Sidekick 1-12
I own the first five issues, read the rest of the miniseries online. The first half of this JM Straczynski title is the more interesting by far - I hope that isn’t a sign of how Rising Stars is going to end. (The final two trades of which are in the mail, and I don’t want them to be a wasted purchase.)
Sidekick tells of Flyboy’s fall from grace after the death of his mentor, the Red Cowl. He’s unable to attach himself to another hero, and can’t make the jump to headliner either. Caught up in a string of PR disasters, he spirals down until he hits rock bottom and easily falls prey to the seductions of Moonglow.
The quality of the story is inversely proportional to Flyboy’s fortunes. As he embraces his inner evil and begins to enact his revenge upon his perceived antagonists, gaining both confidence and power, the story gets less and less interesting. Upon discovering that Red Cowl faked his own death, Flyboy goes insane, kills his former partner, the majority of the superhero population, and the entire population of the city that disowned him. Reading the previous sentence back, it actually sounds really cool. But Straczynski handles it so carelessly and casually that my reaction was one of disbelieving “did that just really happen?” And not in a good way.
Tom Mandrake’s art doesn’t help either. I’ve never been a big fan of his, and his work here is an example of why. Troy Peteri contributes to the mess with a hilarious typo:
Regret buying: No
Would buy again: No
Would read again: Yes
Rating: Nice for 1-5, Fine for 6-12
Silent Dragon 1-6
A bonkers story by Andy Diggle: in 2063, Renjiro the samurai is killed by his crimelord boss for being a traitor, then resurrected Robocop-style by the government. Renjiro wreaks havoc upon his old yakuza clan, the lackeys who try to control him, and anyone else who gets in his way. It’s a mess of a story, but the art by Leinil Yu is pretty sweet. That’s enough to keep it on my shelf.
Regret buying: No
Would buy again: No
Would read again: Yes
Rating: Fine
Point Blank 1-5
Ed Brubaker writes another one of his film noir (comic noir?) stories, this one starring Cole Cash from the Wildcats. Reading this one again made me realize why I stopped bothering with Brubaker and this genre. They’re all well constructed with reasonably engaging mysteries and final reveals. Brubaker nails the world-weary anti-hero protagonist and the grim & gritty bars and alleyways in which they do their sleuthing and fighting. But there’s such a futility to their actions that I’m just as tired of it all as the detectives are. Even if they solve this conspiracy (it’s always a conspiracy), there’s either a deeper one behind it or the hero realizes how powerless they are to do anything about it.
It’s really no less cyclical than a superhero comic, but the inherently dark nature of noir comics makes it so much more depressing and a slog to read. And as good as Brubaker is, this kind of thing needs to be stellar in order to stand out. (Think Darwyn Cooke’s Parker books.) Point Blank doesn’t meet that standard. Hence the Nice but Wouldn’t Read Again ratings.
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| Odd contrast between the bearded face and hairless chest. |
Regret buying: No
Would buy again: No
Would read again: No
Rating: Nice
Sleeper 1-6
The sequel to Point Blank, this is a little bit more of what I’m looking for. Why? I think it’s because Holden Carver isn’t as in the dark here as Cole Cash was in the prequel. He’s working undercover, and so has more visibility into the machinations of Tao. By the way, it’s awesome to read more of Tao after he was used to such amazing effect in Alan Moore’s Wildcats.
This falls into the “would read more if I don’t have to buy it” column.
Regret buying: No
Would buy again: No
Would read again: Yes
Rating: Pretty good
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