| #45 | 1/31/07 | #5 |
ADVANCE LOOK AT THE DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER BORN #1 (of 7)
Due out this week! Creative Director & Executive Director: Stephen King Plotting & Consultation: Robin Furth Script: Peter David Art: Jae Lee & Richard Isanove Publisher: Marvel Comics Reviewer: Ambush Bug
I had a chance to see an advance preview of the new DARK TOWER series. I’d been vaguely familiar with the fantasy series from horror-meister Stephen King, but I can’t say that I’ve ever read any of the books. This comic book version of the Gunslinger’s early years is said to be pretty open to new fans and I never felt as if I were missing out on anything, although I’ll bet reading the books helps round out the story.As I read through this book, the first thing that came to mind was the fact that the art is absolutely phenomenal. Jae Lee and Richard Isanove have outdone their selves with this one. I’ve been a fan of Lee’s art since his early stint on Byrne’s NAMOR. I’ve seen him develop over the years into one of those artists who immediately guarantee my purchase if his name is on the cover. This issue, though, tops any and all of Lee’s previous works. The artists convey mood like no other. The panels are long and stretch across the page giving the images inside a sort of widescreen scope. And every panel is worthy of this treatment. The panels are vivid and electric as the young gunslinger goes through a rite of passage with his mentor in a truly original and bizarre fashion. The figures vary in size and shape. There are quite a lot of splash pages utilized in this book at the beginning. That usually annoys the shit out of me, but not so much this time. This time these panels do a good job of introducing characters, pitting them in iconic poses. These splashes serve as establishing shots that signal the beginning of something monumental.
And the story itself is just that. The way the credits of this book are set up, I’m not sure who is responsible for what in this book. As far as I can tell, Stephen King created the characters and established the world the story takes place in. Robin Furth is credited with plotting the book which I think means that he (she?) came up with the story structure for the issue. And Peter David is credited as scripter, which I think means he took Furth’s story and put it to captions. Who knows if I’m right and really, who cares? Since I found the story to be so engrossing that I didn’t care who was responsible for it. I was completely in this fantastic world where children are born and bred to be warriors. It is a combination of Westerns, fantasy, and adventure. This “origin story” of the Gunslinger is one well thought out and thematically resonant tale.
So despite the fact that I was unfamiliar with the original material, I enjoyed this one thoroughly. It is a true quality offering from Marvel and worthy of your hard earned cash. Seems this is only the beginning of a long and complex tale of the Gunslinger at Marvel. With art and story of this caliber, you can be sure that I’ll be along for the ride.
TEEN TITANS #43
Writer: Geoff Johns Artist: Tony S. Daniel Reviewer: Squashua
My name's Squashua. I review stuff.Classy.
I promise this is the last time I review a Johns issue of TEEN TITANS. Heck, what with last week's announcement, there won't be that many more coming up, and maybe that's a good thing. So, this week, let's see, this week... ah. This is the issue where every member (with the exception of the Slade kids) gets attacked simultaneously and not one conflict gets resolved and the issue ends on a big ol', "Oh hey, someone needs to learn carpentry" note. I guess we learn about how Batgirl is nuts-o, a hot topic on the forums a few months back, but honestly I never read her book so I don't give two shits about her. The only time I read about her, Superboy was trying to bone her during training sessions back when he had his own book, an interesting idea that was dropped as soon as it was formed.
Look, I'm glad Johns is leaving this title. TEEN TITANS has become completely insular since One Year Later; nine issues so far and it'll be an even ten by next month. That's almost a year of not much happening. Let me summarize it for you, so the angry mobs can toss away their torches and pitchforks to see where I'm coming from:
Issue 34 - reintroduction to the Titans One Year Later.
Issue 35 - 4 pages of the Brotherhood, the rest being internal conflict.
Issue 36 - a “team-up” with the Doom Patrol and 3 more Brotherhood pages.
Issue 37 - half a battle with the Brotherhood and then storyline wrap-up.
Issue 38 - poor filler artwork, one page of Titans conflict, and a recap of Red Star.
Issue 39 - a walk of shame down the list of each different “new” Titan.
Issue 40 - pretty much one big fight scene with Bombshell.
Issue 41 - poor filler art and the rest of the fight scene with Bombshell.
Issue 42 - an emo-filled Red Devil-centric issue.
Issue 43 - a villain team strikes directly at the Teen Titans.
As I said, navel-gazing at it's finest.
Other than the fight with the Brotherhood, which ended up becoming personal when some heroes were held hostage, and a one-panel shot of the Titans fighting Flash-villain Girder, this team hasn't been very proactive. OK, I get it. They're a “family” and they had to find themselves over the last year, but what a long drawn-out year it's been. And these storylines have been saddled with lousy filler artists (Paco Diaz, Ryan Benjamin, Carlos Ferreira), and I don't know if I should attribute the misspellings and left-out words to the scripts or the letterers (mostly Travis Lanham, though there have been a few fill-ins). Invest in a spellchecker. I guess DC can treat a crappy writer like a bitch, but if they start in with a premiere writers like Johns, he can just ditch the book in order to focus his energies.
Which is what he should be doing. I want a good JSA and if it takes Johns from a lackluster book, then so be it. Here's hoping upcoming writer Beecham can light a fire under the Teen Titans' collective asses. Oh, and DC? Try not to persist in treating this title like shit.
Oh, and about this issue? If you didn't get it from the first paragraph, the cover pretty much says it all; a new villain team shows up out of left field and begins individual fights with most of the Titans. Honestly. That's all that happens. I'm done with this book. I'm not getting the next issue.
ULTIMATE CIVIL WAR: SPIDER-HAM #1
Writer: J.M. "Hamzynski" Artists: Mike "The Swine" Wieringo and a litter of pigs Publisher: Marvel Comics Reviewer: Prof. Challenger
"I am gripped by existential ennui. I am bored. Life is pointless. My costume is riding up into my butt-crack.Again." - Spider-Ham
And with that quote, this comic event begins.
You know? The cover was a great Ringo-drawn parody of all the nonsense wrapped up in Civil War all the way down to Spider-Ham gripping a giant dollar sign. Then I opened up the book and read through the first 3 pages and I was giggling. It looked like JMS and the rest of the crew were going to have a good go making fun of themselves. I had high hopes. Marvel's NOT BRAND ECHH! comic demonstrated that nobody spoofs Marvel better than Marvel itself.
Alas, the cleverness of bullpens past has given way to unfunny collections of pin-up gags supposedly justifying the existence of a comic book that customers are actually expected to pay money for.
The idea of tackling the old Star Comics' SPIDER-HAM title in a one-shot parody of the current state of Marvel Comics seemed like a surefire winner to me - especially given the talent in place to take it on. But the truth of the matter is that there is no story here. There are snippets of the beginnings of what might be interesting stories, such as Spider-Ham's search for purpose in a jaded, cynical world, or Spider-Ham facing his own "heart of darkness" in a riff on APOCALYPSE NOW. But all of these ideas are never followed through. Instead they are simply lame framing sequences for full-page pinups by various artists of other Marvel super-heroes done as pigs like Wolverham (which is just ugly and unfunny), Iron Ham (which is way too wonky and awkward), Green Ham! (a Hulk Pig that is disturbing in its lack of understanding of proportion), Fantastic Ham (which is an amazingly COOL piece of art spoofing the cover of FF#1 but with the title FANTASTIC HAM; which, by the way, should've been HAMTASTIC FOUR - duh), Deviled Ham (fine but pointless spoof of Daredevil and the joke thuds). There’re some other spoofs, but you get the picture. Oh, and an homage to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY that makes less sense than the movie itself.
I wanted to like this thing. But it was more like fanfic at its stupidest. It's not like $2.99 is a lot of money, but by the time I got to the idiotic last page with its incomprehensibly self-indulgent "Very funny, Mr. Quesada" gag I was tempted to go back to the store and ask for my money back. But it's not the shop's fault that Marvel craps stuff out like this and suckers like me buy it. There's a reason why I read so few Marvel comics nowadays and this is a prime example.
Please. If you haven't already wasted your money on this tripe, use that $2.99 for something from Viper, Boom!, or Dynamite and send a message to Marvel to cut this crap out with their short-sighted marketing. Burn your audience too often and you really will drive them right into the waiting arms of the competition.
ION # 10
Writer: Ron Marz Penciller: Greg Tocchini Publisher: DC Comics Reviewer: Sleazy G
There’s something strange going on over at DC. They have all these titles right now that are meant to be connected to the huge, universe-spanning story arcs they’re telling, and as a result you’d expect the stories to feel big—to have some real weight behind them, to let you know what’s going on is going to have a major impact. Instead, for reasons I can’t even begin to guess at, some major elements of the story are being revealed in a completely understated manner in quiet little underpromoted corners of the DCU. There are things happening that should be huge, but blink and you’ll completely miss them.When I reviewed OMEGA MEN a few weeks ago, I said that it should have felt a lot bigger, more important than it did because it was supposed to be pulling such a big part of DC’s regular stories along with it. All this stuff that should have mattered—a universe-threatening entity chewing her way through the universe and bringing an army of the undead with her, headed right for us—felt almost inconsequential. Now, just a week or two later, something else happens over in ION #10—something which seems to be much larger and much more important to the DCU—and nobody even knew it was coming.
Don’t get me wrong—ION has been far better written, and Greg Tocchini’s art is vastly superior to what you’ll find in OMEGA MEN. The last couple of issues, though, really turned up the heat and threw some unexpected ideas at the reader. When I picked up issue #1, I sure as hell wasn’t expecting to see any of the old Tangent Universe characters popping up. Sure, I’d noticed the Tangent Green Lantern’s…ummm…green lantern lying on the beach, but easter eggs like that get dropped all over the place nowadays with no guarantee of if or when they’ll be cracked. Seeing them in issues 9 and 10, though, was a nice little trip down memory lane…that turned into something much bigger.
Did I think maybe we’d see Tangent characters again, since they’d been seen in INFINITE CRISIS for a couple of panels? Maybe. Did I think it would have to do with multiple earths or universes and characters passing between them? Seemed likely. But where this story suddenly jumps up and kicks you in the head is when it turns out the Tangent characters their Green Lantern saved have been hiding in…The Bleed. As in that thing from the WildStorm Universe, the space between spaces where The Authority’s ship likes to chill. The big, red, blurry Bleed. And when the Tangent characters showed up on Earth, where did the two kids get shunted? The Bleed. The same Bleed Elijah Snow knows all about. And who pops in to say “hi” to these poor kids and to Kyle Rayner? Daemonites. Big, ugly, “Marvel has the ‘Brood so we should knock off ‘Aliens’ too” Daemonites.
What the FRICK?!?
I know they laid the groundwork with the CAPTAIN ATOM: ARMAGEDDON miniseries (and you can betcher ass he shows up in #10 too), but there was no indication something like this was coming, and then all of a sudden there you have it: the mainstream DCU, the Tangent Universe and the WildStorm Universe all just crammed in there together. And don’t get me wrong—on its face it’s a pretty sweet idea. I have to admit the issue had some real “holy crap!” kick to it, and I love that I had no idea it was coming and got totally sucker-punched. But…all the potentially disastrous implications of the DC/WildStorm thing aside (please don’t let the METAL MEN/WETWORKS mini suck)…how the fuck did DC blow this opportunity? I mean, look: you’ve got a 12-issue maxiseries that’s doing okay, but could certainly use a promotional boost. So do you take out any in-house ads giving people the heads up? Do you have any promotional materials, or press releases, or a word of mouth campaign? Do you let anybody know that this is the one issue to watch this month?
Nope. You just kinda sit back and wait to see what happens.
C’mon, man! This issue shoulda had the CRAP promoted out of it. There was no need to spoil the surprise, no reason to give any hints or ruin all of Ron Marz’ buildup. All anybody had to do was whip up a single ad and send it to the marketing guys. Or even an image to tease all the news sites. Instead, the issue is released with a whimper and you rely on word of mouth…for this? Look: Captain Atom is still alive, in a containment suit that looks awfully familiar to anybody who’s read DC’s ARMAGEDDON miniseries. He’s hiding from the Monitors, he’s hanging out in the Bleed, he’s fighting Daemonites, he’s asking for Kyle’s help under strange and very vaguely defined circumstances…and that’s all before Kyle finds a bunch of dead Qwardians kicking around. These are all threads directly tied to the original CRISIS and other “event” miniseries as well as INFNITE CRISIS, so why don’t the fans know this happened?
I know there’s a lot going on in the DCU right now, and it’s gotta be a bitch to coordinate. But I also know we just found out the ION miniseries is directly tied in to all of the craziness, and there’s been a reveal that indicates a major change in the way things work. Not just in the DCU and WildStorm Universes, or the whole CRISIS/52/WORLD WAR III/COUNTDOWN thing, either: could this part of the game plan have anything to do, for example, with why certain WildStorm titles suddenly went AWOL after their relaunches? Could it have anything to do with THE BOYS getting dropped so unexpectedly? Is there a change in the publishing climate on the way?
I hate to overshadow the work Ron Marz and Greg Tocchini did in my review like this, but then, I guess my point is that they’re the ones I feel badly for. Marz took on material that had the capacity to be extremely confusing (and was clearly editorially driven) and was able to write in a clear, easy-to-follow manner. Tocchini’s definitely doing a good job here, and has enough potential that DC should work to hang on to him since they’re lagging behind Marvel in the art department right now. But their fine work is going overlooked by the majority of DC readers due to a lack of attention and publicity. It’s not fair to Marz and Tocchini, who are busting ass on a story of huge importance, and it’s not fair to the readers, who had no idea something so important was even happening. If you’re one of those people who’s followed any of the CRISIS titles, or is wondering what’s going on with Captain Atom or the impending return of the multiverse, you’d better snatch this one off the stands, kids. You may not have even known it was happening, but this is going to turn out to be a big piece of the puzzle in a few months.
DAREDEVIL # 93
Writer: Ed Brubaker Artists: Michael Lark & Stefano Gaudiano Publisher: Marvel Comics Reviewer: Ambush Bug
”By the time we get our new offices set up, life is starting to return to some sense of normalcy, for the first time in…God, I can’t remember when.” - Matt Murdock, DAREDEVIL #93 Amen, brother!You know, we do enough hemming and hawing about Marvel it would seem that the House of Ideas never does anything right, but when they do, and they do it this well, I have to announce it to the world. DAREDEVIL #93 is the single best issue of DAREDEVIL I have read in…well, a long, long time.
Not only does writer Ed Brubaker wrap up the storylines he has been scribing since he began working on the title, but he cleans up the mess that Brian Michael Bendis made of the title long ago. This is one of those issues where everything returns to status quo. One of those kinds of issues where “the big shake-up that will crack the internet in half” ceases to be as big as everyone thought it would. And since I am one of those DAREDEVIL fans who really didn’t care for the direction Brian Michael Bendis took (or more appropriately, the corner he painted himself into and then left for Brubaker to get him out of) starting with the unmasking of Daredevil to the general public quite a few years ago, I am happy as a pedophile at a preschool about it all.
The thing is, though, Brubaker doesn’t just hit the reset button. He shows his master class writing prowess by covering all of the bases with one of the most compelling and “filled to the brim with goodness” issues I’ve read in ages. This issue has it all. Murdock returns home, confronts the press, clears his name, reunites with his wife and best friend, settles into his new law firm, has words with the Kingpin, and gazes optimistically towards the future. Bendis’ story is a major player in this one. Brubaker respects the Bendis run and has built a stronger story on top of it. It’s a resolution that covers all of the bases; one that would have taken his predecessor an entire year of stories to tell. It’s compressed storytelling that never felt rushed. At no time did I feel that an aspect of the story was short-changed, yet it was all done in one single issue. Bravo, Bru, bravo.
I was recently talking with fellow @$$hole Sleazy G regarding the DD in Paris storyline and how it was entertaining, but I wasn’t blown away by it since I felt it was a stretch having DD hopping around Europe battling lame characters like the All New All Different Matador. But this issue makes up for all of that.
What makes this issue a true stand out is the boiling point Murdock and Wilson Fisk (the Kingpin) reach and the resolution to that relationship that is achieved by the end of the issue. There have been many “final confrontations” between these two sworn enemies, but I always knew Kingpin would be back. In this issue, Brubaker maps out the perfect ending to the war between Daredevil and the Kingpin; one so perfect that I almost wish it was the last time these two enemies would face off. I know it isn’t going to happen, but if it were the last time, I would be completely satisfied.
Artists Michael Lark and Stefano Gaudiano deliver powerful panels and vivid images set with thick bleak inks all done in a realistic manner. These artists make a guy running around in red tights look just as natural and realistic as if he were wearing a suit and tie. On top of that, the Kingpin is back to looking like a mammoth threat and not Marlon Brando in his latter years (sloping shoulders and man-boobs and all). This is the imposing man-monster that I grew up with.
This was a monumental issue and I’m looking forward to what Bru and crew have in store now that he’s cleaned up the mess that Bendis made. Although I didn’t care for Bendis’ run on the title, this was a fitting ending to a storyline that definitely changed Daredevil for good. Brubaker did a great job of wrapping up all of the loose ends and returning to the status quo without making it a cop out. Murdock has been changed by all of this. No doubt. But now that the lingering plotlines have been taken care of, I’m looking forward to seeing Brubaker flesh out these changes with his own epic story.
LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #214
Writer: Christos N. Gage Artist: Phil Winslade Publisher: DC Comics Reviewer: Ambush Bug
Y’know, I have every issue of LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT and I honestly can’t tell you why. All two hundred and fourteen issues are in a box somewhere. It is one of the single most perplexing additions to my comic collection. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the series (which wraps up with this issue I’m reviewing right now) has had its moments of greatness. I remember the Seth Fisher issues not too long ago featuring a young Batman fighting Mr. Freeze. I remember the “Venom” storyline from waaay back and the “Masks” arc that started it all. I believe I remember liking a few arcs from James Robinson. But favorably naming less than a handful of story arcs in a series that lasted 214 issues should be a good indication that I should have stopped reading the book a long time ago. But I didn’t. I stuck with it and now I can say that I have every issue of LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT.Whoopty-frikkin’-doo.
I’ll take my cookie now.
Iit’s been a long time since I could honestly say I liked an issue of this series. I guess I’m a sick man to say that and keep on buying it month after month. Maybe it was the way I was brought up. I dunno. All I know is that I don’t remember the last time I put down an issue of LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT and said, “Hmm, that was pretty good.”
Well, until this issue, of course.
I’m not going to say that the LODK team saved the best story for last here because honestly this isn’t a barn-burner of a tale, but it was an entertaining read. One compact and tightly constructed. One filled with rises and falls and ending with a resolution that may not have felt like a finale to the series as a whole, but it ended satisfyingly enough anyway.
Christos N. Gage has the honors of sending this series off and he does so by returning to a character he’s pretty familiar with. Deadshot is in town on a job. Batman knows Deadshot’s jobs usually end up with someone dead and he sets out to stop Deadshot from accomplishing said job. It’s a pretty simple story, with Deadshot stealing the stage with his crafty ways of avoiding being arrested by the Batman. But it’s Bats who turns the tables in the end with some clever manipulation of his own. It’s a good story. One more fitting for a BATMAN ADVENTURES type tale and had there been more like this one, maybe this series wouldn’t be celebrating its end.
The story is made even more special by Phil Winslade’s amazing art. He does a great job of making all of his characters distinct and individual. Again, it looks as if Phil was inking over his own pencils again. But the cover shows Phil’s pencils in all of their glory. I wish someone would be brave enough to publish Phil’s art without inks because his pencil work is divine in and of itself. When Phil inks his work, I find it less favorable by only a little, mainly because his pencils are so delicate and fine. The inks tend to block that out and weigh it all down. Although the art is top notch, I long for the day that Winslade can do a project solely in pencils (much like his work on Garth Ennis’ classic Vertigo miniseries GODDESS).
So although this is a nice issue, I’m glad to see LODK go. And with it, I’ll probably drop DC’s other story arc series, JSA CLASSIFIED and JLA CLASSIFIED. The problem with these three titles is that a big bunch of talent is lined up at the beginning and the reader is treated with a slew of nice stories. But pretty soon these stories lose their flair and soon enough the series becomes a filler title taking up space on my pull list. JSA CLASSIFIED and JLA CLASSIFIED are already stale wastes of my time despite the occasional nice story (like the one running through JLA CLASSIFIED right now with Dan Slott). I think DC would be better off publishing the quality stories as miniseries rather than forcing material on us that is sub par. I bought it through the run of LODK, but I really can’t do it any more. And I’m certainly not going to buy into the BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL book, which I found to look and read like sub par material from the get go. I’m sure there are others out there who stuck with LODK and really don’t know why. I’m right there with you, brother. We did it. Now it’s time to learn from those mistakes and not buy into other series that seem to be following the same sad path. Issue #214 was a worthy send off to a series that lasted way too long.
FIRST MOON OGN AiT/Planet Lar
I can’t seem to say enough good things about AiT/Planet Lar’s ability to churn out quality storytelling. FIRST MOON is yet another sophisticated read textured with both historical and allegorical aspects. The werewolf tale has always been a tough genre to tackle. I can only name a few films that handle to subject matter with originality. Often times, the werewolf tale deals with some type of symbolic change or pits man against his more animalistic side. This issue does both while historically tying the werewolf myth to the lost colony of Roanoke, VA. But this isn’t just a history lesson. There is a very personal tale of discovery for the story’s main character. As with the film GINGER SNAPS, it uses the werewolf story to allude to a young person’s first experience with sex and how that is a sort of coming of age we all go through. It’s a loss of innocence symbolized here intelligently and respectively, never forgetting to be entertaining in the process. Although the story conveys a light tone (one supported cleverly by the reveal in the end), writer Jason McNamara alludes to much deeper and more meaningful themes without soap-boxing or preaching. Artist Tony Talbert’s wispy characters and high detailings are perfect for telling this story which switches between the present and the past. AiT/Planet Lar is one of those publishers that bring credibility to the genre by offering not only entertaining stories, but factoids and research gathered to broaden the story and teach you something in the process. The last few pages are dedicated to a factual account of the lost colony of Roanoke. Fascinating stuff and a stellar read. - Ambush Bug
ATHENA VOLTAIRE: THE COLLECTED WEBCOMICS TPB Ape Entertainment
This is my first taste of the world of ATHENA VOLTAIRE. In the afterword, artist apologizes for the format and choppy flow of the story, explaining that this type of storytelling technique was required due to the nature of the online web comic. He also states that the following ATHENA VOLTAIRE stories increase in quality. If that’s the case, I can’t wait to dive into those books, because these “early and rough” ATHENA VOLTAIRE stories are pretty good. Part Tomb Raider, part Indiana Jones, Athena Voltaire is a truly fun character. The spotlight is on adventure and this trade delivers in spades. It’s a nice look at how web comics can work effectively too and how they are very similar to the Saturday afternoon serials of old. Recommended. - Ambush BugRemember, if you have an Indie book you’d like one of the @$$holes to take a look at, click on your favorite reviewer’s link and drop us an email.
THE WALKING DEAD #34 Image Comics
Although the tempo has been on an upswing through the last arc after a dismal year of slow-striding and meandering stories, this issue marks the return of the “HOLY SHIT!” factor that I associated with the first twenty issues of this series. This is the best of the best of the zombie books out there and issues like this prove it. Always wondered what all the hubbub was about with this book? Pick up this issue and see why. - Bug
BLUE BEETLE #11 DC Comics
Yet another DC title that just isn’t getting pimped hard enough, which means I’m stuck doing it. Look, I’ll say it again: I don’t like the New Gods. Never really did. And yet, in this issue, John Rogers manages to make me enjoy reading about Metron and Lonar—no mean feat. Anybody worried the writing might drop off without Giffen around can stop: Rogers brings funny, natural-sounding dialogue to every issue, along with some truly crazy ideas, a lot of fun and a real sense of danger. He’s not wasting too much time on the mystery of what the Beetle suit is or how it works, either: we already know it’s scientific and not mystical, and we’ve just found out it’s tied to the New Gods but functioning differently than expected. The characters are all well developed, the book is fun and smart, and it looks great. Not convinced? Then tell me: how do you argue with a book that has dialogue like “You’ve got a forehead full of justice? What does that even mean?” - Sleazy
