Merry Marvel Marching Something Or Other: April 8th Comic Reviews

My fellow bloggers all seem to have skewed pretty DC-heavy this week, so I thought I’d pick up the Marvel slack…

DARK REIGN: HAWKEYE #1

Based on his first few issues of Thunderbolts, along with this first issue, Andy Diggle seems to be a good fit at Marvel. This five-issue miniseries, featuring Bullseye running around in hero-drag as Hawkeye at Norman Osborn’s bidding, does a good job of slyly questioning the point of the whole Dark Avengers deal; what exactly is the point of having hardcases like Venom and Moonstone and Bullseye masquerading as good guys, when their sadistic and sociopathic tendencies will inevitably bubble to the surface? The title character proves how woefully inadequate he is as playing the hero throughout the issue—first (during a team brawl with a giant robot) through his inability to consider the lives of innocent bystanders, and later (after foiling a mugging on the solo tip) when his  homicidal impulses can no longer be contained. Artist Tom Raney draws a wonderfully sleazy, smirking HawkBullseye, and Diggle drops a great last page cliffhanger on us, at right about the point where I was wondering if this needed to be anything more than a one-shot. I’m worried about the trend this book represents, where all the Dark Avengers cast are going to possibly end up with their own miniseries (The Sinister Spider-Man is already on the schedule)--and at $3.99 US a pop, it’s especially problematic—but this was a slick, trashy, gory pleasure. Diggle’s work here also bodes well for his now-confirmed takeover of Daredevil (lessening the heartbreak of Ed Brubaker’s departure).

MARVEL ZOMBIES 4: MIDNIGHT SONS #1

Marvel Zombies has turned into the comic-book equivalent of a horror movie franchise, with its nonstop parade of sequels every few months. However, the series, which has the undying tenacity of a true flesh-eating ghoul, defies the horror sequel rule of diminishing returns—it actually improves as it racks up numbers after its title. I wasn’t a fan of the first two MZ minis, set in a world where all of the Marvel heroes have been transformed into undead creeps; the covers were funny, but the joke got tired real quick. However, with the new creative team of Fred Van Lente and Kev Walker,..well, insert your own risen-from-the-dead gag here. Their previous outing, the third MZ series, saw the otherdimensional zombie heroes trying to invade the regular Marvel U, only to be (mostly) thwarted by parallel universe watchdogs A.R.M.O.R. and their robot operatives Machine Man and Jocasta. Zombies versus robots, that’s the kind of stuff the kids are into these days, right? Well, this new series kicks it up a notch, as the attempted invasion is on again—turns out an undersea race of fishmen (from an old Sub-Mariner comic, I believe) become the first wave of the a new zombie infection, but face opposition from a whole bunch of classic Marvel monsters like Morbius the Living Vampire, Werewolf By Night, sorceress Jennifer Kale, and Daimon Hellstrom, AKA Son of Satan. In horror movie terms, it’s a bit like Humanoids From The Deep versus The Monster Squad. There’s also an appearance by the original Marvel Zombie, Simon Garth himself, voodoo villain Black Talon, and a “Dark Reign” tie-in (another one? Sheesh), all of which helps justify the exorbitant $3.99 US price tag (seriously, Marvel, is every mini gonna cost this now?!?). Sadly, the boring Greg Land covers don’t have the, ahem, bite of the original Arthur Suydam covers, but at least with this latest MZ series, the covers are finally not the best thing about it.
 

This Week's Haul: Superman looks good in a uniform.

A bit of a light week for me, but an awesome one nonetheless.

World of New Krypton #2

I would say that the awesome Gary Frank covers are a tease, but I actually really love Pete Woods' art. So it's win-win. And you know what else? Greg Rucka and James Robinson are doing a great job of writing this series! It would be a lot of fun to dive right into Krypton as a writer (or two) and really develop it as a place. What we have learned so far is that Kryptonians are dicks, which only further proves that Superman owes a lot of his awesomeness to Ma and Pa Kent.

Also, I really like Superman in that soldier's uniform. Rrrrow!

 

Wolverine: Weapon X #1

Jason Aaron returns to Wolverine writing! Yay!

I would not normally buy a comic with 'Weapon X' in the title, or even 'Wolverine,' but if Jason Aaron is writing it, I will buy a comic called "Azrael and Cable: Dark Reign Battle for the Cowl Countdown Arena Fathom." I really would.

Fortunately, I instead got to read this comic about Wolverine killing dudes. Lesson learned: do not try to mug Wolverine on a subway.

Batman Confidential #28

The only bad thing about this comic is that it's the last one in an amazing three-part story. Seriously, if anyone asks why I love Batman, or even comics, so much, I am just going to hand them these three issues (or, if DC is clever enough, the eventual trade of this story).

Batman is awesome in this story, the Riddler is awesome, and there is a brand new Bat-villain. Impressive all around! Plus amazing art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan. We need more Batman comics like this one!

Green Lantern #39

Mmmm...delicious citrus-flavoured Lanterns!

We are formally introduced to yet another Lantern Corps in this issue, the avarice-ridden Orange Corps! These guys are total assholes.

Green Lantern is consistently one of my favourite comics each week. I have really enjoyed every part of the long build-up to BLACKEST NIGHT, which I expect will be very rad.

Secret Six #8

Even without Nicola Scott on art this month, SECRET SIX was totally rad. First of all: Deadshot in a suit. Secondly, he and Scandal were gettin' romantic (not with each other). Thirdly, there is a TINY TITANS parody at the end of this comic!

 I also really like that this kind of counts as a Wolverine cover? Like all those Wolverine covers that Marvel is doing all month?

Showcase Presents: The Doom Patrol

Finally!

Ever since Showcase Presents started I have been waiting for this one for two reasons:

1. I haven't read much Doom Patrol because it only is available in expensive DC Archive books;

2. This is exactly the kind of comic that should be collected in a black and white Showcase book. This is fun reading.

My favourite thing about that cover: none of them seem to be looking at that gorilla with a gun. There is something more interesting on that screen off panel!

 Things I bought but haven't read yet: EXILES #1 and SUPERGIRL: COSMIC ADVENTURES IN THE 8TH GRADE #5. Looking forward to them!

The Only Thing I Read This Week

Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade #5

This book has been consistently super fun, and this week reached a new height: absolutely bananas.  A time-traveling, alternate-universe Supergirl called, "Supragirl" shows up, along with Comet, the super horse! Lena Luthor transitions from just being a whiny, clingy friend into a purple & green-clad mini-super villain! Belinda creates a Bizzaro army! Streaky not only flies a rocket, but also gets turned into a Bubastis/Battle Cat looking cat dude! Also: Mr. Mxyzptlk, Superman in need of saving and an imminent 8th grade graduation! It's all I could ever want in a comic with "Super" in the title.

John Buys Comics, the Saga Continues

Battle for the Cowl No. 2

Okay. So Batman is (dead? missing? a caveman?)and everyone even vaguely associated with the Batman franchise is running around Gotham and some of them are dressing up like Batman and some or all of the inmates have been sprung from Arkham Asylum (again) and Commissioner Gordon has to deal with an unsympathetic new DA who doesn't cotton to vigilantes (again) and there's a gang war brewing and the Batmen are fighting and one of them is really homicidal.

Way to reset the franchise!

This isn't actually a bad comic, but it ain't anything especially new. It kind of reads like a better-written-and-drawn Knightfall or Knightbat or whatever part of that whole interminable series of comics was the birt where Azrael was the Batman.

However (SPOILERS, the rest of this sentence contains SPOILERS), way to try to tell us that Jason Todd is the murderous, unrepentant Batman and then show him fighting side-by-side with Robin as Red Robin in DC Nation. THAT DOESN'T GIVE ANYTHING AWAY AT ALL. 

World of New Krypton No. 2

You know, I've really been enjoying Superman for the last year or so - I must admit I was slow to notice that Geoff Johns was doing some neato things and really didn't start reading the Supes until the Legion and Bizarro arcs of Action had hammered the point home. One of my favourite things about the stories that have been happening since then is the fact that I have been regularly saying  "Augh, what? No, that's a terrible idea!" when I find out the next plot twist and then I read the comic and it's great. I'm really hoping that things keep on in this mould regardless of eventual creative team.

World of New Krypton seems to be delivering. Enlarging the inhabitants of Kandor? Having them make an artificial planet on the other side of the sun? Having them all be assholes? These are terrible ideas that I love. Seriously, this is great. This vision of Krypton is entertainingly alien and flawed without being the dour, frilly Byrne version, which never quite struck a chord with me. Plus, Zod.

Plus, Thought Beasts.

Thought Beasts! 

Green Lantern No. 39

Speaking of terrible ideas that make for great comics... Seriously, if someone had told me about this whole multi-Corps thing two or three years ago, well, I might have gotten excited, but I'm hardly typical. Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps have been consistently great for quite some time now, though, and the process of meeting the various Corps has been a big part of that. Jerkass Sinestro Corps? Villainously fun! Crazy, blood-spewing Red Lanterns? Gross and fun! Blue Lanterns, one of whom is basically an elephant? Also fun!

The Orange Lanterns, my friennds, do not disappoint. I will be looking forward to the next installment of this little saga eagerly.

Secret Six No. 8

It's date night for the Secret Six!

I enjoy this comic so much that it's going to get cancelled soon, I just know it. I'm sorry everyone. I'm sorry Gail Simone - you did such a good job writing such immoral, homicidal characters and making me care for them that my curse is sure to kick in any month now.

I can't think of much to say that isn't spoiler-ific, so I'll just point out that everyone is extra-delightful in this issue.

B.P.R.D.: The Black Goddess No. 4

Hmm. If you were a follower of Paul and John Review you might have caught on to the fact that I am a big fan of the Hellboy comics and all of their various spinoffs and so forth. It's true, all true. I love horror comics and mysteries and mythology and people punching things that maybe they shouldn't and monsters and good writing and weird characters. To various degrees, these comics deliver on all of those. I am highly, highly in favour of Guy Davis as an artist on B.P.R.D. - his style is so far removed from Mignola's that there is no question of him being a style-copier and so his art can be apreciated on its own merits. His art is great! Also, Dave Stewart is a fantastic colourist.

Okay, so now that that's out of the way I promise not to do it every time I buy a Mike Mignola comic. Maybe I'll weigh in at the start of every mini-series, I don't know.

As for The Black Goddess, it's been highly satisfying so far. Last issue was the one that really made me sit up and go "Hot damn!" but this one - as per the cover, left - has lotsa dragons and frogs and little tidbits of information about the evolving story. That's one of my very favourite things about these series, by the way, the fact that they are a part of a very long story in which things have the potential to and frequently do change radically in the course of an issue or two. I can't deny I love the types of comics that have essentially maintained a status quo for sixty years, barring the odd Bat-Hound or two, but the act of reading a proper, evolving story fills me with delight. 

Okay, that's it! Oh, I also bought Booster Gold No 19 this week but couldn't think of much to say, other than that it was a decent read but that the events of the issue could have been handled in about two pages, except maybe what Rip was doing. It felt like trade paperback padding.

So long, folks.

Wednesday Interview: Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir

Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir are a husband-and-wife writing team who hang their hats in sunny Los Angeles. Together, they’ve written a whole slew of miniseries and graphic novels for Oni Press, including SKINWALKER, THREE STRIKES, MARIA’S WEDDING, PAST LIES, THE TOMB, and ONCE IN A BLUE MOON, as well as a number of projects for Marvel and DC—they’ve written NEW X-MEN, NEW MUTANTS, HELLIONS, CHECKMATE, and ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN (with Nunzio squeezing in a solo stint on DETECTIVE COMICS). They also created the manga titles AMAZING AGENT LUNA and DESTINY’S HAND, and have written for film, television, and video games, with credits on projects as diverse as the HBO sports comedy ARLI$$ and the animated adventure series KIM POSSIBLE for Disney. Somewhere in all of this, Weir and DeFilippis found the time to write a story arc for BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL, one that introduces a well-established Batman villain from another medium to the comic book page for the first time. Beautifully illustrated by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan, this three-issue arc is the kind of thrilling Batman yarn that hasn’t been seen for many a year—a nail-biting murder mystery that requires not only the Caped Crusader’s fighting prowess, but his considerable detective skills as well.

   

This week, as their storyline concludes in BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #28, DeFilippis and Weir were kind enough to answer some questions about how this story arc came to be, how they write scripts together, and what they’ve got lined up for the future. So, without further ado…

You guys have divided your time between work-for-hire projects for the Big Two, creator-owned, non-superhero graphic novels and miniseries for Oni Press, and even a bit of manga just to keep it international. Do you have a preference, or do you like bouncing back and forth? Is one easier or harder than the other?

CW: I don't particularly have a preference.  They all have their pros and cons.  The work we do with Oni allows us to pretty much tell any type of story we want.  We've been able to do horror, crime drama, family comedy, fantasy, etc.  But working for DC and Marvel allows us to play with history.  There's nothing like actually getting to write Batman, Superman or the X-Men.  In general, as a writer, any work is good work.  I'll take it all!

Can you tell us a bit about how your co-writing process works? Do you hash out the plot together, then take turns on subsequent drafts, or is it a constant collaboration at every stage?

ND: In a perfect world, we do everything together.  We discuss plot, map it out, do breakdowns for the issues, and even write together.  Christina usually works the keyboard and I pace a lot.  I do most of the talking, which might make it seem like I'm shaping the script, but remember... she does all of the typing.  So she just changes what she wants, and then I come over and look, and we argue about it until we find a happy medium that we both like.  However, this method can take a while, so when we have a lot of jobs to juggle, we'll tag team.  I'm plotting one while she's writing another, then she reworks my plots while I rewrite her scripts, and vice versa.  Basically, no matter what method we use, nothing gets done until we've both had at least one crack at it, and we're both happy with it.

Your latest project, a three-issue arc on BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL, features the first DCU appearance of King Tut, a villain whose only previous appearance was the 1960s Adam West/Burt Ward BATMAN TV series. Why did you choose Tut to make over instead of, say, Egghead, The Great Chandell, or Marsha, Queen of Diamonds?

CW: We originally were pitching a Riddler story - a story where Batman and Riddler had to team up to fight a villain and the Riddler was particularly interested because the villain was stealing his M.O.  But we pitched it as a new villain called The Sphinx.  Mike Carlin really liked the idea, but being an old school fan and a fan of the TV show, he said "Why not use King Tut?"  We certainly can't argue with the results.

ND:  As Christina mentioned, this started as a Riddler idea.  I've been trying to tell Riddler stories for years.  He's a personal favorite of mine, and I think in writing him, Christina developed a deep love for the character too.

Your BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL arc features stunning art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. Did you have much contact with the artist while developing the story? Were you familiar with his previous work, and, if so, did you find it intimidating to work with him?

CW: We have not had contact with Jose.  But we LOVE his art.  When Mike mentioned wanting to get him on this project, we were ecstatic.  And every time Mike would send us new pages was like Christmas.  We hope to some day thank him in person for the spectacular job he's done.  We also hope to buy the Riddler splash page from issue #27.

The King Tut arc wraps up this week in BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #28. Can you tell us anything about what projects you have lined up next?

ND:  For DC, we have one definite project that we can't quite talk about yet - a brief stint on an ongoing title where we get to slot in another idea we've been trying to tell, working for an editor we've been dying to work for on a character I've wanted to write for decades.  Then we are pitching some more Riddler stories, but they need a home and we need to find a way to fit them into the stories running in existing books, so we don't know if that'll happen.  We also have numerous pitches floating around DC, and because we just keep knocking on doors at DC, and because this Confidential arc is so well received within DC (from what we hear), maybe one or two of them might find homes someday.

CW:  Also in comics, we have a new graphic novel coming out from Oni Press at the end of the year.  It's called ALL SAINTS DAY and is a sequel to our previous book PAST LIES.  It's been a long time in the making since our artist is the father of triplets.  But we're very exciting with how the book is coming along.  We're developing an ongoing horror series for Oni called BAD MEDICINE, though the artist for the book has to finish a graphic novel before it gets on the schedule.  We also have the final volume of DESTINY'S HAND due out later this year.  That will wrap up our pirate adventure.  Otherwise, we're working on a feature film that we hope moves forward this year.  So as usual, lots of balls in the air and waiting to see what pans out. 
 

Doctor Doom Takes Off to the Great White North.

Why has Doctor Doom come to Canada?

a) To demand that Rush add Latverian dates to their latest tour;
b) To meet his favourite Degrassi character (Wheels);
c) To stock up on Clone High DVDs;
d) Ketchup chips

Alright, it's none of the above. It's actually because he's thirsty.

Well that seems reasonable. But of course he completely ruins everything by doing something evil.

I was inspired to post these panels from ALPHA FLIGHT #91 mainly because of this page, which I think is a fine example of diplomacy that I think the G-20 leaders could learn something from.

"And if they are not available, VICTOR VON DOOM demands that it be Bret 'The Hitman' Hart. DOOM would also not mind some maple-smoked bacon."

How awesome do you have to be to get that sort of lightshow happening when you talk?