MANHUNTER VOL. 1 – STREET JUSTICE TPB
Written by“¦.Marc Andreyko
Art by“¦.Jesus Saiz & Jimmy Palmiotti
Collects issues #1-5
Published by DC
Since you’ve taken the time to come to a comic book website and read the reviews posted there, you’re no doubt already aware of the rather vocal cult following MANHUNTER has obtained over the past couple of years. This determined band has been doggedly attempting to win converts to the low-selling title, showing more affection for the book than DC has to be honest, and even managed to grant it a stay of execution. Originally due to be cancelled at issue #25, it will make it to issue #30 at least, primarily on the strength of their efforts. Hell, we’ve even got our own special branch of them that you can see here. After reading the first five issues of the series in this TPB, however, it’s still hard to see what the big deal is. Don’t get the wrong idea, this is a solid piece of work, but it is certainly not spectacular.
Perhaps the main attraction is that the lead is rather unique for a DCU character with a solo book. As Marc Andreyko himself points out in his introduction, Kate Spencer is the type of heroine that pushes the boundaries of traditional comic book heroism to the point where many might have expected the publishers to send her packing. For starters, she’s female, she’s not Wonder Woman, she’s not dolled up in a mini-skirt, fishnets and/or thong, and she’s not part of a group. That in itself is, regrettably, rather unusual – and not just for DC. And the potential points of contention just keep on coming. She smokes. She’s divorced, with a very strenuous relationship with her ex-husband. She’s a mother, yet lacking in maternal sensibilities. She has no actual superpowers. She hunts down the bad guys and kills them without moral confliction. She’s pretty plain, not breathtakingly beautiful. She’s a Californian lawyer, for crying out loud. No wonder Andreyko “felt it was all part of an elaborate ruse”. And yet it wasn’t. It wasn’t even shuffled over to Vertigo. It was smack-dab in the middle of the DCU, interacting with the Justice League in an IDENTITY CRISIS cross-over issue contained in this volume.
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Thankfully, the writer was able to justify the existence of this book rather than merely marvelling at it. Each issue here is tightly-packed, well-structured and strives to carve out a genuine personality for a character he clearly adores (broadly speaking, she’s one part Renee Montoya, one part Punisher, with all the private parts distributed accurately). It makes for a perfunctory opening to the series, yet other than the scenes involving Kate and her would-be family, things remain a tad too flat to make for a particularly exciting beginning. We meet one of her co-workers, we see her in action in the courts, and we get a rather rushed introduction to both her Manhunter equipment and her reasoning behind her decision to utilise it. Oh, and let’s not forget the bog-standard tech guy with his excessive expertise and plodding back-story. For a book that prides itself on avoiding conventions, his character is certainly out of synch with expectations. Still, credit must be given to the creative team for turning Shadow Thief into a genuine threat – particularly Jesus Saiz, who captures the unsettling insanity inherent to the villain’s abilities with guile and style.
For all the technical brilliance displayed, however, there is nothing especially challenging or wrenching that warrants unimpeded acclaim on the scale of the die-hard fans. Maybe that can be attributed to the eagerly over-loyal mentality of the ‘Best-Issue-Eve’ crowd. Maybe such delights await upcoming volumes of collections. It’s a case of wait-and-see, just as it is for the future survival of the book itself but, for the moment, this is a competent introduction to an intriguing character.
Grade: B
52 WEEK TWENTY-FOUR:
Written by“¦.Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka & Mark Waid
Broken down by the unbreakable….Keith Giffen
Drawn by….Phil Jimenez
Inked by….Andy Lanning
Coloured by….David Baron
Edited by the former….Stephen Wacker
Published by DC
“Just Imagine”
DAY #169 – In Star City, Oliver Queen attempts to woo some reporters to his mayoral campaign by showing off his chest hair. The new Firestorm (what, again? didn’t they just have a replacement?) calls him on the JLA hotline to invite him to join the new-look League but gets the brush off. Considering the new-look consists of Bulleteer (SEVEN SOLDIERS SPOILER ALERT ah never mind), Firehawk, Super-Chief and Ambush Bug, the once and former Green Arrow is less than enthusiastic.
DAY #170 – At the old League HQ in Rhode Island, J’onn J’onzz actually behaves in a manner befitting his character, which is apparently more than the current MARTIAN MANHUNTER mini-series is accomplishing, and makes some statues of his fallen League comrades. One of them seems to include Wonder Woman, though I have no idea why. He also offers up some convenient expository dialogue, revealing that he has spent the past six months in disguise as a government official, working behind-the-scenes to arrange for the closure of Checkmate. Oh, really?
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DAY #171 – Black Adam, Isis and Osiris visit China and their Great Ten superhero squadron (remember them?). Adam wants to keep the Freedom of Power Treaty he initiated intact but without the military threat that the coalition could present to the rest of the world. Sure, and we’ll all dance in fluffy pink candy wrappers and kiss rainbows.
DAY #174 – Firestorm’s League heads to Metropolis to stop a bunch of space-pirate-ghosts… or something. Anyway, a load of people with Lex Luthor’s ‘Everyman’ meta-gene therapy also try to prove themselves as heroes and clutter the battle. Still, things are going okay until Skeets spurts out of the same wormhole the Caribbean pirates came from and starts shooting the shit out of everybody. The League can’t stop him. He even implodes Super-Chief, thankfully. We certainly don’t need any more lame characters cluttering up the DCU encyclopedias. He gets a brief telling-off from some ancestor ‘on the other side’, while Ralph Dibny and the Dr Fate helmet watch. Weird.
DAY #175 – The President of the USA reads the newspaper, confirming that we are dealing in fiction here, and is informed that Checkmate has been reinstated as a United Nations agency due to the outpour of ill-trained superheroes. Hmm, somebody’s been reading CIVIL WAR. Cue Amanda Waller, who is preparing to send a team into Khandaq under the guidance of Atom Smasher. Right, sure, send in the guy that helped Adam to kill a bunch of people to stop Adam from not killing a bunch of people… or something…
Also: the origin of Booster Gold, which makes no mention whatsoever of his ‘death’ or Skeets’ heel turn. Hmm. Well, at least there was a fair bit of action this week. Can’t really say that throwing in even more subplots and characters into the mix at this juncture should supercede providing resolutions to some of the many other stories already out there but, hey, if they’re better than the Lobo Fish Eye G’joob crap then that must be a good thing.
Grade: B
TRANSFORMERS: STORMBRINGER #4
Written by“¦.Simon Furman
Art by….Don Figueroa
Coloured by….Josh Burcham
Edited by….Chris Ryall & Dan Taylor
Published by IDW
The second of IDW’s Transformers mini-series concludes in a rather unsatisfying manner. After being presented as a massive, unstoppable threat capable of rendering an entire planet incapable of sustaining life for the past three issues, Thunderwing is deposed of in far too straightforward a resolution. Seriously, the big plan that the Autobots come up with is “shoot the shit out of him”. I guess that they were just really knackered the first time around, when he ruined Cyberton, and couldn’t be arsed to do anything so outrageous and unusual then? Hmm.
It’s a shame that there wasn’t any better ending. In a way this mini-series is the opposite of the first, INFILTRATION, which offered up wholesale meandering before providing a rather nifty climax in its last issue. Here, the weak finish is off-set by good character work in the first three issues. Maybe it seems a bit redundant to some to try and make the Transformers into ‘well-rounded characters’ but thankfully Furman cares enough to attempt this. Now we’ve got an Optimus Prime who can walk the fine line between confident leadership and post-war trauma successfully. Now we’ve got the Wreckers presented as the gung-ho, ass-kicking, all-outta-bubblegum hit-squad they were apparently meant to be in the first place but never remotely achieved. Even Megatron gets a chance to expand his emotional horizons in his response to Bludgeon and Thunderwing’s radical experiments, placing him in the same category of righteous villains like Dr Doom rather than with the generic eeeeeeevil of, say, Skeletor.
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For some reason I now really want to see Skeletor on the stand-up comedy circuit. Maybe even with his own sitcom on MTV. Oh, no, he could replace that Hilton chick on that Surreal Life thing. Watch Skeletor learn to work co-operatively in a burger joint! See Skeletor empty bed-pans in a care home for the elderly! Marvel at Skeleto’s emotional delicacy when covering the reception in an abortion clinic! Take a gander at Skeletor making balloon animals in Generic Shopping Mall, USA! Ponder the significance of wasting time talking about Skeletor in a review of a Transformers comic book!
Sigh”¦ why the hell am I reviewing a Transformers comic book? The sun is shining. I should be outside, gaily skipping o’er the sandy dunes of serendipity. Or – not. What have you done to me??
Oh, and Ultra Magnus appears on the cover but not in this issue, or even in this mini-series. Best way to use the moaning faced bugger, really.
Grade: B
TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT: NIGHTBEAT
Written by“¦.Simon Furman
Art by“¦.Mo Bright
Colours by“¦.John Rauch
Edited by“¦.Chris Ryall & Dan Taylor
Published by IDW
Yeah, it’s more Transformers. As part of their ever-throbbing franchise needs, IDW are releasing a bunch of one-shots focusing on individual characters. Each is meant to tell a stand-alone story that slots into the over-arching storyline being told in the sequential mini-series. The first one, on Shockwave, was possibly the best issue of the IDW franchise yet. This one is”¦ not.
Oh, it’s really, really”¦ not.
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If you’re wondering who Nightbeat is and why he merits the spotlight treatment then, well, you’re not alone. He is a favourite of Furman’s but has never been even remotely accepted as a particularly important character by the fanbase. The idea of an Autobot detective travelling around space by himself, solving mysteries, is perfectly good. Releasing a single issue story where he fails to solve the mystery, doesn’t even come close to doing so, has his mind wiped about the entire incident by the end of the issue, and is then abruptly told by Optimus Prime to haul his metal arse over to Earth in time for the ESCALATION mini-series is not good storytelling. Oh, there are some good background elements, like explaining the legend of the first Ark built by the Transformers and the mechanical evolution developing the organic populace on the Gorlam Prime planet, but it is basically an issue where the lead character runs around for a bit, gets confused, gets defeated, then gets to go away none the wiser, just like the reader. Not exactly the best way to utilise this format.
Next month Furman turns the spotlight onto Hot Rod. Fingers crossed that when he does, there is a decent story waiting to be told.
Grade: C
Next Week….it’s 52 WEEK TWENTY-FIVE, bitch….we’ll continue to not like Supergirl in LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #23….Geoff Johns brings Richard “Buy My DVD” Donner to play with ACTION COMICS #844….and there will be confusion and forgotten storylines aplenty in SEVEN SOLDIERS #1, originally due out in April….
