Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

krisis

Krisis has been creating Crushing Krisis since 2000, writing songs since 1996, and reading comics since 1991. He is a Customer Success and Digital Brand Strategy executive, serial organizer, parent, and feminist, among other things. Based in Philly through 2017, he now resides in Wellington, NZ.

DC New 52 Review: Green Arrow #1

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Green Arrow rounds out my first week of DC New 52 reviews – just in the nick of time, as I’ll be reading week two books in a matter of hours!

I don’t have much of a preamble about Green Arrow, which is maybe why I left him for last. I know he can be a bit angsty and I had his Kenner Super Friend toy. That’s about all I’ve got.

I have a bit more to say about the art on this book. Jurgens was the cornerstone of the 80s and 90s, penciling everything from Avengers to Superman. When I see his name I think of handsome, broad-shouldered heroes and their petite, curvy sidekicks and love interests. Here he’s inked by Perez, another Avengers alum, was the master of the team book, and the man behind Wonder Woman’s post-Crisis relaunch (which I own and adore).

This is about as cold as I can come into an long-established hero. Will this all new take on him be the perfect introduction, or was I better off not knowing a thing? And how will two old-school talents translate into a New 52 book?

Green Arrow #1

Written by J.T. Krul, art by Dan Jurgens & George Perez

Rating: 2.5 of 5 – Okay

140char Review: Green Arrow #1, Batman/Hawkeye model of a young/cocky xtreme hero on a narrowly interesting adventure. Felt 80s/90s, esp. w/Jurgens pencils.

CK Says: Consider it.

GA defeats a foe on the river Seine.

Green Arrow presents a cocksure hero who’s not afraid to get his hands dirty or bloody when necessary, which earns him enemies both in the villain department and from within his own Queen Industries.

Not much happens in this issue, strictly speaking, but you could never call it decompressed. Krul packs word balloons into every panel, providing a style of constantly narrating hero that the 2000’s have eschewed thus far. Yet, despite the retro writing, Green Arrow is a modern take-no-prisoners hero.

The issue’s art straddles the same old-but-new divide. The Jurgens/Perez team-up lends the issue a decidedly 80s rough-hewn look – except for on GA himself, who is drawn more crisply throughout. The effect makes him seem a bit more high-tech than his surroundings, even if he is a guy with a compound bow. Add to that a modern coloring job and the art has the same nouveau retro feel as the writing. Jurgens’ background shots of Paris are especially great.

Green Arrow is a fun single issue adventure – the kind that ought to be in the hands of every eight-year-old comic reader in the world. It feels a little skimpy coming off of some of the highs of week one, but it’s an effective and interesting issue that’s worth picking up for the throwback vibe.

DC New 52 Review: O.M.A.C #1

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In 1974 legendary comics auteur Jack Kirby was falling out of favor with DC’s editorial staff thanks to his far-ranging yet low-selling Fourth World saga.

Deposed from the universe he wanted to cultivate, Kirby created a new and more cynical hero inhabiting our near future. His name? One-Man Army Corps, or OMAC. OMAC was a man, a symbol, and later a cyborg who policed a world living in enforced pacifism, inheriting his powers (and commands) from an Orwellian all-seeing satellite named Brother Eye. He spends his debut rescuing a damsel in distress who turns out to be both an android and a bomb.

Sound weirdly dystopian enough for you?

DC has brought back OMAC for a few different rounds of encores over the years, but it was still a surprise to see the book on the slate of 52 for this month. Would it bring newly imagined? Kirby-eseque delights? And, if it did, would they be worth reading in the modern day?

O.M.A.C. #1

Written by Dan DiDio & Keith Giffen, art by Keith Giffen & Scott Koblish

Rating: 1 of 5 – Bad

In a Line: “Probably in there organizing toilet paper … or something.”

140char Review: OMAC #1’s inconsistent artwork ruins a simple story that could’ve packed a bit of punch. Like a bad free comic in a box of stale 90’s cereal.

Plot & Script

The DiDio/Giffen is plain and easy to read. It reminds me of the comics I’d read as a kid.

I suppose DiDio is an old-school writer in that way. His dialog is plain and declarative, and he’s not above using the occasional narration box to advise on the action (which is great, since the action is so incomprehensible).

Nods to existing continuity will tickle if you know your DC Kirby history, as everything we meet in the underground Cadmus lab is a love letter to older readers. However, if you aren’t ready for the barrage of old-time Easter eggs OMAC’s series of obstacles will surely fall flat.

The problem is that this fails as a compelling debut. We see OMAC clear a number of obstacles, but don’t really get to understand what his powers are. He doesn’t have a character when in OMAC form, so really the only personality we get is the obstinate commands of Brother Eye.

For a book that could easily be something you’d hand to a kid brother, I don’t understand why the scrip makes a point of having a the female lead say “ass” twice. Oh, and the issue’s title (“Office Management Amidst Chaos”) is kinda dumb.

Artwork

Art team Giffen and Koblish don’t have a gift for figures or for action, which leaves little to enjoy in this issue of terrible artwork.

Okay, maybe that’s not entirely fair. More accurately, Giffen’s wide, plaintive faces seem to be a deliberate homage to OMAC-creator Kirby, but the modern gradient coloring renders them a too-busy mess. His bodies are a mess of mismatched limbs, perspectives, and proportions that make no sense. He seems to have a specific problem with placing a limb that’s partially obscured by someone’s torso that seems to indicate a failure in the fundamentals of anatomy.

Oh, and all of his men look like they are wearing MC Hammer pants.

There’s no helping Giffen’s incomprehensible action, which unfurls like freeze-frames from a low-budget video game. Movement simply doesn’t track from panel to panel. OMAC seems to have the ability to materialize projectiles from thin air, similarly vanishing their debris afterward. Punches from OMAC might to have the power to dissolve entire bodies beneath them, which is the only explanation for the totally whacked perspective in those panels.

And OMAC himself? Does his hair omit electricity? He looks silly to begin with, and the inconsistent scale of his limbs to the trunk of his body just makes things worse. Is he squat with long-reaching arms, or limber with lean muscular legs? Are his fists really bigger than his head? Apparently, all of the above. Maybe he’s a shape-shifter. You would never know the different from the artwork in this book.

From a graphic design perspective, this is one of my favorite logos of the relaunch. I love the layering of the letters.

OMAC’s 1974 debut, scripted and drawn by Jack Kirby.

CK Says: Skip it!

O.M.A.C. is an embarrassing failure on all fronts, a condition only amplified by the fact that writer Dan DiDio is DC Comics’ co-publisher.

The issue is not even exciting enough to warrant calling it a fun comic for kids – nevermind the two gratuitous uses of the word “ass” making it inappropriate. A flat, barely-existent script could have been a fun bash with a flashy penciler, but the Kirby-imitating, wildly-inconsistent art places this issue just a step above a comic you’d get for free in your cereal box.

Let’s hope this is the worst book of all 52 re-launched by DC, because I’m not sure how much farther downhill a marquee debut comic can go from here.

DC New 52 Review: Animal Man #1

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Similar to my avoidance to yesterday’s Justice League International #1, I was really putting off my read of Animal Man.

Past authors (including Action Comics’ Grant Morrison) have done great things with this bizarre mid-60s hero, who harnesses the powers of the animal kingdom, but that simply didn’t sound like a feat that would be repeated by Jeff Lemire in his relaunch about Animal Man as a family guy with a daughter who is developing powers.

Add to that a somewhat hideous front cover, and this book lingered at the bottom of the pile.

Was I right to judge a book by its cover and its solicitation copy written by some intern in Marketing?

Animal Man #1

Written by Jeff Lemire with art by Travel Foreman & Dan Green.

Rating: 4 of 5 – Excellent

In a Line: “Gotta fix those damn floor-boards. For now, I just take on the weight of a bumblebee so I don’t wake the kids.”

140char Review: Animal Man #1 equals former scribe Morrison’s Action Comics #1 at finding sophisticated nuance in DC’s world, here w/an indie & horror tinge

Plot & Script

Lemire knocks this debut plot out of the park with a nuanced first issue that’s absent a major villain but crammed with memorable character beats. He renders Animal Man Buddy Guy as a tangible, relatable family man who occasionally nips out to tackle a problem on the police scanner … but only if he has a freshly laundered costume.

Animal Man’s complex powers are explained with ease during a brief battle as Buddy Baker quickly cycles through sets of animalistic powers (effectively, he can take on the physical ability of any animal he can connect to, scaled to the size of his body). His special confrontational “cocktail” of abilities is not only funny, but a nuanced glimpse at how power sets could really work – not exactly Green Lantern creating a massive emerald fire truck, if you catch my drift.

An extended dream sequence is heavy with portents for future stories and leads to a chilling final panel. Here the affable everyman vibe melts away, and we’re into a fantasy/horror comic. I wasn’t as fond of this, but I took it for what it was – foreshadowing. I wouldn’t expect entire issues to have this tone.

An intro interview with Buddy in the half-hipster half-stodgy style of actual magazine Believer is a treat.

Artwork

Look past the ugly, over-lined cover – the watchword for Foreman and Green’s artwork is “sophisticated.”

Foreman draws Buddy Baker’s domestic world in plaintive, clean-lined panels that would look at home in a b&w indie title. Faces are hyper-real and beautifully clean.

It’s in Buddy’s connection to animals and in his dreams that the cover style emerges, and there it is in context. Faces are cluttered with sketch-marks, with ink crackling across them like razor-fine gashes.

The latter half of Foreman and Green’s artwork may be an acquired taste, but it fits the tone perfectly and sets a beautiful contrast to the cleaner half of the book – especially as it bleeds into Buddy’s waking life.

Foreman communicates so much with faces. Animal Man’s wide, hazy smile during his first outing in costume perfectly captures the conflict between his home life and his heroic adventures.

Credit where due to the colors from Lovern Kindzierski. When Foreman left faces and bodies unlined and open, Kindzierski indicates contrast with varying screens of the same color. Though comics tend to sketch all shadows as black, that’s not how we really see a face – this is!

Animal Man’s new costume is a little awkward – the blue and white colors are great, but the wide stands of the “A” emblem across his hips can give the illusion of his body being oddly proportioned.

Animal Man’s 1965 debut

CK Says: Buy it!

Animal Man completely toppled my pre-opinion of it from its solicitation. I was sure that I was squarely uninterested in the domestic life of a C-list superhero, or the trite passing on of his powers to a young daughter.

I could not have been more wrong.

In a single issue I’m more sold on the split between superhero and family man than I’ve been in anywhere else, aside from perhaps Pixar’s The Incredibles. That Lemire establishes such a compelling “everyman” hero in just a single issue with Buddy Baker is a delight.

Whether the book sticks with the divide between domesticity and heroism or veers to the horror vibe of its cover and creepy final panel remains to be seen, but you should absolutely pick up the next issue to find out.

30 for 30 Project, 1989: “Love Will Never Do (Without You)” – Janet Jackson

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I sometimes forget the power of music as a collective experience.

Weirdly, I cannot tell you the main body of this story just yet – not until we get to 1993 or ’94, as that’s where it rightfully belongs.

What I can tell you is that music has always been one of my primary obsessions. When I was in grade school I brought my soft-covered 24-cassette case with me everywhere, which landed me in hot water at my religious school when the teachers saw song titles like “Love Shack” and “Like a Virgin.” I had the collection confiscated on school trips more than once.

In grade school no one really shared my obsession. The only music anyone was obsessing over was New Kids On the Block, and all the boys were distracted by their Transformers and Nintendo. No one wanted to talk about the music I liked, other than when Paula Abdul released the “Opposites Attract” video with the cartoon cat. As a result, I never listened to that late-80s music as a collective experience. The songs disappeared when my tape collection went extinct.

One of the tapes I played in the ground and then lost to time was Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814, released 22 years ago next Monday. Janet had a way of being constantly eclipsed by her brother and Madonna. Songs from Rhythm Nation came out on the heels of the final singles from Bad, went head to head with songs from Like a Prayer as well as “Vogue,” and was closely followed by Dangerous.

(Watch me cover “Love Will Never Do (Without You)” on YouTube. For more info on my 30 for 30 Project, visit my intro post or view the 30for30 tag for all of the related posts.)

Yet, moreso than the other three LPs, it’s Janet’s release that is the cohesive work of genius (and that says nothing of her memorable videos). Think of the singles from Rhythm Nation, chief among them the sheer audio joy of “Love Will Never Do (Without You),” and its negative echo “Miss You Much.” The slate is rounded out by “Rhythm Nation,” “Escapade,” “Alright, “Come Back to Me,” “Black Cat,” and “State of the World.” Yes, the album charted eight of twelve songs (it also had eight interludes).

How did I forget about these songs for over a decade? Why don’t we collectively treat this album like the inarguable classic it is?

Ever since I left my grade school, one of the major defining features of my friends is the music we have in common. I have always said when it comes to choosing my friends I don’t care about race, age, gender, sexual orientation, or even political leanings – as long as they have good taste in music.

How appropriate, then, that Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” was about a country united under a common beat.

Social Media has only amplified that instant bonding over music. Videos on Facebook walls, #MusicMonday on Twitter – people wear their obsession like a badge. Now, over twenty years later, I’m meeting the kids who were obsessed with Janet Jackson in 1988. Finally, I’m hearing “Love Will Never Do (Without You)” through the ears of others, as well as my own.

I’m finally having a collective experience with the music of the late 80s.

(“Love Will Never Do” charted in 1990-91, but it was released on Rhythm Nation in 1989 and I had it memorized well before it was out on the radio. Its primary competition for my project came from singles on Forever Your Girl and Like a Prayer. Arcati Crisis’s song from 1989 would surely be from the B-52’s Cosmic Thing.)

X-Men Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, 9/13 Edition

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Marvel has just a handful of X-Men books out in this week’s collected editions, but only one you might want to pick up. Read on for a capsule review, plus the skinny on all of Marvel’s other new collected editions out this week.

If you’re looking for more X-info, head over to my Definitive Guide to Collecting X-Men Graphic Novels. Or, for a more basic approach, my Intro to X-Men (on a budget).

Uncanny X-Men: Breaking Point TPB
Collects Uncanny X-Men #534.1& 535-539.

CK Says: Consider it. Kieron Gillen takes over Uncanny full-time and quickly solidifies his A-team as Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magneto, Namor, Kitty, and Colossus and uses them to delightful effect. The .1 issue is a one-off anti-terrorist adventure intercut with Magneto’s meeting with a public relations expert trying to downplay his own terrorist history.

The Breaking Point storyline plays out a dangling plot from Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men, but it gets a little tiresome. #539 is a Wolverine and Hope one-shot, which maybe features the first likeable take on Hope we’ve seen so far. On the whole this collection is good-not-great, but it’s as enjoyable as Uncanny has been in a long while.

(Uncanny X-Men always releases direct-to-TPB except for events and crossovers.)

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Keep reading for the list of other collection editions out from Marvel this week, plus a few of their later add to last week’s list that missed the cut for my recap.  [Read more…] about X-Men Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, 9/13 Edition