"No longer like a toad in these foul cellars will I secret the venom of hatred -- for you shall bring me love!" - Erik
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Junes 26, 2002
Amazing Spider-Man 42
Amazing Spider-Man #42
I often wonder if i am too cranky or too rigid when it comes to reading comics, because i often find myself saying “Eh, that’s not how Stupendous-Man should act.” Maybe i should relax, let the writers do their takes on the characters, and not worry so much about it. My problem is that the one of the key things i get out of reading stories that take place in the shared Marvel Universe (as opposed to comics with more (traditionally speaking) artistic merit) is that i like watching how it all ties together. Therefore the consistency, the (…steady now!) continuity, of the character development is important to me. I have no problem with changes to characters that have an in-story explanation, but i find it very jolting when, for example, the Silver Surfer starts using Earth slang. The reason i bring this up is because Straczynski in this issue has nailed Spider-man. It’s perfect. There’s a perfect balance of the compassionate, intelligent, responsible hero, the angsty, “can’t get a break” chump, and the guy who acts as the reader’s voice in identifying how ridiculous the goings-on are. So it sort of vindicates my crankiness. I read this, and i say “YES! This is Spider-man! This is the character that i know and love!” And Straczynski manages to pull it all off in a dimension-hopping story line, which is not a natural setting for Your Friendly Neighborhood street level super-hero, so extra cheers. My one complaint is that it uses the clichéd Brother Grimm “don’t stray from the path” thing, which the protagonist inevitably does. Also Straczynski reinforces the totem thing, but i think i’ve come to terms with that. Romita’s art is as strong as always. There’s something a bit.. off about Dr. Strange’s face, but i’m not sure what’s bothering me about it. I want to say that it’s too much of a baby-face, but that’s not really what it is. Overall, i love it, especially in the astral plane, where he gets to do some fun Dikto stuff. Oh, and the promised Dr. Strange mini-series? I’m still waiting for Puck: The Brass Bishop Affair, ok?
Black Panther #46
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE BLACK PANTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really do. This issue is a cross-time caper, which i’ve always hated, and we’re in the (semi) wild west, which isn’t a favorite place of mine for comic book characters, but I bought into the story immediately without being distracted by the setting. Priest’s characters have such well defined personalities that their dialogue reads very naturally, and i get swept up in it. Since this story is fairly self-contained and linear, it might be a good starting place for people who’ve been hearing good things about the book but are afraid of its reputation for dense plots*. This plot mainly deals with the basics of being stranded in a foreign place, while some strange stuff is getting cooked up in the subplots. Gyrich gets a chance to show that he’s not the raving idiot that he’s always portrayed as when someone needs a quick short-cut for Nasty Government Man. There’s some good interaction between the two Panthers, and a good scene with the “real” T’Challa and Monica. All the interactions are designed to introduce the characters for the unfamiliar; it ought to be fairly simple to determine personalities and relationships based on this issue. The book also deals head on with racism in this time period and area, and it is handled very well. On the odder side, Thor, and apparently Loki, and at least one other Asgardian are hanging around. This comic is crossing over with Thor #370 (i haven’t read it), from the early 1980s, which is bizarre and lovely, but makes me tentatively withdraw the statement that this would be a good book for new (non-Marvel, at least) readers. Also making an appearance are obscure Marvel western characters: Two-Gun Kid, Kid Colt and The Rawhide Kid. Again, normally this would make me twitch nervously (what doesn’t?) but the book has been so good so far i don’t see them causing me any grief. I guess the regular art team is on break after the last mega-arc. Jorge Lucas (if he thinks barely changing his first name is going to help him hide from my wrath after Episode 2, he can think again)(ha-ha, i’m sure he doesn’t hear those jokes all the time) is great. His art is clean and detailed, and he’s got a kind of sketchy, rough quality when he wants it which works well in the frontier town setting. My one complaint, i think, is that Ross immediately recognized Thor as Thor even though A) i didn’t, and B) he looks nothing like Thor. *I guess it’s just a different audience now, but i don’t understand the whole “accessibility” thing, really. Comics that attempt to spell everything out for me, especially when they do it every issue, tend to insult my intelligence. When i was a budding nine year old comic collector during Shooter’s Golden Years and picking up my first comics by great writers like Roger Stern, Walt Simonson and John Byrne, i started reading, found out what i didn’t know, and wanted to know more. I read and re-read and re-read those books until i caught on to some of the more complex plots, and i stared at those drawing and memorized the dialogue, trying to get an understanding of these strange characters. And i couldn’t get my parents to take me to the comic store with any regularity, so any random issue of any random comic was good enough for me. They were brief windows into this insane world, and i loved nothing more than trying to piece it all together. Part of the problem now may be that people expect to be able to read through the thing once in fifteen minutes and know everything that’s going on. Folks! You just paid $2.99 for a flimsy 22 page pamphlet. Open it back up, settle down, and look at it again. Look at the art. Re-read it. Think about it. A good comic is worth that level of involvement (part of the problem is that so many comics aren’t).
Deadpool #68
Good zany fun. And yet there’s some serious elements to it too (Deadpool tossing his image inducer away as a result of his conversation with the kid was pretty strong). This book is moving up into my elite “books i actually care about when they come out” list. And forgive me this, but i was happy to see it acknowledged that the Taskmaster did indeed used to go around with a skull mask. I don’t think it was ever acknowledged in Udon’s Taskmaster mini that he’d changed his costume. Pointless and ridiculous, and not really anything to do with this comic here, but i enjoyed the flashback scene. My problem with the art and women remains: i was sure the waitress in the second scene was actually Sandi. All their women are literally identical. At least there are no exploitive shots this issue.
Hulk #42
Well, last week was a fluke, or i was in a better mood, but we’re back to a generic, slow paced plot. Spend all that time establishing that the Hulk is this raging, horrid monster, barely contained by Banner’s will, a terror beneath the flesh, just to have him throw a little temper tantrum and get knocked out by a sleeping-pill dart. Whatever. This might have worked in a different medium, or with a better artist, or maybe it works with audiences unfamiliar with the Hulk, but in this comic, this scene of mass destruction is fairly standard and isn’t worth, what, 4 issues of build up? Oh the Hulk looks kinda cute with no hair, though. I like that. The antagonist quoting from Ancient Mariner reminds me of that Star Trek movie where the Klingon keeps quoting out-of-context lines from Hamlet. Just a little something thrown in to show how educated we are.
Infinity Abyss #2
The dying eggplant man on the last page says it all: “Will the pieces of the puzzle fall into place quickly enough?” The answer is no. Because we’re already a third of the way through a mini-series, and so far we’ve sort of only managed to introduce the characters and explain what they are doing in the story. As i’ve been saying a lot lately, maybe it’ll all tie into something brilliant later, but right now it’s not looking so good. One possibility would be to cut way down on all the splash panels and do this as a tightly packed four issue mini-series, but i suppose a lot of people are in it for Starlin and Milgrom’s art (i’ll always find it bizarre that people can “read” a comic just for the art, but that’s ok). Warlock-as-narrator continues to grate on me, since he’s got all the personality of a brick and you therefore might as well just use the third person. Some of the scenes are interesting, and i… gah, i’ll keep getting it, but it shouldn’t surprise anyone if only a few die-hard marvel loyalists are buying this.
Spider-Man And The Black Cat: “The Evil That Men Do” # 1
I’m fairly certain editors don’t get plot submissions that look like this: Act 1, Scene 1: Reed Richards, wrapped only in a towel that barely covers his muscular buttocks, casually walks toward the shower. Scene 2: A shot of the towel delicately hitting the floor around Reed’s graceful feet. Scene 3: Reed throws his head back, letting the splash of the shower wash over him. His muscular body glistens, hot and wet. C’mon, guys. Isn’t it bad enough i had to walk up to the counter with that cover? Nonetheless, i think it’s probably the most common way to introduce a female character. Spider-man, on the other hand, gets to open with an action scene. If the bad (though it is technically proficient) art wasn’t enough, the dialogue absolutely stinks. “I called in sick today to tail a gaggle of pushers who were spotted in my neck of the woods the night the honor-roller bought it.” “…the honor-roller bought it”? This type of dialogue is appropriate for a hard-nosed detective type, (actually it mainly sounds like Ron Zimmerman trying to write a hard-nosed detective type) but it doesn’t sound at all like Spider-man. Part of the problem is trying to fit all that exposition into a few lines of narration (maybe if you’d spent less time in the shower with Felicia you could’ve actually shown it…) and part of the problem, i think, is that while Smith knows that Spider-man is supposed to be funny, he’s not getting that Spider-man is irreverent bugs bunny type funny (and Smith gets it right during the fight with the thugs by actually channeling bugs), not callously howard stern funny (calling people “Spanky” and lines like “Pardon my crotch.” don’t work for the same reason). All of this on top of a fairly mundane plot. Yawwwn. Smith’s Daredevil was brilliant. What’s going on?
Spider-Man’s Tangled Web # 15
Folks, when you send in a submission, try to have a plot in mind, please? It just makes the comic a whole lot less pointless. And “Girl who likes spider-man finds out that her dad is a super-villain” just isn’t enough. The art fits the setting. Grim and gritty. *shrug* This is the price you pay for anthology titles. Hit and miss.
X-Force #129
Allred is missing, and the issue stumbles just a bit because of it. His crisp lines help make the satire in this book work. The fill-in artist is good, but his characters look surly, disgruntled, and disheveled, which is a fair way to describe the characters, but it sort of takes the satire out and makes it feel a little too angsty instead. Part of the problem, i think, is that Fegredo is trying to draw in the X-Force style. Page 3, panel 2, for example, looks especially like Allred laid it out. Fedrego is still a pretty good artist, and maybe if he chose to (or was allowed to) draw this in his own style, it would look better. Still the art is far from bad, and the story as usual, is excellent. The usual cynical, spoiled celebrity stuff and ridiculous mutant powers mixed in with some real character interaction and development, all while building up the subplots. Great. |