CBR Live! Archive
What I bought - 13 February 2008
This week: One reason I like reading books without paying for them; plus, because of certain accusations levelled at this very blog and our "evil corporate overlords," absolutely NO Marvel books! I respond to our constituency! I'm a man of the people, people!
Oh, and in case you missed it, the greatest comic book ever conceived came out this week. Just so you know.
30 Days of Night: Beyond Barrow #3 (of 3) by Steve Niles (writer), Bill Sienkiewicz (artist), and Robbie Robbins (letterer). $3.99, 22 pgs, FC, IDW.
I like Steve Niles more than a lot of people on this blog, because I think the man comes up with some excellent plots. Like Keith Giffen, however, it seems like he needs to be a plotter more than a scripter, because it seems like he often falls apart in the details of his comics. I still think the "primary" stories of his sprawling 30 Days of Night franchise - the original mini-series, Dark Days, and Return to Barrow - are quite good, but maybe Ben Templesmith had something to do with that. I was buying this series mainly because of Sienkiewicz's art, but even that let me down. Sigh. I wanted to like this more than I did.
The biggest problem with this book is that we get three issues, and we don't really know much about any of the characters. In the original, Eben and Stella were very good characters, and the book was ultimately a love story. Here, however, the characters who do survive aren't developed all that much, so we don't really care when they're in peril and don't really care when they get out of it. The "secret" of the vampires isn't developed particularly well, either, so we're left with a half-baked idea that might work, given some more time. I haven't gone back and counted the pages of the original series (which was also three issues), but it felt longer and more time was devoted to giving us a sense of the principals. Here, it's just random people getting slaughtered or doing some slaughtering, and it's tough to get involved.
Sienkiewicz's art (two books this week with his art, which is rare) disappoints, too. The first issue looked great, the second looked a bit rushed, and this is all over the map. Some of the individual panels are excellent, but when the vampire-hunting family goes inside a cave that turns out to be a lair for the creatures (not terribly surprising, that), the art gets very poor. It's much sloppier than Sienkiewicz is usually, as it looks like he tries to tone down some of his usual quirks and actually pencil some panels, which comes off looking worse than when he cuts loose. It's an odd result, but the middle pages of this comic, inside the cave, are just ugly. I'm more disappointed by the art than I am by the story, because Sienkiewicz usually makes things so visually interesting.
It's too bad, really, because despite my general aversion to pure "horror" kind of work - I'm sick of vampires, werewolves, zombies, and their ilk - I do like it when it's done well. But it's not done well here.
Astro City Special: Beautie #1 by Kurt Busiek (writer), Brent Anderson (artist), Alex Sinclair (colorist), and John Roshell (letterer). $3.99, 40 pgs, FC, DC/Wildstorm.
Astro City comes out at a glacial pace, presumably because Busiek and Anderson take their love of "old-school" comics so far that they have monks in a mountain scriptorium copying down each issue before it can be distributed by pack animals to the four corners of the world, but when it does come out, it's a joy to read. Whereas "The Dark Age" has had its moments of blandness among its overarching interesting story line, the specials that come out between the arcs (this is the second such one) are very good. Busiek isn't re-inventing the wheel here, but he keeps coming up with ways of looking at superheroes that feel familiar yet fresh at the same time.
In this case, it's a superhero that looks like a line of dolls that have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with Barbies. Beautie has no recollection of why she is a life-sized doll who happens to be alive, and this sets up a more-creepy-than-we-might-expect story. It's creepy from page 1, too, as Beautie stands in the toy section of a department store and wonders what the dolls are thinking. It's an odd moment, because Beautie is supposed to be familiar but we get right away how alien she feels. When she battles villains with the Honor Guard, she feels "right," but when the fighting is over, she's left with an identity crisis. There are several very well done scenes that show how misplaced she is in society, from the way she fends off a man's advance (which is funny and horrifying at the same time) to the way homosexuals in AC accept her because they too feel so different. What Busiek continues to do, however, is subvert our expectations. She is accepted by the city's gay community, but she still feels separate. MPH, her fellow Honor Guard member, tries to help her, but she doesn't even know how to respond to his kindness. And when she starts to figure out the mystery of her origin, the way Busiek shows her breaking through her "programming" is excellently done and still very upsetting. Finally, the resolution of the mystery is somewhat tragic, very logical, yet offers some hope for the future. It's a very good story, despite the familiarity of the plot elements.
Busiek and Anderson take their time with Astro City, which is frustrating because it's easily one of the best superhero comics of the past decade. I understand the delays, but I hope that they get to work on it more often, because the gaps between the issues are depressing. Still, I always look forward to an issue. If you haven't bought it yet, this is a great place to check it out - 4 bucks, 40 pages, no commitment beyond this issue if you don't want it. Now, let's hope the next stage of "The Dark Age" comes out before my kids go to college!
Booster Gold #0 by Geoff Johns (writer), Jeff Katz (writer), Dan Jurgens (penciller), Norm Rapmund (finisher), Hi-Fi (colorist), and Randy Gentile (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, DC.
I've read a few issues of Booster Gold (this is the third of the series I've picked up), and I don't know why I can't get into it. It's a bit of a critical darling, at least here in cyberspace, and it's certainly well done, but for me at least, something is lacking. That happens, and I'm not going to bash the book or anyone who buys it, because I can see its appeal. But I don't feel it. Oh well.
I do like the idea of having a "Zero Hour" crossover in this issue, because it's goofy enough for this book and reminds us of a time when DC's mainstream comics really, really sucked. Oh, maybe DC didn't want to do that. Too late! This isn't really a Zero Hour tie-in, but more of those zero issues DC put out back then in that we get a new look at Booster's "origin." Sure, Extant and Parallax are present, but they're kind of more of a nuisance than anything. The main plot concerns Booster's attempts to still go back in time, but convince his sister, who followed him back and died at some point (I'm fuzzy on my Booster Gold history), that she shouldn't follow him. His plan is predictably convoluted (which is one of the reasons I hate time travel stories), but it hits a snag when he and Ted get back to the "present." Said snag is in the form of bad guys who want to kill them (but why would I ruin who the bad guys are for you?).
Again, it's a competent comic, with some nice characterization - Dan Garrett and Jaime Reyes are along for the ride, and it's nice to see the heroes interact - but something keeps me from enjoying it completely. Perhaps it's because it's so steeped in DC history that I feel like I'm missing a lot. I mean, I read Zero Hour (God help me) and I read the DeMatteis/Giffen Justice League, so I know some of what's going on, but I still feel like there's stuff here that is supposed to impress me more because I've read about it elsewhere, and because I haven't read about it elsewhere, it falls flat. Plus, I've mentioned this before, but it's worth noting again: the DeMatteis/Giffen Justice League was nowhere near as ineffectual as recent DC revisionists would have you believe. It's kind of annoying hearing that trotted out every time someone mentions Maxwell Lord. Have the current crop of DC bigwigs not read those comics? Are they just going by conventional belief about the group? (Of course, given the fact that DC doesn't want to release those old issues in trades, maybe they don't have any lying around and therefore haven't read them.)
Anyway, this is a decent and somewhat charming superhero comic. I'm just not interested in it.
The Evil Dead #2 (of 4) by Mark Verheiden (writer), John Bolton (artist), and Steve Dutro (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, Dark Horse.
This is a wildly unpleasant book, full of gore and little else, lacking even any kind of black humor that we might hope for. I have never seen the original movie, but it's apparently a bit mocking of the genre. I know the second movie is definitely tongue-in-cheek, but is the first one? If it is, then this book - or at least this particular issue - is lacking that. Ash, who narrates, is supposed to be a bit of a smart-ass, but his narration isn't biting at all - it's just bitter (given the circumstances - all his friends are turning into demons - that's not surprising). Basically, this is simply an issue of two women turning into flesh-eating creatures, a lot of the non-affected people calling them "bitches," and the sense that everyone is going to die. I guess everyone except Ash does, but who really cares? There's absolutely no reason to buy this at all. Well, I guess Bolton's art is okay, but not good enough to pay money for this.
Fantastic Comics #24. (Wait for it!) "Samson" by Erik Larsen (writer/artist/colorist/letterer); "Flip Falcon" by Joe Casey (writer), Bill Sienkiewicz (artist), Larsen (colorist), and Chris Eliopoulos (letterer); "Golden Knight" by Thomas Yeates (writer/artist/letterer), Bryan Rutherford (writer), and Larsen (colorist); "Yank Wilson" by Andy Kuhn (writer/artist/colorist) and Thomas Mauer (letterer); "Carlton Riggs and the Flaming Cavern" by B. Clay Moore (writer) and Jason Latour (artist/colorist); "Space Smith" by Tom Scioli (writer/artist/colorist/letterer); "Captain Kidd" by Jim Rugg (writer/artist/colorist/letterer) and Brian Maruca (writer); "Professor Fiend" by Fred Hembeck (writer/artist/letterer) and Larsen (colorist); "Stardust" by Joe Keatinge (writer), Mike Allred (artist), Laura Allred (colorist), and Val Nunez (letterer); "Sub Saunders" by Ashley Wood (writer/artist/colorist/letterer). $5.99, 61 pgs, FC, Image.
This is the first of the "next issue" projects that Image is publishing, an idea I absolutely love. We get a huge-ass comic (64 pages for 6 bucks is a good value) with creators tackling Golden Age heroes and writing brand-new stories about them. It should be awesome, right?
Well, it's a mixed bag, which is not surprising, given that it's an anthology. It looks like an olde-timey comick, with a few strange adverts sprinkled in and much of it printed on dull paper (the quality is good, just the look is archaic). Some of the comics even evoke the Golden Age, such as Jim Rugg's story about an air ace who battles an unusual maniac on a mysterious island or Tom Yeates' Prince Valiant pastiche. Some of the stories aren't that good - Andy Kuhn's is too anti-female, even though I know it's done with tongue in cheek, and I still haven't figured out Ashley Wood's story, which is mostly in German and mostly features black panels with sound effects in them. Most of the stories are interesting, at the very least, but there's something wrong with the tone of the book, and it makes the comic not work, at least for me.
So what's my problem? Well, for a comic that promises a "next issue" of various Golden Age properties, most of these stories don't really have a "Golden Age" vibe. I get that that's not really the point, but it seems that it kind of misses a golden - if you'll pardon the pun - opportunity. The stories that work the best - Yeates', Moore's (which is a prose story with some illustrations), Rugg's, and Hembeck's - have that vibe, and poke gentle fun at the themes of the Golden Age while still telling stories set in the period. It's not that the other stories are bad, it's just that they feel too "modern," which messes up the entire feel of what they ought to be going for. I realize it's a strange criticism, because I should just judge the stories on their own merits, but it seems like they should have gone for something different. For the most part, it's an enjoyable comic, but I'm not sure it's worth 6 dollars. I am curious about the next "next issue" comic, though. We'll see.
Fantastic Four #554 by Mark Millar (writer), Bryan Hitch (penciler), Paul Neary (inker), Paul Mounts (colorist), and Rus Wooton (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, Timely Comics.
I will defend Mark Millar's run on Swamp Thing no matter how many bamboo sticks you put under my fingernails. Seriously, it's awesome. But then ... he decided he was a rock star. Now, there's nothing wrong with being a rock star, except for the fact that you feel like you need to act like a rock star. So you write things that reinforce your rock star status, which means we get bombast, pyrotechnics, false emotion, and false realism. Reading a Mark Millar comic these days is like listening to, I don't know, Styx. There's nothing really wrong with it, and occasionally there's a gem ("Miss America" is a kick-ass song, man!), but ultimately, it's easily forgettable. And years later, you see it in the quarter bin (the equivalent of "classic rock" radio) and you're not surprised.
Okay, the specifics. Millar gives us a fairly standard beginning of a Fantastic Four run, with time travel, Ben in Restoration garb, and Johnny acting stupidly (hey - Johnny wants to be a rock star too!). One of the few things that was nice about the early part of Waid's run was Johnny being put in a position of responsibility and learning to deal with it. I guess that went by the boards, and he's back to acting like a teenager. Then Reed and Ben go to Ben's old school to talk to kids, and Reed's boring! How novel! And Ben is way fun! How surprising! Then Reed's old girlfriend whisks him away to the North Pole to kick-start the big plot. It actually looks kind of cool.
There's really nothing here that makes this interesting, except maybe for the ending. It's a "greatest hits" kind of book, with Millar's attempts at "adult" humor thrown in. It's rated T+, which means it's "okay" for kids 13 and up, yet Ben tries to pick up a woman for a one-night stand and another woman explains that she and her husband can violate their wedding vows if they have a chance to bag a superhero. Yes, I know I'm being prudish, but Millar's attempts to be "mature" always boil down to superheroes having sex. It's a bit icky. Plus, his dialogue always sounds like a slick television show where everyone says the perfect thing. It doesn't have to be Bendisian, but it should be a bit less honed.
Hitch is fine, but again, he's gotten too slick for me. People who prefer him over Alan Davis, after whom he obviously modeled himself, should look at last week's ClanDestine and compare it to this. Davis is much more accomplished a penciler, and his art, though still slick, has soul. Hitch does a nice job with the big scenes, though - Nu-World is pretty keen.
Every once in a while I like to check in on Millar, just to remind myself that I'm not really missing anything. That's what it looks like here.
Atlas Comics Presents #6. "Vanguard" by Marc Guggenheim (writer), Dave Wilkins (artist), Francis Tsai (artist), Tony Washington (colorist), and Dave Sharpe (letterer); "Savage Land" by Christos N. Gage (writer), Joyce Chin (artist), June Chung (colorist), and Sharpe (letterer); "4F" by Robert Venditti (writer), Jeremy Haun (penciler), Ande Parks (inker), J. Brown (colorist), and Sharpe (letterer); "Weapon Omega" by Rich Koslowski (writer), Andrea di Vito (artist), Laura Villari (colorist), and Sharpe (letterer). $3.99, 32 pgs, FC, Atlas Comics.
I'm really liking "Vanguard," as Stacy Dolan learns more about the mysterious murder and finds herself a target of Dominic Fortune, of all people. It's not the only reason I'm buying this comic, but it's a big reason.
Meanwhile, there's a very odd panel in the Savage Land story. In the middle of waiting for the bad guys to attack again, Ka-Zar comes up behind Shanna and hugs her. She reaches up and puts her hands behind his head, and he puts his hands on her arms, just above her armpits. Given that she's wearing hardly anything (nor, you know, is he, but we can't really see him as he's behind her), it's an oddly sexual scene. It reminds me of Al Pacino about to get busy with Ellen Barkin in Sea of Love. It's strange and incongruous.
The third story, by Venditti and Haun, is why I wish Atlas Comics would make this a cheaper comic. Venditti and Haun, like many of the other creators that have been featured so far in this comic, deserve a wider audience, but they're not going to get it because the book is priced so high, and I fear it won't last very long. I'm not that depressed about it, but it's always nice to see a book from the Big Two that gives lesser-known people a chance.
Suicide Squad: Raise the Flag #6 (of eight) by John Ostrander (writer), Javier Pina (penciller), Robin Riggs (inker), Rob Leigh (letterer), and Jason Wright (colorist). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, DC.
Man, I just love it when the shit hits the fan, and Ostrander is so very good at hitting the fan with, you know, shit. There's not really a hell of a lot to say about this issue, as the Squad goes on its mission, General Eiling sets his terms, and the evil businessmen decide to cave to the general, at which everything ... well, you know.
I do like the discussion between Windfall and Twister, where they decide that God wants us to cause pain. It's quite excellent.
Anyway, it's the sixth issue of an eight-issue mini-series, so there's not much to say. I'm enjoying the hell out of it, though.
Tiny Titans #1 by Art Baltazar (writer/artist), Franco (writer), and Nick J. Napolitano (letterer). $2.25, 22 pgs, FC, DC.
Well, I doubt you thought the greatest comic ever conceived would arrive in the middle of February 2008, but it has arrived. Run, minions, run to your LCS and buy 100 copies of Tiny Titans! There is absolutely no excuse to miss this!
Okay, that's a bit of hyperbole. This is a charming comic, and perfect for the kiddies. A few things are quite humorous - the Titans' new principal and their new substitute teacher, the person (?) Barbara Gordon thinks is cute - but I don't want to spoil them because that's all the book really is. It's like a Pixy Stik - sweet, sugary, and silly. It's fine in small doses, but you wouldn't want to go too nuts with it!
X-Factor #28 by Peter David (writer), Pablo Raimondi (artist), Jeromy Cox (colorist), and Cory Petit (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, Timely Comics.
Usually I really like Glenn Fabry's covers, but that one is really ugly. Just ugly. Too bad.
After the big crossover, David can get back to writing the best mutant comic around right now, which is welcome. He has to deal with the aftermath of "Messiah Complex," but at least he can do it with his own style, which makes it more palatable. He introduces some new plot elements - the split in Mutant Town between the Pans and the Rems, the contractor who's buying up property, the politician dude (I'll get to him) - that have some potential, picks up the pregnancy thread, and gets Rahne off the team so she can go carve people up in X-Force. It's not a great issue, but it's a solid one, and as we come out of the crossover, that's really all I'm asking for.
The "Vote Saxon" stickers and graffiti we see around town worry me. Now, I don't want to predict David's plots, because that way lies madness!, but let's consider the name. "Saxon" is code for "Angry Racist White Guy Who Hates Mutants." You know it's true! Now, David might go a completely different way with it, but I'm worried. We've seen the racist politician in the X-books before, and I really hope David does something interesting with it. I'm reserving judgment, but when I see that name, I wonder.
Then there's Rahne. I know she has to leave because Timely Editorial demanded it, but I always wonder why these characters think that everyone needs to stay together all the time. Whenever someone leaves a team, it's like it's the end of the world. Rahne is an adult, isn't she? Why the hell does she need to stay, or give any reason for leaving? She tells Jamie it's because she saw that vision of her killing him and Layla on their wedding night, but why should she have to give any reason? Can't she just say "I can do whatever the hell I want"?
Okay, rant's over. It's a nice way to enter the post-crossover world. And as usual, I look forward to the next issue.
So there you have it for this week. You can call me a lot of things (and believe me, people have), but I'm no corporate shill!
- Posted on February 14, 2008 @ 08:04 PM
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29 Comments
Bill Reed
February 14, 2008 at 10:12 pm
You liar.
As for X-Factor, I imagine the "Vote Saxon" posters are just a Doctor Who in-joke, as that was the piece of foreshadowing for the big bad from the latest season. I know David's a fan of good British television (or maybe just John Simm-- he referenced Life on Mars in his Spidey run), so that's gotta be it.
More comments to come (surely involving Evil Dead). I just wanted to out-nerd everybody.
stealthwise
February 14, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Your assessment of the new FF, which I also picked up, is word-for-word, picture-perfect. Millar and Hitch have really worn out their tricks, with me, anyways.
FunkyGreenJerusalem
February 14, 2008 at 10:24 pm
I'm pissed at you Greg Burgas.
I know you ragged on Brubakers X-men is space run for it's duration, but for some damn reason I still picked up the trade.
I've only read an issue, but damn. Doesn't even feel like Brubaker, it feels like something Moore did in the 90's when he decided to try write in the Image style.
Yuck!
You should have raged against it more!
FunkyGreenJerusalem
February 14, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Just too add- Brubakers Captain America, of which I have just read the first trade, is pretty damn good though.
Dave
February 14, 2008 at 10:53 pm
"and reminds us of a time when DC’s mainstream comics really, really sucked."
And this is different from the present time how?
(In before T.)
Dave
February 14, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Also, The Evil Dead comic is really tonally uneven based off of my reading of the first issue. Verheiden has basically taken the Army of Darkness personality for Ash and slapped it into the framework of the first movie, and it really doesn't work on any level. Verheiden's characterizations aren't too good in and of themselves either.
The first Evil Dead film was actually played relatively serious compared to the other two, and Ash's characterization in it was unique compared to the other installments in that Ash was a totally submissive coward for the first 80% of the movie. At the time it was a pretty interesting inversion of the slasher formula by making the male lead be one of the most ultimately "feminine" characters, but the subsequent films did away with that and transformed him into the macho meathead archetype that is now associated with the series.
Also, Ash actually did "die" at the end of the first movie, but the second one reimagines that scene so that he survives. I'm not sure how Verheiden's going to do that ending without it leading directly into an Evil Dead 2 comic, so we'll have to see what he comes up with to end it.
Andrew Collins
February 14, 2008 at 11:19 pm
While I agree with you in general about how melodramatic superhero comics can be about a team member leaving (I think it should be just like when a co-worker takes a new job- you buy 'em a cake, wish them well, and then move on...), I think David handled Rahne's departure in X-Factor perfectly. Given the "us against them" mentality of mutants, and the way that David has shown the X-Factor team to be a bickering but co-dependent family structure, it only makes sense people would freak out a little when she suddenly decides to leave but won't tell them why. Editorial fiat or not, I think David did the best he could with it (besides, she was my least favorite member, so I shed no tears for her departure.) Besides, we got that awesome iPhone scene between Rahne and Monet...
And no need to defend Millar's Swamp Thing, that WAS an awesome run on the comic!
Bill Reed
February 14, 2008 at 11:23 pm
The original Evil Dead wasn't a spoof or anything-- its humor lies entirely in its poor production values. That's part of its charm-- it's this neat little gory picture with some cool cinematic techniques that was so fearless and adventurous in its next-to-nothing budget that it did things it probably wasn't meant to and captured the audience. I imagine all that stuff is hard to transfer to the comic format.
My favorite movie in the Evil Dead series? Couldn't tell you, I love 'em all so much that the top spot switches all the time. Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi are my heroes.
Next time: probably actual comic-related comments!
Tim Callahan
February 14, 2008 at 11:26 pm
I don't think you're missing anything in your assessment of Booster Gold. One of the problems of the series, and it's a BIG PROBLEM is that none of the stories can really have any stakes. Nothing counts. Nothing matters. It's just a bunch of pit stops at various points in DC history.
And why would Mark Millar choose to kick off his FF run with an homage to Back to the Future III? Nothing says innovation and excitement like a Robert Zemeckis sequel! After reading FF #554, I was going to blog about how Millar is the comic book equivalent of Robert Zemeckis, but I don't even have the energy to care, sadly.
No Ghost Rider, though? You so crazy!
Chris
February 14, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Thanks for not hyping any Marvel books, they get enough press that we need to sell more books like "Whiny Girls" and "Dreck that is Artsy". For small companies, Timely and Atlas sure are prolific.
ZZZ
February 15, 2008 at 12:04 am
I've seen several reviews of the new Fantastic Four, some good some bad, and I had one big question that no one's mentioned yet (aside from Hitch inexplicably drawing Johnny with a longer torso than Reed): Was there an issue I misse where Ben broke up with Alicia? I haven't read everything FF-related, but I could have sworn they were still together last we heard.
As for X-Factor, I've known several people who moved away over the years, and yes, they're adults and free to do whatever they please, but when it happens, you say goodbye, throw a going away party, reminisce, promise to keep in touch, but you do NOT just leave with no explanation, or say "I can do whatever the hell I want." If someone leaves your close circle of friends, and you don't know why or where they went, that's a clue that you were never really friends to begin with.
And like Bill Reed said, "Saxon" is probably a Dr. Who joke - every season of the current incarnation of the show has had a recurring word or phrase that tied into the season finale: "Bad Wolf" in season 1, "Torchwood" in season 2, and "Vote Saxon" in season 3. David might go somewhere with it, but it's probably just like having the magic numbers from Lost pop up or having someone idly sculpt Devil's Tower in their mashed potatoes. Good for a giggle if you recognize it, something you supposedly won't even notice if you don't. That last part obviously doesn't always work as planned.
red-Ricky
February 15, 2008 at 12:42 am
I just wanted to say...
1- Don't buy War Bonds they are a bad investment right now. Interests are too low, prices are too high.
2- I like the idea of Tiny Titans and Super-Friends. But at $2.25 a pop (plus tax), I think DC is missing the boat as to how much disposable income their target audience for this book has; and how often they'll be coming back for seconds. I think they should use the opportunity to experiment with format, sizes and ways to cut cost. I honestly don't see these books lasting if they don't find a way to make them cheaper (even if that means switching to ashcan size). It's just a thought.
3- As for Booster Gold and Blue Beetle...
A- It is what it is. A buddy cop popcorn film, ala Lethal Weapon. The only thing missing is Booster Gold saying "I'm getting too old for this" and Blue Beetle saying "This is another fine mess you've gotten me into". Which he used to say! Quite often! In the old Giffen League series.
B- Speaking of...
I think you are wrong. The old Giffen League was riddled with self deprecating humor. If anything, this is the most faithful adaptation written by someone other than DeMatteis. You got to remember, the Giffen League may have beaten the Lords of Chaos, Darkseid and Despero; but they were also turned down (for membership) by Mullet Starman, Diablo (who? ...exactly) and Apache Chief.
C- Story wise, you are not missing anything. Booster's sister died four issues before his book was canceled. I think she is supposed to be his new motivation for this set of adventures (kind of like Blue Beetle was his motivation in the previous series.)
D- Again, this appears to be a "just for fun" romp through the DC Universe. You know... kids borrow Dad's car; kids wreck Dad's car; kids steal a new car to replace the old car; It's like "The Big Lebowski". It even has the old... "You think they saw us?"
T.
February 15, 2008 at 12:55 am
Ha. I actually was going to write that. I really am getting predictable.
By the way, Greg, disagree about Zero Hour. To me that was a time when DC mainstream comics were actually good. I bought and enjoyed way more DC books than Marvel at the time, by like maybe a 4 to 1 ratio.
Andrew Collins
February 15, 2008 at 3:39 am
Zero Hour was a cutoff point for me and the DCU. The Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League run was over, Ostrander's Suicide Squad was cancelled, Perez had left Wonder Woman, Grell had left Green Arrow, Swamp Thing and Doom Patrol had gone over to Vertigo, and the Legion got rebooted, leaving me with nothing to enjoy in the DCU beyond Waid's Flash and Ostrander's Spectre. It wasn't until 3-4 years ago that I came back to reading more than 1 or 2 DCU titles at a time. So, I'm not feeling terribly nostalgic for circa-1994 DC Universe stories.
And I like red-Ricky's assessment of Booster Gold. The stolen car analogy now makes me think of Booster as the "Ferris Bueller" of the DCU...
Michael
February 15, 2008 at 5:03 am
ZZZ - Since when does Millar give a crap about how other writers have written characters? If his creative vision calls for Ben Grimm trying to score a one-night stand, then by God, Ben Grimm will try to score a one-night stand!
tom fitzpatrick
February 15, 2008 at 6:04 am
Yeah, but wouldn't Ben Grimm be kinda heavy for the average power-less woman? (unless they're on top)
Somebody should get lucky at leasst once in their lives.
Greg Burgas
February 15, 2008 at 7:08 am
As I don't watch Dr. Who, I didn't know that about Saxon. I still wonder if David is going somewhere with it. We'll see ...
red-Ricky: I'm not saying that the old JLI wasn't goofy, and near the end, it did get a bit too silly. But to dismiss it completely as a bunch of idiots standing around cracking jokes at each other is wrong, too, which is what everyone always brings up these days. I just wish one of the members would say, "Hey, you know we beat Despero, right?"
Sorry, Funky. I didn't like Brubaker's "Lost in Space" epic, but I didn't hate it as much as you did, apparently. I just dealt with it as a clearing of the decks kind of thing for what he really wanted to do with the book.
ZZZ: You make a good point, and I agree with you to a certain degree. Ultimately, though, they should try to understand why Rahne is leaving, especially Jamie, since she told him about her vision. I think, like Andrew, that David probably did the best he could to get her out of there, but the whole thing was so forced and didn't fit well with the way David has been writing this. Everyone seemed to be acting out of character just so Rahne could go join a different, and probably lousy, team.
Greg Manuel
February 15, 2008 at 7:24 am
See, this is exactly why I don't like explicit sexual innuendo in my mainstream superhero comics (in YOUR end-o!) Between Ben Grimm's heavy flirting with one teacher and another teacher hoping to "cheat with permission" with Reed Richards...don't get me wrong - I perform standup, and one of my favorite jokes is to describe "the ultimate definition of irony" as "a vegan that swallows." But that whole business at Ben Grimm's old school? That's just gross.
But as much as I WANTED to hate Mark Millar's initial issue, I was ultimately okay with it enough to buy it. I've said all I need to about the school scene and the regression on Johnny Storm's part was largely disappointing, but I like the Invisible Woman subplot and the rationale behind it, and I was actually concerned that Millar was going to create a whole new ex in the form of "Mrs. Fantastic" so I was happy that he used an already existing character.
Jacob T. Levy
February 15, 2008 at 8:08 am
"I will defend Mark Millar’s run on Swamp Thing no matter how many bamboo sticks you put under my fingernails. Seriously, it’s awesome."
Hm. River Run was awesome. Trial By Fire had elements of awesome and elements of brilliance, but was maddeningly inconsistent with a lot that had come before-- and a conclusion to a story like Swamp Thing shouldn't go back and rob the previous stories of their emotional content. (The redemption of Arcana was brilliant, the Tefe retcon terrible.) And the rest was often a mess, even when cowritten with Morrison.
brian lockhart
February 15, 2008 at 10:04 am
I want to like Booster Gold, but I can't get over all of the time travel stuff that makes my head hurt.
In fact the entire premise of the story doesn't make sense if you consider the rules the writers have established. Rip Hunter basically tells Booster the past is the past and nothing can be changed (i.e. you can't keep Barbara Gordon from being crippled by the Joker). But OUR present is Booster's PAST since he's from OUR future. So how can Booster do anything?
What's funny about Booster as a character is that he has never to my knowledge been treated as a fish-out-of water time traveler, which would have been cool. Instead writers have continually treated him as a goofy, ego-centric superhero and totally glossed over or ignored the fact HE'S FROM THE FUTURE!!! And frankly I think that's because a lot of writers smartly realize it's damn hard to deal with time travel and a headache and let's just ignore it all.
Now Johns and Katz are trying to remind us, and I give them credit, but it just creates headaches.
I love Dr. Who but the thing about that series is, I don't know, you can watch it and just get carried away by the individual stories without constantly being reminded of time paradoxes and contradictions and things like that. It seems like from the first issue, in which Rip had Booster save an ancestor, Johns and Katz have done nothing BUT raise all sorts of headache-inducing time travel chestnuts.
The art's pretty, though.
brian lockhart
February 15, 2008 at 10:06 am
Wow, I just realized how often I used the word "headache" in that post. I really DO hate time travel.
MarkAndrew
February 15, 2008 at 10:44 am
Completely agreed about the scripting in 30 Days of Night. I'm always surprised when I run into a professionally produced comic that's THAT badly written.
The thing needed either less panels or more story. And ,ohhhhhh! It's a new kind of Vampires who are marginally different from the old kind of vampires doesn't make for a particularly exciting climax.
And I REALLY liked the art in last issue, and still think you're wrong. But this one... not so much.
The Mutt
February 15, 2008 at 11:10 am
Every generation needs its own Mutant-hating Politician. Saxon is such a perfect name for one, especially if they draw him to look like John Saxon from Enter the Dragon.
Doug Atkinson
February 15, 2008 at 12:35 pm
To back up the "Saxon= likely Doctor Who reference" reference, David also included a "Bad Wolf" graffito in an issue of "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man." But we'll see.
IIRC, part of the significance of Booster's sister was that she was killed when stepping up to fill in for Booster when he didn't want to fulfill his responsibilities. That was a significant moment for a character whose motives up to that point had been purely selfish; sort of like if Uncle Ben hadn't died until Amazing Spider-Man #20 or so. (No sarcastic comments about Ultimate Spider-Man from the peanut gallery, please.) It never paid off because his book was cancelled soon afterwards (a case of too little, too late, really) and JLI never followed up on it, but it's a pretty solid motivator that's been sitting unused. (Arguably more so than Ted's death, since Booster did do his best there.)
And props to the cover designer for getting as close as they could to the Zero Month trade dress without actually including the logo (including the words "Zero Issue" under the #0).
Omar Karindu
February 15, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Errr....they didn't beat Despero, at least not as a team. The first time out, J'onn used a deus ex machina power and took the villain out solo. Then, during "Breakdowns," it was support staffers Kilowog and L-Ron, not any of the ostensibly "active roster" members, who defeated the great pink bastard.
They were effective in plenty of other stories -- The Teasdale Imperative, rescuing Mr. Miracle from Apokalips -- but the whole point of the Despero stuff was to maintain the villain's frightening unstoppability by allowing only very outre and one-time-only sorts of means to take him out. The side effect of this is that the JLI had to look inefficacious so far as stopping him was concerned.
Wriphe
February 15, 2008 at 6:03 pm
As much as I enjoy Booster Gold, I feel that I have to stand up for him and his book and straighten a few things out. (Though I don't feel that the comments about the book are too far off target. It is a bit of a romp through entrenched DC continuity that is not really fit for a general audience who doesn't care to learn about the intricacies of relatively minor DC B-listers.)
In his earliest appearences, Booster was indeed a misplaced figure, flailing desperately to find his place in a society he wasn't familiar with. That treatment sort of died by the time he joined the Justice League and ever since Booster has sort of ironically been the pop culture reference guy in his appearances.
His sister Michelle was never actively the superhero Goldstar. On the one occasion when she donned the costume in order to discover whatever it was that had kept her brother performing as a super hero when his fortune was already secure -- at the time, he was a multi-millionare celebrity -- she was kidnapped by aliens. She died because Booster chose to save the population of the Earth instead of his own sister. Michelle's death wasn't so much a tale of misplaced responsibility, but the high cost of heroism.
As for time-travel, DC has been so inconsistant with its approach to the physics of time manipulation, anything could indeed be possible. In his history, Booster has both failed and succeded at changing the past, present, and future depending on what writer was at the helm.
Rip Hunter is either a schizophrenic or is actually multiple people. I mean, why would a guy who believes that time cannot be changed (Hunter's so-called "solidified time" theory) go through so much trouble to disguise his own history to protect himself from time-travelling assassins? Discounting what the man says, there's a lot of fun to be had with the concept of changing the known. (Just look at DC's Elseworlds and Marvel's What If?s.)
So, there you have it. Booster Gold: heavy on DC history, light on plot, but full of glib fun. (Not exactly Swamp Thing, is it?)
The defense rests.
ZZZ
February 15, 2008 at 10:31 pm
My take on why Booster Gold can change his past but not our past (and it's just my gut feeling based on what they've said in the comic - I may be way off from what the writers intend) goes like this:
Picture time like a zipper. The present is the actual slider with the pull tab, the past is the interlocked teeth the slider has already moved over, and the future is the unlocked teeth further up the line that become interlocked as the slider moves over them. What you do at the slider can affect the unlocked teeth of the future, but once they're locked (according to the version of time travel the Booster Gold series is using) you can't touch them without extenuating circumstances. Booster comes from the unlocked teeth way up by the collar. By going to what he perceived as the past, he was actually jumping to the slider. He saw himself as moving from the present to the past, but he was actually, objectively, moving from the future to the present.
Now that makes no sense, unless you consider that in the DCU there is a definitive "present." The entire zipper is laid out, from the beginning of time to the end, but the point the slider is at - where the main DCU books currently are - IS "now." Some people will say that's silly or "nowcentric" or something, but it makes as much sense as Earth being the most important planet in the universe or the DCU reality (Earth-1, right?) being the most important dimension in the multiverse.
As for those extenuating circumstances: When Mr. Mind started eating chunks of the multiverse, he made kinks in the zipper. Now, as everyone knows, when a few of the locked teeth become seperated, it isn't long before the whole zipper splits and is of no use to anyone. Unfortunately, Booster and Rip don't have the tecnhology to push the slider back over the gaps like you would with a real zipper (if that would even work, metaphorically), so Booster has to go back and force the teeth back into alignment by hand. But he can't do anything with the teeth that are already locked. Therefore, Rip is convinced that Booster can't save Blue Beetle, because Ted's one of the locked teeth, and thinks he shouldn't even try because if it somehow worked, it would damage the zipper.
The Blue Beetle of the future, however, had access to technology that, essentially, let them pry open the locked teeth temporarily and slip them back into place when they're done. He can treat the zipper like a zip-lock bag, as long as they put everything back in place when they finish - i.e., making sure everyone still thinks the Blue Beetle died.
Sorry that was so long, and I hope it made sense.
Apodaca
February 15, 2008 at 11:21 pm
I think they shut the door on that as soon as they came out with a new Booster Gold book.
FunkyGreenJerusalem
February 17, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I've only read an issue so far (I thought it was half an issue, but I turned the page, and it turned out to be a full one.)
Having just read Brubaker's Capt. America, the change in writing style was jarring.
And then I remembered that I hadn't seen positive reviews anywhere, and felt I should hold you to task for not writing a review negative enough so that I knew to stay away.
That said, I guess it could pick up, can't stand that art though, it's actually worse than the early image art it's trying to mimick.