Bat-Myth 101

Still under siege from my real job, but I thought I'd slip in a quick Batman review. Because, hey. It's probably the best comic on the shelves today. How can I NOT talk about it?


Batman #702
by Grant Morrison and Tony Daniel

In the second and concluding part of “RIP: The Missing Chapter,” we get Batman’s own impressions of the events of Final Crisis. Which makes this a sort of “Final Crisis for Dummies,” something that, considering some of the reactions I read to that book, would probably ease the bitter souls of the angry fan-men who didn’t understand it. Except, of course, that they’d then take offense at being called dummies, and get pissed off all over again. So god forbid.

That being the case, this would seem to be a story without an audience. It’s mostly re-cap, after all. Re-cap with artwork that’s mostly not as good as the artwork in the story being re-capped. But I really shouldn’t crap on Tony Daniels’ efforts here; his work has improved a lot, and this is nice-looking stuff in places. If he ever gets better at poses, he’ll be one hell of a mainstream funnybook artist. And that’s not something I ever thought I’d say back when he was Morrison’s primary Batman artist.

But what was I saying? Oh, yes! Story without an audience. Except it’s not. Morrison works a little bit of magic here, using some finely-tuned prose to give us new insights into events we read about almost two years ago. Mostly, the issue is concerned with how Batman deals with facing aliens and gods. They’re hard to prepare for, he says, and he doesn’t like fighting things he can’t prepare for. But he improvises beautifully. Because of course he does. He’s Batman.

There’s also a huge revelation about Dr. Hurt lurking at the end of the issue that ties RIP and Final Crisis together: Dr. Hurt is an echo of Darkseid in the same way that Darkseid was an echo of Mandrakk. They’re three different faces for the same thing, pure evil rippling back and forth across the surface of reality. That’s my reading, at least; I’ve seen others that are pretty convincing. But I like my version best. It allows Hurt to be The Devil (as was revealed at the end of RIP), but ties him to the larger mythic world Morrison‘s writing about. And still makes the story an intensely personal one about Bruce Wayne’s quest for inner truth.

Which probably sounds insane to anyone who hasn’t been reading this stuff, if it makes any sense at all. That’s the problem with writing about Morrison’s Batman work at this late date: it’s maddeningly complex, and the themes and plotlines dovetail into each other at every possible opportunity. My understanding of it is as much instinctual as intellectual at this point, and trying to explain the various layers of meaning is impossible without unpacking the entire four-year run of comics for you. Which is a project I’m working on, but which goes a bit beyond the scope of this review. For now, suffice it to say that I was blown away by this issue. Batman goes cosmic, but remains Batman.

Grade: A

Gearheads and Pygmies and Shogunauts ... Oh My!

So one comic this week stood out above all the others, in much the same way that a giant stands out amongst pygmies. This is not to slight the pygmies, understand. Pygmies are cool. But nothing’s as cool as…

Strange Science Fantasy #1 & 2 (of 6)
by Scott Morse

I’m not sure how I missed this book when it launched, and I’m quite frankly a bit ashamed of myself for it. I go on, at length, all the damn time, about how much I love the weird and the cool and the bizarre. And then, when it’s presented to me, seated quiveringly on the funnybook shelf, awaiting the touch of my eyes like the nether bits of a virgin lover… I pass it by for the beguiling, but far less strange, charms of the familiar. Fah, I say! Fah!

(Fah.)

Batman Doesn't Have to Put Up With This Kind of Crap!

One of my favorite things about old DC comics are the insane covers. They'd throw any whacky, impossible, wrong, bat-shit idea they could think of on there to get you to buy a copy. The Superman comics were maybe the best for this, and somebody's put together a collection of  75 Action Comics Covers That Are Worth Their Weight in Gold for our enjoyment. They're all pretty awesome, but here's my favorite:

Quickies!

It’s last week’s funnybooks today! (Plus a few extras.) And all reviewed in 30 words or less!

Neonomicon #1 (of 4)
by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows

This book felt like Alan Moore sloppily tossing Lovecraft references at a script. Then the phrase “literary in-joke” was used, and I realized there might be something more to it…

Grade: B+


Casanova #2
by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba

Collecting issues two and three of the original. Not as plot-dense as last time, but with many nice little touches I’d forgotten. The color work seems more assured, as well.

Grade: A

Brokebat Mountain

So my long-time, pre-Dork-40, readers already know this, but for the rest of you... My day job gets pretty crazy three or four times a year, and my funnybook writing slows to a crawl. Late summer/early fall is one of those times, and it's now upon me with a vengeance. So while I won't be abandoning the blog completely over the next month, the entries will probably be a lot shorter. Which brings me to today's post about Cowboy Batman...

Floppies for Trades 3: Hellblazer: Hooked

Hellblazer: Hooked
by Peter Milligan, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Stefano Landini, and Simon Bisley

So I love me some Hellblazer. I was recently shocked to discover how many issues of this book I have in my collection. It’s been so long since I found it worth reading that I guess I just forgot how very good it was for so very long. When current series writer Peter Milligan came on-board, though, I picked it up again for his first story arc. I quite enjoyed it at first, but the bloom came off the rose fast, and I wandered away from the book again.

I came back to the series recently, though, for Milligan’s Ghost of Sid Vicious story, illustrated in fine form by Simon Bisley, and have stuck around since. It’s not the best Hellblazer ever, but its been entertaining, and poses some interesting moral quandaries for Our Bastard Hero. I’ve been enjoying it enough, in fact, that I decided to go back and pick up the stuff I missed. That more or less starts here, with the Hooked collection.

“Hooked” is a story about addiction. Constantine opens the story with two of them: one to some magical goo he got from Julian (a demon who’s currently wearing the form of a 13-year-old schoolgirl), and another to Phoebe, a good lady doctor with a perverse streak and a wicked sense of humor. Poor ol‘ John‘s head over heels in love with her, and they seem a good match… Except that his black magic bullshit inevitably creeps into the lives of anyone he gets involved with. Phoebe can’t handle that, and has broken up with him.

OMFUG! Punk Rock Lives … Again!

So I forgot something, kind of. I left a book out of today’s earlier funnybook round-up. But that’s okay, because this book is all about a subject near and dear to my heart, so I don't mind giving it a post all its own. Plus, you know… I was dying to use this headline anyway.

CBGB #1 (of 4)
by Kieron Gillen, Marc Ellerby, Sam Humphries, and Rob G

It kind of goes against the spirit of punk to do a 30-years-later tribute to the greatest punk club ever, but here one is anyway. And, you know, it’s pretty good. It’s an anthology series, with a bunch of different writers and artists telling stories set in and around the titular bar. The aim, I assume, is to paint a picture of what CBGB, and by extension the New York punk scene, was all about.

The first story does that quite literally. It’s written, appropriately enough, by Kieron Gillen, whose series Phonogram did something similar for the British alty-rock scene in the Noughts. And turned me on to a couple of great bands in the process. The Long Blondes’ album Someone to Drive You Home, in particular, is now on my list of all-time classics. Gillen knows his punk rock history, too, though, as he establishes here.

His story is a just slightly marvelous punk take on Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” in which a punk rock Scrooge is visited by the three ghosts of punk. Gillen breaks with the original tale by having two Spirits of Punk Rock Past, one a be-sweatered academic and the other a Ramone. But you know what? Fuck you and your “rules,” man! This is a punk rock story! An-ar-chy! An-ar-chy! An-ar-chy!

FUNNYBOOKSINREVIEWAREGO!!

So. Lots of funnybooks to talk about today. Two weeks’ worth of floppies, a couple of trades, and of course…

Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour
by Bryan Lee O’Malley

I’ll write a much longer piece about this later on, but for now I just wanted to say that the final chapter of the Scott Pilgrim saga does not disappoint. O’Malley’s impressive-but-unpretentious approach holds steady, and he brings the story to its conclusion with nary a false note. The action escalates, as do the emotional stakes, and everything comes together as it always had to. And, most importantly, Scott grows, but remains Scott. Which is as fine a short review as I’m likely to produce, so I’ll stop there.

Grade: A+

GOD LOVES BATMAN!

So Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist group are planning to protest at the San Diego Comicon this weekend. What their problem with funnybooks is, I don't know. But comics writers Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick are planning to donate 50 bucks to AIDS research if they show up, and an additional 10 dollars an hour for every hour they stay. The good Family Fraction are urging others to follow suit, as detailed on Kelly Sue's blog: http://kellysue.com/2010/07/19/lemons-and-lemonade/

And what are they calling their little peaceful counter-protest? God Loves Batman!

You're damn right He does! And so do I! We don't cotton to hate-mongerin' bastards out here on the Dork Forty. Especially not hate-mongerin' bastards who declare their hate in the name of a god that teaches love for your fellow man. This is the best, most positive "F-You" to Phelps I can imagine, and I think I'll be pledging my money out next week, too.

It's what Batman would want.

And any god I'd want to worship, for that matter.

FUNNYBOOKSINREVIEWAREGO!!

So I’ve fallen behind on my comics reviews of late. My apologies. After a ferocious week of new books for the week of July 4th, I became totally obsessed with Grant Morrison’s Batman & Robin, and have spent most of my “blog” time re-reading and making notes on that amazingly complex series. An in-depth write-up will be coming soon. But in the meantime, I really feel like I should play a little catch-up. And what better place to start than the two books that made that July 4th comics week so very spectacular…