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.
Showing posts with label Umbrella Academy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Umbrella Academy. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Friday, November 28, 2008
Comics Out November 26, 2008 (Morrison's Batman)
Spoilers on Batman, below.
The Umbrella Academy: Dallas #1. This was basically good -- the art work was fun and those time guys had a cool design. Gabriel Ba is why I get this book. The colors on the battle sequence were particularly nice, and I would like to see more comics embrace a really garish color scheme -- garish colors are such a staple of comics, and obviously a book like the JLA is going to have a mess of color, but I do like to see a book that takes it to a new level just to make it feel fresh. Umbrella Academy is not of the caliber of something like Dark Knight Strikes Again, but that is another book that really does a great job with color. Give me the color palate of Courage the Cowardly Dog or Chowder any day. But I am impatient to get to the meat of this post, so I am moving on quickly.
Batman 681. Tim Callahan is a good critic when you give him a good comic book, but in my mind, particularly with Morrison, he is far too forgiving of error. I do not mean for this post to be an attack on Callahan, but since he is one of the few critics I read on a regular basis he is going to have to stand in for some beliefs held by the comics community as a whole that I find frustrating. Here is what he writes about Batman 681 on his blog:
I do think Batman #681 is a three-and-a-half-star book, since it does plenty of things really well (basically all of the Joker stuff until his ambulance-fall-off-the bridge, the Club of Heroes arrival, the super-plans of the Batman, the flashback with the poison, the betting on Batman, the Zur En Arrh/Zorro in Arkham bit) and other things not so well (the rushed fragments of ending, the lack of a resolution or full explanation, some of the artwork). Still, as I mentioned in a comment on my annotations, I think Batman has been "by far" the best Marvel or DC ongoing series over the past six months. There's more to discuss in any single issue of this series than in a year's worth of other mainstream comics. And anything that provokes thought and discussion is better than something that doesn't as far as I'm concerned.
I disagree about the Joker stuff being on the good side: although there is something wonderfully ironic about his chilling speech to the Black Glove about how awesome Batman is and how they are totally unprepared, I was not crazy about his menacing "I'll get you later" fade out after killing a guy Morrison forgot to make me care about. The ambulance fall was, as I think Callahan implies, weak (though Damian's "What was an ambulance?" was a pretty awesome thing to say) -- coincidence is almost always lazy writing even when it is masquerading as a theme with all the gambling (the red and black did not add up to much more than a deck of cards and a color scheme Satan is associated with). I know this is supposed to be a crossover and I was only reading this book, but I hated the Club of Heroes arrival because they showed up heroically to fix a bunch of problems that I learned about the moment AFTER they arrived. The city is practically saved before I knew it was in trouble -- where is the drama there? The coffin flashback to Eastern training improved not at all on Kill Bill, and even the Princess Bride managed to think of a more interesting way to deal with poisoned cups. "ZurEnArrh" turns out to be derived from Thomas Wayne's claim that Gotham would probably put someone like Zorro in Arkham. Zorro in Arkham = Zur En Arrh. I don't hate that, I might even like it. It is an interesting bit of nonsense anyway. But it is such a mess because of the Dr. Hurt/Thomas Wayne connection -- the Batman of ZurEnArrh is derived from the REAL Thomas Wayne and that is what allowed Batman to beat Hurt? But Hurt knew the "trigger word" so maybe Hurt is Thomas Wayne? or I guess Satan just knows everything? What?
But even if I agreed with Callahan that all this was good, I cannot imagine giving a book three and a half stars for bad artwork -- the first thing that bothered me about page three, for example, was that it looks like Batman has a mustache and goatee; then I realized it was just shadow; then I realized that buried alive THERE IS NO LIGHT SOURCE -- maybe Daniel just wants US to be able to see in the dark, which makes sense for the scene (you cannot have three pages of black, because unlike the Tarantino comics have no access to sound), but then how are you determining where shadows fall? One the one hand this is just a quibble. On the other hand Daniels is just to lazy to care; Frank Quitely would never have let such a dumb thing on the page. "Rushed fragments of an ending" is a serious complaint alone worth more than half a star, especially since Morrison has been telling us for a year that his whole run was leading to Batman RIP. Morrison can stick a hell of an ending even on very messy books (New X-Men, Invisibles) but there was no saving this story. Dr. Hurt is who now? Satan maybe, Satan who lies about being Thomas Wayne? Alfred and Batman dismiss the idea, but I cannot tell if we are supposed to take their dismissals of the possibility at face value: if Hurt is OBVIOUSLY not Thomas Wayne why does he say he is? If it is some kind of mess with your enemy tactic it is really ineffective since neither Alfred or Batman seem phased by the issue. If the issue is in doubt why does it not bother Alfred or Batman more?
Tim Callahan writes -- and again I do not mean to go after him specifically, he is just a good example of what a lot of comics fans are saying right now -- "I think Batman has been 'by far' the best Marvel or DC ongoing series over the past six months." I do not know what "by far" is doing in quotes, but I am even less sure that this really the compliment Callahan implies it is.
And now we come to the kicker: "anything that provokes thought and discussion is better than something that doesn't as far as I'm concerned." Any major character written by an ambitious major writer that comes out this messy is going to generate a lot of discussion. A lot of that discussion is caused by a debate between people who see errors ("He implicitly promised us a big reveal on the identity of the Black Glove and Dr. Hurt, and he did not deliver") and justification of said "errors" as virtues ("Do you know how to read? He pretty clearly identified him as Satan. He just did not want to be OBVIOUS about it" or "ambivalence is a hallmark of literary fiction and even the best of recent genre fiction: look at the end of Heart of Darkness, the novel from which this issue gets its title, or even the ending of the Sopranos"). An comic book may spark a lot of debate, and the debate may be good, but that does not mean the comic book is good. If my friend gets shot in the face, it may make me think hard about my life, the brevity of it, and the people I care about, but the fact that it generated some good soul searching on my part does not mean it was a good thing that my friend got shot in the face, yeah?
A few points that I could not fit in the discussion above, just general details about the issue being a mess.
WAS Thomas Wayne and co drug addicts or is that just Hurt messing with Batman?
Batman stops being Batman (Nightwing with the cowl) but then someone else becomes Batman (the Bat-signal at the end: maybe Damian takes up the job? Is this what the next story will be about: Who is the new Batman and where is Bruce Wayne?)
I am pretty sure Bruce Wayne's black glove punching through the glass to get Hurt leader of the Black Glove -- and going down in a flaming helicopter is a lame ending by the way -- is ironic: "The Black Glove always wins" says Hurt, and indeed he is right, though not in the way he intended. There is something I really like about how Morrison wants to end this big epic with Batman punching someone, something of the pure superhero concept there. But the irony of Batman's black glove is marred because Morrison had him thinking for a moment he WAS the Black Glove, his own worst enemy, and this just muddies already muddy water.
Heart of Darkness is an overrated book, but that is a whole other post. Harold Bloom says Conrad ends with this non-sense about "The Horror! the Horror!" not because the character is in the dark, but because the author is in the dark. That seems to me to be going to far, as I think Conrad was genuinely interested in radical ambiguity and did his best with it. How this compares to what Morrison did here I do not know, but I think Morrison is just making mistakes.
I loved the end of the Sopranos, but that ambiguous ending is nothing like Morrison's, as it relied on the worship people had for the Sopranos, and the fact that this was it -- there was never going to be any more. As Brad pointed out to me, the end of the show was like a friend dying -- all you want is just five more minutes with the person, but you are always going to want five more minutes and the thing has to end. Many people thought Tony got killed at the end, and I can see the virtues of that argument, but in a larger way the show itself got killed. People expected a violent and shocking conclusion to a show that had always been about understatement, and Chase delivered tenfold on both levels: nothing was more violent and shocking, but also more understated, than that final, jarring, fade to black.
The Umbrella Academy: Dallas #1. This was basically good -- the art work was fun and those time guys had a cool design. Gabriel Ba is why I get this book. The colors on the battle sequence were particularly nice, and I would like to see more comics embrace a really garish color scheme -- garish colors are such a staple of comics, and obviously a book like the JLA is going to have a mess of color, but I do like to see a book that takes it to a new level just to make it feel fresh. Umbrella Academy is not of the caliber of something like Dark Knight Strikes Again, but that is another book that really does a great job with color. Give me the color palate of Courage the Cowardly Dog or Chowder any day. But I am impatient to get to the meat of this post, so I am moving on quickly.
Batman 681. Tim Callahan is a good critic when you give him a good comic book, but in my mind, particularly with Morrison, he is far too forgiving of error. I do not mean for this post to be an attack on Callahan, but since he is one of the few critics I read on a regular basis he is going to have to stand in for some beliefs held by the comics community as a whole that I find frustrating. Here is what he writes about Batman 681 on his blog:
I do think Batman #681 is a three-and-a-half-star book, since it does plenty of things really well (basically all of the Joker stuff until his ambulance-fall-off-the bridge, the Club of Heroes arrival, the super-plans of the Batman, the flashback with the poison, the betting on Batman, the Zur En Arrh/Zorro in Arkham bit) and other things not so well (the rushed fragments of ending, the lack of a resolution or full explanation, some of the artwork). Still, as I mentioned in a comment on my annotations, I think Batman has been "by far" the best Marvel or DC ongoing series over the past six months. There's more to discuss in any single issue of this series than in a year's worth of other mainstream comics. And anything that provokes thought and discussion is better than something that doesn't as far as I'm concerned.
I disagree about the Joker stuff being on the good side: although there is something wonderfully ironic about his chilling speech to the Black Glove about how awesome Batman is and how they are totally unprepared, I was not crazy about his menacing "I'll get you later" fade out after killing a guy Morrison forgot to make me care about. The ambulance fall was, as I think Callahan implies, weak (though Damian's "What was an ambulance?" was a pretty awesome thing to say) -- coincidence is almost always lazy writing even when it is masquerading as a theme with all the gambling (the red and black did not add up to much more than a deck of cards and a color scheme Satan is associated with). I know this is supposed to be a crossover and I was only reading this book, but I hated the Club of Heroes arrival because they showed up heroically to fix a bunch of problems that I learned about the moment AFTER they arrived. The city is practically saved before I knew it was in trouble -- where is the drama there? The coffin flashback to Eastern training improved not at all on Kill Bill, and even the Princess Bride managed to think of a more interesting way to deal with poisoned cups. "ZurEnArrh" turns out to be derived from Thomas Wayne's claim that Gotham would probably put someone like Zorro in Arkham. Zorro in Arkham = Zur En Arrh. I don't hate that, I might even like it. It is an interesting bit of nonsense anyway. But it is such a mess because of the Dr. Hurt/Thomas Wayne connection -- the Batman of ZurEnArrh is derived from the REAL Thomas Wayne and that is what allowed Batman to beat Hurt? But Hurt knew the "trigger word" so maybe Hurt is Thomas Wayne? or I guess Satan just knows everything? What?
But even if I agreed with Callahan that all this was good, I cannot imagine giving a book three and a half stars for bad artwork -- the first thing that bothered me about page three, for example, was that it looks like Batman has a mustache and goatee; then I realized it was just shadow; then I realized that buried alive THERE IS NO LIGHT SOURCE -- maybe Daniel just wants US to be able to see in the dark, which makes sense for the scene (you cannot have three pages of black, because unlike the Tarantino comics have no access to sound), but then how are you determining where shadows fall? One the one hand this is just a quibble. On the other hand Daniels is just to lazy to care; Frank Quitely would never have let such a dumb thing on the page. "Rushed fragments of an ending" is a serious complaint alone worth more than half a star, especially since Morrison has been telling us for a year that his whole run was leading to Batman RIP. Morrison can stick a hell of an ending even on very messy books (New X-Men, Invisibles) but there was no saving this story. Dr. Hurt is who now? Satan maybe, Satan who lies about being Thomas Wayne? Alfred and Batman dismiss the idea, but I cannot tell if we are supposed to take their dismissals of the possibility at face value: if Hurt is OBVIOUSLY not Thomas Wayne why does he say he is? If it is some kind of mess with your enemy tactic it is really ineffective since neither Alfred or Batman seem phased by the issue. If the issue is in doubt why does it not bother Alfred or Batman more?
Tim Callahan writes -- and again I do not mean to go after him specifically, he is just a good example of what a lot of comics fans are saying right now -- "I think Batman has been 'by far' the best Marvel or DC ongoing series over the past six months." I do not know what "by far" is doing in quotes, but I am even less sure that this really the compliment Callahan implies it is.
And now we come to the kicker: "anything that provokes thought and discussion is better than something that doesn't as far as I'm concerned." Any major character written by an ambitious major writer that comes out this messy is going to generate a lot of discussion. A lot of that discussion is caused by a debate between people who see errors ("He implicitly promised us a big reveal on the identity of the Black Glove and Dr. Hurt, and he did not deliver") and justification of said "errors" as virtues ("Do you know how to read? He pretty clearly identified him as Satan. He just did not want to be OBVIOUS about it" or "ambivalence is a hallmark of literary fiction and even the best of recent genre fiction: look at the end of Heart of Darkness, the novel from which this issue gets its title, or even the ending of the Sopranos"). An comic book may spark a lot of debate, and the debate may be good, but that does not mean the comic book is good. If my friend gets shot in the face, it may make me think hard about my life, the brevity of it, and the people I care about, but the fact that it generated some good soul searching on my part does not mean it was a good thing that my friend got shot in the face, yeah?
A few points that I could not fit in the discussion above, just general details about the issue being a mess.
WAS Thomas Wayne and co drug addicts or is that just Hurt messing with Batman?
Batman stops being Batman (Nightwing with the cowl) but then someone else becomes Batman (the Bat-signal at the end: maybe Damian takes up the job? Is this what the next story will be about: Who is the new Batman and where is Bruce Wayne?)
I am pretty sure Bruce Wayne's black glove punching through the glass to get Hurt leader of the Black Glove -- and going down in a flaming helicopter is a lame ending by the way -- is ironic: "The Black Glove always wins" says Hurt, and indeed he is right, though not in the way he intended. There is something I really like about how Morrison wants to end this big epic with Batman punching someone, something of the pure superhero concept there. But the irony of Batman's black glove is marred because Morrison had him thinking for a moment he WAS the Black Glove, his own worst enemy, and this just muddies already muddy water.
Heart of Darkness is an overrated book, but that is a whole other post. Harold Bloom says Conrad ends with this non-sense about "The Horror! the Horror!" not because the character is in the dark, but because the author is in the dark. That seems to me to be going to far, as I think Conrad was genuinely interested in radical ambiguity and did his best with it. How this compares to what Morrison did here I do not know, but I think Morrison is just making mistakes.
I loved the end of the Sopranos, but that ambiguous ending is nothing like Morrison's, as it relied on the worship people had for the Sopranos, and the fact that this was it -- there was never going to be any more. As Brad pointed out to me, the end of the show was like a friend dying -- all you want is just five more minutes with the person, but you are always going to want five more minutes and the thing has to end. Many people thought Tony got killed at the end, and I can see the virtues of that argument, but in a larger way the show itself got killed. People expected a violent and shocking conclusion to a show that had always been about understatement, and Chase delivered tenfold on both levels: nothing was more violent and shocking, but also more understated, than that final, jarring, fade to black.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Comics Out February 22, 2008
Runaways 29. I barely remember what happened since the last issue of this, which came out a long time ago I think. I am not optimistic about my abilities to remember this one when the next (and final) one comes out. For example, I do not remember if the kid and the miniature man are new to this issue, and brought in only to die, which is quite lame, but not as lame as the fact that I cannot remember. The art is dowdy and dull – check out panels two and three of page two for example: no backgrounds, exact same pose and expression. I was pleased that Whedon introduced a sympathetic character who is unable to transcend her culture and embrace interracial lesbianism; it at least avoids an easy out there. There is a dull romance plot, and an attempt to evolve Nico’s power, but none of this is keeping my attention. To cap the whole dumb thing Whedon, who usually is a MASTER of the final moment in an episode, totally fails to come up with something more interesting than a bomb. With time travelling mutant kids you have to end with something more imaginative than 24 would, especially if you are going to make everyone wait this long.
The Order 8. Knowing the Order is no more makes this a bitter-sweet read. Every issue I like this book more and it only has two more issues to go. In, perhaps, an effort to wrap the whole thing up quickly – or maybe it was always going to be like this – we get a big reveal about the man from SHADOW and the main threat. And hey, Whedon, THIS is how you do and ending beat.
The Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death. This is all good fun, even though I feel like I have seen these “put the hero through various periods of comic book history” thing. Fraction and Co seem to be working out a new structure for monthly books. In an age where slow auteurs produce amazing work (All Star Superman), and bog-standard monthlies support the industry (Ultimate Spiderman) Fraction, possibly unconsciously, is building a third way: Have your auteur strand (the Aja pages) but keep the pace up through sidebars (fill in artists who handle subplots in the main story) and specials like the annual and this thing – specials that genuinely augment the main story. That way you have prestige work without the gaps. I am not saying this is exactly what is going on -- Chaykin and Fraction on a book may be as prestige as Faction and Aja on a book – I am just saying that this book implicitly suggests something to the industry. I would like to see more people work with it.
Angel 4. This book remains basically acceptable, but I feel like Joss putting out a series of e mail letting us know periodically where he was going to go next would suffice as well.
Umbrella Academy 6. This book continues to look great. The fight, especially the reds, are great; the little “BOOM” is a particular highlight. You rarely see that kind of understatement in a punch-em-up. But the end is little more than a blood-bath, a random solution, and an epilogue. I would get more of this book if Ba is on the art. If not, not so much.
In Comics News Newsarama has an interview with Grant Morrison about his Batman run. Basically he sees himself as trying to imagine all of Batman's history as taking place in fifteen years of Batman's life. I am still thinking through exactly what I think of that. I will get back to you.
The Order 8. Knowing the Order is no more makes this a bitter-sweet read. Every issue I like this book more and it only has two more issues to go. In, perhaps, an effort to wrap the whole thing up quickly – or maybe it was always going to be like this – we get a big reveal about the man from SHADOW and the main threat. And hey, Whedon, THIS is how you do and ending beat.
The Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death. This is all good fun, even though I feel like I have seen these “put the hero through various periods of comic book history” thing. Fraction and Co seem to be working out a new structure for monthly books. In an age where slow auteurs produce amazing work (All Star Superman), and bog-standard monthlies support the industry (Ultimate Spiderman) Fraction, possibly unconsciously, is building a third way: Have your auteur strand (the Aja pages) but keep the pace up through sidebars (fill in artists who handle subplots in the main story) and specials like the annual and this thing – specials that genuinely augment the main story. That way you have prestige work without the gaps. I am not saying this is exactly what is going on -- Chaykin and Fraction on a book may be as prestige as Faction and Aja on a book – I am just saying that this book implicitly suggests something to the industry. I would like to see more people work with it.
Angel 4. This book remains basically acceptable, but I feel like Joss putting out a series of e mail letting us know periodically where he was going to go next would suffice as well.
Umbrella Academy 6. This book continues to look great. The fight, especially the reds, are great; the little “BOOM” is a particular highlight. You rarely see that kind of understatement in a punch-em-up. But the end is little more than a blood-bath, a random solution, and an epilogue. I would get more of this book if Ba is on the art. If not, not so much.
In Comics News Newsarama has an interview with Grant Morrison about his Batman run. Basically he sees himself as trying to imagine all of Batman's history as taking place in fifteen years of Batman's life. I am still thinking through exactly what I think of that. I will get back to you.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Comics Out January 23, 2008
X-Men 207. Bachalo's first panel, a muddy close up of a boring creature called Predator X, is great in its combination of cartoon and abstract art. His faces during the Rogue-Mystique confrontation are also top notch -- even more than Kitson, Bachalo makes talking heads just fun to watch. I want some X-Men action figures based off of his style. As for the story, this concludes the big Messiah Complex thing, of which I only got the prologue and the Bachalo parts. Thankfully Bachalo drew the conclusion so I could see how it all ended and feel glad I did not get the rest of it. From my limited perspective, this is your standard "everything changes -- no wait nothing does" ending. It looks like two characters are killed but upcoming solicits make it clear that they are not. And as for the baby the story revolves around? In the first episode of the fifth season of Buffy, Whedon introduces Dawn, Buffy's little sister, who turns out not to be a real girl but I kind of magical construct; at the end of the season it looks like her sacrifice will save everyone, neatly taking out of play at the end the thing you introduced at the beginning. But Whedon is smarter than that, and makes Dawn a real character who continues on. Messiah Complex, at this point, has gone the more boring route of taking the baby out of play, to the future. There is a whole other Cable series in which she will appear, but as for this story, not such a satisfying ending. And it really did not seem like there was enough material for 13 issues -- certainly I did not feel like I was missing out on anything without those other parts.
Order 7. Turns out this book, which just got better and better, will be cancelled with issue 10, which is lame. This issue is the best one yet, featuring a really interesting confrontation between Namor, and Hellrung, who should be totally outclassed, but figures out how to deal with the situation in a smart believable way. (For people who view every Marvel issue in the context of the Marvel Universe there may be an objection that in a world of shapeshifters and whatnot Hellrung's threat does not make much sense, but I encourage you not to be that guy. You have to view stories in their own right, on some level, and not always as part of a bigger thing).
Astonishing X-Men 24. The fact that Whedon's three other arcs have been six issues and this one is six with a Giant Sized conclusion -- a conclusion that is not just an epilogue or something as I assumed, but very much the other part of the cliffhanger this ends on -- made me feel, perhaps unfairly, that this issue was unnecessary. I guess it was not, I just think Whedon has trained me to expect a conclusion of some kind at issue 6. I thought this Breakworld arc would end here, and the epilogue would treat the fallout, and, say, Nova. I really don't see a reason for a Giant Sized special to conclude rather than a 25th or 25th and 26th issue here, except maybe they want to get the new team on this title faster. I don't have any real complaints about this issue, except for maybe two panels where Cassaday makes Emma Frost's face look like that of a bulky man.
Umbrella Academy 5 (which came out last week but I just got it this week). The introduction of the title card was awesome. There was some over-the-top violence that was pretty surprising. More important, Ba is such a great artist on this book and Number 5's character is advanced in significant ways. This book hits the "monkey's are intrinsically awesome" button too many times (Spaceboy, Pogo, the police monkeys), but it remains strong.
In comics news Newsarama has a six page lettered preview of Millar and Hitch's first Fantastic Four issue, which did not really get my attention, but I suppose I will still buy it; Heath Ledger, the Joker, died; DC's solicits are up and include some awesome action figures based off of their All Star titles, which is to say based off of Miller and Quitely's designs, which I love; Marvel's solicits are up; and there is an interview with Matt Fraction, whose Order is cancelled at issue 10, and who will be doing a Young Avengers Presents book and a Thor special. So good news and bad news.
Review, discuss, recommend.
Order 7. Turns out this book, which just got better and better, will be cancelled with issue 10, which is lame. This issue is the best one yet, featuring a really interesting confrontation between Namor, and Hellrung, who should be totally outclassed, but figures out how to deal with the situation in a smart believable way. (For people who view every Marvel issue in the context of the Marvel Universe there may be an objection that in a world of shapeshifters and whatnot Hellrung's threat does not make much sense, but I encourage you not to be that guy. You have to view stories in their own right, on some level, and not always as part of a bigger thing).
Astonishing X-Men 24. The fact that Whedon's three other arcs have been six issues and this one is six with a Giant Sized conclusion -- a conclusion that is not just an epilogue or something as I assumed, but very much the other part of the cliffhanger this ends on -- made me feel, perhaps unfairly, that this issue was unnecessary. I guess it was not, I just think Whedon has trained me to expect a conclusion of some kind at issue 6. I thought this Breakworld arc would end here, and the epilogue would treat the fallout, and, say, Nova. I really don't see a reason for a Giant Sized special to conclude rather than a 25th or 25th and 26th issue here, except maybe they want to get the new team on this title faster. I don't have any real complaints about this issue, except for maybe two panels where Cassaday makes Emma Frost's face look like that of a bulky man.
Umbrella Academy 5 (which came out last week but I just got it this week). The introduction of the title card was awesome. There was some over-the-top violence that was pretty surprising. More important, Ba is such a great artist on this book and Number 5's character is advanced in significant ways. This book hits the "monkey's are intrinsically awesome" button too many times (Spaceboy, Pogo, the police monkeys), but it remains strong.
In comics news Newsarama has a six page lettered preview of Millar and Hitch's first Fantastic Four issue, which did not really get my attention, but I suppose I will still buy it; Heath Ledger, the Joker, died; DC's solicits are up and include some awesome action figures based off of their All Star titles, which is to say based off of Miller and Quitely's designs, which I love; Marvel's solicits are up; and there is an interview with Matt Fraction, whose Order is cancelled at issue 10, and who will be doing a Young Avengers Presents book and a Thor special. So good news and bad news.
Review, discuss, recommend.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Comics Out December 19, 2007
Angel. This book is serviceable, but like Buffy it has this weird thing where even though Whedon is writing it it still seems like fan-fiction. Pretty good fan fiction, but fan fiction none-the-less. Maybe it feels like fan fiction because it seems such an unnecessary addition to the television show. I don't know. I will continue to get both this and Buffy though. There is a weird bit in the art where Nina and Gwen do the same head-cocked danger face thing. The art on Buffy and Angel is not doing Whedon any favors. Since I half want the books a good artist like Bachalo could convince me this is a great idea.
Umbrella Academy. The art remains stunning as always -- I especially liked the monkey making Vayna feel better, and the experimental-y bits in the middle were ok. And I loved the bit at the end where she plays just the single note. I never talk about lettering, but I will also mention here that I adore the font chosen for the titles.
The Order. The Order continues to grow on me. This book has kind of a slow build that is really working. I think it is going to continue to get better and better in part because it is a character study on a lot of levels, and they more time we spend with these folks the better.
Iron Fist. Aja continues to be just shockingly good. His layouts, often very architectural, create some unique rhythms that are light-years ahead of someone like Cassaday -- who I like, but who tends to just do simple layouts in a way that can seem like advanced storyboarding, rather than advanced COMICS. The more I think about it the more I think these layouts are a BIG DEAL. Look at the page three pages from the end and notice the way he uses empty space to break up the character's heads. Maybe I will scan some in and talk more about them. I like Aja so much that I also wonder what would happen if you read, from issue one, only the pages drawn by Aja? Is this being created in a way that that could be a valuable alternative reading style?
In Comics News they have one of those big, vague interviews with Dido about the future of DC and the next big event. I never read interviews like that, but I glanced at it. Here is an image:
http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/Dec07/DiDio/02/MONGOL-ad.jpg
(I cannot make blogger hyper-link today). Boy, Darkseid with the colored Green Lantern rings looks a lot like Thanos with the Infinity Gems.
Marvel and DC have their solicits up but I have not had a chance to check them out.
Review and discuss this weeks comics and comics news. You can click the labels to read reviews of the earlier issues of the comics out this week.
Umbrella Academy. The art remains stunning as always -- I especially liked the monkey making Vayna feel better, and the experimental-y bits in the middle were ok. And I loved the bit at the end where she plays just the single note. I never talk about lettering, but I will also mention here that I adore the font chosen for the titles.
The Order. The Order continues to grow on me. This book has kind of a slow build that is really working. I think it is going to continue to get better and better in part because it is a character study on a lot of levels, and they more time we spend with these folks the better.
Iron Fist. Aja continues to be just shockingly good. His layouts, often very architectural, create some unique rhythms that are light-years ahead of someone like Cassaday -- who I like, but who tends to just do simple layouts in a way that can seem like advanced storyboarding, rather than advanced COMICS. The more I think about it the more I think these layouts are a BIG DEAL. Look at the page three pages from the end and notice the way he uses empty space to break up the character's heads. Maybe I will scan some in and talk more about them. I like Aja so much that I also wonder what would happen if you read, from issue one, only the pages drawn by Aja? Is this being created in a way that that could be a valuable alternative reading style?
In Comics News they have one of those big, vague interviews with Dido about the future of DC and the next big event. I never read interviews like that, but I glanced at it. Here is an image:
http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/Dec07/DiDio/02/MONGOL-ad.jpg
(I cannot make blogger hyper-link today). Boy, Darkseid with the colored Green Lantern rings looks a lot like Thanos with the Infinity Gems.
Marvel and DC have their solicits up but I have not had a chance to check them out.
Review and discuss this weeks comics and comics news. You can click the labels to read reviews of the earlier issues of the comics out this week.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Comics Out November 21, 2007
[Comics Out posts have been switched out with Free Form Comments and will appear from now on on Fridays -- so everyone has time to read the books.]
Angel: After the Fall. Joss Whedon did the plot, but not the script, for this post-season-5 Angel comic book. For some dumb reason Buffy is at Dark Horse and Angel is at IDW. But my local comic book store did not notice the word "Whedon" in the solicit and did not get enough, so I will have to get this later. Do not let that stop you from reviewing it with spoilers in the comments.
Umbrella Academy 3. This is still pretty good. Not the best comic book in the world, but fun -- and what more should I be asking for really? The colors, particularly the hot pink laser beam with the orange flame background and the judicious use of red for the last two pages is really eye catching. Dave Stewart. Nice stuff.
Not much comics news caught my eye this week, except film stuff reported by Newsarama: the Futurama straight-to-DVD film is out soon.
Also -- does anyone want to review Enchanted?
Angel: After the Fall. Joss Whedon did the plot, but not the script, for this post-season-5 Angel comic book. For some dumb reason Buffy is at Dark Horse and Angel is at IDW. But my local comic book store did not notice the word "Whedon" in the solicit and did not get enough, so I will have to get this later. Do not let that stop you from reviewing it with spoilers in the comments.
Umbrella Academy 3. This is still pretty good. Not the best comic book in the world, but fun -- and what more should I be asking for really? The colors, particularly the hot pink laser beam with the orange flame background and the judicious use of red for the last two pages is really eye catching. Dave Stewart. Nice stuff.
Not much comics news caught my eye this week, except film stuff reported by Newsarama: the Futurama straight-to-DVD film is out soon.
Also -- does anyone want to review Enchanted?
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Comics Out October 17, 2007
The Umbrella Academy 2. I liked this issue quite a bit more than the last one, and I liked the last one pretty good. The colors, which I failed to talk about last time are great -- the washed out fall present, particularly the sky, the red and rich browns of the apocalyptic future, the hot pink for the carnival under laser blast, the single bit of primary red for the inside lining of our villain's opera cape. Spaceboy, the evil floating bots (with that wonderfully updated clunky old look), the little kid having fun in the future -- all rendered with a lot of joy. The story's whimsicality feels less forced now: the villain and his plan I like a lot, seeing these wacky different people all together (so much more fun than the matching little kids -- we should have started with this and seen the kids in a flashback at some point later), even the understated "The Umbrella Academy" title I thought were all really charming. Not my favorite book ever -- the Grant Morrison blurb on the cover overstates I think but that is what blurbs and Grant Morrison are supposed to do -- but a nice one. I think it is every bit as good as Hellboy for example. Way to go Dark Horse.
One little overlap -- there is a visual chime between Ba's shot of the villain and his crew and the last page of Casanova 10 which Ba used to draw and which is not out yet but will be shortly -- you will see what I mean. Coincidence? Or a little wish on Ba's part to be back at his old job? Or just me over reading? I am willing to admit I over-read occasionally (occasionally).
Marvel Zombies 2 #1. I was not going to get this. I liked the original Marvel Zombies pretty well -- the idea is inspired as is the basic way the story continues (The Silver Surfer! Of Course!) and I liked the art. But exposition was clunky, and the hype was annoying. But I got a kick out of the first splash page of the new issue, which suggested this was going to go a new direction, and sure enough there seems to be some life still kicking in this concept. Exposition still rattles like an old car on a hot day: there is 0% imagination in how they reestablish that the zombies cannot eat each other for example, and Kirkman loves to set a scene with the worn out "Earth...", "New Wakanda...", "Meanwhile, out in deep space..." (where the fuck did he think I would think they were without the caption? Near space?), "Back on Earth...", "Elsewhere in New Wakanda...". The absolute worst moment was a panel of Black Panther and his wife sleeping. The caption reads "Later that night. Aboard Asteroid M, the quarters of Black Panther and his wife." The very next panel is captioned "Elsewhere" and off we go. Why is Kirkman prepping this for audiobook? Is this comics for blind people? Phillips is great because this feels like the book he was born to draw, but even he is far too addicted to that big posed tee-shirt ready shot of Marvel heroes in Zombie form -- four times in the issue. Do I look like a whack-a-mole? I get it. I know it is superheroes in zombie form but stop treating me like I am an idiot.
I had wanted to talk about Captain America's new costume here, but I am currently talking to a guest blogger about covering it and I have decided to save all my comments for that.
One little overlap -- there is a visual chime between Ba's shot of the villain and his crew and the last page of Casanova 10 which Ba used to draw and which is not out yet but will be shortly -- you will see what I mean. Coincidence? Or a little wish on Ba's part to be back at his old job? Or just me over reading? I am willing to admit I over-read occasionally (occasionally).
Marvel Zombies 2 #1. I was not going to get this. I liked the original Marvel Zombies pretty well -- the idea is inspired as is the basic way the story continues (The Silver Surfer! Of Course!) and I liked the art. But exposition was clunky, and the hype was annoying. But I got a kick out of the first splash page of the new issue, which suggested this was going to go a new direction, and sure enough there seems to be some life still kicking in this concept. Exposition still rattles like an old car on a hot day: there is 0% imagination in how they reestablish that the zombies cannot eat each other for example, and Kirkman loves to set a scene with the worn out "Earth...", "New Wakanda...", "Meanwhile, out in deep space..." (where the fuck did he think I would think they were without the caption? Near space?), "Back on Earth...", "Elsewhere in New Wakanda...". The absolute worst moment was a panel of Black Panther and his wife sleeping. The caption reads "Later that night. Aboard Asteroid M, the quarters of Black Panther and his wife." The very next panel is captioned "Elsewhere" and off we go. Why is Kirkman prepping this for audiobook? Is this comics for blind people? Phillips is great because this feels like the book he was born to draw, but even he is far too addicted to that big posed tee-shirt ready shot of Marvel heroes in Zombie form -- four times in the issue. Do I look like a whack-a-mole? I get it. I know it is superheroes in zombie form but stop treating me like I am an idiot.
I had wanted to talk about Captain America's new costume here, but I am currently talking to a guest blogger about covering it and I have decided to save all my comments for that.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Comics Out September 19, 2007
Greg Pak and John Romita Jr.'s World War Hulk 4 (of 5). This issue seemed badly made physically -- the transfer from the originals to the printed page seems a little muddy. That could just be my copy. The art is pretty fun, and the story is serviceable. And I like seeing Reed with a mace. But the ending beat? I wish they had gone with something they had not been telegraphing from issue one. Plus -- did I mention I do not care bout the Sentry?
Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba's Umbrella Academy 1 (of 6). The guy from My Chemical Romance teams up with the artist of Casanova. I felt like I HAD to get this. I really enjoyed the Myspace Dark Horse Presents free Umbrella Academy thing. This was pretty good too -- great art and lots of fun stuff. But I felt maybe the slightest hint of staleness here. The opening page with the wrestler taking down the space squid is great -- the Squid reminded me of the aliens on the Simpsons, especially with the Chuck Jones cartoon art, which I love. But I feel like, I don't know, this kind of absurdity is becoming, or will shortly become, a little predictable? The device of "and all these superpowered children were born at that exact moment, coincidentally" is something from novels like Gravity's Rainbow and Midnight's Children, -- a replacement of causality with coincidence. I don't hate it, but I have seen it before. Sir Reginald's body guard is Sachelle's bodyguard from Casanova, yeah? I like the newspaper heading and the title filling in for narration, but the superhero/spy kids who call each other "number 1" and "number 2" is right out of Codename: Kids Next Door on the cartoon network. The Eiffel tower bad guy is very much out of Steampunk, or something I cannot put my finger on -- League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Five Fists of Science? Something. I love the monkey space suit, but the girl who wrote a book about her life on the fringes of this superteam is very Watchmen, or the Whip from Seven Soldiers, or something from Powers. The talking monkey -- included because of the assumption that talking monkeys are always great? -- is OK, but I am exhausted every time I see a comic book with a faux encyclopedia page, or "historical material" in it now. Too much of that. I am going to stick with this cause I like the art, and am trying not to be a jerk. I feel like with a slight tweak I could be really excited about all this, maybe. Could just be a grumpy day for me.
Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison et. al's 52 volume 3 TPB. I have not read this yet, but Ping33 and Matt Fraction said 52 is great so I continue to try to see what they see in it.
In comics news Jeph Loeb and Joe Madureia's Ultimates will be five issues. People are really mad about that, apparently. Plus people are not that happy about the device of killing a character in the first issue. I can see that, but am not feeling that passionate about it today. There was other stuff I am sure, but that is the only one I read about this week. Let me know if there was anything I missed.
[I seem to be phoning it in a bit this week. Maybe teaching took too much out of me today. Sorry]
Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba's Umbrella Academy 1 (of 6). The guy from My Chemical Romance teams up with the artist of Casanova. I felt like I HAD to get this. I really enjoyed the Myspace Dark Horse Presents free Umbrella Academy thing. This was pretty good too -- great art and lots of fun stuff. But I felt maybe the slightest hint of staleness here. The opening page with the wrestler taking down the space squid is great -- the Squid reminded me of the aliens on the Simpsons, especially with the Chuck Jones cartoon art, which I love. But I feel like, I don't know, this kind of absurdity is becoming, or will shortly become, a little predictable? The device of "and all these superpowered children were born at that exact moment, coincidentally" is something from novels like Gravity's Rainbow and Midnight's Children, -- a replacement of causality with coincidence. I don't hate it, but I have seen it before. Sir Reginald's body guard is Sachelle's bodyguard from Casanova, yeah? I like the newspaper heading and the title filling in for narration, but the superhero/spy kids who call each other "number 1" and "number 2" is right out of Codename: Kids Next Door on the cartoon network. The Eiffel tower bad guy is very much out of Steampunk, or something I cannot put my finger on -- League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Five Fists of Science? Something. I love the monkey space suit, but the girl who wrote a book about her life on the fringes of this superteam is very Watchmen, or the Whip from Seven Soldiers, or something from Powers. The talking monkey -- included because of the assumption that talking monkeys are always great? -- is OK, but I am exhausted every time I see a comic book with a faux encyclopedia page, or "historical material" in it now. Too much of that. I am going to stick with this cause I like the art, and am trying not to be a jerk. I feel like with a slight tweak I could be really excited about all this, maybe. Could just be a grumpy day for me.
Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison et. al's 52 volume 3 TPB. I have not read this yet, but Ping33 and Matt Fraction said 52 is great so I continue to try to see what they see in it.
In comics news Jeph Loeb and Joe Madureia's Ultimates will be five issues. People are really mad about that, apparently. Plus people are not that happy about the device of killing a character in the first issue. I can see that, but am not feeling that passionate about it today. There was other stuff I am sure, but that is the only one I read about this week. Let me know if there was anything I missed.
[I seem to be phoning it in a bit this week. Maybe teaching took too much out of me today. Sorry]
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