Comics Out May 14, 2008

Casanova 14. Already reviewed on this site. Twice. One of my favorite comic book issues of all time.

Serenity: Better Days 3. Fine. Whatever.



Batman 676. Not paying attention to comics news enough, I did not realize that Batman RIP was something that was going to go outside the main Morrison written Batman title into 14 other issues. I will NOT be sucked into crossover madness, so you guys are going to have to tell me what is going on in those other titles. A few things this issue. One: the new Batmobile. I see what Morrison was going for, and the idea does not seem awful or anything, but my eye cannot help but think it is the tricked out first car of the alienated comic book loving son of some rich Wall Street jerk: he took a sports car, and added bat symbols on the wheels. Lame. Also: A CD changer. Really? I know Morrison's point was to give Batman a line about a dumb criminal, but to imply the Batmobile has ANY outdated technology is just WRONG. I mean the thing is brand new. Oh, I have become that comic book guy. Moving on. The Joker scenes were pretty scary, but I felt the last page of the comic book could have been cut altogether would harming the whole at all. Finally: are we sure the title of this refers to Batman himself? Tim Callahan has a hunch the Black Glove will turn out to be Bruce Wayne's little mentioned older brother. Thematically, I want it to somehow be his FATHER back from the dead (since Batman has his own son now). In either case: is the title a red herring, in fact telling some long dead character to stay dead (which is what RIP means)?

In comic book news, Fraction is on Word Balloon, and probably some other stuff happened as well.

Comics Out April 9, 2008

Serenity: Better Days 2. The art is OK, but having to draw the faces to match the actors looks like it is often more trouble than it is worth -- Kaylee on page 2, for example. Check out Kaylee's face during the sex scene -- isolate her face on the page and tell me she does not look somewhere between ill and bored. There is a cute exchange about showering, but the thing is pretty lackluster, especially the ending bump, which would be sub-par even for a commercial break -- the end of an issue is not the same as the end of a television show, but the month long hiatus requires more than a random rifle butt to the head.

The Amazing Spiderman 556. This is hard to review without images. I will have to learn to work the scanner. In short, I love the art enough to ignore the story and dialogue. Zeb Wells needs to read some Morrison -- I would recommend JLA Classified 1 -- to learn how to write both techno-babble, and an intimidating weird speech from an other worldly god.

In Comics News the current team on Iron Fist leaves at issue 16. It seems disappointing, but these guys are not dead and will surely go on to do other amazing work. The book will forever live in my heart because of Dog Brother #1, and learning who David Aja is.

Also, you have to love this: a proper All Star crossover I can get into, even if it is just a cover.


I am sure I will never get my real dream team -- A Batman/Superman story with Morrison and Miller co-writing, and Miller on art, with covers by Quitely. Someone should lock these guys in a room knowing Miller and Morrison would not get along, and just see what they come up with. I bet it would be coo-coo bananas.

Comics Out March 12, 2008

Serenity: Better Days 1. Someone asked me a while back why I considered Fray one of Whedon's "indispensable" comics. This is not really an answer, but to me it is a smart little story worthy of the Whedon canon. It is not like all those "Tales of the Vampire" Buffy comics where not only are the stories not great, but they are also inconsequential side-bars in the cracks of the main story -- if you did not read them you would not miss what is going on, and they are more of a chance to cash in on the property than advance the story or add a new dimension to it. All of this is to say that Serenity: Better Days is a worthless comic book, totally devoid of any life, interest, dialogue, or plot worthy of recounting, and in this regard is a lot like the other Serenity comic book that was designed to bridge the TV series and the movie. For one thing it takes place before the film. Whedon's little invincible clique in Buffy Season Seven was really bad storytelling. Killing off major characters in Serenity was the right thing to do -- with two already dead you really care about who might live or die in the final stand, and it could be EVERYONE. Here he has reassembled the team, to no effect. Everything about it is boring, from the design of the robot hunter thing on up. A total waste of time. I actually put it down halfway through reading it and just started flipping channels. With Angel and Buffy moving on, he should have started the events of a Serenity comic book after the film, to even have a chance of making this work.

As much as I love about Whedon I am hard pressed to properly explain my vague animosity toward his insistence to continue ALL of his properties. I get the comics, and I do not hate them, but something about their existence gets on my nerves. I mean, I do not ask DC to let Batman go, but something here feels to me like the party should have ended two hours ago and these straggling guests have no manners. I mean, the party was fun and all but it is time to go home.

In comics news there is con stuff going on but I am not keeping up with it.