(Heavily Edited) New Comics Post for 4/20/05:
Please forgive the multiple post: I’m new here and couldn’t quite figure out how (or even if we can) edit previous posts here…**
Letdowns: Mild & Major
After the powerful drama of issue #58 and the casual horror of #59, a reader can excused for feeling mildly let down as Azzarello arranges his pieces on the chess board, setting up for his next arc in 100 Bullets #60. (Happily this is still the best read of the week.) There’s bound to be a bit of foreboding, as well as pleasant anticipation for long time readers, as we’re all well aware of what happened the last time this many members of the Trust and Minutemen alike, gathered in a resort town.
Two questions come to mind: “what the heck does Megan Deitrich want with Mr. Branch?”, and “will she get out alive once all is said and done?”. Funny to think of Dietrich as one of the the most vulnerable people in the cast, but then, the DeMedici’s know she’s here on business. So far, we’ve seen no sign she knows they’re in town as well.
Otherwise, it’s a bit too early to begin speculating about where this arc is going, I think.
Live Wires #3 is pretty light fare: almost too light. Three of the (ro)'bots go clubbing, the better to discreetly sabotage next year’s Sentinel program (Whose sponsoring them? The Xavier Institute?) Fun as bits and pieces were, the ‘bots’ success never seemed in doubt. I found myself hoping that something would go badly wrong. It was my way of praying for a smidgen of suspense, but none was to be had this time around, and as a result, this chapter felt utterly unnecessary: the characters have been introduced: let’s get on with it!
Likewise, the last issue (#6) of The Question miniseries wasn’t quite as much fun as previous issues. By now, we’ve all gotten more than used to the split-page device of watching the Question “walk between worlds” though Veitch manages to squeeze some comedy from the way Vic Sage deftly dispatches an extremely well armed crew of Subterreaneans by “clouding men’s minds” like the Shadow (and sabotages the Science Spire Luthor labors to complete in Lex Luthor: Man of Steel #2). It’s all so lyrical that you barely notice how lethal the whole thing is, until the ‘other’ Man of Steel expresses his irritation at our street shaman’s casual brutality. The beauty of the art serves to rob the story of some of it’s potential excitement at points.
Something similar occurs in Teen Titans #23 the conclusion of Dr. Light’s attempt to disgrace and defame the JLA in the eyes of their younger proteges. While Mike McKone generally does a good job of conveying Geoff John’s characterization of the Titans, his panel compositions tended to dampen the dramatic potential of the highpoints Johns wrote into script. (This was also a problem back in the final installment of the new Titans earlier battle with Brother Blood.) Compare the way McKone laid out the nearly issue long battle scenes between the Titans and Brother Blood, and here with Dr. Light, with the way Millar & Hitch laid out the Ultimates’ recent battle with Thor. There strong diagnols and a greater variety of focal lengths, and panel shapes and sizes, accentuated high points in the fight. In McKones’ far less provocative layouts, those mini-climaxes in the action just got lost.
Taken individually, I didn’t think that any of the individual Titans’ reactions to the new Speedy’s confession was all that saccharine, it’s just that we didn’t need to see so many of the other Titans’ discuss their personal problems. Two would have been fine (along with the silent acknowledgement of the secrets still kept between Robin and Superboy). And I still think Light should have been plainer last issue: he was too cryptic for the responses we saw among the Titans here. I expected them to be more confused than threatened by his revelations.
After such a strong start in DC Countdown, the first issue of the **OMAC Project **was a big disappointment: this miniseries is off to a very rocky start. While Rucka does a good job of using Sasha Bordeaux to establish the malignancy of Maxwell Lord’s Checkmate [which now resembles a cross between the Titans’ Hive and the X-men’s Hellfire Club]; and there was a nice scene furthering the differences between Wonder Woman and the rest of the dear departed Beetle’s detractors; neither sequence balances the story’s biggest problem: Rucka’s characterization of Batman, one that flies in the face of almost every other portrayal I’ve seen before.
Here, we are expected to buy the idea that Batman has allowed himself to become somehow, emotionally dependent on the heretofore unseen Brother Eye system. [It would have made more sense if, instead, Oracle had gone bad, perhaps as a result of the Brainiac infection she suffered(?) in Birds of Prey. If Rucka is trying to quote Alan Moore here (the Leader’s dependence on the Fate Computer system in V for Vendetta, he’s quoting the wrong thing.] These scenes struck me as so weird, so unlikely, that even with the expressions of doubt and fallibility Bats has made in recent issues of Winnick’s Batman and The Outsiders, my annoyance prevented me from appreciating the threat Brother Eye represents to the heroes of the DCU (which should motivate the action to come). I’m amazed that the Batman that I’ve watched evolve (as least since Frank Miller’s work in the mid-80’s) doesn’t have a failsafe system built into Brother Eye’s satellite hardware, and doesn’t simply press a system self destruct button (esp. after his contingency plans have gone so far wrong before, in Waid and Porter’s JLA and this summers terribly uneven Batman: War Games crossover). This does not bode well for the rest of this miniseries. For the first time, I tempted to skip the whole thing: and I’m one of the readers who has been celebrating the potential of DC’s renewed emphasis on continuity.
Infiltration Flights & Winged Furies
This week’s Bird-Books are packed with incident, twists and turns, and lots of suspense. Both were satisfying reads though I felt the waves of action in P&G’s Hawkman felt a bit like a freeway “pile on” this month, compared to the more measured pace of Simone’s Birds of Prey. It’s hard NOT to make such comparisons this month, as Joe Bennett penciled both titles this month.
Like 100 Bullets #60, Birds of Prey #81 is a decent set up for the story to follow, involving what I suspect are two very different kinds of infiltration operations. The Canary and Wildcat attempt to effect a sting operation against a Singapore drug-lord and get forced into the usual dilemma one sees when suspected undercover “moles” have to prove themselves to potential ‘business partners’. Lots of interesting local color here, including some juicy martial arts mythology for those of us who’ve watched far too many kung fu movies, and some warm character bits about the Canary’s relationships with her elders in the JSA. Simone’s Canary is really becoming the “good daughter” of the DCU, a rarity among the Gotham “Bad Girl” set. Much, much more surprising is how the Huntress has kept herself busy since leaving Oracle’s employ. However it looks, I can’t shake the conviction that this too is an sting operation: it’s just more elaborate. It’s also a return to form. The Huntress having merely returned to her original calling: wiping out the ‘way of life’ that destroyed her immediate family years ago. She’s just going about it in a much more ambitious, and dangerous, manner than Oracle, Canary and the Wildcat. It appears Helena’s life among the Birds has raised her sights, and taught her the virtues of team work (hence Savant and Creote): good for her!
Kendra Saunders, back in full bore anger mode, embarks on an whirlwind rampage across St. Roch in Hawkman #39, terrorizing informants all over town, trying to find leads on the missing Carter Hall looking for leads. Along the way we’re introduced to another dangerous woman: the Hummingbird, a kind of cheerful cheerleader from hell, with all the warmth and compassion of Sleeper’s Ms. Misery. Meanwhile a drugged out Carter Hall converses with a hawk-headed god at the gates of what looks like an Egyptian Asgard, an encounter that connects directly to a shocking (if not particularly surprising) ending (deliberately telegraphed just before Carter’s little mind-trip). This also ties in nicely with a dangling plot thread left over from an issue of JSA I’ve been wondering about. (JSA readers might recall a wierd conversation between Kendra and the Angel from the JLA some time back.) Carter’s, “love is coming” all right, and Kendra’s apparent demise this issuejust eases the way - or at least that’s my prediction for now…
Thanks for reading: thoughts folks?
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