The Only Thing I Read This Week

DMZ #41

A totally dope issue that showcases the awesomess of my favourite character, the smart and cool-headed radical-medic, Zee. This series has been a brilliant critique of war from all angles, and this issue really touches on what DMZ is all about. Wars are fought by governments and corporations, but the bloody, ugly battles are between people. Young, naive, and in many ways, innocent, people. INTENSE. Oh, and guest artist, Nikki Cook, makes the whole thing gorgeous.

Johnathan Munroe's John Buys Comics

Oracle: The Cure No. 2

Hmm. I'm not too sure about this series. I mean, it's basically Oracle vs Calculator, which was among the best subplots of Birds of Prey, but this Oracle isn't quite as interesting. Maybe it's the fact that this is a distinct series - some of the character that was built up over the course of n issues had to be discarded in order to keep people who didn't read those issues but are following Battle for the Cowl in the loop. So Oracle spends some time being stoic about her paralysis and gets mugged and kicks the muggers asses and gets mistaken for an agent of the real/male Oracle. It makes me wish that this were just a crossover sneaking into a series that I read, much as I normally dislike that.

Eh, it's an okay book. Honestly, the whole Battle for the Cowl thing has been okay so far: better than the average crossover if not as good as a well-written regular series. Cons: lots of cheesecakery (yes yes: some of you will consider this a pro, but if I want that I'll go looking for it) and the whole thing seems like it was written by someone who doesn't know as much about the Internet as prior Oracle scribes. Babs Gordon having to look up who Charles Babbage is? Not knowing what the DCU equivalent of Second Life is? Ha.

The Phantom: Generations No. 1

The Phantom appeals to me in theory: line of adventurers stretching back hundreds of years and doling out justice in a purple union suit, whoopee! So much to read, so little time, though: the only time that I've ever read the Phantom was as a part of a 1980s team called Defenders of the Earth, with Flash Gordon and Mandrake the Magician, I think. Their battle cry wasn't "Liscenced Properties Assemble!" but it should have been.

Anyway, this series looks intriguing - actually, a lot of Moonstone's upcoming stuff does (okay, not all of it. MILF Magnet?). The first issue takes the form of entries from the very first Phantom's journal with accompanying pictures. The art (let's see... Pat Quinn) is good stuff - it'll be interesting to see it in a panel-based format, if that's the way they go with later issues. The writing (Ben Raab) turned out to be good. I wasn't sure at first, as the early pages are slightly drowned in archaicisms. Also, there's a big Norseman with a halberd and no attempt was made to de-bright-purple the Phantom's suit, which I appreciate. I'll be picking up No. 2, if that means anything. (huh. Turns out that there is a whole Phantom series out already by Moonstone. How'd I miss that?)

American McGee's Grimm No. 1

I know next to nothing about American McGee. I don't, for example, know whether he is the one that sticks his name in front of the titles of his projects. Heck, I haven't even played any of his games. Well, we had a copy of American McGee's Alice when I was in university but nobody had a computer that would play it unless we turned the graphics down to Virtua Fighter levels, which detracted from the dark reimagining. Anyway, it's a shame that all I have to judge him by is this comic. Heck, he didn't even write it (unless he is also this "Dwight L. MacPherson", possibly for tax reasons). Bah. I know that it's a tie-in to a video game (to the extent that the Grimm character gets what look to be in-game hints throughout the comic) but that's no excuse. From what I gather, American McGee's Grimm is about taking the happy-go-lucky fairy tales of today back to their gross and violent roots. This is an interesting concept, I admit. BUT! It is neither interesting nor clever to then try to do the same thing to comic books by essentially ignoring anything that has happened artistically or naratively in the last forty years. Grimm drops into a meeting of Sixties-esque villains and makes them dark and spikey and then takes them off to kill super-heroes. That is not subversive, Grimm - that is what we call The Early Nineties. Bah.

Johnny Monster No. 3 (of 3)

Speaking of The Early Nineties, remember Image Comics back then? Home of spikey violence and questionable plotting? How happy am I that it eventually became this neato home for creator-owned comicing (and they still have a little spikey violence if you like that sort of thing, don't worry). Now you got stuff like Invincible and Killer of Demons and Johnny Monster, which is a fun tale about a guy who fights creatures that resemble Sixties Marvel monsters and who secretly was raised by them and works to keep them safe rather than killing them like his fellow monster hunters. You got monsters and fighting and tentacle beasts and a little moral about communication. I'd check out a second series.

The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft, Chapter 1

There's an interesting trend in recent years toward writing tales where those who write about the fantastic end up in fantastic adventures themselves. I have a novel somewhere in which Arthur Conan Doyle battles secret cults and Lovecraftian horrors and a few years ago I read a decent little comic about Charles Fort... battling Lovecraftian horrors. Well, now it's Lovecraft's turn to battle his own horrors, which should please Doyle and Fort. And it's good! H.P. is written (by Mac Carter) super-well: he's properly awkward and verbose, he has trouble with women and his aunts are creepy. The art is fantastic - check out the crazy-good, hyper-kinetic scene in the jazz club! Tony Salmans draws the Twenties astonishingly well - he both conveys why flappers are so appealing and that they weren't all ephemeral waifs.

This is a damn good comic, folks. There's plenty for a Lovecraft nerd like me to get all geeky about but it stands up on its own as well - I think that "tentacle monsters vs socially awkward writer in the Twenties" is a pretty universal plot by now, right? There hasn't been too much creepy craziness yet but I'm certain that both the art and the writing are up to the task. And I'm pretty damn pleased that they didn't go the easy route of making Lovecraft a gun-totin' Teddy Roosevelt-esque he-man, as amusing as that might be. Save it for the Robert E Howard comic, guys! Highly recommended - and hey, it's another Image Comic!

Green Lantern Corps No. 35

More Green Lantern fun. I'm pretty fond of the Corps and now of the Corps-es (and in this series, there are plenty of corpses) - having a superteam where everyone has the same abilities and thus cannot be defined solely by their powers leaves a lot more room for neato personalities. Or for countless weird aliens to bump off in an indiscriminate manner, true, but I think that this series manages to fall somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. The whole buildup to Blackest Night is being handled pretty damn well, I reckon, even though Dan Didio and others have been flinging spoilers to the winds for more than a year (oh look, an ad for Blackest Night toys! And there's a character that hasn't appeared in the comic yet! I sense... a spoiled dramatic reveal!) so it's more like when you watch The Sixth Sense again - you spend a lot of time admiring the mechanics of the storytelling process rather than the story itself. Not that the story isn't great - there's a giant snake in this one! And a dramatic reveal!

R.E.B.E.L.S. No. 3

Another story dealing with craziness in DC Outer Space. Vril Dox (aka Brainiac 2) has been ousted from L.E.G.I.O.N. again and is hopping around the universe gathering a team in order to reclaim his robot space police force. He's got a brainfull of information sent into the past by Querl Dox (aka Brainiac 5) in order to ensure that his ancestor lives long enough to spawn a little Brainiac 3 and continue the bloodline, though I thought that that was already taken care of back in the L.E.G.I.O.N '9X days with his dictatorial kid Lyrl Dox. Eh, what do I know. As usual, there are plenty of links to Legion of Super-Heroes future-continuity, now with more justificacation than ever thanks to the aforementioned brainfull of information. And of course he's acting like a total bastard, being Vril Dox. A magnificent bastard!

Plus: Omega Men, gratuitous robot head smooshing and a dramatic reveal!

Mysterius the Unfathomable No. 4

Speaking of bastards, though Mysterius has a more endearing sort of bastardry than Dox does, this series continues to be great. This issue: a really cool new character with a neato history and a smart plan! And not necessarily 100% evil! There's lotsa delicious moral ambiguity in Mysterius - Jeff Parker ain't no Objectivist, that's for sure. Also: "tall and paunchy" and "short and curvy" are underused body types in the funny books. Aw, I won't go on and on about this one - there's a relevant interview just a few posts away, after all. The writing is great, the art is great... definitely a series to check out.

Mini-review: Action Comics No. 876 - good times, still a solid comic. Nightwing and Flamebird were a neat little part of the Silver Age Superman Family and I've been glad to see them return.

Good night.

Grave Consequences: The End of 100 Bullets

This week, a much-beloved, oft-delayed series came to its highly anticipated conclusion. I’m talking, of course, about Halo: Uprising…nah, just kidding. Instead of wasting time talking about a four-issue miniseries that took about two years to come out, I’m going to celebrate and eulogize a 100-issue miniseries that came out more or less regularly over the last ten years, with a few production holdups along the way (around the middle and at the end, mostly). Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso, take a much-deserved bow—you guys finally reached the end of 100 Bullets.

    This is somewhat surprising, since it looked as though the Vertigo revenge drama wouldn’t survive its first year. I gave the first issue a glance when it came out—liked the art, dug the cover, appreciated the pacing and street-smart dialogue—but there wasn’t enough there to bring me back for issue two. The concept, a semi-anthology where the mysterious Agent Graves offers consequence-free revenge to a series of hard luck cases, had promise, but…I don’t know. There just wasn’t enough meat on its metaphorical bones, so to speak. However, by the time the first collection, First Shot Last Call, arrived, with its dirt-cheap price tag—ten bucks US for five issues and a short story, not bad!—I had heard the growing buzz and decided to give 100 Bullets another try. This formula succeeded in spades, as the low price point and critical acclaim made it an irresistible draw. The title continued, racking up awards, acclaim, and increased sales, and a Vertigo sales strategy that continues to this day was born. As for me, I was in for the long haul.
    The second 100 Bullets collection, Split Second Chance, is where lots of readers who weren’t entirely swayed by the first book toppled altogether. It’s in this much longer trade that we get our first glimpses of the bigger conspiracy behind Agent Graves’ “game”--that he is not only doling out sweet, sweet revenge, but that he is recruiting new players into an older, much more dangerous game. It’s where we see that Azzarello is not only a pro at crafting multi-part stories, but killer one-shots as well (such as “Heartbreak, Sunny Side Up”, still one of the all time greats). It’s where we begin to chart the evolution of Chicago gang-banger Dizzy Cordova, heroine of the series’ introductory arc, as she is crafted into Graves’ greatest weapon, and where we meet the first of the mysterious and deadly Minutemen, like savage Lono and slick Cole Burns. Finally, it’s where we hear the first whispers about the Trust, the sinister cabal of families who control everything that’s worth controlling in America.
    I should pause here and talk about Eduardo Risso’s art. It would be impressive enough to note that the Argentinean illustrator didn’t even meet his collaborator until well into the series’ run, and in fact, had to have the scripts translated for him because he didn’t understand English—furthermore, he wasn’t even on the same continent as the writer! All of that is beside the point, when you see how brilliantly Risso brings the stories to life. Not only does he capture all the raw emotion, all of the gun-blazing action, all of the oh-so-important character subtleties, but he populates every panel with the most bizarre-looking, eye-catching background characters this side of a Dick Tracy strip to boot. It’s hard to say which angles or details are in the script and which ones Risso concocts himself, but come on—this guy gives you shots from inside a pinball game, from a canvas about to be painted on, and from behind a man’s skull as his brains are being blown out! You gotta stand up and salute that kind of vision. And he only gets better as the series goes along.

    I also have to mention Dave Johnson’s artistic contribution, providing the striking cover imagery of all 100 issues and all 13 (eventual) collected editions. Even in the early days of his more traditional painted covers, Johnson’s work had the eye-catching quality of some of the cooler movie posters from the 60s and 70s, but over time his arrangements became more daring and unconventional, all the while looking completely effortless. This is, I think, a case where the use of PhotoShop has made a great artist even better, opening up new possibilities and firing his imagination rather than simply making him lazy. Strange Adventures bossman Calum Johnston scored an amazing Agent Graves sketch for me from the man himself in Toronto a few years back, and it’s scowling down at me as I type this.

    100 Bullets is one of those series that, while obviously successful enough to continue all the way to its planned conclusion, never sold lots of copies of the single issues. That’s why that first trade was such an important component in its early success—the long-range planning Azzarello put into the book was much more evident when you read it that way. This is the kind of title, after all, where someone appears for a few panels in the background of an issue, only to become a central figure two or three trade paperbacks down the line. This is a series that rewards patience and attention to detail, which could often make the monthly comics confusing and occasionally tedious. I re-read all twelve existing trades before the final arc began, then began reading the monthlies to see it though to the end, but by about four or five issues into it, I realized I was already getting lost in the wait between issues.
    Which brings me, finally, to 100 Bullets #100. This super-sized issue features Graves’ final showdown with the remaining members of the Trust, while the remaining members of the Minutemen cause grievous bodily harm to countless bodyguards and each other. If that synopsis sounds a bit pedestrian, it’s because, as predicted…I mostly had no idea what the hell was going on. There were definitely some memorable moments, like Jack Daw vs. hulking bodyguard Crete vs. a bunch of alligators, and Cole Burns’, er, heated exchange with ice queen Megan Dietrich, but I couldn’t wrap my head around what exactly all of Graves’ Byzantine maneuvering had actually accomplished, and what it meant for the final scene (which, appropriately enough, came down to Graves and Dizzy). It sure did look great, though, but I think I’ll appreciate it a lot more when I revisit it in the final trade (due out this summer).
    Still, sometimes the ride is the point, not the destination, and 100 Bullets was a ride like no other. One of the sexiest, goriest, most intricately plotted and beautifully drawn comics I’ve ever read, populated with some of the most memorable psychopaths, femmes fatales, smooth operators, and sad sacks ever found between two covers, has come and gone, and I can’t imagine what could replace it or even want to try.

Have one on me, Graves, you've earned it. Now who the hell’s gonna sweep up all these shell casings?

Wednesday Interview: Jeff Parker

Jeff Parker is one of my favourite comic writers because you can tell that he really enjoys his job. He has written (and drawn!) an impressive pile of comics that are all full of action, fun, humour and are often appropriate for all ages. He is best known for his awesome work at Marvel, including Agents of Atlas, X-Men First Class, Marvel Adventures Avengers, Exiles, The Age of The Sentry, and Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four. One of his newest projects, however, is and original creation for DC's Wildstorm imprint. Mysterius the Unfathomable is a great new six-issue series that falls into the "supernatural detective" genre, and has amazing art by Tom Fowler. Issue #4 hits stores today, and I highly recommend checking out the whole series if you haven't yet.

Now let's hear what Jeff has to say about Mysterius, Tom Fowler, upcoming projects, and what DC characters he'd like to touch!

I'd like to start with you describing the concept of Mysterius the Unfathomable in your own words and where the inspiration came from.

The book uses the conceit that most stage magicians are in truth actual practicing magicians of the occult. Mysterius is one of the more notorious of these people, and he has always had assistants using the stage name "Delfi." He plays different roles in different time periods, and is a jerk in all of them, but he has an undying curiousness and need to know all things magic.

The inspiration is largely that I wanted to create an amoral protagonist and do something supernatural. Also I wanted something that evoked the works of Douglas Adams, particularly the Dirk Gently books.
 

Tom Fowler's art is absolutely amazing on this title. Were you paired up with him by Wildstorm, or did you develop this series with him? Do you think that his awesomeness can be attributed to the fact that he is Canadian? 

I was trying to get Tom on a Marvel project when Wildstorm approved this concept. And then that fell through and I immediately bugged Ben Abernathy to ask Tom, who I knew would be perfect. His awesomeness may indeed be inherently Canadian- you seem to have a ridiculous amount of drawing talent. Now of course it's unthinkable that Tom might not have been part of this, so much of the characters is him and his sensibilities.

 

Comic fans are mostly familiar with your work for Marvel. What attracted you to Wildstorm as a home for Mysterius? Has the experience been significantly different than writing for Marvel? 

They nicely invited me to create something new, and by They I mean Ben Abernathy. And even though they are known for the Wildcats, Stormwatch type stuff, they've done quite a bit of offbeat books so it seemed like it could work. It's different from Marvel mostly because it's creator originated rather than work for hire, so the difference of WS being more hands off isn't really a company one. I didn't really answer that did I? Maybe Marvel does tend to tell people they're putting out these books.

 

You have now basically conquered the comic writing trifecta: writing comics starring established popular superhero characters like the Avengers and the X-Men, writing comics starring virtually unknown characters that you pulled out of obscurity like Agents of Atlas, and writing comics starring your own original characters. Which of these challenges has been your favourite experience so far? 

Nothing really beats creating your own characters. Really, if your aspirations are ultimately to service other people's trademarks, that's kind of sad. You should always want to contribute something new. Atlas, though I don't own it, does touch that a bit too because I had so much say so in how the characters were reimagined.

Not to say I don't enjoy the heck out of the other stuff. I get a lot of pride out of being able to make the All Ages books actually appeal to readers of all ages, for example. And it's nice to be trusted with the keys to the House of Ideas.

You're a very busy guy when it comes to writing comics, and we fans are grateful! How many comics are you working on now and what projects do you have coming up?

I'm now writing Agents of Atlas, Exiles, The Hood mini and the final 1602 series- I just finished the last issue of Mysterius. There will undoubtedly be surprise one-shots I don't know about yet, too.

Of the dwindling list of characters that you haven't written yet, which do you hope to write someday? 

Dr. Strange and Thor at Marvel. And there are tons of DC characters I've not even touched!

Let Doom turn that frown upside-down!

Panels taken from Fantastic Four #6, with apologies to Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Mariah Carey.

"He Is Brave And Gentle And Wise..."

I don’t remember the old Astro Boy cartoon nearly as well as some of my friends do; like them, I first saw it when I was in elementary school, but all I’ve managed to retain is the super-lame theme song (“Strong-er than all the reeeest/This mighty ro-bot will pass the teeeest...” etc.), and the game at the end where Astro Boy summed up the plot but fibbed about an important detail to see if the viewers at home were paying attention. However, I know a lot of folks who swear by the show about the little boy ‘bot with the pointy hair, and who are devoted to the show’s emotionally wrenching storylines—like the one about the little girl robot who’s actually a bomb sent to destroy the show’s hero, but when she eventually falls in love with him, she runs off into the snow to explode alone. Thinking about it, that actually does sound kind of cool, but not as cool as the legendary two-parter The Greatest Robot On Earth, where an evil robot named Pluton begins tracking down and destroying the seven most advanced robots on the planet. When Astro Boy comes up in conversation, which is more often than you’d imagine, this is the storyline that is usually touted as his greatest adventure.

    Apparently, legendary manga creator Naoki Urasawa (Monster) thought so too, even if his memories of Astro Boy were formed more by Osamu Tezuka’s original Tetsuwan Atom comics. Urasawa, overseen by Tezuka’s son, has taken it upon himself to create a retelling of The Greatest Robot On Earth with his manga series Pluto. Originally published in Japan in 2003, Pluto is now being imported to North America by Viz in a seven (I think) volume series. The first two volumes are available now, with more being released bi-monthly. As specific an homage as this series is, you don’t need to be a manga fan or an Astro Boy fan to appreciate what Urasawa’s done here. Pluto will appeal to fans of thoughtful science fiction in the vein of Asimov or Blade Runner, and is an early candidate for my favourite new series of the year.
    Reformatting The Greatest Robot On Earth as a sort of police procedural thriller, Pluto follows a detective named Gesicht as he attempts to solve two possibly intertwined murder mysteries—the destruction of a series of highly advanced robots all over the world, and the gruesome slaying of various humans who are staunch advocates of human rights. The robots are all veterans of the 39th Central Asian War, and the human victims all belonged to a controversial survey group who were tasked with finding robotic weapons of mass destruction in a fictional country some years ago. Gesicht is aided by the Hannibal Lecter-like advice of Brau 1589, an incarcerated robot who is the only artificial being to ever murder a human (until now, possibly?), and a small robotic boy named Atom (he’s the one with the annoying theme song).

    Set in a future world where humans and robots co-exist more or less peacefully, Pluto asks questions about life and emotions, artificial or otherwise. The robot victims are long past the search for humanity or emotion—they are more concerned with finding meaning and beauty in the world after surviving a terrible war where they were forced to do battle with their own kind. The doomed robots make for an intriguing cast of protagonists. There’s Mont Blanc, the mascot of the Swiss Forestry Service who is beloved across the globe; North No. 2, a serene would-be musician whose cloak conceals an array of deadly weaponry; and Brando, a literal rock ‘em-sock ‘em robot who, when not fighting in title bouts against other robots, is a family man with five rambunctious kids.

    You’d have to be a robot yourself not to be caught up in the emotional component of Pluto. The global heartbreak and mourning that follows Mont Blanc’s destruction is weirdly affecting, as is Gesicht’s visit to the robotic widow of a police robot who is destroyed by a drug-addicted fugitive (and whose memory chip might provide a vital clue in the larger mystery). The centerpiece of the first volume is the three chapters devoted to North No. 2 and his new job as servant to a reclusive, sightless musical genius. The tumultuous relationship between the two is eventually healed as North No. 2 helps his master remember a song from his childhood that reveals a long-buried truth about his mother. The musician’s eventual acceptance of North No. 2 as a friend and collaborator makes the appearance of the mystery assailant pretty devastating, as do the scenes with Brando and his loving family.
    That’s not to say that Pluto is simply a sci-fi hanky fest, though. There are plenty of other elements in the first two volumes to hold one’s interest—the intricate mystery behind both the robot and human murders is plenty involving, and the action scenes (like Gesicht’s foot pursuit of the drug-addled suspect in Volume 1, or Brando’s furious brawl with the killer in Volume 2) are fast-paced and exciting, and the interrogation scenes with Brau 1589 are ominously creepy. Urasawa’s art balances detail, action, and emotion nicely, finding depths of feeling even in North No. 2’s ever-unchanging expression and the blank face of the robot widow. Part sci-fi whodunit, part modern recontextualization of a classic adventure, Pluto is an exciting and essential new series. Just pay close attention to the details—there may be an untrustworthy recap at the end.