For comics released on July 5, 2007.

Every week I buy more comics. I’ve got a pull list, and everything, and regularly buy far more than I need. After reading said comics, I come here and write about them. Because you absolutely NEED to know what I think, dammit. This is the first installment, but this’ll be a weekly thing from now on. For truth.

ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #8
by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, and Jamie Grant

Zibarro is a great idea. He’s the one Bizarro out of the five billion on Bizarro Earth who has an intellect, who loves poetry and the arts, and who lives a non-mindless existence. Like Superman, he is exceptional in a way that could never be matched or understood by any of his fellow countrymen. Unlike Superman, that fact tears at him constantly, and has made getting as far away from Bizarro Earth as possible his number one priority. It’s a great character, and the highlight of this latest issue of ALL-STAR SUPERMAN. If only the rest of the issue was as inspired as Zibarro.

ALL-STAR SUPERMAN has been the most consistently great superhero comic of the last couple of years. It’s obviously an all-time classic series, and will impress for years to come in its collected form. Unfortunately, though, as a serial it’s been undercut by consistent delays and an irregular shipping schedule. Still, every individual issue has been outstanding, and the first of the two prior issues to come out in 2007 ranks among the best single issues to come out this year.  Unfortunately, issue number eight, although not in any way a major misstep, is the first to even approach disappointment.

I have two problems with this comic. First, the major conflict, whether Superman will escape from Bizarro Earth before its increasing distance from a yellow sun will sap him of all his power, isn’t enough to hang a whole issue around. Now, in a normal DC or Marvel publication, that wouldn’t be the plot of a single comic, but probably an entire six-issue arc. ALL-STAR SUPERMAN, though, has conditioned us to expect a one-and-done story, with the central dilemma resolved by page 22. That’s one of the book’s great strengths. This is the second half of the series’ first two-part story, and I don’t see why it couldn’t have fit into one issue. Yes, there are a number of great ideas spread throughout (of course there are, this is a Grant Morrison comic, after all), but there’s little to this issue outside of those ideas. Yes, a Bizarro Justice League is almost brilliant, and a Bizarro Jor-El even more so; still, I don’t know if those great ideas justify an entire comic.

Secondly, the Bizarro language is beyond annoying. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful concept, absolutely necessary to the character, and if Bizarro didn’t talk that way then the creators would completely deserve whatever amount of fan opprobrium was directed their way. Still, over half of this comic consists of that nonsensical talk, and it’s incredibly frustrating. I’m sure it’s an interesting literary exercise to write in Bizarro, but it’s certainly not very fun to read.

Despite these complaints, ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #8 is far from a bad comic. It’s still probably the best superhero thing I bought this week. As mentioned above, Zibarro is a great character, and the sort of idea that you can’t believe hadn’t already been thought up years ago. And Quitely’s art, while not especially notable among his already sterling body of work, remains fantastic. He does great work with Zibarro’s facial expressions, in particular. Still, having come to expect so much from ALL-STAR SUPERMAN, this latest issue is rather underwhelming.

ALL-NEW ATOM #13
by Gail Simone, Mike Norton, and Dan Green

This is a really good book that isn’t quite as good as it should be. I mean, Simone’s trying really hard here, tossing out enough continuity-referencing absurdity and pseudo-scientific nonsense to appease even the most jaundiced fan of Grant Morrison’s amazing DOOM PATROL, or at least your typical semi-ironic comic weblogger. And Mike Norton, already a fine purveyor of classic superhero artistry, has progressed nicely from his work on GRAVITY and RUNAWAYS. Often though it feels like Simone is simply trying too hard. #13 isn’t quite as guilty at that as #12, what with the previous issue’s combo of classic Atom villains and vaguely meaningful nonsense, but it still starts off with a bit of arbitrary old-school fan-service. I don’t know, perhaps I’m just being difficult, because the opening image of Chronos and the Atom flying above the rain forest on Chronos’s magic stopwatch is pretty damn awesome. Still, though, I can’t help but feel that that awesomeness is the only reason the scene exists, and that it doesn’t serve much of a storytelling purpose beyond that. True, that is how Ryan Choi, the new Atom, arrives at the miniature primitive alien jungle kingdom from the old ‘80’s Sword of the Atom book, and I do like the notion that even the Silver Age villains of the previous Atom are worried about his disappearance. It just rings slightly false, or at least unnecessary outside the realm of pure awesomeness. Which really is the primary reason I even read these things, so I don’t know what the hell I’m complaining about. Either way, a really entertaining issue of one of the most consistently good series around, despite my petty, nit-picking complaints.

THE IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN #10
by Robert Kirkman, Phil Hester, and Ande Parks

This book ends with issue number twelve, which really just sucks. ALL-NEW ATOM probably won’t last too much longer beyond that. Do comic fans refuse to support a book about a guy who can shrink, or do they simply hate fun? Because both books are among the most fun published today. Take this issue of ANT-MAN, for instance, the requisite WORLD WAR HULK tie-in: you’ve got dueling recap ants, continued Damage Control presence, an appropriately explosive stage-entrance by the Hulk, Eric “Ant-Man” O’Grady losing a fight with the Hulk’s stomach, and the Black Fox stealing O’Grady’s Wii. Oh, plus about fifteen Old Spice ads worked completely seamfully into the artwork. I really gotta think that last thing is a blatant piss-take of Marvel’s new product placement policy, ‘cuz the damn ads are blisteringly obvious. As always, Hester’s cartoonish art is a nice change of pace from your typical superhero work, and Kirkman adeptly interweaves comedy and surprisingly effective drama. It’s deplorable that this book couldn’t find an audience, and hopefully Kirkman will resist the temptation and/or pressure to kill O’Grady off in the last issue. He certainly seems headed in that direction, unfortunately.

OUTSIDERS #49
by Judd Winick, Matthew Clark, Ron Randall, and Art Thibert.

Gracious, thank the maker that this Checkout crossover is finally done. I’m a fan of Greg Rucka’s CHECKMATE series, and so to make sure I actually understood what the hell was going on in that book I’ve had to buy the last three issues of Judd Winick’s horrible OUTSIDERS. Winick is a seriously bad writer. He’s completely inept at or indifferent towards writing to an audience not already intimately familiar with his characters and storylines. His dialogue is consistently painful, and as Greg Burgas points out over at Comics Should Be Good*, he utterly botches the finale of this crossover. Apparently this whole six-issue story existed solely for Sasha Bordeaux, Checkmate’s Black Queen, to be tortured by evil Chinese egg-creature Chang Tzu, and for Nightwing to realize he’s not cut out for leadership of the Outsiders, thus setting the stage for Batman’s takeover. And on top of that pointless resolution to a three-month, $18 storyline, we have to deal with Winick’s awful writing, which is more than enough to make me embarrassed to read comics. Hopefully Rucka can successfully rid CHECKMATE of this book’s stink as soon as possible.

*: totally stole your format, dude. 
THOR #1
by J. Michael Straczynski, Oliver Coipel, and Mark Morales.

If you’ve ever spent five minutes with me, you realize that I love me some Thor. The original Kirby/Lee work is easily one of the best things the two men did together, and perhaps even as good as their FANTASTIC FOUR. The character’s mostly been stuck in pretty uninteresting fare since, but that never diminished my fundamental love for Thor and all that crazy mixed-up Asgardian horseshit.

I’ve been pretty excited for this book for a while, even though I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with Straczynski. What I’ve read of his AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and FANTASTIC FOUR bored the hell out of me, and occasionally outright pissed me off. It’s amazing how dramatically better FF became immediately upon Dwayne McDuffie replacing Straczynski. I’m sure the same thing will happen once the latter quits writing ASM later this year. Despite all this, though, I was more than ready to plop down three bones for this brand new THOR series.

When will I learn that comics can rarely be trusted? That the magical allure they held over me as a kid is now rare, fleeting, and exceedingly difficult to find? Why did I think Straczynski could succeed where previously he had failed so often? THOR #1 winds up being a pretty disappointing book, and not even remotely a harbinger of better things to come.

It starts off awesomely. It’s impossible to argue with any comic that prominently displays the Warriors Three on the second page. Coipel’s art is excellent throughout, but particularly on the first few pages, when you see Thor fighting side by side with Hogun, Fandral, and Volstagg, and later on a great splash page with random Asgardians bloodily battling some random assortment of trolls. It’s beautiful work, echoing Kirby’s larger-than-life grandeur. Stracynzski does a great job succinctly covering the symbiotic (or is it parasitic?) relationship between the thundergod Thor and his mortal counterpart Dr. Donald Blake. It quickly devolves into some theological nonsense, though (theobabble?), that’s pretty damn interminable. I have no problem with Stracynzski exploring the nature of Thor and Blake’s dual existence, but devoting half the book to a wordy, nearly action-free rumination on said relationship is not the way to impress readers historically resistant to the character. THOR and Thor should’ve come out swinging, quickly establishing the nature of the comic and dealing with the sort of swords-and-sandals / superhero hybrid action you can’t find in too many other books. I understand that Stracynski has to set up his whole “Asgard reborn in Oklahoma” concept, but he could’ve done that and still given us an ample amount of action by including a less navel-gazing flashback introduction. And once we settle our sights on Oklahoma, and see Don Blake check into a hotel, we have to put up with a broadly drawn clerk character that’s plagued by unrealistic folksiness and sit-com level dialogue. It’s like Stracynski really wanted to include a role for Edie McClurg, or something.

Anyway, Coipel’s art truly is great; it’s bold, vibrant, and dynamic, when he’s allowed to go nuts and show Thor beating the crap out of some jokers. It’s kinda reminiscent of Eric Powell’s work on THE GOON. Hopefully Coipel will be allowed to cut loose more in the future. And also hopefully Stracynzski will give us more reason to care about Thor in the future.

Posted by Garrett Martin on 08 Jul 2007 at 10:59 pm