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AICN COMICS REVIEWS KICK-ASS! BLUE BEETLE! INCOGNEGRO! AND MORE!!!
| #44 | 2/27/08 | #6 |
Hey folks, Ambush Bug here for AICN Comics, playing a little catch-up after last week’s @$$IE AWARDS. So if you missed it, be sure to check our 4th Annual Awards column and don’t forget to check back on Fridays for our AICN Comics News Column: SHOOT THE MESSENGER for news, interviews, and more sweet @$$ie goodness. This Friday we'll have a report from last week's STAPLE! EXPO. So be sure to check it out. On with the reviews!
(Click title to go directly to the review)
KICK-ASS #1
YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS HULKLING #2
INCOGNEGRO OGN
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #119
BLUE BEETLE #24
BLACK PANTHER ANNUAL #1
X-FORCE #1
JUSTICE #1-12
CRIMINAL V2 #1
THUNDERBOLTS-INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT
Indie Jones presents…
CHEAP SHOTS!
KICK – ASS # 1
Writer: Mark Millar
Pencils: John Romita Jr.
Publisher: Icon
Reviewer: Optimous Douche
The kick-off issue of KICK-ASS reminded me of a lap-dance at a strip club. Imagine you’re in an establishment of ill repute doling out dollar bills to sow after heifer, when finally a petite pole master comes along that you find utterly exquisite and worthy of twenty dollars for grinding on your nether regions for three minutes and thirty-five seconds. You go into the back room and she takes you to paradise for three minutes and thirty-four seconds, then in the last second, she picks up her platform heel, and proceeds to pound you repeatedly in the testicles with the force of Thor’s hammer while telling you you’re hung like a pre-pubescent eunuch. This is the exact sensation I had when I closed the last page of KICK-ASS. And before you ask, yes, I have the knowledge to draw this comparison.>br>
This book should be a comic nerd’s dream. The central character, David, is one of our own. He’s a kid too smart to excel within the confines of the public education system and as a result spends his days locked within his own imagination. He’s not a loser, nor is he the Big Man On Campus. He loves comic books, masturbating and “Scrubs”. I changed the order of how those three items appeared in the book because David was so damn identifiable that my brain just naturally reordered them in my favorite ranking order. Where David, myself, and any one of you reading this column who can name all of the doctors at Sacred Heart Hospital differ, is that David is functionally retarded. Of course I don’t mean literally (although I can’t wait for that book to come out), but the choices he makes throughout this title would definitely make one pause before giving him a job on the fry machine.
I was elated by the premise of this title. I fell hook line and sinker for the 35 point font on the cover proclaiming this title to be the greatest superhero book of all time. Except, there was no real hero and I could not find an ounce of super except when David was defending the necessity to truncate comic canon when portraying comic book characters in film to his friends.
So what is this book about? Fuck if I know. David likes super heroes, decides the world is a bad place, buys a wet suit on e-Bay and decides he’s going to go out and clear his neighborhood from scum and villainy. Except David doesn’t go through any training montage where he hones his skills to razor perfection in the course of eight panels and there’s no radio active spider that grants him super human capabilities. He’s a scrawny kid in a wet suit taking on gang members that bare a strange resemblance to Sanjaya from American Idol. There’s a fine line between gallantry and blind fool recklessness; David crosses that line with the thrust and distance of a Kenyan long jumper at the Olympics.
I’m not the type of reader that needs spandex and earth shattering cataclysms to hold my attention. It’s for that very reason that Y: THE LAST MAN was one of my favorite titles of the past five years. But Yorick Brown never claimed to be a superhero, nor was it ever touted in obnoxious font on the cover. Yorick had a way to defend himself with his wits and his escape artistry; basically, he had more than a wet suit at his disposal before throwing himself head first into danger.
There are three reasons that I will plunk down another $2.99 for the second issue of KICK-ASS: Millar’s reputation, my love of Romita’s “Where the Wild Things Are” art style and the fact that this entire origin issue is told as a flash back. There were actually a few promising panels where David is getting tortured by some “Sopranos” looking thugs for costing their operation money, so he obviously gets better at stopping crime.
Really though, if I’m expected to hang in for future issues, this title needs to find its radioactive spider fast. If I wanted to watch a skinny blonde kid that wears glasses, likes comic books and gets the living piss beat out of him, I’ll just go to a hypnotherapist and have them unlock all of the memories I’ve been trying to suppress since high school. Mark, John, I ask this one simple favor: please don't kick me in the nuts again.
YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS HULKLING #2 of 6
Writer: Brian Reed
Artist: Harvey Tolibao
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Jinxo
I said last month how happy I was with issue #1 of this series. I went in skeptical and was pleasantly surprised. But given the fact that each issue of the series was going to feature a different creative team I had to go into issue #2 with the same doubt. Maybe team two will blow it.
They don’t blow it. Not at all. What a great issue. And while each issue stands on its own with no continuing story this series does seem to have a running thematic that’s a strong one. It’s not just some throwaway story about one of the Young Avengers. Instead each issue – so far – deals with one of the characters having to take stock of who they are and coming to terms with the father figures in their lives. This time around it’s Hulking’s turn. Hulking is the half Skrull/Half Kree son of Captain Mar-Vell who recently has taken a break from being dead. When Mar-Vell was revived via a time travel cheat it was greeted as a fairly lame development. I’d almost say the whole thing was worth it just for this story. A kid getting a chance to talk to his father who died before he was born, who he never got to meet? Powerful stuff. As with issue #1 there’s the requisite action too but this is another issue about deeper stuff. And the end is just a punch to the heart. Damn.
Let’s see if they keep it up with issue #3. If they do, next issue could be a killer. Again, the thematic has been kids and their parental figures. Well, issue #3 will center on Wiccan and Speed, the two Young Avengers who seem linked to the Scarlet Witch. They’re twins who have the same names as the Scarlet Witch and Vision’s “imaginary” twins – Thomas and William. They also have powers that vibe off of Scarlet Witch’s and her brother Quicksilver’s. Please don’t blow it. Pleeeease don’t blow it.
Jinxo is Thom Holbrook, lifelong comic book reader, and the evil genius behind poobala.com. He may appear cute and cuddly but if encountered avoid eye contact and DO NOT attempt to feed.
INCOGNEGRO (OGN)
Written by Mat Johnson
Art by Warren Pleece
Published by Vertigo / DC
Reviewed by Stones Throw
When I first announced to my fellow @$$holes that I would be reviewing this recent original graphic novel from Vertigo, the always-insightful Squashua immediately shot back with “They made SOUL MAN into a comic book?” Personally, I was expecting something more along the lines of the Eddie Murphy sketch on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE where Eddie puts on white make-up and discovers a world of free gifts and catered bus rides.
Turns out we were both wrong. INCOGNEGRO is actually set against the race conflict and the activity of the KKK in the early 20th century, and is loosely inspired by the true story of Warren Francis White, the former head of the NAACP, a pale-skinned African-American who went undercover to investigate the Elaine Race Riot of 1919. The book is written by Mat Johnson, a crime and non-fiction novelist who is also, in his words, “a black boy who looked white”. I can imagine that it was a real coup for Vertigo, as an interesting story that deserves to be told regardless of the comic book medium. This is probably where having a writer who doesn’t originally hail from comic books was actually an advantage.
I’ll be honest: this review intimidated me for a while. It’s not just that the book is a serious one not rooted in genre or escapism, or that it focuses on a particularly uncomfortable moment in American history, but sadly, that the issues it’s dealing with are still incredibly sensitive ones. And I’m a white, non-American guy. It’s still difficult to know how to talk about people like Zane Pinchback, the main character in this story. “Mixed race” is the current favored term, but even that has connotations that don’t seem appropriate. So I guess what I’m trying to get at is that the book skillfully manages to tease out these complicated themes and ask the important questions. Probably the most resonant piece of writing comes in an internal monologue when Pinchback, just back in New York after a frighteningly close shave at the start of the book, gets ready to go “incognegro” again:
“That’s the one thing most of us know that white folks don’t. That race doesn’t really exist. Culture? Ethnicity? Sure. Class too. But race is just a bunch of rules meant to keep us on the bottom.”
Maybe this was the thinking behind Vertigo stalwart Warren Pleece’s (HELLBLAZER, DEADENDERS) excellent, sparse artwork as well. There were no shades of gray, just black and white, and because of this it’s sometimes difficult to tell who’s black and who’s white, which seems to fit well with the subject matter of the story.
But the best part of INCOGNEGRO is that it’s actually about a murder mystery in Tupelo, Mississippi, and Zane Pinchback’s efforts to get his brother out of jail, and the tragic, foolhardy actions of his similarly pale-skinned best friend, and a mean-@$$ Klansman out to get them. Race issues and discussion are the context, but Johnson’s story is a gripping one in its own right.
One of my favorite films is Spike Lee’s DO THE RIGHT THING, and that’s one work I might compare INCOGNEGRO to, in the way that it manages to juggle humor and optimism with action, suspense and weighty themes. What with the classic miniseries THE OTHER SIDE, PRIDE OF BAGHDAD (which I personally thought was pretty overrated, as the cool kids are wont to say), and the upcoming CAIRO, the Vertigo imprint seems to be doing some great work with important stories about real life that are still compelling. This one certainly comes with the highest recommendation.
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #119
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciler: Stewart Immonen
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Jinxo
I have such love for this book. Marvel so desperately wants to get the 616 Spider-Man back to the iconic Spidey? Lost cause. To do that you need him in high school. And as other before me have said, we already have that in ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN. He’s all the Spidey I needs.
Now in general I love ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, but in particular I am really enjoying the current Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends arc. It’s got excitement, emotion, action…okay, so far it hasn’t had action in the form of battles but, hey, it has heroes rescuing naked girls falling from the sky! That’s good action in my book. And I haven’t seen the whole mutant/adolescence analogy used to this fine an effect in a long time. This issue begins with Peter’s friend and long time mutant-phobe Liz Allen discovering she is a mutant when she bursts into flames. Her fear and anxiety at discovering who she is, her fear of not fitting in, is movingly palpable. And at the same time that’s going on, you get the retro Saturday Morning flashback of seeing Spider-Man and Ice Man zipping around New York lending a hand to Firestar!
And then there is the coolest hero, the most amazing friend in the whole book. Damn it, Kenny is maybe my favorite character in comics in a long time. He isn’t a super hero. He’s just a kid, another student at Peter Parker’s school. He’s been in the book since maybe the first issue. He started off as just one of the big, dumb, heartless jocks who was the bane of Peter’s existence. Then the irony developed as Kenny turned into Spider-Man’s biggest fan. Only, as it turns out, Kenny is not a dumb jock. He’s sharp. Nobody else can figure out who Spider-Man is. Kenny does. And he’s not heartless. He’s a noble son of a bitch. Last issue spelled out that even though Kenny knows Peter’s secret, he’s leaving it as Peter’s secret. He wants to tell Peter he knows, to help him out…but he doesn’t. It’s Peter’s secret. How he deals with it has to be his call. Awesome. And this issue he steps up again. This issue has Spider-Man, The Human Torch, Ice Man and Kitty Pryde in it. Four major heroes. Yet when things go crazy that need dealt with, it’s Kenny who really steps up and makes quite the quiet heroic move, making a decision about what is really important. It’s a big small moment. Seriously brings a tear to my eye. Kenny is the man.
I do have one huge complaint about this issue though. People, if you are building up to a huge surprise ending, a reveal so important you give it a double page splash image, why oh WHY would you destroy that ending by featuring it on the cover?!?!? Seriously, why should I try to avoid spoilers when the comic itself doesn’t try to? Why not use that as the cover to the next issue??? I’m telling you, if Kenny was running things at Marvel, this sort of stuff wouldn’t happen.
BLUE BEETLE #24
Writer: John Rogers
Artist: Rafael Albuquerque
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Rock-Me Amodeo
This book still rocks. There are so many different threads that are being pulled together here, it’s going to be hard for a newcomer to catch up, so you can either wait for the trade, or go to your LCS and pull a few of the back issues off the shelf…if they are there. Albuquerque’s art has an (and I rarely use this word, but an) organic feel. It has a mood that matches the action, yet is well suited for conversation, with an occasional “TA-DA” stance where you go, “Cool!”
Let’s talk plot. And let’s talk about our protagonist.
Just in case anyone missed it, Jamie Reyes is a hero. After enjoying an ability to pull a super-arsenal out of his super-arse for the past two years, he’s stuck on the enemy ship with no suit, no powers. No nuthin’. And he will not give up. THAT’S a hero.
And he teaches us a thing or two about priorities: “Pants. Then spaceship. In that order.” Words to live by.
Like I always say, a hero without his pants is like…like…well, Michael Jackson, I guess. Okay, I don’t have any sayings like that. But maybe I should from now on!
He has a supporting cast of flawed but eminently likable people. Besides his friends, his mom and his dad are actually (gasp!) cool and dependable and clever and loving. When’s the next time you’re gonna see that? I admit, they resemble the parents I had not at all, but they do resemble the parent I’m trying to be. (I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that many of the people who read this are at least capable of procreating, if they haven’t already.) So I like, nay, RESPECT that aspect of the book.
But that is just gravy. If the action and clever writing didn’t carry the book, all the nice little touches wouldn’t matter at all. But Rogers has paced this book well, and I’m really enjoying all the payoffs that are coming. Especially since I think I know what the last page means. It’s gonna be an excellent 25th issue.
Dante “Rock-Me” Amodeo has been reading comics for thirty-five years. His first novel, “Saban and The Ancient” (an espionage/paranormal thriller) was published 2006. He began writing for AICN Comics in 2007 and his second novel (“Saban Betrayed”) is due 2008. He’s often told he has a great face for radio.
BLACK PANTHER ANNUAL #1
Writer: Reginald Hudlin
Pencils: Larry Stroman and Ken Lashley
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Jinxo
I just don’t understand. What inspired this issue? Was the idea to find a way to repeat the theme of last year’s big Black Panther wedding issue? Was it somehow inspired by the idea of doing something for Black History Month? Why? “Black To The Future”? Really?
Here’s the idea. The story is set in a “possible” future (it will never EVER happen) where Storm and Panther’s son is about to get married. Storm’s other son is upset by the marriage and, for some reason, Storm thinks telling him the ENTIRE history of Wakanda will bring him around. I’m thinking she was trying to bore him into submission. We hear everything from the days of slavery through to future Marvel events that, again, WILL NEVER HAPPEN. Even if they were ever intended to happen they sure wouldn’t now. All the good bits would be totally spoiled by this story. Then when we are shown the source of this “future tale”…ugh! It’s such an annoying twist. Worse than making it a “What If”.
I will say this. I think it was a well intentioned effort. Put some info out there about black history, put out a positive uplifting story. But…it just didn’t work for me. And, can I just say, that marriage is doomed to being, at best, a mediocre pairing. I mean, if those kids were really going to have a spectacular marriage, clearly Mephisto would have shown up. Always a sign of a super happy marriage when the devil shows up. No devil here. Ah well.
X-FORCE #1 (2008)
Writers: Kyle & Yost
Artist: Crain
Publisher: Marvel
Reviewer: Optimous Douche
There are several essential elements one should take into consideration before they form a black-ops team.
The members that comprise your black-ops organization should be relatively obscure characters unbeknownst to the population at large. This is of course to protect the team members’ respective identities and disassociate them with any larger team affiliation in the event that they are captured and tortured for information.
They should be able to kill without remorse. These are your trigger people; you can’t afford to have anyone on the team with a strong moral code or embroiled in some kind of ancient spirituality that respects all life no matter how base and immoral that life might be.
Finally, there should be a thin moral line on whether the object of the team’s quest actually deserves to die.
Then you have X-FORCE #1.
To find the flaws in this book, you need to first start with the team members. Wolfsbane, Wolverine, X-23 and Warpath are charged by Scott Summers to cross the line that no X-Man has ever crossed before.
Let’s go back to the first tenet of Optimous Douche’s recipe for a well baked black-ops team. Are any of these characters unknown? Find me one character from this line-up that hasn’t been plastered in almost every X-book as of late (Wolverine of course being in EVERY X-book). I can see the scene now: Angel sits next to Wolverine after a particularly nasty bout with a mutant menace and asks, “So what did you do today?” Wolverine has two choices--lie through his teeth, or give wing-boy a SNIKT right to the jugular.
It’s a small mansion, folks; someone (probably Kitty Pryde if she can stop boning Colossus for five minutes or Lockheed if he wasn’t helping the two with the reach-arounds) is inevitably going to stumble on to the fact that none of these people are going on regular missions anymore. I know with Marvel’s new mantra of “continuity be damned” this simple observation has probably not even been considered in the writers’ room, but for those of spending our hard earned dollars to keep abreast of all things X related, we would like to some level of continuity between books even if the books aren’t in the throes of a “major event”.
Speaking of continuity, it would have been really nice if the issue of X-FACTOR with Wolfbane’s departure was delivered before the first issue of X-FORCE. When not waxing poetic for the pages of AICN, I toil in the trenches of corporate communications, so I fully understand the complexities of keeping a tight editorial schedule. Marvel, I implore you to hire a few less “creative” types and get some disciplined publishers in your ranks tout suite.
Anyway, I digress. Where were we? Right, building a well rounded black-ops team. The second dash of seasoning needed for a zesty black-ops organization is the ability to kill without remorse. Scott Summers (after eating a retard sandwich for breakfast) decides to laden his covert force with two of the biggest holy rollers in the Marvel universe. Wolverine and “Wolvie with Boobies” are straight up psycho killers (Qu'est-ce que c'est?), so they were perfect choices to be on this team. But Wolfsbane and Warpath? Wolfsbane is mired in more catholic guilt than an altar boy circa 1978. Warpath, while he has killed before, always needs to retreat back to the casino…I mean the reservation to cleanse his soul after each neck snap. Even if these two can complete a job, they will always have that moment of hesitation and as a result end up putting the team in jeopardy. Hell, even in the first issue Wolverine tells the team that this is a job for him and him alone. This is while they are standing 100 yards away from the objective. Stealth is also a component of a black-ops team, guys.
I’m not sure if I need to cover the final tenet of a good black-ops team since this book so blatantly disregarded the first two, but here it goes: ensure that your main objective is not 100% emphatically a “bad guy”. Make us as readers empathize with this individual that is about to meet their maker. Ever since the Purifiers laid waste to the baby mutants a few years ago, is there any doubt that this organization needs to be engaged with lethal force? As a matter of fact, hasn’t Wolverine already hacked and slashed his way through the faceless denizens of this organization in the past? Because that’s all that really happens in this book.
This book is a perfect example of poor execution married to a faulty premise. The art is hyper stylized, so we never get a true feel for the carnage that is being wrought. It feels as though Kyle and Yost are still writing NEw X-MEN, ACADEMY X, NEW MUTANTS: THE NEXT GENERATION or whatever the hell you want to call the latest book tagged to the newbie crop of X-Men. This is not a book about teenagers; this is a book about people on a mission to kill.
I know what Marvel is doing. Someone picked up an issue of Previews before the Sinestro War launched, they saw that the Green Lantern Corps will be given the mandate to protect with extreme prejudice and said, ‘Oh wow, we need a book where our characters can kill people”. Guess what, guys; you’ve had that for the past thirty years with Wolverine. Deadpool kills with a smile and snide remark in almost every issue he appears in. Basically, you have a stable of killers, so use them.
It’s a simple rule of business; you will never trump your competitors by simply copying their ideas (poorly). If you want to redeem this book and write a black-ops tale as it should be told, simply head to the TPB section of your comic shop and look for the final issues of STORMWATCH. Not only do they adhere to the Douche's rules of black-ops goodness, but they are also masterfully written.
JUSTICE (#1-12)
Story: Jim Krueger and Alex Ross
Script: Jim Krueger
Art: Doug Braithwaite and Alex Ross (fyi Braithwaite pencils, Ross paints over the top)
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: barking_frog
It's no secret Alex Ross is a 70's pop culture addict. If you're old enough to remember Super Friends, JUSTICE seals the deal, but certainly doesn't rely on nostalgia to do so. It's an effectively-told story with modern versions of Silver Age takes on the characters (which only seems an odd thing to say), and a concluding message that's actually original, in my experience, in a superhero comic. How often do you get an original message in a JLA story?
JUSTICE is full of memorable scenes and images: Superman's beating -- the heart-to-heart between Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman as creatures of magic -- Braithwaite's and Ross's visuals of the Batcave and Fortress of Solitude -- Flash's desperation in the first issue.
Alex Ross's mysterious ability to put photorealistic people in photorealistic spandex and have them look like demigods instead of circus buffoons is in full evidence. I can't think of anyone who's ever made spandex look good except Christopher Reeve when he wore it and Alex Ross when he paints it.
And these are definitely the visions of the characters that're engraved on the public consciousness. The Golden Age superheroes are far too naive from a modern perspective. The Bronze and Modern Age interpretations tend to be more psychologically sophisticated than the Silver Age, but most of them also have enough baggage by that point in their development that they don't seem quite "clean" anymore (I think this is part of the reason for the increasing popularity of Elseworlds stories, and abandoning large chunks of old continuity). The Silver Age interpretations, dusted off and bought forward in time a little, seem ideal for telling the sort of epic that JUSTICE is -- and Alex gets that exactly right.
The most heavy-hitting villains of the DCU rarely team up en masse, and for good reason -- as Alex Ross has himself indicated in an interview regarding JUSTICE, if criminals cooperated efficiently with others, they probably wouldn't be criminals. Alex and Jim have employed the idea of mind control to bring their villains together. While not a subtle solution, it does the job, and seems plausible within the context of the story.
All this is by way of giving us an enormous Silver Age DC superheroes vs. super villains clash such as KINGDOM COME couldn't quite deliver with its DC vs. "Image" cast. The "superwar" notion is, I suspect, the thing people remember best about the late 70's Super Friends -- simplistic plots aside, we'd occasionally get to see half a dozen major villains try to pound the JLA all at once.
And Ross gets this note-perfect. Everybody is in character. We have a little taste of what makes each hero a hero and each villain a villain, and that alone is no mean feat with only 450 or 500 pages divided among such a huge cast. The villains have plans wrapped in plans; Batman has plans wrapped in plans; when everything starts to come down it all unravels just the way the reader would hope to see.
The ending of JUSTICE, though, suffers from some serious defects -- which is a great shame, because this story is otherwise perfect. It could have been the next KINGDOM COME, but instead of KINGDOM COME's solid ending, JUSTICE falters in issues #11 and #12.
The biggest flaw is the completely unfulfilling resolution of one of the story's initial dilemmas. In the beginning, practically each major super villain in the DCU learns the secret identity and personal information of every major super hero in the DCU. I assumed right off the bat this would ultimately make JUSTICE an Elseworlds story, but Alex and Jim do try for a reset at the end to return everything to normal. Well...that's a difficult if not impossible situation to handle realistically, and if Alex and Jim had found a way my hat would be off to them. Instead, Green Lantern uses a power ring to selectively erase the memories of all the super villains.
Yup.
The second thing that seems poorly thought out is that in the end, when everything goes to hell, the GL Corps appears in order to lend the necessary muscle to contain the situation. Sinestro removed Hal Jordan from the story for most of the middle, but Hal was back in play for quite a while before summoning the Corps at -- it is indicated -- the last moment.
With the stakes as high as they obviously were in this story, why would Hal not have called for that kind of help as soon as he came back into the story line? No explanation is offered.
The third highly questionable point at the story's conclusion involves comic book physics. I can accept that people fly in comics. I can accept that solar radiation of a particular frequency somehow causes Kryptonians to manifest laser vision. This is superhero comics, those are the rules.
In the ending, Superman and a normal-stamina human teleport into Earth orbit. The human, obviously, begins to suffocate (there's also the issue of freezing temperatures, fluids boiling in a vacuum, etc., which JUSTICE doesn't address, but I could let that go). Superman needs to get her back into Earth atmosphere quickly.
Solution?
He wraps her in his cape and dives into the atmosphere with all the pyrotechnics you'd expect.
I can accept that Superman's cape is indestructible (at least, in the Silver Age it was), and that might help to prevent direct friction burn to the human character. But is it also The Perfect Insulator? First I've heard of that -- seems to me she would've been cooked like a microwave burrito wrapped in its tortilla.
The above could all be defended with the argument that JUSTICE is a Silver Age tribute -- but in order for me to accept that, issues #1-10 would've had to ignore modern scientific principles (and common sense) in the same way parts of issues #11 and #12 did. They did not.
In conclusion, JUSTICE is a great series that deserves a place on your bookshelf. But on the shelf below, not next to, MARVELS, EARTH X, and KINGDOM COME. Its only downfall is a series of absurdities at the very end, but they're absurdities that would shake even the most dedicated fanboy's suspension of disbelief. Nonetheless, the creators have done something really remarkable with JUSTICE, and it will repay your attention. (Over 450 pages of Alex Ross artwork isn't hard to look at, either.)
barking_frog is Edward Livingston-Blade, a former IT network administrator (and teacher) for a public school site in California, who decided to risk starvation and write comics instead. He should really stop doing these reviews and get back to The Man Who Wasn't There.
CRIMINAL VOL 2 #1
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Penciler: Sean Phillips
Publisher: Marvel Icon
Reviewed by Humphrey Lee
Second verse, same as the first.
CRIMINAL is back, and it has put on a little weight. The little crime book that could, CRIMINAL has been the gold standard for crime fiction in comics since it sprang from the mind of Ed Brubaker, and with this brand spanking new #1 it's looking to be in as good a form as ever. For those not familiar with this comic, well, kill yourself. But the title and my lead-in this paragraph pretty much implies what it's all about. This book is all about stories from the underbelly; about the men and women who live in the seamier parts of life but with a lot more personal turmoil involved. It's very Noir, and very rich and dense Noir at that, which is something to be appreciated when it comes along and is as well executed as this book.
The story this time is that of a long-time friendship that has slowly rotted away. It's a relationship that started years ago, as they grew up under fathers that ran roughshod over whatever territory they could find until one of them (Sebastian) slowly converted from being Prince to becoming King while the other (Jake) started making his way more legitimately in the world of professional boxing. And, like always, there was a little drama involving a girl to go along with it. This story unfolds with pretty much perfect pacing. One of the reasons CRIMINAL has always been such an excellent read is that it showcases the talents of two men who really know their gifts. Brubaker's wordsmithing here is pristine. It's mostly very terse, very direct but occasionally playful. Almost like a boxer, while the analogy is in the air to be grabbed. Every little jab has its objective; even if it's not to cause major damage it's there to soften you up and put you in position for the knockout punch. And there are tons of KOs when it comes to the kind of turmoil and twists and turns unloaded upon you in a given issue of the book, especially now with the expanded content of the book.
And just like Brubaker's words are the fists a flying, Sean Phillips' art is definitely the fancy footwork. The visual pacing is just astounding in how it's presented. I've said it once, I'll say it a thousand times: Phillips is a man who knows how to use a panel. What really works for him is when he's using his "slivers". Whereas most art is held back to somewhere around 5 or 6 panels a page tops, Phillips will just use these constant stream of half (or so) panels to either bounce back and forth between talking heads or to give that extra bit of motion to the story. Such a simple concept, but yet something that enhances the reading so much, and Phillips is a master at it. Combined with the kind of atmosphere his detailed yet slightly "dirty" lines can convey, it's just such the perfect compliment to the way the story needs to unfold.
CRIMINAL might not exactly be exploring new depths of its genre with its stories at their most base, but the way Brubaker and Phillips bring the characters to life is a sight to behold. From a pure execution standpoint, this might damn well be the best comic on the stands. This is going to go down as one of the best comics of the decade all said and done, and now here you have a second chance to jump on the bandwagon before it really gets a going. Seriously, don't be that guy that misses everything cool and dies alone and angry (thank you, Patton Oswalt). This book should be a top priority on every pull list.
Humphrey Lee is a long time AICN reviewer and also a certified drunk whose claim to fame is making it up four steps of the twelve step program before vomiting on steps five and six and then falling asleep on steps one through three. Also, chances are, he's banged your mom (depending on the relative hotness of said parental figure) and is probably the father of one of your younger siblings.
THUNDERBOLTS – INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT
Writer: Christos Gage
Artist: Ben Oliver
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Rock-Me Amodeo
This is the third in a series of T-BOLTS one-shots. The first featured Penance and Bullseye (both relatively shallow characters – one loves giving pain and the other loves getting it), the second had Songbird and Moonstone (two fantastic characters.) Both were good reads, inconsequential in the greater scheme, but still, they did exactly what they were supposed to do: give us a one-shot that highlighted the strengths of the characters with minimal need for continuity awareness.
This third book featured the two foreign nationals, Radioactive Man (Dr. Chen Lu) and the new Swordsman (the von Strucker whelp.) It also featured some excellent pencils and gave a more subtle crafting of someone who is fast becoming a favorite character of mine, the aforementioned Dr. Lu.
Who would have guessed ten years ago that such rich paydirt could be found by mining the depths of the Marvel bedrock? More and more, it’s the secondary characters that are of primary interest. Gage doesn’t dig quite as deeply as Ellis, but that may be more due to nature and length of the one-shot format. Given a sufficiently long run, I think he could bring the heat.
In any case, Strucker and Lu take center stage in a nod to STRIKEFORCE:MORITURI, courtesy of Arnim Zola. A passing reference is made to the much-missed Jolt, but other than that, the book stays on focus. Osborn scores some incidental points playing psychological games with Lu, games made all the more hurtful by the fact that they are not really games. Nothing hurts so much as the truth. I feel for Lu.
Swordsman, however, still isn’t cutting it for me. Yes, some sort of subplot was actually advanced here, but I still feel like I know nothing about what really motivates him, other than his creepy implied physical relationship with his dead sister. Also the fact that he flayed her, that’s kinda cold. Maybe a few other things.
You know, good characters are either loved or hated, but he leaves me somewhere between “meh” and “ick.” Am I supposed to empathize with a character who wants to bring his sister back to life just so he can “do” her? This is the same problem I have with THE ULTIMATES version of Quicksilver, actually, regarding his sister Wanda. What is it with Marvel and incest lately? Away team, set phasers on “Ewwww!”
But the story doesn’t go there, thankfully. Overall, this was a good way for a newbie to discover the ‘Bolts, and Oliver did a good job on the art. It harkened back to the Bagley days, which may not really serve the “grit factor” that Ellis has tried to imbue to this title, but still, it served the story. And that is the priority.
When this was announced, it occurred to me that the only characters not being high-lighted were Venom and Osborn. As I write this, I notice they’re getting their own one-shot in May, also written by Gage. I hope Venom isn’t reduced to simple Tourettes-style dialogue, you know, Venom at the dinner table: “Please pass the salt and LET ME RIP OFF YOUR ARM AND BEAT YOU WITH IT, ARGGHH!!! Oh, sorry, excuse me, I seem to WANT TO EAT YOUR EYEBALLS, ARGGHH!!” Et cetera. He almost went there this issue, but it wasn’t his book.
Barring that, I’ll check out the next/last issue, and let’s see where the stories go from there. More Lu. More Songbird. More Moonstone. And, of course, more cowbell.
RASL #1
By Jeff Smith
The much anticipated new creator-owned series by BONE scribe Jeff Smith is finally here and it... well, it was...something? Now, don't get me wrong, this was definitely an interesting (not to mention gorgeous) debut issue, but it was definitely way too quick a read with obviously a lot of explaining to do which will make the almost three month wait for the second issue kind of hard to cope with. I liked what I saw though. Lots of action, some foreboding, some sort of teleporting (or dimension hopping, who knows?) being used as a plot device. It has some intriguing elements, but I have no bloody clue what they're supposed to mean which makes waiting such extended periods a big downer. I'm definitely interested in what RASL has to offer so far, but that interest might have to be relegated to being sated in trade form so I have chunks of it to tide me over. Sucks, but these things do tend to happen. – Humphrey Lee
THE MISADVENTURES OF CLARK & JEFFERSON #1-3
Ape Entertainment
Taking the hint from the classic BLAZIN’ SADDLES scene, writer Jay Carvajal and artist Marc Borstel fill this cowboy adventure with tons of laughs and more poop humor than you can throw a lasso at. This book follows a tough as nails sheriff (Clark) and his earnest yet clumsy deputy (Jefferson) as they look for felons, criminals, and bandits. Unfortunately, they instead they find aliens, monsters, and piles and piles of crap. Issue one alone has people stepping in poop, falling into poop, a visit to the crapper that ends in an @$$-full of cactus needles, and a swan dive into an outhouse in order to evade attacking aliens. I challenge you to find more poop in any other comic this year (“One More Day” doesn’t count, folks, sorry). Although the poop humor is piled high, this book does a great job of having fun with the cowboy genre, taking it to places both comedic and sci fi that one rarely sees in a western comic. The lead pair of lawmen are likable and fun to watch, made even more fun by artist Borstel’s nice artwork which resembles Brian Bolland’s art more and more as every issue passes. Issue two and three brings more of the same as our lawmen come across a town that that has barely survived a space creature attack. This last stand is nicely paced and although there is less poo in this issue, it’s still pretty good. I’m interested to see how this genre-bending story turns out. So far so good. – Ambush Bug 
FALLEN ANGEL #24
IDW Publishing
A book that has fallen (hooray for puns!) by the wayside for me for a while now, FALLEN ANGEL has actually become really intense really quickly these past couple issues. Previously the book felt pretty languorous; just kind of going through the motions as it casually told a story here or did a little character tale there, but now some serious shit is going down. There's a full out war going on in Bete Noire, one that's playing for some really high stakes and with this current issue has a pretty big first casualty for those long time readers. But I'm liking where this is going. The pot is being stirred up; there seems to be consequences again and the hits are coming quick and furious. Just the injection this title needed, because it was getting to a point where as much as I love PAD and want to support the book, it was becoming hard to justify the four dollar price tag. Now I'm starting to be glad I stuck it out. Keep the hits coming... – Humphrey Lee
RUNAWAYS #29
Marvel Comics
I think Michael Ryan’s pencils are outstanding. I think Joss Whedon’s writing is phenomenal. And the plot…the plot…the problem is that great pencils stand on their own, no matter how long it was since the last time you saw them. Clever one-liners also do well on their own, by definition. Multi-part stories with several dozen characters, however, do not. We have the Runaways themselves, plus the “Wonders,” the Yorkes, the Street Arabs, the Sinners, the Swell, and the Upward Path. We got folks like Dead George, Maneater, Klara, Witchbreaker, Ratdog, Goldbrick, a Grimshape (whatever that is…) You know, the only person I really remember from the last issue is Lillie, and that’s just because redheads always make an impression on me. Everyone else has me lost. I think this is probably an epic story, and probably a good one, but I don’t know if I would have followed even if I read the last issue last month. Cho’s MIGHTY AVENGERS had the same kind of scheduling, and I mostly gave it a pass, but there were much fewer moving parts with that book. With a plot as complicated as this, the scheduling is a ball and chain that proves very difficult to overcome. - Rock-Me 
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #13
DC Comics
Is it just me, or did we see that the older KINGDOM COME Superman is incredibly more powerful than our Superman? Did our Supes not even notice? Just like BRAVE AND THE BOLD has brought “old school” the respectability that it deserves, this title is doing the same thing. This, however, is not a lighthearted jaunt into the thrilling days of yesteryear. No, this is, in its own way, as gritty as anything else you will read. The stakes are high and we’re starting to see how Gog begat Magog and the other events of KINGDOM COME might have come to pass. Given the rumors I have heard lately about the old guard giving way to the new guard, who knows how exactly this is going to turn out? For right now, I’m really really enjoying this series. - Rock-Me Remember, if you have a comic 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.
Check out the @$$oles’ ComicSpace AICN Comics page here for an archive and more @$$y goodness.
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I'm enjoying Amazing at the moment, but I just wish they hadn't had to fuck with continuity so much to get the book to be good again.
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how goes everybody?
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Great column as always.
But how come no mention of the D&D founder's passing anywhere on AICN?
Sad day for nerdsmanship. -
Does the review just mean that the final issue is out, or that the third volume is out in hardcover? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
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Burgundy82 - all issues have been out since last June - I think the reviewer just got around to reviewing the hard covers of Vol 1-3 which have been out since the fall.
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I just have to say . .this series has been one of the most pleasurable reading experiences I have EVER had. Most praise has already been dished out -- the art, the writing, the characterizations, etc - - but I wanted to touch on something else rarely seen in comics these days: cleverness.
*SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE SERIES RUN AMUCK*
This series warrants repeat readings, over and over again. Period. Most people will not understand EVERYTHING going on the first time you read each issue. I know, that some have used this aspect of the series as a knock against it, but I think it is its greatest strength. For example it took me 3-4 (sometimes more) readings to catch the following:
--Yes, the Riddler really is coughing the Mr Mind worms all over Batman in the cemetery in issue #2. Hence, Batman gets effected and sabotages the Watch Tower issues later.
--The whole "switcheroo with the rings": some of us on the DC boards were trying to figure out just what was going on at the end of #10 -- Green Arrow shoots a GL ring to John Stewart? (Even stating he was really shooting kryptonite at Super Girl in order to take her down, compounding our confusion) Huh? Was it John's or Hal's Green Lantern ring? And don't they share one during the time this series was made? But - in #11 we all were surprised when, after the Metal Man on Hal Jordan was stripped away, Jordan was revealed to be holding the 2nd Sinestro yellow ring! Fighting yellow with yellow (and trusting your replacement with the "one ring to save them all") was a brilliant and certainly unexpected touch. I think I was more shocked than Sinestro was.
--Here is one that I might have never caught: at the end of #10 (after the ArmoSuperFriends leave the Fortress), Luthor beams in to rescue Captain Cold (very last page of the issue when he says, "Everything is going so well."). Of course, people paying close attention in the next issue saw Cold morph into Martian Manhunter when the Justice League attacked. Cold was J'onn the whole time in between issues.
--The granddaddy of them all - How many people complained that the JL's new metal man outfits were just another attempt to capitalize on the toy market? Well, I was completely caught off guard in #11 when it was revealed that Marvel was dressed as Superman to throw off the bad guys. So does that mean if you own the Superman Metal Armor action figure, you really own the Captain Marvel one? The mind boggles.
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oh well. Hadn't posted on a talk back in a long time.
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I agree it's mighty confusing: the Swell, the Street Arabs, the Sinners, the Upward Path. plus they all get together for a big fight.
but my initial annoyance in not being able to keep track (plus my dismay that the art, although good enough to get by, is not a patch on Alphona's), diminished as i got more into the story.
this was the first ep of the 1900s arc that actually made me care about the Victorian superheros. esp when that midget guy gets the bullet. i didn't even remember who he was and he's probably only been in about five panels in the entire run, but DAMN. it takes a writer like Whedon to make you care about a completely throwaway character like that. -
The review seems to imply there is a collected volume of these 12 issues (reference to the total page count). If so, I couldn't find it at Amazon or on DCComics.com.
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Try adding or two, where you want a break. (just get rid of the space between the ""
Like so. -
I guess I need to not be so metaphorical with my closings. I have no problem with “normal joes” donning capes and doing good in the world. Hell, I love Batman who has nary a power. But Batman at least trained before he put himself in harms way. Were this book called Ass-Kicked I wouldn’t complain about the events that transpired. As it stands now though, the kids just a moron.
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just get rid of the spaces of what I posted.
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check it out
spaces!
now I will bring this world to its needs.
or not. you rock, rock-me Amodeo. And I'm not just saying that. -
if there is a SINGLE volume of Justice, with all the volumes aggregated into one, I am not aware of it.
I doubt there is one. Just the three hardcover volumes. -
I had no idea what was going on most of the time.
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Coming to a theatre near you!
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The guy clearly gets Marvel characters (Punisher notwithstanding) and certainly knows how to bring out the best in them as evidenced by the way he's been writing the mutants in Astonishing X-Men and the Pride kids in Runaways, but I feel that the new characters he's invented for his arcs have been pretty flat and unremarkable overall. In X-Men Ord and Danger seem more like mcguffins than actual threats, and in Runaways he's thrown in about a dozen gang members from 3 different factions into the span of three issues. Of course, it also doesn't help that most of these issues have been released with such huge gaps in between that I end up forgetting about most of these peripheral characters.
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I haven't read the issue in question, but I don't really have a problem with Superman flying someone from orbit to earth. The space shuttle is capable of doing it without burning up. Since Superman is basically indestructible, he should be able to shield a person with his body from the heat of re-entry. Plus, and I have to preface this by saying I am not much of a Superman reader so maybe I am wrong on this, but I thought that the latest explanation of Superman's invulnerability is that he basically subconciously surrounds himself with a telekinetic shield, which explains why his costume rarely gets damaged, but his cape does get damaged. His TK shield doesn't extend as far as his cape, see. So, if Supes wrapped his body around someone, his TK shield would probably extend to cover the person and shield them from any damage, including heat damage. Again, I may be wrong, but it does make sense.
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...that collect like 2 issues. Just give me the ENTIRE run in softcover please....or, if it's good enough- a deluxe Absolute edition (Cooke's Spirit, perhaps? Sinestro Corps War?) I'm sick of having to buy 3 $20 hardcovers that only collect 12 issues.
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Calloo, callay!Now I just need advice on how to get my LCS owner to start reading it again. He dropped it after the first 6-issue arc and claimed it bored him and Ultimate Spider-Man filled his teen superhero niche. Augh! I keep telling him to pick any single issue during the early part of the second year and try it(especially the Eclipso issue), but no dice. This little book that can, needs all the support it can get.
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Mar 05, 2008 11:58:23 AM CST
hulking= dumb. if you like hulkling you blow. period.
by the_one_man_gang
god there are so many dumb comics out right now...im sorry. the only good books are ultimates, astonishing x men, all star supes... there are others but they are so inconsistent
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getting a bullet the size of his torso through his head was surprisingly touching. But yeah, that was on fucking confusing comic. gygax article plz
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Yeah, Kenny's awesome. But after someone who isn't the hero shows how cool he is - especially a non-superhero - where do you go from there? Yep. Ten to one, normal guy in the fridge before this is all over. Kenny's a dead man walking*. I just hope Bendis lets him survive this arc.
*... oh, God. He's even *named* Kenny. That bastard. Bendis must've been planning to kill him off since day one. -
I'm gonna guess you were lucky enough to not buy the new Ultimates 3 series by Jeph Loeb. In 3 issues he bulldozed over all of Mark Millar's excellent work with the some most atrocious writing and characterizations to grace the Ultimate Marvel line.
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Mar 05, 2008 12:33:41 PM CST
Kick Ass' character got pounded on because that's the book's cen
by tallboy66
Not the most original idea ever, but Millar and JRJR are going for realism as a superhero. So what would happen if your average scrawny teenage superhero got dressed up in spandex and took on criminals - he'd get the fucking shit kicked out of him. That's how it goes. It was meant to be shocking and jar you out of it - because that's what the book is about. Maybe not the "greatest idea ever" like they said on the cover, but it is fairly nifty.
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fucking I hate these subject headers AICN...
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in two hardcover volumes then some time after that most likely an absolute edition. so depends on how long you are willing to wait.
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I second that fucking notion. If you're going to the trouble to print a hardcover, just put the whole fucking story in there instead of charging $25 for a third of a story. JSA is the worst recent offender to me. $25 for 4 issues in hardcover.
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No, if your average scrawny teenager dressed up as a superhero to fight crime, he'd be shot in the fucking head after being raped a few dozen times and having all his teeth knocked out with a baseball bat.
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I don't follow comic books, but pretty big props to AICN for keeping up on this. Sure its nerd-core, but that's what the fans want. So keep it up guys, and maybe some will make the cross-over to movies...fun!
http://tinyurl.com/2qdpmv -
LAME. I hope the absence (or charitably: the DELAY) of props to Gary Gygax is because somebody is taking the time to craft a thoughtful obit. An AICN shout out to a guy who shaped the lives of fantasy lovin' geeks everywhere is a no-brainer. WTF?!
Don't tell me y'all are afraid your imaginary girlfriends will find out you're D&Ders.
Seems like a bit of a dis. -
As I said in the review I wanted to love this book, but it just didn't sit right.
However, that doesn't make the entire title a complete loss. I never judge an entire series based on the first issue alone. Just because it takes me a few extra minutes to take a piss in the morning now that I'm in my thirties, it doesn't mean I'm going to cut my dick off.
Being in marketing for a living I've grown to hate my own kind. We can be outright liars at time. This book lied to me. Like Kirkman's Invincible it touted it self as the Best Superhero Book Ever. However, Invincible at least has a few superheroes in it. Kick Ass was the comic equal of a snuff film. -
i cannot believe Joe Q has managed to not destroy Marvel, when he and Bill Jemas where hired I hoped it would destroy the company, but jemas was fired and they kept the true idiot. If not for movie division methinks the company would be in bankruptcy again.
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The thing about Blue Beetel's is WE DONT NEED NO STINKING POWERS
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is that Captain Marvel is more powerful than Superman. Supes was getting the hell beaten out of him when Cap came in and bitch-slapped the villans. Cool scene.
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I don't know why Ross has such a hard-on for the guy.
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... is probably an unfair comparison to BONE. Bone felt like a series that had A LOT of pre-work in character design and seemed really thought-out in it's look and feel ... RASL doesn't feel like it had that. The main character doesn't look like he's been thought out six ways to Sunday before put down on paper. Not that a rougher look is bad, but it feels like a lot less love is put into it. Will the look of the series evolve as it goes on? I'll definitely give Jeff Smith the benefit of the doubt, but I'm not keen on the look of the hero or villain in this.
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Am I imagining things, or was Mar-vell a bit of a self-centered jerk in that issue? "Great Hala, teenaged son who probably has much less in the way of coping skills, this is just too much for me (a grown-up) to handle. I must think about this news. Let me run away like Brave Sir Robin."Then he comes back like the kid owes him a favor, they process and as the kid is crying, he leaves. "I will see you again...if I get the chance..."Translation: I won't MAKE time to see you...but if I get the chance...HEY, DON'T GO OUT OF YOUR WAY OR ANYTHING, CAPTAIN EMPATHY!
Douche (no offense, Optimus.) I don't think I'll be shedding any tears when Mar-vell returns to his own time. -
If Marv-Vell was a human I'd say maybe he was a bit of a dick. Just a bit. But he isn't human. He isn't an Alan Alda-y sensitive new aged dad. He's a Kree warrior. I'm guessing much less with the touchy feely love. ANd finding out you have a son out of the blue, I think saying, "I need to step away from this for a second," is totally believable. Especially when, you know, you were already stopping off while going to save the world. Of course he'd have to leave. And the end didn't hit me as him bailing on the kid. More like this was the only chance to connect they ever got before he ended up going back to his original time period. Of course if Marvel ends up keeping him around for DECADES before he heads back, okay, then him not getting back to his son becomes dickish.
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Was a real favorite of mine as a kid in the 70s. Nice to see it's still being published.
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He is a warrior. Needing to retreat and regroup is in character. I didn't LIKE the fact that he was standoffish, but that doesn't mean he wasn't in character, or that he would try to make things right if he had the emotional tools.sometimes I'm too fricking Alan Alda. Minus the weeping.
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Is great. He's a creep, and I don't like him, but thats why I like the character. He's a f*ckin' weirdo nazi sicko with his sisters skin wrapped around his sword. No doubt it was wrapped around his member as well. Eww. T-Bolts is great. One of the few Marvel books that I still enjoy with mucho gusto. Well that and Daredevil, Iron Man, Captain America, Annihilation Conquest, and the soon to be canceled The Order. (Actually, The Incredible Hercules is much better than I expected. Thor has potential, but for now its still getting there.)
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... is when he tells Hulking that suicide is painless. Wow!
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What I enjoyed about the comic was that the "hero" was NOT relatable at all. Not to suck Millar off, but I have to give him props for going way past "the pathetic loser with a heart of gold" and all the way to the "really pathetic loser." This reminds me of the Dan Clowes "Death Ray" comic with less thought, less heart and less soul. Kick Ass lives up to the title. It's not "the greatest superhero comic of all time" as the teaser proclaims, but it's totally the cover image. Kick Ass is a douchebag punching your face through a door thinking it's doing the right thing. It's completely infantile and shallow and I love it for it. Maybe the new Next Wave.
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WTF?
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Its really actually rather disturbing, and could probably make a pretty great movie; a really great dark comedy type satire.
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When they reveal that Mar-Vell is a Skrull. Not that I know or anything, but everything points to him being a skrull so far. Or maybe since Hulkling is part skrull, this Mar-Vell is his actual father. Anyway, is the world ready for a skrull Captain Marvel? I think it'd actually be kind of a cool twist if there actually is a reveal and the Avengers have a Skrull fighting on their side in the big invasion.
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the Green Lantern Corps doing a last minute save is just awesome. They are the gods who live amongst gods.
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Have you read any other issues of EightBall that were really great? I want to continue my Dan Clowes reading, but I'm not sure where to go. (That shit costs money, yo.) At present, I've got the aforementioned Death Ray, Ghost World, David Boring and 20th Century Eightball, a collection of Clowes's best old humor strips.
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There's no "one volume" JUSTICE -- the "TPB's" are in the form of three (not two) hardcover volumes. The hardcovers have been out since October, and the regular series finished back in June (thanks BruceWayne111). So this isn't a review of new material, but Bug wanted to run the review on the grounds that TPB's have a long shelf life -- and I'm ostensibly a TPB reviewer. Having said that, I put "#1-12" in the header because I read the separate issues. ;-)
I think the question of what format I'm reviewing the material in has come up after more than one of my reviews now, so I'll try to start listing exact source format in my reviews. For JUSTICE, you can get the "TPB's" from amazon at the following three links:
http://tinyurl.com/2ok9q6
http://tinyurl.com/32tagr
http://tinyurl.com/2uu6a9
Also note that apparently paperback editions of the three volumes will become available starting in May. -
Sounds like you have a pretty good cross section right there! I think anything you can find of the original Eightball books or collections is where to look next. I'm assuming the 20th Century Eightball collection has the original "Art School Confidential" in it right? Another old skool one you might want to check out is "Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron."
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when do i get a hardcover of black adam?
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It also includes Clowes most touching and personal work "Needle dick the bug fucker." Thank for the tip bra.
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Anyone who disagrees doesn't matter.
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For the first time in a long time, I'm intrigued by a comic book concept. Not enough to buy it, but...This is what Millar does best. His legion for fans, second only to the Bendii, think he does everything best. I've often tried to figure out why I like Millar's writing so much because:A) His dialogue reads like someone who learned everything about how us yanks talk from T.V., movies and a few hip hop CDS and 2)His plots usually consist of taking a longstanding superhero concept and pissing on it without really adding to it and D)His characterizations are about as subtle as Michael Bay on crank filming a script Stan Lee wrote on Red Bull and *)His action, which can be quite good, is too few and far between because this is the 21st century and IV) although I agree with his politics in general, his political commentary in his work reads as both diluted and heavy handed at the same time -- how do you tell that a U.S. comic book fan receives his political education from the Millar board? He'll call himself a "leftie". Here, leftie is either how you bat or those special scissors in grade school. You can tell a bonafide American because he or she will say they are "liberal" or "conservative" or "too damn busy to care". Also, if you kick 'em in the shins, they'll knock you out.No, I think the reason, in spite of these problems, that I love Millar's writing is that when he's trying, when he's at his best, he's the best idea guy working today. More vesatile than Bendis, more focused than Morrison.And KICK-ASS does sound like a great idea. Millar is a guy who deserves to get paid his Marvel rate for doing his own stuff, not theirs.And Optimus, I'm the complete opposite about first issues. If a first issue can't cut it for me, there's no way I'm ponying up the filthy green for a second.
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"And KICK-ASS does sound like a great idea. Millar is a guy who deserves to get paid his Marvel rate for doing his own stuff, not theirs."
It's for this simple reason alone that I want to give this title one more chance at bat. -
Has anyone heard about this book yet? I just read about it in an interview with Mark Millar in Geek Magazine, and I'm actually excited to read this book in a way I haven't been since I was a teenager awaiting for the Onslaught storyline to start in the '90s.
Anyway, the premise is a group of Marvel villians sometime after the first Secret Wars find a portal into our world. There's a few preview pages online, and this has a lot of potential to be awesome.
I've been out of the comics loop for a while since I got married, but I'm going to seek this one out when it comes out in May. -
I never did like the ending of Kingdom Come. The whole thing with Superman and the spectator was just kinda cheap to me. I accept that I'm in the minority.
I also rarely like Alex Ross' renditions of the characters. He always seems to make them look like they eat a few too many big macs, and the women look like men in drag. His art is excellent but I just have to avoid most of his artwork.
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By my last sentence, I mean that I can tell his art talent is amazing, but somehow he makes all the super heroes look like porkers or something, even the young and magically perfect ones. I keep thinking of Mr. Incredible trying to get into his tights.
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I think what bothers most comic readers about Ross’s art, and I’m going to put Quitely in the same camp, is the hyper-realism it portrays.
This is especially true after so many years of being inundated with the Liefield style of anti-realism (I love making up words).
If you think abut the feats that the heavy hitters can accomplish, they would need to be a bit beefy and have some muscle tone.
I also hate the books where the faces of everyone are the same, the perfect Kennedy-esque square head with all features in perfect balance and symmetry.
Ross’s characters seem ugly, because they are not perfect. And for some unexplainable reason, I guess we could only call it taste, some people will like this and some won’t. I’m in the first camp.
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Not what I'd call realistic. Did you not read New X-Men? Cyclop's head was as wide as his foot. The only realistic thing about Frank Quitely is the stiches he insists on drawing on everyone's clothes, even though you can't really see them in real life.
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One of the reasons people don't like Alex Ross art is because it feels so cramped. He wants to draw everything as a double page spread, but when he can't, he still tries to fit as many people in apanel as he can.
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But then I have ALWAYS had a passion for painted comics and the sheer photorealism he brings remains unmatched. (But hey, I get that you kids have to have the diss-du-jour)
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Marvel comics have always been considered more realistic than DC comics. Only by people with a shakey grasp on reality, true but...Visually, however, the Marvel icons are freakier. As editor, Stan Lee's brilliance was to let Kirby and Ditko go nuts when they were creating the Marvel Universe. Spider-Man is completely masked with mirror lensed eyes, often portrayed dangling upside down or standing on the sheer surface of the wall. The Hulk is a monster. The original Fantastic Four are depicted as stranger than anything at DC at the time. The original Avengers: an armored, hammer swinging god with (gasp!) long hair; a giant and a bug sized woman; a monster; a mechanized man; even a masked man in red, white and blue who is still more mysterious than the muted, near uni-colored Green Lantern, Flash, Aqua-Man, Batman or Martian Manhunter, with the mask dehumanizing him more than the equally vibrant Superman and Wonder Woman.Marvel heroes were freaks. With MARVELS, Ross' realistic style emphasized that these aren't the kind of sights we see every day.The DC icons, although great characters and visually interesting in their own way, look normal by contrast. They look like people in costumes. I think this is why little kids relate more to DC heroes and often switch to Marvel when they get a little older.The thing is, the DC heroes should look like WELL BUILT people in suits and often they look like people Ross badgered into modeling for him. Too often, Superman and Batman, for example, come off as doughy as George Reeves and Adam West.Also, I have to admit, I hate the way Ross paints the DC guys so we have to look up their noses. I swear,Ross loves that up-the-nose shot as much as Gil Kane ever did.And I know it shouldn't affect how I feel about his art, but I can't help but dislike Ross a little for his "Jack Kirby did everything at Marvel and Stan Lee did nothing" stance. Which is as ridiculous as the "Stan just told Jack what to do" stance. C'mon, Alex, have you ever looked at the stuff either of them did on their own (or without Ditko either in Stan's case. There's a reason that people have heard of Spider-Man and the Hulk but haven't heard of Iron Man and Daredevil as much)? We get it, Alex, you're an artist, you relate more to Kirby but compare Kirby's NEW GODS to Kriby & Lee's THOR and you'll see.
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Sounds like the episodes where the villains from Timmy Turner's favorite comic book, THE CRIMSON CHIN (voice of Jay Leno) escape into "our" world. Timmy has to stop the Nega-Chin (also Leno), the Bronze Knee Cap, H2 Olga, Short Fuse, the Brass Knuckle, etc. Once, his mean teacher was turned into a Dr. Octopus type character, his mean babysitter sort of resembled a female Wolverine in Fang's costume, and the school bully became a bull creature.Why do I think Butch Hartman's version will still have a better grasp of everyday American life than Mark Millar's?
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Stupid lack of edit feature. My point is still valid, I tell you!
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He's got a great style, whatever you call it. Wouldn't want to see EVERY comic drawn that way, but I also wouldn't want to see EVERY comic drawn in any single style.
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It's a known fact that when Kirby was in editorial charge he shit on his creators in EXACTLY the same manner he himself was shit on. NOT downplaying what contributed or endured in the industry but not blind to the fact that he didn't do a damn thing to change any of it when he did have the opportunity.
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Just callin' it as I see it. The ART in Kick-Ass was great but the story? Whut-EV-Errr......
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Damn good observation -- I've never thought about that, but I can see exactly what you mean. Perhaps it could be attributed to the era as much as to Lee and Kirby/Ditko, though -- DC's icons emerged mostly in the 1940's, whereas Lee and Kirby/Ditko created their iconic characters two decades later. In the gap, we'd all been exposed to the monster movies of the 50's.
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Having just read biographies of both Kirby and Lee, the monster angle was a very sneaky thing they did with the FANTASTIC FOUR and HULK, the first true Marvel Comics.When FF # 1 and HULK # 1 came out, the nameless company that would soon be called Marvel (it had been Timely and Atlas) didn't have their own distributor. They were distributed by National, which was DC. At the time, DC was the only company still successful with superheroes and they wouldn't have been too keen on distributing competition.Because the pre-Marvel publishing slate was heavy on giant monster titles, Lee and Kirby made early issues of the FF resemble their monster mags to the casual eye. Each issue featured at least one giant beast, the FF weren't in costumes for the first three or four issues, the Hulk was a monster superhero, etc.Very clever and sneaky.Also, interesting (probably to me) Marvel could only publish a certain numer of superhero titles at first. Which is why we soon had JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY as Thor's comic, Cap and Iron Man in TALES TO ASTONISH, the Hulk and the SUB-MARINER in ASTONISHING TALES, etc.
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In addition to Kirby, it was funny that the early Image guys were like, "Work for hire this, work for hire that" and within a few issues MacFarlane and Liefield had hired artists to draw in more of a "house" (or more appropriately, "houses") style than they ever had to at Marvel, while Jim Lee hired an old high school buddy to write for him (Lee, for one, being intelligent and modest enough to realize that art was his strength).
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Excepting Superman, BatMan, & Wonder Woman (and excepting the JSA incarnations altogther) DC's icon's were redesigned for and from the late 50's & early 60's. (case in point: Alan Scott versus Hal Jordan. WAAAAY different)
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Bullshit artists with less talent than me. ( Hey I can draw feet and non-webbed hands!)
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Kirby was well regarded but he'd pissed off DC and was involved in a lawsuit just prior to going back to work for Martin Goodman (Stan's cousin-in-law). Ditko was a well regarded newbie, but can you see him at DC at the time? And Stan was a work horse who hadn't made much of a splash, regarded as a fair editor, saddled with the nepotism label at a publisher who simply put out comics based on whichever books were selling well at other publishing houses.FF # 1 was supposed to be like that. Goodman wanted his own JLA, even though his company didn't have a stable of solo heroes. That's when Stan decided to get crazy with a concept of Kirby's that was probably closer to CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN. Stan getting crazy inspired Kirby to get crazy and so on.Then, Spider-Man cut a deal with the devil...
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In the original KINGDOM COME series, it was explained by Lex Luthor that this much older Superman was so powerful due to decades under the yellow sun that he was even immune to Kryptonite. So it actually fits the storyline that KC Supes is actually more powerful than his Modern Age counterpart.
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To this day, I seem to be more excited about an upcoming Marvel comic than a DC one. (Although I do groan harder when a new X-Men comic gets announced than when a new Batman comes out.)
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One of the definitive Spider-Man artists. Not the greatest writer. But I'll stick up for the guy, because unlike all of you suckas, I didn't buy eight copies of Spawn #1.
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I actually do think both of these guys are hyper-realistic just on opposite sides of the spectrum. And I was basing my opinion on Quitely's run on the X-Men
Where Ross portrays his worlds in hazy ether and pillowy scenes. Quitley shows you every line, every crack, every nasty feature women (and some men) spend their lives fighting to conceal.
Is it like, real-real. No it's a comic book. But these guys certainly bring more to the page than just your standard pencils.
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I won't claim to be an art critic. I personally love to write, and my drawings look like they were done by Helen Keller after a heavy night of drinking.
So I'm always going to focus more on stories.
I just really appreciate when someone does something different. Love em or hate em, you have to admit both Ross and Quitely have broken the mold. -
or his drawing hand at least. does he fear using a pencil?
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I see what you're saying, and I agree with it.
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Stan was inspired by Bill Gaines' messages to readers and the letters columns in the EC line. This personal contact with readers, and Stan's style, set the stage for Marvel hype from the on. It took a while for DC to catch on enough to even list writing and art credits on their stories.I agree that McFarlane was one of the greatest Spidey and Hulk artists ever. And I like his Spawn. Of the original Image guys, McFarlane and Larsen were the best writers -- mostly because they were the only two not trying and failing to put out "X-MEN". Which is not to say either of them, especially McFarlane, are great writers but there are worse.I still maintain that a lot of trash talked about the Image guys, even Liefield, comes from people who aren't that familiar with their heyday work. We repeat what others say. Also, people don't want to be who they were then.I was already an adult at the time, so the Image guys neither shaped my view of comics or are something I had to outgrow. They made comics exciting. It was immediately clear that Liefield wasn't writing for kids. He WROTE like a kid, and not purposely. But the art...especially on his NEW MUTANTS/X-FORCE/YOUNGBLOOD and SUPREME was on purpose. It is a style. But when we talk Liefield, that's the only time you hear comic fans complain about hands, feet, pouches and anatomy. Because that's what OTHER comic fans have done. It's a dated style and like any style, it doesn't belong in every comic but it was visually powerful and made for good comics.
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I think of Big John Buscema and Sal Buscema. When I consider all the different heroes in my head, and examine that image, so many of them are images drawn by one of those two.When John Buscema drew Conan, or Thor, or the Hulk...man, those cats just LOOKED heavy. Even Howard the Duck (remember the Quack-Fu issue) looked like he could kick butt, and he did. John's characters DEMANDED to be take seriously.When I think of Gerber's Defenders, you can't think Bozos without Sal's imagery jumping out at you. Plus countless (okay, technically countable) issues of Two-in-One, Team-Up and every other book under the sun. If you ever hear me talk bad about Liefield, its because I think of other artists who hit the mark so long and so true and so timelessly, it makes Rob's art look like ruffles on a Tux: fashionable for the time, but like you said, very dated.
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Alana Davis is my FAV-O-RITE artist EVER. His faces ALWAYS look distinctive (as opposed to say John Byrne, another of my favorites but he's drawn the same woman's face for the last 35 years), his anatomy is flawless regardless of the pose, and his panel layout style is on the most distinctive, detailed, and economic.
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*damnable lack of an edit feature*
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Neal Adams -- shoved GIANT SIZED X-MEN # 2 into my boxers at the Stop 'N' Go that summer between 5th and 6th grade and very little comic art has ever measured up.Gene Colan -- another guy I first discovered in reprints. GIANT SIZED DAREDEVIL # 1. Frank Miller may have become the definitive Daredevil writer, but Colan is the artist (with David Mazzuchelli a close second). It turned out Colan was still active, with TOMB O' DRACULA, DR. STRANGE and especially HOWARD THE DUCK (with some great IRON MAN and CAPTAIN AMERICA reprints) ready to be shoplifted.Steranko--as I kid, I only knew his work from posters I saw in slightly older stoner/geek's bedrooms but it was amazing, different and dynamic. I practically broke down the comic shop door when his NICK FURY, SHIELD and MARVEL VISIONARIES trades were published.Jack Kirby -- of course. He sort of harmed his own stardom by trying to write (which I'm sure was not as painful as trying to READ the stuff) but the visual punch always made for an almost hallucinatory experience. Even in black and white, although old fashioned dot color is the best way to experience Kirby. Oh, and dozens of other artists too, but to a lesser extent.
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Actually we agree on everyone in that post Buzz. (*_^)
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is obvious. i´m a tony harris whore...j.h. williams and the usual suspects.
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