Eisner Thoughts

Oh life -- you sure make writing a blog no one cares about or reads difficult.

So the Eisner nominations came out, and did you hear? People like to talk about them. Here's a few cents of thought (given inflation, it's probably considerably more than 2).

Madame Xanadu? Really? This book has never seemed greater than average and, unlike Air or Unknown Soldier, it doesn't seem to be trying to be much more. For one thing, it's stuck in the same situation as, bizarrely, Cable. They're both books which, while Xanadu probably has more potential than Cable, are hindered by the plot device of time-jumping-forward. It's simply a messy way to tell the story. In both, the characters have gone forward hundreds of years at a time, but don't stay at any of the times long enough for the reader to care. What happens is a mixture of a too-long arc (in Cable, it's just now closing up after 10+ issues, crossover, and related 2-issue miniseries, in Xanadu we don't have her in the present, but we're now into the 20th century) w/too short of stories. All in all, a completely OK book.

The best continuing series is just a bizarre collection. We have one of the best limited series of last year represented, so that's...good? W/the exception of Monster, I've read these series over the last year (I've got plans to catch up on Monster soon, it just hasn't happened yet). I've thought Thor was a pretty solid read, but there are definitely some better books (Incredible Hercules, anyone? Captain America? And that's off the top of my head, from other Marvel titles). Usagi Yojimbo just seems a bit random, though I do like the book, so I'm not going to complain too much.

I guess what this comes down to is the fickle nature of the Eisners. Selected by a very limited group of people pulled from a not-quite-as limited pool which differs year-to-year, you're not really getting a guarantee, as, well, sometimes really smart people who know their craft can have weird taste (if I were less lazy, I'd link here to Ebert giving Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties a 3-star review).

What I'm saying is that Madame Xanadu is a Garfield movie.

Green Lantern Corps #27

One-sentence summary: I had my doubts about this book post-Sinestro Corps, seeing as how dominatingly brilliant that was, but Tomasi delivers a good superhero cop book.

I really like what they've done with Green Lantern Corps. There's a lot of pitfalls in a book like this (to name a few: letting it become a series of one-shots about side characters from Green Lantern, letting it become all about a major side character, like Guy Gardner or someone, or, most obvious of all, letting it play second-fiddle to the main Green Lantern book). I think it's a credit to every writer who has been on it that these haven't happened. Instead, what we have is a comic that presents a chance to tell some unique stories.

At its heart (at least right now), Green Lantern Corps is a cop book. Sure, they have superpowers, but so do most the people we see them chasing, which evens things up. Yes, there are great sci-fi elements in the stories (expressed in the art wonderfully), and the villains tend to be on the super-villain side of things, but I defend that it's still a cop book, with all the worries of the characters being like those in most crime drama.

This latest story goes with endangerment of families, which could be interesting. It also spent some time with old and new subplots, one of which provided some necessary light-heartedness. All in all, I'm excited about the issues to come, but this issue was more of a nice segue between two arcs, which isn't bad in it of itself, but...it's tough to have strong feelings about a hallway. That being said, the art was great as usual. Just keep an eye out for later issues of this arc. It's probably safe to assume it will be good. That's just a great thing to be able to say.

Thor #10

One-sentence summary: The weighty style of Straczynski really shines in slow-moving saga of the gods.

You know, regardless of whether or not you like it, you've got to give Straczynski credit for taking on the challenge of crafting an original epic in comic book form. He is taking Thor on not as a superhero but as a god in a world of superheroes.

However, this style is definitely not for everyone. For one thing, this is a very slow moving story with a fairly low amount of action. For another, as I said, this isn't really a superhero book. If anything, the one encounter with superheroes the book has had stated pretty intensely just that -- Thor is not a superhero and is not going to concern himself with superhero worries.

This issue is dialogue intense, with only a small amount of true progression through the story, though what's there is important.

One thing that will keep some readers from getting into this is the obviousness of various aspects. Of course Loki is planning something; why can't those who have dealt with him for millennia see that? The answer to that is mythology itself. As anyone who read the old Norse myths knows, many times the evil is obvious, many times the plots transparent, but the gods go on through it, seemingly oblivious to the obvious. Why? There's a number of answers you can find, sure, but I'd say the best is just "because that is what they do." Much like a superhero, a god's characteristics are determined through the stories told about them rather than through any intrinsic characteristics. Out of these stories emerge, along with the characteristics, oddities that are accepted because they are. Why do the gods plunge through a plot thick with evil with their mythic intensity? For the exact same reason no one has bothered to compare the face of Superman with that of Clark Kent.

I like Thor. I read enough comics that I'm not dying for the next installment of any of them, no matter how good -- I can have the patience to wait. Thor demands that patience, which may reasonably too much for some, but I can wait for this story to complete. A story of gods is nice amongst the superheroes.

Project Superpowers #5

One-sentence summary: Dynamite's public-domain superhero project is moving along, this issue bringing the elements together to close this chapter and set the stage for the various spin-offs.

For me, after having them built up my whole life, Golden Age comics were a bit of a disappointment. Sure, there were a handful of ones with some interesting gimmicks or art, but the Golden Age of comics was golden only in terms of sales; the stories were formulaic, the characters massively derivative from each other (with a few gems), and the art generally as quickly done as possible.

However, Ross and Krueger sat down with these raw materials and thought up an intriguing universe. They took each character and flushed out their personalities, their flaws, and what they should be like in a post-WWII environment. Taking these characters, drawing the lines on good and bad, and plotting things out, they've created a truly great universe. Taking forgotten characters and turning them into original masterpieces is a comic tradition, from Moore's Swamp Thing to Morrison's Doom Patrol, and that's exactly what they've done here.

This issue is much less plot-intensive than ones in the past, with many of the story developments taking place in the background, allowing us to see these fighters in what proves to be their element; brawling. Normally I get bored with issues like these, but given the number of characters in any number and style of fight, I really loved every panel of this.

Project Superpowers is one of the better titles of the year, and definitely among the top superhero comics out there. Given no hype at all, this Golden Age-themed comic has yet to disappoint me.

Reign in Hell #1 (of 8)

One-sentence summary: This ambitious mini-series begins with a declaration of intent, giving the reader a good feel for where it wants to go, and it's delivered well so far.

Hell is unfamiliar territory for DC. Not so much for Vertigo, no, but as a whole DC has left its Hell rather uncharted, with just an occasional demon popping up here and again. Consequently, Reign in Hell could supply something rather unfamiliar to mainstream comic fans -- an obvious world w/in the comic universe that remains uncharted.

First off, I was glad to get my dose of Shadowpact in this issue. It wasn't much, sure, but I was grief-stricken when that series got canceled, so it's just nice to see them again. There are a couple other cameos I won't spoil but were intriguing surprises to me. The art is great, with that sort of gritty detail that's been a mainstay for Hell since Bosch. The story seems solid, with definite direction and purpose, which is nice to see in a premiere issue. The dialog is...ok. I'm pretty neutral toward it; it never grabbed me, but it also never distracted me, so that balances out. What really sells this title to me is the purpose: organizing DC's Hell only to break it apart, and possibly how magic works (though that never seems to amount to much). I'd like this to reflect the events in Final Crisis, but I'm guessing it won't, since anything with even a vague connection to that series is stamped all over.

The back-up story was a bit weaker, I thought. Maybe it was my unfamiliarity with Dr. Occult, but I just found myself one step behind the whole story through; this isn't that rare for first issues, though, so I won't condemn it for that.

All said, at the end of this Hell will no longer be so unfamiliar. Whether that will add a neat element to the DCU or if it will simply eliminate one of the few true unknowns in that universe, we'll see.

Marvel Comics Presents #11

One-sentence summary: As this 12-issue arc draws near a close, the series continues to output neat one-shots and interesting arcs.

I'd like to think that I like this series for reasons that extend beyond it fitting my stunted attention span, giving me four short stories in a relatively small (30ish pages) frame.

For one thing, I like how it's done a story on the Collective/Guardian/Whatever. He seemed like he should be a gigantically important character, but just got tossed to the side; it's nice to see what's going on with him.

As a general rule, that's what I like about this. It's giving little known characters a chance to get some panels in. I imagine the Hellcat series inspired the current Hellcat mini, which is neat, and I'm enjoying the Machine Man going on right now. The one-shots, while sometimes a bit odd, are usually at least a little enjoyable. This issue had a one-joke Stingray story, but it was still fun. Vanguard (the other 12-issue story) has been good, but this one ended somewhat crazily -- I'm looking forward to the conclusion.

All in all, I'm hoping next issue isn't the last, but I'm not sure. I haven't checked the solicitations. Regardless, it's been a good 12-issue run -- attention span notwithstanding.

Glamorpuss #2

One-sentence summary: Dave Sim's bizarre half-satire/half-stream of conscious art essay continues, though somehow less satisfying than last issue.

I thought I'd do a review on a more indie comic, though it's certainly getting its share of coverage as it is Dave Sim, of Cerebrus fame, doing it. I actually really get a kick out of the stream-of-conscious art essay portion of it, as I don't know a ton about that era of artist (it's essentially about the pre-comic book artists of the 30s). In general, his parody of Cosmo and ilk aren't too far off, though I thought this issue's rant against anti-depressants was a bit weird (though, honestly, if you're familiar with Dave Sim you know to expect weird).

What Sim's doing here is certainly ambitious. He is, essentially, trying to revive a long-dead art style single-handedly. In doing so, he's also trying to personally work through the whys and the hows of all the bigger name early artists (Hal Foster, Alex Raymond, etc). In order to give some sort of structure to the title, though, he's including a few parodies of fashion magazine-style articles, in particular with the cover of each issue. I think this is hit or miss and much prefer his essay portion, but that's me, I'm sure there are others who just like the Glamorpuss portion.

All in all, I think there is a definite audience for this book. For someone either interested in comic art theory or early comic history would probably like this. However, someone looking for the average comic is going to be feeling disappointed, but, then again, why are they buying an indie title by Dave Sim?

Ambush Bug: Year None #1

One-sentence summary: How many jokes you get from this book is essentially like a scale of how much of a comics nerd you are -- casual readers beware.

Ambush Bug is one of those characters you either love, hate, or have never heard of because he's almost as obscure as the jokes he makes. If you doubt my emphasis on the obscurity of the jokes, here's a list of some of the references I caught and remember off the top of my head:

• Sugar & Spike (comic from early Silver age about a couple of kids)
• Several references to earlier Ambush Bug mini-series (such as Cheeks, or Jenni DC)
• Girlfriend-in-the-fridge
• Captain Carrot
• Etc

So, I defend that this book is really for die-hard comics fans only. There'll be plenty for them to laugh at, sure, but this is probably the most self-referential book put out in the last few years; it's definitely not for the casual reader. Is that good or bad? Am I one of the ones who loves Ambush Bug, or do I hate him?

I almost feel like leaving this review on a cliffhanger in honor of him, but I'll not and just say the Bug makes me laugh. And that probably is a sign of how high on the scale of comic nerd I rest.

Uncannny X-Men #500

One-sentence summary: A daringly different direction (it's issue 500, I get to write like Stan Lee for a sentence) for the X-Men that it'll be interesting to see through.

The X-Men titles have, for quite some time, been stuck in a rut that not even the best writers have really been able to help with. Sometimes the rut has produced good stories, sure, but there have been few X-Men stories in recent years that couldn't have been from ten, twenty, even thirty years ago.

That being said, this issue really makes the reader feel as if we're on the cusp of a big change. The move to San Francisco is a really good choice, in my mind; the location makes sense and it's nice to change scenery once every few decades. Also, I really liked the idea of a shock artist using real Sentinels as a piece of art -- it really is a fairly accurate, Marvel version of shock art. Bringing back major villains is an attention-grabber too, which I'm looking forward to, and the change of the X-Men from exclusive team to open embassy (ironically similar to Genosha) is interesting. The writing style for the team, as a whole, seems much fresher than it has in quite some time, and is a major contributor to that feeling of change this issue just oozes.

That said, there's some bad stuff that's not insignificant. For one, part of what makes the X-Men who they are is that the team should experience change w/in the members. So, why is everyone (Emma Frost excepted, though she's written here as a slightly naughtier Jean Grey) on the team from at least 30 years ago? In addition to that, the green-ness of the book got on my nerve. I'm not this monstrous tree-burner, but it was pretty irritating in this issue. I was fine until they throw a car and the line "Did it have to be a hybrid?" was said...ugh. We got it during the two pages about it earlier, it doesn't have to be stressed that much.

Brubaker and Ellis seem to be dragging the X-Men out of their rut. Whether they'll do a good job with that or not remains to be seen, but as they're two of my favorite writers, I'm optimistic.

Justice League of America #23

One-sentence summary: The second battle against Amazon continues in a truly ridiculous fashion that goes essentially nowhere.

Alright, first off, I am biased on this issue. I'm, for whatever reason, just not a fan of Vixen, so how prominently they're trying to feature her doesn't jive well with me regardless of story quality. That said, this issue is pretty weak. It opens, essentially, on Amazo taking on the Flash, which was actually somewhat interesting. The main glaring problem is that they try to cover up a potential problem (one that always comes up with characters like Amazo) with another one; w/Flash's super speed he could easily kill everyone, but if Flash can take it away why didn't he do that before getting himself beaten to a pulp? I know I know, it's a comic book, and normally I don't take issue with these sorts of things, but clearly the entire sequence was done entirely because the writer had taken issue with a similar problem. C'est la vie, all the same.

I've admitted in the past to being a story-lover, and it's true, so when an entire issue features nothing but a fight going nowhere, yes, I tend to get irritated. Maybe other people love meaningless fight issues? Personally, I'd at least require really original art to make up for such a thing. Instead, the art here...meh. I didn't care for the overly sketchy, lots-of-muscle-lines, style back when it was popular in the '90s. Now I don't care for it and it feels dated.

I'm sad about not liking this series right now. As a concept, I love good superhero teams, and I'm pretty ok with the current Justice League line-up. so it's actually a bit of a challenge for me not to like this series. However, using Amazo twice in less than two years (not to mention the arc he had in the now-canceled JLA Classified) is overkill for a pretty lame character (sorry everybody, but any mimic-type character is inherently lame due to the fact they never make any sense, even in comics).

I might be biased going into this, but, sadly, I'm more biased towards liking this series, and I still can't say I even vaguely like this.

Avengers: The Initiative #15

One-sentence summary: This series continues the Secret Invasion tie-in arc with a rather blah issue.

I've been a pretty big fan of the last few Initiatives. I thought they were fairly tightly scripted with a good mix of action and humor. Last issue did the same, while being, what I thought, a pretty good tie-in with Secret Invasion that might actually have some implications. This didn't surprise me, since I was pretty happy with their tie-in with World War Hulk, praise I gave exclusively to them.

That being said, this issue was a let-down for the same reason Secret Invasion as a whole is sort of bleh, and that's that nothing happened. Great, we get some background on a character for an issue. Woo. Awesome. Is it particularly amazing background? Not really, no. It's ok. It'd be ok if it had been a page or so of exposition in order to use it later in the issue/arc as material, but it's clearly just a one-shot with this character. Ugh. I'm so tired of everything having to do with Secret Invasion being mired for the past 2 or 3 months in the exact same 5 minutes.

That being said, who knows -- maybe they'll finally get to do something next issue.

Green Lantern Corps #26

One-sentence summary: The Mongul storyline concludes in an amazing explosion in this excellent title.

Man, when did every space title become awesome? On the Marvel side, all of Annihilation has just been incredible, and for the last 2 1/2 years Green Lantern has just again and again been one of the best titles in the DCU.

That continues this week. Both GL titles are taking a bit of a time-out from the mega-arcs they've been on, but while GL has been doing the origin story, GLC has been following Mongul and the Black Mercies. This issue concludes it in a thrilling fashion, giving us plenty of good fight panels, as well as an amazing finale to it. The conclusion is interesting, too, and goes to illustrate a bit about the green and yellow rings which, while obvious, was neat nevertheless.

So, yes, Green Lantern Corps maintains the record of space titles being awesome.

Daredevil #109

One-sentence summary: Brubaker & Rucka continue to deliver tense Daredevil stories with their grim, realistic edge, with pencils by Lark perfectly complementing things.

I should put out there right now, I don't think I've read a Brubaker/Rucka venture I haven't really loved (GCPD was a fantastic DC title, for example). It should come as no surprise, then, that I really enjoy their run on Daredevil. The writing is tense, the consequences real (for Daredevil, at least), and the plots non-obvious. I also like that we spend as much time with Murdoch -- maybe more -- than with Daredevil. He's an attorney, it's a busy life, and it actually shows in the comics. Crazy!

That being said, it's not perfect. For one thing, even for Brubaker, this is a dark comic. It's been a very long time since Murdoch's life has had anything good happen in it. If this was the only comic I read, that might be a bit of a bummer, but as is is just a change of pace.

There, I did it, I levied a (milktoast) criticism against a Brubaker comic. And I didn't even get struck by lightning or anything. Weird.

The Brave and the Bold #15

One-sentence summary: Waid continues to deliver old-fashioned, quality comic stories along with his take on DC's characters in this team-up title.

In a lot of ways, Brave and the Bold feels like a throwback title. After finishing up their larger-arc recently, they've been doing mostly smaller stories (I think this one was two, maybe three issues). These stories really don't have consequences outside of this title, and rarely does it reflect the state of things in the DCU. The bright, if basic, colors and pencils seem to me to be more reminiscent of a Neal Adams style than anything modern. It doesn't use thought balloons, but they wouldn't seem out of place.

However, in no way am I using this bash the title. Sure, it's not a masterpiece showing where the medium is headed, etc, but it's good fun, which is something that Waid's good at (see: Impulse). I think it's a great title for the comic nerd or a younger reader -- it's clean, innocent fun, which, sadly enough, isn't true for a lot of basic DC titles (not trying to sound like an old fogey, I just think DC's missing out by not having more quality titles that kids can read). Also, I think it has appeal to those two demographics by having the random selection of rotating characters. The new readers can get introduced to neat characters who might not have had an appearance in a couple years, and old fans can see their favorites again.

In addition to that, it's not sloppy writing. Waid does interesting things with the characters together, making sure their interactions aren't forced. They know each other, they operate in the same world, and they fight using all of their abilities. This issue is one of the best highlights of that, with Deadman talking about knowing the Flying Graysons back in the day (which makes sense, since they were both acrobats), and other cases I won't spoil.

Sure, this feels like an anachronism, but it feels like a really, really good one.