Quick Comics Reviews

Adventures of Superman; Ultimate Spider-Man; Wolverine



Adventures of Superman #634

by Greg Rucka, Matthew Clark & Andy Lanning

This is the most fun I've had reading a Superman comic in quite a while. Smack in the middle of a story about the new Parasites, Mxyzptlk shows up and tries to help. Mxyzptlk is one of those characters with whom it is very easy to mess up a story, but Rucka handles him quite well, and he and Clark pull off some great gags, verbal and visual. Of course it's not the best Mxyzptlk story ever--that honor belongs to Evan Dorkin's World's Funnest. But it does show why Adventures is the Superman book to be reading right now.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)




Ultimate Spider-Man #69

by Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley & Scott Hanna

Bendis and co. finish off another fun two-parter, this one featuring a team-up between Ultimate Spidey and Ultimate Human Torch. After Johnny accidentally catches on fire he is exposed as a probable mutant and has to leave the school, leaving poor Liz Allen crushed. It was kind of disappointing that Liz didn't show up to meet Johnny, but then she is a teenage girl, and no one ever in the history of the planet has ever been able to figure out how teenage girls think. In the traditional Marvel-U, it's Spider-Man who had the hero worship for the more experienced Fantastic Four, so it's interesting to see the roles switched here int he Ultimate-U (I figure that the previous meeting in Ultimate Marvel Team-Up is going to be ignored.)

Rating: 3 (of 5)




Wolverine #22

by Mark Millar, John Romita, Jr. & Klaus Janson

Part 3 of "Enemy of the State" is a mostly mindless punch-up between the mind-controlled Wolverine and the Fantastic Four, but it is a competantly done punch-up and is not without its charms. Millar has the FF use their powers in some unique ways to fight off the intruder, including one by the Invisible Woman that, while novel, is one of those things that makes you wonder why she has never done it before, and when she doesn't do it in the future it will beg the questio of why not? There seems to be a big reveal on the last page, but are we supposed to recognize who it is? (I'm not nearly as up on the knowledge of obscure Marvel characters as I am with DC.)

Rating: 3 (of 5)

GNs for an Academic Library

It looks as though we're really going to do it.



The library where I work, the Art, Architecture & Engineering Library at the University of Michigan, is going to develop a comic book & graphic novel collection. The collection will focus primarily on indy/art/alternative/underground/mini comics, as well as artistically and historically important domestic and foreign comics.



(We are not trying to duplicate the excellent collections of nearby universities such as the Comic Art Collection at Michigan State or the Cartoon Research Library at Ohio State.)



The bad news is that I don't get to be the person who purchases the items--that job will belong to Annette, our Art & Design librarian. (I'm the Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences Librarian, which means that I rarely get to buy any fun books...) The good news is that Jim O and I will be advising Annette on what to buy; finally after all these years I get to make use of my lifelong obsession in a professional capacity!



Now I need your help.



We will have a chunk of 'seed money' with which to develop the initial collection. Now while I could probably draw up a list of titles on my own, many minds are better than one, and any such list would reflect my own biases.



So I'd like to ask all of you reading this to make recommendations for an Academic Library Comics & Graphic Novels Collection. The recommendations should be consistant with the focus of the collection as I have outlined above.



Please limit your recommendations to 20 volumes. Simple lists are fine, but if you can offer brief annotations as to why you think they should be included, that will be helpful.



You can post your recommendations in my comments section here, on your own blog if you have one (please email me the link), or send them to me directly via email.



(In many ways this is similar to the Lieber's Eleven, but with an academic library focus rather than a public library focus. Plus, you know, 20 instead of 11.)



Thanks in advance to you all for helping me out with this.

Monkey Covers

Sunday is Monkey Covers day here at YACB. Because there's nothing better than a comic with a monkey on the cover.

From 1959's Superboy #76, Curt Swan & Stan Kaye bring us a cover illustrating the feature story, the origin of Beppo the Super-Monkey. A founding member of the Legion of Super-Pets, Beppo stowed away on the rocket that brought Kal-El to Earth, where the lighter gravity and yellow solar rays gave him super powers.

How could anyone not like Beppo the Super-Monkey? He has all the powers of Superman, and he's a monkey!

(I only own two items from DC Direct, one of them being the plush Beppo. Because, you know, Super-Monkey!)

Image is courtesy of the GCD. Click on the image for a full-sized version.

Moore Films

SciFi Wire has news about two Alan Moore projects making their way to film:



The Wachowski Brothers are set to produce V for Vendetta, with James McTeigue (first assistant on the Matrix films) most likely to direct.



There's also a rumor that Bourne Supremacy director Paul Greengrass is taking of the reins of hte on-again-off-again Watchmen movie.



Of course, if either or both of these get made, the chance that they'll resemble Moore's comics is rather slim (exhibits 1 & 2: From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). It'll be interesting to see how people react to a story where the good guy is essentially a terrorist...

Review: A Gentleman's Game

A Gentleman's Game: A Queen & Country Novel

by Greg Rucka

$24.00 Bantam Dell ISBN: 0-553-80276-3

http://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/



Besides being known as a comic writer, Greg Rucka also has a career as a novelist, best known for his Atticus Kodiak thrillers. So it makes a certain amount of sense for him to combine his two worlds by writing a novel based on his creator-owned Queen & Country series. This presents us then with two questions: How does A Gentleman's Game work as a spy thriller, and how does it work as an extension of the comic book?



As a spy thriller, it works very well indeed. As the main protagonist, Tara Chase is a great character, highly competant but flawed. The plot is a doozy: following a terrorist attack on the London subway system, Tara's SIS section is called upon to retaliate against the terrorists. I won't spoil the plot any further, except to say that there are a couple of great twists that come just at the right time and are as logical as they are surprising. In fact, one of the greatest joys of the novel is that none of the characters have to act like idiots in order for the story to work. While characters may make bad decisions, they are not stupid decisions. I have no idea how accurate the details and settings of this novel are, but it certainly has the feel of authenticity and that Rucka has done his homework. His prose is detailed but doesn't get bogged down, and he can write action as well as the quieter moments. Given that this is based on a comic with which a majority of the readers will be unfamilar, there is a good deal of info-dumping in the first 50-100 pages to get things set up, but it is integrated into the plot and never feels like a plot summary.



A Gentleman's Game also works well as the next chapter for the Queen & Country series. While it is not necessary to be previously familiar with Tara Chase and the rest of the cast from the comic, fans of the comic will find much here to enjoy. Unlike many novels based on comics where the author has to pretty much put things back in place by the end of the book, since Rucka owns Queen & Country he can do whatever he wants, and by the end of A Gentleman's Game things have definitely changed in Tara's world. Rucka uses the opportunities inherent in the novel format to flesh out Tara's world and to give us insight into her internal life and the lives of those around her. This is a both a deeply personal story and a large plot-driven story; and while it would not have been impossible to tell in comic form, it would have had to have been very different, given the difference in the two mediums.



In closing, if you are a fan of spy thrillers, you will enjoy A Gentleman's Game, and if you are a fan of Queen & Country, this novel is a not-to-be-missed installment in the story of Tara Chase.



Rating: 4 (of 5)

Quick Alt-DCU Comic Reviews

Superman/Batman; Teen Titans; JLA



Three comics out this week, each featuring an alternate version of the DCU, all designed to appeal to a long-time DC Comics fanboy such as myself. Each even ends similarly, with a full-page splash revealing surprise characters. It's a super-hero geek-o-rama!



Superman/Batman #14

by Jeph Loeb, Carlos Pacheco & Jesús Merino

So, how big of a comic geek am I that I recognized immediately who the forces behind this alternate reality were? Loeb's captions are still in abundance, though at least at times they're actually narrating story & background information instead of just prattling on. Like the stories in this title that preceded it, I'm sure that "Absolute Power," an alternate reality tale wherein Superman & Batman have taken on the role of world dictators, will fall apart if looked at too carefully, but will be a fun ride if we all just go along with it. Those who disliked Turner's art on the previous story (which seems at times to be every single pundit on the Net, although it sold tons of copies to presumed Turner fans) will appreciate Pacheco's art, which is still dynamic but without many of Turner's tendencies to, um, exaggeration.

Rating: 3 (of 5)




Teen Titans #18

by Geoff Johns, Mike McKone & Marlo Alquiza

We learn more about the world of ten-years-hence and some about how the Titans grew so dark, especially Tim/Batman. (Hmmm, wouldn't Bats have wanted to show Robin his father's grave along with all of the others?) This is another of those 'don't think about it too hard' stories, but it still has me interested and wondering how it's going to get wrapped up in just one more issue.

Rating: 3 (of 5)




JLA #108

by Kurt Busiek, Ron Garney & Dan Green

Then opening part of this book, where we get a good look at the Crime Syndicate's world and what makes it tick, is interesting; but the later part, page after page of boring politics on Qward, could and should have been shortened. Thankfully the CSA show up to raise a little Cain (in a wonderful full-page splash with maniacal laughter, exploding sound effects, and the dude in the bottom corner looking back at the reader--it's just like the old days!), and then some kind of cosmic reset button gets pushed and we end up with a slightly different CSA. I don't recall when exactly I encountered the Crime Syndicate--it may have been in DC Comics Presents Annual #1, with the Earth-1 & Earth-2 Supermen teaming up with Earth-3's Alexander Luthor to defeat Ultraman, but maybe it was in an earlier comic. Anyway, it's always fun to see them again, and Busiek's story looks like it won't disappoint.

Rating: 3 (of 5)

Quick Comic Reviews

Cyclone Bill & the Tall Tales; Cenozoic; Wild Girl; Ocean; Kabuki: The Alchemy



Cyclone Bill & the Tall Tales #1

by Dan Dougherty

This is the story of rock and roll sensations Cyclone Bill & the Tall Tales, telling the story of their rise and fall through the lens of a documentary filmmaker. Bill was a little known but critically loved singer/songwriter/guitarist and the Tall Tales--Dave, Dan and Kevin--were a Chicago bar band going nowhere until their fateful meeting in 2004 led to their rise to superstardom in 2005 when they released a collaborative album that shot straight up the charts. Most bands in this position face a backlash, but the Bill & the Tales's come personified in the form of Oscar Burden, a punk rock renegade who believes that everyone should be a rock star. Three years later, Bill is dead and the band is disbanded, but the documentary, haunted by the ghost of Elvis, is looking to uncover the truth. It's all fictional of course, but it has the air of authenticity even if it is at its core a rock and roll myth. This is helped greatly by Dougherty's art, a photo-realistic style that is reminiscent of Gary Spencer Millidge. It's also interesting to note that the Dan in the Tall Tales is Dan Dougherty himself--the artist has slyly inserted himself into the work, giving it yet another level of pseudo-reality. Dougherty packs a lot of story into this first of six issues, and I definitely want to see where he goes next.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)




Cenozoic #1

by Mark Fearing

A couple of fun stories set at the dawn of mankind. "Monkey Toruble" features Jerry: Caveman Inventor, as he tries to rid his cave-mates from being terrorized by mud-throwing monkeys. The second story features Cave Bear & Duck, two anthropomorphically modern friends dealing with the encroachment of humans. It's fun but slight, and the stories are more likely to bring a smile than out-loud laughter. Fearing's drawing seems a bit crude, but it's deceptively so; there's actually a good deal of craft and he's quite able to tell his stories effectively.

Rating: 3 (of 5)




Wild Girl #1

by Leah Moore, John Reppion, Shawn McManus, & J. H. Williams III

The art by McManus (with a two-page dream sequence by Williams) is great, but that's to be expected. Most importantly for a title like this, McManus can draw animals quite well, imbuing them here with much the same combination of realness and personality that Masashi Tanaka does in Gon. The story however, while not bad by any means, is very slight, serving as the barest introduction to Rosa, a young teenage runaway who is somehow haunted by the animal kingdom. With the great art there's enough to keep me around for a bit, but just barely; hopefully the story will pick up soon.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)




Ocean #2

by Warren Ellis, Chris Sprouse & Karl Story

Like the first issue this second installment is told in a decompressed style, but At the same time Ellis packs it so full of information it doesn't feel like it's being stretched out needlessly. Inspector Kane has made it to the science outpost at Europa, where he gets introduced to the crew and the fantastic find that they have made beneath the ocean's surface. This has all the makings of a hard science fiction story, the kind that I like in novels but that we seldom get to see in comics. It's very typical in these sorts of stories for the first third of the book to be spent setting up the world and the story, and so far Ocean seems to be following form. Now that all of the pieces are in place, the plot kicks into gear in the closing pages of this second of six issues, right on schedule. The story is helped greatly by Sprouse's art which is quite well suited to this near-future scifi story.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)




Kabuki: The Alchemy #2

by David Mack

It's gorgeous, but at this point that's to be expected from Mack and Kabuki. Not much actually happens in this issue (Kabuki gets her wound patched up and acquires a false identity), but we do get an interesting meditation on the relationship between art and biotechnology, along with Mack's typical themes of memory and identity. Despite the slow-moving narrative, each page is a visual treat, packed with information. With Kabuki, it's not really about the plot anyway, it's all about the journey, and Mack doesn't disappoint.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)