Art problems do not help this messy issue: at the bottom of pages two and three close-ups of Power Girl and Sensor Girl look too much alike to tell apart. I first thought Power Girl was Sensor Girl with her mask off since they are both blonds wearing red and white with gold cape-holder medallions; this was not helped by the fact that Power Girl on page three has much shorter hair than Power Girl on page two. Also Karate Kid's costume fixes itself magically on the same page at the end of the issue. And is it supposed to be obscure who Karate Kid is talking to when he says "I ducked?" What is going on in the final panel? Weren't there some villains getting a woman at a hospital a few issues back -- who were they and what where they about? This thing lost me.
Still, this had a lot of superhero crazy. I did not hate it, but I am glad Metzler's run is ending soon. I would stop getting it if it had no end in sight.
HUGE news week: Frank Miller is adapting Raymond Chandler for film, Martha Washington will be back for a one shot, Skrulls are everywhere (Marvel is building its next event), we get hints of the next X-Men event (I will get all the Bachalo parts), Mark Waid is coming back to the Flash in an issue that has the WORST cover I have seen in a while, the suit for the Batman film is revealed, and here is some smart stuff: Terry Moore, of Strangers in Paradise, is taking over Spiderman Loves Mary Jane. I wish he was drawing as well as writing. AND Travis Charest, my favorite artist next to Quitely and Bachalo, is coming back after a 7 years absence.
Review, recommend and discuss this week's comics and comics news.
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16 comments:
What is Charest drawing?
I'm more than a little ambivalent about the "return" in JLA. The way they handle that character (and others who have the same name) just seems cruel.
And I'm with you about the Meltzer departure. I liked this current issue, and Meltzer definitely had his moments (i.e. the Red Tornado fight with Soloman Grundy)--but they were only moments. I was too distracted by his writing style to follow his narrative. I found this particularly annoying in the JLA/JSA crossover because Geoff Johns doesn't write in that style, and the contrast reminded me what I was missing with Meltzer's writing.
I feel it would have been far more gutsy to bring back the person Batman thought would be returning, but whatever.
I'm ready for Meltzer to leave as well, but I'm not really jazzed for McDuffie, either. I feel this is bringing on a huge shift in my buying habits towards waiting for trade paperbacks.
Also, Geoff: don't you feel that getting only certain parts of a x-over puts you at a disadvantage for following the storyline? I'm usually all in or all out.
Yotsuba&! Volume 4, specifically. Only the sweetest, all-ages manga possible. Mind you, I haven't read everything out there, but I'm pretty confident on this. It's about a guileless enthusiastic little girl who...well, doesn't matter really. She encounters perfectly banal things in cute and interesting childlike fashion. It's pretty much perfect.
I'm lukewarm about the new suit and Bat-tractor, and I thought the Frank Miller/ Chandler news was stupid until i saw Clive Owen's in it. Is Frank Miller really qualified to direct movies all by himself? My guess is no, but these movies might highlight the differences between comics and moves in interesting ways.
Geoff- Did you ever review batman begins? I remember you mentioning it was uncreative.
Roger -- just a captain america cover for now.
Marc: it does put me at a disadvantage, but I do not care. I am tired of being suckered into buying comics I do not like.
Scott: I did not review Batman Begins. Maybe I should, but then I would have to see it again, and that does not seem like it is going to happen.
Geoff: Yeah, I'm not too anxious that revisit Batman Begins, either. So what'd you think of Miller and Mazzucchelli's Batman: Year One? When you last wrote about Batman Begins, I got the impression that you liked Year One more, but I wasn't sure how much more.
It's certainly the most restrained of Miller's Batman work. All the same, I quite like it. Easily one of the best depictions of Jim Gordon ever. On the other hand, I do tend to prefer Miller's over-the-top, balls-to-the-wall Batman stuff nowadays.
yeah, troy that's a good point. How does Year One fit into grotesque/absurd miller batman? geoff, do you cover this in your essay? Is there continuity between the overconfident prick and the humbled, very restrained beginner?
I liked Batman Begins a lot, not as a reinvention of batman, but as another Christopher Nolan film about obsession. On these terms i'm excited to see how the joker plays out. k-punk's older review of batman begins is great.
I loved Batman Begins, but I'm a little hesitant about the next one for some reason. Also, I would prefer that Miller was doing a comic version of Chandler. AND The Spirit for that matter.
Also, I'm reading the original Secret Wars for the first time and there is a great (read: ridiculous) line that I had to share.
So the panel is of Wasp just after her hover ship crashes on the far off planet Battleworld. There is a tiny impact effect on one of her fingers, a smaller version of what would be used in a "punch effect". As she sits up in the wrecked interior of the craft she says:
"Oh, NO! I broke a nail! I don't even have an emery board and I'm thirty-seven trillion miles from my manicurist AND it's her day off anyway!"
Brilliant.
"
oh, hey, fyi k-punk actually did an extended essay of his Batman Begins review for the comics journal ImageText. Here's the URL:
http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v2_2/fisher/
I find that I agree with his reading of Miller but not Alan Moore. Take a look and tell me what you think.
troy, scott: i talk about this in the superhero book and an upcoming essay that will be published by Benbella on Miller Batman -- Year One fits into the crazy Miller Batman because it subtly breaks with DKR in the way DKSA breaks with DKR and All Star breaks with Year One -- it is a definitive portrayal that is out of continuity with DKR, published only months before. Miller embraces a contradictory Batman.
mitch: hilarious
roger -- i will check that out later
I loved Batman Begins, but am hesitant about The Dark Knight because of the reports this week that the arm-blades on the costume - brilliantly appropriated from his ninja training garb in Begins - will now be "retractable", and he will be able to "fire" them. Ugh.
I liked Batman Begins - but was kept from loving it by a few things.
1) The Batman Movie Curse - which demands that Batman reveal his identity to his girfriend in every movie.
2) The Goyer Curse - which causes almost everything David Goyer writes to delve into wonkiness (sic) by the end. Microwave weapons on elevated trains? It just didn't feel like a Batman movie anymore by the ending. It felt more like an epsiode of Mission Impossible.
So do people here like Terry Moore? I only read a couple of "Strangers in Paradise" strips, and they weren't full-length comics; they were little five-or-six-pagers in an anthology.
Certainly the art was very accomplished, but the writing just felt like bad sitcom writing. (One of the stories I read contained the line "That's not a sundae, that's a commitment!" Honestly, I'd gouge my own skull with a pick-axe if I thought it could remove the indelible brain-stain created by that bit of dialogue.)
Dunno whether I'll be sticking with "Mary Jane" now.
Wow, I feel like all my comments here lately have been negative. Let me show that I'm not always so pissy by offering a positive comment:
Travis Charest kicks ass.
Jason -
At least you can spell!
All -
I know this came out a few weeks ago - but Midnighter #8 by Cristos Gage was a fun self contained issue. Hawksmoor tells Midnighter that he has lost touch with normal people and challenges him to help a little girl find her cat. It's fun, lite reading. Pick it up.
I wrote some thoughts on why I disliked the Lightning Saga somuch at my blog, if anyone cares to check it out.
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