September 2, 2003
TALES OF THE MIDNIGHT CUTTER, VOLS. 1 AND 2
Written and Penciled by Dale Berry
Inked by Daerick Gross, Sr.
Published by Studio G Publishing
The Cold Moon Sword is a weapon of legend. Blessed (or cursed) with the power to completely eradicate any soul it cleaves beneath the light of the moon, it can only be wielded by one of those traditionally quiet and grave warrior-types who can handle the heavy burden of the death that they must bring to the evil that lurks in the shadows. The Moonlight Cutter, a noble swordsman named Shen Hua Yen, is precisely that sort of hero.
The two volumes here each find Shen battling a supernatural evil, so the clear emphasis on the Cold Moon Sword is its ability to defeat and dispatch non-human evil. In volume one, Shen must face off against a soul-sucking demon who can leap from body to body draining the life from each one as it moves. This merely proves that it isn’t quite ready to become a lawyer. In the second volume, Shen faces off against a man much like himself, except his counterpart has bonded with a very evil weapon that makes him not only a master of bringing Hell to the Earth, but far harder to kill. Give that bad guy a cellphone, and he is a lawyer…or the basketball coach at Baylor.
However, the story is a very small pedestal for these graphic novels to be standing on. The real appeal of them is the quality of the martial arts action and the swordplay. Berry comes through quite well in that area, doing a nice job of turning over his book to the action playing out inside his head. It can’t be easy to illustrate a half-dozen straight pages of swordplay and keep a story flowing, but for the most part, it happens here. The rest of the story-telling is pretty decent, if nothing grandly spectacular. Characters aren’t quite as differentiated as I’d like to see, as Berry at times focuses on helping the reader tell them apart by clothing as much as face.
MOONLIGHT CUTTER isn’t a great book, but it isn’t a bad book either. The potential is there for the book to really find itself and blossom, but for now it just isn’t quite there. Grade: C+
Should It Be A Movie?
I’d call an other-media adaptation of MOONLIGHT CUTTER dicey at best. The problem is the familiarity of the basic concept: special sword/special warrior. CROUCHING TIGER/HIDDEN DRAGON covered a great deal of that territory with the Green Destiny. King Arthur has Excalibur. Making a film that didn’t feel like derivative drivel would be pretty difficult. Even CrossGen’s WAY OF THE RAT dances in this area a bit.
That leaves me inclined to say that for now, MOONLIGHT CUTTER is probably best off remaining a series of graphic novels. That said, if the book does begin to find its voice and blossom a bit, and the creators come up with a wonderfully fresh story, then a future look at cinema viability might be worth a second look. Remember, film and television aren’t the be-all end of existence; some comics are better left to their natural environment.
Also Reviewed:
KILLING DEMONS
Written by Peter Siegel and Drawn by Brent White
Published by Engine Press
Siegel crafts a wicked little tale about a boy with the ability to see demons who grows up to be an occult investigator and demon killer of no small power and repute. Drawn from Siegel’s (almost creepy) love of slasher/horror flicks, the story finds his protagonist Joshua Brand sleuthing his way through a number of bizarre serial killings that have the mark of being the work of a very bad demon. The artwork by White does a terrific job of setting atmosphere, though it does get a bit too murky at times and hampers the storytelling. Siegel would probably sacrifice a goat if it meant Wes Craven would option and make this film. Who could blame him? Grade: B
FADE FROM BLUE VOL. 1
Written by Myatt Murphy and Drawn by Scott Dalrymple
Published by Second 2 Some Studios
Longtime magazine writer Murphy finally gets his first Fade trade into print, and it’s long overdue. FFB is one of the best independent comics on the market today, a wonderful family soap drama that follows four sisters who only met after they discovered that their father was a polygamist and their mothers were dead. Part cop drama, part comedy, part domestic violence tale, and part romance, FFB is one of those books that I consistently give to non-graphic novel readers in order to get them started in the genre. Somewhere out there is a smart producer who’s going to read this and realize how perfect an HBO or Showtime style TV series would be with this material. I hope that producer’s reading this column. Grade: A-
Reprints
I feel like a graphic novel terrorist making demands. But once again, Marvel has my ire up. This is because they refuse to see past material they’ve published only in the last six months, when there is so much ripe material ready to be traded that they ignore.
Where are more volumes of John Byrne’s FANTASTIC FOUR? It took years to get out a second volume of Walt Simonson’s THOR. Peter David wrote the best Hulk stories of the past twenty years and there are no “Visionaries” trades out to meet the film. And how about David’s X-FACTOR work with Marvel honcho Joe Quesada? Also, please explain to me how Marvel can look at how many books Warren Ellis is selling in the bookstores and then not look and say “Hey, we have shitload of ‘X-MEN’ stuff he wrote just laying here waiting to be put between a nicer cover. Let’s do it!”
Oh, and don’t even get me started on their sudden cut-off of the G.I. JOE reprints.
DC is not immune from these types of silly decisions either. When they decided to re-launch SUICIDE SQUAD a couple of years ago, it would have been smart to start trading the original series in “phone book” editions, giving the original series’ readers a nice incentive to take a look at the new concept and giving the new readers a base of understanding of the concept. You’ll note that DC has re-issued the first two trades of the Giffen/DeMatteis JUSTICE LEAGUE in conjunction with their publication of FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE, a series that has come out to a great deal of success. If only the Squad had gotten that chance. Instead, they died young.
Yes, there are always considerations to be made about the viability of coloring, etc, but sometimes you just have to wonder what companies are thinking. Is a fourth volume of EXILES really that necessary in the scheme of things? Why let the great stuff wither on the vine?
Got something you want to see in this space? Send review materials to: Marc Mason, 1756 S. College Ave, Tempe AZ, 85281.
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