Shakethrus: 2003 - Shaking Through.net: Comics: Reviews

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Thor Legends: Walter Simonson Book 2
Walter Simonson
Marvel, 2003
Rating: 4.1
The second volume of writer/artist Walt Simonson's career-defining run on The Mighty Thor suffers a bit from the mechanics of pacing such a collection: Its first half picks up and concludes the Surtur saga, a mythic adventure to which Simonson had been building since he took over the title. It's a bit jarring to jump into the middle of such a sprawling epic, although it's all stirring stuff, full of pitched battles and impassioned speeches. Simonson's deep knowledge of Norse mythology was a huge asset to the book, and his flair for weaving grandiose Asgardian action into the fabric of a superhero comic (notice Beta Ray Bill's fight against the Titanium Man and his credit-card warriors, a fine bit of pulp entertainment) is highlighted to fine effect here. This slickly packaged collection has the unfortunate side effect of emphasizing the scratchiness of Simonson's linework, and the color separations are a bit too vivid; the end results often seem (wrongly, it should be emphatically noted) to be an attempt to garnish sub-par work. If the reproduction of the material doesn't exactly play to Simonson's strengths as an artist (said linework was nothing if not vivid and grabbing in its original form), it can't subdue the sweeping sense of majesty the artist so expertly conjured, or the more whimsical, humorous moments with which he often leavened the proceedings. Fans of mythology, war epics and well-executed superhero sagas are strongly encouraged to pick up both this collection and its predecessor for an example of high-opera pulp heroics from a consummate master of the form.

Wildcats Version 3.0: Brand Building
Joe Casey, Dustin Hguyen
Wildstorm/DC, 2003
Rating: 3.8
Comics scribe Joe Casey deserves points for finding fresh angles on both Wildcats, the troubled superteam title launched by industry superstar Jim Lee in the early '90s, and the staid superhero team-as-business concept. Throughout Brand Building, which collects the first six issues of the ongoing Wildcats 3.0, Casey intersperses scenes of Halo Corporation CEO Jack Marlowe (formerly the Wildcats' dependable android warrior Spartan) buying up smaller firms and outlining pieces of his grand scheme for global domination with more familiar powers-and-guns fare. The latter is rendered with a sly wit: Mister Wax, one of Marlowe's operatives, is a super-secret agent with the National Park Service, which is apparently a cover for this world's real intelligence community power-player; in tracking a missing FBI agent, Wax and veteran team member Grifter lay siege to a whitebread suburban household where even the ponytailed young daughter is a swearing, gun-toting über-soldier (part of the government's "Nuclear Family" program). Despite a credible patina of espionage (courtesy of ruthless information broker C.C. Rendozzo), however, the action sequences prove less filling than the scenes of Halo's inexorable march toward full market penetration (all ably delineated by journeyman artist Dustin Nguyen, turning in perhaps the work of his career to date). Too bad, then, that the reader's sense of "where's all this going?" intrigue is dulled by the lack of even the smallest hint of Marlowe's grander plan. Still, Brand Building is the rare action comic that succeeds in rising above bullets-and-blasts escapism. No one will mistake it for Watchmen, but it sustains enough momentum to fuel anticipation for the next collection.

The Incredible Hulk: Abominable
Bruce Jones, Mike Deodato, Jr.
Marvel, 2003
Rating: 3.4
The good news regarding Abominable is that Hulk writer Bruce Jones introduces a classic Hulk villain into his starkly realized tale of labyrinthine cloak-and-dagger espionage without lasting damage to the carefully cultivated mix of X-Files-style extranormal espionage and claustrophobic, The Fugitive-esque atmospherics. This is due in no small part to Mike Deodato, Jr., whose tense penciling almost recalls Richard Corben, and Studio F, whose computer coloring feels gimmicky and sterile in parts but nonetheless evokes a tangible sense of place. The bad news, such as it is, is that with Abominable, Jones' opus begins to yield diminishing returns. While the previous works collecting his run -- Return of the Monster, Boiling Point and Transfer of Power -- skillfully employed a rotating roster of capable artists and the gradual introduction of familiar Hulk characters like Leonard Samson to add nuance to the tangled plot, Abominable slowly tests the reader's patience. The love triangle between Bruce Banner, the Hulk's longtime Gamma ray-spawned foe Emil Blonsky (the Abomination) and mysterious truck-stop waitress Nadia is thin enough, but Jones also ratchets up the spy-vs.-spy quotient to the breaking point; the seemingly endless parade of double-crosses and shocking revelations gets so twisted it threatens to devour itself. Bruce Jones has reinvigorated Hulk, but his current formula is becoming too threadbare and familiar. Hulk needs another jolt soon, into a whole new milieu, and it's not clear that Jones is the one to provide it.

The Flash: Rogues
Geoff Johns, Scott Kolins
DC, 2003
Rating: 3.4
It's said that the measure of a man can be taken by the enemies he makes. A corollary to that could be that the measure of a superhero comics writer can be taken by the villains he creates. Well, yes and no. DC scribe Geoff Johns (JSA, Hawkman) is more attuned than most superhero creators to the necessity for compelling foes. But Rogues, the follow-up to last year's Blood Will Run, proves that a comic needs more than good opponents. In the six issues collected here, Wally West, the beleaguered super-speed hero of Keystone City, faces off against a diverse range of antagonists, from the terrifying Gorilla Grodd (it's a credit to Johns that the arc featuring this intelligent ape doesn't even flirt with camp) to the aloof Captain Cold, whom Johns sketches with a journeyman humanity. But Rogues is little more than the sum of its parts; as its title makes clear, it's a series of strung-together fights with supervillains. Period. This is all very capable, workmanlike genre stuff, complete with intriguing subplots (a creepy and amorous fellow student of West's wife Linda; the behind-the-scenes machinations of a menacing sort called Plunder) and able-bodied characterization. But those touches do little to rise Rogues above the level of a flat, two-dimensional carousel of skirmishes. Not even Johns' talent for creating interesting new characters (the conflicted teleporting thief Peek-a-Boo) and his grounding of Flash in a workaday, blue collar milieu (aided handsomely by penciler Scott Kolins and colorist James Sinclair) -- or the arresting shots of Grodd's rampage through the city -- can help this collection gain traction. Instead, Rogues stays stuck in low gear, enjoyable enough but completely forgettable.

Superman: President Lex
Various writers and artists
DC, 2003
Rating: 2.8
After a handful of disastrous Superman trades (Our Worlds at War, Critical Condition), President Lex returns to somewhat solid ground, focusing on an idea/gimmick as awful as it is intriguing. The ascendancy of perennial Superman villain Lex Luthor to the highest office in the land is treated with a certain amount of gravity, although the actual rise itself is given scant detail here. As easy as it is to fixate on the dreary and irritating foibles on display in this collection -- an interminable guest appearance from Young Justice, glaring contradictions in the story's own continuity -- there are brief moments of genuine tension and drama. But such a compelling (if faintly ridiculous) premise, rife as it is with world-shattering ramifications, demands a tighter focus than the Superman line's current format -- too many monthly books, far too many different writers and artists of wildly divergent levels of talent -- can bring to bear. Among the writers, only Jeph Loeb and Mark Schultz comport themselves as befits gifted storytellers; the latter's penchant for plausible sci-fi gobbledygook and use of the undervalued Steel are particularly enjoyable. Ed McGuinness and Paul Pelletier stand out among the artists, but their cartoony style is ultimately far too distracting, as is Doug Mahnke's murky pencil work. President Lex lays bare what DC needs to do to revive its flagship character: Pare down the titles and separate the wheat from the chaff in the bullpen. The resultant tightness of focus and artistic consistency would do wonders. C'mon, chaps, stop squandering the property's inherent grandeur.

Orbiter
Warren Ellis, Colleen Doran
Vertigo/DC, 2003
Rating: 3.2
In his introductory notes, British comics writer Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan, DV8) reveals himself as a diehard fan of the American space program, and loudly laments the tragedy of the space shuttle Columbia and its certain detrimental effect on the future of space exploration. Unfortunately, Orbiter, which he dedicates to the Columbia's crew, is an obstinate read that takes its only hints of emotional resonance of the shuttle disaster. Orbiter picks up when the space shuttle Venture, which disappeared shortly after takeoff ten years before, suddenly and mysteriously returns to Earth, crash landing at the now-defunct Kennedy Space Center. KSC is now the site of a huge tent city/slum whose existence and context is never explained -- are these people fanatic NASA cultists? squatters carving out space in an overcrowded world? -- and the Venture's return results in many deaths. But it also raises a host of questions, most notably "Where's it been?," "How did it get sand from Mars in its wheel well?" and "What's that skin-like membrane covering its hull?" An analyst, a former rocket scientist and an erstwhile astronaut are recruited to determine the answers. But we develop no emotional involvement with these characters, primarily because Orbiter reads like the most jargon-heavy episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation ever produced, with less than half the cursory character development. It's the kind of book where lines like "There's power feeding in and out of it from the OMS/RCS pods" are the rule rather than the exception. Colleen Doran's sketchy, photo-realistic style adds some warmth, as does Dave Stewart's color palette. Orbiter's central message -- get out there, dammit! -- is a noble one, but it'd resonate more fully with readers if they didn't require a Ph.D to comprehend most of it.

Ruse: The Silent Partner
Mark Waid, Scott Beatty (writers), Butch Guice, Paul Ryan (artists)
CrossGen, 2003
Rating: 3.0
Whereas the first volume to collect the Victorian-era-ish detective comic Ruse was a refreshing break from and expansion of the staid formulaic approach of traditional adventure comics, its follow-up, The Silent Partner, proves woefully disappointing. The collection's first storyline, which drops stern, superior detective Simon Archard and his assistant Emma Bishop into a conflict between mountain gypsies and the mysterious residents of a secluded town, promises at first to broaden the fully-detailed landscape of Detective. But soon Partner falls into formula, as the inevitable showdown between Archard and his arch-nemesis (and former mentor) Malcolm Lightbourne devolves into standard action-movie predictability. A slight diversion involving a murder mystery and a traveling circus troupe (including an amorous bearded lady) only impedes the collection's narrative flow. The title's juxtaposition of mystical elements with its evocation of Victorian-era London (albeit in the fictional city of Partington, on a planet much like but different from our own Earth) is still an intriguing one, but the conflicts and mysteries of Partner lack the inventive flair of its predecessor. This may be due, at least in part, to writer Mark Waid's departure from the title (he plots the book's final chapter, scripted by Scott Beatty). For whatever reason, however, The Silent Partner proves merely a serviceable way to while away an hour or two, a far comedown from the pleasant surprise of Enter the Detective.

Superman: Critical Condition
Various writers and artists
DC, 2003
Rating: 2.8
Critical condition is right. This trade paperback raises a frustrating question: Why is it so hard for the powers-that-be at DC to make Superman interesting? A short list of answers: Too many pedestrian opponents (the Prankster, anyone?) and a lack of credible threats; too much reliance on the standard supporting-cast soap operas that are de rigueur for other superhero books but distract from the character's inherent (and under-played) sense of grandeur; and, quite simply, too many monthly titles. It's painfully obvious at this juncture that what DC really needs to do is to strip away all the excess, focus on one book (two at absolute most), give the character back his stature, make him relevant, and then maybe, when it's warranted, expand him into a Spider-Man-level franchise. While it's arguably important that Superman be somewhat humanized, seeing him reduced to a hapless victim isn't the way to accomplish this. Sadly, Critical Condition follows up 'Til Death Do Us Part, in which his estrangement from Lois Lane drove Kal-El to the depths of depression, with a storyline in which he's infected with Kryptonite, a diseased weakling whom others have to save. It's Batman who finds the real Lois Lane (in captivity since the events of 'Til Death), just as it's a cadre of supporting characters -- Supergirl, Superboy, the Atom and Steel -- who pull a Fantastic Voyage by venturing inside the Man of Steel to eradicate the deadly Kryptonite. Among the writers, Jeph Loeb and Mark Schultz have proven in the recent past that they "get" the title's strengths, but although they disappoint here, singling out anyone involved here is beside the point. The events in this collection, although a bit dated in terms of current continuity, are perfectly representative of what DC is doing wrong in regards to its most important character. Superman needs some new blood, and new ideas -- again -- stat.

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Ratings Key:

5.0: Breaks new ground

4.0-4.9: First-rate

3.0-3.9: Solid

2.0-2.9: Mediocre

1.1-1.9: Bad

0.0-1.0: The worst

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