my ULTIMATES hardcover and looked through it. To tell you the truth, while animation that exactly looked like Hitch's work could be a monumental task, I honestly think that you could just take the images from THE ULTIMATES book and animate them after you removed all of the lettering and have something more compelling than what was actually released. Think about it. If you just took Hitch's work did a little cutting and pasting here and there, animated those bits using Flash or After Effects, and then set them to music with some voice over...you'd have something really interesting to watch. Sure, it'd amount to basically doing what the old '60's Marvel cartoons did with limited animation but the art here is so good and the technology is so much more advanced now that I can't imagine it not being better to watch than ULTIMATE AVENGERS was. Once you see the final credit sequence you'll see what I mean. I think Marvel missed a great opportunity as well as a chance to save a ton of money by not just making their ULTIMATES feature with the technology that created ULTIMATE AVENGERS' closing credit sequence.
Yeah, I've been pretty harsh on ULTIMATE AVENGERS but that's because Marvel set themselves up for it. If you look at ULTIMATE AVENGERS just as any old cartoon it measures up to anything that's on TV but the problem is that THE ULTIMATES wasn't your average comic book. If your source material is that well put together then you've got quite a challenge in trying to adapt it to another medium. Unfortunately, for me anyway, the producers of ULTIMATE AVENGERS missed the mark big time.
I (heart) MARVEL: WEB OF ROMANCE
Writer: Tom Beland
Artist: Cory Walker
&
I (heart) MARVEL: AI
Writer: C.B. Cebulski
Artists: Tomoko Taniguchi, Kei Kobayashi, and Toga
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewed by Dave Farabee
WEB OF ROMANCE
I capsule reviewed the first outing in Marvel’s series of I (heart) MARVEL one-shots and found it to be…purty fun. Nothing to write home about, but a decent anthology of quirky tales of love in the Marvel Universe.
With Tom Beland’s full-length tale of Spider-Man and Mary Jane, however, the series hits its high mark. Beland is the indie cartoonist behind TRUE STORY, SWEAR TO GOD – a romantic autobio comic about finding the love of his life – and with humor and earnestness he cooks up one of the best Marvel love yarns to date. He even has me warming to the “New Avengers” concept for the first time ever, and that’s saying something.
It starts with Spider-Man interrogating mondo bizarre villain, The Mandrill – yes, the monkey-headed supervillain who releases chemical pheromones to drive the ladies wild! And Spidey’s not looking for information on a crime or a secret hideout – he needs ideas for his wife’s Valentine’s Day gift. Some damn funny dialogue ensues, with Mandrill busting Spider-Man’s chops and suggesting he’ll end up buying a romantic ironing board. A great, absurdist opening. Back at Avengers Tower, Beland brings out a relaxed atmosphere to the team as the members kick back to enjoy some b-ball on the tube and Peter Parker marvels at how well his wife can hang out with “the guys.” Again, some terrific moments. Mary Jane tries to keep Captain America up on the ins and outs of basketball, but he’s strictly old-school when it comes to sports:
Cap: I just can’t get into basketball. I’m a baseball man…it’s timeless. It’s the same now as it was before I was frozen.
Luke Cage: Hello…designated hitter?
Cap: Okay, I’ll give you that one.And then Cap blows MJ away by breaking out a photo of himself posing with Joe DiMaggio. Like the issue as a whole, the scene is a mixture of humor and heartfelt. And for once, I found myself enjoying all these heroes (and a few civilians) hanging out together with masks off. We’ve seen too many other comics showing us the downsides of revealing secret identities – here’s one that looks only at the happy side of the equation.
It’s best to leave the rest of the issue as a surprise, but there’s much fun to be had as Spidey asks for advice from the likes of Tony Stark and Luke Cage between mixing it up with the supervillain Dragon Man. It’s all drawn with a light touch by original INVINCIBLE artist Cory Walker, and culminates in a gift that’s far more puckish than the saccharine offering I was fearing. Lots of fun and a near-perfect standalone issue.
MARVEL AI
Far more slight, but still a happy find, is MARVEL AI, the manga-influenced issue of the I (heart) MARVEL mini (“ai” being Japanese for love). Like the first I (heart) MARVEL, this one’s a trio of shorts, though they all share the same author – C.B. Cebulski. Cebulski’s better known as an editor at Marvel, but since the Japanese artists assigned for the issue weren’t particularly familiar with Marvel characters, he pitched the stories for them to draw.
The opener’s my favorite. Spotlighting one of the most enduring “interracial” couples of the Marvel Universe – the Vision and Scarlet Witch – the issue is straight from the shojo manga school of uber-cuteness. Just look at the manga-ized Scarlet Witch on this first page, about to be interrogated on her first date with the Vision by giddy-eyed teammates The Wasp and The Black Widow. The story flashes back to the date, with a boyish Vision striking out in some areas (that literalist android thinking ain’t much for romance), but scoring in others (chicks always dig it when you can raise the internal temperature of your body to warm their hands). Goofily sweet and drawn in the best decorative shojo tradition by Tomoko Taniguchi, I liked this one enough to wish it had been a feature-length story.
The second outing is a mood piece featuring Medusa, the wife of the king of the Inhumans, Black Bolt. With wonderfully ethereal painted art by Kei Kobayashi, Medusa muses on her husband, destined never to speak lest his powers level mountains. Some women enjoy silence, but not Medusa: “How I long at times to hear the sound of my husband’s voice. To hear him whisper. To hear him moan. To hear him sigh. To hear him laugh.” A short and sweet fantasy.
Lastly, a bit of comedy, lest we all get too wistful. Simply put, this one’s a catfight between Daredevil’s two toughest gals, Elektra and the Black Widow. There’s no dialogue, but plenty of comical speech balloons with pictograms of broken hearts, storm clouds, and chibi-headed Daredevils with x’s over his eyes. It all builds to a hilarious last panel straight from the more slapstick side of anime romance.
All told, I’ve got to give Beland the prize for best outing in the I (heart) MARVEL line, but Cebulski and company are a close second with their varied and winning set of stories. My recommendation is to swap up the both of ‘em. And guys, don’t worry about losing your manliness by picking up a handful of romance-centric stories. You can share ‘em with your ladyfriends in hopes of scoring sensitivity points, and besides…they’re good, dammit!
JUSTICE #4
Writer: Jim Kreuger
Artist: Doug Braithwaite/Alex Ross
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Prof. Challenger
How 'bout that cover with Superman doing the "flying pee-pee dance?"
That's one way to appeal to those all-too-elusive younger readers, I guess.
Considering also that Superman, Wonder Woman, and Red Tornado (well, and also the Atom's girlfriend Jean) are shown boo-hoo-crying with tears running down their cheeks, one might think all this points to a new desire on DC's part to bring in the toddlers. However, given that Jean is crying cause her boyfriend just got shot in the back, Reddy's crying cause he got decapitated last issue, Wonder Woman's crying cause Cheetah just clawed her face up real bad, and Superman's crying cause he just got the super-shit beat out of him by a gang-up of Bizarro, Solomon Grundy, Parasite, and Metallo….well…the context sort of defeats the kid-oriented assumption. Not to mention horny, naked Green Arrow grabbing a condom to get it on with panty-clad Clayface disguised as Black Canary…yeah…this ain't your daddy's Super Friends.
Four issues in and the Legion of Doom has already won and is setting up their worldwide totalitarian regime. I thought I was gonna get 2 solid years of back-and-forth butt-whipping between the Super Friends and the Legion of Doom. Instead, I've got the bad guys won, the good guys all acting like crybabies, and over a year left to see what happens next. I dunno. Maybe the next wave of JUSTICE action figures from DC Direct will be outfitted with "Kung-Fu Wussy Tear Action" and a crying baby sound-effect chip.
Only stuff I really liked about it was that the art still looked nice and the fact-files backup feature was cool. Other than that, issue 5 better move this story about heroes along a bit more…heroically…or I'll be bailing on this series too.
I understand the importance sometimes of placing these spandex heroes into intense and dangerous plots, but I don't understand the seemingly pervasive need to debase them when attempting to do that.
DAREDEVIL #82
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Michael Lark
Publisher: Marvel
Another @$$hole Two in One with Vroom Socko and Ambush Bug
*Ding, ding, ding*
Ladies and Gentlemen, fanboys and girls of all ages, tonight AICN Comics proudly presents a match-up years in the making! Last month, that powerhouse from Portland, Vroom Socko, took on the Chicago Ivan Drago, Ambush Bug, in a head to head match-up on Brian Michael Bendis' last issue of DAREDEVIL. In this exciting bout, these brawlers of online graphic storytelling criticism duke it out over Ed Brubaker's first issue on the title. DAREDEVIL #82 marks the beginning of a new era in the adventures of Matt Murdock and these two @$$holes have a lot to say about it.
Alright guys, I want a clean fight. Nothing below the belt. Touch gloves and come out fighting.
LET"S GET READY TO RRRRRRRUMMMMBLLLLLLLLLLLLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*Ding!*
AMBUSH BUG: It's no secret that I was looking forward to a change in creative teams for this book and if this issue was any indication, it was definitely a change for the better. Brubaker did a great job of integrating some of Bendis' more endearing additions to Daredevil with his own style. You know that feeling you often felt while reading the first issue of a Bendis arc? That feeling of, well, this is kind of boring, but I'll stick around and see if it turns out to be interesting in the third or fourth chapter? Well, that wasn't here. Bru packed this issue with a little mystery as a new Daredevil is fighting crime in the city while Murdock is behind bars, two action scenes (the aforementioned new DD fight with street thugs and one hell of a brawl between Murdock and Hammerhead's gang in prison), and ended with one of the most powerfully written cliffhangers I've read in a long time. Sure, Brubaker made with the talking heads stuff, but I never felt as if the conversation was meandering or as if the writer had a powerful finish that he was just moseying his way to for an issue or three.
VROOM SOCKO: Am I just too used to Bendis, or did a shitload of stuff happen in this issue? Like you said, there's two kickass fight scenes, (three if you include the assault at the end,) some of the talky-talk, conniving behind the scenes on the part of the Feds, and a great bit of characterization between Foggy and Ben Urich. And can I just say I hope I'm not the only one who's ecstatic to see the return of Dakota North?
On the other hand, I'm not sure I like the idea of this second Daredevil running around. Not that it doesn't work, it just that having the book’s hero out of costume while an unknown someone takes their place instantly reminded me of John Byrne's last Spidey run. You know, the first time Marvel had a female character fighting bad guys in skintight clothes that made her look like a guy.
*shudder*
BUG: Uhm...you mean like Echo in the NEW AVENGERS? No, I think there was enough groaning the last time that happened and it's definitely too soon for that to happen again. The identity of the new DD is sure to be a long mystery. What I like about the new DD bounding about is that it allows Matt to be in an interesting situation in prison and still gives us Daredevil in costume. It's something Bendis never did. It gave us some in-costume action while putting Matt in a really tough situation. This is a comic that recognizes that Daredevil is a hero. One who takes action. I loved Matt's fight scene and the way he struggled with taking on Hammerhead's goons because he didn't want to blow his cover. It's something that he's going to have to be smart about and something Bru is going to have to be smart about so that it doesn't get to be a tedious plot mechanism. Matt doesn't have *add name of ex-girlfriend here* to hoist his fat out of the fire in this situation. It's up to him to save himself and although he is reluctant, he does it. This character development alone after his extended stint as "male tied to the railroad tracks" to be rescued by Elektra, Black Widow, Night Nurse, Milla the Blind Girl, and whomever during Bendis' run is a development that I have wanted to see in the character for ages.
VROOM: Yeah, I'm not saying that that's what's going to happen here, just that I was reminded instantly of that particular Spidey story. As well as pointing out that the whole Echo fake-out had been done before. Busiek also did it in THUNDERBOLTS with Citizen V. But we're moving off topic.
My point really is that the situation, at least so far, is a little too reminiscent of a previous storyline. Now, does this mean that this story doesn't work? Not at all; Bru will probably take this new "Daredevil" in a totally different direction. All I'm saying is that for this first issue, the similarities were a distraction for me.
BUG: Not for me. This is the type of superhero stuff that the last run was lacking. It's a mystery. An actual subplot!!! Something that can boil on the back burner while the rest of the story plays out. Subplots are a dying breed these days because everyone wants a complete story in four issues with as few ties to the next as possible. It's one of the most damaging things to serialized storytelling in this trade heavy age.
VROOM: I'm actually more interested in what's going through the head of the FBI bigwig. That part of the book reminded me of nothing less than Forrest Whitaker's current turn on THE SHIELD. Still, I'll most likely warm up to this new DD as the story rolls on. Just as long as he's not revealed to be one of Matt's girlfriends. Or Spidey, for that matter.
But enough about my plot point problems, let me get to some unabashed praise. That two page spread at the beginning belongs in the New York Museum of Modern Art. The one complaint I had about Maleev was the lack of fluidity in his work, although his ability to evoke mood and emotion is top notch. Lark isn't quite as brooding, but boy can his characters MOVE! Then there's what he does with the ending. I'll tell you this, Lark is the reason that ending works.
Can we talk about the ending? Spoilers?
BUG: Why not? I think it was one of the most resonant endings I've read in a long time. It highlights Matt's powerlessness and solitude while taking full advantage of his powers. Matt is a trapped man. His friends are in danger and there is nothing he can do. Bru incorporates Matt's powers in this drama with a lot of skill as Matt focuses in on Foggy's fading heartbeat. The ending was my favorite part of the book because it was one that punctuated Matt's dire situation with an exclamation point and put in the spotlight that he IS a super hero with super powers. This issue wasn't ashamed of that.
And I agree. Lark is probably is probably one of the best artists for DD since Miller was on board. He can do gritty and street level and realistic, but his Daredevil never looked laughable. He's not tracing over pictures of posed models. He’s actually putting some craftsmanship into it. That jump cut scene at the end was edited like the best of movies hopping back and forth between Foggy getting stabbed, DD agonizing in his cell, and ending with the Kingpin chuckling. One of the most perfectly executed endings I've read in a while.
VROOM: "Perfectly executed?" If we're going to start using puns, I'm leaving.
Most people have probably picked up on my disdain for death in superhero books, and I've seen too much of it over the past couple of years. Here though, I have nothing but praise, not because I want to see Foggy dead, but because the scene has depth to it. This isn't Hawkeye getting shot in the back and getting caught in an explosion (can you tell I'm still bitter?). This death resonates because we not only see it through Matt's "eyes," we see that this death has meaning. It's definitely the best crafted scene I've read in a Marvel comic in who knows how long.
And to be perfectly honest, Foggy is the sort of character I have no trouble with writers killing off. He's a supporting character. This isn't some bankrupt shock tactic, like half the FF dying or something absurd like that. This is a supporting character being killed to support the story. That's why it works. Yes it sucks, yes I'd rather see the character live, but man did he go out good.
BUG: That's my one criticism of Brubaker's CAPTAIN AMERICA run. He doesn't really seem invested in the characters of the Marvel Universe and when he jumped on the title, he killed Nomad, Mother Night, and the Red Skull (although we know he's not dead). I have a problem with this because those deaths didn't really have a resonance. Nomad's single issue story was pretty well done, and I guess it gave the character a proper send off, but I still think killing characters right off the bat for dramatic effect is a cheap way to go. I agree, the scene was well done. But there really isn't a relationship in comics like Foggy and Matt. He's Daredevil's buddy. He's weaker than Matt, but in the last few years he's become a much more capable supporting character that has added a lot to the story. It's kind of the way I felt about killing off Aunt May a while back. So maybe the character will be back some time soon. These supporting characters show as much about the title character as the title character does.
Fellow @$$hole and all-wise comic book guru, Buzz Maverik said recently that the toughest thing a comic book writer has to do is make it seem like he's making big changes to the status quo without actually doing it. We like the serialized aspects of comics characters, but don't want them to deviate too far from what we've seen before. Sure, Matt dealing with Foggy's death is a good story and a good scene (proven in this issue), but that means we're never going to get a scene like the one Foggy had on the rooftop with the new DD in this issue. I don't think the price of a good single scene is worth that kind of loss to the character.
VROOM: I agree that too often comic book death scenes can be cheap, and that they don't resonate well, if for no other reason than everyone knows they'll be reversed as soon as Quesada retires. Hell, Aunt May died fer chrissake! At this point, I only ask two questions: does the death have a point, and does the resurrection work. Foggy dying has a point. Foggy dying works. And yes, we'll see him again in about ten years.
BUG: Well, it looks like this wasn't much of a boxing match after all. We both seem to be in agreement that this was a pretty great first issue for Bru and Lark. I think this is one of those runs that is going to go down as something special. I can't wait for the next issue. Any final thoughts?
VROOM: If Bru and Lark can keep this up, give us issue after issue chocked to the gills with story and action aplenty without burning out, then we're all going to be in for a treat. I only ask for two things: this new DD should be a new face, and more Dakota North, damnit!
ACTION COMICS #836
Writer: Joe Kelly
Artists: Too Many To List
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Prof. Challenger
Everything's starting to change.
As a huge fan of the Golden and Silver Age "Earth 2" characters at DC, I admit to some satisfaction at watching "Grampa" Superman pounding his way back through time and dealing with the key points in Superman's post-1985 life with his more deterministic perspective. That feeling is similar, in part, to that feeling post-9/11 of satisfaction that G.W. Bush was the right man at the right time to take the fight back to the land of the terrorists rather than waiting for them to hit us again. This whole INFINITE CRISIS thing is fascinating to watch unfold because half the time I can see the roots of excellence and clear planning, but at the same time I'm getting more and more of a feeling of "by the seats of your pants" changes in the original plans…and it's that kind of short-sightedness which may bode long-term disaster.
Some of ACTION #836 was interesting, but some was a bit confusing. Continuing the "Superman…This is Your Life" storyline begun last week in SUPERMAN, it looks like an all-out battle between the two Supermen, from "Grampa" Superman's perspective. Each blow he lands on the current Superman results in "Grampa" jumping backward and flashing forward through the post-CRISIS timeline to assume the role of Superman and change his actions so that the current darkness pervading the DC universe is quashed before it ever starts.
Using that plot device, Kelly, the writer, presents the basic origin of Superman rocketed from Krypton and found by human parents as told during the Golden Age, the post-CRISIS age, and the more recent retelling in the SUPERMAN titles. Then he moves forward through the timeline as "Grampa" fixes everything, starting with Clark's first super-appearance in MAN OF STEEL #1 where he saved that space shuttle with Lois on it. Well, this time, because it's really "Grampa," he actually steps in and kisses Lois on the cheek and tells her: "You can call me Superman. I'm here to help." Next event is that first meeting between Superman and Batman from MAN OF STEEL that established their adversarial relationship. This time, however, "Grampa" doesn't let Batman get away with his bluff about planting a bomb in Gotham to actually kill an innocent. "Grampa" instead gets Batman to respect him and join with him as equals.
Flash forward to that point in the timeline where Luthor had kidnapped and tortured Lana Lang. This time, Superman has Batman with him and they are able to take down Luthor together. Remember that this was the era where the Kryptonite signet ring that Luthor always wore gave him cancer that eventually killed him leading to that obnoxiously overlong storyline with the "son" (read: clone) of Luthor with the Lionel Luthor-esque mane of hair. This time, "Grampa" and Batman are able to use the cancer to offer Luthor a redemptive second chance. Which he takes and uses his intellect to work toward curing the world of sickness and hunger.
Then the timeline moves to Clark's proposal to Lois which results in her cussing and punching him before they kiss. Apparently this is the same reaction she had on Earth 2, but the "Grampa" narrative informs us that this Earth 2 life is not his life anymore. Then it's time for Doomsday and this time "Grampa" breaks that monster’s neck without also getting killed.
The next time jump is the most confusing. The "Death of Superman" storyline took place years after the original CRISIS, so timing-wise Barry Allen had also been dead for quite awhile, yet….after the Doomsday fight, the caption says: "Another leap forward…another Crisis." And the leap "forward" takes us to the events of the IDENTITY CRISIS rape of Sue and mindwipe of Dr. Light. You know? Where Barry was still Flash? Confusing as hell. Other than that, though, the fact that "Grampa" shows up to intervene and exile Dr. Light into the Phantom Zone seems much more proper as a punishment. The original solution actually was NO punishment for Dr. Light, when you think about it. The guy did what he did, but by being mindwiped, he (1) had no memory of what he did and, therefore, no culpability or conscious understanding of being punished for his deeds, and (2) Sue and Ralph had to deal with the ramifications of what happened without any closure whereby Light received justifiable retribution for his actions. "Grampa's" solution keeps Light conscious of what he did and places him in an eternal hell of existence without the ability to enjoy any sensual pleasures ever again - the ultimate "castration" so to speak. Cheers from me for that even if the timing is wrong.
The next jump takes us up to the current DCU with the JLA members finally having their fill of "Grampa" and trying to take him down, but "Grampa" and Batman have their own Justice League Elite that includes Hawkman, Guy Gardner, Green Arrow, some guy named Chester and some lady with red sunglasses and metal Wolverine claws. Odds are that come ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #649 that "Grampa's" JLE is going to clean the clock of the JLA.
I loved Mark Shultz's cover and I actually liked the fact that they pulled in a bunch of different Superman artists to illustrate the various time periods. Glaringly missing from the galaxy of guest-artists, though, was John Byrne (who oversaw the post-Crisis reboot of Superman) and it did make me wonder whether he turned them down or whether he was even asked to contribute. Dan Jurgens was the talent who shepherded Superman through the next number of years post-Byrne and his work appears in the issue. Curious.
Now, as to the question of whether someone might want to go back and pick this comic up when they didn't already purchase it last week--if you're digging INFINITE CRISIS, I would say this 3-parter is as important of a tie-in as you'll probably find before the ONE YEAR LATER stuff coming next month. If you don't give a crap about INFINITE CRISIS, then you probably want to just skip it.
X-MEN: DEADLY GENESIS #4
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Pencilers: Trevor Hairsine & Scott Hanna
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewed by Humphrey Lee
Didn't see that one coming!!
... is exactly what I did not say when I got to the end of this issue.
The identity of the latest antagonist towards Professor Xavier's band of merry mutants has finally been revealed, and it's not exactly the kind of villain you'd expect to find. Well, unless you've read any sort of internet article or interview about this title over the past month and a half, then you pretty much saw this one coming. But as predictable as the reveal ended up being, the circumstances around it are what made this issue at least somewhat interesting.
This issue gives us the whole shebangabang background on this new "terrible secret" of Professor Xavier's that a recording from Moira MacTaggert has eluded to throughout the course of this mini, and that a former X-Man even paid the ultimate price for to get back to his old teammates. The tape discloses that there indeed was another team of X-Men, a group of students found by Moira but promptly trained by Xavier in order to be sent to the isle of Krakoa to save the students who he had just lost there (back around the time of the historic GIANT SIZED X-MEN #1). But just like the first team to go in, apparently misfortune found this team as well and the team, led by one Kid Vulcan, aka Gabriel Summers (yes, that Summers), was also lost to fate.
While I think the execution on this series has been a little on the weak side, I have to admit I think the subject matter is entertaining. I've always been a bit of a fan of the "dark Chuck" that Morrison always kind of hinted at in his run on NEW X-MEN. And I like the continuation we're seeing here as we find that Xavier was basically reckless with his makeshift squad and because of their inexperience they befell an apparent worse experience than the team they were sent in to save. But like I said, I think the way this book has been executed so far to get to this point has been a little shaky. The loss of Banshee back a couple issues still feels like just a throwaway death to get a bit of a rise out of readers. The means by which the X-Men found out this little secret of Charlie's was pretty generic (Banshee flew a tape he found laying around of Moira's to the X-Men and it somehow survived the explosion that killed him). And the fact that "Young Gun" Trevor Hairsine has managed to draw only one of the four issues in its entirety doesn't really speak volumes for his ability to keep a deadline.
So far this has been a tale that definitely has some energy behind it, but it has seen its fair share of stumbling blocks too. I think when this is all said and done it's going to go down as one of the more important X-MEN stories told because of the subject matter, but I don't think it'll be remembered with much zest because of its shortcomings.
BIRDS OF PREY #91
Writer: Jim Alexander
Pencils: Brad Walker
Inks: Jimmy Palmiotti
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Ambush Bug
This is one of those issues that not too many people take notice of. It’s one of those in-between issues, written by a guest writer and drawn by a guest artist. It’s the regular creative team’s chance to take a breather before the big plunge into the next big event. It’s commonly known as a filler issue. Most of the time, these kinds of issues are throwaways. Easily digestible, but quickly forgotten. And normally, I wouldn’t waste my time and yours with an extended review of it.
But this is BIRDS OF PREY. And this is a pretty spectacular issue. And this issue is worthy of a full review.
It’s not because it is well written, even though it is. It’s not because the art is spectacular, even though that’s true too. It’s not because something amazing happened in the story, even though it held me in rapt attention throughout. The reason why this issue is noteworthy is because it is a testament to how well-written these BIRDS been since the beginning.
Series creator Chuck Dixon was really onto something when he paired the handicapped computer-guru Barbara Gordon aka Oracle with the drop dead gorgeous, leggy ass-kicker Black Canary. He introduced us to something other than female versions of major icons or super-hero’s girlfriends. He made these two characters characters. Characters full of flaws and personality. When Chuck left the book, I was scared that this series would fizzle because he kicked so much glute on his extended run.
And then along came @$$hole-favorite Gail Simone and to my surprise, she upped the ante, taking things to a much deeper level while maintaining the energy Dixon was able to harness in his earlier stories. These two writers expanded on these Birds and made them into characters that were both iconic and human all at once. I’ve enjoyed BOP since its inception all those years ago and up to this day.
This issue’s writer Jim Alexander tells us a tale about a dirty millionaire, a selfless young man, a kidnapping, and a kidney. He juggles the cast very well and makes this filler issue into something special. Brad Walker and Jimmy Palmiotti punctuate the story with vivid panels and some very eye-catching facial expressions in their characters. Although writer Alexander proved that he is a very good storyteller, he owes a lot to Simone and Dixon for creating such memorable characters in Oracle, Black Canary, and now the Huntress and Lady Blackhawk. These four characters almost write themselves they’ve been developed so masterfully.
I enjoyed this issue. It tackled some heavy topics for a filler issue and took full advantage of the rich characters. It was a roller coaster ride from start to finish filled with passengers who have been developed as much as comic book characters can be developed by two talented writers who clearly love them.
SPIDER-WOMAN: ORIGIN #1-3 (of 5)
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis & Brian Reed
Artists: Jonathan & Joshua Luna
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewed by Dave Farabee
Somewhat against expectations, I’m enjoying this series.
It’s an attempt to streamline and retcon the ridiculously convoluted origin of Spider-Woman (no relation to Spider-Man) to coincide with her New Avengers membership and help set the stage for her pending solo book. Brian Bendis, a guy you might’ve heard of, is one of the writers. Brian Reed, his co-writer, you might not’ve. Reed’s from the video game biz, his most notable outing being lead designer for the ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN video game. That’s where he and Bendis first collaborated, and while the exact labor split on SPIDER-WOMAN: ORIGIN is hard to guess at, they seem a good match. In fact it almost seems like Reed might be tempering the Bendis idiosyncrasies that sometimes drive me to drink, because this is easily my favorite Bendis project in quite some time.
Structurally, SPIDER-WOMAN: ORIGIN is pretty straightforward. Starts with her birth to a pair of British scientists, unfolds linearly through the experiments that gave her her powers, shows us the Hydra brainwashing she underwent in her teens, and as of the third issue puts her in her early 20s trying to make a normal life for herself. Stripped from her origin is the one really out there element it used to have: being raised among genetically enhanced animal people (for real) by the scientist who would one day become the High Evolutionary. My instinct is to dislike this. Reading Grant Morrison’s various neo-Silver Age stories of late has reinvigorated my appreciation for the happy strangeness of superhero universes – a strangeness Bendis has a tendency to pave over in the name of realism.
But there’s also something to be said for the power of an uncomplicated origin. Batman: His parents murdered, he vows to wage war on crime for all his life! Spider-Man: Bitten by a radioactive spider, Peter Parker experiences a tragedy that convinces him that his newfound powers must be used responsibly! Spider-Woman: Dying of radiation as a child, Jessica Drew was injected with the blood of a rare spider to save her life, was later raised by the High Evolutionary, accidentally killed a kid with her developing powers, briefly was an agent of Hydra, and worked sometimes as a superhero, sometimes as a private investigator. Oh my. Yes, definitely needed some cleaning up.
Interestingly, there’s a nod to the weirder elements of Jessica’s origin when she has bizarre visions during the course of several years in a coma, but that’s presumably Bendis and Reed’s way of writing off those elements. One point of confusion is that she hallucinates an image of the High Evolutionary towering over a mountain. Cool image, but surely the writers don’t mean to suggest the High Evolutionary never existed in the Marvel Universe, right? It almost seems so, since Jessica’s never been shown to have seen the High Evolutionary and since the white-haired Hydra agent who indoctrinates Jessica is inexplicably given the Evolutionary’s real name.
Weird. Be a shame to reduce a cool, godlike Lee/Kirby character like the Evolutionary to a mere Hydra commander, but I suspect there might be more to come on this count.
What makes the series work is the empathy it generates in the reader for the troubled Jessica Drew. She leads a lonely life as a kid, barely surviving an experiment gone wrong, and nearly killing her own parents when her powers begin to manifest. Bendis and Reed update her origin such that Hydra was always covertly involved with her parents’ research, and there’s even a neat aside that has Professor Miles Warren (later the clone-happy Jackal who would trouble Spider-Man) as a disgruntled co-worker who leaves the project.
Where the book really takes off is when Jessica awakens from a coma years after seemingly killing her parents with her newfound venom-blast. This is the Hydra indoctrination sequence, both cool and unnerving. There’s some brutal emotional stuff as Jessica – still a child mentally – tries to deny her circumstances. She asks through tear-strewn eyes what “coma” means and asks for her mother. What she gets in response are the disturbingly comforting words of the now grandfatherly Hydra agent who shares the name of the High Evolutionary. There are plenty of strong moments here, from a LA FEMME NIKITA-style training sequences alongside Marvel villains like the Taskmaster and even an unnamed Mentallo to Jessica’s first romance with a young Hydra agent. It’s fast-paced, it’s emotional, and in one of its best scenes, even shows how appealing Hydra’s sedition might sound given a completely altruistic spin. It’s also where the story nearly completely syncs up with Spider-Woman’s traditional Marvel origin, right down to her first assignment to rescue her lover from a S.H.I.E.L.D. interrogation.
I should mention the art. It’s by the Luna Brothers, who earned a minor hit with their Image book ULTRA and currently write and draw GIRLS for Image. I’m not their biggest fan. Their art looks a bit like still frames of the rotoscoping in Ralph Bakshi’s animated version of LORD OF THE RINGS. There’s a realism to it, and the cel-shaded coloring has a certain vibrancy, but it’s hard to get past the way the characters looked posed at times or the fact that the costumes look like less like costumes and more like digital skins mapped onto 3-D constructs (Taskmaster in particular looks awful). On the plus side, they handle the “talking heads” Bendis sequences quite well, evoking the subtler facial expressions his writing calls for. And stiffness quirks aside, they also produce some very strong action sequences between Jessica, Hydra, S.H.I.E.L.D., and even the poorly-rendered Taskmaster. There’s fine moment-to-moment sparring (the kind you might expect from the duo of Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy), well-placed blur effects to indicate Spider-Woman’s speed, and just a strong cinematic immediacy overall. Bendis has been rightly criticized for weak action sequences in the past, but through the addition of Brian Reed or the interpretive skills of the Luna Brothers, SPIDER-WOMAN’s sequences have real energy.
I’m hoping the series can keep it up. The most recent issue is Jessica’s trial-by-fire and the series’ first real positive beat as she finally takes control of her life for the better. Lots of strong action. Slight punking-out of Taskmaster, but it’s forgiven because he’s been shown to be pretty badass in issues past. I’m liking the simultaneous fierceness and vulnerability of Jessica Jones, admiring the nip-tucks to continuity that retain Spider-Woman’s essential outsider nature, enjoying the characterization of guest-player Nick Fury, and am genuinely curious to see what’s next for the miniseries.
So far, so good. Recommended.
CRIMSON HERO V.1
Creator: Mitsuba Takanashi
Publisher: Viz
Girly-Man: Dan Grendell
"If you won't let me play volleyball, I'm leaving."
Sports manga are an interesting thing. You'd think they would be boring – a comic about football, or soccer? Whatever! - but they really aren't, and the secret is that they aren't really manga about sports. They are stories about the players of those sports, the trials and tribulations of people involved in those sports, and they focus on the drama while throwing cool facts your way. Sports manga treat matches between teams and sometimes even practices just like battle scenes, and are exciting as hell. Drama, action, romance - it's all there, and a lot of non-Japanese readers miss out because they see a sports theme and make a lot of false assumptions. Well, knock it off already!
In CRIMSON HERO, teenager Nobara Sumiyoshi is the heir to an old-fashioned restaurant but she wants none of it. Instead, the tomboy wants only to play volleyball, so she transfers to Crimson Field High, known for its volleyball team. When she arrives, she learns that her mother has arranged to have the girls team disbanded - controlling bitch! - but she doesn't let that stop her. With the help of her slutty disowned aunt, who is the school's nurse, Nobara leaves home and moves into the Crimson Field dorm as the housekeeper for members of the boys volleyball team, determined to restart the girls team. Facing opposition from her mother, old members of the girls team, and the captain of the boys team, Nobara tries to adjust to her new job and the boys she lives with while putting a team together.
This is a shojo book, so it's no surprise that Takanashi chooses to make her boys fairly bishonen, and Nobara is drawn the same way - to emphasize her tomboyishness. It can be a little hard sometimes to buy the volleyball players as badass when everything is drawn with such a soft look, but it certainly accentuates the feelings in the more dramatic scenes. I also had a few issues with perspective in some panels, but overall the artwork is quite good and fits the story very well.
The plot is a good one, and though it’s another iteration of the standard "I can do it if I try hard enough!" idea, the characters and ideas are all original enough to make it stand on its own. Nobara is likeable enough that you want her to succeed, her dorm-mates are interesting if not wildly so, her teammates seem quite individual though you don't see them much in this volume, and her aunt is definitely intriguing. Character interaction is done very well, with a natural feel.
Overall, I quite enjoyed this first volume, and look forward to more, though the real test for the series comes when the first actual volleyball game is shown.
SEQUENCE V. 1
Creator: Ryo Saenagi
Publisher: Tokyopop
Reviewer: Dan Grendell
Meh.
There is plenty of good manga out there, but there is also lots of stuff that ain't so great. Mindless pap printed as an excuse to show off pretty boys (or girls, but usually boys) and costumes, freaky monsters and robots or vehicles. Most of that stuff never makes it out of Japan - the import companies are very careful about what they license - but some slips through. Case in point: SEQUENCE.
The story here is that young student Kanata goes into an abandoned church and rings a bell on a dare from some school friends. The floor collapses under him, and he falls into a room with a giant cross in it, which he opens, unleashing vampire teenager Titi, who promptly kills him. Then, for some reason, the cross flashes, linking Kanata's soul to Titi's in the titular 'sequence' and bringing him back to life with the twist that if either of them die, they both die. Also, Kanata can carry around the cross (which shrank - why?) and use its magical powers somehow to fight demons named 'walks', which are apparently all over the place.
The two learn more about each other while they bicker, and it turns out Titi was raised alone on a magical island by a priest who abused him and then locked him in the cross. Huh? Titi has also never seen any humans besides the priest before, and has no idea what the difference between a boy and a girl is. He/she doesn't even know what gender she/he is, and they don't bother to find out. Let the cross-dressing antics begin! Over the course of the story, the pair fight several walks, and are forced to tell Kanata's school friends their secret - but that's okay, because one is a bisexual lecher who lusts after Titi no matter his/her gender and the other is an expert demonologist who helps them fight! Of course! Eventually, they summon a walk to tell them where to find Titi's abusive priest, and off they go.
Bleah. This plot rambles, with so many coincidences and so much ridiculousness that it lost me way early on. Often, in such a case, great art can salvage a book like this at least partially, but no such luck. Saenagi's art in SEQUENCE has no soul, and the characters come across as flat and boring. There's nothing new here, just retreads of the same old thing, and while it's technically fine, the art doesn't deliver.
I actually hate to write reviews like this - I prefer to point out what was good as well as bad - but when I can't find anything good, well, whaddayagonnado?
SANCHO’S LAST CASE
Written by: Ian Whelan
Drawn by: Alan Nolan
SANCHO: VAMPIRES OF DUBLIN
Written by: Ian Whelan
Drawn by: Alan Nolan, Ceri Pashley, and Adam Kee
Published by: 20000-Leagues
Reviewed by: superhero
Drawn by: Alan Nolan, Ceri Pashley, and Adam Kee
Published by: 20000-Leagues
Reviewed by: superhero
SANCHO is an interesting book. Basically what we have here is a comic that strives to be both a humor and a horror book in one. Oh, and it’s actually published in Ireland. If being a horror/humor comic from Ireland doesn’t make you different in today’s comic book marketplace then I just don’t know what does.
SANCHO’S LAST CASE is a pretty well done comic. What makes it different is that essentially we’re being presented with the last adventure of a priest turned demon hunter. Instead of an origin story what we’re getting here is the end of the hero’s career and that, my friends, is something decidedly different for the first issue of a comic book.
The story in LAST CASE bounces around a bit throughout the lead character’s career as he reflects back on his years of demon fighting. The reason Sancho is looking back on bygone years is because his mentor, Father Donatello Cagliore , has passed on to the great beyond. Upon his visit to Cagliore’s funeral, however, it’s discovered that foul deeds are afoot and someone (or some-thing) has stolen the head right off of the poor Father’s corpse. Of course an investigation ensues and during the course of events some very interesting and unexpected facts are revealed about the main character and a nemesis he has hunted down over the course of his lifetime.
SANCHO’S LAST CASE is actually a very good story that happens to fall short of a couple of marks. While most of it is well told and amusing it never quite reaches the level of either horror or humor it’s striving for. I actually liked the story very much and I think that Whelan’s writing has its own unique voice with some truly original ideas. Most of my problem with LAST CASE, however, has to do with the art. While I find Nolan’s style actually very artistic in its own way there’s a stiffness about it that hinders the flow of the storytelling and becomes distracting. The artwork itself is completely different from pretty much anything out there and it has a great cartoony flair about it but it’s just not loose enough to help the story flow from panel to panel. In effect, Nolan’s style actually gets in the way of the narrative he’s trying to create. This doesn’t mean the book is bad to look at, far from it. It just means that I think that Nolan would be well served to experiment a bit more with his style. Maybe even rein it in a bit. There’s nothing wrong with how he draws, it’s his panel progression and character positioning that needs a bit of work. Other than that SANCHO has an altogether original appearance to it that makes it stand out from the run of the mill comic crowd.
With SANCHO: VAMPIRES OF DUBLIN we are treated to more of an anthology horror book. The stories in the book range from wacky to humorous to just a bit creepy. Again, the book never really reaches the level of horror or humor that it obviously aspires to but there are enough neat ideas here that make it a very different read from your average horror book. One particular idea I liked was the story where Sancho actually has an encounter with the Ghost of Bram Stoker’s overactive imagination. For the most part the book is filled with neat little ideas like this one but my problem became that none of the stories were really long enough. I did appreciate, however, what Whelan was able to do with two tiny short stories that were literally two pages each. Both CARMILLA DEVEREAUX and THE BEAST AND THE BOY put a smile on my face and made me wonder what Whelan could do if he devoted his energies to a full length children’s book. All in all, though, the stories in VAMPIRES are a fun read and entertaining even if they weren’t fully developed enough for my tastes.
Most of the art is, again, capable with Nolan doing most of the artistic chores on the different stories. My issues with his style remained intact for this volume, however. The artist that did get my attention in this volume was Ceri Pashley, who illustrated the story BLOODIED STREETS. Pashley’s style lent itself to the straightforward horror feel of this particular story and it was a welcome change from the cartoony style of the rest of the book. Pashley’s style is also a bit stiff, but at least it actually conveys the look that a horror story should. While BLOODIED STREETS wasn’t my favorite story in the book I did think it was the best looking one. Not that I think Nolan’s work is shoddy--I just thought that Pashley’s work suited his story to a “T”.
In the end the SANCHO books are some pretty fun reads. They’re not too deep but they’d be good for an afternoon of comic reading if you’re looking for something different in a horror/humor book. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of either HELLBOY or THE GOON but maybe, with time, SANCHO will get there.
MOUSE GUARD #1
Writer/Artist: David Peterson
Publisher: Archaia Studios Press
Reviewed by Dave Farabee
When I saw THE SECRET OF NIMH as a kid, I thought it was about the coolest cartoon ever. At
