November 2008 Archives

This issue keeps the action train rolling and it is good.

This is an action-packed issue that reveals some of Woody's inner angst. While I had been having some trouble with Woody, this issue goes a long way to restoring the character in my estimation as it shows his funny-guy routine cracking. Not to mention the issue has an amazing ending with Woody crossing a moral line before both of heroes are defeated by an unknown enemy.

So this issue wraps up the previous arc and sets up the next one. The bad news? Well, the body swap arc silently fizzles as the two switch bodies back without much fanfare or even any real screen time. The good news is that there is a decent Amy Fishbein subplot and holy crap, the last three pages... they kill off their potential sidekick Taylor and bring back Magnum to act as a arch-villain. Now that's entertainment.

It's bizarre that Quantum had what was basically a superhero origin story before his actual origin story (spending two years training in the African wilderness after graduating from West Point) and yet it was Woody who suggested that they become heroes. 

I'm not sure that I'm in love with Woody's backstory. It seems that he's basically a guy who had a horrible, very had life and now that things are better he's decided to try and shallow and just enjoy life. It makes a little sense but it's just hard to get behind. Either Woody is far too internal and thus hard to connect with or he's actually shut the door on his past and lives only in the present which means he basically is the himbo he appears to be. 

Ah, too have "Doc" Bright back on the book. While Kobasick did a good job filling in last issue, I didn't realize until reading this issue how much the book relies on Bright's pencils. His clean style just fits in perfectly with Priest's stories and dialogues.

So is there more to Woody then meets the eye? Oh, yes. This issue reveals the rough and tough upbringing that Woody had after his parents divorced and Woody left the high-born snooby Connecticut life that he had with Eric (or Quantum, if you prefer). We saw him as a troubled boy and teen, dealing with his drug-addicted mom. But the question that I have is whether or not this past will be reflected in his future. While it helps to explain his carefree attitude, if it's not something that he struggles with than it's just decoration not real character depth.

Priest described this series as a drama about two best friends but I never really saw it that way. I kinda felt it was more of a drama about Quantum with Woody being there as his comic foil, but I have to admit that the explosive finale of this issue left me feeling a little bit for Woody. While I'm not sure it plays as a two-man show yet, it did at least make me think that there might be more to Woody than originally met the eye.

This is the first issue where I started to get the bigger picture of what Priest is doing in this book. While a lot of writers pose the question "what would happen if superheroes existed in the real world?" And they come up with several answers: they'd be feared, they'd be treated like superstars, the wanton destruction they'd leave in their wake, governments stockpiling them in a new-style cold war, et cetera. Priest asks "what would happen if superheroes existed in my life?"

First off, I love the slightly old school Fantastic Four look to this cover. Secondly, this ish has the best visual gag about a secret hideout. But what's at the heart of this issue is the following through of the premise. In great comic book tradition, the premise behind Quantum and Woody is that they are forced to be together by forces outside of their control. If they don't clank their bracelets together every twenty-four hours then they'll die. This issue is the first time when it seems like the two of them might not make their twenty-four hour deadline. It's a decent issue but its greatest part is the setup for the next issue. 

When I started reading Quantum and Woody, I expected Priest to do a blending of humor and action and was pleasantly surprised to find that it erred more towards the comedic. This is the first issue that takes a step back from the norm, providing some character insight and action. Priest handles this as well as he does the comedy, however I must admit that I missed the funny. It's not that this isn't quality stuff, it's just not what I've come to expect from a Quantum and Woody story.

I know that Christopher Priest is tired of being the "black comic book writer," however when he writes a story that deals with race that is this funny it's hard for him to escape it. While this book doesn't do anything that amazing, it does offer two interesting bits:

1) The idea that it can be tiring to be the straight man
2) Pointing out how silly curse words are

While I regret that I never had a chance to read this series when it came out, I do have to say that I am glad that I can read this much of it one-sitting. The story moves at a pretty fast clip but perhaps due to so much attention being given to dialogue and decompression. To be honest, the first three issues really read like one long first issue which might have been frustrating at the time but is now a delight to get to just plow through.

"We are not a couple!"

Best reoccurring joke about superhero gay subtext ever. You think it's funny, it just keeps getting better.

I never Quantum and Woody when it came out. I had been told that it was funny and that I would like it by my local comic book store owner, yet I just never got around to actually picking it up. Maybe it was because it was from Acclaim, maybe it was because I had no idea who Christopher Priest was, maybe it was because I was too busy picking up what felt like 18 different X-titles and 6 different Spider-books. Whatever the reason I didn't check it out, it was a mistake. 

Ah, the hubris of Sentinel-creation. One day you're afraid of mutants taking over the world, the next day you're building a giant robot to apprehend and capture those mutants... but oh with those giant robots come a heavy price. First, they fire you. Then, they imprison you in the hope that you'll create an army of thousands. Happens every time.

This is the first comic in Wizard's Top 100 that I had already read before because I was reading that series (I had read Uncanny X-Men #268 but it had already been established as an important comic by the time it was given to me). Hitman, in general, is a great comic that combines a wicked sense of humor, action and rich characters. This issue, perhaps more than any of the others, really highlights that dark humor.

This issue actually reads a little bit like how I imagine the pilot of Heroes would've run if it was on HBO. And I definitely mean that as a compliment. It starts off as a good character study, showing a young woman dealing with the grief of losing her father and the odd sort of surreal trappings that come in times of transition. It feels raw and real in a very nice way, then in the last few beats of the story it takes a sudden (but not unearned) twist into something altogether different: a sort of dysfunctional family superhero tale.

The fact that I had never read a single panel of Animal Man was one of those things that I could never admit at the local comic shop. Grant Morrison is so infamous a writer and Animal Man is the comic that he made his name on, that it becomes almost required reading for comic nerds (in a similar way of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run). However, the character just never sounded that intriguing and the plots, when related to me, always sounded a bit preachy. How is this comic? Well, the protagonist is a little dull and the story is a bit preachy.

It's hard to judge this story, I'll admit, since I don't know anything about the Legion of Superheroes. I mean, I think it's set in something like the 30th or 31st century and I think I've been told that Brainiac 5 is a dick. But that's not really an understanding of the series. This particular issue does have a cute premise that is pretty easy to understand: Triplicate Girl (whose name should indicate her power) goes out with three different members of the team without any of the guys knowing about the other dates. 

I decided to leave Batman for a while and return to Wizard's Top 100 Comics. I want to say Uncanny X-Men #268 is a good issue as it features Captain America and Wolverine teaming up against ninjas as drawn by Jim Lee. With a pitch like that, how can you lose? However, in the end, this issue leaves a lot to be desired. To be honest, not much really happens (or perhaps too much happens but it all happens off-screen). Whatever the reason, this is an issue that is less than the sum of its parts.

I'll admit, the previous issue was the best of the three-issue arc. True, it was a good story it just didn't quite live up to the promise of the last story. The Bruce Wayne trial kind of peters out and gets wrapped up a little too nicely. What I will say is that this issue does have a good ending. The undercurrent of Blind Justice has been regarding the line between Batman and Bruce Wayne and the final two pages does offer some specific insight. 

This issue is where the arc got itself going. While the previous issue had set up a lot of the characters and dealt with the mystery of the new big bad, this issue is actually very Bruce Wayne centric. The tension of Bruce Wayne's impending trial continues to grow as more and more of his past comes to light. I give this story one of my best compliments, when I was done I couldn't wait to start the next issue. 

I had never heard of the Blind Justice storyarc until I came across IGN's 25 Top Batman stories. Written by Sam Hamm, the screenwriter behind Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, this issue is a dense story following the sudden appearance of a hulking man with the ability to use sound waves to knock down walls and to liquify people's insides who keeps dying and reappearing. At the same time, a missing person's case has revealed some corruption inside of WayneTech. But what makes this issue stand out is how it ends: Bruce Wayne being arrested for suspected of being a Russian spy due to his globetroting ways after his parents' death.

There's some nice thoughts laid down in this issue with Bruce Wayne having become a totem of sorts. That Batman is the Bat, a rodent who grew wings in order to save Raven from ghost sickness and to fight off Vulture. If perhaps this was being written by Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, or JMS, then this would have been more greatly explored. As it stands in this issue, it stands more as subtext and, to be honest, that's a bit of a shame. What this issue does have is the best moment of the story so far when Batman gives a devilish grin before throwing a Christmas tree through a window in the hopes of being discovered. 

The series keeps on going and the third issue has been the best so far. As happens in the middle of any mystery, there is both a question to be answered and outside forces putting pressure on the hero to come to that answer quickly. I'm not going to say this is one of the best Batman stories ever but it feels right as one of Batman's earliest adventures.

The mystery continues to deepen in the second issue of Legends of the Dark Knights. It's one of those things where I do believe that I have figured it out but am curious to see if it plays out the way that I think it will. In general though, while this story is far more low key than the modern Batman stories, I am finding it quite engaging. The pace is slower but there's an undercurrent of action, very much like reading an Agatha Christie or Dorothy Parker mystery novel. 

I had to take a break from Wizard's Top 100. There was something about the disconnect that comes from jumping from issue to issue without any real context. While I was impressed with some of what I had been reading, it just lacked that momentum that comes in reading a story from beginning to end (a hard thing since mainstream comics never really end). But I decided I want to follow the story of Batman and to that end I went with the first issue of Legends of the Dark Knight, one of the earliest (chronologically) Batman stories there is.

I took a brief pause from my reading of Wizard's Top 100 Comics to read this issue as it is the same story from Punisher #10 but from Daredevil's point of view. It's a little bit of an odd perspective shift as there also is some ongoing drama involving Kingpin and Typhoid Mary plotting against Matt Murdock which distracts a little from the Punisher/Daredevil dichotomy.

I have to admit that in my reading down the list of Wizard's 100 Greatest Issues. This is the first issue that I read that I think really struck a chord with me. It's not that it was the most brilliant thing ever but it was a really solid story that gave some nice insight into the Punisher's psyche and by stacking him against Daredevil, it really showed some nice richness to his outlook on life.

This issue, number 99 on Wizard's Top 100 Comics, is most notable for using screenplay format for its dialogue rather than balloons. It's definitely an intriguing idea and well played here. It really allows to get in a lot of dialogue in a small amount of space and since J. Jonah Jameson (the real star of the issue) works best when he's spitting out dialogue at a million-miles-a-minute, the trick manages to really shine.

This was the first book that I read as part of the Wizard's 100 Greatest Comics feature and it's definitely a weird way to start. It's one of those books that's a little hard to judge because the way that comics are structured now versus 1982 is quite a bit different. I will admit that this book is a great example of how to introduce new readers to a heroes' origin story without being too boring, as it is divided nicely between retelling how Blaze became the Rider and the Rider tracking down a faux priest.