Sam Wilson’s Reviews
Well, not a huge week for me. I got that
John Sable signed/numbered HC ($50), decided to stick with my guns and not pick up
District X or
Punisher Max. It will be the first time in more than a decade that I didn’t get
The Punisher. I’ll go back to Frank once this current storyline is over. Anyway,
my pick of the week is Captain America and the Falcon #14 (final issue, booo to you Marvel). That being said, on to the reviews!
Fantastic Four # 526
Marvel Comics
Written By: Karl Kesel
Drawn By: Tom Grummett
These past two issues of
The Fantastic Four have featured a fill in creative team, closing the gap for when J. Michael Straczynski and Mike Mckone take over the ongoing writing and penciling chores. So does that mean these past two issues of the FF have sucked crap? Well, no. They haven’t been horrible. Hey, I didn’t exactly turn cartwheels or dance a jig or anything, but Kesel and Grummett did a fine job.
Kesel brings back Diablo, the alchemist. He was entombed during the Spanish Inquisition, which no one can seem to expect (sorry, had to say that). Anyway, he breaks out several hundred years later to use his alchemy and magic or whatever to wreak havoc on the Earth and to tick off our heroes. In his newest plot, he wants Reed to send him back in time to the Inquisition so he can avoid capture and take over the Earth. Oh yeah, to foster our heroes’ attention he transmutes all the piping in a New York apartment building into gold, tossing the populace into a frenzy. While all this is happening, the FF, Alicia Masters and Diablo included, have been experiencing a type of dream fever, which makes everyone switch dreams during sleep. Of course this leads to poor rest, and you have a fatigued FF, loopy from being unrested, fighting a crazed alchemist from hundreds of years ago with the same condition. Yes, as you guessed, wacky antics abound.
If you’re a long time FF fan, these last two issues won’t disappoint. Like I said, nothing amazing, but not bad either. The real thing to watch will be the new team. I was a big fan of Straczynski’s
Amazing Spider-Man until that Gwen Stacey garbage, so I hope we don’t see any vengeful kids from Johnny and Lyta’s strange marriage (remember, the Skrull who disguised herself as Alicia Masters and then married Johnny for a little while there back in the early ‘90’s?). That being said, I really like his
Supreme Power, so I eagerly await his presence on
The Fantastic Four.
Desolation Jones #1
DC/Wildstorm Comics
Written By: Warren Ellis
Drawn By: J.H. Williams III
Yes, you all know I’m a Warren Ellis fan, a BIG Warren Ellis fan, so I will be reviewing all of his new books. Yeah, whatever, I ain’t getting paid, so that’s my right. Besides, if you ain’t reading his stuff, you should. He hasn’t disappointed me yet. If you don’t know anything about him, well, get outta the cave you’ve been living in and check out one of the
Stormwatch or
Planetary tpb’s. That being said…
Desolation Jones is about former MI6 (Britain’s top intelligence agency) agent Michael Jones. In a very well done opening sequence, we find out he’s a bit of a drunk (kinda like Star Jones is only a “bit” overweight) and has been deemed unfit for field duty. In order to remain with MI6, Jones volunteers for a medical initiative called the “Desolation Test”. We later find out he was the only survivor.
Fast-forward a little bit and Michael Jones has been exiled to LA where, apparently, all ex-spies have been exiled to and have to remain within its city limits. He is now working as a PI of sorts, and has taken a job to find a home porno movie made by Adolph Hitler (yes, the evil dictator from World War II, that Hitler) for a man known as “the colonel”, a self proclaimed lifetime soldier and world class sexual-adventurer. Ellis has started off Desolation Jones with the pedal to the metal, and so far it is a pretty interesting ride. A little more explicit that I’m used to from Ellis, but nothing one would call perverse (then again, I’m a huge Preacher fan, so I’m probably not the best judge as to a story’s perversity). The usual quick, witty Ellis dialogue is there, and Williams’ art is stylized but very crisp. I would highly recommend this book, for Warren Ellis fans or the casually curious, but not for fans of Star Jones. Star Jones sucks.
Ultimate Spider-Man #77
Marvel Comics
Written By: Brian Michael Bendis
Drawn By: Mark Bagley
As I’ve stated many times before I’m not a regular Spider-Man reader, and never had been. That being said, I have been reading
Ultimate Spider-Man since issue one and, I have to say, it is one of the titles I look forward to most every month.
Yes, fine, Bendis can get a little to “Saved by the Bell” with some of the scripts, but he makes up for it in action and many “holy crap” moments (like when Nick Fury told Spidey once he turns 18, he belongs to SHIELD, c’mon now, that was cool). Mark Bagely is also one of the most consistent artists Marvel has. Has this dude ever been late on a book? He also has a very clean, crisp art style that isn’t flashy or anything, but I like it. I’ve been a fan of his since his
New Warriors days.
So in the current storyline, Harry Osborne has come back, and some figment of his imagination has been driving him to an old laboratory of his father’s, and lo and behold, Harry transforms into a goblin like creature (much like his father). We also learn he was kinda dating Mary Jane before Peter was. Anyway, things go a little crazy and Harry hauls off and starts beating the crap out of Peter, and their fight catches the attention of SHIELD. Oh yeah, and things will probably be much different for Peter and MJ after this storyline is finished. If you haven’t read Ultimate Spider-Man before, now may be a good time to check it out. There are plenty of tpb’s available collecting the whole series if you want to catch up. Get the first one, and see if you like it. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
Wktf’s reviews
Man, I love Wednesdays! This was a moderately big week for me. Purchases of the new
Best of Fantastic Four HC, two copies of the
MK Spider-Man trade (one for my son), the new Avengers Kang trade, and the older
Batman: The Last Arkham trade, collecting a story I remember loving many years ago, in addition to my cache of comics, hit my wallet harder than I expected. Unfortunately, the quality of my comics purchases was pretty inconsistent and, for the most part, only fair-to-disappointing. With one notable exception…
Green Lantern: Rebirth #6 (of 6)
DC Comics
Written by: Geoff Johns
Drawn by: Ethan Van Sciver
OK, seriously, spoiler warning. I’m not sure how to review this book any other way. And
this book is my pick-of-the-week.
This issue concludes the story that reinstates the one, true Green Lantern to his former position among the pantheon of DC’s single greatest heroes. Yes, as promised, Hal Jordan is back! And he’s back with a vengeance and a healthy dose of attitude. In the final chapter of this mini series, the recently resurrected and rejuvenated Hal leads a small, core Green Lantern team of Kyle Rayner, Guy Gardner, John Stewart and Kiliwog against Prallax, the very demon who possessed him and drove him to villainy and murder long ago. The fact that Parallax is defeated, that Hal is the only Green Lantern out of this cadre that’s strong enough to withstand his attacks and, ultimately, musters the will power to put him down goes without saying. In fact, at this point, it’s almost incidental to the main story.
The real meat to this book is how Hal completely and unambiguously reclaims his place at the head of the DCU, right up there with the royal trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. And, in doing so, gives us some truly memorable moments with everyone’s favorite Dark Knight. For instance, in response to Batman’s persistent distrust of Hal, Jordan simply lays Batman out with a single rocket of a punch. Jordan does not need Batman’s approval and, for sure, he’s not going looking for it, either. When a stunned and gleeful Guy Gardner, in response, says, “Did you see that? One punch. Y’know, Hal, I’ve always liked you,” to which Hal replies, “Shut up, Guy,” we know we’ve come full circle to when Batman did the same thing to Guy in the Giffen/Maguire
Justice League and to when Guy and Hal truly despised each other. Hal Jordan has become the man. The others follow his lead.
At its close, this issue also offers Hal’s reconciliation with former love Carol Ferris and a moment between friends with Green Arrow. If this issue’s tone, pacing and attitude is any indication of things to come, I think we’re in for something special when
Green Lantern #1 hits the stands in just a couple of weeks. As I think about the new Hal Jordan I’m reminded of the Falcon’s comment to Captain America after Cap put Wolverine down at the end of the “Enemy of the State” story arc: “Wow. Respect.”
Marvel Team-Up #8
Marvel Comics
Written by: Robert Kirkman
Drawn by: Jeff Johnson
This title has given us a bunch of swirling plotlines that seem to be circling each other and threaten to intersect at some point. The intro teaser copy on the splash page even makes reference to this. But no intersection yet. In fact, not much of anything with this issue, I’m afraid.
So far in this arc we’ve seen: an alien named Titannus (now there’s a stupid, old school Silver Age kind of name) come to Earth for a specific but unexplained reason, a battle between said Titannus and Sunfire, the Ringmaster (one of the lamest of the Silver Age villains) acquire a ring made from the Cosmic Cube (never mind that the Cube has gone dead in the current pages of
Captain America…why bother with the continuity for which Marvel is supposed to be famous?) and, with his new powers, The Ringmaster cause Spider-Man to combust during a team-up battle with Moon Knight. Now, with this issue, we shift gears completely to a couple of young gangsters purchasing assault weapons from a clutch of vampires. And, while the deal’s going down, the Punisher meets up with Blade on a rooftop above the action…apparently both came to the same spote for similar reasons.
This is a team-up made in fanboy Heaven: two cold blooded, obsessed anti-hero killers about to either lock horns or join forces. The problem is that neither happens. We spend nearly the whole issue with Blade uncharacteristically running at the mouth Spider-Man-like and trash talking (this is NOT the Blade I know) to Punisher who, stoically, says little in return, the two recounting their origins, and just generally verbally sparring with each other. Oh, yeah, and Punisher, unprovoked, shoots Blade in the back. Sure, the two gangsters and the vampires on the street right below them won’t hear that. And, sure enough, they don’t. Huh? And then when the action starts, it’s in the very last panel with a “To be continued” at the bottom! Overall, this story was a wasted opportunity. Also, I’m not sure why Jeff Johnson is filling in as artist rather than regular Scott Kollins, but it seems like Johnson’s trying his best to imitate Kollins and does it fairly poorly.
MTU had a strong and fun first story arc. This next one’s had two very weak issues so far.
Gotham Central #31
DC Comics
Written by: Greg Rucka
Drawn by: Stefano Gaudiano
What just happened here? Where did Greg Rucka go? How did such an interesting and compelling four-part story just end so flatly?
Gotham’s Officer Kelley, exposed to elements planted by Dr. Alchemy from Keystone City, is mutating into a huge, powerful monster. The GCPD bring Dr. Alchemy to Gotham in hopes he can cure their partner. Of course, Alchemy overpowers them and frees the monster from the hospital in which he’s being held. Of course, Batman shows up. The monster escapes, Batman gives chase, and Montoya (who’s been having a rough time lately with being outed as a l_esbian and being rejected by her family) uncharacteristically beats the living hell out of Alchemy. With the monster gone and no word from Batman, Montoya goes home to her girlfriend to learn that her father, who rejected Montoya for being ***, stopped over to patch things up between them.
The rest of this issue shows us what looks like the beginning of a reconciliation between these two, a final ending to the monster chase, some GCPD folks with a nasty post-Alchemy exposure cough, and that’s kind of it. The story just stops. The whole thing feels just kind of abrupt and flat. For $2.50 I want something that causes me to come back each month and, as much as this title has consistently done that, I didn’t get that from
Gotham Central this time around.
Classic Trade Paperback Reviews
For your reading pleasure, today we provide you with reviews of
X-Men: Mutant Massacre and Art Spiegelman’s
Maus.
Sam Wilson’s Review
X-Men: Mutant Massacre
Marvel Comics
Written By: Chris Claremont, Walter Simonson and Louise Simonson
Drawn By: John Romita Jr, Rick Loenardi, Walter Simonson, Sal Buscema, John Bogdanove, Jackson Guice and Alan Davis
Way Cooler Than: X-men: Inferno
Mutant Massacre was the first big multi-title X-crossover, spilling into the pages of
Uncanny X-men,
X-Factor,
New Mutants,
Power Pack (yes,
Power Pack) and
Thor. This was way back in 1986, there were only three mutant titles, and Wolverine didn’t even have his own series yet. No Cable, no Bishop, the X-universe was still relatively uncluttered. But wow, were their uniforms awful. Storm and Rogue looked like they belonged in a Depeche Mode Video more than they did fighting the Freedom Force (formerly known as the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, now with a Government anti-mutant squad). For all of you who complained about Morrison’s leather update, the new wave thing was way worse. Dippity-Do and spandex leggings aside, the X-men were pretty bad-a$#ed. Professor X split for deep space with his chica Lilandra, and left Magneto (gasp!) in charge of both the X-men and the New Mutants. Storm was powerless (thanks to Forge), but still the team leader. The X-men line up comprised of Storm, Rogue, Wolverine, Colossus, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler and Illyanna Rasputin aka Magik, Colossus’s sister. The original X-men, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Beast and the Angel formed the government team known as X-factor, mutant hunters who were really looking out for mutants. Oh yeah, and at the same time they were known as the X-Terminators, a group of “bad-mutants”. Huh? Yeah, I was confused too. Don’t ask, I can’t explain.
Anyway, our story opens with some really, really bad dudes named the Marauders who go to the Morlock tunnels under NYC and start killing them. All of them. The Morlocks are mutants who choose to live away from society, and are led by Storm, who won their leadership in a hand-to-hand combat challenge with their old leader, Callisto. The Marauders are Harpoon, Riptide, Vertigo, Sabertooth (I really, really hate him), Arclight, Blockbuster, Prism and Scalphunter. They were put together by Mr. Sinister, who is mainly a behind the scenes player at this point. So the Marauder’s are carrying out Sinister’s own idea of Darwinism on the mutant population, starting with the Morlocks. During the killings, one of them gets away and manages to inform the X-men. Then things start getting ugly.
The coolest thing about this crossover is the character defining, and changing, events that happen. Colossus is no more the wide eyed innocent he once was, Storm finds out for the first time what it means to bear the burden of leadership, and Wolverine, lets just say he does what he does best, and it ain’t pretty. There are many “holy sh$# “ moments in this story, moments that would be meaningless now, but back then, when brutality in comics wasn’t so commonplace, really meant something. The Thor part of this storyline is really tough as well. If you ever doubted Thor’s standing as a Norse Warrior before, you won’t after reading this. As for the Power Pack issue, well, they still suck, but that will never change. The writing is consistent throughout the different titles, yeah, Claremont still goes through the needless exposition of explaining every characters powers in their internal monologue, but whatever. It’s a damn fine crossover, and one of the few X-crossovers you will find completely satisfying. Mutant Massacre is readily available in TPB form, with a cover of $24.95. Pick it up, you won’t be disappointed.
Wktf's Review
Maus: A Survivor’s Tale
Written and Drawn by: Art Spiegelman
Pantheon Books
How many original graphic novels, trades, or any other publication in this medium that you’ve read have won the Pulitzer Prize? Fear not, this is just a rhetorical question. As far as I know, there are only two possible answers to this question. The first is “none.” The second, if you’ve read
Maus, is “one.”
Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day (see
http://history1900s.about.com/cs/hol...yomhashoah.htm for further information), was only a few days ago and, so, it seemed appropriate to bring
Maus to these reviews. My family does not claim any Holocaust survivors but we have had victims. My grandmother on my mother’s side fled Poland, already rife with anti-Semitism and with Hitler’s invasion only scarce months away, with her two daughters (these would become my two aunts as my mother had not yet been born) leaving her husband, who refused to abandon his successful architecture business, behind. He quickly followed her to the United States. Shortly thereafter the Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 and soon all of my grandparents’ relatives would be murdered in Poland’s various concentration and death camps. This story may well include those murdered family members’ stories as well.
Maus explores realms of horror and human depravity to which other graphic novels who can claim the same, such as DC/Vertigo’s
Preacher series that we reviewed last week, simply cannot compare. Art Spiegelman, underground comics legend, co-founder and editor of Raw magazine and a contributing editor and artist for The New Yorker, gives us not only a story of actual Holocaust events but of real people and their experiences during one of humankind’s most ghastly and grisly periods. This is the story of Vladek Spiegelman, Art’s father, as told directly to Art and recorded for the purposes of this work. The tale within this tale is the author’s unsparing recounting of his own tortured relationship with his aging and ill father amidst a series of tense and unhappy visits. Their painful relationship is a brutal backdrop to Vladek’s story. The brilliant conceit of this work is that Spiegelman transforms the Polish Jews into mice, the Germans become cats, the non-Jewish Poles are pigs, the Swedes are elk (or deer), the French are frogs, and the Americans are dogs (with the relationship of dogs to cats and cats to mice, this anthropomorphic technique makes frightening sense). Thus he, at first, takes Vladek’s tale and makes it more accessible to readers. But any comfort the reader may feel quickly disappears as the tale continues, as Spiegelman mixes photos of his murdered brother and his father in prison stripes with his cartoons, and the cast of characters move through experiences, also unsparingly detailed by Spiegelman, that defy a sane man’s imaginings to their inevitable conclusions.
A comic’s primary objective is to entertain its readers. Every so often we are given a work that also enlightens and instructs us. With this work we are given a riveting story that makes us want to turn away but compels us to read on, that’s drawn sparsely but with frightening simplicity, that pulls no punches in drawing us into the lives of these complex characters and educating us about their lives and experiences, and that should be required reading in high school and colleges as well as for comics lovers.
For
Maus, Spiegelman was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1992, a Guggenheim fellowship, and nominations for the National Book critics Circle Award.
Comics Shop News issue #933 listed it as #9 among their Top 10 Non-Superhero Graphic Novels. Jerry Weist, who gave us the
100 Greatest Comic Books coffee table book, listed
Maus as #69/100. He concludes his write-up of Maus thusly: “Much has been written about the visual genius of choosing mice for Jews and cats for Germans, and much more has been written about the intellectual implications of
Maus, but of all the 100 greatest comic books within this volume, if you only go out and seek one to read, it should be
Maus.”
