Liberty Comics
Writing and Art by a Whole Lot Of People
Published by Image Comics
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a decently run charity with an agreeable purpose, but it's doubtful that anyone would've expected them to put out such a damn fine anthology as this one--not because of who they are, but because non-art comics anthologies are almost always terrible. This breaks the mold with both a clever introduction from Garth Ennis, who satirizes his own shortcomings as a writer in such a fashion that it makes further pokes unnecessary and a Criminal story by Ed Brubaker that showcases why most comic writers should never try to do anything with a moral--because they aren't as smart as Brubaker is. All that aside, the biggest surprise is probably from the quiet riff on American Splendor by way of House of Dracula, courtesy of Mark Millar. It's such a genius piece of work that it both makes one want to forgive Millar's excesses while at the same time condemn him for not writing stuff as good as this all the time. Oh, and what Dracula has to say about the Mach 3 razor? Totally true.
Dan Dare # 7
Written by Garth Ennis
Art by Gary Erskine
Published by Virgin Comics
Hopefully, whenever Richard Branson gets around to looking at his balance sheets and realizes that serialized comics have absolutely no future whatsoever, the Dan Dare license will be picked up by some company like Dark Horse, and Garth Ennis can continue to throw out these goofy little mini-series that are the very definition of what entertaining comics should behave like. While totally exploitative of all of the tics that Ennis knows work, like the stiff British manner and the "sacrifice all, for God, country and the death of little green men," this is the little mini-series that could. It's everything you wish Secret Invasion could be, and everything it's incapable of becoming.
Daredevil # 109
Written by Ed Bruabker & Greg Rucka
Art by Michael Lark, Matt Hollingsworth & Stefano Gaudiano
Published by Marvel Comics
While the standard rule of thumb has always been "Don't fuck Matt Murdock unless you want to die, lady," apparently that needs to be expanded to "Seriously, if you have a vagina, don't even talk to or hang out with Matt Murdock." While Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka should be allowed to tell whatever story they'd like with Daredevil, especially if that's a story where Daredevil molests children and eats a Buick, and it totally isn't their fault that every previous Daredevil writer has made time for killing the ladies, you'd think they would know that it's getting really old. Gotten really old. Look it's just fucking old. There's got to be other shit that can happen to women in Daredevil comics. At this point, rape or dismemberment would be, while tasteless, a revelation. (Side note: What's up with the cover? Is Daredevil going to start carrying a machine gun? What do a bunch of machine guns have to do with anything?)
Written by Simon Oliver
Art by Tony Moore & John Lucas
Published by Vertigo/DC Comics
Although The Exterminators wasn't able to find enough of an audience to maintain whatever low threshold Vertigo has set to be labeled "success," Showtime has apparently looked at the book and said "What do comic fans know? We'll get this an audience, no problem." While time will tell if Simon Oliver's little saga will be the next Dexter (pretty decent) or Californication (jesus, terrible), it's another nail in the coffin that is "You can rely on sales figures to tell you whether a book is any good." Of course, the support of television networks doesn't necessarily mean anything either--what's up Birds of Prey and Shadowman? Hopefully Tony Moore will just as easily land on his feet--if nothing else, his full page drawing of a loser bad guy getting his throat ripped out by our hero's bare hand was one worth framing. Gross, yes. But a nice kind of gross.
Written by Brian Wood
Art by Riccardo Burchielli & Jeromy Cox
Published by Vertigo/DC Comics
Does Brian Wood know how obnoxious his main character has become? At this point, reading about how Matty Roth feels towards those ugly news corporations, man they don't understand shit about real people, or his disdainful contempt towards his father, geez Mr. Fatcat why don't you make another dollar off the working man has become the worst part of an otherwise decent comic. It's not too often in this medium that one gets the chance to actively hope that a story will continue without the primary protagonist, but considering how much more interesting absolutely every other person is in this comic, including the comatose Paco Delgado, hopefully Wood will kill off Roth and focus on something else entirely. On a completely seperate note, Riccardo Burchielli's powerhouse opening and closing of this issue is the best art DMZ has seen underneath his hand. The abject brutality and the frenetic pace of the final moments make Wood's Trustwell goons come alive in a sense that this comic has never before achieved. Despite the push-for-the-trade nature of DMZ that usually leaves the individual issues suffering a sense of incompletion, Burchielli's work here is outstanding enough that it makes the individual moments worth keeping up with.
Written by Keith Giffen & Robert Loren Fleming
Art by Keith Giffen & Guy Major
Published by DC Comics
There is some funny moments here, mostly in the comics willingness to go full force towards the inside joke, but overall it's just toothless satire that probably won't age well. If this was a comic that had been passed around the DC offices at their holiday party, it would probably be a lot better--at least then it wouldn't have the altogether weak attempt at reaching the notoriously humorless DC fanboy. While there's probably more than one person who's going to find the Stephanie Brown L'il Dickens Power Tool Playkit offensive, Ambush Bug Year None just ain't nasty enough. (And God help those who find the lame references to old 60's cover design clever--that shit is just embarrassing.) Still, it's a chance to see Giffen's art again, and that's a worthy enough enterprise. Too bad it's in the service of something this tame.
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Billy Tan, Danny Miki & Jason Keith
Published by Marvel Comics
Yet another backstory issue for one of the secret Skrulls, this time the one about Captain America. It's no exaggeration to say that this comic encapsulates what is clearly about four minutes of actual time in the little Marvel universe, nor is it an exaggeration to say that it is so completely inconsequential to the greater story that it neither needs to be numbered, titled, or, obviously, written. What had served as a fine enough idea in theory, that the Avengers titles would serve as little movie-of-the-week type capsules of information in hopes of drawing out and explicating on the characters of Secret Invasion has instead become full length explanations of moments best left described in two panels, a page at most. While Bendis gets name-checked every time people are searching out writers who produce a large amount of monthly comics, it's clear from this one that it isn't because what he's doing on some of them is particularly that hard.
Yet another backstory issue for one of the secret Skrulls, this time the one about Captain America. It's no exaggeration to say that this comic encapsulates what is clearly about four minutes of actual time in the little Marvel universe, nor is it an exaggeration to say that it is so completely inconsequential to the greater story that it neither needs to be numbered, titled, or, obviously, written. What had served as a fine enough idea in theory, that the Avengers titles would serve as little movie-of-the-week type capsules of information in hopes of drawing out and explicating on the characters of Secret Invasion has instead become full length explanations of moments best left described in two panels, a page at most. While Bendis gets name-checked every time people are searching out writers who produce a large amount of monthly comics, it's clear from this one that it isn't because what he's doing on some of them is particularly that hard.
Written by Mark Waid
Art by Scott Kolins & Rob Schwager
Published by DC Comics
Okay, we said we'd buy this because Mark Waid is pretty fucking funny. That being said, this is a pretty dull comic, and it blows it's wad completely in the first few pages, where Nightwing lies to every major and minor super-hero in the world (except for Hawkman) and convinces them to jump to another dimension. After that, it's just silly whats-it-for stuff against somebody who's evil or something. There's an argument that keeps popping up that says Brave and the Bold deserves higher sales because--oh, because the world is supposed to be fair, or because people are dumb, or women in refrigerators or whatever--but this isn't any different than anything else, really. It's just one-shot fights that feature whatever sort of plot mechanics is required to get the two featured heroes together for 22 pages. But as long as Mark Waid shows up and tells somebody to shut the fuck up on the internet, we'll make sure we check it out.
Written by Fabian Nicieza
Art by Joe Bennett, Jack Jadson & Guy Major
Published by DC Comics
After the reveal in Paul Dini's latest issue of Detective Comics that Batman stories would be crossing over with Grant Morrison's RIP storyline by putting a "RIP" logo on the cover and then proceeding to ignore the story completely, the latest issue of Robin at least deserves some credit for taking things as simply as possible. It's all about Fabain Nicieza filling in the surrounding moments of Robin's few appearances in the latest issue of RIP and describing whatever Morrison is doing in the most accurate terms possible: "I think Batman's gone crazy." While it doesn't make Robin that compelling to read, it's certainly a more interesting take then to read Dini as he attempts to compete. This issue acknowledges that it doesn't really have anything to add, that, even at it's best, it's only going to be the dull ponderings of a teenager, and by embracing the more-you-read-it, funnier-it-gets "Batman's gone CRAZY," it makes for an issue that's actually worth stealing off bittorent. Sorry, paying for.
Written by Christos Gage
Art by Fernando Blanco & Frank Martin
Published by Marvel Comics
Christos Gage clearly has talent, and eventually he'll either find success with one of the titles that he's constantly showing up at, or he'll write some kind of name-making work for a non Big Two company. While Thunderbolts, the Marvel version of DC's Suicide Squad concept, probably isn't going to be that book, there's some decent enough stuff going on here. Unlike The Initiative and The New Warriors, two other titles currently being handled as if they had to fit the standard archetypal book despite them being books with a small enough readership that experimentation should be encouraged, Thunderbolts is just odd enough to seem innovative. Unlike the standard villain team-up books, wherein there's never a real sense of danger, Gage's portrayal of the characters, like Warren Ellis' take before him, is one that presents them as truly evil people who care for no one but themselves--well, that and their personal perverted attractions towards violence or twin sisters. None of that adds up to enough to make it a great comic, but it's certainly got a subdued sense of uniqueness to it, and Fernando Blanco's fractured panel work is a refreshing break from the "anything goes" design sense that permeates all of Marvel's non-Icon publications. Unlike every single other Secret Invasion cross-over before it, Gage's work succeeded in convincing us that maybe this was a book worth looking into.
Christos Gage clearly has talent, and eventually he'll either find success with one of the titles that he's constantly showing up at, or he'll write some kind of name-making work for a non Big Two company. While Thunderbolts, the Marvel version of DC's Suicide Squad concept, probably isn't going to be that book, there's some decent enough stuff going on here. Unlike The Initiative and The New Warriors, two other titles currently being handled as if they had to fit the standard archetypal book despite them being books with a small enough readership that experimentation should be encouraged, Thunderbolts is just odd enough to seem innovative. Unlike the standard villain team-up books, wherein there's never a real sense of danger, Gage's portrayal of the characters, like Warren Ellis' take before him, is one that presents them as truly evil people who care for no one but themselves--well, that and their personal perverted attractions towards violence or twin sisters. None of that adds up to enough to make it a great comic, but it's certainly got a subdued sense of uniqueness to it, and Fernando Blanco's fractured panel work is a refreshing break from the "anything goes" design sense that permeates all of Marvel's non-Icon publications. Unlike every single other Secret Invasion cross-over before it, Gage's work succeeded in convincing us that maybe this was a book worth looking into.
Written by Dwayne McDuffie
Art by Ed Benes & Pete Pantazis
Published by DC Comics
A little over a year ago, fans were in agreement with implications dropped by writer Dwayne McDuffie implying that DC editorial was placing all kinds of stumbling blocks in the way of his JLA scripts, a probably-true statement that served to explain why the comic was so terrible to read, while helping fans to imagine that, if only those nasty corporate honchos would leave McDuffie alone, JLA could turn water into wine, end racism and save a baby gorilla from a lumberjack. It would seem that the editors have done just that in recent months--JLA has only been involved with Final Crisis once so far--and the current story is a ripped from back issues tale of a by-the-numbers beatdown at the hands of Amazo. Which goes to show you--Mcduffie didn't need Dan Didio's help to write repetitive super-hero cock-shocks based around tired centerpieces. He had that all on his own.
Written by Mark Millar
Art by Tony Harris, Cliff Rathburn & JD Mettler
Published by Image Comics
Whether it's an attempt to legitimize himself or just an admittance of a lack of ideas, Mark Millar's latest comics output continues to be a bunch of comics that don't carry much impact beyond the sense of a winding down--oddly enough, considering that his star in the licensed-for-film is producing a decent stream of income. (Despite the disappointing response to Wanted, he seems to be the go-to interview subject for comics-as-film besides Zach Snyder.) Whereas you used to be able to rely on Millar to at least bring the bombast, especially during his weird Enemy of the State Wolverine story, or his super-hero cum extravaganza-tique The Ultimates, now, with Kick-Ass, Fantastic Four and War Heroes as his primary output, he's just doing more of the same, and making it really boring. There's nothing at all that's compelling to deal with here: whether you're looking at the unexpressive Tony Harris art or the collected characters all lacking any distinct personality, it's an out and out shit comic in service of a bad idea. The army takes super-pills? That's what you got? While it's easy enough to get oneself mired in disgust when the concept is presented that the only reason anyone would fight for their country is if the military would develop a method of genetic wish-fulfillment, it's a lot easier to just take the entire comic at face value and ignore reading into it too deeply: this, like the abysmal 1985 mini-series, is Mark Millar attempting to appeal to the lowest possible common denominator available. He's the babysitter that will put your children into a lifetime of therapy. Hire him at your discretion.
Written by Dan Slott & Christos Gage
Art by Harvey Tolibao & Jay David Ramos
Published by Marvel Comics
Another Secret Invasion cross-over focusing on the background of an undercover Skrull-this one so deep undercover that even the Skrulls themselves seem unaware of his existence, which does an excellent job of making one of Invasion's entire conceits (that the Skrulls have planned their invasion of Earth for years, and the plan is, to their mind, infallible) seem hopelessly flawed. Admittedly, the plan that they are running has to fail at some point (as Marvel Comics isn't all of a sudden going to publish stories in a world run by aliens,) but it seems unlikely that one of the strands of it's future failure would be revealed in the low-selling and lacking-in-popularity Avengers: The Initiative. Either way, it all comes to naught, as the issue ends by dumping all of the characters into the meat-grinder of the primary mini-series when it ends with them going to, wait for it, Manhattan. As just about everybody else has pointed out about this storyline, nothing in the Marvel universe happens unless it happens in Times Square. Oddly, this popular and high-selling comic has done an excellent job of making the old DC alien invasion comic, aptly titled Invasion!, that much more intelligent. At least in that one the aliens started by taking over the entire continent of Australia and seemed to have back-up ideas when everything didn't immediately go by the numbers.
Written by Kevin Grevioux
Art by Koi Turnbull, Sal Regla & Beth Sotelo
Published by Marvel Comics
This can also be labeled "the comic that broke the Factual's willingness to keep up with Secret Invasion spin-offs in hopes that, since no one here had ever actually attempted to do that with a Marvel series, there was a vague, infinitesimal possibility that the House of Ideas could do it better than DC, and even if they didn't, it would serve to provide comics that could make for funny, mean-spirited reviews, which would at least be entertaining to write." We're not sure what exactly is wrong with New Warriors--be it the inconsequential sense that the entire plot carries--there's a team, they've been betrayed by their leader, some ex-friends of the leaders dead brother think he's a Skrull, now we must do battle, and the betrayed team members show up to back up the leader, none of these characters are familiar in the least. The art certainly isn't terrible--it's nothing special, but that's to be expected for a book featuring no big-name characters. The dialog fares a bit worse--but again, it's not like this is a comic that's any worse then a lot of these Marvel Secret Invasion spin-offs, this just suffers from being populated by characters who are unrecognizable to this reader. It's just a tired super-hero comic that's completely medoicre in every aspect of it's existence. Why a writer or artist feels the need to play things so abnormally safe when they're working with material that demands no editorial interference is an interesting enough question to think about--Mr. Grevioux could, conceivably do whatever he'd like to with Night Thrasher and crew, it's not like that would affect Marvel movie deals or the sales of Spider-Man comics--but it doesn't necessitate reading a comic that inspires the question.
-Tucker Stone, 2008
-Tucker Stone, 2008
Every week, I come by here and want to thank you for reading all these crappy comics so I don't have to. But that would be a lie -- if you didn't read them, I still wouldn't, either (well, I pick up the Daredevils in trade). But spending ninety seconds reading why you hated "Secret Avengeance: The Colonoscopy" is much more entertaining than spending seven minutes reading it myself.
So for that, thank you. Now do me a real solid and tell me whether, after rereading and loving the eight volumes of Hellboy to date, do I really wanna start down the BPRD path? You're always reviewing the latest floppy, but what's the overall? Is Vol. 1 any good? And as Mignola gets less involved over time ... any good? Or should I just save this money for the deluxe limited-edition signed hardcover of "Batman Lets One Rip"?
Posted by: Guy Smiley | 2008.07.27 at 21:19
The B.P.R.D. really comes into it's own with Plague of Frogs, and, for my money, surpasses the Hellboy stuff proper when it hits Universal Machine. The first two books are pretty negligible, as is the recent one-shot stories. Arcudi's involvement in the scripting for BPRD is actually a major plus--he forces a structure into place that I think Mignola might have left out had he been on his own. Despite the recent uptick in publication, I think BPRD has yet to suffer from the increased output. (Who knows if that will last.)
And thanks for reading! Secret Aveangeance: The Colonoscopy--i'm stealing that.
Posted by: Tucker Stone | 2008.07.27 at 21:58
I think you hit the nail on the head with New Warriors - it sucks because it's so safe when there's no need to be. I mean, besides those of us who see the charm in loser characters like Night Thrasher - does anyone actually care what happens to them?
And yes, I agree, thank you for reading all these bullshit comics so I don't have to!
Posted by: Kenny | 2008.07.28 at 08:51
It's not even that Grevioux merely isn't trying to do anything interesting, it's that he's actively making New Warriors as generic as possible. He takes characters that were previously interesting/unique in the context of the universe and turns them into ultra bland superheroes. I was incredibly surprised to find out two of these characters were supposed to be Beak and Angel from New X-Men, apparently having undergone complete physical and mental transformations after M-Day.
Posted by: | 2008.07.28 at 10:58
Steal? It was a gift.
Well then, completist that I am (a childhood of "collecting" comics is the magic gateway to OCD), I'll start BPRD at the beginning, but look forward to the Arcudi stuff you're praising.
Posted by: Guy Smiley | 2008.07.29 at 12:17
The only point in making a New Warriors comic book in 2008 is to try and appeal to the fans who might still fondly remember the first 50 issues of the original series (anything after that = dire). This has nothing to do with the original series, besides the name, which even the characters themselves seem to admit is a frighteningly tenuous relationship.
It's confusing and badly done. Are we supposed to understand who Night Thrasher is supposed to be? They teased the reveal for a year and now it seems that it was just gibberish. All those characters who are supposed to be Marvel Universe B- and C-list mainstays - why are they so adamantly unrecognizable? Could it be that they don't have a consistent artist from one issue to the next? Could it be that the book has about fifteen characters, and no effort has been given to impart an individual voice or perspective to any of them?
Or more importantly, could it be that, facing the prospect of spinning a New Warriors series out of Civil War, the fact is that there were simply no interesting stories that could be told with this remit, and the concept needed to be mothballed? The success of Civil War did many things, but produce an instantaneous groundswell of support for an umpteenth New Warriors revamp is not one of them. Especially considering that whatever limited appeal the series ever had depended on its original cast, two of whom are dead, a couple of whom are busy knocking around the Initiative books, and one of whom has been soiled beyond recognition by that previously-mentioned crossover?
Sigh. I still like the original series. Oh well.
Posted by: Tim O'Neil | 2008.07.31 at 16:43