Hornets, Spiders, and Vampires, oh my.

Green Hornet Remastered: There are really only two things to recommend for these books. One, the wonderful covers by Joe Rubinstein that capture the Green Hornet in the middle of a dangerous situation. However, the Hornet is rendered with a simple domino mask and not the gangster style mask that covered the lower half of his face that he wears inside the comic. It also shows off just how minor of a character Kato was at the time, barely appearing in the majority of the stories. There's no doubt that the hero and star of the book is the Green Hornet. Otherwise, these stories are painfully dull and the artwork is either heavily damaged during the remastering stage or/and is really on the low end, even for GA standards. And, this is coming from someone that is generally a fan of the comics from this time. Stick to the radio shows and serials to get exciting adventures of the Green Hornet of this time.

Green Hornet: Year One #7: Not sure how long this comic is going to last and continue being called "Year One." The last issue brought together all of the various threads and backstory of how Kato and Britt Reid would find themselves coming together to fight crime as masked men and how it would result in them being thought of as rival mobsters. This issue picks up on that status quo and continues the story, but it no longer has that feeling of an extended origin tale of neophyte characters. The only change in creative staff seems to be the colorist, the new one going for more traditional color palettes. It's still a good comic, full of atmosphere and mood and feels like an honest attempt at being faithful and true to the source material while being readable by modern audiences. It feels authentic and should have DC kicking themselves for not doing something similar with the Crimson Avenger.

Hellboy: The Sleeping and the Dead #1 of 2: Written by Mike Mignola and painted by Scott Hampton, this is a beautiful little comic. Like most of Mignola's writing, it is basic and bare in the plotting and storytelling, going for creepiness, mood and the visceral experience. Hampton's artwork with Dave Stewart's colors elevate it into something that's darkly beautiful and romantic, like an old Southern mansion falling into disrepair.

Justice Society #45 and 46: If there was a book that screamed it was the right time to stop getting regular monthlies, this title is it. When the day comes that the Justice Society is so bad that I want to stop getting it as a mercy killing, then the comic companies really have passed me by. This comic isn't merely bad but just plain stupid.

It was bad enough suffering looking at pictures of the Captain America movie and reading posts by fans about how faithful and accurate it is, but then I open up #45 and see The Flash and Green Lantern on some secret mission, dressed in military versions of their costumes, complete with grenades and various packets and straps. Words fail me in just how wrong minded this is. Then, the whole mission is a black-ops one, sent to destroy a secret weapon which turns out to be a baby. Why would you send two (and only two) JSA members on a mission like this? 

Then, we have the writer telling us that Drachen (the name of the Nazi project) means "Scythe", the name of the super powered terrorist. Of course, Drachen doesn't mean that at all. It means Dragon, kite and even a vixen or harpy.

We're also asked to believe that a politician from the 1950s still holds office some sixty years later. Impossible? No. But, highly improbable and like everything else in the book, it shows the hand of the writer demanding things to be so for the sake of the story he's writing with little logical extrapolation.

We also have over the course of two issues, three instances by different characters using the term "gallows humor". When a unique phrase gets used that often in so little space and by different characters, it sticks out. Again, it shows the writer behind the scenes as it becomes obvious that the dialogue by different characters are coming from one mind.

We get an appearance by Superman and Blue Devil which is fine. But, there are a whole lot of JSA'ers and hanger-ons that would be better served. Then again, interviews have indicated that Blue Devil is going to be a member for some bizarre reason. Because, there aren't enough JSA and Golden-age related characters that could be used or team members we haven't seen.

Obsidian gets all violent and dark. Again.


Dr. Mid-nite finally gets called in for a consultation on Alan Scott's condition. He claims it's taking too much energy to just keep the Starheart in check for him to heal despite his being an energy being he only sustains physical injury because he thinks of himself as human. Thus, if he's conscious and able to think at all, then his body should become normal without actually having to "heal". And, if it takes that level of concentration, then what the heck is he doing fighting crime when a slip in concentration could cost lives or letting loose the Starheart? What happens when he falls asleep? And, where does he get the power then to build himself a godawful new costume AND GROW HAIR as we've seen in previews?

In both issues and one coming up, Dr. Mid-nite is said to have "ultra-SONIC lenses". What the heck are those and what do they do? Make his eyes able to hear? Allows him to SEE sounds that people cannot hear? Apparently this comes from the Matt Wagner mini that introduced the character, as I've never read it.  Just seeing in the dark and outside of the normal vision range just not good enough I guess. It's something best left forgotten unless we are actually going to see him use said "ultrasonic lenses". Otherwise, it just comes off as sounding stupid when thrown out with nothing to back it up or explain it as in these issues.

I'm not a fan of Kolins artwork, generally the opposite. To give credit where it's due, other than the military styled Flash and Green Lantern (and GL's upcoming new "costume"), the artwork has been good and easily the best thing regarding the book. But, I miss the days of the real JSA when it wasn't a team of legacies, but the original heroes.

Project Superpowers: X-mas Carol: This book is merely "meh". It gives us an origin and background of the villain known as the Clown and updates him for the modern age with powers of his own by him taking over the body of a clone of his foe, the hero Magno. It started off strong with a flashback sequence of the Clown before he became the masked villain with his girlfriend, giving him some sympathetic background juxtaposed against scenes with a mother and son Christmas shopping in the modern day as well as the American Spirit propheting that someone was about to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country. But these scenes ultimately go nowhere, serving as little teases to completely different type of tale, one of impending tragedy and sadness. Part of this is because the book is constrained by the fact that it is to follow the construction of Dicken's A Christmas Carol so we have the Clown visited by the ghost of a past associate and then heroic ghosts of the Superpowers line: The Fighting Yank, the Ghost and American Spirit. Each tries to capture the Ghost and relating events from the past, present and a possible future. But, it only has a few pages to devote to each hero. It then ends on ambiguous ground as we are not sure if the Clown has undergone any kind of spiritual transformation in relation to his physical one or not. We aren't sure if we are to take anything from this tale, if there's anything to take. It might be a foreshadowing of upcoming plots, that the Clown may betray the Supremacy and thus avert the disaster that the American Spirit shows him. Or the Clown may bring about that very future.  There's nothing in the ending to really grab hold of, to see a reason as to why to read this story. We understand a little more about the background of the Clown but it's all upset by the non-descript ending, it cannot be applied to the future. It becomes a tale that's unfinished all the way around, imparting little knowledge, truth or emotion.

Spider-Girl #2: Tying the JSA of a book being not merely bad but incredibly dumb. Part of it is the simple fact that it's merely the second issue and yet managed to go so wrong so quickly in so many different directions. Part of last issue's biggest disconnect was the idea that a father would let his teen-age daughter with no powers go out and fight crime. This was a big source of conflict between Mayday and her parents in the DeFalco series, resulting in her just doing it anyway, and she had powers. Arana doesn't have anything other than good training. This is compounded by that Sue Richards, adult and mother, also supports and aids her in these actions. Well, we don't have to worry about that because the writer decided to go for that standard cliche and kill off the girl's father. And, then spend the whole issue of the character dealing with it. I could see this being done somewhere down the road, it's a big cliche but it does up-end the status quo and gives a change-of-pace story. BUT IN THE SECOND ISSUE? And, it's not a villain she can take on, but the Red Hulk. So we have a story where the character is not only sad and depressed for the whole issue but completely ineffectual. Again, this might be fine later, but it hardly makes me want to read more about this character. She comes across useless, her book is depressing, and now two issues in, there's no status quo or regular supporting cast and relationships to draw me back to.

This issue at least shows that the line she swings by is some grappling line although where she keeps it and the mechanisms that control it is a complete mystery. I guess it's in the same place where she manages to find coins to buy newspapers to fling in the Red Hulk's face.

More bad writing: there's zero introduction of just who or what the Red Hulk is. My brother's first question was, "why is the Hulk red?" I could answer a little of it as I keep up with some of the general goings on in the Marvel U, but there is zero in the story to tell us anything about the character, that it's not even the real Hulk just in different Christmas colors. Remember, every issue is someone's first exposure to the characters. Why should I, reading a Spider-man family book, be expected to know what's going on in the Hulk books?

The book tops the JSA with writing characters with the same voice with this bit of dialogue.
Johnny Storm: Did he seem...crazy to you? He's never talked like that before. Let's find him and find out.
Reed Richards: It was...strange. Let's find him and find out."
In the same panel, we have the world's smartest man and leader of the FF simply repeating verbatim what a high school graduate just said, proposing the same action as if it was his idea. My guess for the future death in the FF, Johnny kills Reed for constantly undercutting him like this. Or Reed is already dead and they are hiding it from the world by using a robot.

We are lead to believe her father was this respected journalist and the go-to press-guy for the celebrity heroes the Fantastic Four, yet his funeral is practically empty, the FF don't even show up. His daughter wears plain clothes but not black and her friends wear nice colorful clothes. Instead of a powerful scene, all I can think is "this is supposed to be a funeral?" Bad, bad storytelling.

Thunderstrike #2: At least this title has a teenager acting like a teenager, albeit a surly petulant one, and parents acting and reacting in ways that seem like real human beings and parents would. And, with DeFalco and Frenz at the helm, there's lots of superhero action. If we cannot have the real Spider-Girl or even the real Thunderstrike, this fills the gap nicely.

Victorian Undead: Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula #3 of 5: The story shifts a bit from how I remember the Dracula story going as Mina has died and one of Lucy's suitors has become a betrayer, thus we are no longer following Stoker's script even discounting Holmes' involvement. It sets things up as the conclusion no longer being pre-ordained. Despite that, it's a fun book, pitting the world's greatest sleuth against one of its biggest villains.

Warlord of Mars #3: A switch-up in artists. The new guy draws Carter as being a little too muscle bound for my taste and doesn't have quite the same texture to his pencils but he does a great job at drawing an alien city. In this day and age, I don't think it's too much to ask that an artist be able to draw faces differently, so that the only way to tell the green-skinned martians apart is whether they have both tusks or not. The series seems intent on having them all drawn as four-armed Hulks as opposed to the more lanky, almost skeletal proportions they are generally shown as. These are small complaints though as overall the book has looked very good and it's going to be hard for anyone to really top what Gil Kane and John Buscema could do with sci-fi/fantasy sword fighters.

Some reviews and the Green Hornet director mouths off

Recently got married, moved to Greensboro and got a laptop computer. Means I have some hard choices ahead of me. Or maybe not so hard after all. My wife's place is smaller than mine (I moved because she has a good, steady job, I'm still looking). There's just no room for 23 or more boxes of comics and looking at things with my mom and my grandmother, I wonder at the need for that many comics, comics I'll never read again. I had posted them for sale at Craigslist at one time but only got a few nibbles and I'll probably post it again. But, as I started going through the comics, I realized that out of all those boxes and thousands of comics, I could probably whittle it down to two boxes. Almost all of the works by George Perez, Walt Simonson, Mignola, and John Byrne have been collected so I don't need all the individual issues of Avengers, Thor, Fantasatic Four, Hellboy, Next Men, etc. All of the JSA and appearances by individual heroes of Earth-2 have been collected, so no real need for all of those All-Stars, JLA-JSA crossovers, etc. I don't even need Ditko's Charlton work as those have likewise been collected. Trades and hardbacks are so much more easily manageable and readable. And, there's a lot of critically acclaimed comics that I just don't re-read though I'm glad I got them at the time: Morrison's Animal Man, Gaiman's Sandman, Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Top Ten. The stuff I'd keep is probably the stuff that is almost worthless to most people but the most fun to me: the various Doc Savage comics (before the current stuff), Gerard Jones' El Diablo and Shadow Strikes. Roy Thomas' All-Star Squadron (not collected). Aparo's Phantom Stranger. My Phantom comics, especially those by Newton and Aparo. At least until a publisher gets around to reprinting them. Giant-Size Superheroes pitting Spider-man against Morbius and the Man-wolf. Tom DeFalco's run on FF, Thor, Thunderstrike, and Spider-Girl. Various comics by Butch Guice, specifically Micronauts and Resurrection Man. My Rom comics. Uncollected works of Gil Kane. But, it's getting so that I don't even expect to see those uncollected forever. After all, we're seeing other publishers publishing reprints of Marvel's past licensed titles.

I don't buy that many more new comics, and I get fewer all the time. I mostly get minis, but those have been souring on me as well as more than half seem to drop the ball in the last issue (see Shadowland: Blood on the Streets for the most recent example or Union Jack, Agents of Atlas, and Sable and Fortune for past ones). Waiting for the trade seems to be the best course on those unless by proven creators and talent. Case in point, I'd really like to get the Dead Avengers mini that is spinning out of Chaos War storyline. It features art by one of the best and under-utilized superhero artists out there, Tom Grummet. But, I've seen how this usually pans out, and with the price, I decided I'd just wait until it gets the inevitable trade. Meanwhile, I am getting DeFalco and Frenz's Thunderstrike.

The prices, decompressed storylines and increasingly unrecognizable characterizations further distance me from the various ongoings. One of the few that I never thought I'd seriously consider dropping was the main JSA book. Putting Scott Kolins on as artist almost did the job, but the recent revelations that Blue Devil and Manhunter were being added to the team hammered that final nail. Manhunter is one of the few characters I cannot divorce from the ego of the creator, whose approach to writing is so diametrically opposite my own philosophies, I am not able to buy a book with her in it (Bucky-Cap is another). I find, if I can drop the JSA book, it's easy to say adios to the rest. I'll stick with odd minis here and there, but the desire to actually "collecting" monthly comics is gone.

Another factor, although small one is the move divorces me from the shop I've long done business with. There's a good store in town, maybe even better in terms of layout and availability of material. And they seem excited about comics, enjoy them to no end. Which is good, but it's an excitement on the stuff and creators I find dreary while likewise they will disparage creators I like, often with ill-founded rumors. Not to me, mind you. They don't know me well enough to make that realization. Just stuff I overhear while they are talking with other customers. They carry tons of classic stuff that you don't normally see, but an actual love over the vast history of comics doesn't come through. I will probably go there for my off and on fixes of the most recent issue of this or that comic, but I'll just make monthly trips to Raleigh for my pulp stuff.

Green Hornet Movie: Read this at the comicbookresources site and just couldn't let it pass without commenting. Apparently, Green Hornet director Michel Gondry complained about comic fans walking out on a viewing at Comi-con, saying, "These ones just reinforce the social rules. Their values are fascistic. All those people marching around in capes and masks and boots. The superhero imagery is totally fascist! When you step into this genre, they feel it belongs to them. They want you to conform, or they won't like you. They want the conventional." He also says the film plays fine for "normal people." Ok. So, comic and super-hero fans equal "Fascist" and low-brow humor, bad-acting and Seth Rogen fans equal "Normal". There are just so many things wrong with his statements. Like many of the modern comic writers, he is basically screaming his disdain for the very characters and concepts he has chosen to work with and the fans of those characters. And, he expects people to like it. Oh, wait, he expects they won't because they aren't "normal". So, anyone that doesn't like it is apparently not normal either. I guess that's one way to shield yourself from any honest criticism or self-evaluation.

Notice all of the inherent contradictions in his statements. On one hand he calls them "fascist", then they dress up in costumes, capes and boots, but somehow reinforce social rules and want conventional, none of which go hand in hand with wearing costumes. Yet because of wanting "social rules" and "conventional" they are not normal (which would be about two of the most basic qualities I'd expect from someone that was "normal").

Yet, it also betrays a very fundamental misunderstanding of superheroes in general, their tradition and history and that of the Green Hornet specifically. It shows us a man that chose to make a film without the least bit understanding the source material beyond looking at the 1960s television show and probably reading Watchmen. How else do you make a blanket statement that all superheroes are fascist? Are cops and soldiers by their nature, also fascist? Private detective fiction? Modern comics have gotten away from their roots a bit, to be sure, but superheroes were originally voices against corruption, complacity, the feeling of powerlessness against the larger injustices of the world. Especially those that came along in the 1930s and 40s, growing out of the pulp movement. They were to serve as voices for justice when the law wasn't enough or when the law was part of the problem due to unfair laws, discrimination, laziness, graft and bribes. They were avatars for the normal people, acting in ways we couldn't.

By his nature, the Green Hornet has in his concept to be every inch a success the way that Nolan's Batman movies are. But, it takes a director that understands a bit more of the concepts of the character, that doesn't attack the characters and fans basic integrities by making fun of them and calling them names.

Reviews: Ironically, the week I decide to cut back on comics turned out to be a "heavy" comic week for me. Although, at one time the money I spent and the amount of comics I got would be a normal or light week.

Archie and Friends #150: Not a title I normally get. But, how could I resist a title that features various and extremely minor MLJ characters such as Kardak the Mystic, Fu Chang, Sam Hill, Inspector Bently, the Midshipman Lee Sampson, and Sgt. Boyle as well as appearances by L'il Jinx, Danny in Wonderland, Suzie, Catfish Joe and probably others I don't recognize? Answer, I couldn't. Not normally my cup of tea, but it's great to see them. Maybe with the failure of the Red Circle line at DC, maybe Archie is looking at the reception of the characters presented in a non-reimagined albeit more cartoony form?

Avengers Academy #7: I got this solely for Hank Pym going back to being Giant-Man. He's had a history of costume and name changes and some of those costumes were badly designed, but his turn of being the Wasp was one of the more ludicrous in a history of bad decisions and bad designs. McKone's redesign manages to echo the classic and iconic with a few modern touches (don't really care for the pin-stripe lines as they don't really seem to add anything to the design other than a desperate attempt to make it not look dated). And, the concept and idea behind AA struck me as the most interesting of the various Avenger relaunches, but I just couldn't accept the Hank-as-Wasp idea.

I wish the writing lived up to the fun aspect of the cover or even the idea of Giant Man throwing down with the Absorbing Man. Like all stories featuring Hank Pym, it just cannot let go of the past and all the bad decisions regarding the character. I haven't read an Iron Man comic in years, but surely not every single writer fashions every important story around him focusing on his arm-dealer days, alcoholism, betrayal of friends in Armor Wars and the Crossing. But, that's what we get here. Instead of actually seeing how powerful a character he is, the writer first has to bog him down by rehashing his "relationships" with Tigra and Jocasta, his history of mental issues, his tumultuous relationship with Janet Van Dyne, psycho-babble of rationales for taking on various identities, etc. Given a few extra pages, I'm sure we'd have seen scenes showing the infamous slap, betrayal of the Avengers, and creating Ultron. By the time we get to the actual fight scene, the writer has done a thorough job of making me not liking the character, I don't really care that he wins the day. He's still a putz.

And, his manner of winning... I am all for characters using their powers in new and interesting ways. But, here we have Pym using his powers in ways that defy logic and any sense of his use of them in the past. One of the traditional differences between Marvel and DC was the scope of the powers. The Flash can run faster than the speed of light, vibrate through solid matter, and use his speed to travel other dimensions including time. Quicksilver doesn't even routinely break the sound barrier. Superman has a host of powers, Thor is strong and has a hammer. Almost every scientist in the DCU is as smart as Reed Richards. Plastic Man can make himself into any shape, Reed Richards merely stretches. Thus, you have the Atom who regularly visits sub-atomic worlds whereas Pym rarely gets smaller than, well, an ant. Likewise, his giant-size growing has always been shown to be as routinely "realistic" in scale.  Lately, he's been depicted as tall as buildings, and as such I have a hard time accepting seeing him going through the city without doing extensive property damage or stepping on someone in a densely populated city like New York. We see that several times in this fight. It's not two men twenty feet tall duking it out, which would be impressive enough with the right artist, but hundreds feet tall or more while leaning on suspension bridges for support. It's stupid. If the battle was at that scale, I'd expect to see dialogue and scenes of the hero trying to control the battle. Then to add insult to injury, Pym gives a speech about their being a limit to the physical growth of a human body, which is in reality much less than what's shown here. Don't bring in an actual physics statement while violating it. But, the statement is to show something never shown before as being part of his power and ability, that at some point, you leave physical reality to one of abstract and conceptual. He can grow so large, that he is able to be in the realm of Order and Chaos, Eternity, the Living Tribunal. How large is that, though? He doesn't just magically immediately go from 6 ft to 12 ft or 100 ft. He grows and  shrinks.  This means to get to 12 feet, he must go through 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 feet tall. How tall would he have to grow to actually change his reality? Two-hundred feet? Five hundred? A mile? Imagine what kind of damage that two such growing bodies would do before they make the transition. It's one of those kewl ideas, but is not thought out and is too extreme of a device to be used so casually and easily.

I went into this comic, preparing to like it. Wanting to like it, especially with how many comics I'm not getting these days, I wouldn't mind having one ongoing title to get from Marvel. But, they blew it.

Captain America: Patriot: There's not much to add to this that I've not said about the previous issues. It ends on a happier note than I would have expected and with un-resolved subplot elements such as what happened with Mary Morgan and was she a spy. Done several years ago, I think this book would have been an excellent read and as such, it might stand the test of time. However, in the context of today's comics that are so bent on giving heroes feet of clay, "realistic" costumes and so on, this book doesn't really stand out. Jeff Mace is portrayed as being dull and luke-warm, second rate in his own title. He's likable but in a girl/boy-next-door way when you really want the bad boy or head cheerleader. The scenes where he exerts his personality and shows backbone are too few and far between.

John Byrne's Next Men #3/1: After a long hiatus, an oft requested title is back after ending its last chapter on a cliffhanger. It doesn't matter if the reader has read the original books or not as Byrne incorporates a summation of the previous plotlines in such a way that it's part of the story. All that has gone before is called in to question as Jasmine/Bounce seems to "bounce" between realities and timelines. How much is her dream and how much is time and reality being flux is left open to question by the issue's end. At its heart, the story has always been a time-travel story, something Byrne has professed to loving to do and many of his best works have been time-travel stories: Days of Future Past, OMAC. The fast-paced transitions serve to leave the reader and Jasmine unsettled as to what is really happening and what really happened and that's a good thing. By the end, both new readers and returning ones are pretty much on the same page as to having insight into the real reality. Of course in the last series, often what I thought was going on was not really what was happening. Making this a good series for those people who actually enjoy television shows like Heroes, Lost, No Ordinary Family. Here is the same thing without actually dragging stuff out.

This is the best artwork that Byrne has ever produced, with the possible exception being the aforementioned OMAC mini-series. It incorporates the best elements from the different periods of his career and make them all work seamlessly together. The only disconnect for me is that somewhere along the way, he picked up a cartooning style of portraying mouth expressions at times. It shows up here where Danny is complaining about his back, while it would work in something like a humor strip, it seems out of place in the relative realism that this strives for. But old Jack's beard on the final pages more than makes up for that, it has feathering and texture and no hard boundaries or outlines. Wonderful stuff.

The colors by Ronda Pattison are wonderfully subdued, often providing just the right amount of shading without looking like it's trying to do the penciler's job for him in providing detail.

Sea Ghost: I recently had the fortune of winning this comic from comicbookcatacombs. I like aquatic heroes in general, and this one has a wonderful old school design behind him. The cover is a neat nod to Bronze-Age Marvel books and the art on both it and the alternate back cover is nicely done. The interior story, style and characterizations have a retro Filmation style to them, deliberately so. Unfortunately, I'm not really drawn to comics drawn in animation style. Partly because it's really a faux or pastiche style. Animation has specific concerns and limitations it has to deal with that have nothing to do with comic books. Adapting that style for a print medium is a deliberate limiting style and usually used to communicate things that weren't really part of the intended message of the animation itself. Such as, when animation style is used in comics, it communicates that it will probably be toned and dumbed down in order to be suitable for kids. The Incredibles movie was suitable for all ages, many adults enjoyed it as much or more than kids. You do a comic drawn that way and it's suddenly aimed solely at 8 year olds.

Yet that style is compromised by the heavy use of computer to color and illustrate it, making it look more like a daily web-comic. So, the end result is feeling like reading a collection of strips of a web-comic that was heavily influenced by Alex Toth's work in animation. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not really what I was expecting when looking at the covers and it struggles in some places trying to mix it all into one style. And, the covers and some background scenes show that the artist really does have a wonderful line along the lines of Guy Davis as well as a strong design and layout skills so some panels are really beautiful where it all works. Give me Sea Ghost in a book with a more conventional style (though can still be influenced by the designs of Toth, just try not to actually ape it) and I think you'd have a winner.

Shadowland: Blood on the Streets: If I had known the mini was going to end the way it did,  I wouldn't have bothered. I wasn't getting the main mini-series, because by all accounts reading it was not required to enjoy the related minis and in this it was true. I was drawn by the inclusion of the Shroud, a long time favorite and the Paladdin who I do find interesting on occasion. Misty Knight and Silver Sable, don't really care one way or the other.

Sadly, most of it really seemed to be from Misty's point of view as the various heroes get drawn into investigating murders by the Hand, controlled by Daredevil. I liked the idea. I liked the idea of a good pulp story mixed in with heroes actually trying to solve a crime and the prospect of heroes fighting ninjas.

As it progressed, it seemed someone was setting the Hand up, using them as a scapegoat. Fine. Maybe not the Hand but some other hidden mastermind using ninjas, or at least well-trained killers, as henchmen. Only that's not where it went. Instead, it went for the cliche, a group of disgruntled cops turning vigilante to kill perps who got off using Daredevil and the Hand as cover. Completely anti-climactic considering the likes of the Shroud, Palladin, Misty Knight AND Silver Sable working on the case. Very little for them to really do and certainly no real physical action or viable threat level from the bad guys to the point that it takes the Hand trying to exact their revenge on the rogue cops that give them a reason for really being there.

It furthers the crime by making the head bad cop be Lt. Scarfe, longtime good cop and supporting cast member of Iron Fist. Another story that chooses to make the bad guy be a formerly good guy just out of the blue with no real supporting rationale. It works for the story being told barely, if he was a character never seen before. That would make the story merely mediocre with nothing to recommend it as it covers ground that other works have done better. But, to take a long-standing if minor character and turn him into the villain screams desperation of trying to make an otherwise dull story be shocking and have real ramifications. The character and the readers deserve better than that. There should be a real story behind it beyond just tired of seeing bad guys getting away.

Spider-Girl: I wouldn't have normally picked this up. It happened to be in my bag since I was signed up for the old series with a different character by the same name. And, I shouldn't like it for many reasons. I was a fan of the other series and hate to see it cancelled just so another character can use the name; while the art was clear, the coloring tried to give everything a sorta faux 3-D pixar feel to it, a popular coloring style these days but not my cup of tea as it just looks false and cold to me; several scenes and just the basic concept that just threw me out of the story; and her and her father's motivation is never explained. Yet, I found myself enjoying it despite that. It had a charm to it that is often lacking in Marvel's comics today outside of something with Squirrel Girl.

I doubt it's enough to make me pick it up on a regular basis. There were too many things just glossed over or ignored. It was one thing with May fighting crime, she had superpowers. But, here we have a teen-aged girl fighting crime but with no motivation beyond being a bit of a superhero groupie. She is supposed to have been trained by the best, but that's not really shown or explained. After all, she also once had powers. How much training since then has she had that really prepares her to take down grown men or mediocre supervillains that cops couldn't handle? It's a fine line between suspension of disbelief of having a teen-aged girl manage to outfight and outwit some minor supervillain and the cops commenting on how they had been unable to do so, you either build her up to be exceptional or make the cops seem completely inept. Sadly, the lame villain made the scene veer to the latter. How does she swing through the city, starting from a sidewalk? Did she somehow snag a nearby helicopter? And, is that Spider-man's webbing she's using, otherwise, where is all that line coming from and how is she shooting it? And, even if she's a capable fighter, what kind of father actually would allow his teen-age daughter fight criminals? It's a tired cliche  of irresponsibility when there's an adult hero at least supervising it, how irresponsible is it to just allow her to do it unsupervised?

While not enough for me to warrant to continually get it, I do hope it's successful. I think a book of it's type is needed in the marketplace and fills an underserved niche. However, it's the same niche that the other Spider-Girl filled and she struggled to find a readership and marketplace. Maybe they are hoping with this one tied to the mainstream continuity, it can get needed boosts by crossovers with the Spider-man books and other titles which the other book could not do. Although in my case it was part of what made it attractive, I didn't have to worry about the book getting highjacked by outside storylines.

Thunderstrike #1: Meanwhile DeFalco and Frenz return with another hero. I enjoyed Eric Masterton's turn as Thor and later Thunderstrike. There was a bit of the well-meaning nice every-man about him, struggling to balance job, family and a sideline business as a superhero. In many ways, he was of the same stripe as Peter Parker. He was a nice guy with a big sense of responsibility, struggling to find his way in an increasingly bizarre world without an operator's manual. And, ultimately it killed him. Ads from Marvel suggested that Eric was coming back, but the art and previews pretty much hinted that it's someone else that has inherited his powers and looks. It's no big surprise as it turns out to be his son Kevin who has struggles of his own. He's a teenager and he's never really come to terms with his dad's death. He resents his dad and almost all adults and their involvement in trying to tell him what the right things to do are, he's seen what doing the right thing gets you. He's a supervillain in the making. But, he's a teenager. That means he's full of contradictions and how he deliberately acts and how he instinctively acts are not always the same thing. It's a great beginning, to see how he grows and which paths he ultimately chooses to follow. And, being a DeFalco book, it means there's plenty of action, before the first issue is done, we see the new hero-to-be and a slam-bang fight with the Rhino. More first issues should be like this: introduction of principal characters, external and internal conflicts, angst, and plenty of action of superheroes fighting supervillains.

Time Masters #5: This mini is nearing its end and about the only thing that would make me get the final issue is I got the other four. It might just be easier to list where the comic goes wrong.

1. The cover shows us the climactic reveal from the END of the book. The final scene is played out as the heroes are being attacked by someone moving too fast to be seen. But, thanks to the cover, we already know who it is. Otherwise, has nothing else to do with the rest of the story.
2. After several issues with Claw and non-Titan Starfire, they are returned home without doing much of anything storywise other than to gripe and complain.
3. Likewise, their villains are taken care of in such a casual manner it makes you wonder what the whole point of it was other than to give the heroes something to do other than looking for Bruce Wayne while giving time to relate the story of the Black Beetle's plot to catch up.
4. What happened to Per Degaton, Despero and the Ultra-Humanite? After being in the book from the beginning, they went from interesting classic time-traveling masterminds to mere henchmen and are now gone, disappearing in between issues.
5. Lastly, the art continues to look as if it's drawn with eyes for the sale on the original art market as Green Lantern continues to face the reader while reacting to things and making constructs behind him or the whole group holds a conversation facing the reader instead of each other. Bad storytelling.

Victorian Undead: Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula: I bypassed the Sherlock Holmes vs Zombies book, but Holmes is a character I love and with the increasing dearth of comics, a mini I thought I could live with. And, I've read several Sherlock Holmes and Dracula books in the past, so a comic is also going to appeal.

What's great about this mini is it doesn't try to be a pastiche. The art doesn't try to be Victorian illustration and the storytelling doesn't try to do it through Watson's eyes. It is using Holmes, Watson and Dracula as characters and being true to their characters without actually pretending to be done by Doyle or Stoker. Watson is drawn as the cliche'd older man while Holmes looks decades younger and a bit more good looking than he should but otherwise it all looks good. The covers to the first two issues have a great sense of design and color that really stand out, almost like vintage movie posters.

Likewise, the writing provides plenty of space for art and action to move the story, recognizing that it's a modern day comicbook with all the strengths and weaknesses of that vs prose (especially Victorian prose). It tells the story in according to the strengths of its media without seeming anachronistic or out of place. It's been years since I read Dracula, but so far the story seems to follow along the lines of Loren Estleman's Holmes-Dracula book, keeping to the story that Stoker told but telling the previously unrevealed roles that Holmes and Watson played from their point of view, changing very little of the original narrative.

The last mini had zombies and revenants, this has Dracula and vampires, will the next be mummies?

Comic Reviews

Daring Mystery Comics: Part of Marvel's 70th Anniversary comics, from the pages of The Twelve, the Phantom Reporter gets a solo adventure and an origin story. Novelist David Liss does a good job delivering a solid and dense done-in-one pulp inspired story. We get a solid narrative voice, plenty of characterization and dynamic action that doesn't really change any continuity as it has been established in the incomplete mini by JMS so far. Jason Armstrong's artwork is fitting for the style though at times, he seems to have studied anatomy by looking at the artwork of Mignola and Guy Davis and he cannot quite decide which of them he wants to emulate. I wouldn't mind seeing Liss, the writer of Daring Mystery Comics doing more. Liss did more building the character up, making him sympathetic and dynamic in one issue than JMS has managed with any of the characters in The Twelve after seven issues.

The backup reprint of the Phantom Reporter seemed to raise more questions though. One, he appears to have a glowing mask though nothing is said about it. It also seems as if reporter Dick Jones is as much an alias as the Phantom Reporter is... unless it's the rich playboy Van Ergen that's the fake id. Either way, makes him similar to the modern Moon Knight who maintains various id's (which really dates back to characters like the pre-pulp Grey Seal and the pulps Shadow and Secret Agent 'X' who maintained and regularly used different id's). It's an interesting character bit that would have been nice to see a bit more of.

Domino Lady #1: Moonstone misses the boat with this modern series based on the pulp character. The story and storytelling seems to be a bit all over the place with contradictions and plot holes. The inclusion of Sherlock Holmes seems nonsense. What is strange is that while it seems to be written by a woman, the handling of the character seems more in lines with what a teenage boy thinks is sexy. It's all about cleavage and dressing and undressing and overly obvious teasing images and scenes instead of about sultriness and class. She's sexy like Lauren Bacall not Marilyn Monroe. Or a comparison considering that the writer is a Buffy novelist, it's more sexy as in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and not Lauren Hamilton's Anita Blake series.

Interestingly, despite the original stories occurring in a book titled Saucy Romantic Stories, her stories were pretty tame in comparison to other similar pulps, especially the Spicy line. She was a rogue hero, along the lines of the Moon Man, robbing from the corrupt and rich. They were caper stories usually with the story already fairly far along and focusing on just how she was going to commit the robbery and get away. Plenty of room to develop the story and character. Pity they went with the low easy road.

Justice Society of America #30: The second issue of Willingham, Sturges and Merino taking over. Already there's great improvement as most of the team is actually used whereas under Johns most of the team seemed absent or little more than furniture. Here, almost every character gets a line or two and something to actually do. We see the beginnings of internal rifts and strife that will lead to a future splitting of the team and book (can hardly wait as most of the characters I have no affinity for will be in the second book).

There is a good mystery of why is the JSA being targeted, a possible traitor in the midst and a whole bunch of villains. The villains are really the only drawback as most are barely identified or established what they can do. I have no idea who half of them are and Major Force is taken down by one kick by Judomaster? The artwork is also stronger than it has been, Jay Garrick is no longer with long hair although Merino seems a little unsure about the shape of his helmet. Otherwise, he handles the many and variety of the characters and facial expressions very well and seems to be pretty much at home with the close-up solo shots and the crowd scenes.

Mystic Comics: Another 70th Anniversary comic and another solid one that treats the original characters with respect while telling a solid story. In this case it's the GA Vision's turn as he takes on a menace that would be right at home in a Mignola Hellboy comic. Lapham doesn't set out to really clarify the Vision's rather ill-defined powers, but makes use of them. The story does indicate that it strands the Vision in our reality and really seems like it could be a logical set-up of a new ongoing comic with him if Marvel so inclined to continue along those lines. He's by far more interesting here as a semi-cosmic crimefighter than how he is used in The Torch or The Avengers/Invaders mini, less Phantom Stranger and more Martian Manhunter. Nice Simon & Kirby reprints as well.

The Phantom: Generations #4: Moonstone is doing a few things a bit differently. In addition to their regular comics, a few books are actual prose stories with illustration. This is a particularly strong one as pulp fan and writer Will Murray tells a story concerning the 4th Phantom (the conceit of the book is that each issue focuses on a different Phantom). The shorter format forces Murray to cut down on the purple prose and verbosity he tends towards at times and tells a tight story as pirates steal the skull that each generation of the Phantom swears his oath on and the Phantom must hunt them down and get it back.

Project Superpowers: Meet the Bad Guys #1: This issue focuses on the Green Lama and gives him a bad-guy with a fairly interesting motivation but never rings completely true. She and her family harbor a grudge that their grandfather Tsong served all those years as the Lama's servant and was apparently taken from the family to live without aging in his mystical Shangri-La and then killed while in service to the Lama (though she doesn't seem to harbor any grudge against the men and the government that actually did the killing). Likewise, there's a big development in the story as she kills all these people that are inspired by the Lama to draw him out. I guess to keep her from being too unsympathetic later, the Green Lama shows the ability to raise them all from the dead! So, the question is, if he can do that for a whole group, why didn't he do so for Bruce Carter III? For Tsong? And, does it kill him and he is reborn on the spot into his old body or just drain him severely for a while? It's a stupid power and reduces her actions and the story to having no consequence. It means that her rage against the Green Lama shouldn't be that Tsong died while in service to the Green Lama, but that he allowed him to stay dead afterwards.

Project Superpowers: Chapter 2 #2: The story is getting better as we are finally getting some hints at answers behind the urn and some of the odd actions and changes to the characters. The Green Lama uses his "raise the dead" power again.

New characters Truth and Dare are annoying. Especially Truth. Truth can see the truth about people, beyond their lies and exteriors. Like Green Lama's raise the dead power, this is really a bad idea storywise. Because it means you have a character who could come out and dispel any mystery at anytime but because that would mean you'd have no story, he does not do so or the writer has to jump through hoops to not reveal what the character knows. He knows the truth behind Captain Future but does not reveal it. He knows the truth of Justine but again just speaks cryptically. It's much like the mystery behind the Death-Defying Devil revealed in the last issue of his mini-series, it works because the character is mute and is unable to verbally defend himself. But, it doesn't explain that once the fact came out why no one has asked him to unmask or actually given him a computer or pen and paper to communicate. Situations like that and characters like Truth basically demand bad storytelling to make them work on any level.

The Ross cover is horrible, but Salazar's artwork inside continues to improve. We finally get some comic history actually being used: Mrs. Octopus blames the death of her husband on Flame-Girl. The defeat of the Octopus was the story in which Flame Girl gained her powers, given to her by the Flame when he thought he was dying. It's cool to see the "Big Shots" Marvello, Skyman and the Face together. Big Shot was the name of the title in which they all starred.

Interestingly, Ross talks about his love of the history of the characters online. Which is funny considering how much of that is being re-written. A pity he also gets it wrong. Talking about Power Nelson, he says the character was active in the 1980s fighting against Mongols who have taken over America and that they are making use of that history. But, he also says that Nelson stayed in the future, never traveled back to the past. As far as I can tell, the original set-up was dropped after several issues. He got a new status quo and his stories no longer seemed to be set in the future but the then present day. There was no explanation but things like that happened frequently back then.

Sherlock Holmes #4: This continues to be a fairly good comic and mystery. The pacing may seem a little slow compared to many comics, but is largely dictated by the type of story and genre it is telling. In this issue we get more of a hint of the villain that has orchestrated everything and just how worthy of an adversary he must be whereas the previous issues were more about the situation the characters found themselves in, their immediate actions and reactions. That was necessary storytelling, this is a bit more of actual plot development as the groundwork has now been laid.

It has moved away from being a pastiche and is doing some things that need to be done, relying on the strength and format of comic storytelling. Instead of being narrated solely by Watson's point of view, we see other viewpoints, characters acting a little more like actual people than just trying to mimic Doyle's style. The artwork is still annoying in places. Period books should definitely keep computer tricks such as blurs out of the artwork as much as possible as it disrupts the immersion into the story than aid it. All said and done, this will probably make for a strong trade reading experience

The Shield: I broke down and bought the Shield one-shot because of them all, it was the only one that looked close to being the same in look and spirit to the original. Well, it was in looks any way. What we got is what I expected, more of an updating of a character DC already has: Steel, the Indestructible Man. Gone was the idea that Joe Higgins was a scientific genius that completed his father's formula and used it on himself, that he aced his exams to become a top FBI agent, that he puts on the costume and is a patriotic hero by choice making him the FIRST hero to do so. Now, he's nothing special.

To judge it in a vacuum, the cover is really cool, and the story is not necessarily bad. There's some typical storytelling decompression, where three pages could have been done in one and a half or two. Seriously, in this day and age of high priced comics and low page count, don't take two pages to show him being wounded and blacking out. There seems to be precious little of the character actually in the book, little motivation other than he's a good soldier. Much of it otherwise seems mostly cliche. Scott McDaniel's art works here, he's best on solo character books like this.

And, after all the build-up of JMS writing and revamping the characters and he's apparently only doing the one-shots?

The Spider: Judgment Knight: Done in the style of The Phantom Generations, in that it's an illustrated prose story. Only it fails where that one succeeded. The b/w artwork is too smooth and polished. Any moodiness it has thus comes from just being so dark otherwise it just seems cold and passionless. The story likewise fails. The problem with the Spider is he makes the Shadow look like a Buddhist monk. He's a very violent character. However, the pulp novels work because the stories and criminals are likewise far more violent and ruthless in their gains, his actions are maybe a tenth of the degree that theirs are. The pulps are about the humanity of the man, his passion and devotion to those that he loves and to his fellow man. He becomes a hero because he puts it all on the line to fight against the kind of monstrous men that one usually only finds in the pulps. While he takes extreme measures, he's fighting against extreme odds with lives of hundreds and thousands on the lines. Too often, the stories like this one largely remove that context, that humanity and passion from the character and focus just on the violent nature, confusing the nature of the stories for the nature of the character. Every kill should be necessary, that he'd otherwise let the police handle it. He's not an executioner but a soldier. It's an important distinction but which is often missed.

The Torch #1: Possibly the weakest of the GA related comics out the past two weeks. Mostly because it's all set-up and building on the aftermath of the mini The Avengers/Invaders. You have Toro looking for some way to belong (guess he doesn't know about the She-Hulk law firm that helps with things just like that) and the GA Vision more or less helping. The best bits are between the Mad Thinker and his assistant and biggest fan Mr. Toussant. Really shows off why the Thinker is such a great villain. Toussant's comments could almost be construed as the writer making fun of the villain but it actually works as despite the back-handed compliments, the Thinker himself comes across as pretty inspiring and competent regardless. The Thinker, Ross and Carey do seem a little uninformed about the retcons going on The Marvels Project by Brubaker as it is revealed there that Horton was being funded by the government and seemed to be perfectly aware of the fact.

Belated Reviews

For a few weeks, I'd been on vacation with my gal and her family. During that time we went to Washington DC where I was able to devote a couple of days to doing research on copyrights of the various comic book companies in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. My main goal was to look into the issues surrounding Quality Comics as well as Fawcett. The first draft of an article about my findings are up at my site if you aren't a regular reader there. I plan on revising it some in the near future to expand on the Fawcett and Charlton information as well as including Magazine Enterprises. Though I can tell you now, in a nutshell, none of their comics were renewed.

Like so many people, I went and saw the Transformers movie. Luckily it was a matinee. On one hand it looked pretty good. John Turturro is always fun to watch on the screen. The humor in places just went on too long (the mom eating a hash brownie was a needless scene as it serves no purpose) but for the most part didn't offend me as much as other viewers. Part of me is willing to accept this is a movie based on toys and about giant fighting robots and so is solidly aimed kids and teenagers. There's going to be a lotta sophomoric material. I can accept that. However, that's no excuse to deliver a movie whose whole plot hinges on a plot hole so that it doesn't make a lick of sense. Your average Scooby Doo cartoon has tighter plotting and structure. Factor in things like going out the back door of the Aerospace museum in DC shows an airplane graveyard with MOUNTAINS in the background. Then there are just scenes that threw me completely out of the movie moments apart: giant robot holds car in air with hero hanging on outside for dear life, girlfriend and roommate inside said car. Car is dropped from somewhere between 20 to 50 feet to the ground yet it hits the ground with all the force of dropping 5 feet. Hero is somehow now inside the car, front airbags go off and everyone gets out of the car with no trouble (even the roommate in the backseat). Then the hero is picked up, flung through the air twenty feet across the room and lands on his back onto a solid concrete floor with a huge metal bolt sticking up. It hurts him for about 2 minutes, but these two incidents back to back should pretty much completely incapacitate him for the rest of the movie if not for life. Which wouldn't have bothered me too much. Each of the Transporter movies have at least one scene that completely violates any semblance of realism it has going for it. But, when you factor in that the whole movie is this level of stupidity and attention to detail... I've seen a lot of bad movies in my life, but none that are so blatant in just plain laziness at actually trying to tell a story.

Comics

Quite a few mini-series have wrapped up featuring various GA characters which makes for an optimum time to look back on them.

Angel - Blood & Trenches: Overall a great and fun little mini-series. Byrne's artwork and writing perfectly suited for horror and a period piece like this. The production of the book seems a bit sub-par this time around though. Shooting from pencils is a ticklish beast. On the one hand, it can give the work a more energetic feel with more gradations and depth that disappears when translated to inked lines. However, it can also look incomplete or not show up properly when printed (there is a reason the pencils are inked after all). This is what plagues this issue. The resolution and contrast in the printing loses the subtle pencils exacerbated by putting much of the pencils on gray backgrounds. A shame really, as the earlier issues were so powerful. Still, a fun read.

Avengers/Invaders: You know, part of me wonders if Marvel just doesn't want the Invaders to succeed as a concept. The last revival was hobbled from the start by debuting in a title that was on the way down by a creative team whose stars were waning. It's already a niche book, but to make things even more difficult that right after the launch a completely different creative team handles the ongoing. The writer was unproven with few comicbook credits to his name while the artist had a completely non-traditional style. Little surprise that it didn't find an audience.

This time out, the powers that be chose to shoot the pages from the pencils, apparently without telling the penciler that. Halfway through, a second penciller is brought in to handle some of the book but no rhyme or reason to the pages he does to the pages that Sadowski does and the styles are hardly similar as the other penciler's work is completely inked. For the first several issues, the coloring or the separations were sub-par leading to purplish blues and magenta reds. Even Ross' covers often seemed to be printed a bit dark and murky.

I give Krueger credit in the writing that he was trying something novel in that it would seem about 2/3 of the way through that the story had been resolved to lead in to a completely different threat. However, it seems that to pad the book out so that it had more than one ongoing story and to give enough space to deal with Stark's unspoken guilt over the fate of Captain America, Toro discovering his fate and to play up Bucky. Krueger thus gives us the side story of the LMD uprising and their mystery leader to stretch things out. But, like Michael Bay's movie, the plot makes little sense and Krueger never really explains things. Maybe, he realized that the story was out of his control which was why we get the GA Vision halfway through to serve as Sir Exposition concerning the Cosmic Cube. Sure, it really has nothing to do with how the Vision has ever been presented before and he does next to nothing because his job here is to be narrator and he's the only cosmic hero of the time available.

The big surprise/twist at the end of the series even has quite a bit of the power robbed from it as it was more or less revealed in the promo blurbs for the upcoming Human Torch mini-series.

Will give them props for having started AFTER JMS The Twelve yet manages to finish BEFORE that one with both minis having the same amount of issues and Krueger and Ross also working on Project: Superpowers for Dynamite.

Black Terror: Not a bad mini-series as far as the Project: Superpowers titles go. Written by Ross & Krueger, it suffers from the same faults of the other titles, tons of characters introduced and used without really bothering to explain them or their powers. Such as the various patriots helping President West and why they are such a threat (any one of them alone is as powerful as the Black Terror if not moreso, which makes one wonder how a tree is able to hold them immobile for longer than a second or two). While it is about the Black Terror's search for his kid partner it really is more of setting up the next Superpowers storyline. Thus, there is no real resolution to the story as far as President West and the Black Terror's attack are concerned for that's to play out in other comics. Meanwhile, we get a bunch of the kid sidekicks and kid heroes back (Yank & Doodle, Captain Battle Jr, Kitten, Boy King & Giant, Tim, Sparky, Davey). Interestingly, that of all the kids, only Tim's adult partner has been revealed as having returned. We've seen no signs of Black Owl, Captain Battle, Cat-Man, Blue Beetle and Magno other in the notes pages.

Death Defying Devil: Like his Last Defenders work, Joe Casey writes a mini-series that is about setting things up as opposed to resolving anything thus it ends in the last issue where it should have been in issue 2 or 3. As a story, it only raises questions as opposed to answering them (as opposed to the Black Terror mini that does resolve the central plot as set out in the first issue, what happened to the Terror's kid partner). Along the way, we are introduced to other GA heroes which is good because the Devil is not allowed to talk, write notes or think thoughts or anything else that might actually communicate a character to the reader instead of a cypher. Of course, this has to be, because otherwise we'd be able to get an answer to the big mystery: that the man that was DDD in the 1940s did not go into the urn and he is now dead. Thus, who is this version of DDD? Now this may be a nod to the fact that in the 1940s, Daredevil had two different origins. In his first issue, he was mute (and in a different colored costume), but was changed in subsequent comics. There was also a third character by the company with the same name as Daredevil's alter ego, Bart Hill. Maybe this is Dynamite's way of reconciling the different origins as there being more than one man wearing the costume.

The superhero plot is fairly undeveloped as the heroes (DDD, Ghost, and Silver Streak) rush to stop some plan by the Claw and his organization while DDD is stalked by a member of the former kid gang Wise Guys and who knows DDD's a fake. Swept under the rug is how the Wise Guy was able to conveniently find some organization willing and able to make him young and strong and supply a costume all at a moment's notice and then just let him go to hunt the hero down to settle his vendetta.


The artwork steadily improves over the issues but never really knocks it out of the park. Part of it could be that it too is being shot from pencils, but he's not really there yet as a penciler.

For a different look at the hero, over in the pages of Savage Dragon, Daredevil and the Wise Guys seem to have become semi-regular guest-stars/supporting cast. The treatment of the character is more light-hearted but doesn't ring any more true as it imparts a certain naivete and gosh-wowness to the hero, swinging a little too far in the opposite direction. Issue #148 even has a nice historical look at the character.

Masquerade: The best of the Superpowers minis as this one is truly character driven, filling in the gaps and background of the Miss Masque character leading up to how she got into the urn and a summation of the events immediately following her release (skirting the issues of US Jones' infatuation with her). There are a few cutesy scenes along the way but the storytelling otherwise serves the job well. If there is a weakness, it's that after all the issues setting her up as a capable heroine defined by her detective skills The painted coloring style does kill the wonderful job of the penciling underneath that was shown in the previews, making the artwork murkier as opposed to more attractive.

Project Superpowers: Chapter Two: Starts off with seeing how Captain Future was taken. It's a prime example of where no effort is made to utilize a character in keeping with who and how he was in the 1940s. While many of Standard/Nedor's characters were a bit generic, each did have unique elements that defined them. One of Captain Future's unique bits was that his erstwhile beautiful girlfriend ran a detective agency with her spinster looking aunt. With Captain Future only appearing in one page, how hard is it to make the character actually conform to simple basic elements of his GA stories? Instead of seeing him walking down the street with two un-named beautiful women on his arm, why not make them recognizeably the supporting characters from his stories? As is, the scene could actually be ANY character, it has absolutely nothing to do with the Captain Future character. A small detail to be sure, but a detail that shows that the creators actually approach the stories and scenes with an attempt at understanding the characters they write instead of the most generic presentation that requires no information other than the hero's basic look. At the end of the issue, the President stands revealed as the superhero Power Nelson.

Marvel Mystery Comics #01: The various 70th anniversary comics looking at Marvel's GA are a bit hit and miss. The Sub-Mariner one was excellent. The Human Torch does not work at all given what we know about the Torch's origins. Marvel Mystery has a wonderful painted cover of the Torch and Namor that is in keeping with painted covers by Schomburg of the time. The story is a sprawling epic of the 1940s that bring in the GA Angel, Electro, as well as the detective the Ferret to team up with Namor and the Human Torch against the Green Flame, old adversaries of the Human Torch. Then with some amazing thought by the editor involved, the stories reprinted are with the Human Torch against the Green Flame as well as the original Ferret story. Of course, look at Brubaker already planning on retconning various bits of these in his upcoming comic as he thinks the Angel's costume is really "lame" and is going to portray Electro as a "giant robot monster".

Sherlock Holmes: Two issues out of this mini by Dynamite. It sets out to tell a Holmes style mystery. The second issue starts with Holmes framed for murder and in prison while Watson and Lestrade try to do their best to carry on despite orders to stay away from the case as they are too close to Holmes.

Doing a mystery in a comic is always difficult because of the completely different pacing demands and presenting the detecting and the clues to solving the mystery in interesting graphic ways. One of the questions it has to answer is why tell this story in this medium? Holmes is a literary character and the bookshelves are full of pastiches and such. So, what is gained by telling this story in comicbook form? The writer and artist need to be able to address that question.

It's too early to judge the writing but the artwork is a bit stiff. His storytelling is solid, but uninspired. The artwork and depictions seem to indicate heavy use of models and photo references and using computer filters or lightboxing to draw over the figures. There is little sense of texture and just odd lines and ink blotches over faces and such that don't really impart meaningful detail but tend to make the panels seem more photographic in nature. The portrayal of Watson is in keeping with many of the films and giving us a Watson that looks quite a bit older than Holmes as opposed to two men roughly the same age.

Also disconcerting is reading a Sherlock Holmes story then going through the pages in the back and seeing the ad for Garth Ennis' The Boys with a hero soiling himself in fright. Everything else from stories to the other ads are all-ages appropriate except for this one graphic image. I was going to say that I found it hard to believe that no one saw that and thought it didn't really fit with the material of the book it was appearing in or at all appropriate. Then I realized I don't really find it that hard to believe at all. Just sad.

Justice Society America 27 & 28: After the sprawled out stories by Geoff Johns, we get a two parter written and drawn by Jerry Ordway, revisiting a villain from the All-Star Squadron days, the Japanese assassin Kung. In just the two issues, he manages to include a large chunk of the team's cast yet without feeling overly crowded and plenty of little character bits as well as telling a complete story that fits in seamlessly with what went before.

Captain Britain and MI13: Marvel is bringing this title to a close. While the writing has often been a bit problematic in its structure and inconsistencies in its exposition and dialogue (such as the purpose and definition of the team depends on the issue, or the fact that Dracula has a base on the moon is shown in one issue, but isn't explained how this is remotely possible until the following issue). Some secrets and mystery is good, but only if it is actually supposed to be and presented as such. Otherwise, it's actually sloppy writing that needs a little tightening up. However, despite its shortcomings, it has still been an entertaining title. Even when it started off in the midst of the crossover with Secret War, it remained secure in its own corner, not requiring reading half of Marvel's output to understand the book. Likewise the art has been solid and clear despite the best efforts of the colorist to muddy things up. The current storyline with Dracula has been great, making Dracula into a wonderful and natural master supervillain for the Marvel Universe. Under other writers, the team would still be fighting Skrulls these 14 issues later, the Dracula story would be a mega-crossover, hijacking a half dozen titles for half a year. Thus, despite its problems, this book is already more tightly written, full of drama and excitement than any two other books.

Pulps:
While DC is pursuing and planning on comicbook adventures of Doc Savage, the Shadow, and the Avenger, Sanctum Books is reprinting the pulp versions. Recently, they've added the Avenger and the Whisperer to their line-up. If you balk at collecting the Docs and Shadows due to their longevity, both of these notable characters had far shorter careers. The Whisperer is an interesting study as he has possible connections to different DC characters that Bill Finger worked on: The Whisperer is in reality police commissioner James "Wildcat" Gordon! The first volume of the Whisperer book contains two Whisperer novels, a Whisperer short story, an interesting essay on the genesis of the Whisperer character, an essay on Maxwell Grant and magic and another early pulp titled Crimebusters as well as a short-story featuring the magician sleuth Norgil whom Grant created for that title.

Book and Pulp reviews

The Shadow of Reichenbach Falls by John R. King: A young vagabond Thomas Carnacki goes on a picnic with a woman he just met, the beautiful Anna who claims her father had died there a year before. Suddenly, they witness a struggle up above and a body goes plummeting over the side. Rushing to the river, they fish out a still-living amnesiac and find themselves pursued by his assailant. Thus the ever rational Thomas Carnacki finds himself in a battle between Moriarty and a Sherlock Holmes not in full mental capacity. The case quickly starts taking on elements of the supernatural and he must decide who he can trust and how to counter demonic possession.

A fun book that looks at the years of "the great hiatus", the period of time when Sherlock Holmes let Watson and the world think he is dead. There is a great exploration of what set Moriarty on a life of crime and his connection with Jack the Ripper. It also serves as exploration of how Carnacki would become the rational occult detective of the William Hope Hodgson and create the electric pentacle.

If the book has any flaws it is that the narrative which starts off switching from 1st person points of view between Carnacki and Holmes (along with an extended section of memoirs by Moriarty) to limited 3rd person but never giving Anna her own narrative voice. Switching to the 3rd Person just highlights a writer unable to tell the whole story in the narrative style that he originally chose. It weakens it. Although, it is interesting to note that while this book gives 1st person narratives to Carnacki and Holmes, the original stories of the two had narrators to chronicle their adventures.

Another weakness is the supernatural/horror angle never really gels that well. Compared to the Hodgson stories or even some of Doyle's supernatural tales, the sense of terror and gothic dread is more akin to horror found in television's Buffy or Angel. Likewise, the transition of the rational Carnacki to one embracing supernatural happenings and methods to combat them just sort of happens. There's not much evolution to the character, he easily accepts the occult angle of things with minimal research and exposure. Whereas, Holmes' denial of the supernatural at the end of the book seems odd after all he had experienced by that point.

The book serves as a wonderful example of how to do something not as a pastiche. Most Holmes stories fall in the pastiche category, working hard to recreate the Doyle experience and style. Failing that, Watson is usually sidelined and substituted with the writer's own character to allow an easy out for where it doesn't quite match up with the Doyle/Victorian style. Here is a book that does not attempt that, but to tell a story that fits in the Doyle canon using Holmes (and Watson and Carnacki) as characters. The book follows its own beat and style and a fun read from beginning to end.

Doc Savage: Hex/The Running Skeletons. I picked this up because "The Running Skeletons" turned out to be one of the few Doc stories I didn't have. Sadly, it doesn't really live up to its expectations or promise. It starts off strong with a sense of dread and menace, but it takes too long to get to its title and cover. By the time it does, the story is at the slam-bang climax.

"Hex" is more fun as members of Doc's crew come under the spell of a witch and Doc must unravel this supernatural menace. A tight, strong tale.

Of interest, the editorial compares "Hex" to "The Hooded Circle" in the Halloween volume of the Shadow. But, other than a seeming supernatural menace (here it's a druid cult), there is nothing that suggests any real comparison or link. The stories deal with different types of crime, different type of menace, and the story flows and rhythms are unique to their characters and writers.

What is further interesting is that a scene from "The Hooded Circle" does appear in another pulp, but it's not Doc Savage. It's in "Murder on the Loose" starring the Black Bat reprinted recently in High Adventure. A plot that the crooks use halfway through "The Hooded Circle", to con victims into placing their valuables in an armored car that is actually manned by the crooks is the climactic action packed finale to the Black Bat story. The story is otherwise notable with an interesting and physically capable second in command of the crooks, a master of judo that easily manhandles the Black Bat strongman Butch. Sadly, the lieutenant gets sidelined rather quickly.

The lead Black Bat story in the reprint volume, "Blind Man's Bluff" has the Black Bat having to contend with a mysterious blind man who has returned to friends and family who had long thought him dead. Both stories are enjoyable mystery adventures of the early superhero.

"The Notes of Doom" has the Phantom Detective tracking a killer going after a group of men, already on the verge of bankruptcy and ruin, leaving behind old bank notes where each had signed his life over to death. The whole case suggests a man killed on the battlefields of WWI enacting long delayed vengeance. "The Dancing Doll Murders" has a murder predicting the deaths of different members of the heirs to a fortune through dolls done up with the face of the victim and signs of the way they are to die. The master villain also has a unique and eerie way of communicating with his lieutenant, rising out of a dank pool in the basement of an abandoned house via a diving suit and underground waterway.

The Phantom Detective had not been a favorite pulp hero of mine, but these stories and the character are much better than average. The villains and plot are more than the pedestrian menaces he usually is pitted against. Likewise, he comes across not as generic but a powerful superhero in his own right. It's interesting these tales also do not feature a romantic interest, the usual Muriel Havens is not even mentioned. Bits of his background and training are peppered through the stories, making the character seem even more like Batman complete with samurai training in the Far East and his own crime lab.

Edinburgh by Gaslight

I am a Sherlock Holmes nut. Now, my knowledge is not encyclopedic of all things Holmes-ian or Sir Arthur; I couldn't rattle off all sorts of minor trivia such as how many steps are on the stoop of 221-B. I don't take him so seriously that it hinders my enjoyment of movies like Without a Clue or Young Sherlock Holmes. However, I love reading Doyle's stories of the Great Detective as well as other works of his such as Rodney Stone, The Lost World and various short story collections. I enjoy reading the various pastiches to varying degrees, especially August Derleth's Solar Pons stories that grew beyond that limitation. I have all sorts of books with Holmes and about Holmes, some by Doyle and some not. My enjoyment of Doyle's stories led me to reading other detective fiction of the time as well as modern writers takes on Victorian era mysteries such as Anne Perry's wonderful Mr. Monk series. My favorite actor in the role of Holmes has to be Jeremy Brett in the great Granada produced series. However, I've developed a fondness for the Ronald Howard and Howard Marion-Crawford series. Jonathan Pryce does a good job as a slightly older version of the character in The Bakerstreet Irregulars. Matt Frewer and Rupert Everett are best left forgotten as are most others with American actors in the role. One can only wonder what we're going to see in 2010 from Guy Ritchie and Robert Downey, Jr.

I also enjoy shows like CSI, Criminal Minds, Law & Order. Of late, I couldn't help but think that a great show would be something that combined the two genres, a mystery series set in Victorian times dealing with the science and culture of the times. Something not too dissimilar to Caleb Carr's book The Alienist.

This is all a lead-in to the fact that last weekend my gal checked out of the library a two-disc DVD set of a British series called "Murder Rooms". Not included was the pilot, this contained 4 episodes: The Patient's Eyes, The Photographer's Chair, The Kingdom of Bones, and The White Knight Strategm. I'd never heard of the series, at its core is the fact that Doyle based Holmes on his medical professor Dr. James Bell who during an examination could proceed to give a life history of the patient based on observation and deductive reasoning. It's not a big leap then for a creative writer to come up with stories that team the two in a Holmes and Watson relationship and involve them in mysteries of their own. Indeed, Doyle has appeared in books such as Frost's The List of Seven, though with a different Holmes stand-in. This series of 90-minute mysteries are based on such a series of mystery novels.

The first disc with "The Patient's Eyes" and "The Photographer's Chair" are the better two I think. They also are a bit spookier with a heavier feel of menace that pervades them. The first starts off shortly after Doyle has graduated from medical school and starting his practice as a doctor. He has as an attractive patient with eye trouble and she talks about how she is often followed by a mysterious bicycler along an otherwise deserted remote road. This is also the set-up of the Holmes story "The Solitary Cyclist", one of his better I feel. While the set-up is definitely familiar, the story goes in other directions.

"The Photographer's Chair" deals with dead bodies appearing with signs of being bound and choked. When one victim's brother says that his sister will appear in a seance and prove his innocence, we start venturing towards the supernatural. Heavy in this show is Doyle's own struggles with the senseless death of his wife from some time before. The wound here seems so raw, yet this sadness is absent in the other episodes. But, it provides a rationale and foundation for Doyles fascination with spiritualism later in life.

"The Kingdom of Bones" has a great set-up as the unwrapping of an ancient mummy reveals a not so distant murder. We meet a character that is very reminiscent of Doyle's Professor Challenger especially in his disdain for the press, a reference to "the giant rat of Sumatra" and even a bit of boxing. However, it's a bit more adventure oriented than mystery.

"The White Knight Strategm" switches gears as it involves Doyle travelling back to Edinburgh in order to help Bell with a case. We also meet Doyle's father, touched upon in the previous episode, who is in an asylum. There is a strange and uncomfortable question raised about the treatment of family when they become ill and cannot support themselves. A detective on the case that Doyle and Bell butt heads with is supporting his wife who had suffered such a severe stroke she is barely cognizant of surroundings and must be hand fed. He does so out of duty and vows as opposed to sending her to an asylum such as Doyle's own paranoid delusional father is in. You see the moral conflict in Doyle's face, the detective's words and actions come across partly as unintended judgment and condemnation. The episode ends with hints of more but as this has been seven years ago, and the actor playing Bell passed away in February '07.

The lead actors, Charles Edwards as Doyle and Ian Richardson as Bell, are great in their roles. They seem more real than Watson and Holmes as they should be. Doyle is smart and clever, not quite so the blunderer as Watson. Bell is intelligent but very human and prone to human mistakes and humor. He's not as artificially arrogant, emotionally blunted or theatrically flamboyant as Holmes could be. The friendship between the two come off as genuine and heartfelt, it would be hard to watch the pilot with a different actor as Doyle, the two play off each other so well here. It is interesting to note that the dvd case lists comic-book based movies for each of the two in telling who they are. Charles Edwards had a small role in Batman Begins while Richardson who has had a long and lustrous career is credited with a role in From Hell. Richardson also played Holmes himself in 1983 productions of The Sign of Four, and The Hound of the Baskervilles (That has to be up there for one of the most filmed novels of all time. Please stop) and the voice of Doyle in the tv series The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century. The role that most Americans will remember of my generation will probably be that of the Rolls Royce owner stopping other drivers and asking "Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?"

Comics

Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds: This is pretty much the only Final Crisis mini I'll be getting. And it's mainly because of the work by stellar artist George Perez. When you have a book with this big a scope and this many superheroic characters, Perez is not only the natural choice, he's really about the only choice. If there is any drawback to the series, it's I have to echo Superboy-Prime's sentiments that the older Legion costumes are better than this Emo-Legion. Lightning Lad's long-haired bad boy look, ugh. And, when did he get so whiny? Is there a sleeve shortage in the future? I was never a big fan of Cockrum's art, but most of his costume designs were near perfect. Poor Timber Wolf and Polar Boy tend to look worse with each re-boot.

Guardians of the Galaxy: SI catches up the GG team, for no real reason other than it's crossover-itis. Normally, this title would seem a natural for the skrulls to show up in, but with their big push on Earth and all of the titles that resolve around it, it just seems a little forced to have it also hijack the storyline of this book that takes place nowhere near Earth and has very little to with the happenings on Earth. Otherwise, it has some good plot bits and mistrust is sown, not just because of the possibility of a skrull spy in their midst. However, if you are just trying the title out, you might be a little disappointed because this is an all-subplot issue as various little intrigues, mysteries and situations are set up, but not much real story to it, it's akin to watching a random episode of a soap opera.

Justice League of America: An ok issue. The pacing seems a little strange after the build-up of Amazo as a threat and he's taken out halfway through the comic so that we can move on to the resolution of Vixen's change in powers and ends with a cook-0ut with Buddy "Animal Man" Baker and family. The big shock, emotional cliffhanger of an ending? Vegetarian Buddy eating fried chicken without realizing it.

Secret Invasion: Thor: Matt Fraction does a very good job here, no decompressed storytelling. He sets up the human drama as Don Blake examines a pregnant woman who goes into labor when something strikes the nearby hidden Asgard. He wonderfully juxtaposes the tensions on Earth and Asgard: as the situation in Asgard worsens with news of imminent attacks by the Skrulls and the Asgardians prepare for war, we see the repercussions reflect in the terror of the pregnant woman wondering where her doctor is and people reacting to the storms that are designed to actually protect them from the terror of witnessing gods going to war. What happens on the epic scale is reflected by what's happening on the mundane and we have a Thor with duties to both. Luckily, we also have Beta Ray Bill. Braithwaite's sketchy art works well here in also capturing the real-world rural countrysides and the viking gods of Asgard. Indeed, it was his artwork that attracted me to trying out the title.