Daredevil Born Again the Artist Edition – A Review

Of late I have been very negative towards a passion that I have had for over fifty years. The advent of the new DCU has annoyed me to no end and the while some of the Marvel books have some passion and creative vision they ultimately have been lackluster. From seeing all the DCU turned into 20 somethings to seeing Daredevil being taken down by a revised Bullseye as a mastermind of cunning, it has been disappointing. I wanted to read something that I knew was a great story, so I finally sat down and read Born Again by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli. Not just any reprint, but the Artist Edition.

It is an amazing story and done in this format it is finally given justice. It is more amazing since the story was being produced as a monthly book. It is one of the best stories ever done in comic books. Yes we have Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen and many other great stories that have been told, but after re-reading this in the artist edition I think this has to be one of the best stories ever done, arguably the best.

The Omnibus vs The Artist Edition

Superior Foes of Spider-Man #1 – A Review

I have sworn off doing a week in review but I have been reading so many positive reviews of Superior Foes of Spider-Man #1 that I have to add my two cents.

It was pedestrian at best; it was a waste of paper at its worst.

First off Nick Spencer (writer)  has failed to impress me with his work at Marvel. I’m starting to think that Nick is never going to be a star writer or that he is perhaps better suited as an indy writer or maybe he would fit better at DC. Bedlam has more pizzazz then any of his work at Marvel. Secret Avengers was horrible and so is this book. When you have the Parker adaptations out by Cooke and you have even Thief of Thieves out on the market, this sad imitation of trying to do a crime book is just not cutting it. It had no caper, it was all set up and none of the characters were appealing. Throwing in Hammerhead crapping in the john and the remarks after were the worse of the worst in playing to the bathroom humor stuff.

Next up is the Marvel habit of just taking a character and throwing out any portrayal of the character that had come before and remaking them in the fashion that the writer wants. Since it has worked so well with Hawkeye, I guess there is no reason to stop now. Bullseye was recently made over as some great mastermind in Daredevil, so why not change up Boomerang. He had been played in a very different fashion in Thunderbolts by Jeff Parker. Of course it doesn’t matter who these characters are, they are all being reworked to fit the story that Spencer wants to tell.

Finally outside of Lieber’s art the book does not even feel like it fits in the Marvel Universe. They are all losers in the book and Boomerang is being set up as the guy with a plan and it starts with him conning his way to getting bail money from his cohorts. I can only imagine that this has garnered so many positive reviews because many fans don’t buy anything not from Marvel or DC. Go out and buy the recent reprinted Scene of the Crime by Brubaker and Lark, Criminal by Brubaker and Phillips, Red Handed by Matt Kindt or get the Parker adaptations by Darwyn Cooke, they are awesome. Leave this tripe on the stands.

Sparks The Graphic Novel – A Review

Sparks the movie is opening soon, you have to click on this link and check out the movie site and the trailer. A true independent movie that by all accounts and from every trailer I have watched the damn thing is killer. Alan Moore and Frank Miller are credited with making super heroes into a darker and grittier version of the genre. Some say they changed the industry forever, for good or ill, and comics become the domain of an older crowd forever leaving behind the 8-12 year old boy audience. What this graphic novel did and what the movie does is marry the film noir genre with the super hero ideal.

I have been fortunate enough to have become email friends with the creator of Sparks, Christopher Folino, I have also had the chance to do an interview with Chris, William Katt the executive producer and JM Ringuet who did the bulk of the artwork for the graphic novel.

The history of this project is almost as fascinating as the film. It was a comic book that never made it to the end of the mini-series. Next it was a motion comic and for my money the only motion comic I ever saw that had a true feeling of making the book come alive with a cinematic flair. Finally the movie has been made and the graphic novel has been completed.

Call your comic store and demand they carry it or hunt it down on Ebay or do whatever you need to do to get this story or click on this link. The movie may never make it to a wide release so set up the searches to await the DVD, the story is that good.

The Week of October 31 in Review Part 5 of 4 – We Have A Superman

So I thought I had wrapped up the week in review then I read Superman Earth One Volume 2 by J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis and knew the week was not done yet.  I needed to give this book a little solo spotlight.

DC has killed the Superman character for years. Outside of All Star Superman, the actual Superman character has been a mess. They married him off to Lois Lane and for awhile it worked. Then for various reasons writers forgot about Clark Kent and therefore the supporting cast. The problem with that is Superman has always been the false identity and Clark Kent is the true persona, in my humble opinion. Oh there have been some good moments, like a few moments by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank in Action comics. Those moments were few and far between for years. Then DC removed him from his book and we had Mon-el running around as Superman substitute, while Kal-El went off to New Krypton. Before the new 52 the same writer of this excellent portrayal of the character did a horrible job of having Superman walk around the country. Putrid, the character that was the cornerstone of the company was a shambles.

Next up we get the New 52 which has been putting more and more nails in the coffin. Grant Morrison’s Action comic version of the character has been a disjointed mess and it is obvious that George Perez was never told what Grant was going to be doing when he was writing Superman. The stories of the editorial mandates and last second adjustment coming out of DC have been all over the place. No one had a back story for the character. Again we get no real supporting cast and the portrayal of the character from book to book had all the consistency of Velveeta Cheese. In the Justice League stuff Johns’ version of the character is totally different from Superman and the Action comic Superman. I think the Superman character has ton of potential but like a rookie sensation can’t hit the curveball. I also understand he is one of the hardest characters to write, but it can be done.  John Byrne did some great work for a few years with him and All Star Superman was the best series ever done on Superman. The problem is that I have not seen a decent Superman character for a long time.

The Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire – A Review

This book was an absolutely fantastic read and a great story.

Jeff Lemire is a master story teller. From Essex County, to Sweet Tooth, with stops at Animal Man and Justice League Dark Jeff has become one of DC’s biggest stars. He has earned it as he knows how to write. In the midst of Sweet Tooth and the DCU new 52 he also managed to complete The Underwater Welder and it is published via Top Shelf Productions.

The Underwater Welder is both drawn and written by Jeff and in 200 plus pages Jeff tells a story that is a character study of Jack, who is (surprise) an underwater welder. The story has unbelievable emotional depth (pun intended) to it. It deals with Jack’s relationships with his long dead father, his very pregnant wife and his Mother. 

While diving Jack starts to see things and a doctor tells him to take time off, which thrills his wife as she is due in the next month. Of course that means anytime at all as my daughter Gwen can attest to with my new grandson Henry 2 plus week early arrival. Jack can’t shake the feeling that there is more to it than that and he believes his visions have meaning. As Jack explores this we find out Jack was well educated and did not have to return to this small town and be a diver. His Dad was a diver, but he dove to find objects and then sold them in his pawn shop. His Dad and Mother were estranged and Jack only spent one day a week with his Dad. He loved his father but his father keeps disappointing him and his mother with his drinking and his lack of responsibility. Still you knew that he loved his son and cared about him.

Avengers vs X-Men #12 (of 12) or Cyclops as Jean Grey

Avengers vs X-Men #12 (of 12), so what did I think?

As far as the book goes it did allow Marvel to clear the decks a little and set up a slightly new status quo. Captain America will combine the X-Men and Avengers, Hope has reversed the status quo change of the Scarlet Witch and new mutants are popping up like weeds in a garden.

The problem I have is with the whole thing is the destruction of yet another Marvel character, Cyclops has been tarnished pretty badly. See my big problem with Marvel is that everything, I mean everything is about the illusion of change. No change last forever, no character ever dies, the sliding scale of continuity says everything happened in the last ten years, but everything in the character’s history actually happened. By the way that sliding scale has caused almost every Marvel origin to be constantly retro-conned. If we don’t get involved in another war in the next decade or so Iron Man will have to have been created because Tony was kidnapped by gangsters or something.

Cyclops is the perfect example of why this often creates more problems then it solves. In this series they needed a villain. It needed to be shocking and it needed to be a player, so they fished around and cast Cyclops for the part. I understand that Thor read for the part also as did Magneto, Iron Man and  Havok. It was felt that the power should fall in mutant hands since the Phoenix force was cast as the world ending menace Cyclops seemed to fit the bill nicely. Not that he has given us any true predilection for acting like this before; it was just good for the story.

Enormous – A Review

On a whim I ordered Enormous from my LCS. It took awhile to get it because I do my books via mail order and the book was enormous, in what used to be called the Treasury Edition size. Once a month or so all the hard covers and other odds and ends get shipped to me via parcel post to save cost and makes all of our lives easier, this shipment included the aforementioned book.

Hard to Tell How Big It Is

Compared to a regular comic it is huge

The book was an enormous failure and disappointment. The book deserves the pun. If you are calling your book Enormous you are asking for the bad puns.

X-O Manowar #1 – First Impressions

 

Again we are in need of a post and again I have decided to pull something together. I get new comics on Thursday via the mail now since I moved to Florida. While I have a list of what I’m getting it is still fun to open the box. I also find I order number ones a lot since I’m not at the store to pursue stuff before I buy. Since I have cut back on DC and Marvel, it is usually fun getting new #1s from various publishers. I have always had a soft spot for Valiant books as I think under Jim Shooter that company had the potential to be the next Marvel or DC comics. Due to various reasons it did not come to pass. Now we have a new Valiant comics and a new X-O Manowar as their flagship book. Instead of the same static review I decided to experiment by doing a page by page impression of the book as I’m reading it.

The cover – Okay, we can clearly see X-O swinging an energy sword fighting some bad guys that are clearly alien, but it is too dark and I can’t imagine it jumps off the rack.

Inside front cover, WTF is this. A timeline of X-O and we are welcomed to 402 AD. Two much information I just want to read the book, I’ll come back later.

Page 1, four vertical panels. Two soldiers are running in the field away from or towards Romans. Last panel it is not going well.  I know Cary Nord is the pencil artist and Stefano Gaudiano is inker, the art looks solid.

Page 2 and 3 – huge two page splash shows a lot of Romans firing arrows into a group of the barbarians. Oddly we see a word balloon pointing to the two guys who were running to the battle?  Minor point.

Page 4 and 5, two three panel pages showing the Romans kicking the snot out of the barbarians and they are deciding to retreat.

Amazing Mysteries The Bill Everett Archives Volume 1 and the Golden Age

Lee is having a personal crisis, I believe it is called having a job and children, in other words the man is busy, busy, busy. Heck we dragged Thomm’s post ahead a day so it would not be the blank page, because we do not work very far ahead. Anyway Lee was going to just have a gone on vacation or some other type of post, but I decided to see if I could opine about something comics related. I can usually bore any non-comics fan in the span of five minutes talking about comics, so I’m sure there is some subject I can talk about.

The Golden Age of Comics is one. First let’s get this out of the way; the early days of comic books were not the Golden Age of Comics. In my mind the term would denote that something was at its absolute best. No matter how you cut it those early days were about production, going with what ever sold yesterday and seeing what sticks. It was more of an Iron Age of comics or perhaps the Glory Days of comics. The Golden Age of Comics started about 10 or 15 years ago and is still ongoing. You can use the Watchmen as the first days of the dawning of a Golden Age when comic books started to become literate and the writers and artists use to medium to its best effect. Grant Morrison, Scott Snyder, Ed Brubaker, Jason Aaron, Eric Powell, Robert Kirkman, Terry Moore, Joe Hill, Jeff Parker, Bill Willingham, Jeff Lemire, Gary Frank, Ivan Reis, Marcos Martin, Gabriel Rodriquez and the list of artists and writers goes on and on and on. Today’s comics, in general, are the best comics have ever been. We are in the Golden Age of comics and the same time the print comic is in its death throes.

Three Number Ones – Secret, Alabaster Wolves and The Secret Service

 

The Monday column was getting overly long so I decided to do a second post this week, as you may have noticed both Greg and Gwen has stopped doing columns for various reasons that we hope will end soon, leaving poor Lee to have to do more then normal.

Secret #1 published by Image is by writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Ryan Bodeheim was a great start. I love Hickman’s ideas and often feel that the pure execution of the ideas often fall a little flat, are written 100% for the last page or are sometimes too long of a road to get to the point. It all doesn’t matter because Hickman has so many great ideas and fantastic (pun intended) plots that even a miss is better then some other books. Ryan’s art is better then his Red Wing work and his story telling ability was fantastic given that much of what had to be conveyed was without any sort of action shots. The story is just unfolding and is about a security firm that is playing some guy by first being the ones that attack him and then being the firm he hires to protect him. Part of the price for protection is open access to all of his business records which contain secrets for many important people. So much intrigue and suspense is already built up and we are also hip deep into developing a lot of the main characters. In 20 pages of story and art this series has already set up you up with the desire to find out just what the hell is going on.

From Shadow to Light – The Life and Art of Mort Meskin

So in order to be able to have a post that goes up Monday February 6 I have to work ahead because Friday February 3 I will be driving down to Florida for my move. The transition period has been long and laborious and I’m looking forward to getting back to my life with my wife. A little sad about moving, but everything has pluses and minuses. My preamble is to again reiterate why my Monday column is becoming a little random.

This week I want to discuss the book From Shadow to Light – The Life and Art of Mort Meskin (click on the link to see the Amazon page where you can check out some of the interiors of the book). Mort was a golden age comic artist and as with many from that time his name is not well known. Only the gentlemen who made the transition from golden to silver age have any true renown, many of them toiled in relative obscurity and many will be lost to the vestiges of time. Fortunately people like author Steven Brower and Fantagraphic books are giving us the opportunity to get to know who Mort Meskin was and his story is very interesting.

The book was both a success and also a failure for me. The success part is we did get the life story of Mort Meskin. Essentially Mort was a talented artist who suffered from a lot of insecurities, had some bouts with mental illness, fathered two sons with his first wife, found true love later with his second wife and ultimately moved from comic book work to commercial artwork. 

New Post At WCS

Near Death #1 – A Review

Severed #2 – A Review

Severed #2 – A Review

On WCS our sister blog

Arsenic Lullaby 10 Year Omnibus – A Review

I would have never gotten this book if it wasn’t for Lee and Douglas Paszkiewicz. See Lee and I were roaming around at the Baltimore Comic-Con. Lee drags me over to this guy Doug’s s table, as Doug is the writer/creator/artist of Arsenic Lullaby. “You should check this guy’s stuff out” says Lee. He apparently had been talking with Doug earlier and was now Doug’s salesman. Doug says Nazis or Boogie Man. Having tired of Nazis I opted for the Boogie Man and a four page story hooked me to plunk down $30 for the Omnibus. Doug draws a character of his from the book and signs it. Pretty cool. Doug if you read this blog ever, e-mail me as I want to do an interview with you about the book.

Now I take it home and as I said yesterday I’m moving and behind on my reading and everything else I normally do. Lee calls me, calls me – Lee hardly every calls, we communicate with e-mail 99% of the time. You have to read this book. I did and he was right. The best quote about this book is from Warren Ellis on the back of the Omnibus, where he says “God help me, it made smile.” Well I need even more help as this book made me smile, laugh and just have a god time reading, it is is funny as crap.

Detective #881 – A Review

Detective #881

Writer Scott Snyder

Art Jock & Francesco Francavilla

Colors David Baron & Francesco Francavilla

The final issue of Scott Snyder’s run on the Dick Grayson as Batman came to a close with this issue. This is the definitive run of Dick Grayson as Batman, one of the best runs on Detective Comic in a very long time and just a damn good comic. Hate to see it end, but love that the story had a beginning, middle and an end. I could feel the material was there to make this run go on longer, but it was a satisfying conclusion.

This issue the story is about James Gordon Junior. He is a psychopath to the nth degree who enjoys hurting people just to hurt them. The short story is James Jr. captures Barbara Gordon (his sister) and is killing her. Batman and Commissioner Gordon save her and Gordon is forced to stop his own son.

Flashpoint Wednesdays – Comics Can Be Fun

While I have been vocal in my concerns over the DCNu, the lead-up is a lot of damn fun.

This week we have Citizen Cold, Deathstroke, Emperor Aquaman and Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown. When I’m reading a MU or DCU books I usually want some continuity and each issue to be building towards a conclusion. When you get the fill in issue it normally feels like you are treading water. This stuff is out and out fun and I was almost dreading Flashpoint and all the mini-series.

What I’m enjoying is that no matter how odd the circumstances or even the that the logic of why these characters are acting the way they are in this world, the writers are all just jumping into the story and then telling us a story. Would Aquaman be such a bad guy as he appears even with time being changed based on how he has been crafted, I don’t think so, but the story is fun. By having just three issues it seems like the writers have stripped everything down to the bare bones and these stories are all telling us lots of information at a brisk pace. Even better they are not trying to fill in all the blanks they are just getting to the meat of the plot and running.

Citizen Cold starts with a battle between him and Mr. Freeze, where Citizen Cold actually kills him. Iris West is chasing the story of Citizen Cold and her nephew Wally West is trying to help her sort out who is Citizen Cold. We get some background on the other Rogues and their dissatisfaction with Citizen Cold, we learn Cold is not a good guy and we see Wally getting captured, maybe killed by Cold at the end of the issue. While I’m still not a fan of Scott Kolins current style this was the best this type of work has looked from him. Furthermore he did a nice job of writing this story. It was fun, crazy and was over before you know it.

Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown was a little more straightforward by Jeff Lemire and Ibraim Roberson, in that we get a quick origin and then move into the crux of the story. Frankenstein and a fish girl, werewolf and vampire (the later three altered by science from regular humans) are a combat unit in WWII. They are led by a Lt. Shrieve and they attack Hitler’s bunker and kill him. Cut ahead a year bad guy general pulls the plug on the group and puts them in suspended animation. Cut ahead to 2011 Franky and company wake up and run off to Gotham. New bad guy General has just the person to kill them, Shrieve a monster hunter and obviously the granddaughter of their old unit commander. Another great story and actually seems to have nothing at all to do with Flashpoint per say, except Flashpoint gives the writer great freedom to play in the DCU without any rules or constrictions.

Flashpoint Deathstroke by Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Bennett was a book that sounded odd making Slade a pirate, but it worked. It jumped in time a little here and there, but still did a great job. Deathstroke is floating on some wreckage in the water and we learn how he got there. He and the Warlord (Travis Morgan) are rival pirates and have a fight. Slade is trying to find his daughter Rose who has been kidnapped. He saves one girl, but it is not Rose. He recruits some bad guys as he needed more crew and then runs into Emperor Aquaman who skewers Deathstroke like a pig on his trident. I assume Aquaman scuttles Deathstroke’s ship and that is how issue #1 begins. No details on a lot of stuff just put out a story and plot details and tell the story. All these issues are paced so well and are fun, fun books to read.

Last and not least was Emperor Aquaman. Now Tony Bedard used the eight months ago, eleven months ago, two weeks ago, tomorrow around lunch, time jump stuff way too much. He should have done a flashback here and there, but he should have trusted his story was good enough and it was. Aquaman is an enemy of the surface dwellers and he has used Geo-Force as a weapon to sink most of Western Europe. His brother Orm is his main advisor and Mera lost her head in dealings with surface people which makes Aquaman a pretty darn angry and unhappy dude. Plus his battle with Wonder Woman has been at a stalemate until he finds out Tara is being used by WW as a defense against his pulse weapon (actually Geo-Force strapped into a device).

Fast, furious and fun. We jump into the middle of stuff and just run forward. A shared universe stripped of 99% of the rules of what you can do. A liberating experience for me and I think the creators, who have all turned in comics that I enjoyed reading. Can’t wait for next Wednesday’s Flashpoint books and can’t wait for part 2 of these little gems.

Congorilla – 1992 – The Mini-Series Review

So DC killed Congorilla in 1992, a terrible tragedy and a horrible mistake. The mini-series was by Steve Englehart, Neil Vokes and Jay Geldhof. I had to laugh as Dick Giordano was the Editorial Director and Tom Peyer was the editor of this book. The amount of talent and almost more of an indie type talent line up was amazing. I can’t imagine DC having this type of line up on a book today and more is the pity.

Of course now I’m confused since Congorilla is in the JLA and he died in 1992. I’m confused as to how he come back to life. Of course, once again I’m going ape sh*t over DC and their infernal monkey business about reprints. Where is the collection of the original Congorilla material? It doesn’t have to high end, but darn it, if Dark Horse can make those Gold Key collections work, DC has tons of stuff that would be more fun than a barrel of monkeys to see published again.

The series itself was an interesting story. I’m guessing no one had used this character for nigh on twenty years and probably Englehart had a neat idea for the character and then had to sell it to DC. Today he would have made some sort of character that was close to Congorilla and done this as an Image book or something, but it worked great with the character that inspired Engelhart.

Back in the fifties and early sixties all the comic companies left had their science fiction books, war book and of course jungle adventures. Congo Bill was straight out of the stereo type that we had then as the white hunter who comes to Africa. As near as I can tell he was a decent sort and the tribal king gave Bill a ring to switch bodies with the golden gorilla and became Congorilla. Bill also had a ward with Janu and apparently raised the boy. I’m thinking all man who never married had wards back in the forties and fifties, no one has wards anymore. Later on there was some point that Bill decided to stop being a man and switched with Congorilla forever leaving his body to roam about in the jungle with a gorilla mind. How much of this is “canon” and how much Steve Englehart made up on the fly is unimportant. It is also the beauty of taking this type of character and using him, no one cares about him and probably only two or three people would know his “actual” history.

Steve then crafts a story where Janu is now a lousy drug runner and manages to switch his mind with Congorilla. Bill in Janu’s body gets mangled by the bad guys after Janu and Janu because a ruthless drug dealer running his world as Congorilla. Bill ultimately gets back into his old body, which they make a point of saying how old he is and he is the ancient age of 56, WHICH IS VERY YOUNG (I’m very close to that ancient age). Bill fights Janu to the death and kills the Congorilla body. Bill and the Africa priestess who helped him run off into the sunset.

I get the feeling it was Steve saying we should all be ourselves type of thought, but he killed Congorilla. Now people say I have an obsession with monkeys and I just say I like them. Still I have to say I was deeply offended by the cavalier nature in which the actual mind of Congorilla was treated. When first given the ring Bill was suppose to only switch places for an hour. Then Bill gets tired of his life and just takes over the Gorilla body. Nice way to treat the body that has saved you’re a@@ a thousand times. Then he lets his body that thinks it is a gorilla, roam the woods and fend on its own without being an actual gorilla. What a pal! Geez would you treat your dog or cat that way? Finally Bill kills the Congorilla body leaving, I guess, Congorilla’s mind in Janu’s body. Not very nice of Bill as he and his lady love ride off into the sunset and poor Congorilla is a young human.

Now a quick search on Congorilla’s history never reveals how he came back to life, but next up is an old Vertigo series called Congo Bill, which should be a wildly different take on the character.

It’s fun to re-read this type of stuff. Of course I had owned this and sold it long ago and now I picked it up at a sale for $5 or less and will send it to someone else again, but I think there is true beauty in sharing this material. Of course I’m sure few have the same affection for the big golden ape that I do.

PS - Whatever blog member wants this let me know as if I hear from no one I will send it out next week.

Detective Comics #877 – An Example of How to Make Comics Great

Scott Snyder is doing such a great job with Detective Comics that every issue can almost be my default best book of the week. A fair amount of it goes to the fact that right now DC has made Dick Grayson into Batman and that simple change has meant a world of difference for me. For years I have spoken about the need to make real changes to the characters and the best way to do that is to change who is under the mask.

I believe that the print comics’ medium is going to become a thing of the past. It is not that it won’t survive, because it will, but it may never be what it once was in its heyday. There are many reasons for that such as the fact that comics stayed a dime as Time, Newsweek and all were going up in price. This was why comics were isolated to the back of newsstands or the spinner racks. That led the direct market, which led to comics going even more out of the public eye. Plus in the US comics have always had the taint of being for kids no matter how much they have changed over the years. Now the printed comic is a boutique market place item that is slowly dying. Some of the signs are the constant reprinting of the same material in different formats so suckers like Lee and I will buy the same material two, three or maybe more times (I think I have not gotten the same material in four formats yet). Other signs are the joy when a comic has a sales number of 100,000 for an issue; heck the worse TV show in the nation probably gets more viewers. The digital market place and other factors also play into it. To me the one overriding factor is the soap opera nature of comics. No matter what you can come back ten years later and all the same players are still there. It is a nice safe comfortable womb that you can leave at anytime knowing when you come back all will be the same. The illusion of change is king. My hope is that declining sales, creators unwilling to bring new characters into a universe, since ownership is all important, will force companies to be daring and allow change to occur within the books. Detective is giving us a hint of what that is like.

In this issue we have Batman having an adventure. It is often subtle but Scott is writing a different Batman. Dick does not react the same way Bruce does. Dick relationships are different. A great example is when Tim Drake is giving him a hard time about being smitten with Sonia Branch. Dick states the radio is breaking up and Tim says it can’t happen with 5G and then Dick clicks off the radio. You can feel the brotherly love between the two. Dick is willing to admit that he might have made a mistake. The character can have the same adventures, it is just how the hero reacts is going to be different. We can’t assume the outcome and therefore the book becomes fresh and new.

Of course having Jock as the artist sure as heck doesn’t hurt. Jock is no slouch when it comes to the art department and I think it is great that he and Scott have teamed up for this book. Jock has beautifully designed pages. Page by page the ebbs of flows of eight panel pages, one panel pages, 3 panels, 4 panels, whatever and the flow of the story is always smooth as silk. Scott is already a master and knowing when to shut up and when to have the characters talk. Plus Scott seems to respect the characters and they never feel like they are acting out of character.

Is this the beginning of a trend? Is DC willing to let change actually happen? It would be funny if they led the way in that cycle as they had done a great job with having Wally as the Flash, Connor as Green Arrow and Kyle as Green Lantern, but overwhelming nostalgia made them recycle the worn out silver age version of those characters which led to more stagnation. Spider-Man, Iron Man, Fantastic Four are all worn out characters and concepts. Using the Ultimate Universe to try and spice things up didn’t work that well, because you still had the warm comfort of the womb in the regular MU. The companies need to be bold and daring. When someone dies, let them stay dead and move on. We can always do elseworld stories or a tale from the past, but for continuity going forward when I see a character die at the end of the book, my question should be who will replace them, not how are they going to be resurrected.

Detective Comics is showing us the way and giving this fan a fantastic series and a great read and one I’m sure I will read again and again. If it only last a year or so, I will take what I can get because I can always just drop the book if it is stagnant again. The final summation – Detective Comics is a top series and needs to be on your list.

Not so much a review as a celebration of how to make comics new and vibrant again. Maybe, just maybe I can be proven wrong and in five years sales of printed comics will be higher than now.

Also today is Memorial Day a day set aside to remember those who died in the service to our country. Take a moment to remember those who have fallen and died because regardless of our politics or whether we believe a war was right or wrong, these men and women deserved to be remembered.

Punishermax #13 – A Review

Punishermax #13 – Writer Jason Aaron, Art Steve Dillon

What I liked – The story is excellent. Jason Aaron is crafting what might be a seminal run on the max version of the Punisher. What is so amazing to me is he is doing it after Garth Ennis had written a seminal run on the character. This issue we see Frank being brought back into the general population. He is weak as he is still recovering from multiple injuries. Worse, his weakness is obvious and the illusion of his invincibility is now exposed. At the same time we are reliving Frank’s return from Viet Nam and the idea that his restored family life was just as much of a prison as where he is now. The art by Steve Dillon is well done as always, plus he has made a more conscious effort to portray Frank as an older man and it drives home the story.

What I Didn’t Like – The $4 price point, but for this type of quality I can live with it.

Overall – I love character studies and what Jason is doing is peeling back the layers of Frank Castle. He has taken the Garth Ennis version of the character and now is adding to him. What is so brilliant about the work is that none of it feels like it is a retro-con. In fact Garth and Jason’s version of the character is why I had some aversion at first to Remender’s Frankencastle. I felt that it took the character places he didn’t belong. I just need to get over accepting one version of the character and enjoy each story for what it is.

Jason’s examination of what makes Frank tick is a disturbing portrayal of a man who was made into a sociopath by the Viet Nam war. While the juxtaposition of jail to a suburban live style is heavy handed, I’m not sure it could be done any other way in a comic book. Perhaps the panels did not need to be side by side to make the point. Still it is inescapable that Frank saw his family as a prison. Of course having a mortgage, wife, kids and working for a living makes everyone feel like a wage slave at times and trapped in a life they made, which makes Frank’s feelings more relatable to the general reader. We can even try and make the leap that the war showed Frank who he is and that what he was doing before the war was more of what he was expected to do.

When people are younger they often follow the course that is considered what is normal. Then often some people find out they are driven by other things and life choices were made to be part of the social norm. As they get older they try to become who they are and their choices shock friends and family. The classic mid-life crisis can come at various times and is sometimes someone finally discovering themselves. Frank found out that he is good at killing and that the family he has built has no real emotional attachment for him. He is slowly coming to the realization that only violence makes him feel alive. While most likely Frank is a classic sociopath, in that he can kill without a conscious, he still has the pretense of a moral code.

I see the story is building to Frank allows his family to be gunned down and because of his pretense of moral code he allows himself to become a vigilante. This frees him to go out to kill the criminal element that took his family and expand his war from there. This is the secret of Jason Aaron’s Punisher, he kills because that is what he is and avenging his family allows him to have a level of acceptability by society. The harsh truth is Frank is only alive when he is killing. If his family had not been gunned down we are disturbed by what he might have become without that event. This allows us to view Frank in a different light. He is now more frightening than ever and at the same time you can root for him because he is killing the bad guys.

At the same time Jason is crafting a current story line that shows that age and injuries are catching up with Frank. His aura of being the biggest bad ass of all time is evaporating and prison is a dangerous place for him now. I have read that Jason has a 36 issue story line and I hope that the story ends with the death of Frank Castle as he takes out the Kingpin as that feels right and there is no obligation to not kill this version of Frank Castle.

This is an excellent series. I think Jason took a few issues to get it right, but right now this series is one of the top ten series on the stands.

Batman Incorporated #6 – A Review

I decided this week to break up the week in review a little bit. There are two reasons, one I wanted to highlight two series that are doing some great work. Second I worry that some reviews get buried in a long “week in review” column. So that is why you are seeing a two for Tuesday set of solo reviews. At noon today (PM EDT) I have a Punishermax #13 review going up.

Batman Incorporated #6 – Writer Grant Morrison, Art Chris Burnham

What I Liked – The art. Chris Burnham is an artist I never heard of until his first issue of Batman Inc. and I heard DC signed him to an exclusive, great move. This guy’s work is phenomenal. He has a realistic style that is not photo referenced and more akin to a John Severin or Frank Quietly feel to it. A strong artist can elevate a book and with all that Grant is doing in this issue having Chris made it even better then it would have been with a less talented artist.

The story itself was great and addresses all the problems I had with this premise. My main concern was at the pace we started at I was worried it would take forever to pull together his army of Batmen. This issue we jump around a lot and through the premise of a bad guy private eye we get updates on all the worldwide activities taken by Bruce. We also see Black Bat, which is Cassie Cain’s new identity. So many stories and plot points were moved forward in this issue it is amazing. Red Robin is given the Outsiders as a covert operative team, Dick and Damian are briefed on information about Leviathan, which we are not privy too, and are brought into another part of the plan. We also get to see more of Leviathan and his worldwide plans. We have Bruce building an organization with a huge size and scope to take down an organization which is larger and has been building for what appears to be a longer time. The name is a great one for the bad guy as Leviathan has come to be related to a extremely large monster or society itself via Thomas Hobbes renowned philosophy book, which I doubt I will ever read.

What I Didn’t Like – Nothing, a great issue.

Overall – I love this story that Grant is putting together. I also enjoy that his first act with Batman ended and yet the second act had already started. I consider the defeat of the Black Hand Act I and the building of Batman Inc versus Leviathan as Act II. If Grant is building a trilogy I’m onboard for the ride.

The Batman franchise under Grant’s influence is the most vibrant franchise in the DCU. Also he has crafted some long lasting changes with Damian, Dick as Batman, Bruce as a more open person with a goal that is now more widespread than it ever has been. While outside Bruce is the same Grant has crafted the most radical overhaul of Bruce Wayne since the seventies. Prior to O’Neil and Adams Bruce was very light and bright as the comic was trying to ape the hugely popular TV show of that era. O’Neil and Adams turned Batman back into a creature of the night and a detective. Over the years that has been the quintessential portrayal of Batman. Grant has given us a new version of Bruce Wayne. Not a total creature of the night, but a man with a vision of the future and a plan to keep that future from coming true. He is more open and honest and shows his love and appreciation for his family, but he is still a man of strength and steel and loves the shadows as much as ever.

The brilliance of Grant Morrison is taking ideas and concepts that are lying about in a series and adding in his own ideas. Never remaking the character in a way that doesn’t work, but often just reshaping and reworking a character, but giving those changes a basis for why they were made. Bruce’s epiphany occurred when Darksied “killed him” and he had to travel back though time to make it home. Therefore the changes in Bruce’s persona appear to be rationale and not just a writer imposing his will on a character to make his story work. Grant can miss at times with his work, but like the home run hitter in baseball you can forgive the three strike outs the night before after his two home runs the next night, with one being a grand slam. I know a heavy handed baseball analogy, but I’m a big Orioles fan again.

If you have skipped Batman Inc. or was unimpressed with the first few issues, time to get back onboard.