Comic Books: April 2006 Archives

After reading Wolverine: Origins #1, I was pretty down on Marvel's most popular mutant. I didn't know what to expect from Wolverine #41, other than it was a 1-issue tale by Stuart Moore that gives some breathing room to the new creative team. But this is a winner, and I think if there's any awards given for Best Single Issue Story, it would surely be nominated. The plot is very simple: in an African nation overrun by crime-lords, Logan is dispatched by the Black Panther to rescue the baby girl of the President. Wolverine straps the baby into a chest harness and runs for the border on foot, but it's many miles away. He's hunted by General Lago's army, who want to eliminate the possibility of the girl growing up to be a future leader. You have to accept one story element on faith--that someone like Iron Man or the Sentry didn't rescue the girl instantly by flying in and flying out. It's even questionable why the Black Panther didn't use one of his fantastic flying machines to quickly pickup Logan after he gets the girl. The excuse is that T'Challa's not going to start an international incident, and neither are the Avengers.

It's easy for me to accept it, because I like seeing Logan rise to the challenge of fighting and carrying the baby. It's a riff that Moore admits he cribbed from Lone Wolf and Cub. Logan can't go into berserker mode without damaging the kid. He tries to talk his way out of various situations, but it doesn't always work. The artwork in this story by C.P. Smith is just astounding. The heavy use of black ink and shadows reminds me very much of Frank Miller's take on Wolverine. There's a scene involving arrows that's very reminiscent of the Miller\Claremont mini. It looks like Smith did the pencils, inks, and colors--and the color really meshes beautifully with the story. I've never heard of C.P. Smith until this story, but I'm going to watch out for him now.

Congratulations to Stuart Moore and C.P. Smith. These guys are now major leaguers in my book. You guys have to get this, even if you are burned out or jaded on Wolverine. My only regret is that Stuart Moore won't be the regular Wolverine writer. Nuff said.

External Link:
CBR article on Stuart Moore's idea for this story.

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Oh, the cover to Fantastic Four 537 really suckered me in good. Remember when Doc Doom stole the Silver Surfer's powers? Just imagine what he would do with Thor's power! Nah, not gonna happen. Only whoever is worthy can wield the power of Thor, and it ain't some two-bit rustpot from Latveria. I've vented my frustration by adding a little colorful warning to the cover...

Despite that non-event, the story was still weak. Wasn't it just too convenient how Doom got out of Hell? Good timing with the fall of Asgard and hitching a ride on Thor's hammer. McKone's artwork is great, and the story did allow him to do some neat full page spreads. Ben Grimm slugging it out with Doom was my favorite and would be a great buy for an original art collector.

Dr. Don Blake is getting on that bus to get the hammer, or is this another tease? Nuff said.

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Despite Wolverine's massive over-exposure, I was tantalized by the hype for the new Wolverine: Origins series. Wolverine exploring his past, drawn by superstar artist Steve Dillon? How could that go wrong? A writer working on that series could explore all kinds of subjects. Logan in World War 2. Logan as a cold war op. Logan in post-war Japan. Logan before and after the Weapon-X storyline by Barry Smith. All kinds of shit. Wolverine: Origins #1 is nothing like that.

Call me crazy, but the first issue of a new series needs to set the tone for the later issues. Marvel doesn't really follow my way of thinking-they launched Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man in the middle of The Other crossover. If you haven't been reading House of M, New Avengers, and Wolverine's main series, you will be completely lost picking up this first issue. There's no recap covering Wolverine's known origin to date, which I find puzzling as hell, given the series title. Marvel just assumes all the fanboys out there already know it, but what about the kid who picks this up because they dig Wolverine from the X-Men movie? I think they should have stated the major moments of Logan's past (World War 2, Weapon X, Alpha Flight, maybe some moments from Origin) and then explained what he's seeking now. I'm even a bit baffled and I've read all this crap.

Daniel Way's lost me on many titles. I didn't think the Squadron Supreme Nighthawk mini was all the great, and Punisher vs Bullseye seems like a Road Runner cartoon with bullets. I listened to an interview with Way on a Word Balloon podcast and he's got tons of ideas for Wolverine, but I think his execution is a bit off. One thing I did like was hooking up Logan's missing past with Bucky's. However, this whole thing about Wolverine using the Muramasa samurai blade to enact vengeance just makes me think that Way misses the whole point about Wolverine. Logan is supercool because he takes on much bigger enemies with just his claws; he takes an incredible amount of damage in the process, but survives due to his healing factor. A prime example is Uncanny X-Men 173 when Wolverine fought Silver Samurai. Logan got sliced and stabbed but he took apart Samurai's armor like it was made out of tin foil. Wolverine needs a sword? It just seems dumb to me. What the fuck do I know, this debut issue has probably sold enough copies for both Way and Dillon to buy new houses. Nuff said.

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Brubaker and Lark continue to amaze in Daredevil 84. When an A-list creator leaves a long running series, usually the team that follows will disappoint in one way or another. I remember when Frank Miller left Daredevil after his first run and Denny O'Neil took over the writing. While O'Neil was a solid scripter, he just couldn't match the same level of excitement that Miller brought to the series. Brubaker's defied the odds by taking Matt's situation of being in jail and made his situation as bad as it could possibly be. Not only is Foggy dead, Matt's secret identity is blown up for certain, with him beating down thugs left and right. We see in this issue that Matt can escape from prison anytime he wishes to do it-he's staying because the bad guys have a world of hurt coming to them. Think that isn't bad enough? Throw in Bullseye, the Kingpin, and the Punisher into the penitentiary, and you've got the makings of a humongous battle royale coming up. I'm so hyped about Daredevil that I'll even forgive Brubaker for stealing from Silence of the Lambs in the opening scene.

Kingpin's arrival is very interesting. He helped the feds put Matt in jail…is it possible he has a plan to get them both out?

I'm also wondering if Daredevil will play a role in the Civil War event. Matt Murdock seems like a prime example of why you wouldn't want your secret identity exposed or registered. Nuff said.

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Today is the one year anniversary of Photon Torpedoes. We're having fun writing bitchy and misanthropic posts on almost daily basis. I wasn't sure if we could continue this past a year, but it still seems like fun. Keep watching during the next week because I'm cooking up a little Gil Kane Gallery, which I hoped to have ready today, but this also happens to be my last day of work at my current company.

I'm really starting to dig Alex Ross and Jim Krueger's Justice series. Ross has thrown everything into this that he loves about the DC Universe. The Legion of Doom's master plan is starting to be revealed and it's quite a doozy. They seem to know the secret identities of the superheroes and they are trying to overpower them one by one. I'm worried about Aquaman, who looks like he's been dissected by Braniac in a laboratory. Superman was almost destroyed by the perfect trio of Parasite, Bizarro Superman, and Metallo. I love Ross' version of Bizarro Superman, he looks like Frankenstein with super-powers. When this project was started, I had doubts about Doug Braithwaite providing the pencils\breakdowns for Ross' painting, but they mesh perfectly together. As you can see above in that full page view of Superman getting saved by the Big Red Cheese.

I have to confess that I love it whenever Wonder Woman fights Cheetah. I loved it during the Golden Age stories by Moulton, during the Perez revamp, and Ross' version of this conflict is titillating as hell. There's something here I can't figure out: how can Cheetah hold Wonder Woman down by squatting on her back? WW is almost as powerful as Superman. Diana has been poisoned by Heracles' Lament, a centaur's poison, so she's possibly in a weakened state.

I think my biggest fanboy moment must have been the time that Alex Ross appeared on World Talk Radio's Comic Zone. I told him: "I love your work and I buy everything you do!" Sheesh, but it's the truth. I have the Marvels poster framed on my wall, and several additional Ross posters are in my closet because I have no where to hang them. Nuff said.

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If there was anything good about Infinite Crisis, it was that Dick Grayson finally got some respect in the DC Universe. He was Batman's best sidekick and he's constantly proven himself to be a great team leader during his stints with the Titans and the Outsiders. (Dick's also a stud, after having bedded Starfire, Huntress, and Barbara Gordon.) Batman chose Nightwing to lead the assault on Alexander Luthor's multiuniverse prick of doom and he's standing there alongside the big DC troika. Yeah, Nightwing's arrived, he's a superstar! So what happens One Year Later? DC rewards Dick Grayson by giving him Bruce Jones as a writer. Jones promptly moves Nightwing to New York City and makes Dick a Himbo. We first see Dick giving a redhead multiple orgasms, which is a way to build your main character's respect if this is a Playboy short story, but not for a superhero. The redhead is no ordinary bimbo, she's a paranormal who flash-fries any man who gets too rough. Later she gets Dick to actually become a male model and dresses him in a Tarzan costume. Is it just me, or did Jones once again throw out the baby with the bath water? Maybe DC's editors forced him to abandon Bludhaven in order to squeeze out "The Battle for Bludhaven", which rates right up there with The OMAC Project special. I couldn't understand a single thing going on in the Bludhaven mini. Except that I always liked the idea of Dick getting his own corrupt city to run around in and try to reform. That damned Chemo! Let's not mention Jason Todd running around as the faux Nightwing, killing criminals and living the good life, except that it proves Dick must be on drugs. Dick Grayson could take out Jason Todd in a few minutes, because he doesn't carry the baggage of guilt that Bruce Wayne has concerning his former protege. The artwork by Joe Dodd just seems horribly amatuerish to me. Can you tell that I really hate Nightwing OYL? I'm rubbing my little statue of Roy Rogers and Trigger daily, just hopin' that Chuck Dixon comes back.

Dick's not doing any better in the Outsiders, where he's leading the team in a bid to bring down an African nation. I don't know about you, but corrupt African governments don't seem all that exciting in a superhero comic. I do like them when they appear in an episode of ALIAS for about ten minutes and Sydney blows up a building and flies back to LA for a quickie with Vaughn. I kinda think that maybe Judd Winick got all caught up in the Bono-thing and decided to create this Outsiders arc. Don't make no sense otherwise. I do wanna know who that speedster was on the last page. Poor Dick. Nuff said.

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The latest All the Rage has pointed us at Ed Benes' blog, which has plenty of his artwork on display. You can see that Benes hasn't fallen out of love with the Birds of Prey--in addition to this Black Canary sketch, he has some nice Huntress pics. Check out this deadly one here and a nice backside view here. The text on the site is in Spanish, but I found some pics not on the main page through the Archives section. You can also find an extra-large version of Benes' cover to Justice League of America #1, both the colored and the pen and ink version.

There are some Marvel characters as well as Red Sonja. I particularly liked this pic of Conan and Red Sonja. Looks like ol' Conan finally defeated her in battle and is gettin' ready for some action. I like Benes, he speaks the internation language. Nuff said.

External Link:
Ed Benes Blog

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Just to prove that I'm not always opposed to change: I think Aquaman is the most improved comic book at DC. I've never really bought into this character until now. The One Year Later thing is perfect for this gut-wrenching twist, where we have a younger version of Arthur Curry. It's a mystery as to who he really is, and why he resembles Aquaman so much. Kurt Busiek's idea to envision Aquaman as a Conan-type of character, but underwater, works perfectly. There's plenty of underwater barbarians, sorcery, and mythology waiting to be tapped ever since Peter David wrote the Atlantean Chronicles. Butch Guice's artwork is just superb and it's perfect for this new direction. I swear he is channelling Joe Kubert in some of the panels. There's no inker listed in the credits, so is Guice inking himself, or is this being reproduced from his pencils? Either way, the artwork looks great.

I read on some message boards that people think the Dweller in the Dark is really the old Aquaman. He refuses to see Mera in this issue, which would lend some weight to that theory. Nuff said.

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Infinite Crisis 6 is such a convoluted mess it would take me several hours to dissect it. Luckily, I have a feeling that Dial B For Blog will be making an annotated asshole-ripping soon. The biggest problem with Infinite Crisis is that it's just not a complete story. It's a sampler to make you buy lots of other DCU titles. Unlike other events, like Identity Crisis, it just wasn't fully thought out and planned as a story--it was planned as a way to retool the shared universe. The jam-style artwork really irritates me. Here are the highlights of what I didn't like:

- Jaime's Blue Beetle suit magically kicking in to find Brother Eye.
- Batman's pointless excuse for bringing Green Arrow along on the trip to outer space.
- Alexander's giant hands smashing the Earths together.
- Not fully explaining what happened to Superboy and the Flashes--you'll have to buy something else.
- The predicatable lead-in to Superboy's death.
- All multiple Earth's collapsed into one Earth...again! How many times has this happened?

The following events were OK, but not enough to justify this mega-event:

- Superman I and Superman II burying the hatchet. Will older Superman stick around? There was a statue in Action Comics.
- Batman's concern over Nightwing's survival.
- The Perez double-page spread of the alternate earths: Tangent, Bizarro, DC Western, Superman-Generations.
- Black Adam giving Psycho Pirate a lobotomy.

This week's IC spin-off title, The OMAC Project, is just a waste of time unless you're dying to get a preview of the new CheckMate series. Fire becomes a lethal hot babe. Sasha gets some of her metal removed. Brother Eye's database with all the secret identities is destroyed. It's just written and drawn so poorly. Save your money on this one, kids. Nuff said.

External Link:
Dial B For Blog Dissects Infinite Crisis #6

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There was a time when funny books were really funny. We can't let April Fools Day go by without saluting some of our favorite fools in comics...

Not Brand Echh was a comic published by Marvel in 1967. It featured a lot of great parodies of Marvel's characters in every issue. Forbush-Man was the mascot, a little nebbish who wore a pot for a helmet, and raggedy longjohns for a costume. Even though Forbush Man was a cover mascot, he got his own origin story later in issue #5. The first issue has a Fantastic Four parody by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby; a Two-Gun Kid and Rawhide Kid parody by Roy Thomas and Marie Severin; a Golden-Age Human Torch vs. Sub-Mariner re-dubbed parody; a Nick Fury-Howling Commandos parody by Gary Friedrich and John Severin.

The Fantastic Four story is titled "The Silver Burper". It makes fun of the classic FF story where the Silver Surfer mistrusts Doctor Doom and allows him to steal the Power Cosmic. You would have to think the Surfer was pretty stupid to let that happen!

DC's most famous cut-up was Ambush Bug (who is due to make a return in 52), created by Keith Giffen and Paul Levitz. Ambush Bug appeared in a DC Comics Presents story featuring the Doom Patrol and Superman. Initially a villain who wore a bug costume and transported around with little bug-like gadgets, Ambush Bug graduated to his own mini-series. At the end of each issue, Ambush Bug confronted Darkseid.

This is my favorite--meeting Darkseid at McDonalds. Make that a Super-Sized order and cook my burger with that Omega Force, please!

I kept wondering how Ambush Bug would get out of this Darkseid mess. Turns out it was just an inflatable dummy. I know people in San Francisco who would pay big money for that dummy.

Last but not least, another favorite fool was Major Bummer. I loved this series by John Arcudi and Doug Mahnke, which answered the question, what if a slacker received superhuman powers? Lou is a skinny young adult who spends most of his time on a sofa playing Nintendo and eating junk food. One night he opens a mysterious package that adorns him with beefcake muscles. He gets involved with zany aliens and a group of superteam wanna-bes that features members like the Gecko. On this cover to number 4, you see the costume of Fly-Girl (guess what her power is), which is kind of ingenious: it's the inverse of most super-babe outfits, which have the slit at the top. This one seems even more impratical as her breasts would have to fall out just due to gravity!

Major Bummer would make a great movie or TV show. It's too bad that DC will probably never reprint it, but you can always download it...oops! Who's the fool now? Nuff said.