I've never been the world's biggest Larfleeze fan. I know I'm not the first to make the comparison, but he's kind of the Jar Jar Binks of the Green Lantern universe: overly obnoxious, weird speech patterns, naive/immature to the point of often being plain stupid, etc. I don't hate him with the same vehemence many others seem to feel, either. When he was introduced during the Blackest Night lead-up, he was neither the most nor the least annoying new character created as part of Geoff Johns' expansion of the spectrum of light. He was just minor enough not to ruin anything, and interesting enough that I got a decent amount out of pleasure from the pages on which he appeared.
But he was such a supporting character, greed personified as a grouchy alien, that I was baffled when DC announced he'd be fronting the back-up feature in their Threshold series several months back. Even for ten-page stories, he didn't feel fleshed out enough to be a protagonist. I was so surprised by this decision, and drawn to Keith Giffen as the writer of a goofball spaceman, that I had to buy Threshold #1 out of sheer curiosity. It wasn't something I wanted to read but something I needed to try.
It was not horrible. Well, the main series was ("The Hunted"), but the Larfleeze story actually had some bits that made me laugh, and it looked way better than it had any right to. Scott Kolins was a great fit for the character, getting both the unbridled anger and complete childishness of Larfleeze just right. Kolins does outer space stuff well, the empty enormity of the setting and inventive designs for new races and planets and such. The art was what I liked most about this initial taste of Larfleeze-centric comics, but Giffen didn't slack off, either. He added Pulsar Stargrave as the wry and under-appreciated butler, a job that suits the character and is the right kind of role for someone meant to be part of the cast of a Larfleeze book. And having the conflict center on Larfleeze trying to figure out who robbed him made a lot more sense than, say, cooking up a complicated new villain or cosmic-level threat. It was a narrative tailored to its hero, but still containing its share of intrigue and surprise.
So I kept buying Threshold, even though it cost $3.99 I hated the first 2/3 of every issue. This went against everything I believe in when it comes to comicbook shopping, but the Larfleeze material kept being juuuust strong enough to bring me back. Every chapter had a couple of solid jokes, and Giffen tried to explore the Larfleeze concept as much as he could. How do you take a character who's whole deal is "I'm greedy!" and make him into someone worth following for more than a scene or two? It looked like Giffen had some answers, like making Larfleeze's powers more effective when he was trying to prevent theft, having him literally not understand the concept of paying someone for something, or his definition of "fair fight" being one that he wins. It wasn't the most in-depth development work I've ever seen, but it was admittedly more than I thought Larfleeze had to offer, and it was getting done in ten-page chunks that also included splash pages, chaotic fight scenes, additions to the cast, and an ever-evolving mystery. The story may not have left my jaw on the floor, but it always had me grinning, and Kolins' artwork kept up its quality all the way through. It was fun, funny, vibrant, and energetic, good enough that when Larfleeze became a series of its own, I followed.
That's when things went downhill. The new book is plotted by Giffen with scripts from his long-time collaborator J.M. DeMatteis, and still drawn by Kolins but now off of Giffen's breakdowns. And it STINKS. Three issues in, I'm already completely turned off of the whole experiment, as disappointed by the full-length Larfleeze material as I was pleasantly surprised by the back-ups. Instead of building on the little bit of progress made in the Threshold pages, this book has decided to let its stars flounder in their worst, simplest, most one-dimensional forms so that a bunch of epic sci-fi junk can go down instead. Larfleeze no longer gets to display the many faces of avarice, reduced to a constant string of temper tantrums punctuated by combat he loses. His new foes are big bad space monsters from another dimension, threatening to unmake our existence for simple amusement now that their home world has already been totally destroyed (by them). It's the wrong kind of narrative for Larfleeze, one that calls on him to be a world-saving epic hero instead of the pissed off kid he usually is. Giffen and DeMatteis do their best to give Larfleeze a dog in this race by having the new villains take control of Stargrave, but that's a weak motive, one made even less convincing by Stargrave's own passivity and grating sarcasm. It worked in small doses during the ten-pagers, but in these twenty-page installments Stargrave becomes just as major a character as Larfleeze. That's too much responsibility for someone who uses most of his lines to make fun of and/or undermine what other characters just said.
Kolins is still Kolins, but the tone of the story has become graver and more significant, which consequently means the art doesn't get to be as uninhibited and silly as it used to be. There's a lot more angry Larfleeze now than the mix of fury, confusion, fear, and hubris he brought to the table before. Of all the characters to darken, this one needed it the very least, and it shows when comparing the Threshold-era visuals to the current ones.
I'm not going to say Larfleeze could never support his own comic. If nothing else, Giffen and Kolins taught me that the potential exists. Put him in the right setting and handle him with the right approach, and this clown can definitely carry a story. But I wonder if he'll just always operate better in a smaller space. If you asked Larfleeze, of course, he'd demand as many panels and as much dialogue as possible. Yet that extreme personality of his may be what makes him more entertaining in fewer pages. I don't know how much the character is to blame, how much falls on the creators, and (as with all of DC's line these days) how much is editorial nonsense. But I do know that after five months of back-up stories convincing me Larfleeze was worth my attention, it only took three months of stardom to undo all that work and reverse my opinion of him all over again.
Showing posts with label Keith Giffen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Keith Giffen. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Atari Force Month: Issue #20 Review
And so Atari Force ends not with a bang but with a longwinded debate, the same one that's been raging underneath the rest of the events of this series all along. It is an argument about two different but connected questions: 1. Is the Dark Destroyer real? and, 2. If so, does that justify stealing Scanner One to fight him? Atari Force manages to convince everyone that yes, the Dark Destroyer was real, but whether or not that makes their crimes forgivable is never decided. Before any verdict can be reached, the team breaks out of their bonds and uses a combination of their powers to leave New Earth entirely. Which is where the series closes, with the titular heroes disappearing into the Multiverse, off to recolonize Old Earth and have who knows what kinds of other adventures. It's not a bad final note, but it's not as sweet or satisfying as I'd hoped. Mostly it makes me wish the book had continued, which I suppose is a good thing, really. You know, leave 'em wanting more and all that. But this finale is a bit of a dud throughout, making its open-ended conclusion more disappointing than it needed to be.
Mike Baron's last script is a slog from the first page, which includes three full narrative captions worth of exposition, as well as a lengthy speech from Justice Tovah listing the many charges of the trial at hand. The wordiness continues, but never gets all that interesting. Martin and Rident offer evidence as to the Dark Destroyer's existence, pointing to the ripple effect from the recently destroyed universe and the mental implant that was removed from Blackjak's brain. This is news to the court, but not for the reader, and it feels like a lot of padding, stalling for time in the opening pages in order to fill out a full issue with not that much material. The court then takes a needless recess, which also feels like filler, and all it accomplishes is giving Professor Venture and Dr. Orion a chance to expound on the information they already provided Martin last issue. Senator Jamieson has taken over New Earth and made it into a despicable, weapons-dealing business instead of the beacon of peace it was meant to be. Again, this is old hat, so almost the full first third of this issue fails to tell us anything we don't already know.
There is some momentary intrigue when one of the Tazlings busts Pakrat out of his cell and leads him to a hidden location where the rest of Taz's babies are building...something. Morphea refers to it as a "secret mission," as she prepares Kargg for something equally mysterious. So while the human characters are tangled up in the trial, Morphea and the rest of the aliens are working in the background to assist them. It is a moment of excitement and potential, but sadly, much of it is spoiled shortly after.
Returning to the trial, nothing has changed. Though the court finally admits the Dark Destroyer may be real, they don't see that fact as a viable defense for what Atari Force has done. Morphea interrupts, and after she and Hunter have some tense words and she finally mind-blasts him, she reveals her plan. According to Morphea, the Dark Destroyer lives off of the beliefs of his many mind-controlled followers, so she believes that using her mental powers and the combined memories of all those who've encountered the Destroyer, she can temporarily bring him back to life. This is the single piece of new information to come out in the trial, and though it's actually interesting, in the end even this is all just filler material, too. Morphea's gambit succeeds, and the Destroyer suddenly appears in the middle of the courtroom, spouting his usual hate-filled rhetoric and scaring everyone to death. But as soon as he goes away again, even though for the first time ever it seems as if the trial might go their way, Atari Force breaks out. It makes everything that has happened in the trial thus far largely meaningless, with even the Dark Destroyer's appearance being little more than a distraction from the real plan all along. A Tazling drops some sort of high-tech lockpick down to Tempest, who frees himself and then uses his phasing abilities to free the rest of his team. Morphea, meanwhile, mentally influences everyone in the room to prevent them from trying to recapture the fleeing Atari Force. The three pages on which this all takes place are the only ones with any action or narrative importance. What precedes them is slow-moving fluff, a drawn out trial that gets nowhere and ends up being wholly irrelevant.
And that's pretty much it. Atari Force casually strolls into the "Multiverse shuttle" Martin designed long ago and the Tazlings have now rebuilt from the parts in his lab. Security officers see them, but have no interest in stopping them, and so our heroes phase away unchallenged, and with great calm. I'm happy for them, but bored by their departure, and quite frankly I'd rather be interested and pissed. Baron seems to be going through the motions to an extent here. He had a destination in mind, and he had an obligatory trial to write before he could get there, and so he wrote it, but without much innovation or liveliness or energy whatsoever.
The art is similarly lacking, but in this case I think it has to do with what Ed Barreto was asked to draw, rather than the way he drew it. For what is primarily a bunch of angry courtroom chatter, this actually looks pretty good. Barreto varies his focus and angles often, and makes the high tension and aggravation of the many, many characters involved abundantly clear. And at the end, when drawing all of Atari Force together in a small space (except Kargg, poor dude, who evidently gets left behind) Barreto does a damn good job. Everyone is as detailed and distinct in personality as always, so even if they leave in a lackluster fashion, they still look good doing it. The problem is that the story has so little going for it, and the panels are necessarily talking heads for so much of the issue, that no matter how talented Barreto is, the art fails to impress.
Tempest phase-punching Hunter in the face when Atari Force begins their escape is an awesome panel, as is the half-page splash of the Destroyer's reemergence. These are the moments of highest drama and action, so Barreto gives them extra attention, and it pays off. It is, however, too little too late, as both of these panels come after eleven pages of drudgery.
I'm not going to get into the backup feature in much detail. It's another cutesy, mindless Hukka story, this time about him getting into a fight with a malfunctioning and outrageously dangerous robotic toy. I'm just too sick of saying how little purpose these short stories serve, and this one is especially guilty. Is it impossible to tell a Hukka-centric story with meat on its bones? It shouldn't be, just because the character is someone's pet, speaking in goofy broken English and seeing the world in simple terms. Essentially, Hukka has a child's perspective, a point of view which can and has been used to great effect in countless pieces of fiction. Why this series has decided to consistently use Hukka to tell pseudo-comedic non-stories is beyond me, but that's what we get here. So the actual ending of the series is even more disappointing and dull than the conclusion of the main narrative.
This isn't a terrible issue, necessarily, but it's a very weak ending to what has mostly been a strong series. It does too little, aims too low, and involves far too much retreading of established facts and details for the benefit of the characters instead of the readers. I wanted something bolder and more action-packed, something that reflected the nineteen issues of sci-fi epic that preceded it.
Mike Baron's last script is a slog from the first page, which includes three full narrative captions worth of exposition, as well as a lengthy speech from Justice Tovah listing the many charges of the trial at hand. The wordiness continues, but never gets all that interesting. Martin and Rident offer evidence as to the Dark Destroyer's existence, pointing to the ripple effect from the recently destroyed universe and the mental implant that was removed from Blackjak's brain. This is news to the court, but not for the reader, and it feels like a lot of padding, stalling for time in the opening pages in order to fill out a full issue with not that much material. The court then takes a needless recess, which also feels like filler, and all it accomplishes is giving Professor Venture and Dr. Orion a chance to expound on the information they already provided Martin last issue. Senator Jamieson has taken over New Earth and made it into a despicable, weapons-dealing business instead of the beacon of peace it was meant to be. Again, this is old hat, so almost the full first third of this issue fails to tell us anything we don't already know.
There is some momentary intrigue when one of the Tazlings busts Pakrat out of his cell and leads him to a hidden location where the rest of Taz's babies are building...something. Morphea refers to it as a "secret mission," as she prepares Kargg for something equally mysterious. So while the human characters are tangled up in the trial, Morphea and the rest of the aliens are working in the background to assist them. It is a moment of excitement and potential, but sadly, much of it is spoiled shortly after.
Returning to the trial, nothing has changed. Though the court finally admits the Dark Destroyer may be real, they don't see that fact as a viable defense for what Atari Force has done. Morphea interrupts, and after she and Hunter have some tense words and she finally mind-blasts him, she reveals her plan. According to Morphea, the Dark Destroyer lives off of the beliefs of his many mind-controlled followers, so she believes that using her mental powers and the combined memories of all those who've encountered the Destroyer, she can temporarily bring him back to life. This is the single piece of new information to come out in the trial, and though it's actually interesting, in the end even this is all just filler material, too. Morphea's gambit succeeds, and the Destroyer suddenly appears in the middle of the courtroom, spouting his usual hate-filled rhetoric and scaring everyone to death. But as soon as he goes away again, even though for the first time ever it seems as if the trial might go their way, Atari Force breaks out. It makes everything that has happened in the trial thus far largely meaningless, with even the Dark Destroyer's appearance being little more than a distraction from the real plan all along. A Tazling drops some sort of high-tech lockpick down to Tempest, who frees himself and then uses his phasing abilities to free the rest of his team. Morphea, meanwhile, mentally influences everyone in the room to prevent them from trying to recapture the fleeing Atari Force. The three pages on which this all takes place are the only ones with any action or narrative importance. What precedes them is slow-moving fluff, a drawn out trial that gets nowhere and ends up being wholly irrelevant.
And that's pretty much it. Atari Force casually strolls into the "Multiverse shuttle" Martin designed long ago and the Tazlings have now rebuilt from the parts in his lab. Security officers see them, but have no interest in stopping them, and so our heroes phase away unchallenged, and with great calm. I'm happy for them, but bored by their departure, and quite frankly I'd rather be interested and pissed. Baron seems to be going through the motions to an extent here. He had a destination in mind, and he had an obligatory trial to write before he could get there, and so he wrote it, but without much innovation or liveliness or energy whatsoever.
The art is similarly lacking, but in this case I think it has to do with what Ed Barreto was asked to draw, rather than the way he drew it. For what is primarily a bunch of angry courtroom chatter, this actually looks pretty good. Barreto varies his focus and angles often, and makes the high tension and aggravation of the many, many characters involved abundantly clear. And at the end, when drawing all of Atari Force together in a small space (except Kargg, poor dude, who evidently gets left behind) Barreto does a damn good job. Everyone is as detailed and distinct in personality as always, so even if they leave in a lackluster fashion, they still look good doing it. The problem is that the story has so little going for it, and the panels are necessarily talking heads for so much of the issue, that no matter how talented Barreto is, the art fails to impress.
Tempest phase-punching Hunter in the face when Atari Force begins their escape is an awesome panel, as is the half-page splash of the Destroyer's reemergence. These are the moments of highest drama and action, so Barreto gives them extra attention, and it pays off. It is, however, too little too late, as both of these panels come after eleven pages of drudgery.
I'm not going to get into the backup feature in much detail. It's another cutesy, mindless Hukka story, this time about him getting into a fight with a malfunctioning and outrageously dangerous robotic toy. I'm just too sick of saying how little purpose these short stories serve, and this one is especially guilty. Is it impossible to tell a Hukka-centric story with meat on its bones? It shouldn't be, just because the character is someone's pet, speaking in goofy broken English and seeing the world in simple terms. Essentially, Hukka has a child's perspective, a point of view which can and has been used to great effect in countless pieces of fiction. Why this series has decided to consistently use Hukka to tell pseudo-comedic non-stories is beyond me, but that's what we get here. So the actual ending of the series is even more disappointing and dull than the conclusion of the main narrative.
This isn't a terrible issue, necessarily, but it's a very weak ending to what has mostly been a strong series. It does too little, aims too low, and involves far too much retreading of established facts and details for the benefit of the characters instead of the readers. I wanted something bolder and more action-packed, something that reflected the nineteen issues of sci-fi epic that preceded it.
Friday, June 14, 2013
Atari Force Month: Issue #13 Review
This is the last issue to have Gerry Conway's name attached, and once again he only plots it, while Joey Cavalieri handles the actual script. And the script is really good, but it's the plotting that matters most, as the very end of the issue sees the Dark Destroyer's anti-matter bomb denoting as he'd planned. Atari Force's entire universe is eliminated from existence, a bold final move by Conway and Cavalieri that I admire and adore.
The entirety of the issue is Atari Force's final confrontation with the Destroyer. It begins with an explanation of how the Destroyer has Martin's physical appearance, which I founnd largely unsatisfying. Basically, when the old Atari Force battled him originally, the Destroyer sent a part of himself out into space as a contingency plan. When his old body was destroyed, this fragment continued, eventually finding Martin and his wife Lyida on New Earth right before she gave birth to their son. So the Destroyer stole Lydia's life-force (not sure of the details of how that works), killing her, and then apparently also stole a bit of Martin's self before departing to be reborn in his new, Martin-based form. What bugs me about this is, a) shouldn't the Destroyer look like Lydia if she's the person he actually killed? b) it's a rushed and incomplete explanation, and c) it's too predictable. The Destroyer looks like Martin because he copied part of Martin. Dull.
I love that he entered a pregnant space swamp hippo in order to be born anew. Aside from that tiny tidbit, though, the Destroyer's backstory is weak and disappointing. However, it sets him up as being just as obsessed with Martin as Martin is with him, and that relationship is key to the ending of this issue. Martin attacks the Destroyer head-on, a straight-up fist fight between two old foes. And Martin, fueled by decades-old rage, manages to best the Destroyer in that combat (which is ridiculous, but more on that in a minute). However, punching the bad guy out does not disable his bomb, so even though Martin finally gets to defeat the being he's been chasing for twenty years, he loses the war. The bomb goes off, and reality is undone. So Martin and the Destroyer both win, and both lose, mirror images of one another right up to the bitter end. Martin succeeds in taking out his enemy but fails to save the world. The Destroyer pulls off his grand, universe-ending scheme, but dies in the process, a bloodied and beaten man laying next to his bomb as it explodes. The two were so hell-bent on getting at each other, they let it ruin both of their lives.
I do have a general problem with Martin using only his fists against the Destroyer, and with how quickly and easily Atari Force wins the battle in general. Considering when Tempest was fighting him, none of his hits even made an impact on the Destroyer, I'm unclear as to how Martin can so completely kick his ass. And issue #12 saw the whole team getting handily beaten by the Destroyer's forces, so since the events of this issue take place only minutes later, I'm confused as to why, all of a sudden, the same enemies fall to Atari Force in mere seconds. Morphea takes out a huge group of minions with a single mind-blast, which she's never done before. Nobody is overrun, and Pakrat and Babe barely have anything to even do. It all feels unearned, but I can forgive it to a degree, since the good guys fail in their most important goal in the end.
Also, in the midst of this overly-easy fight, Dart and Blackjak have another confrontation, and she finally admits to herself that he is, now and maybe forever, her enemy. That he let the Destroyer into his mind willingly, and will indeed kill her if given the chance. So she shoots him first, and even though the scene is a bit brief, new penciler Ed Barreto makes it visually quite moving. Three panels show the progression of Blackjak being hit and falling to the ground, while Dart looks on helplessly from afar. These panels are joined by a background image of a close-up of Dart's face, tears escaping from her eyes as she watches her former love go down. She knows she had no choice, and Morphea reminds her of it, but that does not ease the pain. Because Cavalieri's script didn't have space to get into the complex emotions of that moment, Barreto takes care of it in a single, striking image.
Barreto is a good fit for this book on the whole. He does some really dynamic layouts, and the issue has an almost overwhelming energy to it. There are a lot of overlapping panels, visuals that break out of the borders, and jam-packed action on these pages. And the cast are every bit as distinct and detailed as always. They look just like themselves, because Barreto's style doesn't stray too dramatically from García-López's. Barreto's figures are sterner and a bit more solid or firm, but some of that has to do with the all-action plot of this issue. Everyone has to be a bit more serious than usual, because they're involved in very serious business.
So all of the action looks great, even if victory comes too quickly for our heroes. And, again, it's barely a victory, because seconds after they finish the fight, the anti-matter bomb destroys everything in the universe. That's an excellent way to finish the long-running thread of the struggle against the Dark Destroyer, and a huge part of me wishes the series had just ended with it. How surprising and impressive would that have been? The villain wins, reality explodes, the end. I've always wanted to write a story that had an abrupt, unexpected end-of-everything conclusion, but Conway and crew got it done before I was even born. It is somewhat frustrating that Tempest's trial is unresolved, Rident's location is still a mystery, and other such threads are left dangling. But, at the same time, blowing up the universe resolves all of those questions, just with the same answer: "and then they blew up." I understand that, on a technical level, this is not great storytelling. Personally, though, I'm all for it. Let Tempest die with his story still unfinished. It speaks to the inanity of the court system that his trial would be ongoing in the moment everything burned. Plus it's a surprise, which I always like from my fiction.
It seems like the title has made an official switch from 23-page stories to 16-pagers with a 7-page backup. This issue, the backup is written by Paul Kupperberg and drawn by Dave Manak with Keith Giffen on inks. It is another Hukka story and, like the last one, it is silly and fun but inconsequential. Hukka meets and makes friends with a fuzzy, yellow, bunny-like creature named Chee. They play for a while, and then Chee jumps down a hole, so Hukka follows. Once down there, another of Chee's race tries to eat Hukka, and Chee seems to support that plan, until he/she/it is reminded of the fun it had with Hukka above ground. So Chee saves Hukka, but, sadly, cannot play anymore, since the rest of its family would still eat Hukka if they had the chance. It's a poignant ending to a sweet but simple tale about the cruelty of nature.
Manak draws Hukka well, infusing him with the adorability and curiosity I've come to expect. Chee, too, is extremely cute, almost overly so, yet in such a way that when Hukka gets down the hole and is chased by another of the same creature, it looks convincingly menacing. It's definitely an enjoyable backup strip, but what purpose does it serve? Why shorten the main narrative every month in order to include this? Which came first, the desire for fewer pages of the primary story, or the thought of doing backups? Either way, not the best call.
And I question the decision to continue the series after this issue, too. From a marketing perspective, assuming the book sold at all, I understand it. But creatively, it feels like the story is told. Atari Force have revealed the master plan of their arch-rival, a mystery some of them had been trying to solve since before the start of issue #1. And the Destroyer has carried out that plan, ending countless lives on countless worlds. It's so mind-bogglingly catastrophic a conclusion, to have to follow it seems an impossible task. If I imagine this issue without the few seeds it plants at the end in order to allow the title to move forward (Atari Force escape to Scanner One, Dark Destroyer sends a piece of his mind into Kargg's, etc.), it's all the more satisfying. The way Cavalieri writes it, the bomb unquestionably works. The universe if definitely destroyed, the people definitely die, etc. That's a powerful note to land on, and one I think fits the series perfectly. As I've said, Atari Force's strongest material always comes when the titular heroes are losing. By that logic, then, having them fail completely to disable the anti-matter bomb could and should be the greatest story ever. It isn't, because it has new creators and it's too short and it's not the actual ending of the series and so forth. But it's still an awesome way for Conway to say goodbye, and I suspect his original plan was to have the anti-matter bomb kill everyone, Atari Force included. I like to think so, anyway, and part of me will always wish that had been what happened, no matter how good the Mike Baron-penned issues end up.
The entirety of the issue is Atari Force's final confrontation with the Destroyer. It begins with an explanation of how the Destroyer has Martin's physical appearance, which I founnd largely unsatisfying. Basically, when the old Atari Force battled him originally, the Destroyer sent a part of himself out into space as a contingency plan. When his old body was destroyed, this fragment continued, eventually finding Martin and his wife Lyida on New Earth right before she gave birth to their son. So the Destroyer stole Lydia's life-force (not sure of the details of how that works), killing her, and then apparently also stole a bit of Martin's self before departing to be reborn in his new, Martin-based form. What bugs me about this is, a) shouldn't the Destroyer look like Lydia if she's the person he actually killed? b) it's a rushed and incomplete explanation, and c) it's too predictable. The Destroyer looks like Martin because he copied part of Martin. Dull.
I love that he entered a pregnant space swamp hippo in order to be born anew. Aside from that tiny tidbit, though, the Destroyer's backstory is weak and disappointing. However, it sets him up as being just as obsessed with Martin as Martin is with him, and that relationship is key to the ending of this issue. Martin attacks the Destroyer head-on, a straight-up fist fight between two old foes. And Martin, fueled by decades-old rage, manages to best the Destroyer in that combat (which is ridiculous, but more on that in a minute). However, punching the bad guy out does not disable his bomb, so even though Martin finally gets to defeat the being he's been chasing for twenty years, he loses the war. The bomb goes off, and reality is undone. So Martin and the Destroyer both win, and both lose, mirror images of one another right up to the bitter end. Martin succeeds in taking out his enemy but fails to save the world. The Destroyer pulls off his grand, universe-ending scheme, but dies in the process, a bloodied and beaten man laying next to his bomb as it explodes. The two were so hell-bent on getting at each other, they let it ruin both of their lives.
I do have a general problem with Martin using only his fists against the Destroyer, and with how quickly and easily Atari Force wins the battle in general. Considering when Tempest was fighting him, none of his hits even made an impact on the Destroyer, I'm unclear as to how Martin can so completely kick his ass. And issue #12 saw the whole team getting handily beaten by the Destroyer's forces, so since the events of this issue take place only minutes later, I'm confused as to why, all of a sudden, the same enemies fall to Atari Force in mere seconds. Morphea takes out a huge group of minions with a single mind-blast, which she's never done before. Nobody is overrun, and Pakrat and Babe barely have anything to even do. It all feels unearned, but I can forgive it to a degree, since the good guys fail in their most important goal in the end.
Also, in the midst of this overly-easy fight, Dart and Blackjak have another confrontation, and she finally admits to herself that he is, now and maybe forever, her enemy. That he let the Destroyer into his mind willingly, and will indeed kill her if given the chance. So she shoots him first, and even though the scene is a bit brief, new penciler Ed Barreto makes it visually quite moving. Three panels show the progression of Blackjak being hit and falling to the ground, while Dart looks on helplessly from afar. These panels are joined by a background image of a close-up of Dart's face, tears escaping from her eyes as she watches her former love go down. She knows she had no choice, and Morphea reminds her of it, but that does not ease the pain. Because Cavalieri's script didn't have space to get into the complex emotions of that moment, Barreto takes care of it in a single, striking image.
Barreto is a good fit for this book on the whole. He does some really dynamic layouts, and the issue has an almost overwhelming energy to it. There are a lot of overlapping panels, visuals that break out of the borders, and jam-packed action on these pages. And the cast are every bit as distinct and detailed as always. They look just like themselves, because Barreto's style doesn't stray too dramatically from García-López's. Barreto's figures are sterner and a bit more solid or firm, but some of that has to do with the all-action plot of this issue. Everyone has to be a bit more serious than usual, because they're involved in very serious business.
So all of the action looks great, even if victory comes too quickly for our heroes. And, again, it's barely a victory, because seconds after they finish the fight, the anti-matter bomb destroys everything in the universe. That's an excellent way to finish the long-running thread of the struggle against the Dark Destroyer, and a huge part of me wishes the series had just ended with it. How surprising and impressive would that have been? The villain wins, reality explodes, the end. I've always wanted to write a story that had an abrupt, unexpected end-of-everything conclusion, but Conway and crew got it done before I was even born. It is somewhat frustrating that Tempest's trial is unresolved, Rident's location is still a mystery, and other such threads are left dangling. But, at the same time, blowing up the universe resolves all of those questions, just with the same answer: "and then they blew up." I understand that, on a technical level, this is not great storytelling. Personally, though, I'm all for it. Let Tempest die with his story still unfinished. It speaks to the inanity of the court system that his trial would be ongoing in the moment everything burned. Plus it's a surprise, which I always like from my fiction.
It seems like the title has made an official switch from 23-page stories to 16-pagers with a 7-page backup. This issue, the backup is written by Paul Kupperberg and drawn by Dave Manak with Keith Giffen on inks. It is another Hukka story and, like the last one, it is silly and fun but inconsequential. Hukka meets and makes friends with a fuzzy, yellow, bunny-like creature named Chee. They play for a while, and then Chee jumps down a hole, so Hukka follows. Once down there, another of Chee's race tries to eat Hukka, and Chee seems to support that plan, until he/she/it is reminded of the fun it had with Hukka above ground. So Chee saves Hukka, but, sadly, cannot play anymore, since the rest of its family would still eat Hukka if they had the chance. It's a poignant ending to a sweet but simple tale about the cruelty of nature.
Manak draws Hukka well, infusing him with the adorability and curiosity I've come to expect. Chee, too, is extremely cute, almost overly so, yet in such a way that when Hukka gets down the hole and is chased by another of the same creature, it looks convincingly menacing. It's definitely an enjoyable backup strip, but what purpose does it serve? Why shorten the main narrative every month in order to include this? Which came first, the desire for fewer pages of the primary story, or the thought of doing backups? Either way, not the best call.
And I question the decision to continue the series after this issue, too. From a marketing perspective, assuming the book sold at all, I understand it. But creatively, it feels like the story is told. Atari Force have revealed the master plan of their arch-rival, a mystery some of them had been trying to solve since before the start of issue #1. And the Destroyer has carried out that plan, ending countless lives on countless worlds. It's so mind-bogglingly catastrophic a conclusion, to have to follow it seems an impossible task. If I imagine this issue without the few seeds it plants at the end in order to allow the title to move forward (Atari Force escape to Scanner One, Dark Destroyer sends a piece of his mind into Kargg's, etc.), it's all the more satisfying. The way Cavalieri writes it, the bomb unquestionably works. The universe if definitely destroyed, the people definitely die, etc. That's a powerful note to land on, and one I think fits the series perfectly. As I've said, Atari Force's strongest material always comes when the titular heroes are losing. By that logic, then, having them fail completely to disable the anti-matter bomb could and should be the greatest story ever. It isn't, because it has new creators and it's too short and it's not the actual ending of the series and so forth. But it's still an awesome way for Conway to say goodbye, and I suspect his original plan was to have the anti-matter bomb kill everyone, Atari Force included. I like to think so, anyway, and part of me will always wish that had been what happened, no matter how good the Mike Baron-penned issues end up.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Atari Force Month: Issue #12 Review
Quick preamble: My lady and I are currently in the process of moving from Texas to Massachusetts which means, among other things, that our scanner is no longer accessible. So there will be no scanned images for these Atari Force reviews for the foreseeable future, and indeed there may be no more for the rest of Atari Force Month. Probably a bad call for me to start with scans if I knew I was moving, but obviously I didn't think that through.
Atari Force #12 is interesting more for the external facts of it than the content inside. This is true for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it marks the end of José Luis García-López's run as penciler. He is one of the series' creators and biggest assets, and it's a shame this is his last issue, because a) the section he draws is only sixteen pages long, and b) this is some of his least impressive work on the book. It's still very reliable art. This is not García-López getting sloppy, just getting noticeably looser in his linework. On the largest panels, the splashes and spreads, he is his usual self: heavy detail, smart use of every inch of page space, smart angles, fluid action, strong emotion, etc. But some of the smaller panels seem unfinished, characters with featureless faces and vague backgrounds and the like. And even some of the main fight scene feels less exciting than usual. There isn't as much energy or creativity to it, just a bunch of people fighting a smaller bunch of other people.
García-López is a talented enough storyteller to get a little lax without the issue becoming muddled or dull. This is still fine work, and there are a few truly great moments. A two-page spread of the Dark Destroyer and his amassed forces as they confidently await their foes' arrival is particularly impressive, and the opening splash of Tempest on trial works as a captive introduction. Tempest is still battered and defeated, his head down and his body barely held up with help. In the background, the A.T.A.R.I. members who serve as his judges loom tall, and the room expands high and wide around them, giving the sense that Tempest is more trapped here than he was in his cell. It is the spaces in between these massive, heavy beats that come out a bit weaker here than ever before, and that's too bad. García-López was such a key part of the comic's strength, I hate to see him go out without a bang.
The final page, at least, is García-López on his A game, so he leaves the book with a memorable image. It is another full-page splash, and in essence, this one page is the whole point of issue #12. It features the Dark Destroyer with his enormous horned helmet off for the first time, revealing to Atari Force that, underneath, he is Martin Champion. Considering Martin is the Destroyer's oldest and most passionate foe, and standing right in front of him when this revelation is made, it's a safe assumption that there's going to be some explaining to do next time. For now, though, this works as a narrative bomb, a legitimately unexpected twist that, looking back, has been skillfully hinted at in previous issues. Is this some future Martin? An alternate reality version? An evil twin? Something even more complicated than those? The questions abound, and can be seen clearly on the expressive faces of Atari Force as they try to cope with the image of Martin Champion in the Dark Destroyer's clothes. It's an effective final page, and a fitting farewell from García-López, even if the rest of the issue wasn't fully up to snuff.
This issue is also the beginning of the end of Gerry Conway's time on the title. He plots this issue and the next, but they are scripted by others, with #12 being handled by editor Andy Helfer, who also wrote #8. As with the last time Helfer took the helm, there is no drastic change in writing style here. The cast is strong enough that their voices stay firm, and Helfer obviously has a familiarity with them. It only takes one page for him to handle the fallout of Blackjak's betrayal last issue, and he does a damn fine job of it. Dart visits Blackjak in his holding cell to search for answers, but the best he can offer is that he's always been a coward, but was able to pretend at bravery when she was around. Dart made him better, bolder, stronger-willed than he was, and the Dark Destroyer forced Blackjak to face the truth about his inner weaknesses by saving him. I can't think of a better way to break somebody than to force them to admit that their life is a lie, and that's what the Destroyer has effectively done here. So Blackjak is fully subservient, and though he says it through tears, he is no doubt sincere when he tells Dart that he'd try to kill her again if his master instructed it. Dart, for her part, tries to maintain stoicism, and recovers by going after the Destroyer with everything she's got.
It's not nearly enough, though, and Atari Force get quickly trounced by their enemy and his innumerable henchmen. They fall so quickly that Martin steps in and surrenders for them, not wanting to watch any more of his people die because of the Destroyer. And in the wake of that surrender comes the final reveal of the Destroyer as Martin, and everyone else's jaws hit the floor.
That is the bulk of the primary narrative, with the exception of Tempest's trial scene at the top of the issue. Which is the worst scene by far. It's basically all old hat, but screamed instead of just being heatedly discussed. Nothing is accomplished, since before any actual legal proceedings can be carried out, Tempest has yet another pointless tantrum and is knocked unconscious by Hunter. I'm not sure why the scene is even included, except maybe to fill some space and remind the reader what Tempest is up to. Once he gets carried back to his cell, Professor Venture tries to convince the court that the Dark Destroyer is still a threat, but as always, nobody listens. It's growing fairly tiresome by now.
And that's essentially all that goes down. Tempest gets nowhere, Blackjak admits what a bastard he is at heart, and then Atari Force gets beaten up by the Destroyer's goons until, WHAMMO!, he takes his helmet off and has Martin's face. His voice, too, in my head. That's a decent amount of material for a sixteen-page story, I suppose, but because this is the first time Atari Force has had such a truncated issue, it feels fluffy and overly brief. Most of the story is just a long build-up to the last page, anyway, and that feels like too little for a whole issue to accomplish. Like with the art, it's not that the writing is terrible or even necessarily bad, but it is certainly disappointing.
My disappointment is mitigated by the seven-page, Hukka-centric backup feature written and penciled by Keith Giffen. It's not astounding, but it's lots of fun, the story of Hukka hunting a tiny lizard-like critter for sport while unknowingly being hunted himself by a much larger beast for food. In the end, Hukka catches his terrified prey, and then notices that he is something else's prey in a hilarious full-page splash that also reveals the monster's full figure to the reader for the first time. And on the opposite page, an even larger monster swoops done from the sky and gobbles up Hukka's hunter in a single bite. Those two pages are hilarious and rich, and the crux of Giffen's entire piece. After them is one last page where Hukka lets his lizardish captive go, demonstrating the lesson of the story's title, "Do Unto Others." A simple little tale that Giffen draws with a tenderness and liveliness that adds a lot.
I do wish Tom Ziuko had colored to two huge beasts differently. They are both all pink, which makes it a tad less clear than it could be what is happening when the second one eats the first. But that lasts for only a second, and Giffen's designs for the creatures overshadow any tiny coloring missteps.
Atari Force #12 is an issue of awkward transitions. José Luis García-López finishes his stint as artist somewhat poorly, Gerry Conway plots but does not write this issue, and there's a backup story for the first time, which for some reason means fewer pages for the main narrative. As the old creative team phases out, the book finds itself stumbling a bit, and it's aggravating. I don't know the history of why the original creators left, if they walked off or were told to leave or what, but no matter the situation, I wish it had been done more smoothly. As Conway's epic story winds down, he doesn't even get to script it; the cast may still sound like themselves, but the book itself feels different here. And not in a good way.
Atari Force #12 is interesting more for the external facts of it than the content inside. This is true for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it marks the end of José Luis García-López's run as penciler. He is one of the series' creators and biggest assets, and it's a shame this is his last issue, because a) the section he draws is only sixteen pages long, and b) this is some of his least impressive work on the book. It's still very reliable art. This is not García-López getting sloppy, just getting noticeably looser in his linework. On the largest panels, the splashes and spreads, he is his usual self: heavy detail, smart use of every inch of page space, smart angles, fluid action, strong emotion, etc. But some of the smaller panels seem unfinished, characters with featureless faces and vague backgrounds and the like. And even some of the main fight scene feels less exciting than usual. There isn't as much energy or creativity to it, just a bunch of people fighting a smaller bunch of other people.
García-López is a talented enough storyteller to get a little lax without the issue becoming muddled or dull. This is still fine work, and there are a few truly great moments. A two-page spread of the Dark Destroyer and his amassed forces as they confidently await their foes' arrival is particularly impressive, and the opening splash of Tempest on trial works as a captive introduction. Tempest is still battered and defeated, his head down and his body barely held up with help. In the background, the A.T.A.R.I. members who serve as his judges loom tall, and the room expands high and wide around them, giving the sense that Tempest is more trapped here than he was in his cell. It is the spaces in between these massive, heavy beats that come out a bit weaker here than ever before, and that's too bad. García-López was such a key part of the comic's strength, I hate to see him go out without a bang.
The final page, at least, is García-López on his A game, so he leaves the book with a memorable image. It is another full-page splash, and in essence, this one page is the whole point of issue #12. It features the Dark Destroyer with his enormous horned helmet off for the first time, revealing to Atari Force that, underneath, he is Martin Champion. Considering Martin is the Destroyer's oldest and most passionate foe, and standing right in front of him when this revelation is made, it's a safe assumption that there's going to be some explaining to do next time. For now, though, this works as a narrative bomb, a legitimately unexpected twist that, looking back, has been skillfully hinted at in previous issues. Is this some future Martin? An alternate reality version? An evil twin? Something even more complicated than those? The questions abound, and can be seen clearly on the expressive faces of Atari Force as they try to cope with the image of Martin Champion in the Dark Destroyer's clothes. It's an effective final page, and a fitting farewell from García-López, even if the rest of the issue wasn't fully up to snuff.
This issue is also the beginning of the end of Gerry Conway's time on the title. He plots this issue and the next, but they are scripted by others, with #12 being handled by editor Andy Helfer, who also wrote #8. As with the last time Helfer took the helm, there is no drastic change in writing style here. The cast is strong enough that their voices stay firm, and Helfer obviously has a familiarity with them. It only takes one page for him to handle the fallout of Blackjak's betrayal last issue, and he does a damn fine job of it. Dart visits Blackjak in his holding cell to search for answers, but the best he can offer is that he's always been a coward, but was able to pretend at bravery when she was around. Dart made him better, bolder, stronger-willed than he was, and the Dark Destroyer forced Blackjak to face the truth about his inner weaknesses by saving him. I can't think of a better way to break somebody than to force them to admit that their life is a lie, and that's what the Destroyer has effectively done here. So Blackjak is fully subservient, and though he says it through tears, he is no doubt sincere when he tells Dart that he'd try to kill her again if his master instructed it. Dart, for her part, tries to maintain stoicism, and recovers by going after the Destroyer with everything she's got.
It's not nearly enough, though, and Atari Force get quickly trounced by their enemy and his innumerable henchmen. They fall so quickly that Martin steps in and surrenders for them, not wanting to watch any more of his people die because of the Destroyer. And in the wake of that surrender comes the final reveal of the Destroyer as Martin, and everyone else's jaws hit the floor.
That is the bulk of the primary narrative, with the exception of Tempest's trial scene at the top of the issue. Which is the worst scene by far. It's basically all old hat, but screamed instead of just being heatedly discussed. Nothing is accomplished, since before any actual legal proceedings can be carried out, Tempest has yet another pointless tantrum and is knocked unconscious by Hunter. I'm not sure why the scene is even included, except maybe to fill some space and remind the reader what Tempest is up to. Once he gets carried back to his cell, Professor Venture tries to convince the court that the Dark Destroyer is still a threat, but as always, nobody listens. It's growing fairly tiresome by now.
And that's essentially all that goes down. Tempest gets nowhere, Blackjak admits what a bastard he is at heart, and then Atari Force gets beaten up by the Destroyer's goons until, WHAMMO!, he takes his helmet off and has Martin's face. His voice, too, in my head. That's a decent amount of material for a sixteen-page story, I suppose, but because this is the first time Atari Force has had such a truncated issue, it feels fluffy and overly brief. Most of the story is just a long build-up to the last page, anyway, and that feels like too little for a whole issue to accomplish. Like with the art, it's not that the writing is terrible or even necessarily bad, but it is certainly disappointing.
My disappointment is mitigated by the seven-page, Hukka-centric backup feature written and penciled by Keith Giffen. It's not astounding, but it's lots of fun, the story of Hukka hunting a tiny lizard-like critter for sport while unknowingly being hunted himself by a much larger beast for food. In the end, Hukka catches his terrified prey, and then notices that he is something else's prey in a hilarious full-page splash that also reveals the monster's full figure to the reader for the first time. And on the opposite page, an even larger monster swoops done from the sky and gobbles up Hukka's hunter in a single bite. Those two pages are hilarious and rich, and the crux of Giffen's entire piece. After them is one last page where Hukka lets his lizardish captive go, demonstrating the lesson of the story's title, "Do Unto Others." A simple little tale that Giffen draws with a tenderness and liveliness that adds a lot.
I do wish Tom Ziuko had colored to two huge beasts differently. They are both all pink, which makes it a tad less clear than it could be what is happening when the second one eats the first. But that lasts for only a second, and Giffen's designs for the creatures overshadow any tiny coloring missteps.
Atari Force #12 is an issue of awkward transitions. José Luis García-López finishes his stint as artist somewhat poorly, Gerry Conway plots but does not write this issue, and there's a backup story for the first time, which for some reason means fewer pages for the main narrative. As the old creative team phases out, the book finds itself stumbling a bit, and it's aggravating. I don't know the history of why the original creators left, if they walked off or were told to leave or what, but no matter the situation, I wish it had been done more smoothly. As Conway's epic story winds down, he doesn't even get to script it; the cast may still sound like themselves, but the book itself feels different here. And not in a good way.
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