This week I picked up 2 major releases from DC, neither of which blew me away. Please note that the following reviews feature mad spoilers, yo.
Batman and Robin #4: I kvetched in advance about Frank Quitely’s successor on this title, Philip Tan, and I can now say it was not for nothing. One of the greatest storytellers in the industry is followed up by a guy who should be doing fill-ins for Top Cow, and result is a real splash of cold water. Morrison still delivers on story but the real hero of this issue is inker Jonathan Glapion, who is seemingly trying to salvage these train wreck visuals with some nice textures and some stark (and obscuring) blacks. I’ll ride out this jobbed out 3-issue arc, comforted by the announcement that the next one will be drawn by Cameron Stewart (illustrator of Seaguy), who will surely deliver.
As for the story itself, I was initially intrigued by the new Red Hood but really disappointed with the reveal that he’s Jason Todd (presumably~maybe it’s a fake-out and we’ll get a break…). Why they brought back a character that nobody liked in the first place eludes me, and why he’s still around years later is simply baffling. I’ll wait and see if Morrison can successfully shine this turd, but hopefully he’ll bump him off instead. Seriously, is there a 900 number I can call so the folks at DC will off this chump?
Blackest Night #3: That night just keeps getting blacker, lemme tell ya. This is definitely a solid series that’s worthy of its big event status, but this issue just didn’t quite do what I wanted it to. Maybe it’s because I’m not a longtime DC fan, but certain character emphasis just don’t do anything for me. Last issue I worked my way through some Aquaman family antics, and this time we get a whole lot of Firestorm, and in both cases I was really searching for a point of interest to grab on to. It’s odd how we get these spotlights throughout this series on lesser characters without a whole lot of explanation as to why they’re interesting (although I was fairly sold on the Hawks in issue 1), and yet we’re constantly brought up to speed on the GL mythology that serves as the catalyst for the story. This issue we’re given the lowdown on the various colored power rings and their history by the newly revealed Indigo tribe leader, but I’ve been following this story in the GL books since the Sinestro Corps War, so I know all about the rings and the War of Light and so any exposition about these things is superfluous to me. However, I know close to nothing about Firestorm (neither the new one or the old one, who’s apparently dead) and am given very little to orient me as to what his deal is or why I should care. I wonder if one of the goals of this series is to breathe some life into the C-list? I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see new Hawkman, Aquaman and Firestorm series’ after this is done…
I don’t wanna harsh on this too much, because it really was pretty good. The story moved ahead in some engaging and significant ways: We saw the arrival of the Indigo tribe, a very cool and satisfying explanation as to how the Black rings work, and a much better Barry Allen than we’ve been seeing in the pages of Flash: Reborn.
I guess what this issue really left me with blue balls over was some big ass space war scenes. I’ve spent that last few years learning about the various Lanterns, all the while anticipating the big cosmic beat-down that was being set up. We saw some great stuff in that regard in the most recent issue of Green Lantern, but you know what? Blackest Night is the big event book, and that is where I want my space war to happen. Seeing as how we’re just under halfway though this thing, it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s on its way, but all I’m saying is it can’t come soon enough…
Like most weeks, Marvel left me empty handed, so I thought I might at least report on a little sumthin sumthin I picked up last Wednesday…
Strange Tales #1: Some of you readers may not know this, but in my civilian identity I’m quite the Indy enthusiast. As such, I’m always interested when one of the big 2 puts out an anthology wherein Indy creators are more or less given free reign. I’m pretty sure this series is more a case of Marvel having a bunch of these stories laying around than a planned anthology, but regardless of how it came together the result is pretty fun. Highlights include a hilarious and quirky Spiderman story by Junko Mizuno, a Doctor Strange story by Dash Shaw that celebrates the ridiculousness of the character, a Hulk story by Peter Bagge that certainly amuses even if the creators heart’s not necessarily in it, a few clever gag strips by Nicholas Gurewitch, and probably the highlight of this issue is a Spiderman story by Jason in which Peter takes out his insecurities on Dr. Octopus (doesn’t he always?).
A few contributions are a little phoned in. Paul Pope isn’t necessarily disappointing, but his Inhumans story pales in comparison to what he’s been delivering in Wednesday Comics, James Kochalka cashes a check with his incidental Hulk story, and John Leavitt and Molly Crabapple provide a She-Hulk story that’s pretty much unreadable.
It’s a mixed bag, but the highs are high enough that it’s worth picking up, even for the 5 dollar price tag (5 bucks!??! Yikes!). Maybe I’m just having Marvel withdrawal, as my decision to abstain from all things Dark reign has me buying fewer books than ever. This brings me to my latest hobby of trying to fill that void by buying old trades I can never find in the store online for like 2 dollars. This will likely be come a regular feature on this site, starting with a book that will be tough to beat:
The Incredible Hulk and the Thing in: The Big Change: This was part of Marvels Graphic Novel series in the ‘80’s. I read it when I was a kid but never managed to get my hands on a copy until I did some internetting last. There’s always a fear with stuff like this that the reality of it will pale in comparison to the memory, but in this case it totally lived up. Written by Jim Starlin with PHENOMINAL art by the great Berni Wrightson, all this book tries to do is tell a fun story with the Hulk and the Thing, and boy does it deliver! Out of the blue, our 2 dumb strongmen are transported to an alien world where they are roped into a rescue mission in exchange for 2 wishes. The story isn’t exactly complex, but the interplay between the Hulk and Thing is downright hilarious, and every page is gorgeous. I wish Marvel would release more well crafted stand alone stories that didn’t take themselves so damn seriously.
I’m hesitant to buy online when the store provides, but this one really is hard to come by… You can find it on Amazon for less money than Marvel’s standard cover price. I give it my highest recommendation!
-Billy Superstar
Incognito #6. This week, the last issue of a remarkable series by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips came out. Incognito was the story of a supervillan, Zack Overkill, who went into witness protection after his twin brother was killed. I really thought this comic was adult in the best sense of the word. It wasn’t “adult” because it has swearing, sex and drug use (although it did have all that), it was adult because the characters were complex, and although they were in a superhero setting, they dealt with issues like love, aging and, my personal favorite, misspent youth. Brubaker makes it pretty clear here that he intends to return to these characters in the future, which is fine by me, because I think this may be the coolest stuff he and Sean Phillips have done so far.
