Walking on the Moon

Nothing actually came in this week, but here’s what I got last week.

Badger:Bull – Mike Baron and Kevin Caron. I’m going to buy all Baron’s Badger output, and there’s not much I can do about it. For my money, Badger was one of the great 80’s indy comics, and I keep watching to see if Baron can find that magic again. I know Badger holds up, because I re-read many of my old issues after the ill-fated Image run a few years ago, and they were still great. Unlike the Image run.

To be fair, Badger is tough to do – a comic kung-fu movie starring a multiple personality that’s surreal, touching, thrilling, and drop dead funny is a hugely tall order. I wouldn’t believe one could pull it off, except that Baron did for 50+ issues in the mid-80s. I believe he’ll hit his stride again.

And to be more fair, Bull isn’t bad, really. Mostly a little rushed. There are certainly moments that come near the Badger of old.

Some of Baron’s commentary makes it sound like this was an attempt to sell the Badge as a movie property, so there’s an attempt to tie up a lot of continuity in a very short space. I think these characters need more room than that to breathe; despite the comic elements, they’re deep. But as long as Baron keeps trying, I’ll keep reading.

Grendel: Behold the Devil #1( of 8 ) – Matt Wagner. More 80s stuff. I’ll read any Wagner, and certainly any Wagner Grendel. Hunter is one of my top three Grendels, and it’s always fun to see him again. This issue just puts the players on the board and lets us see how things are starting. It’s atmospheric and interesting. At his best Wagner’s one of the best writers or artists in comics today, and this shows signs of being good stuff. Recommended.

Captain America #32 – Brubaker, Epting, Guice. I didn’t recognize Guice’s inks this issue; he did a nice job keeping the tone consistent. SHIELD and our heroes finally get to take a swing at the Skull and his men this issue, with typically mixed results. Still one of my favorite reads.

Will Eisner’s The Spirit #11- Cooke, Bone, Stewart. I think this wraps up Cooke’s run on the Spirit, which makes me sad. I enjoyed his run a great deal, as he respected the material while making it his own. This issue ties up the loose El Mortez ends. It’s the least Spirit-y of his issues – which is to say plays few of the Eisner tropes, except good storytelling and string characters. (And I don’t think Eisner has a monopoly there.) Well done; the creative team goes out with a bang. Sorry to see them go.

Sig file fodder: “Ellen, I love Kimball, and there are things I don’t want him to worry about, like my youthful engagement to you. Or the Undead.” — Argonaut Bones

My brief thoughts on The Razor’s Edge are up on Bell, Book, and Candle.

My review of William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition is up on Bell, Book, and Candle.

Wormwood from Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows. This is really Preacher lite. It’s an interesting enough story with the usual Ennis flourishes – the road to hell paved with mimes indeed – but running only 6 issues, only a bit of the depth. It’s blasphemous, profane and often in bad taste, but also full of tart observations and occasional moments that move you in spite of all the puerile humor. Jacen Burrows art is the only thing here that’s superior to Preacher, but it’s a good story nonetheless. Try it, and if it appeals to you at all, go start in on the Preacher trades.

The Immortal Iron Fist: The Last Iron Fist Story, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and David Aja. It’s no secret how much I enjoy Brubaker’s writing, and I have a long-standing fondness for Iron Fist, so I decided to check out this collection of the new series. It’s all the fun of a late night Kung Fu movie, with a winning protagonist. More good-natured than intense, Danny Rand faces the trial of being a Billionaire Kung-Fu hero. The Iron Fist franchise has a history of mixing Blacksploitation with its chop socky, and Luke Cage drops to keep a bit of that going on. On the art side, Aja handles the tonal shifts with aplomb. His storytelling is sharp, and he does a great job of making the Iron Fist mask especially expressive. It’s fast paced, winning stuff.

All-Star Superman #9 – Morrison and Quietly. Whew, no more bizarros. Morrison continues his brilliant translation of Silver Age Superman stories into the 21st century, keeping the wonder of those stories. You can’t make a Silver Age story believable, but Morrison makes the tropes come alive. It’s a world of wonder and strangeness, but the people walking through it are humans. Strongly recommended.

My capsule on Population 485 is up on Bell, Book, and Candle.

Fine, Rod, I read Fiasco. My review of that and a biography of and pamphlet by Thomas Paine are up on Bell, Book, and Candle.

Again, a couple weeks worth:

The Flash #233 – Waid and Eddie Williams II (backup by Waid & Rogers & Braithwaite). It’s a bad sign when the comic about the fastest man alive feels too slow. The villains are the sort of distraction that Wally would have dalt with off-panel a few years ago, and the character development is all happening too slow. Add to that an out-of-character JLA “intervention,” and I’m done. I did almost stick around for the lively back up, but the slow front doesn’t need anything stealing its focus.

Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #2 – Palmiotti, Gray, Arlem.  I’m liking this quite a lot.  This issue focuses on the FF’s party girl, Phantom Lady, drawing from today’s tabloid culture fascination pretty reasonably for a mainstream underwear book.  That’s fainter praise than the book really deserves; this is good work.  The detailed and gritty art tells the story clearly and the stroy’s interesting and well paced.  This is worth reading.

Captain America #31 – Still solid.  Man I live in fear that something will happen to screw up this team’s creative footing.  But so far, so good.  Bucky’s in the clutches of Dr. Faustus and the Skull, the Skull’s plans moving forward and S.H.I.E.L.D. playing catch-up.  Everyone still behaves like they should and tensions are high.  Still a great book.

Black Summer #3 – Ellis & Ryp. The point of this issue is to let us know what Tom Noir can really do, and why he’s important at all.  And Ellis does it beautifully.  The art’s beautiful, the pace is breakneck, and now we know who’s the really dangerous gun.  Catch up while you can.

Doktor Sleepless #3 – If Black Summer is getting clearer, we’re only beginning to see all the twisty passages in Doktor Sleepless.  Interconnections and magic and technology all bouncing off one another.  It’s good and creepy and probably has a point.  This issue is fleshing out the supporting cast some more, so it may be a bit confusing if you haven’t read the earlier two. Top notch stuff!

I have my Spirit number 9 now.  It’s a really impressive piece of storytelling.  Where #10 is a procedural with over-the-top satire, #9 is a tightly written continuity development that’s really scary.  El Morte is one of Cooke/Bone/Stewart’s new villains for their Spirit incarnation, and in this issue he really comes into his won as a villain worthy of Denny’s attention.  Cooke does a great job of telling El Morte’s origin here in a moody way while giving the rest of his cast a chance to shine.  Bone and Stewart’s clean lines sometimes give the book a cartoony look, but they execute this more serious story with clarity and aplomb.

Great issue.

This will be a couple weeks’ worth. I’ve been busy…

• Jungle Girl #1 – OK, I’m only human. It was a Frank Cho cover and it promised jungle girls and dinosaurs. And it more or less delivered: it’s full of half-dressed women, dinosaurs, and a land that time forgot. But I’ve seen a lot of lands that time forgot, and this one didn’t grab me as something new. And Frank Cho’s only doing the covers. And I have a full run of his Shanna the She-Devil. I’ll pass on the rest of this. (If you haven’t seen a land that time forgot, you might want to have a look and tell me what you think.)
• Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #1 – Again, I have an uncontrollable weakness for the Freedom Fighters. One of the first Justice League issues I read was the Earth-X crossover that restored them to DC continuity, and I’ve always thought they were interesting for fanboy reasons. I picked up an issue or two of the recent mini-series and kind of shrugged it off. I just can’t leave it alone, though. This has the look of an interesting long underwear story and I’ll probably hang on to see how it goes.
• The Flash #232 – Two issues in and this still hasn’t caught fire for me. The art is gorgeous, but static, which clashes with the speed that’s essential to the title. Worse, the plot’s dragging; these aliens seem like the kind of low-power menace that Wally should be able to polish off in an issue, we’re headed for issue three, and these vaguely tasteless critters are still on the scene. C’mon Mark, find the gas.
• Will Eisner’s The Spirit #10 – I seem to have missed 9. Grrr. This is a pretty reasonable heav-handed satire (in the Spirit tradition of heavy handed satire). The story is a little cramped, in that the various suspects and victims all ran together a bit for me, but even glossing over the plot details, I enjoyed the story. Another enjoyable Spirit romp. Where’s my number 9?
• Captain America #30 – Brubaker’s tense narrative is reaching a climax – Bucky in the hands of the Skull (and he kicks around Sin and Crossbones like the second stringers they are)! SHIELD finally catching up with the Skull’s machinations! Drama centered on Cap’s legacy (in more ways than one)! It’s tough to wait the month between issues. This is a great character-based action series.

Over at the Onion’s AV Club, Nathan Rabin has been putting on an amazing show with his feature My Year of Flops. The premise is simple as it is misleading: every week, twice a week, Rabin posts a detailed review of a film that was a box office disaster. So far he’s something like 35 weeks into the year and I think I understand what he’s up to. I’m a slow learner.

If you read a few, you’ll see that he’s doing an admirable job regularly posting humorous, pop-culture-riddled, light essays about some of the worst, most unusual, or plain crazy images and sounds committed to film. He’s engaging, energetic, funny and thoughtful. His audience has been receptive and vocal – the comments section is a delight to read.

Sounds like any goofy blog on the Internet. He’s picked a weird thing to write about and is doing it with elan. But that’s not really what’s going on here.

Nathan Rabin is putting on the most masterful criticism exhibition I’ve seen in some time. He’s doing the critical equivalent of playing a dozen simultaneous blindfolded chess games. He’s deliberately analyzing films that audiences met with indifference – the worst possible reaction to an artist – and finding something interesting to say about each and every one of them. Extracting and inspecting inspiration – even flawed inspiration – from art that the masses have dismissed with a shrug showcases the essence of a critic. It’s a remarkable way to showcase criticism as an art form, not to mention Rabin’s considerable powers in the area.

It would be one thing to lay down a dry analysis of these uniformly flawed films; Rabin is presenting careful, erudite analysis of these with the jaunty air of a world class raconteur holding forth. His infectious enthusiasm is addictive. Even though I know what’s coming, after I read each one I’m ready to sign up with the Boys’ Band (or buy a monorail). And when the dust clears, I realize he’s slipped some intellectual challenges into my pocket while I was laughing at his in-jokes.

It’s a perfect communication of the passion and insight that Rabin brings to criticism. Come on along and enjoy with the rest of us who are hooked.