Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

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DC New 52 Review: DC Universe Presents #1 – Deadman

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There are DC heroes I’ve played with as toys, or seen in cartoons, or have some general inkling of the existence of.

Then there is Deadman. I’ve got nothing except for open contempt for writer Paul Jenkins, who seems to have the uncanny ability to let interesting plots lie just beyond the tip of his pen while he jots down page after snoozy page of circular interior monologues.

Even if he upholds his soporific reputation here on DC’s new superhero anthology title, at least we’ll only have to sit through it for a few months.

DC Universe Presents #1

Written by Paul Jenkins, art by Bernard Chang

Rating: 1.5 of 5 – Weak

In a Line: “And so Johnny Foster becomes yet another living brick on my path to enlightenment.”

#140char Review: DCU Presents #1 features Deadman & way too much interminable chatter in the hands of Jenkins, who couldn’t find a plot w/a compass in hand.

CK Says: Skip it!

DC Universe Presents #1 features Deadman in an issue that is totally dead on arrival.

There is recapping a character’s origin, and then there is over-explaining. There is using caption boxes to good effect, and then there is needing an editor to intervene. Welcome to the world of Paul Jenkins. He achieved the same soporific effect on this summer X-Men: Prelude to Schism mini-series.

Despite a witty introduction, this comic is one unending stretch of Jenkins’s dull version of Deadman’s internal monologue. Yet, after notching what is surely the highest word count of every new DC book so far, he doesn’t even manage to appropriately explain what Deadman’s power actually does. Sure, he can inhabit bodies and influence their actions, but is he in complete control? When he enters a body he’s assigned to can he leave willingly, or is he stuck like Scott Bakula on Quantum Leap? I’m not saying a first issue should try to explain everything – I’m just saying a first issue that does this much explaining should try to explain something the readers actually care about.

Instead, we get Deadman’s existential angst, worrying that haunting people isn’t as fun as it used to be, a four page chase scene to introduce a minor plot mcguffin, and a two page montage of previously inhabited bodies that just won’t end.

It’s a pity Jenkins writes this one into the ground, because Bernard Chang’s art is attractive. Or, it would be, if not for the overbearing, too-shiny colors. The colors make Chang’s pencils seem overly glossy, when they’re clearly pretty textured – at points evoking John Romita Jr. Only on Deadman’s otherworldly benefactor do the colors hit their mark.

Maybe Jenkins has a thrilling plot in mind for this opening arc of DCU Presents, but his recent track record points to a probable flatline. I don’t think I could stand to read through another overly-written issue.

DC New 52 Review: Green Lantern Corps #1

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Green Lanterns are like Jedi. They are a select few, each wielding an ancient force to defend the universe from evil, fear, greed, and tyranny.

The thing about Jedi is that they were always much cooler when they were rare. In the Original Trilogy we had two good ones and two bad ones – that’s it! When they were plentiful in the prequels they were much less cool – though Team Sith retained their awesomeness by only fielding a handful of dark mirrors of the Jedi.

I suspect the same holds true for Green Lanterns. First we had one on Earth. Then they were a galaxy-wide operation, each responsible for a sector. Now we’ve got multiple lanterns in each sector, multiple colors of lanterns, and gangs of lanterns trolling through space looking for a fight.

And we have this book. Green Latern Corps. Last week established my distaste for the Green Lantern mythology not once but twice, as well as my dislike of the other book out from writer Peter J. Tomasi. This book features both, plus scads and scads of Lanterns.

Let’s just say I’d rather rewatch The Phantom Menace.

Green Lantern Corps #1

Written by Peter J. Tomasi, art by Fernando Pasarin & Scott Hanna

Rating: 4 of 5 – Excellent

In a Line: “I can’t unplug – I can’t relax – I’m always waiting for the next mission or something to go wrong so I can power up.”

#140char Review: Green Lantern Corps #1 bucks the trend of boring GL relaunch books by introing 2 interesting heroes & a intriguing bloody mystery. Loved it.

CK Says: Buy it.

Green Lantern Corps #1 is everything a debut issue of a new team should be. It has a disturbingly bloody mystery, a glimpse at the home life of our heroes, and the conception of their new mission as a team.

Yet, it’s not the shock of the bloody spectacle that makes the book a delight. My faith in writer Peter Tomasi was low after Batman and Robin, but if anything it seems like he’s true to the voices of characters and Robin is simply annoying. Here he perfectly captures the different brands of angst of my first and least favorite Earth Green Lanterns, respectively, and finds a way for them to mesh together perfectly.

A sad sack Guy Gardner in a baseball cap is a treasure, sitting alone in a planetarium using his ring like a digital watch, later acquiescing to showing a waiting room of dudes something green. His bulbous-nosed face seems to be fixed in a permanent state of half-smirk, half-frown. A self-righteous John Stewart seems more handsome and muscular than in the past.

A bit of reflection between the pair of them while seated on an orbiting satellite is one of the best hero-on-hero dialog scenes so far in the relaunch – because both characters are humans first and heroes second.

Speaking of space, I’m hugely excited for more space art from Fernando Pasarin. He draws a GL Sector House like Firefly meets Star Wars – dilapidated high tech, and not too alien (even though there are aliens in it). The two alien GL’s fight with an unseen foe is like a light saber duel in slow motion, each panel a glistening freeze frame of cinematic action.

Guy and John’s entrance into Oa is both funny and epic, and the splash page of their space-faring team (and subsequent witty ground-level shot) had me staring for minutes. An act of silent genocide against a race of chubby blue otter people has an eerie gravitas that harkens back to Dark Phoenix wiping out a planet of peaceful broccoli-headed people.

That’s all surely abetted by inker Scott Hanner & Gabe Elateb’s colors, both of which are fantastic throughout the issue. This is a phenomenally matched art team that can make an interview as a high school gym teacher look riveting. Literally – they did that.

It’s really a pity that the interior team didn’t handle the cover, which is just average.

I never found myself stopping to ask questions about the mechanics of being a Lantern like I did in the other two Lantern books so far. Not only does Tomasi neatly answer a lot of questions in dialog, but his plot is so kinetic and so adroitly illustrated that the reader has no reason to pause and reflect on the missing pieces.

This is a fun, thrilling, gorgeous issue with nary a flaw, and it left me excited to read a second one – even if it’s about my least favorite line of heroes in the DC Universe. I suggest you give it a shot.

DC New 52 Review: Wonder Woman #1

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Wonder Woman has always been my favorite super hero.

I’m not sure how it got that way. I had her Super Friends toy. I had seen the Lynda Carter show in syndication.

The thing I remember most is a library book. I still have it, actually, on my now bookcase of comics. It was a collection of her earliest strips from the 40s. We had checked it out of the library so many times that I was under the impression it was my personal copy. I suppose my mother finally told them I had misplaced it somewhere and paid the fine so I could keep it.

(Don’t judge her too harshly – It wasn’t so easy to track down obscure books back then! Also, we didn’t really have the money for that sort of thing.)

My love of Wonder Woman never expired, but I’ve never loved her comics the same way, aside from a thrilling mid-90s reimagining by William Messner-Loebs and Mike Deodato, Jr. I know I’ve missed a lot of Wonder Woman comics in the interim, and if DC could get their heads out of their asses on reprints maybe I could catch up on them.

The relaunch is the perfect chance to launch Wonder Woman to the heights she belongs – equal to Superman and Batman, the holy trinity of the DC Universe.

Is her new number one issue up to the task?

Wonder Woman #1

Written by Brian Azzarello, art by Cliff Chiang

Rating: 2.5 of 5 – Okay

In a Line: “Failure… what a horrifying end to an endless life.”

#140 Review: Wonder Woman #1 hints at major myth-heavy plot to come, but has sparse script, hardly any WW in it, & angular, inconsistent art. Just okay.

CK Says: Consider it.

Wonder Woman #1 is an interesting comic book, but it’s simply not worthy of the redebut of one of DC’s holy trinity of heroes when we’ve seen absolutely stellar books from her compatriots Superman and Batman over the past two weeks.

Brian Azzarello’s story is slight on script but full of action, both dramatic and in battle. It features a girl marked for death by a Pantheon of forces, a certain horror of growing centaurs out of horses’ necks, Hermes carrying around a Portkey to Wonder Woman, and a rogue son of a god who makes his own oracles from scratch. The elements hint at the possibilty of spectacular plots to come, but this issue is merely moving pieces into play on a chess board.

I had major doubts about Chiang on Wonder Woman. He acquits himself adequately, but I don’t know that he merits all the many unscripted panels he gets here. His figures have a certain plainness to them that’s half DC animated half hieroglyphic, with thin limbs and angular features. A lot of his edges have a rough, unfinished look, which looks great on environments but can be a little off-putting on characters.

What Chiang does get right is Wonder Woman – to a tee. He lets her look Amazonian while still staying svelte, and manages to convey coyness even when she’s standing bare naked in the middle of a room. The handful of panels of Diana in action will get your heart racing – Chiang is much better on action than conversation. It’s a pity she’s not in her own debut a little more, as whenever she is she’s magnetic.

As for the cover, I cannot bring myself to like it. Diana’s figure is too far left looking off the page – it feels like half of an image.

Azzarello might be the writer to pluck Wonder Woman from the rut she has been in for the past year, but it is going to take him a few issues to get there. Buy this first one only if you have the patience to hang in for the next few months.

DC New 52 Review: Resurrection Man #1

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Resurrection Man is one of the more peculiar choices for the DC New 52 relaunch.

First, there is his peculiar power. Thanks to an experiment meant to render him invincible, Resurrection Man Mitchell Shelley bounces back from each death in perfect health with a random new super power that he can only discover through trial and error. Otherwise, he’s a a relatively regular guy.

Second, he’s largely unknown. He headlined his own 1997-99 monthly series, but has only been seen or heard from a scant handful of times in the intervening decade.

Why this new resurrection? The secret ingredient of Mr. Shelley is his writers – Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning AKA DnA. After an ignoble 1988 start on the Real Ghostbusters, they worked their way up the ranks to become one of the hottest writing teams in comics. After penned years of Legion and Majestic for DC they moved on to a multi-year stint on the wildly well-received Marvel Cosmic line. Now they’re back at DC, and back at the helm of their very own hero.

How did DnA do with this peculiar pick in the New 52 lineup?

Resurrection Man #1

Written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning, art by Fernando Dagnino

Rating: 5 of 5 – Outstanding!

In a Line: “I’ll sleep when I’m dead. I’ll get back to you when I’ve got a schedule for that.”

#140char Review: Resurrection Man #1 does re-intro right w/perfectly-paced grim glimpse into RM’s dire, hapless life & the forces controlling it. A must-read

CK Says: Buy it!

Writers Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (DnA) are perfection in a reunion with their hero Resurrection Man, abetted by fantastic art from Fernando Dagnino.

From the intro device of our hero slowly awakening to his new life and his new power to his gruesome death and a final scene of him slipping away from a crash, the script never lets up and maintains a vibe of lingering dread throughout.

Resurrection Man Mitch spends most of the book talking to himself and the reader, and you get the sense that his matter-of-fact internal monologue is the majority of conversation in his life. Would a hunted man who dies and dies again have a girlfriend or sidekick handy to chat with? Probably not. His narrative of fellow passengers via the metal on their bodies is a gem stolen from the mind of Magneto. The implication that he quietly re-experiences the world through each new power he awakens with says much about his solitude.

Dagnino’s art is beautiful and perfect for the tone of the script. It reminds me of Gaiman’s Sandman – reminiscent of old Sam Keith, or maybe Jae Lee. It’s the sure black fields of a self-inker, not afraid to get his pages a little dirty with darkness. Colorist Rob Leigh obliges with a set of muted, rusty colors.

The result might turn off some readers as too dark or dull, but it sets an 80s Vertigo vibe and couldn’t be any more perfect for DnA’s script. I took special thrill in small details like the burnished exterior of a plane in flight fading back into an interior scene of the plane.

The deus ex machina of each resurrection coming with both a new power and an inexplicable compulsion to take action could have seemed forced, but you’ll forget it by the time Mitch boards a plane and meets his “hot, in a Gaga kind of way” seatmate. Clearly there are forces greater than him at work and play here – literal god machines reaching their hands into his life. Is it worth stopping a villain about to kill dozens of people if they were all going to die anyway? Can it even be done?

Resurrection Man is a perfect entry into DC’s relaunched lineup of 52 books – his power to start anew from each death is a fitting metaphor for readers picking up his relaunched title with no prior knowledge of the character. DnA have a proven track record of mercilessly dissecting the lives of their heroes to produce fantastically unexpected stories, and Mitch is a rare hero who can walk away from each dissection unharmed.

A must-read comic.

DC New 52 Review: Legion Lost #1

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Clearly the theme of today is titles where I’ve got no idea about a darn thing. These are apparently superheroes from the future who get mired in the past? Despite my DC newbness I have a way of hoovering up information about random heroes, yet I don’t even vaguely recognize a single one of them on the cover.

Will this one delight as much as Frankenstein did earlier this evening? Let’s see…

Legion Lost #1

Written by Fabian Nicieza, art by Pete Woods

Rating: 2 of 5 – Uneven

In a Line: “Accessing the sensory patterns of this time period without the transuit filter — is like to see, hear, and talk while inside a pool of mud.”

#140char Review: Legion Lost #1 aren’t the only ones lost. Fast-paced issue w/a slew of chars whizzes by with little effect

CK Says: Consider it.

Legion Lost is a wobbly comic that I suspect improves greatly with any foreknowledge of the characters within or the events of Flashpoint.

The story? A team of superheroes from the future pops back into our present in a malfunctioning time traveling bubble, in pursuit of a villain carrying a contagion. They’re too late to stop him, thus their dilemma becomes how to retrieve him and retreat to chronal safety. However, there are some potentially deadly kinks in their plan.

Scripter Fabian Nicieza hits the ground running and never pauses for a second, wobbling be damned. I appreciated the non-coddling pace and the way his characters always restate the implied question of “what the hell is happening.” I came away with all of their powers and most of their names, if not their relationships with each other.

However, I wouldn’t call the experience pleasant.

Adding to the rushed tone is Pete Woods’s artwork, which looks like it tumbles out of his pen a mile a minute. I’m not sure what gives that impression. Maybe that the action doesn’t always track from panel to panel? Or maybe that the focus of his panels is always crisp and perfect, with perspectives and details bending away at the sides to thicker, heavily-inked lines.

(Also: the weirdly amalgamated logo is awful.)

I understood the book, and even enjoyed some of it, but it doesn’t seem worth returning to next month. I didn’t get the sense it was necessary to be telling a story with these largely charmless characters, and the story that was told wasn’t compelling enough to make me want to track down a seemingly difficult backstory.

Still, it seems like someone fresh from Flashpoint with some fondess for The Legion of Superheroes would be invested in the events that unfold.