Posts tagged comic books

The first Jeff Lemire comic I read was Essex County, his huge (and I mean huge) tribute to rural Canadian life. As a guy who grew up on the cusp of the community that Essex portrayed, I felt a little bit of attachment to it; in the long haul, it’s one of my favourite graphic novels to read start-to-finish,and I can definitely recommend it as essential Canadian lit.

Lemire’s style isn’t one I thought I’d end up liking, but now I have an appreciation for how much emotion he can pack into panels that are the opposite of sharp, clean lines. Below is my review for his earlier title, Lost Dogs, which I had a chance to pick up at TCAF 2012. Click the read more link to see it.

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I review comics for a living. As a result, I tend to read a lot of books that, if given the choice, I would avoid completely. They are books that do nothing for me, and usually receive the harsh end of the review stick in my writing.

Not DMZ.

DMZ is a comic book that just finished this year, after a six-year, seventy-two issue run; it featured the hypothetical situation that a second American Civil War had turned the island of Manhattan into a no-man’s land. 

While two armies were fighting over the land, there were still people living in the burnt-out husk of a city. These people had not made it out with the initial evacuation, stayed because they wanted to, or moved in with some hope that they could exploit the situation for personal gain.

People ran restaurant greenhouses and opened boutiques stocked with clothes stolen from racks in abandoned apartments. They defended their turf with violence and guns, learning that sometimes it was safer to depend on themselves. They still managed to be artistic, self-sufficient, and have culture.

Our hero, Matty Roth, wanted none of that. He just wanted to be a journalist. He would spend the next few years of his life reporting on the DMZ, learning the ways of its people and chasing that story. Along the way, however, he fell. He fell hard. 

Matty was corrupted by the power he received from the one man he thought could help the DMZ, and eventually, it ruined him. He couldn’t turn back.

While reading this story, writer Brian Wood quickly became one of my favourites because of the way he managed to turn one-off characters into light bulbs that illuminated the whole picture of the DMZ. 

Through reading about a DJ who dodges minefields on his way to a club, or a forty-something graffiti artist who only viewed his final work while being detained in a military helicopter, I understood the heart and spirit of the city. I understood the people who didn’t want to give up. I understood the people who just wanted to be free.

And frankly, that ability to make one-shot characters with no lasting impact on the main plot important amazed me. Matty Roth would never run across them in real life, apart from a faux “New York Times” published in issue twelve. This issue really stuck with me due to its construction, art style and purpose.

The issue is constructed like a real booklet that outlines maps, neighborhoods, interviews, talking heads and concepts. Learning “the anatomy of a street battle” or learning that people who ventured into the Empire State Building were never heard from again added character to the city without explicitly devoting too much time to the specifics.

Instead, when Wood comes back to them, issues later, a light goes on in our head that says “Man, I read about them back then and they sounded cool - this is 100 times better!”

That takes talent - the ability to plant a seed of an idea in a reader’s brain, have them forget about it, then have it bloom brilliantly later. 

By the end of the story, I’m not just reading about the DJ, Random Fire, or the artist, Decade Later. I’m living with them. I’m sharing the same vegan restaurants, or dodging the bombs raining down from both sides.

I’m huddled in a subway tunnel with them with the vain hope that the fighting will stop, we’ll be able to go home, and everything will be alright in the DMZ.

USA Today just announced that DC will be cancelling six titles after their eighth issue, which includes the following:

• Men Of War
• Mister Terrific
• O.M.A.C.
• Hawk And Dove
• Blackhawks
• Static Shock

This announcement doesn’t really surprise me, as most of these titles seemed destined for the chopping block due to poor sales and a lack of quality. I’ve only read three of the titles up there (Static, Mister Terrific, Blackhawks), so I can’t give full reviews, but here’s my thoughts.

Blackhawks

- This book had a very “GI Joe” feeling to it, which sadly included a lot of the throwaway characters without any solid development. 
- Like many New 52 titles, we were thrown into action without a chance to actually care about the people we were reading. Here’s a protip: if the first issue of the book closes with a “stunning murder!” cliffhanger, you are doing something wrong.
- The Blackhawks are an act based on Nostalgia: if you’re picking up the book you’re either looking for something completely new (and running into the problems above), or you’re looking for any similarity to the badasses of old. Sadly, that isn’t present here, which leads me to think they could have just made a leap of faith and used them as new IP.
- They had no relevance to the DC Universe. There was never any feeling (unlike with Secret Warriors/Avengers over at Marvel) that their action had some permanence or significance. There’s a number of DC books feel like they could be in their own imprint, instead of part of the universe proper.

Mister Terrific

- This book is possibly my biggest disappointment out of the New 52 (well, maybe besides the Gail Simone-helmed Batgirl). It took an awesome character with defining traits and turned him into a Black Reed Richards, dullness and all.
- Michael Holt was never about super science, but subtle science. He was an atheist while standing beside gods, and stuck to his guns. Medical emergency? Guy was there. Computer virus? Memetic villain? This guy’s your man. Time travel, teleportation and space adventures? Not exactly his forte.
- I’m not saying that that kind of comic scientist isn’t great, but it’s shit we’ve seen before. Michael’s old incarnation wasn’t. He was unique, and DC smeared some vaseline on him, gave him Karen Starr as a fuck-buddy and murdered someone in the first two issues (see above).

Static Shock

- This is perhaps the only surprising entry to this list of cancellations: I was under the impression that this book was at least the same quality as the surviving Blue Beetle. 
- Again, this book suffers from poor characterization and a rush to get to the action, leaving us to not care about the people we’re reading about. Static lost a lot of his “realness” as a teen hero, and a convoluted backstory (which is just being revealed now, four-five issues in) did not help him.
- He seems to be a know-it-all, well-funded super-genius, which, again, we have seen before. We didn’t see much interaction between Static and other teens except when he was in “stakeout” mode, and it just took away from the belief that he actually had a life when he wasn’t in the suit.
- The book was a terribly formulaic, poor attempt at replicating the “Spider-Man” success without any qualities for teen readers to identify with and latch onto. Villains would scheme, Vergil would show up, spout some science and zap them into submission.
- He would then go home and deal with his sister and her evil doppelgänger (which still hasn’t been explained and is still treated as a “normal thing”, five issues in), while the villains would scheme again. It was like Tim Burton’s Batman film: Batman ended up not being the main character at all.

A Growing Problem

It’s a pity that two books with African-American leads are cancelled at the same time, but the quality of the books were indicative of a growing problem. Terrific’s creative team changed issue-to-issue, and Static made no traction to actually getting the story under way.

It’s disappointing, because these were characters with a ton of potential. I enjoyed them in Teen Titans, the DCAU and Justice Society in the “old” DCU, and it pains me to see that the New 52 has chewed them up and spit them out.

Consistent quality is the most important factor in the opening months of a new book, as it establishes readers and gives a strong foundation to build off of. These books did not have that.

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(Source: USA Today)

The Amazing Spider-Man #677 (Mark Waid, Emma Rios)

The Good

For starters, I have to applaud Marvel in bringing Mark Waid over to write a few issues of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN while pulling double duty on DAREDEVIL. It’s fitting, because the latter teams up with Spidey in this issue for some hi-jinks.

But here’s the thing: Waid writes Spider-Man and Daredevil in having a kind of comraderie that I never thought them having before. In short, Spidey and Hornhead act like long-time bros in this issue, and it suits them immensely.

Hearing Daredevil saying that his swining routes have changed because of renovations to a building and a lack of “grip points” switched on a lightbulb in my head that made me think “Hey! They do travel using the same method. Why wouldn’t they talk about “traffic conditions” like any other commuter?

Spider-Man has a great personality in this issue, and it shows during certain exchanges with Black Cat; as a recently-dumped dude, his desperation shows, and the boiling over point where he tells Daredevil that he’s “Having a bad day, dammit!” really made me smile. We can tell this is one of the many bad days Peter has dealt with during his life, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better.

The Bad

The only thing I can say that I didn’t like about this issue is the art; I find that it was far too messy/gritty for the story it was telling, and at times Peter simply didn’t look like Peter. I know the brown-hair-and-lean build isn’t exactly unique, but there’s always been unique indicators that keep Pete, Pete.

In this issue there was some of those missing, which is a pity, considering the praiseworthy art that’s been present in DAREDEVIL and this title in the past.

The Verdict

Like I said above, this issue makes great use of characters, and has a witty use of technology to involve both Spider-Man and Daredevil’s powers. There’s a bit of misdirection with DD’s blindness that pays off in a big way, which left me grinning.

I think what’s most important to realize in this issue is that it harkens back to the old-school team-up, and it manages to refresh it nicely. No longer does Daredevil “just happen to be in the neighborhood”; Spider-Man finds him due to their past association, and characters from both stories intertwine. I loved seeing continuity between the two titles, and it only served to reinforce that these are some of Marvel’s best books right now.

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