All Flash #1

Brendan: Mark Waid and Wally West both return to the Flash title this month. Starting the very moment that both Bart died and Wally returned this issue bridges the gap from the third volume of the series to the… second volume of the series. Actually, given the Golden Age Flash that makes this the fourth volume reverting to the third. Shit man, time travel and legacy heroes are tough nuts to crack.

Waid delivers a heartfelt tribute to Flash/Kid Flash/Impulse, his own creation. It is heartfelt, but forced. The piecemeal art is uneven, and doesn’t seem to serve any greater purpose other than to get the issue out on time. The best pages are by Karl Kerschel, who was on the title for one issue and seemingly couldn’t keep the schedule. It’s a shame, because he manages to convey speed without the standard “speed lines,” the visual trick that sounds like illicit narcotics. We also learn the secret to Bart’s ill timed power loss: Wally’s return sapped the Speed Force. This doesn’t seem to gel with the whole plot point that the Impulse-clone Inertia built a Speed Force tower that siphoned it all, but then who pays attention to what happens in cancelled comics?

The most inspired aspect of the book is the punishment Wally bestows on the evil clone responsible for his cousin’s death. It is the kind of detail that reminds you that Mark Waid once wrote this title with some acclaim. Other than that, it is simply a housecleaning that allows for the new Flash: The Fastest Dad Alive series to come in a month without baggage. If more of this is what we can expect from the un-relaunch, count me out.

Adan: Yeah, what happened over there you guys? I understand that Bilson and Demeo’s arc just sucked (I gave up after only one-and-a-half issues), but Guggenheim’s was actually pretty good. I went back and hunted down the back issues after I heard of its awesomeness. I guess Bilson and Demeo were really just that awful, huh? I hope somebody learned a lesson somewhere.

Anywho, this is just housecleaning, as Brendan said. It’s a pretty unremarkable issue, except for that last two pages, in which Acuna (with the worst art in the whole book) draws scenes from the Flash family’s future; a couple of series teasers like at the end of the first issue of the Justice Society of America. Those two pages are the only reason I’ll take a look at the next issue of Flash (assuming of course that Acuna will not be drawing it.

Let’s talk about the two covers for a second: I usually love both Middleton and Sienkiewicz unreservedly, but holy crap! Both of these covers are just awful! If covers are supposed to make you at least take a look inside the book, then somebody at DC done fucked up.

Highwaymen #2

Adan: This is just all kinds of fun. It’s what every buddy movie should be like. Two guys who don’t really like each other but have to work together for the greater good. One guy shoots, the other one drives. And oh yeah, it’s set in the near future. It’s from my head, people!

Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman (who you will hear more of soon) write an awesome, awesome story about two guys have to do all kinds of cool and crazy shit to protect a girl from sinister forces. The who and the why don’t yet matter (except for Able Monroe and his partner McQueen, who may be so cool that he doesn’t need a first name) because things blow up, people get shot in uncomfortable places, and cars do things cars were not meant to do. At some point in the near future of this mini (probably the very next issue), we’ll be told the why and who, I’m sure.

The artist Lee Garbett is one part Brian Stelfreeze (who does the cover, actually) and two parts Frank Quitely, but in a good way. Garbett’s men look like the old, craggy bastards they are, but his women do not, as Quitely’s so often do. And his action sequences look like all the best parts of The Ride. And take look at the expression on the matador’s face when his bull is unceremoniously shot in the head. Priceless!

This book is all the best parts of Die Hard, Speed, 48 Hrs., and Bullit all rolled into one fantastic, fluffy confection. It’s like comics can be fun once in awhile or something.

Brendan: I enjoyed this issue. I think cops who are too old for this shit are cool. I think hot girls caught up in mysteries they don’t understand is cool. I think cars that perform at high levels despite impediments like bullets are cool. I think President Clinton is cool for having a secret mission fifteen years in the future. I don’t think shooting bulls in the head is that cool, but it isn’t so uncool that I have problems.

But I don’t think I’ll be back next issue.

This is one of those times when I get real pompous and say that comics need to have a reason to be comics. The reason superheroes dominate the industry so wholly, at least in part, is because spandex works way better on the four color page than it does in reality. Just ask a biker. I think that on some level the writing team of Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman know this, because their Monster Attack Network book shows this perfectly. Monsters make good comics. And no matter how many times I see Brian Stelfreeze or someone who emulates him try, I don’t think cars make particularly good comics. They don’t engage me enough as a reader for me to be willing to wait 30 days to find out what happens next.

Don’t get me wrong, I did really enjoy this story, and I will be eager to read it in trades when the time arrives, but I don’t want to wait six months just to finish a buddy-cop action movie. I could do that in two and a half hours by renting any of the movies Adan listed. I dug this, and keep checking the singles if you’re already waist-deep. If you have yet to start this, though, do yourself and the story a favor and wait until you can chug through it all at once.

Meltdown TPB

Brendan: Flare, flame based superhero no one’s ever heard of, this is your life.

It would have to be, because you are about to die.

Meltdown gives no less than the thirty year life story of an average superhero. He is average in that while he is a capable hero, he is hardly an outstanding one. He has dealt with outbursts of rage, a failed marriage, and has crossed the line from hero to murderer. This is an ambitious tale of a man’s reflection on what his life was and what it could have been. It gets pretty depressing at times, but manages to come around with some optimism at the finale.

The real draw in this is the huge range Sean Wang shows in this work. He goes all out in matching the style to the phase of life Caliente is reflecting upon. The art is expressive and playful during his childhood, manga-influenced during the teen years, and progressively darker and grittier as his hero career spins out of control. It is a well utilized device, and manages to convey the breadth of a lifetime well.

This was a two-issue miniseries, and so Image goes all out to spice up this package. You can read the original pitch, see Wang’s style tests, and even get a cool DVD-style commentary more in-depth than most. This is a fun superhero story that the big two would never be able to tell.

Adan: “Fun superhero story” is not how I’d categorize this, but to each his own. This is a very moving story about one guy and all the crap he goes through in his life. It’s almost as if super-heroes are real people too, with broken dreams, lost loves, and shattered promises (put that in your pipe and smoke it, John Byrne!) The premise of this book is that Flare’s powers are quite rapidly eating him from the inside, so it’s gonna be a downer, for the most part. My favorite aspect of the story was Flare’s relationship with Amara. That is some sweet, heartbreaking stuff.

Now I can’t get John Byrne’s comments out of my head, so I have to say this: if we are to believe in heroes, then they need to be people. The success of Silver Age Marvel was in most part due to the fact that all their heroes had real world problems. You can’t deny that Stan and Jack didn’t focus on Donald and Reed and Bruce, sometimes moreso than they focused on Thor, Mr. Fantastic, and the Hulk. And by God, Spider-Man would be nothing without Peter Parker’s problems and maladies! Flame (with alter ego Cal) are just carrying on that tradition.

Sean Wang is one impressive fella. I would have sworn that there was like three guys drawing this book, but nope, it’s just Sean Wang being all badass. If you haven’t for some ridiculous reason, you should read his Runners: Bad Goods. He writes and draws, and it is awesome too.

I do have on problem with this work: Caliente? Seriously? A baby’s born with a fever and the parents decide to commerate that by sticking the kid with an awful name? Bad parents! Bad, bad parents!

Brendan: If Astro City is fun, if Amazing Spider-Man 121 The Night Gwen Stacey Died is fun, then this counts as fun too.

Monster Attack Network GN

Brendan: This book is what AiT/Planet Lar does best. With one part stoic lead, one part mysterious beauty, and about a hundred parts super gigantor chaos monsters you get the blockbuster that is Monster Attack Network. The concept is simple; huge monsters arise and destroy the island of Lapuatu, and M.A.N. rebuilds. When this happens once every month or so, it isn’t a problem. When it starts happening damn near everyday… well, that would be spoiling it.

The story doesn’t give us any more than we need to enjoy ourselves. It has all the banter and action one would expect from a story about fighting monsters. The only trip up comes in the art. Nima Sorat has a unique style and vision for the book, and the characters manage to be familiar while remaining original. When we do see the monsters they are as horrific and awesome as they were when you were ten. The problems arise when the style overwhelms the narrative, and when the lack of consistency between pages impedes the transitions. The opening action sequence takes the knowledge that there are monsters for granted, and fails to give us that one big establishing shot. It evens out towards the end, progressively getting better.

Don’t think too much about this one. You’ll love it.

Adan: This is Marc Bernadin and Adam Freeman doing crazy shit again. This time, instead of blowing things up with guns and cars, though, they do it with huge freakin’ monsters! Nate and company at MAN (I just love calling it that) save the island nation of Lapuatu from the rampaging monsters they coexist with. Coexist, you ask. Yes, coexist. These monsters are usually peaceful, but sometimes they throw a tantrum and MAN has to step in to corral them back to safety while saving humans and fixing the damage. They try very hard not to kill the monsters, as they are also the rightful inhabitants of the island.

Bernadin and Freeman write in so many action sequences, it’s unfortunate they didn’t get a better artist. Nima Sorat is good when the story is slow and relaxed: tender moments between colleagues, conversations with bad guys, dudes sitting in front of banks of computer screens. But once the scene calls for action, the inks get all muddied up and I can’t tell what the hell is going on. Maybe MAN 2 will have an artist with a better sense of space and moving forms.

Other than that, though, good stuff. These two guys are really impressing the hell out of me.

The Order #1

Brendan: I swear this will be the last time I say this: Civil War did many things, good and bad. The Initiative has been an odd non-event marketing push without any unifying events, but a broad philosophy that signifies the paradigm shift in the Marvel Universe. Thunderbolts has shown how the rules have changed, and the old concepts of “good” and “evil” are moot under the new rules. Avengers, both Mighty and New, have illustrated how the balance of power has affected even the heaviest hitters, and changed how they work within the system. The New[er] Warriors represent the counterculture that rises whenever authority takes power. Avengers: The Initiative serve to show how the system is working to make sure that there is never another Stamford, and providing structured training where there was chaos. Oh, and the Great Lakes Initiative are showing how comics are still awesome.

Which brings us to Champions, or the Series Name Yet to Be Determined, or, officially, The Order. There is irony in the fact that Marvel needed to change direction from the legacy of a failed title to a new, albeit nonsensical one, because this is the most original concept driving a new Marvel book since Runaways. Using the model of a sports franchise, where there are various positions to be filled, the Order is the most ambitious team to launch out of the Fifty-State Initiative. The state with the most electoral votes has the least recognizable team, and the most unproven heroes. Try-outs are over, and the game is on.

This book starts with the surprisingly honest story of Henry Hellrung and how he came to the position of Anthem, the group’s field leader. This opening sequence tells you exactly what you need to know about this series and the creative team; Fraction delivers a solid and charming speech that both characterizes Hellrung as a likeable guy and lays out the thematic objectives of the series, and Kitson delivers some of the most engaging talking heads to grace a page. Despite the coy and playful tone of the opening soliloquy we immediately understand the gravity of the issue, as it is revealed that, like Tony Stark, the team leader of the Order is a recovering alcoholic. But there is a difference between the habits of Stark and Hellrung. Stark is a drunk. We don’t see Tony struggle with his alcoholism in the daily way that alcoholics do. We see him drunk, or at best, we see his disease get name dropped. Basically, Tony has always been defined by his alcoholism, but never his recovery. This is unrealistic. The alcoholism of Henry seems to actually be a motivating characteristic and not a crutch. He structures his life in ways that people in recovery do. Obviously, this is a sensitive subject and being a sensitive subject it navigates a tightrope utilizing the characteristic with respect, while avoiding cliché and farce. Fraction accomplishes this tactfully by developing a back story woven into the Marvel fabric while keeping the story moving.

There are some issues, and while a bevy of new characters that don’t make it to the end of the issue is a good way to illustrate what is at stake it is a steep task to ask of readers. The fact that the “positions” and code-names are separate does little to help recognition, and the team jargon can be difficult to parse. But then stuff blows up so all is forgiven. There is a huge amount of potential in this series and provided each team member is as fleshed out as the leader we should have a winner on our hands.

But really, couldn’t it have just been The Pantheon?

Adan: Since Brendan’s said almost everything I wanted to say already, I can now only complain about what he didn’t mention (although take heed that I agree with pretty much everything he said, except for that Civil War lovefest). Henry Hellrung was supposedly the star of an Iron Man television show in which he portrayed Tony Stark as Iron Man, That’s how he and Tony got to be so buddy-buddy and that’s why they went out drinking all the time. But all that was pre-Civil War, when nobody knew that Tony Stark was Iron Man (except those few times when they did… stupid retcons). In the flashbacks, both Tony and Henry are drunk as skunks, which means this is pre-Demon in a Bottle which is definitely when nobody knew Tony was Iron Man. But whatever, it’s just continuity, so fuck it.

Also, Pepper Potts as a super-hero is a little hard to swallow. Not as hard as her flirting with her husband dead only two or three months, but still.

Regardless, I love Fraction and I love Kitson, and if the Coach hadn’t already written a love letter, I would have.

Programme #1

Adan: I’m willing to give Pete Milligan the benefit of the doubt, but this is one confusing first issue. There are various time and space jumps in the story, going from 1945 Germaby to present-day America to some undisclosed time in Siberia. I need some caption boxes telling me where and when I am so that I don’t get thoroughly confused. It doesn’t help that C.P. Smith’s art is really unspecific. The characters don’t really have any facial features to speak up, and settings don’t really look like anything either, thereby exacerbating the problem. I’ll give it another issue, but then I’m out.

But before I go, let’s talk about made-up place names. Why would you call what is obviously supposed to be Afghanistan “Talibstan?” Do you think that’s clever or something? Did you and Rick Veitch make a pact to wipe Afghanistan from the map? Just call it what it is and leave the cute stuff to fantasy writers.

Brendan: If I read this right, the bad guys here are Nazis, Russians, the subtly named Talibstan, and maybe aliens. I think Dubya needs to change his pants about now.

This issue was either intricately planed or slow. At C.P. Smith’s best moments he evokes J.H. Williams, at his worst he seems to just paste photos onto the page. The art is moody to the point of distraction, and when it works it suits the tone perfectly.

Even after reading this issue twice I can’t decide if this is a timely piece about America’s global presence or a feeble attempt to pit us against the entire world. I’m not sure I care enough to find out.

Screw Heaven, When I Die I’m Going to Mars GN

Adan: I’d read some of Wheeler’s Too Much Coffee Man stuff in the past, but I hadn’t been paying all that much attention. It turns out I’m an idiot.

Wheeler is incisive and hilarious, writing about topics ranging from politics to love to aging to nonsense. How can one be incisive about nonsense, you ask? Read the book (especially page 98) and find out, because it turns out that if you explain a joke, it’s no longer funny. This book is chock full of quotable lines, which I shall now give a sample of:

“Rationalization! It’s the solutiuon to all of life’s worries!”
“Money isn’t the root of evil, it’s the fertilizer.”
“Seems like some sort of punchline should go here.”
“This just in, hysteria makes for a good news story.”

Each page contains one complete joke, but is also a part of a larger theme or story. You can read it in order or jump around and read pages at random (I recommend the second method for the first reading only because the juxtaposition of thematically different cartoons makes for some excellent essay fodder).

This is a really smart and funny book and you’re just doing a disservice to yourself by not picking it up (it’s only $12.95!) so pick it up.

Brendan: It is hard to sell an audience on strip-humor, even with the overarching story arc/ discovery. This all begins with Too Much Coffee Man, who we see drink very little coffee, and goes as far as giving us Shannon Wheeler’s own personal story. It is moving and funny. It is tragic comedy, like when a clown dies. Buy it. Read it. Steal it. Just find a way to get at this because these are good comics.

Oh, and my own personal faves are poop jokes, anti-capitalism sentiment, countering counterculture, and the terrifying truth as to the zombie resurgence.

Super-Villain Team-Up: M.O.D.O.K.’s 11 #1

Adan: Okay, so I guess M.O.D.O.K. is Danny Ocean and Mentallo is Rusty. That leaves Spot, Living Laser, Rocket Racer, Puma, Nightshade, Armadillo, and Chameleon… wait, that’s only nine. I guess the other two will be recruited later.

This looks like it’s going to be a hoot. It’s a bunch of morts assembled together to perform no less than “the greatest heist in the history of the multiverse.” I hope it lives up to that promise (like the alluded to Ocean’s Eleven, but not its far worse brothers Twelve and Thirteen). This issue is all set-up as the various morts are summoned by the large-craniumed mastermind. The whole issue is pretty dang funny, from Rocket Racer insisting his name is Bob to Mentallo’s swindling of a Vegas casino while impersonating a Jew. However, and no disrespect intended to Fred Van Lente, but I kind of wish a Dan Slott or a Matt Fraction were writing this. Their ear for comedic dialogue would probably come in handy here (and now I kind of want to see Fraction write a mini like this; maybe he can write M.O.D.O.K.’s 12).

Francis Portela has a style that is very reminiscent of Steve McNiven, especially the faces. In fact, if I didn’t know McNiven is a tremendous slowpoke, I’d swear this was him.

My favorite part of the book, and this should come as a surprise to no one, was the Mexican wrestling match between Armadillo and the Chupacabra commentated in Spanish peppered with English moves. It’s just like on TV!

Brendan:I’m all for Slotted Fractions, but I was happy to see a fresh writer in Fred Van Lente on this book. Actually, he’s popping up more and more lately, taking up a lot of the Marvel Adventures books as well as The Weapon. He is obviously impressing multiple editors, and with a book like this I can see why. Balancing this large a cast can be difficult, especially when they each need to be plucked from obscurity. It is done well enough for me to be curious for more, but I will be super-pissed if we go all three issues and don’t see any M.O.D.A.M.

Francis Portela is clearly channeling McNiven, but I hope we get to see him progress beyond simply cloning what sells. I was also really impressed with GURU eFX’s colors. With all that plus the kickass Eric Powell cover, this issue was a surprisingly well complete package and a great start.

Zero Killer #1

Adan: Arvid Nelson has a knack for creating new versions of the world we live in. This time around, it seems to be a post-apocalyptic world with a dilapitated New York City as its focal point. A kind of Escape From New York-type setting in which different gangs control different sectors and also defend themselves from American military incursions. Don’t bother looking for that in the story itself, as all this information is imparted after the story, in a newspaper section.

The story itself revolves around Zero, a bounty hunter (maybe) who’s hunting Black Cat strays, and Stark, a girl being chased by the aforementioned strays that Zero saves. The Black Cats are the gang that controls the Chrysler Building and presumably the surrounding area. They’re led by the constantly topless Black You don’t really get a feel for any of the characters in this first issue except that Zero is a badass and the Black Dahlia is probably sex-obsessed. Stark is a blank slate thus far and Zero, aside from his bad-assery, is too. Thankfully, Matt Camp’s art makes up for it somewhat. His faces are very emotive and really help to convey meaning, and will do a much better job of that when the characters are better fleshed out. Unfortunately, his panel progression could use some work. For example, in the opening fight scene between Zero and the Black Cats, one can’t really tell how the fight progresses. Zero just punches them all out, but there’s no sense of movement between foes or how they’re all placed in relation to each other. The gutters between panels aren’t that big, buddy.

Still, an intriguing title, one I will read for a few more issues in hopes that it will live up to its promise.

Brendan:I liked all the stuff you pointed out, Adan, but this issue was SLOW. Maybe it was the sparse dialogue, and maybe it is just a factor of the world-building, but this felt like ten pages spread over twenty-two. A girl gets mugged, saved, and the hero brings them to their former master… and that’s it? But maybe I ask too much, after all the premise reminded me of Kevin Costner’s “Waterworld,” and this is already much better than that.

Zero is a cool hero, and I probably liked Dahlia more than I should have, but I hope future issues give us a little more substance within the story. Matt Camp was solid and Dave Stewart was his usual outstanding self. The question isn’t is this story good, it is and will be better, the question is how the topless Dahlia manages to keep her hair in place just enough to remain decent. What’s the secret? Mirrors? Holographic image inducers? Double stick tape?

I have research to conduct.

And Others…

Adan: I know I’ve done nothing but complain about how Meltzer has handled Justice League of America so far (except for the Lightning Saga crossover), but this issue was fantastic! It’s a done-in-one issue with Red Arrow and Vixen trapped within the Watergate Hotel rubble while underwater. Gene Ha provides the art, and conveys the suffocating nature of being trapped under rubble excellently. As the rubble settles around Roy and Mari and the small space they inhabit gets even smaller, Ha’s panels get smaller and smaller, leaving more and more of the page just dark, empty space. It also helps that Ha’s art is dark and dirty, and looks exactly what you would except an enclosed space amid shifting rubble to look like. This is the kind of story, with writing and art conveying the same emotion, that comics were made to tell. Good job, guys.

Brendan: Really? I felt 100% opposite, and that this issue wasn’t nearly as smart as it thought it was. That is actually how I’ve felt this entire run.

I died a little with the Bagley/ Bendis Ultimate Spider-man era drawing to a close, and the Marvel Adventures Giant Sized Avengers was the coolest thing I didn’t get out of the ‘fridge.

Adan: Lastly, let me talk about The Adventures of Rabbit and Bear Paws v1: The Sugar Bush! Which Brendan was too lazy to get to. The two main characters, Rabbit and Bear Paws, are brothers aged twelve and ten, who cause all sorts of mischief for their tribe and the British soldiers currently occupying the nearby lands, so it seemed like a really fun children’s book, but unfortunately, it is very inconsistent. It is very much a children’s book, but not in a good way. It is very simplistic and everything is laid out with no possibility of personal interpretation. I guess that because it was a children’s book, the authors felt a need to really dumb everything down. The only good writing here is in the retelling of Ojibwa fables and myths. We are told a flood myth and an expulsion from Paradise myth. Of course, this just might be my love of mythology talking here, but I really felt those two things were the only well written pieces. Yes, it was simple so that children could understand, but not so dumbed down that an adult would be just bored stupid reading it. Unfortunately, the rest of the book is.

The artist uses a cartoony style with clean lines. Everything is a caricature, which is really the best kind of art for a kids’ book. Both Rabbit and Bear Paws, along with their parents and General Braddock, have really good character design and are easily distinguishable from every other character, who unfortunately tend to look like each other. Excepting those five, everybody else is either and Ojibwa template or a British template and are very difficult to tell apart. Good thing most of them are quite unimportant to the story itself.