Hey Kids! Comics!! 02-22-07
It wasn't a bad week at my local comic shop. Four of my regular books were in, which is two more than last week and there were no asstastic stinkers like The Dark Tower to ruin my day.
Brave And The Bold #1
Wow. It's a throwback week for me as DC revives one of my favorite team-up books from the 70's. The only thing missing is Jim Aparo's groovy, Adams-inspired art, but luckily, they hired the great George Perez in his place. While Perez isn't in top form here, even average George is better than 95% of comic art out there.
Anyway, this issue teams up Batman and Green Lantern to solve an intergalactic murder-mystery. It's at least a two-parter and it seems they're not going to adhere to the traditional Batman and whoever format as next issue co-stars GL and Supergirl.
That annoys me. So what if the story takes place in another galaxy? Batman needs to be there, godammit!
Anyway, this issue was fun, though the story got a little over-complicated. I'll give the next a shot just to see where writer Mark Waid is going. Try it!
Criminal Macabre #3
As evidenced by my gushing reviews of the first two issues, I love this book and it just seems to get better with every issue. Steve Niles mixes horror and comedy as well as any writer in the business and artist Kyle Hotz' Kelly Jones/Bernie Wrightson inspired art sets the mood just right for this gory, nasty, yet funny detective story.
Cal MacDonald, sober against his will for the first time in years, must take on Nosferatu, Lord of the Undead, who's holding his girlfriend hostage. His reasons for messing with Cal have yet to be revealed, but Cal, fuck up that he is, probably deserves it.
This book rocks. Pick it up.
Hellblazer #229
This is the best Hellblazer in months. It's only one issue, the story is easy to follow and plays to Constantine's strength as a character — that of a womanizing, know-it-all dick-head who really does know it all. The previous arc, besides being too long and convoluted, sometimes portrayed Constantine as a depressed, whiney puss. John Constantine does not whine! This issue is a nice return to form.
If you're going to start reading Hellblazer, now's a good time as this one-shot marks the end of Mike Carey's mixed bag of a run. A new creative team takes over with next issue.
I recommend you pick up this issue simply because it's fun. I'm looking forward to the next as historically Hellblazer's always been graced with better-than-average creative teams and a shot in the arm of new blood bodes well for this character.
Legion Of Monsters: Werewolf By Night #1
This was purely a nostalgia purchase for me. Way back in 1975, Werewolf By Night #32 was one of the first comics I ever read. I was 7 years old and that issue scared the crap out me — It had Werewolf of course, and it was the first appearance of Moon Knight!
My babysitter's boyfriend bribed me with comics to keep my mouth shut about his visits during her "working hours". He had good taste — she was cute and, judging by the fact that she was giving it up while supposedly watching two small children, not all that responsible.
His bribery must have worked because I don't think my Mom ever found out. In hindsight, I should've held out for more. I wonder if he got lucky that night? Who'd have thought my lifelong love of horror comics is a direct result of my babysitter's out-of-control libido? Life is funny that way.
Anyway, this comic's alright. It's split between a story starring the title character and one featuring the Monster Of Frankenstein, a lesser star amongst Marvel's 70's horror offerings.
Both stories are drawn beautifully. The Werewolf By Night offering is illustrated in a tight, hyper-realistic style by Greg Land and Jay Leisten and it's really slick. I'd love to see these guys do a miniseries with this character.
The Frankenstein half is expressively written and rendered by Skottie Young, who has almost the direct opposite style of Land, but it works just as well, if not better, and has way more feeling. This guy needs a regular horror series.
Story-wise, both are marginally interesting. Neither made me sit up and take notice or even stop half-watching Mythbusters.
If you're a fan of great art and can deal with nondescript, inoffensive stories, give this book a try.
Red Menace #4 (of 6)
Damn, that Jerry Ordway can draw.
This story about the McCarthy red scare witch-hunts in the 50's and the superheroes it destroys has been done before, but it's at least written well enough so as to not interfere with Ordway's superb art and storytelling. He reminds me of a much more dynamic Curt Swan in that he can draw anything and draw it well.
At some point, this will be collected so don't feel as if you're missing anything by not picking it up right this second.
Rex Mundi #4
This alternate historical comic continues to be well written and paced. The art is just OK, but the story's what keeps me coming back for more.
In the world of Rex Mundi, magic exists, the Royalty of Europe never fell and WWI never happened. It also suggests that mankind is so inherently stupid, corrupt and easily manipulated that the rise of the Nazis and fascism was inevitable and religion is truly the root of all evil. Can't say I disagree. Maybe that's why I like it.
There's also plenty of nonsense about the Holy Grail and Jesus' bloodline for all you religious conspiracy nuts.
Don't sweat the rather clumsy art, it's secondary to the complex, yet well-done, narrative anyway.
If you haven't read this book before, do yourself a favor and pick up the collected editions or you'll be completely lost. It's a hell of a story and won't disappoint.
Fables Volume 8: Wolves
This is the latest collected volume of Bill Willingham's excellent series.
In this installment, Snow White and Bigby finally tie the knot. As expected, there's plenty of suspense and derring-do to go around as Bigby, much to the Adversary's lament, cements his reputation as the most dangerous Fable this side of Little Boy Blue.
This collection might be my favorite so far, as the story is tight as a drum and it has enough intrigue to fill four volumes of stories.
My only complaint about this great series is that volume 9 is not yet available. Just buy it, already.
That's it for this week. Check out Jared's blog for more reviews. Be sure to give him a piece of your mind...
The best X book continues to impress. Joss Whedon and John Cassady sure do take their time but the quality and care shines through. The pace of Whedon's story is deliberate but never boring. Every event and plot point is somehow important to the story or characters. And there are very few working artists today who draw as good as Cassady. I don't think he's capable of crapping out a job.
The current storyline revolves around Colossus. Seems this alien race thinks he's going to destroy their world, so they try to kill him and the rest of the X-Men.
Yeah, right. Now the X-men have traveled to the alien's world where much mutant ass-kicking is sure to ensue. I'm enjoying it so far, though it's torture having to wait two months for the next issue.
As I said last time, this is one of the best superhero books currently being produced. It's definitely worth your hard earned bucks so pick it up.
I've always found Stephen King to be a bit of an enigma. As the preeminent best selling author on the planet for the past 30 years, it's pretty clear the guy knows how to write a novel that always pleases fans and even, occasionally, critics. Why is it, then, that the majority of his other work, such as movies, TV and comics, sucks ass?
Since his novels or short stories are the source material for all that awful crap, one has to assume the germ of the idea is at least decent. Still, I can count the number of truly excellent outside projects based on King's work on one hand.
I have no concrete proof of this (perhaps in another blog) but it seems the more King himself is involved, the worse the project turns out. Most fans agree that the worst King-related project ever was Maximum Overdrive, the Emilio Estevez abortion about trucks that conquer the world. King himself directed that shitstain. Projects where he's had no creative involvement, such as Carrie and The Shining have been critical and financial successes.
With this supposition put forth, I can only assume King wrote, drew, colored, lettered, edited and printed The Gunslinger Born. This book plain sucks donkey dick.
On the surface, it sounds like a can't miss proposition: Peter David, one of fandom's best writers and Jae Lee, one of the most talented artists around ably embellished and painted by Richard Isanove, teaming up to tell the origin of one of King's more celebrated recent characters: Roland Daschain, the gunslinger from his epic, The Dark Tower.
So what went wrong? For one thing the story, for another the dialogue and storytelling. Now, having enjoyed the past work of all the parties involved, I can only assume King Inc. had way too much input into too many aspects of this book.
The story begins as Roland is being trained to become a gunslinger by mastering the art of falconry. FALCONRY? What does that have to do with guns? It's never explained and really, what's the difference anyway? Eventually, Roland gets pissed off because his Mom's a whore and is getting fucked/abused by some guy who may or may not be Roland's current and future sworn enemy. This is never made clear, but I assume he's evil because he has a mustache.
Anyway, Roland wants revenge, again I'm not sure why or against whom, but the only way to get this is to best his teacher in combat so he can take his guns. Apparently, there's only two guns in town.
He meets teacher in a duel to the death where they get to choose their weapons. Roland, having only received training in falconry, chooses....drumroll.... FALCONRY!! Ta da!! For some stupid fucking reason, everyone in the story is surprised by this. His teacher, master of all weapons and professional dealer-of-death, chooses some evil-looking blade weapon. Finally, something makes sense. Everyone thinks Roland is gonna get killed, and if this story were any good, he would be, just for being such a stupid little shit who would presume to kill a blade-weilding weapons master with a bird.
Anyway, Roland wins because his master/teacher forgets to cover his eyes, which happen to be the one place Roland's bird can realistically do any damage. How fucking convenient. And idiotic.
Based on my earlier theories, I really don't blame the creative team, and David specifically, for this idiocy. He probably cringed when he received script changes from King Inc. I find it hard to believe he wrote lines like this:
After last issue's mess, I said I'd give this current creative team one more chance to hook me and sadly, though not surprisingly, that hasn't happened.
Apparently, Guy Gardner has been recruited for some Green Lantern Black Ops Team. Why the Corps needs black operations is beyond me. Guess I'm not "with it".
So anyway, this is the last of a three parter that has to do with The Dominators, who never seem to dominate anything, and a Super Dominator who's more evil than all the other Dominators put together. You can tell he's evil because he has big, sharp teeth. Anyways, the Black Ops team wins in the end and kills the evildoer. This doesn't jibe well with Guy Gardner who, despite being an alleged tough-guy-bad-ass, doesn't believe in killing.
Whatever. 
So endeth the highest of high concept books before anyone had a chance to get bored.
Probably a smart move.
This book is fine. The art's fine. The writing's fine. Everything's dandy. It's like chinese food. In an hour, I'll be hungry again and will have forgotten what I ate, or in this case, read. If you like the characters and the concept, buy it. Or don't. Your life won't change one way or the other, anyway.
The only question I have is since when did the Fortress of Solitude become Dr. Who's Tardis? I kept expecting Supes to don a 15-foot-long scarf and jump out of a police box. Guess I must've missed some big change in the Superman mythos over the past bunch of years. Oh well...
In this installment, the Fables try to forge an alliance with the soon to be conquered Arabian and Middle Eastern fables. Naturally, no one trusts anyone else and much back stabbing and political intrigue ensue. It also turns out that Genie's are really dangerous and look nothing like Barbara Eden.
There's also a backup story about two of Geppetto's wooden soldiers who fall in love that was way more interesting than it had any right to be.
If, after six previous reviews of the earlier Fables volumes, you haven't gotten the idea that this series is too cool for school, you're clearly a moron. While not quite reaching the awesomeness of the previous volume, 
The NY Giants released three players today: LB Lavar Arrington, LB Carlos Emmons and OT Luke Petitgout. I guess new GM Jerry Reese is instituting a no injured wusses policy.