Reviews: Push #1 and Batman: Cacophony #1
9 Comments | Posted: November 12th, 2008 | Filed under: Reviews | Tags: adam freeman, batman, kevin smith, marc bernardin, push, walter flanagan
Push #1
The writing team of Adam Freeman and Marc Bernardin do a passable job on Push, yet another Wildstorm tie-in comic, this time serving as a marketing leader on a movie that I didn’t even know was coming out. As a prequel, I have no idea how it relates to the source material, but as a comic on its own, it’s actually fairly well put together. Character bits buoy up the slightly-clichéd government-agency-with-hidden-motives plot and the visuals by new-to-me Spanish penciller Bruno Redondo (with inks from established erotic cartoonist Sergio Arino) has hints of several other artists whose work I’ve enjoyed while still hewing to what’s become a sort of house style for the DC imprint. Inoffensive and readable, but I forgot about it almost immediately.
Batman: Cacophony #1
Boy, Kevin Smith’s not a very good superhero comic book writer, is he? Characters chatter on and on; Batman’s wildly out-of-voice in his narration, which is saying something, considering how many interpretations of the character are out there and worst of all, there’s no reason to care unless you think Onomatopoeia was the great character find of 2002, as the execution leaves so much to be desired. Smith seems to be aiming squarely at the arrested development cases that ensured that Clerks 2 paid for itself: there’s a painfully extended anal sex joke and Batman calls Zsasz’s slaughter of two people an “unholy briss [sic]” because – get this – he used a scalpel! Even some nifty technobabble involving Deadshot’s costume and a Joker who somehow manages to recall the classic Englehart take on the character can’t save this sloppy mess that smacks of an inside joke (note artist Walt Flanagan‘s presence) that somehow went a bit too far up the editorial chain.
Oh, PUSH is real, all right. I saw it along with several other trailers that were so bad I thought they were satire. It’s superheroes without the superheroes, which I guess you can just call HEROES: THE MOVIE. Nary an original thought to be found in the trailer.
I’ve heard that the books PUSH is based on are not terrible and that the film is…okay. I’m a bit baffled as to why Wildstorm has become the “go-to” imprint for licensed properties at DC, though.
If reviews for Push are ok, I’ll probably watch it on DVD because dangit, I do think that Chris Evans is pretty good at what he does.
This is the second week in a row you’ve saved me from buying something. Gotta say, I don’t hate these early Wednesday negative reviews.
Chris Evans is EXCEEDINGLY good at what he does, but I’m not sure we’re talking about the same thing.
(I should also probably mention that the people who tell me that the PUSH books are good also tell me that the TWILIGHT books are good…)
I think the bris comment was referring to the fact that Zsasz was muttering to himself about running out of places to scar himself, and was apparently going to start on his own junk. That being said, the whole sequence was quite stupid, and Sandra Hope deserves a Nobel Prize of some sort for making Flanagan’s art even passable. The Deadshot bit was pretty clever, though.
Well, that just makes it sound so much more like Batman, doesn’t it? Because dude’s always crackin’ jokes like that.
I got to the anal sex joke before I put the book down. What. Was. THAT.
I love the writers they have on this Push comic – it’s the only reason why I got the book. They haven’t done much, but it’s always some ridiculous fun. I say that having not read this floppy yet, though,..
I wish Chris Evans got better work. Between SUNSHINE and STREET KINGS, it’s clear the kid’s got talent.