FInal Crisis 7. Grant Morrison has been pissing me off lately, with the messy art in Final Crisis 6, and the ambiguous (and I have argued not in a good way) chose-your-own-ending to Batman RIP. And as much as I love his earlier work, I do HATE fill in artists. People were always telling me that messy inconsistent artistic chaos was great because it matched the theme of the book -- intentionally in Invisibles, unintentionally in New X-Men. I don't deny that it matches thematically; I just deny that that particular way of expressing the theme leads to bad storytelling. People need to stop praising ambiguity and chaos as good things in and of themselves -- it is how it is handled by the writer that makes it work or fail, and I call FAIL on BATMAN RIP and the INVISIBLES. That said I LOVED Final Crisis 7 in all its ambiguous messy glory -- Morrison can stick hell of a landing, even on a messy book (New X-Men, Invisibles). Batman RIP promised a reveal of the Black Glove through a series of red herrings, then failed to deliver anything. Final Crisis 7 promised to celebrate the insanity of the multiverse and superhero comics generally and could not have delivered more thoroughly -- Supermen from the multiverse team up to use solar powers on a cosmic vampire, while the Green Lanterns show up to collectively stake the thing; the army of god arrives with them at the same time Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew show up -- and you realize this is what superhero comics do that nothing else can. I am amazed that Morrison was able to play with Obama joking that he was Superman by opening with the black president of the United States who was also the Superman of his world. Morrison will often talk about creating a new kind of storytelling mode, and sometimes this seems an empty boast, as it did when he described 52 as genuinely different. The most important thing about Final Crisis 7 is that is DOES seem like a new kind of way to tell a mainstream superhero story. I talked about Morrison's elliptical style in the first two issue of Final Crisis and said it was not fully figured out yet, but it seemed like a good idea -- he really figures it out here. The thing reads more like some crazy John Ashbery poem than anything else, and I absolutely love it. Every panel was fun even when I was not sure what was going on. (Did Hawkman die?)
LOST 5.3. I liked LOST this week, more than the first two episodes, though I am not sure how much I have to say about it. I really like the island skipping though time as a way to tell all those stories that have only been alluded to and I love how quickly we made it all the way back to 1954 to get a key detail -- Widmore was an Other in his youth. I am really excited to hear about the "Adam and Eve" bodies in the caves from season one (which, because of time travel could be characters we know), the Pirate Ship landing, Rousseau's crew, the Dharma people and the war between the Dharma people and the Others, and that four toed statue. I never saw Cane but I heard it was good -- in any case I am glad it got cancelled so that Richard can be in all the island flashbacks. And, at some point, will the end of in the future? Also that new girl Other is totally Faraday's Mom, who is totally Mrs Hawking -- check the hair and the first name and the timeframe.
BSG. Several people got upset because with only nine episodes to go they felt BSG should be going mythology episodes all the time, but BSG has always been about stories centered on people. Mary McDonnell owned the episode with here scene in the hallway arguing that her and Adama deserve a break. It was not perfect -- the opening scene with the Ultrasound had some nice camera work hanging on the image for a long time, but it was very strange to see Tigh and Six acting like a happy family so suddenly. Starbuck's cripple jokes were really lame and that scene lacked the acting chops it needed -- Starbuck needs something to DO. I am still on the fence about Gaeda as Ahab. The other complaint was Callie, who already morphed quickly into a shrew willing to kill her baby, now revealed as unfaithful as well. It had to happen. Clearly the writers decided on the final five late in the game -- and at no point during the first half of season 4 did anyone mention the fact that Callie's baby was a cylon human hybrid and thus as important as Hera. I figured that baby was going out the airlock with Callie, but this is how they wanted to keep Hera uniquely important. One detail that fails , however, is it made a lot more sense that Callie wanted to kill her baby when she planned to kill herself if she thought the baby was half cylon. Now she just seems really mean. A rare instance of poor plotting on the part of the writers gave her a very unfortunate -- and I am sure some will argue misogynistic -- character arc.
24. 24 was good and action packed this week -- better than it has been for a bit. But it is still pretty foolish. This show needs a new gimick.
Showing posts with label Final Crisis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Final Crisis. Show all posts
Friday, January 30, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Comics Out January 22, 2008 (Superman Beyond)
Superman Beyond 3D #2. I continue to find the 3D tech really far more interesting than I have a right to. I kinda wish lots more comic books were in 3D. The art here is passable -- although some times the heads look pasted onto bodies rather than being really connected with them -- but I wonder what the 3D effects would look like with an artist I like more -- Bachalo for example, or even Ashley Wood. A lot of people have wondered how this story fits in with Final Crisis, and the answer is that it fits in exactly like it should in a way -- it is a spin-off book from the main title, and is rooted in what is clearly a spin off idea from the lines Morrison was thinking in Final Crisis. Thinking up Final Crisis I imagine him free associating a note along the lines of "Bleed between universes -- cosmic vampires? Monitor Vampires?" That did not have a place in the main book with Darkseid, so here we go -- essentially a two issue series about something that could have been the subject of the main book if he had wanted to do that, and it looks like someone, maybe Morrison, will get around to telling the main story at some point in the future -- this serves as a prologue to that plot, basically. If you missed getting this expect a reprint just before the Vampire Montor Crisis of 2011 or whatever. He is getting some of this from Gnosticism by the way -- the "angel" figures who are corrupted by their participation in the fallen material universe. That I do not mind, but I will admit to getting a little weary with Morrison's fascination with magic meta-narratives the characters talk about. He has done such a good job with the idea in the past -- it reached an apotheosis in All Star Superman 10 I think -- that I wonder what it is going to take to give it a rest. Is he still trying to outdo himself on the topic? Because if he is, I think he is failing, and if he is not, isn't he just repeating himself? The image on the final page was especially nice, and made me wonder if it was a rejected final page of All Star Superman, which ends with an icon on a similar theme. I also loved the All Star Superman again -- "Sounds like a challenge to me" and "Superman Can." That seems to me how the character would really be. I also was really impressed by the idea that the Nazi Superman is not a bad guy, straightforwardly evil, but that he is a sad man adopted by a world he did not chose, trying to cope with "A Utopia built on human suffering. Mine is not any world you know."
Oh, and the big reveal that the Monitor Vampire was Dax Novu (was that a big reveal?) -- I have no idea who that is.
Oh, and the big reveal that the Monitor Vampire was Dax Novu (was that a big reveal?) -- I have no idea who that is.
Friday, January 16, 2009
I hate creativity and children and, this week, Grant Morrison
THE BEAT has this quote from Morrison
“I had the idea to develop an approach to comic narrative that would actually benefit from becoming entangled in internet fan speculation, gossip and research…I’ve always liked to leave resonant spaces, gaps and hints in stories, where readers can do their own work and find clues or insert their own wild and often brilliant theories. I’m often trying to create a kind of fuzzy quantum uncertainty or narrative equivalent of a Rorschach Blot Test effect, which invites interpretation. Lazier readers hate when I do this but fortunately they seem to be in the minority.”
This is one of those ideas that is much better in theory than in practice because it hits something that sounds really nice: the creativity of the reader. Who would argue with that? It is one of those unassailable things, like when some politician gets dumb "give up all your civil rights" style things enacted to "save the children." What kind of monster would be against children or creativity?
In this specific case: me. Or more precisely, reader creativity is great, but I think the best venue for it is to write a Batman story that is a revision or swerve or response or remix or attack or tribute to Batman RIP. Like a story that was going in a similar direction, but then had a satisfying ending. I do not think this wonderful sounding reader creativity should be used as an excuse to introduce a villain, promise to reveal who the villain, then at the end say "Who was Dr. Hurt? You the reader can decide for yourself who it is. I mean I am perfectly capable of thinking Dr. Hurt is Thomas Wayne or an incarnation of Darkseid, or Satan, or Batman's rejected evil side from his Tibetan purification ritual. It is all POSSIBLE. But it is not PERSUASIVE. Many comic book fans, because of no-prizes and whatnot, seem really satisfied to discover something is POSSIBLE, forgetting that a story should persuade you. Firefly, for example, persuades you that life in space would be dirty and not at all like living in a Sheridan Hotel, as Star Trek would have you believe. I just want to hear a good story that will persuade my imagination that THIS is how it must have been, or would be like in this world. Stories should bring pleasure, through careful pacing, not unlike sex.
Self empowerment sounds fun until you engaged in the best foreplay of your life and the woman says toyou "I’ve always liked to leave resonant spaces, gaps and hints in SEX, where MY PARTNER can do their own work and find clues or insert their own wild and often brilliant SEX TECHNIQUES. I’m often trying to create a kind of fuzzy quantum uncertainty or SEX equivalent of a Rorschach Blot Test effect, which invites CREATIVITY. Lazier PARTNERS hate when I do this but fortunately they seem to be in the minority. Finish yourself off while I go home. Bye."
You will have to forgive me for the vulgar metaphor. I am practicing writing in the mode of Warren Ellis today.
“I had the idea to develop an approach to comic narrative that would actually benefit from becoming entangled in internet fan speculation, gossip and research…I’ve always liked to leave resonant spaces, gaps and hints in stories, where readers can do their own work and find clues or insert their own wild and often brilliant theories. I’m often trying to create a kind of fuzzy quantum uncertainty or narrative equivalent of a Rorschach Blot Test effect, which invites interpretation. Lazier readers hate when I do this but fortunately they seem to be in the minority.”
This is one of those ideas that is much better in theory than in practice because it hits something that sounds really nice: the creativity of the reader. Who would argue with that? It is one of those unassailable things, like when some politician gets dumb "give up all your civil rights" style things enacted to "save the children." What kind of monster would be against children or creativity?
In this specific case: me. Or more precisely, reader creativity is great, but I think the best venue for it is to write a Batman story that is a revision or swerve or response or remix or attack or tribute to Batman RIP. Like a story that was going in a similar direction, but then had a satisfying ending. I do not think this wonderful sounding reader creativity should be used as an excuse to introduce a villain, promise to reveal who the villain, then at the end say "Who was Dr. Hurt? You the reader can decide for yourself who it is. I mean I am perfectly capable of thinking Dr. Hurt is Thomas Wayne or an incarnation of Darkseid, or Satan, or Batman's rejected evil side from his Tibetan purification ritual. It is all POSSIBLE. But it is not PERSUASIVE. Many comic book fans, because of no-prizes and whatnot, seem really satisfied to discover something is POSSIBLE, forgetting that a story should persuade you. Firefly, for example, persuades you that life in space would be dirty and not at all like living in a Sheridan Hotel, as Star Trek would have you believe. I just want to hear a good story that will persuade my imagination that THIS is how it must have been, or would be like in this world. Stories should bring pleasure, through careful pacing, not unlike sex.
Self empowerment sounds fun until you engaged in the best foreplay of your life and the woman says toyou "I’ve always liked to leave resonant spaces, gaps and hints in SEX, where MY PARTNER can do their own work and find clues or insert their own wild and often brilliant SEX TECHNIQUES. I’m often trying to create a kind of fuzzy quantum uncertainty or SEX equivalent of a Rorschach Blot Test effect, which invites CREATIVITY. Lazier PARTNERS hate when I do this but fortunately they seem to be in the minority. Finish yourself off while I go home. Bye."
You will have to forgive me for the vulgar metaphor. I am practicing writing in the mode of Warren Ellis today.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Final Crisis 6 -- one more note (spoilers)
From Newsarama:
As explained by DC Universe Executive Editor Dan DiDio, the apparent multiple endings of “Batman R.I.P.” were due to making sure readers of the collected editions got full stories. DiDio told Newsarama back in December: “ Here’s the conundrum on this one. And this is reflective of the world that we live in now – the world of collected editions. The R.I.P. story was always meant to play through to the end of Final Crisis - always. The thing is, we had to come up with a very complete story in “Batman R.I.P.” as it existed in its title. The reality is that the “Batman R.I.P.” story does not conclude until Final Crisis #6. There are also issues #682 and #683 of Batman that feed directly into Final Crisis #6, and we’ll have a big finale to the Batman storyline.”
So Batman died twice so the trades could separately lead into the Battle for the Cowl?
This is some seriously messy shit.
As explained by DC Universe Executive Editor Dan DiDio, the apparent multiple endings of “Batman R.I.P.” were due to making sure readers of the collected editions got full stories. DiDio told Newsarama back in December: “ Here’s the conundrum on this one. And this is reflective of the world that we live in now – the world of collected editions. The R.I.P. story was always meant to play through to the end of Final Crisis - always. The thing is, we had to come up with a very complete story in “Batman R.I.P.” as it existed in its title. The reality is that the “Batman R.I.P.” story does not conclude until Final Crisis #6. There are also issues #682 and #683 of Batman that feed directly into Final Crisis #6, and we’ll have a big finale to the Batman storyline.”
So Batman died twice so the trades could separately lead into the Battle for the Cowl?
This is some seriously messy shit.
Comics Out January 14, 2008 (Final Crisis 6)
Final Crisis 6. I felt an overwhelming urge to write about this, so I am going to push the next Claremont piece to tomorrow so I can have my say fast. Final Crisis, along with Batman, has reached New X-Men status -- brilliant and audacious in fits and starts and drawn horribly. I am just going to REACT to this thing page by page.
The cover: wasn't the title disintegrating? I feel like it is more legible now, if only because someone worried that it would be harder to sell if they took the disintegrating title thing seriously.
Pages 1-3: classic Morrison JLA stuff; I guess we are going to have to wait till next issue to really get anything out of this seemingly randomly introduced super machine. It looks like Superman Beyond 2 was supposed to come out by now, but it also does not look that important that it didn't, which is lame. This seemed a really strangely powerful element to introduce in the penultimate issue. I thought the design pretty well failed. The art is bad throughout and this is one of the key failures. Still -- it will be interesting to see what this machine does next issue.
4-5. Boring. This stuff with Ray has me lost. Could have come from any comic.
6-9. Less than inspiring punch-em-up, with lame dialogue, and lame art. Could have been from any comic book. Unremarkable.
10-14. The Mary Marvel fight was the second key art failure. I do not follow the DCU very well but I am pretty sure Mary Marvel's loss of innocence has been a big deal for a while -- I remember people talking about her having a big role in Countdown or something at the New York City Comic Con last year. So this moment where she is transformed back is big, and it feels like it should be big even without the knowledge that this plot goes back a ways. But the art is just not there for it, in part because so much is jammed in, but also because it is just not that well dramatized -- the eye is not drawn to it among the chaos, and even looking closely there is not a lot to see. His plan to say Shazam and the word Shazam are jammed into the same panel, we see the lightning in the distance, and then on the next page it is over. Also, and I do not want to go on a whole thing here, but it needs to be said -- weak female character: psycho-bitch-whore or scared little girl. Sad. Supergirl in the miniskirt is not exactly helping the image.
I have mixed feeling about the Kalibak/Tawny fight. On the one hand, there is something weirdly exhilarating about an odd character from a corner of the DCU that I do not really know -- very much a Seven Soldier type -- taking down a major New God and then adjusting a tie. On the other hand, this is the kind of thing people have be complaining about for YEARS now right? The Geoff Johns style nostalgia-ultraviolence combo. It did not feel right that Tawny, a cute quirky comic book creation, just fuckin disembowels Kalibak, and then is fine about it. The juxtaposition was almost Robot Chicken. Also BIG ART FAILURE 3: Darkseid's tiger henchmen are just cuddly-wuddly looking. Generally I have felt that the redesigns of the New Gods has been a big step down from their old incarnations, but never moreso than in these panels, where the artist is making it even worse than it would have to be. I would also like to take this opportunity to bitch about the lettering, which has deeply lame images for emphasis. It seems childish.
15-17. The art in 15 is particularly bad here; not quite Korday on New X-Men bad, but only the next level up. Mr Miracle looks terrible. The tiny comic strip on the bottom of 16-17 about the Japanese characters was not good, and not helped by the better drawn poster someone hung above it. And was anyone else surprised by the 3 billion free humans thing? I was thinking Darkseid's invasion was way worse than that, like THE STAND proportions or something. I would have guessed 100,000 or something. 10,000 even. Are these just people in places where there is no email to get the evil broadcast?
18-19. Again, the art here is just bad. I might need to get the New X-Men issues out here but I think this is getting Kordey bad.
20-21. These two pages are supposed to be captured by Montoya's "Enough with the sensory fuckin overload" but the art does not give the sense of the overload, especially as the panel where she makes the comment looks generally clean and spacious. I did like the "Wait a minute. Say that whole bit again."
22-23. Ugly. Is Luthor's head coming out of a pillow in the armor? If that was the last we see of Libra in this book then Libra royally sucked. Also when someone says "They'll hear your voice as the voice of Darkseid if you speak into this" the art should show a "this." That is pretty basic. Like if someone says to me "where is the bar?" I do not reply "over there" while standing stock still unless I am trying to be a jackass. Also, how dumb is it to have these anti-life helmets be so easy to take out -- a watch, or some paint, seems to be all anyone needs to FREE HUMAN SOULS.
The more I write about this the more I realize how much I HATED most of it.
24-25. These two pages basically say "Hey lookalike Flash guys, lets run really fast." Right? To get to Darkseid? But Batman can just walk up to Darkseid? Because he is already in that realm? Or because that is not really Darkseid but only the incarnation of Darkseid? What? Ugly art make Geoff angry.
26-29. THIS I quite liked. The psychedelic art is the "real" Darkseid not to be confused with the shell right? Morrison and dodgy art. Anyway, Batman drawing down on Darkseid with a New God Bullet is pretty bad-ass -- Morrison really understands, and USES, the power of the image of Batman with a gun. I do not know what is going on with the Flash in these pages, [It is not the Flash -- it is a red tinged Batman. Fuckin art] but overall a Darkseid Batman confrontation was a pretty good idea, surprising and inevitable and pretty well awesome.
30-31. This seems like a dumping ground for a lot of weak plot points that we did not have room for: Hawkman and Hawkgirl? Olson and Kat? I missed why I should care. Also, superheroes are now sick apparently by Wonder Woman somehow, just one more thing jammed into a jammed page -- along with a new problem with humanity's escape plan from Metron. And Nix Uotan I guess we did not have time for after such an auspicious debut last time. Just on hard to see small panel. Oh well. Next time.
32-33. This Superman rampage is kind of underwhelming, as I am not really sure where he is coming from or where he is going and the eye is just not drawn to anything in particular-- also the background to page 33 panel 1 lost me, as did the sphere -- or cloud? -- in 33 panel 2.
34. This actually shocked me. I guess I should have seen this coming. Morrison gets Batman for a while, in a run that sort of concludes with Batman RIP. I thought the RIP was foolishly metaphorical there but I guess it is a kind of farewell to the character, as muddy and frustrating as that story was. Then we get ANOTHER tribute in The Butler Did It, but it feels pretty necessary now that I see where this was all going. Messy, but at least I have a better idea of what they were going for here, and I liked that Morrison got his two projects to converge in this almost satisfying way. Battle for the Cowl seems just like Death of Superman again, but I was still kind of taken aback here. An interesting revision of the Supergirl death as well, it feminizes Batman maybe? I do not know. I am still thinking about it. But it is sticking with me. Is there something to noticing that at the beginning of Final Crisis there was this whole debate about how Orion died twice in two books in two different ways -- and then Batman "dies" twice in two books in two different ways. Something about this is resonating with me. This double death thing. And in both RIP and Final Crisis Batman faces the "source" of Evil -- is this what Hurt was all about -- was he an incarnation of Darkseid somehow?
All in all I WISH J.G. Jones could have done this whole book. I do not know what to do with Morrison on Batman and Final Crisis. Messy but good enough that you can't quite dismiss it -- you just wish you could isolate and focus the good stuff somehow. Quitely seems to be the only one who can do that.
The cover: wasn't the title disintegrating? I feel like it is more legible now, if only because someone worried that it would be harder to sell if they took the disintegrating title thing seriously.
Pages 1-3: classic Morrison JLA stuff; I guess we are going to have to wait till next issue to really get anything out of this seemingly randomly introduced super machine. It looks like Superman Beyond 2 was supposed to come out by now, but it also does not look that important that it didn't, which is lame. This seemed a really strangely powerful element to introduce in the penultimate issue. I thought the design pretty well failed. The art is bad throughout and this is one of the key failures. Still -- it will be interesting to see what this machine does next issue.
4-5. Boring. This stuff with Ray has me lost. Could have come from any comic.
6-9. Less than inspiring punch-em-up, with lame dialogue, and lame art. Could have been from any comic book. Unremarkable.
10-14. The Mary Marvel fight was the second key art failure. I do not follow the DCU very well but I am pretty sure Mary Marvel's loss of innocence has been a big deal for a while -- I remember people talking about her having a big role in Countdown or something at the New York City Comic Con last year. So this moment where she is transformed back is big, and it feels like it should be big even without the knowledge that this plot goes back a ways. But the art is just not there for it, in part because so much is jammed in, but also because it is just not that well dramatized -- the eye is not drawn to it among the chaos, and even looking closely there is not a lot to see. His plan to say Shazam and the word Shazam are jammed into the same panel, we see the lightning in the distance, and then on the next page it is over. Also, and I do not want to go on a whole thing here, but it needs to be said -- weak female character: psycho-bitch-whore or scared little girl. Sad. Supergirl in the miniskirt is not exactly helping the image.
I have mixed feeling about the Kalibak/Tawny fight. On the one hand, there is something weirdly exhilarating about an odd character from a corner of the DCU that I do not really know -- very much a Seven Soldier type -- taking down a major New God and then adjusting a tie. On the other hand, this is the kind of thing people have be complaining about for YEARS now right? The Geoff Johns style nostalgia-ultraviolence combo. It did not feel right that Tawny, a cute quirky comic book creation, just fuckin disembowels Kalibak, and then is fine about it. The juxtaposition was almost Robot Chicken. Also BIG ART FAILURE 3: Darkseid's tiger henchmen are just cuddly-wuddly looking. Generally I have felt that the redesigns of the New Gods has been a big step down from their old incarnations, but never moreso than in these panels, where the artist is making it even worse than it would have to be. I would also like to take this opportunity to bitch about the lettering, which has deeply lame images for emphasis. It seems childish.
15-17. The art in 15 is particularly bad here; not quite Korday on New X-Men bad, but only the next level up. Mr Miracle looks terrible. The tiny comic strip on the bottom of 16-17 about the Japanese characters was not good, and not helped by the better drawn poster someone hung above it. And was anyone else surprised by the 3 billion free humans thing? I was thinking Darkseid's invasion was way worse than that, like THE STAND proportions or something. I would have guessed 100,000 or something. 10,000 even. Are these just people in places where there is no email to get the evil broadcast?
18-19. Again, the art here is just bad. I might need to get the New X-Men issues out here but I think this is getting Kordey bad.
20-21. These two pages are supposed to be captured by Montoya's "Enough with the sensory fuckin overload" but the art does not give the sense of the overload, especially as the panel where she makes the comment looks generally clean and spacious. I did like the "Wait a minute. Say that whole bit again."
22-23. Ugly. Is Luthor's head coming out of a pillow in the armor? If that was the last we see of Libra in this book then Libra royally sucked. Also when someone says "They'll hear your voice as the voice of Darkseid if you speak into this" the art should show a "this." That is pretty basic. Like if someone says to me "where is the bar?" I do not reply "over there" while standing stock still unless I am trying to be a jackass. Also, how dumb is it to have these anti-life helmets be so easy to take out -- a watch, or some paint, seems to be all anyone needs to FREE HUMAN SOULS.
The more I write about this the more I realize how much I HATED most of it.
24-25. These two pages basically say "Hey lookalike Flash guys, lets run really fast." Right? To get to Darkseid? But Batman can just walk up to Darkseid? Because he is already in that realm? Or because that is not really Darkseid but only the incarnation of Darkseid? What? Ugly art make Geoff angry.
26-29. THIS I quite liked. The psychedelic art is the "real" Darkseid not to be confused with the shell right? Morrison and dodgy art. Anyway, Batman drawing down on Darkseid with a New God Bullet is pretty bad-ass -- Morrison really understands, and USES, the power of the image of Batman with a gun. I do not know what is going on with the Flash in these pages, [It is not the Flash -- it is a red tinged Batman. Fuckin art] but overall a Darkseid Batman confrontation was a pretty good idea, surprising and inevitable and pretty well awesome.
30-31. This seems like a dumping ground for a lot of weak plot points that we did not have room for: Hawkman and Hawkgirl? Olson and Kat? I missed why I should care. Also, superheroes are now sick apparently by Wonder Woman somehow, just one more thing jammed into a jammed page -- along with a new problem with humanity's escape plan from Metron. And Nix Uotan I guess we did not have time for after such an auspicious debut last time. Just on hard to see small panel. Oh well. Next time.
32-33. This Superman rampage is kind of underwhelming, as I am not really sure where he is coming from or where he is going and the eye is just not drawn to anything in particular-- also the background to page 33 panel 1 lost me, as did the sphere -- or cloud? -- in 33 panel 2.
34. This actually shocked me. I guess I should have seen this coming. Morrison gets Batman for a while, in a run that sort of concludes with Batman RIP. I thought the RIP was foolishly metaphorical there but I guess it is a kind of farewell to the character, as muddy and frustrating as that story was. Then we get ANOTHER tribute in The Butler Did It, but it feels pretty necessary now that I see where this was all going. Messy, but at least I have a better idea of what they were going for here, and I liked that Morrison got his two projects to converge in this almost satisfying way. Battle for the Cowl seems just like Death of Superman again, but I was still kind of taken aback here. An interesting revision of the Supergirl death as well, it feminizes Batman maybe? I do not know. I am still thinking about it. But it is sticking with me. Is there something to noticing that at the beginning of Final Crisis there was this whole debate about how Orion died twice in two books in two different ways -- and then Batman "dies" twice in two books in two different ways. Something about this is resonating with me. This double death thing. And in both RIP and Final Crisis Batman faces the "source" of Evil -- is this what Hurt was all about -- was he an incarnation of Darkseid somehow?
All in all I WISH J.G. Jones could have done this whole book. I do not know what to do with Morrison on Batman and Final Crisis. Messy but good enough that you can't quite dismiss it -- you just wish you could isolate and focus the good stuff somehow. Quitely seems to be the only one who can do that.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Comics Out Friday January 2nd 2009 (Umbrella Academy, Final Crisis: Secret Files, and Morrison's Batman))
A little behind with this post because of the holidays -- I also got confused and I think some of the things I picked up on the 2nd actually came out the week before. Nevertheless.
The Umbrella Academy: Dallas. The more I read this comic book the more I like it. The two guys at the beginning, in the masks, are absolutely terrifying, and I am starting to think that this book may have the potential to transcend its huge debts to the X-Men and Doom Patrol. In a world with Casanova and All Star Superman this book was just pretty good, but now that those series are off the table, this is one of the ONLY books I find myself looking forward to, though I am feeling pretty down about comics lately. Jesus shit those guys were scary.
Final Crisis: Secret Files. I call Shenanigans. Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones are listed on the cover and Frank Quitely was promised in the solicitations. Actually Morrison is listed second on the cover out of four names making me think he was the second most important person contributing -- actually, they listed the two writers followed by the two artists even though the second writer barely contributed to this. Basically the entire comic book -- certainly the only story in the comic book -- is Len Wein and Tony Sashstein's origin of Libra, which is a bad idea since most of his story is a rehash of his one comic book appearance from the 70s which DC already reprinted as a sort of Final Crisis preview six months ago. Then there is one page of nonsense by Ruka, one page of text notes about the anti-life equation by Morrison and four more pages of sketchbook material by Jones and Morrison that should have been in the original sketchbook comic. The Morrison prose is sort of interesting, and clears up a bit the connection between Seven Soldiers and Final Crisis -- though surely that should have been in the story and not as some kind of a director's commentary: this reminded me of nothing more than Richard Kelley's explanations of Donnie Darko: there is something to knowing that was what he had in mind but it is sort of his job to actually put that on the page somehow. Anyway Morrison's thoughts on the subject are, as I say interesting, but the are not 4 dollars interesting.
Batman 683. I enjoyed these last two issues of Morrison's Batman after really being annoyed with the conclusion to Batman RIP. I especially hated the ending to Batman RIP once I started reading around the internet -- apparently one of the working theories of Dr Hurt was that he was the evil self Batman rejected in the Tibetan Ritual, almost Batman's Casandra Nova. That is a GREAT idea and I cannot understand why that was not the reveal at the end. Certainly Morrison's Batman has a lot in common with his New X-Men run -- sporadically great and sporadically so badly made it is unreadable, with large swaths of awful art. One thing Batman 683 does wrong is that it adds insult to injury with the claim at the end of the issue that we should "Follow the Dark Knight to his Last Adventure in Final Crisis 6" -- after promising that Batman RIP was some kind of "final story" two issues later we get the next "final story." Obviously there is not going to be a final Batman story, but that does not mean you should just announce the end every few issues with no connection to what is inside. Maybe they did that in the old days or something, but in an auteur culture you just loose all your credibility.
This story was the high point in the run for me, a really nice tribute to Batman's history, and a brilliant idea about how Batman can make even his memories a weapon. The art was not great, but the end of this was really nice with the Lump and Alfred. I even liked how it was isolated from Final Crisis -- it felt right since it was basically all in Batman's mind. I look forward to reading the conclusion in Final Crisis 6 actually. This issue also featured one of Morrison's major anxiety of influence tropes -- the canonization of key moments of a character's history with his own contributions to that history prominently displayed. See All Star Superman, which hits major Superman moments (Luthor, Bizarro, Doomsday) but does not fail to give major time to Morrison's recent contributions, Solaris and the future Superman and Golden Superman from his DC One Million. See also New X-Men Here Comes Tomorrow, which pays tribute to the Sentinels, Days of Future Past, and Dark Phoenix but also Casandra Nova, Fantomex, and Sublime. Batman 682-683 takes us on a whole ride of Batman's history, but the end is a big kicker -- the Lump knows everything about Batman (wonderfully he can trust Batman to get revenge) but is dying. Batman says "you need a jolt to get you moving?" His memories -- his history -- destroyed the Batman clones, but you know what resurrects the Lump Neo style? MORRISONS CONTRIBUTIONS TO BATMAN"S HISTORY! "You need a jolt to get you moving" is followed immediately by memories of Batman's purification ritual in 52, the Thogal ritual, Damian, and the Batman of Zur En Arrh, all from Morrison's Batman run. That was the jolt Morrison thought the Batman mythos needed. Pretty good stuff.
That said this may be time for me to get off this book, unless the art gets better. Because that final image is really less than inspiring and I need something inspiring right now. If Quitely joins as is rumored I will pick it up; if not I may switch to the trade.
The Umbrella Academy: Dallas. The more I read this comic book the more I like it. The two guys at the beginning, in the masks, are absolutely terrifying, and I am starting to think that this book may have the potential to transcend its huge debts to the X-Men and Doom Patrol. In a world with Casanova and All Star Superman this book was just pretty good, but now that those series are off the table, this is one of the ONLY books I find myself looking forward to, though I am feeling pretty down about comics lately. Jesus shit those guys were scary.
Final Crisis: Secret Files. I call Shenanigans. Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones are listed on the cover and Frank Quitely was promised in the solicitations. Actually Morrison is listed second on the cover out of four names making me think he was the second most important person contributing -- actually, they listed the two writers followed by the two artists even though the second writer barely contributed to this. Basically the entire comic book -- certainly the only story in the comic book -- is Len Wein and Tony Sashstein's origin of Libra, which is a bad idea since most of his story is a rehash of his one comic book appearance from the 70s which DC already reprinted as a sort of Final Crisis preview six months ago. Then there is one page of nonsense by Ruka, one page of text notes about the anti-life equation by Morrison and four more pages of sketchbook material by Jones and Morrison that should have been in the original sketchbook comic. The Morrison prose is sort of interesting, and clears up a bit the connection between Seven Soldiers and Final Crisis -- though surely that should have been in the story and not as some kind of a director's commentary: this reminded me of nothing more than Richard Kelley's explanations of Donnie Darko: there is something to knowing that was what he had in mind but it is sort of his job to actually put that on the page somehow. Anyway Morrison's thoughts on the subject are, as I say interesting, but the are not 4 dollars interesting.
Batman 683. I enjoyed these last two issues of Morrison's Batman after really being annoyed with the conclusion to Batman RIP. I especially hated the ending to Batman RIP once I started reading around the internet -- apparently one of the working theories of Dr Hurt was that he was the evil self Batman rejected in the Tibetan Ritual, almost Batman's Casandra Nova. That is a GREAT idea and I cannot understand why that was not the reveal at the end. Certainly Morrison's Batman has a lot in common with his New X-Men run -- sporadically great and sporadically so badly made it is unreadable, with large swaths of awful art. One thing Batman 683 does wrong is that it adds insult to injury with the claim at the end of the issue that we should "Follow the Dark Knight to his Last Adventure in Final Crisis 6" -- after promising that Batman RIP was some kind of "final story" two issues later we get the next "final story." Obviously there is not going to be a final Batman story, but that does not mean you should just announce the end every few issues with no connection to what is inside. Maybe they did that in the old days or something, but in an auteur culture you just loose all your credibility.
This story was the high point in the run for me, a really nice tribute to Batman's history, and a brilliant idea about how Batman can make even his memories a weapon. The art was not great, but the end of this was really nice with the Lump and Alfred. I even liked how it was isolated from Final Crisis -- it felt right since it was basically all in Batman's mind. I look forward to reading the conclusion in Final Crisis 6 actually. This issue also featured one of Morrison's major anxiety of influence tropes -- the canonization of key moments of a character's history with his own contributions to that history prominently displayed. See All Star Superman, which hits major Superman moments (Luthor, Bizarro, Doomsday) but does not fail to give major time to Morrison's recent contributions, Solaris and the future Superman and Golden Superman from his DC One Million. See also New X-Men Here Comes Tomorrow, which pays tribute to the Sentinels, Days of Future Past, and Dark Phoenix but also Casandra Nova, Fantomex, and Sublime. Batman 682-683 takes us on a whole ride of Batman's history, but the end is a big kicker -- the Lump knows everything about Batman (wonderfully he can trust Batman to get revenge) but is dying. Batman says "you need a jolt to get you moving?" His memories -- his history -- destroyed the Batman clones, but you know what resurrects the Lump Neo style? MORRISONS CONTRIBUTIONS TO BATMAN"S HISTORY! "You need a jolt to get you moving" is followed immediately by memories of Batman's purification ritual in 52, the Thogal ritual, Damian, and the Batman of Zur En Arrh, all from Morrison's Batman run. That was the jolt Morrison thought the Batman mythos needed. Pretty good stuff.
That said this may be time for me to get off this book, unless the art gets better. Because that final image is really less than inspiring and I need something inspiring right now. If Quitely joins as is rumored I will pick it up; if not I may switch to the trade.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Comics Out Wednesday December 10, 2008
Final Crisis 5. Jog did an excellent review of this comic, I thought. His point that the issue is by no means great, especially on the art front, but that the second half has a lot of fun madness in it is how I feel about this issue exactly. I know that is completely a cop out as a review on this site so I will add a few thoughts of my own: the Rubik's cube thing was dumb, Mr Miracle popping back to life because he was wearing a vest after last issue's cliffhanger on that point was super weak (he cannot die, fine, that was established in Seven Soldiers, but make him "escape" death in a more interesting way), Darkseid is all talk -- all this stuff about never seeing a New God for REAL is all rhetoric: stop talking man and just fucking DO IT, ya know? Morrison needs J.G. Jones to sell this stuff: his pages here are great and I hope that Morrison will do some work, short but self-contained, with him again. The last page was kind of AWESOME, and I loved it. Overall I am still a little checked out in terms of the series as a whole because of the fill in artists, and the rumored editorial changes to the final issue, but I will keep getting it and basically liking it as a result of diminished expectations,
Punisher X-Mas Special. I read the first Scalped trade and I liked it OK; I thought this was very good too. It's a fun story that does a surprisingly good job being a solid self contained Punisher story and also a Christmas special without going off in a comic vein that would have been really easy given the topic. There is something really admirable about Aaron's ability to take the task of a holiday special seriously and deliver a GOOD STORY rather than an easy joke.
Punisher X-Mas Special. I read the first Scalped trade and I liked it OK; I thought this was very good too. It's a fun story that does a surprisingly good job being a solid self contained Punisher story and also a Christmas special without going off in a comic vein that would have been really easy given the topic. There is something really admirable about Aaron's ability to take the task of a holiday special seriously and deliver a GOOD STORY rather than an easy joke.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Comics Out October 22, 2008 (Final Crisis 4)
Final Crisis Submit. This bored me to no end. There were some New X-Men stories that struck me as shockingly bog-standard superhero fare, and this is going to join that group. It is what Victorian art critic John Ruskin would call "furniture pictures" -- not good enough to deserve praise, but not bad enough to deserve complaint. This criminal guy doesn't like superheroes, which you can tell because he says it over and over. He meets Black Lightning and he and his family bicker. Then the drive a bus away from monsters. The criminal guy -- he has the same powers as the bad guy from the Elektra movie. Then, ironically, he gets a superhero's powers and responsibility. The last page makes it clear that we are supposed to be devastated by the fact that the hero has become one of the bad guys, but I did not know this guy before, and was not in the course of this issue made to care about him. The whole cast of this issue is black -- is that significant in some way? This cannot be the first all-black superhero comic book (Milestone comics was a whole line like this), but I got the feeling that it was important for some reason. It seemed notable, but did not really add anything significant to the comic as far as I could see.
Final Crisis 4. As you all know, nothing bothers me more than fill in artists. I have no patience for them, unless they are isolated, as in Fraction's Iron Fist, to some kind of flash-back or something. I meet a lot of people who just do not care about things like aesthetic unity, or enjoy the artistic chaos -- a mode Morrison played with in the second to last issue of the Invisibles, and which I thought was a total storytelling failure, especially compared to the picture perfect Quitely Invisibles finale. Final Crisis 4 brings in a fill in artist and worse -- the final issue will be drawn entirely by a fill in for the fill in. While I will see this through to the end, it now has no hope for me of cracking into the top tier of Morrison stuff (We3, All Star Superman, etc.). At this point it seems like a throwaway idea for an issue of his 1996 JLA run. At the end of issue 3, it seemed like the whole world was taken over by the anti-life equation, but here it turns out there are a surprising number of survivors -- I guess since they all have stuff to do in their own books and the Final Crisis spin offs you can hardly make them all into evil Justifiers, though that would at least have had the virtue of thinking the thought all the way out to the end. The Ray is delivering underground Daily Planet papers like Black Lightning was, and this is boring -- I think maybe Morrison likes the bit of Americana here, but it is not working for me. The Dark Gods as animal hybrids is also just not as visually interesting as the Kirby Cosmic Insanity, although they do have there really creepy moments -- the final page is a thing of beauty, especially that weird mise-en-scene. Barbara says "They've wounded our people, our minds, or planet in ways we can barely imagine" and in ways I think Morrison and his guys are incapable of showing, because I have not seen enough to believe her. I will also say that I hate the anti-life equation thing: it seems like looking for a moment will turn you into a zombie, but then Barbara saw it "for a moment" and was able to shake it off -- why everyone can't do this I do not know, and I really do not see how all these Superheroes are fine -- did they just never check their email? And the language if it is boring: Work; Consume; Die; Judge Others; Condemn the Different; Exploit the Weak; Anti-Life Makes it One; All is One; Darkseid = Self; Justifiers. BORING: I get it, they are like mean people we all know. I know the spread of superhero faces is supposed be grim, but a lot of them seem to be fine, according to the screen, a fact confirmed by the pages that follow. The Black Canary Green Arrow scene was boring, but I Oliver vs the Justifiers was fun, because of how much the typify everything he hates. What was going on with Mr. Miracle I do not know. This is the first time I have seen him since he died pretty much the exact same way at the hand of the exact same guy at end of Seven Soldiers -- is this some kind of weird commentary on the double contradictory deaths of Orion in Final Crisis 1 and Death of the New Gods? I do not know. But the final page was great. I wish the whole issue was a great as that final page.
If the world was just, Morrison would make tons of money off of prestige products like All Star Superman and would not have to spread himself thing on a host of weaker books like Final Crisis Submit, and Superman Beyond 3D.
Final Crisis 4. As you all know, nothing bothers me more than fill in artists. I have no patience for them, unless they are isolated, as in Fraction's Iron Fist, to some kind of flash-back or something. I meet a lot of people who just do not care about things like aesthetic unity, or enjoy the artistic chaos -- a mode Morrison played with in the second to last issue of the Invisibles, and which I thought was a total storytelling failure, especially compared to the picture perfect Quitely Invisibles finale. Final Crisis 4 brings in a fill in artist and worse -- the final issue will be drawn entirely by a fill in for the fill in. While I will see this through to the end, it now has no hope for me of cracking into the top tier of Morrison stuff (We3, All Star Superman, etc.). At this point it seems like a throwaway idea for an issue of his 1996 JLA run. At the end of issue 3, it seemed like the whole world was taken over by the anti-life equation, but here it turns out there are a surprising number of survivors -- I guess since they all have stuff to do in their own books and the Final Crisis spin offs you can hardly make them all into evil Justifiers, though that would at least have had the virtue of thinking the thought all the way out to the end. The Ray is delivering underground Daily Planet papers like Black Lightning was, and this is boring -- I think maybe Morrison likes the bit of Americana here, but it is not working for me. The Dark Gods as animal hybrids is also just not as visually interesting as the Kirby Cosmic Insanity, although they do have there really creepy moments -- the final page is a thing of beauty, especially that weird mise-en-scene. Barbara says "They've wounded our people, our minds, or planet in ways we can barely imagine" and in ways I think Morrison and his guys are incapable of showing, because I have not seen enough to believe her. I will also say that I hate the anti-life equation thing: it seems like looking for a moment will turn you into a zombie, but then Barbara saw it "for a moment" and was able to shake it off -- why everyone can't do this I do not know, and I really do not see how all these Superheroes are fine -- did they just never check their email? And the language if it is boring: Work; Consume; Die; Judge Others; Condemn the Different; Exploit the Weak; Anti-Life Makes it One; All is One; Darkseid = Self; Justifiers. BORING: I get it, they are like mean people we all know. I know the spread of superhero faces is supposed be grim, but a lot of them seem to be fine, according to the screen, a fact confirmed by the pages that follow. The Black Canary Green Arrow scene was boring, but I Oliver vs the Justifiers was fun, because of how much the typify everything he hates. What was going on with Mr. Miracle I do not know. This is the first time I have seen him since he died pretty much the exact same way at the hand of the exact same guy at end of Seven Soldiers -- is this some kind of weird commentary on the double contradictory deaths of Orion in Final Crisis 1 and Death of the New Gods? I do not know. But the final page was great. I wish the whole issue was a great as that final page.
If the world was just, Morrison would make tons of money off of prestige products like All Star Superman and would not have to spread himself thing on a host of weaker books like Final Crisis Submit, and Superman Beyond 3D.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Comics Out August 27, 2008
Final Crisis: Superman Beyond: 3D. Jog and Tim Callahan have already noted that this is not a great comic book, and I certainly concur. The 3D glasses are annoying, and the project seems to have at its basis ideas -- the Gnostic mythology of the Monitors and the creation of the Platonic form of superheroes -- rather than character or plot, always bad news. And the ideas here -- especially the limbo for out of continuity comic book characters -- are practically commonplace territory, not only for Morrison, but also for Alan Moore. And you can keep telling me about the scale of the Monitors but since you cannot show it it all rings hollow. This constant need for everything to be HUGE all the time is exhausting.
On some level I guess this is just what superhero comics are -- I mean characters save the world all the time in their own books, and then they get together and save the multi-verse in the crossovers. And I suppose Morrision knows this and it is part of why he is going to do smaller non-superhero projects after Final Crisis.
On some level I guess this is just what superhero comics are -- I mean characters save the world all the time in their own books, and then they get together and save the multi-verse in the crossovers. And I suppose Morrision knows this and it is part of why he is going to do smaller non-superhero projects after Final Crisis.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Comics Out Aug 6, 2008
Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
There is this big gap between the first and second stanzas of this two stanza poem -- you have to bridge the gap and make the connection, and see that the exuberant hedonism of the first stanza is thrown into high relief by the reminder of death in the second.
This is Morrisons style in Final Crisis -- because the previous Crisis books are so jam packed full of stuff, they make up for space by alluding to past events and knowing you will know they story there. But Morrison has chosen to deal with the info-overload by just skipping over things: Martian Manhunter's capture and any kind of buildup to his death, Turpin's story after the Darksied club thing, the final image of this issue -- Morrison keeps skipping over stuff, and focusing on minor characters. It is an odd approach to be sure, but it is not without merit. It is almost like he expects you to imagine your own tie-ins, like his Crisis is built on imaginary tie-ins that would flesh some of this stuff out. In THEORY is brilliant. In PRACTICE the jury is still out. Maybe, as a style, it just needs some honing.
As for this issue: Superhero comics of course tell the same story over and over, and it is somewhat unfair to complain about repetitiveness. But our heroes arrive in the future to a world ruled by Darkseid was in Morrison's JLA: Rock of Ages, the focus on minor characters literally at times the Seven Soldiers, the superhero draft thing is feeling a little like Morrisons World War Three, the bullet fired across time -- wasn't that in JLA One Million?
(As a side note let me say I like the sidelining of the major characters for minor ones, even if I have seen it before: that is where a lot of the interest is, cause they can, you know, change, especially with Green Lantern, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman taken off the board for now. I love the Super Young Team -- i just think a better book would have been if Morrison had focused his talents on a Super Young Team tie in book while someone else did the fan boy dance in the main title).
Finally, Morrison, so famous for that crazy imagination, seems to be sputtering a bit. The mind control helmet is dull, as is Libra and his idiotic Bible of Crime rhetoric; did Luthor think he could just go in and threaten Libra cause he seems SHOCKED when a flame thrower is aimed at him -- if only someone could have anticipated that. The superhero draft lacks a any spark as an idea, as does the anti-life mass email; and I know the black racer is a really goofy Kirby character, but Morrison used him to wonderful effect in JLA: Rock of Ages and without shame; now the racer is made to look like some kind of upsetting 90s anti-hero.
And I cannot believe they put the final page reveal ON THE COVER. Where are the fanboys with their cries of SPOILERS now? I mean I had a guy threaten to do me bodily harm because I said the monster from Cloverfield had little crab things come off of him. Sheesh.
Click the label below for my reviews of the earlier Final Crisis issues.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Comics Out June 25, 2008
Young Avengers Presents Hawkeye. A very nice little Matt Fraction yarn. Absurdly, I never noticed until I saw him drawing Avengers how much Brian Hitch owes to Alan Davis. (Is that right? How old is Hitch?). Anyway, Fraction's plan to surpass Morrison continues in his ability to get great artists to team up with him consistently.
Thor: Reign of Blood. Have not actually gotten around to this yet. But it looks pretty good.
Iron Fist 16. Does anyone in the comics industry have more heart than Fraction? The guy has a big heart, and does heartwarming really well. Nice to see Aja back for a whole issue two even if it is light on the ass-kickery. A nice end. The final page image from the next issue by the new team, however, does not look that promising.
Runaways 30. It was the lackluster art, with its dowdy figures, rather than the publishing schedule that made this series unpersuasive -- in spite of the fact that I am always really open to the tragic view of fate that made of the moral of this little story .
Final Crisis 2. The first page is a genius direct address to the reader, and "Spirit into Toy" is one of my favorite exclamations ever. But the various plot threads here still seem really fractured to me -- and not in a good way, and in my copy the reproduction of the art seemed wonky. Blurry maybe? Libra continues to bore, and the Alpha Lantern twist may have meant more to me if I knew who she was. The preacher bad guy New God continues to seem like a weak irony to me, and the imagery on the last page seemed odd, though I know someone is going to tell me the spacial relationships and perspective is SUPPOSED to be weird since they are bending space and time. I don't care; I don't buy it. I did really like when one character referred to the "boom tube" in quotes however -- that really captures the scene, as the New God condescendingly calls it what they pathetic Earthlings would call it. That was a nice detail.
In comics news, I hope to have a friend review Wanted as soon as possible, cause it will probably be Monday at the earliest that I get a chance to see it. And it is coming after Wall-E.
Thor: Reign of Blood. Have not actually gotten around to this yet. But it looks pretty good.
Iron Fist 16. Does anyone in the comics industry have more heart than Fraction? The guy has a big heart, and does heartwarming really well. Nice to see Aja back for a whole issue two even if it is light on the ass-kickery. A nice end. The final page image from the next issue by the new team, however, does not look that promising.
Runaways 30. It was the lackluster art, with its dowdy figures, rather than the publishing schedule that made this series unpersuasive -- in spite of the fact that I am always really open to the tragic view of fate that made of the moral of this little story .
Final Crisis 2. The first page is a genius direct address to the reader, and "Spirit into Toy" is one of my favorite exclamations ever. But the various plot threads here still seem really fractured to me -- and not in a good way, and in my copy the reproduction of the art seemed wonky. Blurry maybe? Libra continues to bore, and the Alpha Lantern twist may have meant more to me if I knew who she was. The preacher bad guy New God continues to seem like a weak irony to me, and the imagery on the last page seemed odd, though I know someone is going to tell me the spacial relationships and perspective is SUPPOSED to be weird since they are bending space and time. I don't care; I don't buy it. I did really like when one character referred to the "boom tube" in quotes however -- that really captures the scene, as the New God condescendingly calls it what they pathetic Earthlings would call it. That was a nice detail.
In comics news, I hope to have a friend review Wanted as soon as possible, cause it will probably be Monday at the earliest that I get a chance to see it. And it is coming after Wall-E.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Comics Out June 11, 2008
Angel. This was all I got this week.
In Comics News, Lou Noble directed me to a great interview with Grant Morrison on Newsarama about Final Crisis in which he dismisses all the continuity DC has been building for a year:
"To reiterate, hopefully for the last time, when we started work on Final Crisis, J.G. and I had no idea what was going to happen in Countdown or Death Of The New Gods because neither of those books existed at that point. The Countdown writers were later asked to ‘seed’ material from Final Crisis and in some cases, probably due to the pressure of filling the pages of a weekly book, that seeding amounted to entire plotlines veering off in directions I had never envisaged, anticipated or planned for in Final Crisis. The way I see it readers can choose to spend the rest of the year fixating on the plot quirks of a series which has ended, or they can breathe a sight of relief, settle back and enjoy the shiny new DC universe status quo we’re setting up in the pages of Final Crisis and its satellite books. I’m sure both of these paths to enlightenment will find adherents of different temperaments."
It surprises me to no end that Morrison can work for DC and say things like this. You would think DC would rather not have one of their major writers call like 60 issues a scam based on the idea that this was all leading up to Final Crisis. Surely some people bought Countdown -- at a hefty pricetag -- only because of Final Crisis.
In Comics News, Lou Noble directed me to a great interview with Grant Morrison on Newsarama about Final Crisis in which he dismisses all the continuity DC has been building for a year:
"To reiterate, hopefully for the last time, when we started work on Final Crisis, J.G. and I had no idea what was going to happen in Countdown or Death Of The New Gods because neither of those books existed at that point. The Countdown writers were later asked to ‘seed’ material from Final Crisis and in some cases, probably due to the pressure of filling the pages of a weekly book, that seeding amounted to entire plotlines veering off in directions I had never envisaged, anticipated or planned for in Final Crisis. The way I see it readers can choose to spend the rest of the year fixating on the plot quirks of a series which has ended, or they can breathe a sight of relief, settle back and enjoy the shiny new DC universe status quo we’re setting up in the pages of Final Crisis and its satellite books. I’m sure both of these paths to enlightenment will find adherents of different temperaments."
It surprises me to no end that Morrison can work for DC and say things like this. You would think DC would rather not have one of their major writers call like 60 issues a scam based on the idea that this was all leading up to Final Crisis. Surely some people bought Countdown -- at a hefty pricetag -- only because of Final Crisis.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Comics Out May 29, 2008 (Final Crisis and Astonishing X-Men Audio-Reviews)
Giant Sized X-Men # 1 can only be reviewed with the power of the spoken word.
Final Crisis #1 ALSO demands an audio review.
Iron Fist 15. A pretty good story overshadowed by this week's other releases. The image on the cover is especially excellent.
Batman 677. Morrison's Batman has been as mixed a bad as his X-Met at least -- probably more. Surprisingly, I liked this issue better if only because I like all the possibilities for the identity of the Black Glove being tossed around: Thomas Wayne, Alfred (Batman's real rather?), Batman himself. The fact that Batman's obscure brother is not mentioned make him the right pick I think -- Callahan had that theory and it seems like a good one. I am still not 100% on board with this because the art is boring and I think the Bad Guy team looks kind of silly and random -- not in a good way. But I do want to see how it continues. And did you read the Morrison interview where he explained about the last page of the last issue, the one I called superfluous? Turns out the colorist got it wrong, and there was supposed to be no blood -- that way you know the last few pages were pure fantasy. Morrison has a history of not communicating with his artists, say on New X-Men or the end of the Invisibles and it is kind of sad. That's why the Quitely collaborations are the best, I think, because they are friends and live in the same city, and really plan this stuff together.
All Star Superman 11. Another perfect issue. The only problem with this series, and it is not really a problem I suppose, is that the tone was established a while back and so some of the surprise is kind of gone 11 issues in. I know what kind of thing to expect now, and 11 is not going to knock me out the way 5 did. From the moment this project was announced I have been looking forward to the inevitable Absolute edition -- 12 issues is the perfect number for a book like that. It will be, for me the definitive Superman. And maybe on a personal level more important: the definitive Luthor. I ADORE the final page of this, with Luthor transcendent in the green and purple. Notice the difference between the line work when he is in the chair in the opening two pages and this final image -- as he becomes more powerful he almost solidifies. I love Luthor. I am this close to shaving my head in solidarity.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Comics Out April 29, 2008
DC Universe 0. I really enjoyed this. I love the concept of a comic book framed by narration -- which is itself the big twist -- that is basically a preview for other comics (hence the in-house adds, which are nicely designed), like trailers in front of a movie -- trailers that often turn out to be better than the movie you are about to watch, and better than the full length features they are advertising. Some of the snip-its were weak -- Superman's, Batman's, and the Specter's in particular -- but they are over so quick you barely notice. The Green Lantern preview was the standout, and the Libra bit was pretty good (though the obvious reversal of Christianity in the Bible of Crime is an almost tragically weak idea I have hated since I saw it in 52) -- Jones seems sold for Final Crisis, even if his layouts are a little dull. The final image was big and weird and striking but almost subtle. There was some real magic on that final page, and I hope I get the Morrison I want for Final Crisis -- the JLA Morrison -- rather than the Batman Morrison I have come to loathe.
Iron Fist 14. I am incapable of seeing anything other than the absence of David Aja. I probably would love the book if he had never been a part of it, but there you go. The guy is so good he has ruined me. As for the script -- the ending was really touching, and I loved all of the crazy names for the fighting moves. Fraction must come up with a slew when he started this book and now that he is going to be gone, he must have emptied his notebook out. That was fun.
The Order 10. You have to admire the confidence that Fraction has, choosing as one of his epigrams "I had in mind to do something big and I did it." The Order get a kind of a happy ending that is not entirely persuasive, but is also not supposed to be since the book was sort of abandoned/cancelled. Smart, on Fraction's part, was the promise that these threads will continue in his Iron Man run.
Thor: Ages of Thunder. Like a Classics Illustrated with way too much talent. Not my genre, and I wonder how the thing would have read had it been written with the ironies of Iron Fist 8, but pretty good.
Glamourpuss 1. I sort of never got into the whole Cerebus thing, and I randomly thought I would get in on the ground floor of Sim's new project, even though, I think, it is about women and he -- am I getting this right -- thinks all women are Satan's Handmaidens. I was expecting something offensive and pretty, but what I got was an essay on comics coming out of the mouths of women who were drawn to illustrate a technique. Not really the kind of thing I want to read for fun, I think. Seemed like his audience was more professional artists.
Not exactly comics related, but one of my favorite TV shows, Avatar, will finish with straight to DVDs released May 6 and July 29.
I have not seen Iron Man, and might not for two weeks. You are welcome to review it here, and I might promote your comment to its own blog post.
Iron Fist 14. I am incapable of seeing anything other than the absence of David Aja. I probably would love the book if he had never been a part of it, but there you go. The guy is so good he has ruined me. As for the script -- the ending was really touching, and I loved all of the crazy names for the fighting moves. Fraction must come up with a slew when he started this book and now that he is going to be gone, he must have emptied his notebook out. That was fun.
The Order 10. You have to admire the confidence that Fraction has, choosing as one of his epigrams "I had in mind to do something big and I did it." The Order get a kind of a happy ending that is not entirely persuasive, but is also not supposed to be since the book was sort of abandoned/cancelled. Smart, on Fraction's part, was the promise that these threads will continue in his Iron Man run.
Thor: Ages of Thunder. Like a Classics Illustrated with way too much talent. Not my genre, and I wonder how the thing would have read had it been written with the ironies of Iron Fist 8, but pretty good.
Glamourpuss 1. I sort of never got into the whole Cerebus thing, and I randomly thought I would get in on the ground floor of Sim's new project, even though, I think, it is about women and he -- am I getting this right -- thinks all women are Satan's Handmaidens. I was expecting something offensive and pretty, but what I got was an essay on comics coming out of the mouths of women who were drawn to illustrate a technique. Not really the kind of thing I want to read for fun, I think. Seemed like his audience was more professional artists.
Not exactly comics related, but one of my favorite TV shows, Avatar, will finish with straight to DVDs released May 6 and July 29.
I have not seen Iron Man, and might not for two weeks. You are welcome to review it here, and I might promote your comment to its own blog post.
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