Human Target (2003 Series) #4

November 18, 2003

Quick Rating: Great
Title: The Set-Up Man (Take Me Out to the Ballgame Part One)

Christopher Chance goes undercover as a professional baseball player to get to the bottom of a gambling scandal.

Writer: Peter Milligan
Art: Javier Pulido
Colors: Javier Rodriguez
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Karen Berger
Cover Art: Javier Pulido
Publisher: DC Comics/Vertigo

I am only sparsely familiar with the old DC Universe incarnations of Christopher Chance, the master of disguise who poses as men marked for death, and this is my first exposure to the new Vertigo version, but I must say I am highly impressed. Chance, in this issue, poses as a player for the New Yorkers baseball team to discover why an all-star committed suicide.

Virtually every sports movie ever made all boils down to whether or not the team (or star) will win the Big Game. The mark of a good sports movie is whether or not you actually care about it by the time that game comes. This issue combines the best aspects of a good crime drama with the best aspects of a good sports movie – by the end of the issue I was not only anxious to find out what happened next, but downright frustrated at exactly where Milligan chose to end this month’s tale – at the moment of maximum suspense, of course.

I’m of two minds about Pulido’s artwork. His style is very good, suitably gritty without being too dark, and Rodriguez’s colors stay with a dull palette that fit the story well. The problem comes when Pulido attempts to play with panel layout – he experiments with panel size and shape, with blank space, all of which are good things, but he doesn’t quite have the mastery to experiment to the extent he does. There are several pages of important dialogue where it’s somewhat difficult to figure out what order to read the word balloons in.

This comic book has done the most important thing a comic book can – it got someone who hadn’t read any previous issues excited to read the next. What more can you want from a monthly comic?

Rating: 9/10

Monster War TPB

January 15, 2007

Quick Rating: Good

The Top Cow heroes go to war with the most famous monsters of all time.

Writers: Christopher Golden & Tom Sniegowski
Art: Joyce Chin & Victor Ishimura
Colors: Scott Kester
Letters: Troy Peteri
Series Covers: Marc Silvestri, Joseph Michael Linsner, Joyce Chin, Eric and Rick Basaldua
Cover Art: Marc Silvestri (Cover A); Joseph Michael Linsner (Cover B)
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment/Top Cow

Last year, in one of the more innovative crossover concepts I’ve seen in a while, Dynamite Entertainment pieced together a four-issue adventure utilizing properties it calls the “Classic Monsters” (Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, Wolf-Men and Mr. Hyde) in a battle with four of Top Cow’s top properties, Magdelena, Tomb Raider, Witchblade and The Darkness. I’m not really a big fan of the Top Cow characters, but the concept intrigued me, so when they put out the collected edition, I decided to take a look.

Written by Christopher Golden and Tom Sniegowski with art by Joyce Chin and Victor Ishimura, the story actually comes up with a pretty organic way to draw all these disparate characters together. Magedlena has a vision that leads her to a crypt where she finds Mr. Hyde – somehow separated from Dr. Jekyll – about to resurrect the inert form of Vlad Tepes, alias Count Dracula. Her pure, sanctified blood turns out to be just the thing to give Drac a quick pick-me-up, and it begins to turn her as well.

She’s rescued by Lara Croft (the Tomb Raider) and her companion, Dr. Henry Jekyll. Jekyll and Croft had encountered each other earlier while both trailing the freed Hyde, who ventured into the Arctic circle to free Frankenstein’s monster. Now, with Magdelena turning, Lara sets out to find the Necrotic Orchid – the one herb that can reverse a vampire’s curse. The Orchid, unfortunately, is guarded by a legion of Wolf-Men.

Meanwhile, Hyde, Dracula and the Monster have made their way to New York for the last element Hyde needs for his plan – a chunk of the Witchblade. Sara Pezzini, bearer of the Witchblade, and her uneasy ally Jackie Estacado (the Darkness) are drawn into battle. The final plot is driven by a fairly logical motivation for the monsters, and showing the four heroes (or anti-hero in the case of the Darkness) in battle is actually quite exciting. The monsters even take it a step further, bringing in a dash of Cthulu at the end.

The artwork actually varies considerably. Not being particularly familiar with either artist’s style, I can’t quite tell who drew which chapters, but I can definitely tell when the changes take place. Some of the chapters are drawn with a lighter touch – more of a penciled, unfinished look, which actually works very well for the story. Other chapters are more finished, heavily inked, which is fine in and of itself, but it makes for a drastic contrast that may be distracting for some readers.

This is a pretty good horror story overall, one that works well especially if you’re a fan of the Top Cow characters. The “Classic Monsters” are fun to read about in their own right. I can’t imagine Dynamite would have worked on this crossover if there wasn’t an intention of using the Monsters elsewhere, but to the best of my knowledge, that hasn’t been done yet. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to set them up in some new horror tales, though, if a proper hero could be found to stand against their evil.

Rating: 7/10

Avengers/JLA #3

October 27, 2003

Dual Review By: Mike D’Alfonso & Blake Petit
Quick Rating: Great, Great
Story Title: Book Two: A Contest of Champions

JLA versus The Avengers – ‘Nuff Said!

Written by: Kurt Busiek
Art by: George Perez
Colored by: Tom Smith
Lettered by: Comicraft
Editors: Tom Brevoort, Dan Raspler, and Mike Carlin
Publisher: Marvel & DC Comics

With the fate of two universes in peril as a result of a cosmic gamble between Krona and the Grandmaster, The Avengers and the JLA are purposely drawn into battle amongst themselves to satisfy their whims. With both Universes at risk, will both teams realize what’s at risk? Reviewers Mike D’Alfonso and Blake Petit give their two cents on what they thought about the book.

BLAKE: Busiek and Perez’s epic crossover continues, and they’ve managed to completely shift the focus of the book from the first issue, while still throwing in all the fight scenes fans have been salivating for.

MIKE: To some extent, it is good to change the dynamic of power of some of the core participants such as The Flash and the Scarlet Witch. When The Flash enters the Marvel Universe, he loses his connection to the “Speed Force”, while Scarlet Witch’s “Hex” increases to godlike proportions in the DC Universe.

BLAKE: Which helped to balance things a bit — Quicksilver actually has a fighting chance against The Flash in his own universe, while the Scarlet Witch can hold her own against DC’s magical giants.

The Flash’s characterization in this issue also speaks to the strength of Busiek’s writing — it was spot-on. Almost all of them were, actually.

MIKE: Busiek’s interpretation sort of reminds me of how Mark Waid portrayed the character back when he wrote the character. It almost seems flawless.

BLAKE: Their styles are quite similar, you’re right.

Yet another reason I’d like to see Busiek writing some of the DC icons on a regular basis.

MIKE: Another point that needs mentioning is the focal point to this debacle. I think the whole cosmic melee scenario has been used a lot of late as the main catalyst to any conflict. It seems a little played out.

BLAKE: Perhaps, but with an event of this scale, something of such danger that you need both the Avengers and the Justice League, a cosmic-level threat is really the only thing big enough. Otherwise it would just seem like overkill.

MIKE: I suppose that is true in some instances, but I just don’t really like the scavenger hunt angle that much.

BLAKE: I can understand that, but I think this issue proves that the scavenger hunt is just a small part of the story. There’s a lot more going on, which boils down to a couple of great villains.

I must confess, I’m really glad to see Krona, one of my favorite old-school Green Lantern villains, getting used to such a great end in this book.

MIKE: In a way that is most appropriate considering the fact that he almost destroyed the DC Universe.

Grandmaster works as a great antagonist as well, and it’s kind of ironic that he acts as a protagonist as well.

BLAKE: That’s true — much of the action comes down to him.

Of course, there are a lot of good character moments as well — the scene with Captain America in the Bat Cave, for instance. Busiek draws on the parallel pasts of the characters to show how these heroes, even though they are a world a part, are in many ways bonded.

MIKE: Their methods of fighting crime may differ from one another; however, they both want to assure that they can safeguard mankind in anyway they can.

The parallel is similar to Superman and Batman.

BLAKE: Naturally, it is the two most clear-headed members of the teams that realize this while the others deliver the slugfests that so many of us paid the admission for.

MIKE: Which brings us to the art aspect of the book.

BLAKE: Yes — Perez, as we’ve said before, is the perfect choice to draw all of these characters, but he also draws some spectacular fight sequences as well, tracing locales all over both universes and nearly every living hero that’s ever been a member of either team.

Including three Fantastic Four members — a nice nod from Busiek.

MIKE: Well they were part of the team in one form or another over the years.

BLAKE: Except for the Human Torch.

Energy effects, magic, reflective surfaces, a beautiful fight in the rain — Perez gets to draw more varied kinds of scenes than I think I’ve ever seen in a single comic before.

MIKE: Yeah I would have to agree. Bar none he is quite adept to using visual effects to enhance the quality of any book he is involved in.

The one background that totally blew me away was the Grandmaster’s headquarters. This would totally give the readers an idea of what is at stake for the two teams.

BLAKE: Indeed — it makes you wonder exactly what his scheme is and how long he’s been scheming it. I think I even saw a few Vertigo artifacts in there.

MIKE: The one disturbing visual that stood in my mind was the “Infinity Gauntlet” in the hands of Darkseid. I truly believe that if he held on to it long enough and came over to the Marvel Universe, he would do what Thanos could not: destroy the entire galaxy and remake it in his image.

BLAKE: That was absolutely chilling. Even the Marvel characters recognized it — Hawkeye had a great line there.

And of course, the cosmic battle across the last few pages nearly seared the pages with the amount of energy Perez was throwing around. The scope of the threat is really made clear in this book.

MIKE: It just goes to show you that he is not limited by the restrictions that hinder a lot of artists in this field. Perez shows the readers that such restrictions should not hinder any artist at their chosen craft.

BLAKE: Yeah — there is no doubt that this is an artist who is deservedly an inspiration towards the current generation.

He’s been doing it longer than most people still in the game, and he’s still better than most of them too.

MIKE: All in all, the event that every fan has dreamed of is made into reality. With heart stopping action and superbly written dialogue and characterization, Avengers/JLA has everything in this book that people will not soon forget. However, as I’ve said before, the whole cosmic angle is good catalyst, but it has been too much of a theme for most of the books that are written today.

BLAKE: I think the cosmic angle is a necessary evil, and I think the strengths more than make up for it.

Mike’s Rating: 8/10

Blake’s Rating: 8/10