CBR Review: Blackest Night #4

I recently reviewed Blackest Night #4 for CBR and, in the process, wrote the following sentences: "We’re halfway through DC big event of the year and, on the second and third pages of Blackest Night #4, a double-page spread where Barry Allen is confronted by a legion of Black Lantern supervillains, the question that seems to be on the minds of all involved is asked by Black Lantern Firestorm: 'Cool, right?' That’s what this event seems to come down to: do you find the idea of resurrected heroes, villains, and supporting characters from DC’s past coming back to life to terrorize the still-living heroes cool? Sadly, this issue doesn’t really extend beyond that idea, causing me to wonder if, perhaps, the goal should have been producing something ‘good’ instead of something ‘cool.’"

You can read the rest HERE!

The Splash Page: Cynicism versus Sincerity? Part 1

[After a short break, Tim and I just couldn't keep away from one another, so we're back with another Splash Page, this time discussing an idea that Tim put forth a week or so back. He explains it pretty well below, so I won't repeat that. Enjoy.]

Tim Callahan: So the other day -- actually, it was a week or two ago -- I commented on one of your CSBG "Random Thoughts" posts and called you out for liking cynical comics more than sincere comics. I don't know exactly what my point was, other than to spark debate, but since I completely forgot to revisit that comment thread until it was too late, I didn't really get the discussion I was looking for. I just dropped a somewhat nonsensical bomb and walked away.

But I suppose my point was, in looking at your list of favorite first issues, that you seem to like first issues that present a kind of cynical view of the world. A kind of story in which things are bad and they look like they're going to get a whole lot worse. As opposed to a story that presents a bad situation but seems to promise some great hope for the future. I termed it sincerity, but I probably should have called it hopefulness.

I'm thinking about your fondness for Warren Ellis comics and your disdain for Geoff Johns comics, and the big difference between the two, it seems to me, is that Ellis presents a cynical worldview through his stories and Johns presents a hopeful one. They both use violence and chaos, but for different thematic purposes. I don't think you can brush it off as, "Ellis is just a better writer," because, well, I won't let you off the hook that easily.

Do you think that anything I'm saying makes sense? Does it seem completely off base, or are you naturally drawn to the more cynical stuff?

Chad Nevett: Sorry, but it has to be said: Ellis is a better writer. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, as I said then, I don't really agree with your take on things, because I don't read Ellis's writing because of its cynicism, I read it because of its optimism, an optimism that feels more real and genuine than what you find in a Geoff Johns comics. Ellis's characters are somewhat bastards who do their best to make the world better, to save it from without and within, not always doing things the 'right' way, but always in with a mind to making sure that tomorrow is better than today. Geoff Johns's books have bastard villains and heroic heroes that don't struggle past personal issues of selfishness and wanting to stay at home but overcoming that to do better. That Johns writes almost all of his work for DC is a big reason for this, while Ellis does creator-owned and Marvel work where you can have more human, more conflicted characters. I'm not interested in a fearless jet pilot who is naturally heroic doing heroic things... that's boring. I'm interested in a chain-smoking bitch who'd rather spend all day getting drunk except that would mean that things would be worse, so she goes out, gets together a group and busts some heads in the name of changing the world for the better -- because no one else is. Ellis's heroes are more heroic because they have to try.

It goes back to this idea that I've always had: if you're naturally honest there's no virtue in telling the truth because it wouldn't occur to you not to tell the truth; but, if your first instinct is to lie, but you make a conscious decision to overcome that instinct and tell the truth, then there's virtue, there's work, there's conflict -- there's drama. Johns's comics lack a sense of drama in their characters, all of whom are either naturally good or naturally evil, and always conform to that standard. His books are black and white, Ellis's are greys...

Now, like I said, that can probably be traced back to the difference between DC and everywhere else, because DC is full of characters that have no internal conflict really. And, yes, before anyone shouts at me, there are exceptions. "Oh, but Johns wrote a Booster Gold book and Booster Gold is totally conflicted like you want!" That I didn't like what I saw of that book simply suggests that we've just scratched the surface of what my problems with Johns are and we shall carry on -- after all, you people like these exchanges to be longer than what we've got so far, right?

TC: But isn't that "chain-smoking bitch" just as much of a one-note character as the "fearless jet pilot"? Does the former really get into areas of grey? Isn't everything still as clear cut -- you know who the heroes are in an Ellis comic, they just act sleazier -- as in a Johns comic?

I'm thinking we need some specific examples here, besides the oblique references to characters and comics. (Not that the references are all that oblique.) But let's take something simple and straightforward from Ellis -- like his Ultimate Galactus trilogy -- and contrast it with Blackest Night. Why do you think the former is better than the latter? Because I know you do!

CN: Well, I read more than one issue of the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy without being unable to read any more... unlike Blackest Night where one issue had me scrambling for q-tips so I could randomly stab at parts of my brain in order to forget the comic I just read (a small exaggeration, of course). But, let's move beyond me just insulting that comic, okay?

One big difference is technical style. Ellis knows how to craft comic pages better than Johns, pure and simple. Ellis may be formulaic in his 'five panel per page, three word balloons per panel' approach, but it's a very good rhythm, one that manages to convey the needed information but also not feel like something you're slogging through. Whereas, Johns overloads his pages with panels and dialogue, a lot of it unnecessary (I don't have any issue in front of me to directly reference), a lot of it just brimming over the top with melodrama. Even beyond that, Johns tries to cram in too many characters and, unlike Morrison in Final Crisis, he doesn't have the skills to juggle that many characters in that many scenes. A lot of the scenes (aka one-off panel appearances) in the first issue of Blackest Night seem like they were put there just so those characters could have a little face time. Going deeper, Ultimate Nightmare is also a horror/superhero comic and, this is less specific, it feels creepier than Blackest Night. Dead superheroes resurrected by magic rings? Not that creepy or scary. Demented, cannibal failed Russia supersoldiers who have been trapped in a secret base for decades? A lot more creepy.

Enough me justifying my views: why is Johns good? I've seen you mention that Adventure Comics is some of his best work ever. Why?

TC: Adventure Comics feels a bit more open than some of his other work. I love his Green Lantern, but except for a few issues early in the run after Green Lantern: Rebirth and before "The Sinestro Corps War" really got up and running, Johns's Green Lantern has been a comic of increased melodrama (in a good way) that becomes a game of, "oh my god, how is he going to top that??!!?" It's about amplification and excess, and it works because he knows how to get the right character beats in amongst all the cosmic bombast, but it's all about making each issue "louder" than the previous one. In Adventure, he's begun slowly -- and I'm just talking about the Superboy parts, not the "Legion of Super-Heroes" backups -- by giving Conner Kent this innocent life in Smallville, a second chance for him to grow into the role of a hero. Johns imbues the comic with earnestness -- this young superhero just wants to make things right, he knows he's got as much Lex Luthor in his DNA as he does Superman DNA, and he is methodically trying to create an environment for himself in which he will grow into the man he wants to be.

That story -- the good man trying to be a better one, knowing the odds are against him -- is much more interesting than the one-millionth iteration of the badass, chain-smoking anti-hero who doesn't play by the rules.

Adventure Comics #3 even plays with the notion of the optimistic hero vs. the cynical one, and presents -- BY FAR -- the best version of Red Robin we've ever seen (which isn't much of a compliment, I know, but it's a really good version here). Part of this series is about Conner connecting with his old friends, and Johns doesn't just throw the old gang back together again as if nothing happened. Conner died and came back, and Johns plays it up as the unsettling, emotionally-confusing situation it is, even while all the characters know that life and death and rebirth is part of the universe in which they live. So when Conner tracks down Tim Drake, now wearing that silly leather cowl in some kind of screwed-up "tribute" to Batman (as pointed out in the issue), there's a real contrast between the two characters -- a reversal of the beginning of their friendship, when Robin was the earnest optimist and Superboy was the badass with the leather and the "cool" hairdo. When Johns has the two meet in Adventure #3, he doesn't play up the pathos, he just gives them a silly villain to "fight" (Funky Flashman, who's easily dispatched by Krypto), and then lets them talk about their situations with sincerity as they investigate a few leads. Leads that Tim Drake thinks might lead to Batman's return, because even in the leather, even with the badass new look, he's still that same optimist he always was.

Yet Johns has proven in his other work that when things go bad for his heroes, they go really bad, and the gruesome violence that exists in Johns's world just helps to make the sweet little character scenes all the sweeter. There's a vulnerability in those kinds of scenes that you just don't see in an Ellis comic.

CN: Can you explain something to me that I've never been able to understand: what does Lex Luthor adding his DNA into Superboy's initial genetic mix actually change -- beyond the likelihood that Conner will go bald? Is Lex Luther so bad that his evilness is passed on genetically or something? I'm not saying that finding that out wouldn't mess you up a little, but isn't there a time where you realize that it changes nothing about what kind of person you are and you just move on? It's always struck me as a very 'comic book/soap opera' idea that this sort of idea would make a person struggle between 'the forces of good and evil' when... no, it wouldn't.

And I have read plenty of sweet scenes in Ellis's comics. The buying back the pawned toy in the "New Scum" story in Transmetropolitan... and, I know there are more, but that I just spent five minutes trying to think of one. Then again, I find the snarky banter between Jackson and Christine in Stormwatch sweet since it's real-sounding. Or, that short story during his short Hellblazer run where John Constantine reflects on his old girlfriends and how he misses them all, even the ones that hate him. Or, the moment between Midnighter and Apollo in the "Shiftships" Authority arc where Apollo is about to try something dangerous and Midnighter just grabs him and says, "But, you'll die." Or, there's the issue of Global Frequency where everything was saved by a lesbian's conception of love. Ellis wrote a comic book where things were saved by love, dammit! It doesn't get more sincere and sweet than that, my friend. If you can't find this in Ellis's work, I don't think you're reading his comics properly. Saved the city from an alien thought virus with love.

[Read the second part on Tim's blog...]

I Bought Comics: I Only Bought SOME Comics, Actually

[Not proper reviews. Not fair. Who cares. This is about some Free Comic Book Day books plus two comics I bought this week, but didn't review for CBR.]

Blackest Night #0

Shouldn't Barry think Jason Todd is Robin, not Dick? Jason had been Robin for, like, three years in the real world before Barry died, so wouldn't he still think Jason is Robin, having also known that Dick adopted the Nightwing identity? And since when are "willpower" and "death" emotions? I don't give a fuck.

Bongo Comics Free-for-All!

Tim Callahan's son liked this book quite a bit, so I'm reluctant to bash it for its utter lack of humour.

Resurrection #0

Didn't read the Tek Jansen back-up since it was originally in the first issue of that comic, which I bought and didn't enjoy at all. I'm not reading that shit again. The main story is interesting and has me wanting more.

Savage Dragon #148

I knew who the mystery woman was before the reveal! And I don't even read this comic! Who da man? WHO DA MAN? This comic was all kinds of printed on paper in colour with words and pictures and yeah not my thing.

The Boys #30

Not a free comic, but I enjoyed this more than pretty much ever free comic despite paying $3.75 for this. Yeah, that's what I paid in Canadian dollars. The fake-out at the beginning made me laugh. Some smaller moments that were nice. A breather issue. And that back cover teaser has me excited for the next issue.

Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye #2

I paid $4.95 for this comic. Next time you whine about $3.99 comics, remember that. And that people in other foreign countries pay even larger sums for their books. And that we all think it's worth it. And the economy is rough here, too. Yeah. And this comic was very fucking good. I also enjoyed it more than any free comic I got on Wednesday. And that's why I usually don't give a fuck about Free Comic Book Day.

CBR Review: Justice Society of America #20

I recently reviewed Justice Society of America #20 for CBR, about which I wrote the following sentences: "The use of artists Dale Eaglesham and Jerry Ordway is wonderful, with Eaglesham drawing the regular DCU, while Ordway handles Earth-2. The slightly retro look of Ordway’s pencils works for the slightly retro feel of Earth-2, but his work does overshadow Eaglesham’s a little. Comparing each artist’s composition and ability to depict so many characters, Eaglesham’s panels often looked crammed and awkward next to Ordway’s."

You can read the rest HERE!

Bookstore Sale 3: Mark Millar's Ultimate X-Men

[The bookstore at my former university has a lovely sale on a wide variety of Marvel trades, so I've been buying them. And discussing them here. On Mondays. Awesome.]

I just want to say that aside from the Ultimate Team-Up collection, I don't plan on getting any further Ultimate books at the bookstore sale. I'm planning to keep on buying Ultimate Spider-Man in hardcover and want to get a copy of Ultimate Fantastic Four vol. 3 (the only volume the bookstore doesn't have, of course!), but this does it for me. I was tempted to maybe pick up some of Mike Carey's Ultimate Fantastic Four run to see what Ultimate Thanos is like, but I'll pass. No big reason for this decision other than... well, not wanting those other comics. If someone makes an extremely convincing case, I'll change my mind, maybe. But, that said, let's get on with...

Ultimate X-Men: Ultimate Collection Vols. 1-2, and Ultimate X-Men Vols. 5-6

I really do wish these comics had lived up to their potential. Mark Millar certainly tries--in fact, I would say that his Ultimate X-Men work seems like his most genuine attempt to write something intelligent, and thought-provoking that will last beyond the initial KICKSPLODE! factor. Of course, it doesn't, because, try as he might, Millar can't escape the KICKSPLODE! and that becomes the point of the book. Also, he just doesn't have the skills to really play above that level.

Actually, Ultimate X-Men suffers from a problem that most writing about "superior" beings does: the writer isn't more intelligent than the rest of us. One of the conceits of this book is that mutants are the next step in evolution and, at one point, Xavier even suggests are naturally more intelligent than humans, just as humans are more intelligent than other primates. None of this so-called advanced intelligence is ever really displayed, though, beyond some cool gadgets and the transformation of the Savage Land... the ideas displayed by Xavier and Magneto are the same old dichotomy we've always seen in X-Men comics, and I was left wondering, constantly, if these are supposed to be the next step and are so brilliant, how come they're stuck in this horribly childish "black and white" argument?

Now, it seems Millar may be making the argument that these characters aren't more advanced, really. For all of their bluster, they're just humans with superpowers trying to play above their level and convince themselves that, somehow, they're better. But, honestly, that's boring. That is so dreadfully boring! And, it just becomes frustrating, because no one calls them on it. Okay, that isn't exactly right: they are called on it, kind of, at various points, but those who make the point always then forget their objections and pick a side to fight on. In the third storyarc, Colossus quits the group and goes back to Russia to work and support his family, no longer interested in Xavier's pacifist ideals, but also not interested in the Brotherhood's terrorist ideals. It's the one moment of almost original thinking in the book: there are more than two options! But, soon thereafter, Colossus saves a distressed sub and rejoins the group.

Every character in the book is only capable of seeing things in terms of black and white, with us or against us... and there's nothing wrong with that, but Millar hides that horribly cynical and depressing worldview under the guise of optimism and hope. It's the opposite of Warren Ellis's writing, which is optimistic and hopeful, but hidden under cynicism, which I'll take every day of the week over Millar's style.

The first story is titled "The Tomorrow People," but what's so damn futuristic about them? Not a goddamn thing. Take Forge, for example: his mutant power is that he can make anything he can think of. And what does he do? He makes a machine that will amplify Magneto's powers. Why not make a machine that eliminates prejudice against mutants? Or a machine that evolves everyone on the planet AND makes them okay with that? Or, I don't know... but something that actually goes beyond fucking hitting things?

Paul O'Brien explains the problem in his review of Ultimate X-Men #1: "It also raises right off the bat the fundamental problem that the X-Men as a concept doesn't want to be in a shared universe, and never did. The X-Men wants to be doing stories about global society being transformed by the arrival of a new stage in evolution. But it can't do that because if you transform Marvel's Earth, it'll no longer be providing the appropriate "real world" backdrop for all the other series. The X-books have ended up dealing with that by holding out the vague promise of the Days of Futures Past apocalypse in the future, and running towards it on a treadmill, continually claiming that we're getting closer when in fact no signs of that are ever apparent and we all know it could never happen." Really, there's no way to tell a truly intelligent and forward-thinking story using mutants at Marvel, because there is no way to change the world in any meaningful way at Marvel. Superficial changes will happen, but to really explore the concept of mutants, you have to be free to break out of this constant give-and-take between hating and loving mutants. So, was Millar's run a failure because of him or because of the limitations upon him? I think it's because of him, but I'm sure the limitations didn't help.

Then there's the limitation of the writer (the concept of the writer)... Look at Morrison's run on New X-Men (which started the same week as Ultimate X-Men #6, coincidentally): Morrison kept hinting at these fantastically advanced ideas of Xavier and mutants, in general, but did anything come of it? Is so-called mutant culture ever anything that different? Are Xavier's conceptions of a mutant school really anything that advanced? At their core, it's really just a more open school where students are allowed to pick and choose what they'll study a bit more and traditionally non-academic areas are given more emphasis... it's certainly progressive compared to public schools, but is is progressive compared to human ideas? The biggest flaw of writing of this type is that it is almost impossible to accurately write someone who is supposed to be that much more advanced than you are. It's why Q and Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation never really seemed believable to me. Q is supposedly omniscient... but doesn't act like it. Or, Data is capable of 60 trillion operations per second, but often has to pause in order to look up a word in his memory banks? Really? Now, the reason for this is so the character is more relatable and the audience can see his capabilities, but it always comes off as artificial (and, yes, my problem with the android character is that he's not portrayed realistically). I don't blame the creators for these problems, because how does one realistically write an android or a god or a telepath? How can one realistically write someone whose experience is not just different from ours, but as different from ours as ours is from that of a monkey? Under the premise that mutants are the next evolutionary step, trying to understand how a mutant would think is like a monkey trying to understand how humans think.

But, shit, it's like Millar doesn't even try.

Look at the Ultimate line objectively and ask yourself, "Shouldn't these comics be better?" Seriously. These are relaunches of decades-old characters with decades of stories to draw upon in addition to the imaginations of the writers attached to the comics and... shouldn't these comics be better? Really, shouldn't these be the best X-Men comics? Shouldn't the portrayals of these characters be inspired by the best versions? Of course, that raises the question of which version (and even which characters) are the best, but... somehow, I just keep looking at these Ultimate books and wondering if they should be better. (Except for Ultimate Tony Stark... he is the only character that seems to be the best version of the character so far. Maybe Ultimate Hulk, too. Really, Ultimate Human seems to be the best Ultimate book I've ever read, in retrospect...)

Then again, maybe these books are limited by their awareness. There's always an awareness that there are other versions and that maybe, just maybe, things could be better. Or, how does Millar's X-Men compare to Chris Claremont's? Or to Grant Morrison's? How about the Bendis/Bagley Peter Parker and the Lee/Ditko Peter Parker? Is it a matter of spontanaity versus contemplation and preparation? (I mean, would it be better if I'd planned out this post ahead of time, or does it benefit more from my making it up as I go?)

I'm sorry if this seems meandering, but I'm just trying to figure out why these 35 comics (plus two issues by Chuck Austen and one by Geoff Johns... but those don't count) aren't better. Why aren't they the ultimate X-Men story? Does such a thing exist, really? And, if not, is the Ultimate line a failure automatically?

(Because I just mentioned it, I'll say a few words about the Chuck Austen and Geoff Johns contributions. I started reading both, but quickly started to skim instead, because they're not that good. Johns's contribution takes place between issues six and seven, and goes against established continuity to make a point that isn't really followed up in later issues. Austen's story involves Gambit, which is strike two against it--the first being Chuck Austen's involvement. And before anyone gets all uppity about me bashing Austen, I want to say that I hated Austen's writing before it became fashionable to hate Austen's writing. It was so annoying when everyone else started hating it, too, because, then, my unique opinion which I formed all by myself suddenly seemed like an attempt to be just like the cool kids. You always think you want everyone to agree with you, but you don't. Much better to stand outside the crowd. But, yeah, it's a serviceable story about Gambit being a rogue with a heart of gold as he helps out a little girl--that the trade identifies as a little boy on the back cover for some reason--against Ultimate Hammerhead. It's not really bad, it's just not that good. And since it doesn't relate to Millar's story at all, it's not worth discussing here.)

But, all of that aside, I should probably examine the comics themselves, shouldn't I? It's all one big story, really, which is rather impressive. Millar does manage to bring in various elements from the X-universe to tell one cohesive story, and it does work well as one story. Now, whether or not the individual stories work well in that regard is a whole other problem, because they don't. If you want to read Mark Millar writing the X-Men, you need to buy all six volumes to really get anything out of it, but that's pretty similar to the Ultimate line as a whole (a simultaneous strength and weakness). Even the two middle stories, "Return to Weapon X" and "World Tour" serve the larger story, which is really about the competing ideas of peaceful cohabitation of mutants with humans, and a war between mutants and humans with the only two characters that matter being Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr. Every other character is an extension of those two or a response to those two. They are the only two people in the world, in a sense (and now I have the fun of seeing if this is, in fact, correct). As Morrison had Magneto admit in "Planet X," all either of them really wants is the other to admit that he's right, to come around to his way of thinking. While Morrison didn't go so far as to have Xavier admit that, too, Millar implies it heavily when Xavier fakes Magneto's death and then creates a new identity for Magneto in the hopes that his experiences as a regular human will make him realise that humans and mutants can live together in peaceful harmony. The tragedy is, of course, that neither one will ever change his way of thinking. For all their differences, they are the same character with the same goals. Their argument is not about the what, the why, or the when, it's just about the how... and since there are only two methods presented of achieving their mutual goal, it gets pretty damn boring quickly (at least for me--that this dual relationship has continued for so long suggests that others don't find it nearly as boring as I do). Mostly because it never progresses after that first story... every other story involving the two is some remixed version of that first argument between the two of them. No one ever wins, so the relationship is static, and, therefore, boring. I was actually wrong before when I said you can't just read one story in Millar's Ultimate X-Men without getting the full picture, because you can: the first one. Nothing really new happens after that and all of the elements of each story that follows is there... which would suggest some skill on Millar's part to set up everything from his run in that first story, but, really, it's not so much setting things up but presenting every idea in that one story, making the representing of them in subsequent stories tedious and repetative.

"The Tomorrow People" sets up the dichotomy and ends with the seeming death of Magneto. "Return to Weapon X" continues to demonstrate the persecution of mutants, providing reason for various mutants to choose sides between Xavier and Magento's philosophies. "World Tour" exposes the reality that Xavier didn't kill Magneto and, instead, uses his powers to put Magneto in a position that will, hopefully, cause him to realise the error of his ways. At the same time, it demonstrates that Xavier and Magneto both, ultimately, view humans as inferior despite Xavier's protestations as Xavier leaves his human family behind as coldly and casually as Magneto would kill humans. "Hellfire and Brimstone" continues the battle between the two ideologies as the Brotherhood is split between the two. "Ultimate War" places Xavier's group in a position where Magneto's philosophy makes the most pragmatic sense, but they still resist. "Return of the King" has another head-on showdown between the two philosophies and results in the seeming dominance of Xavier's, but not really as the same problems still exist.

Xavier's refusal to kill Magneto and simply create a new human identity for him in the hopes of reforming him sums up his philosophy. Xavier doesn't simply believe in the peaceful coexistance of humans and mutants, he believes it must come about by free will. At various points, characters wonder if Xavier is altering their minds (for example, is Xavier using his powers to make Storm love Beast) and it is probably the most realistic line of thinking any of these characters demonstrate, but the evidence is right before them that Xavier is not doing that. If he won't use his powers to alter the views of humanity and create his mutant/human utopia or make Magneto come around to his way of thinking, then, really why would he use them to make Storm love Beast? There is a certain logic to thinking that Xavier would only use his powers on smaller things like that, but it seems false to me. Really, Xavier is a believer in free will and its role in society... which, of course, makes him a fool and worse than Magneto. Say what you will about Magneto, he doesn't have the power to end the conflict in a manner where no one will ever realise something has happened. Magneto may believe in the active slaughter of entire species, but that's because those are the limits of his means... Xavier has the power to literally change the world without anyone noticing and doesn't. Xavier places a value on free will that relies on an objective reality/truth, failing to see that if everyone's subjective reality/truth is the same then it becomes the objective reality/truth.

And if anyone thinks I'm focusing on the ideology too much, the whole point of the book is ideology, so shut up. The conflicts (and stories) are defined by the ideologies and everything else is secondary. And since these ideologies are broken and failed and goddamn worthless, so are these comics. Maybe that's the point, but, if so, it's a boring point. It's a point that been made so many times before that I have to wonder why make it again. Do we really need another story about people who think they're better than everyone else, but are really just as fucked up as the rest of us? Why not shoot for originality and forward-thinking instead of suggesting it and never following through? We've got enough of that in the regular Marvel universe's X-Men comics, why do the same thing here? Why be held back by the same limitations and lack of imagination? What, Magneto can design a helmet to block telepaths or build a city with Xavier in a short while, but the best idea for dealing with humanity is to kill them? He somehow thinks getting two of every species is a wide enough genetic base to repopulate said species? Is it the characters that are this fucking stupid or is it those behind them?

"But that's not how it is in the regular comics or the movie or--"

But, but, but, but that stuff is simplistic drivel. It is middle of the road, it is mediocre most of the time and if that's what Millar wants to write (and it seems very much like that is the case), fine--but don't tease the reader with something better. "Mutant economy," eh? What, is that about taking care of the poor or based in concepts I've known about since I was ten? Because that's the intellectual discourse of these comics. That's the philosophical and idelogical discourse of these comics and it's awful. Kill them all or turn the other cheek? Is that the best we can think up? Is that the best that these supposed next evolutionary step can think up?

And, yeah, these books are meant to capitalise on the movies and supposedly suck in the teenagers, which they probably could do, I suppose, with all of the explosions and angsty drama about who is fucking whom and the ever-so-deep rift between Xavier and Magneto, two men who were like brothers and now couldn't be further apart (except that they're really the same)... But, is that worthwhile? It's not terribly ambitious, is it? And, besides, they don't do that, so there's another failure right there. Failures all over the place with these comics.

And, I know, at the beginning, I said Millar tries, but I've changed my mind. He doesn't. Maybe I'd be nicer if it weren't so obvious that Millar has no ambition beyond the blockbuster movie level of discourse. If scenes weren't peppered with little "witticisms" designed to show off how cool and edgy a writer he is instead of actually tell a good story or be quality art or do something new. Why is a book about evolution so lowest common denometer? Why is it so basic and stupid?

*sigh*

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I'll actually talk about the plots: they're there. There's nothing remarkable about any of them. They're probably stories you've read before or seen in a movie before. "Wow, the military man threatens to kill Cyclops if Jean doesn't kill some guy!" "Oooh, Wolverine and Jean are eff you see kay eye en gee!" Or, how about that Hellfire Club doomsday cult plot that seems tacked on and only there so Jean can exhibit Phoenix powers? Or, the requisite "Our heroes are misunderstood and thought to be bad guys" plot? It's all there, people!

To be fair, these are perfectly readable comics. At times, you feel for characters, you hope they don't die, you hope they come through in the end... and then you forget all about them, because who cares? None of them have personalities, none of them show any real signs of original thoughts? Some make the barest of attempts to question what's going on, but quickly fall in line when everyone else tells them to shut up... Wait, can someone tell me how Xavier convinced Wolverine to switch sides? It wasn't just the chance to fuck Jean, so... when was it? Was it the basic pacifist ideas that someone like Wolverine would have almost certainly encountered before? The naive optimism backed up by foolish and misguided beliefs?

The art is serviceable throughout, except in two issues were, for reasons I can't fathom, Kaare Andrews provides manga-esque art with colouring that reminds me of animation colouring... I don't blame Andrews or his colourists for this, because that's what they do and it looks great. What were the editors thinking? You're telling a long-form story based strictly within multiple-issue storyarcs and you decided mid-story to hire an artist whose style is not even remotely close to that of every other artist to ever work on the book? It's awful! The art suffers because it stands out so much that it can't be taken on its own merits and those behind the book look like idiots (especially that person who wrote the back cover copy for that second "Ultimate Collection" who said Gambit saves a homeless boy... really, what the hell?). It... don't know, actually.

Nothing in these comics is convincing. Xavier and Magneto build a mutant utopia away from humanity and they actively continue to be obsessed with humanity? Why? Rescue mutants, take them there and wait for humanity to die off or your numbers to be bigger... Why bother with humanity? That's what I kept wondering. Why bother with humanity? Why not change everyone's way of thinking? Why not have Forge build a machine that makes the world a better place? Why be so typical? Why why why why why? Really, Xavier and Magneto spent so much time discussing this stuff and thinking it through and it all comes down to KILL THEM ALL OR TURN THE OTHER CHEEK? IT ALL COMES DOWN TO SUCH SIMPLISTIC POINTS OF VIEW? WE'RE EXPECTED TO THINK THESE CHARACTERS ARE THAT FUCKING STUPID?

"But, it's only superhero comics! It's only the X-Men! What did you expect?"

Horrible excuse for mediocrity and lazy thinking. "It's only the X-Men"? Then why do you care what I say about these books? Ask yourself, "Shouldn't these books be better?"

The Sunday Open (on a Thursday!): Fifth Week of April 2008

Wow, April was a long month for comics. And, yeah, I passed my thesis defence. Go me.

Now, short reviews that only make sense to me!

DC Universe #0

They teased me. Teased me hard. Some bits intrigued me. Some didn't. The Batman/Joker scene was fantastic. The Libra scene was good. The rest didn't do much for me. But, whatever, it was fifty cents. Bring on Final Crisis and "Batman RIP."

Glamourpuss #1

I've yet to get into Cerebus, but, fuck you, I'm in on the ground floor of Dave Sim's newest comic! And it's... part fashion shit and part a discussion about Alex Raymond's photorealism style. It should be boring and dry, but it's not. This is a process book and strangely entertaining. Who'd've thunk it?

The Immortal Iron Fist #14

...so no one won the tournament?

Strangely, this left me a bit unsatisfied. It kind of happens and, yeah, there it is. I dunno. I dunno.

Legion of Super-Heroes #41

I got this because Tim and I were thinking of doing it for the Splash Page (which we haven't even begun yet). A decent issue dealing with beaurocracy and other shit. The future sucks, people. And despite being all genius, Brainiac 5 isn't that smart. I dunno, whatever. It wasn't a bad comic, but it also didn't get me wanting any future issues. It was mediocre and not worth further money.

New Avengers #40

Aside from that last page, I already knew all of this because I'm not a moron. I also have read New Avengers: Illuminati, New Avengers and Secret Invasion #1... nothing new is provided here except that last page reveal. The rest was all implied by those comics. So, this is a good issue for someone who hasn't been reading anything pre-Secret Invasion, but for someone like me: three bucks to learn that Spider-Woman is the Queen Skrull. Yeah, and I just gave you that information for free. Fuck. (Oh, don't like spoilers? What does it say at the goddamn top of the page, motherfucker? Yeah. That's right. Shut it now.)

The Order #10

They all didn't die. Fuck. But, bring on Invincible Iron Man or whatever it's called.

Thor: Ages of Thunder

Now, this was a very good comic. Two stories heavily rooted in Norse mythology showcasing Thor's abilities and the stupidity of the gods. Fraction's narration is fantastic here as he strikes a great balance between mythic language and telling the story in an easy-to-read manner. The art was decent, too.

Ultimate Human #4

I liked the earlier issues more.

Youngblood #3

There's some speculation as to whether or not Derec Aucoin is also Derec Donovan, and, if that is true... I liked his work on Adventures of Superman more. Casey's writing isn't that great here, but decent enough. This book is actually more tame and banal than I thought it would be. Weird.

I also bought The Other Side by Jason Aaron and Cameron Stewart, but haven't had a chance to read it yet. Maybe more reviews by the time the weekend is over.

The Sunday Open: Pre-Christmas Books

Well, home for the holidays means lots of new comics. Before I get to that, I just want to mention that I won't be posting my usual Jim Starlin and Joe Casey stuff tomorrow and on Tuesday (possibly Wednesday either). Now, let's get to it...

The Immortal Iron Fist #11

"Hydra guy, Hydra guy, old lady, Hydra guy." I love Brubaker and Fraction's little bits of humour on this book. They manage to balance that stuff with things like the fight between Tiger's Beautiful Daughter and the Steel Phoenix, Davos' past, Jeryn's mom's ear, and the intrigue of the Thunderer and the August Personage in Jade. Plus, Heroes for Hire shit, too. Not to mention David Aja's fantastic art. I am really amazed that Marvel hasn't pulled him from this book and stuck him somewhere else, because this guy is fantastic and looks like he can draw anything better than 99% of the artists working right now. Well, maybe not 99%, but a pretty large number.

Mighty Avengers #6

Um, alright, that's it? That's the end of this story? Ares flies into Ultron and turns her back into Iron Man? Um, 'kay. There is the nice moment where Tony is told that he was turned into a girl, pauses and then checks to make sure everything (meaning his penis) is where it should be. I'm back on board with the thought balloons, too. Bendis seems to have gotten a better handle on what to do with them and they're working better.

Punisher War Journal #14

I like how Kraven calls Frank "Tiny Monkey." The ideas here are good, but something about the execution just isn't doing it for me.

Detective Comics #839

The finale of "The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul" is... this? Wow, some lame fights, some explosions, and then a retarded final scene where it's all "Forget about what just happened, because it's Christmas! YAY!" What the fuck? I am really glad neither one of the stores I stopped by had copies of the latest issues of Robin and Nightwing, because, fuck it, I don't want to know what happened in parts 5 and 6 of this piece of shit crossover. I am amazed--AMAZED--that these writers churned out such horrible, bland, mediocre crap. Eight issues where NOTHING. REALLY. HAPPENS. Holy fuck, I spent,like, twenty bucks on these comics. My god. My god. I hate myself right now. I really do.

The Death of the New Gods #3

You know what I loved about this issue? When Mr. Miracle bitch-slaps Darkseid with the Anti-Life Equation. The rest of it is kind of meh. I just can't get into the mystery here, because I'm betting the person responsible for killing the New Gods will be some character I've never heard of. But, I do love me some Starlin, so...

Green Lantern #25

I read somewhere that if I didn't love this comic then I probably shouldn't be reading superhero books. I guess I shouldn't be reading superhero books then, because I couldn't get through this comic. I'm sure that has a lot to do with not having read the previous ten parts of this story, but, seriously, I just couldn't get into this comic. I tried, but my mind kept wandering and I found myself skimming the dialogue and I just don't care. Fuck Green Lantern. I've never dug the character or the Corps or any of these idiots. And while I think Geoff Johns is a really nice guy, I can't get into his writing. Wow, there are now seven Corps and I should care why? I'm more disturbed by the odd rhyme in "The Sinestro Corps War." It weirds me out.

Also, having a horizontal double-page spread followed immediately by a vertical double-page spread is stupid. Just saying.

Black Summer #4

Probably the weakest issue of the series yet as little happens. The only thing of consequence is the introduction of a tactical group that can oppose the Seven Guns, but I suppose we won't see them until next issue.

What If...? Civil War #1

This issue contains two stories, plus a framing device by Ed Brubaker. The first story, "What if Captain America Led All the Heroes Against Registration?" had potential, but soon devolved into meaningless fights like the real Civil War. Also, I'm sorry, but the art is horrible. Horrible. My god, they published this art? It did give them an excuse to use that red, white & blue Iron Man armour, though. The second story, "What if Iron Man Lost the Civil War?" could be retitled "What if All of the Heroes Who were Good Buddies Before All this Shit Went Down Actually Talked it out like Civilised People, Not the Blood-Thirsty Morons that Mark Millar Seems to Think they are, Because Why Let Characterisation get in the Way of Fanboy Orgasm Moments?" In that story, things get talked out, the Registration Act stays, but is run by the Avengers, specifically Captain America and everyone is happy.

I'm actually mystified why Marvel would publish a comic like this, because the second story is so much better than what really happened. I mean, Captain America and Iron Man actually talking shit out--what a novel idea for two guys that are supposed to be great friends. Like I said above, the second story seems more aimed at showing why the original series made no fucking sense than anything else. Very, very odd.

Midnighter #14

Um, I thought Krigstein ended up working with the Authority. And the guy in the Iron Man suit went off to have his own life. Or, were those things retconned when the Wildstorm universe was rebooted (but only when it was convenient to the story at hand)? Or, how about taking control of his weird invisible bases in the middle of cities? Weird little stuff like this bothers me in comics, because, let's be honest, not many people reading Midnighter haven't read The Authority. So, come on, make sure it matches up.

As for the actual issue, there's a whole lot going on between Mindy and Jenny Quantum about Midnighter's past that doesn't make a whole lot of sense yet, because we haven't had the big reveal yet. Midnighter is offered a chance to join Anthem, but slaughters people instead. I did like the little bit with the British woman with the Union Jack on her face going "Bloody pathetic." Aside from the little continuity shit, I am enjoying this book. Giffen seems to know what he's doing and where he's going. Too bad the art is shit.

Deathblow #8

Yes, this book is still around, but not for long as issue nine is the last of the series. Can't say that I'm that disappointed. This series has been more fucking around than mindfuck and part of the problem is that Azzarello wasn't given an artist up to the task. Carlos D'Anda is one of those Wildstorm house artist types and, holy shit, I hate their stuff. I hate that style so fucking much.

But, I do love the dinosaur cyborg. This is a darker version of that playful Azzarello we all loved in Doctor 13. Here, the dinosaur gives us some weird rant about a dream where you grow breasts that your best friend wants to touch and you secretly want him to touch, too. The rest, though, is kind of meh. We'll see how it finishes and reads as a whole, though.

The Order #5-6

I had my reservations about this series after the first couple of issues, but it's turning out to be pretty damn good, you know? Complex characters, people trying their best to be heroes, giant radioactive lizards... awesome. My favourite scene in these two issues has to be in issue six when Henry, Pepper and Katie are questioning Mulholland about the Black Dahlias--if only because that has Fraction showing how well he does characters--and it leads right into Tony Stark being Tony fucking Stark. Fraction's Stark isn't quite like the Stark seen elsewhere, but it works. I don't know why, it could be the nature of the book, which is about this flashy, surface, celebrity type of world where Stark isn't Iron Man or director of SHIELD, he's a playboy billionaire. If there's a book that shows that Fraction will one day be writing the franchise books, it's this one.

Casanova #11

Why must I continually come up with new ways to say this book rocks my world? It does. Fuck it, that's all.

The Programme #6

Another book that I wasn't sure about at first, but I'm really digging on. Milligan seems to know what he's doing. That, and this issue is titled "The President of the United States is a Dangerous Psychopath," which is my favourite issue title of the year. Mark it down, rock and roll. There's also a fantastic moment where Max is looking for a clean t-shirt to confront the Russian superpeople in (after they'd been nuked by the US--that didn't work so much) and all that's left is a Steely Dan tee and his pure frustration/mortification that he'll have to save the United States from Russian revolutionaries in a Steely Dan t-shirt. If you haven't been getting this book, you should--or wait for the trade. Whatever, your call.

Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin #1-4

I really do love "Joe Casey fills in Stan Lee's plot holes" comics. This is the book for anyone who misses the Iron Man they knew and loved once upon a time. He's heroic and tough and noble and takes on evil. Plus, there's Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan being all original versions of those characters. These are some fun, well-written, well-drawn, just solidly awesome superhero comics. Eric Cante draws less like math here, more cartoony, but it's still great.

I want to take this chance to mention that I am looking forward to The Last Defenders. About damn time Casey's gotten another book set in the contemporary Marvel universe, even if it's only a six-issue mini. It should be good, so demand your retailer order you a copy of each issue right now.

The Pulse: Thin Air, The Pulse: Secret War, and The Pulse: Fear

Got these three trades for seven or eight bucks each and, well, they didn't do much for me. I think the problem is that the concept of Jessica Jones and Ben Urich teaming up for a weekly feature of superheroes for The Daily Bugle is great. Except. Except it never actually happens. I kept waiting for it to happen and it didn't, so fuck it. It seemed like a book designed at integrating Jessica Jones into the Marvel universe proper and not much else.

I did enjoy the Green Goblin stuff in the first arc, but not much else. Oh, there was the odd moment, but not much else. I did notice something that often bothers me about Bendis comics: layouts that extend over both pages, but are done in grids where you can't actually tell if it continues onto the next page or is just on a single page. This is especially problematic with Bendis' dialogue that jumps around so much that you can actually read these pages both ways and have them make around the same amount of sense. What the fuck?

I'm really disappointed with these books, because I'd been digging most of what Bendis has done so far, but these just did little for me. Ah well.

***

That about does it for me. Have a merry Christmas, happy holidays, whatever. I'll be back on Wednesday or Thursday.

I've got 52 problems... (Volume 4)

On Friday, I picked up 52 volume 4, so I've now read the entire series and, yeah, um, hey look at that, I've read the entire series.

This final volume is a strange beast as the writers seem to devote entire issues to wrapping up or pushing storylines in a more obvious way. Here's a breakdown:

#40--All Steel except for 2 pages of Black Adam
#41--Space heroes, Ralph, Montoya (okay, this issue balanced things a little, shut up)
#42--Ralph with 2 pages of Montoya
#43--Black Adam except for 5 pages of Animal Man/Lady Styx
#44--Black Adam with 4 pages of Montoya that tie into the Black Adam stuff
#45--All Black Adam with an appearance from Montoya and tying into the mad scientests
#46--Black Adam/mad scientists except 4 pages of Steel/Luthor
#47--A little bit of everything
#48--All Montoya with 1 page of Black Adam
#49--Black Adam/mad scientists
#50--World War III
#51--Animal Man/DCU/lead-in to end of the series
#52--Mostly Booster Gold, plus a page or two for the other stories as a wrap-up

Only two issues that really had more than two stories for a significant amount. Granted, stories converged as things went on, but ignoring certain stories doesn't work at times because this is supposed to be a book taking place in real time. Like, why do we see Animal Man in #47 viewing his wife and then not actually joining her until #51 even though it's the exact same scene? Why the six week gap between Steel taking down Luthor and Luthor getting taken into custody? Little stuff like that bothers the fuck out of me--I know, I know, I'm being picky.

Another thing that had me scratching my head: Wonder Woman's scene with Montoya--I didn't know that was Wonder Woman until I read Greg Rucka's commentary for the issue. Maybe I'm just a blind reader who should have figured it out, but why would I even think of Wonder Woman? The only clues are her appearance and the reference to killing someone--except the appearance isn't singular enough nor is the killing of someone. In retrospect, I see how it works, but at the time, it fell flat.

I did enjoy the resolution of Animal Man and Ralph's stories, though. Both were handled well.

Still couldn't muster up interest in Montoya or the crime religion whatever the fuck they are story.

Black Adam's story was decent, but mostly mediocre.

The ending of the series left me just as cold as when I read it the first time--mostly because it was a lot at once and I had totally forgotten about Booster Gold by that point. As well, I stand by my assessment that the whole 52 worlds is an unnecessary gimmick because of Hypertime, which was a much better tool. The new status quo is just a smaller, more limited version of Hypertime that seems to be servicing a story ("Countdown") that most people consider really fucking abysmal. Also, something about a Kingdom Come Earth bothers me.

The art in this volume was solid.

Still disappointed that there's no commentary by Grant Morrison in these trades. Also, I really wish they would have included the Newsarama interviews conducted with the creators after the conclusion of the series. It's not unprecedented and would have been a fantastic complement to the commentary.

52 has been a worthwhile read in that it lays out a pretty good model for what works and what doesn't in a weekly, real time series. I think it would have worked better with a smaller amount of stories (maybe three at most), more awareness of how things would unfold time-wise, and even a few more "real life" moments that I don't think we saw enough of because of the amount of story that had to be told. Part of the charm behind a series like this is seeing some mundane bits--that day where nothing really happens. Or even what happens between plot points--which would have definitely made the gaps between them seem less annoying. They were smart to focus on some of the "lesser" characters, but, really, there were just too many of them. Having the stories cross over helped that, at times, but not enough.

And that's that. Maybe someday, I'll sit down and read the whole thing in one sitting, see how it reads that way.

52 Problems, Etc. (Volume Three)

So, 52 volume three.

Week 28 has two pages of brilliance in space. One page is a splash of Lobo towing the ship containing his dolphin buddy, Animal Man, Adam Strange and Starfire. The following is six panels that barely make any sense, cutting in and out of the scene with no rhyme or reason. But, it follows along with the concept of the real time storytelling moreso than any other bit in the entire series. It's week 28, days two and four and we check in on the space story for a bit to see them fleeing a giant one-eyed green head and Animal Man ranting about how the situation sucks.

Still don't care about Montoya or the Question.

Booster Gold as Supernova doesn't make sense, mostly because it involves time travel, which while a reasonable possibility does preclude many of the so-called clues dropped. The fact that the solution is revealed along with the method of pulling it off and it doesn't cause me to go "Oh, now I see!" means it was handled poorly and is not a good mystery. Ideally, seeing how it was done should have made it all Make Sense. It didn't. And I knew already that Booster Gold was Supernova. And still didn't see anything that pointed to that.

Wow, Lady Styx sure was a giant threat--what with being killed quickly in week 36. Although, the Captain Comet bit was also another lovely moment.

In week 32, it seems that Ralph has decided to kill himself. In week 33, he gets a gun. He is not seen again until week 39 where he's getting something in Atlantis. Not sure how much logical sense this timeframe makes. Probably the thing that annoys me personally the most about this series. The number of stories combined with the limited amount of space makes the passage of time very problematic. Especially when you take into account how time passes in regular comics. Regular comics operate in a very compressed sort of time where numerous events take place in very short periods of time, while in this series, very little takes place over longer periods of time. Perhaps a weekly realtime book involving more than two or three plots can't work. Hell, maybe it should focus on one single plot to work properly.

The Black Adam family bores me. So utterly typical. The rise and fall. It would have been much more creative to sustain these characters and push forward.

The mad scientists bore me as well when they're not all mad and doing crazy shit. The serious elements of that plot don't work for me. The Egg-Fu stuff was fantastic, though.

Clark Kent was kidnapped and interrogated for a page? What the fuck? That was a moment where I literally said "What's going on now?" Especially because the artist had neither the skill nor the inclination to make Lex Luthor look like Lex Luthor. Instead, we're treated to generic bald guy who looks kind of Asian.

Lex Luthor is a condemnation of the general public and the fact that we continue to trust people we know for a fact to be evil, corrupt and utterly devoted to their own goals at the expense of everyone else.

That said, Luthor gaining superpowers? Lame. But, as I've often said, I prefer for him to operate on an entirely different level than that of the average supervillain. He's the guy who pushes a button and kills hundreds only to go "Oh no! Something went wrong! Why god why?" Luthor does not get his hands dirty with fisticuffs. How utterly common.

For some reason, I love any comic that has young people telling the founding members of the JSA to fuck off to the old folk's home. I just can't get behind the idea of geriatrics fighting crime. Nor am I a fan of teenagers or kids doing the same. Stories about either seems like an absurdist comedy where lurking beyond the next panel is a broken hip or some horrible mistake from a lack of experience (or memory). Oh, I'm such an ageist.

...they stole Animal Man's jacket! Fuckers.

Oh, and Batwoman is a lesbian, but Dick Grayson doesn't know that. I smell a crazy mix-up coming up!

All in all, this was a lacklustre collection of lacklustre comics with the odd shining moment. There were, like, four. Maybe five.

In November, I'll get volume four and we can see how the entire saga works as a whole.

52 Problems, Etc. (Volume Lance)

Wrote this earlier today for the school paper, the University of Windsor Lance. Very cursory, but it hits the main points.

52 Vols. 1-3
By: Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, Keith Giffen and various artists
DC Comics
302 pgs., $23.99 (each)

Last year, the comics published by DC all jumped ahead one year in their stories and to fill in that missing year, the publisher put out a weekly comic told in real time. Weekly comics are not new ideas, but by telling the story in real time as well as tapping four of the industry’s top writers, 52 managed to capture the audience for the entire year. Now, the year-long saga has been collected in four trade paperbacks (volume four available in November) for easy-reading.

The tagline for 52 was that it was a year without Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman as all three recovered from the most recent intercompany crossover event, Infinite Crisis. This means that 52 focuses on a cast of lesser known, often looked down upon characters with varying results.

In one story, the time-travelling Booster Gold is a superhero only so he can get corporate sponsorship and his costume is plastered with company logos. In another, Lex Luthor has found a way to give the average person superpowers and the hero Steel has to figure out what he’s up to before it’s too late. In the most poignant story, the anti-hero Black Adam goes through a startling transformation as he builds a family, turning his back on his former hard-line stances.

However, while these stories are among the better ones, there are also clunkers like the plot involving former police detective Renee Montoya and the faceless vigilante The Question as they track the plans of Intergang, which is, well, an international gang. A lot of space is given to this story, but it’s highly repetitive and lacks an interesting hook.

Beyond those plotlines, there are easily another half-dozen touched on in these three volumes, so these books could be overwhelming for someone who isn’t familiar with DC’s cast of characters. If there is a fatal flaw in 52, it’s that extensive knowledge of the DC universe is a necessity, but that is offset by the fact that the series is aimed at hardcore fans.

The use of real time is interesting, but sometimes hurts more than it helps. Plots are often dropped for several weeks and then pick up as if no time has passed in between. Having so many balls in the air and limited space means that only a few stories can be touched on per chapter, but leaving some stories alone for nearly two months is sloppy.

As well, specific fans of the writers involved may be disappointed as the method of writing comes off as more written-by-committee--and necessarily so to maintain a coherent tone. There are flashes of individual style, but not many. The overall style used, though, is not bad, but may disappoint some who see a name like Grant Morrison on the cover and then fail to see his trademark style.

The art on 52 is provided by various artists as keeping up with a weekly deadline is beyond most, but, to provide a consistent tone, artist Keith Giffen provides layouts for all of the art. The style of art may change, but since Giffen provides a guide for panel placement and the composition of the drawings, the general tone and look remain remarkably steady.

52 may not be the best book for someone not familiar with the various intricacies of the DC universe, but the year-long weekly book was an interesting experiment in storytelling and these collections are worth it just to see the various tricks and techniques used to pull it off. As well, the collections come with creator commentary for each chapter and other bonuses, providing a great look into what it took to make this book work.

***

I'll do a post on volume three this week along with stuff on the comics I bought on Friday.

52 Problems, Etc. (Volume 2.714285714285, etc.)

Okay, so I'm a horrible blogger, you've got me. I quit in the middle of the post to watch a DVD of a TV show I've already seen. However, in my defence, I offer two words:

Denny Crane.

I've still got two plots from 52's first two volumes to look at plus maybe a few words on various minor bits that technically tie into the main plots but are still worth noting.

Evil Genius, Inc.

Another plot that didn't do much for me until it got going was the whole Will Magnus visiting Professor Morrow in prison, which lead into mad scientists all being kidnapped. My lack of interest could be that I've never given a second thought to the Metal Men. Wow, robots made out of a specific metal, colour me don't-give-a-fuck. I did like that Magnus visited Morrow, though--and that the fact he did it once a month allowed for this story to only show up every four issues without people wondering where it went. A smart little technique that worked with the format of the series.

When Magnus is finally kidnapped, I wish they had had the room to push his mental breakdown further and have it more drawn out. I love the part where he accuses his kidnappers of trying to unhinge him and they respond that they only want MAD scientists. Given more room to breathe, this plot could have been far more interesting.

Where volume two ends, we're not entirely sure what's going on, just that the scientists are on an island and given the freedom to do as they will--well, and the funny as hell scene where a woman scientist arrives. That scene is made by the exchange between Magnus and Morrow where Morrow says he knew a woman once, Magnus responds "...and?" and Morrow goes "...I just knew one, once..." I love it.

Really, this is a story that could have carried a series. The first four issues detailing the kidnappings and Magnus' breakdown and then just a monthly book of mad scientists doing fucked up shit on an island. I would buy that.

August General in Iron on Black Adam: "Wwwhhhhhhhhhhhh-PSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!"

Black Adam's arc over just these two volumes is interesting as he goes from extreme, Authority-esque ruler of a nation to an attempt to be Captain Marvel basically--which works now that Captain Marvel is the new Shazam wizard. Again, only half of the larger arc, but an interesting one.

However, one question does come up: is this story a subtle commentary one how women--and, more specifically, marriage--change men?

We have Black Adam, fucking asshole who shows little mercy for evil scum, bent on creating a world that works who then meets a girl, gives her magical powers and is talked into being nicer and friendlier and giving up his coalition of Asian superheroes. What's even more surprising is how quickly it all happens. In, what, three or four months, his entire attitude and outlook changes. All of which is purposeful because they need to set up Black Adam as the patriarch of his own little family so it can be taken away and he can go even further than before.

But.

Is it also a commentary on women?

It sure seems like it, because it does read like one of those overnight transformations we've all seen where a buddy meets a girl and, suddenly, he's an entirely different guy. August General in Iron says that when Black Adam quits the coalition (well, he says something more like "What the hell? YOU started this whole thing and now that you're married, you're quitting? PUSSY!").

I'm not sure how I read this, though. Is it sexist or simply reporting something that DOES happen? Or is it more a romantic take where it's about how family and love can change a person for the better? While Black Adam's buddies are all "You changed! You used to be cool!" he's in a loving relationship, which could very well be an improvement from who he was before.

My only complaint is that, come on, did they have to make Isis' little brother paralysed to DIRECTLY copy Captain Marvel, Jr.? They couldn't have had him seriously wounded in ANY OTHER WAY? It's just a little bit too cutesy for me. Another injury would have had the same parallelism, but not been so fucking obvious.

Please God Tell Me That's NOT the Justice League!

A few thoughts on other bits:

* one of my favourite parts of the second volume is Mark Waid's inclusion of the script for the Justice League issue where he makes a note that asks Grant about Bulleteer.

* that, and just how shitty that League is.

* The part where Alan Scott gets Mr. Terrific to join the new Checkmate confused the fuck out of me. It wasn't until halfway through when I realised who these guys were. And, even then, why I should care.

* The Martian Manhunter as a presidential aide is an awesome idea. THAT should have been the new series. Leave it to DC to ignore the awesome, mature, complex idea in favour of something typical and lame. (*cough*lexaspresident*cough*)

* Hey, the heroes who came back from space kind of disappeared, didn't they?

And that does it for this round. I'll continue when I get volume three--whenever that is.

I've Got 52 Problems but a Bitch Ain't One (Volume Two)

One of my biggest complaints about the technique used in 52 is that for a comic that takes place in real time, some stories just disappear for weeks without there seeming to be any time passage. Which is, in a way, more realistic as things shouldn't be constantly on the go, because who lives that sort of life? Oh wait, superheroes do. But, then again, if Ultimate Peter Parker was a real kid and the first hundred issues of that series really was JUST a year in his life, he would probably kill himself, so maybe not having these people have such hectic lifestyles is a good thing.

Then again, there's a seven week gap between when the trio of space-heroes (more on them soon) escape from that New God trapper guy and then show up again to escape from the planet. Are we to believe the New God guy didn't do something? Hell, that entire plot is stretched out waaaaaaaaaaaay too much when you look at it in real time.

The ironic thing is that Countdown's big problem from the issues I've seen is that while it doesn't take place in real time, they feel the need to cram every story into every issue. That's a weekly series where devoting an entire issue to one or two stories would work, while it doesn't always in 52.

But anyway . . .

Today, I'm supposed to look at volume two of 52, but I'll discuss volume one as well as most of my problems with the series in general from yesterday still apply in volume two--and while I do love Phil Jimenez's work, it stands out like a sore thumb here and only serves to make the rest of the art look like shit.

So, the plots. Let's address them one at a time:

Booster Gold Sucks Ass

Basic synopsis: Booster Gold tries to be a hero, his sidekick Skeets fucks up, he's shown to be a selfish fraud, is shown up by a new hero called Supernova, falls hard and then dies. Skeets it turns out is evil and he kills Booster's ancestor because he's evil.

If there is a "main story" for 52, this would be the strongest contender, I think, but that's also based on the fact that I know how the series ends. But, beyond purely plot reasons, is it worthy of being called the "main story" of 52?

No. Booster's story in these two volumes doesn't actually progress much. That's definitely purposeful in the sense that Booster isn't supposed to learn from his mistakes or become a better person (especially since this is only half of the story), but it's also strangely stagnant. This is an arc I have a hard time seeing taking place over this long a time period. What we see here is six months and, really, it seems like a month's worth of activity. That is a subjective view, though. We don't see Booster do many heroic acts nor much of his downfall. Because of the nature of the series, we hit the important beats, but skip over the small moments (for the most part) that would give this story more meaning and depth.

The two exceptions are Booster's encounters with Fire and Ralph, especially the former as its only purpose is to develop Booster's character and show what he spends his time doing when he's not out trying to play hero and sell ad space on his costume. The encounter with Ralph does that, but also segues into Booster's public shaming and fall.

The Supernova subplot is interesting, but not really, because you never get the sense that the character actally matters. He's a plot device--which is the risk with a mysterious character like this. We know nothing about him, he only shows up to advance other characters' stories and that's it. It's hard not to perceive him as a plot device. The sad thing is that the design of the character is fantastic and I would have preferred he turn out to be entirely new and become part of the DCU in his own right.

And Skeets being evil is kind of cool, I'll admit.

Irons V. Luthor

Steel once claimed to be Superman; therefore, he and Lex Luthor are enemies. I love that logic. And this storyline is one of the ones that interests me the most, because it's a great idea: Lex Luthor finds a way to turn people into superheroes and looks like a great guy to the public, while the heroes all know he's a douchebag doing it for his own gain.

Playing Irons against his niece is great, because it's another example of the brilliance of Lex Luthor as a character: he is a supervillain who doesn't act like a supervillain. He fights the heroes on completely different terms and he wins more often than not. Anytime I see him in that awful green and purple suit or actually fighting, I cringe, because it's so fucking typical. This is the guy who became president just to fuck with Superman, he does not resort to brawling like a common thug.

There is a big whole in this story (although is may be rectified) is that if this is a year where Clark Kent is just Clark Kent, he should be in there, being the Spider Jerusalem to Luthor's Smiler (which still bugs me about Lex as president, by the way). Obviously not the exact same, but that is how he can fight Lex on Lex's terms. That's the beauty of that relationship, because Lex ony thinks of Superman as the superhero, never realising that Clark Kent is there to counter him in that non-traditional sense. It's how Morrison approached the "Rock of Ages" arc in JLA where it's Bruce Wayne's skills that take down Luthor, not Batman's.

But I digress.

The idea of anyone getting superpowers and using them is really well done--and Luthor creating his own superteam is a classic way for him to give Superman and the rest the finger.

Why Should I Care about Renee Montoya????

As I said yesterday, the Montoya/Question storyline does nothing for me. I don't care. They're fighting Intergang, yay. They stop a suicide bombing, yay. They introduce a new Batwoman who Montoya used to sleep with, yay. None of it grabs me.

Lost in Space

This storyline sucked me in more than I expected. Actually, I expected to hate this story as it's three characters I'm not that interested in (okay, I do love Animal Man like everyone else who's read Morrison's run) in space where they encounter Lobo who I really don't care about. Not much there initially, but, somehow, it turned out to be really engaging.

And yet there's very little character development here. We have Animal Man, Starfire and Adam Strange on a planet, trapped. They have to get off. They find out there's a bounty on their heads when Devilance the Pursuer, a New God, captures them. They escape, use his weapon to power their ship and are then rescused by Lobo, who has found religion. That's actually pretty cool.

This storyline is actual the most minor one, I'd say, as it gets ignored a lot. Like I said earlier, there's a seven week gap where these characters don't show up at all. Most of the time, this plot gets skimmed over until Lobo shows up and then more emphasis is given--although, still, little development. But, it works.

Ralph Dibny, PI

This story is interesting in that the first half interested me, but the second half didn't. The first half, as Ralph uncovers what the cult of Kon-El or whatever wants with him and his dead wife, culminating in his attempt to bring her back to life is excellent. We see a desperate, depressed man gain a new purpose, given hope and then left a wreck.

Only to have him become the new Dr. Fate maybe? Yawn.

Aaaaaaaaaand my roommate is watching Boston Legal on DVD and I want to join him, so I'll finish this up tomorrow. Until then.

I've Got 52 Problems and a Bitch Ain't One (Volume One)

I can't remember how many issues of 52 I actually read cover to cover back when it was coming out. My dad bought it weekly, but I'm pretty sure sometime within the first month I went to skimming, if not during the first week itself. Honestly, the book didn't really interest me beyond my general desire to know what's going on in every book Marvel and DC publishes (which I usually do--even when I don't actively try to know what's going on).

But, hey, the trades are now coming out, so, fuck it, I'm on board the 52 bandwagon for these four collections. On Friday, I got the first two from the campus bookstore. Although, the bookstore tends to get most trades a few weeks after the comic shops, so no idea when I'll get the third one. May go to the local shop later this week, but that's no guarantee. But, today and tomorrow, I'll discuss the first two volumes of this "groundbreaking" series and judge it harshly because that's just the way I roll.

My first complaint, which is a minor one and not something that annoys me THAT much, but I'll mention it right away as it segues into praise: why no Grant Morrison commentary? After each week, there's a page of commentary by one of the writers, Keith Giffen, maybe an artist or Dan Didio--usually, it's Greg Rucka or Mark Waid, though. But never Grant Morrison, which kind of sucks.

Now, that said, the commentary and bonus art pages are a very nice addition to the trades. Commentary doesn't always work, but for a weekly series like this, it's fantastic to see what was going on behind the scenes a bit, especially once they get past the first month or so and the lead time shrinks gradually.

Another minor complaint is that JG Jones' covers are stuck at the back of the trade, most shrunk down so four can fit on a page. Now, this is probably because DC has (or will) releas(ed) a collection of the covers, but still kind of annoying. It would have been nice to have each cover WITH the text to begin each week--if only because the commentary often mentions the cover of that particular week.

Okay, that does it for the little stuff unique to the trade (oh, and JG Jones' covers for the trades are lovely, too), let's move on to the actual content of the series . . .

It's not that bad, actually.

It's not that great either, but it's not as bad as I thought it was while skimming.

Of course, certain storylines do nothin for me. The Question/Montoya one--who cares? Which is weird because yesterday I hyped this as a follow-up to Gotham Central with Montoya's story. But, yeah, I don't care. I've read two volumes and it really does nothing for me. I don't find any of the banter amusing, the characters engaging or what they're doing interesting.

But, that's to be expected. There are, what, a half dozen (maybe more, maybe less depending) storylines? What are the odds that I (or anyone) would enjoy every single one?

In all honesty, I didn't begin liking any of them until week four or five, at least. Momentum is a big part of the appeal here--which is why I think I'm more into the book while reading it in trade-form than I ever was while trying to read individual issues each week. Because of the weekly format and the inability to explore each story fully each week, reading the series in 13-issue chunks gives each story more depth and draws them out more. Where two pages for Booster Gold one week makes that story look small and lame, drawn out over 13 issues, it seems much more akin to the sort of story you'll read elsewhere.

Which is a strange irony of this book: a series that's whole gimmick was reading it weekly reads better in trade than individual issues.

One of the surprising strengths of the first volume is the lacklustre, medicore, middle-of-the-road art. It's not bad, but it's not great. And despite different artists coming in and out, they're all at around the same skill level with Keith Giffen providing a consistent guide on layouts. The storytelling is clear and does the job. Which, for a book like this, is obviously the main goal of the art. If they wanted showy art, they wouldn't have had Giffen on layouts or used these artists. They do bring in some bigger names as the series progresses, which actually bothers me, because that disrupts the flow. But, I'll leave that for future volumes, because the art in this volume is wonderfully mediocre and workmanlike throughout--one of the few times that will be a giant compliment, I know.

Wow, I haven't really discussed the plots, have I? Well, I'll get into that tomorrow with volume two as I can't really remember what happened in which volume since I read the first one on Sunday night and the second one today.

So, tomorrow, I'll discuss each storyline in some detail, covering the first two volumes, plus a few things specific to volume two.

Civil War V. Infinite Crisis

The question long on people's minds: "What was the better crossover event book, Infinite Crisis or Civil War?" Well, I have read both in their collected forms and am here to tell you once and for all.

Premise

Civil War: A bunch of kids die when Nitro the human bomb blows up near a school while fighting the New Warriors. As a result, the US congress passes legislation making it illegal to operate as a superpowered individual without government consent. Some heroes agree, some don't, so they fight each other.

Infinite Crisis: Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman all kind of hate each other. Things have gone to shit in the DCU, so the four survivors of the original Crisis return with the plan to restore the old Earth-2 as it was better. Plus, about a billion other things happen.

Winner: Civil War. The basic idea is very interesting and has a lot of possibilities--and is general enough for anyone to jump in on. IC's plot is very continuity-driven and asks that you know a lot about the DCU. Although, I do enjoy the metafictional aspect that discusses the direction of plots over the past decade.

Writing

Civil War: Here, we have Mark Millar and he does his best, but it falls short in a lot of places, I find. The pacing of the series feels rushed most of the time, like he was trying to cram too much in. Instead of telling a strong story, I get the sense that hitting various plot points was the goal--or, rather, including "cool scenes." A major plot point, like the Thing returning in the final chapter falls flat, because we're never told that he went anywhere. Or, when the Punisher shows up and mentions following them around in a ski mask--that would work much better if we had seen that more than once. There are a lot of cool ideas here, it's just they're flung together without a lot to hold them together.

One thing that bothered me is the "THINGS TURN UGLY:" overlay in the first issue. That's just an issue of consistency as those overlays are used throughout the rest of the series for locations or character names. It seems out of place and took me out of what I was reading. Same with the use of letters at times. They work to provide information, but the letter by Reed at the end has that "crappy movie wrap up" feel.

Millar's characters did nothing for me, for the most part. I would have liked to have seen a bigger discussion amongst pro-registration heroes who refused to fght against anti-registration heroes. I mean, come on, are you telling me more of them wouldn't have said "While I agree with this law, I'm not fighting Captain fucking America, Tony! Are you insane?" The viewpoints were too black-and-white with little talk in between the extreme positions. And while I agree with Spider-Man revealing his identity (in that it does make sense), I'm not sure his automatically fighting against Iron Man works. Again, it belies the extreme nature of the characters that would have worked years ago, but a lot of these characters know each other far too well to go from working together one day to beating the shit out of each other the next.

Infinite Crisis: Geoff Johns does the same thing as Millar, except it actually works in this series. Johns often gives flashes of different scenes for brief periods of time, but that adds to the idea that everything is falling apart at the same time. The premise of the series is that everything is going to shit at once, so piling fights and scenes of destruction on top of one another works in a way that it doesn't in Civil War, because that is much more of a character piece. Like Millar, though, I do think Johns relies on story points that are fully explored outside of the series. Especially in setting up the story. To understand what was going on, you needed to know about the four lead-in mini-series, the "Countdown" special and that Superman/Wonder Woman story. Millar does reference previous stories in Civil War, but only briefly and just in that "here are a couple of other examples of heroes fucking up" where knowing WHAT happened isn't as important as knowing that something bad happened--the details aren't necessary to grasp the meaning.

Johns' style is also much denser, which works well here. It allows him to tell such a big story without seeming like he's always rushing through it like Millar's writing sometimes feels like it is. Although, some plot points are jumped right over, like Superboy-Prime and the Flashes. When he comes back, it does little because he was barely gone.

Johns also has a few narrative problems, especially with Earth-2 Superman's voice-over narration, which comes and goes throughout the series depending on when it's convenient. Changing up how information is delivered to the reader works in ongoing series and sometimes in limited series if done in a consistent manner, but here it's just done willy-nilly with no reason. It's the sort of thing that's not as noticeable when reading the book monthly, but it shows in the collection.

Johns' use of characters, though, is quite well done. Each of the main characters has their own unique motivations and traits. As the story goes on, we learn more and more and care about them more.

Winner: Geoff Johns. Overall, I think Johns did a better job of telling a complete story with stronger characters--but not by much. It's more like Johns lost the least, honestly. Both series suffer greatly from not telling the story completely within its own pages, relying far too much on tie-in books to pick up the slack, when really those tie-in books should work around the main series.

Art

Winner: Rather than argue for each, I'm just going to come out and say I like the art in Infinite Crisis more. Yes, it takes four pencillers to do it, so it's not as consistent, but when those pencillers including Phil Jiminez, George Perez, and Jerry Ordway, it works because of similar styles. Ivan Reis's art does stand out as breaking the flow at points, I must admit. Steve McNiven's art on Civil War is solid, if you like that sort of thing. Personally, I can't stand the whole plastic-look of every character. They remind me of the plastic people in Grant Morrison's Mister Miracle series and it creeps me out! It's a pseudo-realistic style that TOO close because it's off just enough to remind you that it's not quite realistic, which is more jarring than a cartoony style.

Covers

Civil War: Steve McNiven on main covers with Michael Turner variants. I don't really like either artist, but McNiven's covers do have very good designs, plus the added bonus of the "Civil War" trade dress, which was probably one of the better designs used company-wide in a long time.

Infinite Crisis: George Perez and Jim Lee each do one cover each. I hate Lee's art about as much as I hate Turner's, so they cancel one another out. While I like Perez more than McNiven, the only Perez cover I actually like is the two Supermen fighting. The rest just fall flat.

Winner: Civil War.

Big Moments

Civil War: The registration act, Captain America and his rebels, Spider-Man reveals identity, Thor returns (seemingly), the death of Goliath, the Negative Zone prison, the new Thunderbolts, Spider-Man quits, the 50-state initiative, the final showdown with Captain America's surrender, and Tony Stark takes over S.H.I.E.L.D.

Infinite Crisis: The return of the four pre-Crisis characters, Paradise Island disappears, Superboy-Prime becomes a lunatic, the return of multiple earths, the death of Superboy, the creation of one earth, the final showdown with Superboy-Prime, a earth without the big three.

Winner: Civil War. It was a series built on big moments strung together.

Collections

Civil War: Bare bones. We get the series and covers. It's on better paper, but that makes it cost as much as the Infinite Crisis hardcover, except in Canada where it's somehow six bucks more. Expect more bonus material in the upcoming script book.

Infinite Crisis: actually, not a whole lot better. There's a new cover for the collection by Perez, which is good. There's also a round table discussion of the series with some of the people involved and touched-up art.

Winner: Infinite Crisis. Some bonus material is better than none. Plus, not price-gouging assholes.

Which One Did I Just Enjoy More

Okay, this is the only one that REALLY matters. Having read both, which did I enjoy more? Infinite Crisis. Because I am a person who looks for writing, the fact that IC read better, to me, made it more enjoyable. I really did feel that Johns structured his book better than Millar. Both had many of the same problems, but Johns had more go right for him. While Millar built in more "big moments," there wasn't much beyond them. Johns told a stronger story. I will admit, though, that Civil War made me want to see what comes next more than Infinite Crisis, but that's also because the end of Infinite Crisis was more definitive. Sure, there were a couple of loose threads, but that was much more in the "never-ending battle" nature of superheroes than Tony Stark's promise that the best is yet to come, which pretty much says "BUY WHAT COMES NEXT, BITCHES!" Civil War read too much like a set-up for a new status quo than a story unto itself, while Infinite Crisis was also a set-up for a new status quo, but did tell a complete story better.

That said, I wasn't actually that impressed with either. They both kind of read for shit when I tried to forget all of the details I knew because of what came next or what happened in other books. I pity anyone who tried to read either on their own, not knowing the histories of these characters or what was going on in other books. Both books should have been written as if they were the only ones telling the story, which neither did. Sure, as far as sales go, they were successes, but as stories? I'm not so sure.

Losers

I reviewed the first part of the recent Teen Titans storyarc where the group faced the Teen Titans East, a collection of villains that match up against the heroes, almost member for member. I thought the issue was kind of shit and I realised a few days later, it was because I consider the whole evil version of the superhero team to be really fucking stupid and I blame Grant Morrison for bringing it back.

Now, of course, Morrison didn't invent the idea, but he made it popular with the first incarnation of the Injustice Gang in his JLA run where Lex Luthor gathered the Joker, Dr. Light, the Mirror Master, Circe, the Ocean Master and Jemm--all enemies of the Big Seven. Of course, if you read the story, you'll realise quickly that the Injustice Gang gets its ass handed to it. Seriously, they barely do anything--and most of the stuff they actually accomplish was faked by the JLA when Batman realised Luthor's methodology.

The fact of the matter is, you can't take a group like the first Injustice Gang seriously as a threat because it's a group of losers. None of these guys can take their respective hero one-on-one, so we're to assume by teaming up to take on all of them (plus, in this case, Green Arrow and Aztek--later, Plastic Man) that they'll somehow succeed?

No. Which Morrison seemed to recognise, which is why the second version of the Injustice Gang seemed much more threatening. Instead of villains that fight individual heroes, he used villains that almost beat the entire League by themselves. Now, we didn't get to see the true outcome of that fight because it was also taking place as the whole Mageddon/World War III (the first World War III) thing was happening. But, still. The lesson was there.

Too bad no one seemed to notice.