Yo, yo, Yoda!

You know, week in and week out I take a bullet right in my bank account for you, my loyal readers.  It’s true.  Every week I go in to my local comic book store (Comic Cellar, off of Myrtle Avenue in Monrovia, CA) and I pick up a lot of books I don’t normally read…and, inevitably, I wind up picking up a number of books I know in advance are going to suck ass.  That’s right, I waste my money so you don’t have to.

Let’s take a look at what is in this week’s buy pile:

1. Brave and the Bold #12
2. Legacy of Doom #1
3. Captain Action #0
4. Superman #675
5. Dream War #1
6. Captain America #37
7. Wonderlost #2

Definitely a mixed bag for me this week.

First up is Brave and the Bold #12, by Mark Waid and Jerry Ordway.  I’ve been following the story arc in Brave and the Bold since issue 1 and I have to say I am more than a bit let down by the ending.  In fact, in spite of some simply great artwork by Jerry Ordway and George Perez, the entire run has been crappy.  For the ending we get in issue 12, this story arc should have run 3 or 4 issues at the very most.  What’s worse is the story ends on a cliffhanger, leading in to the upcoming Final Crisis series.  I feel like I spending almost $40 on what amounts to an advertisement for DC’s latest mega crossover event.  Definitely a bit of a rip-off and it is a shame to see Mark Waid participating in something like this. 

Terrible.

Terrible.

Terrible.

Well, at least Jerry Ordway’s art is still as great as ever.  It’s a shame he was given such shit to work with.

Next up is Ironman: Legacy of Doom #1, reuniting the old Future Comics team of David Michelinie, Bob Layton and Ron Lim.  I feel bad about saying this because I’m a huge fan of every one of the creators — heck, meeting Bob Layton at a comic convention when I was a kid was one of the biggest influences on me eventually becoming a comic book artists:  but I am torn on this book.  The story actually seems a bit weak to me.  First off, it continues comic’s latest trend of making Tony Stark into an idiot with no common sense.  In fact, the entire premise of the book is more than a bit silly.  (Spoiler Warning) The whole “Mephisto building a manager’s office in hell to imprision Tony Stark in” thing is just plain silly…and not in a good way. 

I love Ron Lim’s art and with him on board it has the feel of an early 90s comic…unfortunately, it’s a bad 80s comic.  I’m bummed out by Ironman: Legacy of Doom #1 because I really wanted to like it.  I’ll probably pick up the next issue.  Beyond that I can’t say.

Third on the list is Captain Action #0 from Moonstone, by Fabian Nicieza and Mark Sparacio.  From what I remember, this book was part of a contest Moonstone held last year in an attempt to re-invent Captain Action as a comic book.  They put word out to every writer on the internet to send in their ideas for the book.  The winning concept was created by Marvel Comics veteran, Fabian Nicieza.

Anyway, the first thing I want to say about Captain Action #0 is that it is a very short book - about 13 pages of story.  I almost feel like this should have been a give away comic because it feels a bit light for something priced at $1.99.  It should have been .99 cents at most.  This feels like the case of a company exploiting an older market with a larger disposable income.  I won’t say it was a rip off.  I will say that my ass hurts from the monetary raping, tho.

With the very short story, it’s tough to say what the feel of the book is going to be or how it will play out.  I am a bit surprised at the superhero spin on the book versus the “super spy” flavor of the old Captain Action toys (yes, I know he had a superhero storyline in the late 60s DC Comics version).  It doesn’t seem to click, at least for me.  All that being said, I’ll be picking up the next issue, if only for the excellent artwork by Mark Sparacio…even the coloring by James Brown was well done.  Here’s hoping they come up with much more sane pricing for the first issue.

Fourth up is Superman #675 by Kurt Busiek and Renato Guedes.  I am not a regular reader of the Superman series, but I do pick it up a few times a year to check out what’s going on with old Supes.  This book didn’t work at all for me.  To me it was the case of a writer try to do whatever he could to stretch 20 pages of material to fill out a 48 page book.  Nothing about this story was big enough or worthwhile enough to have it fill out a double-sized issue.  It was all very pointless, and Busiek had both Superman and the Paragon character (who I’d never heard of before, but who has one of the worst costumes I’ve seen in a long time — it reminds me of something out of the old Continuity Comics by Neal Adams).

And I want to mention something that, as a comic nerd, really annoyed me: Paragon’s use of lead against the Daxamites.  Well, not so much his “use” of the lead as to the results.  Lead bullets should have bounced off of a Daxamite — their skin is still super dense the way Superman’s is — and lead bullets wouldn’t be able to tear through them like they would a normal person.  I know I’m nitpicking and nerding out…it just pissed me off.  I don’t know what has happened to Busiek’s writing but it seems to have gone to hell since his move to DC.

A little something called Dream War #1 by Keith Giffen, Lee Garbett and Trevor Scott is next in the pile.  Now that I think of it, describing the book as a “pile” works well too.  This is a crossover between the DC and Wildstorm universes — just what comics needs, another crossover.  The art in this book is some of the worst I’ve seen in a comic book since Rob Liefeld was publishing comics as Extreme Studios.  The work by Garbett and Scott is a perfect example of the hacked out work of high school students which made up much of the 90s and Image comics.  It reminded me of very bad Jim Lee artwork — or the early artwork of Travis Charest on Darkstars…something I’m sure he wishes we’d forget. 

Even the story by normally fine author, Keith Giffen, is hackneyed at best.  It shows us something we’ve seen in almost every other inter-company crossover — team from Company A pops up in the World of Company B and they fight.  That’s a dead on accurate retelling of the story in Dream War #1.  What’s worse is that Giffen seems to have forgotten (or completely ignored) proper story structure and doesn’t give us any clue or indication of what is going on.  Give us some sort of story behind what’s going on…even if you’re writing for eventual trade paperback compilation, you still need build a proper story.  What we’ve got here is about 8 pages worth of a story padded out to fill an issue.  This issue gets my “wipe your ass with it” award of the week. 

While I was in line to check out at the comic shop today, I looked on the counter and saw a batch of comic “recommendations” by the various employees of the shop.  Chit-chatting with the cashier (whose name is Tom), I asked what he’d recommend I get.  Without thinking twice he said “Captain America is one of the best books out right now.”  So I grabbed a copy from the counter and said I’d take it.  He looked at me a bit dumbfounded and stammered out, “umm…but…well, it’s in the middle of a story line and you won’t be able to understand it.” 

I went ahead and bought the book, just so I could tell that story.  Poor Tom has unwittingly revealed one of the biggest problems with comics today…well, two of them.  First off, sales technique is completely unknown in comic retail.  Why the clerk recommened I buy something and then turn around and tell me I should read it because a new reader won’t understand it completely baffled me. 

The second problem is that a large number of the mainstream books are completely inaccessible to new readers.  I realize no one is actually writing for singles release any more and that it is all about trade paperbacks.  What that does, tho, is to completely kill the monthly comic itself.  I’m not even sure why Marvel or DC are even putting out monthlies anymore…oh, yeah, it’s because they like the extra cash they taken in from their readers who are stupid enough to buy a story twice.  Lucky for them, most of their readers are stupid enough to do that.  Comics need to address the fact that some readers will only pick up a book from time to time and they need to hire writers competent enough to recap what has gone before in a way that is inobtrusive to both monthly and trade paperback readers.  How else will the industry attract new readers?

Oh, I forgot to talk about Captain America #37.  The funny thing is, the book was easily readable by someone who hadn’t read Captain America in a while.  Ed Brubaker did an excellent job in laying out everything a new reader needs to know, while still keeping his story moving at a decent pace.  The downside to the book, surprisingly enough, was the art by Steve Epting.  His work is looking more and more photo “referenced” than ever, with the figures very stiff, lots of strange and distracting shadowed areas, and all of the characters being unrecognizable out of costume.  You know, I’d like to see a better artist on this book but I will be checking out the next issue.  Thanks for the recommendation, Tom!

I saved the best for last with Wonderlost #2 by C.B Cebulski and a squadron of artists.  While I missed out on Wonderlost #1, you don’t need to have read it to enjoy the second issue.  The book an autobiographical anthology of stories based on Cebulski’s life…most of them about him either getting drunk or getting laid.  Or both.  I totally loved this book.  The artwork was all great and Cebluski’s story telling is some of the best around. 

If you love slice of life books, miss Strangers in Paradise, or enjoy a good story about a guy out trying to “get some,” then Wonderlost should be at the top of your list.  Check it out.

That’s it for this episode of “Comics That Piss Me Off.”  Regular readers will probably notice the usual video missing from the top of the post.  My computer ate it while I was editing, so I’ll have to reshoot it tomorrow when I have more time.  Effing Computers!

-Mat N., the Nifty Nerd
http://www.TheNiftyNerd.com