New Line Cinema’s Tales of Horror #1

September 7, 2007

New Line Cinema’s Tales of Horror #1 (DC Comics/Wildstorm)
By Peter Milligan, Tom Feister, Christos N. Gage, Stefano Raffaele, Darick Robertson

After the demise of the New Line horror titles as regular ongoing comics, I rather like the idea of putting them together in an anthology book like this one. I have no idea how many issues of this title are planned, but I think it’s something that could sustain where the ongoings couldn’t. The book opens with a quick Texas Chainsaw Massacre tale by Milligan and Feister. A traveling chainsaw salesmen peeks into a home that looks promising, only to find the inhabitants a harder sell than he expected. Not a bad story, if you can get past the somewhat bizarre premise of there being such a thing as a traveling chainsaw salesman. The Nightmare on Elm Street story, by Christos Gage and Stefano Raffaele, is considerably better. Freddy Krueger is dismayed to find another murderer in Springwood stealing his gimmick, and is even more upset when he finds out the copycat fancies himself a fan. It’s interesting to see a story where Freddy is placed in more of a defensive position, and where he has to use his brains as much as his ability to terrify. I enjoyed this little book, and I hope we get more from Wildstorm.
Rating: 8/10

Ex Machina #2

July 18, 2004

Quick Rating: Average
Title: State of Emergency Chapter One

Mayor Mitchell Hundred faces a new foe… a painting.

Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Pencils: Tony Harris
Inks: Tom Feister
Colors: J.D Mettler
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Ben Abernathy
Cover Art: Tony Harris
Publisher: DC Comics/Wildstorm Signature Series

Last issue we got introduced to the Great Machine, a superhero with the power to control complex machinery. After stumbling around for a few years, he hangs up his mask, goes public and wins the mayorship of New York City. The first issue, to me, seemed to be part shock value and part political posturing, which is sure to make it a darling of a lot of critics, but doesn’t particularly endear it to me.

This issue Mitchell Hundred, now mayor of New York, faces the first crisis of his stewardship. It’s not any high-flying threat, though… it’s a much more benign crisis – an artist has created a scandalous piece of work and the wrath of the public is liable to come down on him.

I absolutely love Brian Vaughan’s work on Y: The Last Man, but I don’t like feeling like a comic is preaching to me. The first issue of this series tread that line very carefully. This isn’t isn’t as bad on that front, but it winds up committing a far more egregious crime: it’s kinda boring. Sure, the issue of using taxpayer money to fund offensive pieces of art is an important one worthy of debate, but it doesn’t make for a very good comic book. It isn’t easy to work a civics lesson into a comic book, but it could certainly have been done better than it was here.

Harris and Feister do a very good job with the art chores. They have a very nice (if all too brief) action sequence at the beginning, and manage to make each character distinct and unique. They also deserve a lot of credit for a fantastic, eye-popping cover that will get the attention of anybody passing by the comic book rack.

A great cover can only take you so far, though, and the story within just isn’t gripping enough to hold my attention. Vaughan has done a lot of really great storytelling. Just not, so far, in this series.

Rating: 5/10

Ex Machina #1

June 12, 2004

Quick Rating: Average
Title: The Pilot

The world’s first superhero runs for political office… how will the world handle it?

Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Pencils: Tony Harris
Inks: Tom Feister
Colors: J.D. Mettler
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Ben Abernathy
Cover Art: Tony Harris & Tom Feister
Publisher: DC Comics/Wildstorm Signature Series

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict this title will become a critical darling the instant the first issue hits the stands, but frankly, it just leaves me feeling kind of flat. I’m a huge fan of Vaughan’s Y: The Last Man, but I’m never a fan of “soapbox” entertainment – not in television, not in movies, and not in comic books, and this title runs dangerously close to that line.

Mitchell Hundred has the startling power to talk to and control machines. He used this ability for a year as a masked superhero before deciding that any good he was doing was negligible. Hoping to do more good, Hundred unmasked and ran for – and won – the mayorship of New York City. This book bounces around quite a lot in time, from his childhood to some indistinct point in the future where he’s telling his story of tragedy and woe to an unseen off-panel companion. We see, at various points along the timeline, an assassination attempt, a blackmail attempt and the remnants of what may either be Mitchell’s greatest triumph or greatest failure, depending on your perspective.

Vaughan’s stories frequently take on political overtones, but this story draws the lines too starkly, verging on the preachy at some points. He also pulls in one of his now-infamous last-page twists, one that completely took me by surprise, but that’s mostly because the image you see is so striking, so startling for people in our real world that it takes advantage of a visceral gut reaction you can’t help but have. It’s either very clever or very tasteless, and frankly I can’t decide which it is at this point.

Helping this series along is some great art by Tony Harris and Tom Feister. They’ve been doing a lot of fantastic cover and interior art together over the past few years, from titles ranging from Fantastic Four to The Legion, and in this issue they paint a very realistic portrait of a superhero with Mitchell’s unique ability. Their designs are, for the most part, very utilitarian, very functional, and that’s what this book requires.

I’m not sold on this series, but I don’t hate it. I have no doubt that a large number of Vaughan’s fans will jump right into this issue and enjoy it. When you get right down to it, it may simply turn out to be a story that’s just not for me.

Rating: 5/10

The Legion #30

February 23, 2004

Quick Rating: Excellent
Title: Foundations: The Final Chapter

Darkseid has destroyed the universe – and only the Legion of Super-Heroes can bring it back!

Writer: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Pencils: Chris Batista
Inks: Chip Wallace
Colors: Sno Cone
Letters: Ken Lopez
Editor: Stephen Wacker
Cover Art: Tom Feister & Tony Harris
Publisher: DC Comics

Abnett and Lanning cap off their greatest Legion epic in true style. Darkseid’s true plan stands revealed – he kidnapped some of the most powerful beings of the past and is using them in his scheme to usurp his own youthful, more powerful body, then replace the universe with a new universe where he stands as the sole god. At the end of last chapter, the young Darkseid killed his own older counterpart to take his scheme as his own – but a flaw in that plan will destroy everything unless the Legion and a young, brainwashed Clark Kent can stop him.

This is high-flying science fiction superhero action at its finest. A battle royale across the stars, the stakes as high as they can possibly get and real courage and heroism goes on display. There’s not a lot of talking heads or characterization in this issue, because that has all been dealt with in the last five issues. This is the power-packed, action-charged finale that will please anyone who has ever loved the Legion.

Before his assignment on this title, Chris Batista wasn’t a high-profile artist. The only place I remember seeing his artwork before is on the defunct Steel title. He has made this series his own. He has great costume designs and a suitably cocky smirk on Superboy’s face. He also makes Superboy and the young, time-lost Clark Kent look appreciably different while keeping the resemblance. The writers also work in a particularly good moment between these two characters – the past and the (presumed) future of the world’s greatest hero, amidst the greatest heroes of the far future.

If you haven’t been reading this title, you have been cheating yourself for a very long time. As the last issue in a storyline, this may not be the best place to jump on board, but if you can find the first five issues, read ‘em. Then read this. You won’t be disappointed.

Rating: 10/10

Legion Secret Files 3003

November 18, 2003

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: The Earth Spins Presents: The Legion Secret Files 3003

A Daily Planet reporter takes you along to meet the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Pencils: Leonard Kirk
Inks: Robin Riggs
Colors: Sno Cone
Art (Profiles): Tony Harris & Tom Feister
Letters: Nick J. Napolitano
Editor: Ivan Cohen & Stephen Wacker
Cover Art: Tony Harris & Tom Feister
Publisher: DC Comics

From the very beginning of the Secret Files program, the individual issues have been hit and miss. This may be the biggest hit yet, and it gets there by completely eschewing the standard Secret Files format and embracing the purpose of the book. Abnett and Lanning, rather than giving us a couple of fill-in-the-blank stories and a scattering of profile pages, instead work the profiles into the story itself, telling a nice tale that gives us insight into every member of the Legion of Super-Heroes and the world they live in.

We see how Cosmic Boy is dealing with Superboy’s sudden appearance in the 31st century, how Sensor is failing to deal with her transformation into a more humanoid form – beautiful to her teammates but hideous in her own culture – and how Live Wire is trying to deal with his resurrection in the crystalline body of Element Lad. (This is a particularly good segment, although it does call to mind the perfectly reasonable question of, “If the Legion can’t trust Live Wire because he looks like a member that went crazy and killed several of them, why doesn’t he at least stop wearing Element Lad’s uniform? The obvious questions are the most frustrating, aren’t they?)

We are also treated to a prologue and epilogue that tie in to the current “Foundations” storyline running in the regular Legion title, in which dark (but frighteningly familiar) beings are working for the resurrection of the greatest evil the DC Universe has ever known — Darkseid. Any longtime Legion fan who remembers the epic “Great Darkness Saga” should be getting chills at this point.

It’s always nice to see Leonard Kirk’s pencils – I was very sorry to see him leave JSA, and the Harris/Feister team continues to impress for the most part, although the double-page spread featuring Brainiac 5, Spark, Violet and Invisible Kid looks kind of sloppy – a couple of the characters look like they could have fallen out of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon.

If you’re interested in reading Legion and didn’t learn all you wanted from the fantastic Legion #25, this should answer any questions you have left. It’s one of the best Secret Files ever put out.

Rating: 8/10

The Legion #25

October 25, 2003

Quick Rating: Excellent
Title: Foundations

On the anniversary of its founding, members of the Legion of Super-Heroes take time to remember their past, even as several elements that will play into their future are set into motion.

Writer: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Pencils: Chris Batista
Inks: Robin Riggs, Chip Wallace and Doug Hazlewood
Colors: Sno Cone
Additional Art: Eric Wight, Tony Harris, Tom Feister, Dave Cockrum, Al Milgrom and Paul Rivoche
Letters: Jared Fletcher
Editor: Stephen Wacker
Cover Art: Tony Harris and Tom Feister
Publisher: DC Comics

As a longtime Legion fan, this issue was like a visit with old friends to me. It is Founder’s Day, the Legion’s anniversary, and this issue follows several segments of the team as different storylines unfold. Saturn Girl takes a group of new Legion cadets through a retelling of the team’s past (a lot of fun for those of us who remember the old-fashioned tales of “Legion Auditions”), while other members make startling discoveries about some of their fallen teammates, and a team exploring deep space makes the most startling discovery of all.

Abnett and Lanning have been doing a spectacular job on this title for several years now, pruning a lot of the dense elements that may have scared people off. In this issue, it almost feels as though they’ve finished setting up the pieces just the way they want them and now they’re ready to really cut loose and tell their own tales. This is a perfect jumping-on point for anyone who has never read a Legion comic before – the story fills you in on all the historical points of the team you need to know, and several new elements are introduced in this issue that will certainly set the stage for the Legion for the foreseeable future.

Chris Batista has really come into his own on this title, and some of the additional art is also quite nice, particularly Tony Harris and Tom Feister’s outer space sequences. The only weak point, artistically, is Dave Cockrum’s segment, which tells the history of the fallen Legion founder, Livewire. The layouts and anatomy are a little clunky at times, and it looks a bit off.

Overall, if you’ve ever wanted to try Legion, this is the time to do it.

Rating: 9/10