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Breakdowns - At Play in the Fields of the Word

MAY 29 -- BREAKDOWNS will return on June 5

May 22, 2003

You know, I bleed a little, inside, for every negative review I write. Or maybe that’s the ulcer. But it’s true I get uneasy after having slammed something, the violent lashing-out no doubt stemming from my strict Calvinist upbringing. Or maybe that’s filmmaker Paul Schrader’s (wrote TAXI DRIVER) life? I’m confused. Anyway, I don’t mean to beat up on anybody, and it’s certainly not personal. And that’s about as much self-defense as I think is appropriate.

However, I wanted to address something a reader (whom I know and like, and whose family once shared their home and hearth with me, hiding me in the attic from stormtroopers, Mother editing the manuscript about the experience, Father teaching me the trade of door-to-door knife-sharpening, which has seen severe market downturns since) wrote about my quick and brutal review of JSA ALL-STARS #1. I read, replied, and then deleted it through webmail, so I don’t have a copy handy, but he misunderstood me on a couple of points, so I figured maybe others did as well.

First, I don’t have it in for Geoff Johns, the Ray Romano of Comics. Okay, that might seem like a slam right there, depending on your taste in comedy, but hey, I’ve laughed at Romano’s show before. He’s not untalented, just kind of average and middle-of-the-road. But that’s what appeals to a lot of people, and good for him. Johns is at this moment very popular as well, working on solo and team superhero books that are faithful to the histories of the characters, for the most part. Sometimes, as with characters like Jack of Hearts, you have to invent characteristics where there weren’t much there before. More on continuity in a moment. I don’t begrudge the guy his success (and why is David Goyer ignored on his co-written books just because he’s not as prolific—he’s a screenwriter and producer the rest of the time—as his co-writer?); it’s just that I find most of his DC stuff unmemorable but inoffensive; his Marvel work just plain bad. And I’ve given almost all of it a shot.

The reader also mistook the review, and I can see how, as not just a negative review on the book, but as a criticism of continuity, or of creators like Johns (and Goyer) who take more-than-average care to make their stories consistent with past stories of the same characters. And that’s just not the case. I have no problem with books like AVENGERS FOREVER or EARTH/UNIVERSE/PARADISE-X weaving decades of confused, at times contradictory, continuity into a new story. But the former manages to be good entertainment, and the latter doesn’t (I’d written more here, but as you’ll see below, there are already a few people sharing space under the bus with Johns and Goyer without shoving Jim Krueger there as well).

This reader had referred to Johns as “a fluffy pillow, with tassels” for long-time readers like himself who wanted the history of these old characters carried forth. Admittedly, the description was tongue-in-cheek, but it still goes to, well, the second-biggest problem with the comics industry. The biggest problem is of course the direct market and inability of most publishers to break out of it into solid bookstore and newsstand sales. These leads to the second problem, where major publishers Marvel, DC and Image feel they have to cater to the aging superhero fan, and don’t want to alienate him with radical changes to long-lived characters, even if it’s to the creative benefit of the character. So I can’t blame the reader for wanting what he wants; after all, he’s one of the few people supporting this industry with his dollars. But he must also be aware that supporting nothing but company-owned superheroes is never going to help the industry grow out of its precarious financial state. I mean, being a “custodian” of characters older than your dad is all well and good, but a good custodian knows where the dumpster is and how to use it. It’s when the reader supports the creator-owned projects that the percentage of more interesting, diverse comics increases. I mean, look at it this way: Mark Millar probably had a grand old time on ULTIMATE X-MEN, but this was a book just waiting for someone to do it, essentially. Whereas TROUBLE or the other hush-hush creator-owned stuff he’s got coming are ideas generated by Millar, and therefore more likely to receive his highest enthusiasm and least editorial interference. What could comics be if the creators who know how to entertain and sell got to run a little wilder? Why not find out?

Adding a little inter-site flourish to my rare note of hope, Steven Grant has some encouraging words about the increase in graphic novels in libraries, which suggests those videogame-playing kids may in fact like to read, too, so there’s one excuse down, maybe.

Also, you call me a Grumpy Gus? Check the acerbic, hilariously repetitive, and drunk Paul O’Brien right here.

THE SPEED ABATER by Christophe Blain. NBM Publishing. $13.95
Despite a bad title, this graphic novel from relative newcomer (it premiered in France in 1999) Blain is a largely successful mélange of existential dread and nautical suspense. Helmsman Guilbert and two other freshly inducted sailors find themselves unsuited to life aboard the huge destroyer Bellicose and seek respite from the noise, the nerve-wracking, and their own nausea, and find their way to the engine room, a quiet oasis away from whatever part there is for the ship to play in the War. But the giddiness of this brief, unauthorized break leads to an accident, the ship’s sensitive reduction gears breaking down and stopping the engines, making the Bellicose a sitting duck for that mysterious submarine reported earlier. The sailors attempt to sneak back to the top, as others attempt to find them, and the story is at its most taut and riveting here, though the ending is also satisfying by contrast, being ambiguous but worth pondering. Blain layers the story with irony and allegory, and one can start with the name of the boat (belligerent, combative, warlike) and dig deeper, to a descent into Hell story like that of all major religions; a lesson about the smallest actions having great consequences, human need for camaraderie besting the human urge to kill, or almost anything else one can come up with. Its elusive qualities are matched by solidly constructed drama with likeable characters, which makes it ultimately worth reading and delving into further after that.

ORBITER by Warren Ellis and Colleen Doran. Vertigo Comics. $24.95
By now, most of us are used to the usual Ellis bag of tricks: hard-as-nails, ultracapable men and women trading deadpan bon mots and then doing something really violent. Sure, that’s reduction for effect, but what is so captivating here is how convincingly Ellis breaks format and digs a lot deeper into that bag for stuff like Hope, Inspiration and Wonder.

What this means is, Space Shuttle Venture crash-lands on Earth ten years after it disappeared. It’s covered in a material very like skin, and is pretty much intact, though altered inside. One of the crew remains, John Cost, the pilot and Mission Commander. A team of specialists is quickly assembled to perform three functions: 1) Figure out where the Venture has been—that’s former Astronaut Corpsperson Michelle Robeson’s job; 2) Figure out how the Venture has been altered—Breakthrough Propulsion scientist Terry Marx’ job; and 3) Figure out what happened to Cost and his crew—former NASA Psychiatric Evaluation Team member Dr. Anna Bracken’s job.

Ellis’ GLOBAL FREQUENCY is one example of his fascination with team dynamics, specialists working towards a goal that will help humanity in some way, but this time it’s different. This isn’t about foiling some terrorist and sneering at him while you do it. Robeson, Marx and Bracken are bright people on separate but parallel voyages of discovery. There is a wonder and joy in their puzzle-solving—you cheer their breakthroughs, and the Old Bastard softens up enough to write in a charming romantic subplot as well. I really enjoyed the Marx character, the wild-haired, wild-eyed genius who significantly is not arrogant about it. He rallies his troops with an infectious enthusiasm, and has great respect for these men getting to work on the rockets a generation before his birth. I liked seeing Anna at work, drawing the story out of Cost. Michelle’s bittersweet telephone conversation with her separated husband is also excellent. In fact, there are no wrong notes here. It’s one of Ellis’ grandest stories, but he is most concerned with the characters, the human element that puts space into perspective.

I don’t mean to slight Doran, who does very solid work here, though I must admit it seems like “monthly comic” quality when I was hoping for the kind of dazzle (and the more delicate line) seen on the cover. There are some excellent moments, though, for which she shares credit with colorist Dave Stewart.

I did find I wanted Ellis to give me a little more of what the aliens were like, maybe a little more of the strangeness of the ship. No complaints; it’s just that I was enjoying myself so much I didn’t want it to end. The ending seems to have gotten a mixed reaction, but I found its ambiguity worked just fine, better on a second reading, in fact. What is not ambiguous at all is the feeling of hope and promise at the end, which is rather a rare thing to find in our fiction these days.

BATMAN/SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN: TRINITY #1 (OF 3) by Matt Wagner. DC Comics. $5.95
Wagner handles DC’s big guns to tell the story of the very first time they all worked together, featuring Ra’s al Ghul and Bizarro.

I’m not quite sure what to make of this one. Wagner is one of comics’ most reliable creators in that he doesn’t just crank out work month by month, but instead only brings something out when it’s ready, and it’s usually something interesting no one else has done. With the first scene—Clark Kent waiting for the morning train, having to change to Superman to prevent it crashing—taking ten whole pages to depict, I got a little worried. Did Wagner have enough story to fill three Prestige Format books? I’m not sure.

I also found I wasn’t particularly interested in this whole “first meeting” idea. Wonder Woman being suspicious of Superman and whether he was really as good a guy as the papers say and all that. I mean, every reader knows what Superman’s about, so let’s get on with it, huh? Of course, I realize that it’s perfectly valid for the reader to know more than a particular character, and it can even create some tension (“when is she going to realize this? Will her suspicion cause a problem at a crucial time when they need to be working together?), but that doesn’t appear to be the case here. It’s just a time-filling bit of subplot that doesn’t jibe that well with past portrayals of Wonder Woman. In fact, I found the characterization off with all three heroes. Since when does Batman handle superhero business as Bruce Wayne, driving to meet Clark Kent? When did he call him “Kent”? Sometimes the changes are amusing, as when Wayne gives Kent an assignment to break an encryption code (requiring lots of super-fast keystrokes), and Kent says, “it helps if you don’t wear gloves”, but when was Superman ever funny?

I don’t mean to nitpick the thing, as the main story is all right so far, involving Bizarro being removed from his icy prison by Ra’s al Ghul, but the slack pace (this was a preview copy without credits, but it smacks of Bob Schreck’s “whatever, dude” editing style he uses with superstar buddies—if it’s not, I’ll retract the statement) and quirky characterization make it not quite the essential untold story it wants to be. Oddly, I liked Wagner’s take on Bizarro, I’ll give him that. Having him refer to Ra’s as “Racer Cool” is funny, but maybe I’m looking for bright spots where I can find them. I look at it this way, and you may disagree: this ain’t an Elseworlds story, and shouldn’t feel like it. If the creator can’t make his vision compatible with the characterization and history of these characters in the past fifteen years, he shouldn’t do the book.

As for the art, after reading it in black-and-white form, I can only hope someone good like Jeromy Cox colors it, as Wagner provides some of the most meat-and-potatoes, non-engaged art of his career. I hate to write comments like that, as I really like Wagner’s work most times, but this one’s got problems.

Darker Than Dark Horse

For years, Dark Horse had one great horror comic, HELLBOY. Gary Gianni’s MONSTERMEN was really cool, but too infrequent, and then the BUFFY stuff is more lighthearted, so it was up to Mignola to represent horror for the publisher on his own. But finally, that has changed, with editor Scott Allie’s new horror line. With the newly-cinematized HELLBOY as the “anchor store”, Allie is quickly building a quality mall for shriek shoppers. Wait, did I write that?

Anyway, I just wanted to say some brief words about some of the recent work, as it’s all of a very high quality—high enough that I plan to review the trade paperbacks of most or all of these down the line. I already know and like the above (MONSTERMEN is now CORPUS MONSTRUM) as well as THE GOON; SCARLET TRACES(which I’ve reviewed twice now, I think) and B.P.R.D., which is getting a series of one-shots by various creators, starting with THE SOUL OF VENICE by Miles Gunter and Michael Avon Oeming, with Mignola’s input. Anyway, let’s look at the four current miniseries.

THE DEVIL’S FOOTPRINTS is the miniseries Allie wrote himself, with art by Paul Lee and Brian Horton. The Waite brothers attempt to deal with the horrible demonic legacy they’ve inherited from their father. I’m interested, and really like the art, but if this is just a four-issue mini, it’s time to get beyond the moody portents and omens and make things happen. I like Allie’s writing, but hope there’s sufficient time to tell a really good story.

HELLBOY: WEIRD TALES #2 is a nonessential but generally pleasing anthology of non-Mignola stories from names both big and small. Joe Casey and Steve Parkhouse tell an almost totally unrelated story about a friend of Hellboy’s with a jetpack, who encounters some giant bats. It’s amusing fluff, with good art and an excellent color sense from Parkhouse. “Hot” by Randy Stradley and Seung Kim finds Hellboy in Japan in 1967 to remove some man-eating creature from the once-popular hot spring. Mignola eschews sexual content in his own stories, so it’s amusing to see Hellboy deal with a seductive she-demon, and Kim’s art is terrific, something between John Totleben and George Pratt. “Haunted Doily” by Mark Ricketts and Eric Wight is some funny nonsense about Kate Corrigan’s mother’s ghost coming back to nag her about not being married yet, with Michelle Madsen’s vivid covers a highlight. “Midnight Cowboy” by Eric Powell is a hilarious story of a young Hellboy trying to cover up from his Air Force father figure the fact his dog just licked the leakage from some alien cadavers being stored in an Area 51-type facility. It turns the poor mutt into a monster for a while. I’m a big fan of Powell’s THE GOON, anyway, but now I’m hoping he fits in a HELLBOY special down the line, as convincing is his work here. About the only thing that doesn’t impress is John Cassaday’s continuing Lobster Johnson serial. The art is great, very Golden Age, but there’s no story. Still, it’s just two pages per issue, so it’s no big deal.

THE BLACKBURNE COVENANT by Fabian Nicieza and Stefano Raffaele is an agreeable blend of Stephen King (the lead character is an author with a hot book he’s not sure is fictional) and conspiracy comics. Richard Kaine spends much of his newfound fame falling down drunk, and it seems to be the only way to keep the visions away, visions of skyscrapers overgrown with vines. His doubts are eating at him—he hardly did any research for his historical fantasy, but now he’s getting some indications it might all be true. And it turns out there are some powerful and dangerous men trying to keep the knowledge away from him, or destroy him completely. Aside from a penchant for corny names like “Kaine” (a bad habit from decades of superhero comics, maybe), Nicieza does a fine job creating a haunting, paranoid atmosphere for Kaine to stumble his way through. He’s a louse but essentially harmless, and you want him to tap his inner resources to best this evil cabal. Raffaele, who I already wrote might be a breakout star for the upcoming FRAGILE serializing in METAL HURLANT, is a good choice on art, with a detailed, pitiless style. The colors are a little too muted for my tastes, but otherwise I’m liking this a lot.

CRIMINAL MACABRE #1 (OF 6) by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith returns the pill-popping P.I. Cal McDonald to Dark Horse for a tale involving, well, werewolves and vampires and stuff. I’m a big fan of the McDonald novels Niles has published with IDW, so I’m kind of a built-in audience, but this is not a great start. I mean, Cal’s funny, but a good deal of the book is repeating the story of how he got into the biz after being kicked off the force, introducing his sidekick Mo’Lock (he’s a ghoul who puts new meaning to the term, “deadpan”), and showing how cops tend to roll their eyes in disbelief whenever Cal has expert commentary on something to do with the supernatural. It should be fine for new readers, just a little redundant for the faithful, and there’s only the barest hint of the story so far. Still early in the game, so I’m not particularly worried, and I imagine Templesmith will have a whole lot more to draw that’s right in his comfort zone.

STYLISH VITTLES VOL. 2: ALL THE WAY by Tyler Page. Dementian Comics. $17.00
I pretty much raved about the first book, with a minor caveat, so it may surprise some to learn that while I’m still very supportive of Page’s work, and there’s clearly some creative growth here over the first volume…well, that minor caveat is growing as well. More on that in a moment.

When we last left Tyler, he was still in college, working on his art projects, and developing his relationship with Nanette. That question hanging over them from Vol. 1 was whether they should continue dating, knowing Nanette was going abroad after graduation for a few months. Obviously, they decided to pursue it, and lucky us. The other question hanging over them that I didn’t see, was when would they have sex? I thought they already had, as did a friend of mine when I told her I had the new book to give her to read as soon as I reviewed it. So, well, they didn’t, and the focus of this 240-ish page book is when they finally “do it”. No, it’s not a teen sex movie from the 80s, but I was amused and maybe a little charmed that Page built up to the act so slowly and deliberately. I do commend him for some of the frank depictions and matter-of-fact bedroom dialogue. It’s gutsy without every being gratuitous, and a good corrective to all the “sweetie-pies” and cute stuff. Actually, as in the first book, I have no complaints about that, as Page writes both characters well. The cute stuff I didn’t like, though, is creeping and spreading through this book like kudzu. We’ve got Tyler dressed up for fake newscasts to relay exposition. We’ve got minor characters not just breaking the fourth wall to talk about their unimportant (and poorly mapped) subplots, but when they do, Tyler The Director steps in to yell “Cut!” and then he is persuaded to give the scene a second take. We’ve got not just the curious atmospheric beginning, but now these space shots are multi-page chapter breaks, complete with metaphysical blather by Tyler as Starman, cosmic hero, or he’s in some mysterious superhero diner for some reason. Now, I’d like to say let’s give the guy credit for ambition, for trying to make a sweet, earthbound college romance story a richer experience for the reader by varying the art and writing styles. I’d like to say that, but not one of these ideas works, and honestly detracts from the main story. Someone else might say, “Okay, some of that stuff’s not necessary, I grant you, but hey, it’s just $17 for over 200 pages of a really nice, convincing, tender romance story.” And maybe at another time, I would agree, but I tell you, you don’t think about value or how good the main story is when you’re flipping through all these confusing and eventually irritating misfires trying to get back to the good stuff. What you think is that the creator isn’t confident enough to let the story stand on its own.

When the regular story is in gear, it’s strong. The scene with the ring (not what you think) is really good, and despite the fact the final, soul-searching scene should have come after Nanette had actually left on her trip, it’s still well-done, and more expansive page compositions really do serve the story here. And the conversations about Tyler’s ex-girlfriend, his parents, and Nanette’s parents all ring true. At heart, I do still care about the series, but I’m hoping for some improvements: 1) Cut the self-indulgence to a minimum, or at least make it relate more easily to the main story; 2) The art is improving but the anatomy is still kind of weak, more noticeable now that the characters get naked a lot. Add some bones to those sausage bodies, and don’t spare the cheeks; 3) Move it along just a bit—Nanette should have left for her trip by now; that’s where the story was pointing as of the first book; 4) Keep you eyes on the prize—the minor characters are okay in small doses but their stories are lackluster and not deserving of the attention that could go to Nanette or more Tyler; 5) Heighten the drama—I know this is mainly a true story, right, but if so, cut back on what isn’t dramatic. Nanette’s dad is in town, so she can’t go to a party with Tyler and he goes and has a good time anyway and drinks but has a designated driver bring him home—who cares? This isn’t an illustrated diary, it’s a story. Up the drama.

JUSTICE LEAGUE ADVENTURES by Dan Slott, Min S. Hu, Mark Propst and Others. DC Comics. $2.25.
Though not without its flaws, this all-ages series, modeled after the Cartoon Network show, has generally been solid. Remarkably for DC, this first trade paperback doesn’t just collect, say, the first seven issues, but the best seven out of the first thirteen. In other words, the duds have been deleted, and as these are all one-off stories, they won’t be missed.

I think it’s worth writing here—since I’ve made this mistake in the past—that these ADVENTURES stories aren’t necessarily just “good old-fashioned sooperhero stories like they used to make.” Sure, the tone is lighter than most of the regular DC Universe books, but the stories aren’t unsophisticated. And I don’t just mean the fairly complex plotting of a story like “Wolf’s Clothing” by Dan Slott, Min S. Ku and Dan Davis, where the Leaguers masquerade as various Injustice League members in order to pick them off, as much fun as that one was. What I mean is that the themes are mature. Not in a way to scare off parents—no drug stories, no dating, no suicide, etc.—but various members of the League have to confront and correct arrogance, self-doubt, sacrifice and a tendency to rush in without considering all the information carefully, or without considering the consequences. Slott’s selections here are perhaps the most appealing to a regular DC fan, as he works in lots of villains and nods to other DCU characters (there’s even a throwaway shot of that bad version of Jonah Hex where he’s in the future), but in “Local Hero” he delivers a fairly moving tale of a teen girl superhero who gets to fill in for Green Lantern for a while, and has to learn what it means to be a heroine in short order. She’s well-written, and Slott is able to convey just how dangerous a job this is, no small feat in a book not really intended to ever put the heroes in any real jeopardy. But the best story is by Josh Siegal, Chris Jones and Christian Alamy, “Must There Be A Martian Manhunter”, a great introduction to the hero who’s so much like Superman but who will never be as admired or trusted. J’onn J’onzz has to impersonate an injured Superman for a time, learning the mannerisms, but more importantly, how to inspire and comfort people like Superman using the words in his own heart. The book is almost worth it just for this story, but they’re all enjoyable.

GOTHAM CENTRAL #7 by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark. DC Comics. $2.50
I don’t mean to pick on Rucka, who for the most part writes an interesting issue, focusing on one of his pet characters, Detective Renee Montoya. But maybe, knowing he had to give the writing reins over to Ed Brubaker in another month, he compressed and simplified his story to where it loses a lot of what might have made it special. What I mean is, outing Montoya as gay at work was a rather dramatic trick to play on this sympathetic character, and also a surprise to many readers who’ve watched her over the years. But it seemed just too easy to make some of the male cops so hostile to her, with no one lending any kind of support except partner Cris Akins, who ignores the atmosphere and treats the day as business as usual. There aren’t other lesbian cops or male cops who don’t care and are willing to tell her so? I would think so. I also tend to think Montoya has proven she’s smarter than to play into the hands of the guy trying to ruin her life by assaulting him. Still an entertaining book, but a little too obvious this month.

Next Week: Oh, probably some catching up with P. Craig Russell’s ISOLATION AND ILLUSION, Scott Morse’s SOULWIND, Brian Hibbs’ TILTING AT WINDMILLS and, of course, MORE!

Chris Allen

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