Welcome to WOQW with me, James Hatton.
It’s been quite a bit of time since I’ve written a WOQW, mainly because I didn’t have something to tell you about. Well this week I’ve decided to take a comic that I read that needs dissection. It needs to be broken down in a panel to panel way to show you how bad it is. It needs to be backed into a corner, and shot to put it out of its misery. It’s a book that is meant to bring young girls into the medium that we call comics.
It’s Jubilee #4.
Now, first off, a few notes. My first review of Jubilee was for #1, and I was told by a couple of people that I was a bit hard on it. Time has proven me right on this one, as the art has just turned into a mockery of Asian stereotyping and the premise is so beyond farfetched, it makes CLONE SAGA look like a walk to the local grocery store.
So, without further adieu, you do need a copy in front of you to get the full gist of this, but I will do my best to explain as we go along. This is quite literally me nitpicking, and I know you can do that to many other books, some quite good, but some of the specifically bad points need mention.
Page One
Title page Nothing of note. I only leave it here as a point of reference, so you know where to start. Skip ad pages for numbering, thank you.
Page Two
Panel Two: This panel shows Jubilee leaning against a doorframe. Again, another point of reference. Note Jubes’ skin tone, capri pants, unnecessarily huge belt buckle (do kids wear that kind of thing? I’ve never seen it), green strapped tank top, open-toed sandals, and a purple bandana. That’s her outfit. Kay, we’re clear? Good.
Page Three
Panel OneJubilee has walked into her room and is now wearing a strapless tank top, long jeans, and red sneakers. Forgiving the tank top is one thing, as it’s obviously just an oversight, but we add in that the rest of her outfit has changed AND she is wearing some iPod like thing and.. well… I warned you I was going to nitpick.
Page Five
We are now on Day 2 of this comic, please once again note that Jubilee is wearing the EXACT SAME OUTFIT, oh, and her pants are capris again.
Panel Four
At this point in time in the story, Jubilee has gone to her after school peer counseling job. She’s talking about how she talked a kid off of a roof. The insinuation MIGHT be sarcasm, but it’s hard to tell. Either way, we are about to learn that her advisor, Ms. Kingsley has had her car stolen, but she is so vacant that she doesn’t notice that Jubilee is talking about having STOPPED A KID FROM KILLING HIMSELF! Sarcasm or not, wouldn’t a peer advisor ask, “Seriously?” or “Don’t kid around!” … nope, not Ms. Kingsley, she lost her car, dammit.
Page Eight
Jubilee has met up with her old friend Charlie from last issue. Remember, the same kid that got kicked out of the gang because the gang leader wanted him to study more? Yeah, same kid. Anyway, he and Jubilee are walking around what we can assume is South Central, and at the very least a bad part of town. Jubes has chosen to sport her gang colors by not taking off the bandana. Let’s just hope she doesn’t meet any Crips or Bloods or any other number of gangs, because bandana wearin’ is a shootin’ offense.
Page Nine
Panel One
Jubilee and Charlie are in the thugged out alleyway where Shooter, Charlie’s former leader happens to hangout with his thug-buddies. Next to his beat-up old recliner sits… a bag full of money?! What kind of odd throwoff detail is that!? It’s good to see that even in the dark alleyways, thugs just have bags of benjamins.
Page Ten
Panels One through Three
Shooter decides he’s going to help Jubilee out and look for the stolen car. Why? Because there is no real reason why. He just does. So instead of bringing his two very obvious (and statue-esque, because they don’t move, talk or even act as if anything is going on) co-thugs – both who look as if they could hold their own, he takes Jubilee. I guess I understand that part, I mean, they ARE statues.
Panel Four
Shooter is gracious enough to tell Charlie to leave. Apparently Shooter didn’t throw Charlie out like we saw in last issue. It seems Charlie left, so last issue’s continuity is completely null and void. Oh, and now Charlie has gained Jubilee’s amazingly shifting walkman. Donovan REALLY likes to draw those on people randomly.
Now over the course of the next few pages, Jubes and Shooter get themselves into a fire fight, are shocked when the police start coming, and they find out that they are both mutants. Shooter can shoot from his fingers, which is kind of a neat power, actually. We resume back when Jubilee gets home that night.
Page Sixteen
A note, from here on, Donovan is in full Asian mode as Jubilee looks as if she has no eyes. Seriously, no pupil, no iris, just lines. If I was Asian, I would be offended.
Page Eighteen
Hey! Look what Jubes is wearing, the SAME CLOTHES FOR TWO DAYS NOW! I understand if this is a Gilligan thing, where she is always wearing the same clothes, but she was wearing different things last issue. It just seems careless.
Panel Five
Nothing significant of note, other than Jubilee looks reaaaaaaaly scary right there and I expected that if she smiled, we would see her nasal cavity as her mouth runs from cheek to cheek. I assume he’s trying to follow the ‘end of the eyes equal end of the mouth’ rule of face drawing, but the eyes are about a mile away from each other, so he’s over compensating.
Page Nineteen
Now a completely unnecessary twist happens right here. Not only does Jubes find her teacher kissing her principal, but the teacher that was damn near crying over her car being missing the day before, has NOTHING of note to say today about it. She’s too busy being happy to be kissed by a man with a cross on his tie… a cross? Yea, I’m lost too.
Page Twenty
And in the grand finale, we leave Jubilee and her little world and are dragged kicking and screaming to a splash page of Jubes’ Aunt with her Butler. Do not pass go, do not explain ending of Jubilee arc – immediately move yourself directly to the patchworked subplot about her Aunt being some sort of ninja-spy-merc. Not to say that since the storyline has been introduced, it shouldn’t be addressed – but we get nothing to bring us there. The prior page barely has a period at the end of the sentence before we get dropped into a mysterious bit. I don’t mind this as a standard comic reader, we come to expect big jumps for dramatic effect, but again, I am not the target audience for this story. This story is meant to introduce kids into the style of comics… go EASY on em’, eh?
So, there you have it. A break down of Jubilee #4 and I’ve really done my best to keep my commentary and the nicer side, such as not talking about the colorist’s pigmentation problems in every panel she changed to a new hue. Kirkman is a good writer. I know this. If you’ve read Walking Dead, YOU know this too – so it is exceptionally frustrating to watch him write a book, about a character that has been underused in recent years and write her irresponsibly.
In every character there is potential, but that is solely based on the writer’s hand to mold that potential into something cohesive and enjoyable. He then gives that to the artist to make that concept and turn it into something easy to digest and read, and also be cohesive and enjoyable. Jubilee has this same potential, but it is being wasted with sub-par storytelling and art.
What do you think Comic Nexus Nation? Am I being too hard on this book? Am I not being hard enough? Speak to me here and in the forums, I’d love to get your feedback.
