Smallville #7

March 13, 2004

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Chronicle & Parenthood

Chloe Sullivan gets a visitor that dredges up a case from the past.

Writer: Clint Carpenter
Pencils: Tom Derenick & Tom Grummett
Inks: Adam DeKraker & Kevin Conrad
Colors: Guy Major & Trish Mulvihill
Letters: Rob Leigh
Editor: Tom Palmer Jr.
Cover Art: John Van Fleet
Publisher: DC Comics

DC comics and the WB network begin a multimedia assault with a story that picks up a thread from a season one episode of Smallville, continues on the show’s website and will wrap up two months from now in the next issue of the comic book. If you’re going to do a story like that, this is the way to do it – “Chronicle” is a story that has a fairly satisfying ending to it, even if you don’t decide to log on to the website and check out how it continues, but the option to keep reading is there if you want it.

A man arrives on Chloe’s doorstep with new information about the mysterious “Level Three” that Luthorcorp moved out of Smallville under mysterious circumstances. Chloe and Clark go out to investigate. In a back-up story, Jonathan and Martha Kent get stranded on the side of the road due to a series of Clark-related mishaps. The backup is a quick funny story with a predictably sappy ending, but in the context of the television show it works fairly well.

It’s always a challenge, when adapting a TV show or movie, to draw characters that resemble the real actors without completely surrendering the storytelling needs of a comic book. Tom Derenick does a great job with this – his characters look enough like Allison Mack and Tom Welling to remind us that there is a TV show but he never sacrifices the conventions of comic storytelling. Tom Grummett isn’t quite as successful at this – his faces, especially John Schneider as Jonathan Kent, tend to be a bit over-detailed, but overall, the story looks all right.

This issue also includes a few text pieces – an article about visual effects on the program, the beginning of the season two episode guide and a weird “Voices From the Future” report that uses that annoying internet technique of substituting numbers for letters. You’re welcome to try to decipher it if you want – I got frustrated in two sentences.

This is a decent comic book, but I don’t think it gets used to its fullest potential. I’ve never seen an issue outside of comic book stores. This should be out there on magazine racks where kids and teenagers who watch the TV show can find it, read it and hopefully make the transition to other comic books. It’s time DC learned how better to market the best tool for grabbing new readers they currently have.

Rating: 7/10

Common Grounds #5

August 28, 2011

Title: Where Monsters Dwell & Lovelife

Writer: Troy Hickman
Pencils: Angel Medina, Dan Jurgens
Inks: Jon Holdredge, Al Vey
Colorist: John Starr, Beth Sotelo, Guy Major
Letterer: Robin Spehar, Mark Rosian, Dennis Heisler
Cover Artist: Rodolfo Migliari
Editor: Scott Tucker
Publisher: Image Comics/Top Cow

I’ve mentioned before my love for Troy Hickman’s series Common Grounds, but it’s time for me to do it again. Back in 2004, Top Cow released this six-issue miniseries, featuring a coffee shop chain where superheroes and villains alike could come in under a banner of truce, have a cruller and a cuppa joe, and let a little steam off. Inside this concept, which is a little silly at its core, Hickman managed to tell stories of love, loss, courage, redemption, and utter terror at any given moment. It was a bravura piece of storytelling, and this issue was no different. In “Where Monsters Dine,” Hickman does a loving tribute to the silly giant monster comics Marvel turned out in the late 50s and early 60s, before Superheroes took over the company again. What does a monster do when his time is over? How does he get by in a world that’s so small? The story is funny as hell, and a little sad at the same time. In “Lovelife,” we meet the Eternal Flame. This immortal hero saves a suicide and brings him in for a heart-to-heart talk about what’s really important. This story has a humorous bent to it, but the message is far more poignant – if you’re immortal, if you watch everybody you care about grow old and die, why would you bother with love? There’s actually an answer, and it’s a good one. Hickman took all the classic superhero tropes and, in this series, used them to tell strong stories that run deep. I don’t know if he – or Top Cow – would ever return to this series, but if they did, I’d sure as hell read it.

Rating: 9/10

Red Robin #25

August 13, 2011

Title: 7 Days of Death Part Three: The Bigger Picture

Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Pencils: Marcus To
Inks: Ray McCarthy
Colorist: Guy Major
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
Cover Artist: Marcus To
Editor: Rachel Gluckstern
Publisher: DC Comics

Red Robin has been captured by the Daughters of Acheron, and the half-sister of Ra’s al Ghul himself wants to appropriate him for her own purposes. Fortunately, Tim has an ace in the hole – Cassandra Cain, alias the Black Bat. Assuming, of course, that she doesn’t kill him first.

Staring down the barrel of the DC relaunch, Fabian Nicieza seems to be using this issue to set the stage for next issue’s finale. The long-running subplot concerning Tim’s relationship with Tamara Fox reaches a conclusion, and Tim takes a few major steps towards establishing himself as his own hero. Ironically, this is just the sort of thing that you would expect to see if the book was continuing on – the establishment of his own headquarters, vehicles, and arsenal to allow him to operate more independently of Batman, Inc. It’s really rather curious, and it’ll be interesting to see if the final issue gives closure to that sort of thing, or if it’s one of the (sadly, many) threads of plot throughout the DC Universe that will remain frayed when the universe shifts on August 31.

Tim and Cassandra’s relationship is the centerpiece of this issue, and it actually works very well. There’s a real feel of connectivity to them, but not the sort of forced romance some people would expect. The relationship has a sibling quality to it, like Tim and Cass are both the middle children who have been kind of cut loose to fend for themselves as the eldest are already established and the youngest need most of the nurturing at this point.

Marcus To continues to show himself to be a workhorse superstar, delivering solid artwork dependably month after month after month.

It’s good that Tim will still have a showcase after the relaunch, with Teen Titans, but I’ll miss seeing him in his own series, and I’ll miss Nicieza’s version of the character. It’s worked well.

Rating: 8/10

DC Comics Presents Metal Men #1

August 1, 2011

Writers: Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Bob Haney
Pencils: Kevin Maguire, Tim Levins
Inks: Mark Farmer, Dan Davis
Colorist: Guy Major, James Sinclair
Letterer: Nick J. Napolitano, Ken Lopez, Travis Lanham
Editor: Elisabeth V. Gehrlein, Dan Raspler
Cover Art: Kevin Maguire
Publisher: DC Comics

I do love the DC Comics Presents format – inexpensive collections of short story arcs, reprints of old original graphic novels, or in this case, collecting a series of back-up stories that would probably never fill out a graphic novel of their own. In fact, this collection of the Metal Men stories presented in the most recent series of Doom Patrol couldn’t even fill up the 100 pages, so DC tossed in a Metal Men story from 2000’s Silver Age event to fill up the book.

The Silver Age story, written by Bob Haney, is more a curiosity than anything else. In this event, the Justice League had had their brains forcibly switched into the bodies of their enemies, and the Metal Men teamed up with Batman (controlled by the Penguin) in a race to capture Felix Faust and Catwoman (really Green Arrow and Black Canary). This story, originally presented in Silver Age: The Brave and the Bold #1, is interesting, but seems to have been chosen primarily because it was drawn by Kevin Maguire, who drew most of the other Metal Men tales in this volume.

After that, we get into the short stories. The Metal Men have moved into a small town where they’re desperate to prove themselves assets to the community, despite the fact that nobody seems to want them there, they come under attack by the now-insane star of their favorite TV show, and none of them can seem to remember the name of their newest member (Copper). Giffen and DeMatteis, legendary for their comedic take on the Justice League in the 80s and 90s, bring that same comedic sensibility to these stories, and with their old artistic collaborator Kevin Maguire along for the ride, the comics couldn’t be better.

Were I judging this only on the basis of the story and art, the book would get a solid 9/10. But unfortunately, somebody made a drastic, terrible mistake. The page reproduction of everything after the Silver Age reprint is terrible. The pages are pixilated and blurry. In fact, the only thing that comes in clear are the words and text. This sort of production error would be disastrous even from a small press title, but in a book from DC Comics, it’s unforgivable. This should have been caught and fixed before the book ever made it to comic shop shelves, and the fact that it didn’t ruins what should have been an excellent reading experience.

Rating: 7/10

Robin (1993 Series) #125

April 21, 2004

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: In the Shadow of Two Fathers

Jack Drake has learned his son’s secret… will it be the end of Robin?

Writer: Bill Willingham
Pencils: Francisco Rodriguez De La Fuente
Inks: Aaron Sowd
Colors: Guy Major
Letters: Nick Napolitano
Editor: Michael Wright
Cover Art: Jason Pearson
Publisher: DC Comics

Did I say Bill Willingham had a slow start on this title? Man, has he made up for it. Last issue Jack Drake figured out one of the best-kept secrets on the planet: the secret identities of Batman and Robin. This issue, he confronts them, and Tim Drake’s career as Robin is at stake.

Let’s give Willingham credit for a major-league fake out here. He had everyone believing that the much-ballyhooed news that a new Robin will debut in issue #126 had something to do with Tim’s guilt over the apparent death of Johnny Warlock. Nope. He went somewhere else entirely, somewhere that works better for the characters and that makes for one of the best issues of Robin I’ve ever read.

Willingham has all of these characters spot-on. There’s a particularly good sequence where Alfred suggests ways to deal with the discovery that split my sides. Even in an issue as heady as this one, the writer finds room for fun, and Robin should be the fun character in the Batman mythos.

Would that the artwork was as good as the writing. I’m very grateful that Damian Scott will take over the penciling chores next month, because the De La Fuente/Sowd team has been up and down, and this issue is way, way down. Poses are awkward, faces are mangled, and in a few scenes they even drift into what appears to be the sort of idiomatic language that appears in manga comic books, but has no place in this one. I wish someone could take this book and redraw it from panel one because the fantastic script deserves better artwork.

If the story in this issue is any indication of what is to come, Robin fans are in for a hell of a ride. I still don’t believe Tim’s departure will be permanent, but the story that brings him back promises to be a great one.

Rating: 8/10

 

Green Arrow (2001 Series) #51

June 7, 2005

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: Anarky in the USA

When a bomber hits Star City, Green Arrow comes face-to-face with Anarky.

Writer: James Peaty
Pencils: Eric Battle
Inks: Jack Purcell
Colors: Guy Major
Letters: Phil Balsman
Editor: Bob Schreck
Cover Art: James Jean
Publisher: DC Comics

Is this fill-in week at DC? First Gotham Central, then this one-off story where none of the regular creators chime in and none of the regular storylines are progressed.

When a highly-populated arts plaza is blown up, the clues point to the vigilante named Anarky, and Green Arrow sets off to bring him in. Once he’s convinced that the young man is being framed, however, the two set off on a tenuous partnership to bring in the real bombers.

It’s a decent enough team-up story, as far as they go, but the main premise is kind of hard to swallow. First, that Green Arrow would suddenly decide that Anarky is innocent not based on any evidence but just on a “feeling,” and second, that he would work with a known terrorist, whether he shares many of his anti-establishment viewpoints or not.

Eric Battle’s artwork is pretty good this issue. He handles the two main characters fairly well, at least in costume, but for some reason the expressions on Anarky’s face whenever he’s unmasked make him look like he isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, if you know what I mean.

In the end, things are done up a bit too quickly and things settled a bit too neatly. And again, Green Arrow seems way too comfortable with his impromptu partner.

I can’t really recommend this issue, but I won’t tear it apart either. It’s all right, but the plot holes are things that really could have been patched up very easily, and that’s a big problem.

Rating: 6/10

Action Comics #820

October 10, 2004

Quick Rating: Average
Title: Wail of the Banshee

The Silver Banshee returns for a face-off with the Creeper.

Writer: Chuck Austen
Art: Carlos D’Anda
Colors: Guy Major
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover Art: Joyce Chin & Arthur Adams
Publisher: DC Comics

First, the good news: this is not nearly as bad as the last several issues of Action Comics have been. The bad news, though, is that the reason it’s not as bad is because Superman barely appears in it. This is a Creeper story, with Superman making a cameo appearance as a deus ex machina which, when you consider the number of cancelled series the Creeper has left in his wake, is clearly what the readers were clamoring for.

The Silver Banshee returns this issue, securing a new human host. For some reason, this gives her a tongue longer than Gene Simmons, which she uses for various attempts at sexual innuendo, which has never exactly been a character trait she has exhibited before. She has no particular plan in this return, she just distracts Superman enough that he won’t be bothering her then walks around asking people to be afraid of her, at which point the Creeper shows up and obliges her.

Carlos D’Anda’s guest artwork works fairly well for this issue. He and Guy Major cast a dark, disturbing pallor across the comic that works with the frightening atmosphere the Banshee is intended to convey. They even manage to put Superman in this world without compromising the visual integrity of the character, which isn’t easy. As usual, it’s the artwork that elevates this issue.

In the end we get an epilogue that promises the return of a villain most readers were sick and tired of about ten years ago, and although there appears to be an attempt at putting a twist on him, it’s a twist that has been tried before and failed to make him any more interesting.

I imagine this was the Superman crew’s effort at a Halloween story this year. It could have been worse, but it could have been a lot better, too, which is something I find myself saying quite a bit these days.

Rating: 5/10

Action Comics #819

September 5, 2004

Quick Rating: Awful
Title: Sodom and Gomorrah

Clark and Lana have a little heart-to-heart.

Writer: Chuck Austen
Pencils: Ivan Reis & Joe Prado
Inks: Marc Campos & Jon Sibal
Colors: Guy Major
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover Art: Arthur Adams
Publisher: DC Comics

The two most frequent complaints you’ll hear about Chuck Austen’s writing is that 1) it is repetitive and 2) his characterization of women is, shall we say, one-sided? People make these complaints over and over again, and I’m a bit reluctant to say it some times. But after this issue, which is a textbook example of everything that could possibly be done wrong with these two characters, I feel that sometimes you’ve just got to call ‘em like you see ‘em, without any effort at sugarcoating.

This issue Superman, still recuperating from the beating he’s taken over the last few issues, is being “nursed back to health” by his old girlfriend, Lana Lang. However, this is not the Lana Lang we have read about in every comic book since the Superman revamp in 1986. This is a Lana Lang who wears short-shorts and belly shirts, takes childish, petty pot-shots at a woman who isn’t around to defend herself, and throws herself at a married man who has made it clear for years that he is not interested. This is the worst part of this issue, Chuck Austen is tearing two decades of characterization to shreds for the sake of a trite, clichéd plotline that would seem dull and redundant in an episode of Days of Our Lives, let alone in a Superman comic book.

Everything touched upon in this issue, every single character point, is something that has been discussed ad nauseum for years now, and has been resolved for a very long time. Lana has grown up, Lana has moved on. Anybody else still obsessing over a high school boyfriend this many years later would be told to go to therapy, not presented as a sympathetic heroine. This smacks of a writer artificially generating storylines by dredging up things that others have already done – and better – because nothing else is coming to mind. Lana in this issue is spiteful and petty, spitting out specious arguments about Lois Lane and putting forth reasoning that anybody who has actually read the storylines where these characters’ relationships were defined would know is completely untrue.

The book is intercut with a fight scene with the two cleverly-named adversaries Sodom and Gomorrah, a fight made more difficult by the fact that Superman’s powers are fluctuating uncontrollably, as predicted by the doctors at S.T.A.R. Labs (which is a pretty impressive feat, seeing as how two issues ago they were complaining that they didn’t know a bloody thing about Kryptonian physiology).

Even the artwork, usually the saving grace of this title suffers this issue under guest-penciller Prado, who seems to handle the Clark/Lana scenes while Reis does the fight scenes. Reis’s scenes are fine, but Prado’s are half cheesecake.

If I wasn’t reviewing this issue, I don’t know if I could have read it through to the end. By the time I got to the eight-page Bionicle ad section in the middle, I was begging for it to be over. These aren’t the characters I love. These aren’t even characters I like. These are boring, petty people, and I’m tired of seeing them in this book month after month.

Rating: 2/10

52 #8

June 29, 2006

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Thief

A new hero appears, old heroes reunite and John Henry Irons begins a chilling transformation.

Writers: Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid & Dan Jurgens
Breakdowns: Keith Giffen
Pencils: Eddy Barrows & Dan Jurgens
Inks: Rob Stull & Andy Lanning
Colors: Alex Sinclair, Jeromy Cox & Guy Major
Letters: Travis Lanham & Nick J. Napolitano
Editors: Stephen Wacker, Eddie Berganza, Ivan Cohen & Jeanine Schaefer
Cover Art: J.G. Jones & Alex Sinclair
Publisher: DC Comics

Review: There’s an awful lot going on in this week’s issue of 52, and as much of it involves Steel, that makes me a very happy camper. John Henry Irons is beginning to exhibit symptoms of a very bizarre transformation, and a checkup at S.T.A.R. Labs proves his worst fears realized. At the same time his niece, Natasha, fed up with trying to build her own armor to replace the one John Henry took from her, begins to ponder Lex Luthor’s metagene project.

Meanwhile, Ralph Dibney recruits an old friend to help his investigation into the Cult of Conner, Booster Gold defends himself to the media, a new superhero appears in Metropolis and the space trio of Adam Strange, Animal Man and Starfire run across a new threat. It’s hard to imagine how any comic could pack more story into such a relatively short page length.

The Steel stuff continues to be my favorite aspect of 52. John Henry is one of my favorite DC characters, and seeing him face off against Lex Luthor in Superman’s absence is immensely satisfying. Natasha’s “teenage rebellion” story arc is working as well, and between the two of them it seems like Steel’s corner of Superman’s universe is in for some major changes.

Ralph’s storyline this issue also gives us a lot to go on, as we see the planting of some of one of the best “One Year Later” storylines so far. The new hero that arrives this issue only makes a quick, mysterious appearance that helps build up the drama surrounding him.

Eddy Barrows’s pencils this issue are quite an improvement over the last couple of issues – while Keith Giffen’s layouts help this book maintain a consistent look no matter who the penciller is, some will invariably be better than others, and I like what Barrows does here.

As for Dan Jurgens’s “History of the DC Universe” segment… well… I’m a Jurgens fan from way back, but I just can’t wring any enjoyment out of this feature. It’s just treading water, going over stuff that long-time readers already know and new readers will just be confused by. It’s wasted potential all around. I’m just glad there are only three weeks left before we finish it off and move on to the origin stories that will make up the rest of this title’s run.

Rating: 8/10

Action Comics #818

August 7, 2004

Quick Rating: Below Average
Title: Enemies as Numerous as Grains of Sand

An army of bad guys is after a weakened Superman – can he take them out?

Writer: Chuck Austen
Pencils: Ivan Reis
Inks: Marc Campos
Colors: Guy Major
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover Art: Arthur Adams
Publisher: DC Comics

There are a lot of things to like about this issue. Ivan Reis is quickly solidifying his position as one of the best Superman artists in years. The character is bold and proud, the action scenes are great. He may look a little blocky at points, but it’s never too bad to get around and the title is a real joy to look at, from the fantastic pages to a really great cover by the legendary Arthur Adams.

But none of this art will help the story in this issue.

Superman, having been shot with Kryptonite, heads out in the streets to fight an army of superpowered thugs who heard of his weakened state and want to take advantage of the situation to, hopefully, take out the man of steel once and for all. Most of the issue is a fight scene, which is often where Chuck Austen shows his strengths. Not this time.

The version of Superman in this issue is so cocky as to be completely unbelievable. As he’s being shot (not shot at, shot, with actual holes and wounds appearing in his body), he’s standing there cracking jokes. He appears out of nowhere, delivers powerhouse punches, and basically stands around looking tough. It goes way too far. Clearly, the intent here is to make Superman look like a real contender, a bit grittier than the “boy scout.” Instead, it’s just impossible to swallow.

The worst comes as he’s hovering above the villains and talks about “you human beings.” It’s condescending. It’s belittling. It’s the speech of a man who considers himself above other people. It’s not Superman.

Then, as the dust settles, we take a left turn from the fight scene right into the soap opera, with Superboy asking probing questions of Wonder Woman, delving into issues that were settled years ago. And then we get a surprise last-page “shocker” which – again – digs up issues that were settled years ago.

There’s nothing new in this issue, and the stuff that is here was mostly put to rest a very long time ago. It’s not working. The artwork is the real saving grace of this title – I’ve become a big fan of Ivan Reis and Marc Campos. Right now, they’re the best thing Superman has going for him.

Rating: 4/10