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The Good, The Bad and The Spandex
THE GOOD VERSUS THE BAD 2007 #1 The Good: Brave and the Bold (DC Comics) In abstract, I was anything but sold on this revival of the old Batman team-up vehicle. With Mark Waid and George Perez helming, the book promised little more than an artifact of nostalgia, written with the po-faced sincerity and shameless punch-’em-outs of the 1970s and 1980s. Well, it is, and more power to it. The book is ceaselessly fast-paced, four-colored and fun, skimping not a lick in the action and explosions, but supported on an undercurrent of very clever, very thorough storytelling. When characters are introduced, their logo appears in someone’s word balloons; the adventure comes fast and furious; and all in all, the book is a welcome reinvention of a time when not every invading alien or time-tossed terror was part of some ridiculous, title-spanning, universe-shattering epic. Oh, and Perez’s art is ten times top-notch, which don’t hurt none neither. Vs. The Bad: Mighty Avengers (Marvel Comics) Although boasting stellar art from a much-improved Frank Cho (prior to this, his women were certainly beautiful, but they did basically look like the same person wearing different wigs), this vehicle for the triumphant return of the long-banished thought balloon is a clunker par excellence. Reviving, as does Brave and the Bold, a conceit of the Bronze Age, Mighty Avengers practically empties a full clip into its own foot in the process. Thought balloons had previously been a device for internal monologue or exposition, but writer Brian Michael Bendis is instead using them as mental burps, reiterating, interrupting and enervating character dialogue. The end result is like reading a transcript of crowd conversation, made all the worse by glacial pacing and a endlessly drawn-out six-issue plot which was about as meaty as a tofurkey. Mighty? No — it’s the Plodding Avengers. #2 The Good: 52 (DC Comics) It’s almost hard to believe that DC’s highly experimental weekly third-stringers’ showcase title wrapped up as recently as the beginning of this year. The weekly format may have been admittedly old hat — a staple of European comics since way back — but the real-time pacing and the tightly focused, interweaving stories were engrossing and, dare I say, made likable characters out of some real duds. Oh, there were missteps along the way — four plotters, two editors and a layout artist with his own ideas will do that to you. And there was unnecessary gore, a little too much blood, and a definite turn towards launching the Next Big Catastrophe — one writer and editor in particular will do that to you. But the end result was that characters like Adam Strange, the Elongated Man and the Question got the kind of exposure — and robust, involving storytelling — that they’d long deserved but rarely received. And if it gets a nod for nothing else, it deserves high praise for Oolong Island, probably the best-executed concept in DC history. Vs. The Bad: Countdown (DC Comics) There are so many missteps in the immediate follow-up to 52, not least being that it apparently isn’t a follow-up to 52. Oh, sure, it’s a weekly book with a large cast of also-rans and hangers-on; and sure, the logo and cover layout are specifically designed to resemble 52; and sure, it even continues the two-page origin stories backing up every issue; and sure, it promptly followed 52 after that series ended, but . . . it’s apparently something altogether other. Plotted by Paul Dini, Countdown proves — among other things — that the scribe behind so many pivotal animated Batman adventures and short story arcs in the Batman comics is a sprinter rather than a runner. Abandoning the real-time element of 52 and instead choreographing the comic to coincide with dozens upon dozens of Countdown-related limited series (more about which later), the series suffered the unforgivable sin of having basically nothing happen for its first twenty issues. That the entirety of the series to date can probably be summarized on an index card is inexcusable. Adding to that is the fact that the multiverse-spanning, hard-to-give-a-damn-about plot is lining up DC’s ducks for the next big disaster, and you’ve got a book that you can barely describe as being worth reading for the sake of backstory. And oh, those spin-offs . . . #3 The Good: All-Star Superman (DC Comics) As with last year, Grant Morrison’s and Frank Quitely’s loving, patient, glorious tribute to the wonder of the Silver Age Superman fails to tarnish with age. Stumbling out at a glacial pace which a George Romero zombie could outrace on foot, it’s nonetheless still the fondest, most intriguing, most charming and thrilling super-hero book on the market. Morrison is one of the few writers to attempt a guileless take on Silver Age zeitgeist rather than creating mopey reflections on not-so-distant nostalgia or senseless populating of the scenery with forty-year-old set pieces. He creates concepts in the spirit of an inventive era, without bogging it down with the stolidity. All-Star Superman continues to be a winner, and will probably be so in 2012, when the next issue will most likely come out. Vs. The Bad: The Death of the New Gods, Countdown: Arena, Justice Society of America, Green Lantern/Green Lantern Corps, Amazons Attack, et al. (DC Comics) It’s almost unfair to include the new JSA and Green Lantern titles, which, while not being terrific, are neither an atrocity. Uniting these titles, though, is a troubling, seemingly omnipresent obsession with death and mutilation in the DC universe. Third-stringers are buying the farm in seedy back alleys and crumbling sewers over in JSA; Fourth World gods are getting their hearts ripped out in DotNG; several hundred Lantern Corpsmen and big chunks of Earth bought it in GL, and Second-through-Fifty-Second universe irregulars are lined up for the mill over in Countdown: Arena and the multitude of other Countdown spinoffs. After twenty multiverse-free years, it’s beginning to feel like the powers that be at DC brought it back just to have more Batmen, Supermen and Green Lanterns to kill. And not just kill, but kill with as much gore as possible: want to see a Blue Beetle from another world eaten by voracious bugs? Not a problem! Countdown: Arena, of all of these books, may be the worst offender — the actual concept of the book is that, each issue, three versions of the same hero from different worlds get in a ring and kill one another. Say, I bet some of you really wanted to see a space gorilla blown in half or Wonder Woman with a visibly broken neck! And if so, I bet you had to walk around to the neighbors and tell ’em why you were in jail that one time, and what you did to those cats too. #4 The Good: Omega the Unknown and The Immortal Iron Fist (Marvel Comics) Two Bronze Age revivals from Marvel, both very different from one another: the cunningly awkward Farel Dalrymple art alone is enough to sell Omega, which wisely chooses to follow the trials of a diverse cast - including a mysterious junior super-brain and a publicity-minded superhero - rather than punch-outs and assorted drama from the voiceless protagonist. What makes the script so compelling is that no character, from a schoolyard bully to snack-cart-driving preacher, gets the short-shrift. There is a mystery surrounding the characters, but it’s no less deep and engaging than the characters themselves, which makes Omega a fine balance of a book. In Iron Fist, perennially underdeveloped Danny Rand gets the best kind of back story — he gets a city built around him. K’un-L’un, Marvel’s mandatory hidden city of kung fu (every comic company has at least one), gets the lion’s share of Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker’s labor of love, and Iron Fist gets some meat on his bones in return. It’s a good read with a building momentum, and a nicely encapsulated setting free of Civil War-remnant artifice. Vs. The Bad: The Ultimates 3 (Marvel) I’d like to thank Marvel for getting this book out before the end of the year, lest I have to wait twelve months to add it to this list. Mark Millar may not have mastered subtext, but at least he understood what the word meant. Jeph Loeb, in the meantime, seems to write this book with the enthusiasm of an excitable boy who believes he’s discovered a valuable dinosaur bone in the place out back where the cats left part of last night’s leftover chicken dinner. Part of me is delighted imagining the slow awakening of awareness on Loeb’s face as he read back issues of The Ultimates and said aloud (to no one in particular), “Say, I wonder if anyone’s considered that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver might be . . . doin’ it!” Good heavens, could it be that Loeb with “edge” is going to be even worse than the mainstream version? It’s like he finally worked up the courage to say “fuck” out loud. What makes the new Ultimates unforgivable is that it’s largely indistinguishable from a regular Avengers story. What is the point of an Ultimate universe if it’s just there to tell stories which could be, at the very least, fraternal twins of their mainstream counterpart? #5 The Good: Captain America (Marvel Comics) It’s a testament to the quality of Ed Brubaker’s writing that the main character of this title was abruptly killed off in the middle of a story arc, and yet it hasn’t affected the momentum of the story one bit. The real act of derring-do on behalf of Marvel was not to hastily nix the Sentinel of Liberty, but rather to keep a book going on under his name when he’s long dead and buried (in some secret chamber in a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, or what have you). It’s a risk which has paid off strong dividends with Brubaker’s supporting-cast-driven storyline. Vs. The Bad: Captain America: The Chosen (Marvel Comics) Rambo creator David Morrell was invited to give his take on the passing legacy of Captain America, which is not a bad idea on the face of it. The problem is that he was given the character at a time when any book besides the main title was bound to have the most maudlin possible interpretation (see Captain America: Fallen Son). The moping, meandering story should have been a single issue at best, but instead is being played as some sort of unlikely Christmas Carol in Iraq, and a chance to revisit Cap’s origin. It’s not that great an origin; I can live without it. Anyway, I don’t hold it against Morrell; it’s the zeitgeist at Marvel these days. Bonus Round: Good and Bad, Together at Last! Tales of the Unexpected: The Spectre vs. Tales of the Unexpected: Doctor Thirteen The Dr. Thirteen backup in this miniseries — featuring warm, approachable Cliff Chiang art — had the humor, self-referentiality, experimental storytelling and insight which the Spectre surely could not afford as the grimmest character ever. But the usually spot-on Dave Lapham’s lead story was a plodding murder mystery under muddy art. Why couldn’t it be more like the backup? The Spectre’s been done straighter than straight; they could have benefited from a little more twist in his part of the book. Trials of Shazam vs. Shazam: Monster Society of Evil If Bone scribe Jeff Smith’s take on Shazam is the worst of these two, it’s only because the expectations were so high. The first issue soared; the second, third and fourth collapsed under Smith’s airy-fairy Monster Manual method of character development. Meanwhile, Trials of Shazam — which has had its weak spots, to be sure — is building on the ideas established in previous series, and warming up a re-launch of the characters. I don’t think either book will come to anything in the end, but I know which one I think put forth the most effort in telling an actual Shazam story. All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder vs. Spider-Man: Reign By now, you should all be in on the joke of All-Star Batman, which, as bad as you may have ever thought it was, couldn’t touch the Dark Knight-’inspired’ Spider-Man story. No number of ’goddamn’ this and dead cops that and beating the tar out of Robin the other can match even one mention of radioactive spider-sperm. It’s no contest. Bullet Points vs. Fantastic Four: The End Ha ha, no, I kid. These were both awful. |
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In the spirit of some of the greatest super-hero conflagrations in history (Batman vs. the Hulk, say, or Superman vs. Muhammad Ali) as well as some of the worst, this year’s review of the greatest and the least of 2007’s spandex soap operas takes the form of . . . a CLASH! OF! THE TITANS! Face Front, because here comes: