All This And Earth-2 (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} allthisearth2) wrote,@ 2006-08-04 00:23:00 |
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"If My Laugh Disturbs You, Gentlemen, I Suggest You Don't Point Guns At Me!"
I've decided to title the weekly reviews after a dumb quote from one of this week's books. This first offering comes courtesy of DC's BEWARE THE CREEPER #1. Who would ever say that? Anyway...
MOUSE GUARD #4: Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that a fantasy book about talking mice with tiny swords would be at the top of my reading pile every time it came out. Written and drawn by David Petersen, the six-part MOUSE GUARD miniseries tells the story of three furry little warriors charged with protecting their helpless brethren. Our heroes stumble upon a conspiracy against their homeland, and resort to a dangerous subterfuge to smoke out their enemies. This fourth issue finds two of the Mouse Guard held prisoner by a mysterious elderly warrior mouse who may be able to help them save their village of Lockhaven from the evil organization known as the Axe...if he doesn't kill them first, that is. Petersen's finely-detailed artwork flows perfectly with this book's expertly-paced blend of action and intrigue. Fans of the 1980s Don Bluth animated feature THE SECRET OF NIMH would do well to check this one out.
NAT TURNER ENCORE EDITION: Kyle Baker's historical drama about African slave rebellion leader Nat Turner gets a collected edition of its first two issues--the halfway point of the series, in other words. This slim, undersized volume is a good format for showcasing Baker's black-and-white, dialogue-free storytelling, and the smaller size doesn't lessen the punch of the book's harsh imagery (like a man throwing his infant child into shark-infested waters from the deck of a slave ship to spare the baby a life of servitude and abuse). Unfortunately, this material will probably be collected once more into a larger volume when the whole series is finished, but it's nice to have the out-of-print early issues of this important series available before it reaches its conclusion.
BATMAN: SON OF THE DEMON GN: Chances are, anyone who's ever talked about Batman stories with me has heard me go on about my insane love for this 1987 graphic novel by Mike W. Barr and Jerry Bingham. Well, guess what, sunshine? You're gonna sit through it one more time. Because of its recent relevance (last week's BATMAN #655, the debut issue by Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert, began a four-part sequel to this story), DC has reissued the out-of-print GN--originally available as a hardcover, reprinted later as an 8 1/2 X 11 softcover--in a cheap comic-sized reissue with a new cover by Kubert. Barr and Bingham's graphic novel combines James Bond-style thrills with an old-fashioned murder mystery as Batman teams up with his nemesis Ra's Al Ghul to take down the self-styled Demon's former protege before he can seize control of a weather-altering satellite and trigger a nuclear war with the USSR. This story has been the subject of some controversy in the intervening years, since the Caped Crusader finally consummates his relationship with Ra's Al Ghul's daughter Talia, who later gives birth to a son the Dark Knight doesn't know about (this grown-up Bat-Tyke can be seen on Luthor's side in KINGDOM COME, going by the name Ibn Al X'uffasch--"Son of the Bat" in Arabic). For much of the nineties, this storyline has been considered "out of continuity" by DC editors, but Morrison's new "Batman and Son" storyline seems to have squashed that idea. Good thing, too--if nothing else, it means this action-packed, lavishly illustrated story will be once more seen by a new generation of readers. The format of this reprint is a mite disappointing--no cardstock cover, no illustration or text (or ANYTHING, for that matter) on the inside covers, and at regular comic size, it's distractingly smaller than its original format--but still, it's hard to complain about this classic Batman yarn being available one more time.
DETECTIVE COMICS #822: Well, obviously, J.H. Williams III drawing this title on a regular basis was too good to last for too long, but I really thought he'd get more than one issue in the can before Grant Morrison finally sent him the script for SEVEN SOLDIERS #1. I mean, it's still Paul Dini writing, and we do still get a nicely self-contained mystery story of Batman actually being--get this--a detective, and we get the Riddler, who's always welcome as far as I'm concerned. However, we also get guest pencils by Don Kramer, who has some pretty big shoes to fill after last month and he's not quite up to it. Dini said at this year San Diego convention that his stories are not as self-contained as they initially seem; that's a good thing, because while I like the one-shot mystery stories, they come off as kinda inconsequential in the long run. This series has still shown remarkable improvement, but the buzz the previous issue gave me has worn off all too soon.
THE ALL-NEW ATOM #2: Another fun issue in a series that's, so far at least, much more sci-fi than superheroic. John Byrne's art is still better than usual, although he's apparently leaving after issue three (to be replaced by 52 contributor Eddy Barrows, which could be interesting). I gotta say, though, Gail Simone's literary device of inserting relevant quotes from scientific figures past, present, and imaginary (like Alec Holland and Will Magnus) has gotten old in record time.
BEWARE THE CREEPER #1: The taste of this new miniseries we were given in the recent DCU: BRAVE NEW WORLD special gave me higher hopes for this book, but sadly, I think I might have been hoodwinked. Justiniano's artwork is still appropriately...well, creepy, but writer Steve Niles' redo of TV personality Jack Ryder's transformation into the giggling, garish crimefighter is pretty uninspired. Also, I thought this kind of lazy thought-balloon abuse went out of style like, fifteen years ago. Here's an actual line of dialogue that Ryder thinks at one point: "Thank God for that 'Take Back The Night' defense course I took to get on the Fems' good side!" See what I mean? How many more issues is this gonna run for? FIVE? Good night!
THE EXTERMINATORS: BUG BROTHERS TP and THE EXTERMINATORS #8: It took me about three issues of this new Vertigo series before I decided I could start recommending it to people, and even then I had to think long and hard about who I could recommend it to. Obviously, a darkly humourous and often disgusting mix of William S. Burroughs' NAKED LUNCH and the 1997 Guillermo Del Toro giant roach flick MIMIC is not going to appeal to everyone, but I have found myself drawn to this oddball title's nasty orbit. This grotesque and funny ongoing series follows Henry James, ex-con and newly employed L.A. roach exterminator, and his adventures as part of the Bug-Bee-Gone team. While dealing with weirdo co-workers--zen cowboys, bug eaters, and other social deviants--Henry uncovers evidence that the very poison he uses to wipe out cockroaches may be mutating the vermin into something way more dangerous, and a mysterious scarab-emblazoned lockbox may hold the key to an upcoming evolutionary struggle. Newcomer Simon Oliver shows a good grasp of dialogue, suspense, and carefully-plotted gory mayhem, and original WALKING DEAD series artist Tony Moore brings an Evan Dorkin-like level of detail and expression to the eclectic cast. The first five issues, comprising the "Bug Brothers" arc, was released this week in one of Vertigo's super-cheap (thirteen bucks CDN) trade paperbacks--or, five issues for just over the price of three. Also this week, the new issue of the ongoing series arrives, featuring a fill-in by guest artist Chris Samnee. The insect uprising plotline takes a back seat to a focus on the two women in Henry's life--career-climber Laura and "literary fantasy establishment" dancer Page. This is a nice character spotlight issue, one that's not a great jumping-on point for new readers, but pretty vital to regular fans.
AGENTS OF ATLAS #1: Okay, bear with me here; in the original WHAT IF? series, they did a story about a hypothetical 1950s Avengers made up of actual fifties Marvel (then known as Atlas) characters and back-engineered characters who were supposed to have operated during the McCarthy era. The obscure lineup was made up of Marvel Boy, 3-D Man, Gorilla Man, the Human Robot, and Venus, Goddess of Love (as well as team FBI liason and later S.H.I.E.L.D. operative Jimmy Woo), and they fought hilariously out-of-date baddies like the Cold Warrior and Yellow Claw. After this one "imaginary" adventure, the Fifties Avengers went into mothballs until Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco dug them out for their epic AVENGERS FOREVER miniseries. Now, Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk have resurrected the team one more time for a new superspy mini, AGENTS OF ATLAS (get it?), where we see the "original" Avengers pressed into duty one more time when Fu Manchu wannabe Yellow Claw launches another plot for world domination. Parker spins a cool superspy throwback that weaves 1950s flashbacks into present-day intrigue, and Kirk's art recalls early Stuart Immonen (also, his Gorilla Man is awesomely emotive and his Human Robot looks like a scary, unstoppable Bender from FUTURAMA). I'm sure this team's origins in a WHAT IF? tale are going to give many fanboys a continuity migraine, but the real reason to complain here is the absence of founding member 3-D Man. What's the deal, has he been optioned for the big screen or something?
FANTASTIC FOUR #539: The action in this issue (which is set during the big battle in CIVIL WAR #3, or possibly last week's AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, I think) makes up for the talky previous issue, and Benjamin J. Grimm takes on the most reasonable viewpoint of anyone involved in CW so far; after seeing his beloved Yancy St. get trashed as a result of the skirmish between Cap's squad and Iron Man's team, the Thing tells everyone they're acting like idiots and he decides to leave the country. Seems reasonable enough to me. Also, I love the way Mike McKone draws Grimm's rocky hide--it looks like the orange stones that make up his "skin" actually move and shift, casting appropriate shadows when they do so. A better issue than many of the recent ones, but I don't think there's any way J. Michael Straczynski can salvage his pretentious and mostly boring work on this book.
UNCANNY X-MEN #477: It's perhaps a little telling that the only issue of Ed Brubaker's UXM run that I kinda like so far had no X-Men in it whatsoever, focusing instead on cosmic avenger Vulcan as he makes his way for the Sh'iar Empire to whup some triangle-headed ass (Um...what?). Here, Brubaker puts to bed any fears that I had about the his ability to go cosmic--the blood swath Vulcan cuts across the cosmos is terrifying and maybe a bit justified, given his origin (his mother was murdered by the Sh'iar, he was accelerated into adulthood and shuffled off into slavery, then when he finally returned to Earth, he was made a member of an X-Men team that died horribly on their first mission...only to have his entire existence, including his status as the long-rumoured third Summers brother, covered up by Professor X until the recent X-MEN: DEADLY GENESIS miniseries). However, this issue's strong showing may be the result of its solo character focus, which might mean that Brubaker's strengths don't tend towards group books. Clayton Henry provides solid, Terry Dodson-esque fill-in work...after only two issues by new series regular Billy Tan. This doesn't bode well for Tan, but I'd be happy to see Henry pop up here again. The jury's still out on this one.
I AM GOING TO BE SMALL GN: I'm not sure where I stand as far as indie sweetheart Jeffrey Brown is concerned. On the one hand, I find confessional-style autobiographical comics about relationship stuff to be largely self-indulgent, but some of his observations are funny and his crude artwork (which can actually be really well-rendered on occasion) is kind of charming. This book, which collects some of his earlier minicomics and "Cuticle" strips, didn't really sway me one way or another, but I definitely got some cheap laughs out of it. Many of the short strips contained here end with weird non-sequitur gags, cheap shots, or sudden, comical violence. This kind of collection can be funny in short bursts, but I don't recommend reading it all in one sitting. My favourite strip? A guy and a pregnant woman are having dinner in a restaurant, and the guy says to the waiter, "I'll have what she's having." The waiter responds, "What, a baby?" C'mon, that's funny.
DUSTY STARR #1: This series has appeared in one or more previous incarnations from Image Comics, but I've always somehow missed out on it. In more recent years, co-creator and artist Andrew Robinson (no relation to the guy who played the Scorpio Killer in DIRTY HARRY--at least, I don't think so...) provided a stellar run of painted covers in the latter half of the STARMAN series, which is why I was eager to check out this book's newest relaunch. And hoo boy, am I glad I did. I mean, I'm not entirely sure what the hell this series is about--it starts out like an Old West tale with bounty hunters out to kill the book's cowgirl protagonist, but then it's kinda modern, although maybe not)--but holy crap, this is one swell-looking comic book. Robinson's pen-and-ink art evokes dudes like Philip (KILL YOUR BOYFRIEND) Bond, Ty (BATMAN ADVENTURES) Templeton, Eduardo (100 BULLETS) Risso, and Jamie (TANK GIRL) Hewlett. Everything seems to be alive and in motion, tilted at unreal angles and drenched in cool-looking shadows. It's not often that a book with such a forgettable plot (co-written by Robinson and Joe Pruett) can be redeemed by killer artwork, but here's the proof.
I've decided to title the weekly reviews after a dumb quote from one of this week's books. This first offering comes courtesy of DC's BEWARE THE CREEPER #1. Who would ever say that? Anyway...
MOUSE GUARD #4: Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that a fantasy book about talking mice with tiny swords would be at the top of my reading pile every time it came out. Written and drawn by David Petersen, the six-part MOUSE GUARD miniseries tells the story of three furry little warriors charged with protecting their helpless brethren. Our heroes stumble upon a conspiracy against their homeland, and resort to a dangerous subterfuge to smoke out their enemies. This fourth issue finds two of the Mouse Guard held prisoner by a mysterious elderly warrior mouse who may be able to help them save their village of Lockhaven from the evil organization known as the Axe...if he doesn't kill them first, that is. Petersen's finely-detailed artwork flows perfectly with this book's expertly-paced blend of action and intrigue. Fans of the 1980s Don Bluth animated feature THE SECRET OF NIMH would do well to check this one out.
NAT TURNER ENCORE EDITION: Kyle Baker's historical drama about African slave rebellion leader Nat Turner gets a collected edition of its first two issues--the halfway point of the series, in other words. This slim, undersized volume is a good format for showcasing Baker's black-and-white, dialogue-free storytelling, and the smaller size doesn't lessen the punch of the book's harsh imagery (like a man throwing his infant child into shark-infested waters from the deck of a slave ship to spare the baby a life of servitude and abuse). Unfortunately, this material will probably be collected once more into a larger volume when the whole series is finished, but it's nice to have the out-of-print early issues of this important series available before it reaches its conclusion.
BATMAN: SON OF THE DEMON GN: Chances are, anyone who's ever talked about Batman stories with me has heard me go on about my insane love for this 1987 graphic novel by Mike W. Barr and Jerry Bingham. Well, guess what, sunshine? You're gonna sit through it one more time. Because of its recent relevance (last week's BATMAN #655, the debut issue by Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert, began a four-part sequel to this story), DC has reissued the out-of-print GN--originally available as a hardcover, reprinted later as an 8 1/2 X 11 softcover--in a cheap comic-sized reissue with a new cover by Kubert. Barr and Bingham's graphic novel combines James Bond-style thrills with an old-fashioned murder mystery as Batman teams up with his nemesis Ra's Al Ghul to take down the self-styled Demon's former protege before he can seize control of a weather-altering satellite and trigger a nuclear war with the USSR. This story has been the subject of some controversy in the intervening years, since the Caped Crusader finally consummates his relationship with Ra's Al Ghul's daughter Talia, who later gives birth to a son the Dark Knight doesn't know about (this grown-up Bat-Tyke can be seen on Luthor's side in KINGDOM COME, going by the name Ibn Al X'uffasch--"Son of the Bat" in Arabic). For much of the nineties, this storyline has been considered "out of continuity" by DC editors, but Morrison's new "Batman and Son" storyline seems to have squashed that idea. Good thing, too--if nothing else, it means this action-packed, lavishly illustrated story will be once more seen by a new generation of readers. The format of this reprint is a mite disappointing--no cardstock cover, no illustration or text (or ANYTHING, for that matter) on the inside covers, and at regular comic size, it's distractingly smaller than its original format--but still, it's hard to complain about this classic Batman yarn being available one more time.
DETECTIVE COMICS #822: Well, obviously, J.H. Williams III drawing this title on a regular basis was too good to last for too long, but I really thought he'd get more than one issue in the can before Grant Morrison finally sent him the script for SEVEN SOLDIERS #1. I mean, it's still Paul Dini writing, and we do still get a nicely self-contained mystery story of Batman actually being--get this--a detective, and we get the Riddler, who's always welcome as far as I'm concerned. However, we also get guest pencils by Don Kramer, who has some pretty big shoes to fill after last month and he's not quite up to it. Dini said at this year San Diego convention that his stories are not as self-contained as they initially seem; that's a good thing, because while I like the one-shot mystery stories, they come off as kinda inconsequential in the long run. This series has still shown remarkable improvement, but the buzz the previous issue gave me has worn off all too soon.
THE ALL-NEW ATOM #2: Another fun issue in a series that's, so far at least, much more sci-fi than superheroic. John Byrne's art is still better than usual, although he's apparently leaving after issue three (to be replaced by 52 contributor Eddy Barrows, which could be interesting). I gotta say, though, Gail Simone's literary device of inserting relevant quotes from scientific figures past, present, and imaginary (like Alec Holland and Will Magnus) has gotten old in record time.
BEWARE THE CREEPER #1: The taste of this new miniseries we were given in the recent DCU: BRAVE NEW WORLD special gave me higher hopes for this book, but sadly, I think I might have been hoodwinked. Justiniano's artwork is still appropriately...well, creepy, but writer Steve Niles' redo of TV personality Jack Ryder's transformation into the giggling, garish crimefighter is pretty uninspired. Also, I thought this kind of lazy thought-balloon abuse went out of style like, fifteen years ago. Here's an actual line of dialogue that Ryder thinks at one point: "Thank God for that 'Take Back The Night' defense course I took to get on the Fems' good side!" See what I mean? How many more issues is this gonna run for? FIVE? Good night!
THE EXTERMINATORS: BUG BROTHERS TP and THE EXTERMINATORS #8: It took me about three issues of this new Vertigo series before I decided I could start recommending it to people, and even then I had to think long and hard about who I could recommend it to. Obviously, a darkly humourous and often disgusting mix of William S. Burroughs' NAKED LUNCH and the 1997 Guillermo Del Toro giant roach flick MIMIC is not going to appeal to everyone, but I have found myself drawn to this oddball title's nasty orbit. This grotesque and funny ongoing series follows Henry James, ex-con and newly employed L.A. roach exterminator, and his adventures as part of the Bug-Bee-Gone team. While dealing with weirdo co-workers--zen cowboys, bug eaters, and other social deviants--Henry uncovers evidence that the very poison he uses to wipe out cockroaches may be mutating the vermin into something way more dangerous, and a mysterious scarab-emblazoned lockbox may hold the key to an upcoming evolutionary struggle. Newcomer Simon Oliver shows a good grasp of dialogue, suspense, and carefully-plotted gory mayhem, and original WALKING DEAD series artist Tony Moore brings an Evan Dorkin-like level of detail and expression to the eclectic cast. The first five issues, comprising the "Bug Brothers" arc, was released this week in one of Vertigo's super-cheap (thirteen bucks CDN) trade paperbacks--or, five issues for just over the price of three. Also this week, the new issue of the ongoing series arrives, featuring a fill-in by guest artist Chris Samnee. The insect uprising plotline takes a back seat to a focus on the two women in Henry's life--career-climber Laura and "literary fantasy establishment" dancer Page. This is a nice character spotlight issue, one that's not a great jumping-on point for new readers, but pretty vital to regular fans.
AGENTS OF ATLAS #1: Okay, bear with me here; in the original WHAT IF? series, they did a story about a hypothetical 1950s Avengers made up of actual fifties Marvel (then known as Atlas) characters and back-engineered characters who were supposed to have operated during the McCarthy era. The obscure lineup was made up of Marvel Boy, 3-D Man, Gorilla Man, the Human Robot, and Venus, Goddess of Love (as well as team FBI liason and later S.H.I.E.L.D. operative Jimmy Woo), and they fought hilariously out-of-date baddies like the Cold Warrior and Yellow Claw. After this one "imaginary" adventure, the Fifties Avengers went into mothballs until Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco dug them out for their epic AVENGERS FOREVER miniseries. Now, Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk have resurrected the team one more time for a new superspy mini, AGENTS OF ATLAS (get it?), where we see the "original" Avengers pressed into duty one more time when Fu Manchu wannabe Yellow Claw launches another plot for world domination. Parker spins a cool superspy throwback that weaves 1950s flashbacks into present-day intrigue, and Kirk's art recalls early Stuart Immonen (also, his Gorilla Man is awesomely emotive and his Human Robot looks like a scary, unstoppable Bender from FUTURAMA). I'm sure this team's origins in a WHAT IF? tale are going to give many fanboys a continuity migraine, but the real reason to complain here is the absence of founding member 3-D Man. What's the deal, has he been optioned for the big screen or something?
FANTASTIC FOUR #539: The action in this issue (which is set during the big battle in CIVIL WAR #3, or possibly last week's AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, I think) makes up for the talky previous issue, and Benjamin J. Grimm takes on the most reasonable viewpoint of anyone involved in CW so far; after seeing his beloved Yancy St. get trashed as a result of the skirmish between Cap's squad and Iron Man's team, the Thing tells everyone they're acting like idiots and he decides to leave the country. Seems reasonable enough to me. Also, I love the way Mike McKone draws Grimm's rocky hide--it looks like the orange stones that make up his "skin" actually move and shift, casting appropriate shadows when they do so. A better issue than many of the recent ones, but I don't think there's any way J. Michael Straczynski can salvage his pretentious and mostly boring work on this book.
UNCANNY X-MEN #477: It's perhaps a little telling that the only issue of Ed Brubaker's UXM run that I kinda like so far had no X-Men in it whatsoever, focusing instead on cosmic avenger Vulcan as he makes his way for the Sh'iar Empire to whup some triangle-headed ass (Um...what?). Here, Brubaker puts to bed any fears that I had about the his ability to go cosmic--the blood swath Vulcan cuts across the cosmos is terrifying and maybe a bit justified, given his origin (his mother was murdered by the Sh'iar, he was accelerated into adulthood and shuffled off into slavery, then when he finally returned to Earth, he was made a member of an X-Men team that died horribly on their first mission...only to have his entire existence, including his status as the long-rumoured third Summers brother, covered up by Professor X until the recent X-MEN: DEADLY GENESIS miniseries). However, this issue's strong showing may be the result of its solo character focus, which might mean that Brubaker's strengths don't tend towards group books. Clayton Henry provides solid, Terry Dodson-esque fill-in work...after only two issues by new series regular Billy Tan. This doesn't bode well for Tan, but I'd be happy to see Henry pop up here again. The jury's still out on this one.
I AM GOING TO BE SMALL GN: I'm not sure where I stand as far as indie sweetheart Jeffrey Brown is concerned. On the one hand, I find confessional-style autobiographical comics about relationship stuff to be largely self-indulgent, but some of his observations are funny and his crude artwork (which can actually be really well-rendered on occasion) is kind of charming. This book, which collects some of his earlier minicomics and "Cuticle" strips, didn't really sway me one way or another, but I definitely got some cheap laughs out of it. Many of the short strips contained here end with weird non-sequitur gags, cheap shots, or sudden, comical violence. This kind of collection can be funny in short bursts, but I don't recommend reading it all in one sitting. My favourite strip? A guy and a pregnant woman are having dinner in a restaurant, and the guy says to the waiter, "I'll have what she's having." The waiter responds, "What, a baby?" C'mon, that's funny.
DUSTY STARR #1: This series has appeared in one or more previous incarnations from Image Comics, but I've always somehow missed out on it. In more recent years, co-creator and artist Andrew Robinson (no relation to the guy who played the Scorpio Killer in DIRTY HARRY--at least, I don't think so...) provided a stellar run of painted covers in the latter half of the STARMAN series, which is why I was eager to check out this book's newest relaunch. And hoo boy, am I glad I did. I mean, I'm not entirely sure what the hell this series is about--it starts out like an Old West tale with bounty hunters out to kill the book's cowgirl protagonist, but then it's kinda modern, although maybe not)--but holy crap, this is one swell-looking comic book. Robinson's pen-and-ink art evokes dudes like Philip (KILL YOUR BOYFRIEND) Bond, Ty (BATMAN ADVENTURES) Templeton, Eduardo (100 BULLETS) Risso, and Jamie (TANK GIRL) Hewlett. Everything seems to be alive and in motion, tilted at unreal angles and drenched in cool-looking shadows. It's not often that a book with such a forgettable plot (co-written by Robinson and Joe Pruett) can be redeemed by killer artwork, but here's the proof.
