Comic Reviews – 15/4

Apologies in advance for the rather DC-centric feel this week. I didn’t pick up many books and the few that I did bring home were all from DC. I’ll make it up to you with an all-Marvel or all-Image week soon…

The Flash 1

This re-launch of the Flash title, the third such attempt in the last 5 years, has the returning Barry Allen in the driver’s seat. Barry was arguably comicdom’s first saint, having willingly sacrificed his life to save the universe in DC’s 1985 mega-crossover “Crisis on Infinite Earths”. DC have seen fit to resurrect a character who, to me at least, was far more interesting as an icon and legend for others to live up to than as a character in his own right. To me, Barry Allen holds no lure and the DC editorial attitude towards the other characters who populated the Flash universe in the 25 years since Barry’s death is a rather dismissive “Barry is the Flash, if you want to read about the Flash, you’ll be reading Barry Allen”

ANYWAY, my personal annoyance aside, what did I think of the issue? I liked the art from Francis Manapul but it’s quite different to the style he used on Legion of Super-Heroes a year or two back. He’s done the art entirely himself so there’s a very soft, pencilled feel to everything, not a lot of heavy inking. Colouring has always been key to the Flash title and this still needs some work. it’s a little too soft and washed out, almost. Shame as there’s potential for some really great pages from Manapul on this title.

Geoff Johns, DC’s go-to guy for re-launches and sales figures, is hoping he can emulate the critical success his previous Flash work garnered and outstrip it in terms of sales by quite some way. I do get the feeling of “Seen it all before” with the book. Not really due to the plotting itself, more the manner of Barry’s return and the way ahead for him. I suspect this will follow the Green Lantern formula that Johns pulled off so well; main title, supporting book for the 2nd tier characters in the franchise, eventual crossover for the two books as part of a franchise-centric event…

As an introductory issue, this doesn’t work. There’s no re-cap of Barry’s origin or background, no mention of the other speedsters of the DCU and no real explanation of why he does what he does. Assuming your readers are up to speed, pardon the pun, is lazy especially with a first issue. Bad form, DC, Bad form.

Brightest Day 0

Spinning straight out of the recently concluded Blackest Night mini, Brightest Day is a fortnightly book looking at the 12 characters resurrected, seemingly at random, at the end of Blackest Night. While the Un-deadly Dozen don’t interact much with each other, one of the returning heroes, Deadman (Got to think of a new name for him now) finds himself visiting each of the others, observing them in a ghostly form. It’s a nice issue, with Fernando Pasarin’s art being similar enough to Ivan Reis, that it does feel like a continuation of Blackest Night.

The issue is pure set-up, showing us what the returnees are doing, where they are, physically and mentally, and giving us hints of stories to come. Because there’re so many threads in the book, some are more interesting than others. I can’t say I care for Firestorm, Captain Boomerang, Hawk or Aquaman’s stories so far. Wait and see, I guess.

The segment I found the most intriguing was the part with Maxwell Lord, a mind controlling sociopath who wants to save us all from superpowered beings, whether we want him to or not. He tries to use his mental powers on a huge scale, seeking to erase the world’s memories of him and the things he did in the years prior to his death. As Max comes from the hallowed period of justice League history that featured Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Guy Gardner et al, I’m in this for the long haul.

Booster Gold 31

Dan Jurgens signs off on his most recent turn at steering the adventures of his signature character. Booster Gold is the timecop of the DC Universe. Using his initial demeanour of being a purely financially motivated bozo to his advantage, Booster patrols time and prevents anyone attempting to change the past or even try to create particular futures.

Jurgens came onto the book after a run by Geoff Johns (Yes, him again…) and never really matched the same pace. No slight to Dan, his arcs have been functional, if a little unspectacular. His art is still the same Jurgens style that made him such a hit on Superman back in the 90s, great for splash pages and covers but somehow high velocity motion isn’t communicated as effectively as it could be.

This issue serves as a coda to Jurgens’ run and wraps up most of the loose ends, giving Booster some detente with his sister and reaching an understanding with Rip Hunter, his time travelling boss. These character moments come against the backdrop of Booster stopping a gang of heavily armed robbers and an unexpected casualty of the fight. By the end of the issue, Rip has helped Booster prevent the death, giving the issue a neat “happy” ending of sorts.

One moment that does stand out is a brief mention by Booster of a plot point in the (Bloody fantastic) Formerly Known As The Justice League mini-series. In that series, Booster was married to an older woman called Gladys in order to have a comfortable life, albeit one where he had to wear his costume while performing his duties, as it were. Now, in the context of that series, that moment was funny, a little wrong and what you’d expect from Giffen & DeMatteis. Jurgens carries some pent-up anger at them for the way they handled his creation and that he’s being taken off the current book so they can take over. Booster mentions Gladys and writes it off as a prank he played on Blue Beetle. Really? That’s what you do? belittle another writer’s work by pretending it didn’t happen? For shame…

Secret Six 20

I love this book. Really love it. Gail Simone’s dysfunctional band of anti-heroes have a bit of internal strife as Catman’s infant son is threatened and he goes off the reservation to get him back.

The dialogue in this book and interplay between the members of the Six is the reason why this book is always top of my reading pile. Deadshot and Catman have a great relationship. They act like they don’t care for one another but continue to watch each other’s back and keep them out of trouble. Bane, no longer the ’roid-raging Bat-spine surgeon, has a protective father/daughter relationship with Scandal who can’t believe A) how he talks to her or B) that she lets him get away with it. Ragdoll still manages to get the best lines though. As a surgically tidied-up (I’m being polite…) contortionist with severe deviancy issues, he shouldn’t be funny. He really shouldn’t, but he continues to lighten the mood with inappropriate comments at the worst time. I can relate to that.

As Catman goes on his rescue/revenge mission, Bane insists that the team continue to fulfil their contracts. Scandal, Deadshot and Ragdoll refuse, saying that Catman needs them more than their clients. With the team split in two, Deadshot admits that the reason he wants to help Catman is that while he has done bad things before, Catman has never crossed that last line of deliberately and wilfully killing someone, just to see them suffer. Deadshot wants to save his friend from that.

While the uber-awesome (look her up, she was a supermodel AND draws comics, it’s like Weird Science and someone made the ideal woman!) Nicola Scott was the artist on the book originally, her shoes are being filled by Jim Calafiore at the moment. Catman is starting to look more and more like Josh Holloway, maybe it’s just Calafiore’s art but I swear I can almost hear him saying “son of a bitch…”

Read this book, it’s a guilty pleasure of sorts, seeing as how the “heroes” are all extremely violent people who’ve killed before and probably will again, yet the fact remains that this book has more characterisation, better dialogue and more action than most books currently out there. It’s a mask’n’capes version of Andy Diggle’s excellent The Losers.