All that being said… now I have to eat some crow.

Not about Battle For The Cowl, I hasten to add. It was one of the most unnecessary DC crossovers I’ve seen in a while — and I was around for Genesis and War of the Gods, so that’s saying something.

However, I’m a Batman guy from way back. As I’ve said before, I always have to look at what’s going on in the Bat books…. even if I’m not buying them, I have a ridiculous need to stay current with the goings-on in Gotham City. (When I mock comics fans for treating issues of their favorite superhero book like they are actual news dispatches, continuing to read stuff they hate because they can’t stand not knowing what’s going on, I assure you, I do not exclude myself. My only excuse is that I’m getting a lot better about not spending money on doing that.)

But sometimes this lunatic compulsion to always know what’s up with Batman pays off. Because, having followed all the “Batman: Reborn” launches this month, I find myself largely nodding and saying, okay, good job, DC. Those look to be shaping up as some fine Bat comics in our future. Even the one from Judd Winick, which frankly shocked me considering how much I despised his last run on Batman.

I’m going to go down the list one-by-one, but here are some general thoughts to start with.

I have been a Batman fan for forty years, from the Adam West days on up…. so I’ve seen a lot of different versions. I was around for the first time Dick Grayson took over for his mentor, right after the whole Knightfall business in the 1990’s.

I liked Prodigal quite a bit, but it was clearly a one-shot story, and it had a lot less dramatic weight because we all knew it was just temporary.

This time around, the Dick Grayson-as-Batman concept has got a lot more power, for a couple of different reasons.

For one, the scope is bigger. Characters across the DCU are involved in it — the JLA, the ancillary supporting cast — and at least in the books themselves, those characters are all treating it as permanent. This isn’t the ’substitute for a little while’ story that we usually get when editors decide to put a new guy in the superhero suit, like we saw with James Rhodes as Iron Man or John Walker as Captain America… or, for that matter, with Dick Grayson’s previous turn as Batman in Prodigal. This is being portrayed more like the way DC rolled out Wally West taking over as the Flash, as a full-on reboot of the Batman titles.

It’s all very well for us to sit on the sidelines and sneer, “Well, whatever, it’s never going to stick, Bruce Wayne will be back in plenty of time for the next Batman movie.” I’ve done my share of that kind of jaded bitching myself (and to be honest, I still fully expect DC to walk this back within eighteen months.)

But the more I see of Dick Grayson as Batman, the better I like the concept. If Bruce Wayne never came back, I think I’d be okay with it, in the same way I was okay with Wally West replacing Barry Allen.

Secondly, the way this is set up, it’s not just a passing-of-the-torch legacy story. It’s got a really intriguing premise — it’s not just Dick as Batman, but also Bruce Wayne’s illegitimate son Damian as the new Robin.

And here again I’m having to chow down on some more crow. I disliked Damian enormously when he showed up — both the character, he came across as a little ass, and the concept itself. I found it difficult to believe that Talia kept him a secret for ten years, or however many years it would have to be. (Damian is ten, according to the latest issue of Batman and Robin.) Even with the elasticity of comic-book chronology and taking the most forgiving  approach possible to assembling a timeline for these events, that puts Bruce Wayne as pushing fifty at the time of Final Crisis, so it’s best not to think about it too hard at all. Because if you count up Dick’s time as Robin, then add his solo years at college and with the Titans, then follow that with Jason Todd’s turn as Robin that led up to Death In The Family, followed by Tim Drake’s time in the Robin suit and all those adventures… and remembering that Batman’s first encounter with Ra’s Al Ghul happened while Dick was at Hudson University, well, even if you posit that Bruce and Talia spent a hot weekend in the Himalayas somewhere between the panels of “Daughter of the Demon,” the best estimate I can manage is still putting Bruce Wayne within shouting distance of AARP membership at the time of “Batman R.I.P.”

…Sorry, veered off down a nerd rabbit trail there for a moment. Sometimes I can’t help myself. Anyway, like I said, best not to think about it — and I’m not going to let continuity quibbles get in the way of enjoying these books. The important thing is that now that Damian is installed as Robin, I’m finding that the idea really works.

We fans forget sometimes, with our habit of looking at these characters as real,  that conflict is what drives a story.  No matter how offensive Damian might be to us, the bottom line is that his presence here makes for some great drama. The idea of Robin as a brat who needs redemption is interesting… but what really sells it is the idea that it’s Dick Grayson’s Batman — himself untried and untested– that has to help him find that redemption. So we’ve got a Batman and Robin who have to learn not just how to be the new Batman and Robin, but also find out exactly what they’re made of underneath the Batman and Robin roles as well.

The reason that’s such a smart move and works so well is because doing it this way means it’s not just about genuflecting to the legacy any more, not the way it would have been if they’d kept the Tim Drake character in the Robin suit. Do that and it’s just Prodigal again with better art. This is a whole new thing.

I’m a sucker for the redemption story where the hero has to reach within himself and face his own flaws head-on to pull out the win… and here it’s built right in to the premise for both Batman and Robin. I love that. (That said, if we’re still seeing asshole Robin a year from now, it’s going to have gotten very tiresome. I’m hoping there’s a real plan here and not just a riff.)

I also really like the editorial approach I’m seeing so far. Not surprising, since it’s the approach I like in all my superhero books: Tell individual stories and keep things self-contained. “Batman Reborn” is plastered across all these relaunched titles, but they’re not part of a crossover. They’re each doing their own thing. I’ll tell you flat-out that this was much more attractive to me as a comics-buying customer — in other words, I bought more of these issues because I was intrigued and wanted to see more, not because I felt forced to by a mega-crossover storyline that skipped from one title to the next. Moreover, the stories aren’t buried under a ton of Batman lore from the past — things move, stuff happens. Every one of these relaunch issues I’ve looked at over the last couple of weeks has been a good jumping-on point. That pleased me as well.

All that’s the overview. Let’s look at the individual books.

Batman by Judd Winick and Ed Benes was a pleasant surprise. I’ll level with you — I was annoyed with myself for forgetting to tell my retailer to cancel this title from my pull list, because I absolutely was not going to spend any more money on Judd Winick superhero comics. Between Winick’s Outsiders and his first run on Batman, I was done.

But since the shop pulled it for me, I felt obligated to buy it, and be damned if I’ll buy a comic I don’t read. So I looked at it and I decided Brian was dead-on in his assessment — this story was way better than Battle For The Cowl and rendered it moot besides.

The bulk of the book is exposition and setup, but it’s good setup, it works. We see the explanation for why Dick Grayson ends up as Batman, and more, we see why he thinks it’s necessary. (I think our other Greg was wondering about that, and that explanation is here.) I especially liked that the impetus for Dick taking on the Batman identity came from Alfred, particularly Alfred’s line, “They’ll want to have one of their costumed parades. A half mile of spandex and body armor all lined up behind an empty coffin with a cape draped over it. No.” In other words, Dick is Batman now because he knows Bruce Wayne would have wanted Batman to go on. It’s not so much about Gotham needing a Batman — though I think it’s pretty clear that it needs a hero– as it is about Dick (and even Alfred) needing that hero to be Batman, so they can at least feel like Bruce Wayne’s life meant something. That rang true to me. I can buy that, it doesn’t feel contrived. (Certainly, it makes a hell of a lot more sense than the rationale behind putting Jean-Paul Valley in the role back during “Knightfall.”)

That’s most of the issue, setting that all up. The last few pages are leading up to next issue’s confrontation with the Scarecrow, which I guess is supposed to be Dick’s initial outing as Batman. So even though I still don’t care for Ed Benes’ art — he’s got that whole over-rendering, squinchy-eyed 90s thing going on — nevertheless, I’ll keep it on the list for now.

*

Red Robin was one of the weaker entries in this new wave of launches, but I still liked it okay.

This is Tim Drake’s new home, apparently, and it’s an ongoing, not a mini-series, so I gather it replaces Robin in the Bat-family of titles.

I have some quibbles. My biggest one is, why would Tim choose “Red Robin” as his new heroic identity? He’s never read Kingdom Come. Because apart from that tenuous connection to a story that came out fifteen years ago, it just is annoying. The costume is not that great, the name is dumb — in fact, I keep thinking of the burger chain, so I guess it’s a good thing the first story arc is set in Europe.

It’s marginally less likely that crooks over there will point at him and laugh. “Red Robin? And I suppose Chuck E. Cheese is right behind you?” (I can’t be the only one who thought of that.)

Why not make Tim Drake the new Nightwing? That makes more sense to me. Everybody moves up a step in Bat-seniority. And that seems to be the premise Chris Yost is trying to sell in the first issue, especially with the scene where Dick is explaining to Tim why he chose Damian to be Robin. It would be the most natural thing in the world after Dick tells Tim, “You’re not my protégé, Tim, you’re my equal, my closest ally, you’ll be okay,” for him to follow that with, I’ll have my hands full with Damian. I was counting on you to take over as Nightwing.

But he doesn’t say that. Instead there’s a contrived little spat with Damian and Tim huffs off in a huff. Cut to the new Red Robin busting heads in Europe.

So that’s my main quibble. I don’t like the new outfit or the new name, and I think the setup was awfully ham-handed. But once we’re back to Tim in solo action it works better, and I like the last-page reveal of Ra’s Al Ghul, back in business and targeting Tim.

I don’t mean to slight artist Ramon Sachs, it’s just that I’m pretty much a story guy. Mr. Sachs does a nice job here and I like seeing guys who ink their own work. The art’s just solid straight-up superhero work, however; it’s not particularly breathtaking, though it’s certainly not bad.

Overall verdict? I didn’t like this enough to put it on my list, but right now I’m interested enough to come back next month, at least. Writer Chris Yost has one more issue to sell me on this title. I always liked the premise of Nightwing and that seems to be the niche this book wants to fill, the grown-former-sidekick tale. Because of that, I’m willing to hang in there past the overture, but not much longer than that.

*

Since Paul Dini’s not on Detective any more, he gets two new titles to make up for it.

Gotham City Sirens by Dini and artist Guillem March serves as sort of a replacement for both Catwoman and Birds of Prey, I guess.

Sadly, it can’t hold a candle to either one of those. This was the only one of the lot of new Bat books that just left me completely cold. I really wanted to like it, too… I generally like what Paul Dini writes when he’s left to himself, I expected good things.

But the whole book just felt kind of generic to me, starting with the opening scene where Catwoman breaks up a mugging (quick, show of hands — how many of you out there can name twenty other superhero stories that opened with that scene? Protagonist on a rooftop hears a scream and goes to check it out, etc., etc.) Dini doesn’t even give us a twist on it, it really is the standard introduction of the heroes by way of stopping a mugging.

Not much going on in the rest of the issue to make up for it, either. Catwoman has a little trouble with her mugger and is helped out by Poison Ivy, and then they go back to Ivy’s place (which is really the Riddler’s place, but Ivy’s taken it over.) Then Harley Quinn happens by and the three girls decide to set up shop together.

My main problem with all this was that I couldn’t turn off the part of my brain that always wants to note various holes in the story. If Selina’s still feeling weak from her recent physical hardships, what’s she doing bouncing around rooftops? Why would Selina be the one to offer a partnership to a pair of psychos like Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, especially since it’s noted a few pages earlier by both Ivy and Selina herself that they don’t get along? “Gotham’s not safe for any of us on our own” strikes me as a really weak rationale to hang this premise on. And so on. The whole issue from first to last had that sense you get from a bad TV pilot, the feeling that the characters are only doing certain things because the writer needs them to in order to get things moved from point A to point B.

I did like the art, though Guillem March strikes me as an artist who’s still finding his way.

His anatomy is shaky at times, and I could have done without a lot of the gratuitous cheesecake shots, but I suppose those are pretty much a given when you have “Sirens” as part of the title. On the other hand, I loved his faces, they’re wonderfully expressive.

Nevertheless, as a first issue, this didn’t really work for me. I doubt I’ll be back next month, despite the mildly interesting idea for a cliffhanger.

Batman: Streets of Gotham fared quite a bit better, at least with me.

Basically, this is the book for the people who were enjoying Paul Dini’s run on Detective with Dustin Nguyen. Dini picks up without missing a step practically right where he left off with “Heart of Hush,” and except for Mr. Dini’s determination to make us like Hush as a villain (not working on me, sorry) this is a good solid Batman story. There are nice bits with Harley Quinn, who is used much better here in a walk-on than she is over in her own new book, and also with Commissioner Gordon, though the chronology of when Gordon decided to accept this new Batman is getting a bit muddy…. it makes me wonder, once again, if DC editors ever talk to each other.

The villain of the piece is Firefly, and Dini treats him as a compulsive serial arsonist, giving us a much crazier Garfield Lynns than we’ve seen in the past.

(Rather like Donald Sutherland’s character in Backdraft, if you ever saw that one.)

Anyway, I liked this story quite a bit. That by itself would probably have persuaded me to put this book on my list, but additionally we also get a backup story — Manhunter, by Marc Andreyko and Georges Jeanty.

For an old-school DC guy like me, this was a wonderful treat. I love the idea of comics with lead and backup features, always have. And this particular backup is a really good fit for the title (I got absurdly sentimental about a Bat book having “Manhunter” in the back again, even if it’s not running in Detective.) Apart from all that, I have been following the new Manhunter’s adventures in trade and enjoying those stories a lot, so it’s a pleasure to see that DC’s found the character a home.

I suppose I should stop calling Kate Spencer the ‘new’ Manhunter since I think five trade paperbacks’ worth of solo adventures and a stint in Birds of Prey makes this particular Manhunter the most successful version DC’s ever had, even if you count all the variations on Paul Kirk as being the same one. Anyway, this story is largely setting up Kate’s new status as a Gotham City D.A. and catching up new readers on what she’s all about, but Andreyko and Jeanty manage to get some action in there as well. One of the things I like about an eight-page chapter format is that it forces the writer and artist to really work at not wasting space, there’s no padding here. But it doesn’t feel cramped or rushed either.

Overall I think Batman: Streets of Gotham might end up being the sleeper hit of the new era of Bat books. All the others are getting a bigger marketing push, but this is a really well-crafted title and it deserves a little love. It’s the first time in quite a long time I felt like I got my money’s worth from a single issue of a comic book. Here’s hoping all involved can keep it up, they’re off to a good start.

*

Detective Comics is, as you’ve no doubt heard by now, the home of the new Batwoman.

This book is in the same format as Batman: Streets of Gotham, a lead and a backup, so this is another title that gets my inner DC fanboy to smile in pleased recognition.

Everyone’s talking about how gorgeous the art from J.H. Williams is, and I have to agree. Every page is stunning.

But I enjoyed the story as well. Sometimes I think people forget just how good Greg Rucka can be when he’s doing straight-up crime fiction. It was a well-constructed first act, it felt like a complete piece even though this was just about introducing the new Batwoman to readers and bringing everyone up to speed. Thankfully, Rucka gets right to the action and does his introductions on the fly rather than screwing around with a lot of backstory and exposition.

The backup feature starring the Renee Montoya Question was nice too, though not quite as well-executed as the Manhunter 8-pager over in Streets of Gotham. Story by Rucka, again, with a serviceable art job from Cully Hamner. I think everyone who was a fan of the O’Neil/Cowan Question book will enjoy this strip, though it wasn’t quite as new-reader-friendly as I would have liked. I can see why DC paired the two Greg Rucka features together, I guess, though I’m sentimental enough to wish that Manhunter was over here in Detective and the Question was running in Streets of Gotham. But that’s just me having a bout of fanboy OCD.

I did have one gripe, though I’m not sure exactly who’s responsible for it — I suppose DC’s production department. But I really wish someone in editorial would think through the page layouts and ad placement so we don’t have the last page of the lead feature butting right up against the first page of the backup, especially since the “Continued” caption tends to get lost in the computer coloring without a box around it– and the backup features don’t start off with a big splash panel. In the old days, there’d be a break, some sort of buffer between the lead and the backup — an ad, a letters page, something. Otherwise, it makes it look like it’s all one story, it’s disconcerting. But that’s just a minor complaint, and certainly not something that will keep me from coming back next month and every one thereafter for as long as Greg Rucka and company are turning out stories like this.

*

And that brings me to the clear headliner of the bunch. Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely on Batman and Robin.

I’m not nearly as high on Mr. Morrison’s work as my colleagues here at CBBG, and I thought the “Batman: R.I.P.” storyline ended up as a bit of a mess. I was really expecting not to like this book very much; I was worried that we were going to get the meta-self-referential Grant Morrison that did “R.I.P.” and Final Crisis.

Instead, what I’ve seen over the first two issues of Batman and Robin is some of the best straight-up superhero comics I’ve run across in years. This is the joyous adventure-fiction-writing Grant Morrison, the fellow that did all that fun stuff on JLA and New X-Men. I found myself grinning ear-to-ear by the time I hit page eight of Batman and Robin #1 and saw that choreographed double punch to the face that sends Mr. Toad into the drink.

Which is not to say that this story doesn’t have its dark, disturbing, Gothic moments. It’s Gotham City, after all. But the sense of adventure — I keep coming back to that word — that suffuses the whole enterprise is just palpable.

This is what I’d hoped we were going to get when DC announced All-Star Batman and Robin four years ago. It’s not the least bit campy or silly, but somehow what Grant Morrison has constructed here is really evoking that same let’s-go! vibe that I first got from the 1966 Batman TV show when I was five years old… but he’s doing it such a way as to please the adult comics fan who’s looking for an engaging story.

I certainly don’t want to minimize the contribution of Frank Quitely on the art side of things. Every page is a joy to look at; the body language alone is amazing. Every character has an individual posture and carriage, each person in the story stands and moves in a unique fashion. Take a closer look at these cover poses, look how the way each character is standing tells us about what kind of people they are.

Oddly, considering that this is not the traditional Bruce Wayne Batman and Dick Grayson Robin, nevertheless Morrison and Quitely have somehow managed to do what I’d think is one of the purest, classic Batman stories I’ve seen in a long time. All the elements are there: A grotesque scary villain. An eerie mystery that’s going to call for detective work. A desperate police department lights the Bat Signal. An impetuous, eager Robin and a thoughtful, cautious Batman. Character moments for Commissioner Gordon and Alfred. Fisticuffs.

And yet it all feels amazingly fresh and new, because all this is set against the backdrop of the character premise I talked about at the beginning, of Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne’s search for redemption.

It’s shaping up to be a great ride. I’m definitely on board for it.

*

And that sums up the current slate of Bat-titles. I hope sales bear out this approach because I’d love to see a lot more of this kind of thing from DC. I’d like to see the Bat office stick with this direction for a while — especially since this is the first time in several years it looks like DC actually had a direction in mind for a franchise instead of just frantically flailing around.

At any rate, it’s nice to see the Batbooks rocking so hard — really, Sirens is the only one that I’d classify as an out-and-out clunker, and Red Robin might still turn it around, I’m not ready to give up on it just yet. So that’s four out of five that I’d call worth checking out.

That’s really encouraging… especially since I was becoming convinced that DC editorial had forgotten that their business is stories, not “events.” It’s nice to be proved wrong about that. I don’t mind a little crow once in a while if it means we get books this good.

See you next week.

Cry “justice!” and let slip the dogs of war!

justice (jus?tice)
Noun.
1.         the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness: to uphold the justice of a cause.
2.         rightfulness or lawfulness, as of a claim or title; justness of ground or reason: to complain with justice.
3.         the moral principle determining just conduct.
…
5.         the administering of deserved punishment or reward.
6.         the maintenance or administration of what is just by law, as by judicial or other proceedings: a court of justice.
…
Idioms
10.       bring to justice, to cause to come before a court for trial or to receive punishment for one’s misdeeds: The murderer was brought to justice.

The above are selections from Dictionary.com’s definition of the word “justice.” James Robinson and Mauro Cascioli’s Justice League: Cry for Justice, however, does not believe in the apparently narrow views of the American lexicon. The superheroes in this comic cry for a different sort of justice altogether, and I can’t say it’s one I particularly agree with or understand. What the four major characters here (Green Arrow doesn’t count; he’s just along for the ride) are seeking is something called vengeance, instead. I’ll spare you the dictionary entry for that one, you all know what it means. Perhaps the eventual theme of this mini-series will involve the heroes realizing they’ve missed the point of “justice,” and do something to correct that, but for now, this drive for so-called justice is just a peg on which to hang an empty garment bag.

Said garment bag looks really damn pretty from the outside, of course. Mauro Cascioli gorgeously renders the pages in what I imagine are digital paints– the luscious coloring gives the work here its power. You’ve never seen a more beautiful portrait of Killer Moth or of a crying gorilla. Really, you haven’t. Cascioli does his damndest to make a bunch of heroes standing around and glaring at one another interesting. His art is certainly the best thing about this comic.

On to the glaring. Hal “It’s my party and I’ll cry for justice if I want to” Jordan is pissy that some of his friends have been killed and wants to strike back at the villains responsible– and is it me, or is it silly that they refer to their enemies as “villains”? I mean, I guess they would, but it seems wrong they use the same terminology as the fans who read their comics. And so Hal and the Justice League have  a staring contest for a while until Hal declares he’s going to be “proactive,” a stance that will probably last– oh, what time is it now? “You want a League,” he says; “I want justice.” Green Arrow decides to tag along with him because of their hard-travelin’ heroes past (”Remember back in the day… when I lost my millions and became liberal…” Yes, he actually says that), because that’s just what pals who share the same color do, apparently.

Meanwhile, Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi, the Atoms, chase down Killer Moth to find out who killed one of Ray’s old friends, and so Ray, with a grimace and a “Welcome to pain,” tortures the crap out of poor Killer Moth to discover the truth. “Yeah… justice!” he says, shrinking his way out of the panel and into revenge. The most unfortunate part about this scene, however, are the captions. Me, I’m certainly not a fan of the first-person narrative caption, but these are the absolute worst I’ve ever seen, a ludicrous parody of the dueling captions in something like Superman/Batman, to the point where it appears as if Ray and Ryan can read each other’s internal monologues. “I am so not the Atom anymore.” “So says Ryan Choi. He is so the new Atom.” “So says Ray Palmer.” It’s caption after caption, word balloon after word balloon of guy love for two pages, as they tell each other how amazing they are over and over again. That is, until Palmer goes all grim-and-gritty. Here’s a guy whose power it is to shrink and hit people in the face (I was really confused until I remembered his costume only shows up when he is tiny) becoming a dark badass– or as Robinson describes it in the backmatter, “the ultimate survivor.” No thanks.

The next scene was the most confusing to me, as I’ve never encountered this blue Starman before, and wasn’t sure what was going on. The internet tells me he’s mad that his boyfriend is dead, and blows up a car because he is mad. And then he literally cries out, in his alien tongue, for justice! Okay then.

Now we move onto the bit that really ground my gears, where we are introduced to Emo Congorilla. Yes, Congo Bill is sad because all his ape friends are dead, even the babies, and his human body is (probably) dead, and he cries tears– of justice! Oh, and then Freedom Beast shows up just to bite it, because hey, there’s only so many superheroes in Africa that you can kill off, right? It’s page after page of overwrought captions and dialogue. “I am so sorry I wasn’t here to protect.” “–tried to be the hero you taught me to be.” “Something in the air.  Faint but– ‘A smell!’ Beat. ‘A trail!’ Beat.” It’s at this point that I gave up entirely, but thankfully, that was the last scene. Half the cast has yet to show up, and there’s only the barest hint of forward momentum.

Chris Sims calls the book “not very good,” but I’d word that a bit more strongly, myself. It’s more “actively bad.” The writing comes across as parodic when it’s instead trying to be deathly serious, but there’s only so many crying gorilla-men a guy can take. My favorite bit in the issue was the two-page Congorilla origin back-up, but that one was by Len Wein and Ardian Syaf. In a measly two pages, it evokes all the kooky courage and adventure of the Congo Bill concept, but it appears we won’t get to see any of that in James Robinson’s story. No, we will instead see– justice! Or rather, vengeance. A better title for this comic would really be “Vengeance League!” That’d probably sell even more copies.

A good comic? Cry me a river. Not recommended.

28 Comments

• At July 3, 2009, Debaser wrote:

  Robinson is just so much better than this, I don't know what he could've been thinking.

• At July 3, 2009, Michael P. wrote:

  Well, I'm at least glad to see that Robinson is apparently ignoring that stupid Remender arc on All-New Atom and ...

• At July 3, 2009, Greg Burgas wrote:

  I flipped through it but didn't read it, but I kind of wish I had, because it seems so, as ...

• At July 3, 2009, T. wrote:

  I saw the previous previews of the book and the scripting was cringeworthy, even for a Didio DC comic, where ...

• At July 3, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  "He's a hero. I'm Ray Palmer. Welcome to pain."

  Ha ha ha!

  God, that is hilarious.

  And awful.

  Hilariously awful.

• At July 3, 2009, T. wrote:

  Strangely enough, this review made me want to read the book. It sounds bad enough to intrigue me.

• At July 3, 2009, The Dude wrote:

  I haven't read the book but I assume that the blue Starman you're mentioning is Mikaal Tomas. He was a ...

• At July 3, 2009, Bwhig wrote:

  Didn't Iron Man make the same exact speech saying, "why are we avenging when we should be attacking," in the ...

• At July 3, 2009, red Ricky wrote:

  Dammit!!! I ordered this book in advance 'cause of the pretty pictures and Captain Marvel Jr.; and now you ...

• At July 3, 2009, BMBG wrote:

  RE: Bwhig - Yup, exactly that. I'm guessing it wasn't DC's plan to do their version of Force Works? Because ...

• At July 3, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  I have not read Starman, but after years of hearing its praises sung, I have been nothing but disappointed by ...

• At July 3, 2009, stealthwise wrote:

  Sounds like the success of All-Star Batman and Robin is causing it to rub off on other books.

• At July 3, 2009, Mark D. White wrote:

  Revenge is a more personal version of retribution or retributive justice, which fits very well into definiton #5 above. (Punishing ...

• At July 3, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  RE: Bwhig – Yup, exactly that. I’m guessing it wasn’t DC’s plan to do their version of Force Works? Because ...

• At July 3, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Eh, I'm not as down on the issue as y'all. I can buy Ray Palmer's attitude getting hardened, for ...

• At July 3, 2009, Jack Norris wrote:

  "I have not read Starman, but after years of hearing its praises sung, I have been nothing but disappointed by ...

• At July 3, 2009, Roman wrote:

  Whoa, what are the chances of two consecutive posts whose authors' avatars' names are 70s Defenders characters! (I'm relatively ...

• At July 3, 2009, Cass wrote:

  I have not read Starman, but after years of hearing its praises sung, I have been nothing but disappointed by ...

• At July 3, 2009, Jbird wrote:

  Wow, a version of an existing superhero team that, unlike that old-fashioned fuddy-duddy original, is PRO-ACTIVE and GOES AFTER BAD ...

• At July 3, 2009, TimCallahan wrote:

  I still don't understand the five-star review.

  I will be buying issue #2, though, because this comic is the most quotable ...

• At July 3, 2009, red Ricky wrote:

  Well, isn't PRO-ACTIVE an oxymoron when it comes to the legal system?

  I mean, you either capture a villain for something ...

• At July 3, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  I read it this morning and quite liked it. Plus, it has Mikaal, who's, like, blue and all.

• At July 3, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  I don't necessarily see it as "active" vs. "reactive," but more like a perfectly reasonable division of resources. The ...

• At July 3, 2009, Squashua wrote:

  "Force Works" "X-Factor"

  Silly Marvel Zombies. Don't you know?

  Cry for Justice is going to relaunch that bastion of the 1990's ...

• At July 3, 2009, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  Not that I've read this issue except for the parts in this review, but those words sound extremely silly coming ...

• At July 3, 2009, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  Having everyone scream "Justice!" or "I Want Justice!" was pretty funny. I'm sure issue 2 will have Freddy Freeman ...

• At July 3, 2009, "O" the Humanatee! wrote:

  Either James Robinson is an extremely uneven writer or I'm an extremely uneven critic. I loved Leave It to Chance ...

• At July 3, 2009, Kamino Neko wrote:

  The most annoying thing about the whole 'it's really about vengeance' aspect, for me, is exactly what Mike Laughlin mentions ...

Welcome to the two-hundred and fourteenth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and thirteen.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I’d especially recommend last week’s Movie Legends, for a piece about Waldo (of Where’s Waldo fame) popping up in Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto!

I presume Shelly did not like last week, and I don’t think she will be too pleased about this week, either!

Let’s begin!

COMIC LEGEND: John Severin was tricked into drawing the Rawhide Kid MAX mini-series not knowing what the content was.

STATUS: False

As you might recall, last week we discussed the Rawhide Kid mini-series that Marvel put out under its MAX imprint (their “mature readers only” line of comics). That’s the series that took a different look at the classic Marvel western hero and made him out to be a fairly flamboyant gay man (while maintaining his fighting skills).

The series was written by Ron Zimmerman and was drawn by John Severin, who was in his 80s when the mini-series came out. Severin had drawn Rawhide Kid stories when the character was NEW (before Marvel Comics was even known as Marvel Comics! It was still Atlas Comics when Severin started working there on the Western heroes). So it was a real coup to have one of the character’s early artists draw this new, fairly controversial mini-series.

In any event, writer Chuck Dixon made some comments at the time about the comic book. He said:

But am I to understand that John Powers Severin is drawing this wretched piece of exploitational trash? John objected to (but finally drew) a western story I wrote in which an unmarried couple were shown together in bed. (this was for the more adult-oriented ‘Savage Tales’ magazine.) Could he have willingly participated in this? I doubt it very strongly. I’ll bet he was handed a plot with no idea that the subject of the Rawhide Kid’s ’secret’ would be revealed in the dialogue.

Reader Gorpulon wanted to know if this was true (Gorpulon knew that Marvel denied it, but he was wondering Severin ever did).

First off, yeah, Marvel did, in fact, deny it, pretty emphatically, really.

Here’s Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada on the topic:

Every once in a while something so ridiculous comes out of a mouth of one of my fellow comicbook constituents that I just have to chime in and clear up some things. Now I realize that by me bringing this up more people will now have heard this comment than the few that actually did, but heck that’s okay.

[Quesada then repeats the above quote - BC]

Now let’s read this carefully because it’s troubling on many levels. First, let me say that I like Chuck, heck I hired him to work at Marvel Knights. I guess that’s why I’m so troubled by what he’s implying here. Must be that mix of sun and sigils.

1- That Senior Editor Axel Alonso is so unscrupulous, so underhanded that he would actually try to fool the great John Severin into doing this book. That he would lie to his talent about something so important to core of the story.

2- That as Editor in Chief, I would condone such behavior of any of my editors. That I would let my editor lie to a talent about what he or she was working on and not fire that editor on the spot.

3- That John Severin isn’t smart enough to know what he’s drawing or that he’s incredibly gullible.

Which is it? Quite frankly all of the insinuations here are pretty crappy and owing of an apology. Not to me, because at this point after hearing a rant like the one above, I could give a horse’s butt what Chuck thinks of me, but to Axel and John.

Just for the record, John was approached and told the idea for Rawhide before there was even a writer fully attached to the project. He has known from the very beginning and loved the idea from day one. According to Axel, he’s also loving all of the media attention the book is getting as well.

He also worked from full script.

Let’s take a look at some pages from Rawhide Kid #2…

Those pages sure look like Severin is in on the joke, no?

Luckily for us, in Comic Book Marketplace #98, Severin DID talk about the series…

Severin: It’s kind of weird. (laughs) I guess, yeah, I think the information is already out there. The Rawhide Kid is rather effeminate in this story. It may be quite a blow to some of the old fans of Rawhide Kid. But it’s a lot of fun and he’s still a tough hombre.

That interview was given before (or right around) the release of the first issue of the series, so it sure does not seem like Severin was unaware or what was going on, right?

I think Dixon’s point was mostly rhetorical, anyways – sort of a “He couldn’t know what was going on, because how could he have known and still done it?” type of thing.

Thanks to Gorpulon for the question, and thanks to Comic Book Marketplace (and John Severin) for the spot-on quote, and thanks to Rich Johnston for the other quotes!

COMIC LEGEND: EC Comics was told to change a black character to a white character or else violate the Comics Code.

STATUS: True

By the end of the 1955, Bill Gaines’ comic book company, EC Comics, was in pretty rough shape as a result of the 1954 creation of the Comics Code Authority.

Gaines firmly believed that the Code was designed, at least in part, to put his company out of business, as the Code had rules against titles with the words “horror” and “terror” in them, and rules about how large the word “crime” could be in a comic book title.

So within a year, sales of EC Comics had slumped dramatically.

The last traditional comic book produced by EC Comics was 1955’s Incredible Science Fiction (a series that had just begun a few months earlier, taking over from Weird-Science Fantasy) #33.

The last story in the issue, “Eye for an Eye,” had to pulled at the last minute due to objections by the Comics Code Authority.

So Gaines and editor Al Feldstein substituted a story that Feldstein had written (drawn by Joe Orlando) that had appeared in Weird Fantasy #18 in 1953.

The story, “Judgment Day,” was about an astronaut sent by the Earth to examine a planet to see if it was up to snuff and worthy of joining Earth’s “Galactic Republic.”

Well, the planet of robots was found wanting, due to its treatment of different colored robots.

Then, of course, the big “twist”…

When the issue first came out in 1953, it was heavily lauded, including the following missive from a certain Mr. Bradbury…

However, when Gaines and Feldstein went to put it in place of the pulled story, they were told no, the story violated the Comics Code.

Judge Charles Murphy (administrator of the Code) said that they would have to change the astronaut from black to white if they wanted it to be included. This was not part of the Code at the time. Feldstein and Gaines felt that Murphy was just deliberately messing with them (again, Gaines felt that the Code was designed specifically to put him out of business).

After being told that, clearly, the color of the astronaut’s skin was practically the whole point of the story, Murphy backed down a bit, but said that they would at least have to get rid of the perspiration on his skin. It could possibly be that Murphy felt that it was exploitative. I do not know, and neither did Feldstein nor Gaines, who only had their suspicions that they were being screwed with.

Feldstein and Gaines both refused to comply (I believe the terms they used included at least one use of the word “fuck”), and Gaines threatened a lawsuit and/or a press conference to shine a light on why exactly the story was objected to.

The story ran as is.

However, it was, as I mentioned, the last traditional comic book published by EC Comics.

It’s a damn fine comic book story, at that, so if you’re going to close out your comic book company with a story, that’s as good as any (EC, of course, kept going, just not as a traditional comic book company).

Thanks to Digby Diehl’s excellent book on EC Comics, Tales from the Crypt: The Official Archives for the information! Also thanks to cyberghostface for helping save me scanning time!

COMIC LEGEND: The address of Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum is of a building Roy Thomas lived in during the 1960s.

STATUS: True

Reader Stergios asked about a story he heard that:

[T]he mansion where Dr. Strange lives, his Sanctum Sanctorum is located at 177A Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, New York City, New York, which in this universe was the actual address of the apartment building in which the series writer at that time actually lived.

And I have heard in other places that this address doesn’t really exist and is completely made up.

Where does this address come from? Was it Stan Lee’s at the time? Or was it some other writer?

First off, the history of Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum is pretty interesting.

It appears in the very first appearance of Doctor Strange in Strange Tales #110, including the funky window designs…

And the building as a whole appeared in Strange Tales #117…

But, similarly to Namor’s home of Atlantis (as I mentioned in this previous installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed), it was never actually called anything for years.

It was just “Doctor Strange’s Greenwich Village retreat/home”…

It was not until Strange Tales #132 that it was even referred to as a sanctum at ALL, let alone a Sanctum Sanctorum….

It was not until Roy Thomas was in charge of Doctor Strange that the place got its name and address, 177A Bleecker Street, in Doctor Strange #182 (it continued the numbering from Strange Tales)…

And yes, Stergios…

A. 177 Bleecker Street DOES exist (here it is)…

and

B. Roy Thomas lived there for a time (I believe he was rooming with Gary Friedrich, but it may have been someone else).

What I would like to know from you readers out there is what issue did the Sanctum Sanctorum officially get its name? Help me out, folks! I’d also like to know exactly which comic book pro Thomas shared the apartment with, as well! Thanks!

Thanks already to reader Brian, who found the issue the street address was first used!

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Thanks to the Grand Comic Book Database for this week’s covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, at the end of April, my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)…

If you’d like to order it, you can use the following code if you’d like to send me a bit of a referral fee…

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you next week!

63 Comments

• At July 3, 2009, Comic Book Legends Revealed #214 wrote:

  [...] here to read [...]

• At July 3, 2009, Chris Bloom wrote:

  I'm not homosexual, but that dialogue from RAWHIDE KID makes me embarrassed on their behalf. If that's the best ...

• At July 3, 2009, Manglr wrote:

  I'll point out that the "Judgement Day" issue was also covered pretty fully in the wonderful "Ten Cent Plague". ...

• At July 3, 2009, Greg Burgas wrote:

  Why do you always have legends about architecture in these posts? Here I am, just trying to enjoy comics, ...

• At July 3, 2009, layne wrote:

  Pardon the pun, but if the Kid - and the series - had been written straight it would have been ...

• At July 3, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  Note that Severin said "effeminate" not "gay". As I pointed out in another thread, it's NOT the same thing. And ...

• At July 3, 2009, Purple wrote:

  Can't remember who was being interviewed (maybe Feldstein), but the Judgment Day issue is also talked about in the documentary ...

• At July 3, 2009, Brian wrote:

  I think it's #182, the Juggernaut issue, when he gets the telegram with his new name.

  I still don't understand the ...

• At July 3, 2009, Matthew E wrote:

  I still don’t understand the code objection story – you weren’t allowed to have a character of colour? Huh?

  The way ...

• At July 3, 2009, Callen wrote:

  Judgement Day should be a part of cool comic book moments

• At July 3, 2009, D wrote:

  Severin is freaking awesome. In general I'm not a fan of Marvel's 90s/00s output, but I think it's so cool ...

• At July 3, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Thanks, Brian, that's the issue exactly! I foolishly only checked #183, because I remembered a telegram in that issue, it ...

• At July 3, 2009, Aaron wrote:

  Yeah, I'm with Sijo - does anyone know exactly what part of the Code the EC story was supposed to ...

• At July 3, 2009, Ivan Isaacs wrote:

  >Does anybody know if Al Williamson is still drawing?

  Nope, he retired years ago. Prior to that he was the inker ...

• At July 3, 2009, Thom wrote:

  "The story, 'Judgement Day,' was about an astronaut sent by the Earth to examine a planet to see if it ...

• At July 3, 2009, Thom wrote:

  Here's a more recent picture of 177 Bleecker Street. The building looks like it needs to be cleaned up a ...

• At July 3, 2009, Thom wrote:

  Ooops, that looks like it might be the building across the street that I linked to--176 Bleeker. :)

• At July 3, 2009, Annoyed Grunt wrote:

  I wonder how Dixon felt about John Severin drawing a Punisher MAX story a few years after this. While ...

• At July 3, 2009, Kamino Neko wrote:

  I really agree with Quesada's third point concerning Dixon's rant - it's terribly insulting to Severin to claim he was ...

• At July 3, 2009, Kamino Neko wrote:

  Erf...forgot my second point...and since he finished, not under protest, and neither softened nor removed the less subtle aspects, clearly ...

• At July 3, 2009, sterg wrote:

  Thanks for answering my question, Brian!

  And also for including the pic of the actual building. I was down in Soho ...

• At July 3, 2009, Vinnie Bartilucci wrote:

  David Hajdu tells the Judgement Day story in great detail in his book The Ten-Cent Plague, as one of the ...

• At July 3, 2009, Roman wrote:

  D:

  I agree! Russ Heath's art is one of the best things about Iron Fist (in my opinion). I'm ...

• At July 3, 2009, TN wrote:

  Very funny, Greg.

• At July 3, 2009, Ray Cornwall wrote:

  Google Map view of Strange's home

  http://maps.google.com/?q=177A%20Bleecker%20Street,%20Greenwich%20Village,%20New%20York%20City,%20New%20York

• At July 3, 2009, Eric wrote:

  Is it the number of repeated letters per word that makes a comic character gay? / Was the rest of ...

• At July 3, 2009, Kevin wrote:

  That EC story is brilliant, the artwork and designs are beautiful...has that been collected or reprinted anywhere? I've just started ...

• At July 3, 2009, HammerHeart wrote:

  Judgement Day should be a part of cool comic book moments

  Agreed 100%.

• At July 3, 2009, POWRSURG wrote:

  Actually I can sort of see where Dixon was coming from (not calling the topic trash, but Severin working on ...

• At July 3, 2009, Michael P. wrote:

  Hunh. Who knew "Far Beyond The Stars" was based on a true story?

• At July 3, 2009, Joseph wrote:

  To Chris Bloom, I'll kindly thank you to keep your embarrassment to yourself. The dialogue was campy, that's true, ...

• At July 3, 2009, Joseph wrote:

  Regarding the "Judgment Day" story, could someone please answer this question--why does the astronaut ask about "blue robots"? Up ...

• At July 3, 2009, Kevin wrote:

  ^^^lol, but the helmet looks cool...also at the beggining of the story it says they dropped off a few of ...

• At July 3, 2009, Blade X wrote:

  Like Sijo has pointed out, Severin said "afeminate" and NOT "gay". So it is quite POSSIBLE that he did not ...

• At July 3, 2009, Kevin wrote:

  ^^^"effeminate"...

  and i thought the CAGE series was awful, it verged on being racist or at the very least being incredibly ...

• At July 3, 2009, yo go re wrote:

  why does the astronaut ask about “blue robots”? Up to that point (which was at the bottom of page 2), ...

• At July 3, 2009, Jeremy Henderson wrote:

  Wow...for awhile there Marvel really did think that Zimmerman was going to be a big deal, didn't they? For anyone ...

• At July 3, 2009, TF_loki wrote:

  I didn't realize the hip hop generation were purely young black men. Way to stereo type or what?

  Given John Severin's ...

• At July 3, 2009, The Relic wrote:

  I am not sure if "Judgment Day" has been collected (I am assuming it has, if Weird Fantasy has ...

• At July 3, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Shelly who?

• At July 3, 2009, Armitage wrote:

  For those who asked, all 22 issues of Weird Fantasy were reprinted in the mid-1990s by Gemstone Publishing, both as ...

• At July 3, 2009, I AM FeAR wrote:

  About the Gay Rawhide Kid story being out of continuity, was there even a regular continuity to those old western ...

• At July 3, 2009, Byron Brewer wrote:

  I cannot recall where I heard this story, but I know it was from Roy who was discussing his old ...

• At July 3, 2009, Dalarsco wrote:

  @D: That makes no sense. I can see not liking modern comic art, but if anything there is ...

• At July 3, 2009, Jeff Holland wrote:

  LET'S ALL GET MAD ABOUT "RAWHIDE KID" ALL OVER AGAIN!!!!

  I'm kidding - actually I'm quite impressed with how level-headed everyone's ...

• At July 3, 2009, Bob wrote:

  I think "Judgement Day" was a good story with an outstanding message but not written very well. The narration was ...

• At July 3, 2009, The Drizzt wrote:

  Dixon's conclusion seems a valid one. If an 80+ year old man objects to drawing an unmarried couple in bed ...

• At July 3, 2009, Brian From Canada wrote:

  Regarding The Rawhide Kid and its promotion, you have to step back and remember that in those days the mainstream ...

• At July 3, 2009, Faust wrote:

  Great. Its another gay story, so we get to hear more homophobic rants rom bigoted individuals. I'm just skipping most ...

• At July 3, 2009, Bob wrote:

  How many years fell between Severins refusal to draw Dixon's story and the Rawhide Kid story? Peoples attitudes tend to ...

• At July 3, 2009, Michael P. wrote:

  "Regarding The Rawhide Kid and its promotion, you have to step back and remember that in those days the mainstream ...

• At July 3, 2009, DesertSon915 wrote:

  I don't think it's fair to call The Rawhide Kid "exploitive" when there are real life homosexuals like the blonde ...

• At July 3, 2009, Colin Rutherford wrote:

  John Severin is an amazing artist. He recently illustrated a "Bat Lash" mini-series for DC.

• At July 3, 2009, BerwynIrish wrote:

  If you read Dixon's quote carefully, he doesn't actually say that Severin refused to draw his story *because* of the ...

• At July 3, 2009, Dorko wrote:

  First off Faust....no homophobic comments have been made. Second off, Bob, I was having the same thought. The last issue ...

• At July 3, 2009, Glen Cadigan wrote:

  When Roy Thomas moved to New York, he moved in with Dave Kaler, who was a comic book fan that ...

• At July 3, 2009, Kevin wrote:

  Brian, can you please find out why Frank Miller ended up not drawing Doctor Strange with Roger Stern? I've wondered ...

• At July 3, 2009, Conor E wrote:

  "And besides, as far as I know, the ‘Kid never gets into bed with another man. So…he was just drawing ...

• At July 3, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I've actually covered the Miller/Stern Doctor Strange bit before.

  I dunno where - try one of the early Comic Book Questions ...

• At July 3, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  SIJO and AARON both wanted to know what was against the code in that final panel. Nothing, as was pointed ...

• At July 3, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  "I’ve actually covered the Miller/Stern Doctor Strange bit before.

  I dunno where..."

  Brian, you don't have a database?

• At July 3, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/04/12/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-98/

  There you go, Kevin!

• At July 3, 2009, cst wrote:

  I wonder if Severin's objection the the Dixon story was more about the actual VISUALS involved- if the script ...

The work is an interesting collection, because the stories do not really seem to have much of an underlying theme, seeing as how they’re from different times in Byun’s life and from different original sources. I suppose you could not that a number of them feature pretty sad characters, but not all of them. The impressive artwork of Byun, though, I suppose works pretty well in making them at least visually consistent.

Here are a number of preview pages…

His thin, almost scratchy lines really works well for the more tragic stories that occur in the book.

In a number of stories, the characters are what you would call “wounded,” and in fact, in one or more of the stories, that is not even meant figuratively!! To be honest, though, those stories (which make up about half the book’s tales) I found less interesting, as besides the great artwork, they didn’t seem to be saying enough about the characters involved – it is almost like he’s playing with archetypes more than characters. “A Song of You,” the only color work of the book, stands out from these types of story, and not just because of the stunning color work, but because of the manner in which the characters are more realized, which makes their fates all the more tragic.

His next three tales, though, were a good deal more engaging.

One story is an offbeat (and when I mention the connective theme of the collection, a story like this one REALLY throws everything off, as it is unlike everything else in the book) look at a cat who falls in love with his owner and tries to do everything he can to keep her from falling for a young gentleman caller.

Probably my favorite story is another offbeat tale about a cartoonist who begins to believe that he has control over reality – or is he going insane? It’s a taut, psychological piece with a strong ending.

The collection itself has a strong ending with a quiet tale of a man telling his girlfriend a story over the phone. It is an impressive picture of a relationship.

So overall, great artwork and at least four strong stories (with three others being decent, at least) and I think you got yourself a good collection, even if the stories don’t seem to necessarily go together.

Recommended.

I ended up with more suggestions than there were days in the month, so enjoy a few BONUS installments!

The second bonus installment is the pick of Goran Sudzuka, who I featured in a previous Month of Art Stars (here). He’s a great artist. You can check out his website here.

Goran’s pick is Edvin Biukovic.

Edvin Biukovic was well on his way to becoming an extremely notable comic book artist in the industry in the late 1990s when, tragically, the artist died of complications from a brain tumor (that had just been diagnosed weeks earlier) at the far too young age of 30 years old.

He still left behind a strong artistic legacy, most notably in the United States his work on the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series…

and for the first (EXCELLENT) Human Target mini-series by Peter Milligan…

Just recently, Goran did a blog post as a tribute to Edvin, who would have turned 40 on June 22nd of this year.

Goran shared a sampling of Edvin’s work in that post, and I thought it made sense to share them here, as well…

We’re missing a great artist, and it sounds like a great man, too.

Thanks to Goran for the pick!

9 Comments

• At July 3, 2009, layne wrote:

  A great artist, great choice.

• At July 3, 2009, Kevin wrote:

  Fabulous artist. His Grendel Tales series, Devils and Deaths, is one of my all-time favourites.

• At July 3, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  He would've been a star.

• At July 3, 2009, Brian J. wrote:

  Ditto on praise for his Gendel Tales work. And for his work in general. Thanks for giving him ...

• At July 3, 2009, kalorama wrote:

  An outstanding artist. Put me down as another who loved his Grendel work. His Human Target mini was great as ...

• At July 3, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  Lobo/Aliens?!?!?!

  YES PLEASE!!! SOMEBODY DO THIS NOW!!

  I loved his Rogue Squadron stuff..

• At July 3, 2009, Niels van Eekelen wrote:

  A great artist, sorely missed. I read his Star Wars work when it came out, and remember being shocked when ...

• At July 3, 2009, adam! wrote:

  I've been waiting for someone to nominate Biukovic. Great great great artist. I wonder if anyone'll nominate Igor Kordey?

• At July 3, 2009, C. Adams wrote:

  The two Grendel Tales stories that he did were the highlight of the series for me. Loved both of ...

The method of Steve Rogers’ return is interesting, because you have two practically opposite issues at hand. On the one hand, the Red Skull’s secret plot is almost comically convoluted (”And then I shot him with a gun, but no one noticed that it was a SPECIAL gun!”), but on the other hand, the end result of Steve Rogers being disconnected through time (a la Slaughterhouse Five) is very intriguing (and writer Ed Brubaker is certainly up to the task of handling how such an event could be psychologically devastating to someone), so it’s worth the convoluted explanation setting it up.

The rest of the issue is mostly set-up, introducing the characters to the (presumably) new audience who will be picking this book up and introducing the basic plot of how Cap could be brought back. Probably the most fun aspect of the comic is seeing Bryan Hitch and Butch Guice draw various Marvel characters that we don’t normally see them draw (like Ares and Hank Pym). By the way, does Hank seriously not wear shoes in his current Wasp outfit? Weird.

The fact that Hitch and Guice got to draw so many different characters is a hint of how widespread Brubaker had the action, which is interesting to see him spread his approach to Captain America to a larger tableau of heroic characters – Brubaker generally has a very unique approach to guest stars when they show up in Captain America, and I think he will lend that same unique approach to these characters that he has not done as much work with in the past, like Hank Pym and Norman Osborn, the latter who seems to be set to play a major role in this storyline.

Brubaker, as anyone who has been reading his Captain America could tell you, is a master of the slow burn, with plot lines slowly adding up to form a cohesive and interesting story, and this story is certainly the accumulation of years of stories (which also makes it kind of odd that it is not in the book where all those stories accumulated), so I’m confident that it will all be worth it.

For this issue alone, though, it is pretty much set-up and really nice artwork, but it is well-delivered set-up, so I think it was a good first issue.

Recommended.

36 Comments

• At July 2, 2009, Smokescreen wrote:

  This was longer than expected. Apologies. This stuff just bothers me (and I wish I could just let ...

• At July 2, 2009, Adam wrote:

  Not that I'm reading this series (I need more convincing)...but what if Cap is returned to the present not from ...

• At July 2, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I'd like to see at least ten comments from people who aren't reading the comic but want to talk about ...

• At July 2, 2009, Smokescreen wrote:

  Well, my comments weren't completely directed at this comic in particular in terms of what may be going on in ...

• At July 2, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  The Skull's never wanted to kill Cap, really, so much as burn America to the ground while making him watch.

  Going ...

• At July 2, 2009, Gavin wrote:

  I can't fucking believe they ripped off Slaughterhouse-Five.

  deep breath....

  I CAN'T FUCKING BELIEVE THEY RIPPED OFF SLAUGHTERHOUSE-MOTHERFUCKING-GODDAMN-FIVE!!!!!!!

• At July 2, 2009, Jack Tango wrote:

  Read it. Didn't care for it.

  The art is pretty, the writing is solid; the story lines up with everything ...

• At July 2, 2009, Gavin wrote:

  I thought the art had a rather crude look to it at points. Like the style I've seen on ...

• At July 3, 2009, Eric wrote:

  As someone thinking this might be a good jumping on point for reading Captain America, I can say this: it's ...

• At July 3, 2009, Bat2supe wrote:

  Hey, guys !

  I enjoyed this comic even if it wasn't ground breaking & had a plot used and re-used in ...

• At July 3, 2009, Gavin wrote:

  RE: Eric

  My fave is The Sirens of Titan

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sirens_of_Titan

  I think it was his best work.

• At July 3, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  "I’d like to see at least ten comments from people who aren’t reading the comic but want to talk about ...

• At July 3, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  I'll hold off on saying it ripped off Slaughterhouse-Five completely until apathetic aliens force Cap and Diamondback to mate in ...

• At July 3, 2009, Jason wrote:

  Holy Cow - I was just thinking the same thing -- although I enjoyed this first issue of Captain America:Reborn, ...

• At July 3, 2009, Rusty Priske wrote:

  I have not read it... but I will.

  I just want to comment on the idea that Red Skull should have ...

• At July 3, 2009, David Uzumeri wrote:

  Mr. Fitzpatrick, apparently you would like to fire the Grim Reaper, who took Bryan Hitch's mother away, causing the delay ...

• At July 3, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  A real professional would have killed his own family years before becoming a comics artist in order to avoid these ...

• At July 3, 2009, Adam wrote:

  Hey, I'm willing to get the book if the storytelling mechanism improves. As it is, I didn't get to ...

• At July 3, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Once again, I'll point out the utter absurdity of the "Brubaker ripped of VonnegAAAARRRRGH!" argument, to wit:

  Clearly, an anti-war novel ...

• At July 3, 2009, David Uzumeri wrote:

  Honestly, the usage of the term "unstuck in time" seemed to me more like Brubaker was channeling Vonnegut not to ...

• At July 3, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  "I’d like to see at least ten comments from people who aren’t reading the comic but want to talk about ...

• At July 3, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  David Uzumeri --

  This is the first I'd heard of Hitch's mother's passing, so maybe others hadn't heard it.

  Marvel stated ...

• At July 3, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  I haven't read this book!

  I don't really have an opinion on it, but pick two of three of those already ...

• At July 3, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Also: doesn’t anyone else in the world think Cat’s Cradle is the much better book? I surely can’t be the ...

• At July 3, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  I haven't read it, but I have ordered it. As much as I am enjoying Bucky-Cap, and don't want ...

• At July 3, 2009, Jack Tango wrote:

  @Omar "He’s basically as close to Satan as you get without pulling in actual demons and magics and stuff, and ...

• At July 3, 2009, Paul Brian McCoy wrote:

  Something that's not been mentioned, I don't think, is that the opening narrative clearly states that the first shot was ...

• At July 3, 2009, Dan Bailey wrote:

  Sounds too ungodly stupid to bother with, I'm sorry to say. And I say that as someone who was reading ...

• At July 3, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Jack, I don't know what you're looking for, then. A character comes up with an especially outre method of ...

• At July 3, 2009, Jack Tango wrote:

  Omar, you're awfully angry when what I've said is, "I don't care for it, but I'm giving it a chance." ...

• At July 3, 2009, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  Does anyone else think it would have been better for the story ( if not the sales ) to have ...

• At July 3, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Warm horseshit is “new and fresh” too.

  Yes, and it makes excellent fertilizer! A lot can grow from that new and ...

• At July 3, 2009, the truth wrote:

  i have read this comic and i like it. it is new reader friendly and has a great story.

  great job ...

• At July 3, 2009, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  " Or hey. let us all know your fresh take on Captain America and how the stuff in Reborn could ...

• At July 3, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Truth be told, Nitz, I'm not that excited about Steve returning either, but I recognize that a) it was evidently ...

• At July 3, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Oh, and Bill...nothing grows from new and fresh horseshit. It grows when the horseshit is left alone and gets ...

Atomic Robo: Shadow from Beyond Time #2 by Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener, Ronda Pattison, and Jeff Powell (Red 5)

This, my friends, was my favorite comic from June 2009. Mark it in your ledger!

Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener have perfected their shared wavelength and created the most entertaining comic on the stands. Clevinger’s plotting is perfectly pared down to the essentials– after all that fun banter and exposition in part one, this episode’s all action, but not without its fair share of hilarious dialogue, be it Charles Fort’s mixture of eagerness and incredulity (”Edison would never allow the likes of you or I near his necrophone”), or Robo’s carphone conversation with Nikola Tesla, in which he tries to act like nothing’s wrong and he’s not chasing down a giant Lovecraftian (literally!) beastie with a carful of lightning guns. Meanwhile, Wegener’s artwork is crispier than fried chicken, his facial cartooning brilliant– it’s marvelous how he can eke so much emotion out of a character who, by all rights, doesn’t have a face.

It’s in the last handful of pages, however, where Clev and Weg (as they shall now be known) really hit me, as Robo literally turns things up to 11 and the reader is handed the most badass, exciting comic book moment I’ve read in ages. It’s flawlessly paced, the epitome of action storytelling. “There’s one underlying scientific principle common to all existence. … Everything explodes.” That’s the best way to describe Atomic Robo– explosively awesome. And not in the “Taco Bell put the fear of God in me” way.

Batman & Robin #1 by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Alex Sinclair, and Pat Brosseau (DC)

I suppose the title is technically “Batman and Robin,” but I enjoy typing ampersands. What can I say about this comic that hasn’t already been said? Nothing, probably. Heck, reviews of the second ish are already out and I’ve just sat down with the first! Egads, Bill, get with the times! Batman & Robin #1 is so last month!

G-Mo and F-Qui have this thing down to a literal science by now. They have become such a well-oiled machine that one expects nothing less than perfection from their collaborations, and we pretty much get that here. I loved the hell out of this thing, from the vibrant yellow background on the cover to the flying Batmobile to Quitely putting the sound effects into the art to the decrepit remnants of the giant mechanical dinosaur to the cutaway of the Bat-Bunker (which I did hope would be a bigger drawing, I admit), to Damian calling Alfred “Pennyworth” to the paracapes to the brilliantly disturbing new baddie Pyg. And now I’m out of breath. But yes, absolutely gorgeous and electric, giving me the same chills I got with Morrison and Quitely’s first issue of New X-Men. You might as well call this New Batman, because that’s what it is. I didn’t think I’d care about Dick Grayson in the Batsuit, but I’d read it forever if these two Scottish blokes were in charge. Really, there is no need for another Batman comic besides this one.

So there, I’ve just repeated what everybody else said. But man! What a cool comic! Why couldn’t Morrison’s whole run to date have been like this?

Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter #1 by Kieron Gillen, Kano, Alvaro Lopez, Javier Rodriguez, and Nate Piekos (Marvel)

Kieron Gillen writing pop comics about hip music and the cool cats who dance to it? I can’t wrap my brain around that. Kieron Gillen writing an action comic about a space horse with the power of a Norse god who decides to kill an unstoppable force that devours planets? Hell yeah, sign me up.

I get the feeling that Gillen’s going to be a big name in a couple years, one of those go-to guys at Marvel who follow the same path as Matt Fraction or Jason Aaron– they’ll wow you with their early creator-owned work and then start spinning cool superhero yarns, but they gotta start by paying their dues. And so Kieron Gillen gets to write a mini-series about one of my favorite characters, the noble alien warrior with a face like a dead horse who shares my name and flies a talking spaceship named Skuttlebutt. I’m surprised to see Beta Ray Bill getting the spotlight as regularly as he has been, what with the mini-series and one-shots and team books he’s appeared in over the last few years. What once was maybe a novelty pet character of Walt Simonson’s is apparently a favorite of some editor out there, and so we’re blessed with books like Godhunter, which is about the titular Bill deciding Galactus needs to die, and going about the mission. It brings him into contact with SWORD, which puts him in the path of of a being who disintegrates folks with his cosmic organ music– yes, that happens– and then into a smackdown with one of Big G’s heralds. And yeah, the story is pretty groovy, and it could be going places, so I’ll be looking forward to the second issue.

Kano should probably be a star by now, but it seems he keeps getting overlooked for the big assignments, and that’s a shame, as he really bridges the gap between a looser, cartoonier line, and more of what’s the Marvel house style, but it gives the art a real verve.

This puppy’s a whole lotta pages for four bucks and has no ads! What it does have, though, is a reprint of Thor #337, the first appearance of Beta Ray Bill, written and drawn by Walt Simonson. I’ve got this issue in my collection already, but what really struck me in perusing the reprint were the colors, especially when compared to the new story. George Roussos provided the original coloring to this old story; on newsprint, it looked cool, rife with Benday dots, but on these slick magazine pages, the bold flat colors throttle one’s retinas– in a good way, of course.

Take a look at the two panels above. Which ones excites you more? Yes, coloring is far more of an art in comics these days, and I do enjoy the various digital brush strokes you can see in Thor’s face on the opening pages, but these bombastic colors in the back half of the mag really command my attention. A lot of coloring these days feels really over-rendered, which gives the pages a muddled feel, and certain contributes to the “sameyness” of Marvel art. Loads of careful attention is paid to the comics page these days, but I can’t help be more enchanted by the almost violent, done-by-hand work of Simonson, Workman, and Roussos in some old issue of Thor.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Vampires by Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos, Dave Stewart, and Comicraft’s Jimmy (Dark Horse)

I made sure to buy the one that had the Moon-n-Ba cover, because those two gents are awesome.

What Cloonan and Lolos give us here is something only tangentially related to the Buffyverse, but I’m glad that Buffy logo is on there, because that means a lot more people are gonna buy this comic, which is superbly crafted. Cloonan works away at the periphery of the Buffy mythos– folks know vampires exist now, sure, and slayers are out there, but Nashua, New Hampshire is far from the Hellmouth (well, closer to the one in Cleveland), and dull teenage life is still dull teenage life. Jacob yearns for more, and he gets it– at a price, of course. It’s about choices, and bad ones, specifically.

Cloonan’s known for her art, but she really sells the script here, especially with the mother character. Lolos’ art is excellent as always, deftly cartooned, letting the primary characters be almost swallowed by the empty backgrounds, until the vampires bring everything into close-up.

Dave Stewart’s colors are magnificent. There’s a reason he’s the best in the biz, and it helps that he falls more in line with what I talked about above. Many of the colors here are subdued– lots of mauve, surprisingly– but that works to the art’s advantage. I dig Stewart’s play with light, whether in the panel above with the parking lot lamps, or with the shadow that so often appears on the protagonist’s face for the first half of the book.

So yeah, it’s a good book, probably more akin to Demo than any issue of Buffy, and I hope the usual Buffy audience picks it up and responds well to it.

Lightning Round!

Astonishing X-Men #30 by Warren Ellis, Simone Bianchi, Andrea Silvestri, Simone Peruzzi, Morry Hollowell, and Chris Eliopoulos (Marvel)

A lot of folks rag on Simone Bianchi’s art, and I’ll say this: I really dig it. It’s not the most dynamic, and the storytelling isn’t necessarily brilliant, but my word, look at those ink washes! Every page of this looks like it wasn’t sullied by mere human birth but instead brought down from Olympus by the god of storks himself and raised on pure, massaged Kobe beef. Other than that, the story finally decides to go places in its last chapter and the X-Men become dark, mean, genocidal maniacs. Maybe this is the beginnings of a dark, longform plot from Mr. Ellis, but it takes a lot to make me enjoy an X-Men comic, and I don’t feel I’ll be back for the next arc. Sorry, chaps.

Captain Britain & MI13 Annual #1/#14 by Paul Cornell, Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona, Leonard Kirk, Ardian Syaf, Livesay, Jay Leisten, Craig Yeun, Jay David Ramos, Christina Strain, Brian Reber, and Joe Caramanga (Marvel)

You know, I read the Annual, and still I feel that I don’t know anything about Meggan or the game of cricket. There’s not much in here to excite me or make me really care about the characters. Sorry, Paul! But I did very much enjoy #14. Yes, the opening negates the previous issue’s balls-to-the-wall cliffhanger, but it does so using pieces earned from previous stories. Things are heating up for the big finale, and I’m looking forward to it, though I’m saddened that the end is near.

Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye #3 by Grant Morrison, Cameron Stewart, Dave Stewart (no relation), and Todd Klein (DC/Vertigo)

I was going to write about this here, but I’m now considering saving my thoughts for a larger standalone post. But it may just have redeemed this mini-series for me; I’ll have to reread the series and get back to you later. Promise!

Two-in-One Review!

Doctor Who: Autopia by John Ostrander, Kelly Yates, Kris Carter, and Kubikiri (IDW)

Thor: The Trial of Thor by Peter Milligan, Cary Nord, Christina Strain, and Joe Caramanga (Marvel)

I try not to buy comics whose titles don’t start with A, B, or C, but sometimes I make exceptions.

I’ve lumped these two comics together because they both provoke the same feeling in me, which is that they feel like comics you’d find in a three-for-a-dollar bin in the back of a comic shop, wedged between unloved issues of Dan Jurgens’ Justice League run. By which I mean they both exude the less-than-sexy aroma of the dreaded “filler.” This Thor book is not unlike a random Thor annual you’d find in the early 80s, only with better coloring, and the Doctor Who comic lacks any of the more interesting or exciting ideas and developments you’d find in the show; it’s just what one fears when they open a licensed comic.

I know Ostrander and Milligan are good writers– I’ve read their good writing! I feel they’re more capable than this. Both comics just kinda go through the motions, shuffling towards the inevitable when they happen to run out of pages and the plot decides to stop. The artists do their best with the material– Kelly Yates’ cartooning is quite polished, and he storytells the hell out of a plot that mostly consists of guys and robots standing around; Cary Nord draws a mean fantasy barbarian comic, and this issue is no exception.

Neither book, however, thrilled, intrigued, or otherwise truly entertained me. There’s nothing inherently wrong with these comics– everybody does a professional job, nothing stands out as an eyesore– but they’re just kinda there. A mediocre comic from good creators is the most depressing comic of them all.

5 Comments

• At July 2, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Trial of Thor is almost worth it just for the whole CSI: Asgard element. I would totally buy a comic ...

• At July 2, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  Wegener’s artwork is crispier than fried chicken

  If Red 5 doesn't use that as a pull-quote and slap it on the ...

• At July 3, 2009, Cass wrote:

  SPOILERS: I hated that it was the dwarves at the end of Milligan's Thor. I'd read Ages of Thunder and ...

• At July 3, 2009, Scott! wrote:

  I agree with Ian =D

  Gonna email this one to the bosses right now.

• At July 3, 2009, Philip Ayres wrote:

  > You know, I read the Annual, and still I feel that I don’t know anything about Meggan or the ...

Tsui mentioned that there are plenty of no-brainers, like surfing and snowboarding, but that there are also opportunities for Silver Surfer and Hobgoblin games in the future

So, really, what are the injury projections if either of those get made? That said, a good Silver Surfer game of any kind is not something I’d turn down.

*As opposed to the Tony Hawk civic planning game. Which, knowing Activision, may be in the works.

**Screw subtlty, I’m gonna come out and say it; a Hobgoblin game? Seriously?

9 Comments

• At July 2, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  It couldn't be any more frustrating than the Surfer game for NES, where I die, every time, on the first ...

• At July 2, 2009, Stephen wrote:

  "It couldn’t be any more frustrating than the Surfer game for NES, where I die, every time, on the first ...

• At July 2, 2009, Adam wrote:

  That SS game was a lot more fun if you found the hidden cheat code that made you invincible. ...

• At July 2, 2009, Dalarsco wrote:

  What's so hard to believe about a Hobgoblin game using a balance board? I'd say it's only unlikely because ...

• At July 3, 2009, Ellis Wyatt wrote:

  I'd buy a system just to play a hypothetical Hobgoblin game.,

• At July 3, 2009, MCM wrote:

  I'd love a Hobgoblin (or Green Goblin) game. Who wouldn't want to chase Spider-Pansy around and heave pumpkin bombs at ...

• At July 3, 2009, John Cage wrote:

  "I’d love a Hobgoblin (or Green Goblin) game. Who wouldn’t want to chase Spider-Pansy around and heave pumpkin bombs at ...

• At July 3, 2009, rhod wrote:

  I too would happily buy a Hobgoblin game.

• At July 3, 2009, bad trotsky wrote:

  I would buy a good Green/Hobgoblin game. The more I think about it he is better suited for a video ...

So, in the second story contained in this issue, a dragon fights a genie. A DRAGON FIGHTS A GENIE!!!! Do I really need to go into more detail?

Oh, I guess I do. Well, the Namor/Namora romance is dealt with so that no one can point at Marvel and say, “Hey, they support incest!”¹ It was kind of a haphazard kind of mess, that first story, as the principals kind of wander around by a giant sea anenome that looks like a flower but is far deadlier than everyone (well, almost everyone) suspects until Bob figures it all out and everyone goes home. It’s definitely not bad, but it feels kind of like Parker thought it would be cool to show Namor mackin’ on Namora but wasn’t sure how to extricate himself from that untenable situation. (I doubt if that’s the case, as I’m sure Parker plotted the whole thing out long before issue #6 saw print, but it just feels like he wasn’t sure how to get out of it.) It’s notable for the subplot with Derek Khanata that continues to bubble as well as Hardman’s fantastic art, as he really does a wonderful job with the underwater scenes. I’ll get back to the coloring, which has been a bugbear² of mine since the title began.

The second story is the secret history of Mr. Lao, Jimmy Woo’s dragon friend, as “told” to Temugin through a psychic link. And yes, he fights a genie … and loses. So sad, Mr. Lao! It’s a fun story that apparently leads into more secret history, and it’s gorgeously illustrated by Pagulayan and Paz, which might sound odd given that I’ve been critical of that team since the title began. But you’ll notice who’s coloring the stories. Hardman’s art is colored by Jana Schirmer, while Pagulayan’s is colored by Elizabeth Dismang (who was recently featured right here on the blog, where you can see some of the pages from this issue). I don’t mean to pick on Schirmer, but I just haven’t liked her work on this book, as she seems to soften Pagulayan’s lines far too much and, although Hardman’s work resists that a bit, his work is a bit softer than it has been when Dismang (or should we call her Breitweiser?) colors it. Pagulayan’s lines are much stronger in his section, and I have to assume that’s due to Dismang’s influence. This title has been fascinating when it comes to the influence that colorists can have on the art. I mean, I’ve known for years how much influence inkers and colorists have on the pencils, but this series is a fine example of that. I don’t doubt that Schirmer is quite good (check out her DeviantArt site if you don’t believe me), but I don’t like the style she employs with the artists on this series.

Anyway, A DRAGON FIGHTS A GENIE!!!!!! And the recap page is quite awesome, as many of Marvel’s are. I’d rather read the recap page than see yet another alien get shot through the head. You know which book I’m talking about!

Finally, Mark Paniccia edits both this and The Incredible Hercules. In a comics universe where it seems editors do, well, dick, Paniccia is editing two of Marvel’s best books right now and throwing in footnotes when he gets the chance. I don’t think it’s coincidence. I’d just like to give a shout-out to Paniccia, because I rag on editors quite a bit.

¹ I don’t know what the big deal with incest is. Okay, I do know what the big deal with incest is, but it’s not like royalty for centuries haven’t married cousins and whatnot. I mean, how closely related are Namor and Namora, anyway? It’s not like they’re fraternal twins or anything. Sheesh.
² “Bugbear” is a weird word. I don’t know if I’ve ever used it before, either in speech or writing. Look at you, good readers – in on the ground floor of me using a word!

Astro City: The Dark Age Book Three #3 (of 4) (”Into the Abyss Part Three of Four: Deep Cover”) by Kurt Busiek (writer), Brent E. Anderson (artist), John Roshell (letterer), and Alex Sinclair (colorist). $3.99, 24 pgs, FC, DC/Wildstorm.

I’m sure this has been pointed out before, possibly even by me, but one of the nice things about Astro City is how Busiek writes superpower encounters. He not only writes them from a bystander’s point of view, which helps the reader get into it even more than usual, but because he is writing from this viewpoint, his superpowered fights are often disjointed, as we never see it all because the bystander is always ducking for cover and whatnot. In this issue, we actually get a bit more than we’re used to getting, but it’s interesting that the climactic moment, when Charles and Royal confront their parents’ killer, is interrupted by superpowered beings, and Busiek does a nice job implying that this sort of thing is just a fact of life in Astro City – as he has often done in the past. Just because he’s done it before doesn’t mean it’s not effective, and it’s always interesting to see how Busiek comes up with all these characters with fascinating powers and basically uses them as a backdrop.

And we get some more interesting facts about the Silver Agent, which is kind of neat. Busiek is always cognizant of the world he’s created, and I wonder how many charts and graphs and timelines and genealogies he has lying around to keep track of all this stuff (or maybe he’s just a super-genius). As good as this book is in single issues, the pleasure lies in the entire epic, and it’s always keen to re-read these (even though I don’t always have the time). Yes, the saga of Charles and Royal is interesting, but it’s interesting on more than one level – we have the human drama, but it also fills in a bunch of gaps in the history of this universe, and it’s fun to read that part of it. And the Incarnate is pretty keen, even if I’m not sure how scary someone named Egron the Sifter could have been. Look out – he has a sieve!

Atomika: God is Red #9 (of 12) (”Test”) by Andrew Dabb (writer), Sal Abbinanti (artist), Simone Peruzzi (colorist), and Dave Sharpe (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, Mercury Comics.

I really can’t stress how uniquely wonderful this book is, because it’s hard to do that in a world where so many different and cool comics exist. When issue #8 came out two weeks ago, The Dude wrote that it reminds him of Miracleman, and that’s not as crazy as comparison as you might think. It’s epic storytelling, the kind we get occasionally on something like Thor, except that Dabb and Abbinanti have, yes, gone to 11 on this book, and they’ve never turned it down yet. Even the “quiet” moments, such as early in this issue, when Atomika is reunited with his son Chernobyl, is impressive because of Abbinanti’s art, which remains a blend of fantasy and Soviet-style propaganda that hits you right between the eyes. Yes, his thighs are gigantic, but these are gods we’re talking about, people! They ought to have gigantic thighs, oughtn’t they?

Of course, Dabb and Abbinanti continue to throw all sorts of insane concepts into the book, such as Chernobyl testing himself by opening the gates of hell and fighting all the demons contained within. The battle is visualized brilliantly enough, but Dabb keeps up with the purplest of prose, which still fits the bombast perfectly, and when Chernobyl does what he does to defeat the demons, Atomika’s narration is pretentious in the best way possible, in that describing what Chernobyl does almost goes beyond words, and Atomika is just trying to keep up. Dabb does a fine job in the smaller moments, too, giving us a glimpse into Atomika’s mind when he first sees his son after long decades apart and setting up the final act of this story on the final few pages. The machinations behind the scene are good enough, but it’s Atomika’s “humanity” – for lack of a better word, as he’s a god – that helps ground the insanity and make this such a great book. In a comic book landscape littered with tinpot dictators who don’t really earn their exaggerated speech, Atomika does, and it’s fun to follow him through the years.

Come on – put down that book with whiny Hal and worshipful Oliver going off to make out (let’s hope) and give this a chance! You know you want to!

Batman and Robin #2 (”Batman Reborn Part Two: The Circus of Strange”) by Grant “It’s nothing like ‘Prodigal’! Shut up!” Morrison (writer), Frank Quitely (artist), Alex Sinclair (colorist), and Patrick Brosseau (letterer). $2.99, 21 pgs, FC, DC.

You know what’s funny about Dick Grayson desperately trying to get Damian to listen to him? In a weird way, it’s the same as Morrison and the other Bat-writers trying desperately to get the readers to listen to them: “Damian’s really cool, you’ll see! Dick can be Batman, you’ll see! Hey, where are you going? Put that copy of Reborn down! Come on, what kind of lame explanation is that? We’re DC, man! Didn’t you love Dark Knight?” It’s quite humorous. Or maybe I just see it that way.

Anyway, as much as the current regime would like us to forget it, I just can’t get “Prodigal” out of my mind. I guess that was never meant to be permanent while this change surely is (wink, wink), but Dick’s woe-is-me attitude in this book doesn’t ring true because he’s already replaced Batman once. Gordon and the cops sussing out that something is wrong doesn’t ring true either, because Gordon already knows that others have taken up the Batman role, and he wasn’t too jazzed the first time it happened. Morrison’s writing isn’t bad when Dick is speaking to Alfred about how sucky it is that Gordon just won’t respect him (wah!), but it’s just odd because Dick knows what replacing Bruce is like, and he should have gotten this out of his system long ago. It points out the fatal flaw with both “Prodigal” and “Batman: Reborn” – there’s no reason why Batman is necessary. Nightwing can patrol the streets of Gotham as easily as Batman can, and while he might not have the same relationship with the cops or the same effect on punks, leading to a spike in crime initially, once he beats the snot out of some of them, he’ll be established and everything can return to normal. Pretending to be Batman just makes people question you, as Gordon and the cops do, and as Damian does. Damian respected the man inside the suit, not the suit itself. Why should he respect Dick?

Anyway, the Circus of Strange part is still the best part of the book, and Quitely does a marvelous job with the fight in the police station. But, at the risk of opening myself up to ridicule from those smarter than I am who claim that if you don’t understand every single thing in a Morrison/Quitely production you’re basically a moron, what’s going on in the last panel of the book? In the penultimate panel, Damian is getting overwhelmed by the freaky red-haired things, and the pig dude walks around the corner of the carousel (yes, I know a carousel is a circle, but he’s coming around the corner of it anyway!) and watches as Damian gets overwhelmed. In the next panel, he continues with his eeeeevil monologue, implying that the final panel is happening simultaneously and, somewhat, in the same place. But I don’t think it is taking place at the abandoned circus. It seems clear that this is Pig’s “big plan” – have those red-haired dolls detonate bombs all over the place, and it appears that’s what’s happening here, as we see (I think) innocent bystanders caught in the blast of one of them. Is that what’s happening? If so, boo. Have we heard anything about his big plan? Did I miss it in B & R #1, because there’s nothing in this issue that points to this conclusion. I know that G-Mozz is all about making us do some leg work, but wouldn’t a panel or two of the red-haired things assembling throughout the city been a nice bone to throw to us stupid readers? When you have red-haired things overwhelming Damian in one panel and in the very next one we see more red-haired things, we instantly connect that they are in the same place unless we have something to indicate they’re not. That’s not being stupid, that’s the nature of reading a sequential narrative. If Morrison wants to get all Mark Danielewski or Milorad Pavic or James Joyce on us, he should get better at it.

Anyway, this is better than “Prodigal,” I suppose. Boy, is that damning with faint praise. Oh, I’m just joking – I like it quite a bit. It’s just that, as usual, I hold people like the God of All Comics to a higher standard than I do almost everyone else, so he tends to bug me more. It’s still a gorgeous book, and overall, it features the kind of weird villains I like seeing “Batman” fighting.

And does Lucius know Batman’s secret identity or not?

Chew #2 (”Taster’s Choice Part 2 of 5″) by John Layman (writer/letterer) and Rob Guillory (artist/colorist). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, Image.

Layman is still feeling this series out, so we get a few superfluous pages of Tony Chu arguing with his stereotypically assholish boss, but otherwise, he’s just putting Tony through his paces on this first case. He introduces a love interest who probably isn’t what she seems, gives us more about the main case and its connection to the chicken ban, and a bit more background about Mason Savoy, Tony himself, and the mysterious villain behind everything. It’s certainly still a fun comic to read (well, “fun” being relative, as Tony does eat a human finger), but that’s not why it’s worth a look. It’s worth a look for Guillory’s art.

Yes, it’s cartoonish, but so what? Guillory manages to mitigate the confrontation between Tony and his assholish boss with body language and facial expressions, showing just how assholish the boss is without Layman having to do anything, really. When Tony snaps and throws a punch at said boss, Guillory does a wonderful job showing how fast a big dude like Mason Savoy can move. The love interest (who appears to be some kind of food critic, but we don’t actually meet her, so I guess we’ll find out) gets a wonderful reaction shot to a hamburger into which she bites, while Daniel, the fast food worker who found a finger on a burger, goes from snotty to desperate beautifully (why he goes through this range of emotions is a highlight of the book). Then, when Savoy gets in a fight against Yakuza, Guillory really takes off, as the battle is choreographed as wonderfully as Quitely’s is in Batman and Robin (their styles are completely different, of course, and Quitely takes more chances with his panel layouts, but in terms of choreography, they’re similar). I still don’t know how Layman will be able to keep this series going, but I hope he grows into the writing more, because his artistic partner is firing on all cylinders. It’s not a badly-written book, but it gets a big boost from the art. And that, plus the strangeness of the concept, is good enough for right now. We’ll see after the first story arc if it is.

Elephantmen #20 (”Star Bright”) by Richard Starkings (writer) and Marian Churchland (artist). $3.50, 23 pgs, FC, Image.

As always, this review is a bit late because I was waiting to receive it in the mail. Mad props to Richard Starkings for sending it out to me. (Can a 38-year-old white man get away with using “mad props”? Such are the sociological conundra I pose here at the blog, folk!) It came out two weeks ago, but you might have missed it!

It’s fascinating to consider how long Starkings has been working on this concept, as you look at the cover and realize it’s signed “Ladrönn 2000.” Starkings has just been sitting on the drawing, waiting to use it as a cover! Luckily, this issue focuses on Vanity and her relationship with Hip. Funny how that works out, doesn’t it?

This is yet another quiet issue, as Vanity and Hip head out to the sticks to visit the only friend of a man killed back in issue #9. Hip tells Vanity it’s agency policy to offer condolences in the cases of deaths in the line of duty, so that’s why he’s hanging out in a diner in the middle of nowhere. (As an aside: you rarely see the singular version of “condolences.” I wonder why not?) He brought Vanity along to ease her into field work. That’s the set-up, but in Starkings’s hands, it becomes much more. When he brings up why they’re there, he mentions it’s also part of his rehabilitation. Vanity is curious about that, and we’re reminded that Hip, as well as his elephantmen brethren, were killers back in the day, but before he can bring that up to Vanity, she’s off on another topic, reminding us how flighty she can be. There’s the usual prejudice against elephantmen, Vanity kicks some ass, and overall, it’s a fine issue that once again examines the world of the 23rd century and how it’s both very different and very similar to ours. It’s also an insightful look into Vanity’s relationship with Hip and how “normal” it is despite the obvious obstacles. Starkings has gotten better at writing this kind of issue, where things unsaid are as important as things said, and it continues to give the book more depth than it did when it started. Early on, the science fiction was more front and center, but as it’s gone along, Starkings has gotten better at the social commentary, which has become a bit more subtle.

As with the last two issues, Churchland is a good choice for this kind of story. I’m not sure if she could do as good a job with the “hard” sci-fi parts of the book, but with these stories that have focused more on the “human” parts of the book, she’s done a very good job. Starkings has taken the story out of the brooding city and into the country, and Churchland’s soft watercolor look suits that very well. Her Vanity, interestingly, is a bit more innocent than Moritat’s or Ladrönn’s, which is interesting for this issue, as she shows herself to be a bit more vulnerable than we’ve seen her before (granted, she still kicks some dude’s ass, but other than that). It’s a nice contrast to the other artists who have worked on the book.

This book is definitely worth the time I have to wait for it. Of course, the free-ness of it factors in, too, but as I’ve said before, I’d be buying this even if Starkings cuts me off tomorrow! But I hope he won’t.

Greek Street #1 (”Blood Calls for Blood Part One: The Monster of Greek Street”) by Peter Milligan (writer), Davide Gianfelice (artist), Patricia Mulvihill (colorist), and Clem Robins (letterer). $1.00, 32 pgs, FC, DC/Vertigo.

Vertigo continues the category of “Why on earth wouldn’t you buy this,” as we get the first issue of Greek Street, which has 32 pages of story for one thin dollar, 100 meager pennies! And hey! naked chicks on the first page! Gold!

The conceit of this book, in case you didn’t know, is that Greek characters from myths are still (or again?) living in London and doing the same old nasty stuff to each other. It’s an idea with a lot of potential, and Milligan is twisted enough to pull it off. The main character, Eddie, gets involved in a gang feud and, if you know anything about Oedipus … well, he fulfills some of that prophecy, too (ewwwww). Then there’s a murder that a police officer named Dedalus is looking into, the aforementioned gang feud, and something odd going on in a house somewhere. Frankly, this issue is kind of a mess, as Milligan simply chucks what appears to be every plot thread into this and just hopes we can keep up. It revolves around Eddie, of course, but it’s still a mess.

But guess what? Gianfelice, whose art isn’t as rough as it was on the first arc of Northlanders, draws it all nicely, even almost giving us male genitalia (but doesn’t, as even though this is a Vertigo book, we still can’t have that, can we? we might all go gay, right?). It’s a horribly creepy book, and Gianfelice does a great job with it, especially the ending, which made me and ought to make you cringe. And despite the mess, it’s really compelling. Milligan does a fine job creating a bunch of characters and giving them interesting personalities. There’s a ton in this book, and unlike the most recent Vertigo #1, The Unwritten, it doesn’t have a straightforward plot – Milligan just throws us in and commands us to swim! And why wouldn’t I? And why wouldn’t you pick up issue #1? Maybe it’s just wacky enough to lure you in!

Mr. Stuffins #3 (of 3) by Andrew Cosby (writer), Johanna Stokes (writer), Axel Medellin Machain (artist), Andres Lozano (colorist), Daniela Fiore (colorist), and Johnny Lowe (letterer). $3.99, 22 pgs, FC, Boom! Studios.

This series ends as predictably as you might expect, but Cosby and Stokes still have a lot of fun with it, from Mr. Stuffins acting like Rambo to Zack acting like, well, Rambo. Like a lot of Boom! books, it seems like it might have benefitted from (possibly) one more issue, but perhaps that would have been taking the conceit a bit too far. I guess it’s fine as a three-issue series. The problem is that this comic is about the father as much as anything else, and David doesn’t get as much screen time as he should. Unlike Mr. Stuffins, he’s not terribly heroic, but he does what he has to because his family’s in jeopardy. As fun as it is to watch a teddy bear kick ass, the real core of the book is a man desperately fighting forces against which he shouldn’t have a chance, but doing it anyway. It makes for a nice comic, but it had a bit more potential than that, and I wish it had been realized.

Of course, as with every Boom! book, there’s the price that often keeps people away. I guess they do fine (they’ve been around for a while, after all), but it’s frustrating. I’d certainly rather read this for four dollars than a comic where the latest iteration of the Avengers goes around shooting people in the head just for fun, but that $3.99 on the cover is still daunting, I admit. I wish Boom! could figure out a way to bring down the price of the trade, at least. Oh well. That makes these difficult to recommend, because while I’d say for $2.99 this is a fine comic, I’m not sure it’s worth the extra three dollars. I’m aware that I harp on prices far too much around here, but it’s always in the back of my mind when I’m writing about these comics (not so much when I buy them, as I just dip into the kids’ college funds – they won’t mind, as by the time they’re college age, we’ll be eating random strangers and living in caves anyway). So it’s something to think about. Sorry if it bores you.

Secret Six #11 (”Depths Part Two: Amazons Unleashed”) by Gail Simone (writer), Nicola Scott (penciller), Doug Hazelwood (inker), Mark McKenna (inker), Jason Wright (colorist), and Travis Lanham (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, DC.

There’s so much to love about this comic that I’m not sure where to begin. I mean, in the opening scene, that chick enforcer of Mr. Smyth is just wandering around with heads tied to her belt. Actual-sized human heads, that is. It’s a tiny detail (I missed it last issue, if indeed it was there, which I suspect it was) that shows that both Simone and Scott are really at the tops of their games. Simone’s dialogue is as crisp as ever – Rag Doll’s quips are, of course, the highlight of the book, but Artemis’s speech to the “nice” jailer is chilling and the team’s argument at the end is great – while Scott continues to shine with every character, translating Simone’s script into disturbing reality. When Jeannette wakes up to rescue Artemis, Scott gives her a truly inhuman look that reminds us that she’s just not like us. Plus, there’s another detail like the one above: Doll’s butt flap on his pajamas is open, which cracked me up. Again, I don’t know if that was in the script or if Scott just threw it in there, but it’s awfully perfect.

I’m not sure about the idea of the prison, although Smyth’s contention that great things have usually been built by slaves has, unfortunately, some merit. The grand concept of this arc isn’t quite as kick in your guts awesome as the first arc, but this story seems to be exploring more of the moral boundaries of the team, and that’s cool. Of course, Rag Doll is there to remind us who these people are: “Oh, dear, not slavers! Why, that’s almost nearly sort of kind of barely a little bit about half as bad as the murderers and despots we normally work for!” Testify, Mr. Merkel! (Merkel?)

You know, you could buy a comic in which it appears a doctor bites someone’s face off, or you could get this. Okay, it’s nasty, but at least it’s nasty with a ton of wit! That counts for something, right? And did you know the creators are women? That means you need to atone for your misogynistic past by buying it! It’s your duty!

So much for this week. Not a lot of books, but damn, some good ones. And I suppose it’s time for some totally random lyrics!

“Still feel it all slipping away but it doesn’t matter anymore
Everybody’s still chipping away but it doesn’t matter anymore
Look through these blackened eyes
You’ll see ten thousand lies
My lips may promise but my heart is a whore”

Cheery!

“Unstuck in time”? Really?

19 Comments

• At July 2, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Whoa! We can wrap the text around the images Whoa!

• At July 2, 2009, Danielle Leigh wrote:

  wrap what around the what now? ;-)

• At July 2, 2009, Michael P. wrote:

  What's the book with the aliens getting capped every issue? Because I don't know.

• At July 2, 2009, The Ugly American wrote:

  Stuffins? Whatever happened to Boris the Bear?

• At July 2, 2009, Greg Burgas wrote:

  Michael: That would be Green Lantern Corps. Aliens always seem to get shot in the head in that book.

  I ...

• At July 2, 2009, David Wynne wrote:

  The lyrics are Nine Inch Nails, I think. Something off broken- Gave Up, maybe?

• At July 2, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  Secret Six features a bunch of character types I don't care for. And they're villains, which often makes for a ...

• At July 2, 2009, Brad Curran wrote:

  I forgot that Greek Street was $1. Have to see if the shop has any copies left/ordered any.

• At July 2, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  Whoa. Text wraps and numbered footnotes? How fancy.

  Actually, I'm none too keen on the text wraps. I prefer the old ...

• At July 2, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Screw tags. I use tags at my blog and I use categories at this blog. I'm stubborn for no good ...

• At July 2, 2009, TimCallahan wrote:

  I thought Greek Street was terrible. Mid-90s bad Vertigo like the Nocenti Kid Eternity.

  Also, I can't read "Astro City" anymore ...

• At July 2, 2009, stealthwise wrote:

  Wow, if Callahan hates both Greek Street and the newest Astro City, then I should likely pick it up.

  Anyways, this ...

• At July 2, 2009, Greg Burgas wrote:

  David: It's actually "Last," but good call!

  Ian: I was just experimenting with the images on either side of the page. ...

• At July 2, 2009, layne wrote:

  Shortly after reading Enigma, I accidentally touched another man - but was it really an accident? Brrr.

  Despite the inherent dangers ...

• At July 3, 2009, The Dude wrote:

  Thanks for the shout-out, Greg.You can use "mad props" anytime, as far as I'm concerned.

  Atomika really is an amazing book ...

• At July 3, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I didn’t get the “unstuck in time” line. Is that a reference to Vonnegut’s Slaghterhouse Five?

  It's a reference to Captain ...

• At July 3, 2009, The Dude wrote:

  @Brian Cronin:

  Seriously?! I haven't read the book yet and I trust in Brubaker to pull it off but I ...

• At July 3, 2009, Rebis wrote:

  Actually, this month's awesome "Green Lantern Corps" featured a lively debate between Kyle & Guy on one side, and the ...

• At July 3, 2009, Ted wrote:

  Agents of Atlas pull quote:

  CSGB's Greg Burgas says: " I don’t know what the big deal with incest is!"

The first issue of the series was spent more or less on introducing the concept of the book (Dick as Batman and Damian as Robin), so with that out of the way, Morrison can do a lot more character based stuff, and it’s really striking to see his take on Dick Grayson as Batman. Dick and Alfred have a long conversation that adds a lot of nice insights into both characters. I especially like how this is such a bigger deal for Dick than when he was filling in for Bruce during Prodigal. There’s a significant difference between filling in for Batman while Bruce was taking a break to recover from Knightfall and actually BECOMING the next Batman, and Morrison does a great job showing how the two situations are dramatically different, and how the current situation weighs on Dick a great deal more than Prodigal. It’s a nice nod to those people who think, “But Dick WAS Batman before!”

Meanwhile, Damian continues to be the flame that is getting dangerously close to the powder keg, as Dick is having an increasingly difficult time getting Damian to respect him, but in this issue, we get a clearer sense of WHY Dick is willing to put up with Damian’s nonsense (I especially love how he refers to Damian’s behavior as practically supervillain-esque).

Quitely is given a lot of action to draw in this issue, and hoo boy, it was awesome!! Dick and Damian taking on two new Circus-themed villains was brilliantly executed. Quitely was good in #1, but in #2 he had a lot more to do and it was amazing. I also liked how Morrison worked in the circus slang in such a way that you instantly got that whether you understood it or not, it was clearly circus slang (and Morrison even had Dick expressly say it was circus slang, just for the slow kids in the class).

The first meeting between Gordon and the new Batman and Robin was handled well.

But mostly, the highlights of the issue were the character work on Batman and Robin (telling the story out of chronological order was a great idea), especially the bit where Alfred explains how Dick should approach his “take” on Batman, comparing being the next Batman to playing the great roles of theater, like Richard III or Stanley Kowalski. Great stuff. And seeing Robin beating answers out of the villain then showing anger at the idea that he not only can’t kill, but now he has to be nice to the police, TOO?!?! Hilarious.

The issue was a fun read, with great action, great art and great characterization – what more do you need?

Definitely Recommended.

16 Comments

• At July 2, 2009, Dan Felty wrote:

  Sounds good.

  How is this going to be collected? Will I be able to get just the Quitely issues in ...

• At July 2, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  I hate that this comes out the first week of the month. I've only just read the first one, and ...

• At July 2, 2009, CF wrote:

  @bill reed:

  If you want someone to blame, blame Dan Didio for assigning Tan instead of Doug Mahnke. Perhaps some electroshock ...

• At July 2, 2009, Kwas wrote:

  wow. harsh much. I think Mahnke's busy at work with Green Lantern. Besides, Phil's fantastic with the gritty noir stuff. ...

• At July 2, 2009, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  As excellently as these issues are crafted, I have to wonder how long this premise can credibly last. The storytelling ...

• At July 2, 2009, Neal K wrote:

  Really, someone thought Tan's art in Final Crisis: Revelations was good? I thought it was a lot like a ...

• At July 2, 2009, Julian wrote:

  I'm still pissed Cameron Stewart got nixed.

• At July 2, 2009, Jake wrote:

  Morrison's already stated that he's changing the tone of the book to fit each artist. Same will happen for Frazier ...

• At July 2, 2009, Faisal wrote:

  i agree julian... quitely, stewart, mahnke and back to quitely would have probably made me a happy, happy, camper and ...

• At July 2, 2009, Stephen wrote:

  The one thing I don't like is that I think Dick really would have enough respect for Gordon to come ...

• At July 2, 2009, SageShini wrote:

  There are people that don't like Philip Tan's artwork? This is news. Then again, t'was news to me ...

• At July 2, 2009, DanLarkin wrote:

  This issue was great. Count me in the worried about Tan camp. I didn't like the art in that ...

• At July 2, 2009, Percocete Pete wrote:

  Why are there so many comments regarding Tan's future work? Why not just enjoy what you have now with the ...

• At July 2, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Tan's recent Green Lantern arc was worlds better than Revelations, so I'm not too worried.

• At July 3, 2009, Rebis wrote:

  I also chuckled when Dick moaned about having to learn how to deal with a cape again.

  I'm not a huge ...

• At July 3, 2009, Dalarsco wrote:

  I love Tan, but I think that if he's going to alternate with Quitely then Mahnke would be a better ...

Today is the mid-point of the calendar year, so to celebrate the occasion, I’ve chosen a particularly classic scene from Batman: The Dark Knight that I’m surprised that I have not featured yet! It’s a chilling example of how twisted the Joker is.

Enjoy!

One of the themes of Batman: The Dark Knight is that as soon as Batman returns, so do his villains, with Two-Face and Joker, in particular, coming out of almost hibernation upon the return of the Bat.

Batman: The Dark Knight #3 (which was written and drawn, of course, by Frank Miller, with inks by Klaus Janson and colors by Lynn Varley) shows us the Joker’s rampage, and Batman’s desperation to bring the Joker down, once and for all.

How it happens, though, is quite chilling.

“The” moment is tough, because while, yeah, it’s pretty much the bit when Joker chooses to kill himself to frame Batman, but the final panel, where we see Batman basically REACTING to the situation is almost a stronger “moment” to me than the actual death of the Joker.

What say you all?

Here’s to the second half of the year!!

23 Comments

• At July 2, 2009, mightygodking wrote:

  WOW IT IS THE SAME PAGE FIVE TIMES IN A ROW

• At July 2, 2009, jazzbo wrote:

  Wow, you really like that one page, don't you? :)

• At July 2, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Hehe, totally! :)

• At July 2, 2009, billshears wrote:

  This moment (not just the one page shown, but the entire sequence :P) is what brought me back into comics. ...

• At July 2, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  If I had a couple hundred million lying around, I'd finance a movie version of DKR starring Keaton, Nicholson, and ...

• At July 2, 2009, Aqualad wrote:

  Frickin brilliant. Better than Watchmen. LOVE Dark Knight.

• At July 2, 2009, JoeMac wrote:

  Such a good story. Some of the best splash pages ever come from DKR. I didn't get around to reading ...

• At July 2, 2009, Casey wrote:

  "Watch...watch your language, son..." is the moment.

• At July 2, 2009, Jeff Ryan wrote:

  I always get chills from finding out the bad guy's breath smells like milk.

  And I can't believe I'm correctly ...

• At July 2, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  The COLLECTED edition is Dark Knight Returns, Jeff.

  The individual issues were all Batman: The Dark Knight, with each issue having ...

• At July 2, 2009, Bob wrote:

  Actually, I see Micheal Ironside as TDKR Batman.

  Can't pick a "moment" out of this scene...it's ALL good!

• At July 2, 2009, John Cage wrote:

  "Actually, I see Micheal Ironside as TDKR Batman."

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRpY37QNlx8

  Have a good day.

  John Cage

• At July 2, 2009, Bob wrote:

  Thans for the link, John Cage. Micheal Ironside would rock as a live-action over-the-hill Dark Knight, too!

• At July 2, 2009, Gavin wrote:

  Man, that episode of Batman TAS was great...Michael Ironside was an awesome pick for the voice.

• At July 3, 2009, AERose wrote:

  I think I've probably gotten tired of the way Frank Miller writes, but I doubt I'll ever get tired of ...

• At July 3, 2009, Ellis Wyatt wrote:

  Only in a future separated by decades from his original career could the Joker be certain that the citizens of ...

• At July 3, 2009, stealthwise wrote:

  Wow, that didn't age well for me at all. The art looks clunky, like something out of Garbage Pail ...

• At July 3, 2009, Shane wrote:

  For me from Joker's death to the last panel with Whatever's in him rustles as it leaves is the moment.

  And ...

• At July 3, 2009, Bob wrote:

  I'd rather see Eastwood as Sgt. Rock or Jonah Hex. I just can't see him in a superhero costume.

• At July 3, 2009, sgt rawk wrote:

  You kids might not know this but ... in early appearances, Robin (Dick Grayson, natch!) used a sling-shot. Often. Bucky, ...

• At July 3, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  I can actually picture Mr Bruce Campbell beefing up for the role... He's getting old enough!

• At July 3, 2009, Bob wrote:

  Bruce Campbell would make an outstanding TDKR Harvey Dent.

• At July 3, 2009, Shane wrote:

  You could argue that Eastwood's already done Jonah Hex via The Outlaw Josey Wales which I suspect was an inspration ...

I ended up with more suggestions than there were days in the month, so enjoy a few BONUS installments!

The first bonus installment is the pick of Mike Deodato, who draws the most popular ongoing comic book title right now, Dark Avengers. Here’s Mike’s Deviant Art page.

Mike’s pick is Rudy Nebres.

Here’s Mike making the pitch for Rudy…

Sadly, the comic business seems to be going the way of other industries. Shiny and new is coveted more than sturdy and well-made. Flashy is desired more than experienced. When a friend’s 4-year-old water heater broke down, yet his relative’s water heater built in 1954 is still working fine, you know something is wrong with the world.

I know of quite a few top-flight comics artists who simply are not getting the attention they should.

Rudy Nebres is every bit as great now as he was in the ’70s, yet his assignments are few and far between…and in a market that loves rendering and finesse, he’s among the best.

And Mike’s right, Rudy Nebres is strikingly consistent for an artist who has been in the business for close to forty years.

Here’s some Dr. Strange pages from the mid 1970s…

There’s a strong Gene Colan element to this work, and Colan is certainly still a viable comic book artist in the marketplace (if he so chose to pursue it, of course).

Here is some of Nebres’ Warren work from Eerie…

And here is some more 1980s, Nebres work, via some covers…

Here is Nebres in the 1990s, via a Vampirella cover (Vampirella is a character he has done a lot of work on)…

Here is Nebres in the 2000s, via a Negation cover…

a pin-up….

and here are some sample pages from a Crossgen Chronicles….

The guy’s still got definite chops! With Marvel having 145963059 books released every month, they really ought to give Nebres a shot on some of them!

Thanks to Mike for the pick! Sorry I held you off for awhile, but I figured this would be a strong beginning to the “extra” period!

8 Comments

• At July 2, 2009, Lupin Yonsei wrote:

  Mr. Deodato has just redeemed himself for ~1,000,000 of his superfluous thongs with this suggestion.

• At July 2, 2009, Chris Bloom wrote:

  Man, that's some nice art. It also makes me miss CrossGen; for all its faults, it really was putting ...

• At July 2, 2009, Jean Sinclair wrote:

  Rudy Nebres ALWAYS Rocks.

  Here´s one of the Greatest MASTER in comics.

  Anatomy,composition,lihjt & Shadow,Crosshatching,paintings... Nebres really knows and use on his ...

• At July 2, 2009, kalorama wrote:

  Man, does this bring back memories. I used to love Nebres' work in Marvel's B&W magazine line (esp. the Iron ...

• At July 2, 2009, Johnny Bacardi wrote:

  I remember when Nebres took over Doc Strange, following Gene Colan's 70s stint. I was prepared to be disappointed, but ...

• At July 2, 2009, Movilla wrote:

  Cool...one of the best artists to come from the Philippines. IIRC, his fellow Filipino comic book artist contemporaries were Tony ...

• At July 3, 2009, WM wrote:

  Wow, thanks for that! All those Filipino artists from the seventies were/are great. I'm glad to see that Nebres and ...

• At July 3, 2009, "O" the Humanatee! wrote:

  @Movilla: I'm not sure what you mean by Nebres's "contemporaries," but there were many more than the ones you name ...

Dungeon is the expansive Dungeons and Dragons satire that French comic creators Joann Sfar and Lewis Trondheim started in 1998. Similar to George Lucas’ idea of having Star Wars stories set in the “past,” the “present” and the “future,” the Dungeon series of comics takes place at different points in the history of the land Terra Amata.

Sfar and Trondheim manage to create such an elaborate universe (I think there have been almost thirty albums in the last eleven years) by only co-writing most of the albums – Trondheim originally drew the first few albums of the “Zenith” series, which tells the tale of the, well, zenith point of the land of Terra Amata. But artist Boulet took over with albums 5 and 6, which were reprinted in English by NBM as Dungeon: Zenith Vol. 3: Back in Style.

It’s a great little work from two brilliant comic book creators and a great (slightly) newer artist.

Boulet is not necessarily as good as Trondheim, but really, that’s not saying much, as Trondheim is an absolutely brilliant artist. Boulet is still a very, very good artist, and if you were going to pick someone to follow Trondheim on this series, Boulet makes as good of sense as anyone else, as he jumps right in to the lighthearted (as this is the Zenith series – in the future, things are not so lighthearted) world of Herbert the Duck and all the other anthropomorphic characters living in this world.

The one major fault with this book is that it takes place directly after the previous volume, and even by this point, the continuity of the series has gotten fairly complex, so it may take a little while to figure out what’s going on and how each character relates to each other.

But once you’ve more or less done that, you can appreciate the comedy of this series, which Sfar and Trondheim do a brilliant job of rolling just enough drama into the proceedings that it is not totally out of the realm of possibility that these wacky adventures could soon turn quite dark if it came to that. For instance, the second story involves Herbert going to visit his parents in disguise (as he’s anatis non grata in his hometown), but when he laughs, his magical disguise wears off. That’s a fine comedic plot, but when he reveals himself to his mother, his family’s longtime maid walks in. He asks her to promise not to tell anyone, and while she’s in the midst of saying, “Of course not, I’ve known you since…” Herbert’s mother stabs her to death, figuring that the secret was too important to risk. That’s some cold stuff – and it gives you a hint of what is to come in the world of Dungeon.

In any event, for a very funny, character-based genre piece with great art, I think this book could appeal to a lot of people, but perhaps you’d be better served by picking up the first two volumes before this one.

Still, this IS a good comic book, so…

Recommended.

2 Comments

• At July 2, 2009, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  Getting very close to european mainstream, Warlord Cro. You'll get there someday.

  Boulet is the king of France's comic blogs. A ...

• At July 3, 2009, garbonzo wrote:

  We did a full review of Dungeon for our podcast (http://stumptowntradereview.blogspot.com/2009/04/podcast-review-of-dungeon-and-air.html) and found many similar issues. Dungeon: Zenith ...

Today we look at a neat Batman moment from Grant Morrison that was a bit of a precursor to his more recent Batman run.

Enjoy!

In JLA Classified #1, by Grant Morrison and Ed McGuinness, Morrison lays the ground work not just for his Seven Soldiers crossover but also for his run on Batman when the Justice League are captured into a different universe and the villainous Ne-Bu-Loh has struck a deal with Gorllia Grodd. Things are bad for the Ultra-Marines, and it is up to the Knight (the British Batman)’s partner, the Squire, to contact Batman for help…

He then shows up just as she is being shot down by a gorilla in a laser jet plane, and this allows Batman to now tell her his plan…

Great cliffhanger.

As to “the” moment, there are a lot of them, but I think the revelation of the “Sci-Fi Closet” is “the” moment for this scene.

34 Comments

• At July 2, 2009, Tuomas wrote:

  As cool as this scene was, I think it's always kinda dodgy when writers do stories where Batman has some ...

• At July 2, 2009, Tuomas wrote:

  Anyway, since we're talking about this story, my theory is that the Qwewq is actually "the real world"/ "our universe", ...

• At July 2, 2009, R3D RJ wrote:

  Awesome! =D I still miss Bruce Wayne though =P

  Speaking of JLA goodies, Brian, would you consider the re-assembling of JLA ...

• At July 2, 2009, Cass wrote:

  @Tuomas: I think your theory is correct and somewhat popularly understood by Morrison fans (not to diminish it as a ...

• At July 2, 2009, Shane wrote:

  The Dalek in the closet is such a wonderful tease. Now there's a crossover I'd love to see Batman meets ...

• At July 2, 2009, Tuomas wrote:

  Cass: I haven't read any online discussion on this theory, but sure, I couldn't have been the only one to ...

• At July 2, 2009, Tuomas wrote:

  Besides the Dalek, Batman's Sci-Fi closet seems to hold Hawkman's wings and the head of the Iron Giant (from the ...

• At July 2, 2009, Johnny Bacardi wrote:

  I heart the Squire.

  Just wanted to say.

  "It's like that, is it?"

• At July 2, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  -- The crescent-shaped thing s the arm of another sci-fi robot, the one from Lost in Space.

  -- In the ...

• At July 2, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  This was such a fun story. I always like it when Morrison trots out the Ultra-Marines. Knight and Squire are ...

• At July 2, 2009, Rusty Priske wrote:

  What the hell?

  This is EXACTLY what my reservations about the new Batman & Robin center around. Batman flying around in ...

• At July 2, 2009, Carl wrote:

  I actually like that someone acknowledged that Batman has a different set of toys for his Gotham work and ...

• At July 2, 2009, David Hackett wrote:

  But Rusty, I think that's what Morrison is trying to comment on. It is patently absurd that the ...

• At July 2, 2009, Callum wrote:

  This looks like a fun arc, minus the 'No. I'm Goldfishman,' line. Gonna go check it out, thanks for ...

• At July 2, 2009, chad wrote:

  i would go with both the closet and the robot duplicates batman has of his fellow jl comrads proving batman ...

• At July 2, 2009, American Hawkman wrote:

  The way I see it is that Batman's sci-fi closet stuff is something he doesn't use in Gotham because of ...

• At July 2, 2009, Johnny Bacardi wrote:

  Are you kidding? "No, I'm Goldfish Man" is one of the rare examples of Grantsy showing that he does, indeed, ...

• At July 2, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  I dunno, Johnny B., I always figured stuff like Seaguy and Sebastian O. were meant to be funny along with ...

• At July 2, 2009, Da Fug wrote:

  This entry really didn't seem strong on "moments" to me. It's certainly not iconic, death-of-Gwen caliber. Future-teched-out Batman ...

• At July 2, 2009, Anonymous wrote:

  Didn't they get rid of Pluto in Our Worlds at War?

• At July 2, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  No good moments here? Hah. Every panel is an awesome moment. The Sci-Fi closet, "Has my flying saucer arrived ...

• At July 2, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  This entry really didn’t seem strong on “moments” to me. It’s certainly not iconic, death-of-Gwen caliber. Future-teched-out Batman doesn’t appeal ...

• At July 2, 2009, GarBut wrote:

  This entry is not ironic, death-of-Chubby caliber, either.

  Da fug!

• At July 2, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Eh. The death of Gwen Stacy is hardly as iconic as the resurrection of Jesus.

• At July 2, 2009, Callum wrote:

  'Are you kidding? “No, I’m Goldfish Man” is one of the rare examples of Grantsy showing that he does, indeed, ...

• At July 2, 2009, P. Boz wrote:

  Yeah, I've never been a fan of "Batman as god". If someone like that really existed, why would he ...

• At July 2, 2009, Johnny Bacardi wrote:

  Except the Goldfishman joke isn’t, y’know, funny. I thought the other gags worked well as long as the reader isn’t ...

• At July 2, 2009, Bob wrote:

  I don't think Batman built the robots. They were in a Justice League outpost, right? Probably built with the same ...

• At July 2, 2009, RAB wrote:

  On the last page seen here, they ARE all Superman robots.

  Next time we see them, they've been customized to represent ...

• At July 2, 2009, Felipe wrote:

  > Didn’t they get rid of Pluto in Our Worlds at War?

  No, they get rid of Pluto in the International ...

• At July 3, 2009, AERose wrote:

  Huh, I didn't remember Ian Churchill's art being this good the first few times I read this story. I especially ...

• At July 3, 2009, Cass wrote:

  @AERose: Having never worked with Grant Morrison, I believe Ian Churchill will have a hard time getting inducted into that ...

• At July 3, 2009, Tuomas wrote:

  I hadn't seen McGuinness' work before this story, but I agree that it's pretty great in it. He's particularly ...

• At July 3, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  McGuinness didn't introduce Neh-Bu-Loh; that was Dick Dillin, way back in JLofA v.1 #100-102.

Oh yeah, I should probably tease the reviews. I’m sticking with grouping everything in categories, and I’m starting with some Batman comics you may not have heard of. If you are new to comic book blogs, at least.

Reborn, Reschmorn; I’m Just Here For The Creative Teams- Batman and Robin #2 and Detective Comics #854

These are both worth it for the art. I like Morrison’s story better (I hope no one died of shock over that one), but Rucka’s was solid. Nice to see Batwoman get some character development, although that’s really faint praise, given all we knew about her before now was that she is Renee Montoya’s socialite ex-girlfriend. Also nice to see Rucka and Cully Hamner doing the Question, even if that was one hell of an abrupt ending.

Obligatory praise of Morrison and Quitely. In the spirit of reader participation, I’ll let you all fill in the blanks. What else do you need to say besides “this was a comic by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. It is drawn well and is interesting.” Well, okay, I did really like Alfred’s pep talk and the way he gave Dick his motivation to be Batman. That’s an underutilized part of Dick’s character (says the guy who was read a total of zero issues of Nightwing). That’s worth mentioning.

But really, I’m with these creative teams, I’m very happy to plunk down cash on these, even if they lack honest titles. I guess The Temporary Replacement Duo and Masked Lesbian Vigilante Two In One Don’t roll off the tongue.

Also, an interesting debate broke out in the comments of Douglas Wolk’s post about ‘Tec in regards to following creators vs. following characters (well, sort of). Oh, and some guys says JH Williams III’s art sucks. Don’t see that every day.

Grant Morrison Wrote This One, Too- Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye #3

So, yeah, that sure was the end of that story. Unlike a lot of Morrison written comics that I enjoy on a superficial level, I’m really not sure if there is much beyond the surface here (which is why people calling the first one unintelligible always bugged me; this is practically the most straightforward thing he has ever written!). I don’t know why that bugs me, but it does. Although I’m not a decoder of his work, I do like knowing there’s more below the surface. Of course, if there is, I’m probably ignorant of it here. Too bad other bloggers don’t excessively delve in to his

That said, this was a very good comic book that I am glad I purchased, and I’m down for more adventures whenever Morrison, Cameron Stewart, and DC want to put them together. Where else am I going to see a tiny mad scientist riding a skeletal T-Rex? And, as always, Chubby Da Choona breaks my heart. I could also live with this as the ending, though. Maybe that’s why it played out the way it did.

Marvel Team Books I Enjoy: Agents Of Atlas #7, Uncanny X-Men #512, Exiles #4, Secret Warriors #5

I’m going lightning round on these:

Agents- The recap pages alone makes this better than 99% of everything Marvel publishes. Nice that we got a back up without being taxed, and that Derek Khanata’s back.

Uncanny- This is a jumping off point for me, at least until the crossover with Dark Avengers is over. It may be a good place for the rest of Fraction’s run entirely, because I’m not sure he’ll ever be able to top this, unless he gives us more stories with Steampunk Sentinels, thinly veiled Nikola Telsa, and the 19th Century’s Hellfire Club. Or just throws Mark Twain in there and makes it a blatant sequel to the Five Fists of Science. I’d buy 8 copies of that every month.

Exiles- More pop culture references and a new artist, but otherwise, this is the same fun team book it was in Jeff Parker’s* opening arc. I liked the swerve with the android coalition. I miss Salva Espin, but Kelley Jones and Karl Kesel are good replacements.

Secret Warriors- This reminded me a lot of GI Joe: The Movie. The original one. Unless someone announces that Sitwell’s okay in a hastily thrown in caption next issue, I’m guessing that wasn’t intentional.

And The Two Solo Marvel Hero Comics I Buy In Singles: Immortal Iron Fist #27 and Incredible Hercules #130

Iron Fist- This is a good way to end this volume. It’s a pretty good jumping off point, really. I like the idea of an Immortal Weapons comic, especially with Jason Aaron involved, but I’ll probably wait for the trade on it.

Incredible Herc- I hope Aegis winds up being resurrected. I like he and Cho as a duo. Zeus’s trial has its moments, but it’s probably my least favorite single issue of this run. That said, that’s no bad thing. It’s like being my least favorite hot actress who has terrible taste in comics. You’re still a hot actress who is better than me at everything (I should really drop this now, shouldn’t I?). Also, this is probably the best use of Uncle Ben since he died.

Licensed Comics: Buffy Season 8 #26 and Ender’s Game: Recruiting Valentine One Shot

Buffy- It’s probably a bad sign that I enjoyed this issue because the plot is finally moving, which means I’m closer to being able to finish the run. I hate being That Guy, but I am on board with this until they finish Season 8. That said, this was a legitimately good issue, with some laugh out loud moments (including a call back to Buffy’s bi-curious moment) and a Seth Green variant cover. We need more of those.

Ender’s Game- I got this for free. I came in not knowing much about the property (or its creator, beyond his views on homosexuality). So, I didn’t know what to expect.

What I got was a perfectly okay if dull story about a little girl manipulating her teacher in to being less of a hard ass with his grading. In the future! This isn’t representative of the stuff people swear by from Card, is it? At any rate, nice to see Timothy Green II, who really impressed me when he was drawing that Annihilation: Dirty Dozen With Rocket Raccoon mini. His work here is less impressive, but really, he doesn’t get a lot to work with.

Beautiful Looking Viking comics With Stories I’m Not Entirely Sold On, But I will Buy Anyway Because Of The Novel Format And $2.99 Price Tag- Viking #2

Viking- That was the whole review up there.

Every Comic Book Blogger Is Required By Law To Review This- Captain America Reborn #1

When the recap ends and the plot begins, this gets good. And hey, I appreciate the sop to accessibility, even if it seems optimistic that a ton of people who don’t know The Death of Cap storyline inside and out are going to be picking this up. This towed the line between being an event comic and a $4 issue of Brubaker’s Cap well, and that’s all you can ask. That, and my not feeling any cognitive dissonance when Hitch drew Captain America and he wasn’t an a-hole make me glad I picked this one up.

*Full disclosure: Jeff Parker is my friend.*
**On Facebook. So are Jay Garrick and Chris Sims.

10 Comments

• At July 1, 2009, logomatic wrote:

  Just speaking personally, I haven't been following the adventures of BuckyCap all that closely, so I enjoyed the recap.

• At July 1, 2009, logomatic wrote:

  oo, I meant re-CAP.

  Bwahaha.

• At July 2, 2009, Craig wrote:

  I found Cap Reborn to be a jarring departure from Bru's prior 51 (50+600) issues on the title.

  (SPOILERS ON)

  I heard ...

• At July 2, 2009, s1rude wrote:

  B&R #2 wasn't quite as awesome as #1, but it was still money. Nothing new to say about 'Tec, ...

• At July 2, 2009, Ken Raining wrote:

  It's issue one rather then 601 so that Marvel can charge $3.99 for it.

• At July 2, 2009, james wrote:

  just to clarify, having a constant for your time-traveling escapades may be a lost swipe, but billy pilgrim had become ...

• At July 2, 2009, s1rude wrote:

  Excellent clarification, james. That was my introduction to Vonnegut, but I haven't read it in ages.

• At July 2, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  Being a gay hater is the same as being a racist, therefore I don't read any Orson Scott Card.

• At July 2, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Do you read Atomic Robo? I mean, you should, because it's right up your alley. Well, it's right up Chris ...

• At July 2, 2009, Brad Curran wrote:

  I didn't catch the Lost swipe in Cap because I stopped following it a couple years back. I didn't catch ...

Okay, just so you don’t die of suspense, it’s Jeph Loeb. Specifically, I’m going to “review” Hulk 7-9.

I put that in quotation marks because, really, Loeb’s work is pretty well review proof. As 2/3rds of all comment sections on this website prove, you already know whether you like him or think he is a welt on the genitals of sequential art. Or the Michael Bay of comics. Those are kind of interchangable, aren’t they?

Let me lay my cards on the table before I get to these comics I’m supposed to be writing about; I haven’t liked Loeb since Hush. I was really hyped up for that, because I enjoyed the Long Halloween (it was one of the first trades I ever bought when I got back in to comics in 2001) and Jim Lee was my favorite artist when he was on X-Men. The fact it bored me after six issues pretty much slapped the scales right off my eyes as far as Loeb goes.

That said, he’s written some stories I’ve enjoyed, all of them with Tim Sale. Superman For All Seasons and Spider-Man: Blue * were both okay in my book, although a lot of that is Sale’s art and the stories Loeb evokes that I have fondness for (the Lee-Romita Spider-Man and the Timm, Dini, and friends cartoon, respectively). So, I’m not a fan of the guy’s, but I don’t hate him with a passion, either. I’ve kind of ignored him since Hush, really.

But I’m not made of stone, and these stupid Hulk comics are drawn by Frank Cho and Art Adams. That’s a trump card for me.

Stroywise, they’re not good in any real measurable sense. If you’re the kind of person that wants to sue Loeb for being a blight on society for writing bad comics*, they’d be pretty good evidence. They illustrate his tendency for excess (if one Wendigo is a threat, why don’t we turn everyone in Las Vegas to one), gratuitous guest stars, deus ex machine endings (Brother Voodoo actually fullfills the last two by himself); name a cliche, you can probably find it in here.

That said, who cares? The Adams drawn story doesn’t take itself seriously, is drawn by Art Adams, moves along briskly, is drawn by Art Adams, features at least one memorably amusing exchange between Moon Knight and the Sentry, and is drawn by Art Adams. That’s all I ask for, especially when back issue diving during a sale.

The Cho drawn story does take itself seriously, and serves as both an excuse for him to draw every major female superhero they can cram in there and for Loeb to try and make Rulk** look like a cunning villain by outsmarting the dumb girls (and offering Thundra a job helping him do whatever it is he’s meant to be doing), so it’s less entertaining. But still, Cho’s work is nothing to sneeze at, if you have a tolerance for his excesses.

That leads to why I think Loeb keeps getting work; he lets his collaborators show off. He gives everybody he works with ample room to draw all the splash pages, fight scenes, and ass shots they want. He’s not alone there, sure, but I do think tailoring his scripts to his collaborator’s strengths as artists is at least part of his appeal to editors and fans.

Also, these comics feature Mini Marvels backups. It’s hard to begrudge all that brain melting excess when those are the last things you see.

*That said, I think the color scheme Marvel stuff has hit its nadir. If they do Iron Man: Gold, Black Panther: Black, or Quicksilver: Silver, I fear for us all.

**I’m talking about T. there, because I don’t pay enough attention to the Loeb debates to know who else hates him that passionately. To be fair, our surly consonant really did hate him before it was cool, so he deserves credit there.

**That kind of makes me want to be co-council with T. if he ever does bring that suit against Loeb. It really irks me, just like babyman and comix. At least no one will combine those words in one sentence in the comments because I said I didn’t like them!

40 Comments

• At July 1, 2009, Grant Watson wrote:

  I would totally buy a comic titled Quicksilver: Silver.

• At July 1, 2009, Devyn Rodriguez wrote:

  Can't we just say that Jeph Loeb is a bad writer and don't think of his books as continuity? If ...

• At July 1, 2009, Michael "McK" Xavier wrote:

  That leads to why I think Loeb keeps getting work; he lets his collaborators show off. He gives everybody he ...

• At July 1, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  "Jeph Loeb's writing on Ultimatum has sodomized more childhoods than Michael Jackson."

  There, all tied together, horribly tasteless, ethically questionable, completely ...

• At July 1, 2009, Adam wrote:

  One redeeming factor: I kinda-sorta liked the "split story" format of these issues. Half was green/gray Hulk, half was ...

• At July 1, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Eh, the Wendigo concept has been pretty badly abused for over a decade now. Todd-O-Mac gave us a kinder, ...

• At July 1, 2009, bad trotsky wrote:

  I think I have it! Why Jeph Loeb's stuff sells. He knows how to write scenes for good artists. His ...

• At July 1, 2009, Ted wrote:

  "Find out which one after the jump!"

  The tags kind of spoil it. Plus you're asterisk notes are all over the ...

• At July 1, 2009, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  I'm not in the mood for a Jeph Loeb thread today. This week saw the release of the fourth Boys ...

• At July 2, 2009, phenol wrote:

  Wouldn't it be Silver Surfer: Silver, and Luke Cage: Black?

• At July 2, 2009, Paul O'Brien wrote:

  Loeb on Hulk is essentially harmless. It's completely inane, but if Marvel are going to do one utterly ridiculous ...

• At July 2, 2009, Stephane Savoie wrote:

  Oooo! I like this game!

  Shang Chi: Yellow

  Northstar: Pink

  Red Hulk: Red

• At July 2, 2009, Chris Bloom wrote:

  The only reason I even care about Loeb at this point is that my wife is a big fan of ...

• At July 2, 2009, T. wrote:

  Chuck Austen, one of the few writers who is worse than Loeb, kept getting new projects because they sold well, ...

• At July 2, 2009, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  The Purple Man: Purple

  The Vision: Green-amongst-others

  Psylocke: White-to-Yellow

• At July 2, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  Ummm, where does the three-asterisk note go?

• At July 2, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  Cloak & Dagger: Black & White

• At July 2, 2009, Ken Raining wrote:

  Well, yeah. The key to Jeph Loeb's success is that he panders to his artists. Didn't everyone already ...

• At July 2, 2009, Ken Raining wrote:

  Captain Ultra: Rainbow

• At July 2, 2009, Quincy wrote:

  This thread just reminded me about Captain America: White. Umm... what happened with that? I think I remember ...

• At July 2, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  A few more:

  -- Iron Man: Gold

  -- The Thing: Orange

  -- Galactus: Fuschia

  -- Namor: Fleshtone

  -- Dazzler: Iridescent

  ...

• At July 2, 2009, Adam wrote:

  Weren't the "color" books supposed to evoke both a classic period of the character as well as a specific emotion? ...

• At July 2, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Thing: Orange is meant to evoke the disturbing spectacle of a comics fan pleasuring himself after eating Cheetos.

• At July 2, 2009, Michael "McK" Xavier wrote:

  I wouldn’t go as far as to say Austen was worse than Loeb. Austen was godawful, but he wrote a ...

• At July 2, 2009, Ken Raining wrote:

  "Fair enough, T, but while Loeb has never written anything good, he hasn’t written anything as offensive as Austen’s “Pope ...

• At July 2, 2009, T. wrote:

  Fair enough, T, but while Loeb has never written anything good, he hasn’t written anything as offensive as Austen’s “Pope ...

• At July 2, 2009, Michael "McK" Xavier wrote:

  You don’t think “the Blob eats the Wasp” is more offensive then Lois finding a pair of panties?

  Perhaps I should ...

• At July 2, 2009, John Cage wrote:

  "You don’t think “the Blob eats the Wasp” is more offensive then Lois finding a pair of panties?"

  If it's "Lois ...

• At July 2, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  Emma Frost: Platinum

  Cyclops: Ruby

  Iceman: Translucent

• At July 2, 2009, GarBut wrote:

  Nothing wrong with all of this colour-coordination, but:

  I would totally buy a comic titled Quicksilver: Messenger Service.

• At July 2, 2009, Kevin wrote:

  Hawkeye: Purple

  Luke Cage: Yellow

  Deadpool: Burned Fleshtone, Slightly Hamburger Color

  Doctor Doom: Green

  Lockjaw: Nomnomnomnom

  Daredevil: Blind

• At July 2, 2009, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  " Also, every time I see the title Captain America: White it makes me think we’re going to see Steve ...

• At July 2, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Kevin, you bit reminded me of a less-funny one I had -- Daredevil: What's Color?

• At July 2, 2009, Lupin Yonsei wrote:

  We need Jeff Ryan with a color suggestion for Quasar.

  I'd like to see the Color imprint be a runaway success, ...

• At July 2, 2009, DanLarkin wrote:

  The Blob ate the Wasp? Fuck the heck?

• At July 2, 2009, Ant wrote:

  Wouldn't it be

  Deadpool - Medium Rare, Warm Pink Center

• At July 2, 2009, Master of Run Fu wrote:

  "Though if we are to run with the idea that Ultimate Cap retains the bigoted notions of his period, then ...

• At July 2, 2009, Felipe wrote:

  >— Wonder Woman: Breasts

  I thought that was now called "All-Star Wonder Woman"...

• At July 2, 2009, Jack Norris wrote:

  ``and Jim Lee was my favorite artist when he was on X-Men.``

  See, I absolutely loathed Jim Lee`s work during his ...

• At July 2, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Surely it should be Quasar: The Color Out of Space

Enjoy!

Let us know what you think, either here or at the ComicCritics blog!

23 Comments

• At July 1, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Missing an 'e' in the last panel there.

  But this is my face-kick of the week, for sure.

• At July 1, 2009, Stephen wrote:

  ... this gag was funnier when it was the closer of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

• At July 1, 2009, MagnoliaFan wrote:

  Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was a terrible movie.

• At July 1, 2009, Morrrg wrote:

  all the faces look like this: :^U

• At July 1, 2009, Agent_Torpor wrote:

  This was great until that menstruating a-hole ended up in the last panel.

• At July 1, 2009, T. wrote:

  Who's a menstruating a-hole? Downey? Why?

• At July 1, 2009, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  Why does Downey menstruate?

  Cause he's from Hollywood, that's why.

• At July 1, 2009, Chris Jones wrote:

  What's this in reference to?

• At July 1, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Torpor's been posting about the female lead character "menstruating" for a while now, which I'm assuming is the world's least ...

• At July 1, 2009, Joe wrote:

  I'm sure $1200 Italian loafers taste better than $50 loafers from JCPenny.

• At July 1, 2009, Rob wrote:

  Was the last panel needed?

  Ha! I had to say it.

• At July 1, 2009, Brad Curran wrote:

  I want the last panel as a t-shirt. Like, right now. Get on that, guys, well, once the menstruating (didn't ...

• At July 1, 2009, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  The best part is, if we spell his name that way on the T-shirt, I don't think we can even ...

• At July 1, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  So is Downey, Jr., gonna kick the crap out of...well, everyone involved in writing Dark Reign the storyline that's designed ...

• At July 1, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was a terrible movie.

  Bit all over the place and with some pacing issues - ...

• At July 2, 2009, JackKing wrote:

  "MagnoliaFan" was one of the guys beat up at the end of Jay & Silent Bob. It's a joke.

• At July 2, 2009, jazzbo wrote:

  I want to be friends with the face-kicking comic strip version of Robert Downey Jr, even if I disagree with ...

• At July 2, 2009, Roquefort Raider wrote:

  "Method all the way"!!! That was brilliant!!!

• At July 2, 2009, Chris Bloom wrote:

  Somewhere a Marvel editor is trying to figure out a way to squeeze a summer event series out of this ...

• At July 2, 2009, Carl wrote:

  Do the people calling Stark a Nazi realize he was just enforcing the superhero equivalent of gun control?

• At July 2, 2009, Jeff Holland wrote:

  @Carl: I think a lot of the stress over Stark is over editorial inconsistencies in his portrayal. For instance, if ...

• At July 2, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Do the people calling Stark a Nazi realize he was just enforcing the superhero equivalent of gun control?

  I think the ...

• At July 2, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  As tot he other bit of it..the problem with Civil War at the level of publishing is that the heroes ...

Today, we have the pick of Aaron Lopresti, longtime Marvel and DC artist who most recently has been the artist on Ms. Marvel for Marvel and is now is currently the regular artist on Wonder Woman for DC Comics. You can check out his website here.

Aaron’s pick is Reed Crandall.

Reed Crandall was, to put it simply, one of the best artists of the Golden Age (and considering the company he was in, that’s saying a lot).

He first made a name for himself working for Quality Comics, primarily working on Blackhawk stories in a number of titles.

Here’s his work on Blackhawk story from Military Comics….

Look at all that detail! And the dynamism! Just awesome line work.

Here’s a Blackhawk story from Modern Comics…

Also strong stuff.

He did other Quality Comics work, including a little work on Kid Eternity…

Crandall also did a lot of great work at EC Comics towards the end of their run…

Spooky stuff!

Here’s a nice taut depiction of insanity by Crandall…

Crandall basically bummed around various comic book companies for the rest of his career, which ended in the early 1970s (after moving to Wichita to take care of his ailing mother). He actually was working as a janitor and night watchman at a Pizza Hut when he suffered a stroke. He never really recovered and spent the remaining years of his life in a nursing home.

But boy, what an artistic legacy he left behind!

Thanks to Aaron for the pick!

10 Comments

• At July 1, 2009, Mark Irwin wrote:

  Great choice by Aaron; Crandall was really underrated, just beautiful work. Huge influence on Bernie Wrightson as well, who in ...

• At July 1, 2009, jazzbo wrote:

  Man, that is some nice looking stuff. Are there any collections of the old school Blackhawk comics? I'd love to ...

• At July 1, 2009, Ajit wrote:

  Jazzbo, DC reprinted the earliest Blackhawk stories in an Archive edition that includes the first story posted above. (And just ...

• At July 1, 2009, benday-dot wrote:

  Crandall's pencil is all over the the past century of comics, from the Golden Age to the early Bronze Age. ...

• At July 1, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Those Blackhawk pages remind me of Mike McKone.

  And those horror tales! The facial detail! Marvelous. That Vault of Horror twist ...

• At July 2, 2009, jazzbo wrote:

  I didn't know there was an Archive edition of any Blackhawks comics. Thanks for the tip, Ajit.

• At July 2, 2009, Lt. Clutch wrote:

  Man, I know the gore in those EC comics is what made the company's name, but Quality sure knew ...

• At July 2, 2009, Edo Bosnar wrote:

  What a great choice - he was definitely one of the best Golden Age artists (if not the best in ...

• At July 2, 2009, DanLarkin wrote:

  Man, Crandall was awesome.

• At July 2, 2009, Johnny Bacardi wrote:

  A little disappointed to not see his Warren work represented here; it's a whole step up from all this, as ...

Today we look at another neat moment from the Return of Barry Allen from Mark Waid’s Flash run.

Enjoy!

In Flash #78, “Barry Allen” has been quite a bad little boy, and the other speedsters have been trying to stop him.

But then Wally West discovers something about “Barry” that sort of makes the whole thing make sense.

So let’s see what that is, in this scene courtesy of Mark Waid and Greg Larocque, from Flash #78…

That’s a great reveal, and I would label the reveal as “the” moment, although the lead-up is quite good, as well.

30 Comments

• At July 1, 2009, Bob wrote:

  Just being reassured than Barry wasn't really back was the moment for me. Hear that Geoff Johns? Let us find ...

• At July 1, 2009, Michael P. wrote:

  "Barry" breaking Jay's leg is a pretty cool moment, too. Is there a worse thing you can do to a ...

• At July 1, 2009, Santiago Mollo wrote:

  I second that.

  Johns! stop bringing back people that should stay dead only because they were your favorites as a ...

• At July 1, 2009, chad wrote:

  i would also throw in where wally figures out that the fake barry is zoom due to the copy ...

• At July 1, 2009, JoeMac wrote:

  Is he really Geoff Johns' "Barry"?

  I thought he was brought back by Morrison, and Geoff is just (doing a ...

• At July 1, 2009, Ethan Shuster wrote:

  With what they did turning Hal Jordan into a villain, I'm thinking they did this storyline so you would actually ...

• At July 1, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Jordan had not yet turned into a villain at this time, Ethan.

• At July 1, 2009, Bob wrote:

  I don't care who brought Barry back, but he an Jason Todd killing each other sounds pretty cool to me!

• At July 1, 2009, Jeff Holland wrote:

  @JoeMac:

  I'm not 100% sure we can call it DiDio's idea, but I do recall a recent interview in Newsarama where ...

• At July 1, 2009, danjack wrote:

  Man do i love this storyline! i really loved the next issue [it was triple-sized!!]. Great stuff!

  DFTBA

• At July 1, 2009, Stephen wrote:

  "Jordan had not yet turned into a villain at this time, Ethan."

  In fact, the part of the story before this ...

• At July 1, 2009, JoeMac wrote:

  @Jeff Holland:

  Jumping back to a character who died 24 years ago is 'less' confusing? I mean, how does that ...

• At July 1, 2009, Bob wrote:

  I've been reading for more than 30 years. The only actual Flash comics I ever bought in the Barry years ...

• At July 1, 2009, Ethan Shuster wrote:

  Damn... After I typed that I started thinking this story may have been prior to Jordan going bad. Excuse my ...

• At July 1, 2009, Lt. Clutch wrote:

  The "moment" for me as an old school fan, is when Jay tears off the Flash symbol from Zoom's chest. ...

• At July 1, 2009, Michael P. wrote:

  "This is only going to alienate readers who aren’t in their mid-30s or older, IMHO."

  Well, that's the thing. DC doesn't ...

• At July 2, 2009, Tuomas wrote:

  I haven't read this story; is there some explanation why Eobard Thawne looks exactly like Barry Allen?

• At July 2, 2009, Argo Plummer wrote:

  Add me to the list of readers who never liked Barry Allen's solo adventures. However, I own a complete ...

• At July 2, 2009, Jj wrote:

  I love the moment where Zoom says "Yes" with that smile of his. Pretty cool

• At July 2, 2009, Jeff Holland wrote:

  @Tuomas - futurey plastic surgery. Now, how he got his regular face back, I can't quite recall.

  And count me ...

• At July 2, 2009, Callum wrote:

  So.......does Reverse Flash commit crimes very sslloowwllyy? It let's him savor the moment. That's just diabolical.

• At July 2, 2009, American Hawkman wrote:

  Thawne looks like Barry because he's crazy enough to have actually had his face altered to look like Barry before ...

• At July 2, 2009, Bob wrote:

  I feel that Barry is much more interesting as part of Wally's history. In a way, he's sort of like ...

• At July 2, 2009, Marc Kandel wrote:

  Didn't you hear? Johns is resurrection Uncle Ben as a Light Urple Lantern with the power to be misquoted ...

• At July 2, 2009, Marc Kandel wrote:

  oops. "ressurecting" Bad syntax kinda takes the bite of of the joke.

• At July 2, 2009, Bob wrote:

  My God! Is there no one brave or bold enough to stop Johns? Quick, someone ressurect the Earth-2 Batman!

• At July 2, 2009, Omega wrote:

  I hafta agree with JoeMack...how is resurrecting a character who died over 20 years ago going to simplify things for ...

• At July 2, 2009, Bob wrote:

  It's not even just Barry Allen and Hal Jordan...todays writers seem intent on restoring the Silver Age. Look at the ...

• At July 2, 2009, Stephen wrote:

  "Now, how he got his regular face back, I can’t quite recall. "

  He just sort of "wipes" it off when ...

• At July 3, 2009, Speed Reading: What If? Cool Moments, and Death « Speed Force wrote:

  [...] Should Be Good highlights another Cool Comic Book Moment from The Flash detailing a pivotal moment from Flash vol.2 ...

I say graphic novel, but really, it’s more like an art book, although I suppose there’s enough graphic content (of the other meaning of the term) that, in a way, it is a graphic novel!

The story tells the tale of a homeless girl who develops breast cancer and after a mastectomy, she appears to have a relapse and die, but before death, she experiences a journey as a doll (like the dolls she creates to try to sell to passersby) into a surreal world of oppressed people (mostly female).

It’s a really hackneyed story that does, at least, have some impressive artwork.

I say it is more of an art book because the story is extremely slim, and it almost reads like the story (which is told via prose on pages opposite the art) is at times developed AFTER the art was drawn, you know, like she’ll draw this really cool drawing of a sad looking woman and say, “After rambling through some of its long corridors, Arlene found on one of the crossroads a young woman with blonde hair who undressed her body and let monstrous shadows kiss her skin. But her face was so real that it looked like she wanted to die right there…”

The image of Arlene as a doll is particularly striking, especially the mastectomy scar.

Francés’ work is really quite beautiful, and often absolutely STUNNING, but the whole narrative just feels fairly weak. It is a shame, because the earnestness of Francés here is quite obvious – she clearly feels very strongly about her subjects, the so-called “lost” souls – the homeless, the prostitutes, the junkies, etc. but throughout the book, she really does not give these people any real distinguishing characteristics and their presentation does not really follow organically, as it seems like it is more a case of “And now here’s ____ – now, here’s _____, now, here’s _____.” This is why this book really seems to work better as an art book, as then we could at least focus on the book’s best trait, Francés’ beautiful artwork.

In an odd move, the book contains an epilogue by the writer where she actually then explains what she was going for at certain points in the work. I don’t recall ever seeing a book with an epilogue where the writer explains the metaphors s/he was using earlier in the book. I’m sure they exist, though, and I bet they’re as odd as this book’s epilogue.

In any event, beautiful artwork but not enough story leads me to say that this book is…

Not Recommended.

2 Comments

• At July 1, 2009, garbonzo wrote:

  Oh NO! You forgot the explicit content warning!!!!! ;)

• At July 1, 2009, DanLarkin wrote:

  That artwork makes me feel icky.