Thursday, 8 April 1999:
A Couple Months of Comic Books
So, you've probably been wondering: "What does Michael think of the comics that have been coming out lately?" (Okay, okay, half of you just stopped reading.) Well, here's a roundup:
- All-Star Comics #1-2 (DC; James Robinson, David Goyer, et. al.) and spin-offs: These two issues are the beginning and end of a lengthy Justice Society adventure from the mid-1940s, with a collection of one-shots - each featuring two members of the JSA - in the middle. The overall story involves the JSA taking on a villain (actually a forgotten DC character from the 1970s) bent on destroying the Earth. The plot is fairly routine; it's the characterizations which make this worthwhile, especially of Mr. Terrific (in National Comics), Hourman (in the All-Star issues, and Smash Comics), and The Atom (in Adventure Comics). The coda in ASC #2 involves the death of many JSA members decades after the main story, with a tie-in to the current Hourman character, and is irrelevant and a little disgusting (inasmuch as the scenes depicted were annoying enough the first time around, in Dan Jurgens' execrable Zero Hour).
- Conjurors #3 (DC; Chuck Dixon, Eduardo Barreto): The final issue of this "Elseworlds" story about a world where magic reigns and science is treated like the occult is in the real world, was disappointing. The series started off appropriately mysterious and eerie, but everything got neatly tied up with a nice little moral (or sorts) at the end. Barreto's art was nice as ever, though.
- Daredevil #1-4 (Marvel; Kevin Smith, Joe Quesada, Jimmy Palmiotti): Yes, that's Kevin Smith the director of Clerks and such, now writing the critically- and fannishly-acclaimed Daredevil series. These four issues are okay, although Tony Isabella quite rightly points out the strong similarity between these issues and Frank Miller's "Born Again" storyline of a decade ago (which is for my money one of the ten best comics stories ever published). This story involves Matt Murdock's faith, and his taking custody of an infant who may be the second coming, and may be the antichrist. It's got too much mystical mumbo-jumbo for my tastes, but it's an entertaining read. I wouldn't say it's anything more than that, though; thematically, it's extremely heavy-handed and fairly one-note.
- Doctor Mid-Nite #1-2 (DC; Matt Wagner, John K. Snyder III): An extremely weak story by Matt Wagner dragged down by Snyder's erratic artwork (although refined somewhat from his Grendel days), this is the story of the new Doctor Mid-Nite, who looks almost exactly like the original, has basically the same powers, but is basically a cipher as far as his character goes. I find Wagner far more interesting when he's writing down-to-earth material than when he's trying to be atmospheric and stylish; this series just doesn't do it for me.
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #1-2 (America's Best Comics; Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill): Alan Moore writes creates a super-team for the 90s: The 1890s. Featuring Captain Nemo, Allan Quatermain, Henry Jeckyll/Edward Hyde, and the Invisible Man (among others) working for the British secret service in 1898, Moore piles pop culture references into this series while still telling a compelling story. Word is Moore wants to do further series with characters from other eras of British literature. Check it out; if you enjoy it, there are extensive liner notes on-line.
- Superman/Fantastic Four special (DC/Marvel; Dan Jurgens, Art Thibert): An amazingly redundant story in which Galactus claims Superman as his herald and the FF have to save him. The "cyborg Superman" meets Reed Richards - the character on whom he was originally based, this rendering the whole allusion irrelevant. Jurgens and Thibert turn in perfunctory art jobs as well, which is a shame given the oversized tabloid format the thing was published in. Worst of all, Jurgens picks Galactus and the cyborg as villains, when a far more interesting set of heavies would be the similar-yet-different Lex Luthor and Doctor Doom. Well, they can't all be winners.
- Thieves & Kings #26 (I-Box; Mark Oakley): Okay, I still like this charming fantasy series. This issue mainly involves Heath going to school. Okay, I also admit I'm getting a little tired of these middle issues, and wish the plot would start moving forward, but the earlier issues were strong enough that I'm not bailing now!
- Tom Strong #1 (America's Best Comics; Alan Moore, Chris Sprouse, Al Gordon): Alan Moore's new series involves a superman type who was born in 1900 and survived to the present day. This story primarily involves his origin, and an establishment of his universe. My dad described it as "steampunk", which fits this particular issue, certainly. It's a sort of amalgam of some of Moore's recent work: The retro tone of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and a similarity to the Superman nods in Supreme. Sprouse's pencils are outstanding, as always (I've been a big fan of his since HammerLocke earlier in the decade).
- The World Below #1 (Dark Horse; Paul Chadwick, Ron Randall): Adventurers descend into mysterious saves in the earth and encounter strange creatures and devices. Yes, it's a self-indulgent opportunity for Paul Chadwick to draw weird objects, and self-indulgence has been exactly what's sunk his once-superb Concrete series in recent years (the never-ending environmentalist angle, and recently the inferior retelling of Concrete's origin which took all the magic out of the original). I finished this one and my only thought was, "Why?" Avoid.
So that's the comics biz lately, as seen by yours truly.
Incidentally, I hopped comics stores recently, to a place called Comics Conspiracy, which has the advantage of being near work. It has the even bigger advantage of having employees who talk comics in the shop, whereas the guys at the previous shop tended to be rather silent. I've had a fine time chatting with them on various subjects in just the two times I've gone there.
Besides being comic book night, Wednesdays are now gaming night, so yesterday I went to Subrata's (y'know, I really need to make a cast list for this journal) and we played Robo Rally for four hours. We played a large game with four teams of two players, which actually did make the game go somewhat faster - especially since we limited the amount of time to figure out our turns to three minutes. Three of the four teams were nearly tied when it came down to the wire; Subrata and I just missed winning. Oh, well!
I've been very happy with my painted miniatures, which we've been using when we play RR lately. The different basic colors on each made playing with eight robots much easier than otherwise. I think Subrata's going to re-paint his miniatures, too - especially since the paint is flaking off.
Today at work I had two positive experiences: First, I made good progress on building the application I'm working on, finding may way around our tools to do so. Second, I got to use some really cool features of our tools, and was pretty excited when I reached my goal for the day. I went down to the office of the guy who helped me figure out some details I was struggling with, and told him, "This is really cool!" He said, "And this is only scratching the surface!"
I'm having fun now!
After work I went by the scandinavian furniture store and found that they have a variety of bookcases, all of which should be okay, and all of which are of varying prices, too, of course. But I have quite a selection to choose from, so I should be able to find at least one which is just what I want. They also have a bedside table which I think is exactly what I want (and I wasn't even really looking for one!), which leaves me with the question of what to do with the end table I'm using by my bed right now. I don't really have a crying need for it anywhere else. Hmm.
Also went by a bookstore and saw that Lois McMaster Bujold's new Miles Vorkosigan novel, Komarr, is out in paperback. I just started John Varley's short story collection The Persistence of Vision, though, so I'll read Komarr after that.
Oh, yeah: And before work I went by the DMV and picked up some stuff in preparation to register my car and get a driver's license. I'll peruse it this weekend. Need to get that taken care of.
Michael Rawdon
(Contact)
