Thursday

“Noah has to eat these,” Gerald says, throwing a bag of pork rinds into my (ethnically, but not religiously) Jewish boyfriend’s hands. Gerald videotapes Noah eating the pork rinds in the passenger seat. I don’t question our driver simultaneously videotaping – I’ve seen this before on the West Side highway, and Atlanta roads are safer at 11:30 at night. The hotel shuttle and public bus have stopped running. Gerald is our fellow podcaster and hotel roommate, he’s also saving us from a $45 cab ride, which is great, because unlike last year I can’t afford to be here.

“I’ve never had pork rinds before,” Gerald laughs in his semi-creepy way. I have only eaten pork rinds twice, and these are the worst of the two, I tell him. “Noah’s going to hell, and I have it on video!” Gerald laughs.

“He might be going to hell, but that’s not why,” I say, as Noah explains that Jewish hell isn’t so bad. Apparently they roll your sins out in a reverse-Katamari scenario. Sins like rollover minutes.

“I had to run out of our interview with Rob Fenelon and Walter Amos to pick you guys up.” Gerald is one of the three hosts of Anime World Order, the internet’s most informative English-language anime podcast. Walter Amos is a NASA scientist and a fan of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Rob Fenelon is a sandal-wearing consultant and very oldschool anime fan.

Friday

I was trying to avoid the “History of Magical Girls” panel but when I wake up on Friday I’m there in the magical pink heart of darkness. I already know about Magic Witch Sally I think bitterly, at least the Sailor Moon sitting behind me is learning something new. I think that pink haired cat girl sitting up front is about my age. Two years prior I had pink hair.

The panelist is Ed Hill¹, who Noah remembers from Akon 7 – the old days. Ed shows the crowd an impressive collection of clips from the 60’s and 70’s – not ripped from youtube but real, quality videostuff gotten through Ed’s connections. By the end of the panel I’m really enjoying myself. A clip from a 1998 show called Ako-chan has us cracking up – Ako-chan has the power of ’80’s cinema.

That’s what I’m after here at Anime Weekned Atlanta, the good stuff: crazy clips, oldschool fans, Waffle House, and a tour of Adult Swim. Cartoon Network’s Censor has lured us here with the promise of a Williams Street tour. The Censor is a Nine Inch Nails fan with an iphone and a serious vinyl toy collection. Friday we duck out of the convention to meet him.

Williams Street ranks on my top five list of cool offices, but not at number one, despite the bubble machine and fake hedge wall. It’s recently been redecorated to look “more like a cruise ship.” In one of the conference rooms someone has drawn Earthworm Jim on the markerboard and written a list of oldschool videogames. What meeting spawned this list? Was it even a meeting?

We do not get to chill with MC Chris and Space Ghost as I imagined. We do discover that the Super Deluxe conspiracy is part of Adult Swim. The Super Deluxe cubicle jungle is suspiciously empty.

The Censor gives us a tour of Turner Master Control and it is as impressive as the name implies. All of the Turner satellite video feeds are playing on one giant screen like the control room in Ghost in the Shell; Stand Alone Complex. A lone employee mans the room, and instead of watching forty or more television channels at once he’s reading the internet – truly a sign of our times.

The Censor kindly gives us a ride back to the convention, saving us another $30. Our podcaster friends have been invited to dinner with the Japanese guests, causing Daryl to skip out on the formal dance. One of his listeners had shelled out the $25 for Daryl’s “Fire and Ice Ball” ticket for a laugh, and now Daryl has botched the deal.

Anime Hell is as advertised; Hell. This is Dave Merrill’s convention, by god, and he has the best collection of weird/painful videos outside of youtube. My brain makes a snapping sound as Merrill plays an infomercial featuring children dressed as Bible characters singing Beach Boys songs with the lyrics replaced.

“It’s irritainment!” Merrill squeals during a long clip from 1970’s live action sentai (Power Rangers-style) show Lion Maru. I have only heard of Lion Maru from Otaku USA magazine. At Anime Weekend Atlanta you’ve got to know about these things in order get in with the really cool nerds.

I hope “irritainment” comes into common parlance. I madly scribble down the title Message From Space in my new Adult Swim notebook. It looks highly irritaining.

Next is the traditional “Midnight Madness” panel. Fans dub and recut anime into fanparodies. I am a fan of these works. A fan of fanparodies. Truly there is something wrong with me. What kind of depraved nerd is a fan of other, higher level nerds? Last year I missed “Fisting the North Star”. This year it’s a re-mastered edition of “Nescaflowne” by Studio Sodeki. I’ve seen it twice, but not in the last few years. It’s a reworking of the Escaflowne TV series and movie. The new plot is about coffee magnates and a girl with the ability to cause plot holes – it’s not far off from the real thing. It has a better ending.

Saturday

In the morning out hotel roommates drive us to a Waffle House where our waitress is missing her front teeth. She has a great accent.

Noah and I run the Anime World Order panel. Our podcast is the Ninja Consultant show, but AWO is busy recording a guests at another panel. Paul Chapman of the Greatest Movie Ever podcast helps us out. Daryl arrives mid-panel to make an appearance in front of his adoring fans. He introduces Noah as Gerald and says I’m Clarissa. One guy in the audience buys into it and refers to me as Clarissa for the rest of the panel. I’m too polite to stop him.

After the panel Noah and I chat with one of our listeners who we’ve only met once before, at AWA last year. A gaggle of Haruhi Suzumiya crowds the hallway as we talk. The Haruhi panel is full. I forced a nearby Haruhi to pose near the sign.

Later Noah and I catch the end of the “I [Heart] the ’70’s” panel, featuring Merrill and a friend’s kid named Ivy, who is about nine years old. Ivy vetoes Captain Harlock, calling it “stinky,” but approves of Galaxy Express 999. I make a note of it, and write down Lulu the Flower Angel.

No other anime convention has the guts to do so many oldschool panels. Anime Weekend Atlanta brings you panels devoted to a single year, panels like “Anime 1982″ and “Fandom Before Time”. When you’ve worked up a serious geek habit like I have, it’s hard to find nerd-gurus who really know what they’re talking about. The internets are overflowing with teenyboppers still debating subs versus dubs in their diapers, but at AWA I can meet the real thing – guys like Amos and Merrill and otaku gentleman Carl Gustav Horn.

At the Dark Horse Panel Carl Horn – the man himself – lays it down for the audience; this is Dark Horse’s 19th year of publishing manga. Old Boy won an Eisner, the sixth Eisner for Dark Horse.

“The future of manga is outside of Japan,” Mr. Horn says, referring to Japan’s shrinking population. Dark Horse is publishing CLAMP’s “Mangettes” which will have a simultaneous release in several countries.

Mr. Horn passes around samples of upcoming books. The hardbound Style School looks like required reading for comic artists – it covers artistic techniques in a how-to-Comikers-like-format. The Akira Club art book pulls out single panels from the Akira manga and lays them on single pages like art hanging in a gallery show. It’s an incredible book emphasizing the artistry of manga. It’s probably cheaper than buying all of the Akira manga, I decide.

CGH goes over other current and upcoming releases with very few new announcements. Dark Horse will be releasing the Blood+ manga and novels in January and March of 2008. Ghost Talker’s Daydream is a manga and anime title, the manga will come out in July of 2008. The Vampire Hunter D novels will hit shelves in November. Bride of the Water God is a manhua title set to be released on October 1st.

Two titles grab my attention: The Color of Rage is a Koike work set in the 1850’s about a Japanese guy who’s trying to get back into Japan and a shipwrecked foreigner. Japan’s closed door policy means both men will be killed if found out. Translucent is about a semi-transparent girl who can’t control her powers of partial invisibility. Volume one is available now, volume two comes out on Halloween, and volume three on January 30th, 2008. I email Katherine, who has long since taken over this Manga Recon column. Katherine is a ninja, and she’s already halfway through a review of Translucent. She’s always one step ahead…

The preview of Translucent on the Dark Horse webpage is disappointing. I was under the mistaken impression you could see through the girl’s skin and internal organs occasionally.

Outside of Carl Horn the best thing about Anime Weekend Atlanta is the Anime Music Video (AMV) contest. The AMV community turns up in droves at this con and my boyfriend is crazy for the stuff. We sit through hours and hours of the exposition videos before I can’t take it any more and set out in search of food.

A Log Home show is going on elsewhere in the convention center. I feel sorry for the poor bastards in blue polo shirts. This is too good of an opportunity and I grab a young man in a Viking outfit I recognize from a videogame and demand he stand near the “Log Home Show” sign. I take a picture. A nearby Log Home show employee looks annoyed.

The Subway in the mall food court is a scene from the End Times. Overwhelmed by hundreds of hungry costumed freaks and geeks the ice machine has broken down and ice is laid out in coolers on the floor. Cardboard boxes of straws and lids are open, sitting near the ice coolers – no time to stock the containers, only enough time to boxcutter open the crates.

I return to the AMV contest in time to see our friend dokidoki get a standing ovation for his send-up of an MPAA commercial. “Piracy is Awesome” the video concludes, and the video artist in the audience, for whom video piracy is serious hobby – are driven to their feet. The next video is an extremely detailed remake of Dire Straight’s “Money for Nothing” done with Cowboy Bebop characters in 3-D animation. It’s an impressive video – someone spent a lot of time on this – but it’s not the overall winner. The overall winner is set to a ska version of the Bumblebee Tuna theme and mixes together dozens of anime series replacing objects with cans of tuna. When it’s over the song is stuck in my head for a week and I end up buying a lot of tuna.

My fellow con-goers and I head to a steak house in the mall parking lot across the street. It’s the dead center of urban sprawl – most of America consists of Circuit Cities in a mall parking lots these days. Our waiter is a sweet young man with a soft southern accent who is blown away by our out-of-state IDs. We scare the crap out of the poor kid with our strange custom orders and New York ways.

Back at the convention hotel the moment I’ve been waiting for finally arrives; Carl Horn is having a party. Mr. Horn throws fabulous parties. Last year he projected French New Wave movies on the ceiling and a slideshow of classic art on the back wall. This year there’s a display of a Shitotsugh Lhadatt’s imperial outfit from Wings of Honneamise on a wooden semi-cross structure. Behind it is a miniature Japanese screen laid in gold and decorated with the faces of Hideki Anno and Hayao Miyazaki, photocopied from a poster of a conversation they had in 1987. Behind the screen a slide projector provides a backlight for the scene.

Mr. Horn serves Moscow Mules to each guest who walks in the door, greeting them in turn. Carl Horn is always a gentlemen, always wearing a suit, even to the Dark Horse offices where there is no dress code.² I make a poor attempt at conversation:

“I’ve only heard of Moscow Mules twice,” I begin, “Once in the book Speed Tribes; Days and Nights with Japans Youngest Generation.” Mr. Horn knows the book. Before I can go on and mention how I’ve only drank Moscow Mules in Japan, a very drunk young man approaches.

“I hear there’s real birch beer here!” the young man bellows, a little too loudly for the low-key party. The theme from Gunbuster 2 playing on a hidden ipod. The young man’s eyes are red and unfocused. Can’t he see I was trying to have a conversation here?

“Yes, birch beer,” Mr. Horn affirms, and repeats his cocktail party chatter about the history of the Moscow Mule and it’s popularization of birch beer. I’ve heard it before, since he’s gives the same spiel to everyone who walks in the door. I’m tremendously annoyed at the drunk kid, but CGH is patient with him. He’s a boddhisatva of infinite patience for fanboys.

Anime World Order and I head up to Dessloktoberfest, a different party in the hotel, dedicated to bad guy from Star Blazers (also known as Space Battleship Yamato). Last year the same party knocked my socks off – super-old fans had decorated the room with Desslok’s face (??) and served Matrix-reference red and blue punch, the red punch being non-alcoholic. I’m surprised to find it’s the same party again this year. Maybe it’s the same every year. Maybe Dessloktoberfest has been going on for all 13 Anime Weekend Altantas.

AWO is supposed to get their picture taken with Mr. Horn so we head back to the other party. My head is full of Moscow Mules, half a beer, and the blue punch but I’m still a horrible conversationalist. Mr. Horn talks a bit about Otaku USA magazine.

“I wrote that Tekkon Kinkreet article,” the words just bubble out like some sort of belch, a pathetic attempt at speech.

“I know, I read it.” Mr. Horn replies. And that’s all he says about it. He turns to Daryl Surat with a smile. Daryl idolizes Carl like a role model and Carl sees a lot of himself in Daryl. I’m jealous – or I was until I uploaded the photo:

Mr. Horn talks a bit about how much he admires Patrick Macias’s writing style. Even Carl Horn is jealous of someone else’s writing, and that makes me feel a bit better. My otaku-fu is weak. I must sit under waterfalls until my writing improves.

I am reduced to the role of camera-holder, taking pictures for everyone of Carl Horn standing with Anime Wold Order. Mr. Horn says he would’ve thrown this party in honor of Anime World Order again, like last year, except for the anniversary of Gainax and the new Evangelion movie.

Sunday

It’s 3 AM and we all go to sleep. Sunday is a horrible blur. My eyes are dry from lack of sleep. I meet some old friends for breakfast. The “Dubs Time Forgot” panel is horrible. Those dubs were best left forgotten.

Daryl is invited to sit in on Carl Horn’s annual Evangelion panel. Noah is annoyed. “The people who’ve never heard Carl Horn’s Evangelion speech before won’t get to hear it,” Noah whines. Nevertheless, the crowd enjoys Daryl’s counterpoints.

Clarissa and Gerald and Noah and Alison and I eat at P.F. Chang’s for lunch. I’ve never been to one and I’m amused to find it is exactly as parodied on South Park. We say goodbye to everyone at closing ceremonies and share a ride to the airport with Daryl Surat and a bunch of strangers, saving another $30 at least.

Noah and I lose Daryl in the impossibly long Delta security line. It’s probably the last we’ll see of him until next year at Anime Weekend Atlanta 2008.

¹ Ed Hill is the author of Carl Horn’s favorite American doujinshi, “Fairy Princess Yukio Mishima,” collected in JUKU magazine.
² I have this on good information from a former employee.

As promised last week, a very special edition of BLAAPAS, in which we eschew the possibility of snark and mean-spiritedness for the certainty of good comics. This is my last of these columns, at least for a good while, as I will be moving away to Hong Kong in less than two weeks. I wanted to end my tenure here on a good note, so Brendan and I decided to invite Laura back in for a special one-shot of comic reviewing goodness (we weren’t sure she’d agree what with being a hotshot magazine writer now). And we all decided to just focus on things we love, so that instead of telling you what new comics are crappy and should be avoided at all costs, we can tell you about the timeless comics that you should read as soon as possible because they’re just that great. So without further ado, BLAAPAS! – Adan

Age of Bronze by Eric Shanower

Adan: This is a book that should be taught in literature classes and art classes as well.

Eric Shanower takes the deep, layered story of the Trojan War and displays it in his lush pencils. It is a difficult thing to recount the entirety of the War, but Shanower is doing his best to do so. And in case you’re ever confused, the two trades currently out have lots and lots of back-up material to keep you straight. Things like a glossary of names, so you know how to pronounce these Greek and Trojan names as well as who all these people are. There are genealogical charts so you who everybody is related to. There’s even a bibliography with all the material he’s read and drawn from (you didn’t think he just used the Iliad did you?) so that the reader can go and find out more for himself.

Yes, there is a long time between issues, but Shanower does everything himself. He researches, he writes, he draws, he even letters. When all is done, this is supposed to be seven volumes long. This might take a decade or two, but it will be totally worth it.

We reviewed this but once back when it was just me and Laura (as that is about how often it comes out), and we disagreed on only one point: whether or not Helen was a right cunt. I still hold that she is, and I think the text agrees (Helen’s first scene in the book certainly portrays her as a selfish whore who will willingly give herself to a man to escape another man she willingly gave herself to years before).

Batman #667 and #668 by Grant Morrison and J.H. Williams III

Adan: Morrison got off to a bad start on Batman (I would throttle Damian until he dies, but you know what they say about ideas and genies; you can’t bottle them up once they’ve been released), but he’s recovered quite admirably, with this arc the seeming culmination of that recovery.

It is no secret that I love Grant Morrison’s work with the passion usually reserved for things like pants and Americone Dream ice cream, but he’s really outdone himself here. Morrison takes a forgotten idea and forgotten characters from the Silver Age (who are only give tiny sections in both Wikipedia and the Batman Encyclopedia) and makes something awesome out of them. The Club of Heroes, which amounts to basically a collection of international Batman knock-offs (yeah, I said it Wingman), has been invited to billionaire philanthropist John Mayhew’s island home to catch up. Unfortunately, Mayhew, who originally financed the Club of Heroes, has been killed by the Black Hand, and the island has become a locked room mystery. The body count rises and Batman must solve this before anymore of his acquaintances suffer grisly deaths.

Even more impressive than Morrison’s story is Williams’ art. Little things like black border panels instead of white whenever Batman is present, drawing each member of the Club of Heroes in a different artist’s style, and playing with panel layouts to form new and exciting reading experiences (for example, the Black Hand’s hand forming the borders in the panel depicting the destruction of assembled planes) are what makes Williams the most innovative sequential storyteller currently working in the field. This might his best work since Promethea.

The last issue of the arc is supposed to ship on the Wednesday before I depart for Hong Kong, so let’s hope DC is on time, eh?

Brendan: This arc is everything you’d hoped Grant Morrison’s Batman would be. It is as ambitious as it is beautiful, and as Adan says, that is saying something. Adan is putting a lot of faith in the payoff, though. Even the best story can be killed by a poor finale.

Eh, I’m not worried.

Casanova by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba

Laura: As Matt Fraction himself said in a recent issue of GQ, his inspiration for Casanova was simple: he wanted to give us all “the world we were promised from superspy films, where people can just jump out of airplanes with jet packs, and there are giant flying casinos that only the super-rich know about, and we can have lots of fabulous, near-anonymous sex without consequence.”

Haven’t we all had that dream, or some version of it? There’s a little part of all of us that still fantasizes about that world we were promised by so many blockbuster spy movies, where we would be beautiful and bad and effortless, and always, always have a jetpack waiting in the wings.

Casanova is that dream dismembered, and put back together as something stranger and more potent. It is the mutant cyborg love child of two James Bond movies fucking on acid. And it comes at you pretty goddamn fast, so do your best to keep up.

“What did I think when I met Casanova Quinn?” asks the obligatory hot nurse bedded by Casanova. “‘Surely this was the man who would burn the world.’ And I loved every second.”

So will you.

Adan: I can’t say that’s why I love this book, as frankly, it is just another version of that kind of superspy film that I’ll never get to live out, but it’s done so well and so cool, that it makes it all okay. Casanova Quinn is everything that a superspy should be, including a dick and great in the sack. Also, he has a alternate universe evil twin (does he have a goatee?) and he maybe sleeps with his sister.

What’s not to love?

Brendan: Nothing. There is nothing not to love. If you can’t get behind pseudo- science super action adventure, you really shouldn’t read comics. Never mind the ultra-packed paneling. Don’t worry about the subversive two-tone color scheme. Forget the Zach Morris like fourth wall breaks. Don’t read this book. It’s your loss. Jackass.

What were we talking about?

Demo by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan

Laura: “Hey, you ever get this weird feeling that you’re different somehow?” asks the girl in the opening story of Demo. The answer, of course, is that of course you have, and that’s always been a huge part of the appeal behind the superpowered hero with a secret identity. Unless you traversed adolescence via a magical temporal wormhole, you know what it means to feel misunderstood, alienated, and fundamentally out of place, even in your own body, with no idea what to do next.

Comic Book Resources described Demo as “what The X-Men would be if they were created today.” Which is not true at all, because there’s no way a modern-day recreation of the X-Men would be this good, this dark, or this fearless. Whether we’re walking through the aftermath of a suicide, watching a romantic relationship unravel from beginning to end, or plumbing the depths of various forms of regret, Demo doesn’t pull any punches. Rather than twisting the knife, Wood twists your stomach with the subtle, creeping ache that accompanies most of life’s mistakes—the feeling of things that cannot be undone.

That’s not to say there are no bright spots, that there isn’t any humor or redemption possible for the characters, just that none of it is promised, which makes for a far more interesting (if occasionally bleaker) read. Quite frankly, the end of the book disturbs me, but to paraphrase the words of one character, it’s not its job to make me feel good. It’s here to tell me the best stories that it can, and it does.

Adan: At this point, we all know that I do in fact love B-Wood and I no longer think he is a Communist. Like everything he writes (with the exception of the Couriers stuff, which are awesome for completely different reasons), Demo is the kind of book that can’t really be pigeon-holed into any one genre. You just read and you laugh, you cry, you get angry, and you end up feeling like you just read your life, only with more superpowers.

Brendan: This book captures the hopelessness of young adulthood. It is a painful read, but an important one. Thinking about this book makes me depressed, but in a positive way, I guess. Either that or it makes me want to hurt myself. I guess I shouldn’t reread this book too often.

Filler by Rick Spears and Rob G

Adan: I love Rick and Rob’s stuff a lot. I’ve never read anything by either one of them that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy. And Filler is the best of their collaborations.

Rick gives us one of the best conceits in comic books ever. John Dough (hilarious) is “the background in other people’s lives.” He’s not a main character. He gets paid to stand up in police line-ups as the filler so that the witness can pick out an actual criminal. But something goes wrong and he becomes the main character in somebody else’s story.

The twists and turns this noir tale takes makes me want Rick to write noir all the time. He’s really good at it, and what could’ve just been another Double Indemnity copy becomes a fully-realized take on the noir genre with an amazing conceit thrown in to make English majors like myself giddy with excitement.

Rob’s art, normally just black and white, gets some red thrown in to show off important plot elements, as well as the copious amounts of blood this sequence of events produces. I also like that most of his people are pretty ugly. There’s exactly one guy who’s decent looking, but there’s a very good reason for that. This is an ugly story filled with ugly people doing ugly things.

This is one of the few trades I’ll be bringing to Hong Kong with me, it’s that fucking good.

Finder by Carla Speed McNeil

Laura: I wish I had more volumes of Finder to choose from right now, but unfortunately, I’ve lent my two favorites out in my continuing mission to spread the gospel of McNeil across the comic-reading world. So I’ll post an excerpt from a trade that I haven’t heard too many people talk about—not that hardly anyone talks enough about this insanely underrated series–King of the Cats.

When the king of Nymian lion-women dies, our protaganist Jaeger says: “They wept no oily animal’s tears. They mourned in a great wickerwork of hard muscle and ragged breath. The hot smell of their coats; their black lips pulled back over their ivory teeth, stiff sprays of white whiskers; their heavy hair plaited with silver and faience. Their thick hides shivered, as cattle will shiver away flies.”

Yeah. She’s good.

A caveat about Finder, and the reason I do not recommend it to everyone: it is very smart, very subtle, and it does not hold your hand. I don’t throw the word “brilliant” around, but this series deserves it more than any comic book I’ve ever come across. I’ve read each volume roughly four times each, and I still pull new things out of every one, every time. The notes at the end of the book are indispensable in that regard; if you’re skipping over them, you’re condemning yourself to a surface understanding of the book. And there are a lot of readers that come to comic books precisely for surface—for a superficial escapist experience, preferably with bright colors and explosions.

This book is not for you.

What fascinates me is not so much McNeil’s storytelling—which is excellent—but the level of sociological and anthropological awareness that informs it. This is a book about people, about our tribes (whether they be ancient or ultra-modern), and how they bring us together and separate us from each other in fascinating ways. The first two trades are not the strongest ones, but there’s no harm in starting in the middle–I recommend Dream Sequence, Talisman, or King of the Cats.

To watch McNeil post her current pages online in real time go here.

Invisibles by Grant Morrison, et al.

Adan: Get ready to get your mind fucked.

I tried to read this once about two years ago, but stopped after only the first issue in the first trade because my head felt like it was going to explode (especially after that John Lennon as God thing). But I recently cowboy-ed up and read the whole series (thanks to Doug Wolk’s essay in Reading Comics), and I’m happy that I did.

After the initial shock of crazy, Invisibles settles down and is pretty easy to understand (up until halfway through the sixth trade anyway; I don’t know what the fuck is going on after that, but I plan to figure it out). There is a cell of anarchist commandos fighting a magical war against those who would lash humanity to a machine created only to serve the Archons. Look, don’t sweat the plot too much as I can’t really explain it without making it sound retarded. It’s not even the most important thing here. Morrison has long been very interested in metafiction and how a reader, a writer, and the fiction between them interact and influence each other. It’s no accident that Invisibles has about ten layers of fiction one on top of the other, and at least one of these layers interacts with real world people like Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and the Marquis de Sade. Throw in the facts that King Mob is a thinly-veiled stand-in for Morrison himself (KM’s writer alter ego is named Kirk Morrison) who’s had a few of the same experiences that Morrison himself has had, and that Invisibles is a book written by two different people within the framework of Invisibles the comic, and you’ve got so many layers of fiction and reality intermingling and influencing one another, you may start to wonder which layer you’re on (metaphorically speaking, of course; no one’s that crazy, except perhaps Morrison himself). The world the Invisibles inhabit could very well be the real Earth-Prime.

Since reality itself is but putty in Invisibles, it makes sense that the book has about twenty different artists, each one putting his own unique stamps on what the world could conceivably look like at any given moment. The second, third, and fourth-to-last issues, in which the climactic confrontation with the “enemies” takes place, is drawn by a total of fifteen different artists alone (including a page by Morrison himself). Is this a clue that reality is shifting with each blow, physical and metaphysical? And is Morrison’s one page how the world is supposed to look? You’ll have to read it and figure it out for yourself.

And make sure and stick it out. It’s a pretty rewarding experience (that said, you may have to read it multiple times to be able to process it all).

Last of the Independents by Matt Fraction and Kieron Dwyer

Adan: Take an aged ex-drunk, his hot, younger love, and their adopted, slow-witted man-child, mix in a bank robbery and the mob, and you’ve got one of the best pieces of crime fiction ever committed to four-color paper.

Matt Fraction, more famous for his work at Marvel and Image, started out in the minor leagues over at AiT/PlanetLar with Mantooth and this book. This is where he showed the world that he could write, and he could write well. Cole, Justine, and Billy are a strange family with strange habits. And one of those habits has landed them in hot water with a Las Vegas mob boss. They’ve stolen his money and he wants it back. What should have been a routine small town bank heist becomes an all-out war with the mob, full of Ferris wheels, land mines, and pissed off “cooze.” In between all this madness, you find out how they all met, and you get some genuinely heartfelt moments usually missing from crime stories.

Kieron Dwyer’s brown and white art of course fits perfectly for this kind of story. The detail is pretty amazing, down to Cole’s craggy face. Some of the mobsters are hard to tell apart, but who cares? You’re not supposed to be able to differentiate them, as they’re all just part of the same machine. Cole, Justine, and Billy are true independents, and they don’t take shit from any organized institution.

Brendan: This book is the perfect action story. It doesn’t overreach, but nor does it fail to satisfy. The widescreen format is utilized effectively, and proves to be more than a gimmick. LotI is a crazy adventure with honest human emotion, and that is what makes it great.

(And look, two All-Time great picks by Matt Fraction… and I didn’t nominate either of them! Who would have thought?)

Nextwave by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen

Adan: Probably Warren Ellis’ best distillation of the superhero genre is also his funniest.

Monica “Photon” Rambeau, Aaron “Machine Man” Stack, Elsa Bloodstone, Tabitha “Meltdown” Smith, and The Captain, previously known as every captain not America or Marvel, including Captain Fuck. This book is just hilarious and improbable situation after hilarious and improbable situation. Nextwave is a superhero team fighting H.A.T.E. (S.H.I.E.L.D. without the competence) and the Beyond Corporation that controls them. Dirk Anger, leader of H.A.T.E. and a much manlier, yet feminine Nick Fury with severe mental issues, is hunting down Nextwave as they attempt to stop the fiendish plans of the Beyond Corporation.

There is just non-stop madness and craziness in this series, ranging from a Fin Fang Foom with no junk to Broccoli Men to Ultra Samurai to baby M.O.D.O.K.s to a much more intelligent Devil Dinosaur than we’ve ever encountered before. Aaron calls humans fleshbags and Monica reminisces about the time she led the Avengers.

This is probably the most purely enjoyable comic book in ages. You don’t need to know anything except how to laugh. Hopefully, we’ll the promised series of minis soon, because I need more Nextwave and Aaron appearing in Ms. Marvel just isn’t enough.

Brendan: The most brilliant moment of this book was the cover to issue eleven, the non-Civil War Civil War tie-in. “Please Love Us, We Don’t Care,” were the messages on the Nextwaver’s picket signs, but the doom of cancellation was imminent. Ah well. Good things don’t last. Good things end too soon, and live on forever in our idealized memories.

Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday

Brendan: Warren Ellis, in an essay he once wrote, demanded that superheroes rescind their stranglehold on the comic medium and market. Planetary is Ellis and artist John Cassaday’s attempt to build something better. Taking cues from all forms of pulped popular culture and entertainment, Planetary explores the mysteries that make the world go ’round. It explores not only what is of interest to the common man, but why. Elijah Snow and his band of information bounty hunters comb the twentieth century for every mystery that ever inspired wonder. Each chapter takes its cue from a different area of disposable entertainment, from Godzilla monster movies to the classic Western. The primary villains, the Fantastic Four riffs known only as “The Four,” horde all the information they can, retarding societal progress. This serves as an apt metaphor for superheroes and comics; superheroes are so closely associated with comics that the genre can supersede, or even define, the medium. This sort of idealogical monopoly constrains the potential of the medium as a whole, and as such sacrifices long term literary value for short term market satisfaction. If the Planetary team fails, and the Four control the fate of the world, doom is all but assured. If boundary pushers like Ellis and Cassaday fail in their attempt to engender a diversified comic book market, the world of comics is doomed to a partially realized ghetto of fanboys and girls’ diminished expectations. With all the best aspects of genre present, it is good to know that in this story the good guys win. And so do we.

Adan: And top of all of that, Planetary is great commentary on the superhero comics it purports to be better than. It starts with the Victorian heroes and moves on to the actual heroes, as well as touching on “Mature Readers” movement of the eighties, exemplified by Vertigo, the “darkening” of heroes, of which Ellis took part in, and the pulp heroes, which were the stepping stones between the Victorian stuff and superhero comics.

Preacher by Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon, etc.

Brendan: God is dead, or he might as well be.

That is the pathos of what is clearly my favorite comic book series of all time. With a deliciously allegorical plot lines and killer action sequences, Preacher kicks ass. In fact, it is probably the series most designed to kick ass. Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon pull no punches in their assault on the American ideal, organized religion, manhood, friendship, hate and love. The extreme absurdity of both what happens and who it happens to perfectly contrasts the series’ positive moral spine. Ennis and Dillon do their best to shock and appall us, and in so doing show us what exactly it is we expect from this world, as opposed to what we receive. The characters remain honest and real in the face of a story that is as epic as they come. A hero’s journey, a love story, a conspiracy-laden thriller, a tale of redemption, and a series of events that leads to bad guys getting hurt a lot, Preacher is for everyone.

Adan: While I enjoy the hell out of this two-fisted tale of finding God, I do have on problem: Jesse Custer purports to be an honorable man, but every single time he gets into a fistfight, he kicks a dude in the junk. That’s not honorable!

Other than that, though, this thing is awesome. It’s so awesome, I read all nine trades in two nights (it’s important to note that I get out of work at 9pm).

Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O’Malley

Brendan: Sometimes a mere comic book can define a generation. Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim does so for anyone born after 1980. A perfect potion of equal parts ensemble romantic melodrama, coming of age (a little too late), ADD level kineticism, video-game culture and the subsequent effect on youth definitions of progress, and general awesimeotivity, Scott is the best friend comics ever made. Upon reading, his life will feel like your life, his friends will feel like your friends, his band will feel like your band, and before long you will find yourself battling evil ex-boyfriends to earn the right to be with the girl you sorta like, or are obssesed with, or whatever. While the series is founded on an intricately woven relationship web, it holds the reader’s attention with unexpected action sequences. Beyond that, this book is also a delightfully realized piece of comic-making. O’Malley’s visual style borrows heavily from the Japanese comic tradition, notably in regards to expression. While some comic readers are reluctant to venture into the strange world of imported and digest format comics, Pilgrim proves to be a perfect middle ground, with a cast as familiar as a nuclear family unit. The characters are simple yet emotive, and the frugality in regards to page layout and pacing are pitch perfect. Scott Pilgrim is more important than your next meal. Trust me.

Adan: What I enjoy most about this series of graphic novels are the video game bits. They’re not really references because no actual game is name-checked, but the save spots, the Mythril skateboards, and the coins certainly point to specific games. Ah, to have ridiculous amounts of free time again… Oh wait. I am. Sweet!

Ultimate Spider-Man #13 by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley

Brendan: This was the issue that took me from a kid who loved comics to a person who appreciated comics. This story, that cemented Brian Bendis both as a trustworthy caretaker for Marvel’s most accessible version of Spider-man and as a creator who Marvel was willing to build around, did something I thought no comic, never mind a super-hero comic, could. This comic moved me. I was made to feel more mature having read it. It taught me, as a young and naïve reader, that comics could be moving without being grand or earth-shattering. It made a reader familiar with only the emotional range of standard superhero fare, believe that pictures and words on a page could actually bear reflection on the world around. All it did, all it took, was a boy sharing the biggest secret he had with a girl. Some people would deride this work, or the style it heralded, as slow or inconsequential. To me, it showed that “stuff happening” was something I had slightly overrated. I could connect with characters in a more personal way through a well executed scene between two characters. This book made me want more from my comics than fights and tights, and it whetted my pallet for more sophistication from the funnybooks I read. And just think, it’s just two kids sitting around talking. Comics can be great sometimes.

Adan: This is in fact my favorite single issue of this series. It’s sweet, it’s funny, it’s heartfelt, and it made me believe that Bendis could do anything. For a little while at least, before Bendis stretched himself out too thin. But we’re trying to be positive here, so, yes, this is my favorite issue of Ultimate Spider-Man. You know, before the “Hollywood” arc… or Venom… or Carnage. *shudder*

Brendan: So much for positivity.

And that’s that. I did this (almost) every week for about a year and it was fun. Laura is an ornery lady and Brendan is just plain wrong most of the time, but they’re good people and they’re fun people. And they’re family now.

Stay tuned for how Brendan keeps this column going.- Adan

Sorry we’re late kids. Brendan was house-hunting and thankfully found a place (otherwise he’d have to move back in with his parents!). Unfortunately, all that house-hunting meant he couldn’t do his thing this week, so I’m flying solo. Be gentle.

Also, I’m moving to Hong Kong very, very soon, so tune in next week for a very special BLAAPAS (and no, that acronym is not a mistake)– Adan

Batman Annual #26 Head of the Demon

Adan: I really hate that Damian “Son of the Bat” kid.

It just doesn’t matter what he’s doing, what time period he’s in, or who he’s written by, that kid is just bad news. Every time he shows up, you know you’re in for a subpar issue. And boy was this is ever subpar. Every plot twist is telegraphed about five pages before the “reveal” and the jumps back and forth in time are muddled and confusing. This is touted as the “Origin of Ra’s al-Ghul,” but we learn very little of consequence. So he fought in Waterloo against Napoleon. Who gives a damn? So he was in Whitechapel while Jack the Ripper was doing his thing. Oooh, spooky. None of this matters to the character of Ra’s. In fact, all this “origin” story really does is introduce the documents that contain Ra’s “origin” story. It’s a sort of self-perpetuating MacGuffin that does an awful job of motivating anybody to do anything. And hey, another albino bad guy. Way to be original. What happened to you, Milligan? You used to be awesome. You know what, I’m gonna say editorial got in your way, and fucked you on this. This can’t possibly be your fault.

And why is nobody all that afraid of Batman in the Outback? Why’s he even out there as Batman? You’re a little out of your jurisdiction, mate.

At least the art’s pretty cool. David and Alvaro Lopez have a style reminiscent of Darwyn Cooke body types with Gary Frank faces. Regardless, they do share the blame for timejumps as their transitions could have used work (but I did like the panel borders differentiating past from present).

You know, maybe it’s nobody’s fault that this issue sucked.

Maybe it’s just Damian.

Brit #1

Adan: Even though Kirkman isn’t writing this, it’s still pretty cool. There’s just something about watching an indestructible senior citizen beat the shit out of a bunch of Japanese midgets while two robots beat the shit out of each other right next to them that makes my day fifteen times better. I hadn’t read any Brit before this, but now I’m looking forward to the collected edition when it comes out. This book is quite awesome, so you should just keep reading it until I tell you otherwise.

Countdown to Adventure #1

Adan: A la Mystery in Space and Tales of the Unexpected, this anthology series features two completely different stories that may or may not intersect later on.

The first story features my favorite parts of 52: Adam Strange, Animal Man, and Starfire. Adam is back on Rann with his family, enjoying life before he goes back to full-time duty as Rann’s defender. Meanwhile, Buddy has been reunited with his family, but they’ve got a houseguest in the unconscious form of Starfire. Now, that sounds like a sitcom (and maybe it is), but at least it’s a sitcom that sounds funny. C’mon, a smoking hot alien princess sleeping in your guest room while your wife tries to get you and your kids out of the house on time? That’s comedy gold!

Eddy Barrows pencils on this are just so damn gorgeous (check out the opening shot of Adam), I’m surprised I’ve never heard of this guy before. A quick search on Google reveals that he drew that Bloodhound series for DC that nobody bought. He’s also done some fill-in work for All-New Atom, Firestorm, and 52. Hurm… Either he changed his art style considerably, or I’ve just not been paying attention. Barrows is a guy to watch out for. This just might be his breakout work.

The second story features a really quite nifty origin story for the Forerunner character that was introduced in Countdown a while back. It’s way more interesting than anything that has occurred in Countdown thus far. I assume the rest of this story will deal with Monarch and his plans against the Monitors and what role the Forerunner will play.

The pencils on this story are handled by Fabrizio Fiorentino, and where Barrows in clean and crisp, Fiorentino is jagged and dark. The art doesn’t pop for me, but I will say that his character designs on the various alien races (those he created) are pretty sweet. The Mercurians are especially awesome.

Like most anthologies, one story will probably succeed while the other one crashes and burns. We’ll have to wait and see which is which on this one.

Also, note to Uncle Dan: stop tying everything in to Countdown. That book sucks and it’s just going to drag everything else down with it. You should have called this Sinestro Corps War to Adventure instead, if all you were trying to do was cash in. At least that storyarc is awesome (and don’t think I didn’t notice who the origin back-up in this week’s Countdown was).

Emily the Strange v2 Death Issue #1

Adan: This is less a comic book and more a collection of lists. Best ways to die lists. I guess there is one short story in here about re-animating a cat corpse but… Man, this is so not my scene. The art is hard to parse. I just can’t tell what’s going on most of the time.

The writing is difficult to deal with. I can’t tell if this is a book for mature kids or for immature adults. The jokes are pretty simple and would be funny only if you’re ten years old, but a lot of the subject matter is pretty adult (there is a brain on a spike for God’s sake!)

What I do know is that I don’t like it.

Ex Machina Masquerade Special

Adan: The Great Machine’s very first adventure!

The very first thing that struck me when I opened this issue of Ex Machina was: “Hey, this isn’t Tony Harris!” Now, I know he didn’t do the previous specials, but still. It’s been so long since the last issue of Ex Machina, I actually thought for a second that this was the next regular issue. I have no issues with John Paul Leon, as I actually like the dude’s art (especially that surprising last shot of Mitchell), but he’s not Tony Harris, and I need me some Tony Harris.

Well, Harris might be MIA, but BKV is still here making my heart all a-flutter. The story is set right after Mitchell gets out of the hospital after a certain explosion, pre-Great Machine. An origin story if you will. This where you find out how he came up with suit and you see him solve his first crime. You also get some hints as to what the junk in his face might be.

All in all, a solid issue of Ex Machina, although now I’m jonesing for a new storyarc.

Incredible Change-Bots GN

Adan: Oh man, this is hilarious. I’m sure there’s some kind of fable or moral or whathaveyou, but I’m too busy laughing my ass off. The Incredible Change-Bots are obvious Transfomers parodies, but Jeffrey Brown makes fun of all the little things we took for granted when we watched the show as kids: the robots’ bad aim, the fact that the Decepticons always escaped, and the nonsensical humanizing of robots. Again, I’m sure there’s a deeper message, but I’m too busy enjoying the hell out of this book.

Last Fantastic Four Story

Adan: Meh… It was alright. Stan Lee deserves a lot for all the awesome things he helped create back in the day, including the FF, but his writing is not so good, especially nowadays. Stan has this uncanny ability to describe exactly what is happening in each panel with caption boxes or characters’ speech. The first three or four pages are especially bad: “Bolts of Flame!” “Melting our weapons!” Yes, I know, terrorist guy. I can see it in the accompanying artwork. And I’m not a big fan of John Romita Jr., so this isn’t really my bag. Nonetheless, I’m sure old-school fans will get a big kick out of this, as it’s classic Stan Lee FF on a grand cosmic scale.

Mice Templar #1

Adan: So, is this just another Mouse Guard? Eh… sort of, but who cares? It’s pretty awesome too.

Imagine if the first Mouse Guard mini had ended in a much more grim fashion. Mice Templar is what could have happened a couple of generations down the line. The Templar were an order of mice pledged to defend mousedom from all threats big or small, external or internal. Unfortunately, the Templar had a disagreement over something and had a civil war, decimating them. And that’s just the back story.

The main story is about a little mouse named Karic who idolizes the memory of the Templar, even though most people think they no longer exist. He’s a believable child, playing at being Templar and getting into trouble all the time. Oeming and Bryan Glass have created a rich world with its own mythology, culture, and history.

As for Oeming’s much ballyhooed new art style, I guess it’s alright. However, there are a lot of confusing points in the text. A lot of the mice are difficult to tell apart, some characters appear and disappear with little warning, and it is difficult to tell who is talking sometimes. Hopefully, all these problems will be rectified soon, as I do enjoy the art style.

I’ll keep picking this up assuming those problems don’t get worse.

Punks the Comic Summer Special

Adan: What the fuck?

So there’s a dog-man, a Ghost Rider look-alike, a dude with a fist for a head, and Abraham Lincoln, and they all live in an apartment together while fighting off alien invasions and eating dead hookers. So, again, I ask: what the fuck?

This is too absurdist for me. I like Kody Chamberlain’s collage-style art, but even that gets really weird sometimes. Throw in the fact the comic is interrupted a few times by things like the thirteenth page missing, an interview with Rick Remender the fish, and an alien invasions PSA, and this thing is just too damn weird. Fans of The Young Ones will probably enjoy the hell out of this.

Teen Titans #50

Adan: This issue is hilarity wrapped in schmaltzy remembrance. But it’s the hilarity that will get you.

To “celebrate Kid Flash’s life,” the Titans get together and remember Bart Allen. Thankfully, this doesn’t turn into “remember when Bart did that awesome thing that time?” Instead, we’re treated to a Geoff Johns and Mike McKone tale of Bart flying the Batplane right through a “Welcome to Smallville” sign and Todd Dezago and Todd Nauck page about all the times Bart screwed up in Young Justice. Unfortunately, Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s short was a schmaltzy story about Wally as Kid Flash, and how he was insecure and blah blah blah. But hey, it’s still Wolfman and Perez, so whatever.

The only complaint I have is that the fight scene from last week’s Blue Beetle #18 was reproduced almost in toto (it may have even been the exact same art) for seven pages. Whoever bought that issue of Blue Beetle is going to feel pretty gypped.

Overall, a good anniversary issue of Teen Titans that, if nothing else, has inspired me to go find all those Young Justice back issues. How’s that for salesmanship? Dezago and Nauck do one page of story and art and I’m hooked on a series from ten years ago. Give me some trades, DC!

Recently I find myself with less and less time to read manga reviews, let alone write them, as more and more manga hits our shores in a tsunami wave of publishing. To this end I will begin writing micro-notes from the field, your at-a-glance manga briefing.

Only the Ring Finger Knows: The Lonely Ring Finger, Vol. 1 (Novel)

By Satoru Kannagi and Hotaru Odagiri
Published by DMP
Rating: 16+

Only the Ring Finger Knows (Manga)

By Satoru Kannagi and Hotaru Odagiri
Published by DMP
Rating: 16+

In Ryokuyo High School wearing rings as a signal to others whether one is available for dating or not has become a fad. Wataru loses his awesome favorite ring. The most popular boy in school, Yuichi, has an identical ring and starts harassing Wataru. As yaoi goes, it’s just one step from loathing to making out.

The book is long and drawn out, even for such a short work. Once the happy gay couple gets together halfway into the book there’s not much to keep them apart (unless the work were based in reality, then social pressure, parents, and authorities might have proved a source of conflict). A scheming school girl works to break them up for several chapters, unconvincingly. Wataru vows not to sleep with Yuichi unless he gets top scores on his college entrance exams. It’s all very artificial conflict; no climax, no plot, no point – just what the acronym “yaoi” really means.

The manga version is just one volume long, but the the light novel series continues for three volumes, all of which were released by DMP. Book two is called Only the Ring Finger Knows: The Left Hand Dreams of Him and book three is The Ring Finger Falls Silent. The manga was on a list for the Young Adult Library Services Association’s Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults under the “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered” category.

The manga is shorter and steamy. Seeing hot guys making out works better than having the author assure you the characters are hot. It’s a cute manga based on a dull book. Better than Don’t Worry Mama but not quite as amusing as The Man Who Wouldn’t Take Off His Clothes, I recommend Only the Ring Finger Knows exclusively to yaoi fangirls, and only as manga.

Both the novel and the manga are available now.

Claymore, Vol. 2

By Norihiro Yagi
Viz, 195 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

I only read volume 2 since Midtown west didn’t have volume one in stock (*cough* *cough*).

There may be a more compelling story arc later on in Claymore, but as of volume two is hasn’t started yet. Claire, a half-demon witch called a “Claymore” battles some demons in what some people have called a female version of Berserk. The art is not as detailed as Berserk, but Claymore has it’s own unique and compelling style compelling.

Claymore is one of the few shows of the new anime season which I’ve taken the time to watch. As of volume two the anime and manga are running parallel. This volume covers an episode or two of the anime.

The anime is a series that I can watch with my boyfriend; it’s a seinan title so older boys (guys age 17-35) will enjoy it. Personally, I like seeing chicks with giant swords kick some ass, and I enjoy the social commentary. Claymores are total social outcasts, feared by humans. Even the victims of demons in the series bear a horrible social stigma.

The manga comes off as extremely short, with few words. It took me only half an hour to read this volume. Not great, not terrible, and just long enough and amusing enough to cover a single commute. Be sure to buy it two volumes at a time.

Recommended. Volumes one through nine of Claymore are available now; volume ten will be released in October.

Vision of the Other Side, Vol. 1

By Yu-Chin Lin
DramaQueen, 176 pp.
Rating: Teen

I bought Vision of the Other Side on the basis that it is a Taiwanese fantasy shojo comic. I’d never read any Taiwanese shojo (Taiwanese anything, really), so I thought I’d give it a try. Regrettably, I feel this was a mistake, and a $12 mistake at that. All of DramaQueen’s books are slightly pricier than the average manga – usually you get superior print quality, but in this case I bought a discounted book with a printing error. It was still more expensive, and still not worth it.

Vision of the Other Side is the predictable and trite story of a princess who runs from her arranged marriage only to end up with the leader of a gang of barbarians to whom she was originally beathroved. The chief Barbarian usually wears a mask, so the princess doesn’t realize that he’s the same hottie she ran into in her wacky peasent-disguised adventure in the marketplace a few days prior.

I might be able to tolerate the plot if the layouts were better. Vision of the Other Side is author Yu-Chin Lin’s first comic, and perhaps because she’s new at it, it’s difficult to follow action across the page. The dialog often seems bizarre, almost to the point of being nonsensical.

Yu-Chin Lin has gone to great lengths to draw detailed hair and costumes, but as of volume one, she can’t draw a sword.

Pass this one up, unless you’re a really hardcore fan of Fushigi Yugi and Basara – and even then, you may wish to read Vision of the Other Side in the original Chinese (at least it would be cheaper).

Volumes one and two of Vision of the Other Side are currently available. Theoretically volumes three and four should be currently available, however, they are listed as “on order from manufacturer” and not available on DramaQueen’s webpage.

Puri Puri, Vol. 1

By Chiaki Taro
DrMaster, 192 pp.
Rating: 15+

Masato is an orphan raised by a Catholic priest. His adoptive father is such a role model that Masato decides to become a priest as well. He enrolls in the local Catholic school with a catch – he will be the first male student to enter a previously all-girl school.

I am interested in reading a manga about a boy going through training to become a priest, unfortunately, it’s not this manga. Despite the original premise, Puri Puri is a paint-by-numbers “squish squish” manga. The “squish squish” genre is anything with a scene where a girl’s breasts squish into an adolescent boy’s back in a non-sexual context, usually by accident. The boy is embarrassed and turned on, and the girl is unaware of the boy’s arousal. The sound effect is usually included: Squish squish. As an American girl I don’t have time for the squish-squish genre, since I find it cliche, unfunny, unsexy, unoriginal, feature unrealistic female characters.

Puri Puri has other anime/manga tropes – like the absurdly powerful student council. For whatever reason, a group of super rich girls on the student counsel run the school like puppet masters. For unknown reasons, they really have it in for Masato, and work to get him into as many squish-squsih scenarios as possible.

DrMaster has very nice covers, with Japanese-style cover flaps (called French flaps). However, the paper quality is lacking.

This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher. Volumes one and two of Puri Puri are available now; volume three will be released in October.

Heroes Are Extinct!, Vol. 1

By Ryoji Hido
DMP, 200 pp.
Rating: Teen (13+)

Reviewed by Katherine here. Unfortunately I would rather have worked on this manga than read it. The author explains in the afterward that Heroes Are Extinct is published in a weekly magazine. It has a grueling production schedule, so there is a large staff of extremely geeky manga artists. As they work, they sing old anime songs and watch old tokusatsu shows on TV.

On impulse I bought the book Tokyo: A Certain Style on amazon.com’s recommendation. Most of the book is available on google here. It’s a photobook of very small apartments in Japan. Although not specifically related to anime/manga/nerdom it so happens that several of the photos of the book are of the homes of manga-ka. Manga-ka often work from home, and each of the home-studio apartments featured a desk where the assistant sometimes sits. And by “desk” I mean, “there’s a space on the floor between stack of manga with a bed for the assistant to sleep on right next to a desk.” Because that’s how much work goes into manga. You wake up and you draw, and you sleep under your desk.

Because Heroes Are Extinct is the author’s first manga, and because it’s weekly, and perhaps because it was originally pitches as anime instead of manga, the art suffers – a lot. A flip-through wouldn’t convince anyone to buy this, I’m afraid. There is a lack of tones, and the backgrounds are not details. The number of panels per page is also low, giving the most of the pages a rather blank look.

I enjoyed the script, even if I didn’t get all the tokusatsu references it was still quite funny. Heroes Are Extinct was also exceedingly short, perhaps a 35 minute read. Weirdly, the exclamation points on the cover are a horrible font that make it look like volume one might be volume two.

This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher. Volume one of Heroes Are Extinct!! is available now; volume two will be released in October and the third and final volume will be released in January 2008.

Hey all. We went up a bit late last week, and as a result missed our opportunity to hotlink off the PCS main page. We got it done, though, and if you missed it check it out at http://www.popcultureshock.com/brendan-adans-picks-pans-scans-august-16-2007/42461/ And now… this week.

Battlestar Galactica: Season Zero #1

Adan: This new Battlestar series that takes place before the Cylons attacked the Twelve Colonies feels like a harder edged Star Trek: The Original Series, and not in a good way..

There seem to be three different time periods vying for attention, and while one obviously happens before another, I’m not sure where the third one fits in. Storyline one is Adama and Tigh on the Galactica as Adama goes on a planet mission (thereby invoking TOS) to rescue his previous Commander, Julian Dimarco. Then we get a flashback to when Adama was serving under Dimarco as they did some black ops stuff out on the edge of Colonial space. There is third time period in which Tigh and Adama are with their wives and talking about how they’re done with black ops stuff, but I can’t figure out where that takes place.

But even if I wasn’t having temporal issues, this book still feels like Galactica-lite. Brandon Jerwa just doesn’t give it the same resonance that the show has (which isn’t that big a surprise, but still), and I’m not entirely sure that this book is even an adequate placeholder while the show is on hiatus (until 2008! why!?) Jackson Herbert’s pencils over Stephen Segovia’s layouts make it very difficult to figure out who is who, but colorist Adriano Lucas may be equally at fault, as everything is murky and indecipherable, especially on the planetside story and its accompanying flashback.

The regular Battlestar Galactica series by Dynamite hasn’t exactly wowed me, but it’s still much better than this. If you’re a hardcore fan, you’re not going to be able to help yourself, but everybody else: you can skip this. Just wait a little longer.

Brendan: This was very forgettable. I can’t even pretend to have a lot to say. The art was less than impressive, and the storyline was too scattered. I had a hard time telling one character apart from another, which is always a sign of doom. The action lacked, and the characters didn’t look or sound distinct enough to create any real drama. I sort of dig this show, but not enough to want to follow this obscure book.

Comic Foundry Magazine #1

Adan: Here is the new comics magazine that purports to be the happy medium between Wizard and The Comics Journal. So, is it any good?

Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Yes and here’s why.

I got this magazine back when Editor-in-chief Tim Leong and my sister/erstwhile partner-in-reviewing Laura Hudson debuted it at the San Diego Comic-Con. They were obviously really excited about it, and when I bought it, I could only think, “I hope this doesn’t suck.” The next day, as I was waiting in line for a Warren Ellis signing, I read the magazine cover to cover. It is important to note two things here: I had a bunch of other comics in my bag (as well as a copy of Douglas Wolk’s excellent Reading Comics) and I hadn’t read a magazine cover to cover since the Wizard: X-men Special back when Grant Morrison was about to start New X-men. That right there is a huge endorsement.

As for the claim that Comic Foundry is a happy medium between Wizard and The Comics Journal? Well, it is and it isn’t. It certainly covers both mainstream comics and indy comics (though I think this issue skewed more toward the indy side), it doesn’t come off as either fratboyish (like Wizard) or snooty (like TCJ), but it also does some things neither magazine does, and that’s the Life+Style section that EIC Tim touts so much. Where else can you learn to Rasterbate, have Kieron Gillen teach you how to fake taste in music, have Matt Fraction teach you how to make love to Kieron Gillen, and learn Michel Kupperman’s favorite jokes? On top of that you get an interview with two of my favorite people: Kristen “Veronica Mars” Bell and Bryan Lee “Scott Pilgrim” O’Malley.

I know what you’re thinking: “Of course you love it, your sister’s writing for the magazine. You have to like it.” Untrue, dear reader. I don’t have to like shit (I didn’t even mention the two great articles she has in here). I like this magazine because it’s good, and I do have some problems with it. Two, to be exact: one, the Costume section of the magazine could really have used some color, especially the bit on the Voltron shoes (which one’s the green lion?); and two, the copy editing is really not good. I will let the copy editing slide for two reasons: it’s their first issue and they’ll fix it (and they will fix it) and my own copy editing is quite atrocious, so I really have no leg to stand on.

Final word: it’s good. Go buy it already, my sister writes for this thing, dammit!

Brendan: Who is this “Laura Hudson,” and what does she think she’s doing “writing?”

This was a very strong launch issue for the magazine that seeks to fill the void between Wizard’s thinly veiled infomercial approach and The Comic Journal’s “Everything you like is wrong, books haven’t been good in twenty years,” insular approach. Foundry takes a lot of different risks in regards to content, with features on comics-influenced adult beverages, LAAPPAS alum’s article “Sex and the Superhero,” (hey, I hear that stuff sells), and Matt Fraction’s tutorial on how to bag the dude that writes Phonogram. There is more traditional fare also, like the ever important “Now we interview a blonde,” article, this time concentrating on Veronica Mars‘ Kristen Bell, but even this seems thought-out and worthwhile. I thought there were issues with the structure of the magazine. The heavier content was weighted towards the back, and the “Life+Style” section could have been pushed further towards the end, if not shortened. These things will happen with a launch issue, though, and are hardly big enough hiccups to worry. The short story is a refreshing addition, and the piece on “The Judas Contract,” gives a sense of history and credibility.

There is tremendous potential in this mag. It feels like a regular, newsstand magazine, which is an accomplishment. The fashion section is original and ambitious, recreating some familiar pages with trendy new digs, and the interviews, notably the final piece with Scott Pilgrim’s Bryan Lee O’Malley, are honest and fully realized.

And c’mon, it’s one cent cheaper than Wizard. At the very least, you gotta try it out.

Halo Uprising #1

Brendan: Comics like this are important. Books like this, Dark Tower and Buffy offer the unique opportunity to actively grow the comic book market. This book will be actively sought out by a crowd that may not be aware that books are released on Wednesday, or of who Brian Bendis is. This is a rare chance to grab someone who doesn’t care, and turn him or her into a reader.

That said, this issue is an accomplishment. The insanely talented creative team of Bendis and Maleev deliver a thoughtful, beautiful, action-driven story for hardcore Halo fans and n00bs alike. Matt Hollingsworth’s disturbing but consistent colors are hugely effective in solidifying the Halo world and look, while Chris Eliopoulos proves to be more than the guy that makes the Franklin Richards books go, and provides pitch perfect lettering.

The opening six page scene lays low any fear that this series would be the typical, dialogue driven storytelling that Bendis is loved and loathed for. This book is about fucking shit up. By the fourth page’s third panel we are reminded of why we’re reading this book, with a subtle “first person shooter cam” shot. The inclusion of Cleveland, Bendis’ hometown, feels like an ego-stroke, but is forgivable in that it is always refreshing to see somewhere other than New York or L.A. demolished. While the Master Chief story is obviously the driving force for this book, the common man storyline gives a much needed grounding to the world of Halo, and proves to interesting in its own right.

Licensed books, be they Halo, or the Transformers, GI Joe, and Star Wars books of yesteryear, are what get people into comics. While the comic inspired-movie boom has helped grant some mainstream credibility to the world of comics (read: money buys respect), the fact is that people who see the Spider-man movies tend to like the Spider-man movies. It doesn’t necessarily follow that they pursue the books. But, if you have an audience that clamors for more substance from their obsession of choice, (looking at you Buffy fans), then they will follow regardless of medium. They say comics can’t compete with video games. Maybe they can’t, but they can sure as hell help each other.

Adan: I don’t know about being an “accomplishment” or even “grow[ing] the comic book market,” but it was enjoyable, in a weird, awful watching-someone-else-masturbate kind of way.

Yes, Master Chief doesn’t say a single word (for two four-page stints, some kind of record for Bendis), but the hotel concierge guy who is in Cleveland when the Covenant attack is really just a better-looking, Indian Bendis. His mouth is potty and his mannerisms are that of a short, troll-looking mother, but the dude’s hawt. Which segues nicely into how awesome Maleev is. I think he could draw Brendan’s face and make it look good, that’s how good he is.

This book is kind of ridiculous, but Halo fans will buy it because whatever. That’ll probably the only thing they buy, but even only one Halo guy picks up a Daredevil trade, I guess it will have been worth it.

Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 #1

Brendan: I’ll be honest- the first volume of Mouse Guard didn’t blow me away the way it did some others. I thought it was solid and beautifully drawn, but the story felt a bit stretched. There were points of confusion in the storytelling, and at times it was hard to tell characters apart. Of course, I still think it deserved an Eisner and was eagerly awaiting the beginning of the second volume. I was pleased to see that David Petersen continued to evolve and improve with his work. The art continued to provide stunning portrayals of animal life while still giving insight into the characters and their world. I think Petersen has become more comfortable with his pacing, and has managed to find a story that suits the season in which it is set. These dudes are little heroes, and everyone should pay attention.

Plus, you get a bonus Geof Darrow pin-up.

Adan: More awesome mousy action from Eisner-winning David Petersen. It’s winter now, and Midnight’s attack in the fall has left the Guard with little food and medicine. The Guard Mice have to travel to the nearby cities and basically beg for food, medicine, and continued support of the Guard. It’s a hard life, being a Guard Mouse. It’s even harder trying to read Gwendolyn’s script. Good God, could you have chosen a more difficlut script. I mean thanks for not using Wingdings, but man.

Regardless, I love this book. I loved it the first time, and I’m gonna love it this time.

Also, I love Saxon.

Order of the Stick vol. -1: Start of Darkness TP

Adan: Another black and white prequel for Rich Burlew’s Dungeons & Dragons-themed online comic Order of the Stick, which is just as hilarious as his strip.

Where the last prequel focused on the heroes, this one focuses on the villains of the tale, Xykon the Lich and Redcloak, his goblin cleric. In his introduction, Burlew says that it is difficult to write a story where the villain is the main character without making him sympathetic. Fear not, for Xykon is an evil, evil jerk who can elicit no sympathy from anybody. Burlew does a good job of fleshing out Xykon’s character without giving him some kind of tortured past to explain away all his nefarious deeds. Xykon’s just an evil dick.

Redcloak, on the other hand… Well, you should read it.

Burlew packs this volume with a bunch of comics in-jokes, from a magical X-men team, to a slightly funnier rendition of that fateful night of Dick Grayson’s. Even with all the evil and smiting, Burlew makes sure you can yuk it up.

Like in his last prequel, Burlew chooses to tone the bulk of the story in grayscale and not add in color. While I can understand that printing costs would be much, much higher, Burlew’s stick figure representations of all that is Dungeons & Dragons look a lot better in color.

Regardless, I will be adding this to my collection because I do love OotS very much, and even though Burlew says you don’t need to read this book to follow the main story arc in his online strips, fans should still check it out. And if you’re not already a fan of OotS, then by all means, start now.

Brendan: What if Bone spent most of its energy making D&D jokes with Microsoft Paint graphics? It turns out, you’d have a lot of fun, and it would be a lot like this. This story was surprisingly serialized, with a plot that managed to move forward. It was generally funny, even to a reader not immersed in a “Vitality +9″ lifestyle. The balloon layout was confusing at points, and the page size was jarring. The best sequences were rendered in perfect Crayola bit graphics that accidentally carry into the main story. Oh, and cockroaches can breach the fourth wall, much how they can breach any other wall. I would probably not buy this without first being a fan of the web-work, but this does make the web publication more enticing and is a fine volume unto itself.

Stormbringers #1

Adan: First off, “womb energy?” Seriously?

Second off, five thousand women have been murdered and the cops have no leads? That there is the worst police force in the history of ever.

But back to the womb energy: apparently, there are women in the city of New Frontier (I think Darwyn Cooke and Peter David live there) who have manifested superpowers, “pregnant with … inexhaustible sums of energy.” This womb energy allows them to shoot laser beams, or run fast, or be an honest-to-God angel, apparently. Also, there are men who don’t have powers per se, but by exerting their wills real hard, they can be more than normal men. This isn’t the most ridiculous premise in the world, but it comes close. It’s not helped by the fact that the entire issue is exposition, and clunky exposition at that.

John Stinsman’s art is serviceable, but not great. Some of his forms are a little off, but overall okay. I really have beef with the colorist Megan Spence. She puts too much shadow on everything, even when it’s light out or people are in an office building with plenty of light. The area under someone’s chin should not be that dark in an office.

Also, I’m all for diversity, but making everyone in this book black is not diversity. I guess it’s possible that some of these people are Hispanic or something, but man, there’s like three pale-skinned people. Whatever, it’s not really a complaint; more of an observation.

The premise is too ridiculous to not keep reading this book, but it’s definitely not worth five bucks.

Brendan: This book sort of floored me. I thought the packaging was disappointing, and entered with low expectations. All of a sudden, there was womb energy and an Ultimate Nick Fury, modern Luke Cage, and Shaft 2000-era Sam Jackson protagonist. Oh, and after a passable first four pages artist John Stinsman leaps from passable to fucking superstar. It helps that his character work seems to echo that of Mike Mckone, an all time favorite of mine, but what Stinsman achieves is much more. His storytelling is fluid and natural. He is as good looking on the close shots as the full ones. His action is as visually interesting as his character interaction. Best of all, his inking is perfectly saturated to tell the story at hand. Usually, the best way to tell if an artist is ready for prime-time is to see how consistent their work is from page one to twenty-two. People inevitably mail it in on scenes they don’t love, and the result is so uneven an audience will tune out or put the book back down. I think his cover was a bad representation of his skill, and that he turned a corner during this project.

The story was incredibly charged and ambitious. The characters were well-written enough to keep me interested in turning the page. I worry that the allegory here may be laid on a bit thick but didn’t stray too close to feel like a book with an agenda. I don’t mind not seeing many light skinned folk in this book, because there are plenty of comics with exclusively light skinned casts. This book was a real surprise, and well worth hopping onboard early.

Adan: But why can’t I see anybody’s neck!? Even in a brightly lit room, that also has a huge window that lets in natural light, I can’t see people’s necks ‘cause there’s so much shadow. Did Stinsman just spill a bottle of ink or something?

Brendan: Necks are no longer necessary. They have been sacrificed in the name of mood.

Superman #666

Brendan: Welcome back to Superman’s issue 666 Satanniversary, (the joke so nice I used it twice). Regular series writer Kurt Busiek teams with industry legend Walt Simonson to bring this tale of a Superman gone wrong. Simonson’s powerful portrayal of Krypton’s Last Son is a treat, but the meticulous hand lettering of John Workman is a huge standout. You will never enjoy a good “THOOM” as much as one by John Workman. Simonson’s Superman, like that of fabled studio-mate Howard Chaykin, is not always “pretty.” The line work may be jarring to readers with modern sensibilities, but the strength of the work lies in its ability to convey the emotional beats of the story. The composition and style is perfectly realized. There is real power in this Superman, and it feels a great deal like I imagine a Jack Kirby Superman story would feel.

The plot itself is an eerie negative to Kurt Busiek’s Astro City story, wherein the Superman analog, Samaritan, dreams about his freedom to fly without responsibility. Here, Superman acts without the burden of responsibility he must shoulder, and the results are frightening. The story itself reads like a dream, with jumps in logic and time, but an internal consistency to make it feel real. I thought this story employed interesting narrative tricks, as well as a neat twist to Kryptonian mythology. Timeless and original, this was maybe one of my all-time favorite Superman stories.

Adan: Of all-time? Lay off the hyperbole, buddy. I’m not saying you didn’t enjoy it, but all-time? C’mon now.

I didn’t like this issue at all. The story was forced and contrived, the art was dense and hard to parse, and the damn book cost $3.99, a full dollar more than a regular (and usually better) issue of Superman. I’m not gonna pay $3.99 for some story about a Kryptonian demon (who didn’t exist before this issue, by the way) who tries to take Superman’s soul and make him into the Beast of Revelation. It’s quite silly and I’m not down at all.

Tales from the Crypt #2

Brendan: Is the classic Tales from the Crypt cover layout simply the best layout because of the baggage it brings? I think it may be more; I think the composition of it may be the pinnacle of the standard sized comic. Or maybe I just think gross looking shit is cool.

This book is dedicated to all the right people, and I think it is great to have this title back in print. Imagine a world where Tales from the Crypt went on unimpeded. Why, it would be somewhere in the seven hundreds, had it stayed in print. It could have rivaled 2000 A.D. as a proving grounds for comics’ best talent. Who knows, maybe some of comics’ most accomplished writers would have been American!

This first of this book’s two tales of horror is the story of the landlord from Hell, or rather the landlord put through Hell. Although this is a Crypt revival, The Tenant is a full on Spirit homage. Everything from the street names, Iger, of Eisner and Iger Studios, and Colt of the Spirit’s alter-ego, Denny Colt, is in honor of the man who brought literature to comics. Even the headstone at the story’s finale gives the gag away with the name “Willis Rensie,” Eisner’s one-time pseudonym. The story echoes the parable-like nature of Eisner’s classic Spirit stories with a morale of social responsibility and compassion. The art is good enough, but suffer when the panels are closer up. In fact, the production value on this book was way off. The entire chapter looks like second rate scans, and really distract from art that has moments of real potential. Artist Steve Mannion provides a spectacularly rendered cover, but fails to carry that level of quality throughout his chapter.

The Garden is the issue’s second chapter, and is a chilling story delivered by Action Philosophers’ Fred Van Lente and artist Mr. Exes. The story is a strangely haunting one, with a true perversion of paradise.

Both stories prove to be good enough reads to warrant a look. They are neither children nor adults’ comics, a feat accomplished by telling topical stories with a meaning and a resonance without resorting to stupid fucking things like cursing.

Adan: Moreso than the individual stories, which were good in their own ways, I enjoyed the Hell out of the framing bits. The puns that Cryptkeeper throws down are hilarious and “What the Wertham–!” is the best exclamation ever and I have to start using it in my everyday speech.

Brendan is right in that “The Tenant” is just a love letter to Will Eisner, from the art style, to the plot points, to the themes, all the way down to the Easter eggs. Unfortunately, Brendan is also right in that the production value is just awful. “The Garden” was a much more interesting tale to me. It had a pretty sweet twist ending that I will not ruin because then it will cease to be pretty sweet.

Look, you just need to read this book. The Cryptkeeper is hilarious and these puns need to make out into the world.

Wolverine #56

Brendan: The creative team of Jason Aaron and Howard Chaykin on Wolverine packs so much testosterone you may need a pill to offset it. Grit itself would cower at the grit within these pages. A refreshing change of pace from the incoherent “Romulus,” storyline, this is a standalone story of how Logan can destroy a man without touching him. It is actually very reminiscent of Mark Millar and Kaare Andrews’ concentration camp issue (that’s issue 32 if you like editor’s notes). It is funny to see Aaron taking the reigns on the world’s most fearsome Canuck just a week after his pilot issue of Ripclaw, which, as Adan pointed out, is not a wholly *ahem,* original character template, but by delivering, all slings and arrows are left in their upright and locked position. The actual plot, with Logan trapped in a pit while a man guns at him for a full work day, echoes the story of Cassidy and Frankie the Eunuch in Preacher. While I won’t say the story isn’t original, it definitely wears its influences on its sleeve.

I’m not sure this is a logical follow up to Loeb and Bianchi’s previous story arc, nor do I understand how this would fit in any sort of current continuity, but I am sure that I do not give a shit. While Chaykin is not in top form, his jagged, bestial portrayal of Wolverine suits this one-and-done perfectly. The blood in this issue, (and oh, is there blood in this issue) practically sticks to your hands off of the page. It isn’t pretty, but nor should it be.

Adan: Yes, yes, Jason Aaron is a good writer and Howard Chaykin’s art makes my eyes bleed. And overall, I like the issue, but that’s not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about whether or not a mainstream superhero book can even have a done-in-one story anymore.

Obviously, this book begins a new story that then ends in twenty-eight pages. But is it a done-in-one, really? Most, if not all, mainstream superhero books are too hampered by continuity and a shared universe (not necessarily a bad thing) to be able to tell a done-in-one story. Taking this issue of Wolverine as an example (also because I am ostensibly reviewing it), at the end of the issue, you find out that the mastermind behind Logan’s imprisonment is that Romulus guy Loeb and Bianchi introduced in the last arc. Even the new and leathered Wild Child shows up. A reader completely unknown to comics could not pick this up and understand the whole story. He’d have to ask friends who the leather-boy is, who he is talking to, and why do they hate Wolverine so much? These are, of course, beyond the initial questions of who Wolverine is, why can he be shot a lot and not die, etc. which we don’t count because they fall in the purview of introductory questions (everybody asks these kinds of questions when about to consume new media, especially if they’re joining up in medias res).

And I don’t think even longtime readers can consider this a done-in-one. The entire time I was reading this issue, as narration boxes told me weeks were passing, that Logan was in the pit for about two months, give or take a week, all I could think was, “Where are the X-men or New Avengers? This guy belongs to about twenty teams, and none of them have noticed he’s missing? Maybe there was a scheduling conflict and all the teams think he’s currently with a different team?” I still half expect there to be a New Avengers or Astonishing X-men issue later on where Wolverine chastises Luke Cage or Cyclops for not coming to spring him from the pit.

The age of the one-and-done is long gone for mainstream superhero comics. There is too much continuity for this to be able to happen anymore. Throw in the fact that most mainstream superhero characters regularly appear in more than two monthly titles (Wolverine being the worst offender of the whole bunch), and you have the death of the done-in-one story.

But hey, Jason Aaron did write a good story, and I hope this gets you Wolverine readers out there to pick up his Other Side or his Scalped, both by Vertigo, as they are much, much better.

Here at Indie Comics Roundup, we dispense praise and blame on independent comics according to the Incredible Hulk #185 scale. In this scale, Incredible Hulk #185 is considered to be the average comic (a solid C), and everything is graded based on its deviation from the average. Since Incredible Hulk #185 contains a Glen Talbot imposter trying to assassinate Gerald Ford with an organic bomb, you will perceive that we grade harshly. For example, every comic Marvel released in the year 1996 received an F.

We would also like to request of you that if you wish to post a comment, please make sure the comment has some content. Not that we don’t appreciate your wellwishes, mom, but it’s starting to get embarrassing.

Love and Capes #5

Thomas F. Zahler / Maerkle Press
Shock Value: Either B+ or D

Love and Capes is either the driest parody in the world of comics, or it totally sucks. For the life of me, I can’t tell which. It’s billed as “the heroically super situation comedy comic book, and this is no lie: Love and Capes perfectly mimics the banality and triteness of your standard situation comedy, with superheroes thrown in…

Read the complete review

Casper the Friendly Ghost (Harvey Comics Classics Volume One)

Leslie Cabarga, ed. / Dark Horse
Shock Value: A

Unlike some of the other children’s comics that are currently being reprinted–notably Carl Barks’s Duck stories and John Staley and Irving Trip’s Little Lulu–the Casper comics are not good in any traditional sense. They are perfectly serviceable children’s stories, but there’s no reason for a grown-up to read them. Comparing Lulu to Casper is like comparing Edward Lear to Stan and Jan Berenstain…

Read the complete review

XXX Scumbag Party / Angry Youth Comics #13

Johnny Ryan / Fantagraphics
Shock Value: A-

Everything bad that you’d care to say about Angry Youth Comics is true. It’s repellant, racist, juvenile, mindless, repetitive, and pornographic, and I can completely understand why someone might absolutely hate it. I love it. Angry Youth Comics is living proof that a bad joke repeated often enough becomes funny, and a bad joke pushed far enough is good. Neither enough nor too much is enough. You wouldn’t laugh at a retarded person, and you wouldn’t laugh at Hitler, but what about a character named Retarded Hitler? If Sam Henderson is a little too intellectual for you, if Tijuana bibles aren’t quite scatological enough, if Doofus is too well drawn for your taste, you’ve got a friend in Johnny Ryan…

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The Girls’ Guide to Guys’ Stuff

various / Friends of Lulu
Shock Value: C-

So apparently girls can read comics. If this sentence absolutely blows your mind, or if it fills you with such delight that you are now doubled over with mirth, you will probably want to read this anthology. Anyone else can skim…

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Stop Forgetting to Remember: The Autobiography of Walter Kurtz

Peter Kuper / Crown
Shock Value: C+

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the only thing worse than hearing one of your friends brag about his acid trips is hearing two of your friends brag about their adorable baby. Similarly, the only kind of autobiographical comic I dread reading more than the teenage drug fiend story is the “let’s have a baby” story. The hipster and the bourgeoisie are the twin horns of lame, and these two emblematic narratives are like their spoor, left behind when they pass.

So Peter Kuper’s Stop Forgetting to Remember focuses on drug use and babies, which is on the face of it a big problem. It also contains a “how I lost my virginity story” and a “I’ll teach that bitch who didn’t love me a lesson” story, all tied together by a chatty narrator (”Okay, okay! We get the picture! Jesus, don’t you ever shut up??” one character complains. “Can’t you see I’m trying to sleep?”); if you’re starting to get worried, you’re not the only one…

Read the complete review

Love and Rockets vol. 2 #20

Jaime & Gilbert Hernandez / Fantagraphics
Shock Value: A-

It’s probably impossible to review any single issue of Love and Rockets dispassionately or even fairly. The weight of twenty-five years’ worth of Love and Rockets comics lends every new issue a weight and depth it cannot produce on its own. The extended continuity is sometimes exhilarating and sometimes oppressive, but it makes for a unique reading experience. For a story running this long, in which every issue counts and there are no retcons or reboots, you can look to Cerebus or the first hundred issues of Fantastic Four, and there’s not a lot else…

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Big Plans #1

Aron Nels Steinke / Self-Published
Shock Value: B

There are many ways Big Plans is no better than the autobiographical mini comic your hipster roommate used to crank out. Parts of it are embarrassingly slight. Boo hoo, the author went to a comic store with no Fantagraphics books. If he couldn’t draw, he’d have to go home and blog about it. But Big Plans has two advantages over most autobio minis. One is a thirty-page story in which some interesting things happen…

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Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean

Douglas Wolk / Da Capo Press
Shock Value: A-

Look, this is a comics review column, not a book review column, so I’m only going to mention in passing Douglas Wolk’s new book of comics criticism, Reading Comics. It’s divided into two sections: in the first (”Theory and History”) he says everything I’ve always wanted to say about comics but never quite managed to get out right. In the second (”Reviews and Commentary”) he praises comics I like. What a great idea for a book…

Read the complete review

Hey all, Brendan here. We’ve hit a rough patch of lateness here at BAAPPAS Central, but we’re working hard to right the wrongs. I was out of town this week, so chalk the tardy post and the shortened list up to that. Fear not, children, next week we’ll be back to timely, lengthy normalcy.

Booster Gold #1

Adan: This was quite an enjoyable experience. Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz seem truly excited about writing this book.

It’s getting considerably harder to stay mad at Geoff Johns for the train wreck that was Green Lantern #4 (but I can hold on to my white hot rage as long as I need to). First he gave me the Sinestro Corps War, and now he’s giving me Booster as the greatest hero the multiverse has never known. Skeets, Rip Hunter, and Supernova are along for the ride, so we get a nice team dynamic going. I will say that this issue was pretty wordy, like Scrabble tournament wordy. For a guy who’s supposedly an egocentric moron, Booster sure does have a lot of thought captions. And I mean a lot.

I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed Dan Jurgens pencils. They just feel like classic superhero pencils (please keep in mind that I’m an old man born in 1983). And since he created Booster way back when, he’s probably the only guy qualified to draw his return (Kevin Maguire would also have been acceptable).

The use of the captions with the weeks and days (Week 60, Day 1) as well as the three characters we saw save the multiverse at the end make this feel like the true successor to 52, and I can only hope that fans see this and give this book the sales it deserves.

And can DC please put those four vertical bars previewing upcoming plot points at the end of all their books? It was awesome at the end of Justice Society of America #1 and it was awesome here.

Brendan: Booster Gold, you rock my world.

The greatest hero the world can never know about gets his much deserved new series here. Creators Dan Jurgens, Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz do the improbable, and find a purpose for Booster, both as a character and for a series. Booster has to fix the time stream, and no one can have any idea. Finally, we have a reason for this character to exist both as a sort of asshole, and as an honorable hero. He is a joke, and he isn’t. What’s more, there is no limit to the amount of stories that can be told in between continuity’s cracks. It could be a strong counter-point to Marvel’s Exiles, only character-driven. As long as the jokes stay funny, and the creators stay true to the series’ mission statement, this could be one of the most successful relaunches of a character ever. Jurgens’ work looks better than it has in years, which is a testament both to him and his inker, Norm Rapmund. When his work is off, it looks over-posed and dated. Here we can appreciate his strengths, with dynamic superhero work, expressive faces and an ability to draw damn near everything under the sun.

So here’s to you, you Buzz Cola-shilling, self-aggrandizing, super-suit stealing, time-jumping bastard. You may turn out to be the multiverse’s greatest hero yet. It’s a damn shame it’ll have to be such a secret; I mean, think of how many endorsements 52 universes have to offer!

And dude, that Green Lantern issue was like two years ago. Time to move on, buddy.

Adan: You just don’t know how much that book affected me. I nearly died (literally) because of that book.

Good as Lily GN

Adan: Could this be better than Mike Carey and Marc Hempel’s Re-Gifters? I think it just might be!

Grace Kwon has just turned eighteen years old, high school is about to end, and three versions of herself from different time periods come to visit her. Weird? Yes, but it nonetheless works here, and it works really well. Where Re-Gifters drew its drama from the real-life tribulations of a regular Korean girl in LA, Good as Lily draws its drama from the same kind of real-life tribulations, only there is some magic realism thrown in, which is something I usually abhor (magic realism is the easy way out, I’ve always said). But it felt natural (or as natural as magic gets, anyway) and unforced, unlike the fantasy element in Clubbing, which felt tacked on at the last second. Derek Kirk Kim knocked one out of the park with his first published work Same Difference and Other Stories. With Good as Lily, he showed us that he wasn’t just a one hit wonder.

I think I like Jesse Hamm’s art mostly because he reminded me of Kim’s art in Same Difference. However, he’s also a good cartoonist in his own right. His facial expressions are quite good (especially the super-cartoony ones when something goes horribly wrong) and his figures are just realistic enough to ground the story in the real world, but cartoony enough to allow the magic realism to happen without missing a beat.

If I had to say anything bad about this book, it’s that the end is too pat. Everything works out just fine with all the characters involved. Maybe this is a byproduct of magic realism. Regardless, this is fantastic and may beat out its sister Re-Gifters for comic of the year.

I wonder if it says something about something that the best comics so far both feature Korean protagonists in a comic specifically aimed at girls.

Brendan:It says something about you, at least.

And what do you want? A miserable ending chalk full of tragedy? Again, remember the target audience. This book was genuinely poignant, and very funny. The art wasn’t my favorite stylistically, but it suited and served the story. I don’t think all magic needs explanation, and if anything a forced explanation would have distracted from the story. Each iteration of Grace had a clear purpose in being there, and each one gave insight to Grace at eighteen.

If I had a complaint, it would be the title. “Good As Lily,” doesn’t really synch up with what this story seems to be about. Lily is Grace’s lost sister, and only seems to matter to the child version. Losing a sibling at a young age is a traumatic experience, and from a writing standpoint, should fundamentally change and shape the character. Including the plot point in the title implies importance also, but it doesn’t seem to come through in the story. The title is more than a little misleading, and if this book weren’t so damn enjoyable, I would be upset. I’m not.

Justice League of America #12

Adan: Well, it’s not the worst JLA book Brad Meltzer’s written, not by a damn sight, but it’s still not very good.

There are some nice character moments (the best one I thought was between Hawkgirl and Black Canary), and some nice set-up for Dwayne McDuffie’s upcoming “Injustice League Unlimited” arc, but overall it was still blah (which especially sucks since the last issue was so damn good). What was the point of Wally and Hal hanging out (especially since Hal was supposed to be on monitor duty)? Why were the secret watchers watching (this isn’t a plot point, really, I guess I just don’t want to ruin things if I don’t have too)? And you’ve had the Flash for a good two issues now, and have used him not at all.

What can I say about Ed Benes that hasn’t been said already? The guy draws some purty pictures, but his layouts are kind of bland. Compared to Gene Ha from last month, Benes is just composing the same old superhero layouts with very little deviation. Eric Wight comes along to at least give us something slightly different to look at, but given the choice between Benes’ stale layouts or Wight’s, I’m gonna go with Benes. He draws prettier.

I can’t say that I’m sorry to see Meltzer go, because I’m not. At all.

Dwayne McDuffie, come save us!

Brendan: This was supposed to be so much better. Brad Meltzer was supposed to give us a Justice League of America epic. It was supposed to challenge Identity Crisis as a JLA story for the ages. Meltzer, it was said, was waiting his entire life for this job. Maybe he was, but somehow I doubt that the eleven year old Meltzer was dreaming that someday he would write the most superfluous, deliberate, and verbose adventure the DCU had ever seen. This run was little more than a series of conversations about how great the Justice League is or was. First, the Big Three talked about who could be a Leaguer or not, then some villains talked about how doomed the League was, last issue Vixen and Red Arrow talked about how near they were to death, (despite relatively low stakes). Here, two mysterious figures talk about how much the team has gelled with their one and a half adventures over the last year. While the revelation of who is talking is almost a surprise, and the implications add a previously unseen layer to the team dynamic, the lump sum of this “era” is wholly underwhelming. This entire run has been obsessed with minutia and faux-character development. Hawkgirl is somehow new because she gets together with the biggest DC slut this side of Nightwing. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman have learned to let go of the League, evidenced by the fact that we rarely see them. Vixen is now more than just a filled out Animal-Man rip-off. The Red Tornado is somehow more clueless in regards to the human condition than when he was a robot. Though Meltzer clearly had specific goals as to how to develop each member of his team, the fact that each development had to be driven home so clumsily by unseen narrators seems to imply that either the change is not self-evident, or the audience lacks the sophistication to understand the vision. Meltzer quite obviously has a great affinity for these characters, and the world they inhabit. Even more, he seems to have extracted, from their history, the psychological angles that motivate each character. This series has been a study in those angles. And here I thought it was supposed to be a comicbook about the greatest superheroes of all time.

Eric Wight does provide deceptively sophisticated artwork that evokes the work of the past without blatantly copying any one style. Benes, though, again fails to live up to his potential. If there was one word for his artwork this entire run, it would be inconsistency. The line work jumps from page to page, and has since issue zero. There are times when two consecutive pages seem to have been produced by wholly different artists. This erraticism is forgivable for an issue, or maybe two, as deadlines can come fast in this business. But for the entire run to be plagued by that variation is jarring and unpleasant. The simplistic, straight line work is not the most visually pleasing, but acceptable. The hyper-detailed, ultra-rendered look works, too. But make up your goddamn mind.

The greatest disappointment of this series is the promise it held. I liked Identity Crisis, and loved The Archer’s Quest before that. I thought that Benes had made great strides in his work on Superman. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but this series felt like a step back for both creators, with the team they brought to life suffering because of it. Bring on Dwayne McDuffie and the Injustice League Unlimited.

Ripclaw: Pilot Season #1

Adan: There may be some life left in this shameless Wolverine clone.

This Pilot Season thing is an interesting concept. Top Cow is going to publish six one-shots, and then fans will vote on which two will continue as ongoing series. The inside front cover has the six books listed, and by creative team alone, I’d vote for Ripclaw by Jason Aaron and Jorge Lucas and Velocity by Joe Casey and Kevin Maguire. Luckily, we don’t have to go by only creative teams.

Ripclaw is a character from Marc Silvestri’s original Image offering Cyberforce. There is no question that Ripclaw is a thinly-veiled Wolverine clone: a loner who nonetheless joins a team for the betterment of mankind, he also has claws on his hands (in Ripclaw’s case they’re real claws, cybernetically implanted) and kills a lot of people. He even goes to Japan in this issue and fights yakuza and ninjas. But he’s also a Native American of undetermined specificity, and this is where I had hoped Jason Aaron would shine. His Scalped book, about a present day reservation, is a fantastic read, full of very interesting characters, most of them Native American. I had hoped some of that would bleed over and infuse Ripclaw, but unfortunately, it did not go beyond mentioning a sweat lodge. It’s in this sweat lodge that Ripclaw is contacted by many restless spirits to do their bidding so they can go the world beyond. It’s one of these spirits that tells him to go see Boss Yamamoto in Tokyo.

Every fight scene, every single act of violence without fail, happens off-panel. This is a very interesting thing to relegate to the background, as the issue is about Ripclaw trying to get to the head of the Yamamoto-gumi through many levels of security full of gun-toting Yak, sneaky ninjas, and a martial arts master. Relegating this to the background, though, does allow some pretty cool scenes to be spotlighted instead, including the fantastic conversation between Ripclaw and the aforementioned martial arts master, Number Nine.

Jorge Lucas, forced to draw talking heads for a good portion of the issue, nonetheless does a decent job. Ripclaw gets more and more fucked up after each (unseen) battle, so that at the end he’s wearing pants and a shredded shirt, having lost his hat, a coat, and a jacket. Ripclaw himself, though, still looks too much like Wolverine. I understand that the design of the character is set mostly in stone and can’t be changed too much, but maybe his civilian clothing could be altered so that he doesn’t look like a carbon copy of Logan in his civvies. Lose the cowboy hat, show off the ponytail, maybe put on a black jacket instead of a brown one. At least Ripclaw doesn’t smoke cigars. I will say that the aftermath of the battles we’re not privy to are so full of carnage, that my mind just starts racing with the possibilities of what occurred.

Overall, a good book and one that has a good shot at winning this contest. To be perfectly honest, though, I’d probably vote for this on the promise of things to come rather than the actual strengths of this issue. But who knows, maybe the other books will just blow it totally.

Brendan: If you’re going to rip someone off, make sure he’s the best there is at what he does.

I thought this was a very strong “pilot” issue. It was well paced, laid out a conflict and journey that can be extended indefinitely, and made me interested in a character I had no interest in prior. The Tokyo criminal underground can make for pretty cookie-cutter antagonists, but the clever dialogue and characterization manages to avoid tediousness. I did notice that the action went mostly unseen, but there was enough on panel drama to hold my interest.

This series, should it continue, will likely continue to give Ripclaw little face time. I would anticipate each issue, like this one, would delve mostly into the lives of his latest victims, illustrating their sin before penance is paid. Ripclaw himself will only develop as a character in terms of how he responds to the underbelly he avenges. Even if it is formulaic, it should be very interesting.

And with all this voting, I have a funny feeling Jason Todd is going to end up dead. Power to the people.

Terror Inc. #1

Adan: From the early 90s (and from Robert Kirkman’s underappreciated third arc of Marvel Team-Up), comes the basically forgotten character of Mr. Terror, an ageless zombie who just cannot die.

I wasn’t too keen on the series only because I remember Terror as a not so interesting character, but David Lapham has convinced me otherwise. The first half of this book is Terror’s origin story, dating all the way back to 455 AD and the sack of Rome and continuing for hundreds of years. The origin is pretty cool, full of swords and sorcery and a love that could not survive. Flash forward to Los Angeles, 2007, and Terror runs a problem-solving operation. He’s approached by a man from Homeland Security for some cloak-and-dagger stuff, strictly off the books.

I think the part I like best (and don’t judge me here) is that Terror has to take body parts from other dead people to keep himself together. He can also take heads and find out what the guy was thinking before his head got “re-appropriated.” That in itself presents some pretty cool ideas, never mind the fact that Lapham is a fantastic crime fiction writer. I stress caution, though; Mrs. Primo may steal the spotlight if you’re not too careful.

Patrick Zircher, who has experience drawing hamburger meat for heads in Cable/Deadpool, is an inspired choice for artist. He draws the barbarian/knight-filled origin portion like he was drawing an issue of Conan or Red Sonja (only with less lusty wenches) and the present day stuff like he was drawing an issue of Queen & Country. It’s not that his style changes or anything like that, but the atmospheres of each section are very pronounced in the artwork. Where olden times are kinetic and there’s movement in almost every panel, the present day has quieter moments where a panel could stretch for minutes in the same basic pose. The pace slows down as centuries are no longer flying by (not to say that the present day is completely devoid of action or anything like that). I would have liked to see some more backgrounds during the origin portion, though.

My only real problem is that nobody seems to notice that Terror is a zombie (or whatever). Either there are tons of zombies running around (there aren’t), Terror is really well known (then how can he do all that sensitive black bag stuff if he is?), or Lapham just didn’t want to deal with that (the most likely answer and the laziest).

Brendan: I think the fact that people aren’t constantly running from Terror is likely due to the hazy continuity in which the MAX titles take place. MAX titles, while outside of the Marvel Universe proper, are Marvel books, and so there is a precedent for the supernatural. Plus, it is all in Los Angeles, so people probably just think Terror is in between nose jobs.

This was much better than I’d expected. The exposition laden origin is handled beautifully by Lapham, with a narrative tone that both develops the character and illustrates the black sense of humor needed to survive the horrific tragedy that defines this man’s existence. Zircher, who has also done extensive work on Iron Man, delivers the work of his career. Moody, and just grotesque enough, every frame is fully realized and executed. I thought the second half of this issue dragged a little, but that be because I was more interested in how Terror operated in the chaotic lawlessness of the ancient world than in tame L.A. Then again, he did snap a dude’s neck just so he could replace his own degenerated skull, so maybe the world of today can be a little badass, also.

Only complaint: where are the obtuse tri-bars that extend from Terror’s face? They made absolutely no sense, and I demand to see them!

Alan Moore: The Complete Wildcats TPB

Adan: Back in 1995, Alan Moore was asked to write WildStorm’s flagship title. He accepted. Alan Moore: The Complete Wildcats TP is how it turned out.

The WildC.A.T.s, slightly modified X-Men knockoffs, had been floundering for a little while, and after twenty issues of rather bland stories buoyed only by Jim Lee’s fan-pleasing artwork, Alan Moore was the reins and started his fantastic run on the title. Savant and Majestic believed the rest of the team to be dead, so they built a new team from the ground up. In actuality, Spartan, Voodoo, Zealot, Maul, Void, Warblade, and Lord Emp had traveled to Khera where they saw it for what it really was: factionalized aristocrats that depended on slave labor and ghettoized the unwanted. An allegory, to be sure, but a good action story, too.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Moore introduced two of the best characters in the WildStorm universe: Ladytron and Tao. Tao, of course, was the driving force of Moore’s entire run. He was a genetically engineered super genius, able to manipulate anyone into doing anything for him. He plunged the entire city of New York into a gang war all so that he could unite all the super-heroes under him. Tao went on to star in Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips’ excellent series Sleeper.

Ladytron had a much shorter lifespan, unfortunately. She was this crazy cyborg who killed as often as she cursed (which was quite often) and was a nun in the Church of Gort. She showed up in a couple of issues of the second and third Wildcats series (most recently as little more than the Grifter’s ride, I believe). I hope Morrison brings her back in the fourth series (whenever that comes out again).

There were many artists during Moore’s run, but the one I most associate with it is Travis Charest, who is just phenomenal. I wish he did more stuff more often, but this guy is ridiculously slow. But just take a look at any of his work and tell me it’s not something you want to look at tall the time. Sure, he started like many artists before and after him: as a Jim Lee clone, but as he progressed on WildC.A.T.s, he came into his own style (especially the on the covers, where he’d always looked his least Jim Lee-like).

Even if you hate the Wildcats and everything they represent (which is a lot and you couldn’t possibly hate it all), you need to read this collection. Hey, it has Alan Moore’s name on it and when has he ever steered you wrong.

Brendan: This book made me happy that Alan Moore has, for the most part, sworn off work-for-hire. His take on WildC.A.T.S. is more intriguing than the average issue of the Image Jim Lee vehicle, but that don’t make it Shakespeare.

In fairness, it wasn’t that the book was bad. The problem I had was that Moore seemed too restrained by the characters and the story, when all I really wanted was to watch him jam out ideas. I thoroughly enjoyed his take on the Kheran homeworld, with their fully realized political scene and class structure, but felt hampered by the story at home. Look, it isn’t that this book wasn’t a well written, or well drawn. Moore’s bar is raised considerably higher than the average writer’s. I don’t need every piece to be Watchmen, but I like it when I find a Supreme. Moore didn’t do enough here to challenge to form, and so I was left unsatisfied. It doesn’t make it a bad WildC.A.T.S., but it isn’t up to par with other great Moore work. But shit, I’ll probably read it again someday. He’s Alan Moore.

As a side note, if Alan Moore was still accepting work from the big two, he would probably be writing Final Crisis. Personally, I’m glad he’s not.

Black Adam: The Dark Age #1

Adan: Hurm… I’m not sure what I think here. I have this guttural reaction to the book as pretty cool, actually, because it’s just Black Adam being all badass (the book opens with him ordering his followers to beat the shit out of him so that he can’t be recognized), but there are also some characterization issues that I have. Black Adam seems to act more like Vandal Savage than Black Adam in this book. Perhaps this is just desperation seeping into the character, what with his wife dead and his magic word forgotten, but still. Peter Tomasi still puts together an interesting story and I’m especially intrigued by the cliffhanger ending (which I shan’t spoil, so don’t worry).

I’ve always been a fan of Doug Mahnke’s art: I just love the way he draws the Superman-looking characters. They always look meaner and dirtier than they really are. While an interesting look for a Superman or a Captain Marvel, it fits like a glove on Black Adam, especially in this story, where he really is meaner and dirtier.

Brendan: Here he is, the breakout star of 52. This new miniseries picks up where World War Three left Adam, powerless and shamed. With his homeland in ruins, Adam is operating in secret in an attempt to reclaim his lost glory. Departed DC senior editor Peter Tomasi writes with Doug Manke providing pencils in this harshly portrayed adventure. Black Adam is an old character, but it has been Geoff Johns’ brutal anti-hero depiction that fans have responded to since the JSA: Black Reign arc, which Tomasi edited. In Reign, Adam acted as a liberator to his native country Kahndaq. With a touch of subtlety, Kahndaq serves as a metaphor for the Middle East, or at least the American perception of the Middle East in the post 9-11 world. This makes Black Adam an Arabian analog to the American Superman. His concepts of justice and honor differ drastically from the traditional American values, but his commitment to fighting for what he believes in makes him as valiant as any hero.

Although the subtext of the character has been evident in recent years, this issue seemed to posses a greater political bent than any of the stories prior. Adam is operating in secret as part of a zealous terrorist cell, attempting to infiltrate his homeland. He is a great character, but no Black Adam story would be complete without his naïve JSA teammate, Atom Smasher. Atom and Adam make up one of the most dynamic friendships in the DCU, as Adam’s sense of vigilante justice matches with Atom’s sense of proactive heroism. Doug Manke’s art has moments of greatness, but they all seem to occur early on in this uneven issue. I’m still undecided as to whether this issue was interestingly topical or overtly heavy-handed, but I will gladly finish the series to figure it out.

Black Metal v1

Adan: I kind of wish this book was regular-sized so that this would make more sense: “Too much metal for one hand!” As it stands, the manga format is small enough for one hand. Do not let that deter you, for this story is too much metal for one person.

Rick Spears writes another enjoyable story (in the interest of full disclosure, I talk to Rick almost every week at the LCS, but I give special preference to no man!) about twin brothers and their hunt for awesome metal, and what dark prophecy said awesome metal unleashes. Reading the twins’ speech patterns is like listening to a metal album, only without the screams and all that noise in the background, and I have to say, reading metal is a lot more fun that listening to metal (as may be apparent, I am not a big metal fan). The foster mother and brother in the twins’ lives, who are about as un-metal as one can get, are hilarious companions (foils?) for the twins, especially the brother, who seems to go nameless except for the many insults the twins hurl at him (their favorite seems to be ‘Toad’).

Chuck BB is someone I’ve never heard of before, but his art is super cool. It’s obviously very manga-inspired but still retains that western sensibility. A lot of the common manga markers are missing (things like speed lines and bloody noses to denote lust). They are eschewed for traditional western markers, but one can’t help but look at the big eyes and the somewhat chibi character design.

And if you like this, you should check out Vasilis Lolos’ The Last Call v1, also out this week and also from Oni Press. Lolos is Rick’s partner on their Pirates of Coney Island book from Image. That one’s a bit headier, but still super cool.

Brendan: Reagan Junior High?

“What are you, like twelve?”
“Yes, but it feels like millennia.”

I have seen the light in the darkness, and it resides within the pages of Black Metal. When the great Satan comes, I know he will ride to the tune of this book.

Metal is a state of mind, and no one knows it better than the Brothers Stronghand. Twelve-year-old Metal-fanatics, (not Goths, and woe to he who confuses the two) they were sent to Earth to fill the void in my soul that Scott Pilgrim’s delayed schedule has left me. What Pilgrimis to video game nostalgia, Metal is to…metal. This, in turn, assures awesometivity. I would disagree with Adan’s assessment of the manga-influence, if only because to me it spoke to the work of Jhonen Vasquez. This story packs all the sick melodrama associated with metal and youth with a story with a crazy quest. The dialogue reads perfectly with the tone and story, with the twins’ repartee serving as a metronome throughout. This book had it all, but now I’m left waiting to hear the internet spawn a theme song.

Blade #12

Brendan: Why didn’t we all just buy this book? Look at this cover! It is so brilliant, I could cry. Look at Blade’s poor, cancelled face, and tell me you don’t feel bad. Don’t we all remember? This is the character that brought superhero movies BACK! We owe it to him, and to Wesley Snipes, to support a Blade book beyond twelve issues. C’mon, he fights vampires. Buffy fans, anyone?

Personally, I couldn’t get into this book, so I accept the consequences. Although traditional logic would dictate that going with an industry stalwart like Howard Chaykin for art chores would be a savvy move, I actually found that it kept me away from the series. I have liked the Marc Guggenheim work I’ve been exposed to, and I do think of Blade as at least a “C” level character. But Chaykin’s rough work kept me away. I offer no excuses. That said, this was a good farewell issue. It wrapped up the storylines that permeated the entire series, and offered closure to this story, even if it did open a big friggin’ casket full of stories for the future. It had cool revelations, ancient artifacts, Daywalking, and Dracula. If that isn’t enough, Gene Colan stops by to close out the series with a badass sequence and pin-up of the original Blade getup, complete with new justification. This was a good issue, if only a bit exposition-heavy, but you won’t be disappointed if you buy it just for the first image and the last one.

Adan: Alright, first of all, that cover is fantastic. Rarely do covers have a speech bubble anymore, never mind a speech bubble that breaks the fourth wall. That’s just awesome. The inside on the other hand…

I can see why this book is getting cancelled: it’s just not very good. Howard Chaykin’s art is very difficult to look at it without thinking how much better it could be if drawn by almost anybody else in the game (Rob Liefeld and clones need not apply). Guggenheim’s writing doesn’t make all that much sense here either. If Blade hates the guy so much, why does he keep calling him “Dad?” It’s not like this guy has been around all that much in your life, plus he’s a vampire and a dick.

Ugh. The whole thing is just ugh. Hopefully, the next time Blade gets a series (and if Blade on the cover is to be believed, there will be a next time) he’ll get a much better creative team so that he can stay around a little longer.

Casanova #8

Brendan: Only in this book could art chores be taken over by the original artist’s twin brother. And only here could it work so hauntingly. Fabio Moon takes over for Gabriel Ba, (are we sure these guys are real? They don’t sound real. They sound like porn stars from the future.) and though the work echoes the previous volume, it maintains a unique look unto itself. None of the stylistic choices take away from the tightly packed story, but the volume’s new hue is jarring. It seems to suit the story, but it will still take some getting used to.

As for the story itself, it is as enjoyable as any of the previous work. I’ll let Fraction dish the details himself, as he does in the issue’s backmatter, “[Teen Age Music International] Opening! Ridiculous Mission! Turnaround! Eliptical philosophy masquerading as character development! Exploding brainbirds! Touching moment where Cass reveals his humanity, beneath the hedonistic shell!.. Everybody talking like Cool Prick Catchphrase was their native tongue!”

C’mon, now. This shit sells itself.

Adan: These guys are totally real. I met the both of them at SDCC, along with Matt Fraction, and they’re all crazy cool. Crazy cool.

Fabio’s choice of dark blue over Gabriel’s olive green is somewhat jarring and it does take some getting used to, but overall it’s a good decision. Not only does it mark the difference between Fabio and Gabriel’s art style approach to Casanova, but it also marks the tonal difference in the book. Where the first album seemed to be all about the sex, violence, and rock & roll, and any deeper meaning had to be dug for, the second album seems to wear its deeper meaning on its sleeve. The first album opened with Cass kidnapping a half-naked sex robot. The second album opens with Cass in a hospital, dying, killing, and euthanizing. This isn’t the same fun-loving Casanova you’ve come to expect, but it is still the great Casanova read you’ve come to love.

Foxwood Falcons #1

Adan: I was hoping this had been better.

Darren Sanchez’s writing is clunky in this coming-of-age story of a twelve-year-old kid who is suddenly entrusted to be the keeper of a secret vault of secret things. There is a lot of middle school fiction cliches thrown in here: the main protagonist, Robert Wise, is picked on by the jocks, he has a group of mostly socially maladjusted kids, and his father is dead. The dialogue and captions (which are just Robbie’s thought balloons in disguise) are all stilted and forced. Kids don’t actually talk and think like this; adults only think they do.

Artist Matthew Tow and colorist Jeff Balke have that digital colors directly on the pencils thing going, or at least it looks that way. Tow may be inking as well as pencilling, but I don’t think it matter so much. Colors directly on pencils can sometimes look rushed, but Tow keeps the art simple enough that instead of looking rushed, the art looks planned (which is how all art, regardless of style or genre, should look).

There is an interesting premise here, but I don’t think it’s enough to hold my interest with such uninspired writing.

Brendan: After a harsh initial reaction, Foxwood Falcons won me over. The story centers on a family duty-bound to protect ancient treasures, and specifically shows us the story of a twelve year old and his ascent to his duty. Upon first glance, I thought this was going to be just another blasé youth-oriented superhero book. These types of stories are a dime a dozen, especially when coupled with the animation style art provided by Matthew Tow. Darren Sanchez’s writing also didn’t do much to impress in the early going, not helped by the choice to introduce the entire cast in one scene. The adversaries were quickly set, with a Cobra-Kai like squad of football players who wear “KK” on their chest, when my eyes hit their rolling pinnacle.

Then it turned around. The central concept to this series, once we explored it, felt refreshingly worthwhile. Many superhero stories are about legacy, and this story took that concept one step further. There may be too many stories about superheroes, but that doesn’t mean that there are too many stories about responsibility. The issue’s second half was far more enjoyable to me, although it was likely due in no small part to the “ancient plasma swords,” that looked familiar enough that Lucasfilms may get involved. There were some unacceptable grammatical errors towards the issue’s very end, but despite that and the slow beginning I will be interested to see whether or not this series fulfils its considerable potential.

Glister #1

Adan: Now this is the Andi Watson I know and love. Glister Butterworth is a British child who is a magnet for the unusual. In this, her first adventure, she comes into possession of a haunted teapot which contains a dead author who wants to finish his last book. This book is very kid-friendly. No violence, no sex, and the ghost isn’t even all that scary. It’s just a good story about a girl and a ghost. The supporting characters, Glister’s dad and Mr. Wilkes (a wrestler-cum-antiquarian), are hilarious, and Glister herself kind of reminds me of an older Yotsuba with a lot less energy. There is a Skeleton Key back-up that’s also pretty cute. It also deals with the supernatural.

Watson’s art is fantastic as usual. The art style is minimal and cartoony, which is apropos for a book of this kind. I especially enjoyed the gray lines he uses to draw the smoke, clouds, and ghost, instead of the black lines he uses for almost everything else. This helps to cement the ghost’s etherealness.

I’m always looking for new kids’ comics to get my cousins hooked on (as well as my own future children), and I think Glister will be joining those ranks

Brendan: I can’t say a bad thing. This book was a delight. Glister is the kind of neat and simple story that makes children’s literature so much fun. The simplicity of the world portrayed through the eyes of a child is a valuable experience, if only to step back from the multivalent imagery that is so constantly force fed into general life. With just enough magic to make the world interesting, but not too much to make it impossible, this story feels like childhood. I do wonder whether the targeted audience would make it through the lead story, as it is longer than most picture books but shorter than most early level chapter books, but I really hope they do.

I’m happier because I read this little thing. Unbelievable.

Powers #25

Brendan: At some point, when a work reaches a certain level of success, it becomes en vogue for fans to bail. They’ll chalk it up to “selling out,” or “not being what it used to be,” but nine times out of ten the complaints are baseless and boil down to counter-culture, holier than thou bullshit. Powers, especially since the move to Marvel’s Icon imprint, has been a victim of this sort of slander. Of course, the greatest irony of this sway of opinion is the fact that Powers has done nothing if not the opposite of sell out. The last two years of stories have taken more risks in the story than most books dare over a decade. Not content to sit on their laurels of super crime noir vignettes, Bendis and Oeming have pushed beyond their own parameters, taking Pilgrim and Walker to the very edge. Walker is still a cop, although he now works nights as an intergalactic patrolman. Deena is still fighting for justice, but she is relegated to street level vigilante justice, defending the innocent from the powers virus that has become the city’s newest blight. This has always been a book where anything can happen, and sixty two issues in, it still does.

Also, this issue kicks off a new format for the series. With a higher cardstock cover, and extra pages, the $1 hike is well worth it. Pay for quality, kids. Oh, and if you’re still reluctant, look at Oeming’s seventy panel sex scene. That is value.

Adan: I am convinced that Bendis and Oeming cannot go an issue of Powers without some titties being exposed. Sometimes, it’s Bendis telling Oeming to draw naked girls for the sake of the story (like the pervert he is), but sometimes Oeming just throws boobies in there for fun. Did we really need a two-page, seventy-panel sex scene with Walker fucking his girlfriend? Really? I think I know why they needed to up the page count: now, Bendis and Oeming can put in that many more cans into any given issue.

Alright, rant over.

This issue starts eight months after the last one (which is approriate, since that’s about how long ago the last issue came out) with the powers virus that Deena was exposed to running rampant across the city. Deena has gone AWOL and is handing out Heroes for Hire-style justice on the streets. Walker, meanwhile, is tasked to find patient zero and stop the powers virus from spreading. Bendis and Oeming are doing their thing, and they’re going to keep on doing it until people stop wanting it. Hopefully, that won’t come for awhile (though it would help if Bendis and Oeming put that hilarious coroner back into this series on a regular basis).

Now that I’ve spread the love, what the fuck is up with those covers? Oeming’s at least has some anatomy and a background (though Walker is mostly in shadow, as is the city), but Bendis? Did you just wake one morning, realize this thing was due, and xerox an ink blot sort of in the shape of a head to your editor? That is lame, son.

Un-Men #1

Adan: With such a strong first issue, this may be the new series Vertigo has been looking for to replace the soon-to-be over Y the Last Man.

Aberrance USA is a town somewhere in the American southwest which houses the world’s carnival freaks. But not just any carny freaks, Aberrance is home to the Un-Men, genetically engineered carny freaks. John Whalen begins to weave an intricate plot which pits Agent Kilcrop, an employee of the Department of Energy (and an albino), against Uncorp, the corporation that runs Aberrance, and is in turn run by Un-Men. So, if we’re talking high concept, then this is Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love meets X-Files meets Uncanny X-men, only without the spandex.

Mike Hawthorne must have had a tremendous amount of fun coming up with all the freaks that populate Aberrance, including an inside-out man named Mocoso, a three-boobed hooker, and a maintenance worker with a scorpion tail (blink and you’ll miss them) among many, many others. I hope Hawthorne continues to pepper inventive freaks into the backgrounds of Aberrance as the series continues.

I also hope this book finds its audience, and that that audience is huge, because this book is pretty awesome so far.

Brendan: “Un-Men #1 is out August eighth, Un-Men #1 is out August eighth, Un-Men #1 is out August eighth, Un-Men #1 is out August eighth.” These were the words of artist Mike Hawthorne at the Vertigo panel at the Wizard World Philadelphia convention. The panel was bereft of any real news, and as such Hawthorne’s mantra became a running gag and a remarkable reminder. Well, 8/8 is here, and so is Un-Men. Adan is right, this book totally rocks. Hawthorne and Whalen revive the Swamp Thing castoffs, utilizing Aberrance as brilliant and realized a backdrop as the world of Fables. With stirring visuals and a mysterious murder, this is why they make Vertigo comics. Hop on, kids, this is going to be a good one.

And Others…

Adan: A completely wordless book about a dog and his robot friend that he proceeds to immediately screw over is what Robot Dreams GN is all about.

A dog buys a robot and they become instand friends. They play, they watch Laputa together (an ingenious reference, by the way), and then they go to the beach. Then the dog leaves the robot on the beach after it turns out he can’t move anymore. A year passes through the book as the dog finds other friends and has tons of fun, and the robot dreams of what might have been if almost every character it encountered while stuck on the beach wasn’t a complete dick. I’m not sure what the overall lesson we’re supposed to learn is here, but the book looks great, and the story is quite humorous.

Sara Varon normally fills the entire page with panels and art, but marks scene changes with one-panel pages, and I don’t mean splash pages. The panels in question are the same size as other panels in her six-panel grids, and they occupy only one corner of the page, leaving a lot of blank space. Once in awhile, she’ll throw in a completely blank page. This serves to let a reader digest what has occurred. Granted, not a lot of digestion is needed, but it’s nice to have the time anyway. These one panel pages actually begin the story in a rather odd place. The first panel is before the title page, and the second panel is right after the copyright page. That is interesting placement for opening panels, and I have nothing really to add to that. This is just an observation, I guess.

This is another great book from First Second. They are quickly becoming my second favorite publisher (after Oni, of course, whose every book I seem to buy).

Brendan: New Avengers was a blast. I love how this series has become a showcase for the “new” Marvel universe, both by revitalizing characters with unexpected match ups, like Luke Cage and Spider-man, as well as making use of the characters created but left by the wayside, like the Sentry, Echo, and now, the Hood. For me, this is the book where the Marvel story happens.

The order you consume the following media does not matter, nor does it matter if you are fashion-impaired (like my boyfriend); you will be equally delighted by Kamikaze Girls the book and the movie, and that is a Ninja Consultant guarantee!¹

Kamikaze Girls (Novel)

By Novala Takemoto
Translated by Akemi Wegmuller
Distributed by Viz Media

After reading some of DMPs light novels, Kamikaze Girls felt like reading literature. Initially, I hesitated to pick up the book due to it’s white slip cover and pink embroidery design. It was jut a little too girly for me, despite my Decora² Halloween costume and childhood love for My Little Ponies. I held the novel in my hand at the comic book store and considered – was it a light novel? Was it a novelization of the movie, or was the movie based on the book? Unsure of myself, I choked at the cover price AND FOOLISHLY SET THE BOOK DOWN, MISSING OUT ON HOURS OF POTENTIAL JOY.

Months later I snagged the Mangacast’s review copy (thanks Ed!). Approximately halfway through the book I started devising plans to build a time machine in order to send the book to my high school self. I quickly grasped that the movie and manga were based on the novel.

The story is written in first person by Momokoko, a hardcore Lolita³ fashion victim raised by a “useless” single father who’s dual-logo pirated Versace / Universal Studios merchandise has got him in trouble with the local yakuza. As the story begins Momokoko has found herself relocated to Ibaraki prefecture, which is out in the sticks, quite literally in cowtown.

Momoko does not make friends in Ibaraki – her fashion subculture is far too extreme for hicks, and her obsession with the Rococo period in France does not win over her classmates. She meets Ichigo, a Yanki⁴, when she tries to sell her dad’s pirated merchandise through a classified ad. Ichigo is Momoko’s fashion-opposite, but both girls are followers of obscure subcultures, and they slowly become friends.

The ending is a little too happy, a little too perfect – Momoko happens to have a talent gets “discovered”. Ichigo is really pretty when she doesn’t do her own make-up, and becomes a professional model. I wish everyone could discover their career path so easily! I found this slightly irksome as an adult, however, I know it is the ending I would have wished for as a teenager.

Towards the end of the book I learned that the author, Takemoto, is actually a dude. I was totally shocked! How could a man write such great female characters? Takemoto truly captures a teen girl’s voice and plays it out with such dignity, such veracity, and such style!

This is the most lovingly translated book that I have ever read, (the second best being A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami, also recommended). The jokes are all very funny, and the author’s voice comes through very clearly, in a tone that I’m certain is true to the original. There are several translation notes and a brief glossary. If anything, the glossary could have used a few more definitions, but I never felt totally lost. I heard from Ed Chavez that the translation team worked really hard on this. Akemi Wegmuller – if you’re reading this, I appreciate your hard work! Thank you for doing a good book justice with an excellent translation!

Kamikaze Girls is a love letter to teenage girls written by one’s future self. The ultimate message of the story is: Don’t worry about your future. Have confidence in yourself, and you’ll discover your talents. Be true to yourself and your friends, and everything will turn out alright.

“…ever since I started wearing Baby’s clothes, I realized that to carry them off properly – to truly do them justice – I’d have to improve myself, starting with my attitude toward life. Because if you dress like a Lolita without having the Lolita spirit, the clothes won’t suit you. At all.”
– Momoko

Kamikaze Girls (Movie)

Directed by Tetsuya Nakashima
Distributed by Viz, 102 minutes

I missed this movie three times in theaters, and I feel like Judas denying Christ three times. I own the DVD now, and making all my friends watch it might be my only hope for salvation.

Kamikaze Girls the film rockets along at roughly Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels speed from the first frame, using mixed media and graphic design to quickly lay out for the audience exactly when the Rococo era was and what it meant, all from Momoko’s extremely biased point of view. Momoko then proceeds to narrate the story of her conception and birth to hilarious effect, and this is handled even better in the movie than it is in the book.

By the time Ichigo rides in to town 20 or 30 minutes in the movie just keeps getting better. Even though Ichigo’s laughably tricked-out scooter is described in great detail in the novel, nothing beats seeing the ridiculous contraption on screen. Anna Tsuchiya, the actress playing Ichigo, gives a great performance. In the book Ichigo is a little dumber, but Tsuchiya really brings a new dimension to Ichigo’s character. She was also wonderful in A Taste of Tea, which I reviewed recently.

My second-favorite scene in the film is Momoko’s first encounter with the clothing brand “Baby, the Stars Shine Bright” (the brand name is said in its entirety, in English, dozens of times throughout the film). “My old self…” she narrates “…was killed on the spot.” From a lacy sleeve an old-fashioned Rococo gun pulls the trigger, killing Momoko, and her new self is born.

Recently Kamikaze Girls has been airing late at night on the ImaginAsia channel (available on Time Warner here in New York City). When I see it on TV, I just leave it on, because Kamikaze Girls has such a high re-watch value. It’s definitely worth the cost of the DVD.

Director Tetsuya Nakashima also directed Memories of Matsuko, which won the Audience Award at this year’s New York Asian Film Festival.

Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno: Tokyo Teen Fashion Subculture Handbook

By Izumi Evers and Patrick Macias
Illustrated by Kazumi Nonaka
Published by Chronicle Books

As long as you’re purchasing Kamikaze Girls in either form, you may as well buy Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno: Tokyo Teen Fashion Subculture Handbook, at the same time. If you’re like me, and your interest in Yanki fashion subculture was peaked by Kamikaze Girls, and you want more information, this book is your one-stop-fashion-subculture-source in the English language. Those Fruits books at Barnes and Noble are not going to break it down for you with timelines and charts! You will need Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno to get the whole story.

Part history, part anthropological study, part fashion magazine, Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno works as your safari guidebook to the strange world of teenage girl fashion subculture in Japan from the 1970’s to the present. Many of the specimens examined in the book are long since extinct, but the pop culture echoes of these groups lingers on in movies, anime, manga, and live-action television dramas.

Macias and Evers take you on a trip through time in the streets of Tokyo, where bored suburbanite girl have flocked to in weird outfits for decades. Nonaka’s illustrations break down the difference between Sukebans, Decora Girls, and Gothic Lolitas, as well as even more obscure sub-groups like the Kigurumin. It’s all laid out for the reader in a handy fold-out evolutionary tree.

Anime fans watching the current release of season two of Super Gals from Right Stuf can final get some answers, explanation, and historical context to the Gal style. Old school fans of Kimegure Orange Road can finally learn why Madoka carried guitar picks as weapons (she was parodying the days of sukeban girl gangs who carried razor blades).

Since this is a book about teenage girls, I was surprised to find that my male friends took an interest in flipping through the book and picking out their ideal sub-culture girlfriends. Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno specifically outlines what type of guy different gals would want date – at least for the first half of the book. No one wants to date a Kirgurumin or an O-Gal! The latter were nearly homeless, smelly versions of kogals, who return home only to change clothes, and the former wore adult-size animal-themed pajamas on the streets of Shibuya.

Although Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno is of special interest to anyone obsessed with Japanese pop culture, I am confident that it is also a wild (yet accessible) ride for normal people. I am thinking specifically here of my high school days, wherein obligatory trips to the school library resulted in teen girls flipping through the library’s latest fashion magazines instead of checking out any actual books. Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno is loaded with enough pictures that even non-readers will find it fascinating, non-readers being a group that sometimes includes American teenage girls.

My only complaint about Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno is that I did not like the style of the illustrations. Although the illustrations were very accurate and informative and somewhat cute, their artistic style annoyed me. Fortunately, there are plenty of photographs of actual schoolgirls throughout the book that make up for it. The photographs are priceless anthropological studies of eras past.

Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno doesn’t take long to read, but it’s hours of fun passing it around to one’s friends. I loaned my copy out to a friend, and haven’t seen it since.

¹ Not a guarantee. Inversely, you could be equally disgusted by both.
² To find out more about Decora, read Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno.
³ Gothic Lolita; Read more about it Schoolgirl Inferno.
⁴ Again, read Schoolgirl Inferno.

Sorry this is late kids. Jetlag and all. But here it is, as promised: the Picks, Pans & Scans review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Remember, there are tons of spoilers in this thing so if you care, run away as quickly as possible. Enjoy! –Adan.

Brendan: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the best of all the Harry Potter series, and anyone who says otherwise is an ass. And with that, the opposing argument…
Adan: Alright there hoss. You’re gonna throw down right off the bat, are you?
Brendan: I came to play. I will defend this book’s honor.
Adan: Okay, then. This book is merely okay. Enjoyable in parts, but flawed overall. Let’s begin with the biggest of this book’s problems: Harry’s “death.” Don’t promise if you can’t deliver.
Brendan: What was the promise, and what failed to deliver? The Hallows remained Deathly to the end.
Adan: The promise was Harry’s death. There is one (or so) chapter in which Harry has to come to terms with dying for a cause, making this an epic story. But the author punks out instead and the Boy That Lived lives. You can’t make that kind of promise and not deliver.
Brendan: I don’t understand why an ending that tugs both ends of the emotional spectrum is a bail? There is death, yes, but like many heroic journeys, death is not the end. There are greater challenges.
Adan: You mean the stupid ass semantic victory over Voldemort? “I actually beat Malfoy, who beat Dumbledore; therefore I am the actual owner.” That’s almost worse than Eowyn’s semantic victory over the Ringwraith.
Brendan: The act of sacrifice is not the act of dying. The willingness to sacrifice is traditionally the greatest humanitarian value. And hey, she is no Man.
Adan: That’s bullshit is what that is.
Brendan: The problem with a series ending in death is twofold; one, as you say, it is exactly what was expected. Two, it is a downer and kills the ability to hope.
Adan: No it isn’t. Nobody ever expects the death of the main character. That’s why “Get Carter” is so damn awesome. And it isn’t a downer because the hero has died for a cause that is usually won through the hero’s death.
Brendan: But he died. Your bloodlust was appeased.
Adan: He didn’t fucking die. He took the scenic route through unconsciousness.
Brendan: Why must that be the end? Why should Harry’s entire existence be defined by Voldemort?
Adan: Because it has been for six books. Anything else is some kind of left field addition.
Brendan: Harry’s story is over. The story of The Boy Who Lived, his journey into the world of magic and majesty is at an end. This is what the afterward is all about.
Adan: Yeah, nineteen years in the future in some fan-fiction-y epilogue, which was also crap.
Brendan: It isn’t really about Harry’s life. He had a life before Hagrid landed on his doorstep and he had one in the nineteen missing years described. But this isn’t about his life, it is about his journey. To kill him makes it about his life. But there is more to life than what Voldemort decided.
Adan: His journey should have ended in death. Look, the difference between Harry dying and not dying is the difference between an epic story and just another fantasy novel.
Brendan: Bullshit. A seven year story is epic no matter how it ends.
Adan: Now that’s bullshit. Tell that to Laurell K. Hamilton.
Brendan: There is also a difference between what best serves a story and what a fan of the series wishes to see. That is the problem with expectations and an active audience. They become invested in the story, and then feel as though it is their story to persuade.
Adan: Yeah there is. A fan would want to see Harry live and the story would be better served by Harry’s death.
Brendan: You say that, but saying “Death makes it epic,” doesn’t really describe what serves the story.
Adan: The story is better as just another fantasy series instead of an epic?
Brendan: Dude, that means nothing. Those are just words.
Adan: This isn’t about Harry’s life, or his journey. This is about the magical world as a whole. After Harry dies, there are a bunch of other people who can take over, especially since Harry has done what he needed to do.
Brendan: What of the book’s content makes you think that?
Adan: The fact that while Harry, Hermione, and Ron are fucking about the woods of England, people are still fighting everywhere else. Badass Neville and his band are fighting at Hogwart’s. The Order is fighting somewhere. These people aren’t just sitting on their duffs waiting for Harry to save them all.
Brendan: He isn’t a tool. He is a character, a “person” who needn’t be defined by any one conflict.
Adan: He is a tool. He’s a tool that Dumbledore used. We are told as much, plain as day.
Brendan: Dumbledore believed in him, there is a difference. Dumbledore left the journey to chance.
Adan: Believed in his capacity as a tool, you mean. You use the right tool for the right job, and Harry was the right tool. As were his friends, incidentally.
Brendan: No. It was, perhaps, an experiment.
Adan: Yeah, that’s way better.
Brendan: It is, the idea is that the “right” side will prevail.
Adan: This doesn’t preclude Harry’s tool-ness.

Brendan: But let’s move on to that- the use of Dumbledore as a motivating factor, and even as a character, in this installment.
Adan: I didn’t like that his back story was essentially created whole cloth in this book. There were no pointers or foreshadowing in any previous book. This was just sloppy writing to me.
Brendan: Okay, well are we talking about what we like about the book, or are we talking about how the book served as an exemplar of how to pay off an “epic” story?
Adan: Look, sloppy writing is sloppy writing, regardless of the genre. There must be narrative flow.
Brendan: His duel with Grimenwald is addressed in the first book. It is laid out on the Chocolate Frog card. His crooked nose is a constant.
Adan: Sure, but his friendship with Grimenwald and his shared ideals are not, to say nothing of the fact that his brother has apparently been living in Hogsmeade this entire time. We couldn’t have addressed that in a previous installment? Perhaps mentioned a sister, just once?
Brendan: Voldemort’s fear of him as a great wizard is always alluded to, but never described. We didn’t meet Sirius in the first book; these things come up as they need to.
Adan: But we talked about Sirius and his relationship to the Potters in the first book. Hagrid is riding his motorcycle.

And to get back to your point about this being about Harry: no it isn’t, and we get clues to that in the story. The Boy Who Lived could have easily of been Neville; this story has always been about Voldemort and his machinations and fuck-ups.
Brendan: It is Harry’s journey. He acts as our eyes into this magical world. His fears, his wonder echoes our own. Neville’s story would have been about overcoming expectations and bitchy grandmas.
Adan: It is only Harry’s journey because Voldemort made it so. Like I said (and like the story said) it could just as easily have been Neville.
Brendan: Yes, but by deciding to make it about Harry, we learn more about the world as an outsider. Yes, it could have been Neville, but it is the choices that are made that decide the path.
Adan: We, the readers, would have anyway. And it’s Voldemort’s choices that decided the path.
Brendan: Among others. But as a reader, we couldn’t learn via Neville.
Adan: Yes, we could have. We just would have done so at an earlier age.
Brendan: We needed a fresh perspective, one with reactions akin to our own, to fully appreciate the breadth of this world.
Adan: Look, I’m not particularly interested in writing fan-fiction here, so let’s just get back to Dumbledore and his made-up back story.
Brendan: Ok, Dumbledore. Powerful wizards will have interest in Dark magic, as it is a powerful aspect of magic. Much like the Force. There is also a need for Albus to be sympathetic to Muggles. Because otherwise he would have agreed with Voldemort. By creating a back story where his experimentations dabbled on the side of the wrong, he is a much more believable champion of good.
Adan: Sure, but some of this should have been made clear in previous installments. To shove it all in this final chapter makes it seem rushed and not entirely thought out.
Brendan: Why? Did you wonder? Harry didn’t. And that is the point. Look, novel protagonists are, basically, blank slates. That is how we like it.
Adan: Of course I wondered. That man was basically a saint! I wondered all the time if he had a dark history, but was shoehorned into believing he didn’t until it was sprung upon me.
Brendan: Right. He was saintly and kind and childish and good. Well hey; I thought Snape was evil until the very end.
Adan: Snape was evil. None of this love saves the day bullshit. He was evil until Voldemort killed Lily. And then he was just evil to Voldemort.
Brendan: A child isn’t evil. Draco isn’t evil. A child is a product of the world around him.
Adan: Snape was working for Voldemort until Lily’s death. He was a Death Eater, happily killing Muggles until Lily died. But that’s neither here nor there.
Brendan: Actually, it is. Because this book is as much about Snape as Dumbledore.
Adan: I thought it was about Harry. Why did Snape have to go out like a punk? For that matter, why did the lion’s share of the deaths have to happen off panel?
Brendan: Because that is scarier.
Adan: It’s scarier that they die off panel? No, that’s just lazy.
Brendan: The fact is, in a war this epic, many things will happen beyond the eyes of the soldier.
Adan: I don’t entirely hold with the theory that what I can picture is scarier than what I am shown. Sometimes, somebody’s gonna have a way better imagination than I am. And those people usually write for a living.
Brendan: Okay, well let’s go death by death, case by case. The first death was that of Hedwig.
Adan: That was on-panel, and a very good death. The author showed this wasn’t another one of those play fights. This is a real war.
Brendan: This was a pivotal moment to me. The loss of innocence and the fact that nothing was sacred were vital in starting the book off running.
Adan: Hedwig represents Harry’s tether to the magical world. Hedwig was there at the beginning, and now he’s not.
Brendan: Yeah, and who likes to see pets die? Even the loss of the wand hurt.
Adan: Yeah, that hurt a lot. That almost hurt more than losing Hedwig.
Brendan: Next, I will throw out the near-death of Hagrid. This was very important to me.
Adan: This was more pussyfooting to me. I guess to foreshadow the big pussyfoot later.
Brendan: What purpose would killing Hagrid serve?
Adan: None, but pretending to kill him doesn’t serve any either. It’s just a shock moment. It’s, I’m sorry, lazy writing.
Brendan: The fact that a chapter closes with a potential death goes to show that this is a story where anything could happen. It doesn’t mean it will happen, but the threat of the gun is as powerful as the gun itself.
Adan: It’s the cliffhanger at the end of every comic: “Will the hero survive?” Of course he will. You’re just trying to drum up sales.
Brendan: Drumming up drama does not equal drumming up sales. Also, we knew someone was going to die during that journey. It was clear.
Adan: During the escape from 4 Privet Drive, you mean?
Brendan: Yeah. Would stripping Harry of his closest familial figure have further motivated him to take down Voldemort? Or would it have made him reckless and unreliable?
Adan: A little of both, I think. But that’s not as important as who actually died.
Brendan: Losing Mad Eye made Harry accountable for his own fate. There was no safety net left.
Adan: The baddest Auror dies off-panel, and the reader is left caring more about a dead owl and a twin’s lost ear.
Brendan: It isn’t an action story.
Adan: Obviously not. Nor should it be. Nonetheless, there is obviously some action. I will say that this sequence is redeemed slightly by the fact that Mad Eye’s mad eye is found later on Umbridge’s door.
Brendan: How does it redeem the scene?
Adan: That was a pretty awesome scene, and helped to cement Mad Eye’s death (”there is no death without a body”) and just ratchet up Umbridge’s overall dickishness. Plus, Harry goes a little crazy. The best scenes, I feel, are the ones in which Harry stops thinking like the adult he’s not, and start’s thinking like the teenager he is. It doesn’t matter that they’re at the Ministry for a reason, Mad Eye must be avenged. Or at least respected after death.
Brendan: All that Mad Eye is really important for is to serve as a professional hero to Harry. He gives Harry a purpose beyond Hogwarts. By dying the structure of the Order is compromised and the danger mounts. And I think one of the best scenes is his calling out of Lupin, and that was a very adult course of action/manipulation.
Adan: Yeah, that was pretty sweet.
Brendan: Anyways, next death: Scrimgeour. Again, off screen. Does it matter?
Adan: I guess he has to die so that Harry, et al. have no one inside the Ministry.
Brendan: Doesn’t the growing pile of dead bodies serve to illustrate the power of the Death Eaters?
Adan: Yeah, it does. This is actually a good off-panel death.
Brendan: Also, he reached out to the trio. There was an opportunity for unity, but they refused.
Adan: Scrimgeour is little more than a figurehead, and his death is also a symbol. Yeah, this was a good off-panel death.
Brendan: Okay. Next.
Adan: Wormtail?
Brendan: Yeah, and Dobby. That’s a two-fer. This was the most emotionally charged scene of the book, to me.
Adan: Wormtail’s death was very good because this was foreshadowed like three books ago.
Brendan: Yeah, he wasn’t going to be living. He lived long enough.
Adan: We the readers had been told that there was now powerful magic between Harry and Wormtail and this is how it manifested itself. Dobby’s death, on the other hand, is just another shock to me. Harry needed to somehow pay for getting them all caught and this is how the author chose to punish him.
Brendan: It is so much more. Dobby was the responsibility of Harry.
Adan: I think Dobby’s burial is so much more. The death itself, meh.
Brendan: Well they go hand in hand. The fact was we were as deep in the maw of the villains, we were as close to defeat as we had yet come. It was Harry’s foolhardiness, yes, but it is also Dobby’s animal-like love.
Brendan: It is one of the things that proves Dumbledore’s assertation.
Adan: What assertation?
Brendan: Love is the most powerful magic of all.
Adan: Ugh. Sure.
Brendan: Dobby owed Harry his life. He paid only what he was willing to pay. Grimace if you like, but that is the thesis of this entire series. Love trumps Hate every time.
Adan: I think I will grimace, thank you. And yeah, that’s Snape all over.
Brendan: Also, I never really liked Dobby. He was annoying and a burden and talked stupid. Yet his spirit overcame, and he was as important a character as any. He also served as a signal of the human/ non-human relations that were a macrochasm of the wizard/ muggle issue
Adan: I agree with half of that.

Oh Shit, we forgot about Ted Tonks and the other goblin. This is the first time that ancillary characters are killed simply to kill off characters. They were killed just to show how bad the wizarding world now was.
That was all there deaths were good for.
Brendan: Yeah, they were in close proximity to the gang, and it was about how lucky/skilled they were to go uncaught.
Adan: Maybe. I don’t like that Ted was Tonks dad and therefore was important only by association. It was like “Hey, I don’t want to kill off any actually important characters, but let’s pretend that I have.”
Brendan: What good does killing off major characters do? Why is that better than killing other people who are important to the other characters? In either case it ups the ante for the characters within the text, and that transfers to the reader.
Adan: None, but again, there’s no reason to pretend to kill of major characters. It smacks of manipulation. If this important, then it doesn’t matter who dies. Don’t try to force me to care.
Brendan: Death is important by nature of being death. It also is important because it shows exactly what it was Voldemort was so desperate to avoid. It was the finality of it.
Brendan: Next. I think the blood clears until the Fred Weasley mishap. Feel free to tell me why this one sucky.
Adan: No, this is actually also a good death, even though I personally wish the set could have been preserved (as a fan). This is actually the closest this book gets to killing off a major character.
Brendan: I agree as a fan, but I also knew as a writer/critic that not every Weasley could make it. Can’t have both twins.
Adan: Yeah, I assumed as much, though I would have preferred almost any other Weasley besides the twins.
Brendan: And Dobby had more lines, I think.
Adan: More lines than Fred? You’re out of your mind! Fred and George have been in every book.
Brendan: Yeah, but that was mostly George saying he was Fred.

The Percy moment of redemption as a final movement for Fred was poetic and tragic. But don’t worry, he totally has unfinished business as a ghost. Though he’s no coward.
Adan: Next death: Snape. He goes out like a punk. What’s up with that?
Brendan: What makes it punk-ish?
Adan: He just sits there and a fucking snake eats him. He even screams like a girl. He doesn’t fight back or anything. He’s also a smart guy, and should have seen this situation coming.
Brendan: Voldemort betrayed the one he knows to be most loyal to him; he’s pretty evil. This was the risk Snape ran for seventeen years.
Adan: I understand Snape wanted to keep his double agent status secret, but when you’re about to die, all pretense gets scattered to the four winds in favor of survival. He didn’t even lift his wand.
Brendan: He isn’t a warrior; he is a lifelong whipping boy. He can duel kids, great, but that doesn’t make him so tough
Adan: He’s a potions master, as well as a Dark Arts master. Dude’s badass.
Brendan: This scene is all about the betrayal to me, and I think it serves the purpose.
Adan: Yeah, but he still goes out like a punk.
Brendan: Killing him is an afterthought, despite all he does. Plus, Nagini don’t play. We’re left with Remus and Tonks. Complain away.
Adan: And Colin.
Brendan: Ahh, right.
Adan: No. There is no complaining for Tonks and Remus. They were warriors in the middle of a battle, and sometimes an Aveda Kedavra spell just hits you when no one is looking. They died, and that was that.
Brendan: Ahh, what a relief. With Harry as the kid’s godfather, they were doomed anyways.
Adan: Colin, on the other hand, is another throwaway character that was killed simply to pad the numbers. It’s another manipulation moment. Why was he even there? Weren’t all underage kids supposed to be gone?
Brendan: He was half-blood, and had snuck back into the school.
Adan: Yeah, he snuck back in to pad the numbers.
Brendan: I would say that overall, the deaths of the book accomplish the goal of making this story (I’m gonna say it) epic.
Adan: But then there’s Harry. Harry’s “death” was emotional manipulation, pure and simple. I am a big hater of emotional manipulation. I don’t like being forced to care about something simply because an author has made it emotional. Harry dwells on his death for about a chapter before he “dies.” Then he doesn’t, thereby invalidating that chapter.
Brendan: Fiction is emotional manipulation.
Adan: Yes, but you’re not supposed to be able to tell.
Brendan: His struggle to accept death is the whole story of the three brothers, and accepting death. He was willing to serve the greater good. That is different from having to do it.
Adan: Yes, he was. Too bad it didn’t matter. It was invalidated by the fact that he didn’t actually die.
Brendan: You were invalidated by the fact that he didn’t die. You don’t get to decide what happens. It isn’t your book. It is a book that exists for you to interpret and enjoy. You don’t get the right to say “this should have happened.”
Adan: Nobody gets to decide what gets to happen; it’s nobody’s book. And at the same time, it’s everybody’s book. And I do get that right. I am after all, a reader.
Brendan: No, it is JK Rowling’s book.
Adan: No it isn’t. It wasn’t the moment she put it into the world. It no longer belongs just to her. It belongs to us all. Her interpretations are no more or less important than anybody else’s. She can say what was supposed to happen, but if the text doesn’t support her, then she’s full of shit.
Brendan: It isn’t interpretation. Her word is gospel. It’s her world, and you are visiting.
Adan: That is bullshit.
Brendan: No, it isn’t. She made the rules.
Adan: The text exists on its own. It has no master, nor does it recognize any.
Brendan: Right, the text exists.
Adan: On its own.
Brendan: It is whole and complete of itself.
Adan: Yup.
Brendan: Again, you don’t get to decide what it should do. It isn’t a Choose-Your-Own adventure.
Adan: No I don’t. However, I do get to interpret it. And my interpretation is that the text would have been better if Harry had died.
Brendan: That isn’t an interpretation. It is an assertion.
Adan: Of course it’s an interpretation..
Brendan: An interpretation is taking what is there, and spinning it in such a way that it reveals greater truth. You are saying what you wish had happened. There are two worlds to analyze from. You can live inside the book and feel from there, you can internalize the justice and the injustice, you can ride the ride. Or, you can see it as you wish it to be, and never be satisfied.
Adan: I have taken Harry’s non-death, seen that it has sucked, and spinned it in such a way to reveal the greater truth that it would have been better if Harry had died.
Brendan: No matter what happens, it happened. Otherwise you’re left with fan-fic.
Adan: I’m not writing a separate book here. I am merely calling it like I see it.
Brendan: Think of it like this: There is the world. It is governed by its own set of rules. There is what happens, and what should happen. They may not coincide. From there, we can take the sum of both, and learn. That is what happens here. We may not like what happens, but it happened that way. If you are someone who identifies with characters in the book, you will emulate the feelings there.
Adan: Yes, I have acknowledged that, and have found it wanting.
Brendan: Right, well sometimes the world isn’t what we want it to be. In this text, I choose to enjoy it for what it is, rather than what it would have been had I been the one playing God.
Adan: It’s not a question about playing God.
Brendan: Yes it is. It is about deciding what happens.
Adan: It’s a question of what would have made the text better.
Brendan: It would have made it a dead end.
Adan: It didn’t happen that way, and I can’t make it happen that way, but there’s no reason we as critics can’t compare the two.
Brendan: It would have made the story mean one thing, when the intent was obviously that it meant something else.
Adan: I don’t see that.
Brendan: Yes, well as I say, this is Harry vs. Voldemort, not the Life and Times of Harry Potter
Adan: That’s not what you said at all. You specifically said that this was the Life and Times of Harry Potter. That’s why Potter couldn’t die.
Brendan: No I didn’t. I said it is about this one journey. The Life and Times would imply that it is about the end. Let’s get to that: The afterward.
Adan: Ugh.
Brendan: Here is my take: we are given the information needed to satisfy the basic needs of someone who does want to know everything that Harry and gang have been up to. We see who is with whom, and what bonds last. We also see Harry send his kids off to school, which puts the final parenthetical on the entry point to both the Potter series and the magical world.
Adan: Except we know nothing about the magical world.
Brendan: Hogwart’s is the magical world.
Adan: Are the elves freed? Who is the headmaster at Hogwart’s? What about the goblins and the banking? How bad was Voldemort’s coup for the magical world? Do the Muggles know anything? We get none of this. Instead we get fan-fiction about who ended up with whom, and who’s named after whom.
Brendan: You can’t call it fan-fic if the author wrote it. Except for Chris Claremont and X-Men: The End.
Adan: ZING!
Brendan: Why do you need that information anyway? Again, this isn’t about the magical world, but rather Harry’s take and place in it. We could have had drawn out funeral and recap, but it would have taken away from the fact that this is about Harry.
Adan: Because this information is important to the world.
Brendan: Read the first chapter of Sorcerer’s Stone. It isn’t the magical world we are brought into; it is the story of a little boy who loses his parents.
Adan: Read the first chapter of this book. There is no Harry Potter in the first chapter.
Brendan: Right, instead we see his opposition. Still a reflection of him.
Adan: Out in the magical world. And I call shenanigans because it could have been Neville. I think that right there is the most damning evidence against Harry being as important as you make him out to be.
Brendan: It isn’t about Harry being important in the world of the book. It is about him being important as a tether for us as readers into the world of the book. That is his ultimate purpose.
Adan: I’m glad the guy I’ve been reading about for the past ten years is little more than a vehicle for my understanding.
Brendan: He is meant to make us learn and identify with the world, not defeat Voldemort or find peace or die. That is what any protagonist is.
Adan: Dude, that doesn’t even make sense.
Brendan: Fiction is not merely a vehicle to peer into fake worlds.
Adan: No, they’re vehicles to peer into the real world. Which is why elves’ freedom and goblin’s place in the world is important.
Brendan: They win. They fight Voldemort. They liberate themselves. It probably doesn’t happen overnight.
Adan: We don’t know that.
Brendan: Yes we do.
Adan: We get an incomplete world.
Brendan: By the rules set out, we know the outcomes.
Adan: We don’t even know the rules.
Brendan: Look, Harry is an Auror as much as he marries Ginny, the logic prevails.

Look, let’s get to it. Why did you like this book? Why did you like any of these books?
Adan: Because Neville is a badass. Because the twins were awesome. Because Harry tells Ron “Did you expect to find a Horcrux every other day?” We had pages and pages of nothing really happening except traveling, like Sam and Frodo in Two Towers. The characters suffer, therefore the readers must too. That is good fiction. And super important: Neville is a badass! Did you see how he stood up to Voldemort and hacked off that stupid snake’s head? That was awesome! How about you? You couldn’t have loved everything.
Brendan: To me, this was all about payoff. It was a payoff to the issues laid out from page one of the series. It was about Dumbledore using his Deluminator in the beginning, and Ron figuring out the real purpose right when he needed to. It was about figuring out exactly who Albus Dumbledore was, and what made him that way. It was about Snape in the same way. It was the culmination of a masterfully orchestrated scheme. It was about Ron becoming the man Hermione needed him to be right when he was ready. It was about Neville being de-facto AS important as Harry, and contributing to the downfall of Voldemort. It was all of it, and it was what I wanted it to be.
Adan: So you hated nothing? Lame.
Brendan: Look, I thought it got slow in the middle. I thought that Hermione or Ron was going to die. I thought Hagrid would bring a legion of Giants to Hogwart’s door. But I see why it wasn’t that way, and I don’t wish it were what I wanted it to be. I’m not the author, and if I were it wouldn’t have been as good. I’m not willing to sacrifice the things that I wished as a compassionate person to the things I want as a reader and voyeur. I lived and died with each page, and I got out of it what I hoped to.
Adan: You’re gonna be the kind of guy that’s going to make me ultimately hate this book because you can’t find any fault with it. It happened with “Gladiator” and “Return of the King.” I enjoyed both of those movies until people couldn’t shut up about how awesome they were. They were okay at best, as was this book.
Brendan: Well, that’s your problem.
Adan: My problem is with the fantasy genre as a whole (not just Harry Potter). That problem is that magic is mutable and has no fixed position. The only rule of magic we get in this series is that food can’t be created out of nothing. And apparently it’s one of five. This is why Harry’s resurrection is fishy and manipulative. He should’ve died, but because of magic I don’t understand because it isn’t really explained to me beforehand, he doesn’t. There’s a connection between Voldemort and Harry, and slowly but surely, this connection gets more and more powerful until it finally resurrects Harry from death like he was the Lamb of God (he even beats out Jesus because Jesus was a slowpoke in coming back).

My problem is with killing off minor characters to make something seem important. Yes, sometimes minor characters will die because death is random and unseen, but to kill no major characters makes cheapens death to the point of making it mean nothing. It’s just a lazy writer’s way of making something seem important, whether it is or isn’t. If something is important, then it will be by the strength of your writing. You don’t need to shock your readers into believing it is important.

My problem is with critics or reviewers or what have you who don’t point out flaws in works. Nothing in this world is perfect and in not pointing out flaws, you do a disservice to the audience, the authors, and yourself, to say nothing of the works that don’t have as many flaws. You can’t love everything, and you can’t pretend that everything is awesome.

This book was merely okay. It had way too many flaws to pretend otherwise.

Brendan: I feel as though critiquing the action that takes place within the text does a disservice to the text, because it is only skin deep. I can go through any literature, a film, a comic, a song, and say that it would mean more to me if X had happened instead of Y. I can gripe about what would have worked for me, but that is just going to be griping. I don’t disagree that it is important to point out the flaws in a work, but I’m more interested in what makes an “A” and “A,” and not what could have made it an “A+.” I also don’t think that the only way a book can be made “good” or “important” is by major characters dying. In the Lord of the Rings example, none of the Fellowship die within the trilogy, except Boromir. The hobbits, Gimli, Aragorn, and Legolas die in the afterwards, when the story is done. It doesn’t lessen the stakes, nor does it cheapen the victory. I’m sorry, but attitudes like that make up why Superman #75 is the most well known comic to people who don’t read comics, or why fanboys clamor at the idea that Cap should have died at the end of Civil War, and not in the aftermath. In those cases, death is used solely for shock value, and create a false sense of breadth to the work. As I said, this book was entirely about payoff for me, and to waste time picking apart the book that could have been instead of the book that was is energy wasted, and misses the point of enjoying literature.

But we have talked about this about as much as any two people could. If you made it this far in our tirade, we hope you’ll come back next week when we get back to important issues like why Tony Stark is such a bitch, and which superhero has the biggest balls.