Fluit Notes

Five First Issues of CyberForce

 Fifteen months ago, I took a look at five first issues of Wildcats and Youngblood.  It was appropriate at the time as both of those original Image titles had recently come out with new number ones.  Jason Marconnet, aka Lime Coke, enjoyed those articles so much that he asked me to do a similar survey with other Image or ‘90s titles.  It’s taken me fifteen months to get around to it, but never let it be said that I let down a reader.  So, for Lime Coke, for me, and for everyone else, here are reviews of five first issues of Marc Silvestri’s creation CyberForce, and it’s spin-off StykeForce.   

 

CyberForce #1 (1992)

by Marc and Eric Silvestri

 

Welcome to the Image Revolution!  Marc Silvestri was one of seven artists who left Marvel Comics in 1992 in order to take control of their own careers and start their own company.  Silvestri had already established himself with popular runs as the regular penciler on Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine.  He even contributed art to the famous X-Men arcade game that debuted out in 1992, helping to define the look of the X-Men for a generation of fans. 

 

For his initial Image title, Marc Silvestri stayed in his comfort zone.  He created a new team called CyberForce.  However, his new team had a lot in common with his old team, the X-Men.  There are five characters featured on the cover of the first issue and each of them bears a strong resemblance to one of the X-Men.  There are a few key differences- Stryker has four arms, Ripclaw is a Native American- but the initial resemblance is- dare I say it- uncanny.  Silvestri even calls his characters “mutants,” though in this case they are also cybernetically enhanced (hence the name, CyberForce). The familiar building blocks aren’t necessarily a problem.  Other characters have grown from imitations, parodies or homages to become fully realized creations such as Captain Marvel, Cerebus, Savage Dragon and The Authority.    

 

Marc Silvestri and his brother Eric craft an interesting world and a strong opening story around these central characters.  That includes some interesting supporting characters.  The first character we meet is Velocity, a teenaged girl on the run from a private military who is rescued by CyberForce’s Ripclaw.  There’s a superficial resemblance to the X-Men’s Jubilee- teenage girl, runaway, befriends the gruff guy with the claws.  However, Velocity has different powers (speed) and a different back-story (she was abused).  We also meet two boys, Chip and Timmie.  Chip is a teenaged genius.  Timmie looks like a little boy, but he’s actually an android.  These younger characters also help give CyberForce their own identity.  They’re more like a band of refugees than a superhero team.

 

Silvestri also introduces a strong cast of villains.  The first is Ballistic, a cybernetically enhanced bounty hunter who is trying to capture Velocity.  Then there’s a reference to Gammerung, either a person or an organization, dedicated to killing mutants.  Next up is Mother May I.  She’s the head of Cyberdata, the organization that claims to have created all of the cyber-mutants and that still wants to control them.  Mother May I is a cyborg herself, with a unique blue Cleopatra look.  She’s one of the best villains in any of the early Image titles.  Finally, Ballistic comes back with an as-yet-unnamed squad of mutant villains who all work as enforcers for Cyberdata.

 

These different villains and supporting characters show that the world of CyberForce is nearly as multi-faceted as our own.  One of the other secondary characters is Bluestone, a mutant running for political office (although there’s some confusion in that he’s running for mayor on one page and then called a senator on another).  That gives us a whole range of mutants and political perspectives- those who are open and attempting to engage in public life, those who are in hiding, those who want to kill them and those who want to capture and control them.  It makes for a much, more complex and interesting world than many other superhero stories.  Altogether, it’s a great introduction to new characters, a new team and a new world.

 

CyberForce #1 (1993)

by Marc Silvestri, Eric Silvestri and Scott Williams

 

Unfortunately, the second CyberForce #1 isn’t as good as the first one.  The main problem is that it’s really a continuation of the recently completed mini-series.  The initial Image titles were all popular.  Some of them were set up as ongoing series from the beginning.  But most had been planned as mini-series.  Youngblood stayed with the original numbering as it extended from a mini-series into an ongoing.  On the other side, Savage Dragon and CyberForce opened up the ongoing series with a new number one. 

 

Yet, despite the new number one, this issue of CyberForce is really part of a continuing story.  Its fine as an installment of a larger story if you’ve already read the initial mini-series and the zero issue that was published in-between.  But it doesn’t really work as a first issue.  The previous first issue shared back-story such as the abuse Velocity experienced as a child.  But that was presented as new information for the reader, even if it’s in the past for the character.  In this issue, the characters also make numerous references to earlier events.  The multiple references make this issue exposition-heavy.  Plus, some of the references are oblique, telling you that something happened in the previous stories but not what.  As a reader, you definitely feel as if you’ve missed something. 

 

This is especially true of a scene in which Stryker apparently attempts to recruit Ballistic into CyberForce.  Stryker explains what happened- they removed an implant that was forcing Ballistic to work for CyberData.  But the scene works much better and carries much greater emotional weight if you’ve read the previous story.  It’s a good piece of Ballistic’s overall arc but it’s an awkward introduction to the character for a new reader. 

 

Another problem is the sub-plot in which Ripclaw is experiencing bad dreams. The visions feature two other people- a man with long green hair and a woman with big red hair.  By the end of the issue, it’s revealed that the green-haired guy is Warblade, from Wildcats, and the red-haired girl is named Misery.  In the back, there’s an ad for an upcoming crossover between CyberForce and Wildcats in which misery splits the two men and the two teams. 

 

It isn’t a bad thing to have a B or C plot setting up storylines down the road.  However, this issue of CyberForce doesn’t really have an A plot.  The other part of the story is a training exercise, helping Velocity acclimate to the team.  The result is that one plot looks back at the previous story and the other plot looks ahead to an upcoming crossover.  Nothing of importance actually happens in this particular issue.  It’s truly a middle issue and not a first issue.  Yet, even as a middle issue, it fails to deliver anything on its own.

 

Codename: StrykeForce #1 (1995)

by Marc Silvestri, Brandon Peterson and Josef Rubinstein

 

Image was wildly successful and many of the initial titles launched spin-offs.  Youngblood led to Brigade, Wildcats to Stormwatch, Savage Dragon to Freak Force.  And yes, CyberForce led to a spin-off team, Codename: StrykeForce.  After clashing with Heatwave over leadership of CyberForce, Stryker struck out on his own.  His new team would be less defensive and more proactive (now where else have we heard that one?).  They would be more like a black ops team, taking the fight to the villains on their own turf.  They would also get paid.  That contradiction aside, this is a very strong opening issue. 

 

The first scene echoes Stryker’s introduction in CyberForce #1.  In that issue, he was assigned to watch Bluestone, the mutant political figure running for mayor.  Stryker saved Bluestone from assassination.  In this issue, Stryker has been paid to watch out for “President Bill” as he listens to a speech by Mikhail Gorbachev.  And yes, once again, Stryker stops an assassination attempt.  It’s a great heroic moment for Stryker, and a strong introduction to the lead character.

 

This first issue also does a good job of introducing the other members of the team.  Their introductions are spread throughout the issue as Stryker calls on them at certain junctures of this mission and the next.  That keeps the reader from being overwhelmed by meeting an entire team all at once.  Marc Silvestri had used a similar effect in the first issue of CyberForce- introducing each member of the team one at a time- but the technique is even more effective here as they’re all connected to one main incident. 

 

First up is Icarus, who flies and looks a lot like Nate Grey.  Then there’s Anvil, one of my favorite characters in the world of CyberForce.  He’s short and squat, built like an anvil and hard as iron.  He’s sort of a mixture of the Thing, Puck and Wolverine but he’s not any one of them.  He is truly his own character.  There’s Bloodbow, an albino, elven archer.  There’s Tempest, the token girl, who apparently has weather powers.  And there’s Killrazor, a villain who’s willing to work with the good guys for a price. 

 

There’s also a super-villain.  In one sense, he’s like every other super-villain, berating his henchmen and cackling about plans to conquer the world.  But Silvestri and company at least try to drape him in mystery.  He refuses to mention his name, telling a group of hostages that they don’t need to know and insisting that all of his lackeys call him “sir.”   It doesn’t make the boss as memorable as CyberForce’s Mother May I- that’s also the downside to not having a name- but it’s at least an attempt to make him different.

 

I also like the Brandon Peterson art.  He does a good job of weaving Silvestri and Jim Lee influences so that this title fits in with the general Image vibe.  His characters are a little more muscled-up than Silvestri’s but that fits the tone of this team.  And he does a great job with panel lay-out and story-telling.  There’s a great contrast on two pages- one which very clearly depicts Gorbachev giving a speech and another which coyly hides “President Bill” in Stryker’s shadow.  There’s also some good action scenes with planes, missiles, submarines and torpedoes.

 

CyberForce had more of a team feeling than StrykeForce.  This is like Stryker and the Jordanaires.  But other than that, it’s a very well done first issue- possibly the best in the batch.

 

Strykeforce #1 (2004)

by Jay Faerber, Tyler Kirkham and Marco Alquiza

 

We go from arguably the best first issue to arguably the worst.  I apologize in advance to all involved.  I’m a huge fan of Jay Faerber’s creator-owned work at Image (Noble Causes, Dynamo 5, Urban Myths) but this Top Cow mini-series is a turkey.  And Tyler Kirkham is a good artist on other titles but it’s hard to defend his work here. 

 

The main problem has to do with the company itself.  It had been a dozen years since CyberForce had hit the stage and nine years since they launched the successful StrykeForce spin-off.  In the meantime, a lot of other things had happened for Marc Silvestri.  CyberForce became a victim of the superhero glut.  There were a lot of titles and a lot of teams.  And CyberForce struggled to remain as popular as the X-Men and the Wildcats or as relevant as Gen13. 

 

Meanwhile, Marc Silvestri expanded his little corner of the Image universe by adding new artists, new characters and new titles.  One of those artists was Michael Turner.  And one of those new characters was Witchblade.  Witchblade was more of a supernatural superhero than CyberForce.  She became very successful, arguably the most popular “bad girl” in comics.  Silvestri slowly transitioned his output to cater to those fans.  CyberForce and StrykeForce made way for Witchblade spin-offs like Darkness or imitations like Aphrodite XI.  The imprint became known as Top Cow and Top Cow became known for “bad girl” art. 

 

By 2004, comic books had bounced back.  The time seemed right for a resurrection of Top Cow’s superhero characters, most of whom had sat on the shelf for several years while Silvestri’s imprint focused on “bad girls” and “good girls” like Witchblade and Tomb Raider. 

 

Unfortunately, Top Cow’s house style infiltrated their newest superhero title as well.  It’s not that the earlier superwomen had been ugly.  Cyblade was drawn to be beautiful and Velocity was cute.  But they pretty much received the same treatment as the guys, and they at least wore full costumes.  That wasn’t the case this time around.  Jay Faerber introduced four new characters to this version of Strykeforce, including two women.  One was Sly who had the power to turn invisible.  Naturally, she could only turn herself invisible and not other objects.  Like her clothes.  Which meant that she spent half of the issue walking around naked.  The other woman was Tia Katana.  Her power was a magic tattoo from which she could draw a sword (or technically, a katana).  However, in order to reach her sword, she had to wear next to nothing (or occasionally nothing) on her torso.  Apparently, just to make sure she was consistent, she also wore next to nothing on her lower half.  That there were in-story reasons for the two women to spend the whole issue half-naked or half the issue completely naked isn’t a defense.  In actuality, it makes it worse.  It shows that they thought they needed an excuse. 

 

It’s such a major flaw that it undercuts an otherwise decent story.  Stryker and his team are hired to rescue some corporate executives who are being held as hostages in the mountain jungles of Peru.  They’re successful.  But they’re wanted by the FBI for being independent operatives.  And the FBI has planted a spy on the team.  That’s a good set-up for a good story.  It’s too bad that Strykeforce couldn’t get out of its own juvenile way.  And Top Cow wonders why it developed its reputation. 

 

Cyberforce #1 (2006)

by Ron Marz and Pat Lee

 

The latest first issue of Cyberforce serves as a retroactive lesson for the 1993 first issue.  By this point, Cyberforce has a long history and Ron Marz has to let the readers know some of that history in order for this issue to make sense.  Then, this is also the first issue in an era when most stories are written, at least partially, for the trade.  So Marz has to look at setting up a longer story over several issues.  That means that this issue has to simultaneously look backward and forward while still being a satisfying issue on its own.  That’s the test that the 1993 issue failed.  But it’s a test that this 2006 issue passes with flying colors.

 

In terms of looking backwards, Marz gathers the three female members of the team for a dinner party.  They’re wearing evening gowns and drinking wine- showing that female characters can look sexy and beautiful, without being exploitative.  They’re drinking to the end of Cyberforce.  The team is fractured and devoid of any future.  The women are agreed: it’s best to end the team now.  There’s just one last piece of business: Ripclaw has gone rabid.  They feel that they need to clean up their own mess, and kill off their own teammate.  The scene certainly shares exposition- for example, we learn that Velocity and Ripclaw had become lovers- but it does so in a way that resonates emotionally.

 

In terms of looking forward, Marz uses the sub-plot to do that.  Marz opens with a scene from a far-space station.  The sentries complain that there’s nothing to do out here on the edge of civilization before being run over by a massive armada.  That oncoming armada hangs over the rest of the story.  How can a dispirited and disbanded Cyberforce stand up to such a force? 

 

Then, the story is satisfying in its own right.  At least one major bit of action is completed in this issue.  The rabid Ripclaw attacks and the three women of Cyberforce- Ballistic, Cyblade and Velocity- fight to take him down.  The rabid Ripclaw appears to have won.  Ballistic and Cyblade have been taken out of the fight.  Ripclaw has Velcoity at his mercy.  He threatens to kill her, or rape her.  And then, another claw bursts through his chest.  The rogue Ripclaw falls to the ground and another Ripclaw is revealed behind him.  The rogue was a faulty imitation.  The real Ripclaw is back and he just might be able to help the women defeat the alien armada that they don’t even know about yet. 

 

That’s both a complete incident- the defeat of the rabid Ripclaw- and also a tease of a larger story yet to be told- the gathering of Cyberforce and the battle against the alien armada.  That makes for a great first issue. 

 

Pat Lee’s art is also perfect for this story.  It’s a little dark and rough around the edges, wonderfully matched to the story of a shabby super-team on its last legs. 

What Age Is It Now Anyway?

I’ve been talking about the ages of comics for the past three columns (if you think I’m being long-winded, you should see all of the stuff I left out).  Either way, I appreciate your perusal and participation.  So far, I’ve speculated as to whether or not Brightest Day and Heroic Age will launch a new age, sided with the broad consensus that there is such a beast as a Bronze Age, and struck out on my own to propose a Fourth Age from 1987-1996.  That leaves the issue of what do we do with the last dozen years or so.  Is it another age? 

If you’ve been reading along, then you already know that my answer is “Yes.”  However, I’ll readily admit that this is my own opinion rather than a widely-accepted theory.   

 There are two major arguments against this being a fifth age.  The first is “everything since **** is just one big age.”  There is some validity to that argument.  Indeed, every new age has had to overcome that perception. 

 Jeff-of-Earth-J had a great quote in response to the first column: "Modern Age" is a term I use for whatever the current age which has not yet been defined. For example, I used to say "Golden Silver and Modern," but now I say "Golden, Silver, Bronze and Modern." 

 This shows that, despite initial resistance, the idea of a defined age of comics can gain acceptance.  The argument would have been at one time, “everything since 1970 (the end of the Silver Age) is just one big age.”  Now, it’s more likely to be “everything since 1986 (the end of the Bronze Age) is just one big age.”  

 However, I argued that the years 1987 to 1996 have all of the features and characteristics of an age, with one notable exception- a widely agreed-upon name.  However, if we were to insert one of the suggested names, we would have Golden, Silver, Bronze, Iron and everything after.  In other words, “everything since 1996 (the end of the Iron Age) is one age.”  

 I’m glad to say that I’m not the only one who has considered this.  In 1997 and ’98, Wildstorm Studios produced a crossover between the X-Men and their own Wildcats.  The story would span several eras of time, reflecting the different ages of comics.  The four issues were the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Dark Age (one of the other suggested names for the Fourth Age) and the Modern Age. 

 The second major argument against this being a fifth age has to do with sales.  Figserello wrote, “Sales follow successful new storytelling fashions, so the two are interlinked.”  Indeed, the earlier ages are defined not only by peaks in creative output, but also by spikes in sales. 

 That causes a problem for the current age.  After all, current comic book sales pale in comparison with earlier ages.  The best-selling comics of today would be mid-level performers in the ’80s or in danger of cancellation in the ‘60s. 

  However, I don’t think that necessarily precludes the possibility of a fifth age.  For one thing, an age is not necessarily a direct comparison between peaks.  By that definition, the Silver Age wouldn’t count as an Age either.  After all, the sales of the Silver Age were one-fifth of the sales of the Golden Age.  Similarly, the Bronze Age peak may not have been as high as the peak of the Silver Age but it was still a peak compared to the years that had come between.   

On the other hand, the last fifteen years have given us a valley and a peak that help shape the ages of comics.  The years of 1997-99 had the lowest comic book sales in history.  They’re so low that I wouldn’t even include them in an age.  They’re kind of like the years between the Golden and Silver Ages (which saw great sales in other genres but the near-extinction of superheroes) and the years between the Silver and Bronze Ages (according to some definitions).  In contrast, the years 2000-2007 saw seven straight years of growth.  That’s something that hadn’t happened since the Golden Age (the Silver Age’s best stretch was 4 years).

 Another issue is that sales contrasts across eras are not apple-to-apple comparisons.  Silver Age numbers are based on the number of issues printed for returnable newsstand distribution and could be double the number of issues actually sold.  Current numbers are based on issues sold to the direct market- while ignoring subscriptions, newsstand distribution and international sales- and could be half of the actual number of issues sold.  I’m not saying that current comics sell as well as Silver Age comics.  They don’t.  But the gap isn’t as great as some observers would have you believe.  Plus, modern comics are also sold in trade paperbacks, a secondary market that extends shelf-life and raises readership. 

 The current age may not be as commercially successful as the Silver Age, but that doesn’t have to mean it’s not an age at all.

 I think it is.  I think the sales are part of the story (including the seven straight years of growth that I mentioned previously).  I think the expansion of the market is part of the story.  Comics have expanded into new genres, new formats and new territories.  The last decade has seen the explosion of manga, trade paperbacks and bookstore sections devoted to comics.  You can even buy comics in airport terminals. 

 Of course, it’s not only about sales.  It’s also about style. 

 Luke Blanchard asked (yes, I’m quoting Luke again; sorry, Luke), “Is there the same kind of contrast between superhero comics of today and of fifteen years ago as there was between the superhero comics of the mid-70s and those of the early 60s?”

 I think so.  Modern comics have very different features than Iron Age comics.  Comics of the early ‘90s were often fast-paced, action-packed affairs.  An actual story sometimes took back-seat to a sequence of fight scenes.  Comics of the mid-aughts were slow-paced.  They were deconstructed and fans would sometimes wait four to six issues for a big fight. 

Compare Jim Lee’s first issue of Wildcats in 1992 with Joe Casey’s first issue of Wildcats 3.0 in 2002.  Compare the “Reign of the Supermen” in 1993 with “World without a Superman” this past year.  Compare Joe Madureira’s X-Men in 1994 to Grant Morrison’s New X-Men in 2004.  They’re completely different animals. 

 And I’m not the only one who’s noticed.  John Dunbar made a good point when he discussed the history of Marvel comics in terms of its chief editors.  The comic books from the Joe Quesada era are as different from the Tom DeFalco era as the Jim Shooter era is from the Stan Lee era. 

 So yeah, I think we’re in the fifth age of comics.  Call them what you like: Chromium and Platinum (I haven’t given up on them yet), Dark and Prismatic (with a tip of the cap to Figserello), Iron and Modern.  But I think that they’re two very distinct and different ages, rather than one big “everything after.”

 And, yeah, I’m worried that we’re actually at the end of the fifth age of comics.  After the highs of 2007 (the best-selling year since the pre-crash days of ’95), we’ve seen two years of slight decline.  The industry isn’t back to the lows of 1997-’99.  At least, not yet. 

 Which brings me back to the subject that started this all.  I sincerely hope that DC’s Brightest Day and Marvel’s Heroic Age can reverse the trend.  I hope that new technology like Apple’s iPad can be a jump-start for the industry the way that the direct market was at the beginning of the Bronze Age.  I think things have been pretty good for the past decade.  And I’d like to see it keep going. 

 Thanks for listening, everyone.  The End. 

Five First Issues of Youngblood

I find it fascinating how comic book concepts evolve over the years. I’m intrigued by the many possibilities and permutations. For stalwart titles from “the big two” of DC and Marvel, those changes can be slow in coming. For other companies, such as Image, those changes can be both sudden and frequent. Last week, I looked at five first issues of Jim Lee’s Wildcats. This week, I turn my attention to Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood.

Youngblood #1 (Image Comics, 1992)

By Rob Liefeld

Rob Liefeld is one of the most controversial figures in the history of comics. It’s almost impossible to mention something associated with him- a character, a title, even a company- without the subsequent conversation devolving into either insults directed at him or heated arguments with each other. Even an internet forum dedicated to Liefeld once took the measure of banning all people who were critical of him or his work so that his fans could have at least one place in which to share their fandom.

In an article like this, in which I review the many permutations of Youngblood, it’s impossible to avoid a discussion of Rob Liefeld. Or, at least, his art. So I might as well begin there. The best thing that you can say about Rob Liefeld’s art is that it has energy. Characters are constantly in motion, often running right out of the panel or off of the page. And if the characters aren’t in motion, then the perspective is (or the camera, if this was a movie instead of a comic book). Even on the first page of Youngblood #1, Liefeld creates motion and energy through his panel design- a long-shot, a close-up, and an extreme close-up. Everything is in motion, making a Rob Liefeld comic like Youngblood #1 fast-moving and exciting. The other thing that can be said about Rob Liefeld’s art is that it is powerful. Characters often tower over each other, the page and- due to the way in which Liefeld uses upward angles to look at his characters- even the reader. Plus, the characters are built powerfully, with big muscles and bigger guns. I’ts not realistic (one of the most common criticisms directed Liefeld’s way); it’s heightened, more than real, super-realistic. I described Jim Lee’s WildC.A.T.s as a roller-coaster; Liefeld’s Youngblood is more like a whirlwind. A reader can get caught up and carried along by the constant motion and power.

And yet, probably the best way to defend Rob Liefeld’s art is to do so indirectly. Rob Liefeld draws action comics. They may not be technically proficient, but they at least deliver the action. That has an appeal for pre-teens and teens and even some college students. I’m not just speaking for myself. I’m speaking for cousins and college room-mates and people who would become comic book professionals like Robert Kirkman, Jay Faerber and Brandon Thomas- people who were in the right age range to appreciate Youngblood. Comparatively, it’s like watching “The A-Team” or “The Dukes of Hazzard.” The plots were ridiculous, the characters superficial. Even the action was unrealistic- nobody ever gets shot, nobody ever cracks an axle jumping over a ditch. My parents were probably rolling their eyes, but my brother and I loved it. We wanted action and those shows delivered. You could also compare Youngblood to a Vin Diesel movie. I’m on the wrong side of the age divide on this one. By the time Vin Diesel started starring in movies, I wanted more from my films than fast cars, big guns and bigger explosions. Yet I realize that there’s a generation of guys younger than me who love Vin Diesel. I’ve worked with them, taught them and talked to them. When you criticize Vin Diesel because he can’t act, they look at you as if you’re speaking in some other language. The reply is usually “He’s huge” rather than an actual defense of his acting. They don’t care about those other things. They only care that Vin Diesel has big muscles and big guns. That’s what we’re talking about when we’re talking about a Youngblood comic. Rob Liefeld is the artist version of Vin Diesel. Youngblood is the comic book version of “The A-Team.” It’s not for everybody. And it’s certainly not a classic of the art form- Oscar or Emmy or Eisner material. But for young boys of a certain generation, it’s exactly what they wanted in their entertainment.

So what about Youngblood #1? It delivered exactly what its audience would have expected: big muscles, big guns, big explosions and near-constant action. Somebody is running, jumping or throwing something on nearly every page. Good guys throw haymakers and bad guys get punched out. And the story barely stops to catch its breath before racing on to the next bit of action. There’s even a decent concept under all of that action. Youngblood is a government sponsored super-hero agency divided into two teams: a “home team” to take care of threats on U.S. soil, and an “away team” to take care of threats in the rest of the world (kind of like the division between the FBI and the CIA). These aren’t just superheroes. They’re professional soldiers.

Youngblood #1 is also a seriously flawed comic book. Even Rob Liefeld would admit as much now, as he allowed Joe Casey to rearrange the pages and rewrite the dialogue from the first five issues for a new hardcover edition. The story is so busy getting to the action that it forgets to communicate the otherwise decent concept clearly. It’s not readily apparent that Youngblood works for the U.S. government or the U.N. (both of which are frequent super-hero bosses). One of the members of the home team is lent out to the away team and a member of the away team is apparently traded to the home team but is unused except for one panel so that even the two team concept is muddied in the first issue. And Liefeld tells two half-issue stories focusing on the two different teams with the result that neither team is introduced well and neither story progresses. The “away” story is particularly underdeveloped as it’s just one long fight scene from beginning to end. At least with the “home” team, we see the characters in their civilian roles before they’re called into action. The civilian vignettes might only give us character short-hand- big guy who’s really a mama’s boy, hard-case who uses women- but at least we get some sense of the characters and a reason to cheer for them, or not. And really, that’s all we want: tell us who the good guys are and let us cheer for them as they beat the bad guys up. It may not be “The Watchmen” in terms of high concept or execution, but it at least meets the level of “The A-Team” or “Knight Rider.”

Youngblood #1 (Awesome Entertainment, 1997)

By Alan Moore, Steve Skroce and Lary Stucker

When they founded Image Comics, the artists who left Marvel wanted to prove that they could make comics without writers or editors. As I’ve mentioned before, most of them proved the opposite. Though some of them proved to be good writers in their own right, for most of them the titles and concepts didn’t really shine until the Image artists hired professional writers like Kurt Busiek, Warren Ellis and Alan Moore to work on their books. After moving to his own company, Awesome Entertainment, Rob Liefeld hired Alan Moore to revamp his entire line of superheroes (Moore had already successfully revamped the Superman stand-in Supreme for him).

Alan Moore’s Youngblood #1 is actually the fourth number one for the series- there was also a Team Youngblood #1 in 1993 and another Youngblood in 1995- but the first significant change to the core concept. Moore actually introduced two new twists. First, he concentrated on the “young” in Youngblood. They weren’t teen heroes. But they were twenty-somethings in that “college and careers” stage of life. They were also clearly part of Generation X. They were slackers and gamers and goth queens (Johnny Panic, Leonard and Twilight). But they were also what Generation X’ers would think of themselves- diverse, including ambitious and virtuous characters like Doc Rocket and Suprema as well as the slackers. Even Shaft, the one holdover from earlier incarnations of Youngblood was apparently de-aged or at least drawn to look a lot younger. Alan Moore also divided Youngblood from its government agency roots. He kept the old connection as part of the team’s continuity, but he wrote the title as if the team had been fired and had tried to keep going by finding private financing.

The story starts with a scientific operation in which somebody is trying to cross inter-dimensional barriers either through or to “the azure.” Unfortunately, when he comes back, another organism has taken control of his body. The rider jumps to a scientist in a bio-suit and kills the first host, then to a security guard and does the same thing. The rider takes a small jet but crashes into the city, where Twilight witnesses the wreckage. She calls in to Youngblood, where Shaft is working out. Shaft and Wax, the team’s sponsor and a former superhero himself, watch on the local news. The rider jumps from the guard who was injured in the crash to a local police officer, once again killing the previous host. With the rest of the team now watching, the rider then notices Twilight and jumps into her. Doc Rocket runs to the scene at super-speed, changing into her costume along the way, and is able to prevent Twilight from killing the previous host. Shaft and Johnny Panic catch a ride on Biggest Brother, a huge robot from base by Leonard. Twilight and Doc Rocket battle it out. Then Supreme swoops in to save the day, only to have the rider jump into her. From headquarters, Wax and Leonard tell the team what they’ve learned about the rider organism, now known as “the Occupant.” Meanwhile, Big Brother arrives at the action. The team jumps into the fray, featuring a big fight between Biggest Brother and Suprema. The team looks to be on the ropes when Johnny Panic disappears. Suprema defeats Big Brother. Then, Supreme arrives to the chagrin of Youngblood who fear that the Occupant will jump into an even more powerful being. The Occupant does just that, only to discover that he actually jumped into Johnny Panic posing as Supreme. Johnny Panic collapses. Baron, Youngblood’s former government contact arrives, moves the Occupant out of Johnny and into a monkey, and takes custody. He leaves Youngblood to clean up the mess. And that’s the end.

It’s Alan Moore, so obviously it’s good. Each of the characters has a distinct personality and a clearly defined set of powers. Moore even manages to find time to show a little of the relationships between them. Yet he manages all of that without having this issue feel like an introductory issue. He throws you right into the action, with murders on page 3 and 4, a jet plane crash on page 6 and a superhero fight throughout the entire second half. Artist Steve Skroce also does his part. He does a great job with body posture, communicating as much about the characters of Johnny Panic and Supreme as Moore does with words. And he does a great job with the action, using after images to great effect to show Doc Rocket’s speed and Shaft’s agility. This isn’t just one of the best issues of Youngblood I’ve ever read. It’s not even one of the best first issues I’ve ever read. It’s one of the best comics I’ve ever read. Period. My only complaint is that this volume lasted only two issues before the financing fell through for Liefeld’s latest company.

Youngblood Genesis #1 (Arcade Comics, 2003)

By Brandon Thomas, Chad Walker, Eric Walker and Rob Liefeld

In 2003, Rob Liefeld tried to revive Youngblood with yet another company, Arcade Comics. He launched two new series. One, set in the present day, was written by Mark Millar and called Youngblood Bloodsport. I would have included a review of that issue in this column except that I don’t actually have a copy, and a re-release that was scheduled for this October failed to ship on time. The other, set in the past, focused on the untold origins of the team and was called Youngblood Genesis. However, even the credits for this issue are laced with controversy. The series is based on a plot by Kurt Busiek that he had submitted many years earlier when he was actively doing work for Image. For a variety of reasons (lapse of time, changes to the plot, and possibly lack of payment), Busiek asked to have his name removed from any connection to the comic. Liefeld declined and Busiek is still listed on the cover and in the credits as the plotter. Newcomers Brandon Thomas and the Walker brothers were brought in to script and pencil the story respectively. Rob Liefeld contributed inks himself (a curious choice since that’s never been his strength).

The story opens with two different but overlapping elements. The dialogue is from a news report telling of a possible terrorist attack against the U.S. The visuals are a montage of super-heroes in different situations- breaking down a door, working out, and even washing the dishes. A meteor crashes in the mountains outside of Boston (you read that right). The army then checks out a crashed alien aircraft outside of Washington, D.C. I think the meteor and the aircraft are supposed to be the same thing. A Mr. Graves arrives at the scene, takes over and enters the spacecraft. Two days later, Graves reports to a Pentagon conference room. They’re worried that a Pentagon-sponsored covert operation in Guatemaula has been exposed. Even worse, there’s film of the operatives killing unarmed men and even somebody who had already surrendered. The other officials want to shut down the operation. Graves wants to keep it. He meets with an alien that he found in the spaceship and has now imprisoned. He hires a marksman out of the FBI academy. He avoids generals and the president while working on his side project. One of his co-workers complains about superheroes like Supreme and Graves has an idea. He’ll recreate his covert group as a government-sanctioned superhero team. He hires both of the crashed aliens and procures an armored exoskeleton. The president threatens to shut him down. Graves keeps going. When a superhuman terrorist cell attacks a U.S. facility, the president calls Graves again. Necessity overrides principles. Graves officially creates a new team of superheroes. As he leaves the office, he hears the name Youngblood on the radio. And that’s the end.

Written out like that, the plot summary actually sounds decent. Unfortunately, this issue of Youngblood is not a decent read. The plot moves in fits and starts. Graves is a thoroughly unlikable protagonist. And all of the other characters are ciphers, there to disagree with Graves or stand in his way but devoid of any actual personality. The issue does a little better in introducing some of the team members. Three of them have speaking roles- one of the aliens, the FBI recruit and one of covert operatives who will become Youngblood agents Combat, Shaft and Chapel. Yet the team that’s constituted at the end of the issue includes two characters that haven’t spoken a single line while moving around in the background and two others who we haven’t met at all. That makes it hard to like this particular version of Youngblood. They’re complete unknowns, pawns or outright villains (in the case of the covert ops guys) who are working for a manipulative, egotistical jerk. Youngblood has had to overcome such problems in execution before. But, this time, neither the art nor the action are up to the task. There’s not much action in this issue at all. The covert operation is depicted indirectly through video screens. There are a couple of different training sessions, but the action shots are too static and usually presented from a fairly standard side-angle shot. One two-page training session includes only one panel of action while focusing on talking heads in the others. Even when a character is jumping over a wall, there’s no sense of movement. Without larger than life action to distract us, the many other flaws are readily apparent. I can understand why Kurt Busiek wanted his name disassociated from it.

Youngblood Imperial #1 (Arcade, 2004)

By Robert Kirkman and Marat Mychaels

Last week, I wrote about the creative flexibility that is available on an independent comic. The writer doesn’t have to pretend that his book takes place in our world if he doesn’t want to. For Wildcats, that meant that Christos Gage could have an Armageddon and write about the heroes after the end of the world. For Youngblood, that meant that Robert Kirkman could take aspects of the concept to their logical conclusion. The original Youngblood was a government-sponsored super-hero agency. They were involved in putting down threats of both a domestic and an international nature. In the very first issue, the “away team” even took out a Saddam Hussein stand-in. An America that sponsors a super-hero team and uses it as a form of international policy is an America that could easily become expansionistic. And an expansionistic America could just start a modern arms race in which nations race to develop not ships or tanks or guns but costumed heroes. This is the world of Youngblood Imperial. The US of A and China are involved in a rapid race of expansion, gobbling up smaller countries on the American and Asian continents and using super-human agents to do it.

The first scene is of a patient receiving an injection from a doctor. The two of them are in Montreal and they’re discussing what it’s like for them now that Quebec has become part of the US of A. We soon learn that the doctor injected the patient with a serum that will give him superpowers for the next 48 hours. At that point, Youngblood breaks down the wall. The doctor turns on his own Hulk-like powers. In the ensuing fight, they come across a scene of another doctor drawing blood from a superhuman for use in the serum. They stop the first doctor and arrest the rest. Back at the base, Shaft pleads with Graves to allow them to add the superhuman donor they just arrested to the team. Graves turns him down. Die-Hard and Vogue return from an operation in South America. A team of villains returns from another mission. Shaft is surprised but Die-Hard explains that they’re all being controlled by Youngblood’s telepath Psi-Fire. Meanwhile, Graves gives another team their mission. China has been expanding as quickly as the US. Graves wants to avoid direct confrontation, so he sends them on a mission to assassinate the person heading up China’s superhero program. Shaft and his squad respond to a call and get into a fight with the Gamma Grenadiers. A second squad led by Free Agent quickly arrives as back-up. The bad guys are blown up and Free Agent helps Shaft back to his feet. Across the ocean, a team of British agents watches. And that’s the end.

The concept is outstanding. I love the idea of an expansionistic America squaring off against an equally expansionistic China. I like that the United Kingdom, despite being a traditional ally of the US, doesn’t like the rapid expansion anymore than China does. And I love that all of the countries are using super-humans to pursue their aims rather than traditional military forces. It seems completely plausible yet still unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. It’s like reading a really good Harry Turtledove alternate history novel, but set in the present day and featuring super-heroes.

Even though it’s a great concept, the execution of it leaves a little to be desired. Marat Mychaels wasn’t quite ready for this kind of an assignment. His art style varies widely from page to page, often disconcertingly so. He does a good job with the heroes’ entrance in the final battle scene though so it’s not all bad. Kirkman does a great job of establishing the concept using conversations rather than exposition. The doctor chats about things with his patient like they were sitting in the barbershop; Shaft finds out what his friends have been up to as he welcomes them back to the agency; Graves gives us the rest through a military briefing. Unfortunately, he doesn’t do quite as good a job with the individual characters. With several dozen characters appearing in the book, there’s no way he could introduce all of them. And he shouldn’t. The scope of this Youngblood is supposed to be overwhelming- Graves mentions to Shaft that they have hundreds on the payroll- and having numerous unnamed characters in the background or even in the foreground of action scenes adds to that feeling. However, he should at least introduce us to the characters with speaking roles. Die-Hard and Vogue mention their kids’ names but not their own. The Gamma Grenadiers mention their own name and complain about “stupid Americans” but don’t mention their country of origin. I assume its China because of the main story but there’s no mention of it and the art isn’t clear enough to convey it on its own. You wouldn’t want too many details. But you do need a few more than you’re given.

Youngblood #1 (Image, 2008)

By Joe Casey, Derec Donovan and Bill Crabtree

Finally, we arrive at this year’s Youngblood. Joe Casey brings Youngblood back to its original concept, though he does keep some of the intervening history and adds a few new twists of his own. Kirkman’s Imperial is ignored, but a text piece on the history of the team refers to Alan Moore’s short run as an in-continuity attempt of an honest loyalist that ultimately collapsed. This team, however, is back to being a government sponsored superhero agency in a world that closely resembles our own. The twist is that an unpopular government is hoping that sponsoring a superhero team will raise their approval ratings. This isn’t just about stopping domestic and international terrorists. This is about looking good while doing it. This is about being popular.

The story opens at the Mall of America in Minnesota. There’s a hostage situation inside. An NSC operative named Douglas McGarry arrives in a helicopter. The hostages are walking out of the mall freely. One of them is Jeff Terrell, aka Shaft. He defeated the terrorists single-handedly. McGarry flies him back to New York and introduces him to the new Youngblood headquarters at the base of the Statue of Liberty. Badrock, Cougar, Doc Rocket and Johnny Panic are already there. McGarry presents his plan for the team. They sign on the dotted line. They tour the facility and see a partially rebuilt Die-Hard who will be added to the team when he’s mobile. Shaft has a strange vision. The team does press conferences, talk shows, advertisements and photo ops. They have action figures and a kids’ cartoon. Shaft and Cougar are ready to quit when a call comes in for the team. They fight a giant robot. Die-Hard joins them. They put the robot out of commission. Shaft thinks he recognizes the robot’s design. Back at the base, McGarry calls the agent for Mayhem, Inc. and arranges a fight. And that’s the end.

Of the previous volumes, there were a couple that I would recommend (Moore and Kirkman’s versions) and a couple I wouldn’t (Liefeld’s original and the origin story credited to Busiek). This volume falls in the middle. There’s a lot going on. And a lot of it is good. But it’s also just “a lot.” This version of Youngblood is trying to be two things at once. On the one hand, it’s the government run agency- like StormWatch or the Avengers when they were being run by Henry Gyrich. On the other hand, it’s a celebrity title- like X-Statix or Zeb Wells’ New Warriors. They’re simultaneously being manipulated and worried about their image. We’ve seen both of these approaches before but never together and I’m not entirely sure it works.

At the same time, Joe Casey gives us a well-constructed first issue. We get a very clear sense of Shaft as a character. We get very clear introductions to the rest of the team, thanks to Agent McGarry. Shaft may know who they are, but it’s still helpful to the readers. We also get the great introduction to Die-Hard as he’s hanging in a lab half-assembled. It’s a little creepy and unsettling, and helps set the mood that this team isn’t all it appears to be. Casey and Donovan also make good use of montages, moving quickly through several weeks’ worth of promotional appearances. We even get a big fight at the end, even if some of us realize that it was set up by McGarry for the heroes’ benefit. Shaft may not have been sure but the robot looked like one of the Big Brothers from Alan Moore’s run to me. Also, Shaft’s vision shows that they may get to face some real threats in the future. There’s promise here, even if there’s too much going on.

And that’s Youngblood and some of the many different approaches that have been taken with the team. It’s a spotty record, to say the least, but it’s still interesting to see how the team and the title have morphed over the years.

The End.

Recent Reviews: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Justice Society of America and more…

It’s been a while since I reviewed a batch of new comics (since February, to be precise). So it’s about time I do it again.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #15
by Drew Goddard and Georges Jeanty:

Wow. Issue fifteen is the excellent conclusion to the “Wolves at the Gate” story by Drew Goddard. It has pretty much everything you would want. It opens with a death scene shown from the perspective of the person who’s dying and the unspoken declaration of love for Xander by Renee. As a Buffy fan, you feel great remorse for Xander. This isn’t the first time that he’s lost someone he loves to this crusade. There’s also a big fight scene between a cadre of slayers and an army of vampires. Goddard and Jeanty do a great job of balancing the big fight with individual battles within the larger melee, especially focusing on more familiar characters like Willow. So, yeah, there’s a witch fight between Willow and Kumiko which is probably the best magic-on-magic fight I’ve seen since the wizard’s duel in “The Fellowship of the Ring.” There’s another great fight between giant Dawn and Mecha-Dawn. Hey, if you’re going to Tokyo, you might as well have a scene that pays homage to Godzilla. That particular scene is made even better by the supportive commentary from Andrew, whose entire life has been leading up to this moment. Besides the great fights, there’s also plenty of humor and subtle character moments. My one complaint is that it was occasionally difficult to distinguish between Dracula and Twilight. Considering that one is the chief villain and the other a temporary but untrustworthy ally that was a significant detail. Even so, with all of the other good stuff going on in this issue, the best was probably the relationship between Dracula and Xander. We see that Dracula really does care for Xander. And we see Xander grow in his relationship with Dracula, finally standing up to him. Buffy is a great series and this was a great issue.

Justice Society of America #16
by Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglesham

I had been looking forward to the Kingdom Come story-line but lately, JSA has seemed a little slow. I suppose you could accuse this issue of being slow as well as the story isn’t progressed that far in the issue. But in this case, that’s not a problem as the issue itself is so well done. The basic plot is pretty simple. Magog has just been killed and in his place stands Gog. The Justice Society doesn’t know quite what to do. The real story is in their reaction. Some call Gog “a god.” Others are in disbelief. They follow Gog around as he gives gifts of life to the African natives. The heroes aren’t sure if they should stop him or help him. There are some great scenes including a stand-off between Mr. Terrific and Amazing Man as they debate the value of the scientific approach and the approach of faith. Yet the surprising heart of this story has to do with Damage. Johns opens the issue with a quick run-down of Damage’s life from his own point of view. We discover that Damage’s name is more than just a description of his powers. It’s also an apt description of Grant himself. He’s been damaged by a life history filled with abandonment and abuse. So it’s not surprising that Damage is one of the heroes most skeptical of Gog. It is surprising how Gog reacts to Damage: smiling and then healing him outside and in. There’s no big fight in this issue of JSA. But it’s a very good issue anyway, raising questions and issues in a way that is neither one-sided nor trite. And it’s definitely an issue that makes you want to come back for the next one, just to see how it will all work out in the end.

Noble Causes #34
by Jay Faerber and Yildiray Cinar

Noble Causes continues its excellent return from a planned hiatus with this issue. There’s a big battle with a giant Pharaoh. But the real battle is the inter-family squabble as the team is torn apart by the accusation that Frost tried to rape Surge’s girlfriend Amy. The argument shows the rifts that already exist in the family- that Surge has never really felt that he fits in, and that many of the others don’t really trust Celeste who’s proven to be unfaithful in her relationships in the past. Of course, that’s just the argument on the table. Jay Faerber lets the audience in on even more secrets. So while we’re captivated by the current arguments, we’re also salivating at the thought of future arguments that will occur when other secrets get out- especially the arrangement between Doc’s current wife Olympia and his former wife Gaia. There are a couple of other nice features worth mentioning. For one, Yildiray Cinar continues to show his flexibility as an artist, drawing intimate family fights with close-ups and impersonal fights verse villains from afar, and even mixing in a flashback scene with a real Bronze Age feel to it. The other nice feature was the way in which Jay Faerber is building his own little world. He’s previously brought Venture and the Firebirds into Noble Causes. Now, he builds connections to his other title Dynamo 5 by including Captain Dynamo in the flashback and featuring Dynamo 5 villain Bonechill.

Wolverine: Dangerous Games
By Simon Spurrier and Ben Oliver, and Rick Remender and Jerome Opena

I’ve been getting into Wolverine quite a bit recently so I’ve started ordering a lot of these extra one-shots without reading the solicitation information. I found out from X-Axis that this particular issue was going to involve fox-hunting. While Paul O’Brien of that site was pretty cynical about the likelihood that this would be more treatise than story, I was still willing to give the issue a chance. Unfortunately, O’Brien was right. There are plenty of tidbits explaining to us why fox-hunting is unfair, wrong and evil. The hunters are shown to be either stupid or evil. Even the dogs are drawn in a way that makes them look like demons. Spurrier does try to give us a couple of twists to make the story worthwhile. The main hunter had actually planned to get Wolverine involved because he thought that Logan would be a more compelling prey than the foxes. And the hippy who first gets Wolverine involved in the protest turns out to be a traitor working for the hunter. But while that does give the story something more to go on, it doesn’t elevate it above its trite roots as a treatise against fox-hunting. The quote by Oscar Wilde at the end of the story only confirms that this is little more than a morality play. The one good thing is the Ben Oliver art, which has a crisp Carlos Pacheco-like look to it. The back-up is a little bit better. Wolverine is in Thailand, protecting a monastery from a crime syndicate. There’s a glimpse of romance and a brutal battle. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but that set-up usually works for Wolverine and it does here as well. My complaint this time is that Wolverine is again shown to be a remorseless killer. I think that particular characterization is off. He does have honor and remorse, even if he has to occasionally set them aside in order to get the job done. He’ll kill when he must, but he doesn’t take glee in it (as he did in the fox-hunt story). As he was once known to say, what he does isn’t very pretty and he’s at least aware of it.

Rann/Thanagar Holy War #1
By Keith Giffen and Ron Lim

I enjoyed the first Rann/Thanagar War, which was depicted in one of the mini-series leading up to Infinite Crisis. Despite my growing disinterest in DC comics right now (or should that be decreasing interest?), I went ahead and picked this up hoping to be able to recapture some of the enjoyment I felt a couple of years ago. The issue certainly started out okay. Katar Hol, aka Hawkman, is infiltrating his own people of Thanagar. He opposed the earlier war and is afraid the religious undercurrents of his society might lead to a second war. Adam Strange, the human who has relocated to Rann, is Hawkman’s ally in this. However, Adam Strange has discovered something sinister on Rann. Whereas Rann had always been a society centered on science, after the last war the Rannians have begun to embrace religion. Hawkman and Strange worry that the two fundamentalist viewpoints will lead to another war. This is the point at which I started to have my first problem with this comic. The Rann/Thanagar conflict had previously been used as a metaphor for the wars between science and religion. While I don’t think that particular conflict needs to exist in the way that it does, I at least have to admit that it does exist. However, now the Rann/Thanagar war is being shown as a battle between two religions. Again, there is both historical and current precedent for that situation. But I don’t really appreciate that religion is being shown as an entirely insidious force while all of the science-minded people are shown to be both rational and ethical. It’s a little too narrow a viewpoint, even for comics. I much prefer the openness I saw in JSA. I wouldn’t write this series off just for that. After all, it’s early and the conflict may yet twist into something else. But I am admittedly leery at this point. That concern was joined by another as the story seemed to stall as it continued. Keith Giffen is working with a large cast. After introducing Hawkman, Adam Strange and the current conflict, he then proceeds to introduce the new Captain Comet (just “Comet,” sorry), Tigorr of the Omega Men, Prince Gavyn of Throneworld (Starman III) and others. Not all of these characters tie into the story immediately, though I suspect they will at some point. However, that made the issue a series of introductions rather than a story. Giffen would have been better off holding back on some of those introductions until the second issue so that more of the story could have been played out in this one. I did enjoy aspects of this comic. I liked the Ron Lim art and it certainly started out well. But I’m not sure I enjoyed enough of this issue to pick up the second one.

Star Wars: Rebellion 14
By Jeremy Barlow and Colin Wilson

At one point, Rebellion was the weakest of the Star Wars titles. That’s no longer the case. The current arc, “Small Victories,” has been the best of this title so far and one of the better Star Wars stories of the year. This conclusion continues the quality. The issue opens with an opportunity for Colin Wilson to show off. Being a Star Wars artist requires the ability to draw technology. Wilson does a great job here depicting multiple Star Destroyers in the midst of evasive maneuvers, a collision and a crash. Later on, Wilson will get another shot with a beautiful B-wing splash page followed by a second space battle. The story is just as strong. Luke, Leia and the other members of the Rebellion strike team are desperate to get off of the planet now that their main objective has been achieved. And there’s a tense moment as they debate whether or not to look for Deena Shan before they depart. As one pilot notes, they don’t even know if she’s alive or dead. Deena has become a real star in this story and Barlow and Wilson do an incredible job of portraying her. Wilson draws her with blood and tears while Barlow gives her dialogue with a powerful mix of tenacity and resignation. We know that the budding romance between Deena and Luke won’t work out, but it’s fun to see it start to blossom anyway.

Captain Britain and MI:13 #2
By Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk

After an excellent first issue, the second issue of Captain Britain and MI:13 is a bit of a step backwards. That’s not to say that it isn’t a good issue. It just isn’t as great as the first. The Leonard Kirk art is occasionally breath-taking. I loved the splash page of the Skrull armada and the picture of the Black Knight’s body being split apart. Plus, there are some great story moments. Faiza Hussain is turning into an interesting character. With Faiza in this book and Dust in Young X-Men, Marvel is creating a couple of very strong Muslim characters. And I appreciated that none of the current heroes were able to pull the sword from the stone. It was a good twist on the usual tale, and it fits what we know of Pete Wisdom and “John Lennon.” Unfortunately, the story does get a little complicated at points. Tink comes out of nowhere in this story and I’m not entirely sure how Oberon is supposed to fit in with Otherworld (the home of the Captain Britain corps currently being invaded by Skrulls). It’s possible these things make sense to people who have read Cornell’s “Wisdom” mini-series but they’re a little confusing here. However, the first issue was strong enough and there are enough good moments here that I’ll definitely be back for another issue. Plus, how could I pass up getting a chance to read about a super Skrull magical monster with all of earth’s mystical items at his disposal?

The Best of July (2007)

Written by Chris Fluit 
Wednesday, 25 July 2007
                                  Captain America 28

from Marvel, by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting and Mike Perkins

I saw a recent headline that declared “Captain America Still Dead.”  Yup, Captain America died a couple of issues ago and his title has continued on without him.  And it’s still one of the best superhero comics on the stands today.

This issue intercuts between several storylines, giving us glimpses of each and moving them all along.  Two of those stories follow the three characters that are now at the heart of this book: Bucky Barnes aka the Winter Soldier, Sharon Carter and Sam Wilson aka the Falcon.  These three characters are the people who knew Captain America the best and the story is about how they’re dealing with the after-effects of this tragedy.  The Winter Soldier is in his own story, trying to track down those responsible for Cap’s death and kill them.  Currently, he’s blaming Tony Stark aka Iron Man and that’s who he’s tracking down in this issue.  Sharon and Sam are the other central characters.  They’re still working for SHIELD and the Initiative, but they’re reluctant about it.  They want to find whoever’s responsible for Cap’s death but they’re not quite willing to go rogue in order to do it.  So instead of going after SHIELD, which is what the Winter Soldier appears to be doing, they decide to go after the Red Skull who was mixed up in all of this as well.

Besides the three central characters, we end up following a couple of other characters in sub-plots.  The first is Tony Stark, the former Iron Man and the current Director of SHIELD.  It makes sense that we spend time with Tony in two ways.  One, he was Captain America’s opposite during the Civil War and two, the Winter Soldier is currently trying to kill him.  We get some interesting scenes featuring Tony, especially one in which he gets into a bit of an argument with Professor Charles Xavier.  The other sub-plot features the villainous Sin. She’s the daughter of the Red Skull and had appeared earlier in this series with her boyfriend Crossbones.  Now, Sin is ready for a larger role and she starts to gather a new Serpent Society around her.

 Issue 28 is very much a transition issue yet it’s done so well that we don’t mind.  We want to know what’s going to happen next.  We want to know if Winter Soldier will be able to get close enough to Tony Stark.  We want to know what Sin is going to do next.  And we want to know how Sharon and Sam are going to take down the Red Skull.  It’s amazing that a book which has lost its lead character can be this good.  Amazing, yet true. 

 

Dynamo 5 #5

from Image, by Jay Faerber and Mahmud A. Asrar
 
This book is often compared to Noble Causes- which is understandable, given that they’re both written by Jay Faerber.  But I think the better comparison is another Image book: Invincible.  Really, it’s that good.  And I say this as someone who enjoys Noble Causes quite a lot and has even championed it over the years.  Dynamo 5 is better. 

Invincible is a book about a teenaged superhero and, as such, has been compared to the teenaged superhero by which all others are mentioned: the original Spider-Man.  Dynamo 5 is about a family bound by circumstances as much as by blood.  They’re a family, but not in the traditional sense.  And just as Invincible is the modern heir to Spider-Man, Dynamo 5 has the potential to be the modern heir to the Fantastic Four.  Honestly, it’s that good.  
 
The team features five half-siblings.  They share a common father, the great superhero Captain Dynamo, but they all have different mothers.  For some of the characters, the revelation isn’t that big a deal.  In fact, it’s kind of cool if you’re living in a foster home to find out that your dad is Captain Dynamo.  For others, the revelation is shocking, even devastating.  They had dads that they thought were their real fathers.  And now they know that their mothers weren’t faithful to their husbands. 

Issue 4 took a break from the action to give us a glimpse into those relationships and situations.  Issue 5 brings us back to the action, but not in the same way we had seen in the first three issues.  In those issues, the team had been gathered and mentored by Maddie Warner, Captain Dynamo’s widow.  She had proven to be a tough leader, setting aside her own grief at her husband’s death and her own shame at his infidelity.  But in this issue, she’s confronted with the possible return of Captain Dynamo.  And that means that she isn’t there for the team of teenagers as she was in their initial adventures. 

Suddenly, the kids are on their own.  It’s a necessary step.  We see which kids have already established a loyalty to Maddie.  We see which kids are ready to step up as leaders.  And, naturally, we see that not everything is at it seems. Captain Dynamo hasn’t returned.  Rather, he has at least one other child that Maddie didn’t know about and her mother just happens to be a super-villain.  Yup, things are getting pretty complicated. 

Dynamo 5 has it all: archetypical powers assigned to atypical characters, family connections and complications, plot twists, dynamic superhero action and astoundingly beautiful art.  This is the next Invincible and it’s new enough that it’s not too late to get on board at the beginning.  

 

GI Joe: America’s Elite 25

from Devil’s Due, by Mark Powers and Mike Bear

I’ll admit it: I was looking forward to this issue more than anything else in July.  That could’ve been a bad thing.  My expectations could’ve been so high that any book would’ve actually been a disappointment.  And while this issue wasn’t exactly what I expected, it also wasn’t a disappointment. 

This is the first part of a year-long epic called World War III.  At the end of the previous issue, Cobra Commander was in possession of all of the secrets of GI Joe and all of the military power of Destro.  And he was ready to wage war.  So I expected this issue to be the opening salvo of a war.  I expected attacks and explosions and things blowing up.  But that’s not what we got.  We did get the opening salvo of a war, just a different kind of war.

The issue opens with a couple of Joes taking out some Cobra snipers in Dagestan.  It then shifts back to headquarters for a great scene between General Joe Colton (the Joe in GI Joe) and one of his information guys running down the threat board.  It reminds me of the issue of Avengers in which Alan Davis joined Kurt Busiek on the title.  It’s a fanboy’s dream, seeing all of the villains up on a computer screen. 

From there, we jump to Darfur where a former Army Ranger is meeting with Cobra Commander.  We don’t know what’s going on quite yet, though the Commander talks about bringing justice into a region that the world has ignored.  And then, we’re on the move again, checking in on the sniper situation in Dagestan before moving to Scotland and the hand over of MARS (Destro’s military headquarters) to Cobra.  These opening pages are dizzying, but in a good way.  It feels like so much is going on and we’re flitting from one place to another.  And every scene brings something exciting and new, or potentially terrifying.  

The issue just keeps getting better from there.  Eventually, we learn what Cobra Commander is up to.  He isn’t planning to hit the Joes directly.  At least, not yet.  Instead, he’s arming factions in every conflict around the globe: in Dagestan, in Darfur, in Chechnya, in any place where people are ready to take up weapons.  But Cobra isn’t interested in outcomes.  He’s interested in chaos.  He’s arming both sides of the conflicts.  He’s inflaming the trouble spots around the world.  And he’s forcing GI Joe to spread itself too thinly around the globe even as they’re trying to expand and strengthen their presence at home.  Sound familiar, at all?  Yup, there are some interesting real-world parallels to this story, though Powers does a great job of not letting his fictional conflict become a direct analogy for the real world. 

While it wasn’t the explosive beginning that I had expected, it was still a great issue, building tension to a slow boil rather than starting out with a bang.  Plus, there are some great fan extras.  The cover features every single Joe to ever appear in comics, on TV or as a toy.  There’s a second copy inside, complete with an index.  And there’s an “identified threat matrix” in the back: five pages of entries regarding every Joe enemy ever used in the comics, complete with status updates such as deceased, in custody and at large.  The fan in me was drooling at the extras even as I was enjoying the story as a reader. 

Green Lantern 21

from DC, by Geoff Johns, Ivan  Reis and Oclair Albert

 I wasn’t always a Green Lantern fan.  From his appearances on SuperFriends, in Justice League of America and Justice League Europe, I always found Hal Jordan kind of boring.  I liked Kyle Rayner a lot better and would pick up the occasional issue of Green Lantern while he was the lead but I still didn’t collect the title on a regular basis.
 
Geoff Johns and Green Lantern: Rebirth changed my mind.  That was one of the best superhero stories I’d ever read.  And now, the Rebirth team is back together bringing us the next big epic in the Green Lantern saga.  So far, it’s shaping up to be every bit as good as that earlier story.

The basic premise is simple: Sinestro, the Green Lantern’s greatest foe, is putting together a corps of his own made up of those who cause great fear.  We’ve seen the gathering of the Sinestro Corps in back-up features for several months.  We’ve seen their spies at work in Green Lantern Corps.  And they finally initiated the war in the Sinestro Corps special, which would have been included in a Best of June column had I written one. 

Now, we get to see how the Green Lanterns react.  It’s not going to be easy.  They’re bandaging the wounded.  They’re replacing the fallen.  And they’re bickering with one another.  Some Lanterns still don’t trust Hal Jordan.  Some Lanterns are blaming each other for what’s happened.  Even the Guardians are divided with two of them breaking off from the rest.  The Green Lanterns would have their hands full with the Sinestro Corps even if they were at peak efficiency.  In their current state, they barely have a chance. 

Which is great story-telling.  We love to root for the underdog.  The Green Lantern Corps is so powerful that it’s hard to cheer for them in that way.  They have 7200 members, each of whom has an all-powerful weapon.  They should never lose.  But Geoff Johns has taken the Corps’ strength and turned into a weakness and in so doing he’s taken the concept’s weakness and turned it into a strength. They’re actually facing a foe stronger than they are.  They’re being forced to fact their greatest fears.  For the Green Lanterns to win, they’re going to have to overcome the very things they’re afraid of and come together as a team.

I can’t wait to see what happens next.  It was amazing just catching the opening of the story.  Now, we’ve gotten flashbacks as to Hal Jordan’s greatest fear and a cliffhanger ending in which we discover that Kyle Rayner has been co-opted onto Sinestro’s side.  It doesn’t get much better than this.

 

Spike: Shadow Puppets 2

from IDW, by Brian Lynch and Franco Urru

 The new Buffy: The Vampire Slayer series from Dark Horse is one of the year’s biggest hits, averaging more than 100,000 copies sold per issue.  That’s a good thing.  Of course, that has a lot to do with the fact that Joss Whedon- the creator of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer- is actually writing the comic book.  However, there’s another book out there that’s every bit as good as Buffy.  It’s not actually written by Joss, but it does feature his characters. And it’s so well Lorne that you can visualize it as an episode of an actual Joss-produced TV show.  It’s Spike: Shadow Puppets.

 I’ll admit that this is my first go at a Spike comic book so I don’t know if all of the earlier attempts are this good.  But I do know that this is one great comic.  Brian Lynch has the Joss patter down.  He’s got the quirky dialogue that we know and love from the tv show.  And all of the characters have their own distinct way of talking.  Spike “sounds” like Spike.  Lorne talks like Lorne. Lynch even goes so far as to have other characters make fun of Spike’s British lingo.  It’s great fun and it gives exactly the right feel to the book.
 
Furthermore, this mini-series is a sequel of sorts to one of the best episodes of the Angel TV show.  Smile Time was an episode in which some demons possessed the puppets of a children’s TV show and used their ratings to suck the life energy out of the kids’ who were watching.  Angel eventually shut down the operation, but not before being turned temporarily into a puppet himself.  It was a great episode, rich with humor and a little bit of pathos.

This mini-series is that good.  Smile Time is back.  They’re now big in Japan.  Lorne has gotten wind of it through his entertainment contacts and he’s asked Spike to go and check it out.  Which they do.  The first issue was a great buddy-movie as Lorne and Spike traveled to Japan.  It made me long for Spike to have a TV show of his own and I speculated about who would be in his supporting cast.  With this issue, Lynch begins to build a supporting cast around Spike.  He adds Beck, a pyrokinetic that Spike had previously saved from a monster asylum, George, a protoplasmic fish and the kind of character that’s a lot easier to do in comics than in TV and Tok Shinobu, a ninja. 

Of course, by the end of this issue, Lynch turns both Spike and Lorne into puppets.  We knew it was going to come, but Lynch manages to make it fun and unexpected anyway.  He hits all of the right beats.  He keeps the action going.  He lets the one-liners fly while he’s doing so.  And he adds quirky supporting characters and villains at every turn. 

Plus, Francisco Urru does a great job as the artist.  He manages to convey the likeness of the characters without being slavish to photo-realism, kind of like Georges Jeanty on the current Buffy comic.  And he does a great job with some of the action scenes, especially the opening one in which hundreds of felt ninjas doggy-pile on Spike.  This issue was great fun.  I only wish more people were checking it out.

 

Star Wars: Legacy 14

from Dark Horse, by John Ostrander, Jan Duursema and Dan Parsons

I’ve written about this series often, and it’s sometimes hard to think of new things to say.  But I still had to include it in this column because if I’m writing about “the best,” than Legacy qualifies.  This is a great title.  It’s set about 100 years after everything else in the Star Wars world, which puts it about 125 years after Return of the Jedi.  The world of Star Wars is already a rich one, yet Legacy takes it even further.  This is no simple line between the good guys and the bad guys.  Instead, Ostrander and Duursema have introduced multiple factions.  The Sith rule the galaxy openly.  Yet a faction of the Imperial nobility and military have rejected Sith rule.  That’s right, it’s the Empire vs. the Empire.  Meanwhile, the Jedi have been broken and are either in hiding or on the run.  One Jedi-in-training, has even become a smuggler.  Cade Skywalker, the heir to the great Skywalker legacy works on the wrong side of the law.

This issue furthers Cade Skywalker’s story.  He feels bad that he had betrayed a Jedi healer at one point.  And so he decides to break into the Sith prison on the capital planet of Coruscant and free the healer that’s been imprisoned in his place.  It’s not that Cade has embraced his lineage.  Rather, he simply doesn’t like having anyone own him, or having to owe anyone.  The issue gives us glimpses of the ruling Sith, the soldiers that fight for them and the seedy under-belly of Coruscant.  It’s almost like a Blade Runner take on Star Wars.

The Sith remain distant yet fascinating creatures.  Duursema has given them some great looks, from the leaders’ skull helmet to Darth Talon’s red skin and tattoos to Darth Nihl’s pale face and penetrating eyes.  These are some villains you can be afraid of.  Even the minor villains look good.  It’s amazing what blood red skin can do for a bad guy.

It’s also interesting to visit Coruscant’s criminal quarter, to see villainous versions of familiar races like Wookiees and to have the protagonist of our story deal with a Hutt on friendly terms. 

Plus, the art is beautiful.  I just can’t say enough about how rich and textured this book looks.  Duursema draws handsome men, beautiful women and incredible aliens.  She knows how to handle the quiet negotiations as well as the vivid light-saber duels.  I admire the art so much that I tend to read this book more slowly than others. 

Finally, there’s a great ending to this issue.  In some of the previous issues, there have been some hints that Cade might be ready to reclaim his Jedi heritage and forsake his criminal behavior.  But any hint that this book was about to transition to a traditional hero book was an intentional misdirection.  Cade’s rescue fails.  He manages to free the healer from his prison cell, but he’s caught trying to leave the compound.  And Cade may be a Skywalker but he hasn’t worked with a light-saber in years.  He’s defeated and we’re left with the sense that he’s about to become a pawn of the Sith.  This is another book that has it all: beautiful art, a rich universe, intriguing characters and a true sense that you have no idea what’s going to happen next.

 

Y: The Last Man 57

from Vertigo, by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan Jr.

There may be some people who think that Y: The Last Man is a book about a specific science-fiction situation: the last man on earth.  It’s about a mystery: what killed all of the other men?  It’s about politics: what happens when all of the men are dead.  And, yes, Y: The Last Man deals with all of those things.  But like all great works of literature, it’s not really about those things.  It’s about the characters.  It’s about the characters living in that situation.  It’s about how they deal with it, how they respond, how they cope.

Over the past year, that has become clearer and clearer in terms of Y: The Last Man.  The previous arc answered all of the big mysteries and conspiracies.  We know why all of the other men died.  We know why Yorick survived.  We’ve got the answers.  But that’s not the end of the series because this series isn’t about the mystery.  It’s about the characters.  And while the questions may have been answered, the characters aren’t done dealing with it.  The mystery is solved, but their stories aren’t done. 

This is a great character issue.  It opens with Agent 355 and a scene which clearly indicates that she’s finished her mission and is ready to move on with the next stage of her life.  She buys a dress.  No more work clothes for her.  And since she doesn’t have any currency, she gives away her gun in exchange.  Yet even though the main mystery has been resolved, Vaughan knows that he has to give us a bit of tension to see us through to the end of the series.  In this case, that means we also catch a glimpse of an Israeli agent who is tailing 355.

Next up, is the title character and his long, lost love.  Yorick and Beth were reunited last issue in a scene that fans have been waiting to see for more than four years.  At first, things seem to be going well.  They’re having great sex.  But there are other, deeper issues that they haven’t addressed.  Yorick had proposed to Beth before the cataclysm and had never gotten an answer.  Beth finally answers.  She tells him, “Yes.”  However, while doing so, she also mentions that she had been planning to break up with him before the cataclysm.  Suddenly, Yorick is confronted with a truth that other people have been telling him for years: that the real Beth may not match the idealized version of Beth he’s been carrying around in her head. 

Beth was breaking up with Yorick because he was content with his life and unadventurous.  Now, with all that he’s been through in the past four years, Yorick has grown a lot.  He’s become the man that Beth always wanted him to be.  But that’s not what Yorick hears.  He hears that he wasn’t good enough when there were billions of guys to choose from, but that he’s good enough now that he’s the last man on earth.  Yorick gets dressed and storms off in anger.  It’s an incredible scene, full of emotional twists and turns.  It also demonstrates how nudity can be used to indicate emotional vulnerability instead of titillation. 

Finally, Beth has one more scene with Yorick’s sister Hero and the other Beth. She’s just revealed her secrets to Yorick and now discovers that Yorick hasn’t revealed all of his secrets to her. It’s a great conclusion, fracturing Beth’s illusions about Yorick just as she had previously shattered Yorick’s illusions about her.  Even though we know that there are Israeli agents about, the real tension that has to be resolved in the final three issues is this relationship.  Will Beth and Yorick be able to reconcile, now that their secrets are out in the open?  Or will they go their separate ways after years of searching for each other?  Sure, there are some plot points yet to go, but it’s the character questions that are really carrying us forward to the finish line. 

Discuss this article at the Captain Comics Message Board: Fluit Notes Last Updated ( Friday, 27 July 2007 )

Random Musings on New Numbers for Graphic Novels

Recently, I happened to look at the sales charts for graphic novels for April 2007 (courtesy of icv2.com ). I don’t do this every month, but I like to check in from time to time to see how the industry is doing. I find it helps to have facts in order to fend off the Chicken Littles and other dark prophets of doom. I found this month’s sales chart to be particularly interesting and I thought I’d share a few thoughts with the rest of you. 

 

Civil War

The big news this month is Civil War. Marvel wrapped up their big crossover in March and started releasing Civil War-related trade paperbacks in April. And Civil War dominated. The main trade, Civil War itself, brought in 19,215 sales for the month. That makes it not only the biggest graphic novel in April, but it also makes it the biggest debuting graphic novel of the year by nearly 10,000 copies. For the sake of comparison, the top-selling trades in January, February and March were Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3, Civil War: Road to Civil War and 300 with sales of 8.874, 9,340 and 8,726 respectively. It’s safe to say that Civil War killed the competition.

However, the good news for Marvel doesn’t stop with the main title. The Civil War tie-ins and related books took the top four spots and six of the top eight in April. Thanks mainly to the many Civil War books released, April 2007 experienced a whopping 44% growth over the sales of April 2006.

I think this underscores a point I’ve made often over the years: single issue comics and trade paperbacks are not in competition with each other; instead, they are complementary pieces of the same market. The biggest selling single-issue comic of 2006, Civil War, becomes the biggest selling trade paperback of 2007. The sale of singles drives the sale of trades.

This isn’t unusual. We see similar things in the music industry, in which musicians with the best-selling singles are often the same musicians with the best-selling albums. We see similar things in the movie industry, in which the biggest blockbusters in theatres also become the best-sellers in video rentals and DVDs. Admittedly, there’s not a perfect correlation. Some artists sell comparatively better in singles than they do in albums. Some movies, especially family films, sell better in the secondary market of DVD sales than in the primary market of the theatre. But there is a high correlation- the best-selling singles come from the best-selling albums, the best-selling DVDs come from the best-selling movies.

And the same is true in comics: the best-selling comics make for the best-selling trades. There’s not a perfect correlation. But it’s close enough to show that the singles market is capable of driving the trade market and to show that the two formats work together in a complementary fashion, rather than work against each other competitively.

Manga

After a top four filled with Civil War related titles, the next two trades were All-Star Superman Vol. 1 and Fruits Basket I don’t have anything interesting to say about All-Star Superman right now, except to note that it’s another title that does well in single issues before doing well in trades. However, I was intrigued by the presence of Fruits Basket, which happened to be the highest-selling Manga of the month. Vol. 6.

A number of years ago, Manga titles were selling at an exponential rate and some observers predicted that Manga would completely overtake superhero comics. It hasn’t happened yet. Manga is a strong presence -after all, Fruits Basket was the sixth best selling trade of the month- but it isn’t the dominant presence it was predicted to be. There were six Manga titles in the top 50, ranking from Fruits Basket at #6 to Inu Yasha Vol. 29 at #45. We see a similar picture in January, with 7 Manga titles in the top 50, in February with 5 and in March with 4 (although 2 more charted at #51 and #53). Some titles, like Death Note, are growing in sales from one volume to the next. Others, like Inu Yasha and Battle Club, are experiencing small declines. Manga is a steady seller, but it no longer appears to be growing exponentially.

Of course, that’s only looking at the sales charts for the direct market and Manga is a much bigger presence in the bookstores than it is in the local comic shop. I’m certainly not the expert in this area but, thankfully, I don’t have to be. Brian Hibbs, a retailer and columnist at Newsarama has already done the research. The best-selling Manga title of 2006 was Naruto Vol. 9, which sold 101, 457 copies. That’s pretty impressive. It’s even more impressive to know that the 12 volumes of Naruto ranked 1-11 and 16 for the year (the final volume was released in December and ranked 16^th with only one month’s worth of sales). The 12 volumes combined to sell 917,115 trades or an average of 76,426 per volume. That’s some pretty hefty sales.

However, it still doesn’t match the best-selling comic book. The seven issues of Civil War have combined to sell 2,154,641 copies so far. That’s an average of 307,805 copies per issue. Now, that’s not the complete picture. We didn’t look at how well Naruto sold in comic book shops. And we aren’t able to know how well Civil War sold via newsstands. But the partial picture we have shows us this: Civil War sold better in comic book shops than Naruto  sold in bookstores.

I didn’t write this to denigrate Manga. I have nothing against Manga and I hope it continues to sell well. But the idea that Manga sales completely outstrip superhero sales is not borne out by the numbers. Manga outsells comic books in bookstores. Comic books outsell Manga in comic book stores. And, currently, comic books sell better in comic book stores than Manga sells in bookstores. Yet, I think that’s okay. Once again, I don’t think that superhero comic books and Manga are competing with each other. They’re part of the same medium, and what’s good for one isn’t automatically bad for the other. After all, the period of exponential growth for Manga happened to coincide with a period of sustained growth for comic books. They can both be healthy at the same time.

Runaways

Earlier I noted that single issue sales tend to drive graphic novel sales. However, I will readily admit that there isn’t a perfect correlation. Some titles simply sell proportionally better in trade paperbacks and digests. Exhibit A is Runaways. The #5 trade in April was All-Star Superman which sold 6,675 copies. The #9 trade (and the third non-Civil War trade) was Runaways which sold 5,420 copies. In single issues, All-Star Superman averages sales of about 110,000 copies. Runaways averages about 25,000 copies. Yet despite that large difference in single issue sales, the All-Star Superman trade sold only 1,255 more copies than the Runaways trade.

Admittedly, that number is misleading. For one thing, this is the $20 hardcover of All-Star Superman and the $8 digest of Runaways so we’re not exactly comparing apples to apples. Presumably, All-Star Superman will sell some more copies of a soft-cover trade somewhere down the line (I know I’m waiting for one). And, presumably, not as many people would have shelled out $20 for a Runaways hardcover as were willing to shell out for an $8 digest. However, it does show that certain titles have a stronger secondary market presence than others. Runaways is one of them. Looking further down the list, the Runaways digest outsold a volume of Batman: Detective and Wolverine: Origins despite selling significantly fewer copies of single issues.

 

The Walking Dead

The next thing to catch my eye was barely in the top half of the sales charts. It was the 43^rd best selling comic of the month: Walking Dead Vol. 6. What is noteworthy is not that Walking Dead Vol. 6 was sitting at #43, but that Walking Dead Volumes 1, 5 and 2 were also on the chart at numbers 65, 80 and 96. And it wasn’t just April. I looked at the earlier sales charts as well. Volumes 1, 3, 4 and 5 all charted in January and again in March. Volumes 1 and 5 both charted in February. Somewhat quietly, Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead has become one of the most consistent selling trades in the market.  

These trades aren’t simply selling in the first month of their release, and maybe the second, before fading away from the charts. No, they’re charting again and again, selling more than 1,000 extra copies month after month. I have seen this before. I have seen series that would ship multiple volumes month after month after month, but they were series like Swamp Thing and Sandman Now, apparently, the Walking Dead has entered their ranks. Furthermore, the Walking Dead is currently outdoing them as no other series- Swamp Thing, not Sandman is shipping multiple volumes month after month. There are some other consistent sellers, but they’re Manga or single volume trades like The Watchmen or 300. Even so, it’s almost odd to think of the Walking Dead as a title that sells as consistently as The Watchmen and 300. 

I mentioned in my last column that I had grown bored with The Walking Dead. I may not be reading the title anymore, but I can't help but be impressed by its success.

Come Discuss this column at the Captain Comics Message Board : Fluit Notes Forum

Originally Published at  CaptainComics.us, on June 1, 2007

All of April (plus a little bit more from May and March

Here it is: a huge column reviewing seven weeks worth of comics including the entire month of April Due to work and travel, I hadn’t been to the comic store in that amount of time. And since I haven’t reviewed new comics since February, it seemed like the big pile of comics would be great fodder for a big column about comics. So hold on to your capes, it’s a quadruple-sized installment of Fluit Notes.

52 #47, 48, 49, 50, 51 and 52: And it’s done! I honestly enjoyed 52 and I’m glad I stuck it out all the way to the end. There were a few bumpy spots along the way. The art was inconsistent. For example, I didn’t really care for Giuseppe Camuncoli’s work on issue 47 or Darick Robertson’s work on issue 48, but I really liked the work of Joe Bennett, Justiniano and Eddy Barrows on the final issues. Barrows is much better here than he is on the Atom. Also, the story got spread a little thin in the middle, but they more than made up for it with some great story conclusions starting with the “Rain of the Supermen” at the beginning of this year. This set of issues had one ending that didn’t work so well for me. I just didn’t care for the Bruno/Batwoman stuff at all, especially as Bruno re-entered the story so near to the end. near to the end. But I did like the end of the Will Magnus story. I liked how he turned on Sivana, how he saved T.O. Morrow and how he used his own insanity in his favor. I just wish that he had shot all of the Metal Men out of a gun, as he does on the cover, instead of only Lead. The Black Adam conclusion was also momentous, even if it was padded by the unnecessary World War III mini-series. And I enjoyed the big Booster Gold conclusion. I wasn’t clamoring for the return of the multiverse but I still liked how the story was told.

 

Action Comics 847 and 848: Some fill-in stories are truly filler. Others, however, become classics. I’d put issue 847 in the latter. Dwayne McDuffie uses Jonathan Kent as a vehicle to tell a story out of Superman’s past. It’s a wonderful use of Clark's parents and an engaging tale in its own right.  Plus, Renato Guedes’ art is reminiscent of Tony Harris’ work on Ex Machina. Unfortunately, issue 848 is of the former category. Fabian Nicieza tries to tell a tale that raises questions of religious fervor and faith but it’s not as mysterious or as engaging as it’s supposed to be.

 

Amazing Spider-Man Free Comic Book Day Special: Spider-Man was one of the titles that I used to read in the ‘80s. When I get nostalgic for the comics I read when I was kid, I go back and read them. But I guess I just don’t need today’s Spidey to be the Spidey of yesterday. This issue simply didn’t scratch a nostalgia itch. I don’t think I even had a nostalgia itch for it to scratch. And without that, this is a pretty boring book.

 

Atom 10 and 11: This was a decent story. Eddy Barrows is getting a better handle on the art though I’m still looking forward to Mike Norton’s return. And I like how Gail Simone played with clichés. Ryan Choi finds his childhood love, only to discover that she’s not quite a lovable as he thought when he was a teenager. Plus, there’s a nice development in the relationship between Ryan and his father.

 

Astounding Wolf-Man 1: Free Comic Book Day Special:  I’m a huge fan of Invincible. I enjoyed The Walking Dead for a couple of years before getting bored. And I’ve even liked some of Kirkman’s lesser known works such as Tales of the Realm and Techjacket. So I was hoping for something really good. But this wasn’t it. It just wasn’t original at all. We’ve got the yuppie, workaholic dad who gets mauled by some kind of animal. We’ve got a few mysterious disappearances before the character figures out he’s a werewolf. And we’ve got a mysterious mentor who offers to help, and who happens to be a vampire. The text page hints that there’s a great mystery to this vampire and interesting questions to be asked about the characters but we don’t get that sense from the story. There’s just no hook here to make me want to read more.

 

Astro City: The Dark Age Book Two #3: After all of the recent complaints about books like All-Star Batman and  Ultimates that are interminably late, here’s an irregularly scheduled book that does it right. Kurt Busiek knows that Astro City doesn’t come out that often. He knows his readers may not remember every detail from the previous issue. But he doesn’t expect them to.  Throughout this issue, there are little lines of expository dialogue to remind you of the pertinent events. Royal is working for the Platypus. Charles is trying not to take graft while also trying not to tell Internal Investigations that his partner is corrupt. Charles’ wife left him. The Street Angel has gotten darker. And so on. Exposition can be overdone- it can weigh down a story- but that’s not the case here. Instead, it keeps the reader from constantly wondering what’s going on so that we get down to simply enjoying the story. And it is mostly enjoyable, though not entirely. As I feared, the Dark Age is a little too dark for what I want from Astro City. But there’s still the sense of wonder that I want to see combined with the average person on the street’s view of great events. It’s that combination that has made Astro City  and earlier works like Marvels so special.  As long as that’s here,  a book well worth reading. 

 

Avengers: Initiative 1: For a while, I was giddy happy while reading this book. I felt the same kind of joy reading that Cloud 9 felt when she was flying. I liked the new characters. I liked the older characters, like Justice and Yellowjacker. And I was having a great time with some apparently old-fashioned superhero action. And then MVP got his head blown off. I’ll admit that it was a shock, but that’s more because it was so out of tone with the rest of the story. It was also a blatant rip-off of Starship Troopers. I might be back for the second issue but I’m much more interested in the “new heroes trying to make it” than I am in “government cover-up” angle.

 

Batman 664: There’s some good stuff in here: the portrayal of Bruce Wayne as an international playboy who pretends to be James Bond, the Andy Kubert art, Batman’s compassionate offer of a Waynetech job to a prostitute, and the clarification that the Batman who dumped the Joker into a dumpster was an impersonator. I guess some people do miss the Bat-psycho and they’re living in Gotham. But there’s some stuff that doesn’t work as well such as Batman’s inner monologue in the closing sequence and the fact that it’s taken us this long to know for sure that Batman is being impersonated.

 

Birds of Prey 105: The awful Colossus mini-series from a couple of years ago turned me off of any Rasputin stories so this issue got off on the wrong foot with me. At least, Birds of Prey is starting to concentrate on a slightly smaller team. Plus, it was nice to see both the Secret Six as antagonists and Tora Olafsdottir as a central plot device. This wasn’t the best issue of Birds of Prey, but it was still okay.

 

Brave and Bold 3: This is what Mark Waid was afraid of: Brave and Bold is fun, but it’s also inconsequential. Any character development is done in the character’s own titles. Any tension is reserved for the big event books. So what’s left is a mostly gentle romp through the DC Universe featuring favorite characters in exotic locales. It’s fun. And George Perez is still a master artist. But it’s not exactly a riveting read. Plus, some of the connections feel a little forced (Supergirl’s intergalactic guide is Lobo?) and the title is starting to feel a little crowded. It’s not a bad book, but neither is it a “must-read.” 

 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2 and 3: A lot of titles are in contention as the best book of the month. This is one of them. Georges Jeanty has really grown as an artist from his days on Bishop and Gambit. He does a great job of capturing the character’s likenesses without being photo-realistic. And he does a great job of capturing facial expressions, which is crucial to this kind of book. But of course, the real star is writer Joss Whedon. Buffy is his creation after all. And Joss is having a fun time with the comic, giving us the kind of situations and scenes that a special-effects budget would not have permitted on TV. We get an overgrown Dawn, zombies storming a castle in issue 2, and an all-out witch battle in issue 3. Plus, we get the return of a few familiar characters such as Ethan Rayne, Amy and another that I don’t want to give away.

 

Countdown 51: Good first issue. Paul Dini manages to get me interested in the plights of Mary Marvel, Duela Dent and the Trickster. However, I wasn’t impressed with the comment by Jason Todd that Duela doesn’t even belong on this world. The whole who-belongs-to-which-world was a confusing barrier to a young Chris and while I may be able to make sense of the situation as an adult that doesn’t mean I want to.

 

Crossing Midnight 4, 5 and 6: Reading this series is like being grabbed by the collar, shaken up and not let go. When I’m reading it, I’m completely involved in it. I feel as if I’m as in-over-my-head as the twin leads of Kaikou and Toshi. These three issues give us a little bit of back-story for their mother, a spotlight on their father and a new mystical protector/master for Kaikou. Finally, in issue 6, we see what’s happening to Toshi as she learns that the imagination and the ability to lie may be the most dangerous weapons of all. 

 

Danger Girl: Body Shots 1 and 2: This is pretty typical Danger Girl: action, intrigue, and more than a little hanky-panky. I don’t mind the hanky-panky, but I ‘m glad that Danger Girl tends to be tongue in cheek about it. 

 

Dark Horse Free Comic Book Day Special, featuring The Umbrella Academy, Pantheon and Zero Killer:

The Umbrella Academy was an okay short story but it wasn’t good enough to make me all that interested in either the characters or the concept. Pantheon City was more intriguing, but it was really just a teaser. We don’t know much more than that it takes place in the future. It looks good but it’s hard to know for sure. Zero Killer is not for me at all. It’s violent and ugly. Some other people like reading that kind of thing, but I don’t.

Dreadnoks Declassified 3: Snake Eyes Declassified was excellent. Scarlett Declassified was even better. This was a muddled mess. In this finale, I finally figured out why: Amaury ends up killing Zartan and becoming the new Zartan. So we haven’t been bouncing around time. We’ve been alternating between Zartan and the man who will become Zartan. Maybe I should have known that before I started reading the story. But I think that maybe the story-teller could have communicated that to me more clearly. After all, that wasn’t the only thing that was confusing me. Half the time, I wasn’t sure if the story was taking place in the Australian Outback (the original home of the Dreadnoks) or the Florida Everglades (the new home of the Dreadnoks). It’s not a good sign when you can’t tell the difference between the desert and the swamp. 

 

Dynamo 5 #2: This was good. Really good. Better than Noble Causes good. Gotta-get-more good. The team is made up of the descendants of Captain Dynamo, but there are a couple of twists: each of the five characters inherited a different power, and each of the five characters is Captain Dynamo’s child by a different woman. Plus, the team is being run by the Captain’s widow, who isn’t mother to any of them. Suddenly, you’ve got a team that has a reason to work together, and even more reasons to not get along. Jay Faerber manages to come up with a few twists on convention as well such as giving the football player mental rather than physical powers. These characters have flaws, but they’re still mostly likable. And I have to mention Mahmud Asrar’s art. It’s absolutely gorgeous. He draws pretty women who look different from one another, muscular men and scary monsters. He draws fluid flight scenes and powerful fight scenes. And he’s a strong enough story-teller that he can handle quiet scenes like conversations over coffee and visits to a nursing home. Do yourself a favor and buy this book.

 

Ex Machina 27: Mayor Mitchell Hundred loses his powers just as a super-powered threat arrives in New York. Meanwhile, New York is suffering a severe power outage and the mayor’s office is scrambling to address the problem. Once again, Brian Vaughan manages to make the political side of things interesting. The super-villain problems complicate the real world problems rather than overshadowing them. Plus, somehow, Mitchell manages to remain charismatic even in the midst of the chaos. I love his line about blaming Canada for the power outage, and I’m a Canadian. 

 

Fables 59 and 60:  Fables #59 made me laugh out loud… multiple times. It’s a special one-shot in which Bill Willingham and two handfuls of artists answer readers’ questions with short stories. We find out the last thing that Jack did before leaving Fabletown, who’s been asking questions of the Magic Mirror and how Bufkin keeps getting into the liquor. It’s funny stuff, yet Willingham still manages to creatively tie several of the short stories together and occasionally reveal important character information. The next issue, #60, starts us off on a Flycatcher story. It’s not as great as 59, but it’s just an opening act so it’s got plenty of time to get better. 

 

Fantastic Four 544 and 545: I’m not a big fan of the Fantastic Four. I enjoy the title when it has a good creative team but I’m not so enamored with the characters that I have to get this title when it doesn’t. However, the early returns on the McDuffie/Pelletier era are positive. It’s not “the best FF ever,” but its well worth reading. I especially enjoyed the witty dialogue, particularly in the playful banter between Ben and Johnny. Other creators have written their relationship as if they’re enemies who would rip each other apart if Sue wasn’t there to intervene. McDuffie writes them more like they’re brothers. They enjoy teasing each other and trying to show the other one up, but they honestly like each other and would defend the other one from anyone else. Oh, and the Black Panther and Storm fit in well with the Black Panther providing tech support and tactics while Storm provides phenomenal power and a moral center—kind of like Reed and Sue.  And oh again, I liked the inclusion of new characters like Stardust (who I hadn’t met before now) and Gravity (who I liked a lot thanks to his first mini-series). All in all, good stuff so far from the new creative team on Fantastic Four. 

 

Firestorm 34 and 35: This was kind of a weird ending for Firestorm. Even though it was the final arc, the story spent a lot more time setting up a conflict with the New Gods that will presumably play out in other titles like Countdown. It’s almost as if Firestorm became a supporting character in his own book at the end. 

 

GI Joe 22 and 23: This was a great title about a year ago. Now, it seems to be marking time, focusing on secondary characters like General Rey and the Baroness rather than on the Joes themselves. That’s supposed to change with a gigantic issue 25 but for now we’re looking at decent but not great issues of GI Joe. 

 

Green Lantern 18 and 19: Daniel Acuna is miscast as a penciller. He’s a great cover artist, but it just doesn’t translate to interior pages. It looks too unreal, like a painting, and keeps you distant from the characters. That’s especially a problem in a story like this one, in which love and lust play such a central role. As for the story, I’m intrigued at the idea of a Star Sapphire Corps but I’m still not sure what they’re supposed to be about. 

 

Green Lantern Corps 11 and 12: Currently, I prefer the Spin-off Corps to the core title. Guy Gardner may be too crass to work as a solo hero but he’s a great fit for an ensemble cast. Sora Natu, with her surgeon’s perspective and reservations about the Corps, is a great new character. I was a little nervous about seeing so many Lanterns act out of character, but Gibbons didn’t leave us wondering for too long before revealing a very surprising cause.

 

Invincible 40 and 41: Yes! A double dose of Invincible. This is “probably the best superhero comic book in the universe.” I love how Kirkman juggles the supporting cast. The main action is on Invincible and a team of heroes fighting off an invasion from outer space, but we still cut back to earth to the heroes and the girlfriend left behind. The previously annoying Rexsplode is suddenly a sympathetic character, while you feel bad for Amber even at the same time that you want Mark to break up with her so that he can get together with Eve. Invincible does a great job of balancing action and relationships, of including a huge supporting cast while not losing sight of the lead, and of playing around with the fact that the title is part of a larger superhero universe (as with the Brit cameo in issue 40). It just doesn’t get any better than this. 

 

JLA Classified 37 and 38: I don’t Frank Halloran, the self-important nihilistic philosophy major who is the lead in these issues. But I do like his story. I’m intrigued by his struggle. He rejects the destiny of violence and villainy that Professor Ivo and Amazo have planned for him. But he doesn’t exactly embrace the concepts of virtue and justice. It’s an interesting Catch-22. If Frank was even slightly sympathetic, this story would be great. As it is, it works on an intellectual level but doesn’t quite engage me as a fan.

 

JSA Classified 24 and 25: The first issue is the conclusion of a Dr. Mid-Nite vs. a vampire story. It’s not great but it was okay. My big problem with the story is Pieter Cross’ insistence that there’s no such thing as vampires. That’s a reasonable assertion in our world. But in the DC Universe, a place populated by alien races and immortal Neanderthals, Pieter’s skepticism seems a bit extreme. Oh well, it was at least better than issue 25. I generally like Tony Bedard’s work but not this time. It was like somebody replaced my issue of JSA Classified with an issue of Checkmate. It looks like Alan Scott, but he’s morally compromised, breaking his word and spouting about the gray areas between right and wrong. And it’s not even that good a story. Blech! 

 

Justice 11: I really need to re-read this story all at once. The bi-monthly schedule has allowed Alex Ross to pencil every issue but it’s also made it hard to remember what happens from one issue to the next. At least after a couple of pages to get my bearings, I usually enjoy whatever issue I’m reading. The penultimate installment was no exception. There were some great moments, such as Rita Farr knocking out Giganta and Superman’s line “It’s my job.” However, this issue did get a little busy and confusing. This is one case in which less might have been more. 

 

Justice Leagues and Societys (JLA 7 and 8, and JSA 5): I have one complaint about JLA 7: the pages were printed out of order. I have another complaint: Brad Meltzer’s jump-cut style of story-telling made it difficult to figure out what the right order should be.  But that’s about it. Everything else was great. I love the line-up, incorporating members from all of the different eras and even a few new ones. I love the character moments, like how much Roy Harper respects Black Canary, and Superman telling Batman that it’s okay to have Hal and the others pick the new team. I like the Hall of Justice. I like it all. JLA has got to be one of my favorite books right now. And then there’s “The Lightning Saga,” the crossover with JSA. It’s hard to judge a crossover based on only the first two chapters but I do like what I’ve seen so far. Both Meltzer and Johns know how to mix character moments with action and suspense. On the one side, there’s more Roy Harper (yay!) and Brion’s half-apologetic half-boastful observation about how he has the combined powers of the rest of the team. On the other, there are some quick fights like Batman vs. Karate Kid and the training sequence of Hawkgirl vs. Red Arrow.

 

Loners 1 and 2: I like obscure heroes so I was intrigued by The Loners but not enough to come back for issue 3. Karl Moline inks his own pencils a little too darkly. And C.B. Cebulski hasn’t really given us a reason to like the main characters though the second issue was better than the first. But in the end, Loners just isn’t as good as I would want it to be. 

 

Madman Atomic Comics 1: I was disappointed. I wanted to like Madman. I wanted to like him like I like Hellboy and Nexus. I wanted to like him like I liked the Atomics. But this was not a good first issue. Basically, it’s a re-cap of all of the various Madman series and specials over the years. That’s okay, but it probably should have been a 0 issue or a prequel instead of the new number 1. Then, when the recaps were done, Madman got into a philosophical dream about whether we are who we are or who we think we are. I wanted “madcap” but I got “pretentious.” Blech. 

 

Mighty Avengers 2: I liked the flashback sequences in which Miss Marvel and Iron Man gather the rest of the team together. However, the main action sequence lacked any forward movement; the Mighty Avengers were in basically the same situation at the end of the issue that they were at the beginning. Also, others might find Bendis’ dialogue tics endearing but I find them annoying. This isn’t a bad title, it’s just not the right title for me.

 

Nightwing 131, 132 and Annual 2: Bride and Groom are really lame villains. Even the attempt to tie the Bride into the Salem Witch Trials fails to make her interesting. On the bright side, at least we’re getting to see the real Dick Grayson rather than the imposter we’ve been seeing in Outsiders and during the Devin Grayson run. Plus, I like how Marv Wolfman is building a neighborhood and a supporting cast around Dick. I’m just not sure it’s enough to get the side stuff right while the main action is so lame.  The Annual seems to have the opposite problem. It should be a good story. After all, it has a strong hook. It’s the story of Dick and Barbara - aka Robin and Batgirl, aka Nightwing and Oracle- and their on and off and on again relationship. We get to see what it was like when they first started to be attracted to each other. We get to see them first fall in love. We get to see them leave each other, hurt each other, but always care for each other. But this issue just doesn’t have the heart or the emotional oomph that it needs to convey the relationship. It answers questions. It just didn’t make me feel. At least, not as much as it should have. 

 

Noble Causes 29: I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. It’s the big showdown between the Noble family and the Blackthornes. And it’s great. The two families have become so intertwined that a quarter of them don’t even know which side to fight for. There are some great throw-downs and a surprising offer that puts at end to the shenanigans. Stories like this are the reason I started to love this title in the first place. My only complaint is Yildiray Cinar’s art felt a little rushed. It’s still better than the previous artist, and his talent stood out in certain panels and pages. It just wasn’t as consistently excellent as it had been in the previous issues. 

 

Runaways 25 and 26: It’s a new creative team, but it’s still the same old Runaways. Joss Whedon brings a little of his Whedonspeak to the dialogue but these are still the same characters that we’ve been following for forty plus issues over two volumes. And Michael Ryan is a good choice for the art- as with his run on Academy X, the kids look like kids without looking cartoony. This isn’t a drastic change for the title. It’s simply more of the good stuff we enjoyed under the previous team. 

 

Samurai: Heaven and Earth Vol. 2 #4: There’s not a lot I can say about this issue of Samurai that I haven’t said about others. It’s got beautiful art by Luke Ross reminiscent of Greg Land on Sojourn or Steve Epting on El Cazador. It’s got exotic locations, sudden betrayals and passionate love. It’s just plain ol’ great.

 

SHAZAM: Monster Society of Evil 3: I have to admit I’m kind of bored with this title. Just when I think it’s about to get good- as with the introduction of Mary Batson/Mary Marvel in the latter half of issue 2- it seems to take another step backward. In this issue, Mary is pushed to the sidelines while we spend the bulk of the book following Sivana, Attorney General of the United States.It’s bad enough that we follow the villain rather than the more interesting sidekick. It’s worse that Jeff Smith created such a distraction for himself: the political commentary didn’t really fit the rest of the book and would go right over the heads of the kids this book is supposed to be aimed at. I anticipated that this would be one of the best mini-series of 2007 but so far, it’s been a dud.

 

Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars: Three of the four Star Wars titles shipped during this month and a half; Rebellion was on hiatus and shipped one week too late to make it into the review.  

First up, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 15 and 16. John Jackson Miller recently quit his day job so that he could concentrate on writing full time and I have to say that it’s a good decision. Knights is one of the most consistently excellent books that I read month after month and the first issue, 15, is one of the best so far. Protagonist and failed Jedi Padawan Zayne Carrick has had a prophetic dream in which he foresees the Mandalorian army bombing the civilian population of Serroco. In this issue, he tries to share his knowledge with those who are in charge of the Republic forces. Unfortunately, his own reputation works against him. Zayne’s protestations are taken as proof that he’s insane. He’s arrested, and the civilian population of Serroco is devastated by the bombing. It’s one of the most tragic issues I’ve ever read. Even so, Miller manages to keep things from being too depressing by including some comic relief through Zayne’s companion Gryph. Yet, even while we’re laughing at Gryph’s antics, we’re still anxious for him to leave the planet and survive. Miller manages to drag the suspense out even further by dedicating the next issue to Zayne’s former companions Jarael and Camper, as well as one of the Jedi that killed Zayne’s classmates, 

 

Next, there’s Star Wars: Legacy 10 and 11. Knights is set far in the past. Legacy is set far in the future. It’s the story of Cade Skywalker, the latest in the great Skywalker lineage. Yet Cade has rejected his heritage and is leaving as a smuggler rather than a hero. Issue 10 follows a couple of bounty hunters who are trying to bring Cade to Imperial justice. It’s not a great issue- I don’t care for Colin Watson’s art- but there is a great revelation at the end. Issue 12 is much better. It marks the return of regular artist Jan Duursema who’s been doing great work on the Star Wars titles. It also focuses once again on Cade, who’s having visions of his forebears- such as Darth Vader and Mara Jade. Plus, it introduces K’Kruhk- last seen in Star Wars: Republic comic books and the Clone Wars cartoons- and the Yuuzhan Vong- alien adversaries from the New Jedi Order series of novels. 

 

Finally, there’s Star Wars: Dark Times 3. Dark Times isn’t quite as incredible as either Knights or Legacy but it’s still a good book in its own right. It follows the (so-far) surviving Jedi in the early days of the Emperor. One former Master, Dass Jennir, is being forced to learn how to be a smuggler instead of a noble knight. He still tries to work against the empire and injustices like slavery, but he’s sadly learning that there’s not a lot that he can do. 

 

She-Hulk 17: I liked the old status quo. It was great to see Jennifer Walters as lawyer to the capes. But I like the new status quo, too. She-Hulk (the character, not the title) felt shackled as a lawyer. Now, she’s free as an agent of SHIELD to punch things whenever she wants to. Yet Dan Slott continues to engage both worlds. We still get the quirky characters from the law offices while being introduced to a second quirky cast aboard the Helicarrier. A few highlights: the opening argument about wasting space on a splash page, Sidney complaining about the number of Helicarriers that have been destroyed over the years, and She-Hulk vs. a room full of Nick Fury LMDs.

 

Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes 28 and 29: I’ll admit it; I’m lost. With two dozen Legionnaires and now a dozen Wanderers, it’s hard to keep track of all of the characters. I’ve lost track of this title so much that I didn’t even remember we were in the middle of a Dominator war. And I had all of these complaints even before the new creative team in issue 29 which was an unfortunate step down. This version of the Legion has had its moments, especially in the first year and shortly after the addition of Supergirl, but lately it’s not been as good as I’d want it to be. 

 

Superman 661 and 662: I was about ready for the fill-ins to be done. I enjoyed the previous fill-in that focused on the Prankster, but this one guest-starring Wonder Woman wasn’t all that great. The good news is that issue 662 marked the return of the main story and series penciller Carlos Pacheco. I wasn’t a huge fan of the dystopic future that Arion showed Superman but I do like how it’s playing out after the fact. It’s not very interesting to set Superman up against threats he can beat by hitting them. Conversely, it’s very interesting to have a story in which Superman is forced to question the effectiveness of hitting things. I liked how Jimmy Olsen automatically rushed to defend Superman, while Superman investigated the problem by talking to Zatanna and then finding Sirocco. The latter course of action showed us that Superman is a lot smarter than we usually give him credit for. Plus, I kind of like Sirocco. It’s always nice to meet an interesting, new hero.

 

Teen Titans 45 and 46: This is what some observers derisively refer to as a “fight comic.” The Teen Titans fight the Titans East. Then they fight them some more. Then they fight them even more. It’s like the theme song to “The Itchy and Scratchy Show.” Characters who have been knocked out of the fight early in one issue come back later on, with the result that the whole thing just feels its moving in circles instead of forward. The Titans fight against Dr. Light was a classic. This was not. 

 

Wonder Woman 6, 7 and 8 and Amazons Attack 1: Back in the day, I used to be a theatre major in college and I remember some acting classes that talked about how heading towards something is a stronger motivation than heading away from something. I’ve seen that point illustrated in a number of works, including here. The new Wonder Woman title keeps looking back to the Maxwell Lord incident instead of ahead to whatever Wonder Woman wants to accomplish next. There’s some good stuff here. I think this arc is stronger than the first one. Donna has been moved out of the title so there’s less confusion. Wonder Woman is learning how to create and maintain a secret identity. She has an interesting partnership with the former Nemesis. And Circe makes for an interesting ally with the Amazons. But the good pieces just don’t come together as a great whole. Maybe it’s because I expect too much after Greg Rucka’s excellent run. Or maybe it’s because the title feels like it keeps on looking over its shoulder.   

 

World War III 1-4: Wow, World War III was really bad. So bad, I started skimming instead of reading bad. So bad, I told my wife not to bother reading it bad. World War III came about because a change of plans for 52. 52 was supposed to fill in the lost year, using several characters as observers. However, as the writers worked on 52, they discovered that the point-of-view characters had interesting stories in their own right so the title became more about them than the events they were supposed to witness. I fully endorse that decision. I enjoyed reading about the point-of-view characters and in my opinion, 52 struggled a little when it broadened the story beyond those six heroes. But the result of that decision is that a lot of the changes that were supposed to be chronicled in 52 weren’t going to be addressed in that title. Apparently, the solution was to include one event that would explain all of the changes and add this four-part mini-series to cover them. 

 

Unfortunately, it didn’t work. For one thing, the explanation becomes a punch-line. Why did Donna put on the Wonder Woman costume? World War Three. Why did Beast Boy quit the Titans? World War Three. Why did Amanda Waller start a new Checkmate? World War Three. Why did Jason Todd become Nightwing? World War Three. Instead of developing as a natural outgrowth of a story, the changes all seemed to be cobbled onto the big event. They become arbitrary instead of essential.  Another major problem is that the mini-series itself didn’t have a plot. It simply intercut scenes of various characters making important decisions with scenes of various heroes fighting Black Adam. The one never seemed to have anything to do with the other. There was no story there. Worst of all, John Ostrander chose to make the Martian Manhunter the narrator. However, the Manhunter’s inner monologue became very tiresome, even before the end of the second issue. And the whole point of the narration was to explain why the Manhunter turned dark for his most recent mini-series, a change that wasn’t particularly interesting in the first place. Ugh! World War Three is a clinic on how not to write a comic. 

 

X-23: Target X #5: I’ve reviewed this title before so I don’t have a lot of new things to say. The Michael Choi art is beautiful. X-23, despite her origins as a clone, is an interesting character as she struggles to be who she wants to be instead of who she was made to be. And there are some strong story moments such as X-23’s confrontation with Kimura and her surprising decision at the end of the story to go after Wolverine. 

 

X-Factor 18: This is the only X-Men spin-off that I’m still reading. So why has X-Factor persevered while New X-Men, New Excalibur and Exiles have fallen by the wayside? Peter David’s witty dialogue. The complicated ways that the stories fit together. It’s smart so that my brain keeps spinning with questions, while also funny and occasionally exciting. This particular issue is a good example of the convoluted stories that somehow pull together. The team feels like they have to do something even though Layla Miller tells them that the current conflict will resolve on its own. When they persist, she sends them on various errands that at first seem meaningless but tie together to bring them face to face with the X-Cell. 

 

X-Men, X-Men and more X-Men: Astonishing X-Men remains one of my favorite titles and issue 21 is no exception. When I handed the first stack of comics to my wife, she asked me if there was anything that she should read right away and I answered, “Astonishing X-Men.” The John Cassaday art is consistently beautiful. And Joss Whedon knows how to include all of the little things that make a comic fun. There are great moments of wit such as the Beast’s put-downs of Agent Brand, great moments of romance such as the scene between Kitty and Colossus, and it’s all set as the counterpoint to great moments of action, intrigue and surprise. 

Uncanny X-Men may not be quite as good as Astonishing, but it’s close. Issue 485 is the penultimate chapter of “The Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire.” I had been fairly impressed with the earlier issue in which Vulcan fell in love with Deathbird. I found it wholly believable that somebody as young and impressionable as Vulcan could be so turned around by a lover that he ends up fighting to defend the very thing he set out to destroy. Yet in this issue, Ed Brubaker pulls the rug out from underneath us again. Vulcan was only playing along and after he weds Deathbird, he goes ahead and kills D’Ken anyway. As if that apparent betrayal wasn’t enough, Vulcan then declares himself emperor by right of marriage. That is not a scene I’m likely to forget for a long time. Well done, Uncanny.

 

Unfortunately, it seems like there always has to be one weak X-Men title. Nowadays, it’s adjective-less X-Men by Mike Carey and Chris Bachalo.  It’s not that their run on X-Men is horrible. It’s certainly better than the two previous runs by Chuck Austen and Peter Milligan. But it certainly doesn’t measure up to the two other X-titles. Carey seems to have trouble clearly communicating who the villain is or what they want so the main conflict is usually confused. This is as true for issue 198, the second part of Red Data, as it was for the previous story. There are some nice moments like the budding flirtation between Iceman and Mystique, and I like the inclusion of newer heroes like Lady Mastermind and Omega Sentinel, but overall this is a pretty mediocre book at the moment. 

 

Y: The Last Man 56: Nothing much happens in this issue. For a lot of other comics, that would be a complaint. But not for a Brian K. Vaughan comic. Instead, Yorick and Agent 355 have some parting conversations that are really touching, and that shine a light on their personalities and their relationship. We also catch of a glimpse of several supporting characters who are close to tracking Yorick down. That’s a good thing when it’s his sister Hero and the second Beth. That’s not a good thing when it’s the Israeli agent Alter. Oh, and we’ve been waiting for those final three pages for four years. They literally made my wife cry.

Originally Published at CaptainComics.us, May 25, 2007