Our Underwear #6 – Jerry Springer love triangle (Last week in review)

October 13, 2011

By John Velousis

Part 1 – All names are changed to protect the fallen.

I used to live above a very trendy bar in Chicago, which we’ll call Fabletown. The bar owner / landlord was a legendary party rocker named Basil Chalke, formerly of the Chicago punk legends the Unusual Seizures, then the party-punk band the Grab-Asses. Anyhow, the evening I moved into the third-floor apartment, one of my new roommates – my friend Dave “the cyclone” Smith – took me out for a night of drinking and carousing. Said evening eventually got a LOT more interesting when Dave and I ended picking up two chicks and a guy at Brainiac’s Bar. The three were in town as a love triangle to appear on Jerry Springer’s show, exaggerating their problems with their 3-way romance in exchange for the free plane tickets to Chicago, plus hotel arrangements. The evening ended up getting… sexy. But that’s a story for another time.

Triangle 2 — This analog pic will NEVER be put on the net unedited. Only a cad would do that!

The reason I’m bringing it up here, in a column about comic books, is because people are mostly free to do what they want to do, but they usually don’t. Yes, I COULD just stick to the ostensible point of this piece, whatever that may end up being. But if I did that, then YOU would never hear the beginning of my story about the time me and Dave picked up a Jerry Springer love triangle, took them back to our place, and so on. Where’s the fun in that?

Part 2 – LAST week in review? Why? Am I some kinda idiot or something?

By way of discussing Jeff Parker (Hulk, Thunderbolts), I started out writing, for real, precisely why superhero comics are like Lars von Trier. After WAY too much material about that, I started over just summarizing Parker’s career to date as an artist (illustrator, writer, etc.) The summary got me up to 2008, took 1009 words, and slew my ass at 3:15 AM.

So, if this column seems even more half-assed than usual, it makes a lot of sense to blame Jeff Parker for having an odd career path.

Ba! — Gabriel Ba cover for Casanova: Avaritia #2

Casanova: Avaritia II

W: Matt Fraction
A: Gabriel Ba
Col: Cris Peter
Let: Dustin K Harbin

Integer representing overall artistic value: 9 / 10

It’s hard to review Casanova for a lot of reasons, some personal having to do with obscure artistic sins that I perceive in Matt Fraction’s past, but most having to do with the subject matter itself. On the surface, the comic (in its present incarnation) seems to be a sci-fi spy hodge-podge about closing alternate realities. But Casanova is very much more than that and always has been. It’s about reading and listening to music and watching movies. It’s about sharing experiences with friends, and about the things we all know together (“the collective unconsciousness” is the term from Repo Man that comes to mind.) MUCH of it is about the creative process itself.

When a character needles another with the phrase “Billy Pilgrim’s precious little life,” that single line radiates into every direction in my skull: Billy Pilgrim is the un-stuck-in-time protagonist of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five (possibly also the most autobiographical of Vonnegut’s early novels); “Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life” is the first volume of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s wonderful 6-volume magnum opus about life, love, and 8-bit video games. The referentialism is NOT just intended to say, “Look here, look at what I’ve read, big me!” Quite to the contrary, rather than a personal celebration of the creator, its an embrace of brotherhood. It’s Joe Strummer saying something like, “Don’t forget you’re alive. We’re all alive at the same time in history in the same moment, you know?” Joe was trying to look as hard as he could at the things that make us all the same, instead of putting our differences under the microscope. I can’t help but think that this is what Fraction is doing here too with Casanova.

The eponymous character, unfortunately, has been trapped into an abnegation of that very sentiment. Casanova Quinn is sent over and over to murder a man -Luther Desmond Diamond – who is supposed to become the world’s (or the multiverse’s?) greatest villain, but he is a man who Cass knows could and should be his brother. The series has always had a heaping helping of Nic Roeg & Donald Cammel’s Performance in it (a film which also heavily informs the recent League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1969) among its smorgasbord of references, with its willingness to blur the lines between protagonist and antagonist. In quick order, the new issue piles onto that by having various dead Luther Diamonds resemble Klaus Nomi, Elton John, Iggy Pop, and on. The LDD who is hung, one hopes, is not meant to evoke Michael Hutchence.

Eventually, Luther Desmond Diamond manifests as a comic book creator who MUCH resembles Matt Fraction himself, in a vignette that brutally dissects an artist’s feelings of self-doubt. THEN, he doubles down on self-hatred with a sequence laying bare a writer’s desperation upon finding his self stuck in a rut. Look:

Smarmy alt text — Smarmy joking caption.

But thanks to Gabriel Ba, it’s beautiful, is it not? Had Jeff Parker not already used “A life of the mind” (a quote from Barton Fink, a FILM about writer’s block) as a story title, it may very well have been the title of this chapter.

HOWEVER, having personally written dozens (maybe hundreds, hard to say) of songs, I have to opine that the description in this issue of how the song-writer character writes a song seems… well, idiotic. But don’t despair, Mr. Fraction, the world can forgive.

Throughout this issue, and this series, the ideas flow; Fraction lays his heart bare and exposed; and the art team kills it. If you’re NOT reading this, you’re being left behind.

Stormwatch #2

SW 2 — Uh, sometimes less is better, okay?

W: Paul Cornell
A: Miguel Sepulveda & Al Barrionuevo
C: Alex Sinclair
L: Rob Leigh

Grade: 6 / 10 ? Maybe TBD would be better?

Paul Cornell was half of the team (along with Jimmy Broxton) responsible for 2010’s sweet-as-honey miniseries, Knight and Squire. If you loved Marvel’s The Age of the Sentry from 2008, you’d surely love K&S, and vice-versa. Cornell also wrote the much-missed Captain Britain and MI-13, peaking in storytelling skill JUST as Marvel canceled it. As such, he has a LOT of credit in my Trust-This-Artist bank. Which is good, because now he’s spending it. In this title, we’ve now had two issues of stroking, but not so much as a dribble of pre-cum. Part of the confusion comes from the cast. In the new DC universe, we have no idea as of yet who anybody TRULY is. So, while having a large cast of characters mixed together from the Wildstorm universe (the Engineer, Jenny Quantum, Apollo, Midnighter, Jack Hawksmoor), the regular DCU (the Martian Manhunter), and from god-knows-where (Adam One, the Swordsman, Projectionist) may be confusing under normal circumstances, here it’s a maelstrom of confusion. On TOP of this, Cornell has made in-team political jockeying for leadership the B-story of the piece. Absent the other elements I mentioned, that might make for a fascinating wrinkle on the genre, but as an introductory storyline, so far it just seems ill-timed. Cornell has done awesome things before, though, and recently at that, so he’s earned at least one full arc out of me.

Invincible #83

W: Robert Kirkman
A: Ryan Ottley (with a Cliff Rathburn assist)

Rahr! — "Let's kick some ass and make sure neither of us gets totally killed! WOO!"

C: John Rauch (not the tall MLB relief pitcher, who lacks an ‘h’)
L: Rus Wooton

Grade: 9 / 10

For a color comic book about superheroes that features but a single on-page death, the news of which isn’t even KNOWN to most of our characters (and they’re unlikely to care anyhow,) it’s amazing how much this issue is covered with a patina of grief. The hero of the title, Invincible, is haunted by recent events. Specifically, a supervillain with an ULTRA radical environmentalist agenda set off a bomb that killed everybody in downtown Las Vegas. Although a few issues have gone by since that event, Mark “Invincible” Grayson still carries that event on his shoulders, allowing the tragedy to inform his every action.

His friends, Robot and Monster Girl, have returned from their trip to another dimension. While eight months passed in Invinci-world, for those two, twelve YEARS passed, and THEIR torment and regret about what happened there is palpable, though we don’t know exactly what happened yet.

Finally, the on-page death that we DO see, that of one super-villain killed by another, sends the killed baddie’s best friend / possible lover into a sort of “Dark Phoenix” version of HIS powers (which I haven’t the slightest idea how to describe.) When he reasserts his will, hours have passed and HE, too, is then given over to grief. All of this is from the masterful pen of Robert Kirkman, and it is certainly no accident that this curtain of sorrow happens to follow a recent revelation of a months-past action by Invincible’s lover, Eve, that seems horribly tragic with the benefit of hindsight.

With Invincible, Kirkman has taken the soap opera stylings brought to comics with Chris Claremont’s first X-Men run, and he’s perfected the form. I am, by nature, an extremely critical person, so it’s odd for me to be passing out so many complimentary statements about so many creators. But, it just happens that we live in a time when giants walk the Earth. With this book, Kirkman proves himself a Titan among them. (Titans are bigger.)

House of Mystery #42 (of 42)

W: Matt Sturges, with Bill Willingham and Steven T Seagle
A, C, L: Luca Rossi, Jose Marzan, Jr., Lee Loughridge, Todd Klein, Esao Andrews, Tony Akins, and Teddy Kristiansen.

Score: 7.5 / 10

This series was a gem. I wish I had more time to explore its mysteries, its delights and charms. An anthology with a through-line from the guys responsible for Jack of Fables – Matt Sturges and Bill Willingham – with an astonishing cast of contributors over its run (see below), HoM was a bon-bon month in and month out, with delicious cherry cordials vastly outnumbering the occasional Spring Surprise.

Contributors included Darwyn Cooke, Jill Thompson, Kyle Baker, Bernie Wrightson, Neal Adams, Gilbert Hernandez, Eric Powell, Peter Milligan, Matt Wagner, Mike Allred, Mark Buckingham, Richard Corben, Sergio Aragonés, Farel Dalrymple, Sam Kieth, John Bolton, and many, many more. It’s a shame that Sturges ran out of passion for the series, but it is the right of any artist to choose NOT to force inspiration. The series will be missed.

MASSIVE! — Seems more of a Prodigy to me.

OMAC #2

W & A: Keith Giffen and Dan DiDio

Inks: Scott Koblish
C: Hi-Fi
L: Travis Lanham

Designation: 8.5 / 10

A Jack Kirby homage, not far removed from Image Comics’ Jersey Gods – but with the advantage of being allowed to play with actual Kirby creations, this particular issue treats us to a great big King-of-comics-style slugfest for most of the issue. I would place the lion’s share of credit for the excellence herein squarely on the shoulders of the great Keith Giffen. Had he retired forever after the creation of Ambush Bug, Giffen would deserve a place in the pantheon of comics immortals for that alone. But he did not, and now we have this to show for it. I’ll leave it for Mr. Giffen to give the final words of this section. Let’s pretend this is his answer to the question, “What actually happened to Ambush Bug Year None #6?”

Part 3 – Weekly honors!

Boring cover of the week

It was actually a pretty damned good week for comic book covers, but Tony Daniel worked his magic and created the most boring image possible of Batman flying the Batplane. Kudos, Mr. Daniel – or should I say, POO-dos?

Comic of the week

Tie: Casanova #2 and / or Invincible #83 (both reviewed on this very page!)

And now, ’til we meet again, adios, au revoir, and auf wiedersehen.

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Review: Uncanny X-Force #16

Roger Riddell

October 13, 2011

Uncanny X-Force #16
Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Jerome Opeña

Quick recap: The Dark Angel Saga is in full swing. Wolverine and Warren Worthington III (AKA Angel) have been operating a covert strike team called X-Force, also consisting of Psylocke, Deadpool and Fantomex. Ever since the previous X-Force title, Angel has been fighting to suppress his murderous alter-ego, Archangel — a product of genetic tampering by the mutant Apocalypse, who made Worthington his Horseman of Death.

During the first Uncanny X-Force storyline, which wrapped earlier this year, the reincarnated Apocalypse was assassinated by X-Force, leaving Archangel an opening to overtake Worthington for good. It was revealed last issue that the Horseman of Death always ascends to the roll of Apocalypse in the event of the current Apocalypse’s death. X-Force, wanting to stop Worthington’s ascension, were tricked into retrieving a ‘life seed’ from the Age of Apocalypse — an alternate timeline where Charles Xavier was killed and Apocalypse took over the world — by Dark Beast. They returned to find that Archangel had already ascended to become Apocalypse.

To make this short, Archangel and his followers stole the Life Seed from X-Force, left Wolverine incapacitated by overloading his healing factor, and kidnapped Psylocke — with whom Worthington is romantically involved — in order for Archangel to convert her into his new Horseman of Death. Meanwhile, Archangel also had Genocide, the offspring of the former Apocalypse, destroy an entire town in Montana so he could use the Life Seed to create “Tabula Rasa” — a new world with entirely new organisms that he and his followers believe will worship them as gods.

WHEW! That’s a lot to swallow.

Uncanny X-Force #16 continues Rick Remender’s amazing run on the series. To put out 16 issues of a book in a year while maintaining an undeniable understanding of each of its characters and giving them all equal real estate is no small feat. This is especially impressive for someone who has also been holding down a run on Venom for the past six months.

The amount of humor that Remender manages to work into a book with such dark themes is astounding, and he uses Deadpool to full effect to accomplish this. This issue in particular features several laugh-out-loud moments involving ‘Pool’s psychotic rambling and Fantomex being caught in a rather…erm…compromising situation with Age of Apocalypse Blob.

Often maligned by fans as being overused in the Marvel Universe, Wolverine actually takes a backseat to the other characters in this book, with Remender preferring to let the other characters shine by bringing out the strong-but-silent leader in Logan.

As for the art, Jerome Opeña and Dean White’s panels strike a nice balance between traditional comic art and modern realism. At times, there are almost similarities to the work of Dave Gibbons and John Higgins on Watchmen. There are even similarities between the color palettes.

With an ample supply of action, suspense and dark humor, Uncanny X-Force is arguably the X-book to read right now. Despite being on part six, The Dark Angel Saga hasn’t felt nearly as long as story lines half its size in other books.

Story: 9/10
Art: 9.5/10

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Review: Amazing Spider-Man #671

Roger Riddell

October 13, 2011

Amazing Spider-Man #671
Writer: Dan Slott
Artist: Humberto Ramos

According to the “One Moment In Time” retcon that explained the events that ended Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson’s relationship (Remember…They were never really married now) in the deus ex machina that was 2007’s “One More Day,” the reason the two went their separate ways was because Mary Jane couldn’t deal with Pete being Spidey anymore. She didn’t understand the obsession he had with the responsibility that came with his powers, and so on.

With that in mind, fans of the Pete/M.J. dynamic must have been thrilled by the opening panels of Dan Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man #671, as the redheaded bombshell finally came down with the Jackal’s “spider flu” virus that infected Manhattan — giving her spider powers. Seeing Mary Jane utter the words “So this is what it’s like? Hate to admit it, but I get it now…I really get it on every level” will undoubtedly add fuel to the “Restore the Marriage” crowd, especially those who aren’t particularly sold on Pete’s current fling, Carlie Cooper.

Speaking of which, where’s Carlie gone since becoming another spider monster and why has that completely slipped Pete’s mind? Furthermore, how will he react when he learns M.J. has the virus? Answers for the next issue, I suppose.

Anyways, Pete starts off the issue where we left him last issue, still trying to stop the now-spider-monster Jonah Jameson from killing Smythe — who, if you recall, murdered Jameson’s wife way back in Amazing Spider-Man #654. After pulling Jameson off of Smythe and quarantined him in his own command center, Spidey heads back to his lab at Horizon to assist with the cure being developed from the Anti-Venom symbiote’s cells.

I can’t really say much from there without spoiling anything, but the issue has several big reveals, particularly who the scientist in Lab #6 is. There are also a few big developments regarding Spider-Man’s powers, the Queen’s plot, and the futures of Anti-Venom, Tarantula/Kaine, and the Jackal.

Now on part five, this storyline continues to move along at a solid pace. The only thing that has really been distracting is the cheesy dialogue of the Jackal and the Queen. Anyone who read the “Clone Saga” of the mid-90s surely remembers just how unbelievable the Jackal’s dialogue can be, and it really hasn’t changed much. Other than that, Slott continues an otherwise stellar run with this issue.

Ramos’ art remains impressive (and I’ll be the first to admit I wasn’t a huge fan back when he was on Wolverine). It’s never hard to figure out what’s going on from panel to panel, and that can make or break a book with this much action.

Story: 9/10
Art: 9/10

Fun Easter Egg: Lines of Mortal Kombat dialogue like “FINISSSH HIM!” and “GET OVERRR HEEER!” (complete with Kaine web-yanking Spidey towards him) are mixed into several fight panels.

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Ultimate Comics All-New Spider-Man #3

nSandilands

October 13, 2011

Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. Holy talk. I mean seriously. Talk. Then some action, talk, talk talk. Spider-Man has been shot! SCENE!

I am fairly sure that is how Bendis wrote this script. In all seriousness yet another issue goes by without Miles in costume (except for on the cover), and not only that the issue is still set “Months Ago.” I get that Bendis wants us to care about the character of Miles, but for godsakes, nothing happens. The book is mostly just dialogue between Miles and his friend Ganke, about how Miles doesn’t want powers, and Ganke thinks it is the coolest thing that his best friend has Spider powers. I mean, I really feel like I am listening to a bunch of kids having a conversation, which I guess to be fair is the point, right Bendis? I guess you want to prove that you can write any character even a couple of 14-year-old kids.

Long story short, nothing really happens, you find out Miles’ Uncle Aaron aka Ultimate Prowler moved suddenly from his apartment and left it abandoned. Miles reluctantly saves a kid from a fire, and then freaks out about how he doesn’t want to be a hero, argues with his friend, starts school, and finds out Spider-Man has been shot. (Since this is set “Months Ago” this is taking place right around Death of Spider-Man took place. Stuff needs to start happening, I’m not sure I can handle one more issue without this guy getting into costume. It’s fine that he wants to give us back story to make us care about the characters and such, but do it in a flashback. This is Spider-Man not American Splendor. I think. Unless American Splendor is nothing like I remembered. My recommendation, read this one in the shop. Save your $3.99. Not that I need to repeat it again, but Sarah Pichelli’s art is still gangbusters. Can’t wait to see what she does with some “Action.” Ahem.

Story: 4/10

Art: 10/10

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Review: Batwoman #2

mDeVivo

October 13, 2011

Batwoman #2

Story : J.H. Williams III & W. Haden Blackman

Art : J.H. Williams III

Review Score : 8/10

This issue starts at a break neck pace. Batwoman and her cousin / sidekick are in the middle of breaking up a robbery on a routine patrol night. Immediately you are taken back at how amazing the art is in this book. There is a sense of rhythm and pacing to the brawl that makes you stare in awe at each page. J.H uses a very cool X-Ray technique showing you the bone structure of each robber as they get punched , kicked and chopped by Kate and her cousin. We find out that Bruce has invited Batwoman to join Batman INC. and she has yet to make up her mind whether she should or not. The back and forth banter between the two siblings is a very typical way our writers catch us up to speed on the events of last issue . Cut to Detective Sawyer who is rudely greeted by D.E.O Cameron Chase. Chase wants Batwoman unmasked under her custody . She takes a few more swipes at Sawyer and then leaves her card with her urging her to contact her if she hears anything.

The writers choose to flesh out Kate’s Character a bit more this issue . Having her go out on her first date with Detective Sawyer , who is unaware that Kate and Batwoman are one and the same . The date goes well and it is nice to see Kate a bit playful when interacting on the date . She definitely isn’t shoe horned into some cliché lesbian stereotype at all in this book. It’ s nice to see a strong female lead character who isn’t just your typical run of the mill heroine. I think whats really interesting is that from my perspective Kate Kane and Bruce Wayne are a lot alike . Both heroes tend to be brooding and almost obsessed while wearing the cape and cowl , and self assure and flirtatious in their respective romantic lives.

While this issue is good there are a few things that detract from it being great. There are too many story threads that are left dangling . Towards the end they throw two other possible villains in an already crowded book . I’m worried that this will hurt the story down the line unless they find a way to pull a few of these characters together by next issue. Towards the end of the issue we see Detective Sawyer breaking down a crime scene involving two warring gangs with D.E.O Cameron Chase . One group has a storied past with Kate and the others loyalties remain to be seen. Later that night Batwoman breaks into Detective Sawyers file cabinet and learns the last known location of the weeping woman. She escapes out of a window and Detective Sawyer has no choice but to call D.E.O Chase to alert her that she knows exactly where Batwoman is headed. Kate arrives to the boat house and quickly investigates underneath the dock. The last page makes things look pretty bleak for Kate going into next issue .

J.H. Williams continues to blow me away with his page layouts and choreography

I continue to be amazed month in and out by J.H Williams amazing art . He truly is in a league of his own when it comes to layouts , and being able to tell a clear story in new and inventive ways. However his writing alongside Blackman needs some work. They have established a strong set of characters in this book. Now they have to narrow their focus on telling a less cluttered story. This again is my only complaint with an otherwise strong effort from both creators.

Mike DeVivo

Follow me on twitter @pandasandrobots

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Review: Monocyte #1

Matthew Sardo

October 10, 2011

Monocyte #1
Written by Kasra Ghanbari, Menton Matthews III.

Two warring immortal races rule a scarred world where time has no meaning. Death (Azrael) sits impotent, quietly planning his restoration. He summons Monocyte, a forgotten immortal necromancer who long ago chose sleep in his failed quest to die. With a fatal pact sealed, Monoctye strikes out as Azrael’s vicious proxy. Art by menton3 (ZvR: Aventure, Silent Hill) and co-written by Kasra Ghanbari.

Review Score: 8/10
Monocyte is a four issue bi-monthly series. Right away when you pick up the book you will notice that Matthews’ art style works for the genre of story that he and Ghanbari are telling. This dark future of immortal races with “Death” knocking on the door.

The first issue introduces all the main characters of the story and gives you a glimpse of the action to come. This is a non-traditional comic book with some pages letting the artwork deliver the story with little to no dialogue. Then there are some pages that are full of information on the characters with one static image. These static pages act as a well-timed break in story telling. The closing passage of Shakespeare’s Henry V adds to the flare of the book. It indicates that there will be a grand scope and not everyone is who they seem.

I gave Monocyte an 8 of 10 because the book needs just a bit more script. The art and concept grabbed me but the script is what will hold me. Matthews and Ghanbari have a solid background in the subject matter and I’m betting that will shine in later issues.

Monocyte is a book that takes a chance at being different and succeeds.

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Our Underwear #5 – Money is a false god that I will stab a hundred times in the face.

velousis

October 10, 2011

Part 1 – Gimme some Action!

His balls! Zap his balls! — I've had worse.

Action Comics #2
W: Grant Morrison
A: Rags Morales
Grade: 8 / 10

When I read Action Comics #1, I thought, “Huh. [This obscure writer, whoever the hell he is,] is going back to Superman’s roots. Sweet move.” Then, I sat back and looked for bloggers and maybe even newspaper writers to point this out also. I’m not sure if I did this thing symbolically or literally – honestly, I could have put more thought into this whole paragraph, but shit, it’s not like I’m getting paid for it, knowwhatI’msayin? Anyway, I was surprised more than a bit to see nobody mention this, considering that reviewers seem to LOVE talking about characters or artists going back to their roots.

Action Comics #2 came out this last Wednesday, and its backup feature had loads of materiel from Messrs. Morrison and Morales (and seeming Artist-to-be Gene Ha – which, BTW, yay!) talking about, yep, taking Supes Back To His Roots (hereafter abbreviated as BTHR.) Take it away, Laurie Anderson: “And I said, ‘Oh boy. Right. Again.‘”

The thing is, taking Superman BTHR makes a crazy ton of sense. Why? Because the Man of Steel’s roots, as crafted by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster during the ass-end of the Great Depression, depicted a character who often, if not usually, used his personal power to beset abusers of institutional or collective power. The Man of Tomorrow took the fight to the Haves who gained their perch by stepping on the heads of many of the Have-nots. In other words, he fucked with rich people’s shit.

Rats with MONEY. — My favorite holiday is Bastille Day. I bet you won't look it up.

The decision to take Ma & Pa Kent’s boy in this direction is simultaneously somehow an obvious move and a maverick one. Obvious because the disparity between the rich and everybody else (probably everywhere, but for sure in the US of A) is greater than ever – so much so that it would be a meme if eternal things like “The sky is above us” or “The sun rises in the East” or “This Democratic President is disappointingly conservative” could be memes. Maverick because everybody else in the damn world has a depressing tendency to REMOVE socio-economic subtext from their re-imaginings of previous works. For example, the 1975 Norman Jewison film Rollerball, which is set in a future where the world is run by a dictatorship of corporations, was remade in 2002 and set in the present, with corporate dictatorship no longer a major theme. If you weren’t aware, corporations have NOT become less powerful since 1975. Hell, they remade Death Race 2000 (Paul Bartel, 1976) and took out the system of points-gained for running over pedestrians! IS NOTHING SACRED? May as well remake Raging Bull (you should already know who directed this one) and make Jake LaMotta become a fitness nut as he ages.

Of course, writer Grant Morrison probably makes a strong case for the Blue Ribbon – ESPECIALLY among writers working for the Big Two – when it comes to authors who place artistic concerns ahead of financial ones. This is not meant to insinuate that other excellent writers working for DC and Marvel – such as Paul Cornell, Ed Brubaker, Jeffs Lemire and Parker, and many more – are only in it for the money, or that they don’t give everything they have, artistically speaking, to their work. I’m meaning rather to point out that Morrison, by dint of his tenure and sales record in the industry, is nearly unique in his ability to not only bite the hand that feeds him if he so chooses, but also get the X-ray of that bite published. (As an aside, I must apologize en masse to the entire rest of the comics industry who are NOT writers, particularly the pencilers, inkers, colorists, and letterers, whose artistic contributions will probably ALWAYS be under-appreciated in my essays. I do have a tendency, fair or not, to view the writer as the dominant creator of any given comic book. Part of this is cross-contamination from my interest in film and my tendency towards auteur theory, and some of the pro-writer snobbery is surely because I’m a writer and not an illustrator. Anyhow, everybody but writers: sorry!) There are only two or so other writers who can get away with what G-Mo could, but they won’t work for Marvel or DC. Their last names might also begin with the letter ‘M’. (In my dreams, there will come a day when non-comic-book-fans read this because it is MY writing. For those non-existent people, I’m referring to the V For Vendetta / Watchmen guy and the Sin City / 300 guy, those being their best film adaptations and their Zack Snyder movies.)

So. Action Comics #1 ends with Superman knocked out by a runaway subway train, in a bit that actually repurposes the ending of the Gene Wilder/Richard Pryor action comedy Silver Streak (D: Arthur Hiller, 1976 – plus many other collaborators, but fuck ’em, right?) Issue 2 begins with Kal-El a captive of the military (or perhaps more aptly, the military-industrial complex,) getting a shit-ton of torture dropped on him by an industrialist named Lex Luthor. I’d guess this obscure figure is going to play some sort of an ongoing role in the Superman mythos – probably as his best friend or something, unless I miss my guess. The issue title is “In chains,” which is actually reassuring – because we ALL know what Superman does to chains. Morrison knows we know this. It’s been an ongoing theme of Grant Morrison’s, all the way back to his DC debut on Animal Man, to assert that everything that’s ever happened to a character is STILL part of his continuity. This is even true of a character like Animal Man who’d had VASTLY divergent origin stories told about him. Morrison carried it through even to his theoretically-outside-DC-continuity series All-Star Superman (with artist Frank Quitely, inked & colored by Jamie Grant,) where he remained faithful to Superman ideas he had seeded eight years before in the 1998 comic book event “DC One Million.” And he has carried that idea, most vocally, through his amazing run on Batman. In his various Batman titles, Grant Who Never Can’t somehow tied together SEVENTY YEARS worth of retellings of Batman’s origins in the audacious and astonishing The Return of Bruce Wayne series (Rating: 10/10 – holy shit!) – and ALSO referred to “DC One Million!” The balls on this guy! Hell, I can’t even keep continuity straight from the beginning of this fucking paragraph. What I’m getting at, though, is that the man knows his connections, historic, synaptic, and you-name-ic. He has a sense of our collective memory of this, the most important super-hero. No, it’s not Wolverine.

So, Krypton’s last son is getting a-zapped and a-gassed, banged and sassed, slapped in the ass and given a suspended bus pass. Luthor is comically paranoid (he learned his manners from the first Invasion of the Body Snatchers (D: Don Siegel, 1956) about the alien he’s “studying.” Elsewhere, Lois Lane is trying to bum-rush the event by name-dropping her Four-Star-General dad, who works equally hard to stonewall her. Meanwhile, unsexy Lexie is being drawn inconsistently (Christ, Rags, people are paying attention!) and making the bizarrely terrible assumption that Kal-El is the REAL shape-shifter here. As his proof, Lex presents The Man Who Also Be Clark with what looks to be the corpse of a six-legged Krypto, which we infer was found in the rocket that brought ~~Moses~~ Superman to our world. Actually, knowing how G.Mo’s encyclopedic hard-drive runs, the critter is probably straight from some silver-age story called “The Dog That Lois Lane Married!” Speaking of, she does a full page of Exposition And Nothing But with an ex-boyfriend who is going to become Metal-[SPOILER!]-lo, then it’s back to the star as he busts them chains and makes Lex Luthor look like a total pussy. He kicks down vault-doors, finds he cape, and stumbles across the rocket that brought him here for what seems to be his first time seeing it.

Shipping — Must... draw... like... basket. No... time... for... faces...

He ditches it, busts his way around, and runs into Lois Lane, who on one single page has a meltdown where she can’t decide if she’s Mercedes Ruehl, Fran Drescher, or Nora Dunn (RAGS!) One page of exposition with Future-Metallo [previous word is a spoiler, caution!] and the last page has Lex having a conversation with a spacecraft that never in a million years could turn out to be Brainiac.

So, an action-filled issue that’s mostly set-up and actually doesn’t have jack shit to do with my thesis about the anti-capitalist Superman, until we reach the extra background stuff after the main story. Here we find the perils of not-getting-asked-to-blog-soon-enough. I should’ve probably written this after issue #1. Eh, what can ya do?

Part 2 – Fresh Flesh / Disconnected / No More Nothing
Here’s my pull list for next week: Alpha Flight, Amazing Spider-Man, Baltimore-The Cursed Balls, Batwoman, CBLDF Liberty Annual 2011, Demon Knights, Farts Itself-Hulk v Dracula, FF, Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E., Irredeemable, Morning Glories, Mr. Terrific, New Avengers, Orchid (here’s hoping Tom Morello is half the comics talent that Gerard Way turned out to be), Resurrection Man, S.H.I.E.L.D. (pain in the ass to type. Pedantic note – is alphabetized before the other ‘S’ comics, just like B.P.R.D. leads off the ‘B’s), Ultimate X-Men (I feel kind of bad slagging Nick Spencer’s Iron Man 2.0 work so hard, but to be fair, it IS a piece of shit), Uncanny X-Force, Unexpected, Unwritten, and X-Men: Regenesis. That’s about seventy-five bucks of comics right there, AFTER culling Legion Lost and Greg Rucka’s enormously disappointing return to the two-publisher-system, The Punisher. Some of these are on the cusp, and some are one-offs, but that’s still a LOT of scratch.

Now, the economy is crap right now. I haven’t had a raise in something like five years. I have a mortgage to pay (those are the words that Ed McBain called “The yuppie Nuremburg Defense.”) The entire frickin’ WORLD has to pretend that the USA is someday going to pay off its IOUs somehow, because otherwise everybody everywhere will fall straight through the rainbow of their imaginary money and splatter into soup a mile down. WHY THE HELL would Marvel and DC decide that NOW is the time to increase the number of titles they’re putting out per month? Okay, yeah, everybody else is scrambling and clawing desperately to hold onto the scraps that they still have in their yards, why should comics publishers be any different? Still, I managed to take a 13-year break in my comics-buying before, and I AM pretty damned fond of eating regular meals. Publishers: Pay some goddamn attention to which way the wind is blowing.

Boobs. — My wife claims she sees boobs on this.

Part 3 – Beef Baloney

Spider-Island – The Avengers #1 (of 1)

Writer: Chris Yost
Artist: Mike McKone
Color Art: Jeromy Cox
Only Letterer Employed By Marvel: VC’s Joe Caramagna

Review Score 8.5/10

I’m glad I haven’t recently suggested that Marvel and DC should be making fewer comics, because having random blasts of fun like this one drop on my head from out of nowhere is what makes reading comic books such a pleasure. While the Marvel Comics-Events-Up-The-Ass Blitz has tied the Avengers, the New Avengers, and the Secret Avengers to Fear Itself, and will likely lead to X-Men: Schism: The Avengers: Sub-Schism, this here little shamma-lamma is just goofy as all get out and almost makes all that other self-serious crap worthwhile. Beyond that, this little floppy has the most inventive use of captions as a comedy device that I may have EVER seen in a comic. AND, its characters don’t look like their heads are shape-shifting every flippin’ panel. Memo to Mike McKone: Rags Morales’ riches are rightfully yours.

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Review : Swamp Thing #2 & Animal Man #2

mDeVivo

October 6, 2011

In my last article I threw a heap of praise on both Swamp Thing and Animal Man and I’m happy to report that EVERYONE who enjoys comics and Horror movies should be reading these two books. I’ll go further and say you should be reading these books back to back one after another because something amazing is happening here . You may not see it yet but both books have a connection. They are both bringing back Alan Moores’ amazing concept of Totems/Avatars to Swamp Thing and the DCU in a big way. The Green representing mans’ connection to all things that are green such as foliage , plants , trees…. you get the idea. The Black which represents mans’ connection to Death and Barren land and finally the Red which represents mans’ connection to animals. Now bring on the Reviews!

Swamp Thing#2

Story: Scott Snyder

Art: Yanick Paquette

Review Score: 9

Right off the bat we get answers in this issue , tons and tons of answers. The first half of the book is spent establishing what the current Swamp Thing is and why hes coming back for Alec Holland in the first place . We get reintroduced to Alan Moores’ concept of The Parliament of Trees which leads to Scott Snyder establishing that there has been more than one Swamp Thing.

Here’s the catch Alec Holland was never apart of that Legacy. You see his chemical accident that killed him and created the Swamp Thing we all knew from the late 80’s happened…well it kind of happened . Scott slips into the past history of both characters and only slightly tweaks a few things to make his take feel completely fresh and new. You will feel sorry for the big Green lug and conflicted with both characters as a big choice lies ahead from their conversation.

Yanick Paquettes’ art again stands out as the work that I believe will move his career into Superstar status as an artist. He can draw images that make you feel sorrow and pain on one page and have you freaking out and sick to your stomach the next. His pacing and use of space is impeccable and his line work is made that much stronger by the inks . This is a book about Monster’s first and foremost and he lets his imagination run wild . By the end of this book if you don’t have night mares at the thought of someone chasing you with a broken neck and a creepy smile, than you probably aren’t able to read this article or said comic for that matter ( which ultimately makes me fear that your neck may be broken in a similar fashion , let the night mares begin) The book ends rather abruptly which is just fine by me . Comics this good are amazing in monthly doses.

Animal Man #2

Story: Jeff Lemire

Art : Travel Foreman

Review Score : 9.5

This book is insane ! I mean mouth agape at how well written and drawn insane. The book picks up right where #1 ended . Animal Man’s daughter seems to have her daddy’s gift too. Only her’s is more Pet Cemetery in its nature . Jeff Lemire has the ability to write something truly macabre in nature and yet create humor in it as well. This is instantly apparent when an argument with a neighbor ends with him screaming for help while pointing at the family with what use to be his hand. It seems there is a lot more to Maxine’s powers than she let on.

Another thing I like about the book is that there is always a family dynamic no matter how crazy the situation. Seeing Animal Man scold his daughter for sharing milk with one of her new dead pets is just one of many great character moments in this issue. Each member of the family has their own voice and is unique which goes along way towards you genuinely caring about them in this book.

Travel Foreman continues to make something as simple as the suburbs look cool. Not to mention the moment Maxine and her dad decide to seek out the Red you will feel like you are on an acid trip to hell. He continues to alter his style from one sequence to the next which works well for this book. The colorist deserves a lot of the credit here too . His use once again of muted colors in the suburban sequences, followed by backgrounds filled with Blue and Purple during Maxine and Animal Mans trip to the Red are fun and rewarding to look at. You will stare at a Splash page at the end of this book and you will want it in a frame .

My only complaint with the art is that in the last page of panels the story telling could have been better . I went back and forth a few times trying to establish exactly what was happening and I’m still a bit confused with the end and The Arrival of The Hunters Three. This book is shockingly good regardless and Jeff is keeping a lot of this story close to his chest , but its the creative art and painstaking care he gives his characters that manage to shine in this book after 2 issues. Into the Red indeed…. this is Highly Recommended!

Mike DeVivo

Follow me on twitter @pandasandrobots

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Review: X-Men Schism #5

rDuelfer

October 6, 2011

X-Men: Schism #5
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Adam Kubert

The end has finally arrived!

Jason Aaron you have successfully, hands down and without a doubt written a brawl between Scott and Logan that’s never been recorded in history. Was the merit of the fight a bit childish? Sure! But, did it make for a great story? Why, yes it did.

Going into Schism, I was not quite expecting the story that was delivered. Sure, I was a bit mislead by the mini series “Prelude to Schism”, where it was depicted as if all the X-Men were on Utopia awaiting some coming onslaught, of what is assumed to be sentinels, to reign doom upon their heads and that there was little hope for survival. Which also, I might add, Wolverine and Cyclops were at the height of their friendship by mini series end. But I don’t blame Mr. Aaron for that; I blame Marvel for taking advantage of the hype surrounding Schism as a whole. But, either way, the mini series did contain some great characterization and we got to hear the voice of Professor X, as he’s been oddly absent for months.

Well, lets go back to the fight! Ohh, the fight. With the way Schism number four ended, at the beginning of this brutal battle, I was sure that issue five would conclude with: Cyclops taking Wolverine’s right hand and Logan cutting out Cyclops’ left eye; thus bringing upon “The Age of Apocalypse”!?! Though that didn’t quite happen, Jason Aaron did not disappoint. I mean, take a look at the so conveniently placed image to your right. And that’s the first panel of page one!

But let it be known that this issue was not just one big brawl, it actually had a lot of character work throughout the X-Men members. And you better bet that Sentinel that was inching it’s way to Utopia surely went down with a bang. Adam Kubert is great at framing action scenes, which built momentum. Though his art this issue seemed a bit rushed. Some panels I could’ve sworn were artist Ron Garney, which has a sketch style where Adam has defined lines. I had high expectations for each artist due to the fact that they only had to contribute one issue. So, I was hoping for the best. But ultimately, Adam Kubert’s art was good and most importantly he caught all the emotional tension on panel.

Now I’d like to nit-pick here, for the reasoning behind this fight hasn’t quite mad sense to me. I’ll be getting a little spoil-ery here, only making reference to what Marvel has already released online, and previous “Schism” issues. First, why does Wolverine want to blow up Utopia? Does he not remember that Emma, Magneto and company are incapacitated within the island? Or, that there is a whole Atlantean civilization beneath the shores suspending Utopia? Apparently he doesn’t much care for the livelihood of those Atlantean kids. Which brings me to how Wolverine finds himself on this moral high ground to open a school for youngsters after all is said and done? Is this not a cold blooded killer of men we are talking about? One who can’t go six issues, within any of his various comics, without falling into some rage or mind control. Sure, he’s had young side kicks in the past, but all he’s ever done is brought them in harms way. So, i guess my question being, why was it that Wolverine was chosen to provoke this “schism”? I feel if it had been Iceman, one of the original X-Men alongside Cyclops, had made the stand instead of Wolverine, then there would have been a large emotional weight and it would’ve just settled better in my stomach.

But nonetheless, Jason Aaron wove a fantastic tale, and even created a re-imagined and memorable incarnation of one of the X-Men’s greatest foes, the Hellfire Club. I’m excited to see how this group further antagonizes our mutants within upcoming title, “Wolverine and the X-Men”. Which will be written by Jason Aaron and I am ecstatic that he will be taking on an X-Men team going into “Re-genesis”. The future is looking bright for our merry mutants, so sit back and enjoy the ride.

Story: 9/10
Art: 8/10

Also, highly recommended this week:

X-23 #15 MARVEL
Animal Man #2 DC COMICS
Swamp Thing #2 DC COMICS – Reviewed by: Mike DeVivo. Check it out@ http://www.chicagocomicvault.com/2011/10/review-swamp-thing-2-animal-man-2/

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Review: Deadpool #44

Roger Riddell

October 6, 2011

Deadpool #44
Writer: Daniel Way
Art: Carlo Barberi [Pencils], Walden Wong [Inks] and Jorge Gonzalez [Colors]

Ever since he escaped from Britain’s Crossmore Prison in issue #42, the Merc with a Mouth (i.e. Deadpool) [They probably know that if they’re on this site, stupid!] has been running around jolly old England trying to evade his psychotic therapist.

Wade found himself in Crossmore way back in Deadpool #40 after trying to trick the Hulk [The big green one!] into killing him. Unfortunately, Doctor Ella Whitby kind of had a thing for the Regeneratin’ Degenerate. This worked to his advantage when she eventually helped him escape, but the doc’s delusional, obsessive and psychotic, and has kind of been creepin’ on our boy Wade ever since.

[Kind of like that weird chick in sixth grade that kept professing her love for you and trying to give you a real Valentine, etc. even though you kept shooting her down… ]

[QUIET STUPID SECOND VOICE! THAT GIRL DIDN’T MAKE A FULL-ON ROGER COSTUME!]

Anyways, last issue, we saw Wade hold up the Queen of England’s coach. The queen gave our right old chap a jolly good talking to — convincing Wade that Whitby’s actions are his responsibility since she is emulating him by killing people — before he pulled a costume swap and chip-cheerioed away in Her Majesty’s clothes.

Now that you’re up to speed, Deadpool #44 begins with Wade sneaking into Whitby’s apartment to get more info on what it is exactly that she’s up to. He discovers a fridge full of his dismembered limbs, apparently collected over the course of several years. [He can regenerate, you know…Keep up, kids!] Before he has time to process this, he comes across a note that leads him to the realization that Whitby is out to murder the prison’s warden and heads out to stop this from happening.

Forty-four issues in, writer Daniel Way continues to maintain a solid, humorous interplay between Wade and the voices in his head. To have a run this long on a series with this level of consistency is something special, and while many comic fans feel Deadpool is overplayed these days [He’s kind of the new Wolverine], people who scoff at this book have been missing a really enjoyable ride. The art also strikes the right balance of realistic-but-cartoony, especially in the puke-in-mask and hallucination panels.

Overall, this was a good conclusion to the current storyline with a nice lead-in to the next issue. The fridge of dismembered Deadpool parts was a clever play on the “Women in Refrigerators” [Google it, kids!] issue that comes up often in comics, whether it was intentional or not — and knowing the way healing factors work, they won’t stay there for long.

Story: 9/10
Art: 10/10 [Seriously… Whitby in that homemade Deadpool costume looks real enough to gross me out]

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