Movies and Comics – I Will Try To Fix You With Comics Edition
BATMAN: SON OF THE DEMON by Mike W Barr and Jerry Bingham DC Graphic Novel Grade: B
Mark Hamill delivering the introduction to a book published in 1987 amuses me as it was 5 years later before he would become an integral part of Batman, voicing Joker in the classic animated series. I think I read this 10 years ago and didn’t care for it. But since then, two things happened which inspired me to give it another shot:
· Batman’s child was reworked back into continuity (despite Grant Morrison stating he didn’t read SOTD before writing the origin of Damian Wayne).
· I saw the last installment of the Dark Knight Trilogy and was underwhelmed.
This is a story of Batman’s partnership with Ra’s al Ghul and his daughter Talia. Basically they form an unsteady alliance to take down a terrorist and his weather machine. It’s as silly as it sounds, but I’ll admit, I’ve never read a Batman story where so much happens in just 78 pages. It’s a lot to swallow that Batman would give up crime fighting upon learning his wife is pregnant, and then ditches her after she fakes a miscarriage. If anyone takes a backseat, it’s Ra’s al Ghul. Ra’s seems way too forgiving here, and he nearly gets his butt kicked before Batman bails him out. No one wants to see Ra’s be anything else other than a complete bad ass.
If there’s a reason to recommend the book, it’s the art. Bingham penciled, inked, and colored this story and it’s fantastic. I‘ll have to remember Bingham because other than some Superman stories, I’m not too familiar with the guy. ___________________________________________________________________________
ALAN MOORE: WILD WORLDS DC/WILDSTORM by Alan Moore - TPB Grade: B
DC released this collection shortly after Moore completed his strong ABC run and walked away from their Wildstorm imprint. Surely no one who purchases this trade is expecting the quality of Top 10 or Promethea. Moore created the ABC sandboxes from scratch (except League of Extraordinary Gentlemen???), worked with better artists at ABC, and "Wild Worlds" is certainly not up to such hight standards. But I disagree with anyone who says Moore "mails this in". Are these more mainstream adventures than what we expect from Moore? Absolutely. But there is still great wickedness on display here.
In his WildC.A.T.S./Spawn crossover the main characters meet, fight each other, then fight the bad guy. That’s pretty standard, and if Moore had pitched anything else in doing a WildC.A.T.S./Spawn crossover the book would’ve never seen print. And I certainly disagree with the Goodreads' reviewer who typed in the single word critique of "retarded". I'm curious why someone with such an active vocabulary would waste any time not posting comments on You Tube.
The WildC.A.T.S./Spawn adventure feels much like a 90's era Age of Apocalypse tale. Paradox alert: Spawn is both the main villain AND a member of the invasion party, so there are some trippy time travel elements at play here. And I forgot the obvious rule that if a new character conceals their identity, there will be a earth shattering reveal in the last act.
He’s not reinventing comics with this one, folks. Moore is throwing a smackdown, and anybody expecting otherwise should cool their expectations a bit. I thought the crossover was a lot of fun, however.
The Voodoo story is challenging initially. At first it plays like an exploitation picture, with the casual use of the N-word and several women being referred to as "bitches" And then that tone is shattered by beautiful interruptions of crackerjack prose when Moore introduces his godlings. To top if off is a stripper, who was superhero in a former life, and there’s never any attempt to explain her motivation for going X-rated. Obviously there are misogynist elements but nothing as offensive as a typical Garth Ennis comic.
This is about an empowered, sexy woman, who cuts loose and faces down the devil in a wild finale. There’s no real scorekeeping as our entire cast transform into magic-washed marionettes, and parade through a battleground that is literally half church/half strip club.
This is what happens when Moore produces a drive-in movie comic, Roger Corman by way of Anne Rice. I'm more than okay with that.
The chapter dedicated to Deathblow is perhaps the wildest read in the collection. The title character awakens as a woman in a barely inhabited world. She soon discovers she is only one version of Deathblow, and the surrounding world is a deathmatch arena with the "Deathblow" identity on the line.
The Mister Majestic one shot didn't do much for me, but I will confess I'm not too familiar with the character. Majestic is winding down and saying his goodbyes as the universe snuffs out. The WildC.A.T.S.stand alone that closes the book is saved entirely by the artist but I had trouble remembering exactly what happened one day later. Minor complaints for two stories which take up very little space in the book. DC could have omitted them entirely and shaved a buck off of the price.__________________________________________________________________________
THE CAPE by Joe Hill (story),Jason Ciaramella (writer) ,Zach Howard (penciler) TPB -Grade A+
This is a horror story which I initially balked at and dismissed as just another supes’ origin story. Also the fact that NBC produced a miniseries with the title didn't do it any favors. But there’s nothing ready for network primetime here. It’s not safe, and the protagonist who wears the magic cape just happens to be a sociopath.
The story’s inspiration seems to unfold from the urban myth of the hoodrat who ties a beach towel around his neck and takes a fatal leap from his two story rooftop. One such child survives his brush with death but never matures into a responsible adult. This is the “what if” story of “what if” Superman was a major jerk and took what he wanted all the time. And didn’t care about anyone.
It’s a quick read and avoids familiarity by strapping us to the back of such a demented wild card. And the art by Zach Howard is delish. Take a look at this:
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BLUE ESTATE VOLUME 1 - By Viktor Kalvachev and various - TPB - Image Comics - Grade B+ Yes, the quotes on the back cover compare it to Tarantino, and maybe one day we'll stop doing that for every new crime comedy. But it's appropriate here because it suffers from some of Quentin's faults; the zingy pop culture references and an overpopulation of hip, seedy characters. Introducing this many colorful junkies & thieves within a modest four issue framework is, of course, overwhelming, and the writer never gets around to an actual story before his camera swings around to another crew, as we bob & sway through the surf guitar tracklist, and we transition from penciler to penciler.
But I am recommending it without reservation because I WAS entertained and BLUE ESTATE is unlike most current books, even the indies. It's perverse and Kalvachev's creative design is a punked out tribute to pulp fiction (the genre, not the movie- though Hell, it's pretty much that too. There's a Travolta stand-in who's suggested to have intercourse with a Samuel L. Jackson stand-in). It's very similar to 100 BULLETS without the conspiratorial nervous system, or STRAY BULLETS minus the blender narrative (though we do flash back then forward a few times).
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BATMAN: EARTH ONE - By Geoff Johns & Gary Frank - Graphic Novel - DC - Grade B+ First I want to recognize what an improvement I thought this was over SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE, a book where the revamping of an origin mostly felt uninspired. It was rumored that these books (and the ALL STAR books prior) would be DC's version of Marvel's "Ultimate" brand, a streamlining of a universe to make franchise characters more "newbie" friendly and uncluttered from continuity. For the most part DC succeeds here, with Alfred Pennyworth landing the biggest transformation. Taking a queue from the recent Bat-Movies and the brilliant characterization by Michael Caine; Alfred is no one's manservant but rather a scarred veteran owing a debt to Bruce Wayne's father. It's suggested at the end that everything young Bruce knows about tracking & dismantling monsters is honed from the skills Pennyworth brought back from his war.
Is EARTH ONE needed? Probably not. It borrows too heavily from Batman: Year One yet misfires in remaking Jim Gordon a whelp to Gotham's corruption. And I initially hated John's new narcissistic, celebrity cop Harvey Dent, but must admit I'm intrigued by Dent's final scene. Also Oswald "Penguin" Cobblepott is completely wasted as Gotham's Mayor (the offscreen mayor is an evildoer we learn at the beginning but it's disclosed he's Cobblepott in the climax, right before his demise. So what's the point burning an A-list villain?).
Gary Frank's art is solid as ever. Wonderful facial expressions and actions scenes throughout. I have no problem recommending such a nice looking book.
- Dale Beggars
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