Thanks to everyone who visits, comments, and links.
I appreciate it more than I say.
Thanks to the publishers for another interesting year,
even if I didn’t like a good 3/4 of what was going on.
Thanks to Pappy Van Winkle’s 20 Year Reserve,
which will be my date this year as Kristin works at
the fancy-schmancy restaurant that pays her half of
the bills.
San Francisco’s Laptop Indie Rock pioneers PantsPantsPants succeeded in re-shooting, scene for scene, and in excruciating detail, the entire opening sequences of season 1 and season 5 of the popular television show “Full House.” (Link found via Scotto, who I never give enough props to. ‘Sup, Scottobear?)
Because of the excellence of this clip and the music attached, I went to their site and picked up the full-length CD Pop Songs To Make Us Famous. You can also buy it over iTunes if you want to do that, but I’m still a bit old fashioned and want the physical artifact. Scotto’s also kind enough to link to the video of Hasselhoff’s cover of “Hooked On A Feeling”, which is glorious. There’s some NSFW ads on the site, so be aware of that if your boss is still lurking around.
Just read Keith Giffen and Andy Kuhn’s 10 and while it’s obvious that Giff’s translating of Battle Royale is a starting point for this, he creates his own nasty, amoral tone poem from the simple yet effective concept of “people being forced to kill each other by an outside force.” While I won’t say I enjoyed it, exactly, I think that it performed its goal quite admirably.
Dwayne McDuffie’s Fantastic Four Special (not the most imaginative name – the interior state it’s called My Dinner With Doom, which I like a great deal more) is a well-done little thing about Reed having dinner with Doom (duh) on the day of the Latverian Rapprochement Festival, where they get to hash out a few things. There’s a lot of great character moments in this and it’s one of the rare post-Simonson stories (the only other one that I can think of is FF: 1 2 3 4) that nails the strange combination of respect, hatred, and pity that Doom and Richards have for one another. (Before anyone starts: yes, I’ve read the Waid stuff and it just…didn’t quite get to the mark for me – no, that’s not a pun. There’s something missing for me in the whole enterprise, even while it seems to do everything right. It’s all visual and no subtext, I guess.)
Daredevil #80 reminded me a bit too much of that Secret War story in The Pulse that featured people shouting and visiting hospitals, but there’s some truly well-done stuff in here: Urich having to make a tough decision (why he stays a reporter is beyond me), the return of the Night Nurse, getting to see Black Widow and Elektra engage in a nuclear-level bitch-off, and ninjas, ninjas, ninjas!
Rocketo‘s fourth issue sees Rocketo Garrison placed in a series of unpleasant situations and managing to make the best of them. A chunky bit of comic, this reminded more than ever of Mielville’s The Scar, but I doubt it’s intential: giant sea monsters are a long-standing portion of the whole “fantasy” genre. Espinosa’s art is a beautiful thing that I can get lost in for days if I’m not careful. I hope the trade that’s coming out has sketches and stuff, as the development process behind a lot of them is probably just as interesting as the final product.
Doug Fraser’s Mort Grim is a “graphic novella” from AdHouse Books and while it’s very pretty and has a nice hook: “Ghost Rider meets The Seventh Seal,” I was left pretty cold by the whole effort. Maybe it’ll grow on me, but $5 for a 3 minute reading experience (and that was me being slow to admire the art) is a pretty poor entertainment value and I walked away with nothing to cling to, which was sort of depressing, because this is a book that should be up my alley like a nuclear-powered robot Hitler controlled by six squirrel monkeys.
Hey, that Revolution On The Planet Of The Apes wasn’t half bad. It slides right into the film continuity quite well, with the main story setting up the eventual Ape Riots that seize the planet like a kitten in Koko’s grasp. (Except without the love.) Ty Templeton’s plotting is well done and Joe O’Brien’s script manages to make the whole thing seem menacing while maintaining the tone of the original material nicely. Oddly enough, the supplemental material may well surpass it in my book: Caesar’s Journal has Ty The Guy and Bernie Mireault showing us what’s going on in the Lead Monkey Insurgent’s mind and For Animal Rights (again with Ty, this time with “Attila,”) giving us a snapshot of the political climate that leads to the eventual usurping of homo sapiens.
War drums beat quite heavily in BPRD: The Black Flame with decisions, confrontations, and lovely, lovely Guy Davis art. I can’t wait to see how it all ends. I hope it involves giant dead evil worms.
I’ve got some other things to look at: the new Fables trade, along with that Englehart Captain America And The Falcon collection, and Squarecat Comics along with that mysterious Star Trek trade that does not pick up where the last one left off, instead choosing to start with Volume 2 of the series, which was set after Star Trek V: Shatner’s Giant Ego Meets A Tiny Budget.
Marvel’s set up a NextWave preview page that features pages of art from the upcoming Ellis/Immonen joint along with the best Superhero Theme Song I’ve heard since Kochalka’s Super F**kers tune.
No, really – there’s a theme song for NextWave. Go, listen.
(While I doubt any actual music could live up to the reputation that they’ve built, part of me wants to hear an Amazing Joy Buzzards record. I’ve got this fusion of Gorillaz (obviously), The Ramones, Iggy Pop, and Joy Division in my head when I think about the cacophony they’d blast out.)
I’ve read the new issue of All-Star Batman And Robin The Boy Wonder and when I reached the panel that both Sterling and Wright laughed at, I found myself cackling for a good minute. I actually think that the basic setup of the All Star Black Canary was not entirely awful, if a bit reminiscent of the Year One Catwoman origin. This may be because I have a thing for nice Irish girls.
Watson and Gane’s Paris actually had one of the most erotic things I’ve seen in a comic on its last page. It sort of snuck up on me, but wow. I’d rank it up there with Maggie being crazy hot all the time in Locas.
What? Stop giving me that look.
I’m not doing the favorite-comics-in-2005 thing because I already spent too much time on the poll, which will see its results debut on January 15. However, there is one award I want to hand out…
Issued for support above and beyond the call of duty
and the willingness to deal with many, many pounds of
bound paper littering our small apartment and for being
really, really pretty and kissing me a lot.
Linkblogging. It makes the web what it is.
If you want to read an article about Yazoo written by pre-Pet Shop Boys Neil Tennant, you can click here.
Speaking of Vince Clarke, he talks to the Erasure Information Service about their new record and odds and ends on their website.
Dave Lartigue found this excellent blog post with the top 50 music videos of the year. I really love the one for “War Photographer,” but that #1 slot, the Aphex Twin one? Creepiest thing ever.
Have a late Christmas card that is bursting with cheer from the Citizens Committee For The Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Why does Santa hate ninjas so much, anyway?
Dave Campbell (whose site you checked before mine) put this site on his Favorites of 2005 list, which is a high honor, indeed. I am not actually going to do any favorites list, because I participated in the Comics Blogger Poll. You people should know what I like.
That’s right – Alex in Sexland and Footlicker.
While Campbell’s list is full of joy and fun and bears, this guy needs his “best of” rights taken away. His top 10 comics of the year and there’s only one non-Marvel-or-DC book: Walking Dead. Heaven forbid he look to the other gillion publishers for non-spandex inspiration.
Ye gods, look at variant covers for Spider-Man comic books. My favorite is the FF one, but I’m sure that the Peter Porker fans “in the house” will be happy.
Again with the late Christmas wishes – a chunky .mov file from the set of Clerks 2, which I hope is a return to form for Smith. By “return to form,” I mean “I hope there’s more blowjob jokes and less efforts at sucking his own cock or being ‘serious.’”
Finally, to complete the internet cliche:
I saw an ad for this book last night in one of the fan-tastic1 Flash 80-page giants that Chris at The ISB was kind enough to ensure I was able to purchase from his emporium and I am fascinated by the gruesomeness of this image. Sure, the infamous Wolverine-ripping that the Ultimate Hulk is engaged in sure is gross, but at least Wolverine’s at his normal size and we know he’s going to get better or, hopefully, make with the earthworm action and grown into two pissed-off mutants2. The Atom: not only is his wife crazy – he’s going to be baked into brownies that will be consumed during an Up In Smoke all-day repeat marathon.
Sam memed me, so I guess I’ll do a meme instead of providing original content. This revolves around the concept of “guilty pleasures,” which is something I apparently don’t understand at all, in case you can’t tell by my responses.
Guiltiest Song: I don’t have any. I can rationalize my adoration of just about any song, including “Hung Up” by Madonna, which is a fascinating slab of sampledelic pop that’s completely unabashed and unashamed.
Guiltiest TV: If it’s not Battlestar Galactica, it’s not getting watched until DVD of late. Kristin and I regularly heckle that harridan known as Rachel Ray, but this is because we’re petty, horrible people that hate her with the passion of a thousand burning suns.
Guiltiest Food: This is a category I can understand, as there are distinctly horrible foods that I enjoy. Sometimes, I really really crave McNuggets. I don’t ever get them, so that’s sort of a guilty non-food in the end, I suppose. Now, I have been known the extoll the virtues of a item offered by Wendy’s, but it’s just plain silly to deny the awesomeness of the Monterey Chicken Sandwich.
Guiltiest Drink: Jack Daniels and Dr. Pepper. I can spend a weekend quite tipsy with a two-liter and a fifth. It goes down just like Frank would have liked.
That’s right – just like Ava.Guiltiest Crush and Homo-Crush in one fell swoop:
I am not passing this meme on.
Every Monday, Diamond provides a list of products shipping for
the current week, as well as those products expected to
ship the following week, but that list is like, never accurate.
Anyway, this is what they say is shipping this week, December 29, 2005
Please check with your retailer for availability. They probably didn’t order anything remotely independent without you placing it on your original order, anyway.
Dark Horse
OCT050025 BPRD THE BLACK FLAME #5 (OF 6) $2.99
Poor Roger. I’m so bummed over that.
DC
AUG050180 ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN THE BOY WONDER #3 $2.99
SEP058264 ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN VARIANT EDITION #3 $2.99
Attention: I really want that variant edition for the cover featuring Crack Addict Black Canary. I know this makes me my own worst enemy, but I don’t care. I think it’s got something…I mean, something besides syphillis.
OCT050256 JLA CLASSIFIED #15 $2.99
Sterling reports that we see Superman being Super in this. That’s good enough for me.
OCT050233 LEX LUTHOR MAN OF STEEL TP $12.99
I liked this, even if I have no clue what was going on in the Batman/Superman fight in issue 3 or 4 or whatever.
Image
OCT051771 TOP COWS BEST OF MICHAEL TURNER TP $24.99
Wow, $25 for three drawings made in high school art classes? Dicks!
Marvel
OCT052038 MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS WOLVERINE VOL 2 TP $12.99
OK, finally, I have a reason to link to this.
OCT051997 THING #2 $2.99
I’m WFTT with this and She Hulk because the slow knife kills comics best, but I am reading it at the shop. This is the Marvel Two In One comic I’ve had in my head this whole time.
OCT051998 YOUNG AVENGERS SPECIAL #1 $3.99
I’m sure this will end up in a trade, but I’ll probably give it a gander anyway – this is a shiny pop superhero comic for just about everyone that doesn’t seem to owe too much to the rest of the ouvre, unlike, say Astro City or Invincible.
Other Companies
NOV053056 ADV OF LESBIAN COLLEGE SCHOOL GIRL VOL 1 GN NEW PTG (A) $9.95
In Volume One, our heroine: cuts her hair short, starts wearing large boots, goes vegan, and kicks my ass for touting cheap stereotypes for chuckles.
OCT052735 PARIS #2 (OF 4) $2.95
Andi Watson + Simon Gane = Niiiiiiice and smooth.
OCT053108 REVOLUTION ON THE PLANET OF THE APES #1 (OF 6) $3.98
$4 is a bit much, but I am probably going to pick it up because it’s got monkeys and stuff and that’s cool.
SEP053093 ROCKETO #4 $2.99
My favorite current title from the strangely-businessing Speakeasy, this moves over to Image real soon now and I hope that Espinoza sees what he wants ouf of their deal versus the sour-ish things I’ve read about Speakeasy. Oh, and since I’m lazy, read this analysis of Speakeasy’s future plans by Chris Butcher. Not only is he sexy, sassy, and smart – him write real smart about stuff.
OCT053199 STAR TREK COMICS CLASSICS VOL 2 DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR TP $19.95
This features the Origin Of Saavik, people. That’s exactly what you needed to ensure that your enjoyment of Star Trek II was complete.
JUL053284 WILL EISNERS CONTRACT WITH GOD TRILOGY HC $29.95
This reminds me: the new Eisner biography, A Spirited Life has some interesting anecdotes and manages to make sure we know how much the grand old man of comics did for the medium, but there’s this disorganized feel to the whole thing that left me having to flip back and forth a few times, and I’m really not terribly stupid.
Honest.
Anyway, this is the end of this week’s fairly short list and as a prize, you get to look at photos of my visit to Vegas. Doesn’t that sound nice, Giant Neon Cowboy?
Aw, man. Now I’m all sad.
Cranky, tired, jetlagged, hating red-eye flights with stacks of delays and wondering why I ever book them. To continue the thread from the “bad comics shop” post, here’s a visual comparison.
Beautiful, well-lit, easy to navigate
shop with tons of pure awesome.
I’ll be doing the list tonight, a little late. I apologize.
Merry Christmas, everyone. I hope your Life Day is as good to you as mine will be to me.
Oh, and PopJustice has reviewed the new Pet Shop Boys record.
So, let me tell you guys a tale of comics shopping. You see, I’ve come to Las Vegas to see my pal Josh, his lovely wife Kathleen, and their new-ish daughter, Svea. The thing is, I’m not very much into What Makes Vegas Very Special to a lot of people – my idea of gambling is buying two or three scratch tickets a month as an idiot tax. Anyway, my first full day in the city (after arriving late last night after one of the Worst Flights Ever was spent getting socks, wandering around UNLV’s campus, and bumming about. Bumming about with Josh means that we go buy comics – it has meant this since 1989 and it will mean this in 2989 when we are floating heads in jars, a la Futurama.
Anyway, we went to two shops yesterday that represented opposite sides of the comics retail spectrum and boy, do I have some things to say about the first.
The first shop visited was Kool Kollectables, which is located on Sahara in North Las Vegas. This shop could serve as a handy definition of How Not To Run A Comics Shop in many ways. In fact, here’s a list of events that show you how crappy it was, presented in chronological order.
Some comics retailers need to learn something: most customers that walk into your joint are there to spend money. Sure, there’s quite a few that may not spend more than $5 or $10, but when someone comes in and immediately asks for the older comics and puts some aside, trusting you to price them fairly, they’re what is referred to as “a whale” in this town. He or she is there to put money in your pocket.
I had the polar opposite experience at Alternate Reality Comics, located conveniently close to the UNLV campus. I walked in and was greeted by a brightly lit-well organized shop that may have been light on back issues, but was heavy on the black and white indie filth that I love and made it a snap to find everything from The Essential Ant-Man to the Identity Crisis hardcover with special sections set aside for creators like Ellis and Moore with a great Manga selection. Original art from titles as varied as Preacher and Optic Nerve took up some wallspace and even the inevitable DC Direct figures were pegged neatly.
The owner, Ralph Mathieu, has been nominated for the Eisner award for his retail operation and a few minutes speaking with him showed me why. He’s lively, funny, and even offered me a 10% discount on my purchase because of my “discerning taste,” which makes him rank quite highly in my book. While his shop (like the similar Comicopia in Boston) may not have a huge back issue stock, that’s the sort of thing I can get from eBay (or contact my boy Chris and ask him if I can get the hookup.) Money that could have been spent at Kool Kollectibles went to his operation and I couldn’t have been happier to give him that cash.
(No, I’m not going to gamble…much.)
File Under: It’s too early for this nerditry…
Lartigue: So hey I have an important question
Lartigue: Bruce Banner runs into the test area and boom the gamma bomb goes off and he’s all OH NOS GAMMA RADIATION
Lartigue: What if, and stay with me here, what if, at that very moment, he bit Peter Parker?
Lartigue: Would Parker gain the proportionate strength and speed of a slightly older science geek?
Lartigue: “Radiation coursing through my veins! I feel like I know a little more about science than before!”
Lartigue: Bugle Headline: SUPER-SCIENTIST DR. PARKER: THREAT OR MENACE?
…and make certain people weep into their pillow.
Fuck, man. I gotta do the fucking list.
Fine, but I don’t have to like it, do I? No.
Previews
NOV050002 MARVEL PREVIEWS JANUARY 2006 PI
NOV050005 PREVIEWS ADULT VOL XVI #1 PI
NOV050001 PREVIEWS VOL XVI #1 PI
NOV050003 PREVIEWS VOL XVI CONSUMER ORDER FORM #1 PI
This reminds me that I need to get my Diamond order in from this past month’s volume. Eek!
Dark Horse
OCT050035 GOON #15 $2.99
I love The Goon and his crazy mixed up world, but I only get the trades. I am a bad human being and I should be chastised for killing comics slowly instead of just stabbing them in an alley.
SEP050049 STAR WARS X-WING ROGUE LEADER #3 (OF 3) $2.99
Eh. It’s not good, it’s not bad. I’m just enough of a Wedge afficianado to read this.
Yes, I know that makes me rank just below Red Bee fetishists.
DC Comics
OCT050243 CRISIS ON MULTIPLE EARTHS THE TEAM UPS VOL 1 TP $14.99
This will make the plane ride out to Vegas much more enjoyable. Oh, yeah – forgot to tell you people. I’m going to Vegas to see Josh and Kathleen and Svea. May not be writing much while I’m out there (Dec 22-26.) Sorry, but that’s how I roll, playas.
OCT050239 INFINITE CRISIS #3 (OF 7) $3.99
Blah blah blah. You all can debate its merits. I’m just waiting for the One Year Later titles I care about to start, like Red Tornado: Superstar DJ and Sugar And Spike Go Vertigo-Go..
OCT050265 PLASTIC MAN VOL 2 RUBBER BANDITS TP $14.99
BEGIN HERESY: I’m not that impressed with this particular title from Kyle Baker, a cartoonish I have repeatedly expressed my love for. It just seems like a fit that sounds much better than it is, at least in my mind.
OCT050267 SEVEN SOLDIERS BULLETEER #2 (OF 4) $2.99
Hells yeah!
OCT050324 SWAMP THING SPONTANEOUS GENERATION TP (MR) $19.99Some of that Rick Veitch madness I’m sure I’ll enjoy. I liked the first collection of his work on Mike Sterling’s Favorite Comics Character (1969-2005) quite a lot and I hold a tiny bit of hope that DC will bury the axe and let that final Jesus story actually run in one of these trades.
Image
AUG051640 SPAWN COLLECTION VOL 1 TP $19.95
In 1999, a secret group of comic shop owners and managers gathered together in a musty basement in Fremont, California to discuss the McFarlane situation. For years, his Spawn paperback program had ensured that they couldn’t get rid of their back issues no matter how deeply they discounted. Opting to take matters into their own hands, they hired a hitman who broke into McFarlane’s compound and took a photograph of himself holding two of the infamous Sosa/McGwire baseballs while the family slept.
This photo was sent to McFarlane with a note that said “No paperbacks for five years. We have to get rid of all this crap.”
To be safe, McFarlane kept to their plan for an additional year for good measure. To some, this story may sound familiar.
Marvel
OCT052025 ULTIMATE GALACTUS BOOK 2 SECRET TP $12.99
Uh, wow. That’s it for me.
Other Companies
AUG052917 ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY #16 (RES) (MR) $15.95
Again with the “wow” at the scarcity of stuff care about – I actually went through the list forwards and background to see if I missed anything and, uh…I don’t think I did. Of course, I’m really looking forward to seeing Ware’s latest thing because, hell, as much as I rant and rave about how people act like he’s the only person making worthwhile comics, I am fascinated by his work and the externally cold storytelling that reveals more about humanity than any amount of wailing and gnashing from other storytellers.
The only other thing on the list I am really hyped about is:
NOV054121 GODZILLA FINAL WARS WS DVD PI
…which I am waiting for Netflix to send to me. Go Go Godzillllaaaaaa!
Finally, my pal Kitty has a new issue of her ongoing mini Geraniums And Bacon out and you should buy it. I just got mine in the mail today (which is silly, as she lives like ten blocks from me, but if I get her to hand it over in person, she’s going to want me to buy her a beer or a cider or something and then it gets ugly because she’s all like “Let’s play Quarters!” and then we’re getting kicked out of The Abbey and being told that we’re banned for life.)
…from my new Digital Rebel.
Merry Christmas to me, bitches.
Whilst doing my morning crawl, I saw that Heidi MacDonald has managed to find proof that Saturday Night Live can occasionally deliver something that’s not just yet another tired “Debbie Downer” sketch.
Click here to see the video for “The Chronic Of Narnia,” wherein the simple joys of life (particularly that of a New Yorker) are given full play.
This whole “talk positively about comics that I like” thing sure has been wearing on my nerves lately. Seriously, I’ve not gotten my snark well and truly on in a while and what better time than the holiday season to unleash some holy wrath upon unsuspecting creators? The endorphin boost will surely help me through the dreary weather, you know? This time, two consummate industry professionals, Peter David and George Perez, are the subjects of my ire with the trite, nasty 1994 miniseries Sachs and Violens.
First of all, I want to put it on the table: I fully respect these two creators. Peter David’s solid run on The Incredible Hulk, along with several other enjoyable projects (I’ve always had a soft spot for his Trek work) has made sure that while I may not be his target audience, I think he’s earned his place at the Comics Dinner table. George Perez is, of course, George Perez, master of detail and storytelling. Comics of the 70s, 80s, and 90s would surely lose a good deal of their glory without his work at the forefront.
That said, they’ve both made missteps along the way – David’s recent return to the green goliath featured a useless House Of M tie-in and he seemed to write as if he were ill at ease with the whole write-for-the-trade editorial mandate and I fail to be as impressed with his creator-owned Fallen Angel as he seems to be. George Perez was responsible for a science fiction horror comic about menstrual blood gone bad called Crimson Plague that lasted a mercifully brief two issues before being put out of the readers’ collective misery.
Sachs and Violens features a model and a photographer who battle evil with whips and bullets. (Guess who uses what!) After discovering that her friend Wendy has been murdered on a set of a snuff movie, Juanita Jean (J.J.) Sachs vows revenge and her own personal Bruce Weber, Ernie “Violens” Schultz (somebody explain to me how he got that nickname because I don’t recall any sort of comment in the text besides “That’s what they called me in Vietnam”) ends up tagging along to save her from both herself and the bad, bad mens what want to hurt her real bad. Once their initial adventure is over, they find themselves roaming the country for the rest of this 4-issue miniseries.
There’s an essay in the back of the first issue wherein Peter David pontificates a bit on the nature of sex and violence in our culture and how he wants to use this series to address it. What’s suspiciously missing is his saying “Yeah, I read that Sin City book that came out and thought to myself ‘Self, you should break off a piece of that action’ so that is what I’m doing.” All the trademarks of Miller’s black and white epics are here: skimpy outfits, large men with guns, villains that represent the very darkest in human nature, but it seems strangely diluted and cuted up for no particular reason. It’s almost as if some Lifetime director had gotten their hands on Rodriguez’s screenplay for the Sin City movie after significant rewrites by the same sort of people that befouled Catwoman after Rogers was off the project.
Maybe Peter David doesn’t have a genuinely nasty streak in him like Miller does – the scripts for these four issues keeps reminding us that Violens was in Vietnam and my gosh, bad things happened there and it may not explain everything, but surely you can understand why he might blow the head off a guy with an axe who’s going to murder his partner, right? There’s no need to wallow in the reason why the man’s so handy with a gun – he just is. I’m always annoyed when subtext becomes hamfisted text, constantly rearing its ugly head instead of trusting the reader to discover that there’s more to a character than presented. Not that Miller necessarily hints at greater depths in Sin City, but there’s the opportunity for interpretation for a dedicated reader who wants think that that it’s about more than just ninja hookers with machine guns.
There’s a scene that sticks out like a sore thumb: early on, Schultz is looking for JJ and is touring various sex shops, hoping to pick up a lead and keep her from committing a truly grievous crime. After some salty discussion of snuff film distributors, whips and chains, and the like it comes to light that the woman Ernie is speaking to is his own mother. Oh-ho! Golly, wasn’t that unexpected? What a knee-slapper! It’s a very diluted shock that doesn’t so much shock the reader as distract them as they plow through the dull, overexplained story.
Scenes like that, along with characters like Rugmuncher The Evil Lesbian (which pissed me off as much as if he’d created a character named Darkie the Magic Negro) and Gerry The Gerrymander (a too-obvious Barney knock whose name drove me to distraction. He might as well been a clown called Richard The Redistrictor,) reduce any sort of impact that the series could have. There’s seriously disturbing stuff being discussed here too: snuff films, child labor, Mardi Gras (where there’s a panel dedicated to two dudes kissing, oh my god that is so fucking edgy) all get their chance but the entire enterprise feels like the sort of “dirty” fiction I wrote in tenth grade and kept in a secret notebook. Clich�s abound, characterization and quirks replace actual character and no matter how over-the-top Sachs and Violens is supposed to be, chunks of this1 are hard to swallow.
Oh, and don’t think I’m going to let George Perez get off unscathed. First of all, JJ looks like Wonder Woman throughout the book and her Catwoman Light costume reeks of 1984 heavy metal video – you remember the kind, back when women straddled hoods and stood in formation far away from the performance, trying to look like they weren’t just waiting for their next fix. Pages are packed far too tightly, never letting the reader breathe for a moment or savor any of the action besides the occasional splash page. The coloring is pure 1994 Photoshop madness as well – too many shading effects render what were probably some perfectly agreeable character shots completely into garish, ugly garbage.
In fact, the only person to escape this without any scorn at all is letterer John Workman. Outside of doing his usual consummate job, I hear he crawls into critic’s beds at night and slits their throats. John Workman: you da man!
So, why did I read the whole miniseries? I’d heard people that I trusted praise this book, saying that it was an underrated gem in the crapheap that was the mid-90s comics explosion. I thought that industry stalwarts like Peter David and George Perez could provide a worthwhile, if not exactly great diversion for a mere four issues. I read it because it was free to me and I’ve come to realize something: that’s never an excuse. Maybe I’m glad I didn’t fall for this series – it’s mean that I had to go and pick up Fallen Angel and see what’s happened to them in the decade since they debuted, and that’s a step I’m not willing to take.
