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AICN COMICS! @$$Holes With Lots Of BATMAN and SPIDER-MAN, DAREDEVIL, PUNISHER, CONAN, and Vroom On CEREBUS!!
Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Week in, week out, these guys rock the house. I just picked up the trade paperback of DC’s RED SON, and there’s the site, quoted on the back cover. I’m always pleased to see the inroads these guys have made over the last year or so. Great stuff, and this week’s no exception. Check this out...
Hey everybody, Village Idiot here.
Some of you may have noticed we weren't around last week. We actually took a little vacation. And we needed it. I'm telling you, this comic reviewing stuff can get grueling. We're not machines, you know!
Well, we're back -- tanned, rested, and ready to kick some comic @$$! And we not only have titles from this week, we even cooked up some from last week too!
So why are we wasting time talking? Let's get to it!
(Click title to go directly to the review)
BATMAN: ROOM FULL OF STRANGERS
SPIDER-MAN/DOCTOR OCTOPUS: NEGATIVE EXPOSURE #1-5
BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS #50
SILENT HILL #1
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #504
DAREDEVIL #57
SUPERMAN/BATMAN #6
PUNISHER #1-3
BATMAN #624
CONAN #1
Cheap Shots!
Tales from the Crevice: CEREBUS Part 4
BATMAN: ROOM FULL OF STRANGERS
Art and Story: Scott Morse
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Sleazy G
Scott Morse is best known for his creator-owned work for many of the smaller publishers in the industry. Work like VOLCANIC REVOLVERS and MAGIC PICKLE for ONI and ANCIENT JOE (reviewed favorably here upon it’s release) and a short for HELLBOY: STRANGE TALES #5 have been drawing more and more attention to his work. I somehow missed the news that he’d be working on a Batman one-shot for DC, but got lucky when I went in to the store this weekend and grabbed a copy. It’s far from a typical Batman story, but that’s what sets it apart from so many of the other minis and one-shots that sometimes clog up the shelves.
ROOM FULL OF STRANGERS is hard to miss on the racks thanks to Morse’s distinct style. He manages to somehow mix cartoonish art with noir angles and lighting, and the contrast is decidedly unique. It works well, though, and holds up all the way through the 64-page one shot. Each panel is hand painted, and Morse’s background as an artist and animator shines through. I was amazed when flipping through the book a second time at the number of panels that looked like they could stand on their own framed on a wall or as an animation cell. It’s not necessarily the kind of traditional art comic fans expect, but I’m thankful for that. The book is gorgeous, with a look and feel entirely its own.
As for the story, it’s a Batman tale, but only tangentially so. It’s really a Jim Gordon tale, and that’s fine with me. I miss Gordon in the Batbooks. Sure, he shows up from time to time, and I’m always glad, but it’s never quite enough. It feels like he should be around more, especially when there’s a whole book devoted to Gotham’s police (and if you’re not buying GOTHAM CENTRAL, start NOW). Morse’s story gave me a nice Gordon fix, though.
It’s the kind of story we’ve seen before: assemble a group of strangers somewhere, like the hotel where Jim Gordon is vacationing. Drop a storm and a murder onto the tranquil retreat, and suddenly the old ex-cop is in the thick of it again. There are a lot of quick, efficient character beats to let us know who everybody is, including the good-humored old codger who runs the hotel, a woman dying of cancer and her son. Her son who believes, reasonably enough to a kid, that his dad is Batman. It’s this kid and his experiences investigating the murder that give the story a particularly poignant twist I certainly wasn’t expecting.
Those same experiences are what also put Jim Gordon’s relationship to Batman into an interesting perspective. I’m not spoiling anything at all in discussing the final scene in the book. There’s an exchange between Gordon and Batman in which Batman says “You’re back.” Gordon replies “Somehow, you never let me leave.” This is the kind of sentiment I’m used to hearing a man or woman say about a lover in a noir story. It’s the kind of statement that lets you know somebody feels hopelessly trapped, but only because they care so much they don’t know how to leave. What makes it interesting is that this time it’s not spoken between lovers, but between friends who have worked together for years. It’s an acknowledgement that sometimes our lives become so intertwined with those of our friends, our coworkers, our acquaintances that we don’t know where ours stop and theirs begin; all we know how to do is what we’ve always done. This is the kind of perspective on these characters we don’t see too often, and it lends the characters a little extra weight. Morse’s balance of lighthearted, upbeat moments and tragic ones makes this story well worth reading. There are a couple of moments that have already stuck with me for a couple of days, and I expect they will for much longer than that. I’d love to see him come back to Batman again in another one-shot or for a backup story in DETECTIVE. I can be sure of one thing, though: between Scott Morse’s work here and in HELLBOY: WEIRD TALES, I’m convinced he’s somebody I need to read more from. I’ve been depriving myself of his singular storytelling style for too long.
SPIDER-MAN/DOCTOR OCTOPUS: NEGATIVE EXPOSURE #1-5
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Staz Johnson
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewed by Cormorant
I’m on a Brian K. Vaughan high. His Vertigo offering, Y: THE LAST MAN, just found renewed momentum with the recent, disturbing S&M issues. His Cloak & Dagger two-parter in RUNAWAYS just reminded everyone that you can still do fun crossovers in a continuity-lite Marvel Universe. Hell, I even re-read the trade of his Marvel MAX miniseries, THE HOOD, a gleefully amoral tale that all but demands a sequel.
I know what you’re about to ask: if I love Brian Vaughan so much, why don’t I marry him? Well according to Governor Arnie, our union wouldn’t be legal, but if it were I’d be all over Vaughan, ‘cause Spider-Man’s my all-time fave superhero and Vaughan has just written, without fanfare, one of the best Spider-Man stories of the last ten years.
His story begins with a Daily Bugle photographer named Jeffery Haight (Dickensian? Sure. It’s a superhero comic.). He’s a pro who never makes page one, even as amateur freelancer Peter Parker perpetually gets the spotlight. I’ve seen Parker in rivalries with fellow photogs before (anyone remember Lance Bannon?), but Haight, a frustrated artiste, has more personality. He’s a bit of an asshole, but a sympathetic one. He’s just can’t seem to wrap his mind around Parker’s seemingly natural talent:
Haight: Where does it come from? Who are your influences?
Peter (off-handedly): You mean, photographer-wise? Well, when I was a kid, my Uncle Ben gave me this book about Margaret Bourke-White. She seems pretty great.
Haight: Margaret Bourke-White? That’s such a hacky answer, Parker! What about Bischof or Capa or...or Eisenstadt?!
Later, Haight anguishes to himself: Why, God, why? Why did you give your eyes to this dork? His turmoil will eventually see him becoming the pawn of wily prisoner Doctor Octopus, whose portrayal is the best I’ve seen since Bill Mantlo made the character truly dangerous back in the ‘80s (look what Ock did to Black Cat!). Vaughan’s makes it explicit that Octopus is a killer, but the killings themselves aren’t explicit - just the right balance for a Spider-Man book. And Vaughan gives him one inspired scene after another. He reveals Ock’s cultured side in his attempt to steal this famed da Vinci drawing, supposedly an inspiration as he designed his mechanical arms. Then there’s Doctor Octopus as Hannibal Lector-esque manipulator, luring Haight into his web, preying on his insecurities as a means of getting at Spider-Man. Lastly...Octopus the full-blown madman. When he fights Spider-Man, this bastard is absolutely a serious threat. Gone is the Elton John bowl-cut (can we all agree this is one positive influence of the pending sequel to the Spider-Man movie?), but the classic, violently exasperated personality is fully intact, and the battle scenes are an old-school thrill.
And Spidey himself? Vaughan’s got him nailed too. Like Brian Bendis, Vaughan is one of the few modern writers to actually crack me up with Spider-Man’s quips. He’s got Spidey singing the pop-a-matic bubble song from the old Trouble boardgame ads while he beats on Mysterio’s fishbowl head. He’s got Spidey enraging the Vulture by wondering aloud, “Should I go with my bald jokes...or my jokes about hunchbacks? I can never decide with you.” It’s a blast, and yes, you get several guest-throwdowns with the aforementioned villains as Octopus works his schemes behind the scenes. Woohoo! Action!
Now I suppose NEGATIVE EXPOSURE isn’t the most innovative story I’ve seen, but holy hell is it well-crafted. Everything works. The humor, the action, Doc Ock’s return to A-list villainy, and the side-story of Haight’s downward spiral. When kids see this summer’s Spider-Man movie sequel and burst into their local comic shop looking for more, THIS is the series to give them (either in back issues or the inevitable trade). In many ways, I think it’s as close to a perfect Spider-Man story as I’ve seen since Roger Stern’s run in the ‘80s, approachable by younger readers but wholly entertaining for adults as well.
I’m afraid I don’t have much to say about the art by Staz Johnson other than, “Damn fine job.” He’s a Brit artist, his work is very detailed and energetic, and the confident style has me thinking of him as a more-polished Mark Bagley. Lookee! If you’re tired of all the quasi-manga artists making your favorite superhero look like Astro Boy, you’ll like what Staz has to offer.
I hope Brian Vaughan had fun writing this book. It feels like he did, like he was just having a ball playing with such classic characters. And that last page of the series...whew, it won’t have much effect if you just view it out of context, but as the culmination of the photographic themes running through the series and of Doc Ock’s pseudo-refined villainy...what a capper. Gave this Spider-Man fan a big ol’ grin.
BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS #50
Writer: A.J. Lieberman
Pencils: Al Barrionuevo
Inks: Francis Portela
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Ambush Bug
Y’know, I have a special place in my heart for Batman’s GOTHAM KNIGHTS title. BATMAN is the high profile book. DETECTIVE COMICS obviously leans more towards detective stories. In the past, LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT has supplied us with some pretty nice storyarcs featuring Bats’ early years. Then there’s GOTHAM KNIGHTS. This book is basically a relaunch of the old BATMAN FAMILY series from the 70’s. And I loved that series. The credo “No man is an island” applies to this book. Bats may appear to be a loner, but he’s developed quite a supporting cast over the years and this book embraces that fact. Writer Scott Beatty did a decent job of moving around Batman’s large cast and weaving in Bat-history here and there. Beatty’s run on the series wasn’t high profile. It definitely wasn’t for those who were new to Batman. But to those like me, who has read Batman for most of my life, this book supplied little nuances; little details; tiny nuggets of joy, if you will, that appease the Batfan in me to no end. I can’t say Beatty did a spectacular job, but I was entertained and appreciative that there was a Bat-book out there that acknowledged the fact that some comics don’t have to be stand alone, out of continuity, and longtime fan-unfriendly. Beatty’s run came to an end last issue, making way for a brand new team and a brand new direction.
And all I can say is “Wow! This book surprised me.”
GOTHAM KNIGHTS #50 is the beginning of the sequel to “Hush,” that over-hyped mess of a story by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee. There are many reasons why “Hush” failed to please, but for me it was that even though the story was set up as a mystery, Loeb didn’t write it as one. From the beginning Loeb told us over and over that we were reading a mystery. He devoted entire issues to explain what had just happened, threw in red herrings with reckless abandon, and padded it all up with guest stars a plenty. What Loeb didn’t do was supply enough information to make us give a fig (or more accurately understand a fig) as the story went on. If Loeb had done his job, the readers would not have needed an entire final issue to explain the hows and the whys behind it all. Mysteries should make us go “ah-ha,” not “ah…huh?”
So from the get-go, A.J. Lieberman had a major challenge when he nabbed the writing reigns of GOTHAM KNIGHTS. But he did what Loeb failed to do in his very first issue; he presented a clear set-up and an intriguing mystery. In the first few pages of this issue, we see the Riddler crash through a glass roof in the middle of a swanky party. So whodunnit? Who took revenge on the Riddler and how did it happen? Is he dead? And how does Batman fit into all of this? From the very beginning, we are asking these questions. Sure we may assume that Hush, the villain from the “Hush” story is behind it all, but nothing concrete is revealed yet. Lieberman then flashes back one week. He’s given us a taste of what is to come, and then jumps back to let the events unfold. We see an anonymous brute of a man walk through the swamps outside of Gotham stating that the world thinks him dead. We see the Riddler biding his time in jail, gloating at his role as gamesmaster during the events that unfolded in “Hush” and reaping the benefits he gets by living with felons in awe of him for doing so. This set-up and time shift provides a structure that actually gives promise to something intriguing; something that this stories’ “showcase-villain-of-the-week” predecessor failed to do.
Some may say, Loeb threw out questions too in “Hush.” And yes, he did, but Lieberman does something that Loeb doesn’t in this issue. He provides clues. Now, this is the first issue, mind you. They don’t all fit together yet. But three swamp hunters stumble into the anonymous man’s hideout and we get to see a bevy of clues, teasing us with what is to come in the next few issues. This issue’s focus is not “how can I make the Croc look cool” or “how many guest stars can I squeeze in here so that my Wizard artist of the month can do a redux on them.” The mystery is central in this story, not the glitz or fluff or filler. The mystery is what’s important. That fact alone puts this sequel on a much more interesting level than its predecessor.
On top of all of this, Lieberman shows that he knows his Bat-history. Not only do we see (or do we actually see it?) the re-appearance of Vesper Fairchild, who supposedly died in the “Bruce Wayne: Murderer” storyline, but Lieberman includes an homage to THE KILLING JOKE that gives the Joker more depth than he’s had in years. That type of attention to history is not often seen in comics today. JSA is the only other title I’ve seen do it with this type of respect and creativity. Instead of rewriting history, Lieberman takes what has been done before and builds off of it. He seems to realize something that many people in the industry don’t: he didn’t create these characters. Before he got this job, many writers have written these characters. Why not add to the tapestry instead of erasing it and starting over? Lieberman incorporates these bits of history seamlessly. The story is built around it. And longtime fans like me appreciate that.
For me, Batman books have never really been about the art. The strong stories always attracted me to the character. But if I were to buy a book on art alone, this would be that book. Barrionuevo and Portela may not be popular names right now, but these guys are phenomenal finds for DC. Batman has never looked more menacing, more powerful, more cool. The panels are cut together like frames in a film, each building off of the other to build tension, pop action, and move the story along. There is an action scene in this book where Batman swoops down and saves a woman who is about to be hit by a car. This scene has been done to death, but the way the action is framed is mesmerizing; as if I’ve seen this for the first time. Pieces of Batman are slowly revealed: his belt, the back of his cowl, his cape, the grappling hook. All of these pieces are staccato-ed in with scenes of the woman in peril. The final panel is a spectacular splash page that isn’t gratuitous, but a payoff to a well-paced build in intensity. This is the way dynamic storytelling is done right.
So I liked this book. Why? Because it did what it set out to do. It started with an intriguing mystery. It added depth by embracing the universe with which the story was told. Beautifully drawn. Powerfully developed. And oozing with promise. If “Hush” left an unsatisfying taste in your mouth like it did me, you may be avoiding this book, but you’re doing yourself a disservice for not giving it a chance. So far, this new arc in GOTHAM KNIGHTS is the mystery that “Hush” wanted to be.
SILENT HILL #1 (of 5)
Writer: Scott Ciencin
Artist: Ben Templesmith
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Reviewed by Cormorant
You ever play these SILENT HILL video games? Twisted. Some seriously twisted shit, man.
I played the first one, and even though the format and corny puzzles were straight out of RESIDENT EVIL, the “Tool video meets Jacob’s Ladder meets Hellraiser” atmosphere had me riveted. I loved that the character you controlled was this plain Jane novelist searching for his daughter in the fog-shrouded town of Silent Hill. He could barely use the lead pipes and other weapons he scavenged and he’d start gasping for air if you made him run too much. And then there were the demonic little zombie children and the ghost fetus and the nurses with those twitching humps on their backs as if some creature were alive and squirming in them.
Jesus!
Great game, and scarier on a moment-to-moment basis than any horror flick I’ve seen. I even bought the soundtrack (worth it). Never got around to the sequels because I don’t play video games all that often, but the trailer for the fourth installment has me seriously eyeing PS2 prices.
So naturally, I couldn’t resist a SILENT HILL comic when it came out.
The writer is franchise novelist Scott Ciencin, one of those guys who specializes in books based on licenses like ANGEL, STAR TREK, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, etc, but I also noticed he contributed to DARK SEDUCTIONS: TALES OF EROTIC HORROR, so don’t pigeonhole him, smart ass. I only know him from the two DEMONWARS series he wrote for CrossGen, which were above average swords ‘n’ sorcery pieces, and his work on SILENT HILL is pretty solid too.
Ciencin tells the story of burnout psychiatrist, Troy Abernathy. He’s rich, successful, and morally bankrupt enough to sleep with an emotionally manipulable woman who shows up at a signing for his self-help book. This is all apparently in response to his wife’s recent suicide, a suicide that took place after some cryptically referenced “bad thing” he did. But he’s apparently got real talent and, pressured by a friend, he gets his shot at redemption by taking on the case of a college girl whose mind is stuck in a world that’s something like MONSTERS INC. by way of Clive Barker. The mysterious source of her trauma? Why the abandoned town of Silent Hill, naturally! And after standard treatment and drugs fail to bring her back, Troy decides to try some radical therapy – a return trip to Silent Hill to convince her that no real monsters lurk there.
But, of course, they do.
Unfortunately, the monsters themselves – mostly just half-glimpsed in this first chapter – aren’t particularly scary in and of themselves. Visually, they’re ill-defined blobs of airbrushed sepia and gray, held together by only the barest of lines. That’s pretty much what Ben “30 Days of Night” Templesmith does. And some people love his murky, airbrushed horror comics, which crudely hint at better painters like Bill Sienkiewicz and Sam Kieth, but I file him under “all-style-no-substance”. His most unpardonable artistic offense is the almost total lack of backgrounds in his art. Here he is, drawing a comic that actually derives its name from a setting - a setting that’s rendered with potent detail in the video games - and all he latches onto is the superficial atmosphere of fog and shadows. Granted, huge portions of these games take place under lighting conditions comparable to the movie SE7EN, but even so there’s always a wealth of rusty, desiccated, gore-smeared detail to make the cityscape all but tangible.
Click on the following:
Sample screenshot from the video game.
See the disparity? Now Templesmith has his moments. His work is crude but has a touch of real visceral energy at times, as when we glimpse the startling image of an undead nurse rising from a gurney with a scalpel jammed in her neck. And I actually do like his fog effects. His characters’ faces – seemingly the only subject to receive any sort of detailed modeling – are eye catching. Still, I can’t help but imagine how much creepier this all could’ve been in the hands of a textured artist like the reigning king of manga horror, Junji Ito, or even MIA great, Steve Bissette. Pants-crappingly creepy, that’s what it could have been.
But I enjoyed myself with SILENT HILL. The comic did manage to capture something of the game’s inescapable, Lovecraftian sense of doom, and yes, I’m curious to know the secret that caused Troy’s wife to kill herself, and why she’s appearing to him now as an undead nurse with a scalpel in her throat. I like Troy too. I don’t know if his story’s adapted from one of the games or if he’s a newcomer to Silent Hill, but his flawed character is a welcome change of pace from the more sympathetic types we’re used to in horror stories.
So, a qualified recommendation. Fans of the game, of disturbing Tool videos, and those strange folk who call themselves fans of Ben Templesmith should give this a look-see. There are other, better horror comics out there (GYO, UZUMAKI, FREAKS OF THE HEARTLAND, THE WALKING DEAD), but they don’t have the SILENT HILL license working for them, do they?
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #504
J. Michael Straczynski & Fiona Avery: Writers
John Romita Jr.: Artist
Marvel Comics: Publisher
Vroom Socko: @$$hole sense tingling
This arc is a quintessential example of the whole not being the sum of its parts. We have an honest-to-god two-issue arc, with a story by Straczynski and art by JRJR. We have one of my favorite types of stories, when a traditional villain doesn’t necessarily take the part of a hero, but does commit a noble act to further his own ends. And yet, the whole thing fails to come together.
Sure, this issue does look terrific, especially the Morwen/Loki/Spidey brawl, but I’m getting a little sick of all the mystical crap that’s been seen in Amazing lately. Hell, even Spider-Man’s bitching about it on page one. There’s also the matter of the final page of last issue. Morwen was shown granting a bunch of thugs with awe-inspiring weaponry in an effort to further her love of chaos. There’s no sign of them here though; this particular story thread just vanishes into the ether.
Then there’s Loki. I love the idea of him being more of the traditional trickster than the malevolent god of evil. Of course, this doesn’t mesh with his use in the current Thor story, or even his past appearances. I’m slowly coming to accept this, that continuity really is a dirty word. That Marvel no longer has a shared universe, that when, say, Mr. Fantastic shows up in this book (like he did in issue 500,) it’s a completely different character than the one from Fantastic Four. That the Spider-Man that appears in this book is most likely not going to be the same character Millar will soon be writing about. I’m still not happy about it, but I’m starting to accept it.
But this still doesn’t shed much light on why this issue doesn’t work. It’d be easy to blame Fiona Avery. Sure, her script has Loki sounding an awful lot like Spidey, but that sort of thing’s been a flaw of this book for a while now. Sure, her previous work on the much maligned Bright miniseries was sub par at best, but she’s also responsible for No Honor, a series that I had a blast with. Her prose on this issue falls somewhere in between those two, but it’s by no means a stinker.
So why? Why does this story fail to come together? All the pieces are fine on their own, yet result in a mediocre mess when brought together. John Romita jr. is kicking ass on the art, as always, the plot has legs, yet I can’t in good conscious recommend this issue. I wish I could, I really do, if for no other reason than I’d love to see more two issue arcs from Marvel. But this issue is just not a convincing whole.
Oh well, there’s always next issue.
DAREDEVIL #57
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Alex Maleev
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewed by Cormorant
Ah, Brian Michael Bendis, how you vex me! In some ways you’re probably the most frustrating comic creator I’ve ever encountered. On one hand - the groundbreaking primacy of your dialogue, the relentlessly original staging, the masterful comedic timing, the riveting cliffhangers, and the impressive depth of characterization. On the other hand, the over-writing, the continuity gaffs, and the stilted action sequences.
When I read the previous issue of DAREDEVIL – Bendis’s return to the book after a brief hiatus – I found myself torn once again. It picked up a year after his last story (a year for the characters, that is), and had reporter Ben Urich laying down some serious exposition. Seated across from a shadowed figure he clearly trusted, he spent the entire issue piecing together Daredevil’s life over the course of the apparently eventful last year. The Kingpin – utterly defeated! Daredevil – unquestioned overseer of Hell’s Kitchen! Alter ego Matt Murdock – potential Democratic nominee for mayor of New York! All this and an abortive intervention from a group of Daredevil’s fellow long underwear types who felt his “whatever it takes” tactics had crossed a line. Urich’s narration was a little dense, but the smartly-written snippets of the events he’d heard about second or third-hand won me over. The energy lost when Urich simply told us how Daredevil had brutally cleaned up Hell’s Kitchen was made up for with the thrill of a whirlwind catch-up and the various mysteries dangled:
Who was Urich talking to? Did Murdock run for mayor? What were the other startling events of the last year that Urich alluded to? And who the hell were the hundred Asian gangster-types who surrounded Murdock and his girlfriend on that last page?!
Gripes aside (err, now why didn’t Matt’s super-senses pick up the hundred Asian gangster types setting a trap for him?), I was back onboard.
Our latest issue opens with two more pages of dense “talking heads” narration from Urich – man does he give his shadowed listener an earful! And it’s cool, because everyone knows Daredevil’s about to throw down against a hundred Asian gangster-types, so a little exposition is just the calm before the storm. Sure enough, page three gives us a terrific visual: Matt Murdock crouched for battle in the pouring rain, his cane held behind his head like a samurai sword, and a mass of silhouetted scumbags surrounding him. Smaller panels below – guns drawn, bad guys gulping down drugs to supercharge ‘em, close-ups on eyes measuring their opponents. It’s a great scene from the Sergio Leone playbook, the gunslingers’ face-off that opens with a wide establishing shot, gains momentum with a series of tight close-ups, and finally explodes into action.
And the next page is a beaut – a perfect use of a full-page splash as Matt Murdock fucking leaps at these hundred Asian gangsters, suddenly a mythic warrior who looks so badass in his three-piece suit, sword-like cane ready to strike, that he might actually have a chance! And the next page works too, returning to the quick cuts of moment-to-moment action as Murdock’s initial wave of momentum has him smacking down Yakuza jagoffs right and left.
Maybe it was too good to last.
The next page is a massive two-page splash – Murdock swinging his cane in the foreground with an abstract fighting montage behind him and a string of goddamn Ben Urich narration running down the side - utterly killing the momentum. From this point onward, Urich narrates everything, and I couldn’t have been more disappointed. Bendis used him to set the stage, gave the action a brief chance to speak for itself...and then suddenly pulled back. Pulled back to tell the reader how rough a situation Murdock was in, to talk about witnesses to the fight, and even to go off on a historical tangent about the formation of the Yakuza.
ARGHHH!!! Bendis, you were kicking so much ass! You picked the perfect moment to give the visuals primacy and then...and then I can only assume you suddenly had a crisis of confidence. Will my fans forgive me if I ease up on the talkity-talk for the majority of an issue, or will they go apeshit like they did with POWERS #31? And you fell back on what comes too naturally, on that motormouth narration that’s so great everywhere BUT action scenes – and it just siphoned off all that fight energy you’d so skillfully set up. And a little narration would’ve been okay, would’ve kept readers from just whizzing through the issue, but...a capsule history of the Yakuza?
I’m not even mad (paternal voice here) – just disappointed that such an adrenaline-pumping, serious, you-are-there moment got kneecapped by the safe play.
And when all is said and done, the big reveal as to who Urich is talking to makes it that much more ridiculous, because this is absolutely NOT a person who would sit through all of Urich’s speechifyin’. This person even says, “I don’t care about any of this,” as if to shine a blinding spotlight on the artifice of Urich’s two-issue exposition.
Dang.
Damn.
FUCK.
Just once I wish I could like everything about a Bendis comic, but I think it’s a lost cause. His failings aren’t cosmetic for me, and they’re destined to stand out in sharp contrast to the relative glow of the innovation that’s just as defining for him. The question, then, is whether I can live with this manic depressive mix. For most of his books, I’m afraid the answer is no - I’m not a masochist. But for DAREDEVIL...shit, I’m still stuck on maybe.
Leaning towards yes.
SUPERMAN/BATMAN #6
Written by Jeph Loeb
Pencilled by Ed McGuiness
Inked by Dexter Vines
Published by DC Comics
Reviewed by Village Idiot
Ladies and Gentlemen, it was a deathmatch like no other, one to rock the halls of Raganrok! I'm still shaking.
No, I'm not talking about any of the fights in SUPERMAN/BATMAN #6, I'm talking about the internal struggle I had between what I liked and what I didn't like about the issue. Brr. (Okay, cheap intro, so sue me.)
On one hand, in SUPERMAN/BATMAN #6, we not only had a whiz-bang, slam-packed outing that pitted two giants of the DCU against each other in an awesome battle (Superman and Lex Luthor this time, not my internal struggle), we also had the culmination and climax of Jeph Loeb's efforts on Superman since he started writing the characters back in 1999. We had Luthor cutting loose in the big, green, George Perez battlesuit. We had guest stars like Captain Atom and Toyman. We even had Composite Superman make an appearance, (well, almost). We had elements that I love when it comes to comics: big, fantastic, superhero stuff. I'm even willing to give Ed McGuiness's art a nod for bringing a real sense of energy and excitement to the table, in certain points it was like a big shiny neon fireworks explosion.
And yet, the captions killed me. The captions killed me, again. Again!
The plot of SUPERMAN/BATMAN involves a huge, cataclysmic Kryptonite asteroid hurling towards Earth, and the President of the U.S./Supervillain Lex Luthor trying to find a way to pin the blame on Superman. By issue #6, Superman and Batman have managed to evade Luthor's efforts to arrest Superman, plus find a strategy to deal with the asteroid. Eventually, Superman, weakened by the nearing Kryptonite asteroid, and Luthor, powered up both with the battlesuit and various performance enhancing chemicals, have a spectacular fight in the skies of Metropolis...
...while Superman muses about the American electoral process.
Arggh!
I mean, call me crazy, but for Superman to contemplate how Luthor got elected in the midst of a what is supposed to be a climactic fight, not to mention the first physical confrontation between the characters in 20 years, seemed inappropriate. Shouldn't Superman's head be a little more in the game? And more to the point, shouldn't ours?
And this has been the problem throughout the series: Loeb has tried to layer the narrative, but it comes at the expense of the central action, and at a price too dear. Take the above scenario, and add the fact that we also had to deal with Captain Atom's mission, and his reflections on life, the universe, and everything. With all these elements now woven through the climactic battle, you wind up with 4 narrative threads: 1. Superman versus Luthor, 2. Superman versus the American electoral process, 3. Captain Atom flying the Composite Superman Rocket into the asteroid, and 4. Captain Atom giving background exposition for his role in the past 6 issues. Attention was diffused. Interest was diffused. Instead of a riveting read with a interesting plot and fun concepts, we have a distracting disappointment.
Reflective captions are Loeb's signature style. It's certainly the style he used on the projects that brought him his greatest acclaim. And in some instances, they work. For whatever problems I may have had with "Hush," Batman's inner-dialog wasn't one of them. And SUPERMAN FOR ALL SEASONS is actually quite good. In both of these stories, especially SFAS, I felt the captions actually integrated with what's going on in the panel effectively without splitting attention too divergently.
But the trick wasn't pulled off in SUPERMAN/BATMAN, which was a damn shame. At the end of the day, I really liked the story; I just had a hard time with the storytelling.
PUNISHER #1-3
Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Lewis Larosa
Publisher: Marvel MAX
Reviewed by Cormorant
I thought I was over the Punisher.
SO over him.
As a kid and early teen, of course, I thought he was a total badass. Great costume, for starters, and as every heavy metal band in the world will tell you, teens love skull symbols. Teens also love guns – in lieu of sex, they’re quite sexy themselves. And the guy was appearing in cool, urban superhero books like DAREDEVIL and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, teaming up with these great heroes and even one-upping them in the “blowing away dirtbag coke dealers” category. Whattaguy!
As he branched off into his own series, my enthusiasm almost immediately dwindled, however. Seems I liked him best as a supporting player, as a reluctant partner for Spider-Man or as an honorable opponent. He had a touch of three-dimensionality, but ultimately I decided that outside the context of a superhero environment, he was just a vigilante with a heavy metal t-shirt.
And maybe he IS. Maybe he is and I’m just a stupid kid at heart, ‘cause lately I’ve been having a ball with his R-rated adventures under Garth Ennis’s gleefully exploitational pen. I blame the upcoming movie, damn thing. Moriarty says it’s pretty good, and maybe it does work on its own merits, but how can I NOT gravitate back to the comic when the movie’s turning Frank Castle into an undercover cop (wuss) even as Ennis reminds us with exit wounds galore just how important it is that Frank’s ex-military?! Sure, Ennis showed a degree of subtlety in his first issue with the retelling of the deaths of Frank’s wife and kids, but let’s be honest – the heart of that issue was the total bloodbath military assault on a packed mob party. “It’s Omaha Beach,” Frank narrated as he opened up on the wall of partygoers with an M-60. “Wounded Knee. Rorke’s Drift, the Killing Fields, the first day on the Somme.” And when some mob boys tried to flank ‘im, they ran smack dab into the fucking claymore mine he’d planted in the bushes earlier.
See? Military man.
And I like that Ennis has kept the Vietnam vet angle. There’s some controversy over Ennis’s BORN miniseries that suggested Frank was loopy and talking with death in Vietnam even before his family got mowed, but whatever one’s take on that, he really was of that era. Tempered in Vietnam, shaped by the pop cultural embrace of fantasy vigilantism in the early ‘70s...it just seems wrong to excise his connection to that period as the Punisher movie surely will. So he’d be in his fifties if he’d fought in ‘Nam? Alright then, he’s in his fifties - so? The series’ terrific artist, Lewis Larosa, sure as hell makes him craggy enough that I believe it, but still draws him thick as an M-1 Abrams, so it’s not like the words “over the hill” will enter your mind reading the book.
Aside from Ennis’s usual ultraviolence button-pushing, the meat of this first arc is that Punisher’s old gadget man – his one true confidante, a pudgy, aging tech expert codenamed Micro – is for some reason assisting a covert group of G-Men in bringing the Punisher down. They’re a colorful lot, including one female agent who’s so horny for the Punisher that she has to stick her face in a refrigerator when she first hears his gravelly voice, but the face-off between Punisher and his former friend is handled without a trace of humor.
Thank god. I dug the first five or ten issues of Ennis’s blackly humorous relaunch of PUNISHER a few years ago, but it got old fast. The emotional high point of the latest issue is Micro forcing Punisher to look at photos of his former family in happier times, and the anguish on Punisher’s face in response is horrific. His craggy face is so steeped in shadows that you can’t tell whether it reveals pure hatred for Micro or whether he might actually be crying, but it’s a damn powerful image. Kudos to the artist, and kudos to Ennis for allowing the moment to happen without exposition or narration.
Is the plotting a little simple? Yes. Punisher wars on the mob, covert group nabs him for their own, as yet unspoken purposes, and the mob tries to get at Punisher while he’s in custody. Nothing sophisticated, but as an opening arc, it’s doing a nice job of getting to the heart of the character. And along the way, Ennis does his usual violent song-and-dance, giving us some legitimately scary (and occasionally goofy) mobsters, a memorable scene of the aging, overweight Micro literally grabbing a CIA agent by the balls when he gets called out, and a big cup of Ennis’s house specialty: male bonding under duress. He handles it well. Punisher says almost nothing during Micro’s interrogation of and appeal to him, but the connection between them is as close as the Punisher gets to familial. It’s tough love. Tough as nails love. And what the hell is Micro’s offer to the Punisher on that last page? It’s gotta be a doozy.
I don’t mean to oversell this book. It might end up getting too goofy again. It may never aspire to any real sophistication beyond Ennis’s common theme of brotherhood in a world gone to shit. But one of the most clearcut signs that a comic has its game on is that readers are hot ‘n’ heavy anticipating the next issue. For the first time since I was a kid, that’s me – hot ‘n’ heavy for the Punisher.
BATMAN #624
Written by Brian Azzarello
Art by Eduardo Risso
Published by DC Comics
A JonQuixote Review
K.I.S.S.
Good noir moves with the rhythm of smooth jazz. Bad noir lurches all over the place like a junior high marching band coughing up a deformed version of “Hang on Sloopy.” Good noir is dark, because it shows us the seedy underside of humanity. Bad noir is dark for darkness’s sake. Good noir is razor sharp in its dialogue. Bad noir bluntly clubs you over the head with its purple prose. Good noir lingers on your palate like good port and dark chocolate. Bad noir often requires a chaser of something sweet to keep you from throwing up.
Good noir surprises you with its turns and intricacies. Bad noir merely frustrates you.
Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s BATMAN does both, and is therefore neither.
There’s a great story here. Batman is investigating the brutal murder of a pregnant woman, trying to find the prime suspect – her brother – a small-time crook with ties to some big-time bad guys. It’s stark, it’s compelling, and at its core, its twists and turnarounds are elegant in their simplicity.
It’s good noir.
Unfortunately, it’s swaddled in layers and layers of the shitty stuff.
It might be a better read when the entire run is collected, but the seemingly superfluous complexities make it very difficult to get at the meat. Sort of like a Big Mac. It’s a burger – it’s built around the beef (or whatever passes for it there), but if you had better like stale bread and mayonnaise to go with your patties. In order to get to the beef of “Broken City”, you’ve got to go on a tour of Gotham – there’s a couple new bad guys who apparently aren’t strong enough to support an arc on their own, so we’ve got to pay visits to Croc, The Penguin, and the Ventriloquist, each stop doing little more than raising the profile of the antagonists while advancing the plot merely a smidge and, often, in ways completely indecipherable to the reader.
When you think back three months and ask, “wait…why did Batman have to go see the Ventriloquist again?”you’re not reading a very effective monthly comic. When the tone of the book is all over the place and the most powerful theme – Batman hunting a criminal who commits a crime very similar to the one that took Thomas and Martha Wayne – is lost amid all the detours and pit stops and off ramps... it’s not a very effective comic book.
The best noir is, despite its twists and turns, shockingly simple. THE GLASS KEY. RED HARVEST. DOUBLE INDEMNITY. BLOOD SIMPLE. All smooth, like jazz or port.
The worst stuff so needlessly complex that all you can concentrate on is the aftertaste. And in fattening up “Broken City” with a cavalcade of rogues and runarounds, “Broken City” has become needlessly complex. Plot points and important moments from the earlier chapters have become lost to time and tangents. It’s never been quite so bad that I was willing to bail completely - I’m compelled by the engine, the heart of the story - but it ain’t a good sign when I close the book on chapter five and sigh at the prospect of yet another installment.
There is a lot of good comic book noir on the stands today. 100 BULLETS and SLEEPER come to mind, and then there are those which flirt with the genre like GOTHAM CENTRAL. Not to mention their readily available antecedents in works like THE LONG HALLOWEEN.
I’ve seen far better stuff than this. So, most likely, have you.
And so have Azzarello and Risso. Which is why they should know better.
CONAN #1
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artist: Cary Nord
Publisher: Dark Horse
Reviewer: Sleazy G.
There are certain key elements that are absolutely crucial to telling a good CONAN story. Dismemberments: check. Schemes and betrayal: check. Old-world hotties: check. Big dude who’s an equal opportunity barbarian, willing to ally himself with or execute members of any exotic race he encounters: check. Grand journey or quest: check. There’s more to it, than just that, though. Unskilled writers may realize these are all the crucial elements, but fail to combine them in the proper way or do so in a compelling manner. We’ve all seen stories in our favorite books before that seem to have all the right elements and yet seem to be missing the spark they need to really click.
Fortunately, when putting together the creative team for this new series editor Scott Allie managed to lock in one of the best creators in comics. Kurt Busiek has done some absolutely amazing work in his creator-owned titles like ASTRO CITY and ARROWSMITH. His work in AVENGERS was roundly praised, and I honestly don’t know if there is another writer working today who could accomplish what he has in JLA/AVENGERS. Busiek proves yet again in CONAN that he’s one of the most gifted writers in the industry. This first issue shows that he not only understands what elements a good Conan story needs, but that he *gets* the character as well. The tale is set during Conan’s younger days, as he’s traveling the world looking for new realms and experiences. Like Roy Thomas before him (and perhaps others as well—I’m not the expert on Robert E. Howard characters that Buzz is), Busiek realizes that these tales of a younger, less experienced Conan are where the most interesting stories are. As we watch Conan make serious mistakes that teach him painful lessons we see him gradually transform into the Conqueror we know he will someday become.
The great thing about this approach is we get the character development we need along with the sword-slingin’ we crave. Busiek jumps right into the thick of it from the very beginning. We get Conan jumping in to defend a village under attack, the villagers who initially distrust him but eventually appear to come around, Conan’s journey seeking the mythic land of Hyperborea, and a cuckolded lover who’s less than thrilled to see the Cimmerian around. It’s all served up with the kind of romping and stomping we’re paying to see, and enough intrigue to keep your attention. It’s got all the classic elements a good Conan story requires, and it’s got a wonderfully talented writer to tell it.
Allie didn’t stop at nailing down a fantastic writer, though. Cary Nord’s artwork in this issue is amazing. There’s no question there are elements of the classic Conan style we’ve come to expect present here, with hints of Frazetta and Barry Windsor Smith among others. There are curvaceous women and muscular warriors, and plenty of good ol’ fashioned butchery. There’s more than that, though. The painted art is lush, yet fully able to express the brutality of the battles. You can feel the movement in the panels when characters are attacking or dodging, and the blood spray and dismemberments are...well...lovely, really. The energy in these panels helps really propel the story along and pull your eyes from point to point. For example, page three is the title page, and it’s a gorgeous single panel. The way it’s laid out and painted, it drags your eye from the top left corner, down and across, swooping in an arc to the bottom right corner. Revisiting that panel a few times, I could practically feel Conan’s sword swinging across the panel. It’s just one of several panels with that kind of impact, too. This issue focuses on wintery climes and viking types, and it’s fantastic. I can’t wait to see what happens when Nord gets turned loose on some of the more exotic creations in Howard’s stable.
If you’ve ever been a fan of Conan, you need to track a copy of this book down. If there’s any writer out there today capable of spinning tales of this character in classic style, it’s Busiek, and the art is some of the best and most unique on the shelves right now. It’s not going to be easy, since the book sold out in a matter of days, but if you dig around and find one you’ll be glad you did. If you can’t track an issue down, I wouldn’t worry too much—with the response this book is getting, I fully expect a reprinting of the issue or a collection to come along very shortly, and with good reason. I had intended for this section of my little remembrance to appear in our previous column, but this portion of Cerebus (contained in volumes 7 through 10,) has been rather difficult to write about. The shadow of issue #186 is something that hangs over the whole of Cerebus, but until now I’ve avoided mentioning it. I’m tempted even now to just ignore it, talking instead about the rest of Mothers & Daughters. And there is some great stuff here. Flight, for example, ties together much of the materiel from the first volume, with characters who showed up only once a hundred and forty issues back shown in a new light. Old favorites are also reintroduced, and reevaluated. The war between Cerebus and Cirin explodes into massive street violence, with Cerebus receiving the unlikely aid of the Punisheroach. (Yes, it’s just as fucked up as it sounds.) And Cerebus finally comes face to face with Suenteus Po. Then in Women, we get the foundations of the conflict between Cirin and Astoria, as their present relationship changes and evolves. Cerebus has an interesting conversation with a character I will not name. Then there’s the Roach, who, in his final appearance, gives us what even Neil Gaiman considers the funniest damn Sandman parody of all time. Reads (the comics portion, at any rate,) gives us the answers to a multitude of questions, a helluva sendoff to the character of Astoria, and one massive, bloody, brutal fight between Cerebus and Cirin that climaxes in a second ascension. Then in Minds, more questions are answered. Cerebus has a long conversation with the creator of the universe (i.e. Dave Sim.) Then after seeing what his future would have been like if he’d chosen Jaka over his own power and glory, he returns home a little wiser than he left. Well, he thinks he’s wiser, at any rate. There’s a lot of fun stuff in these fifty issues, and a lot of heavy stuff as well. Of the four volumes, Women is probably the best, not only for the Sandman riff, but the development of Astoria. There’s also Sim’s continued use of text pieces, first seen in the flashback/reads sections of Jaka’s Story. Here, they’re mainly used as a sort of transcript alongside splash pages. In fact, other creators have since used this device, most notably on the Doug Moench/Kelley Jones run of Batman, as well as issue #52 of Ultimate Spider-Man. This sort of comics storytelling, used properly, can be very effective in bringing out a lot of information in little space. But then there’s the text in Reads. The first half of the Reads text is the story of Victor Reid, which is basically a “what if?” story; what if Dave Sim had sold out as an artist? This section has text on one page, with the opposite containing a single illustration. Then in the second half, Viktor Davis (essentially Dave Sim himself,) holds court over a multitude of concepts in a section that is text only. These two stories have a great deal to say about the creative process, audiences, and philosophy. Some of it is interesting, even compelling. Some of it isn’t. And then there’s the finale. Issues 185 and 186. Sim has issues with women. When he (sorry, Viktor, ) starts talking about his views on gender relations, this becomes immediately apparent. His claim is that there are two forces in this world: the thinking, reasoning light, and the emotional void. The light is inherently male, and the void is female. The light is the source of creativity and achievement, the void is a massive leech that sucks males dry. The light relies on logic, while the void just spins in circles until everyone feels “happy.” The light is male. The void is female. And Sim is fucking nuts. Here, just go to this link and read it for yourself. There’s also a link in there to his other essay on gender, called Tangents. (And you couldn’t get me to reread that turkey for all the tea in China.) Sim’s arguments here, while claiming to be on the side of the Male Light, fit more in line with his descriptions of the Female Void. He offers little in the way of illumination, instead proffering his opinions as universal truth. After all, why else would he think this way if it weren’t true? There’s also his statement that these emotional voids are no better than animals, but then betrays his own animalistic interests by saying that women are only useful for sex. So yes, Dave Sim is a misogynistic bastard. He’s also a damn talented artist. The two are, after all, about as mutually exclusive as, oh, reason and emotion. In any case, even assholes can achieve, and Sim has definitely achieved something amazing on this book. We’re two hundred issues in. Next time, it’s the start of the home stretch; the final hundred issues. Until then… Cheap Shots!
KNIGHTS 4 #2 - This isn't a bad series. It's absolutely not what I
want in the FF, being an almost sitcom-ish approach to the team as they hunt
for jobs after going broke, but it's not bad. Ultimately, though, there's
only one, stunning focal point of discussion for the second issue: Sue
Richards' stunning rack as drawn by series' artist Steve McNiven!
Sorry for the sexism, ladies and sensitive types, but...WOW. McNiven
honestly goes totally overboard in casting Sue as the ultimate "hot for
teacher" fantasy, but for superhero comics, her tight blouse, short skirt
and librarian glasses are all but understated, and man does he make
understated look good. - Cormorant
SUPERMAN #202 - The current storyline running through the Superman titles is selling out everywhere, and I'm not quite sure why. Is it the Michael Turner covers? Is it the Talent Caldwell art inside? Is it the shiney paper? In any case, Superman-Who-Doesn't-Remember-He's-Superman is having problems on what looks to be Kandor (the bottle city). The culprit behind everything? His hot purple wife. The story is diverting enough, and kinda purty in an Image sort-of-way, but Superman doesn't feel particularly Superman-y. He feels like Dean Cain on a bad day. - Village Idiot
FLASH #207 - Fine. You got me. I’m a Geoff Johns licker. Someone else was supposed to review the beginning of this arc and new artist Howard Porter’s debut. I slobbered all over Johns’s JSA two weeks ago. I fawn all over the dude in a recent interview. So I can’t really praise FLASH, right? My credibility is at stake! Whatever. Buy FLASH!! Hey, if you could write intelligent, literate superhero stories without sacrificing oh, everything that makes superheroes fun as well as he does here, I’d be dragging my tongue all over you too. But you can’t. - Jon Quixote
LEGION #30 - In my many years as a student of comic art, I've learned two things: one, people tend to hit me when I tell them I'm a "student of comic art", and two, satisfying climaxes to the long story arcs are very hard to pull off. LEGION has been humming along for the past few months with a real crackerjack of a storyline: In the Legion future, Old, ossified Darkseid has brought up from the past a younger, more supple version of himself that he can take over. Unfortunately, this wreaks havoc on the timeline. Watch as the Legion battles back both Darkseids, plus the dark forces of Apocalipse, plus the evil dopplegangers of present-day heroes created by new timeline (Dark Flash, Dark Green Lantern, etc.). It all ends in issue #30, with things a little more low-key than I expected. There needed to be a bigger bang. Still though, good fun and the arc was well-worth the read.
Death of an Aardvark: Episode IV
A Tales from the Crevice Special
by Vroom Socko
Question For Discussion
What do you think of what Sim has to say about women?
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this is my first every post here at AICN
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damn right.
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Without spoiling anything, is the identity of Hush still up for debate? If so, I'm *definitely* picking up GK tomorrow. I was dead-certain Hush would be Hugo Strange, but seeing as that was an out-of-left-field choice anyway, it's probably not a spoiler to say that "the other doctor Strange" was eerily absent. If there's a chance of fixing the mess that was the last issue of the Hush arc, I'm in! Good reviews guys, cheers.
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first you whores.
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Batman is proving to be a frustrating tale, needless deviations - but hopefully something good can come of the conclusion next issue: maybe it'll be one of those where everything makes a lot more sense in retrospect, and reading the arc again will reveal hidden depths.
The whole Hush thing is back to make you promises it won't keep, not reveal anything and remind us how disappointed we were in the original (Year-Long!) arc that ended up giving us nothing. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice....
DD was excellent - if a little Matrix Reloaded in style and specific fight choreography - but the whole reveal of the Urich conversation character didn't work, especially when you look at the narration last issue. It's still great, poetic at times and visually arresting, but it needs to keep moving, keep interesting. -
Dave sim just says it how it is.
Men art usually the most creative,
women are fucking leeches, they need
to be to bring up familys. They have
to drag men back to help contribute
to the family its what they do.
Men are walking wallets, and thats about it.
He's just saying it hows it is. -
The Killing Joke is about one of the most noted comics in Batman's history despite Alan Moore himself thinking it's a bit rubbish. To praise Lieberman for incorporating this as "doing his homework" is kind of like praising Turner and Kelly for incorporating mentions of the Death of Superman story in their arc or riffing on Alan Moore's "For The Man Who Has Everything" story.
Besides which the entire point of Killing Joke is that the Joker doesn't remember the horrible events which happened to him to drive him over the edge although something bad definitely happened to him. Some days he remembers the events one way, other days he remembers them another way.
Jeannie may have never existed as far as we know and for Lieberman to shove in the photo album scene was utterly stupid.And what's with praising the appearance of Vesper Fairchild whose murder occupied the Bat-books for months on end with that storyline only wrapping up right before Hush? Putting a Silver St Cloud ref (like Ed Brubaker did in Batman #600) or a Shonfra Kinsolving ref (like Loeb did during Hush with that and the homage to a past Brave and the Bold issue) would have been noting history. On the issue itself I can't say I found it to be anything other than mediocre.
Could have enirely done without the "supervillain brutally disposes of bystanders to show what a badass he is" scene. Cover was nice though. Oh and what the hell's Riddler doing in jail? He should be in Arkham in his supervillain suit, not in prison orange. -
Sorry, fembots, but the core of Sim's argument is essentially sound. Yes, he's out of his mind (clearly he hates women for some personal reason yet to be revealed, certainly something more than just the divorce from Deni), and he undermines himself by taking his position to ugly, unnecessary extremes (as a result of a, yes, emotional obsessiveness with the topic), but dig it... women in general do tend to be emotionalistic and all-too-frequently allow their emotions to overwhelm reason and common sense; they also tend to be manipulative and take a bit too much pleasure in having a degree of control over other persons, male or female. Anyone who doesn't see this is deluded, retarded, or needs to get out of the house more often. These are qualities that are useful in mothers for simple evolutionary purposes, but become problematic when extended across society in general (as has been pointed out elsewhere, the ever-mounting threat to our accustomed freedoms and way of life comes not from "Big Brother", but from "Big Nanny"). Sim does himself and his argument no favors by indulging in a bizarre, paranoid idea that there is some sort of unspoken conspiracy among predatory, "Void"-driven females to subjugate "Light"-inspired men and take over society; he also fails to take into account that many women are perfectly capable of overriding their biologically-determined bad habits (just as most men are capable of rising above their biologically-determined bad habits of rape and murder). I just want to get past all the whining and griping about Sim's misogyny so we can get to the really good stuff... the complete collapse of his sanity, his emotional, hypocritical embrace of some weird sort of Islamo-Christianity (wherein he picks and chooses the parts of the Koran and Bible that he likes, and ascribes the rest to some Evil Cosmic Entity called "Yooh-Whoo"... no, I'm not kidding), and his descent into a kind of knuckle-dragging conservatism that makes Michael Savage look almost intelligent. Until then...
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Sim makes some good points and valid observations, but it's really no different than the crap you hear every day from stand-up comics and morning radio DJs. (Women, huh? They're always whining about something, am I right fellas? And what's with those airline peanuts, anyway?) The difference is, most stand-up comics and morning radio DJs don't believe that the differences between men and women are the result of the genetic inferiority of the female, or that women secretly rule the world in some sort of vast feminist conspiracy. I suspect that Sim's clinical schizophrenic tendencies combined with the possibility that he got dumped one too many times led to some sort of crackpot theory in his mind. Anyway, the real problem with "Reads" is that each issue is 18 pages of Sim ranting and 2 pages of actual comic. sk
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It's the reason why I stuck with comics, and didn't 'grow out' of them. Cerebus challenges its readers, and that's not a bad thing. Whether you agree or disagree with Sim, he presents his arguments well.
Besides, it's not the ONLY thing that Cerebus is about.
I had gone through a bad break up with my ex-girlfriend about ten years ago, and Cerebus helped me through it. It helped me put women into a different perspective. I don't put them on a pedestal as I did, and I see more of the differences between men and women. All of my relationships have been much more meaningful because of it.
Not that I go to the level that Sim does, but I have a healthy skepticism of women now. -
Hey, Dave saved my dating life, too! Ya gotta face up to the truth (men and women are different) and move on from there. In defense of Reads, the "Viktor Reid" character, if you read the whole book, is supposed to be the "Anti-Dave," who takes Dave's positions and to vicious extremes, wanting only to hurt the targets of his vitriol... So much for the misogyny of "Reads." The misogyny of "Tangents," on the other hand, is real, but as other talkbackers have said it isn't the overall message that's misogynistic and unfair: Only some of Dave's flights of fancy and sideshows along the way.
....... Now, on to the firey, living thing in the center of the earth!!! First off, in Dave's defense, HE doesn't call it "Yooh-Whoo;" he just has Cerebus call it that. To the rest of us, it's YHWH. YHWH, as a completely different being than God? A little God, that rules over vegetable life only, but can entreat the real God to alter our reality whenever it wants? And that the real God LISTENS to, and makes all its wishes come true, in the attempt to show it that it is not God? ......Okay, maybe that's a LITTLE crazy. But, let's keep in mind Alan Moore worships a snake demon, and makes "sacrifices" to it by means of setting old family photographs on fire. I guess my point is: comic books can save you from losing your mind over women, but in the end, they will destroy you just as completely. Mmmmmmm. -
1. As a writer and artist: Extremely talented perhaps even genius. 2. As a person: Misogynistic, bigoted, (homosexualists anyone? do your homework) and an all-around immature and whiny asshole with an amazingly weak ego. 3. As a leader of men: If you let someone like Sim apply your benchmarked perceptions you're even more sad and messed up than he is. Bottom line: As a creator and artist? One of the best. As a person? One of the severely messed up. Any questions? Write them on toilet paper and use them to pound sand up your ass.
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Nah, it couldn't have been. But it was about as close as you @$$holes get.
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Mar 02, 2004 11:47:22 AM CST
Hulkdog, if you can believe, we've actually given WHOLLY positiv
by dave_f
Being a shameless self-promoter, I only can give you the link to my own such review (it was for the quarter issue) - http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=14247 - but I want to say that Liz and maybe even Superninja have had some very nice things to say about DAREDEVIL at times. Or am I thinking of ALIAS? Anyway, we can show the love sometimes, but if we don't counteract it with plenty of venom we risk having our @$$hole license revoked.
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Check back on some articles regarding this upcoming Punisher movie. Frank Castle is ex-military. The movie website even gives quite a bit of background on Frank Castle's operations in Desert Storm ,and what not. There's even an evaluation of Castle deeming him very dangerous to work with. So, he's not in Vietnam... he's still highly strained, and has seen war. He doesnt become a cop until his wife essentially tells him to choose between them or the military.
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I'll say it again and everytime it comes out until they prove me wrong. There isn't a single character yet that they have made me give two shits about. Luckily a 100 Bullets is coming next week...I guess we'll see the next one in what..August? Save your money, buy Caper. Caper has been kicking everything else's ass since it started.
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As silly as Ennis's previous run on PUNISHER got, I liked his resistance to "updating the war." There's this scene in the second issue where Punisher runs down a hitman with an SUV. Frank's narration as he speeds at the unwary guy reads: "Tall Joe Small. Sniper. Ex-Marine recon. Capped fifty guys in Desert Storm. Trouble with that war was -- " And here's where the guy bounces of the hood. " -- it wasn't Vietnam. When you're on your own -- behind enemy lines -- no artillery, no airstrikes, no hope of an evac -- you don't fight dirty." Punisher breaks the SUV and starts to peel back in reverse toward the still living bad guy. "You do things that make 'dirty' look good," he concludes, that last narrative caption hanging over a close-up panel of Frank in the car, motion lines around him indicating the "thump" that finishes the guy off. Typical Ennis black humor, but well executed. Now I'll grant that there's something almost obscene about non-combatants (at least in my case) comparing the relative "badness" of wars, but Vietnam WAS a nastier war than Desert Storm. And therefore a better fit for a character like The Punisher.
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Sim has single-handedly sabotaged and rendered irrelevant what could have been one of the all-time great accomplishments in comics. He's a total looney-tune and those who agree with him deserve the loveless, bitter lives they doubtless lead. Have fun dying alone surrounded by your "Gor" novels, boys.
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I was reading that Spidey / Doc Ock review (because I am one huge friggin Y: The Last Man fan) and I saw the Mysterio reference. I thought Kevin Smith had him blow his head off in his Daredevil run. Now, I realize the answer is simply "Its Mysterio, stupid!" but, seriously, how did he come back? (PS - Y: THE LAST MAN rocks. That's why I might pick up one of the first non-Ultimate Universe Spidey books in awhile.)
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I can't believe the review of Superman/Batman went by without mention of TWO of the most important elements to come out of it: Luthor out of the presidency, penniless, and apparently on his way back to pre-Crisis mad scientist supervillain, and: MULTI-COLORED KRYPTONITE! Will the heroes Batman enlists pick up the many-hued glowing rocks lying around the green ones, or will they be left alone? Obviously many of the non-green rocks will be missed so they can plague Superman in the months/years to come. Perhaps it's been discussed in these Talkbacks before, but DC is moving more and more to incorporating pre-Crisis elements back into their books, particularly through Superman: "Return to Krypton", which re-introduced the bright & vibrant world of pre-Crisis, with green-clad Jor-El, even if it turned out to be a construct of Brainiac's; and out of that, Krypto returned to the DCU. Linda Danvers was shuffled off, abandoning her Supergirl identity after running into pre-Crisis Kara Zor-El... and now, apparently, they're bringing Kara into the DCU as well. And now Superman/Batman ends the Luthor presidency and brings more Kryptonite types to Earth. Another spot I noticed re-reading Flash #200, which I'm sure has been theorized elsewhere: Hal Jordan will become Green Lantern again. Barry tells Hal, as Wally runs off into forgetfulness, that he's "well on [his] way", to which Hal responds "To what?". Penance. His time as The Spectre, the Vengeance of God, is penance for his acts as Parallax. It may take awhile, and who knows how it'll affect Kyle & John in the Green Lantern book, but my guess is Hal will serve his time as Spectre and be given a second chance, restored to a human life, and become Green Lantern again. Because he's the most popular Green Lantern, and was the main GL of the pre-Crisis DCU. More Silver-Agey pre-Crisis happenings: Legion! They brought in Superboy, in the red-and-blue outfit, and did it in a way that fits with post-Crisis continuity, where Clark never became Superboy. Kon-El, naturally, became the choice. And they even managed to work Clark into the mix in such a way that would fit with continuity as well. I'm not sure how I feel about this move towards pre-Crisis (Lex even says there'll be a "crisis" after his defeat!), as there's so much that's "silly" that can be used. But there's a lot of potential for solid fun and great characters as well. And even if some of the new Kryptonite can change Clark into a squirrel or cause him to go crazy or whatever, it IS a way to add more vulnerabilities to him. And they might invent new effects the colors have on him. I just hope it doesn't become a crutch, once it's officially introduced as a weapon against him.
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In other words, in the heyday of his photography years for the Daily Bugle. Vaughan doesn't make a big thing out of the setting - no treacly Jeph Loeb nostalgia - but that's the period. Makes sense, too, because Peter's supposed to be a teacher in the modern comics, so it wouldn't fit the story's photography motif. Oh, and just for the record, killing Mysterio was a bad idea in the first place - typical of Kevin Smith's writing in comics.
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I've been complaining for at least a year and a half now, including in some of my reviews and talkbacks, about the lack of actual editing these days. I strongly believe that it's an editor's job to read something and say "Hey, Claremont/Austen/Bendis, great concept, but the art's buried under ballons. Cut the dialogue by 200 words." I also believe it's an editor's job to say "great concept, poor delivery--I need more action/character development/whatever." I'd also like to see an editor who said "guys, you came up with a five-year arc, and we're hemorraging readers at the end of the first year and a half--we need to make some changes, tout-suite, before the book gets cancelled." What I'm getting at is far too many editors are either A.) taking a hands-off approach to their star creators of B.) issuing decrees on the direction of the book based on corporate demands, not on quality storytelling. I think both approaches are problematic. Don't get me wrong, now: there are some great editors out there. I think Scott Allie has probably done more cool books with kickass creators than anyone I can think of. I just think there are far too many editors who are letting their writers get away with bloody hacking murder. All they'd have to do is, you know, *edit* from time to time, and things'd be much better.
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Mar 02, 2004 5:44:00 PM CST
Broken City may have problems, but complexity is not one of them
by fantomex
This story is painfully simply. Actually TOO simple for my tastes (but, I agree, too simple is better than too complex, or worse, senseless). The killer was fairly obvious after the 3rd issue, if not sooner. The father was obvious after the 4th issue. If you don't realize how and why the Penguin, Croc, and Scarface fit into the story, I honestly don't know what I can say to help you. These three characters have never been portrayed as well as this, let alone in one arc. This is Batman at its best. This is comics at its best. Could it be better? Yeah. Is there anything better? Not be a longshot. You know what makes this better than Hush or anything else? Its the connection between the writer and the artist. I don't want to spoil the next issue for those who haven't figured it out, but the answer doesn't lies in the words, it lies in the illustration. THATS saying something people. Name one comic not made by this pair that can do that. Jim Lee is an amazing illustrator. Risso is an artist. It seems to me the problem with the reviewer, as well as many other comic readers, is their inability to remember basic details from month to month. "why did Batman have to go see the Ventriloquist again?" Are you kidding me? Stop reading the words, then looking at the pictures. Actually READ the comic as a whole. The giant disconnect between writer and illustrator is holding this entire industry back. And don't give me anything about "trade pacing". This arc has stradled that line perfectly. I was never able to get into 100 Bullets, and occasionly simply dropped the comic midway through it was so awful. But after this arc, I'm going to give the whole series another chance. What the reviewer labels "tangents" are actually anything but. And after next issue, you'll be hitting yourself on the head saying "I should have known this all along". THAT is a great mystery. I've always been a critic of these "villian of the week" arcs, even when done well. They've never been done this good, however the fact that the Joker is making an appearance next issue DOES seems completely random, and I don't see how Azzarello is going to tie it in. But thats exactly what I said about issues 3, 4, and 5. So I'm going to buy into this. I have hope. I'm like the Cubs fan who still believes after Game 6 that we can win the next one, when deep down I know it won't happen. Maybe it will be another Hush style deus ex machina, rabbit out of the hate, fly by your pants ending. But I have hope. In other news, did anyone else hear the tragic news about Captain America? I was hoping this title would be allowed to grow into the political comic I want to read.
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There is no other possible way for you to do be that into this batman run. I would ask you to point some things out for me, but I suspect your issues have the pages sticking together by now. I love Azzarello and Risso, but this sucks!! Plain and simple. You're like arguing with somebody that thinks Chuck Austin is a good writer, you're out numbered but you still fail to see how horrible it is. On a side note somebody last time did say Chuck Auston was a good writer and I almost stopped reading this column because of that.
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Mar 02, 2004 8:03:07 PM CST
I found the last copy of "Conan" anywhere, and Sleazy G was righ
by thewoodman
IT KICKS ASS. I just have to ask... what's going on with the cover? It sucks. Cary Nord's stuff is the shiznit; is there any particular reason he can't do the covers (he's not doing #2's either, going by the "next issue" panel on the last page. That one sucks, too, in spite of a curvy naked barbarian hottie). Note to Dark Horse - if I hadn't already been looking forward to this book, I wouldn't have been attracted to it by the cover. Straighten this situation out, STAT. Nord art on the cover. Period.
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That has got to be the most out-of-the-blue pretentious post I've ever read! And I know from pretention. Or, maybe I just didn't understand it 'cause I was busy looking at the pictures. WTF?? Hey, thanks for the lecture on how to read, buddy - turned out, I was holding the damned thing upside down. Boy is my face red. *** Anyway, I don't want to keep you from your Godard. Thanks for stopping by and telling us how stupid we are 'cause we don't appreciate BATMAN properly.
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Actually, I think the problem is you aren't looking at the pictures, but regardless. I don't mean to talk down to people, but its beyond me how anyone can complain that such a simplistic story line is "too complex".
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'Have fun dying alone surrounded by your "Gor" novels, boys.'
It's a deal. But I'm honestly not bitter or without love. Thanks for taking the time to discuss these very important issues. -
HAving read through about half of Dave's writings posted in the privided link... I gotta say, I'm intrigued. (waits for the moaning and griping to wind down a little) I think Dave is representative of an extreme overcorrection for what is, in many ways, a valid point. We live (here in US and Canada) in a fairly imasculated culture. Don't believe me? Watch a sitcom. Count the number of competent mature male leads there are in them... Having trouble? I thought so. Now count the women who are bright, savvy, and basically "wear the pants" in the household. Pretty much all of them. Sadly, this seems fairly reflective of the state of things today. Whatever opinion or view the majority of women hold as "right" seems to be, without question or discussion, held to BE "right". This kind of societal thinking can certainly contribute to the frustration of those who dare to think for themselves and see another point. I think Dave's depth of passion on the subject is likely driven, to some degree, by this. When the pendulum swings too far to one extreme (Immasculation of men and diefication of women) or the other (Man as Ruler, women as property) obviously, we can virtually all agree things are bad...
Oy vey... what a world we could have if we recognized each other's differences, strengths, weaknesses, and just get along regardles... Heh, why not think Disney and Dreamworks will be friends, so long as I'm pipe-dreaming
RiFF -
I think whatever interesting, useful stuff he once had on his mind has been swallowed up by megalomania and an all-encompassing need to justify himself. It seems to me his problems originate from a need to prove himself right, always, in everything he's ever said or done. Rather than look critically at his own mistakes in life, he has to rewrite the rules in his head so he comes out a winner. This untenable position requires a tremendous effort to shut out the outside world and create ever bigger and more unweildly logical constructs to back it up. The more people tell him he's an asshole, the harder he has to work to convince himself that he's the only sane person in the world. If his relationships with women have been humiliating disasters for him, then there must be some malignant evil in the female race which only he can see. It's a shame because he occasionally does have interesting things to say. I personally thought the "Mama's Boy" essay was brilliant. But he doesn't seem to see that he's come to embody some of the worst characteristics he spoke about: indulging in grandiose fantasies, being a know-it-all and being a crybaby .
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Conan the Barbarian...when it's done well. And this new Conan is. The art is beautiful. The story telling fast and effective. Nord's work on this book falls somewhere between Frazetta and Ploog. Each page deserves to be lingered on. Conan is large and lean-the way B.W. Smith drew him. I can't say enough good things about this book. The only thing that DIDN'T work for me was the font used in the panel text. I've heard that it's supposed to resemble an exerpt from one of Howard's books, but it just looks out of place-too contemporary. But this is nitpicking and won't diminish my enjoyment of this new Conan.
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The story is simple. I say that. It's the telling that is needlessly complex; it lurches and runs around all over the place in the telling. It's not a six-issue arc - but lots of tangents and "extras" are there taking up space and mucking up the elegant simplicity of the core. You say yourself you figured out who the killer was an issue or two ago, so why are we wasting our time dicking around with FAT MAN AND LITTLE BOY et al? I think your love of the...whatever it is you're loving, and your love of yourself means you're more than willing to launch into a lecture on how to read frickin' comic books (ha!) than actually consider what I was criticizing.
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I am not sure how cool it is to pimp other sites on the boards, so if this is bad, please feel free to remove it. However, if it isn't...excellent.
Anyway, I handle the DC News and Views column at http://www.411mania.com/comics which is a weekly take on all the news that has taken place in the DCU over the past seven days. We are in the midst of a contest, open to all and involving free comics. Unfortunately, the response on the site has been rather anemic and I find myself with too many comics and too little submissions.
The contest is to write about your favorite comic book related experience and submit it to me at parallax2@juno.com. The top 5 submissions (and perhaps a few honorable mentions) will be reprinted in my column. The top 5 will also receive free comics. Some good, some just amusing, all free. So check out the site, check out my column, and enter the contest. It may be a DC column, but the contest is open to everyone. Rivalry may (or may not) help the industry, but there is no exclusionary rules in my contest.
Thanks in advance,
Tim Stevens -
I noticed Cactusmaac wondering why Riddler was in prison in the latest GOTHAM KNIGHTS instead of everyone's favorite booby hatch, Arkham Asylum. Got me to wondering - which of Batman's villains *are* considered sane enough for reg'lar prison? I know this varies with the writers and the story needs (maybe the Riddler's psychosis isn't considered serious enough to warrant Arkham, for instance), but is their any consensus? For instance, Killer Croc isn't insane - he's just a mutant thug. He never ends up in Arkham, right? Or does he? The Penguin's just a crime boss with a bit of a gimmick, so he'd go to regular prison as well. Likewise, Catwoman. Anyone else? Is, say, Mr. Freeze considered insane?
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I don't think it was so much a decision based on showing a wilder, more impetuous incarnation of the character as it was part of an overall gameplan to chronicle the full extent of Conan's adventures chronologically (for the character, that is). From a Busiek interview: ***** "We're starting over, going back to the beginning. My directive from Dark Horse is that we're taking the original Robert E. Howard stories as our foundation, and nothing else -- and I'm delighted. For all that plenty of creators have done good work, in the books and in the comics, it's the Howard stuff that it all comes back to, and it's the Howard stuff that truly matters. So much as I love what Roy and Barry and John and Gil did, we're not going to be incorporating the Marvel stuff (though I hope Dark Horse reprints big TPBs of it, like they've been doing the Marvel STAR WARS) -- we're going to start out clean, following Conan's career as he first leaves Cimmeria to venture out into other lands in search of adventure and fortune. We'll adapt the Howard stories, and we'll tell our own in the gaps between, and build a new, modern Conan legend on rock-solid roots. Call it ULTIMATE CONAN, I guess -- it fits, in a lot of ways." ***** If I'm reading that right, it almost sounds like Busiek is planning to do adaptations of ALL the Howard material in chronoligical order for the characters, vastly expanding on some parts and presumably throwing out some new stuff in the gaps between his famous adventures. It's a cool idea, but will it be limiting? Will we be seeing stories of a 16-year-old Conan for several years, for instance (I don't know how many tales of a young Conan Howard wrote)? Will we not see any King Conan stories until 2017 or will Busiek be allowed to jump around in time occasionally? Dunno, but I have a good deal of confidence in Busiek, so I'm onboard for whatever. It was a rock solid first issue, very nice art, and well...Conan really is one of the great fantasy characters of all time. And didja ever try reading that Hyperborean dialogue aloud? Great fun! This is cool for Dark Horse too, a great company that's seemed a little shaky sales-wise in the last few years. Now they've got CONAN and HELLBOY and several manga franchises that are sure to stand the test of time, along with all the "take it for granted" excellence of USAGI YOJIMBO and CONCRETE and SIN CITY. I'm happy for 'em. Now where's the long-awaited new CONCRETE mini, dammit?!
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... but that may just be because I haven't read a single decent Batman-related comic in years. I feel like they have the Batman characterization down, but it also seems like its been done to death before. It is exceptional, nothing less then I would expect from the 100 bullets team, but it isn't all that new. I do like the Penguin though. I've never really liked the character since his whole "going straight", if you could call it that (you know what I mean), but it works here, well. Fantomex did hit the nail on the head when talking about the art. No other creative team has been able to make the art actually part of the story like Azzarello/Risso (both on Batman and 100 Bullets). Also, Village Idiot, "Dean Cain on a bad day" = classic. This seems like the same Kal-El we saw in "For the Man Who Has Everything" (one of the very few superman comics I've read). All I know about Kandor is that its a city in a bottle (how do they get alien immigrants? bah) so I was a little lost towards the end, but as someone else said, this is definitely the kick in the pants the Superman franchise needed. (I'm SO glad that didnt do some alternate universe/Sliders baloney after 200) And with Azzarello coming to the title soon? Yummy.
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My God the amount of poeple here on this board that ponitificate on Dave Sim as if they know him. He's right wing, msyonistist, possibly gay??
for fucks sake people, how about your a bunch of pussy whipped fucktards, that have yet to grow a pair of balls. -
Yeah, I really dig Bendis's DD. I don't really review it often because like most superhero comics the individual issues are inherently disposable. Massively enjoyable, but still disposable. It's the whole picture, the momentum, that sticks in my mind, with a couple of individual moments hitting you over the head with their coolness.. like, say, this issue's cover. Goddamn. I fucking love that image. (Even without the mature readers banner, I still have to associate Bendis with swearing!) Anyway, DD is good, pulpy stuff. A sugar high for the 4-color sweet tooth. Alias is my favorite of his stuff so far, but Daredevil is right up there.
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Speaking of sitcoms, what would you make of the pattern of ugly, sloppy, lazy, dumb schmoes with crappy jobs married to these hot, intelligent take-charge women? If these women are so deified, why are they always married to THESE guys? Whose fantasies are being served here? It sure isn't the woman's fantasy to be stuck in white-trashville cleaning up after Mr. Dumbass Blubberbutt, that's for sure. ;)
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Mar 03, 2004 11:06:10 AM CST
That's it, fevriul, don't try to refute anything, just call us a
by negasonic
That'll fix everything!
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God damn those mags were cool! All violent and gory, I fucking loved those things.
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Alias is one of my personal favs as well. I read somewhere that they were going to give it the hardcover treatment, and if they do, I'm buying it immediately. On another note, I really would like to see you do some reviews of more traditional super-hero fare. Don't get me wrong . . . I POSITIVELY LOVE the more alternative books you review and push (I just re-read KILL YOUR BOYFRIEND last night, which I think you inspired me to track down at some point), but it'd be cool to read some of your takes on the more typical Marvel/DC stuff and compare it to some of the more different stuff out there.
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Ages ago, though, and I think it's out-of-print, and those wusses at Marvel decided to only collect the subsequent issues in trade format. Anyway, my copy of the first one's signed by Gaydos, so that's kinda cool.
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It will be mine!! Thanks, Com.
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