Comics Of The Weak: Playing Totally For Type

Lone Wolf and Cub: Dragon Tiger Cloud Wind
Art by Goseki Kojima
Written by Kazuo Koike
Published by First Comics

In this chapter of the greatest comic ever, the Wolf comes upon one of the men he left behind, a former samurai still living in the exact place where he last saw the Wolf: the day the Wolf seconded the samurai's former lord's seppuku. There's no hatred or ill feelings to be found on either side, and while the conclusion is totally foregone, it's delivered with a sense of respect for the ideals the story promotes. It isn't the first time that Koike plays a scene with that kind of emotion, but that doesn't make it any less lovely. The action is, of coruse, a demented pleasure to witness, with the most graphic violence handed off to the Wolf's shadow. The opening ten pages--silent but for a few cries of death--is a masterful depiction of slaughter that introduces the man far better than any dialog ever could.

Plastic Man Archives Volume 4
By Jack Cole
Published by DC Comics

While this volume has some of the best covers you'll see (if you're reading these things in order, which is totally pointless but probably the only way people are reading them, because they have numbers on them, see: assholes like me), there's a limit to how long you can stare at Woozy WInks believing an Eskimo woman is pawing at him when, in reality, he's being sexually harassed by a lusty polar bear, and that limit is probably the same amount of time it's taking you to parse this description. If you hold out until the last story--that's 180 pages of holding out, by the way--you'll be rewarded by the sight of Plastic Man turning into a gigantic whale for the purposes of seduction. Your mileage may vary, or whatever that asshole phrase is, but it's a sight that is totally worth your time. He turns into a horny red whale!

Amazing Spider-Man #677
Written by Mark Waid
Art by Emma Rios and Javier Rodriguez
Published by Marvel Comics

There's no better statement on the question of whether super-hero comics is in a weird, stupid place regarding their business state of affairs then the fourth page of this comic, which is an advertisement for a goddamned wax museum in Hollywood. Deal with that one for a second: an advertisement for something that's only interesting to the most antisocial deviant tourists on God's green Earth, a location that has no appeal other than the fact that, if it burned down to the ground, absolutely every warring group on the planet could come together and hold hands under the banner of not giving the remotest fuck. That's the absolute best thing that somebody at Marvel Comics--which is owned by a gigantic multinational entertainment conglomerate--could come up with to plaster into this comic. Spin some huckster positivity out of that, Sergeant Pepper. (The comic is excellent, if that still matters.)

Fatale #1
Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Sean Phillips and Dave Stewart
Published by Icon Image, hey maybe things are getting fun again

Containing some of Philips finest panels yet--first up that car flip, second the street scene--and adding another accomplished notch in the belt of the best colorist working, Fatale is a reward on a purely visual front. But the area where it might be even more interesting is on the writing front. Horror--if that's what you call the dreck currently ladled out by the shit merchants at IDW--is the prize pet of the low rent High Concept Kids, a loosely descriptive term I just came up with to define people who come up with 4 to 6 issue mini-series that are usually based around plot construction methods learned from Lego, i.e. taking Jack Bauer or Dexter clones and shuffling them together with bang up ideas like "zombies with ties" or "vampires with clits", plus a heaping dash of BBC references, cuz it's classy. Brubaker's the first real writer in a while to fuck with this stuff, unless you count Alan Moore's really weird rape sequel to Fish Police.

-Tucker Stone, 2012

Comments

[Chris Jones]

Is Lone Wolf and Club hella different from Samurai Executioner? I'm usually pretty forgiving of hilariously awful treatment of women in older comics but the first volume is literally a woman getting raped and drinking piss followed by a six year old getting raped and murdered on panel followed by a whore giving a prison warden a rapey blowjob and then killing herself because SE killed the guy she wanted him to kill and she has nothing to live for. It was ugly and strange in a way that, unlike many manga in a similar vein, I didn't find at all appealing.

On a side note, I'm really glad you got to read some good stuff this week.

[Richard Baez]

Did Cole bring any of that jolly bestiality to his art in Playboy? I've only seen the bits in the Spiegelman/Kidd book...

[david brothers]

If you think Samurai Executioner is bad, hop on board the Color of Rage train. I've heard that that one does its best to meet & exceed, like the lady who gets stripped naked and forced to choke on dirt (?!) because she got a little hot under the collar when she saw the black guy in the comic. Pow! Feudal justice.

[DerikB]

Based on your description, yes, Lone Wolf and Cub is considerably different. It may not be the most forward thinking of narratives as far as women go, but it is not over-the-top exploitative. It's been awhile since I read the whole series, but in general I thought the depictions were more historical in nature.

[Lauramusich]

Totally with you on the state of advertising in Marvel (and DC/Vertigo) titles. It makes me irrationally angry.

On a positive note, how awesome is Fatale?! In both concept and execution. Liked the bonus essay on Lovecraft by Jess Nevins as well. This is exactly the way to produce a comic that I will buy in single issues and actually feel good about paying full price to own the physical artifact.

[Lugh]

I was hoping that your site would be blacked out in protest of SOPA and PIPA. Do you think Marvel and DC are going to continue letting you say mean things about their products if those laws pass? You'll go poof.

[Ales Kot]

Vampires with clits!

[tucker stone]

Lone Wolf does some pretty dark shit to female characters, but that's because EVERYBODY gets it in Lone Wolf. It's too good a book to skip out on. Push through, Jones. I believe in you.

Lugh, I'm about as scared of DC and Marvel as I am of a balloon. They've got the weight of Disney and Time Warner behind them, and they still can't figure out how to make 22 pages of decent Superman comics. What can they threaten a breathing man with?

[Lugh]

What any childish endeavor with political power can threaten men with: Censorship. I'm honestly curious what the unfettered ability to censor would do for internet entertainment criticism. Do media conglomerates really care that people like you are speaking their minds about their products? If SOPA and PIPA passed completely unaltered, would they go after you claiming that, say your use of images are copyright violations? And despite fair use, since the onus is on the site in question, would you get disappeared? Would they make threats first? Or would entertainment groups continue their current course of just ignoring the hell out of criticism except when it's convenient?

[WIKIPEDIA FUN TIMES]

I'm glad your new thing is "asshole"