Erin: Captain Fugmerica

[We have a new guest-blogger, Erin, writing for us today. I am a huge fan of the fashion-attack blog Go Fug Yourself (link on the right) -- a blog where they evaluate celebrity's clothes in viciously mean and funny ways. So I asked Erin, a fashion-conscious friend of mine, to write about Captain America's new uniform -- which was previewed on Newsarama last week -- in the style of the Go Fug Yourself girls. I wanted to try something new. I know some of you got annoyed with my discussion of the outfits in New X-Men, but I say an essential part of the superhero genre is crazy outfits, so here we go. Feedback is important here as it will determine if something like this ever appears again.]





Ok, ok, ok, ok, OK! Are you bageled up people? Ready? (claps hands) New Costume. New. Costume. Now this is Captain America we're talking about here. He is an awesome, powerful dude. Seriously. Like America's powerful. Totally a scary dude. And now, like, scarier than he was before. Steve Rogers is dead and some new guy is taking his place. This new guy is scary, and MAD, so mad he added a leotard, so you know this is NO FUCKING JOKE.

So, what are his powers, and how do we show them? Well, he's really really strong. Indestructibly strong. How do we show strength? Muscles! Big ass muscles! And lots of them. Get out the anatomy books -- all that oblique stomach shit you only ever seen in real life at pilates, that's what we're talking about. So he doesn't look top heavy add some huge thighs. And so he doesn't look absurd with thighs that big, add some boots with folded tops. (pause) Ok, I have just been informed that Captain America has always had huge muscles and Peter Pan boots. Apparently he also has a red white and blue shield that he hurls and hits people with and hides behind, all of which sounds . . .defensive.

You know what? I think old Captain America needs to go on the offensive. Here's an idea. What does America have that makes it special, and strong? Not Hayden Panettierre. Guns! We have guns. And you know what else we have? New York City police officers, who are super tough and strong, but also heroes, because of what they did before on 9-11, or all the time, whatever, which makes them heroes. Like Hayden Panettierre. So I think what Captain America really needs now is to stop always falling back on the super strong and indestructible super-power thing, and solve a couple of these super problems with super bullets. Faster than punching, and sexier too. He can keep his piece in a hip holster on a black leather belt, just like NYC cops wear. It will look cool and business-like and also maybe a little plumber-like, which is an issue, but seriously he can store the gun there and maybe a huge guerrilla knife, and some ah, gum, and like pepper spray or plastic cuffs or whatever else Captain America needs to GET AT THE TRUTH and save the day. Wire taps, maybe, maybe presigned warrants. Whatever -- that's not our job, that's for the writer dweebs. So a belt with stuff and some awesome boots and a big A for Awesome right on the old dome, couple little bat ears and I think we're done here.

He still kind of looks like a plumber in a leotard.

Ok, well, let's make the suit shiny. Plumbers never wear anything shiny. That should do it.

Comics Out September 12, 2007

Matt Fraction and Fabio Moon's Casanova #9. There is no one left who does not know I am obsessed with this book. I am rapidly running out of superlatives.

A great new character, Kubark Benday is introduced, a character Fabio refers to as "Dragonball Wolverine" in the back-matter. Sasa Lisi gets some development -- her "I came from tomorrow to save you from boring" could be the tag line for all of Casanova. I am just falling in love with Fabio Moon -- his image of Sasa Lisi is crazy fun. And all those little details. I am not going to list them all but the last panel encapsulates the tone that makes this book my favorite.

A side note: Kubark Benday talks about the awesomeness of "Sifers Valomilk, the Original 'Flowing Center' Candy Cup." At the back of the book Fraction tells you where you can order these online, but if you don't want to wait, and you live in New York City (as a lot of readers here do) just go to 108 Rivington Street (zip 10002) -- the awesome purveyors of old school candy, Economy Candy, has a bunch, plus stuff like Candy Cigarettes (can you believe those were ever legal?).

Matt Fraction and Leandro Fernandez's Punisher War Journal #11. This issue was my favorite so far. I do not think it was the lack of Ariel Olivetti's art -- I wonder what this issue would have been like if he had drawn it. This is a character study, but rather than being a high concept gimmick, it reads like a real story, because it is: it is the epilogue to the Captain America costume story, it introduces a change in the G.W. Bridge story, and it introduces a new villain in a plot that is very creepy. Fraction knows how to find the tension in each of the three stories. Fraction even gives Iron Man a line about enjoying change that makes you see how he sees Civil War, in just a few words. A solid piece of craftsmanship.

Mike Mignola, Richard Corben, and P Craig Russell's Hellboy: The Troll Witch and Other Stories. I have not yet had a chance to read this, but I did not know there was more Mignola drawn Hellboy for me -- this story collects several Hellboy shorts from Dark Horse Anthology things. This is cool.

In a related story, MATT FRACTION AND KELLY SUE HAD A BABY! Congrats! I would use exclamation marks after ALL OF THESE SENTENCES! Baby!

At Newsarama, I tried to read some interviews about the next Hulk thing, and Marvel's Skrull thing, but I got bored.

Recommend, review, and discuss this week's comics and comics news.

Comics Out August 15, 2007

Brad Meltzer and Ed Benes's Justice League of America #12. This has been a very strange run. I liked the first six issues, the arc about building the Justice League, with all its clever fake outs (Starro! New Gods! Amazo!) and I liked that it focused on one specific character I was not all that familiar with, but came to like, the Red Tornado. The becoming human and then losing it has been done too much, but I like how to story was told, with the perspective of so many voices, well organized into a coherent whole. Then there was this weird little nostalgic epilogue to that story, an issue without a conflict whose centerpiece was a gatefold image of the team posing for a photograph. After Metzler went to so much trouble in Identity Crisis to introduce serious ethical lapses and rape into a Justice League period that seemed so upbeat, it was odd to watch this guy do things such as resurrect the old JLA headquarters from Superfriends (even if he did update it). Then we got a rambling JLA/JSA crossover that demanded I get JSA issues to follow it (I don't know the JSA). The focus of the crossover was the Legion (who I also dont know) -- more crazy nostalgia -- then really had nothing do to with any of them. All it did was bring back an older version of a hero that got killed off in another book I didn't read -- more nostalgia! Ah for the days when so-and-so wore the mantle of hero-guy. Also that story had no villain -- heck it was dealing with too many characters as it was, so I can see why, but still. Then we get a one shot high concept thing with two JLA members without powers trying to escape from out of the rubble of a collapsed building. No villain, but points for doing something new. Now the run ends here -- with another no villain, character study where good guys just wax nostalgic about what a beautiful thing the Justice League is. And we literally just did that five issues ago. People accused Planetary of navel gazing, but at least is looking at OTHER comic books. If it wasn't an excuse for writing a superhero comic book like a fawning obitutary you could almost admire the idea of trying to write twelve issues of a major team book where characer study replaces punch-em-ups.

And to make matters worse I don't have much patience for a writer who introduces mysteries and conflicts, then leaves them for someone else to deal with. Because I am not going to continue to follow this book unless I know, going in, I like the new guy.

Also did I need "meet my young daughter" as a signal for "We're going to have sex."

In comics news two things of note, for me at least. Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch will be taking on the regular Fantastic Four title. Click here for the interview. I have always wanted to like a Fantastic Four book (The first issue of Millar's Ultimate FF, and Morrison's FF 1234 was as close as I came), so I am kinda excited about this. Millar saying this helps:

I got great advice from Stan before I started and I've taken this onboard for the main book. He told me there was no idea too insane for Fantastic Four and that was actually very liberating. Some ideas are too crazy for the Hulk or Spidey or the X-Men, but the FF is where the crazy ideas live and breathe. You have to give them a hook a nine year old can understand, but they can be as wild as you like. This is what led to the Marvel Zombies (something that seemed so unlikely editorial actually laughed when I suggested it) and I've tried to bring that same head to this run too. I've been flying on it since I started and really having a good time.

And Hitch says this, which I like:

For better or worse, Ultimates became a magnum opus of sorts and you can't follow it with another one. I can relax. So I'm just setting out to hit the schedule and get some big, bold fun comics out and remind myself that it doesn't have to be hand-wringing, sweating, cursing, worry and poverty to make a good comic. It can actually be good fun, very rewarding and, in the great scheme of world problems, a walk in the park.

And Alex Ross is doing an Invaders/Avengers Crossover in regular continuity. I don't know anything about the Invaders, sort of the Golden Age Avengers who will travel forward in time to confront the modern age Avengers, but I know Alex Ross gets on my nerves. For stuff like this:

NRAMA: So…who needs villains?

AR: Not maybe that far, but the thing is, this is along the lines of a lot of storylines in my comics, especially Kingdom Come - what ultimately set off the trouble in that story is not an organized villain front, as much as it’s just superhumans screwing things up for each other.

The greatest conflicts write themselves without having to bring in the unknown quantity of the villain in the corner to come in and be the mover and shaker to really get everybody charged up against them. There will ber surprises to titillate and satisfy that need, though.

NRAMA: Given what you said there, it seems like there could be a temptation at least, to compare these Golden Age heroes to modern day? Almost the metatextual object lesson of, “No – look, this is what a hero is?” which DC kind of started off with in Infinite Crisis?

AR: Well, no, but in a way, I could see that people might think that we’re bringing the original Invaders to the present to “put the Marvel Universe back on track” like another project… There might be some dramatic implications on that front, given that people can look at what that project meant and what it did with the idea, but that’s not why we’re doing this.

Ross just worships the good old days of Golden Age heroes. You can see it everywhere with him, even when he tries to deny it. Super-Nostalgia.

And Metzler's JLA run, Invaders Avengers, Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Civil War, World War Hulk. Where oh where have all the villains gone?

Comics Out July 18, 2007

Greg Pak and John Romita, Jr. World War Hulk 2. This is OK. It has a simplicity I can respect. I am getting it because of Romita, Jr. He is good, but he looks a little rushed on things like faces. Also I think he is stuck with some bad designs -- Hulk's buddies look annoying. Also I do not really know who the Sentry is. I wish the guy they were all counting on was someone I knew better. The final page (a splash page) was great.

Brad Meltzer and Gene Ha's Justice League of America 11. This is an odd duck. A formally experimental high concept JLA issue: Red Arrow and Mari trapped in a tiny space at the bottom of a building that has been crushed and dumped in the river; Gene Ha communicates the claustrophobia in his panel design and page layout, and a bit where you have to rotate the book. Meltzer clearly did some research on coal miners being trapped. I don't really need this kind of dreary, realistic thing from a superhero book. I don't really like it. But I will give them points for trying something different in such a high profile action packed big-splash-color team book. Here at Geoff Klock's Blog you get points for trying.

Matt Fraction and Barry Kitson's The Order #1. It is a great concept -- government superheroes can be fired and replaced at any time; media savvy reigns. The anti-decadence thing in the book makes it an interesting companion to Millar's Authority. Kitson is great, especially with cute girls with red hair. And next issue promises a bear in a jet pack. A BEAR IN A JET PACK. I wish this as yet unnamed creature would go head to head with Gorilla Grodd in a five part epic not unlike World War Hulk.

Review, recommend, and discuss the week's comics and comics news.

Final Crisis (Comics News This Week)

Newsarama has a preview image, drawn by J.G. Jones, for FINAL CRISIS. May 2008. Yes, May 2008 (when Countdown ends I think). I knew this was coming -- they said at the New York Comic Con that Countdown was a countdown to the next big DC event. But I did not realize they were calling it a Crisis. Given how long it takes to have a Crisis -- months of the core miniseries, all the lead-ups and ramifications -- I think it will be Crisis all the time from now on. Identity Crisis leads to Road to Infinite Crisis leads to Infinite Crisis leads to Infinite Crisis: Aftermath leads to 52 leads to One Year Later leads to Countdown leads to Final Crisis leads to 365 (DC's new daily comic book) leads to road to post-Final Super Crisis 2 leads to Final Super Crisis 2 leads to a year in which every superhero's head just explodes on a monthly basis (quarterly for the All Star Titles). At Marvel Road to Civil War leads to Civil War leads to Planet Hulk leads to The Initiative leads to World War Hulk leads to the announced third act of the Hulk Story leads to One More Day leads to everyone in the Marvel Universe dies of throat cancer on a monthly basis.

Someone needs to write a penetrating cultural/comics essay (not me) on how people used to have wars like World War Two, but then the idea of war became a constant thing -- the War on Drugs, the War on Terror -- with no real end in site: more of a climate than an event; the constant terror keeps everyone buying things (is that the theory?). Then the comic book companies followed suit, and for the same reasons.

Comics Out June 13, 2007

Matt Fraction and Ariel Olivetti's Punisher War Journal #8. This book is just absurd and embraces the absurdity. It works pretty well. Case in point: this is a book where the Punisher -- gigantic killer Frank Castle -- can doodle a complex costume design on a note-pad like an FIT student and five pages later, be wearing it. You just don't ask how it got made, and you don't question the fact that he designed it himself. Cause he will shoot you if you do.

Greg Pak and John Romita Jr's World War Hulk #1. I am reading Marvel's Next Big Event -- just the core book -- because I like John Romita Jr and I like the Hulk. I did not pick up Planet Hulk, but this thing fills in new readers. It is not the most elegant exposition, but it is there, at least. Might have been handled better by a text box page in front of the issue. I do not have a strong opinion on this book, because my expectations are low. All I want is the Hulk smashing stuff and John Romita Jr drawing that so I guess I am satisfied.

Review, recommend, and discuss this week's comics and comics news.

Comics Out May 31, 2007

Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo's Hellboy: Darkness Calls #2. I never care about the story -- Hellboy always stands around while things happen to him, then he makes a Whedonesque quip. I love the design on the character and the world, however -- for me The Art of Hellboy is the only indispensable Mignola work. Duncan Fegredo is doing a good job keeping me hooked on this one though, so I will continue to pick it up.

Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglesham's Justice Society of America #6. There are literally more main character heroes in this issue than there are pages, and I don't know most of them. It is all sort of fun in the way Infinite Crisis was fun -- I am a sucker for superhero insanity just smashed together and to hell with anyone who does not know all these guys. But this issue seemed like filler: the Legion distracts the JLA and the JSA with some nonsense threat so they can complete their secret mission, but they are really distracting the reader from the fact that this is a four issue plot and not a five issue plot.

David Peterson's Mouse Guard Hard Cover Graphic Novel. I have not read this yet, but I wanted to try something new. It had mice with little tiny swords. It looked fun.

Nothing in the news jumped out at me. Review, recommend and discuss this week's comics and comics news.

Fraction-Klock Comic Geek Speak podcast UP NOW

We are episode 256 -- if you are reading this post today just go to http://comicgeekspeak.com/

(If you are reading this days later go to http://comicgeekspeak.com/episodes.asp and click on episode 256)

If you want to read the responce to the podcast on the Geek Speak Forum, go to http://www.cgspodcast.com/forum2//index.php?showtopic=111985

The thing clocks in at like 2 hours. It was a big conversation, possibly because Fraction and I started talking too much about fetish porn and 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.

Matt Fraction's blog is over at http://www.mattfraction.com/

Go buy the Casanova hardcover.

Comics Out May 23, 2007

MATT FRACTION AND GABRIEL BA'S CASANOVA: LUXURIA, collecting issues 1-7. If you heard me freak out about the original issues, but missed the boat and could not find them, now is your chance to get them all in one of the best-looking collected hardcover editions I have ever seen. It is oversized, but not too oversized; it is a beautiful object in its own right, but it is slim and not so big or nice you feel like you are going to fuck it up just by turning the pages (I am thinking of my Absolute Authority here). Besides the fantastic content, the size and the cover design make you think if French graphic novels, if you have every seen any: The whole book was designed for this book, if you see what I mean -- it was not assembled according to some generic template, as it would have been at Marvel or DC (e.g. the gold-spined Marvel hardcovers such as Phoenix Endsong). It has some noteworthy dedicatory material, as well as three gems for epigraphs to the collection and some interesting back matter by Ba, thumbnails and such. The only thing that is missing is the back matter from the original issues, but that is a little gift I think for people who bought the originals -- Fraction was never, as he said, writing for the trade. Don't let that stop you from getting this book. You can wait for the softcover, which will be out soon, but I say jump in and get this thing if you can afford it. Here I go again: after years and years of reading comic books this is MY FAVORITE COMIC BOOK OF ALL TIME. Tonight I record the Comic Geek Speak appearance with Fraction talking about the book -- I want to talk about the dedication and the epigraphs especially -- and that will be out tomorrow or the next day.

Sean McKeever and Takeshi Miyazawa's Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane vol 3: My Secret Life. I have not gotten around to reading this yet but the earlier volumes are lovely. This is very much the anti-Casanova, all simplicity and heart. I need both in my life. Reading Spider-Man loves Mary Jane makes you a good person, probably, somehow.

Mike Carey and Chris Bachalo's X-Men 199. Bachalo art. Bachalo art is awesome. In particular I like the scritchy effects around Cable -- they look like they were done afterward, just with a marker or something. It is nice to see something that simple, like Graffiti. Plus the story is kinda fun, I guess. Next time this series is on issue 200. The second comic book I ever owned was X-Men 23. How did that happen?

Newsarama has Joss Whedon interviewing Bryan Hitch, which is quite fun (and long), and an interview up with Ed Brubaker. They also have some nonsense about a Mary Jane statue and a promo image of the Joker or Two Face or something from the upcoming Batman movie. I do not want to talk about those last two subjects -- it all looks perfectly horrible -- but you are welcome to.

Comics Out 25 April 2007

Nothing in comics news grabbed me this week and the only comic book I picked up today was Justice Society of America #5. Because of the JLA/JSA Crossover (for which this is the second part and the first JSA part) I wanted to track down issues 1-4 before I got to 5. I got 1-3 and did not like them -- too much exposition and too much nostalgia, which is a bad combination. Either assume your audience knows who all the characters are, or don't and give them proper introductions, but don't half-ass both. One of the things that is making the nostalgia dense is what I think are pre-Crisis characters, who, it looks like, will be soon interacting with the cast of Kingdom Come (the Mark Waid Alex Ross comic book and not the LL Cool J movie, though they latter is so much a better idea).

Mark Waid established "hypertime" in the post-Kingdom-Come Kingdom Come stories -- the idea that story lines do not have to be wiped out to create a coherent continuity (the first Crisis) -- all the universes of every story exist at once and borders can always be crossed (the second Crisis). For the record the only reason I know that is that Frank Quitely drew one of the post Kingdom Come Kingdom Come books (I cannot for the life of me remember what they were called: Kingdom Come Again? Kingdom Commer? Kingdom Come 2?). It didn't stick, and Johns is going to try again. This is where DC is going with all their countdown stuff I think. They even used Ellis's Bleed in Green Lantern, since Ellis made a big deal of this structure of universes with the Snowflake in Planetary. Frankly watching these guys develop the structure of a multi-verse so that continuity glitches will not keep them awake at night is very boring. Just give me a well told story with good art. I don't care if it does not have a clear place in your neat little universe structure, you big engineering geeks with your graph paper and your mechanical pencils trying to figure out the real world physics of the light saber.

Long story short: I could not find JSA 4 so JSA 5 is going to have to wait. Flipping through it Batman appears to be fighting the Batman of the Multiverse (Miller's Batman, Vampire Batman, Adam's Batman and so on). I already read that story in Batman/Superman: Vengeance and before that in the Planetary/Batman Crossover. Before that I saw it in the Batman Animated where the kids tell stories of all the different Batman (Miller's Batman, the 60s Batman), which was itself based on a comic book. Yeash.

Solomon saith: There is no new thing upon earth.
So that as Plato had an imagination, that all
knowledge was but rememerance; so Solomon giveth
his sentence, that all novelty is but oblivion.

Except Matt Faction's Casanova.

[Before anyone objects that Casanova is hardly knew, drawing in everything in its gravity, Casanova FEELS new, which is all I am really asking for.]

DOKKKTOR KLOCKHAMMER!!!

On his website (link on the right), Matt Fraction has put up the solicit for the 8th issue of Casanova. I wrote him back in August to tell him Casanova, only three issues in, was my favorite comic book of all time, and I wrote him again to send him a link to my Gutter Geek review of the first four issues. I told him I was finishing up my doctorate and he said "Future Doctor Klock (A comic book name if I ever heard one)." Check out the name of the bad guy in Casanova 8:


CASANOVA #8
Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Fábio Moon
Cover by Gabriel Bá
22pp - $1.99

An all-new storyline and an all-new artist-- the stunning Fábio Moon-- ignites here as CASANOVA returns with the perfect jumping-on point for new readers. What terrible truth lurks inside Dokkktor Klockhammer's horrible horror hospital? How much time passes on page eleven? Who IS that masked man? Who's the stone-cold fox behind the stick of that sick assault aircraft from the future? Do all women from the future look like that? We sure hope so-- because the future is where we'll spend THE REST OF OUR LIVES. And it's only the future that holds the answer to these questions and more, including the biggest, bestest question Casanovanauts near and far will be asking themselves for a long time to come:

WHEN IS CASANOVA QUINN?

CASANOVA volume 2: we have come from tomorrow to save you from boring.

ON SALE IN AUGUST

Comics Out April 11, 2007

Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All Star Superman #7. This was my least favorite issue of this series, but that does not mean it is less than great, or that the series is not the best comic book being published right now. There was just nothing in it that jumped out at me in the same way that, say, Jimmy Olson stood out in issue 4, or the two page prison spread stood out in five, or the elegant plotting stood out in 6. Only five issues to go, if you can believe it. If you have not been getting this fantastic comic book today is the day -- issues one through six are collected in hardcover today; pick the seventh one up at the same time and you will be all caught up.

Matt Fraction and Ariel Olivetti's Punisher War Journal #6. This thing has an "initiative" banner on the top, so it is still under the shadow of Civil War and its aftermath. "I'm going to Mexico and I'm going to shoot that guy in the face" is a great line, as is microchip calling Punisher "ya spooky asshat," but the Punisher is just not a character for me. I don't even know what to do with the ending and the cover to the next issue. No offence to Matt Fraction, who is a genius, but I just want to get the hell away from all things Civil War.

In comics news this week Frank Quitely has a nice interview up at Newsarama, in which he mentions something we were talking about in terms of "Riot at Xavier's": like me, Quitely does not like to see someone else inking his work. Also great for me in this interview was that the interviewer lists off all of his Morrison collaborations -- Flex Mentallo, The Invisibles, Earth-2, New X-Men and WE3 -- and Quitely reminds him of one more, a nine page story in the 1997 Vertigo anthology Weird War Tales #3 of 4 called "New Toys". Couldn't believe my luck when my little local store in Queens had it; I assumed I would have to hit e-bay or at least visit all the major Manhattan stores. The story is great and you should track it down -- it is a kind of sick fusion of Toy Story and the Invisibles.

Also in the news: someone other than Grant Morrison and Gene Ha will be writing and drawing The Authority 5-10. I do not know what that means for this series -- I do not know if their run will be interrupted, or is only supposed to be four issues long, but that sucks, because I really enjoyed The Authority 1-2, and didn't mind the ridiculously slow pace screwing up the bigger picture Wildstorm relaunch.

Also in the news: Morrison is also writing the film script for the adaptation of the video game Area 51, but I do not have high hopes for that being much better than Frank Miller's Robocop 2 and 3.

Grant Morrison's New X-Men 136

[This post is part of a series looking at every issue of Grant Morrison's New X-Men; for more click the New X-Men label.]

In the comments to last issue NeilShyminsky wrote: "These are just angry white kids at a private school who are pushed to rebellion by the revelation that one of them was adopted. Like Geoff says, it's lame; and like you said, it's mundane. I think that's supposed to be the point. The problem is, while that makes for a decent critique of privileged kids who long for some identification with oppression, it makes for storytelling that's seriously lacking in tension or surprise." That is exactly the problem. Morrison is a storyteller first and a cultural critic second (or third or fourth): Morrison can make his point, but if it is not wrapped in a good story, he has failed. If he wants to be a cultural critic first he is welcome to write an essay of cultural criticism.

The U-Men are back in this issue and Quentin and the Gang run them down in what looks like the Mystery Mobile painted purple. Weirdly lame. When the U-Men complains, as he is being killed, that he spent the last of his savings on this suit, that is really sad -- just as in last issue it becomes hard to know who to sympathize with the least. When everyone in a story sucks, it makes me want to put the story down.

One of the things that makes Riot at Xavier's so bad is that there is so little to it, in order to package it as a prologue and a four issue arc, this second issue has only two scenes related to the title plot. The third issue is the Riot itself and the fourth is really an epilogue -- Riot at Xaviers is essentially a one issue story. The rest of this issue is Xorn and the Special Class on a camping trip.

This is the issue where I start to like the Special Class more. With pop-sexy X-Men nowhere to be seen these guys start to get out from under that shadow. I still don't like any of them, and I am not that entertained listening to them being idiots and making fart jokes, but you feel, in this context, that these characters have so much potential to grow and change -- something Scott has been struggling with in the run -- you start to like them more. The same problem arises, however: the U-Men suck -- they have to check a website for their orders, for example -- so there is not enough conflict or tension. Instead you get a lot of bickering teenagers. It is a nice counterpoint Quentin -- these guys are actually fighting for their lives while Quentin is being a jackass -- but the story is only so-so.

Then we see that Xorn has devastated the U-Men, a very strong and very surprising moment that should have come a long time ago, or been built up more from the beginning. Xorn has left the kids to fend for themselves and when Angel tracks him down, he tells her he was teaching them a lesson and that what he himself has done should remain a secret. The lesson is crap: many of the individual character traits he claims to be helping the kids with were not established as character traits before he said it: for example, that Ernst has no one to be responsible for comes out of nowhere. This speech would be better if Morrison had established this and it had been true, but it is acceptable if Morrison just wanted to put an obvious lie in his mouth -- more evidence that Xorn is not who he seems. But the destruction of the U-Men is a GREAT moment -- now you really begin to suspect that there is something more to this character; now we get a sense that the mystery surrounding this guy may be less than sweet.

But notice the problem: all of this has nothing to do with the Riot. I care more about this moment than anything else in the arc, and that is bad storytelling. Same problem in Superman Returns: James Marsden was so strong, I cared more about him than Superman, distracting me from what the movie was supposed to be about. Next to Marsden, the normal guy hero who loves Lois and raised somone else's child, Superman looks like a dick, special only because of the powers he has, rather than the person he is. Next to Xorn blowing up the U-Men, the Riot just seems even more lame.

In the end of the "subplot" Xorn comes to accept the reality of No-Girl, a member of the Special class that may be a mutant undetectable by Xorn, or may be a class Imaginary Friend. It is another very strong, and sweet, moment, but again, one that again draws attention and sympathy from the main story.

Back to the Riot, Quentin and his gang hit Xavier over the head with a baseball bat -- fucking LAME -- then call for a Riot out the window with a megaphone. This should be an exciting moment -- it is the beat that will lead into the next issue -- but I wish I was back with Xorn and the Special Class, and that is not good storytelling, especially since the next issue will be all about Quentin.

Comics Out April 4, 2007

A nice day for comics, especially if you are a Joss Whedon fan:

Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and David Aja's The Immortal Iron Fist #4:

Aja is great -- even simple stuff, like a layout that has a two-by-four grid of panels over a larger image just shines. Aja is amazing -- this guy is rapidly becoming a favorite, and anyone who wants to recommend something he has done before would be welcome. His bodies just have the natural weight and grace you see in live action kung-fu movies. One of the best fits with a book I have ever seen. With this issue Fraction -- and with Five Fists of Science I am sure it is Fraction -- gets to add in some of that amazing 19th century science stuff that he loves, to great effect. Pneumatic subway systems: how can you not love them? Plus "Lightning of God" is a nice touch -- what a great idea and a great set-up for making it work.

Brad Meltzer and Ed Benes's Justice League of America #7:

The epilogue for Meltzer's first arc is cheesy, but after a great six issue story I am almost willing to call his sentimentality lovable. Almost. The league elects people with a card that says "The Justice League of America [in the font] hereby elects BATMAN [his name written in like a High School diploma], with all privileges and gratuities including" blah blah blah "possession of the golden key which permits entry..." blah blah blah "n special commendation for expert assistance in the case we have entitled in our scrolls THE TORNADO'S PATH". ?!?! SCROLLS?!?! is this a D&D club? Scheesh.
Lots of DC history drawn on here, Green Arrow's sidekick, some girl named Terra who died. I won't spoil the new HQ design, but it is exactly as sweet as it is cheesy and nostalgic. If you have been around me for a while you know I don't go for nostalgic. Metzler claims, in the issue, to be drawing on history, but look at the images -- it is a museum everywhere you turn. That's not drawing on history to build the future (as Morrison did in his JLA) -- it's building cold vacuum sealed monuments to nostalgia.
But the pacing, structure, and scene transitions are great and I will be staying with the book till the end. I just don't think that the JLA needs these X-Men style no-action epilogues -- after every big X-Men plot there would be an issue where everyone just plays football or something. That works because it is a school and they are a family. I don't think the JLA should be such goofy "I love you man" buddies. But that could just be me.

Joss Whedon and Michael Ryan's Runaways #25:

I am not in love with the art -- I wish whats-his-name could have stayed on -- but the story was pretty good, the jokes are good, and Whedon does bang-on characterization in just a moment. It is something he is very good at. The scene with Nico and Karolina was strong, for example. And Whedon can do an ending beat like no man's business. As for the end of Vaughn's run, where the kids get captured by Iron Man, it seems like either Whedon is ignoring that, or it will turn out that they have been forced into working with Iron Man to catch bad guys -- there is evidence in the issue for either one, though the second seems more likely.

Joss Whedon and Georges Jeanty's Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight #2:

I liked this issue quite a bit more than the last one. Sure it is a geek-fest, but it is a fun geek fest and I am a sucker for stuff such as Xander getting water on his Nick Fury outfit and pointing out that he only has two of them. A nice fake-out between Xander and Buffy is not just for no reason -- it leads into what is needed to get Buffy back. That's the Joss Whedon touch: even the fake-outs are more than just jokes. But one bad art moment -- don't have the two night guards not notice a horde of zombies until dozens of them have almost clawed up to the top of the wall.

Comics Out March 21, 2007

I got X-Men 197, by Mike Carey and Chris Bachalo. I think I am the only one around here getting this book and I am getting it only for the art. I WORSHIP Bachalo, to the point that -- after too many episodes of Miami Ink on the Learning Chanel -- am seriously thinking of getting a tattoo of his work on my arm. Because I only read for the art, when someone else does the art I don't get the book. So I am following Carey's run only sporadically. The gist of it is that we have an X-Team that does not get along with Xavier and consists of Rogue (the leader), Cable, Mystique, Sabertooth, Cannonball, and Iceman, Lady Mastermind, and some kind of fancy cute-girl Sentinel. The team, with the exception of the last two characters I mentioned, is actually odd enough to be almost interesting. Most are characters I know from various X-Books that I read in the 90s, so it is good for some nostalgia: the banner under the issue number even sports those old floating heads of the leads, which I love.

This week's issue involved Lady Mastermind trying to root out some kind of psychic entity hiding in her mind. The thing jumps from her to Mystique, and then tells Cable (after taking apart his gun with telekinesis), that it flew in from Shi'ar space (a trip that took centuries), and now wants, not a fight, but protection from the "Hecatomb" that is coming to eat the world (Earth, I guess) -- it came to the X-Men because it is attracted to psychics.

The kicker is the bit where the creature introduces itself: it speaks in black word balloons with white letters, begins in a alien language and states "I am Ev Teel Urizen. I am the Proscribed, the Anathema, the Womb-Weld. I am Mummudrai."

Mummudrai is what Casandra Nova was called in at least two issues of Grant Morrison's New X-Men -- a Shi'ar legend, about how everyone has an evil twin (hence "Womb-Weld"). Two things to note about it's appearance here: 1) it is named Urizen, which is William Blake's name for evil Ice Cold reductive, unimaginative rationality in his poetry. 2) If it is someone's evil twin, it seems fairly nice and divorced from any particular host (it is not Lady Mastermind's Mummudrai, for instance). I am not sure what to say about this other than it struck me as very odd.

I picked up Douglass Rushkoff and Liam Sharp's Testament #16, and Livewire, which was recommended to me around here, but have not yet gotten around to reading them yet.

Review, recommend, and discuss this week's comics and comics news.

Grant Morrison's New X-Men 130

Again in this issue the art is looking rushed -- the rushed job makes the scenes of X-Force, trapped in a tunnel with Weapon 12 who has an electric mushroom brain and can corrupt you into a zombie under his control with just a touch, look extra terrifying. In these pages Kordey intends for you not to be able to tell what is going on and it works to great effect. Not so good elsewhere in the issue, as for example in the panel in which Xavier says "Now, Jean".

E.V.A, Fantomex's living flying saucer -- complete with electric lights -- that is both his partner and his mutation is a marvel of absurdity. One of the things that elevates Fantomex from a mere parody of a "bad-ass" character is that a character like, say, Hawkeye in the Ultimates, should be relatively simple, relatively economical. He shoots stuff at people, mostly arrows, and he is deadly. That's his thing. Fantomex is a bit like that -- as I said Monday he looks like a G.I. Joe figure and shoots people like a "lunatic ninja Matrix freak" as a member of X-Force calls him in this issue. But then there is that flying saucer that just needlessly -- and playfully -- complicates him. This guy is almost literally too much. Also he shoots white bullets with little ghost heads on them, a detail never explained. Remember that his power is probably just misdirection, as Morrison keeps hinting -- none of these things are probably any more real that his little old blind mother who sits in his mansion and still thinks it is their old house. To absurd to be true -- you bet, that is the point. He is just too much fun. When he takes Xavier and Jean -- the two most powerful X-Men by a long-shot -- with him into the tunnel and then playfully calls them with "To me, my X-Men," the old school X-Men call to arms Morrison alluded to at the end of his first story arc, you have to love this guy. Best comic book character of all time. I cannot say enough about him. My only complaint is that, as someone pointed out, Quitely never drew him.

In the end Jean is so sexually attracted to him she lets him go. There is a joke here I think about how if Wolverine is Weapon X (Ten) and Fantomex is Weapon XIII, his evolutionary superior, Jean must be EVEN MORE DRAWN TO HIM. The detail that Fantomex can effectively read minds by reading body language -- he can tell Jean finds him sexy because of the direction of her pelvis (!?) -- is hilarious, and also a send up of Wolverine's heightened senses. We have gone way past sniffing people.

Mark Millar's Ultimate X-Men established, for me, the definitive portrayal of Xavier -- dark, manipulative, possibly (like the Authority) a bad guy who only thinks he is a good guy, or, even worse, just a bad guy with very good PR. (I wrote extensively about this in my essay for Reconstrction that I linked to in my last New X-Men post). Whedon picks this up and tries to do a dark Xavier in "Danger" (Astonishing X-Men), but it is too little to late. Morrison does a dark Xavier here in just a line that I like -- Xavier tells a human he has no time for Chimpanzee politics, not a nice thing to say to a race he publicly considers equals. Millar owns this territory, and Morrison cannot do much to add to it, but he is running on the same lines. If post-humans are free from human rules, judged by us the reader (merely human ourselves) they might very well look like the bad guys.

Comics Out 14 March 2007

I picked up two books today:

Joss Whedon and Georges Jeanty's Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight #1. I was very excited about the new Buffy comic book -- Whedon himself writing what would have been season eight in comic book form (I had no idea they were going to actually have the phrase "Season Eight" on the issue itself). But now that I have it I have to admit that, in spite of the fact that it is all perfectly solid, I am not so sure I need to follow these characters anymore. Seven seasons was a long time. When, on the final page, an old character assumed dead or gone suddenly appears, I was not excited, because I do feel a little done with these characters, and this new permutation fails to revive my past interest. But I love Whedon and will stick with it for a long time because he has earned my trust with many, many good episodes and seasons of television.

Matt Fraction and Ariel Olivetti's Punisher War Journal #5. Fraction has spent two issues with stories surrounding the Punisher (rather than stories about the Punisher), which seems like a pretty good direction to go with a character like this. The Punisher is still a character I have a hard time caring about, but Olivetti's art is growing on me -- at times it seems horribly absurd at times brilliant, at times both. I am now coming around to the idea that he is a great fit with this absurd character.

Newsarama has been covering all the press surrounding the "Death of Captain America" but I have nothing to say about it, other than the fact that it is very annoying and did people not forget what a stupid stunt the Death of Superman was?

The next part of Brad Winderbaum's Satacracy 88 is up at itsallinyourhands.com (these are now coming in smaller chunks so you can get it more often, once a week). He has also launched a forum to discuss the show, so follow the link there and say something.

Comics Out 7 March 2007

Review, recommend, and discuss the week in comics.

1 (What I got).

Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness #1 (of 5) by John Layman and Fabiano Neves. The artwork is clean and bright -- not so good for a horror book, and the writing is dull. Layman makes a point to go through a host of Evil Dead and Army of Darkness lines to try to charm the reader who knows those movies, and it feels forced. Also every single member of the Avengers responds when Ash shoots the intercom at the front of the mansion. Not good. All the life -- pardon the irony here -- has been sucked out of the original series.

Justice League of America #6 by Brad Meltzer and Ed Benes. The conclusion to the Red Torrnado story, and a very strong conclusion at that. This book has really surprised me, no moreso than in the ending. Endings are very hard, but Meltzer comes up with a powerful one that both affirms the status quo while also being quite dark. This has been a great six issues, which I never expected.

The Authority #2 by Grant Morrison and Gene Ha. Remember that about three quarters into last year Morrison launched his new vision of The Authority? Well one quarter into this year, you can now read the next 22 pages. There is an obligatory "meta" scene that bugs me but also HAS to be there -- and Morrison is smart to deal with it right off the bat -- but overall this is a great comic book. Morrison's challenge was to make the team, designed to feel HUGE, feel HUGE again. His "realistic" idea for them is crazy, but he has done it -- in the last page of this issue you FEEL how HUGE one character is. Again, surprising.

2.

In comic book news CNN covered Captain America #25, in which Captain America dies post-Civil War. The complaints one could make about that are many but let's start with one from the standpoint of good storytelling -- if that was what you wanted to do that needed to be in the Civil War core series. Or stop the company line about how the story is in that series, and the tie-ins are just part of the bigger picture. I did not buy it. I am very tired of events now.

3.

New Satacracy 88 up at itsallinyourhands.com.

Comics Out 21 February 2007

I got six comics today, which is a lot for me:

Mark Millar and Steven McNiven's Civil War #7: the thing ends, if you can call it that. Marvel and DC seem to have established permanent event climate, where a a lot of comics (Road to Civil War, Identity Crisis and the Omac Project and so on) lead up to a focal miniseries (Civil War, Infinite Crisis) for the mainstream press to read. The focal mini has a lot of spin-offs (Frontline, Infinite Crisis Aftermath) and repercussions in other books (Civil War and Infinite Crisis tie-ins) -- all of which lead to a transition event (52, The Inititave), and then the next one (Planet Hulk, whatever DC is going to call it when Ellis's Bleed gets properly established). I am getting very tired. This is why I like All Star Superman, Spiderman Loves Mary Jane, Astonishing X-Men, and Casanova. Cause they're, you know, just stories by people about characters.

Allan Heinberg and Terry Dodson's Wonder Woman #4: sure it's crazy, and it comes out four times a year, and this plot is going to be aborted because Heinberg is leaving or was asked to leave -- but it is an entertaining book and the Dodson art is silly, cute, and fun. I like it.

Matt Fraction and Mike Deodato's Punisher War Journal #4: Fraction is a great writer, but the Punisher is not my favorite character, and I am having a little trouble getting into this.

Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker, and David Aja's The Immortal Iron Fist #3: Aja is remarkable, elegant and visceral: there is a great 9 panel grid 14 pages in that is just simplicity itself. It is like something out of a much older comic book but it doesn't feel that way at all -- it feels just right. Even if it was not well written I would get it for the art, but thank god it is a good story to boot.

Douglas Rushkoff and Liam Sharp's Testament #15: the gods and monsters stand out in this issue especially.

Spider-Man Family #1: I got it for the Sean McKeever story, but it is not worth the price of the anthology.

Plus: I had a short (half hour) appearance on Comic Geek Speak talking about Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All Star Superman. Be warned though, I was recovering from being more sick than I have ever been in my life, and my energy is not where it should be (as I told them when I was on). It is episode 227 and it is out on their site today.

Grant Morrison's New X-Men 122

Quitely's cover is again fantastic, and strange: I am not quite sure what to make out of Lilandra's pose here, but I like it; it is very artificial, in a good way. I would love to know if it is based off of another image, but right now I have no guesses.

The Shi'ar are all fantastic characters, right up Morrison and Quitely's alley -- all crazy and alien, and weird. The Steersman losing control of the ship is a fantastic image to open with, and even minor details like a character activating "penta-vision" ("I can see around corners, through walls, into minds") or going into "4-Space" are great fun; Morrison always knows how to put an odd prefix in front of a normal word so that it makes sense, but becomes uncanny. Quitely does great, tall panels in this scene, and Nova saying "Become Insane for Me" to destroy someone is devastating. I want to read a whole Morrison-Quitely book with these guys.

Morrison has us enter the scene after Nova has already done most of her damage. On the one hand this is disappointing: I wanted to see the fight. On the other hand it shows a lot of balls: Morrison has established well that Nova is tough, and we will believe she simply ruined them; we don't have to see the fight. It is a daring choice and it works pretty well, I think.

Back with the X-Men, Emma announces that "the traditional human education system ... is to be scrapped" in favor of something more mutant. It is unclear what this will look like -- the only suggestion as to what will be different is feedback from students will be important, which is hardly a new idea. Later in the issue Scott and Jean have a fight; Jean is welcoming the new post-human changes at the school, but Scott fears they should not be acting like a master race. Jean is inspired by Charles's notes for the school but we don't get any idea what they are. Then we are told the world media is being invited to the school to see the unveiling of Charles new ideas, his last will and testament. If Nova is going to kill him he wants to make it work for him, and speak to the world. That is a beautiful moment, but we will never really hear these ideas except it small bits that do not seem interesting at all, like the glimpses of the show within a show on Studio 60. Morrison is a storyteller who is only playing at being a philosopher, at least so far. In the best line in this issue, Emma says "The whole world is watching us now. We must be nothing less than fabulous." (Thank god this was not a Kordey fill in, or unintentional irony would have ruined the scene). Morrison is fabulous, but it is all style over substance. More post-human ideas might be better, but the lack of them is forgivable, I think, at least in this issue. It will become more of a problem as we continue -- Morrison keeps suggesting he has these great post-human ideas; that he does not is OK, but he should stop claiming to to often, as it gets distracting.

We learn that Nova has carefully organized her attack and that it is STILL going according to plan -- she booby trapped her body so that when Charles was trapped in it he would have Alzheimer's, a motor neuron disease and "a new form of degenerative Creutzfeld Jacob disease." This is Morrison at his best; only he would see the body as a trap in this way. Nova will want to watch Charles die; since he has a week to live this gives us the time-line for her return (with a Shi'ar battleship), which is a nice touch.

Not so nice is the further confusion over what Nova actually is: she was born without a body of her own. Her mother's fall last issue, caused by her fighting back against Charles in the womb, must have killed Nova's body. So she is "living emotional energy, formless, immense and unique" that "improvised" a body using Charles's cells. This is a major and confusing shift in this character, much less interesting than the evolution idea when she first appeared that she was to mutants what mutants are to humans; also much more confusing than just being an evil twin. It also seems that without the body she created she will not have access to a "full range" of various mutant abilities; now she will just be an evil emotional psychic, which is a lot less interesting. Also confusing is when Hank alludes to her connection to the U-Men. What that connection was, I missed. She was a great character, and now she is quite muddy.

Finally we pick up Xorn, and our watch for Xorn-Magneto connections. I have only two. 1. If Xorn is Magneto, then Magneto learned Chinese. Fine. I suppose there are lots of ways he could have learned Chinese, but little things like this mess up a twist I think, which needs to be sudden and smooth. 2. If Xorn is Magneto in this scene then Magneto brings a dead bird back to life. The monk swears it was dead. Maybe the monk is lying or was tricked about this; maybe Magneto fed the bird little metal shavings for weeks so that when it died he could make it look like he brought it back to life at just the moment Scott walks in. Maybe there is some way to use magnets to make light like he does around the bird as he does whatever it is he does. I have a hard time imagining Magneto doing these things, but fine, I will admit they are possible. They are just little details that I do not find persuasive. They get on my nerves, in retrospect.

Finally we have the great two page spread where one of the Shi'ar, destroyed from his trip, tries to warn someone that Nova is coming and the only creatures around are cows. On of my favorite ending beats of all time, in any story.