CBR Review: Red Hood and the Outlaws #3

I recently reviewed Red Hood and the Outlaws #3 for CBR and, in the process, wrote the following sentences: "Red Hood and the Outlaws #3 is a more interesting comic conceptually than it is in execution. When I think about the issue, I find myself liking it; when I flip back through it, that enjoyment disappears. Conceptually, it’s a straight up action book with a flashback for each of the main characters that helps shed some light on their personalities and adds depth to each of them; in execution, it’s a fluffy comic with unlikable characters that spout off flip remarks that carry little weight and go through the motions in a quest that’s presented as trivial. The flashbacks don’t add nearly as much depth as they’re supposed to, either. That disconnect between the idea and the reality ultimately makes this an interesting comic in a unique way, but not terribly good."

You can read the rest HERE!

CBR Review: Superboy #2

I recently reviewed Superboy #2 for CBR and, in the process, wrote the following sentences: "After hearing the praise for the first issue of the relaunched Superboy, the second issue seemed like an interesting book to pick up and review. Featuring a different take on the lead character that still harkens back to his origin as a clone sounded promising. Superboy #2 deals with the fallout of Superboy’s escape from the lab that created him and his killing all of the scientists save one in the process. It’s certainly an unexpected direction for a Superboy reboot and the ensuing direction holds some promise, but the execution is rather flat and lifeless with dialogue that’s about twelve steps away from witty."

You can read the rest HERE!

Pre-Joe Casey Comics: Wildcats #7

[Concluding the build-up to Joe Casey's run on Wildcats. Yes, sir, this is indeed the last Scott Lobdell-penned issue. Starting Tuesday, it's nothing but Joe Casey (with the fantastic Sean Phillips on art). New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

I thought about it and wanted to get the Lobdell stuff out of the way and start clean next week. I read issue seven and realised, yeah, it wasn't really worth getting its own day.

This issue accomplishes one thing worthwhile: it kills off Pike, some lame villain that vowed to kill a WildC.A.T. for some reason. He tries to kill Warblade in New York, but just kills his fiancee. Skip ahead six months and the two battle it out in Sarajevo after Warblade kills some people terrorising the innocent. This involves such witty dialogue as:

"One gurgle for yes, two gurgles for no."

And the baffling command by Warblade to the town's people that before they go, they "PAINTS THE TOWN RED!" which he feels the need to scream and become full-on Warblade to command.

In the end, Warblade kills Pike by using his control over every molecule--which is nearly clever.

The art is provided by Carlos Meglia and the less said about it there better. The arm hair he draws looks like little pieces of macaroni taped into place. It's weird--and so fucking typical of Wildstorm.

Since this issue finishes up Lobdell's tenure on the book (excluding a special that looked at Emp's transformation from "little person" to "troll"--and the "Golden Age" special from the crossover with the X-Men, which also featured Charest on art and introduced Kenyan), I should probably say a few words about the whole thing. What comes to mind is a line from "Make it Wit Chu" by the Queens of the Stone Age (who I'm currently listening to, coincidentally): "Sometimes the same is different, but, mostly, it's the same." That's Lobdell and Charest's run all over--promise of change, promise of new, same old bullshit, in more ways than one. The most notable is the artist who couldn't meet deadlines, but, also, a book that was artist-driven, resulting in horrible, cliched stories of little merit. It's a weird paradox to have an artist-driven book involving an artist who can't meet a deadline, or deliver work that warrants being the driving force. Lobdell talked a good game before taking over; he spoke of new ideas, a bold new direction and delivered none of it.

Bring on Joe Casey and Sean Phillips, I say.

Semi-Pre-Joe Casey Comics: Wildcats #6

[Continuing the epic build-up to when Joe Casey took over Wildcats and fucking tore shit up. New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

Once again, Joe Casey puts the words into the mouths of the characters here after Lobdell told them what to do. However, this issue is a bit better than the previous one, if only for one line:

"THIS IS BECOMING POSITIVELY ABSURD--!"

Now, I want to read that line as Casey's criticism of the plot here which has Grifter chasing Kenyan through the streets of New York while Spartan steals a jet to further help take Kenyan down. That's pretty much all that happens, actually. But, as I've said before, it does set up Casey's run... or, at least, the first three issues of it in this case. Especially when Emp tells Grifter not to kill Kenyan out in the open. Why would he say that, dear reader? Why?

Remember how issue four had that awesome letter taking the book to task? Well, this issue's letter page has a couple of responses, both that felt the need to include all of the effort and "heart" put into making comics--which, I'm sorry, are not relevent when discussing the quality of books. Somewhere along the lines, we all got the idea that loving the characters and being a true fan actually meant something, but it doesn't. All it means is that someone's got an excuse to produce bad comics.

Ugh. I don't know what else to say. I'm actually tempted to just include my assessment of issue seven here right now so that we can get to the Casey run sooner. But, that would also mean reading issue seven right now, which seems like a bad idea. It's a Warbalde-centric issue that really does nothing and is barely referenced during Casey's run. But, hey, maybe I'll come up with something to say on Tuesday.

Semi-Pre-Joe Casey Comics: Wildcats #5

[Continuing my look at the build-up to Joe Casey's run on Wildcats--except, waitaminute, his name appears in this issue's credits. That's right, loyal readers, Casey scripts this issue (along with issue six). Will that make up for Scott Lobdell's piss-poor plots? Keep on reading! New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

Not only has Casey joined the book, for one issue only Bryan Hitch is on art. This back when Hitch was blowing people's minds on The Authority and, obviously, his fill-in here is a favour to Wildstorm--but, really, he was doing The Authority monthly AND a fill-in on Wildcats, where I can assume he caught Travis Charest's deadline-itis. But, enough of my lame "wit," there's a comic to be discussed...

Remember how last issue had Zealot gunned down and dead? Yeah, this issue reveals that she's alive. A much more effective story would have to either distanced the two issues or combined them into one, because all this does is make last issue look worthless. But, that's Lobdell's doing--ah, so is the idea that Zealot is being hunted by various splinter sects of the Coda, a concept that Casey will alter into Zealot hunting down every member of the Coda and killing them. Although, it is ambiguous if that's what she's already doing. It's hard to say, but it is hinted at--only in the dialogue, which is Casey's. Perhaps Casey was already laying the seeds for his run, which was almost certainly determined by this point.

Most of the dialogue, however, doesn't rise that far about Lobdell's usual pap. However, I have to wonder if that was purposeful--is it possible that Casey, in an effort to keep the book consistent, attempted to imitate Lobdell? Or was there no way to do better with the plot written? Or did Casey just deliver some mediocre work? It's hard to say for sure. I'm inclined to say that Casey fails here, rather than place the blame elsewhere. We've seen that Casey is certainly capable of churning out crap and a scripting job seems like one of those places where it's almost hard not to.

There's also a scene between Grifter and Spartan, but it's of no major consequence beyond continuing the weird dynamic they have, which will make up a big part of Casey's run. Although, Casey does his best to put the problems behind them and give them, at the very least, a sense of mutual respect (I would argue something more).

Bryan Hitch's art is pretty good. Not his best work, but does have a higher panel-per-page count than his other work from the time (and since). Since this issue was obviously done in "Marvel style," whereas the other work was full script, it's interesting that the panel count is higher here. It sort of goes against the idea that artists hate drawing lots of panels, eh?

Some questions for next issue: will Casey's scripting improve? How many pages will Travis Charest draw? Will Lobdell's plot be better? Will I stop ragging on these guys? Saturday, people.

Pre-Joe Casey Comics: Wildcats #4

[Continuing the lead-up to when Joe Casey took over Wildcats from Scott Lobdell. With this issue, we're officially over halfway there (since Lobdell's run was seven issues) and, hell, Casey scripts issues five and six. That should make them better, right? New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

This issue was almost amazingly great. Instead, it's horrible cliche after horrible cliche. But, let's examine the near-greatness of Wildcats #4...

The first page has Grifter in rubble, trapped under some, reaching for his gun. The narration reads:

"STONEKILL, IRELAND.

"TWENTY MILES NORTH OF BELFAST.

"SOME SIX MONTHS AGO.

"YOU RECOGNIZE COLE CASH, GRIFTER.

"THIS WAS THE WILDC.A.T.S' LAST MISSION."

and then, later, when Warblade rescues Grifter:

"RENO BRYCE, WARBLADE.

"KHERUBIM HALF-BREED -- HALF HUMAN, HALF KHERUBIM."

"NOTE TO SELF: WHATEVER BECAME OF WARBLADE?"

Now, the quotation marks used should have tipped me off that someone was actually speaking these words, but my first thought was that, no, this was Scott Lobdell talking to the reader. That "note to self" line especially struck me as metafictional, like he was asking himself what had happened to Warblade since he'd yet to show up in the book.

But, no, it's just Kenyan and some lady looking at holographic footage of these events, with those two providing commentary. Of course, that raises the point about why "Kherubim half-breed" needed an explanation. At least with the metafictional angle, it made sense. As it is, are either of these two characters idiots? In fact, why are they telling each other the names of the characters? Kenyan knows who the WildC.A.T.S are/were, and, let's assume since she put the video together, the assistant lady knows as well. So, what's the story with this clunky narration?

The issue has Zealot get killed by robozombiepeople and die in a horribly cliche manner. Or did she?

That's all that happens. Really. That was what "killed" the WildC.A.T.S. I can see why Grifter left the team, but everyone else? Wow, how anticlimatic.

The true highlight of this issue is a letter printed, which I now reprint without permission of anyone:

Dear WC Guide,

Please help me settle a bet. I've got a dinner at Eastside Mario's riding on it.

i say that WILDCATS is a crappy, unfulfilling comic book because of Scott Lobdell's uninspired, inconsistent writing. That he seems not to know what to do with any one of Charest's pages (which I think are beautiful) and simply fills them with insipid dialogue and bad jokes.

My friend says the fault lies in the weak art. He feels that Charest focuses too much on heads and fashion, neglecting details like hands (well drawn ones, not lumpy things) and backgrounds. He thinks that Lobdell is probably an okay writer, but confusing pages leave him little to work with, and that Lobdell is filling in a story as best he can.

So please, WC Guide, tell me which of us is right? (I really want to win that dinner, hint, hint.)

Thank you for your prompt reply,
[I'm taking out the name because I don't want to add a google hit for this guy about this]
Toronto, Ontario

Wow. Just... wow. That guy did my job for me, really. And he's a fellow Canadian to boot. The other letters are pretty positive--a Scottish reader doesn't like the writing and an American is upset at the fill-in pages in issue three (of which this issue had more), but loves Lobdell and Charest. I think the message is clear, people: Americans don't know good comics. American letter-writers loved Wildcats, non-Americans saw it for the low-quality book it was at the time.

On Thursday, we get the first of two Lobdell-plotted, Casey-scripted issues beginning with one drawn by Bryan Hitch. Hey, it has a shot at being decent.

Pre-Joe Casey Comics: Wildcats #3

[Continuing my look at Wildcats before Joe Casey took over the writing chores. Courage, gentle reader... COURAGE!. New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

The second volume of Wildcats was bimonthly and was announced, like, twelve years before it began and, yet, Travis Charest needed help completing issue three. He did two issues and 15 more pages before needing another artist to finish the job. Rob Liefeld wishes he was this fucking slow.

And it's not like Travis Charest's work is as amazing as anyone ever likes to say it is. Oh, it's pretty, sure thing, but he can't tell a story to save his life. On the first page, some little kid has a problem with his ice cream cone and I can't tell what the fuck the problem is. All I see is a cone with no ice cream. Did it fall off? Did Grifter (the ice cream man) not give him much ice cream? What the fuck is going on here and why should I care?

The plot of this issue involves the Wildcats (Grifter, Emp, Spartan and Noir) taking on some elite school where the headmaster is a pervy evil-doer and his secretary is an old bitch of an android. Spartan and Emp pose as a mother and daughter, but we don't know it's them yet despite the fact that Spartan dressed in clothes the exact same colour as his uniform, because that's a clever way of telling us, the readers of this comic, that it's actually Spartan in disguise!

Which makes the scene where pervy ol' headmaster pulls out his magical crystal and the mom is all "I'm going to fuck you in front of my daughter, master!" extra creepy, because not only is that not a human... it's not even a woman! Joke's on you, pervy headmaster! That's what you get for using your magic crystal to force women to sleep with you!

But, oh NO! Instead of violating this seemingly-hapless soccer mom right there and then, he feels the need to show off the secret labyrinth below the school and the cool neato alien weapons he's got stored for Kenyan... "THE MAGIC 'K' WORD." Well, he called down the thunder and now he's got it! Yeah, Emp and Spartan totally kill him while Grifter and Noir kill the android secretary.

This issue does actually move the plot forward as the team (or, not-team as Grifter keeps insisting) takes down one of Kenyan's bitches. Go, Wildcats!

But, don't forget the weird pervy stuff or the fantastic homophobia Grifter shows while talking to Noir.

And, damn you, Travis Charest... because you couldn't finish the issue, I now have Carlos D'anda's drawing of Spartan in women's clothing in my head... FOREVER! At least Charest kept him looking like a woman, while D'anda has him magically transform back into the guy we all know and love (but not in that way).

Shit, I can't even write about these issues seriously. Best thing to do is just lie back and think of Joe Casey... okay, that's creepy. Forget I said that.

Tomorrow: this week in comics with the Sunday Open!

Pre-Joe Casey Comics: Wildcats #2

[Continuing the lead-up posts to Joe Casey's run on Wildcats (volumes 2 and 3), which means more Scott Lobdell fun. New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

Up until Joe Casey and Sean Phillips took over the title, Wildcats was a bimonthly book, which I think really hurt it as shown in the second issue, which has absolutely nothing to do with the first--aside from old characters from WildC.A.T.S. not hanging out as a team anymore.

In this issue's case, the former members are Voodoo and Maul (or Pris and Jeremy as they were named by their parents). They're roommates (or, Pris is crashing on his couch on a semi-permanent basis) and Jeremy is all in love with her and she seems flirty, but he's a dork and doesn't see it and spends all of his time in his lab working on reconstructing her DNA by floating in some weird tank all shrivelled up and shit--that is until some lady with a gun shows up and kidnaps them so he can cure some theoretical disease that she's infected with (and just infected him with) until the Bros. Death show up and lots of shooting happens and Daemonite shows Pris a trick or two and the day is saved, people are cured and Jeremy loses some data he needs.

Again, the pieces are here, but Lobdell doesn't really do anything with them. The four main characters of this issue (Jeremy, Pris, C.C. and the old daemonite) show up durin Casey's run where he takes these ideas and makes them work.

I remember when the Jeremy shrinking himself (kinda) was mentioned, Lobdell presented it as the coolest thing ever, but doesn't do anything with it here. Casey at least gave him a reason for altering his appearance like that, but Lobdell doesn't actually show or tell us why it's necessary for him to be in that form while doing his laboratory work.

These characters don't show up again while Lobdell is on the book.

Travis Charest's art is nice to look at.

Pre-Joe Casey Comics: Wildcats #1

[And so begins my look at Joe Casey's run on Wildcats, which should run for 55 posts including a few related specials. That's a lot of comics. But, we must begin at the very beginning, which means Scott Lobdell until issue eight (although Casey does pop up twice during that time). New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

The year was 1998 and Wildstorm was sold to DC, breaking the internet. And then, it was announced: Scott Lobdell and Travis Charest were relaunching Wildcats, breaking the internet again. In 1998, the internet broke easily, for it was weak and only contained porn and comic fans. Now, the internet has diversified a bit and isn't broken quite so easily by comics news. In 1998, though, this shit broke the internet in, like, twelve pieces, not just two. Fucking X-Men writer extraordinaire Scott Lobdell and the wonderfully awesome Travis Charest, people!

And then, in January 1999, the first issue came out and the internet was broken again--broken-hearted, because it was a pretty shit first issue. The team has been disbanded and Grifter is going to rob some arm's dealers because, well, I don't know why. And Spartan is an arm's dealer, because he wants some Kheran technology back. And Noir is a French, gay, black arm's dealer... with green eyes. He just wants money and guns... guns that he uses to kill people who pay him money for guns, because that's the way to build a solid reputation within the arm's dealer community. There are some fights and Grifter is talking to himself for some reason and it's just one big clusterfuck of an issue.

In the end, we learn that Emp is now a weird little troll because he's gained spiritual awareness or some shit and they're taking on Kenyan, an immortal human who is so goddamn evil that... that... that... MOTHERFUCKER'S EVIL, OKAY! Kenyan's involvement makes Grifter join back up and that's about it.

"Internet's heart... is... broken..."

However, Lobdell's issues are necessary to understand Joe Casey's issues, so we must press ahead. Noir will become a key player, as will the idea that the Wildcats is now a group without any mission or purpose. Emp's ascension plays a role as does Spartan's ties to him--and his upgraded body that can take some serious damage. All of the elements are here, it's just Lobdell doesn't know what to do with them.

Travis Charest's art is pretty, but very static.

On Thursday... the return of Voodoo, which means boobs. The internet loves boobs.