July 26th, 2012

Comic Carnival family, the past week has provided a great deal for us to deal with. This past Friday morning, a group of people that went out of  their way to watch a movie as soon as possible became victims of atrocious violence. We don’t know why, and honestly I can’t think  there’s a reason anyone could give that would satisfy us. These were our peers that were hurt or worse, and our hearts go out to them and their  loved ones. Some of you may have been anticipating Batman Incorporated 3 (Morrison/ Burnham) on the shelf this week. If you could pick it up, you’d be treated to an almost psychedelic combination of plots focusing  on “Matches” Malone gathering intel and nearly getting the crap beaten out of him by Batman, which (if you know the character) would be an  amazing feat. This would be the latest chapter in a story where Damian, son of Bruce Wayne, is targeted for death by Talia al Ghul, Damian’s  mother, presumably because time-outs or withholding desserts are cliche parenting these days.

But you will not find this issue on any shelf. In the wake of the events in Aurora, Colorado, DC Comics has pulled the issue. Not all DC Comics are being  pulled, not even all Batman titles, just this one. As near as I can tell, the reasoning behind this  decision is that there are two panels on the first page where someone draws a gun on a crowd. The location, time of day, and context are completely different, yet this is the only correlation that might  explain DC’s reaction. I would not presume to say whether this is a  gesture of sympathy or an overreaction, but it means there is one less  comic on the market this week.

In contrast, I present Amazing Spider-Man 690 (Slott/ Camuncoli). It also has a controversial image on its first page - well, second if you count the recap page, but who does that?


Let me set up the scene: Curt Connors is gone. His human form has been restored and everyone involved feels very accomplished, but the Lizard is running the show. The Lizard is working to find a cure for his own humanity, but is only succeeding in regrowing his missing arm. With every “failure”, the Lizard needs to cut off the regrown limb so he can move about the complex without suspicion and continue his research. On the first pages of story, the audience is treated to watching a human being sear off his own arm, plotting mayhem as it falls to the ground, picking it up and feeding to an experimental creature that used to be a brilliant scientist. But that’s not the controversy to me.    

The rest of the issue plays with the idea of addiction a lot. Morbius gets cravings under stress, Connors rediscovers the concept of guilty pleasures (that don’t always hurt or maim people), and Spider-Man is hooked on self-destruction. In all seriousness, between a vampire and a growing army of mentally unbalanced mutations, Spider-Man seems to hate himself more than his enemies ever could. But this is not the  controversy I speak of. This is:

The very  first time Connors chops his arm off, the hand is flipping the reader off. THAT is something I’m shocked got passed Editorial.

Debris 1 (Wiebe/ Rossmo) is an entirely new creature. It’s not a far-flung sequel, it’s not a spin-off, and as far as I can tell it’s not a reinterpretation of anything. For this reason, I feel protective of it - new intellectual properties are so rare that I feel they need to be  cared for in a secure environment so that more can be bred, like pandas.    

Machine life has choked the planet (could be Earth, could be something  else) so tightly that there is perhaps one human colony left, with everyone toiling endlessly to produce food and water in sufficient quantities. Everyone has their own jobs, and Maya is a Protector, an elite warrior that scouts for and dissuades the machines from hurting the colony, either by slaying them or leading them away. The Protectors are losing ground. A desperate plan to find a potential cache of resources is hatched, and Maya alone can be spared to find it. Her objective is probably a myth, but that’s okay - things are so dire that even if she found it, the colony could easily be dead before she returns.    

In a lot of ways, this is a standard post-apocalypse drama. Humans are so far below the top of the food chain they can’t even see it, and Hope survives but only barely. Debris does a good job of giving each element, though typical, it’s own distinct  taste. Maya has the energy and drive of youth, but has learned early and hard enough to know her priorities; the colony is strained, but there’s trust and transparency enough that no one thinks the effort is going to waste; the machines have a shadow of life, but instead of mimicking it  the machines seem genuinely cursed with it.


The writing is intriguing, even if the dialogue is a bit stiff. The art communicates both desolation and beauty well, and at the same time, but there are a few moments that don't connect as well as they should have. Overall, this is a good first issue of a good sci-fi comic book, and I really would like to see it live up to its potential.

Due to peer pressure, I picked up Aquaman 11 (Johns/ Reis). I’m a member of the camp that can’t take Aquaman  seriously. I think he should be canned and stocked next to tuna, labeled as “Superman of the Sea”, and be done with it. However, Johns and Reis are a creative team that’ve done some impressive work before, which raised my hopes.



I’m a mythology nut. Stories centuries old about lands loved and lost intrigue me. This plays to that chord a lot, with a retelling of the origin and fall of Atlantis. And like with many myths, there are inconsistencies, but where the most classic myths have minor ones, in this single issue there are multiple, major about-faces that lost me.  There were a lot of people I didn’t know in this issue, and the good news is that by the end I felt I knew as much of them as I did the more familiar characters; the bad news is that I didn’t come away knowing anyone.            

If you’re already reading this, this is not going to be a  pleasant issue. If you’re looking to jump into the title, don’t.

Goon 40 (Eric Powell) is Talladega Nights meets The Untouchables. Since the Goon has committed every crime ever, it’s only natural that he also deals with running moonshine during prohibition. And since  nothing the Goon does can ever be simple or direct, this book takes a few, shall we say, liberties with the historical record.


The main story alone is out there enough to be funny - the Goon and a rival family compete for territory in progressively wilder competitions - but it’s the details that resonate. For example, at one point, a Charleston dance-off becomes so erotic, demonic forces arrive to break it up.  Reread that last sentence, I guarantee the full weight of it hasn’t hit you yet.

This is one of those titles that not everyone loves, but everyone appreciates. It’s got humor, action, cheesecake, and enough sense to know when each of them will work. I laughed at it so much that I had to share it with someone, so I just gave it to a coworker that’s over 60 years old and a war veteran. He’s cracking up too. This is 50cc of silly, and this is a good time for it.

And I leave you there, with options aplenty to give you something great to read this week. Enjoy!

July 20, 2012

July 20, 2012

How’s it going, Comic Carnival Faithful? It’s kind of a mad week here and the boss is wondering why we’re all busy this weekend, so let’s get into it.

I’d be criminally negligent if I didn’t look at something from the Batman universe this week, but I thought I’d try something different. Batwoman 11 (Williams III/ Blackman/ McCarthy) is far away from your standard Bat-book. I’m coming into this series late, and while I expected to feel a bit lost, this lost feeling was multiplied by drunk and dizzy. Batwoman (whose idea of stealth is to wear her hair down and neon red) is kind of fighting someone that may have been a woman and is now a man maybe, trying to reclaim some kidnapped children that honestly don’t seem to mind, but ultimately lets the bad guys get away to save a cop that she’s also dating. Confused? Me too, and I just wrote that.


The artwork (though not the usual team) is oddly captivating. There’s a quality to every page that, despite the ultra-crisp linework, feels otherworldly. I’m a bit turned off by the coloring, though. At first I liked the idea of Batwoman applying makeup that gave her skin a deathly pallor to play up the dark mystique, but then she’s revealed in her civvies and I realized that wasn’t makeup, she just has necrosis and everyone’s too polite to say anything.

Despite all that, I’ve got to suggest this series for the general reader. You see, as lost as I am, I find myself wanting to go back and figure out what’s going on. Any book that can make almost no sense but still inspire a drive to figure out more deserves a nod.

Saga 5 (Vaughan/ Staples) continues to impress me. Through all the window dressing of neon-lit asteroids, masked alien pimps, and interplanetary war are simple, well-told stories.

This issue looks at the things people do for love, focusing on three couples and their very different situations. In short, people get a bit crazy, and it ends better for some than others. This issue ends on a downer, in case that makes a difference.

I’d never heard of Fiona Staples before Saga, and given the level of quality she brings to every panel, I don’t know how that happened. Her range of expression, scenery, and action are the perfect vehicle for Vaughan’s dialogue.

This series is a rare find in that it has a functional letters column at the end, once a given in comics but now more elusive than Bigfoot. What makes this even rarer is that there’s no electronic option - if you want to write in, you have to put it on paper and send it in the mail. Saga’s readers send in some odd things, and what’s even more delightful is that Vaughan responds to everything himself, with the same care and humor the comic is done in. It’s like its own narrative arc, almost.

Punk Rock Jesus 1 of 6 (Sean Murphy) is the bastard love child of cable gospel channels and reality TV, with ten times the entertainment value. In the near future, a few people decide to clone Jesus and show everyone what happens. The set-up (which is most of the issue) is insane enough that I won’t spoil it, but it’s cynical enough to be believable yet honest enough to be silly. There are moments that pull on the heartstrings as well as moments that pull on fingers. One of the basic themes of this book is the implication that we as a species can never hit rock bottom because we keep finding newer, lower roads to take.

Both the writing and art are by Sean Murphy, who’s done a few solo books by now. I take special delight when a whole book comes from one person because there’s no real gap between the reader and the original idea. In most cases, one person has the idea, tries to explain that idea to a few other people, who transcribe their impressions of the idea on a page and then it gets to us, the readers. I’m all for the collaborative process, but sometimes the extra buffers interfere. There are plenty of people whose minds I want to stay far away from, but in this case I like the proximity.

The Secret Service 3 (Millar/ Gibbons) is something I didn’t expect to like, but so far it’s pleasantly surprising me. The world’s greatest secret agent has no time for family, but decides to make some time when he bails out his nephew and notices some untapped potential. In this issue, Jack (the Agent so Super-Secret that by the time you read this I’m probably dead) has just finished some casual espionage into China, while Gary (Agent-in-training) is discovering his strengths and weaknesses. Gary doesn’t have much middle ground, he either sets the bar high or knocks himself unconscious from hitting the bar.

Dave Gibbons is famous for being reliable. His style hasn’t changed much since his Watchmen days, focusing on realism and subtle expression to carry the narrative. There’s nothing singular about his art that makes it stand out from his peers, but his fundamentals are so solid that he doesn’t need any bells or whistles.

What made me avoid this series initially was the description on the back cover of issue 1: to sum it up, a loser in a slum finds a way to be special and he takes it. The premise doesn’t vary much from Wanted or Kick-Ass, both of which I’d read and so I figured I’d already read The Secret Service. I can’t say that this is different yet, but it does a few things differently that made me pause. Millar’s trend has been to up the pacing and level of shock value with each successive story, but The Secret Service is slower than his normal. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t read slow, but it’s not trying too hard to be more extreme than Millar’s last story or whatever. Maybe Gibbons is influencing him into focusing on the fundamentals of storytelling and making them work.

I’m going to withhold judgment on the series for now, but the first three issues make me hopeful.

That’s it for this week, folks! Have a great weekend!

July 13th, 2012

The idea of a corpse walking and feeding on the living has been around for millennia, with as many variations as there are languages. The creature we know as the zombie can be traced back to voodoo culture, but it wasn’t until George A Romero introduced zombies to popular culture WAYYYY back in 1968 that they were widely known. He took two hours of our lives and made us ponder a world where death offers no rest, and this concept has spawned almost countless imitators.


Zombie stories generally don’t last long – the idea of an ongoing zombie story struck most people as ludicrous – until a comic came along called The Walking Dead. This week, the 100^th issue of that book comes out, and the series shows no signs of stopping. I’m taking this week to look at just HOW such a story could work.

Let’s make sure we’re on talking about the same comic, first of all. This is not an action comic, and it was never an action comic. Nine pages out of ten is people talking, sometimes while they’re walking or looking around. This is not a horror comic. There are surprises and gore aplenty, but they are not what the book is about. The Walking Dead is a zombie survival comic, which is a very different beast.


The zombie genre isn’t a subset of the Horror genre, it is a genre of its own. I say this because an element of any horror story is the “monster”. Jason Vorhees, Giger’s Alien, and Norman Bates are completely different entities, but each is a thinking creature, something with motivations that can be understood and used to defeat them. Jason can be taunted and distracted by Yo-Mama jokes, xenomorphs will stand down to protect eggs or incubators, and Mr. Bates wouldn’t hurt a fly (though you still want to be careful with Yo-Mama jokes). Zombies stand (or roam) apart. A zombie is not out for revenge, a zombie does not want to reproduce, a zombie has no desire for intimacy. There’s nothing in a zombie to outsmart, the best anyone can hope for is to put them down and hope that was all of them.

One heavy price to pay for a completely mindless enemy is a lack of banter between hero and villain. The only dialog is with fellow survivors. Most of the time it’s with friendlies, other times it’s with rivals, but everyone speaking wants the same thing: to not be eaten by zombies. There’s not much opportunity for dramatic tension when everyone has the same goal. This isn’t a problem when the narrative is just a couple hours long. There’s plenty of things we can survive not having for two hours, we can even have fun without them. The Walking Dead has been going for 100 issues now, and going strong. To read that many comics –to really read them – takes days, and its audience regularly comes back for more.


One of the things that keeps the series going is that it embraces where the drama in a zombie story comes from. The biggest threats in a zombie story aren’t always the zombies. What the “heroes” fight against are things like starvation, petty jealousy turning ugly, and exposure to the elements, things that can’t be shot at or beaten with a stick, but that can kill just as effectively as a zombie. Movies by nature don’t have time to show that kind of slow tension, and this is one of the most critical ways The Walking Dead sets itself apart.

In light of the fact that survival means more than just living past the next horde of undead, it’s imperative that the story follows people. They don’t have to be the smartest or strongest or cleverest, but they do have to be interesting. They need to be varied, they need to have moments of being happy and sad, and they need to change and grow in response to the world around them. This is where The Walking Dead has always shined.



In a feature-length movie, brain-bashing action and the need for survival create enough tension without getting stale. For a comic approaching its 100^th issue, shoot-outs and escapes can’t always cut it. The reader NEEDS the characters to carry the story while the guns cool down and the pantries get restocked. The people that aren’t dead confront life and death situations every day, and that’s bad enough when they’re surrounded by people they trust. This cast is constantly finding new reasons to be suspicious of each other. When they do establish trust, new people come along to shake up the dynamic.

With issue 100, a new character is introduced whose like has never been seen before in the series. In a world where the dead walk, everyone has defined themselves by what they can give to others. All the leaders, the ones the audience is supposed to cheer for and the ones they hate, have had a plan to give their people and society a better future. For the past few issues, there’ve been mentions of one that has ascended in his society another way, a much older way: he’s in charge because he’s too brutal for anyone else to handle, and respecting his authority keeps him away. He shows up in this issue, and he leaves calmly and without injury to himself or his men. Rick’s group, on the other hand, is broken on many levels.

The Walking Dead isn’t a story about curing a virus or lifting a curse. The Walking Dead isn’t about uncovering responsible parties and punishing them. The Walking Dead is about people with beating hearts and everything they do to keep them beating. It’s rarely pretty, and almost impossible to tear yourself away. Cheers, Kirkman and company.

July 4th, 2012

July 4th 2012

On this, the Fourth of July, we as a country should come together and reflect on what this holiday is all about, even if all it means to you is eating things roasted over flame and sparkly things coming out of the sky. The point is, this is a special time for everyone in some way. There are a few books that’ll help drive the point home (after it’s had too much to drink).

iZombie 27 (Roberson/ Allred): As the series wraps up, this issue works to bring all the story threads together and get everyone ready for the end of the world, or perhaps just a tiny part of it. This isn’t uncommon for stories getting close to the end of their run, but this issue elevates the process to new, weird, funny, weird, epicly weird heights. It’s kinda weird.


The story is about a sentient zombie who remembers other people’s lives easier than her own, trying to build a life for herself now that she’s undead. Her successes and failures have resulted in a number of circles she associates with, some just hang out, some share secrets, others she works with, and for most of the series they’ve been kept apart. Now they’ve crashed together in a way the reader will either laugh at or find contriving. I laughed, but I could see people having the other reaction.

Most of the book focuses on things falling out of the sky, people focusing on the things in the sky, and eating, so this is almost a flagship July 4th book. This was fun, but if you’re not already buying it, you may be better served waiting for the collection.

Batman Earth One HC (Johns/ Frank): Batman’s origin has been told and retold about as many times as Dracula’s. Maybe bats just crave fresh beginnings, I couldn’t say. What I will say is that the origin according to Geoff Johns and Gary Frank is a gorgeously comprehensive story. It doesn’t just get Batman started, but many secondary cast members as well. It takes plenty of liberties, and while a few may inspire some head scratching, most of them weave together into something well worth reading.

For the purists out there, a few things are worth noting. First, this isn’t just a Bat-centric story, this is a Bat-only story. No mention or hint of any other characters from DC are visible, so don’t go in hoping to see nods to Metropolis or Coast City. Another thing is that this version of Gotham obeys more physical and chemical laws as we understand them. A grapple gun will jam if not made well, people don’t mutate into superstrong creatures or criminal masterminds, and if a guy falls off a building, he’s going to hurt on the way down, even if he’s wearing a cape. This Batman isn’t a genius strategist, and when he gets into a fight, he takes damage. This makes for a flawed Caped Crusader, but one that you feel for more.

Hero Worship 1 (Penn/ Murphy): Everyone’s had this dream at some point: while on a tour to see the greatest celebrity working, you get pulled out of the crowd to fill in some bit role, and become a star yourself. That’s the set-up for this story, mashing it up with superpowers and a pinch of global industrial conspiracy.

Adam Robeson is the kind of kid who would bleed average if you poked him. He likes girls, he loves the internet, he doesn’t like being at home. When he is selected to go on an all-expenses paid trip to see the headquarters of the world’s only active superhero, he’s ready to accept it’ll be the moment his life peaks. The premise isn’t new, and there aren’t any risks taken in the telling.

For all that, the execution is solid. The pacing is smart, subtle clues point to Adam having the attitude of someone that could be a hero, and the dialogue doesn’t come off as under- or over-written. Penn’s a screenwriter that’s had a hand in several recent superhero movies, so it’d be a shame if he couldn’t put a story together. Scott Murphy’s art brings a realism to the project as well, grounding it a bit.

Infernal Man-Thing 1 of 3 (Gerber/ Nowlan): The first thing I wondered about this title is “Are they trying to trump Giant-Size Man-Thing for double-entendre potential?” A few pages will reveal that while this COULD be the case, there is more to it than that.

Man-Thing, the empathic bog monster, is dying slowly and painfully. Someone he saved long ago may be the cause; he may be the solution, too. Many parts of the book reference an issue that came out in the 70s, and for those of us whose memories don’t go back that far, a reprint of that issue follows the new story. Two comics for the price of one isn’t bad.

Part memorial piece, part sequel, this continues one of the late Steve Gerber’s most popular Man-Thing stories. It’s one he completed his work on years ago, but he died before it was ready for publication. The results are surreal, haunting, and incredible to look at.

Amazing Spider-Man 689 (Slott/ Camuncoli): I’m not sure if anyone’s heard, but there’s a movie coming out this week. It’s about a young man who wears red and blue tights that fights a big green guy with scales who used to be a smaller white guy without scales or a right arm. This is NOT the comic book version of this movie - for one thing, this book has a vampire, as is now required of every book ever.

The heart of this story is Nature vs. Nurture. Morbius the Living Vampire (just go with it...) believes both he and Curt Connors, the Lizard, suffer from a lack of empathy leading to their violent behaviors because they were transformed into inhuman creatures. He convinces everyone that if they’re cured, they’ll go back to being better people. Spider-Man argues that some experiences change you, no matter what your shape is, and that since the Lizard ate Connors’ son, there’s nothing human left. At this point in the story, there’s nothing certain yet, but it looks like Spider-Man’s right, however he’s too distracted to do much about it.

There are some fairly intense themes playing out in this, and it becomes clear that Spider-Man’s starting to crack a bit due to the weight. The art has some John Romita Sr. flavor to it, and it works well. If you’re looking for something to go with your theater experience, this will satisfy most, but younger readers may not be ready for it.

That’s all for this week! Please, when setting off explosives of any kind, follow all safety procedures, keep a fire extinguisher handy, and if you don’t, post what happens on YouTube so others may learn from your mistakes or add hilarious audio commentary.

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