Hard Time #2

Quick Rating: Good
Title: The Big House

Ethan Harrow begins his 50-to-life sentence… and prison life will live up to the name of this series.

Writer: Steve Gerber
Art: Brian Hurtt
Colors: Brian Haberlin
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Joan Hilty
Cover Art: Tomer Hanuka
Publisher: DC Focus

In our first issue Ethan Harrow was given 50 to life in the state pen for a murder he didn’t, technically, commit. Twice, however, a strange power erupted from his body with deadly results. Without knowing what this power is or, perhaps, without even knowing it exists, Ethan prepares to spend the rest of his life in prison.

The superpowered aspect of this title does come into play in this issue, but not until late. Most of the book is about Ethan’s life in prison, and that much is fairly standard stuff for a prison drama. We get the grizzled old con, the inmate who tries to give him advice, the whimpering newcomer and the nasty thugs who make rape a recreational activity when behind bars. It’s all done okay, but it’s all stuff we’ve seen before.

The artwork by Brian Hurtt is pretty good – each con has a distinctive look and each character can be told from all the others pretty easily. Artwise, though, the star of this issue has to be Brian Haberlin with the colors – he uses very few colors but he uses all of them to their best effect. Outside scenes are orange, prison scenes are blue, and scenes of anger, violence and power are all in shades of red. The art team on this book makes a rather run-of-the-mill script a lot better.

Steve Gerber has an interesting idea – the superpowered teenager in prison for the rest of his life – but I have serious doubts as to whether there is enough in this idea to sustain an ongoing series. Fans of the book, or of Gerber himself, will most certainly hope there is. For their sake, I hope he fills those promises.

Rating: 7/10

Hard Time #2

February 28, 2004

Quick Rating: Good
Title: The Big House

Ethan Harrow begins his 50-to-life sentence… and prison life will live up to the name of this series.

Writer: Steve Gerber
Art: Brian Hurtt
Colors: Brian Haberlin
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Joan Hilty
Cover Art: Tomer Hanuka
Publisher: DC Focus

In our first issue Ethan Harrow was given 50 to life in the state pen for a murder he didn’t, technically, commit. Twice, however, a strange power erupted from his body with deadly results. Without knowing what this power is or, perhaps, without even knowing it exists, Ethan prepares to spend the rest of his life in prison.

The superpowered aspect of this title does come into play in this issue, but not until late. Most of the book is about Ethan’s life in prison, and that much is fairly standard stuff for a prison drama. We get the grizzled old con, the inmate who tries to give him advice, the whimpering newcomer and the nasty thugs who make rape a recreational activity when behind bars. It’s all done okay, but it’s all stuff we’ve seen before.

The artwork by Brian Hurtt is pretty good – each con has a distinctive look and each character can be told from all the others pretty easily. Artwise, though, the star of this issue has to be Brian Haberlin with the colors – he uses very few colors but he uses all of them to their best effect. Outside scenes are orange, prison scenes are blue, and scenes of anger, violence and power are all in shades of red. The art team on this book makes a rather run-of-the-mill script a lot better.

Steve Gerber has an interesting idea – the superpowered teenager in prison for the rest of his life – but I have serious doubts as to whether there is enough in this idea to sustain an ongoing series. Fans of the book, or of Gerber himself, will most certainly hope there is. For their sake, I hope he fills those promises.

Rating: 7/10

Fraction #1

April 21, 2004

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: All 4 One

When four old friends find an incredibly powerful suit of armor, their windfall may just tear them apart.

Writer: David Tischman
Art: Timothy Green II
Colors: Brian Haberlin
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Joan Hilty
Cover Art: Tomer Hanuka
Publisher: DC Focus

The fourth book in the new DC Focus series launches, and out of the four it is the one that defines itself the best right out of the box. Four friends are reunited as one of them is released from prison. A night of celebration changes their lives forever when they stumble across a suit of high-tech armor when breaking into a self-storage locker (presumably owned by Tony Stark). Unable to decide who actually owns the armor (the person who rents the locker not being a candidate) they each take home a component until they can figure out what to do with their newfound fortune.

This is a book with no heroes, at least in the first issue. All four of our protagonists are greedy, selfish and quick to anger, even against each other. The Fraction of the title appears to have a double meaning, referring both to the fact that the armor is broken up and spread out amongst the four of them and the fact that the very presence of the armor causes rifts in their friendship and threatens to rip them apart. It’s a dark book, but it’s a fairly well-written one.

Although Brian Haberlin has kept a consistent and, frankly, monotonous color palette for use throughout the DC Focus line, Timothy Green’s artwork seems to suit it better than the other three titles. He uses a style similar to a slightly more detailed Scott Kolins, and Haberlin injects a bit more color than he has in the other titles, spiking the reds, purples and blues with the occasional yellow and green to set them off. Overall, while the other Focus books all tend to look alike, this one stands out a bit.

While this book managed to define itself strongly right out of the box, it also leaves itself wide open at the end. There’s no way to tell where it’s going to go next, and when you get right down to it, that’s probably the best thing it has going for it.

Rating: 6/10

Kinetic #1

March 20, 2004

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: Superzero

Sickly… shunned… could Tom Morell’s life get any worse?

Writer: Kelley Puckett
Art: Warren Pleece
Colors: Brian Haberlin
Letters: Rob Leigh
Editor: Matt Idelson
Cover Art: Tomer Hakuna
Publisher: DC Focus

Review: The second comic in the new DC Focus line is a bit less focused (no pun intended) than the first. In the premiere issue of Hard Time we met our characters, had the situation set up and got our first taste of what otherworldly elements the book would contain. This book does the first two, but doesn’t reach the third.

Tom Morell suffers from over a dozen major diseases. He needs a regular regimen of medication and injections, his right arm is essentially dead, and his mother spends all her time doting on him, babying him, and making him feel like even more of an outcast than he already does. This first issue seems to be a pretty typical day in his life, with his mother nagging him about his health, dealing with cruel schoolmates, until he meets the new girl in school who hasn’t prejudged him yet.

Even with that brief bright spot, his day gets worse and worse until we reach a major cliffhanger ending. Tom’s only escape, it seems is a superhero comic called Kinetic, but we never get a sense of why he reads it or what it’s about.

Warren Pleece employs a style very similar to the style used in Hard Time, and colorist Brian Haberlin uses the same color palette, making it look very similar. While the attempt is clearly to give the DC Focus books a unified feel and tone, it may be unifying them a bit too much, taking away any distinction they may have in favor of a house style.

This issue is 100 percent set-up with no payoff at all. Kelley Puckett creates a tortured, interesting and sympathetic character, but there’s no way of knowing where this book is headed, and that’s a feel you should have by the end of the first issue. Hopefully the story will take off in issue two and the title can begin to find its feet – and its audience.

Rating: 6/10

Hard Time #1

February 2, 2004

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: 50 to Life

One mistake has ruined Ethan Harrow’s life… and something else may change the world.

Writer: Steve Gerber
Art: Brian Hurtt
Colors: Brian Haberlin
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Joan Hilty
Cover Art: Tomer Hanuka
Publisher: DC Focus

This title launches the new DC Focus imprint, a line of comic books about a standard, non-superpowered universe where people begin getting superpowers. It’s a concept that has been tried in comic books many times before (can anyone say New Universe?), and has usually failed, but this first issue has enough going for it that Focus may have a shot.

I won’t be quite as concerned about spoilers as I usually am, since the title of this comic book is the biggest spoiler for the end of this issue you could give. Ethan is talked by a friend of his into participating in a mock “school shooting,” planning just to give a scare to the kids who torment them on a daily basis. He doesn’t know his friend intends to take things to a deadly end, though, and when bullets begin flying a strange power erupts from Ethan and the incident ends in a rain of blood.

This first issue didn’t really overwhelm me, mainly because the spectre of Columbine has been brought up time and again in pop culture lately, and it bothers me when someone uses a real-world tragedy as a launching point when it doesn’t feel 100 percent necessary to the story… there are a lot of ways that Ethan could have arrived at the endpoint of this issue. Social commentary is all well and good, but this does feel a bit exploitative at points.

The good mostly outweighs the bad, though. You do find yourself interested in Ethan and what’s going to happen to him… not to mention what did happen to put himself in such a position in the first place. From his social standing in school to the bizarre, brutal power he manifests, there is much more to this young man than meets the eye.

Hurtt has a very unusual style, something that’s kind of cartoony and sketchy, and combined with great colors by Haberlin this book has a feel of an independent comic with better production values.

For those of you interested, this book also contains previews of the next few DC Focus releases – but this issue by itself is interesting enough to grab one’s attention. The problems in this book can easily be overcome with good writing in the next few issues. If you’re looking for something different, give this one a shot.

Rating: 6/10

Touch #1

April 12, 2004

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Contractual Obligations

Rory Goodman is a genuine superman – strong, generous and a national hero. But who is the power behind the media golden boy?

Writer: John Francis Moore
Pencils: Wes Craig
Inks: Prentis Rollins
Colors: Avalon Studios
Letters: Rob Leigh
Editor: Matt Idelson
Cover Art: Tomer Hanuka
Publisher: DC Focus

The third title in DC’s new line about “real world” people getting super powers begins with a bang. Rory Goodman is a high-powered hero, a super-strongman, a one-man rescue operation and a media darling. He’s a puppet, though, controlled by Cooper Santiago, the sleazy guy behind Supernova Solutions, a firm that sells out superhuman services.

This first issue is a focus on the relationship between these two, an examination of how Cooper controls Rory with the bargaining chip of his wife’s death, for which Rory feels responsible. Things begin to devolve as the issue progresses, and by the end it is clear that things were not as they seemed.

It’s a good story, if not wholly original, but there’s promise for some good storytelling down the line. Moore is a good writer, and he should be able to craft an entertaining story from some pretty familiar elements.

John Francis Moore is a solid writer, but the art style in this comic leaves me kind of flat. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with it, but the muted color palette and the funky lettering style make it look the same as every other DC Focus title. The line is carving out an identity at the cost of each individual title being allowed to be an individual.

DC Focus is an interesting experiment, but somehow I don’t see it lasting very long, not due to weakness of the titles, but because of the house style that will hold it back.

Rating: 7/10