Stream of Consciousness Reviews: October
Oct. 13th, 2004 10:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kingandyDamnammin, the comic boys seem to have missed a week. None too bothered about JLA, but I was hankering for that Teen Titans resolution. Oh well.
Before we begin - Major spoilers.
Here we go:
First of all, this month's surprise winner: Green Lantern #181. Marz had me totally fooled. There were a few ropey moments in there (I don't buy Major Force referencing John Grisham novels for a moment - he may read them, sure, but he's not the pop-culture reference type, and the moment where the fight melts all the sand on the beach, turning it into glass, isn't clear until it's smashed a few pages later). But following that scene, when Kyle hands the ring over, I honestly thought that's how he would be going out. And it all (more or less) fit - murdering Kyle's mother wouldn't have worked for Force, but pretending to murder her to make Kyle realise how dangerous it is for him just to be Green Lantern - that worked. It made sense.
The real payoff though? I was right. "...put him in a green bubble and launch him out of the solar system." I totally called that one. Admittedly I missed out the part where it was just his still-living head. (Not that launching one's enemies into an eternal orbit around the universe always works in practice, of course, but the reasoning is sound.) The ending - Kyle heading off into space once more - also makes a lot of sense, and in some ways sets up more than it knocks down. If they tied him down to a role on Earth (be it civilian, corpse or back-up GL #3) he'd be, well, tied down; this way he could be up to any number of antics off in the great beyond. It's up to future writers to pick up on that. Or not. As an ending, I've seen worse.
Quibbles: Kyle's ring on the front cover is the same shape as his emblem (ie, wrong). Kyle not only took Force's word that his mother was unharmed, but he didn't even check in to say "goodbye" before jetting off. And ... well, that's about it.
I'm undecided whether to continue to read GL with Hal Jordan back in the chair. I do have fond memories of Geoff Johns piloting that particular ship, but that was Hal as part of a whole. Grizzled veteran guiding the Corps to greatness. Hal by himself ... I don't know. I'll give it a shot.
Justice League Elite #3 - I missed #2, because the comic shop didn't realise I wanted it regularly. They have been chastised. This issue maintains the series' high quality, with a couple of very snappy lines and shiny art. (I'm pretty sure I've seen Dawn smiling, though, or at least smirking, which conflicts with the dialogue.) Pacing is nice, with a couple of mystery scenes that I feel confident will become very important later on ... and closing with a significant event that leads almost directly into the Secret Files (see below). I don't have much else to say. It's treading water a little, not the finest Kelly ever (or even this month) but as issue 3 of 12 (ish) it doesn't have to be. A nice placeholder.
JLA Secret Files and Origins 2004 - oh, looks like they gave up numbering them and started admitting they're annual. (Actually, a look at the masthead on page 1 tells us this is "JLA SECRET FILES 2004 1", leaving them open in case they want to shoehorn more in before the end of the year. I guess it's important not to confuse the printers.) These things are becoming increasingly light on profiles and heavy on story, which is okay since they're also increasingly about setting up (and advertising) coming events rather than actually retelling origins. This one has two stories and four profiles.
The first story is "Same Coin" by Joe Kelly, and is the aforementioned Best Kelly This Month. Two separate wizards both using the anniversary of Hitler's death to reassemble the fabled Spear of Destiny? The Fuhrer's descendants being drained for their Spear-resonant blood? Half-materialised Norse gods bestriding the Earth using far too much punctuation?!!?! Maarvellous. The art was not quite what I've come to expect - Mahnke or Nguyen may have been stretched with two issues this month. Some of the mouths on Byrne's pages were way off center and, though the colouring was generally good, there were a couple of shots where they went seriously overboard, which didn't look good with Byrne's relatively flat faces. Oh, and Byrne continues to display complete ignorance as to the Flash's lightning bolt - it's down-left with zags to the right, not upwards as he insists on drawing it. Similar flip-flops with the belt. Attention to detail: Could do better. A nice piece showcasing the League and the Elite.
The second story - "The Fall Of Modora" - surprised me on page 2. So, I recognised the country, knew it was the old Sonar's base of operations ... but I failed to realise this was Earth-2 (or Earth-1, depending how you look at it). Where Kelly's story filled you in on the Elite, this sets up a coming JLA story. It's written by Kurt Busiek, and is packed to the brim with throwaway references to off-screen events and characters that display his characteristic imagination. It's logical that in the flip-side Antimatter universe there would be versions of DCU villains who fought against the tyranny and opression of the Crime Syndicate of Amerika - with a similar success rate that those villains enjoy in our more familiar continuity. I think the urbane and cultured Sir Solomon Grundy is my favourite, but I have to mention that Eddie Nigma (The Riddler, recast here as the Quizmaster) is a lot closer to how I'd like to see the Riddler played in the mainstream Batcomics. Smartest man alive, indeed. I also appreciated the visual references to the CSA's old costumes and roster ... it hints at a world of possibilities. Which is nice. I have high hopes for coming issues.
The profiles. JLE's inclusion is understandable (I get the feeling the Powers That Be really want the series to succeed), and the JLA's entry - for some reason, "The Satellite Era" - basically serves as an "Identity Crisis" recap. The Red King's an interesting read. I can only imagine he's for use in an upcoming story (this is listed as his first appearance). I'm not fantastically keen on the Materioptikon resurfacing (that's the ruby used by Doctor Destiny and reabsorbed by Morpheus in the Sandman series!), but I'm not going to make an issue of it since, you know, what the hell. Costume is standard Dan Jurgens fare, with a skintight bodystocking under impractical armour and what I suppose you would call a loincloth (in the literal sense), but when you're nigh-omnipotent I suppose you can wear what you want. From the disparity between text and the listed occupation ("Nameless Cog") I suspect the history here is a history of events to come in the comic, which is sort of a shame and rather defeats the object. The Ultramarine Corps entry is a better one - recapping the events of their original entry before filling in on subsequent developments so they don't have to waste time on it in the comics. That's more like it. Pleased to see these Grant Morrison creations haven't just faded into the background noise of the DCU.
That's far too much time and effort spent on that single comic. Onwards and upwards.
Well, I say upwards, but really I'm moving on to JLA #106. I missed #105, but can honestly say I feel no loss or regret. This entire arc has been a parade of annoyance. I'm glad the issues tied together in the end, but really it was just a beginning and an end with four issues of wallowing in between. Art is variable - it's sometimes sketchy and feels rushed in parts.
Alright, one nice touch - when the preschool daughter of the super-family suddenly started speaking way above her level, it did turn out to be the Martian Manhunter rather than bad writing. I think the only good thing that could come of this storyline, though, is if the son comes back as a proper villain. I want to see the League beating up on a super-powered ten-year-old! That's some serious emotional baggage to deal with right there. Never mind "Oh I'm not powerful enough to save everybody", what about "The needs of the many outweigh I have to punch this child in the face!" That's what this story should have been about.
Anyway. Onwards; upwards. Teen Titans #16. So I missed the resolution of the Beast Boy arc, but he's back to his old green self so it's not all bad. Before I start, let me note the cover: it's a novel take on that old sausage with the soldiers putting up a flag, only here it's the Teen Titans fighting against the Persuader with his axe. Blink and you'll miss it...
Inside. I have to say the writing doesn't astound as it usually does. Obviously the purpose for the issue is to set up the Titans / Legion crossover, and Johns is using the cancellation of that other series to resolve Superboy's tenure there (by sending him back to six months ago in the 31st century and then bringing him back here afterwards) - not that that's a bad thing, it's nice to see somebody actually resolve one of these "we don't know when in time you came from" things rather than leaving it to chance or using the words "temporal clone". I just wish he'd read some of those issues, or done some research, rather than relying on Mark Waid's crib notes - Flight Rings alone do not protect one from the vacuum of space, not unless they've had serious upgrades since last year. The Legion's dialogue is rushed, and I think Johns is trying to shoehorn too many characters in - almost inevitable with the Legion, I suppose, but it suffers a little from "line-per-character" syndrome. (And the Titans display an inability to see outside the comic panels - how did Legion World creep up on them, exactly?)
McKone drawing again means that Starfire's hair is back to the Cartoon-inspired wavy-straight look rather than the tight curls we know and love. Bleh. On the whole I'm a fan, though.
Exploding Legion World in low Earth orbit was a bold move, but one that left me concerned. Not for consequences, but for the lack of them. Nine times out of ten, when you do something like that it's because you know you're going to write it out of continuity.
Which brings us to Teen Titans / Legion Special 1. Y ... yy ... eah.
OK, the main feature was decent. Waid's co-writer input was obvious here, with nice Allen family continuity and plenty of Legion backreferences, both obvious and subtle. Good interplay betweenImpulse Kid Flash and Brainiac 5, too, recalling the interaction between the two books back when some of the Legion were stuck in the 20th Century ("I drink to forget you"). Raven breaks character, though I can forgive her for calling Brainy an ass. (I'm assuming she means jackass.) The fight scenes are cool, and the dialogue's mostly natural (mostly), and I liked seeing Meloni again, and they get Leviathan's name right instead of calling her "Vi". They get in a reference to XS's homeworld, and get it right. They even reference Brainiac 5's monkey. For these breif moments I'm in Legion heaven.
Then it all goes horribly wrong.
Sure, the Titans are being set up for their next plot arc - a grand time travel adventure, no doubt. But the Legion (in a short tie-up story at the end, from Waid alone) get shafted into oblivion.
I trust Waid. Really, I do. I have faith, that Shikari - alone in this new reality - will find the right path to bring the others back. But for the moment it feels like another reboot.
For the moment, I am distinctly uneasy.
Well, we shall see.
Before we begin - Major spoilers.
Here we go:
First of all, this month's surprise winner: Green Lantern #181. Marz had me totally fooled. There were a few ropey moments in there (I don't buy Major Force referencing John Grisham novels for a moment - he may read them, sure, but he's not the pop-culture reference type, and the moment where the fight melts all the sand on the beach, turning it into glass, isn't clear until it's smashed a few pages later). But following that scene, when Kyle hands the ring over, I honestly thought that's how he would be going out. And it all (more or less) fit - murdering Kyle's mother wouldn't have worked for Force, but pretending to murder her to make Kyle realise how dangerous it is for him just to be Green Lantern - that worked. It made sense.
The real payoff though? I was right. "...put him in a green bubble and launch him out of the solar system." I totally called that one. Admittedly I missed out the part where it was just his still-living head. (Not that launching one's enemies into an eternal orbit around the universe always works in practice, of course, but the reasoning is sound.) The ending - Kyle heading off into space once more - also makes a lot of sense, and in some ways sets up more than it knocks down. If they tied him down to a role on Earth (be it civilian, corpse or back-up GL #3) he'd be, well, tied down; this way he could be up to any number of antics off in the great beyond. It's up to future writers to pick up on that. Or not. As an ending, I've seen worse.
Quibbles: Kyle's ring on the front cover is the same shape as his emblem (ie, wrong). Kyle not only took Force's word that his mother was unharmed, but he didn't even check in to say "goodbye" before jetting off. And ... well, that's about it.
I'm undecided whether to continue to read GL with Hal Jordan back in the chair. I do have fond memories of Geoff Johns piloting that particular ship, but that was Hal as part of a whole. Grizzled veteran guiding the Corps to greatness. Hal by himself ... I don't know. I'll give it a shot.
Justice League Elite #3 - I missed #2, because the comic shop didn't realise I wanted it regularly. They have been chastised. This issue maintains the series' high quality, with a couple of very snappy lines and shiny art. (I'm pretty sure I've seen Dawn smiling, though, or at least smirking, which conflicts with the dialogue.) Pacing is nice, with a couple of mystery scenes that I feel confident will become very important later on ... and closing with a significant event that leads almost directly into the Secret Files (see below). I don't have much else to say. It's treading water a little, not the finest Kelly ever (or even this month) but as issue 3 of 12 (ish) it doesn't have to be. A nice placeholder.
JLA Secret Files and Origins 2004 - oh, looks like they gave up numbering them and started admitting they're annual. (Actually, a look at the masthead on page 1 tells us this is "JLA SECRET FILES 2004 1", leaving them open in case they want to shoehorn more in before the end of the year. I guess it's important not to confuse the printers.) These things are becoming increasingly light on profiles and heavy on story, which is okay since they're also increasingly about setting up (and advertising) coming events rather than actually retelling origins. This one has two stories and four profiles.
The first story is "Same Coin" by Joe Kelly, and is the aforementioned Best Kelly This Month. Two separate wizards both using the anniversary of Hitler's death to reassemble the fabled Spear of Destiny? The Fuhrer's descendants being drained for their Spear-resonant blood? Half-materialised Norse gods bestriding the Earth using far too much punctuation?!!?! Maarvellous. The art was not quite what I've come to expect - Mahnke or Nguyen may have been stretched with two issues this month. Some of the mouths on Byrne's pages were way off center and, though the colouring was generally good, there were a couple of shots where they went seriously overboard, which didn't look good with Byrne's relatively flat faces. Oh, and Byrne continues to display complete ignorance as to the Flash's lightning bolt - it's down-left with zags to the right, not upwards as he insists on drawing it. Similar flip-flops with the belt. Attention to detail: Could do better. A nice piece showcasing the League and the Elite.
The second story - "The Fall Of Modora" - surprised me on page 2. So, I recognised the country, knew it was the old Sonar's base of operations ... but I failed to realise this was Earth-2 (or Earth-1, depending how you look at it). Where Kelly's story filled you in on the Elite, this sets up a coming JLA story. It's written by Kurt Busiek, and is packed to the brim with throwaway references to off-screen events and characters that display his characteristic imagination. It's logical that in the flip-side Antimatter universe there would be versions of DCU villains who fought against the tyranny and opression of the Crime Syndicate of Amerika - with a similar success rate that those villains enjoy in our more familiar continuity. I think the urbane and cultured Sir Solomon Grundy is my favourite, but I have to mention that Eddie Nigma (The Riddler, recast here as the Quizmaster) is a lot closer to how I'd like to see the Riddler played in the mainstream Batcomics. Smartest man alive, indeed. I also appreciated the visual references to the CSA's old costumes and roster ... it hints at a world of possibilities. Which is nice. I have high hopes for coming issues.
The profiles. JLE's inclusion is understandable (I get the feeling the Powers That Be really want the series to succeed), and the JLA's entry - for some reason, "The Satellite Era" - basically serves as an "Identity Crisis" recap. The Red King's an interesting read. I can only imagine he's for use in an upcoming story (this is listed as his first appearance). I'm not fantastically keen on the Materioptikon resurfacing (that's the ruby used by Doctor Destiny and reabsorbed by Morpheus in the Sandman series!), but I'm not going to make an issue of it since, you know, what the hell. Costume is standard Dan Jurgens fare, with a skintight bodystocking under impractical armour and what I suppose you would call a loincloth (in the literal sense), but when you're nigh-omnipotent I suppose you can wear what you want. From the disparity between text and the listed occupation ("Nameless Cog") I suspect the history here is a history of events to come in the comic, which is sort of a shame and rather defeats the object. The Ultramarine Corps entry is a better one - recapping the events of their original entry before filling in on subsequent developments so they don't have to waste time on it in the comics. That's more like it. Pleased to see these Grant Morrison creations haven't just faded into the background noise of the DCU.
That's far too much time and effort spent on that single comic. Onwards and upwards.
Well, I say upwards, but really I'm moving on to JLA #106. I missed #105, but can honestly say I feel no loss or regret. This entire arc has been a parade of annoyance. I'm glad the issues tied together in the end, but really it was just a beginning and an end with four issues of wallowing in between. Art is variable - it's sometimes sketchy and feels rushed in parts.
Alright, one nice touch - when the preschool daughter of the super-family suddenly started speaking way above her level, it did turn out to be the Martian Manhunter rather than bad writing. I think the only good thing that could come of this storyline, though, is if the son comes back as a proper villain. I want to see the League beating up on a super-powered ten-year-old! That's some serious emotional baggage to deal with right there. Never mind "Oh I'm not powerful enough to save everybody", what about "The needs of the many outweigh I have to punch this child in the face!" That's what this story should have been about.
Anyway. Onwards; upwards. Teen Titans #16. So I missed the resolution of the Beast Boy arc, but he's back to his old green self so it's not all bad. Before I start, let me note the cover: it's a novel take on that old sausage with the soldiers putting up a flag, only here it's the Teen Titans fighting against the Persuader with his axe. Blink and you'll miss it...
Inside. I have to say the writing doesn't astound as it usually does. Obviously the purpose for the issue is to set up the Titans / Legion crossover, and Johns is using the cancellation of that other series to resolve Superboy's tenure there (by sending him back to six months ago in the 31st century and then bringing him back here afterwards) - not that that's a bad thing, it's nice to see somebody actually resolve one of these "we don't know when in time you came from" things rather than leaving it to chance or using the words "temporal clone". I just wish he'd read some of those issues, or done some research, rather than relying on Mark Waid's crib notes - Flight Rings alone do not protect one from the vacuum of space, not unless they've had serious upgrades since last year. The Legion's dialogue is rushed, and I think Johns is trying to shoehorn too many characters in - almost inevitable with the Legion, I suppose, but it suffers a little from "line-per-character" syndrome. (And the Titans display an inability to see outside the comic panels - how did Legion World creep up on them, exactly?)
McKone drawing again means that Starfire's hair is back to the Cartoon-inspired wavy-straight look rather than the tight curls we know and love. Bleh. On the whole I'm a fan, though.
Exploding Legion World in low Earth orbit was a bold move, but one that left me concerned. Not for consequences, but for the lack of them. Nine times out of ten, when you do something like that it's because you know you're going to write it out of continuity.
Which brings us to Teen Titans / Legion Special 1. Y ... yy ... eah.
OK, the main feature was decent. Waid's co-writer input was obvious here, with nice Allen family continuity and plenty of Legion backreferences, both obvious and subtle. Good interplay between
Then it all goes horribly wrong.
Sure, the Titans are being set up for their next plot arc - a grand time travel adventure, no doubt. But the Legion (in a short tie-up story at the end, from Waid alone) get shafted into oblivion.
I trust Waid. Really, I do. I have faith, that Shikari - alone in this new reality - will find the right path to bring the others back. But for the moment it feels like another reboot.
For the moment, I am distinctly uneasy.
Well, we shall see.
