Moment of the Week- Oracle’s posse shows up, Birds of Prey #108

Birds of Prey #108 had a lot of ground to cover. In what I believe was Gail Simone’s last issue on the title, she wraps up the Secret Six crossover story, has a knock-down drag-out fight between Spy Smasher and Oracle, and finishes it off with the “core” BoPs reminiscing about their time together. The best moment in the issue occurred after Oracle finished whooping on Spy Smasher. When Spy Samsher tries to claim ownership of Oracle’s operatives, she runs into a bit of resistance from pretty much everyone who’s every worked for Oracle: Huntress, Gypsy, Vixen, Katana, Catwoman, Manhunter, Metamorpho, Nightwing, Judomaster, Misfit, Power Girl, Wildcat, two Green arrows, Big Barda, Lady Shiva, Lady Blackhawk, Hawkgirl, several people I don’t even recognize, and of course, Black Canary. It looks like series artist Nicola Scott actually drew the lineup as a four-page splash, but apparently Birds of Prey isn’t as important as ASSBAr or JLA, because the image was divided into two two-page splashes. Regardless, it was a great mark-out moment for loyal readers of the series, and was a great way to cap off Gail Simone’s stellar run on a great title (even if I only caught the tail end of it).

Worst Issue of the Week- Quasar #1

I’m not sure what to make of this whole Annihilation: Conquest thing. I really enjoyed the prologue issue, and I really enjoyed the Nova crossover issue, but I couldn’t bring myself to pick up Wraith #1 a couple weeks ago, and I really didn’t enjoy Quasar this week either. I can’t really put my finger on why I didn’t like it, either. I really enoyed the art at times, but then other times the penciller used unconventional panel breaks that didn’t really read as panel breaks unless you were paying really close attention. The writing was decent, but then again, nothing much happened this issue. It’s really disappointing that these lead-in mini-series don’t interest me, because I was really excited by the prologue and thought I had missed out on a great story by skipping the first Annihilation. Now, I’m not so sure. I’m still tempted to buy the Annihilation: Conquest mini-series when that comes out, but I’m not sure it’ll make any sense if I skip the lead-ins. Help me out, readers of the first Annihilation: are these lead-ins essential to the story? If so, I guess I’ve gotten my fill.
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By Nick Abadzis
Published by First-Second, 2007. $17.95

The Plot: This is the story of the dog launched into space by the Soviets, far more in the vein of Pride of Baghdad than the usual chipper “animal” stories. The focus of the book is summarized in the actual quote of one of the engineers involved with the space program: “We did not learn enough from the mission to justify the death of the dog.”

The historical fiction account starts far before the launch of Laika, with the emotionally driven stories of the dog and of the man behind the Soviet rocket program. With thorough research, Abadzis delivers a dense denouncement of the USSR and its practice of subjugating humanity to ambition.

The Good: As mentioned above, Abadzis’ biggest strength here is the research. Laika is laden with details that sell not only the setting of the Soviet missile program but also of the personalities of the people involved (Abadzis takes liberties, of course). But, while some historical fiction wears its research on its sleeve (an academic sort of “look how smart I am”), the personal relationships are the core of this book. Particularly the warmth between a woman working in the lab with the dogs and the animals she watches. She, and others, struggle to keep emotional distance with the animals, especially Laika.

The Bad: For a book that Abadzis clearly put so much time into, it’s strange that he left so much of the art with an unfinished feel. Though his characters are well crafted and distinct and his composition is strong, his linework is overly simple with almost no use of shading. The simplistic art is almost a necessity, though, because this book is pretty long at 200 pages and has a Chris Ware-esque number of panels per page. As in, as many as 25 panels on a single page. Wow. That structure gives the book even more of a dense feel, which only exacerbates the book’s “talky” bent. This isn’t an action epic, after all. It’s by in large filled with people sitting around and talking.

The Grade: B This book strikes me more than anything as nearly tapped potential. It could have been one of the great books of the year, if not for the quality of the art. And it’s clear the art could have been better, as Abadzis a few times breaks out of his stoic stylings and creates not only eye-catching but truly inspiring pages. It’s when he digs into the feelings of Laika itself and allows the dog’s character and thoughts to grow and burst into dreamy imaginative panels that the book is at its absolute best. It’s just a shame he breaks out far too little.

If you’re wondering where the pick for this week’s Book of Doom came from, you may not be alone. Well, you may be alone, too, but, no, don’t worry, there’s no way you could’ve seen this coming, because I never posted an announcement earlier in the week. So, I guess you could say it’s coming out of left field. I don’t know why you’d want to say that, or even think about it past what you’ve just read, but, there you have it, for the guys out there keeping track of that sort of thing.

If you need a plot summary of this issue, well, I guess I’ll give it to you. Hulk’s mad. And smashing stuff. The rest of earth’s heroes are trying to play to his sympathies, but none of it works, Hulk beats guys up, and that’s the end of it. It closes with the military ready to fight the Hulk (y’know, because that’s worked so well in the past for them).

This series, to me, is entertaining enough, but it’s nothing too phenomenal. I mean, aside from a few bad-ass fight sequences, there’s really not all that much to it. Of course, I don’t think there’s supposed to be. My expectations were never really that high to begin with, because it seems like the whole creative process that went behind this was just a bunch of guys sitting around a room, and one of them said, “Hey, what if they made the Hulk mad?” And some other guy said, “Well, then he’d be mad, like always.” And the first guy responded and said, “No, I mean, what if they made him, like, really mad?” “How mad?” “Really, really mad.”

Yeah, I guess they did a good job of telling the story of how he got really mad, but I didn’t read it, and I probably never will. All I know is that, in this series, the Hulk sure is mad, and it’s a fun enough read where I’ll keep on buying it, I guess.

What’d the other members of the Legion think about this here book? Well, damn. For the second week in a row, we only have one guy who took the time to respond. This time, I fumbled and forgot to invite a guest reviewer, so, well, whoops for that, but our very own Fin Fang Doom still had some stuff to say. Allow me to defer to him: (more…)

DC’s new line of web comics, Zuda Comics, is drawing nearer to its complete launch.

As mentioned on their facts sheet, “Zuda Comics will be all-new, original comics made specifically for the web” and “…the majority of comics we publish will be selected by the Zuda community. We’ll put up a batch of the comics you submitted each month. Then you and all of the other users will vote, comment, and rate the comics. The one you guys like the best is the one we’ll sign up for a one-year contract.”

While their site is still unfinished, earlier this week, they posted details on The Deal, which includes stuff like aspect ratio and resolution and whatnot, and there’s already quite a bit of discussion on the message boards.

It looks like all the content will remain creator-owned, with DC Publisher Paul Levitz adding “DC will publish the winning/chosen comics under fairly conventional publishing agreements adapted to the peculiarities of the digital platform: initial payments for the work that is done, with royalties from revenues based on other uses, such as books, merchandise and movies/television shows. In the next couple of months the contracts will be going up on the site, and we’re doing our best to make them as clear as possible, so people can make an informed decision about submitting their work.”

So while most web comics have flown either under the radar or over the heads of those of us here at Doomkopf, DC’s involvement and enabling may help bridge the gap between comics on the web and on paper.

For this second batch of advance fun, we’re taking a look at two books that share a common thread of ultimate evil: One has the devil, one has Nazis. Other than that, these books are pretty danged different. They are The Programme by Peter Milligan and C.P. Smith and Speak of the Devil by Gilbert Hernandez.

First, let’s take a look at The Programme. Faithful readers should know by now that I’m going to pimp this book if only for Smith’s art. The guy was a big part of the awesomeness of the criminally under-read New Invaders series from a few years ago. Now he’s back with his first full series (he’s done a few solo issues), and it’s just awe-inspiring to see the guy’s work (even if the preview pages I received were B&W).

The story is pretty scattered, but in a good way. It starts with two Nazi scientists at the end of dubya dubya two, talking vaguely about portents of doom and how it would be better to be caught by Americans than Rooskies. Jump forward to the fictionalized present, with the USA caught in a war in the Middle East, and some soldiers suddenly overwhelmed by this frightening figure with massive powers who had been hidden amid an old soviet base.

Peter Milligan’s script is at its best in those horror-y settings and bogs down a bit with the parallel plot back in the USA with an aging bar owner who is most amazed by how he managed to bang his wife three times in a night. It eventually becomes obvious that this fellow has some kind of hidden power that the USA now needs to fight the mysterious villain. While it seems straightforward, there are enough unexplored areas to leave me excited for this series.
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First, let’s look at a couple of upcoming Dark Horse titles in the Doomkopf Mega Event Preview Day!!! Hey, who doesn’t like hearing about comic books that haven’t come out yet? These books share a common thread in that they’re both set in over-the-top worlds and… well… that’s about it. Now, let’s get to the books.

Up first is Umbrella Academy #1, a much-advertised new series from DH that features a septuplet of weird little kids with weird little powers. I hate to use the comparison since it’s a Dark Horse book, but Gabriel Ba’s art has the angularity and cleanness of Mike Mignola’s work, though it’s much more cartoony.

There’s an awful lot to like in this book, but its best quality is the absurdist whimsy with which the plot floats along. The tongue-in-cheek intro, in which professional wrestler “Tusslin” Tom Gurney knocks out a space-squid from Rigel X-9 and somehow causes the spontaneous births of powered children across the globe establishes this universe as somewhere along the lines of Hellboy and The Goon, but with a more childish air. Color me surprised, since the writing is done by Gerard Way, who apparently is with whine-glam-rock band My Chemical Romance.

From there, the book jumps forward a few years. An alien who poses as an old man has adopted the seven known powered children and has created the Umbrella Academy, essentially a super-powered team that fights goofy villains, like the zombie robot Gustave Eiffel who has taken control of his tower. It’s rampantly silly, yet maintains enough of a serious undernote to become more than simply fluff. Particularly, the presence of a non-powered child tempers the story.
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You know how most schmucks running blogs like to take a gimmick and stretch it into a week of posts (I’m looking at you David Campbell)? Well, what would you say if I were to give a whole week’s worth of gimmicky posts in… one… single… day…

That’s right, coming tomorrow, it’s Preview Day! I’ll be bringing you a whole load of previews of upcoming books (at least, I’m pretty sure none of these have shipped yet) and you can enjoy some instantaneous gratification. And don’t we all love that?

The Previews will include The Programme #1 (cover seen here), Umbrella Academy #1, Zero Killer #1, Speak of the Devil and maybe a couple other books. I have to look through the pile of stuff that’s come in the mail and see what else I have (I know, I know: woe is the guy who can’t remember all the stuff in the free load of comics that shows up on his desk…)

You know what would be a really nice touch to add to Countdown? An actual narrative. Or, failing that, some compelling dialogue or entertaining fight sequences. Or, failing even that modest request, something relatively pretty to look at. Unfortunately, none of that stuff graces the pages of this worthless rag. I really don’t enjoy being such a negative guy, and there are very few things more annoying to me than idiots on the World Wide Web (as Optimus Prime calls it) complaining and nitpicking about how much their comic books suck, but, on the other hand, this comic book really does suck. Like, bad.

This issue, we’re given more of the same scatter-shot, direction-less drivel that we’ve come to expect every week, so it should come as no surprise that I still don’t really have the slightest idea of what’s going on, and not in a mysterious and compelling way, but in more of a, “Why have I read eleven issues of a series where nothing has happened and nothing seems like it ever will?” type of way. I guess we should discuss what “went down” this issue, though, pun intended. Laugh.
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By Eddie Campbell
Published by First Second, 2007. $16.95

The Plot: It’s near the turn of the century. The last one. A mysterious guy is living out in the American wilds. He rides up just as the big new train is pulling in to much fanfare. “The train was bang on time,” Campbell writes. And, with a huge explosion and the theft of a safe from inside the train, we’re off and running with a cross country hunt for the robbers (and killers) who managed this heist. There’s struggle for control of the investigation between police, feds and the titular investigators, and the tale of this mysterious man from the beginning and his even-mysterious-er love story.

The Good: There’s a pretty damn good chance that First Second will earn publisher of the year honors come December (or whenever we finally get to awards). They’ve pumped out a ton of great stuff since coming on the scene last year, and this book is another hit.

Campbell’s art here makes me wonder why his previous Alan Moore collaborations have been so mediocre (I just always thought the guy’s work was mundane). Here, he uses what seems to be a combination of oil paints and pastels to infuse warmth into a story of cold blood. Campbell also mixes up the page layouts, spinning anarchic structures that feel like memories floating along the ceiling.

His writing is particularly sharp in the realm of dialogue. The characters are a pretty assorted bunch who constantly spew forth the mix of dire warnings (more…)

Well, a lot has changed since I last did one of these here Doomino Effects. I got hitched, Doom DeLuise passed the Countdown review over to Jean-Claude Van Doom, Jean-Claude Van Doom decided to move and spend less time on comics, Doom DeLuise resumed his position as the weekly Countdown reviewer, and I came back from my honeymoon and bought two weeks’ worth of comics. I’m not sure what came out which week, and I don’t care, and by the end of this review, neither will you! So let’s get going!

Speaking of getting going, Justice Society of America #7 attempts to move the series along after the conclusion of the rather stupid Lightning Saga. I kind of enjoy these stories about characters that nobody really cares about, because to me, that’s kind of always what the JSA has been about. It’s like “Hey, here are some old characters and new characters based on old characters that used to be important, except you wouldn’t know if they actually were important or if we’re just making them up.” Either way, I don’t really care. That’s just been the charm of the series for me since the beginning.

I’ve always found Dale Eaglesham’s art to be rather stiff and fluid at the same time. He has these nicely flowing lines wrapped around awkwardly wooden poses and expressions, like painting a pretty seascape on a concrete wall. It works for this series, because it manages to reflect an older, classic style while also having enough modernity to it to not seem deliberately retro. But speaking of not getting going, I see that this Alex Ross painting of Citizen Steel has been de-bona fide, presumably by someone in editorial. Or maybe he just got out of the pool. No wait! I know what happened! He peeked at the cover for Justice Society #8! (more…)