August is here. At least that’s what my phone tells me, my own concept of time varies depending on how much light is in the room, to say nothing of where our part of the Earth is in position to the sun. I know that at some point when there’s not much light, I go to bed, and when there’s more light I wake up and have to clean up whatever mess I made the last time I was awake. It’s fun.
This week, we look at one book ending and three more beginning. A busy week when you get right down to it, and thus so shall we.
Helheim 6 (Bunn/ Jones): The viking supernatural thriller from Oni Press concludes its first chapter this week by killing just about every main character there is. For some, death is pretty final, but this is comics. Comics never say die.
Rikard, the warrior-turned-undead-hybrid that’s being held together with string and community anger, finally gets his confrontation with his wife-turned-creator, with a small viking horde at his back. The viking horde can't fight much since the force they're up against is non-corporeal. The nameless little girl tagging along with these monsters and fighters finally gets into the action, and accounts are just about all settled.
Truth of the matter is I’m a bit disappointed in this series. For one thing, the closest anyone came to having a character arc is the homunculus that’s maybe 60% human. That arc was Rikard's concluding that he was used in a harmful way - his physical self underwent way more change, and scars do not a storyline make. The resolution of the book puts it firmly in the “tragedy” category, especially when you consider this particular viking tribe was dead once their women and children were killed issues ago. That’d be one thing if, by the loss of this tribe, a violent form of necromancy also left the world, but it didn’t. Tragedy works best when it hits characters the audience cares about, characters that matter to the state of the world. It’s harder for the audience to care about a failed colony of scared people that just wanted to survive another winter, and that sad truth makes the tragedy about the audience. And that’s a bit disappointing.
Helheim has the chance to come back from the dead with a new run, they’ve said as much. I don’t think it’s earned a resurrection.
Burn the Orphanage 1 of 3 (Grace/ Freedman): I was very excited to see this hit the shelves - I mean I know how I would burn down an orphanage, but I’m always open for new techniques. Of course, I opened the book and remembered that this was an action-revenge story and that burning orphanages is wrong. Maybe or maybe not in that order.
Rock’s an orphan. He grew up in an orphanage. He didn’t get along with everyone, but he made some close friends. None of them were happy when their orphanage got burned to the ground. So they beat up people until they figure out which person started the fire. When they find him, they beat him up more. That’s their day.
There hasn’t been a full-color comic that’s been this black-and-white in a long time. A rich guy commits a little arson to be petty, and a few people that aren’t rich notice something bad happened and decide to make sure he’s punished for it. There’s not much more cut-and-dried than that. The art’s not much deeper, but it complements the writing well. The odd thing is that a whole story got told in 22 pages, so it’s hard to even guess what kind of story’s going to be told in the next 44. Maybe there are more orphanages sitting there all flammable.
Anyone needing a break from the ever-darkening gray morality in mainstream comics will find a vacation spot in Burn the Orphanage.
Sidekick 1 (Straczynski/ Mandrake): Now if infinite shades of gray is more your cup of tea in comics, this is what you want to pay attention to. While the title is a reference to the word for an assisting character that contributes little, I think it’s more accurate to say this book takes what you’d assume and kicks it in the side of its head.
Flyboy was a sidekick, and proud of it. He loved stopping bad guys doing bad things, he loved being best friends with Red Cowl, one of the most popular and powerful heroes around, and he loved every time he got to use his flying powers and make them stronger. He didn’t love it when someone got on top of a book depository and shot his friend in the chest. This JFK-Captain America-style assassination blend is left to play out for a few years, none of which have been kind to Flyboy, who swore to avenge his fallen comrade and has nothing to show for it. Nobody wants to associate with the fledgling hero that got his sponsor killed, even if there was nothing he could have done. Part of him thinks he deserves the suffering. At least two people know he doesn’t.
Anyone who has read JMS’s superhero comics know they’re getting into some edgy stuff, especially when the superheroes he’s writing about are his own and has no obligation to keep them intact. This is the same writer that gave us Rising Stars, in which all superheroes were a self-perpetuating cosmic energy source that planted itself in human fetuses. He patched up Mary-Jane Watson and Peter Parker. The man knows how to twist a plot, and he has a blank slate with no limits here. It’s a bit early to say where things will go from here, but it’s already an intense read. Mandrake’s art makes me think of a younger, tamer Neal Adams, but while he’s matching the story well, the talent isn’t as strong.
Sidekick is off to a strong start. Grab a copy and see what it’s like when I’m right.
Trillium 1 (Jeff Lemire): Last we heard from Jeff Lemire, he was telling us the story of a tasty human hybrid that was so nice, no one could bring themselves to eat him. Not that I’ve ever run into that particular moral quandary, but it made for a successful book, anyway. This book is sort of food-focused as well, only this time the food isn’t trying to keep itself from being eaten. It could save the human species, all 4,000 remaining members.
This issue is split into two parts that meets in the middle. You’ll have to go with me on this, just let me assure you that there’s no wrong place to start - if you’re one of those readers that just has to read the last page first, you’ve been outsmarted. One part follows William, a soldier that survived his war but couldn’t live in peacetime, so he signed on with an expedition into an unfriendly jungle. He survives that experience in much the same way he survived the war, only instead of getting to a nearby foxhole, he finds an ancient temple with a strange figure approaching him. The other part takes place about two millennia in the future and follows Nika, a young xenosociologist negotiating with an alien race to pick a few flowers. See, humanity is being wiped out by a thinking virus, and the only thing they’ve found that can offer strong resistance is this one plant that only grows inside the walls of the alien’s city, whose natives don’t speak humanity’s language. The flower, along with being humanity’s key to survival, is also a bit like peyote, and when Nika wakes up from her sanctioned sample, she sees a strange figure approaching her.
This issue accomplishes something I didn’t think could exist - straightforward surrealism. It takes completely disconnected things and links them up. It shows how far apart things are that we take for granted as being basically identical. It suggests a kind of evolution of human society that challenges Star Trek as far as saying people could become a race of beings that respect each other and other species even in their most desperate times. It’s sad and uplifting at the same time. There are a lot of contradictions in this book, but considering you have to literally turn it upside down to read the whole thing, that shouldn’t be surprising.
Lemire has started something beautiful here, and while his regular audience would say that’s not surprising, new readers should take a look at this as well. I like where this is headed.
Thanks for reading, everyone! We’ll be back next week with the usual comic reviews, but a quick question - would any of our readers be interested in a special edition update regarding GenCon? If our gaming guru has the gonads, he could try his hand at reviewing some of the new and updated games that are featured next weekend! Think about it...
This week, we look at one book ending and three more beginning. A busy week when you get right down to it, and thus so shall we.
Helheim 6 (Bunn/ Jones): The viking supernatural thriller from Oni Press concludes its first chapter this week by killing just about every main character there is. For some, death is pretty final, but this is comics. Comics never say die.
Rikard, the warrior-turned-undead-hybrid that’s being held together with string and community anger, finally gets his confrontation with his wife-turned-creator, with a small viking horde at his back. The viking horde can't fight much since the force they're up against is non-corporeal. The nameless little girl tagging along with these monsters and fighters finally gets into the action, and accounts are just about all settled.
Truth of the matter is I’m a bit disappointed in this series. For one thing, the closest anyone came to having a character arc is the homunculus that’s maybe 60% human. That arc was Rikard's concluding that he was used in a harmful way - his physical self underwent way more change, and scars do not a storyline make. The resolution of the book puts it firmly in the “tragedy” category, especially when you consider this particular viking tribe was dead once their women and children were killed issues ago. That’d be one thing if, by the loss of this tribe, a violent form of necromancy also left the world, but it didn’t. Tragedy works best when it hits characters the audience cares about, characters that matter to the state of the world. It’s harder for the audience to care about a failed colony of scared people that just wanted to survive another winter, and that sad truth makes the tragedy about the audience. And that’s a bit disappointing.
Helheim has the chance to come back from the dead with a new run, they’ve said as much. I don’t think it’s earned a resurrection.
Burn the Orphanage 1 of 3 (Grace/ Freedman): I was very excited to see this hit the shelves - I mean I know how I would burn down an orphanage, but I’m always open for new techniques. Of course, I opened the book and remembered that this was an action-revenge story and that burning orphanages is wrong. Maybe or maybe not in that order.
Rock’s an orphan. He grew up in an orphanage. He didn’t get along with everyone, but he made some close friends. None of them were happy when their orphanage got burned to the ground. So they beat up people until they figure out which person started the fire. When they find him, they beat him up more. That’s their day.
There hasn’t been a full-color comic that’s been this black-and-white in a long time. A rich guy commits a little arson to be petty, and a few people that aren’t rich notice something bad happened and decide to make sure he’s punished for it. There’s not much more cut-and-dried than that. The art’s not much deeper, but it complements the writing well. The odd thing is that a whole story got told in 22 pages, so it’s hard to even guess what kind of story’s going to be told in the next 44. Maybe there are more orphanages sitting there all flammable.
Anyone needing a break from the ever-darkening gray morality in mainstream comics will find a vacation spot in Burn the Orphanage.
Sidekick 1 (Straczynski/ Mandrake): Now if infinite shades of gray is more your cup of tea in comics, this is what you want to pay attention to. While the title is a reference to the word for an assisting character that contributes little, I think it’s more accurate to say this book takes what you’d assume and kicks it in the side of its head.
Flyboy was a sidekick, and proud of it. He loved stopping bad guys doing bad things, he loved being best friends with Red Cowl, one of the most popular and powerful heroes around, and he loved every time he got to use his flying powers and make them stronger. He didn’t love it when someone got on top of a book depository and shot his friend in the chest. This JFK-Captain America-style assassination blend is left to play out for a few years, none of which have been kind to Flyboy, who swore to avenge his fallen comrade and has nothing to show for it. Nobody wants to associate with the fledgling hero that got his sponsor killed, even if there was nothing he could have done. Part of him thinks he deserves the suffering. At least two people know he doesn’t.
Anyone who has read JMS’s superhero comics know they’re getting into some edgy stuff, especially when the superheroes he’s writing about are his own and has no obligation to keep them intact. This is the same writer that gave us Rising Stars, in which all superheroes were a self-perpetuating cosmic energy source that planted itself in human fetuses. He patched up Mary-Jane Watson and Peter Parker. The man knows how to twist a plot, and he has a blank slate with no limits here. It’s a bit early to say where things will go from here, but it’s already an intense read. Mandrake’s art makes me think of a younger, tamer Neal Adams, but while he’s matching the story well, the talent isn’t as strong.
Sidekick is off to a strong start. Grab a copy and see what it’s like when I’m right.
Trillium 1 (Jeff Lemire): Last we heard from Jeff Lemire, he was telling us the story of a tasty human hybrid that was so nice, no one could bring themselves to eat him. Not that I’ve ever run into that particular moral quandary, but it made for a successful book, anyway. This book is sort of food-focused as well, only this time the food isn’t trying to keep itself from being eaten. It could save the human species, all 4,000 remaining members.
This issue is split into two parts that meets in the middle. You’ll have to go with me on this, just let me assure you that there’s no wrong place to start - if you’re one of those readers that just has to read the last page first, you’ve been outsmarted. One part follows William, a soldier that survived his war but couldn’t live in peacetime, so he signed on with an expedition into an unfriendly jungle. He survives that experience in much the same way he survived the war, only instead of getting to a nearby foxhole, he finds an ancient temple with a strange figure approaching him. The other part takes place about two millennia in the future and follows Nika, a young xenosociologist negotiating with an alien race to pick a few flowers. See, humanity is being wiped out by a thinking virus, and the only thing they’ve found that can offer strong resistance is this one plant that only grows inside the walls of the alien’s city, whose natives don’t speak humanity’s language. The flower, along with being humanity’s key to survival, is also a bit like peyote, and when Nika wakes up from her sanctioned sample, she sees a strange figure approaching her.
This issue accomplishes something I didn’t think could exist - straightforward surrealism. It takes completely disconnected things and links them up. It shows how far apart things are that we take for granted as being basically identical. It suggests a kind of evolution of human society that challenges Star Trek as far as saying people could become a race of beings that respect each other and other species even in their most desperate times. It’s sad and uplifting at the same time. There are a lot of contradictions in this book, but considering you have to literally turn it upside down to read the whole thing, that shouldn’t be surprising.
Lemire has started something beautiful here, and while his regular audience would say that’s not surprising, new readers should take a look at this as well. I like where this is headed.
Thanks for reading, everyone! We’ll be back next week with the usual comic reviews, but a quick question - would any of our readers be interested in a special edition update regarding GenCon? If our gaming guru has the gonads, he could try his hand at reviewing some of the new and updated games that are featured next weekend! Think about it...
Looking for older Variant Coverage Blogs by Ryan Walsh for Comic Carnival? They're here:
No comments:
Post a Comment