September 11, 2003
As you read this, I will be spending what I feel should be a rather sober, reflective day schmoozing and drinking it up with insurance industry professionals, as there’s a kind of convention going on here in San Diego I have to attend. It will be strange, I’m sure.
Right now, though, I’m in rather a good mood, even though you’ll see that the books reviewed here don’t generally rate as highly as so many of the ones I reviewed last week. For those wondering, I haven’t seen any response from Gary Groth about my commentary on his COMICS JOURNAL piece on the death of criticism, but TCJ veteran reviewer R. Fiore did pipe up for this thread with kind of an insult that led to him pouring out an interesting bit of analysis that nonetheless had little to do with my commentary. I replied respectively—I like Fiore’s writing and am not looking for some battle or anything—but feel free to add your own opinions to this thread.
This week’s column ended up being pretty easy to write, as you’ll see I had a good deal of help. It worked out well to have this collaborative review of JLA/AVENGERS with Alan David Doane, as I didn’t get that many books read this week. It was a lot of fun to write, and I hope it’s fun to read, especially since my review of THE PIRATES AND THE MOUSE is intentionally excruciating. You’ll see what I mean. I’m also reviewing the surprisingly good first collection of STORMWATCH: TEAM ACHILLES; THE DARK HORSE BOOK OF HAUNTINGS and MANHATTAN BEACH, 1957.
Before the reviews, I have an e-mail here from Nenad Vidovic, who writes to argue a bit for the merits of Pierre Wazem’s LIKE A RIVER. Read the review and you’ll see it’s positive, but Nenad takes issue with the two minor complaints:
“Hi,
“Great to see this reviewed. For the most part I agree with you. However, this caught my eyes:
‘Wazem is not fully able to convey what made the man's wife so special, nor does the river metaphor have great depth’
“I don't agree with this. I think the thing that made the man's wife so special was that she was his wife. I am beginning to understand why this story was set in rural Russia - it's the remains of how we had lived and loved ages ago. These days sex and love - you can buy them on the shelves of the supermarket. And can you imagine a man (or a woman) not marrying again in the same situation. Of course, it's unthinkable in this society. I am not advocating one or the other, but I think I got from the book that the man loved his wife very much - does there need to be another explanation? Call me old-fashioned or conservative, but I still believe in true love and lifetime of love. Have we grown so cynical and have been so corrupted by the media that we cannot recognize this anymore?”
Nenad, the short answer would be that yeah, I guess I am corrupted by the media, such that it’s harder for me to accept love in fiction when it’s not shown or explained, just like I generally need to see some reason why characters do bad things, at least if they’re significant characters. I’m not writing this to be dismissive but just stating my own bias. I can accept pure emotions simply stated more easily in children’s stories, of course. I think Wazem did fine but just wanted a bit more on why his wife was so special, maybe just an anecdote or two relating what their life was like together, some meaningful gesture or action of hers that symbolized her kindness, their passion for each other, etc.
“The river metaphor has greater depth, indeed. Does it not explain life and does it not explain his situation or his wife's? The stagnant water is pretty much where he ended after his wife died. It's a simple metaphor but effectively used, I think.”
I didn’t have any major problem with the metaphor, and would agree it’s effective. When writing my reviews, I don’t consult the books much and go from my memory and impressions, and I think it’s important that even vague dissatisfactions be recorded, because they’re honest. Meaning, I could have left out any comment about the metaphor, because it was okay for what it was, but since it ties in to the title of the book, it seemed to me to demand more depth than that the river was stagnant like him. Don’t get me wrong; the fact that he worked in a metaphor at all and that it works elevates the book above most others in terms of ambition, and it would have been a good story even without it.
“Anyway, don't take this too personally. I just wanted to point this out. Glad you liked the book too (I've lent my copy recently to a non-comic reading friend - hey, he loved 'Persepolis')”
When one sees the initials ADD these days, one usually thinks of Attention Deficit Dis—what was I talking about? Anyway, so I tried that new 7-Up flavor, dnL, which of course is the 7-Up logo upside down. Despite the millions that were probably spent in research and development, the impression I got from drinking it is that it tastes like fluid drained from Kool-Aid Man’s knee. And Kool-Aid Man, if we’re able to dart past the obvious Augusto Pinochet/BACK TO THE EGG connection, leads us to that sequential art sandinista, Alan David Doane of Comic Book Galaxy. After discussing the following comic a bit over the phone, Alan suggested we do our own kind of crossover, and this is the result. Basically the same review is up on his site, but this one has my closing words, because it’s my goddamn column. Note: if you’re not a fan of early George Perez, particularly AVENGERS #161, you may want to skip the first 1,854 words of the review. Ha!
JLA/AVENGERS #1 (OF 4) by Kurt Busiek and George Perez. Marvel Comics/DC Comics. $6.95
But you made me feel, all shiny and new.
-- Madonna
ADD: Here's the shiniest new comic of 2003, featuring a large
cast of characters on the cover who, if you add it up, the combined length of time they've spent in the cultural consciousness totals something close to 1,000 years. Is this an exciting meeting of pop-culture icons or an opportunistic money-grab built around tired, worn-out cliches? Two decades after it was first announced, JLA/Avengers is here. And I was, I have to admit, somewhat excited about that prospect early on.
CA: Somewhat excited is pretty much how I would describe it. I remember when this was announced last year I was genuinely interested. It’s just something that anyone raised on superhero comics wants to see, the meeting of both companies’ big, true blue superteams.
ADD: You just can't keep Madonna out of it, can you?
CA: Not sure what you mean, but I do want to get right into the groove, seeing if Busiek and Perez have taken these characters they cherish and are crazy for, and dressed them up, justifying their love to we, the readers waiting in breathless anticipation.
Anyway, by the time of the solicitation, I preordered the book with nary a look at the copy. I knew it was something I would get, regardless of the story. And it would seem that decision is being put to the test somewhat.
ADD: I grew up on George Perez superhero comics, I admit it. I wasn't even in my teens when Perez arrived on AVENGERS the first time around, bringing with him a slick, dynamic style that even the inking of Vince Colletta (on Perez's first outing) couldn't completely mask. Once a more compatible inker -- Pablo Marcos -- became Perez's regular inker, on both AVENGERS and FANTASTIC FOUR (the only two titles I ever subscribed to), a real era of exciting supergroup comics had dawned for Marvel readers. At least, 12-year old ones like me.
Perez has done a lot between then and now, but the one thing that has
always hung over his career like the Sword of Damocles was the aborted, original iteration of this mini-series, which fell victim to disagreement between Marvel and DC after Perez had completed work on nearly two-dozen pages. (Perez discusses the situation in this interview). The original story and those pages of art are not a part of this 2003 incarnation, which is written by Perez's former AVENGERS colleague Kurt
Busiek. Now, I would maintain that Perez mostly fulfills expectations,
with plenty of intricate backgrounds and exciting action scenes. The
key flaw, and it's a big one, is the paint-by-numbers script by
Busiek.
CA: Or, in other words, “the freakin’ GRANDMASTER?!”
This first issue, as you say, finds both creators more or less fulfilling expectations, showing the Avengers and Justice League in action, meeting and arguing, showing the differences between the teams, and the general difference in tone between the Marvel and DC Universes. Busiek’s worked extensively in both. It’s not a bad idea at all for the Flash to arrive on Marvel-Earth (I’m calling it this just for purposes of the review; it’s not so designated in the comic) and be horrified by the lynch mob chasing the poor teen mutant. It’s a bit of a stretch for Flash to take one mob as representative of the entire population, but okay, we’ve got a lot to cover and a lot of characters who need face time, so space is limited. There is an amusing joke involving the Justice League reminding the Avengers of the Squadron Supreme, who of course were a Marvel in-joke version of the JLA in the '70s and beyond. I’m ambivalent whether even a lengthy series such as this merits the space given to winks and nods to old fans, since I imagine plenty of newer readers will be drawn in as well. I don’t care that much either way, but wish that a better main story was in place.
ADD: And although such Busiek and/or Perez efforts as The Power Company and Soulless had me braced for a mediocre effort, I have to admit that I was hoping to see this creative team working at its peak.
CA: I hate to correct you, but I think you got one of the names wrong. I’m pretty sure the cancelled Busiek book was called POORER COMPANY.
ADD: I think you're forgetting that you're the good cop. I've been extremely disappointed in some things Busiek and Perez have done, like POWER COMPANY or CRIMSON PLAGUE, but at their best together, say, on the Ultron storyline from AVENGERS #19-22, you could actually believe, for a brief moment, that good stories were still possible about these characters -- something that reading either AVENGERS or JLA makes seem very unlikely these days. It's hard to believe it was just a few years ago that Grant Morrison's JLA was one of the hottest books around and that Busiek and Perez were doing some of their best work on AVENGERS. Unfortunately here, the rote nature of the JLA/AVENGERS script causes one to wonder where that Kurt Busiek is. Presumably Busiek was excited to get this assignment, and that kind of shines through in some of the dialogue, but the plot might has well have been generated by a computer program.
CA: Cheap shots aside, DEFENDERS not even mentioned, and good cop badge polished, I liked all of the Busiek/Perez run on AVENGERS, and AVENGERS FOREVER proves the guy can handle a kitchen sink epic with intelligence and power. But what we’ve got here is the same sort of cheesy quest for objects of power that has been used for decades. The Grandmaster -- a scrawny, blue-skinned senior citizen god for those not familiar -- is not an imposing menace. Games of cosmic chess just seem a little quaint for such a long-awaited project, so there’s a wistful disappointment when even slightly dangerous characters like the Grant Morrison-retooled Crime Syndicate are wiped out in the span of just a few pages. If we get the Grandmaster together with the Guardians of Oa, it’ll look like a January meeting of the Friar’s Club when the heater’s broken. I don’t think Busiek’s doing a terrible job -- it’s competent and occasionally amusing -- but so far there’s not a thrill to be found.
ADD: No, that's precisely it. From the dull, "Let's all look left" cover to the tepid reveal of the grand plot, there is indeed not a thrill to be found. And while Busiek and Perez could veer left and start using better villains and more imaginative plot developments, I'm not optimistic. And the shame of it is, I want to be. An issue of AVENGERS -- #161 -- is the most vivid, wonderful memory of comics I have from my childhood. And it was drawn by Perez, to boot. Busiek, between his Iron Man, AVENGERS and especially ASTRO CITY and MARVELS, has written some of the best superhero comics ever. They've had decades to ponder the possibilities in general and many, many months to hammer down an airtight plot. But you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and the best impression this thing makes is, "It could be worse, it could be Geoff Johns."
CA: Looking for me to make a Geoff Johns joke, huh? Not this time, bunky. And I think we’ve covered the airless vs. airtight plot problem, but that cover just about says it all, huh? I guess we’d just be trading clichés, but one would hope the characters would be moving on it, instead of posing for a mall photographer’s family portrait and looking the wrong way. “You folks want the hearth background or the giant starfish?” And while one can make the case that Perez must be engaged in the project, inking his own pencils, I found myself wishing for someone a little rougher and more energetic. I never want to return to the long-haired Superman, but Perez drew him much better back in ACTION COMICS, rather than this J.C. Penney mannequin on the cover, just to carry that mall metaphor on a bit longer. Lot of cleft chins goin’ on, too. Nice hair on Wonder Woman, though.
Listen, we’re having some fun at the book’s expense-and hey, it is an expense, as we’ll be paying almost $25 each for the whole thing when all is said and done, but it’s not like it’s so bad you want to chuck it across the room. It’s…okay. Maybe it’ll fire up next issue with some surprises, interesting character interactions and some of the ol’ Perez razzle-dazzle. I’m not that optimistic, either, but there’s still some promise.
ADD: I'm of the opinion that people never put in more effort to impress than in their first day on the job, so I think the odds are against the story improving; what I mainly see here under the clever gags and glossy art is wasted opportunity. Despite the combined millennium in the cultural consciousness that I mentioned at the outset, the public clearly is not totally sick of superheroes. THE MATRIX and SPIDER-MAN proved there's a hunger for this sort of thing at the theaters, and I think if this story had been a little more accessible you could have seen it generate tons of positive press in the mainstream media and had kids who never bought a comic before lined up around the block to read it.
Instead, what we have here is a fanboy trivia contest, where your enjoyment of the story is diminished a little bit more every time you fail to recognize such hokey baloney as The Wand of Watoomb. I know my 7-year-old son was excited to see all these well-known superheroes on the cover, but I have to wonder if his joy at the prospects of what lie within wasn't tempered by the story's cluttered, inbred nature, and how that will translate in the long run. This could easily have been a story for the ages, and as someone who wants to pass along the joy and excitement comics can bring, I'm disappointed to see JLA/AVENGERS #1 more as an expensive, well-produced product that takes no chances and welcomes in no one who doesn't already know the secret handshake.
CA: Alan can have the last word on this review in his own column, but I wanted to close here in saying that hey, this book has some problems but I’ve got a little more hope than Alan that it will improve. Maybe it doesn’t sound like it, but I really wanted to see some moments in the book that made me geek out like a little kid again. Busiek and Mark Waid are two of a select few writers of mainstream superhero comics that can give me that feeling, and Perez is definitely on the short list of artists one would want for a project of this size, with this many classic characters. I read it; I enjoyed it; but so far the pleasures it provided have been a bit smaller than I had hoped and expected. We’ll see what the next issue brings.
STORMWATCH: TEAM ACHILLES VOL. 1 by Micah Ian Wright, Whilce Portacio, Scott Williams and Sal Regla. Wildstorm Comics. $14.95
This is a book that didn’t get a fair shake from a lot of readers and potential readers, certainly not me. What it had going against it was that it was yet another spin-off of THE AUTHORITY, which evolved from Warren Ellis’ work on STORMWATCH, and none of the spin-offs being nearly as good as the original series. Also, Wright was an unknown commodity, and Portacio a known commodity, and what I knew I didn’t like. But a free issue (#11) I received a few months ago worked well, even though I didn’t know the characters, and now I’ve caught up with this first trade, collecting issues 1-6. I see that I’ve been missing out on something quite entertaining.
The first issue establishes the characters and pulls the team together, as one would expect. Wright admirably puts the menace close to home—the team’s United Nations headquarters, and increases the tension by having much of their tech not even set up yet. They’ve got to meet, shake hands and jump into action, with leader Ben Santini directing them with concise instructions.
The premise of the book is that the team has been refashioned as a response team to deal with super-powered beings (SPBs) going haywire and committing crimes. Santini has a particular hatred of them, having lost his original knees to an SPB attack, and his parents to some conflagration in Gamorra. Wright does not in these issues establish the characters beyond that they’re tough, cynical specialists. You’ve got the brass-balls bitch, the second-in-command who’s got the liability of a family, the sniveler, etc. It’s very much in the template of any other espionage book or movie, but with superpowers, which can either add fresh possibilities or deus ex machina resolutions. So far, so good, and the plot developments are intelligent and suspenseful. There’s also a funny bit with an arrogant, murderous young superhero who almost screws everything up, and it shows that while Santini stays back from the action, he’s got more than enough guts to be a commanding leader. And despite everyone talking tough, the dialogue is all well written and with the right amount of gallows humor. This is meant to be the brutal, ugly side of a world populated with superheroes, and in this it succeeds surprisingly well. What Wright needs to work on (judging from these six issues and one short story, not having read #7-10) is in developing characters, making them distinct and memorable.
The Portacio artwork, as I mentioned above, is a problem, but not as bad as I had expected. The storytelling is fine, and he benefits not just from sympathetic inker Williams, but an unusual color palette that sets the book apart. But somehow there is something lost in the translation at times, as the bald, scarred White guy Jukko often looks indistinguishable from the bald, non-scarred Black guy Blake. This probably stems from the fact that Portacio draws way too many facial lines. The over-rendering and overly-developed musculature makes the figures stiff as well, like the only part of their body capable of movement is their gravity-defying hairstyles. Despite reservations about the artwork, I enjoyed this collection quite a bit, and wanted to continue with the series
And so I did, re-reading #11 (now that I know who these guys are) and then 12-14 in one shot. C.P. Smith makes a good replacement for Portacio. He’s overpowered by Bill Sienkiewicz’ inking in #11 but with a new inker from then on, his style comes through. It’s not that distinctive yet but competent and attractive. The coloring has also been changed to a standard superhero comic palette, which looks fine but may be erring on the side of conservatism. The series is good but won’t pull ahead of the pack by looking like everything else. The hoped-for developments in characterization have occurred, at least with Santini and new member Flint. She clearly strikes a chord in Wright that Golovin doesn’t. This is a damn good book, and it occurs to me that sales aside, I’ve liked every Eye of the Storm book besides THE AUTHORITY.
THE PIRATES AND THE MOUSE by Bob Levin. Fantagraphics Books. $24.00
It’s a small world, after all, for books of comics journalism, so those wishing on a star for an exhaustively researched volume on the significant but now largely forgotten Disney vs. Air Pirates legal battle will find their dreams have come true, as their prince has come in the form of lawyer and sometime COMICS JOURNAL contributor Bob Levin. With access to court records and all the players—including Dan (ODD BODKINS) O’Neill, Bobby (DIRTY DUCK) London and Shary (TROTS AND BONNIE) Flenniken, Levin’s got no strings to hold him down. However, readers may find it’s hard to whistle while they work through this curious mix of reportage, tribute and self-obsession.
The book chronicles the rise, fall and shambling recovery of underground comix rebel O’Neill and the Air Pirates, the cartoonist collective who together, following a pablum-free philosophy, parodied Mickey Mouse and other early Disney cartoon characters until the color of the wind turns dark from the cloud of legal briefs falling down on O’Neill, a lad in a great deal of trouble. Disney finds the beautifully drawn but darkly satirical AIR PIRATES FUNNIES to unfairly use their intellectual property.
Levin introduces the reader to O’Neill as a figure not quite dopey but certainly given to embroidering his stories—or outright lying—both in recalling the facts and getting his friends to go along with his schemes at the time. “Trust in me…just in me,” he seemed to be saying then, luring his compatriots even more into trouble because he doesn’t have the sense to back down. While quixotic figures are undeniably attractive, it is a bit difficult to feel the love tonight for O’Neill due to his manipulation, unreliable verbal fantasia and penchant for self-destructive behavior, a potent witches’ brew of aesthetic principle and Irish drunkenness.
While the research makes this the definitive one-stop shop for information on this case, Levin makes much of the reading a chore, with pages crowded with footnotes having nothing to do with the comics or the case and everything to do with Levin. It’s not that it’s not a valid style of writing--autocritography, his friend calls it—these digressions do little to bring us in to the wonderful world of the Air Pirates, and it’s equally difficult to find the bare necessities of just what makes these comix so special. Despite all the talk of O’Neill’s excellent design and sharp humor, the few examples here, most of them later efforts than the ones that caused the legal problems, are notable mainly for the fact that the art looks exactly like old Mickey Mouse cartoons. They’re clever but that’s about it.
However, as Levin begins his conclusion it’s a whole new world. He emerges from under the sea of facts to make a strong case for how the Air Pirates, while undoubtedly not finding themselves in a court of miracles, did find in their legal defeat a victory of sorts, as it is now more clear how First Amendment cases involving fair use are likely to go in the future. It’s not a convincing argument for the value of the comix themselves, nor an effective call for continued vigilance against the mouseketyranny of Disney/ABC/Buena Vista et al, but it’s an important history of a strange and significant even in comics and legal history.
MANHATTAN BEACH, 1957 by Yves H. and Hermann. SAF Comics. $12.95
Little by little I’ve been collecting Hermann books in the past year, and the more I see, the more I wonder why this amazing talent isn’t more well-known in this country. He’s a painstaking, photorealistic artist who applies delicate watercolors, oil, pencil shadings—whatever is the right choice for the project, and all with equal skill.
With this book, it’s partial black-and-white pencil and wash work, part watercolors, and the story (by Yves, Hermann’s son) is about a detective, John Haig, trying to stop a rapist/murderer but too preoccupied with the lost love of his 50s youth to do his job right, putting him in great danger.
The creators capture both the `50s and `70s exceptionally well, especially the `50s flashbacks with their DETOUR-like feel of the dangerous young lovers on the lam. Haig’s heart and soul is forever tied to the wild-eyed, desperate girl from that ill-fated adventure, and it’s fascinating to learn how much of her story to him was a lie. It’s this and a couple other touches that raise the story above its largely familiar plot, though the doom hanging over Haig is so obvious it kills any tension over whether he’s going to make it through this all right. Hermann utilizes a smart effect in the book, always rendering Haig in black-and-white, even in the colorful present, because he’s so tied to the past he’s hardly been more than a ghost since ’57. A good story with beautiful art, and I like that SAF’s books are a couple bucks cheaper than the comparable production values of competing publishers NBM and Humanoids.
THE DARK HORSE BOOK OF HAUNTINGS Edited by Scott Allie. Featuring P. Craig Russell, Mike Mignola, Jill Thompson, Gary Gianni, Evan Dorkin and more. Dark Horse Comics. $14.95
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By now, readers of this column will have come to the conclusion that I just don’t like anthologies, or that most are, indeed, riddled with flaws. TDHBOH certainly looks nice, a solid hardcover with thick pages, and half the creators involved are some of my favorite artists.
But, like almost every other anthology—Dark Horse’s wonderful HAPPY ENDINGS a notable exception—that leaves the remainder of the book to lesser talents or talented people not able to come up with anything compelling in the theme of the book, in this case the haunted house story. DH publisher Mike Richardson makes a rare appearance as writer on “Gone,” a moderately successful short story where a boy’s friend enters the spooky old house on a dare and never emerges. Nor do the police, or his mother, until finally the boy gives into his fate, having what seems to him at that age nowhere else to go. It’s not scary but despairing, an odd but intriguing choice for the lead-off story. Russell illustrates and does a very controlled, lovely job of it. And then, when we’ve barely started, we get the highlight of the book, another gorgeous, fun and unsurprising Hellboy story by Mignola. Well, there is one of those hints about his past that adds a little weight to it, but otherwise it’s a standard action story set in an old house.
Gary Gianni is amazingly talented, and while I would normally welcome just about any work he offers, having him do spot illos on an ancient, unexceptional ghost story seems a bit of a cheat. If this book was 300 pages or something, then sure, this would be a nice curio. But at one-third of that, one can’t help but wonder why Allie couldn’t add more comics stories. Maybe he could, and this was his attempt to add greater range to the book, but it’s a mistake.
Even worse, several pages are devoted to Allie’s interview with a sceance medium. The guy is likeable enough, but really—entertain me. I want stories and nothing but in a book whose title suggests that is just what we’re getting. Thankfully, Allie omits any recipes for sugar cookies shaped like ghosts and tombstones, and there is no tiny rattling chain to be used as a bookmark.
Allie himself offers a DEVIL’S FOOTPRINTS story drawn by Brian Horton and Paul Lee that for some reason doesn’t look that much like their work on that miniseries, but is an agreeable story nonetheless. German creator Uli Oesterle has a fine story about a man cursed by a Chinese tattooist, so that he becomes a regular Illustrated Man until he finds out how to get the curse lifted. Mexico’s Lucas Maragnon and Randy Stradley/Paul Chadwick offer respectable but forgettable tales, and the one called the “strangest” of the lot—the Evan Dorkin/Jill Thompson effort about a haunted doghouse—is a cute idea, nicely painted by Thompson and with some good dog-related jokes by Dorkin. Like most of the work in here, it’s a mild diversion from talented people who picked up a paycheck and had some fun. It’s an inoffensive book, good looking and a fairly good value at $15 for a 96-page hardcover, but you’re not missing a lot if you decide to give it a pass.
Next Week: Oh, this will be fun. I should have yet another anthology review, TOP SHELF ASKS THE BIG QUESTIONS, the Barreiro/Risso CAIN graphic novel, and Kenichi Sonoda’s CANNON GOD EXAXXION: STAGE 2, among other books, plus I begin a series of interviews with some of the finest online comics reviewers and columnists working today, Paul O’Brien of The X-Axis being my first subject.
Chris Allen
If you’ve got a comic, graphic novel, or comics-related book you’d like reviewed, send it to me at:
BREAKDOWNS
1451 River Crest Rd.
San Marcos, CA 92078
Best Graphic Novels Lately: QUIMBY THE MOUSE by Chris Ware, BLANKETS by Craig Thompson
Best Ongoing Series: SLEEPER by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, 21 DOWN by Palmiotti, Gray and Saiz, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley, CATWOMAN by Brubaker and Pulido, RUBBER NECKER by Nick Bertozzi
Best Miniseries: TUPELO by Matt DeGennaro and Phil Elliott, JACK STAFF by Paul Grist and Phil Elliott, TERRA OBSCURA by Peter Hogan and Yanick Paquette.
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