All DC and DC imprint titles this week. Let’s see if that works about to be a good thing or not, shall we?
52 Week 32
“Seven Days in Nanda Parbat”
Published by: DC Comics
Writer: Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid
Art Breakdows: Keith Giffen
Penciller: Pat Oliffe
Inkers: Drew Geraci
Colorist: Dave Baron
There is a bunch of stuff that I liked about Week 32 as I was reading it. However, when I went back through the issue to review it, I found that it was all pretty thin. That’s not to say I did not enjoy it, because I did. In retrospect, however, the sum of the parts seemed greater than the whole.
What’s good is that we get more Dibny wandering the earth (you know, like Caine) again. I like the character (not historically”¦historically I know almost nothing about Dibny) so I enjoy when the focus swings to him. I only have to real complaints when it comes to the Dibny storyline. The first is that he keeps happening upon these sites, objects, and individuals of great power and oddness but the story gives us no feel for the “how” of it. He’s supposed to be one of the greatest detectives of the DCU, but he’s presented more as Bill Bixby’s David Bruce Banner. He’s seemingly just walking and happens upon these hotbeds of activity. I’d love to see the writers give Dibny a little more credit.
|
There is a bunch of stuff that I liked about Week 32 as I was reading it. However, when I went back through the issue to review it, I found that it was all pretty thin. |
The second complaint is the sterility that has seeped into his plotline. He is seeking answers to some of the most fundamental questions of existence and he’s doing it so he can see his wife again. It is a plotline that should literally ripple with pathos and melodrama. Instead, since Wicker Sue went up in smoke, Dibny seems a cipher, a blank slate. I guess you could make an argument for him being frozen inside, but even if that’s what is going on, you don’t get a sense of it when the book.
We also briefly check in on a Titans membership drive that allows us to see Sobek and Kid Miracleman Osiris again. The scene is more or less useless (at least, in present context) but it is great fun to see the bashful Sobek shoved into the spotlight and Osiris matter-of-factly announce, “This is just Sobekâ€â€The talking crocodile. He’s my best friend!” But of course he is, Osiris, of course he is.
We also get to see CM3 act like an ass in this scene, but that’s pretty much par for the course. God I hate that character.
The final storyline we check in on is the space opera. Animal Man gives a stirring speech and that’s great. What’s less than great is how damn slow these heroes are. I know space is vast and so on, but they seem to be in the exact same position as they were last issue. Actually, they seemed farther along last issue. Here, they are still debating about facing off with Lady Synn. After the frantic pace of last week’s space opera adventure, this sluggish two pager is a big disappointment.
C+
Green Arrow #69
“Out of Town Guests”
Published by: DC Comics
Writer: Judd Winick
Penciller: Scott McDaniel
Inker: Andy Owens
Colorist: Guy Major
I’m not usually a month to month reader of Green Arrow. When Fowler came onto the book about two years or so ago (wow”¦it’s been awhile) I jumped ship. I generally liked the title, but was getting increasingly frustrated with Green Arrow seemingly having to fight supernatural creatures every few months and that Speedy’s HIV status, while a brave move, had been rejoiced to a PSA when she made a speech in front of her entire school. The art on the book being ugly and sloppy pushed me over the edge and I decided its virtues no longer outstripped its flaws.
However, I always considered jumping back on, especially when McDaniel, he of most excellent penciling abilities, came on. And with this multi-part Batman/Red Hood bonanza beginning, the time just felt right.
Am I glad to be back? I think so. But not unequivocally.
McDaniel’s art, while still unmistakably his, seems smoother somehow”¦less detailed. In comparison with what I remember of his style, it seems like all of his characters have been given Botox. His action sequences are still undeniably frenetic, but the slower moments, where Queen is tending to his “day job” as Mayor, seem flat, especially in close-ups. Decent McDaniel is still a great bunch of fun, but I was really hoping for good or great McDaniel.
|
Decent McDaniel is still a great bunch of fun, but I was really hoping for good or great McDaniel. |
On the writing side of thing’s the issue is a quick one that sadly offers too little of everything I was hoping for. There’s too little Batman/Green Arrow and/or Wayne/Queen interaction. There’s too little Red Hood. There’s too little of Brick walking the line between gangster and neighborhood hero. However, what there is of those moments is good enough to keep me coming back for more. Particularly well done is Bruce Wayne’s stumbling performance as drunken playboy philanthropist and Queen’s needling of him as they pose for pictures.
In short, I don’t regret returning to this title, but there is nothing so far to convince me that I need to hang around when the Gothamites blow town again in a few issues.
Grade: B-
Justice League of America #4
“Being Human”
Published by: DC Comics
Writer: Brad Meltzer
Penciller: Ed Benes
Inker: Sandra Hope
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Okay, before I really get started reviewing this book, there is one issue that I need get out of the way. What’s the deal with Arsenal/Red Arrow/Whatever the guy who used to be Speedy whose first name is Roy is being called these days? At first, when Black Canary and Green Lantern showed up at his house to take him adventuring, I thought it was because he had been chosen for the new Justice League. However as, quite clearly, no such choices have been made yet, it now appears that they just decided to pick Roy up instead of Oliver and that makes no sense to me at all. Unless Dinah and Hal have decided to start their own League (the Big Three dragging their feet be damned!), what the heck went on there? If this was just a team up to find Red Tornado’s real body, why not bring both archers? As the scene in issue #1 stands now, it is like they are calling Roy up to the big leagues except, well, there are no big leagues, heck there isn’t even a team, to be called up to. It just does not work for me.
That, of course, is just a mini-rant I needed off my chest. Thanks for indulging me.
As for the issue at hand, it continues this volume of the Justice League’s love of driving me batty. Why you ask? Because, at times, it is so dissociative I find myself both loving it and being utterly disappointed in it at the same time.
|
As for the issue at hand, it continues this volume of the Justice League’s love of driving me batty. Why you ask? Because, at times, it is so dissociative I find myself both loving it and being utterly disappointed in it at the same time. |
On the plus side, we have the team slowly being drawn together towards solving the same case. On the negative side, this drawing together completely invalidates the past three issues of the big three searching for candidates. If the book’s just going to be about the team that comes together due to this crisis, then why bother going through the motions of showing us the Bat, the Super, and the Wonder building their fantasy League?
On the positive side, we have a last page twist that is genuinely surprising. On the negative side, it is so surprising because, well, everything we know about the character and this situation makes the whole thing wildly implausible.
On the positive side, the Starro twist makes sense and is a nice nod to previous Justice League teams. On the negative, it makes the heretofore very cool Dr. Impossible a bit chumpish.
On the positive side, this issue is so action packed that those who have found the pace up until now to be too plodding should hardly find a thing to complain about. On the negative side, this is so out of step with the already established pacing of this series that it is likely to cause whiplash.
And so it goes. There’s an awful lot of good about the new series, but it keeps tripping on itself. It feels like it is trying to do everything at once, to be an Identity Crisis or Arche’s Quest story in terms of tone and pace, but a Grant Morrison era JLA story in terms of battles and improbable ideas. The combination is an awkward one and the book has yet to find the right mixture of these ingredients to make the recipe come out right.
Grade: B-
Robin #157
“Things That Go Bump In the Night”
Published by: DC Comics
Writer: Adam Beechen
Artist and Colorist: Frazier Irving
First, credit where credit is due. Frazier Irving is one hell of an artist and colorist. On the art side, he is consistently good, handling action and conversation (you gotta love Alfred talking to Teekl) with equal grace. However, it is when it comes to coloring that Frazier is excelling. On each project he has worked on in the past year or so, he is clearly making a special effort to choice the color array to best fit the story. Whether it is the cool blues of Klarion, the fluorescent pinks of Iron Man: The Inevitable, or the more neutral golds he employs here, it all works to put you in the proper mindset. Klarion felt claustrophobic and damp, which makes sense since all the action was at night or underground. Iron Man was fully invested in an almost real digital world and the neons of the palette nicely “grounded” us in that world gone horribly awry. Here, Irving places Robin in a land of almost perpetual twilight. Tim is walking through a world that seems always to be in the midst of sunset, a smart way of differentiating him from his bright day superhero activities (with the Titans) and his late night ones (at Batman’s side). I’ve seen a lot of coloring that I’ve liked this much, but rarely choices that felt like that had this much thought behind them.
|
Here, Irving places Robin in a land of almost perpetual twilight… I’ve seen a lot of coloring that I’ve liked this much, but rarely choices that felt like that had this much thought behind them. |
As for Beechen’s end of the bargain, it is still too early to say if he is going to be able to deliver on the promise of Klarion’s Seven Soldiers incarnation. What he does turn in is a pretty amusing story of Robin trying to keep up with a cat who we know, but he does not catch on to until too late, is more than just a stray tabby. I generally would recommend that writers of characters who are urban vigilantes steer clear of supernatural stories involving dragons, but thus far Beechen nicely balances the sheer insanity of a multi-headed monster running wild in the back alleys of Gotham and a teenage vigilante who just got a date with his first “normal” girl in quite sometime. It is a delicate balancing act, to be sure, but so far, so good.
Grade: B+
Tales of the Unexpected #3
“Death of a Grocery Store Assistant Supervisor”
Published by: DC Comics
Writer: David Lapham
Penciller: Eric Battle
Inker: Prentis Rollings
Colorist: Guy Major
“Architecture and Mortality” Part Three
Published by: DC Comics
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Cliff Chiang
Colorist: Patricia Mulvihill
Here we are, part three of Lapham’s increasingly cynical and nihilistic take on the Spectre. Boy oh boy, I just want off this ride.
I get that spectacular acts of violence are part and parcel of the Spectre’s role on earth. I’m fine with that. In fact, I’d almost say that Spectre’s ironic brand of “justice” is a big part of why I picked this book in the first place. But it is the method of dispensing it that I find difficult to swallow.
First, there is the fact that the Spectre, now, apparently, cannot step any sort of horrible thing while it is in motion. He has to wait for afterwards and then step in to kill the sinner with impunity. This might seem sensible on the surface (of course an emissary of God can’t act until there has been an actual sin) but it makes for a wholly undynamic portrayal of the character and there is no incarnation of the character that has had to play by these rules before.
Second, there is no sense of proportionality in Spectre’s punishments. Perhaps my own opinions on God are coloring things here, I don’t know. But it seems excessive to me that a man who kills two people in a fit of rage after they threaten his family (in this issue) be treated in the same violent manner as a drug dealer and child abuser (from last issue). I can’t feel good about that. And I certainly can’t feel good about a Spectre that leaves a man with “what’s left of his face” to be cradled by his distraught wife until the police arrive. Even if his sin is deserving of such retribution from above, what exactly did the wife do to deserve having to witness such a grisly act and be forced to stare it in the face (if you forgive the pun) for several probably endless seeming minutes until the authorities arrive?
Perhaps Lapham is saying something about the nature of sin and the classic idea that all sins are equal in the eyes of God. Perhaps. The pages are all too blood soaked for me to get to that though.
Battle’s art is not helping the cause either as his tendencies that marred prior efforts (like his Batman fill-ins) are increasingly prevalent as this mini goes on.
|
You’re probably asking about now, why the hell I’d stay with a book I obviously don’t like. And the answer is: Dr. 13. Man oh man, is this backup a blast. |
You’re probably asking about now, why the hell I’d stay with a book I obviously don’t like. And the answer is: Dr. 13. Man oh man, is this backup a blast.
I’ve always thought of Azzarello as a talented writer who’s bread and butter were dark stories that delved into human psyches and failings. And I still think that. I just also happen to know now that the man has wicked, quirky sense of humor that he is letting run wild here.
In the span of 16 pages, we have a skeptic who has pushed skepticism far beyond any reasonable bounds (Dr. 13, of course), his well-dressed daughter who happens to be the subject of the good Docto’s occasionally inappropriate dreams, (Traci), a ghost pirate ship, the captain of that ship, a pirate with an accent that would put Gambit to shame (Captain Fear), a dignified vampire (I, Vampire), those two aforementioned characters briefly doing their own version of “Who’s on First”, a fully conscious caveman in a block of ice that is slowly melting, a very smart little boy who also shows up in the Docto’s dreams (Genius Jones), heavily armed talking Nazi gorillas (The Primate Patrol), and a ghostly Civil War general on horseback (JEB Stuart). There’s even a poop joke. On paper, it all sounds like an unholy mess, but it is, in fact, the most fun you’ll have reading a DC Comic. It’s like Nextwave level fun, but totally unconcerned with projecting irony.
The unsung hero of act, Cliff Chiang, is also a big part of the backup’s success as he keeps the wide range of characters easily identifiable as the chaotic action burst forth. His clean line style is a great fit for this ever increasing parade of lunacy.
Main Story Grade: D
Backup Story: A
Ex Machina #25
“Standalone”
Published by: Wildstorm
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Penciller: Tony Harris
Inker: Tom Feister
Colorist: JD Mettler
The nice thing about this capsule format is that my reviews can go long (see Tales of the Unexpected above) or short, like this review. And why is this review short? Because this book is so consistently excellent I’ve damn near run out of new ways to tell you that.
|
And why is this review short? Because this book is so consistently excellent I’ve damn near run out of new ways to tell you that. |
So I’ll say that this is a one off character piece on Bradbury, Mitchell Hundred’ current bodyguard and former partner (along with Kremlin) in fighting crime. I’ll tell you that while the framing device is not so compelling, its resolution (especially the last line) is well done and the flashback structure of the rest of the issue is (predictably, for Vaughan) smart and illuminating when it comes to the character of the Mayo’s chief bodyman. The art is great, as always, the coloring is incredible, as always, and even the lettering deserves a shout out, as always. In short, it is a typically great issue of a great book.
Grade: B+
Gen 13 #3
“Eye Candy”
Published by: Wildstorm
Writer: Gail Simone
Penciller: Talent Caldwell
Inkers: Matt “Batt” Banning, Livesay, & Drew Geraci
Colorist: Wildstorm FX
The thing about Gen 13 is, I’m still not really sure how I feel about it. Simone has done a nice job of getting the characters’ voices down but they still remain a bit thin. Caldwell’s art decent but not eye catching (despite this installment’s title). The storyline has some interesting bits (superheroes on demand, pay per view brutality) but none of it is overwhelming fresh or compelling.
|
The thing about Gen 13 is, I’m still not really sure how I feel about it. |
I appreciate that Simone is playing the concept a bit more straight than the original did. However, there is something to be said for the guilty (and I mean GUILTY) pleasure of Volume 1 and that is, despite being a sprawling mess and wall to wall cheesecake, it was a lot of fun. In going for the serious, the book occasionally feels like lead and when it does reach for humor, the effects and ill-fitting and never more than smirk worthy.
I’m waiting things out a bit longer because I trust Simone and the book is not completely without merit. Still, if something does not switch up in the next few issues, this book will find itself quickly shuffled off my reserve list.
Grade: C
