Jennifer Blood Vol's 2 & 3 - The best books on the stand????

Today I want to talk about Jennifer Blood Volume 2 and Vol 3, written by Al Ewing, illustrated by Kewbar Baal and Eman Casallos, published by Dynamite.

Garth Ennis wrote the first six issue arc to set up the Jennifer Blood series. Very simply, Jennifer was a suburban house wife who trained for years to get vengeance on the men (who just happen to be her uncles) that killed her father. If it sounds like a paint-by-numbers, violent, Punisher light Ennis plot then you know the story. So why would I recommend reading this?

You should read this because it is a MIND BLOWINGLY good series. It is a masterpiece of writing and visual storytelling that is so far above 90% of the books on the stand these days that it’s incredible. What’s even more amazing is that Ewing and company have done it with a throw away Garth Ennis idea. So, now you know this is going to be a positive review. Read on to see why you should be buying this.

The main problem with a concept like Jennifer Blood is what do you do with a vengeance based character once he/she has achieved their goal? Ewing makes the second arc something very special by asking one simple question: “what happens the day after you get your vengeance?” It should be simple right? Everything Jennifer worked towards for years is now complete. All she needs to do is tie up a few loose ends and return to her very normal, suburban housewife life. And things go according to plan until the loose ends start to fray and grow.

Ewing skips all the obvious clichés that would have made this a waste of time by starting the story 10 minutes after Ennis wrapped his arc up. By making Jennifer exhausted and emotionally empty it’s easy to watch her make little mistake after little mistake. Also, Ewing conveys Jennifer’s inner thoughts via a journal so you can watch her justify all her decisions. It’s an amazing deconstruction of a person slowly disintegrating.

The greatest part is that Ewing makes it all seems so natural. He gives Jennifer a voice that is both likeable (even when she’s killing people) and relatable. There are more than a few points when you find yourself going, “yeah Jennifer, given the situation that is a good idea.” Until you pause for a second and realize that her idea is only going to make things worse. Much worse.

And that’s just the second arc! Ewing manages to make the ending of the second arc seem very natural. Then he starts Vol 3, and just when you were ready to believe that Jennifer was just tired and making bad decisions, Ewing makes you realize that no, in fact, she’s quite the loon. Ewing just builds the story perfectly from, ok that’s a bad decision to omg how do I get off the crazy train because this is wildly out of control. And, as much as you want to turn away, you can’t!

My personal favorite scene is the one in which the husband finally figures out what is going on. It’s a cliché. You know it. I know it. We all know what’s going to happen. And then it doesn’t. In fact, it doesn’t happen for several pages so you doubt you belief in the cliché. And then when something does happen, not only is not what you expect (or what I expected) it’s wwwaaayyyy over the top. The level of crazy in Vol 3 is off the charts.

The art throughout is fine. The figure work is fine but never gets above decent. What is fantastic is the storytelling. The panel-to-panel storytelling is fantastic. The little bits in each scene which carry your eye around the page are as close to perfect as I have seen in a long long time. The visual cues which repeat themselves over and over make for a nigh perfect read.

I know I am gushing but this book really is that good.  In this book, Jennifer Blood goes from a second rate Punisher clone to her own person and it is fantastic to watch. Sure it’s a little violent. Sure it’s got some weird, creepy scenes that will give you the jeebies, but in terms of watching someone mentally crumble it’s great. If you are looking for a book that’s a little violent and a little twisted, and a ton of fun then this is the book for you.

NOTE:  Start with the second trade.  I'm not saying you can't pick up an issue off the stands and enjoy it but you can get so much more if you start at the beginning... which is after Ennis left.

Wonder Woman: Then and Now (Part 2)

Last post laid out where Wonder Woman as launched in 1987 and Wonder Woman as launched in 2011 went in plotting.  Both had a lot going on.  Both rely heavily on Greek mythology.  Both lay out very interesting stories that explore Diana's origins.  But there are a lot of differences.

First, and most obvious on glance is how the gods are depicted.  The Perez version was very much in keeping with traditional views of the gods.  Aside from the half goat Pan, the gods are paragons of physical perfection.  Anglo physical perfection, anyway.  So very Anglo.  Anyway, the gods in the Chiang version are not so much imperfect as representative of ideas in their appearance.  This is especially true of the male gods.  Poseiden is a monstrous, leviathan fish.  Hades is a boy with lit, melted candles on his head that obscure the top half of his face.  Hephaestus is something of a troll with hands that look like they're made of lava.  Hermes is very birdish, with talons for feed and a hawkish face, and very raptor eyes.  Apollo is ebony.  No, really, he looks like he's made out of ebony.  In fact, so far only Hera and Cupid appear human. 

Personally, I like this new take very much.  In reading the 1987 version

I often had no idea which goddess was which, even though Perez gave them distinctive faces.  They were just too much of the same general parameters of appearance, clad as they were in the usual togas and sporting curly locks.  The Chiang versions are immediately recognizable for who they are.

Which brings me to the second major distinction.  Perez and Wein had the characters refer to one another by name all the time.  It was the style of the time with superhero books, along with the long expository soliloquies and description boxes.  It reflected the buying pattern of the time, which was generally younger and not all that likely to get every consecutive issue of a book.  Filling in what was missed was expected.  But, man, is it a drag to read now.  It slows it all down.  Azzarello and Chiang present a story where dialog and pictures work hand in hand, not repeating one another.  The only words on the page that aren't characters speaking are location identification, such as "Firenze, Italia".  The words that are spoken

flow like modern speech, including the gods.  There's no swearing in the book, but there's no artificial explosions of shock or amazement that use phrases no actual speaker would use (Holy catnip, Batman!).  Paying attention to who is speaking and what they're doing in the picture is important to keeping up with the story, whereas the older story could almost be read without the pictures.

In the end, I prefer the subtly of the new Wonder Woman over the heavy handed exposition of the 1987 Wonder Woman.  Which is not to say that the older version wasn't great.  It was.  It broke all kinds of new ground with the character.  Much of what was new then is relied on as a basis of what Azzarello is doing now.  It's just it's a lot more nuanced now.

Which brings me to what I recall to be Lee's two biggest complaints about the new book.  One was that Hera is naked all the time.  The other is that the new Wonder Woman should be a point of entry to the DCU and isn't.

Naked Hera I addressed in our discussion.  She isn't naked all the time.

  She's naked but for a peacock feather cloak that she dons when she's out to eliminate someone who slept with Zeus or to eliminate the offspring of such a dalliance.  Otherwise she's rather traditionally dressed in a toga.  The nudity is an aspect of her power and makes sense.

Besides which, there's the exact same kind of nudity in the first issue of 1987 Wonder Woman.  Hell, it's even on the back cover.  When Hyppolite and her Amazons are taken captive and raped by Hercules and his men they're pretty much all naked.  They're all naked when they come up out of the lake/pond where they're re-birthed, too.  I don't think the Hera nudity is any more an problem now than that issue was then.

I don't think either book is much of an entry point to the DCU of its respective era, either.  The current book has nothing at all to do with the wider DCU.  There hasn't been a single mention or appearance of another hero from the DCU in the first year and a half (foreshadowing a bit from what I'm covering here).  This is just as well, from what I've heard about how she's portrayed in JLA.  They're two entirely different characters.  The 1987 version had a stand alone issue where various minor characters wrote about their interactions with Diana over several months, during which one of the characters mentioned her meeting the JLA and having a particular fondness for Superman.  And, of course, Diana was spirited away to the Millenium crossover at the end of the first year.  But that's it.

Now, if you mean by entry point that young readers could read from the first issue to gain an appreciation for the DCU and pick up more books from there, I'd have to say the current version is better for that than the 1987 version.  This Diana is saving a pregnant woman from a jealous woman, then saving the child from machinations by royalty.  This Diana is an independent woman who loses those who raised her, and clearly didn't have an idyllic childhood, but nonetheless had a very good one.  This Diana is an equal with the gods she fights, especially when she removes the bracelets that restrain her power.  She can't fly, either, which makes her more relatable.  If you want a kid in the low teens to read this, yeah, you might be a bit uncomfortable with the out of wedlock pregnancy and marital affairs.  Then again, you might be fresh off the Amish farm.  Otherwise I don't know how these young teens wouldn't be aware of such things.  You don't have to be participating in them to be aware of them.

The 1987 Wonder Woman is quite different.  She's uncertain of who

she is and where she belongs.  She's largely subservient to her mother.  She seeks supplication from the gods.  Her mother and all of her fellow Amazons were raped and imprisoned, then more or less blamed for that by the gods and exiled to Paradise Island, which is a misnomer if ever there was one, as their sole task there is to guard a portal to keep demons from escaping, which periodically results in the deaths of some of their number.  When Zeus takes an interest in the Amazon's it's so he can be at his seed spreading peak, which the other gods don't openly oppose.  There's far more I'd be concerned about teaching young girls out of this book than out of the current book.

The art in 1987 Wonder Woman is much more classically beautiful.  Perez really can't be beat in that regard.  The plot lines were good, solid starts for the book's run, too, Millenium nonsense aside.  But when it comes to reading a story, I much prefer both the style and substance of the Azzarello run.  I highly recommend it for anyone looking to start reading comics, whatever the age, too.  Ok, not elementary school, maybe,  but you get my drift.

Wonder Woman: Then and Now (Part 1)

Not long ago Lee and I discussed the merits of the current iteration of Wonder Woman in her own book, written by Brian Azzarello and primarily drawn by Cliff Chiang.  We looked at only the first six issues and agreed to disagree.

That got me to thinking about how well the Azzarello version compares with the Perez version from 1987, which was the high point I had seen for the character.  So, I'm now comparing the first year of each book.  I'll start right off by saying that my comics reading taste has changed in the 25 years since the Perez version, which means I can't say how I would have viewed the Azzarello version back then.

Up front I'll remind everyone, and myself, that the Perez version is really all Perez on the art but Len Wein did most of the writing, with the exception of the first two issues that were written by Greg Potter (which gets a big "Who?" from me).  Perez is co-plotter on all the issues, though.

Coming as it did in the mid to late '80s, this was a huge improvement in Wonder Woman.  They had a clean slate because of Crisis on Infinite Earths and went with a heavily Greek mythology origin.  In fact, this is all a very linear telling of how Diana becomes Wonder Woman.  Hell, it's very linear on how the Amazons came to live on Paradise Island, too.  Diana doesn't show up until the last few pages of the first issue.

All that back story reminded me of something, too.  Diana's birth isn't so special as it's been heralded.  She's the spirit of a fetus that was in Hyppolyte when she was first killed in her pre-historic incarnation.  When all the other Amazon spirits of wrongly killed women are re-incarnated, Diana's spirit is left behind for a later arrival.  The rest of the Amazon's sort of pour into a lake/pond and come to the surface.  It's not clear what their bodies are formed from.  Rain drops?  Pond water?  Mud at the bottom?  Got me.  Anyway, eons later, and about 1964 in the time frame of this story, Diana is born when Hippolyte makes a clay baby by the shore (which should be a sand baby, you'd think), and, boom!, the gods impart fetus spirit into the clay, and there's baby Diana.

Seems to me the only thing that makes Diana different from the other Amazons is that she shows up as a baby, while they were all adults when they were re-incarnated.  Of course, the others had all been babies before they were killed in adulthood while Diana had never reached that point.  I guess I'm just not seeing what's special about Diana's birth.  Now, being raised in an all female, immortal society, that's different than any of the other Amazons.  It's a bit of a stretch into the Christian mythos (which drew on pagan mythos in the first place) to make Diana's birth all that special.

But enough of that.  Let's get back to the first year's stories.  Diana is born.  Steve Trevor crashes on Paradise Island (off shore, actually), when Ares tries to nuke the island.  Diana goes with Trevor to Boston.  Diana meets Professor Kapetelis and her daughter, Vanessa, quickly bonding to both.  Ares's son Phobos creates a demon called Decay who attacks Boston and is defeated by Diana.  Ares's son Deimos attacks Diana in Hades(?).  Diana decapitates him.  Ares tries to nuke the whole world, manipulating people in the US and USSR militiaries.  Ah, the good old days when the Soviet Union existed.  Anyway, Diana beats him by getting him to realize the obvious that if he nukes the world, there's no one to worship him and no one to rule, which will quickly lead to his existence fading away.  Diana is severely injured in all the fighting, and Steve Trevor's friend, Col Michealis, is killed.  That's done in 6 issues.

After that it's a bit more meandering.  Diana recovers on Paradise

Island, quite quickly.  Vanessa, who was prematurely aged by Decay, is healed back to being a teenager, too.  Zeus takes an interest in Paradise Island, with some instigating by Pan.  Basically, Zeus wants one big gang bang with the Amazons, him being the only male in the group.  First he wants Diana, though.  She says no and is sent into a challenge by Zeus.  She has to enter the sealed portal on Paradise Island

that the Amazons have been guarding all these centuries, with the occasional fatality.  Oh, before that, in issue 9, the Cheetah shows up and is defeated.  By the end of issue 12 Diana hasn't completed her mission but she's been hijacked into the big event cross over that was a drag on the DCU of the time, Millenium.

Now, by comparison, Azzarello has Diana rescue Zoe and Hera turn Hyppolyta into a statute (and the rest of the Amazons into snakes), then dupe Hades and Poseiden

into not fighting it out for Zeus's empty throne, all in the first 6 issues.  Oh, and Diana finds out she's the daughter of Zeus, not made from clay as she thought.  In the next 6 issues Diana finds out that the Amazons aren't reincarnated spirits of women wrongly killed by men.  They're predators who re-stock their ranks by seducing sailors, killing the sailors, then selling any male offspring to Hephaestus while raising the females as new Amazons.  She also goes to Hades, rescues Zola (who's had time pass at an accelerated rate so that she's now almost due in her pregnancy), and nearly ends up married to Hades.  Apollo and

Artemis scheme to have Apollo take Zeus's throne and dispose of Zola's baby, who's possibly prophesied to kill whoever takes the throne some time in the future.  Diana prevents that, but Hermes absconds with the baby as soon as it's born and takes it to Demeter to hide from all the forces.

That's the set up of what happens in each series in the first 12 issues.  Next time I'll compare and contrast.

Alternative Press Books I Read Part 3 of 3 The Week of April 3 in Review

This is the one group that I did not get a chance to read everything. Even though more and more of my dollars are going to this material I find Marvel and DC are usually faster reads and therefore I have a tendency to read them first.

Abe Sapien #1 by Mike Mignola, Scott Allie and Sebastian Fiumara was a great start to the ongoing Abe Sapien series. It is funny because Abe is not sure who or what he is anymore. In all the years of following BPRD it is not been made exactly clear what is Abe. Abe has awaken from a four month coma and left BPRD. They are hot on his heels. Abe is riding the rails and gets an earful of how “Hell on Earth” has occurred. It was sort of a “While you were sleeping” type thing. The art by Sebastian Fiumara was superb. His storytelling and pure craft is top notch. The story itself did not really get started as we were setting the stage for the series. Even with that being the case it was an enjoyable read and a series I will be looking forward to each month.

Buy it.

Snapshot #3 (of 4) by Andy Diggle and Jock was outstanding. The book was an express train of action and plot. It was amazing to pick up the book and just start reading it. By the time this chapter was over you were gasping for air. I can’t wait for the wrap up of this story. The twists and turns this book takes page by page is dazzlingly and makes for a fast paced action/adventure thriller. It is so hard to believe that Diggle had to walk away from Action comics; his work is normally very good. I did not even bother to get his issues since he did not get to finish his story. If that leaves more time for him to do more creator owned stuff, then we are all getting richer for DC’s loss. Andy and Jock are both great creators and this type of story suits them both very well.

Buy it.

DC Books I Read Part 2 of 3 of The Week of April 3 in Review

A belated (by one day) Happy Birthday to Lee. I believe he is turning some really old number this year. Of course none are older then me, but still Lee is old, old, old. Happy Birthday buddy. 

So my love for DC has turned into almost distaste for them. Rejected love can be brutal. I have cut way back on DC books but this week I did pick up eight books, but when this group comes out again it will be less then that.

Animal Man #19 by Jeff Lemire and Steve Pugh was a good issue. In one issue we see that the death of Cliff has made Ellen decide she is done with Buddy and it appears like his marriage is over. Buddy goes to confront the Red about losing his son and is dismissed and cut off form the Red and is now back to being just Animal Man. This is all about setting up a new status quo for the series after it has been rocked by a major change, the death of Buddy’s son. I’m curious enough to want to come back for more. A quick note the gatefold cover was just out and out stupid. If nothing else this issue was a good jumping on point.

Buy it.

World’s Finest #11 by Paul Levitz, Ken Lashley, Robson Rocha and Barry Kitson. This is another gatefold cover that was a waste and could have been done without the gatefold. Why DC thought these would be a huge selling point is beyond me. Half of the joy of this book was the great artwork by Mike McKone and George Perez, neither of these artist are on the book. I usually love Barry Kitson but his work seemed weak or perhaps rushed as we have three artists this issue. Eleven issue in and the status quo has not been set. I guess the status quo is they are trying to get back home and are running into Darkseid agents on this Earth. Again my fondness for who these characters used to be is overriding my better judgment.

Don’t buy it.

Marvel Comics I Read – Part 1 of 3 of the Week of April 3 in Review

I’m going totally old school this week with three parts focusing on the Marvel, DC and then the Alternative press stuff. I will forewarn you that my negativity towards DC continues to grow.

                                 

First I wanted to mention a cool Kickstarter project I’m backing. It is called Combat Jack’s The Director’s Cut by Mark McKenna. Mark is a well known inker and he appeared at my comic book store that I had back on the early nineties. I have included a picture of a piece of artwork he inked, signed by him and framed in my office. This is a one and done story that looks to be a lot of fun. Check it out here and if you like it become a backer.

Before we jump into the few Marvel titles I got this week we need to do the stuff about what is coming out this week. The clean and simple list is at Cosmic Comix and the detailed listing is at Midtown Comics. Looking out to next week’s books I’m saddened that my list is not shorter. I did manage to cut out Heckblazer (Constantine) from my list. I tried issue #1 but it just feels too super hero to me and not want I enjoyed from the character. Sadly it will probably sell better then Hellblazer. The top five for me looking ahead are Hawkeye, Sex, Saga, X and GI Joe Cobra and that is in a week the includes Batman, Batman and Robin, Uncanny Avengers, Uncanny X-Men and Walking Dead. It should be a very good week.

The Week of April 3 Preview Review

I went simple this week, yes this is an easy line for one of my co-bloggers to insult me with. Three parts by the main groupings I use for my list of what I get every week. 

A clip from each post:

Marvel Comics I Read – Part 1 of 3 of the Week of April 3 in Review

Indestructible Hulk #6 by Mark Waid and Walter Simonson.  I was not sure going in what I would think as sometime Simonson’s work is very, very loose, but this book was a blast. It felt exactly like what they were going for a Hulk story that invoked the memory of Walter’s great run on Thor. I would add Walter to my artist list but he never sells his work. This is not a mind bending or thought invoking saga this is a pure out and out character bits and fight scenes. The best Marvel book I got this week.

Buy it.

DC Books I Read Part 2 of 3 of The Week of April 3 in Review

Green Lantern #19 by Geoff Johns, Adrian Syaf and Szymon Kudranski. I can’t wait for issue #20 to drop this book. I don’t care that a new writer I like is taking over. DC interferes way too much in these books for me to want to buy into a new creative team. Plus if it is really great I can buy the inevitable trade. The Wrath of the First Lantern has been atrocious. The First Lantern powering up from all the emotions is just insipid comic book stuff.  The First Lantern destroys Sinestro’s world and absorbs the emotional energy or something inane to that effect. I will say the planet destruction ratio in GL books beats any other comic series. Add to that Hal is being drawn to look like Geoff Johns is just stupid; at least Hal killed himself in this issue if we are lucky he stays dead.

Don’t Buy It. 

Alternative Press Books I Read Part 3of 3 The Week of April 3 in Review

Godzilla Half Century War #5 (of 5) by James Stokoe. What a great mini-series. Stokoe puts so much into every page it is amazing. I’m guessing that he included a ton of the various monsters from the gazillion Godzilla movies made. I don’t know them but I have to assume it was all homage. What made this book is it was about two men who fought Godzilla over the course of fifty years. It had all the monster fighting and madness you could want but was a great story as well. John Layman did an excellent Godizilla mini and Stokoe’s was also excellent. I hope IDW can line us some other strong creative crews to do some mini-series. For my money it is the only way to go with Godzilla as the ongoing series is not a true viable option in my view.

Buy the trade.

Come back Monday and Tuesday for all three full length posts.