Archive for the ‘WildStorm’ Category

The Highwaymen

January 1st, 2009 by jason

Written by Marc Bernardin & Adam Freeman, art by Lee Garbett

An entertaining action comic, published by DC under the WildStorm imprint, The Highwaymen of the title are secret agents of some sort.  Well, ex-secret agents, now mostly over the hill, but with one more adventure left behind by a former president (now deceased).  As I said, the comic is entertaining, and a quick read, but you do get the feeling that it was written not so much as an homage to action or buddy films, like Lethal Weapon, as something that the creators could sell to Hollywood.  This is Danny “I’m too old for this shit” Glover, paired with Michael Caine as impossible to kill agents, on the run from the sinister head of a government organization, trying to protect and deliver a weapon of mass destruction to the proper authorities.  Did I mention that this weapon of mass destruction is in the shape of a hot college girl?  Put whichever starlet of the year in that role, and you have a summer blockbuster, full of car chases, car crashes, and car explosions.  Again, I want to say that I didn’t dislike this comic, and in fact, it was fun to read, but the sales pitch was pretty blatant.  The five issue series came out in 2007, and I just read the trade from the library.  I can’t imagine that it would work as well in single issue format, since it is, essentially, an action movie.  Reading one issue, having a cliffhanger and waiting for another month would not have worked for me.

Casey Blue: Beyond Tomorrow, Issues #1-4

August 27th, 2008 by Martin

Unfortunately, I have to say, the jury is still out on Casey Blue for me.

Issue #4 came out last week, and before last night I had basically been collecting these without reading them. I liked the art, and had been hooked by the first couple of pages of the first issue (labeled “Now”) where it’s revealed that Casey is watching her own funeral. Then we jump presumably before the funeral (for a single page labeled “Then”), and then jump again to the main story line where Casey is a normal high school girl who plays volleyball. (This story line is labeled “In-Between”.)

Interesting enough premise, but in four issues, we have yet to return to that “present day” when Casey watches her funeral. We’ve figured out a bunch about who she is and why she’s a violent killer, although most of that is hearsay from a woman who tells her to “trust her instincts”. Let it suffice to say that we still really don’t know what’s going on.

At first after reading them, I was happy with these purchases, but in retrospect, while I was totally engrossed, not enough is actually happening, and I think my satisfaction with Issue #5 may determine whether I drop the series from my pull list.

Planetary: Crossing Worlds

August 1st, 2008 by Martin

Planetary: Crossing Worlds is good, universe-expanding stuff.

Basic premise here is that there are 196,833 parallel universes. (How do they know the exact number, exactly?) Planetary and the Authority both deal with these universes on a fairly regular basis. The first story here is a Planetary/Authority crossover, where they deal with some other universe’s bad guys who look suspiciously like other versions of some of the Authority characters. The second story takes place entirely in another parallel universe, one in which the Planetary folks are the bad guys (and also “control” the world), and Batman, Superman and Wonderwoman are little more than two-bit vigilantes. Elijah Snow also looks suspiciously like Lex Luthor. The final story is a Planetary/Batman crossover, but the interesting thing about it is that we visit a bunch of (3 or 4) different Batman Universes, with a different version of Batman in each one. Totally fascinating.

I really liked this TPB, and thought each story got progressively better as the book went on. You don’t really have to know anything about the plots of Planetary or the Authority to “get” these stories, but knowing the characters is probably a pre-req for total enjoyment. And enjoy it you will.

Top 10: The Forty-Niners

July 30th, 2008 by Martin

This was every bit as good as the original Top Ten, maybe even better.

I absolutely loved this book. At heart, it is a story about outsiders and racism, about culture clash, and a melting-pot society. It’s maybe also about coming of age and coming out. At face value, it’s the story of how the city of Neopolis is formed. Neopolis is the main setting for Top 10, and this is a prequel that takes place in the city’s early days.

I’m finding it hard to say anything because I don’t want to give anything away. It’s such a great story, and of course Gene Ha’s artwork is phenomenal as well. The whole thing is given a sort of sepia toned color pallet–subdued, which lends a sort of old-timey feel to the whole thing, like watching an old black and white movie or something. But the art is no less spectacular for it.

Read this book! Read the original Top 10 first, but don’t stop there, or you’ll be missing out.

Astro City: The Dark Age, Book Two (issues 1-4)

July 27th, 2008 by Martin

Astro City holds a lot of responsibility for my getting “into” comics. That having been said, The Dark Age has not really been my favorite plot line. There are certainly aspects of it that I’ve enjoyed, but the two brothers, the main lenses through which we are viewing Astro City this time around, they are not really protagonists. They are not really characters that I can empathize with. They have less of the “every day people” quality than many of the other Astro City main characters have had.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still quite enjoying the story, and it doesn’t even feel like I’m slogging through this, it’s just that I sort of wish Busiek would focus his efforts a bit differently. He’s made it clear (in the letters columns) that there are two more Dark Age books still to come out. Probably with one-off issues to be released between them. He also plugs the Astro City website (which is probably not so new anymore), but which does seem to have all kinds of interesting stuff on it.

Astro City is still one of my favorite comics. But if you haven’t read it yet, I suggest you start at the beginning. There is a lot of Astro City to love.

Smax (2003)

July 4th, 2008 by Martin

So, I must reiterate that I really dug Top 10. It blew me away, and I couldn’t wait to get more of them. And while I didn’t dislike this, it didn’t grab me in the same way. I liked the art, and the story was ok, but it didn’t have the same hugeness factor. It didn’t feel like it was just brimming with possibility and promise the way Top 10 did.

In my post about Top 10 vol. 1 and 2, I suggested that I’d have to try and find Smax at Wizard World because it was the next in the series. I did end up finding it, in the artist alley, on Zander Cannon’s table. He was in the middle of a conversation, but I interrupted him long enough to buy a copy and have him sign it. He suggested I go tell Gene Ha how much I’d liked Top 10, and told me I really didn’t need to read the other parts of the series in order, as they were all pretty disconnected. He also said they’re starting up another Top 10 series that’s going to take place just after the first two TPBs. He seemed to think it was going to be out pretty soon. (I never did end up finding Gene Ha.)

Also in that last post, I sort of blamed Alan Moore for how great those first two TPBs were, giving the artwork second fiddle. I think I’d like to retract that statement now. It really was the art in Top 10 that made the comic, it was absolutely fantastic, and the writing was only just a cut above passable, balancing out somehow into a really great comic for me. Smax, on the other hand, had a very different artistic style. A lot more cartoony and, unfortunately, without all the crazy detail in every panel that really endeared me to Top 10. Don’t get me wrong, the art was totally good, and interesting, just not as interesting as Top 10.

It was also pretty different in terms of scope and scale, setting, everything, really. The character of Smax had always seemed so cynical in the first comic, just a loner, without any real social skills, but I guess he just never seemed dumb to me, and they really made him out to be a bit daft in this comic. Although maybe he wasn’t, and just had friends (relatives, really) who made him out to be. Either way, I didn’t particularly like that direction.

My only other quibble was the incest factor. For those who haven’t read the comic, I’ll try not to spoil it for you, but incest is suddenly acceptable by the end of the comic. I think it’s an interesting question, the concept of whether, maybe, in a fairy tale universe with different rules and all that, maybe incest would be acceptable. But in this comic, it was really just a minor sub-plot. I don’t really feel like the comic sold us on that concept. So it just ended up feeling jarring. Maybe that was the point, but in an otherwise pretty fluff-filled, humorous comic about a dragon slaying, it was a sub-plot that just felt out of place, and maybe didn’t need to be there. But then again, I’m not Alan Moore.

Chuck #1

June 16th, 2008 by Michael

I picked up Chuck #1 on a whim…I’d been looking for something different from the usual Marvel superhero fare I’m used to. The art looked kinda cool and the pages I skimmed through looked intriguing enough. Then I read it and I had to admit, I was a little confused. There’s this guy named Chuck who daydreams at work about Gilligan’s island inhabited by his coworkers at a Best Buy knockoff that gets blown up. Apparently he’s some spy type of person in some agency that employs psychics and there’s some sort of “intersection” in his head. Whatever that means.

Admitting defeat, I sheepishly turned to the internet to find out more about this comic. That’s when I found out that this was a comic adaptation of a TV series…one I don’t watch. The comic was obviously written for fans of the show (which makes me wonder how successful they hope the comic will be? Is there a huge market for comic versions of somewhat obscure TV shows?), and was thus lost on me. I was more intrigued by what I at first thought the story was about…some poor geek at the “Buy More superstore” who dreams these fantastic situations he puts himself and his friends in…and makes this his reality. But since I’m not a fan of the show and they didn’t really make the comic that accessible to a new audience, I most likely won’t be picking up any more. Which is unfortunate, because there is some genuinely witty dialogue and storytelling here. If anyone else watches the show, though, I’d be interested in what they thought.

Chuck is Written by Peter Johnson and Zev Barow with art by Jeremy Haun and Phil Noto

Authority Variety Pack

June 13th, 2008 by florence

While shelving comics at our new place, I came across a stack of Authority comics in Marty’s ‘to read’ pile. I started reading and couldn’t stop with just one arc. I read Volume 2 issues #5-14 which contained the arcs ‘Behemoth’, ‘Godhead’, ‘Fractured Universe’, and a one-off called ‘Street Life.’ Then I found a miniseries called ‘Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority’ and devoured it, as well.

I have to admit that a past boyfriend introduced me to the Authority (my first Warren Ellis comic), and between him and later searches, I made it through all ~29 issues of volume 1. It looks like we’re still missing vol.2 issue 1-4, a bunch of miniseries, and vol. 3. They don’t make it easy to track down the entire series, but it has been worth it so far.

‘Godhead’ was an irreverent arc taking on the idea of religion as a drug/ virus. A new religion, led by a charismatic former movie star, takes hold of the nation and quickly spreads to a large percentage of the population, including world leaders. It bears some resemblance to Scientology, but this leader makes sure that his devoted disciples declare him ‘better than Tom Cruise’ while in the heat of the passion. The Authority doesn’t take notice until other religious sites and communities start coming under violent attack. They attack right back, until the Doctor becomes a convert and the others are captured or wounded enough to retreat. Midnighter is one of the captured, but manages to resist the attempts to brainwash away his love for Apollo. Very sweet, but very bloody. In the end, the rush of being a Godhead, and the mulititude of willing, unthinking followers, is acknowledged and somewhat coopted by the Authority.

The ‘Fractured World’ arc starts with the next issue, but it felt like I was being thrust into the middle of a story. I looked it up, and apparently it is connected to a larger crossover event within Wildstorm comics which includes an Authority miniseries called ‘Coup d’État.’ By the time this issue starts, the Authority has undertaken a coup and ousted the president of the United States. Jack Hawksmoor has taken on that role, swearing at press conferences and showing no patience for the bureaucracy that comes with the job. He explains that he will not bullshit the American people, but then refuses to comment on questions about the sudden emergence of Jenny Sparks’s alleged birth mother in China. I don’t want to spoil the outcome of that storyline, but I do find it interesting that the Authority just continues to expand the scope of its power to include head of state as well as leading a new religion, despite its original identity as ‘an anarchist cell.’ I wonder where it can possibly go next- empire-building in alternate dimensions or future centuries? Was this the original vision, or is their power expanding to find new stories as the years go on and new writers take on the characters? Is it a commentary on the difference between the political landscape of the 20th century vs. the 21st, the age of growing global conglomerates?

This miniseries visits Jenny Sparks throughout her 100 year lifespan. Apparently she has always been cute, hard-drinking, and of questionable taste in men. This expands on some of the storylines that have been touched on in the Authority title (her acquaintance with Hitler as a struggling young artist in Vienna, her marriage in Sliding Albion), and add some new twists (Einstein as a loving godfather/ time-traveling spy). It includes her deep friendship with Angie, her dalliance with an incredibly hot Shen, and her introduction to Jack as a boy tortured into his powers.

It also introduces the idea that perhaps Angie, the Engineer, is the true founder of the Authority. Her intelligence and force of will drove her to create her own powers. Did she also find a way to give direction and hope to Jenny and start the chain of events that led to the formation of a team that would provide her with home and family and an unprecedented combined power? I hope that later issues explore her ambition and her goals in more depth. There have been hints that her relationship with Jack is disappointing- in issue #14 ‘Street Life,’ Jack refers to a past lover as ‘the closest thing he’s ever had to a relationship,’ and confirms that he never wants kids of his own (partly because he has no idea what his manipulated body would produce). Will Angie settle for what she can get with him? Will she move on with someone new? Or will the drive that is hinted at in this miniseries reemerge to create the relationship she wants? Will her means be benevolent? I can’t wait to read more and find out.

Ex Machina: Tag (Vol. 2)

April 17th, 2008 by Martin

This is just about as good as it gets.

I have liked every bit of Ex Machina that I’ve read so far. I remember after the first TPB I wasn’t so hooked that I had to go read the next one right away, but I liked it well enough. I think I needed some time to digest it, either that, or I just had a ton of other stuff to read at the time. (This is likely, as I always have a ton of stuff on my “to read” shelf.) I waited for almost a year to read this book, and I clearly didn’t know what I was missing!

Now I see that there are six trades out already. I have one more on the shelf downstairs, but assuming that one is as good as this one was, I’m going to have to go get the others sometime in the near future. (Looks like the library has them, so I might just take advantage of that. Yay!)

Anyway, what was it about? This guy, the mayor of NYC, he can talk to machines. I’m not really sure if they talk back to him. We don’t really know. But some fucked up shit happens. And some funny shit happens! It’s all a bit complicated, and I don’t want to spoil it, so just read it, it’s GOOD.

(more…)

Welcome to Tranquility #7-12

April 1st, 2008 by Martin

Welcome to Tranquility #7This, the second arc in the Welcome to Tranquility series was, I felt, easier to read than the first arc. Probably this was just some amount of familiarity with the milieu and characters. We return, of course, to the town of tranquility, a sort of retirement home for old superheros and supervillians.

The arc did a decent job of turning my expectations about which characters were bad and which were good head-over-heels, which I remember being true of the first arc also. Each individual comic told a piece of the overall plot, and I think each one also had a story at the end that was basically tangential or semi-related. The thing is, I doubt I would have liked these nearly as much if I hadn’t had the whole arc sitting in front of me to burn through in one sitting. The story that is dolled out is meager from issue to issue, and unfortunately, there are too many characters to really get attached to anybody in particular. Maybe the main sheriff girl, but even her I wasn’t super fond of or anything.

All in all, it was a satisfying conclusion, and worth a read. The first set were released in TPB, so I’d assume these will also be eventually.

Astro City: Beauty

February 16th, 2008 by Martin

Astro City floors me. It’s one of those rare comic books that actually reaches the level of high art. A comic that actually means something when you get done with it. It’s a title that I am not even slightly hesitant to call literature. It consistently tells stories that are powerfully meaningful, even when taken out of the context of superpowers and costumes and cosmic space battles. Astro City has all that, but the story is so good that you get to the end of an arc, and you realize that it didn’t even need all that stuff. The part that sticks with you is that human story. But of course the point is that these stories are in that context. It uses that backdrop all the more powerfully to illustrate and punctuate the nature of what it means to be human by contrasting it with the inhuman elements present in the superhero genre. It’s a story telling formula with seemingly limitless possibilities, because the series continues to impress me with new and impressively compelling stories.

This issue in particular, did a good job of telling a very heart-warming story in the context of a relatively feeling-less robot character. We are hearing the story of a girl robot who is modeled after a Barbie doll. (I’m sure Barbie was changed to Beauty to avoid trademark infringement.) She has super strength and can fly, but she is also curt and tactless when it comes to human interaction. She’s made of plastic, and she saves the world on a regular basis, so most people give her a break. But we learn that she doesn’t know where she came from, or who she is, and that question nags at her, troubles and bothers her, making her far more human than external appearances would have us believe.

I’m not going to say anything more, for fear of ruining it for you. But let it suffice to say that finding out about her past is as deliciously fun as it is meaningful and thought provoking.

All in all, another home run for Astro City. You should read it now!