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BREAKDOWNS - Thunder, Cat

I had planned to take a long look at a truly great book, Daniel Clowes' CARICATURE, this week, but while that review is well under way, the following itch came up and I just had to scratch it. And scratch it.

Though every comic book columnist eventually gives in to what must be some sort of peer pressure to tell you the reader just how we save this struggling industry, I'm going to resist for now. The big answers are obvious at this point, so I'll spare you.

Instead, I want to set my pundit's microscope to a higher degree of magnification and look at a couple commercially struggling superhero books and how they've been mismanaged. Not fucked-up beyond all recognition or redemption or anything, but there have been some choices, both creatively and in terms of marketing, that have kept them from perhaps selling as well as they could. By the way, comics companies really hate when you dare to question their marketing practices, and sure, my job is mostly to review the contents of the books. However, I don't see why a review can't explore other aspects now and then, and I also guess that if you're still reading this, you don't come to this column for the typical review robot stuff, the kind where he reviews SAVAGE DRAGON #93 and then says the same things in his review of SAVAGE DRAGON #94 when he could be using his space to expose you to something, I dunno--different? Interesting?

So here we go, looking at the strengths and flaws and packaging of a couple Marvel books, BLACK PANTHER and THUNDERBOLTS. Both are coincidentally edited by Tom Brevoort, though I don't mean to pick on him. He's a good editor and edits plenty of other books I have no complaints about. I do have a feeling hiring Geoff Johns on to replace Kurt Busiek as new AVENGERS scribe will have a sort of "second Darren" effect, but we'll hope for the best. Onward!

BLACK PANTHER has been written in this series by one Christopher Priest right from its beginnings as a Marvel Knights title to its regular Marvel Universe setup now. That's almost four years of middling sales but high critical acclaim and a small but devoted following. Oddly enough, this critical acclaim has, from what I've seen, resulted in some of the worst critical writing across the board. Reviewers tell you you "must read this" wonderful book that's "about" something, like political stuff and uh, it's not your typical superhero book and dur...he's like, a king and shit.

Let's get down to it: BLACK PANTHER will never be a big seller for the very reasons that make it special. Priest is a very bright, funny writer, able to wring clever gags from a variety of settings. The book explores what our world might be like if an African king was also a superhero, in a world full of them. T'Challa, the Black Panther, is different because he doesn't come from the usual New York wisecracking culture. He's regal, he's arrogant, and he's quite willing to piss people off to get what he wants and to do what he thinks is right. There are very few Marvel heroes as interesting as him, and Priest surrounds this elusive personality with more demonstrative and funnier characters who have also grown fairly three-dimensional over time. And the plots are clever and unpredictable and don't insult the reader's intelligence.

So what's the problem?

Well, the character's black, for one thing. Hold your letters--I buy the book, unlike a high percentage of you. Fact is, there's never been a very successful solo superhero book with a black lead. POWER MAN needed his IRON FIST within a couple years. BLACK LIGHTNING was acclaimed...and stiffed in both series attempts. And no, SPAWN doesn't count, because it's easy to ignore a character's race when his skin is mostly rotted off. There has never been a huge black audience for comics, as the failure of DC's Milestone line proved. Even books done as well as those will die if the demographic doesn't know they're there. The problem can be called some degree of racism, just as there's an element of sexism that causes fewer young men to support critically well-received books like SUPERGIRL or WONDER WOMAN to the extent they support will-sappers like GOTHAM KNIGHTS or SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL.

And for all the clever lines, the measured character development, even the amusing chapter headings, there is a deficit of action. Fine with me, but it's a staple of most of other superhero books, and perhaps a lot of readers feel that escapist release is a necessary component.

Another hindrance may be the art. I hesitate to say this, as I think the long-time team of Sal Velluto and Bob Almond are very good. But though they bring a high level of mood and nuance to their superhero art, it's still superhero art--pencil and ink. When the book started, we had Mark Texeira providing painted artwork. It made the book look special, which helped create a bit of excitement and got you over the hump of it not being the average reader might have expected, that of the Panther beating up on Klaw all the time. But with Texeira's departure, the hump returned, and it's been ignored up until now. When BLACK PANTHER relaunches in a few months, Velluto and Almond are gone.

The new art team and the relaunch represent an attempt to fix things, and the departure of Brevoort may also bring changes to the tone of the book, whether subtle or drastic. The point of relaunching is to get a little boost in sales with a new #1 issue, and to hopefully clear up the baggage left over from the previous volume. The same is being done with CAPTAIN MARVEL, including a new, painterly style of art (hmm, maybe I'm onto something) and a new point of view. With PANTHER, I probably wouldn't make sweeping changes to the writing, but I would probably shorten the story arcs and wrap up subplots faster. No arc over four issues, and between each arc do a one or two issue story, thereby providing many more "jumping-on" points throughout the year. And explain what's going on at the beginning of each issue, rather than let Priest riff from the get-go.

Which brings me to the marketing problems, finally. Not since the Texeira period have there been eye-popping covers to this series. They're competent, but hey, you have a book with inherent roadblocks to big success, you have to do better than competent.

And Priest and Brevoort sure haven't ramped up the anticipation factor for the relaunch. The past several issues, rather than carefully setting up a new status quo, have been a loopy farce revisiting the quaintly overblown Jack Kirby version of the character, who somehow exists alongside the Priest version. It's a story geared for a pathetically small number of people, and to make matters worse, the Rawhide Kid and other Marvel Western heroes have shown up. Who thought that the 70s revival might translate into respectable sales, especially as none of the Kirby PANTHER or Marvel Western stuff is currently in print? I half-expect the series to climax with cameos by the Human Fly and Werewolf by Night. This is not to say the execution has been bad, but aside from the laughs, the story is confusing and without suspense.

Okay, while I've beaten up on the waning days of T'Challa and T'Company, I do have expectations that the relaunch might take care of some of these concerns and set things aright. So, let's move on to THUNDERBOLTS. Another book whose readers really, really like it, yet there aren't quite enough of them, T-Bolts is currently attempting a novel approach to grabbing more readers with a biweekly publication schedule that alternates two different storylines. Meaning, if you're only interested in the story involving Hawkeye and part of the team, just read issues -----. If you only want to read the story with Jolt and ---, read the other issues. Supposedly, you don't have to read all of them, though the story is "deeper" if you do. Hmm. We'll get into that in a moment.

As far as the creative make-up of the book, it's fine. Nicieza is a good team-book writer, able to weave lots of subplots together and keep it all percolating. However, I dropped the book almost a year ago due to the fact that, though he does a good job exploring the challenges these former super-villains have in trying to reform, there are so many characters that not a lot happens very quickly, and I think some of the writer's energy was diluted into spin-offs like CITIZEN V. Put it this way: no one who read CITIZEN V was NOT reading THUNDERBOLTS, and since THUNDERBOLTS doesn't sell that great, why not try to help it out first rather than spin it off?

So, again, we have an issue of bloated storylines slow to conclude, and again, there's the issue of art. It's a cruel fact of life that just as rich celebrities are the ones who get all the free gift bags, it's the popular books who get the top-name artists. Patrick Zircher is an able but undistinguished superhero artist, as is Chris Batista, who is alternating art duties with him. The mid-level books need different looks. Look at a book like POWERS. Mike Avon Oeming wasn't a household name when he started this book, but he brought a fresh, confident look with him, and the book is a fan favorite. I think there's a fear, especially with books with lots of characters, that the art needs to be very crisp and detailed a la team book maestro George Perez, and since we can't afford him, we'll keep descending the ladder. Hewing to the middle of the road in art style helps keep sales middle of the road as well.

And now we get to the editorial direction-slash-marketing of the book. Again, nothing too exciting in the cover department, though I do like the focusing on a single character for more punch than a crowd shot. As for the this idea of alternating storylines, it's lousy.

Not the stories themselves-okay, Hawkeye still doesn't fully have the team's trust, and everyone is still trying to fit in-the execution is fine, as it has been for years of the same basic story. To use that word "execution," well, it's like Nicieza is chopping off the head and putting it back on the neck, over and over again. It doesn't have the same sound the second, or third, or fourth time. I don't think I've missed much in a year, and that's a shame. And to take a middling title and ask that readers pay extra for it-worse, that new readers jump on for double the price, without proper explanation of the alternating schedule-is just a bad idea. Of course you'll try both of the first issues to see which story you like, but it's kind of doubtful the new reader will pick just one. They'll either read both and feel slightly cheated (there's already quite a bit of stretching here-both plots could've fit in one issue), or just drop both altogether. To be fair, pre-order figures from Diamond show that THUNDERBOLTS does not appear to be in imminent danger, ranking in the mid-60s of the Top 300. However, aside from miniseries and TANGLED WEB and THE ORDER, there appears to be no Marvel book that sells worse, except for BLACK PANTHER, which limps in at #101. Again, THUNDERBOLTS is not at all a bad book, and I prefer it over the comparable JSA, but neither is it an essential book for discriminating fans.

Not enough grousing for one week, you say? All right, then, let's segue' into positivity (reviews of swell books ME AND EDITH HEAD and THE INVINCIBLE ED #1) with a mixed bag of quick comments on a few other underachievers on Diamond's 101-300 list (titles falling below the #100 line are the ones in some danger, theoretically, at least those coming from the bigger publishers):

#125 - FABLES by Bill Willingham, Lan Medina and Steve Leialoha. DC. $2.99.
I'm not going to call this the new SANDMAN, but it's a damn good book that deserves much better than this. A sharp take on bumping the characters from fables and fairytales of our youth into that bastard real world. Well worth a look.

#131 - SAVAGE DRAGON #100 by Erik Larsen. Image Comics. $8.95!
Larsen should be given a hand for the book making it this far. Clap. But he squandered a lot of goodwill making the supposed jump-on point of issue #75 into a two-year exercise in bringing back altered versions of old characters that should have been left behind. It was confusing and pointless. If you long for the days when the Hulk or Thing were tearing property up every issue, but wisecracking like a Merchant Marine Spidey, this is the book for you. But in Kirby's name, why must this anniversary issue be almost nine freaking dollars? Blowing the opportunity to bring new readers in with what seems to me a cynical grab for cash from the dwindling faithful gives a bad taste. Maybe I'm wrong and it will be the coolest, most fun-packed book ever, but that price is a major hurdle, as this ranking indicates.

#143, #157, #160 - LADY DEATH REIMAGINED, PURGATORI REIMAGINED, CHASTITY REIMAGINED. Chaos! Comics. $2.99
Hey, no offense, but clearly very few are taken with the reimagining. Back to the drawing board.

#171 - S.C.I.-SPY by Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy. DC. $2.50
They've always worked well together, but this didn't look too interesting. I hope it doesn't portend doom for their upcoming MASTER OF KUNG-FU, though, and I'm sure Marvel feels the same.

#176 - QUEEN & COUNTRY by Greg Rucka and Leo Fernandez. Oni Press. $2.95
This one surprises me, as Greg Rucka's a popular writer and this is an ace book, the one with his smartest plotting and best dialogue. Are people just waiting for the trades on this? Don't.

#188 - RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT: INTO THIN AIR. Dark Horse. $2.99
It was either this or what? Adapting THE CELESTINE PROPHECY for comics? Bad idea, and much too late.

#210 - METAL HURLANT. Humanoids Publishing. $3.95
A glossy, full-color book featuring name writers like Busiek teamed with top artists doing beautiful work, for four bucks? What's the problem here? The name? It's just French for HEAVY METAL, yet designed for an American audience. Buy it.

And finally, keeping in mind just how long I've gone on already, a couple brief reviews:

ME AND EDITH HEAD by Sarah Ryan and Steve Lieber. Steve Lieber.com $2.00
Listen, forget Steve Lieber. He gets enough credit in this industry, with his two WHITEOUT graphic novels and current stint on DETECTIVE COMICS. You're probably sick of hearing about the level of draftsmanship he displays, his knack for drapery and texture and body language. Ugh, enough (just kidding, Steve.). Instead, let's talk about his wife, Sara Ryan, who writes this short story, utilizing a character, Katrina Lansdale, originally appearing in her acclaimed young adult novel, EMPRESS OF THE WORLD. She reminds me here a bit of those Judy Blume books I'd get from the school library as a kid. Katrina is a realistic teen girl, destined not to be a popular beauty and doing her best to shut out her parents' disintegrating marriage. An opportunity for escape and reinvention comes when she is assigned to design costumes for the school play. She thinks she hasn't a clue how to pull this off, yet her research ends up being a search for her own style, her own way to express herself confidently. Ryan finds the right course between bleak realism and cloying sentimentality here, and as for that Lieber guy makes the average-looking Sara unforgettable. Go to the link above to order the comic, or Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers to inquire about the novel.

INVINCIBLE ED #1 by Ryan Woodward. Summertime Books. $3.50
When you're dealing with a self-published comic, it's rare to find not only good art and story, but good production value, too. Hey, if it's good, I can certainly overlook that it's just a stapled bunch of photocopied pages, but how great it is when there's nothing to excuse. Such is the case here. Woodward, by day an animator with credits ranging from OSMOSIS JONES to the upcoming SPIDER-MAN 2, has put his storytelling skill and production knowledge into a labor of love, a singular expression unlike the collaborative nature of animation.

What we have here is a somewhat typical teen superhero origin story, mixing up some familiar elements in a fun way. Ed is a freshman, not a stereotypical nerd but certainly awkward and an easy target for beloved jock Lance Lundgrin. A Lundgrin gunpowder prank goes kablooey in the school (and yes, sadly, the time when such pranks at school were fun is past) and Ed and Lance are caught in it. At the same time, a little alien called Nod is ordered by his superior to give special powers to a worthy human because of some upcoming threat to the universe. Nod screws up somehow, apparently splitting powers between Lance and Ed, so that Lance can shoot plasma bolts from his hands and Ed is, well, invincible.

That's the set-up to the first issue, with more info (perhaps too much, for the spoiler-phobic) on the website. So we've got parts of GREEN LANTERN, SPIDER-MAN, maybe a little HAWK & DOVE and GATECRASHER thrown in as well, but Woodward has an appealing voice of his own already. As you can see from the friendly, CREED-like logo (the comic, not the band) to the figure of Ed, the look is open and designed for all ages above, say, ten? When I saw Nod, I immediately thought of ZED, the title alien in another well-produced independent comic, and indeed, Woodward studied under that book's creator, Michel Gagne'. The art is big and bold and extremely well colored, rivaling the quality of CrossGen's books, yet all done by one talented guy. I definitely recommend giving this one a shot.

Chris Allen

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