Written by Mike Mignola & John Arcudi
Art by Guy Davis
Published by Dark Horse
The Factual has been remiss due to some scheduling and personal details, but returns to form this coming monday, and with a Marty Brown return in a few weeks. Sorry to any regular perusers.
Yesterday won't go down in any history books as anything more than the week where most of the people in the store were still asking for copies of last weeks Captain America, otherwise known as the one where he "died." Yes, it's sold out, but no, it will not be worth any money. It also won't last, so let's hurry up and let it go. Marvel didn't get any new readers when the last time Moon Knight died, and they won't get any now.
The sad thing about yesterday was that, with all of these "potential" new readers haunting comic stores in hopes of finding a less boring stock portfolio, neither Marvel or DC had anything fresh or exciting to offer them. Everything, across the board, was just bad, bad, and, with help, worse. Whether it was a senseless reset button at the previously great Stormwatch, a fight scene featuring characters know one knows or cares about at Teen Titans, or just plain irritating re-hashing at The Confession, Marvel and DC completely missed the boat yesterday. While there may have been an audience yesterday, the big guys seemed to think that offering nothing might fool people into thinking they were getting something. A win for B.P.R.D is sullied by this lack of competition, but that doesn't mean that Mignola's crew of Hellboy sidekicks are doing anything less than the regular blend of neo-horror adventure stories. Yes, this was a pretty good comic, but no, it didn't have to do much to be better than a day of just plain old bad comics. (One exception being Matt Fraction's work on the continues-to-be-fantastic Punisher War Journal, which lost solely because it had to return to carrying the weight of Marvel's Civil War storyline, which doesn't seem to have any sign of ending until Marvel goes bankrupt again. Which, since a bunch of no-taste having assholes made Ghost Rider a hit, may not be until the next time they kill Captain America.)
Mike Mignola's work on B.P.R.D. is limited to a standard "isn't that cool, and weird, and retro" cover and his "story" credit. How much involvement Mignola still has in B.P.R.D. is a subject little known about, and that whole line of inquiry is currently best addressed in the latest tour de force issue of the Comics Journal, but that doesn't neccessairly speak ill of anything happening in the issue. John Arcudi and Guy Davis still put together a great comic that looks a hell of a lot better than anything else on the shelf. Whether or not Garden Of Souls will pursue the kind of hell on earth majesty that Plague of Frogs did, or will dive without care into a more goofy "Watch this chick hallucinate" story isn't clear from the first issue. What is clear is that whatever that old Chinese guy is doing to the Captain can't be very soothing, and it will hopefully be addressed before too long. Massage therapy doesn't have to include Satan, and it doesn't have to include broadswords.
-Tucker Stone, 2007
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