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This week's digest:
KINGDOM COME #2 Co-Plot/Art: Alex Ross Here's what I thought... If the first issue in this series set things up in more easily-definable terms, this one takes us into subtler shades of grey-- or, if you prefer, shades of Black, Green and Blue, mixed Darkly, but I'll get to that. One of the more interesting Usenet discussions about KINGDOM COME #1 dealt with whether or not the Gotham depicted herein is, in fact, a police state-- and, if so, whether the Batman's brand of justice is preferable to, say, how the Flash keeps peace and order in his domain. I'm delighted that the authors have decided to examine this question in depth with this issue-- and have left the answers open-ended enough to be subject to still more interpretation. The one area that I believe is weak here has to do with Pastor Norman McCay, who we note is still having visions accompanied by Wesley Dodds' voice (another Revelation quote opens this story) but seems to be mainly an onlooker in the goings-on here, being led from place to place by the Spectre and just acting confused and disoriented in general. I'm not sure how else this could have been accomplished, as McCay does serve two main story purposes-- he is our narrator, as well as a means for the Spectre to extrapolate on the personalities involved and define the characters the way the authors want us to see them. But the narration is uneven, varying in style from "everyman" to highly literary, depending on the mood Waid and Ross wish to set. This, in turn, differs still further from McCay's conversational style, which ranges from questioning (not himself this time so much as his ethereal companion) to outright disgust. You get a sense he's taken sides in the coming conflict but he's trying to be impassive at the same time. And I understand that issue #1 focused mainly on his soul-searching, and more concentration on McCay would tend to narrow the all-encompassing focus of KINGDOM COME and its immense cast. But if this character is to be set up as pivotal, there must come a time where he needs to inject himself into the proceedings. I presume that will come with the last two issues. So, what did y'all think? IMPULSE #16 Writer: Mark Waid Here's what I thought... Okay, I have a stupid question, and maybe Tom McCraw can answer it. At first glance, it appears my copy of this book is printed and/or separated very badly. Pages 2-3, 9 and 17-22 are fine. The rest of the issue looks faded (4-7, 10) or muddy (8, 11-16). The first page is so light and out of register in places as to be practically illegible. I get the feeling some sort of effect along these lines was supposed to be deliberate. All the pages with these supposed printing problems are flashback pages (witness the heavy black panel borders). But I gotta tell you, either the effect doesn't work or someone screwed up major. I kept squinting and rubbing my eyes and generally having a less than pleasant experience reading this. That said, it was a well-told story, albeit more serious and adult-oriented than one is used to from this title, and I hope DC does another print run of it because I want to buy the second run. This story deals with Max Mercury's past, in which it is revealed he had a brief affair with a woman who helped nurse him to health after one of his Golden Age exploits-- thus resulting in a daughter he never knew, who grew up to become Helen Claiborne. While the more risque scenes (really just a couple panels) are handled subtly enough so that the meaning might escape the younger set, and Bart is instrumental in helping Max make a decision to face up to his earlier mistakes instead of running away (great life lesson, and one reason I guess I'm still online <g>), there's precious little of the usual IMPULSE tone. The funniest pages are 1 and 3, the last three pages are beautifully poignant, but don't look for a barrel of laughs from this one. Some of this hit pretty close to home for me, some of it rang very false, and right now I'm not sure which is which so I'm not going to say any more about it. Very moving issue, though. So, what did y'all think? NEW GODS #10 Writer: Rachel Pollack Here's what I thought... Obviously, by this point in her writing of the title Rachel knew that John Byrne would be taking over two issues hence, and it might not be a bad idea to leave as clean a slate as possible. So one can understand this issue feeling a little disjointed and rushed. Unfortunately, I didn't find it that well done either. As with all of Pollack's work, I found some really neat concepts herein. I especially like the conceit (p. 14, and excuse me but what happened to the page numbering?) that the Boom Tube alters relative size, and the gods are actually beyond human scope and comprehension. This feels As It Should Be. I also like how various denizens of New Genesis and Apokolips react to S'ivaa's ongoing destructive rampage (pp. 16-18). I can even understand, sort of, why you'd want Supes guest-starring, um, helping out here. But I just didn't care for it. First of all, I hate art that gives male characters overly bulging muscles out of the veins in their neck and their rib cages and all that crap. It's very unattractive. Secondly, the whole scen in which Supes booms through onto New Genesis and sees Darkseid, gets mad but seems to make no move towards Darkseid aside from growling at him (again, this could be an art problem but still) then is attacked by Darkseid before Highfather intervenes... it just feels like six wasted, padded panels. Orion's and Superman's delaying tactics with S'ivaa mostly bored me; I thought the cauterization thing was so obvious that I found Superman's protests against using his heat vision perplexing and annoying. And I really don't like the idea of Darkseid, who knows what a big deal this is, betraying Izaya again. It seems to go totally contrary to everything we've been told so far, and it's very cliché ("oh, he's a villain, he's reverting to type!"). A disappointment, and I can't really recommend this issue at all. Sorry Rachel, I calls 'em as I sees 'em. So, what did y'all think? LEGIONNAIRES #39 Co-Plotter/Scripter: Roger Stern Here's what I thought... Two main observations I wanted to make about this issue: I adore Stern's dialogue and pacing, and Moy is getting so much better at capturing the characters at the right moment to actually tell the story with the art. I don't know if he's at the point yet where I can immediately tell what's going on without looking at the balloons and captions, but I think there's much wider variation now among facial expressions and body language. The page 5 panel with the liquid "spoot"ing into Ayla's face was absolutely precious! And Lu's expression on page 9, with tears streaming from her right eye and her left eye closed in pain, was really nice foreshadowing and absolutely perfect (I get a lot of headaches too that make me close an eye). Well, so this is the issue where everyone starts to get their wish, courtesy of the Emerald Eye's presence. As Kinetix, who gets a lot of good "screen time" in #39, reasons, the Eye can have a way of taking people over without their realizing it. Looks like it's already started. She wants to find the Eye; it's helping her do so, giving her access to Brainy's equipment and the power to locate it. Vi has wanted confidence, and she's become almost brazenly capable as leader. Jo's missed Tinya, and Tinya's returned to him, literally dwelling within him. Brainiac wants to be let alone, and everyone suddenly ignores him. (When there's no one there, is it now Brainy?) Thom wants to stay in the Legion, and things work out very much in his favor. Chuck wants a reason to stick around Legion HQ; he gets plenty. Rokk and Imra want to acknowledge their feelings for each other, and share their first kiss (le sigh), without Garth around to complicate things (hmm...). And Lu-- well, she has a splitting headache. (Am I the 10th or 20th reviewer to use that pun today?) She's been arguing with herselves again, the personalities getting further and further apart, as evidenced this issue by the sides each triplicate in the Biddy Force takes when gossiping about Cham and Ayla. It takes more than the usual effort to pull herself together, and when things fall apart, the center cannot hold. The results are... well, shall we say, interesting. I got a kick out of the fact that each of Lu's triplicates now appears to be a different age as well as having differing personalities, costumes, hairstyles, etc. I'm eager to see where the teams take this. Stern manages to keep all this be-careful-what-you-wish-for stuff up in the air at once, delightfully intersecting plot points as the characters pass or play off each other. The little quirks each of them has are becoming more pronounced and adding to their development-- Lori's sensitivity, Gim's gluttony, Lu's argumentativeness, Lyle's clumsiness, Zoe's indecision, XS's big mouth, Jo's wistfulness... And the little nods to romance comic writing are terrific-- see Spider-Girl's heartbreak! See Lori unlucky in love! See Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl's first smooch (did I say le sigh yet?)! See Jo's secret contentment! See Cham save Ayla, causing her to rethink her feelings for him! Way kewl stuff. The team is starting to gel as a unit both in battle and during downtime, and I'm really pleased with the back-and-forth I'm seeing here. All this and the Workforce too. And Dirk Morgna. And Dr. Regulus, a very nasty villain indeed. And Shvaughn Erin, and a few brand new looks for Triad... Wow. And it's all pretty damn seamless. Great, great job. You know you guys are starting to make me into a full-fledged Legion fanatic now, don't you? :) So, what did y'all think? STATIC #38 Writer/Editor: Jacqueline Ching Here's what I thought... I was way underwhelmed by this issue, and I will admit my bias right now in that I do not feel it's serving any purpose, either perosonally for the character or story-wise for the readers, to have Virgil continue to maintain Static as a secret identity from his family. Also, I really didn't care for the art. I don't know if it's the inking or the coloring, but this was so muddy and, in many cases, felt half-finished, like the scene at the bridge with the five parallel panels on page 14 (what is this, the week for not numbering comics pages?), where panel 4 is almost an exact stat of panel 2 (except for the missing Virgil) and neither of the panels are terribly attractive... I guess I just like my art more defined. But I didn't buy the plot from start to finish. Yeah, we all do stupid things for love, but Sharon's got too much on the ball for this sort of constant death-wish. And Virgil-- geez, the fact that he didn't just come right out and say, first time, "Uh, look, it's me, Virgil, don't tell Mom and Dad, okay?" or some such-- which would have added a lot to family dynamics and sibling rivalty with sis holding a secret over his head and such, OR which could have led to a greater and closer understanding between the two of them-- well, it just grated on me. I thought the Black Women's Careers Caucus subplot went virtually nowhere. It felt very shoehorned. The Botanist was a bit too hokey and over-the-top for me, as was Virgils play-acting towards the end. The one time we actaully see Virgil use his brains is "off-camera," when he calls in Rocket to help out. The best thing I can say about this title is that there's a lot of room for improvement, and I'm looking forward to seeing said improvement. So, what did y'all think? THE BOOKS OF MAGIC #27 Writer: John Ney Rieber Here's what I thought... Before I forget, I wanted to note something Rottenberg says on the letters page. No, it's not the comment about people getting angry that she got their e-addresses wrong and called them AOL users; she's still so relatively clueless about how online fandom works that she lists a letter writer as their onscreen name then "America Online" under it, rather than just their e-address. I wanted to mention her observation about Peter Gross' abilities to change art style depending on the type of scene(s) called for in each issue. I think this issue is a great example of that talent, as we switch from Tim's adventures in San Francisco to Molly's time among the fey and back again. Kudos especially for page 9, in which Tim muses on how much he misses Molly. Very lovely. And Van Valkenburgh is right there with the colors-- a little eerie and otherworldly in both domains. I especially liked the strange blue-pink city sky where the pink is actually the "pollution line" you see hovering over every city, which in real life is this ghastly orange but I like the pastel tinge she adds to everything. This book works so well with pastels, especially leading up to the intense pink towards the end of the issue. And the subtle difference between the severe dark purple of the Fey and the more subdued violet in Cupid's and Psyche's pad (which of course had been light blue at the issue's beginning) - good choices. Plotwise, excellent stuff, as Tim's waylaid with Leah and company but we find out that Zatanna wasn't expecting him so he's not exactly off schedule yet. And his diary entry-- great touch to have him suddenly stop numbering his items, and a wonderful description of how it feels when he kisses Molly. I also like the gentle fun Rieber pokes at "hip" language, introducing us to fly wanna-bes Oscar and Herschel. Whenever I read a comic where the language sounds so forced that you know it's going to be hopelessly dated in five years, I'll smile and think of this issue. I laughed out loud at Leah kissing Tim just to cause Oscar to have a car accident, underneath a billboard ad (for "Reckless" perfume) for which she posed, and at Cupid's ('scuse me, "Q"s) ultimatum "Nobody moves, nobody falls in love!" Silly Tim and Leah for moving... uh-oh... :) And Molly. Sigh. Molly figuring out who Auberon was from the start. Molly sweetly recapping events on her end (and btw, John, thanks for the synopsis atop page one). Molly knowing the rules of Faerie to the extent that she won't eat food until it's proven to be from a supermarket. And Molly mulling over Auberon's offer (terrific speech of his here, as well) to be his fool. But... she's no fool. Is she? I can hardly wait to find out. I'm glad Rieber chose to show us both storylines, which are about of equal interest to me now. I'm amused at the idea of Cupid and Psyche as gangstas of love, and I look forward to the rest of Tim's and Molly's Rites of Passage. So, what did y'all think? DAREDEVIL #355 Writer: Karl Kesel Here's what I thought... The tone seems to change abruptly throughout this issue, from a very serious examination of the moral and ethical decision lawyer Matt Murdock must make as to whether he will defend a client he personally finds loathsome, to foreshadowing about the relationship between Foggy and Rosalind Sharpe (I think the smart money's on a mother/son thing) and what kind of job Karen actually has, to the obligatory villain-of-the-month battle which was written so hokey that I kept saying, "Face front, true believer!" just to retain my sense of balance. I found a few things clunky but minor enough that I let them pass (Matt would not trip over books on the floor in his and Foggy's old office, he'd sense the books there, wouldn't he?), and the expository dialogue seemed forced ("Better get swinging... before your girlfriend starts entertaining some very devilish thoughts!" spoken by Karen to Matt) or, at the least, written for a slightly younger audience than this reader. :) But I tend to prefer Kesel when he's subtler, when he shows rather than tells-- the scene wherein DD smells a fire, waves to the firefighter that he'll meet the company at the site, then the fire alarm goes off was very nicely done. Also nice that DD acknowledges he can't really do that much directly to stop the blaze-- when was the last time a superhero was sensible enough to say, "You know, maybe I better just stay out of your way"? And as I say, I found the Pyro scene a little too "True Believers" for me. Why does seemingly every Australian character have to make a "shrimp on the barbie" joke? Is this in their contracts or something? I don't mind a few "matey"s and "strewth"s and "bloody"s thrown about, but I know many Australians with rather a larger vocabulary... But overall, I like Kesel's plotting, and I mostly like his writing. I think he could do with a little more "show" and a little less "tell," and he might want to trim his captions and balloons a bit. He's one of those writers whose stuff occasionally bothers me but I really can't put my finger on why, so I suspect this is just a stylistic thing. I'm still enjoying the book a great deal, and would highly recommend it. So, what did y'all think? [These reviews are reprinted, with permission, from the rec.arts.comics Usenet newsgroups and are copyright 1996 Elayne Wechsler-Chaput <firehead@panix.com>, who will be taking next week off from reviewing to attend the Chicago Comicon, and is looking forward to (re-)meeting some of y'all - look for me at the Friends of Lulu booth, and don't forget to dunk me in the CBLDF Flush Tank!] |
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