This is Why You Don't Tug on Superman's Cape...

GREEN LANTERN (New 52) #1 Reviewed!

GREEN LANTERN #1
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artists: Doug Mahnke (pencils) & Christian Alamy (inks)
Publisher: DC Comics

“This ring chose you to once again become a member of the Green Lantern Corps.  After your betrayal, most would call that act heresy.  But we do not.  We see this for what it truly is.  A chance at redemption.” – Guardian to Sinestro

I really wanted to like this one.  For years, Geoff Johns was the guy I could depend on to resonate with me as a reader.  He really “got” Hal and Green Lantern as far as I was concerned. I was not only on board with his introduction of the other colored lanterns, I thought (and still do) it was simplistically brilliant and opened up avenues for stories in the longterm. However...somewhere between the “Blackest Night” event and now, he lost me. By the time of the “War of the Lanterns” storyline, I realized I had no idea what was even going on anymore with the Lanterns, or Hal, and worst of all...I didn't care anymore.

And I stopped buying GREEN LANTERN.

Yes...I stopped buying GREEN LANTERN.


I've been pretty vocal in my cynical distaste over the reboot-that's-not-really-a-reboot of the DC line, but I've really tried to keep my criticism focused on the editorial and corporate side and give the creative talent their due.  I never want to just crap wholesale on talent who are working, earning a living, and giving their best to try and produce quality stories within the confines of the editorial constraints.  Lots of people are really enjoying the new DC books overall.  At this point, I've only read 2 of them, the JUSTICE LEAGUE and GREEN LANTERN.  Both of them written by Geoff Johns. 
GREEN LANTERN is a better single issue comic book than Johns' JUSTICE LEAGUE.

I can at least say that much.  It doesn't feel like the first issue of a comic, it just feels like the first part of a story in an already ongoing series.  So, I would expect that any newbies who come along will feel mildly out of the loop, but I expect that most longtime comics readers understand how the game is played and will feel like they get all they need to know to follow the story.
Sinestro has become the most interesting character in the entire library of GREEN LANTERN characters...including Hal Jordan himself, so the idea of having Sinestro forced against his will to become the Green Lantern for our Space Sector again and stripping Hal of the ring is actually a welcome change.  Most especially welcome given the fact that some sort of brain aneurysm has apparently occurred in Hal somewhere between GL: REBIRTH, the previous GL #1 and this GL #1 (and we might as well throw JL #1 in there too) and given him brain damage.  The Hal in this comic book is a total idiot. 

No.  I take that back. 

What is stupider than an idiot, but not quite to the level of actually being mentally challenged?  Sub-moronic perhaps? 

I won't even go into it in this review, but the “action” sequence that Johns puts Hal through is just unbearably stupid.  I think it's intended to be funny, but it's really just stupid and paints our “hero” in an especially....stupid (God, I wish I could come up with a better word) light.  Then the exchange between Hal and Carol where he is so incredibly dense and uncouth that even an uncouth lout would be embarrassed?  I really cannot believe what I'm reading.  But, thankfully, we don't get a full-on Trademarked Johns “decapitation”...but we do get a NEAR decapitation of a Sinestro Corps member by Sinestro himself.  I guess that satisfies our decapitation quota for this GL comic. 

The art is competent, but not dynamic.  There's a stiffness to Mahnke's work on GL that has just never rung my bell like, say, the exciting work of Ivan Reis or Carlos Pacheco.  Because of that, the art unfortunately doesn't step in and win me over when the writing is lacking.  I'm starting to think that top-tier artistic storytellers collaborate with Johns to create great works, but when Johns is paired with a merely good, but lackluster, artist that the flaws in his writing start to weigh it down.

On its own, this is not necessarily a bad comic.  When Sinestro is on the scene, I'd give it a B+.  Every time Hal shows up, however, it stinks down into the C- and D range.  If you are a Sinestro fan and you hate Hal Jordan, this is the book for you.  I hope they keep Sinestro as Green Lantern and forget about Hal at this rate.

Look for this and other reviews tomorrow @AICN Comics!

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #1 (New) Reviewed

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #1
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Sara Pichelli
Publisher: Marvel Comics

“We had to fight.  Boys shouldn't have to fight the way we had to.  You shouldn't have to see half the stuff we did.  You—you learn. You study. And you make the world the way you want it to be, not the way it is.” -- Uncle Aaron

The media blitz over the “New” Spider-Man was something that caught my attention and made me interested in trying out this series.  The thing about “reboots” and “alternate worlds” that appeals to me is that the conceptual rules should be able to be thrown out the window.  When the Ultimate Comics line was first announced, I didn't like it because with the SPIDER-MAN book that kicked it off, there was not much changed in any substantive way as far as I could tell.  In other words, from my point of view, it became a pointless appendage to the other SPIDER-MAN titles.  If Peter Parker is essentially going to be the same person he is in the regular Marvel titles except that he's a little younger, I don't see the justification for the ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN comic book.  At least when THE ULTIMATES #1 was published, I began to get a better sense of Marvel accomplishing what they claimed to be doing with the Ultimate line of titles.  But ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN's appeal continued to elude me throughout the years.   It took them 10 years to get to a point with the ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN title to pique my interest and that was the death of Peter Parker and now the relaunch of the title with a new youngster, Miles Morales, taking up the mantle of Spider-Man in the Ultimate Universe.

Finally, they are taking the bull by the balls and doing something that takes full advantage of the freedom inherent in an “alternate” universe and I am here to read it and fully expecting to enjoy it.

I've read it. Now, let's talk about it for a little bit.

Right off the bat, let me state, Brian Bendis is clearly a talented writer and Sara Pichelli is a good artist and visual storyteller. However, I just have to say I can not seem to muster any appreciation for the way that Bendis structures and paces his stories. I've noted it before with other comics, but I find every Bendis comic I've read to be a ponderous chore to sit through. So, as a general rule, I tend to avoid them. Here, though, I was hoping that there would be an enthusiasm on his part in introducing his new character to the world that would be infectious and pull me in. There are some positive things about the comic, but overall I was underwhelmed and disappointed.

The basic gist of what happens, for those who want the spoilers, is the cover showcases the “new” Spider-Man costume.  You open the comic to a scene from 11 months ago to show how genetically modified spider #42 got loose from its box in Norman Osborn's laboratory.  Jump to current day and, someone I assume from his costume to be, the “Ultimate” Prowler is breaking into a vault at the abandoned Osborn lab to steal money and valuables when spider #42 hitches a ride in his bag.  Jump to Brooklyn and meet middle school student, Miles Morales, who is waiting with his parents to see if his lottery number, 42 (naturally), gets pulled granting him entry into a fancy, schmancy charter school.  I'll let you just take a guess about whether his number got pulled.  Miles heads over to his ne'er-do-well Uncle Aaron's apartment to hang out.  Aaron is apparently also the “Ultimate” Prowler and Miles goes snooping through his goody bag and gets bitten by spider #42, has a seizure, and passes out.  Miles' dad comes over and lays in to Aaron, blaming him for whatever just happened to his son.  Miles runs out of the apartment and then finds himself on the last pages standing outside but his body is, sort of, camouflaging itself against the concrete and graffiti and he looks at himself and says “Whoa.” 

To be continued...

That's it in a nutshell.  It ends rather abruptly.  Almost like you're watching a tv-show or movie and the power goes out right in the middle of it.  It didn't make any structural sense to end it like that and made me immediately go back and count the number of pages because I thought I must have missed something.  Nope.  20 pages of story at $3.99 and cut it off right in the middle of the story.  Now I understand why they wrapped the comic in plastic – so nobody could thumb through it and, y'know, know what they were buying. The rest of the comic was a 9/11 reprint.

That was a burn that makes it highly unlikely I will be picking up the next issue because not enough happened in this comic to make me actually give a damn about Miles Morales.  In AMAZING FANTASY #15, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko pulled in the reader in 11 pages and made them care enough about Peter Parker to justify spinning the character off into his own title and now he is one of the most famous fictional characters in history.  At the laborious Bendis-pace, there's no telling when we might come to care about Miles.

The art by Pichelli, is good for what it is.  Unfortunately, it's that dull, static, storyboard-style storytelling that Bendis seems to demand of his artists and I think this artist has the ability and the talent to really take this story up a notch in terms of drama and excitement if she wasn't so bound by these thick black rectangular borders that are restraining the action.

I'm not hating on it in general.  Conceptually, I think the idea of a poor brilliant Brooklyn kid with an uncle who's a thief with a heart of gold, is a good foundation for building a new twist on the Spider-Man legend.  I didn't care for how it unfolded.  I also thought the manner in which the spider escaped and got to Miles in the first place was especially hackneyed.  I would've liked to have seen some better connection to Peter Parker than an Osborn spider that just happened to sneak out of a box because a scientist was distracted.  I was imagining something more along the lines of a kid a bit older than Miles in this comic perhaps hacking his way into an online folder where Parker had kept an encrypted file with details about his biological transformation, blood details, formula for webbing, etc.  Then watch this kid get to work and break the encryption and yada yada yada, driven by some plot device (family in danger, or something like that) to subject himself to, oh, maybe an untested spider-serum or something.

No such luck.  Instead we get what we got.  Maybe it all reads better in the final trade collection, but as a first issue of an ongoing series it was a nice-looking package but wafer-thin on content and a truncated story.   Definitely not worth $3.99 by any stretch, even with Bendis's HITCHHIKER gag use of the number 42 – the answer to the “Ultimate Question of Life.”  Ha.......ha.

Look for this and other reviews tomorrow @AICN Comics!

What SHOULD have been in the DC Relaunch: METAMORPHO: THE ELEMENT MAN

As a, sort of, tribute to the passing of the old DC Comics 2.0 and ushering in of the DC Comics 3.0, a popular blog concept has been making the rounds.  I'm talking about the "DC Fifty-TOO!" blog where cartoonist Jon Morris picked the mind and talents of 52 artists out there to "imagine" their dream title that is noticeably missing from the new DC Comics relaunch of their line with 52 new titles. 

I am not a participant in Morris's DC Fifty-TOO, but I loved the idea and on another website I participate on occasionally a smaller group of us decided to do our OWN cover designs and concepts.  I chose "METAMORPHO: THE ELEMENT MAN."  Probably second only to Green Lantern in terms of my hierarchy of favorite DC heroes (though the way DC has been portraying GL recently, I may be moving Metamorpho to the number 1 spot). 

This is my cover art and the series  concept I envision is that Metamorpho is sort of a type of "Alchemical Messiah" empowered by the Orb of Ra. He's torn between the thrill of power and adventure versus the vanity of the loss of his humanity and looks. Java, of course, is jealously in love with Sapphire who is still in love with Rex in spite of what has happened to him. Sapphire is still heiress to the Stagg empire but, in an attempt to make her way out of the shadow of her father, became an NBI agent. She still functions as an at-large agent working with international agencies on behalf of the U.S. in investigating and taking down global threats. She thinks she employs Java as her own personal bodyguard and assistant. But in truth, Java is controlled by Sapphire's sinister father, Simon, who has his own secret agenda in play. What role the fugitive Dr. Will Magnus and his mysterious "Metal Men" play in this drama is unknown, but Doc Magnus seems particularly interested in this "Metamorpho."

Don't Bother With the New JUSTICE LEAGUE. COMICS REVIEWS FOR THIS WEEK.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #1
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artists: Jim Lee (pencils) & Scott Williams (inks)
Publisher: DC Comics

***CAUTION: SPOILERS ABOUND***

“Hold on a second...you're not just some guy in a bat costume are you? Are you freaking kidding me?!” – Green Lantern to Batman.

Well, as expected, I am clearly not the audience that this comic book is intended for. I really tried to just enjoy it on it's own merits, but it's such a lousy piece of work, I find it impossible to generate any sense of enthusiasm for it or for anything else on the horizon of the DC overhaul. I hesitate to call it a “reboot” or a “relaunch” anymore since nobody on staff there seems to be able to consistently define what exactly they are doing other than marketing it in contradictory ways.

This is the first issue of the JUSTICE LEAGUE. It is also the first issue of the “New” DC. DC 3.0 if you will. (DC 1.0 being everything up to CRISIS and DC 2.0 being everything post-CRISIS up to post-FLASHPOINT.) It is also one of the most stilted, disjointed inconsistent messes I've read from DC this side of FINAL CRISIS. The story, as it is, starts in Gotham City with Batman chasing after a monster (who looks somewhat like Sleez from John Byrne's ACTION COMICS days) who turns out to be some sort of minion of Darkseid and blows himself up for no real obvious reason. Well, I take that back. The reason is he is the plot complication that draws Green Lantern to Gotham so he can meet Batman. See, GL is the protector of this space sector and got tipped that an “extraterrestrial” threat had appeared in Gotham. So, he flew straight away to check it out.

Yeehaw! Green Lantern? Meet Batman. Batman? Meet Green Lantern. Much awkward exposition and insipid back-and-forths between the two of them. Apparently, in DC 3.0, GL is (or was 5 years ago, when this was set) is a moron and talks way too much. I had high hopes that in DC 3.0, maybe Batman wouldn't be an asshole. I was wrong. Batman 3.0 is a vigilante who works outside the law and there's a monster running across the rooftops, so understandably the Gotham City Police Department is chasing after both of them. Which is their job!! But that doesn't dissuade asshole-Batman from calling them “idiots”....for FRIGGIN' DOING THEIR JOB!!!!

Yes. Moron Green Lantern just said "It
combusted into fire." Next he's going to
tell us that an ice cube "Melted into
water" or that the water "Evaporated
into gas" or "Froze into ice."

The two of them, Batman and GL, make the brilliant deduction that since the suicide bomber was an extraterrestrial, then they should team up, hold on to the Mother Box left behind, and head to Metropolis to talk to that “Superman” guy that “they say” is an.......”alien.” Which also makes me wonder, looking at these pages again, just exactly how Batman realizes that the Mother Box is not a “bomb” but more like an alien computer. How much experience does this Batman have with alien technology? They just watched “Sleez” blow himself up, why wouldn't they be more cautious with that thing?

Interlude with Vic Stone. These pages of the football game and the spectators in the stands are the stiffest and most lackluster pages in the book. This is when this title could have really benefited from someone who has a stronger ability to move back and forth between action and personal/emotional moments.

The "Victor Stone" I recognize.

On into Metropolis where moron GL instantaneously gets his ass kicked by a red and blue blur. Last panel is our first “exciting” view of Superman 3.0.

This comic has a lot riding on it. Essentially, it sets the tone and spirit of the v-notched-high-collared DC 3.0. The world I found myself in was younger for sure, but it wasn't much different in tone or spirit than DC up till now. I found myself surprised that this was written by Geoff Johns. It didn't feel like Johns to me. The dialogue was terrible and the manner in which it unfolded just did not flow naturally or organically to me. It felt like it was cribbed off a flow chart of plot and character bits. I got no sense of passion or thrill. The interaction between GL and Batman was terrible. GL delivers exposition out the wah-zoo and comes off stupider than Ryan Reynolds' version of Hal Jordan. Batman just groused his way through the scenery with his grouchy, stubbly chin. This sense of each of these characters (GL, Bats, Supes) approaching each other like they're comparing genital-sizes rang false and immature. These are our heroes now. Are they supposed to be 14 years old? They seem to talk at each other like they are. The retelling of Vic Stone's pre-Cyborg life was dull and uninteresting. Whereas, in the original NEW TEEN TITANS series, the character of Vic Stone and his family dynamic was one of those elements that endeared him to me. In this comic, I didn't recognize him as the Victor Stone I once knew. It was just a generic “troubled” character.

I think Geoff Johns was attempting to swipe from SEVEN SAMURAI/MAGNIFICENT SEVEN to create a classic story of how 7 disparate characters could all get drawn together against a common enemy. However, with the use of Darkseid as an other-worldly “god” who winds up drawing our characters together, he actually absent-mindlessly just cribbed from Marvel's AVENGERS for the JUSTICE LEAGUE version 3.0 with Darkseid filling in for the Loki role.

I was really hoping for something more substantial and truly new in approach. This was, unfortunately, just the TACO BELL JUSTICE LEAGUE, where they look at the ingredients they already have on hand, mix them up and rearrange them, and claim an “all-new” menu. But it's really just the same old tacos and burritos.

Artistically, I found the comic to be mostly sketchwork-level with massively overdone coloring work. Much of the action was hard to follow. The flow of the work from panel to panel was inconsistent and was at times distracting. The details on Batman's annoying armored costume come and go from panel to panel. GL has irrelevant seams and/or armor on his chest and arms that makes no sense with the rest of the costume where the boots and gloves look like cloth. Either go organic like the recent film, or cloth like in 1.0 and 2.0, or go construct-armor style. The inconsistent blend of the two is distracting. Superman looks like Ultra-Man now.

I've seen some of Jim Lee's pencils, which were stronger than the stiffness and sketchiness here, so I may have to lay blame on Scott Williams' inking for some of my disappointment. The color work made some panels not only difficult to distinguish what was happening, but just plain hurt my eyes. I'm not sure why some modern colorists don't realize that just because you CAN do photoshop effects doesn't mean you HAVE to do them. In fact, that last page reveal of Superman is an example of terrible texturing and effects unnecessarily intruding on what should be the most exciting panel in the book.

I was honestly planning on getting the trade for this book because I usually like Geoff Johns's writing and Jim Lee's art. But now, I think I'll just move on to something else.

Reading this comic reminded me of a line from The Who when they sang “Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss.” And remember the title of the song? I hereby nominate “We Won't Get Fooled Again” as the theme song for the DC Comics fans.

FLASH GORDON: INVASION OF THE RED SWORD PART 4: POWER

Writer: Brendan Deneen

Artist: Eduardo Garcia

Publisher: Ardden Entertainment

“FLASH GORDON?!” – King Crax of the Fire People

“Uh..yep, that's me. Unless you want to kill Flash Gordon. In which case, I hate that guy too.” – Flash Gordon

In a week in which one major publisher hits blitzes the comic shops with their insanely over-hyped relaunch, there's a slight...ever so miniscule....chance that some lesser hyped comics might get overlooked. In this case, one that might get overlooked might be Ardden Entertainments current FLASH GORDON series. So, let me take a moment to remind you that this comic is also available today at your local comics retailer.

I hear a lot of grousing (and sometimes do the grousing myself) about the absence of fun and adventure in modern comics. I keep looking forward to this series every month precisely because it fills that void. It is possible to tell a serialized adventure series in comics without on panel rapes, graphic beheadings and amputations. It is possible to entertain the hell out of your reader without rotting corpses and psychopathic over-the-top villains. It is possible to tell a long-form story in serialized form that is complete on its own yet continues the larger story and it is possible to do proper character development without crossovers and tie-ins. FLASH GORDON demonstrates this every month, consistently.

As it should, this comic moves from cliffhanger to cliffhanger each month and is a thrilling ride every time. The invasion of the planet Mongo by the bloodthirsty humans of The Red Sword is in full force right now and our heroes (and villain) are separated and struggling to survive. As the anticipation builds in the story, so does the anticipation in the reader as to if and when our team will reunite and quell this invasion. More importantly, how can they rebuff the Red Sword without reestablishing Ming as the powerful Emperor of Mongo.

The difficult thing is to write about an issue like this without overly spoiling it, but at the end of the previous issue, Flash found himself abandoned by his “partner” Ming (no surprise there) to drown in a flooding cave. Since the comic is eponymously titled, it should come as no surprise that Flash figures a way out of his predicament, but then he finds himself once-again face-to-face with a fire-breathing dragon. This creatures seem to be rather common on Mongo.

Dale Ardden, Vultan, and his daughter Talon meet a race of men I, at least, am unfamiliar with – The Power Men of Mongo. Another fascinating extrapolation of beings in that The Power Men are cyborgs on the run from the brutal rule of Ming. Threads of story are picked up from the FG: MERCY WARS and Queen Fria of Frigia.

In other words, a whole lot happens in this one comic book. And this has been the pattern for the entire series. This is seriously one of the best paced books out there, as are all the Arrden and Atlas comics, in that it mirrors the active storytelling of the old movie serials but actually involves the reader in the lives and the personalities of the people of Earth who are stranded on Mongo, but especially those who are native to Mongo.

Ming is missing from this issue, but his presence is like an umbrella covering the entire proceeding. The series is called FLASH GORDON, but Ming is the character who keeps it focused at all times.

 

Every time I review this series, I always make a point of complimenting the art. The thing about the artist, Eduardo Garcia, is that he came on to this series following an artist who had already established the look and the style for it. That's a tough place to find yourself in as an artist. What I have noticed from issue to issue is that each successive issue begins to look less like Garcia is trying to match that earlier style and more organically Garcia himself. And that's a progression that I whole-heartedly approve of. I enjoy his work and he's a fantastic graphic storyteller. I also will take a moment to rave about the color work once again. It always strikes me how other-worldly Mongo seems. It really looks like the reader is viewing these scenes through the light of a sun and planet quite different from our own. And these color and lighting choices are deliberate and effective. If you're already reading this series then you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't picked it up yet, this is a good time to jump in because you can get all four issues and be up to speed before the next one comes out.

AND DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT THESE AND OTHER COMICS/GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEWS AT AINTITCOOL.COM

They are a great bunch of guys who really tell it they way they feel it,

and that's hard to come by in the comics reviewing market.

BIRTH OF A SUPER-VILLAIN...or How to Make Friends & Influence People...

Inspired by this report by Rich Johnston @ Bleeding Cool

High School Art *flashback* (Part 2)

In Part 1, I tossed up some art from Jr. High on into the early years of High School.  Now, I'm going to share some stuff from the latter half of High School (and maybe some College).  Just keep in mind that I was young and still learning! 

 This first pencil drawing was of "Snowball" from ANIMAL FARM.  He's the Lenin analogue in the allegory.  I am 100% convinced that the roots of my own conservative ideology can be traced back to my eye-opening encounter with Orwell's work through my High School English class.  *Thanks Mrs. Hopper!*

Other than girls and food, the things that primarily occupied my High School mind were comics, Star Trek, and vampires.  Slow time in class produced this Dracula sketch that I never finished. 

Star Trek was in the front of my mind after the incredible experience at that age of the death of Mr. Spock in STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN -- which is where this sketch got its inspiration.  You'll note I started to lay down some inks on it and then never bothered to finish it.  Story of my life.

This ink sketch of Daredevil was done entirely using a croquill pen and india ink with no pencils at all.  Also done at school during some down time.
 Which brings me to something that I started doing in High School (and continues today occasionally when somethig gets stuck in my head).  That would be the costume redesign for popular super-heroes (something popularized online at Project: Rooftop) and original character concepts.

The original "MIMIC"

In this old, ragged X-MEN comic I had left over from when I was little, there was a story featuring a character called "The Mimic" and his mutant power was that he had all the powers of the X-Men themselves.   That means, he had wings like Angel, eye-beams like Cyclops, monkey hands and feet like Beast, ice-hurling powers like Iceman, and telekinetic abilities like Marvel Girl.

By the time I was in High School, the most popular comic book published by Marvel was The "New" X-MEN, which was primarily made up (at this time) of Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Sprite.  I thought, in my brilliant teenaged brain, that since the original Mimic had sacrificed his life to save the X-Men, that it was time for a "New" Mimic to show up and join the X-Men.  So, tis was my update of the original Mimic's costume with elements that demonstrated he was adapting the powers of the current line-up of characters rather than the original line-up.