Somebody’s First Comic Book: Avengers (1963 Series) #189

Wondering what Somebody’s First Comic Book is all about? The explanation is on this page!

TITLE: Wings and Arrows

CREDITS:
Writer: Steven Grant (Plot by Grant, Mark Gruenwald & Roger Stern)
Penciller: John Byrne
Inks: Dan Green
Letters: Jim Novak
Colors: Ben Sean
Editor: Roger Stern
Publisher: Marvel Comics

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: I recognize Captain America, of course… saw that Thor trailer during the Superbowl. I thought Hawkeye was from MASH, though.

IMPRESSIONS: As this issue starts, the Avengers (seems to be your basic superhero team) is finishing up a mission and an old member, the Falcon, is coming back to re-join the group. But evidently, there’s some government rule that the team can only have seven members, so Hawkeye is getting kicked out.

Most of the book follows the now-unemployed Hawkeye as he attempts to find new employment as head of security for a big corporation, which just happens to be attacked by a supervillain called Deathbird. The fight scene between the two of them is pretty good, actually – a guy with a bow and arrow trying to take down a girl who can fly works out surprisingly well, and the writer gives us a very good feel for just who Hawkeye is.

In fact, even though we don’t see the rest of the team for more than a few pages each, we get to know them all pretty well. Especially Yellowjacket, the Vision, and the Scarlet Witch, all of whom are totally new characters to me. And hey, Iron Man and the Beast are in this too! I thought Beast was one of the X-Men though… anyway, we get a feel for what’s going on in all of their lives, and there are even several footnotes that seem to refer to other stories featuring these characters. Neat feature – the script gives you everything you need to know, but if you want to know more, it tells you where to look. I like that.

This was a pretty cool story. Lots of characters, although there’s really a spotlight on just one. Clearly there’s a lot of history here, but it’s nothing that’s particularly intimidating. I’d definitely read more of these characters.

GRADE: B+

CSI: Dying in the Gutters #5

January 13, 2007

Quick Rating: Good

Rick Johnston’s killer is found!

Writer: Steven Grant
Art: Stephen Mooney
Colors: Ronda Pattison
Letters: Robbie Robbins
Editor: Chris Ryall
Cover Art: CBS Photo/Robert Voets
Publisher: IDW Publishing

With their killing scenario finally completed, the CSI agents manage to narrow down their list of murder suspects considerably. Rick Johnston’s killer have planned to kill Joe Quesada, and when they find the “why,” they’ll piece together the “who.”

I have to give Steven Grant credit – he managed to give the killer in this case a motivation that really cracked me up, but not in a way that made the series itself seem like a joke. It’s more a case of the writer using some real-life threads to construct a relatively believable scenario. Rather than conjuring up some contrived in-story motivation for one of the several comic pros who – proving themselves to be pretty good sports – lent their likenesses to this story, he instead used actual events to decide why someone might want to kill Quesada, and it makes sense in the sort of twisted, TV-killer logic. (Note: I am in no way impugning the creator revealed to be a “killer” in this issue. I’m just sayin’, is all.)

The artwork, again, is another matter. I feel like a broken record when I say like this, but I think it’s a mistake for people drawing TV and movie adaptation comics to try to give us realistic portrayals of the actors. Craft your own style, make them caricatures of themselves. When the portrayal is too realistic, the poses feel forced and the facial expressions become exaggerated, as if they were culled straight from a posed photograph. That’s what happened with the art in this book – it’s a casualty of the form. I have no doubt Mooney is capable of some great work, this is just a case of an artist trying too hard.

Fortunately, the story elevates the artwork, and in the end, this miniseries really was a lot of fun. CSI fans may be left scratching their heads a bit, as the final reveal really is contingent upon a person’s knowledge of comic book minutia of the last few years, but for those in the know, it really gives the reader a smile.

Rating: 7/10

CSI: Dying in the Gutters #4

November 11, 2006

Quick Rating: Good

The Rick Johnston murder case takes a sudden turn.

Writer: Steven Grant
Art: Stephen Mooney
Colors: Ronda Pattison
Letters: Robbie Robbins
Editor: Chris Ryall
Cover Art: CBS Photo/Robert Voets
Publisher: IDW Publishing

IDW’s bizarre experiment in metafiction continues as the CSI crew’s investigation into the murder of comic book pundit Rick Johnston continues. A surprising discovery in Johnston’s personal effects sends some of the detectives in one direction, while the others continue their pursuit of their main suspect – Marvel Comics’ editor-in-chief Joe Quesada.

Reading this, just as a comic book fan, really is a lot of fun. Comic book creators – writers, artists, even editors – have a much bigger presence in the industry than ever before, and seeing the personalities we’ve gotten to know on the internet interacting in this story makes it a sweeter read. To be certain, some of the characters read more like caricatures of the actual people, but for the sake of the comic, it works pretty well.

In terms of a mystery, the twist at the end of this issue isn’t really that surprising. Even before the clues are laid out this issue, the story gives you the flavor, the idea that perhaps we’ve been barking up the wrong tree. The dialogue, fortunately, is pretty sharp and full of in-jokes that will appeal to the comic book fans in the audience (in essence, the vast majority of the audience). The b-plot, the story of a game designer who got murdered, still hasn’t tied together to the main plot, but that’s the standard CSI formula – two unrelated mysteries running concurrently – so I wouldn’t be particularly surprised if they remain separate.

Stephen Mooney’s artwork is pretty good – he has a nice, moody style that’s quite appropriate for a murder mystery. He falls prey, however, to the ever-present problem in a TV-to-comic book adaptation, where he works too hard at giving exact depictions of the actors and, as a result, gets sometimes clunky characters that don’t fit in a comic book world. The problem is magnified in this series as he not only tries to mimic the actors on the TV show, but dozens of real-life comic book professionals as well.

The CSI franchise would seem to be a comic book intended to reach out to a non-comic audience, but this one would really leave your average TV viewer perplexed. For people who watch the TV show, though, and also have their feet in the comic book world, it’s a fun read that handles the cross-pollination very well.

Rating: 7/10