I Die at Midnight, Magic Order, Runaways, DMZ

Finishing off the new comics from last week:

Magic Order 2

The bad magicians keep on killing the good magicians.  It’s entertaining enough to read, and Olivier Coipel continues to draw the heck out of it.  But it’s Cordelia’s origin that stole the show. I legit lolled at her first public performance.  Her youthful exuberance, the teachers’ reactions, and her classmates’ complete willingness to light her on fire cracked me up.  A+ on that sequence.

Runaways 11

Wonderful character development for Vic and Gert.  Even better was the team’s quick acceptance of the decisions that they make - Vic would rather have no body than a weaponized one, and Gert make the counter-counter-establishment decision of dying her hair back to its original color.  

They’re far less understanding of Klara’s decision to stay with her new foster family.  First of all, I’m so happy that Rainbow Rowell hadn’t forgotten about her. Second, I love that she’s found happiness and a peaceful life.  Finally, I also like that the Runaways still have their blindspots, especially when it comes to their view of adults. Their universal distrust of anyone older serves as a tragic reminder of how emotionally damaged they are from their parental woes.  

I hope this is the last we see of Klara, I want her to have a happy ending.

Doombot continues to rule.

DMZ 35-49

I borrowed these from the library.  I am glad that past me did not buy them.  With the election of Parco Delgado, Brian Wood really starts getting into the meat of what I imagine is DMZ’s main narrative.  Unfortunately, that means that Matty Roth completes his transformation from impartial journalist to Delgado shill. Once that happens, the power gets to his head, he completely fucks up, and winds up with the blood of fourteen civilians on his hands.  By the end of the last trade, he’s lost any semblance of sympathy from me. And while I still kind of want to find out how this all ends, the library doesn’t have the rest of the series, and I’m not that broken up about it. Maybe I’ll read it at a Barnes and Noble if they have it.

Returning to my second Vertigo box.

I Die at Midnight

I bought this when it came out in 2000 because I’d heard good things about Kyle Baker, but didn’t want to spend the money on any of his more famous trades, like Cowboy Wally and Why I Hate Saturn.  (College student at the time.)

He certainly lives up to the hype - His art is cartooning at its best.  It reads like an impeccably storyboarded animated movie, with lovely facial expressions and heart-pounding chase sequences.  I could barely move my eye from panel to panel fast enough as I watched all the characters racing towards their various goals.

Too bad Larry’s a complete idiot, and I was really hoping that he’d kick the bucket.  His stupidity and pride put him in this situation, and I’d have derived more satisfaction out of seeing him die with salvation at his fingertips.  One of the few times I was rooting for the clock instead of the protagonist.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice

Just love the art by Stanley Lau.

DMZ

DMZ 18-28

I’m definitely commending past me for the decision to stop buying this comic.  (Though I still have one trade left to read.) Once again, there’s nothing wrong with either the writing or the art.  Given the premise, Brian Wood executes it about as finely as anyone could. I completely buy this broken America of his.  The juxtaposition of New Yorkers living in their new normal and the possibility of random death at any moment creates a very real tension.  The government’s compulsion and ability to whitewash the reality of the situation requires no stretch of the imagination. The sheer fucked-upness of the entire scenario comes across loud and clear.  

Riccardo Burchielli and the backup artists play just as big a role in selling the story.  The grime, the dilapidated streets and buildings, residents who haven’t showered in weeks, brutal violence - It all comes across perfectly.   Burchielli has a lot of Goran Parlov in his style, who’s art would have fit in just fine here.

Hey look, Barracuda is in DMZ!

Nope, never mind.  This is the actual Barracuda.

The problem is that I just don’t enjoy reading DMZ.  It’s too close to the truth in its grimness. It’s similar to how entertainment violence gets harder to stomach the more realistic it gets.  And like the previous trade, today’s batch ends with no real victories for Matty and his friends. Also, the six issues Wood uses to focus on individual characters tell truncated, unsatisfying stories that don’t really do much more than reinforce the lack of hope in this world.  

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Fine for 18-22, Didn’t suck for 23-28

DMZ, World of Tanks, Superman

Small week for new comics.

World of Tanks: Citadel 3

I’m not a fan of how Garth Ennis is jumping between his Soviet and German tank crews.  It’s not that I’m having trouble following the transitions, but by having one every three pages or so, he robs both threads of any narrative momentum, making each scene feel more like a vignette than part of a proper story.  Perhaps that’s his intention, but it’s a lot less satisfying than most of his other war stories.

Superman 1

I don’t know why Man of Steel 1-6 needed to be a miniseries instead of the first six issues of the proper title.  Perhaps DC didn’t want a regular title to have a weekly release schedule or multiple artists. Whatever the reason, this is very much a continuation of that story.  Quick summary: Clark misses his family. He relocates the Fortress of Solitude to the Bermuda Triangle. J’onn suggests that Superman take over the world and rule it benevolently and with hope, sounding very scary in the process.  Superman discovers that Earth is trapped in the Phantom Zone. Fine but unexciting.

Like the story, Ivan Reis is just as serviceable.  He’s a great artist, but also blandly generic. Kind of like David Finch.  

Finch.

Reis.

But the cover by David Mack...yum.

MACK!

DMV 13-17

Extended storyline where Matty Roth infiltrates Treadwell, the evil government contractor.  It’s not bad, but I have not been in the mood to read about morally bankrupt leaders and their equally corrupt underlings for quite some time, unless they get their richly deserved comeuppance at the end.  Right now, the victories for the common folk have been temporary at best, pyrrhic at worst. Escapist me is looking for something more emotionally satisfying.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice  

Caper, Django Unchained, DMZ

Caper 1-12

Judd Winick writes a multi-generational epic, telling three stories of the Weiss clan over the course of a hundred years.  The last name is the only thing that the protagonists have in common, so the connective thread is tenuous at best.

The opening arc tells the tale of Jacob and Isadore Weiss, hitman brothers in San Francisco during the early 1900s.  It’s a nicely told story about their struggle to survive amidst the local gang politics and violence. It all ends very abruptly when the big quake of 1906 reminds everyone that nature doesn’t give a crap about man-made violence.  Isadore dies and Jacob heads down to LA to become a film mogul. I would have liked to read about that journey very much.

Instead, we jump ahead to learn about his granddaughter Annie, lawyer for the biggest movie stars in Hollywood.  She finds herself defending her next-door movie star neighbor against a spousal murder charge. As with the previous arc, Winick does an amazing job crafting the environment in which these characters live.  I want to spend more time in the 1970s Tinseltown he’s created, just as I did the streets of San Francisco. There’s a depth and texture to his settings that is compelling and remarkable.

But just like the story of Jacob, Annie’s plot finishes on an awkward note.  It comes out of left field, and not in a satisfying way. But it’s not enough to ruin a good bit of storytelling.

The final four issues, on the other hand, are a total mess.  Winick opts to go for straight up slapstick humor. The newest generation of Weiss is a complete idiot, as is his partner-in-crime.  After the well-executed gravitas of the previous two arcs, this is an unwelcome, tonally discordant ending to the series. I’d cut it, but I can’t bring myself to break up the set…

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes (No for 9-12)

Rating: Nice (Stupid for 9-12)

Django Unchained 1-7

I don’t have the nerve to watch most Quentin Tarantino films.  I don’t have the stomach for the exquisite tension that he so effortlessly crafts.  “Who’s going to die out of nowhere? I can’t take it!!!” is usually my inner monologue.  That fact notwithstanding, I’m a huge fan of Tarantino’s ability. His dialogue, his technical craftsmanship, and his unparalleled ability to get the most out of a soundtrack entrance me, and I wish I was able to watch more of his work.

A comic adaptation of his screenplay is the next best thing.  And yeah, there are some things in here that I’m glad I didn’t have to watch in movie form.  But it’s a masterpiece of storytelling, and an awful lot of fun to read.

It loses some points with the art.  The collective group of pencillers, led mostly by RM Guera, do a fine job, but I would have liked to see something just a touch better.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Pretty good

DMV 1-12

I got the first couple of trades really cheap at a used bookstore, and really liked what Brian Wood was doing with it.  But as I kept buying the volumes as they came out, I gradually lost interest. Will the same hold true this time around?

So far, yes.  Wood and artist Riccardo Burchielli create a thought out, richly populated, war-torn New York City.  It’s entertaining enough to learn about this world, but unless a larger plot starts manifesting itself soon, I’m going to congratulate past me for stopping before Wood did.  I like war stories, but I’m not as much a fan of reading about the civilian side of it. Like the general public that Zee justifiably despises, I just don’t find it as sexy. None of this is on Wood, and I recognize the quality of what he’s doing here.  

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice