Monthly Dose is a semi-regular column where I reread one issue each month of long-completed series.
100 Bullets #18: "Hang Up on the Hang Low" concludes, with Loop just barely surviving the avenging of Curtis' death. That's pretty much is the bulk of the issue, with a tiny splash of Agent Graves at the beginning and end to round things out. Loop's plan goes off swimmingly at first, as he mows down a bunch of minions and quickly finds himself face-to-face with Mr. Rego, the crime boss responsible for killing his father. But Rego has one last bodyguard, Tommi, the young woman perpetually playing pool in his house, whom Loop assumes is only there to look good, which costs him dearly. Tommi kicks the crap out of Loop while Rego scolds and blames him, until Loop is lucky enough to get the drop on Tommi in just the right way to live through the experience. He then shoots Rego, his arm held steady by Holly, the woman whose bar was burned down as part of Curtis' murder. It's a hollow victory, which Loop admits to Graves after the fact, but it's hard to imagine things ending any other way. Once Curtis got killed, either Loop or Rego also had to die, and Rego was the preferable pick. Eduardo Risso really makes the fight with Loop and Tommi count, if it can even be called a fight. It's a pure ass-kicking right up until the very end, and every blow is recorded in detail for the audience's flinching pleasure. It's important to understand all the pain Loop goes through in the name of revenge, because it helps us feel the same dissatisfaction with it as he does in the end. Brian Azzarello has Rego emotionally assault Loop with the same skill and ferocity as Tommi and at the same time, putting Loop through one hell of a ringer before he makes it to his goal. That seems to have been the point of this entire arc, to introduce Loop, make us immediately warm to him, and then make him go through as much shit as possible in the shortest time. It's an effective strategy, and, not to be all spoilery about this 13-year-old comicbook, but it's not quite over yet.
Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. #6: This series concludes, and it's a rather predictable landing. I suppose I didn't expect the Creator to suddenly become self-deprecating when he "touched" Fury's mind and saw how much better human feelings are than robot feelings. That was a surprise, but it's the only one in here. He was always going to betray his people; he'd hinted heavily at that a few issues back. And Quartermain was pretty clearly on a route to self-destruction and/or turning on his makers, so when he blew the power core it was not a shock. The core also had to come back, and I'm not sure how easy it was to anticipate that it would be the death of all the bad guys, but we pretty much new none of the Deltites were going to survive. The whole story was about them trying to live forever, which marks you for death by default. Bob Harras goes through the numbers here, padding out pages with a whole lot of the Creator explaining his history and his goals, much of which was easy to suss out and none of which was particularly interesting. I did like it when all the captives rose up and broke free, because at least it was exciting, but even that felt like it had to happen. A final confrontation between the two sides is pretty basic stuff. It's not that Harras did a bad job with the story, it's more a matter of the story being stretched too thin in these six oversized issues, so that the final chapter is just a slow and steady arrival at a destination that's been visible for a while. Fury wins, Delta is destroyed, but S.H.I.E.L.D. has to be shut down because the whole thing has been a lie for so long. The writing has been on the wall since halfway through the book. There were also a lot of small distractions in the wording, like consecutive sentences that used the same words or phrases, and too many actual lettering mistakes that made things hard to understand on a first read. I was hoping for something a little more lively and/or inventive, but this was still a cool idea and a series worth reading. I think it's better to do all at once than month-by-month though, because this final month felt like a bit of a waste. I have no idea what to pick for next month...
X-Force (vol. 1) #18: "X-Cutioner's Song" concludes, and even though I've only read 3 non-sequential chapters of the 12 total during this monthly reading of X-Force, I found it enjoyable and satisfying. Greg Capullo is made for this stuff, because he has a way of making immensely bulky characters move naturally. He understands how to position them so that they look, if not realistic, at least believable. Of course this applies to the knock-down drag-out portions of the Cable vs. Stryfe fight that is the centerpiece of the issue, but I'm really thinking more of Apocalypse slowly bleeding out and dragging himself across the floor on his belly like a wounded animal. While no less massive or imposing or wicked than ever, Apocalypse also looks pathetic. I don't know if I feel bad for him, necessarily, but I definitely feel his pain. He's not just a cartoon villain being wiped off the board, but a living thing suffering in its final moments. It works, and adds a lot to the somewhat clichéd scene of Archangel choosing not to kill Apocalypse in a testament to his persevering humanity. Fabian Niceiza's script is full of familiar moments like this: the heroic sacrifice, the "We've been one step behind for too long" scene, the self-destruct countdown. But this is a crossover event, so I don't know how much of those were Nicieza's call, and either way he handles them well. Not too wordy, but using the words that are there to lean into the melodrama at just the right angle. It hums along, and it's focused and clear enough that the reader has neither time nor need to ask questions about what led up to this. Again, though, I think most of the credit for that pacing really belong to Capullo's art, which is expressive and explosive in equal turn, so you're always caught up in the drama, action, or both. Capullo continues to flourish in this book, and Nicieza seems the right partner for him, so with a crossover contribution now officially under their belt, things are looking bright.
Showing posts with label Nick Fury vs SHIELD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nick Fury vs SHIELD. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Monday, March 31, 2014
Monthly Dose: March 2014
Monthly Dose is a semi-regular column where I reread one issue each month of long-completed series.
100 Bullets #17: It says a lot about this story arc that in only three issues, Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso were able to introduce Curtis and Loop to the reader, then to each other, then build their relationship to the point where I really cared about them, and then kill Curtis off in a brutal and heart-wrenching fashion with Loop there to see it. That's a lot to do in a short time, but it doesn't feel like so much the way Azzarello and Risso do it. They cut through the crap and get to the good stuff on every page. For example, we don't see the beating Curtis gets here; not one punch punch is thrown in-panel. It cuts straight from him being cornered to him lying in a bloody, ugly mess on the floor, because there's no need to show the violence once you've made it clear that it's inevitable. Every scene is smartly paced and structured in that way, each of them starting with the first essential line and ending with the last one, with no real filler thrown in. It all matters, starting with every word (and a whole bunch of unspoken words expressed through Risso's brilliant body language and facial expression) exchanged between Curtis and Graves in the first scene. Though their exact history isn't spelled out in detail, the gist of their existing dynamic is covered quickly so that they can get right to complicating it further by talking about and involving Loop. It's a strong opening, and it propels the rest of the issue steadily forward, a slow-burn of constant tension ending in a literal and emotional explosion. I don't really know what else to say about this issue, because there aren't necessarily a lot of specific standout moments. The whole thing stands out as a remarkably tight, moody, effective piece of comicbook fiction, a deliberate and intelligent progression of what was already a great arc. Loop has gone from not knowing his dad to being best friends with him to losing him in violence and fire. That's an awful lot for an already angry, confused, somewhat immature character to go through, and I have no doubt that his reaction next month will be intense and intriguing. 100 Bullets has just gotten deadly serious and immensely tragic, so I'm excited to see just how destructively it all ends.
Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. #5: The oversized nature of these issues has never been more obvious than when reading this one. At one point I thought I was nearing the end, just based on narrative flow, but it turned out I still had 14 pages to go. The main reason for this is that, even as he progresses the story, Bob Harras just can't stop himself from explaining and re-explaining and over-explaining every single thing that happens or has happened. The number of times that the bad guys talked about how close Fury was to being in their hands was straight up ridiculous. I understand that it was the last step in their villainous plan, but even keeping that in mind, they talked about it way too often. It's already been said so many times in the previous four issues, that one or maybe two reminders could've easily been enough here. Instead it gets brought up every few pages from start to finish. Ick. The rapid aging and constant regeneration of the members of Project Delta, and their internal torment over that whole deal, was another long-established theme that got over-explored in this issue. There was just a lot of that all over, old ideas or plot points being rehashed in the dialogue without adding any new information. In between, things did steadily roll forward, but at a snail's pace because room had to be made for all the old hat. That being said, I'm still enjoying this narrative, despite the repetitiveness of the script and its poor pace. Things were sort of kicked up a notch this issue when Fury finally, fully uncovered who he was fighting and what they wanted. He's being brought face-to-face with the big bad now, which I suppose was pretty much a necessary place to leave him at the end of the penultimate chapter. Now the head villain's real plans can be revealed, and Fury can figure out some ballsy way to thwart them. I'm excited to get to that, so it that sense, at least, this issue did its job. It left me wanting more in the end, even though along the way I could've done with a little less. There were, luckily, a whole bunch of really nice visual moments from Paul Neary and Kim DeMulder to carry me through. The cream of the crop was Fury and his crew climbing snow-covered cliffs while wearing enormous, flowy capes. It reminded me of something out of a D&D session, which I'm always for. The Deltites beings tractor-beamed into the orbs also looked great, especially the last time it happened, where one half of the page was people resisting, while the other was a group fully committed to the Delta cause, serenely allowing themselves to be transported. That was a cool contrast. And I dug colorist Bernie Jaye's decision to do the Val-Kate scenes with all-red lighting. It added a surreality and somberness to their already rather dreary conversation. Because it had a decent amount of boring, pointless dialogue, this issue definitely didn't astound me, but I'm deep enough into the story of the series now that I'm invested and eager to get to the end, so I appreciated the good bits and got over the bad ones pretty quickly.
X-Force (vol. 1) #17: After skipping another three chapters, I got to dive into part 8 of "X-Cutioner's Song," which starts with a full-page splash of Stryfe and Apocalypse facing each other down "Inside the temple of Bani Maza, behind the walls of yesterday..." according to the caption box, whatever that even means. It is a badass opening image, though I have no idea how we got there or what the exact significance of the moment really is. Two huge, scary-looking, heavily-armored supervillains squaring off against one another in a chaotic close-quarters setting is cool enough to do it for me even without context. And the brawl these two engage in for the next few pages, which is less of a proper fight than it is Stryfe beating on a fleeing Apocalypse, looks fantastic. Greg Capullo is in his element drawing these two powerhouses, one pounding on the other. They are just the kind of bulky, menacing figures that make his work shine. Sadly, once Apocalypse gets away, things cool off and slow down considerably, and the rest of this issue is more of a status update on all the heroes of this story than it is an actual step forward in the larger narrative. There's a good cliffhanger ending, and it ties into the awesome beginning quite nicely, but in between there's an awful lot of recap talk and info-dumping and standing around. On the one hand, because I'm only reading the X-Force issues of this crossover, getting to see where everyone is and what they're up to was kind of nice. On the other, because I didn't read the chapter that preceded this one and won't be reading the on that follows it, either, getting this kind of breath-catching beat was sort of a bummer. I'd much rather be buried in confusing action like I was last month that have everything clearly explained but nothing interesting going on. I don't blame Fabian Nicieza for this, of course, because he had to write the part of the story he was given. And it's not necessarily his job to give people like me, who refuse to read the rest of the crossover, something exciting or action-packed in every issue of X-Force. It's actually a very good script, able to move between locations and characters efficiently so that all the exposition bases are covered and there's still room for Stryke to whomp on Apocalypse up front and for a wounded, beaten Apocalypse to arrive at the X-Mansion in the end. So all-in-all a very well-done issue, but sort of a snoozer as far as story goes, due to where this specific chapter lies in the structure of the overarching event story.
100 Bullets #17: It says a lot about this story arc that in only three issues, Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso were able to introduce Curtis and Loop to the reader, then to each other, then build their relationship to the point where I really cared about them, and then kill Curtis off in a brutal and heart-wrenching fashion with Loop there to see it. That's a lot to do in a short time, but it doesn't feel like so much the way Azzarello and Risso do it. They cut through the crap and get to the good stuff on every page. For example, we don't see the beating Curtis gets here; not one punch punch is thrown in-panel. It cuts straight from him being cornered to him lying in a bloody, ugly mess on the floor, because there's no need to show the violence once you've made it clear that it's inevitable. Every scene is smartly paced and structured in that way, each of them starting with the first essential line and ending with the last one, with no real filler thrown in. It all matters, starting with every word (and a whole bunch of unspoken words expressed through Risso's brilliant body language and facial expression) exchanged between Curtis and Graves in the first scene. Though their exact history isn't spelled out in detail, the gist of their existing dynamic is covered quickly so that they can get right to complicating it further by talking about and involving Loop. It's a strong opening, and it propels the rest of the issue steadily forward, a slow-burn of constant tension ending in a literal and emotional explosion. I don't really know what else to say about this issue, because there aren't necessarily a lot of specific standout moments. The whole thing stands out as a remarkably tight, moody, effective piece of comicbook fiction, a deliberate and intelligent progression of what was already a great arc. Loop has gone from not knowing his dad to being best friends with him to losing him in violence and fire. That's an awful lot for an already angry, confused, somewhat immature character to go through, and I have no doubt that his reaction next month will be intense and intriguing. 100 Bullets has just gotten deadly serious and immensely tragic, so I'm excited to see just how destructively it all ends.
Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. #5: The oversized nature of these issues has never been more obvious than when reading this one. At one point I thought I was nearing the end, just based on narrative flow, but it turned out I still had 14 pages to go. The main reason for this is that, even as he progresses the story, Bob Harras just can't stop himself from explaining and re-explaining and over-explaining every single thing that happens or has happened. The number of times that the bad guys talked about how close Fury was to being in their hands was straight up ridiculous. I understand that it was the last step in their villainous plan, but even keeping that in mind, they talked about it way too often. It's already been said so many times in the previous four issues, that one or maybe two reminders could've easily been enough here. Instead it gets brought up every few pages from start to finish. Ick. The rapid aging and constant regeneration of the members of Project Delta, and their internal torment over that whole deal, was another long-established theme that got over-explored in this issue. There was just a lot of that all over, old ideas or plot points being rehashed in the dialogue without adding any new information. In between, things did steadily roll forward, but at a snail's pace because room had to be made for all the old hat. That being said, I'm still enjoying this narrative, despite the repetitiveness of the script and its poor pace. Things were sort of kicked up a notch this issue when Fury finally, fully uncovered who he was fighting and what they wanted. He's being brought face-to-face with the big bad now, which I suppose was pretty much a necessary place to leave him at the end of the penultimate chapter. Now the head villain's real plans can be revealed, and Fury can figure out some ballsy way to thwart them. I'm excited to get to that, so it that sense, at least, this issue did its job. It left me wanting more in the end, even though along the way I could've done with a little less. There were, luckily, a whole bunch of really nice visual moments from Paul Neary and Kim DeMulder to carry me through. The cream of the crop was Fury and his crew climbing snow-covered cliffs while wearing enormous, flowy capes. It reminded me of something out of a D&D session, which I'm always for. The Deltites beings tractor-beamed into the orbs also looked great, especially the last time it happened, where one half of the page was people resisting, while the other was a group fully committed to the Delta cause, serenely allowing themselves to be transported. That was a cool contrast. And I dug colorist Bernie Jaye's decision to do the Val-Kate scenes with all-red lighting. It added a surreality and somberness to their already rather dreary conversation. Because it had a decent amount of boring, pointless dialogue, this issue definitely didn't astound me, but I'm deep enough into the story of the series now that I'm invested and eager to get to the end, so I appreciated the good bits and got over the bad ones pretty quickly.
X-Force (vol. 1) #17: After skipping another three chapters, I got to dive into part 8 of "X-Cutioner's Song," which starts with a full-page splash of Stryfe and Apocalypse facing each other down "Inside the temple of Bani Maza, behind the walls of yesterday..." according to the caption box, whatever that even means. It is a badass opening image, though I have no idea how we got there or what the exact significance of the moment really is. Two huge, scary-looking, heavily-armored supervillains squaring off against one another in a chaotic close-quarters setting is cool enough to do it for me even without context. And the brawl these two engage in for the next few pages, which is less of a proper fight than it is Stryfe beating on a fleeing Apocalypse, looks fantastic. Greg Capullo is in his element drawing these two powerhouses, one pounding on the other. They are just the kind of bulky, menacing figures that make his work shine. Sadly, once Apocalypse gets away, things cool off and slow down considerably, and the rest of this issue is more of a status update on all the heroes of this story than it is an actual step forward in the larger narrative. There's a good cliffhanger ending, and it ties into the awesome beginning quite nicely, but in between there's an awful lot of recap talk and info-dumping and standing around. On the one hand, because I'm only reading the X-Force issues of this crossover, getting to see where everyone is and what they're up to was kind of nice. On the other, because I didn't read the chapter that preceded this one and won't be reading the on that follows it, either, getting this kind of breath-catching beat was sort of a bummer. I'd much rather be buried in confusing action like I was last month that have everything clearly explained but nothing interesting going on. I don't blame Fabian Nicieza for this, of course, because he had to write the part of the story he was given. And it's not necessarily his job to give people like me, who refuse to read the rest of the crossover, something exciting or action-packed in every issue of X-Force. It's actually a very good script, able to move between locations and characters efficiently so that all the exposition bases are covered and there's still room for Stryke to whomp on Apocalypse up front and for a wounded, beaten Apocalypse to arrive at the X-Mansion in the end. So all-in-all a very well-done issue, but sort of a snoozer as far as story goes, due to where this specific chapter lies in the structure of the overarching event story.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Monthly Dose: February 2014
Monthly Dose is a semi-regular column where I reread one issue each month of long-completed series.
100 Bullets #16: Right away, I was grateful for the fact that Loop wasn't hiding his new relationship with his father from his mother. It's an all-too-common device in fiction to have one character keep a stressful secret from another that the audience knows will inevitably be revealed, and I sort of hate that. I mean...you kind of have to be able to live with some amount of it if you want to watch any sitcoms ever, but that's a digression, and in the case of this comicbook, I appreciate Brian Azzarello choosing to miss an opportunity to include one of those kinds of secrets and just letting the information be out in the open from the start. And he writes the whole issue well from there, giving Loop and Curtis a comfortable if somewhat simple father-son dynamic, and ending on a pair of excellent reveals, both relating to Agent Graves. First, Loop comes home to discover his cousin visiting unexpectedly with a girlfriend, and they're the same couple Graves manipulated into robbing Lono in an earlier issue. Things are starting to come back around, and the true scope and organization of 100 Bullets is beginning to come into focus. Meanwhile, it turns out Graves and Curtis know one another, and Curtis has already figured out that it was Graves who told Loop that Curtis was his dad. That both deepens the mystery of Graves and makes Curtis into a far scarier and more interesting character. As second chapters go, this hit all the right notes: reminding us what happened last time efficiently, advancing things quickly but naturally, and ending with enticing new information to bring us back. Eduardo Risso also does some great stuff with Curtis and Loop's interactions. Lots of quick looks they shoot each other that say more than any dialogue ever could in the same space. But the best-looking part of the issue by far was the scene with Nino Rego, because he looks like Mr. Magoo but angry and aware. He's a little exaggerated, but not ill-fitting or unbelievable, just comically wrinkled while remaining intimidating and nasty. Risso also picks good angles from which to view Nino, providing a full picture of the man in only a few pages. It's representative of the thorough work he does throughout the issue, very well-structured and efficient. This has got to be a candidate for best single issue of the series so far, with everyone involved bringing their A game, and the strongest double-cliffhanger I've read anywhere in a while.
Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. #4: I read this and quite liked it, but it sort of washed over me. Flipping through it again now, I think the reason is this: while a solid Nick Fury comic, it didn't do a whole lot to advance the plot of this series. Fury fails to do what he wants, and so do his opponents, and there isn't a great deal of new information in between. This issue seems to be filling space/killing time, but it does so with style. Bob Harras paces things well, moving between Fury and the bad guys readying themselves for their inevitable confrontation at the beginning of the issue, and then giving that closing fight lots of room to be as sprawling and explosive as it wants to be. And Paul Neary mostly delivers solid pencils, with a few very nice flourishes, like the mirrored panels on the first page and the countdown sequence at the end, leading to a cool-looking if unnecessary final two-page splash of a rocket being launched through the ground. Neary's Madame Hydra was distractingly oversexualized, though. Her costume was absurd, like a bathing suit for nudists, and Neary made damn sure to have her nipples sticking out a few visible inches on pretty much every panel. It was gross and also looked weird in the context of this book, which doesn't really have any other overtly sexual elements. Well, that's not true...the two head villains have a coy and flirtatious sexual relationship, enhanced by the fact that they sometimes change into brand new bodies somehow (the details of the process are the heart of this book's central mystery, and thus not yet explained in full). But because their identities and motives are being kept obscure, we always see them in near-silhouette, so their sexually-charged dialogue and embraces don't have any matching visuals. Everything about those characters is a well-guarded secret, so the romantic side of their lives isn't out in the open. Madame Hydra's buttocks, however, totally are. Because, you know, when the bullets are flying, you definitely want your ass flesh to be exposed. That's a total ninja secret. Ugh. Anyway that ticked me off, as those things tend to do, but otherwise Neary delivered another strong super-spy comic, and Harras did the same. As far as narrative progress, though, not a lot got done here, which is too bad. It makes this feel unimportant, and therefore it leaves less of an impression than I'd like it to. I remember the broad strokes, the details elude me because they were immaterial to the larger story I'm following.
X-Force (vol. 1) #16: For the fourth chapter of a crossover I'm almost certain I've never read (I think we've gotten into the territory of X-Force comics I own but haven't read before anyway by now...though I'm not 100% sure where the cutoff is), this was surprisingly easy to follow and enjoyable. It was, actually, a pretty great ride for any superhero comicbook, crossover or not. And most of the credit for that goes to Greg Capullo. From the two-page splash on pages 2 and 3, I was hooked, and Capullo gave me something awesome to stare at on pretty much every page. The cream of the crop was a huge, over-muscled Cable, covered head-to-toe in guns, ammo, and explosives all so large he looked like he might buckle under them despite his own massive size. It was so extravagantly 90's, even more so than anything else Capullo drew in the issue, I have to assume it's parody or, at the very least, a self-aware visual gag. It made me laugh, that's for sure. Mr. Sinister smirking despite a huge lazer-blasted hole taking up one half of his face was another highlight, as was the reveal at the end of Stryfe as the true villain of whatever the hell is going on. Oh man, and the first look at the amazing lineup of X-Men—Storm, Iceman, Archangel, Beast, Colossus, and Quicksilver—who were on some sort of rescue mission was crazy good. Props to colorist Joe Rosas for that panel, too. It's all blues and whites with a few splashes of red, and it looks badass and cool (in temperature and attitude). Makes me want to see these particular X-Men as the stars of a series, though I doubt if that'd work in the current status quo. Anyway, except for the fact that Rahne didn't look enough like a wolf for my taste, the art was great all over. And considering the sheer number of characters involved, that's saying something. It's like all of X-Force, X-Factor, and the X-Men, plus Sinister, Bishop, Stryfe and his lackeys, some horsemen of Apocalypse, and whoever else I'm not remembering right now. They all look great, and even when half of them are fighting each other, the action is clear and bold and fun. As for the story surrounding that action...it's hard for me to comment on that, because I'm not sure what the situation was. The issue opens with X-Factor and a handful of X-Men already in the middle of a tense standoff with X-Force, and the two sides attack one another immediately, so I never got much explanation as to how they ended up like that. I don't know who the X-Men team I named above are looking for, though I assume it's Cyclops and Jean Grey, since they show up later, kidnapped by Stryfe. But I have no idea how that happened. Or why those six X-Men got picked to be the rescue team. Or why they are trailing the signal of a mutant named Caliban, which is a name that sounds familiar but I can't remember who he is, exactly, so I'll Wikipedia that later. And finally, I can't begin to guess why Bishop is already seconds away from blasting Mr. Sinister in the face when we check in on them. I bet it was some craziness that lead up to that moment, though. It's all great to look at, and it moves so swiftly that it's wonderful superhero action entertainment. Fabian Nicieza's script has some clunky moments, mostly in the opening fight scene when a few characters over-explain how their powers work in the middle of battle (a big pet peeve of mine I've probably mentioned before). The writing mostly pretty direct, getting out enough information for each scene to stand up on its own, but not trying to fill in all the details of what's come before. If, like me, you're reading this cold, then you'll be confused but amused, which is a fair approach for this kind of story and one I like. Either you commit to it and get the whole thing, or you don't, and hopefully the creative team on the book you are reading will deliver something enjoyable in their isolated chapter. That's precisely what happens here, which makes me excited for what this team will do once the "X-Cutioner's Song" dust settles. Next month, though, we skip a few more chapters and go straight to part 8 of the crossover, so we'll see how it looks a little further down the road.
100 Bullets #16: Right away, I was grateful for the fact that Loop wasn't hiding his new relationship with his father from his mother. It's an all-too-common device in fiction to have one character keep a stressful secret from another that the audience knows will inevitably be revealed, and I sort of hate that. I mean...you kind of have to be able to live with some amount of it if you want to watch any sitcoms ever, but that's a digression, and in the case of this comicbook, I appreciate Brian Azzarello choosing to miss an opportunity to include one of those kinds of secrets and just letting the information be out in the open from the start. And he writes the whole issue well from there, giving Loop and Curtis a comfortable if somewhat simple father-son dynamic, and ending on a pair of excellent reveals, both relating to Agent Graves. First, Loop comes home to discover his cousin visiting unexpectedly with a girlfriend, and they're the same couple Graves manipulated into robbing Lono in an earlier issue. Things are starting to come back around, and the true scope and organization of 100 Bullets is beginning to come into focus. Meanwhile, it turns out Graves and Curtis know one another, and Curtis has already figured out that it was Graves who told Loop that Curtis was his dad. That both deepens the mystery of Graves and makes Curtis into a far scarier and more interesting character. As second chapters go, this hit all the right notes: reminding us what happened last time efficiently, advancing things quickly but naturally, and ending with enticing new information to bring us back. Eduardo Risso also does some great stuff with Curtis and Loop's interactions. Lots of quick looks they shoot each other that say more than any dialogue ever could in the same space. But the best-looking part of the issue by far was the scene with Nino Rego, because he looks like Mr. Magoo but angry and aware. He's a little exaggerated, but not ill-fitting or unbelievable, just comically wrinkled while remaining intimidating and nasty. Risso also picks good angles from which to view Nino, providing a full picture of the man in only a few pages. It's representative of the thorough work he does throughout the issue, very well-structured and efficient. This has got to be a candidate for best single issue of the series so far, with everyone involved bringing their A game, and the strongest double-cliffhanger I've read anywhere in a while.
Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. #4: I read this and quite liked it, but it sort of washed over me. Flipping through it again now, I think the reason is this: while a solid Nick Fury comic, it didn't do a whole lot to advance the plot of this series. Fury fails to do what he wants, and so do his opponents, and there isn't a great deal of new information in between. This issue seems to be filling space/killing time, but it does so with style. Bob Harras paces things well, moving between Fury and the bad guys readying themselves for their inevitable confrontation at the beginning of the issue, and then giving that closing fight lots of room to be as sprawling and explosive as it wants to be. And Paul Neary mostly delivers solid pencils, with a few very nice flourishes, like the mirrored panels on the first page and the countdown sequence at the end, leading to a cool-looking if unnecessary final two-page splash of a rocket being launched through the ground. Neary's Madame Hydra was distractingly oversexualized, though. Her costume was absurd, like a bathing suit for nudists, and Neary made damn sure to have her nipples sticking out a few visible inches on pretty much every panel. It was gross and also looked weird in the context of this book, which doesn't really have any other overtly sexual elements. Well, that's not true...the two head villains have a coy and flirtatious sexual relationship, enhanced by the fact that they sometimes change into brand new bodies somehow (the details of the process are the heart of this book's central mystery, and thus not yet explained in full). But because their identities and motives are being kept obscure, we always see them in near-silhouette, so their sexually-charged dialogue and embraces don't have any matching visuals. Everything about those characters is a well-guarded secret, so the romantic side of their lives isn't out in the open. Madame Hydra's buttocks, however, totally are. Because, you know, when the bullets are flying, you definitely want your ass flesh to be exposed. That's a total ninja secret. Ugh. Anyway that ticked me off, as those things tend to do, but otherwise Neary delivered another strong super-spy comic, and Harras did the same. As far as narrative progress, though, not a lot got done here, which is too bad. It makes this feel unimportant, and therefore it leaves less of an impression than I'd like it to. I remember the broad strokes, the details elude me because they were immaterial to the larger story I'm following.
X-Force (vol. 1) #16: For the fourth chapter of a crossover I'm almost certain I've never read (I think we've gotten into the territory of X-Force comics I own but haven't read before anyway by now...though I'm not 100% sure where the cutoff is), this was surprisingly easy to follow and enjoyable. It was, actually, a pretty great ride for any superhero comicbook, crossover or not. And most of the credit for that goes to Greg Capullo. From the two-page splash on pages 2 and 3, I was hooked, and Capullo gave me something awesome to stare at on pretty much every page. The cream of the crop was a huge, over-muscled Cable, covered head-to-toe in guns, ammo, and explosives all so large he looked like he might buckle under them despite his own massive size. It was so extravagantly 90's, even more so than anything else Capullo drew in the issue, I have to assume it's parody or, at the very least, a self-aware visual gag. It made me laugh, that's for sure. Mr. Sinister smirking despite a huge lazer-blasted hole taking up one half of his face was another highlight, as was the reveal at the end of Stryfe as the true villain of whatever the hell is going on. Oh man, and the first look at the amazing lineup of X-Men—Storm, Iceman, Archangel, Beast, Colossus, and Quicksilver—who were on some sort of rescue mission was crazy good. Props to colorist Joe Rosas for that panel, too. It's all blues and whites with a few splashes of red, and it looks badass and cool (in temperature and attitude). Makes me want to see these particular X-Men as the stars of a series, though I doubt if that'd work in the current status quo. Anyway, except for the fact that Rahne didn't look enough like a wolf for my taste, the art was great all over. And considering the sheer number of characters involved, that's saying something. It's like all of X-Force, X-Factor, and the X-Men, plus Sinister, Bishop, Stryfe and his lackeys, some horsemen of Apocalypse, and whoever else I'm not remembering right now. They all look great, and even when half of them are fighting each other, the action is clear and bold and fun. As for the story surrounding that action...it's hard for me to comment on that, because I'm not sure what the situation was. The issue opens with X-Factor and a handful of X-Men already in the middle of a tense standoff with X-Force, and the two sides attack one another immediately, so I never got much explanation as to how they ended up like that. I don't know who the X-Men team I named above are looking for, though I assume it's Cyclops and Jean Grey, since they show up later, kidnapped by Stryfe. But I have no idea how that happened. Or why those six X-Men got picked to be the rescue team. Or why they are trailing the signal of a mutant named Caliban, which is a name that sounds familiar but I can't remember who he is, exactly, so I'll Wikipedia that later. And finally, I can't begin to guess why Bishop is already seconds away from blasting Mr. Sinister in the face when we check in on them. I bet it was some craziness that lead up to that moment, though. It's all great to look at, and it moves so swiftly that it's wonderful superhero action entertainment. Fabian Nicieza's script has some clunky moments, mostly in the opening fight scene when a few characters over-explain how their powers work in the middle of battle (a big pet peeve of mine I've probably mentioned before). The writing mostly pretty direct, getting out enough information for each scene to stand up on its own, but not trying to fill in all the details of what's come before. If, like me, you're reading this cold, then you'll be confused but amused, which is a fair approach for this kind of story and one I like. Either you commit to it and get the whole thing, or you don't, and hopefully the creative team on the book you are reading will deliver something enjoyable in their isolated chapter. That's precisely what happens here, which makes me excited for what this team will do once the "X-Cutioner's Song" dust settles. Next month, though, we skip a few more chapters and go straight to part 8 of the crossover, so we'll see how it looks a little further down the road.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Monthly Dose: January 2014
Monthly Dose is a semi-regular column where I reread one issue each month of long-completed series.
100 Bullets #15: The audience meets Curtis, the audience meets Loop, and then Curtis and Loop meet each other. It's an all-introduction issue, but one that is tightly written by Brian Azzarello so that it holds your interest and does precisely what it needs to do. Curtis and Loop are characters I'm eager to spend more time with, even if they and their relationship are a little cliché. Because they're also very human, as opposed to being two-dimensional stereotypes. Yes, I've seen characters like them before, but not exactly the same in outlook or style or personality. Curtis is a quieter, more thoughtful, more caring version of the grizzled old criminal archetype. And Loop lacks the apathy of the typical street youth character, replacing it with a calm but focused curiosity. That's what drives him to seek out Curtis after Agent Graves tells him that Curtis is his father, so I suppose you could call Loop's curiosity his most important trait, because it sets him apart and it pushes the narrative forward. There's also the implied danger of pairing someone so nosy with someone who clearly has a lot of secrets, and that tension works well, hanging over Loop and Curtis' already-fraught first meeting. Also adding to that scene is Patricia Mulvihill's excellent blue-black-and-white coloring. It adds a softness to a hard moment, and makes it feel a little surreal, even though it might be the most REAL shit either man has had to face. Eduardo Risso also nails that encounter, particularly when it comes to Loop's nervous uncertainty about how to approach the whole thing. It's a pretty great issue for Risso all over, actually. I love how the first thing we see of Curtis is just one, huge, solid, powerful hand slamming against a bar. Very striking image. And Agent Graves was at his most shadowy and brooding, which is always good to see. There wasn't anything in this issue that grabbed me by the throat, I guess, but I liked everything and wanted more. It's real good, clean, simple comicbook storytelling from cover to cover.
Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. #3: Man, there was a lot of interesting new shit in this issue, by which I mostly mean new important characters. Like John Allen, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ESP squad, who's a morally upstanding dude I found myself immediately rooting for simply because of his earnestness. Also, I'm into the whole idea of the ESP squad, and in particular the fact that the agents in it are being pushed to their limits and ultimately killed from overuse. It's tragic, but also an interesting way to bring Allen into the fold, first as a Nick Fury hater and then as an ally. Fury gets several new friends in this issue, actually, and I liked all of them. Sleeper agent Alexander Pierce brought some much-needed humor to the book. He's not a clown or a constant source of comic relief, but his relative inexperience and his absolute faith in Fury make them an amusing pair. Pierce tries his hardest to impress, Fury is thoroughly unimpressed, repeat. Bob Harras makes this relationship quite enjoyable, because as upset as Fury gets with Pierce's performance, there's always a certain respect and gratitude, too, since Pierce is the only person fighting on Fury's side. Until the end of the issue, that is, when they team up with Allen and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s liaison from the C.I.A., Al Mackenzie, who realizes something is rotten in the state of S.H.I.E.L.D. and decides to do something about it. So at the start of the issue, Fury was still totally alone, and at the end he's got a three-man team working with him, so things are looking up. We also learn a lot more about what the bad guys are up to, though their endgame is still a complete mystery. But we do discover that something is happening where the villains age rapidly and, apparently, die, only to be somehow remade in their younger forms by the S.H.I.E.L.D. council. I say "remade" rather than "reborn" because there's clearly an artificial life thing going on, as evidenced by a lot of stuff, most notably Eric Koenig firing some kind of white-hot energy beams out of his eyes while his face melts off. It's a safe bet that he's not the real human Koenig anymore, and it's also a fantastic-looking scene and a great way to close out the issue. Paul Neary is on point throughout, but that moment is definitely a highlight, probably of the entire series up to this point. It's gross and surprising and a little bit sad, just as it ought to be. All-in-all, this issue was the shot in the arm that the book desperately needed here at the halfway point after its rather slow, slogging start. Suddenly the cast is bigger and more varied, the plot has been richly thickened, and the stakes have been amplified, because it's not just about clearing Fury's name, it's about protecting maybe the whole world from being turned into freaky ass robots. I guess it was always ostensibly about that, but it feels like it is now, which it never did before. I'm reinvested and ready to roll into the second half of the series.
X-Force (vol. 1) #15: So here I was, all excited to get into Greg Capullo's first issue of X-Force. It's been a long, long time since I read this, or any of his issues, and he's got such a good reputation on this title and such a high profile now that I was anxious to see how the old stuff held up. And at first, I was quite pleased. Capullo is the ideal replacement for Rob Liefeld, because their styles are fairly similar, but Capullo's is a more controlled and better-looking version. He still draws enormous, bulky characters in insane action poses, but nobody looks like they are too big for their skin. There are no teeth bulging out of everyone's faces, either, and most importantly, ever panel is clear and the issue as a whole is well-paced. None of that was ever true when Liefeld was running the show, so Capullo is more than welcome. EXCEPT. All of sudden, ten pages in, there's Domino in the most ridiculously, laughably, offensively, pointlessly tattered clothes imaginable. She may as well have just been in lingerie or, for that sake, straight up nude. Complete nudity would've actually made more sense, because she'd just been freed from months of torture. So that was distracting and infuriating, but I wanted so badly to move past it because, hey, it was just one panel and it was the 90's and I can forgive that, right? But then Boom-Boom's breasts poke past her vest for no reason, and Feral's nipples are visible through her costume somehow, and both Boom-Boom and Domino get perfect holes in their shirts in just the right place so you can see some boob flesh but nothing too scandalous, and Domino is put into every ass- or chest-highlighting position Capullo can come up with. Sometimes, some way, it's both. There's probably stuff I'm not remembering, but I choose not to go back through every page of the issue to find more examples. Anyway, Capullo got flat-out sexist with it, so that turned me off. I'm hoping this won't last? Capullo is coming in and drawing the ends of storylines the Liefeld began, so some of the look of the characters may not be entirely in his hands. I'm not sure how that applies to any of the things I specifically mentioned above, though, so perhaps I'm just trying too hard to find an excuse. Whatever...Capullo is better stylistically than anyone else this title has had as penciler, so I'm not going to let my enthusiasm fade because of how he drew most of the women mot of the time for one issue. Feral had plenty of not-at-all-sexual moments, Siryn was never anything but fully covered and totally badass, and Domino was just freed from months of torture, so I'll give the dude the benefit of the doubt for now. It did spoil parts of this issue for me, though, so that's a shame. On the story side of things, Fabian Nicieza continued to jettison everything Liefeld established with great speed. Crule is thrown out a plane, Gideon closes the book on Cannonball's relationship with the other Externals, Tolliver is blown up, and Cable peaces out. It's amazing to watch, and I especially love how, in response to all these rapid-fire changes, Nicieza has X-Force openly admit, more than once, that they have no clue what to do next. I guess the decision is getting made for them, though, because the final panel of this issue explicitly states that I have to read Uncanny X-Men #294, X-Factor #84, and X-Men #14 before the next issue of this series. But guess what? I ain't gonna, so join me here next month to see how lost I am jumping into part 4 of "X-Cutioner's Song"!
100 Bullets #15: The audience meets Curtis, the audience meets Loop, and then Curtis and Loop meet each other. It's an all-introduction issue, but one that is tightly written by Brian Azzarello so that it holds your interest and does precisely what it needs to do. Curtis and Loop are characters I'm eager to spend more time with, even if they and their relationship are a little cliché. Because they're also very human, as opposed to being two-dimensional stereotypes. Yes, I've seen characters like them before, but not exactly the same in outlook or style or personality. Curtis is a quieter, more thoughtful, more caring version of the grizzled old criminal archetype. And Loop lacks the apathy of the typical street youth character, replacing it with a calm but focused curiosity. That's what drives him to seek out Curtis after Agent Graves tells him that Curtis is his father, so I suppose you could call Loop's curiosity his most important trait, because it sets him apart and it pushes the narrative forward. There's also the implied danger of pairing someone so nosy with someone who clearly has a lot of secrets, and that tension works well, hanging over Loop and Curtis' already-fraught first meeting. Also adding to that scene is Patricia Mulvihill's excellent blue-black-and-white coloring. It adds a softness to a hard moment, and makes it feel a little surreal, even though it might be the most REAL shit either man has had to face. Eduardo Risso also nails that encounter, particularly when it comes to Loop's nervous uncertainty about how to approach the whole thing. It's a pretty great issue for Risso all over, actually. I love how the first thing we see of Curtis is just one, huge, solid, powerful hand slamming against a bar. Very striking image. And Agent Graves was at his most shadowy and brooding, which is always good to see. There wasn't anything in this issue that grabbed me by the throat, I guess, but I liked everything and wanted more. It's real good, clean, simple comicbook storytelling from cover to cover.
Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. #3: Man, there was a lot of interesting new shit in this issue, by which I mostly mean new important characters. Like John Allen, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ESP squad, who's a morally upstanding dude I found myself immediately rooting for simply because of his earnestness. Also, I'm into the whole idea of the ESP squad, and in particular the fact that the agents in it are being pushed to their limits and ultimately killed from overuse. It's tragic, but also an interesting way to bring Allen into the fold, first as a Nick Fury hater and then as an ally. Fury gets several new friends in this issue, actually, and I liked all of them. Sleeper agent Alexander Pierce brought some much-needed humor to the book. He's not a clown or a constant source of comic relief, but his relative inexperience and his absolute faith in Fury make them an amusing pair. Pierce tries his hardest to impress, Fury is thoroughly unimpressed, repeat. Bob Harras makes this relationship quite enjoyable, because as upset as Fury gets with Pierce's performance, there's always a certain respect and gratitude, too, since Pierce is the only person fighting on Fury's side. Until the end of the issue, that is, when they team up with Allen and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s liaison from the C.I.A., Al Mackenzie, who realizes something is rotten in the state of S.H.I.E.L.D. and decides to do something about it. So at the start of the issue, Fury was still totally alone, and at the end he's got a three-man team working with him, so things are looking up. We also learn a lot more about what the bad guys are up to, though their endgame is still a complete mystery. But we do discover that something is happening where the villains age rapidly and, apparently, die, only to be somehow remade in their younger forms by the S.H.I.E.L.D. council. I say "remade" rather than "reborn" because there's clearly an artificial life thing going on, as evidenced by a lot of stuff, most notably Eric Koenig firing some kind of white-hot energy beams out of his eyes while his face melts off. It's a safe bet that he's not the real human Koenig anymore, and it's also a fantastic-looking scene and a great way to close out the issue. Paul Neary is on point throughout, but that moment is definitely a highlight, probably of the entire series up to this point. It's gross and surprising and a little bit sad, just as it ought to be. All-in-all, this issue was the shot in the arm that the book desperately needed here at the halfway point after its rather slow, slogging start. Suddenly the cast is bigger and more varied, the plot has been richly thickened, and the stakes have been amplified, because it's not just about clearing Fury's name, it's about protecting maybe the whole world from being turned into freaky ass robots. I guess it was always ostensibly about that, but it feels like it is now, which it never did before. I'm reinvested and ready to roll into the second half of the series.
X-Force (vol. 1) #15: So here I was, all excited to get into Greg Capullo's first issue of X-Force. It's been a long, long time since I read this, or any of his issues, and he's got such a good reputation on this title and such a high profile now that I was anxious to see how the old stuff held up. And at first, I was quite pleased. Capullo is the ideal replacement for Rob Liefeld, because their styles are fairly similar, but Capullo's is a more controlled and better-looking version. He still draws enormous, bulky characters in insane action poses, but nobody looks like they are too big for their skin. There are no teeth bulging out of everyone's faces, either, and most importantly, ever panel is clear and the issue as a whole is well-paced. None of that was ever true when Liefeld was running the show, so Capullo is more than welcome. EXCEPT. All of sudden, ten pages in, there's Domino in the most ridiculously, laughably, offensively, pointlessly tattered clothes imaginable. She may as well have just been in lingerie or, for that sake, straight up nude. Complete nudity would've actually made more sense, because she'd just been freed from months of torture. So that was distracting and infuriating, but I wanted so badly to move past it because, hey, it was just one panel and it was the 90's and I can forgive that, right? But then Boom-Boom's breasts poke past her vest for no reason, and Feral's nipples are visible through her costume somehow, and both Boom-Boom and Domino get perfect holes in their shirts in just the right place so you can see some boob flesh but nothing too scandalous, and Domino is put into every ass- or chest-highlighting position Capullo can come up with. Sometimes, some way, it's both. There's probably stuff I'm not remembering, but I choose not to go back through every page of the issue to find more examples. Anyway, Capullo got flat-out sexist with it, so that turned me off. I'm hoping this won't last? Capullo is coming in and drawing the ends of storylines the Liefeld began, so some of the look of the characters may not be entirely in his hands. I'm not sure how that applies to any of the things I specifically mentioned above, though, so perhaps I'm just trying too hard to find an excuse. Whatever...Capullo is better stylistically than anyone else this title has had as penciler, so I'm not going to let my enthusiasm fade because of how he drew most of the women mot of the time for one issue. Feral had plenty of not-at-all-sexual moments, Siryn was never anything but fully covered and totally badass, and Domino was just freed from months of torture, so I'll give the dude the benefit of the doubt for now. It did spoil parts of this issue for me, though, so that's a shame. On the story side of things, Fabian Nicieza continued to jettison everything Liefeld established with great speed. Crule is thrown out a plane, Gideon closes the book on Cannonball's relationship with the other Externals, Tolliver is blown up, and Cable peaces out. It's amazing to watch, and I especially love how, in response to all these rapid-fire changes, Nicieza has X-Force openly admit, more than once, that they have no clue what to do next. I guess the decision is getting made for them, though, because the final panel of this issue explicitly states that I have to read Uncanny X-Men #294, X-Factor #84, and X-Men #14 before the next issue of this series. But guess what? I ain't gonna, so join me here next month to see how lost I am jumping into part 4 of "X-Cutioner's Song"!
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Monthly Dose: December 2013 (Belated)
Monthly Dose is a semi-regular column where I reread one issue each month of long-completed series.
100 Bullets #14: This is an especially tough issue to take on its own when I know what's coming down the road. Because it's something like 95% Branch being extra cryptic when talking to Dizzy about The Trust, but I know who they are, because I've read this all before. Branch identifies them here and gives a vague sense of their reach and power, but provides no solid answers, instead always evading the incessant questions Dizzy throws at him. That's been their dynamic all along, I guess, but there was some action and some silence to break things up before. In this issue, it's literally all talk, and the only change is that they go from being in a park to Branch's place to outside again at a monument. These setting switches don't mean much, and seem to happen only so that Eduardo Risso can find new ways to show Dizzy and Branch conversing, something they've done for the better part of two issues prior to this one. To his Credit, Risso keeps things interesting and emotive. Branch and Dizzy have a nice physical contrast, and he moves his face a lot more than she does, too, so they play well together. That can only ever go so far, though, especially when they're not really doing anything. Yet even with all the excessive wordiness, Brian Azzarello doesn't tell us much. We get a bit of background on how Branch knows what he knows about The Trust, and...what else? Cole meets Dizzy? That, admittedly, is a great moment and an important one, but neither its greatness nor its importance can be fully understood until later in the series. Same goes for the dialogue between Cole and Branch. It's interesting and it lets the reader know that Graves defied The Trust. But we don't know why, how, or what that means, yet, and Azzarello isn't letting us in on the secret at all. This is just a tease, and I've had better, even in earlier issues of this very book. There's not enough here to latch onto, and while I can appreciate how well-structured and well-planned this series is in hindsight, seeing some of what Azzarello already includes this early on, as its own individual chapter, this was too full of words and too void of information. Particularly for the conclusion of an arc.
Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. #2: The thing that stood out to me most in this issue was how often the same words or phrases got repeated right next to each other. The earliest and most irksome example was, "The Headquarters of the Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-Enforcement Division." Just lose the first three words, or call it, I don't know, "The heart of..." or "Command central for..." That is a confusing enough name for S.H.I.E.L.D. without adding an extra headquarters to the mix. There were a handful of other instances I don't remember word-for-word, like two characters using the same phrase one right after the other, or the evil shadowy council that runs S.H.I.E.L.D. repeating themselves over and over about how without stopping Nick Fury all of their careful scheming might well be for naught. That was a very repetitive part of the story, as were a lot of the scenes with Fury's allies. The Countess is made into this lovesick, confused, helpless wreck, very uninteresting and unappealing as a character. All of Fury's friends are frustratingly inactive, not so much because it makes sense, but because the story needs to fill a lot of pages and there isn't that much going on. In between Fury's various underground fights and adventures, there have to be other scenes, so there's a lot of Dum Dum and Gabe being passively upset about what's happening, and the bad guys talking about their new recruit and what a perfect specimen he is. Spoiler alert: it's revealed to be the recently-deceased Clay Quartermain, confirming once and for all that things are not what they seem. That information is actually significant, but it may be the only truly relevant event here. The rest is incremental character development of Fury's allies, plus Fury himself running from S.H.I.E.L.D. and barely surviving, which happens like three times in this issue alone. So Bob Harras' script spins its wheels more than anything, which is a drag, especially in an oversized comicbook. Luckily, Paul Neary's art and, more than that, Bernie's Jaye's colors make the action look great. And they do the S.H.I.E.L.D. board of directors in an effective, simple, neon-green noir aesthetic, which I like a lot. Jaye colors the gunshots and explosions in soft bright purples, and it gives the bigger fight scenes a strange beauty and urgency that works quite well. As for Neary, he's not the most precise artist, but he choreographs his fights well, fitting a lot of action into a small space. Maybe too small, actually, since it leaves so much room for the needless blah blah. As a final point: It was painful having to read actual scenes of two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents going to visit the Avengers and the West Coast Avengers and the Fantastic Four (all three of which had great lineups at this time) just to tell them not to help Fury. That didn't need to happen at all, really, and it certainly could've been done off-panel. Hell, the last half of the FF conversation, a.k.a. the important part, did happen off-panel.
X-Force (vol. 1) #14: Man...what a difference having an artist I genuinely like makes. Terry Shoemaker brings such a fun-loving energy to this book, it makes Fabian Nicieza's writing funnier and the whole cast more likable. As Nicieza begins to burn away all of Liefeld's leftover plot point as quickly as he can, Shoemaker shows up for an issue to jumpstart the book visually, too. This wasn't a stellar issue, necessarily, but it was so much better than any of its predecessors. Shoemaker's characters are bulky and sturdy, but they move fluidly and with determination. They seem like they are enjoying themselves for the first time, not smiling but going after their opponents and their freedom with such gusto that it swept me up. Rictor joins the team, which is great. Cable seems to be leaving the team, or rather, they're leaving him, which is also welcome. He's still in the title for now, but this is where everybody else officially breaks off from him, and it's fantastic to see. They all get to have a voice, play a real role in what happens, and be more than just the back-up squad for the beefcake star of this comic. You can feel the very nature of the book shifting with each new page of this issue. It's not an overt reboot, but it is a sharp turn taken at a high speed. And easily the best part of the ride up to now.
100 Bullets #14: This is an especially tough issue to take on its own when I know what's coming down the road. Because it's something like 95% Branch being extra cryptic when talking to Dizzy about The Trust, but I know who they are, because I've read this all before. Branch identifies them here and gives a vague sense of their reach and power, but provides no solid answers, instead always evading the incessant questions Dizzy throws at him. That's been their dynamic all along, I guess, but there was some action and some silence to break things up before. In this issue, it's literally all talk, and the only change is that they go from being in a park to Branch's place to outside again at a monument. These setting switches don't mean much, and seem to happen only so that Eduardo Risso can find new ways to show Dizzy and Branch conversing, something they've done for the better part of two issues prior to this one. To his Credit, Risso keeps things interesting and emotive. Branch and Dizzy have a nice physical contrast, and he moves his face a lot more than she does, too, so they play well together. That can only ever go so far, though, especially when they're not really doing anything. Yet even with all the excessive wordiness, Brian Azzarello doesn't tell us much. We get a bit of background on how Branch knows what he knows about The Trust, and...what else? Cole meets Dizzy? That, admittedly, is a great moment and an important one, but neither its greatness nor its importance can be fully understood until later in the series. Same goes for the dialogue between Cole and Branch. It's interesting and it lets the reader know that Graves defied The Trust. But we don't know why, how, or what that means, yet, and Azzarello isn't letting us in on the secret at all. This is just a tease, and I've had better, even in earlier issues of this very book. There's not enough here to latch onto, and while I can appreciate how well-structured and well-planned this series is in hindsight, seeing some of what Azzarello already includes this early on, as its own individual chapter, this was too full of words and too void of information. Particularly for the conclusion of an arc.
Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. #2: The thing that stood out to me most in this issue was how often the same words or phrases got repeated right next to each other. The earliest and most irksome example was, "The Headquarters of the Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-Enforcement Division." Just lose the first three words, or call it, I don't know, "The heart of..." or "Command central for..." That is a confusing enough name for S.H.I.E.L.D. without adding an extra headquarters to the mix. There were a handful of other instances I don't remember word-for-word, like two characters using the same phrase one right after the other, or the evil shadowy council that runs S.H.I.E.L.D. repeating themselves over and over about how without stopping Nick Fury all of their careful scheming might well be for naught. That was a very repetitive part of the story, as were a lot of the scenes with Fury's allies. The Countess is made into this lovesick, confused, helpless wreck, very uninteresting and unappealing as a character. All of Fury's friends are frustratingly inactive, not so much because it makes sense, but because the story needs to fill a lot of pages and there isn't that much going on. In between Fury's various underground fights and adventures, there have to be other scenes, so there's a lot of Dum Dum and Gabe being passively upset about what's happening, and the bad guys talking about their new recruit and what a perfect specimen he is. Spoiler alert: it's revealed to be the recently-deceased Clay Quartermain, confirming once and for all that things are not what they seem. That information is actually significant, but it may be the only truly relevant event here. The rest is incremental character development of Fury's allies, plus Fury himself running from S.H.I.E.L.D. and barely surviving, which happens like three times in this issue alone. So Bob Harras' script spins its wheels more than anything, which is a drag, especially in an oversized comicbook. Luckily, Paul Neary's art and, more than that, Bernie's Jaye's colors make the action look great. And they do the S.H.I.E.L.D. board of directors in an effective, simple, neon-green noir aesthetic, which I like a lot. Jaye colors the gunshots and explosions in soft bright purples, and it gives the bigger fight scenes a strange beauty and urgency that works quite well. As for Neary, he's not the most precise artist, but he choreographs his fights well, fitting a lot of action into a small space. Maybe too small, actually, since it leaves so much room for the needless blah blah. As a final point: It was painful having to read actual scenes of two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents going to visit the Avengers and the West Coast Avengers and the Fantastic Four (all three of which had great lineups at this time) just to tell them not to help Fury. That didn't need to happen at all, really, and it certainly could've been done off-panel. Hell, the last half of the FF conversation, a.k.a. the important part, did happen off-panel.
X-Force (vol. 1) #14: Man...what a difference having an artist I genuinely like makes. Terry Shoemaker brings such a fun-loving energy to this book, it makes Fabian Nicieza's writing funnier and the whole cast more likable. As Nicieza begins to burn away all of Liefeld's leftover plot point as quickly as he can, Shoemaker shows up for an issue to jumpstart the book visually, too. This wasn't a stellar issue, necessarily, but it was so much better than any of its predecessors. Shoemaker's characters are bulky and sturdy, but they move fluidly and with determination. They seem like they are enjoying themselves for the first time, not smiling but going after their opponents and their freedom with such gusto that it swept me up. Rictor joins the team, which is great. Cable seems to be leaving the team, or rather, they're leaving him, which is also welcome. He's still in the title for now, but this is where everybody else officially breaks off from him, and it's fantastic to see. They all get to have a voice, play a real role in what happens, and be more than just the back-up squad for the beefcake star of this comic. You can feel the very nature of the book shifting with each new page of this issue. It's not an overt reboot, but it is a sharp turn taken at a high speed. And easily the best part of the ride up to now.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Monthly Dose: November 2013
Monthly Dose is a semi-regular column where I reread one issue each month of long-completed series.
100 Bullets #13: The difference between this issue and the last one is minimal. Dizzy and Branch hang out in Paris while he tells her a bunch of stuff that's either cryptic or downright inscrutable. Then she absolutely dominates in a fight that he makes happen, and the story ends. All of that also happened last time. It's not exactly the same of the previous chapter, but it's mighty close, moving things forward by inches rather than feet. Brian Azzarello makes the dialogue between Branch and Dizzy quite natural and human, because they've both already been introduced as full characters. Here, they just get to be casual together, and Azzarrello writes that well. Eduardo Risso always draws it quite skillfully, nailing each character's personal mix of mistrust, curiosity, and relaxation. And he makes Paris look like a rather cozy place, laid back in its pace and inviting in its atmosphere. That works well for this issue, where most of the action is just two characters socializing. Plus it makes the surprise street fight that Branch sets up to test Dizzy's skills even scarier and less expected. At the end of a lovely, easy-going day in a beautiful city, Dizzy is suddenly confronted with violence, coming out of shadows she didn't even know were there. Of course she more than handles herself in the situation, but it rattles her at first, simply because it's so far removed from everything else she experiences in the issue. That fight also confirms for Branch that Dizzy has martial arts training in many disciplines, in spite of her insisting that's not true. This is an interesting nugget to tease us with now, the idea that Dizzy is getting some kind of secret/hidden/subliminal education on top of the work she and Shepherd are doing that she's aware of. It adds mystery to the already uber-shadowy figure of Shepherd, and adding mystery is sort of the whole point of this arc. Branch provides Dizzy with a few sparse answers, but so far every one of them has only raised more questions about what's going on in this book, who Graves and Shepherd are, etc. Building the reader's curiosity is as valid a thing to do as any, and certainly it's done effectively here, so mission accomplished. I wanted to see a bit more actual plot advancement than is present in this issue because I always do, but I still enjoyed it, since everything that was here looked and sounded great.
Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. #1: I like Nick Fury a lot, because he manages to be badass and brilliant enough to run with all the superheroes without ever feeling wedged in or out of place. He doesn't always have a perfect plan, but he doesn't always need one, since he can assess and deal with any contingency. This series is about testing that aspect of the character, pushing it to its limits. When Fury discovers that his own team, people above and below him at S.H.I.E.L.D., are in some way doing something dishonest/illicit/evil, it's his biggest challenge ever, because the resources and allies he's used to relying on are suddenly made unavailable to him all at once. This issue, as the debut, is all about setting up this new status quo for Fury, and because it's a prestige format book, it gets to take its sweet time doing it. For the most part, Bob Harras writes a script that's exciting and fast enough to support the extended page count. It opens right in the middle a life-or-death mission inside the wrecked Helicarrier, and in that scene and every one that follows, some tiny piece of the puzzle is provided. We learn of several breaches in S.H.I.E.L.D. security, see or hear about a few instances of characters not acting like themselves, and get access to secret meetings of the S.H.I.E.L.D. board that indicate they are not what they seem to be at all. This all happens bit by bit, until Fury himself sees enough of it that he's forced to admit S.H.I.E.L.D. have become the enemy. This makes him a man on the run from the organization of super spies he used to be in charge of, meaning the people searching for him were also trained by him. He knows most of their tricks and they most of his, so now it's a matter of who has the most secrets, who's got the best cards left up their sleeves. That's a simple but fun spy-vs.-spy scenario, perfect for Fury because it plays to his strengths while at the same time being a new experience for him. Paul Neary is the penciler, with Kim DeMulder on inks and Bernie Jaye doing the colors. The artists all have a fittingly down-to-earth style, lifelike but not necessarily realistic. The sci-fi technology all looks natural and everyone seems pretty comfortable with it. The interiors of all the buildings have a futuristic (for the 80's) aesthetic that makes all the rest of the equipment feel like it belongs. And everyone's uniforms go along with that look, too. So there's a well-built and internally logical fictional world built up around the characters, meaning the people themselves can look fairly normal without the book really resembling our own world. Having the cast look more human helps remind us that, despite being a Marvel product, this is not a superhero comic. And Neary and DeMulder do pretty strong acting with the characters, Fury especially, made even more effective, I think, because nobody's features are exaggerated. This isn't the most gripping first issue I've ever read, but for forty-six pages of story it has a lot of energy, and it closes with even more drama and momentum than it has along the way. Definitely makes me eager for issue #2.
X-Force (vol. 1) #13: The most notable aspect of this issue is that it marks the first time Rob Liefeld's name has been missing from the credits. He hasn't been the artist for a few issues now, but he's always at least gotten a "plot" credit if nothing else. Here, he's absent entirely, and I'm fairly certain he never comes back. From now on, story-wise, it's Fabian Nicieza's show, so the question becomes, is he any better a writer when not saddled with Liefeld's art? The answer so far is, "Yes, but not by much." While Liefeld may not have directly had a hand in producing this issue, its content is still very much informed by/wrapped up in the plotlines he established. Weapon: PRIME attacks X-Force, as they've been promising and preparing to do for months, so it's not as if this is a daring new direction for the title or anything. It's a logical continuation of what the book's already been doing, but slightly tighter and more entertaining than usual. The fight is better paced and clearer than is typical, which of course has as much to do with Mark Pacella's art as Nicieza's writing. While Pacella is pretty clearly influenced by Liefeld's visual style, his characters are more in proportion and consistent. They're still musclebound and toothy, but they don't change shape as dramatically from one panel to the next. And Pacella does several nice splash pages that make the action feel more blockbuster-y and intense. It is a bit weird that Shatterstar and Warpath are topless for the whole fight, which I assume is just an excuse for Pacella to draw more muscles (something he clearly likes to do), but it doesn't ruin or detract from anything. It's just odd. Anyway, the battle makes up the bulk of the issue, with a brief scene in the middle checking in on Gideon while he runs torturous tests of some kind on Sunspot. As unusually good-looking and easy to follow as the combat is, it ends with a disappointing suddenness. Basically, X-Force just wins by winning. They outfight the members of Weapon: PRIME one by one without ever even really being on the ropes. So there's a lack of drama, since I guess Nicieza and Pacella thought a widespread action sequence would be enough excitement. That's a bummer for sure, but honestly, I'd rather have this fight be finished quickly then needlessly drawn out just so the heroes can find a more creative way to come out on top. Sometimes the good guys are just going to be better than their foes. This is one of those cases, and I can live with that. This issue has a painfully simple script with strong-but-not-astounding artwork, all of which is better than what's been seen in the past, but none of it makes for a particularly amazing comicbook. Still, even a slight step up is always nice to see, so hopefully this marks the beginning of a steady rise in the series' quality.
100 Bullets #13: The difference between this issue and the last one is minimal. Dizzy and Branch hang out in Paris while he tells her a bunch of stuff that's either cryptic or downright inscrutable. Then she absolutely dominates in a fight that he makes happen, and the story ends. All of that also happened last time. It's not exactly the same of the previous chapter, but it's mighty close, moving things forward by inches rather than feet. Brian Azzarello makes the dialogue between Branch and Dizzy quite natural and human, because they've both already been introduced as full characters. Here, they just get to be casual together, and Azzarrello writes that well. Eduardo Risso always draws it quite skillfully, nailing each character's personal mix of mistrust, curiosity, and relaxation. And he makes Paris look like a rather cozy place, laid back in its pace and inviting in its atmosphere. That works well for this issue, where most of the action is just two characters socializing. Plus it makes the surprise street fight that Branch sets up to test Dizzy's skills even scarier and less expected. At the end of a lovely, easy-going day in a beautiful city, Dizzy is suddenly confronted with violence, coming out of shadows she didn't even know were there. Of course she more than handles herself in the situation, but it rattles her at first, simply because it's so far removed from everything else she experiences in the issue. That fight also confirms for Branch that Dizzy has martial arts training in many disciplines, in spite of her insisting that's not true. This is an interesting nugget to tease us with now, the idea that Dizzy is getting some kind of secret/hidden/subliminal education on top of the work she and Shepherd are doing that she's aware of. It adds mystery to the already uber-shadowy figure of Shepherd, and adding mystery is sort of the whole point of this arc. Branch provides Dizzy with a few sparse answers, but so far every one of them has only raised more questions about what's going on in this book, who Graves and Shepherd are, etc. Building the reader's curiosity is as valid a thing to do as any, and certainly it's done effectively here, so mission accomplished. I wanted to see a bit more actual plot advancement than is present in this issue because I always do, but I still enjoyed it, since everything that was here looked and sounded great.
Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. #1: I like Nick Fury a lot, because he manages to be badass and brilliant enough to run with all the superheroes without ever feeling wedged in or out of place. He doesn't always have a perfect plan, but he doesn't always need one, since he can assess and deal with any contingency. This series is about testing that aspect of the character, pushing it to its limits. When Fury discovers that his own team, people above and below him at S.H.I.E.L.D., are in some way doing something dishonest/illicit/evil, it's his biggest challenge ever, because the resources and allies he's used to relying on are suddenly made unavailable to him all at once. This issue, as the debut, is all about setting up this new status quo for Fury, and because it's a prestige format book, it gets to take its sweet time doing it. For the most part, Bob Harras writes a script that's exciting and fast enough to support the extended page count. It opens right in the middle a life-or-death mission inside the wrecked Helicarrier, and in that scene and every one that follows, some tiny piece of the puzzle is provided. We learn of several breaches in S.H.I.E.L.D. security, see or hear about a few instances of characters not acting like themselves, and get access to secret meetings of the S.H.I.E.L.D. board that indicate they are not what they seem to be at all. This all happens bit by bit, until Fury himself sees enough of it that he's forced to admit S.H.I.E.L.D. have become the enemy. This makes him a man on the run from the organization of super spies he used to be in charge of, meaning the people searching for him were also trained by him. He knows most of their tricks and they most of his, so now it's a matter of who has the most secrets, who's got the best cards left up their sleeves. That's a simple but fun spy-vs.-spy scenario, perfect for Fury because it plays to his strengths while at the same time being a new experience for him. Paul Neary is the penciler, with Kim DeMulder on inks and Bernie Jaye doing the colors. The artists all have a fittingly down-to-earth style, lifelike but not necessarily realistic. The sci-fi technology all looks natural and everyone seems pretty comfortable with it. The interiors of all the buildings have a futuristic (for the 80's) aesthetic that makes all the rest of the equipment feel like it belongs. And everyone's uniforms go along with that look, too. So there's a well-built and internally logical fictional world built up around the characters, meaning the people themselves can look fairly normal without the book really resembling our own world. Having the cast look more human helps remind us that, despite being a Marvel product, this is not a superhero comic. And Neary and DeMulder do pretty strong acting with the characters, Fury especially, made even more effective, I think, because nobody's features are exaggerated. This isn't the most gripping first issue I've ever read, but for forty-six pages of story it has a lot of energy, and it closes with even more drama and momentum than it has along the way. Definitely makes me eager for issue #2.
X-Force (vol. 1) #13: The most notable aspect of this issue is that it marks the first time Rob Liefeld's name has been missing from the credits. He hasn't been the artist for a few issues now, but he's always at least gotten a "plot" credit if nothing else. Here, he's absent entirely, and I'm fairly certain he never comes back. From now on, story-wise, it's Fabian Nicieza's show, so the question becomes, is he any better a writer when not saddled with Liefeld's art? The answer so far is, "Yes, but not by much." While Liefeld may not have directly had a hand in producing this issue, its content is still very much informed by/wrapped up in the plotlines he established. Weapon: PRIME attacks X-Force, as they've been promising and preparing to do for months, so it's not as if this is a daring new direction for the title or anything. It's a logical continuation of what the book's already been doing, but slightly tighter and more entertaining than usual. The fight is better paced and clearer than is typical, which of course has as much to do with Mark Pacella's art as Nicieza's writing. While Pacella is pretty clearly influenced by Liefeld's visual style, his characters are more in proportion and consistent. They're still musclebound and toothy, but they don't change shape as dramatically from one panel to the next. And Pacella does several nice splash pages that make the action feel more blockbuster-y and intense. It is a bit weird that Shatterstar and Warpath are topless for the whole fight, which I assume is just an excuse for Pacella to draw more muscles (something he clearly likes to do), but it doesn't ruin or detract from anything. It's just odd. Anyway, the battle makes up the bulk of the issue, with a brief scene in the middle checking in on Gideon while he runs torturous tests of some kind on Sunspot. As unusually good-looking and easy to follow as the combat is, it ends with a disappointing suddenness. Basically, X-Force just wins by winning. They outfight the members of Weapon: PRIME one by one without ever even really being on the ropes. So there's a lack of drama, since I guess Nicieza and Pacella thought a widespread action sequence would be enough excitement. That's a bummer for sure, but honestly, I'd rather have this fight be finished quickly then needlessly drawn out just so the heroes can find a more creative way to come out on top. Sometimes the good guys are just going to be better than their foes. This is one of those cases, and I can live with that. This issue has a painfully simple script with strong-but-not-astounding artwork, all of which is better than what's been seen in the past, but none of it makes for a particularly amazing comicbook. Still, even a slight step up is always nice to see, so hopefully this marks the beginning of a steady rise in the series' quality.
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