Royals

I’m in Cologne, Germany for work, and the hours are crazy, so I’m not getting much writing done.  

Royals 1-6

I mentioned in my Light Brigade review that I wasn’t all that keen with writers mixing WWII with other genres.  Something about the potential of disrespecting those who have risked and sacrificed their lives.  

Clearly I was full of myself, because I was all in on Royals from the get go:  European royal blood grants the monarchs and their children super powers.  Insert them into WWII. Let’s see what happens. It’s gloriously mad, and I love it.  So much crazy fun.

Writer Rob Williams makes the wise decision to focus on the interpersonal relationships of the British royal family.  Those people are seriously messed up, and watching them fail spectacularly at their own lives while trying to fight a war (and mostly mucking things up there as well) makes for some good reading.  The ending’s far too rushed (much like Storming Paradise, another alternative take on WWII), but up until then, I was really having a blast.

Simon Coleby’s pencils and JD Mettler’s colors really look like Jae Lee’s work, and that’s not a bad style to draw comparisons to.  

Lee.

Coleby

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Pretty good

It’s the end of Vertigo Box 2!  

Box Summary:

Time spent reading: 21 hours, 28 minutes

Issues read: 176

Issues cut: 29

Highlights (Good or better): Punk Rock Jesus 1-6

Project Summary:

Time spent reading: 10 days, 5 hours, 18 minutes

Issues read: 1990

Issues cut: 260

Punk Rock Jesus

Punk Rock Jesus 1-6

I went into this re-read thinking, “I don’t remember anything about this miniseries at all, I’m predicting a cut at the end of this.”

How completely wrong I was.  This Sean Murphy work is a ton of fun.  A nice high concept: A megacorp clones Jesus with blood from the Shroud of Turin.  The child’s life is then broadcast Truman Show-style to the world.  The characters populating this drama all bring value to the story:

Gwen Fairling, the 18-year old virgin selected to be the artificially inseminated mother of the cloned savior.  She soon realizes the nightmare she’s gotten herself into, and struggles for the rest of her life to do the right thing for her son.  

Rick Slate, the manipulative marketing asshole who came up with the idea, willing to do anything for ratings.  The easy to root against villain.

Jesus Christ (Chris), the most famous person in the world.  He’s able to look beyond the media drivel that Slate feeds him and break out of the cage that his mother could never escape.  

Thomas McKael, the reformed IRA terrorist looking for redemption, tasked with protecting Chris and Gwen.  Drawn and written like the Punisher. It was impossible for me to not see Frank Castle the whole time, down to the heart of gold.  

Sarah Epstein, the geneticist who’s technology enables this whole affair.  She’s in it to gain funding for her climate-change solutions, and she proves to be one of Chris and Gwen’s strongest allies.

The inner workings of the J2 Project, combined with Murphy’s vision of the public’s reaction (lots of Christian fundamentalists both for and against the whole thing), create a story that I didn’t want to put down.  I would have been happy with an ongoing series detailing just the period of time leading up to Chris’ apostasy. (Which takes the first three and a half issues here.) Gwen’s mental breakdown over that span is predictable, but her innocence and likability going into the project make it all the more tragic.  I choose to believe that she didn’t go into it for the glory. She wanted to help her family. (And it’s crushing when she discovers that things didn’t work out in that department either.)

McKael is set up as Chris’ mirror image, someone who’s belief system was set up on an unstable foundation.  Like Chris, he has to discover his own personal truth after clearing away all the crap that’s been fed to him since he was a child.  At the end, they both discover what’s important to them, and it’s pretty satisfying. (The ending’s not as strong as the beginning, and doesn’t have the attention to detail that made the first half so fun, but it wraps things up well enough.)

No way this is getting cut, and I need to remember to go back to it in the future.  

And there’s a genetically domesticated polar bear!

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Good

Pride of Baghdad, Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

This came out on DVD this week, so my wife finally got the chance to watch it.  (She hates watching movies in theatres.) She was pretty excited about it, especially after I told her how much I enjoyed it.  I thought that she’d be a fan of the humor, and already warned her about the things I thought she’d hate (the Loki/Heimdall deaths, Starlord being stupid.)  

Turns out I vastly overestimated her tolerance for stupidity.  

I’m prefacing this by saying that I see the merits of all her complaints.  There are a ton of things that don’t make sense in this movie. But if I’m having enough fun during the viewing (as I do with this film), I’m a lot more lenient with them.  

Things that ticked her off:

If Gamora knows that she’s the only way for Thanos to find the Soul Gem, why in the world did she join the other Guardians in confronting him?  If she’s not in a position to be captured, there’s no need to ask Starlord to kill her.

The movie has a general tendency to opt for the easy one-liner to diffuse the tension of a situation instead of mining it for something more meaningful.  Not to say that they aren’t funny, but they’re missed opportunities.

Captain America’s insistence that the Avengers not trade Vision’s life for the lives of half the universe has a certain heroic morality, right up until he sacrifices the Wakandan army to Thanos’ hordes.  It’s far less noble to say, “We don’t trade lives as long as it’s something that I’m close to. Screw the faceless Wakandan redshirts.”

Where’s all the Wakandan tech in that battle?  There’s not a single plane to provide air support?  Did the concept of artillery never penetrate the Wakandan war doctrine?

We didn’t make it through the movie.  The idiocy of the Avengers proved to be too much for her.  She’s not even a little sad that Thanos won. He deserved it way more than the ‘good guy.’  That should make the Russo brothers happy - They made no effort to hide that this story was Thanos’ hero quest.  

Here’s to hoping that Ant-Man and the Wasp is more to her liking.

Pride of Baghdad

Well, one way for Brian K Vaughan to get me to read a complete story by him is to make it a graphic novel.  There no next issue for me to not buy. I bought this because it came in a pretty package, and I wasn’t wise to his schemes back then.

This is a gorgeous book.  Niko Henrichon deserves far more work than his wikipedia indicates.  His creatures clearly look like animals, but still have an anthropomorphic quality that keeps them from feeling inhuman.  

The story itself, though, is very meh.  Or to be more accurate, it’s very depressing, which makes it meh for me.  Vaughan gives us a quartet of characters who really have no place in this world.  They don’t belong as captives in a zoo. They’re too used to soft living to really roam free.  They’re either too old or young to effectively hunt, and even if they could, there’s not enough in the bombed out city to survive.  And finally, they’re no match for the guns of man.

By the end of the book, their deaths are purely tragic, but I’m left to wonder if their survival wouldn’t have been even more so.  It’s not something that I usually look for in a comic. But credit to the creative team for putting out a beautiful piece of art.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice

Northlanders, Other Side, Pride and Joy

Northlanders 1-2

Here’s another Brian Wood title that I didn’t follow to the end.  He’s a lot like Brian K Vaughan. I’ll start most of their titles on the strength of a good premise, but almost never make it to the end.  What is it about Wood’s work?

Northlanders has strong art by Davide Gianfelice, a strong villain who’s easy to root against, and a prodigal son returning to his home.  Mix in a hermit archer who takes pot shots at our hero and a childhood friend who’s “all grown up,” and you’ve got all the ingredients for a rollicking good time.  So what relegates this to “borrow it from the library” status instead of “buy on sight”?

My first hypothesis is that I don’t care whether the protagonist succeeds or fails.  Sven comes back to his childhood home not to regain the mantle of leadership he inherited from his dead father, but to claim the associated gold that comes with it.  It’s not the most inspiring of motivations, so while I’m interested in finding out how Sven’s story ends, I have no investment in the outcome.

This theory pans out for DMZ, another Brian Wood series that I stopped buying before the end.  It’s something that I’ll keep in mind when evaluating other comics.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice

The Other Side 1-5

This early work by Jason Aaron reads like an older, darker version of The Nam.  Not that The Nam didn’t smartly deal with the ambiguity and horrors of the Vietnam War.  But there’s an extra tinge of madness to this story that sets it apart.

I can’t say that I liked seeing the mental unraveling of Private Everette.  The ghosts and the talking rifle felt a little too obvious. I thought that his inopportune call for a ceasefire for the sake of a butterfly was a far more effective way of demonstrating the mental strain he’s been under.  The gradual discoloration of his eyes was also creepily effective.

That rim of red is such a nice touch.

Vo Binh Dai’s parallel story on the Vietnamese side is even more tragic.  He spends most of the five issues just getting from his village in the north to the fighting in the south, marching for months and enduring malaria and countless hardships.  All of this only to die moments into his first battle.

I prefer more fighting and fewer nightmare fever dreams in my war comics, so The Other Side fails to make it on my list of favorite war comics.  But it’s still a finely executed comic that effectively illustrates why war sucks and the incredible sacrifice that those who fight in them are forced to make.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice  

Pride and Joy 1-4

One of the first Garth Ennis stories that I remember reading.  I loved it when it first came out, then was bitterly disappointed when a friend of mine savaged what she considered a horribly cheesy ending.  Revisiting it twenty years later, I’m still entertained. The seemingly omnipresent menace of Stein is still creepy, especially at the end of the first issue.  Ennis’ knack of having his characters tell spellbinding stories is in full display.

The conflict between Jimmy and Patrick, is a lot more problematic.  The conflict makes sense - The blue collar, macho dad can’t connect with his bookish, emotionally sensitive son.  I can sympathize with both characters But both go out of their way to come across as annoying when displaying their differences.  Jimmy is almost cruelly dismissive of his son’s softer personality. But Patrick doesn’t help matters by crying at the drop of a pin.  And what kind of idiot kid takes the time to berate his father while being chased by a psychopathic killer?

Patrick’s final exchange with his dying father (“You’re crying.”  “You’re not.”) suggests that Ennis feels that Jimmy’s “my son needs to toughen up” philosophy is the one that he agrees with.  In this particular instance, I’m in his corner. Patrick’s whiny attitude was in serious need of correction. But as a general outlook on life, I’m disappointed that that’s the message Ennis chooses to espouse.  

Regarding the final line of the story, I concede that it’s pretty cheesy.  But that’s not why its emotional impact has lessened from the first time I read it.  It’s that Patrick never appreciated anything his father did until Stein killed him. Even while Jimmy was trying to save his family, Patrick focused on the sins of his past, berating his father right up to the moment he got shot.  (A ton of sentence construction errors in that last sentence, forgive me.) Patrick’s outburst of pride at the end doesn’t feel earned. Jimmy may have deserved that honor, but Patrick didn’t.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice

Skyward, Pearl, Magic Order, Mage

New comics!

Mage: The Hero Denied 11

Things have slowed down to a crawl.  Magda and Hugo spend a lot of pages going up a red tube.  Kevin and his daughter drive from point A to point B. The big bad kills one of her daughters to sustain her own life force.  It’s reached the point where even Matt Wagner’s art isn’t enough to keep me interested, but with only 4 issues to go, I feel like I’m pot committed at this point.  On the other hand, would future me, having read up to this point, really want to know how this thing ends? I’m not sure if he’d really care. Something to think about when the next issue comes out.  

Skyward 5

Five issues in, and I’m still having fun with both the world-building and the story.  I’m surprised Joe Henderson killed the dad off so soon, but it was done well enough. The covers continue to stun.  Small characters against expansive backgrounds really do it for me, I suppose.

Pearl 1

I will give anything by Bendis a shot, so here I go with Pearl, his latest from the Jinxworld line.  He throws the reader into the action and expects them to figure it out as the action goes along. Surprisingly enough, it’s the Michael Gaydos art that stumbles here.  The storytelling for the drive by shooting wasn’t the clearest, and muddles up what appears to be the inciting event of the entire series.

Still, I’m intrigued enough to stick around for at least a couple more issues.

Magic Order 3

I’m really enjoying this series, but I’m not sure why this Mark Millar offering is so much stronger than his last few.  Certainly the Olivier Coipel art is a plus. Is it the extended sequences? There are four scenes in this issue, and Millar doesn’t cut between them.  Each is given his undivided attention, allowing them time to develop and breathe without interruption. And all the scenes hit home, from the innocence of a child playing with a dangerous weapon to the horrific damage that a trained wizard can do with such an instrument.  Very well done.

Lucifer

Lucifer 63-75, Lucifer: Nirvana

The final battle.  The Lilim launch their assault on the Silver City, but before they can complete their victory, Christopher Rudd and his army of Hell denizens swoop in and take command of the field.  Lilith dies in the fight. Lucifer kills Fenris. Yahweh grants Elaine Belloc the power of God. She takes her creation and merges it with those of Lucifer and God, claiming sovereignty over all.  Before she leaves behind her humanity forever, she gives all of her friends happy endings. Lucifer transfers the mantle of Morningstar to Mazikeen. She transfers a scar across his face for leaving her.  After one final conversation with his father, Lucifer flies off into the void.

It’s not bad, but the fact that I remembered none of it from my previous readings (I believe this was my third time through) speaks to the...meh-ness of it all.  Mike Carey sacrificed his characters on the altar of Plot. Even Lucifer, such a compelling personality at the beginning of this title, ended up feeling like nothing more than an observer in his own story.  I can’t put my finger on it. His role in Lucifer is not that far off from Morpheus’ in Sandman - often that of supporting character in his own title.  I think it’s that at the end of the day, Morpheus is still clearly the core around which all the other stories revolve.  Everything still comes back to him at the end of the day. Carey could just as plausibly called this comic Belloc and not needed to change a word of the script.  

I’m retroactively going back and classifying all my “Would buy agains” to No.  While I’d read it again if given the chance, I wouldn’t feel the need to repurchase it if I lost it in a fire.  Perhaps that’s how I should approach that category in the future...

Lucifer: Nirvana serves as a coda, taking place somewhere in the middle of series.  The story’s fine, but the real star is clearly Jon Muth’s gorgeous art.  

What really blows me away are these two pages:

The juxtaposition between the beautiful, luminescent angel and the bloody filth of her company and her environment is quite arresting.  What is it that compels her to such a congress? Muth’s depiction of her purity makes her willing defilement at the hands of the Silk Man all the more haunting.  

As I wrap up Lucifer, some final images that spoke to me.

Mazikeen is so badass.

Gorgeous splash page.

Now we all know the gesture for nubile.

Gotta give Gaudium and Spera props, they’re pretty funny.

Heh, one last dig at Remiel.  Self-important to the end.

Mike Kaluta had some nice covers, but it’s hard not to think of him as a Charles Vess clone.  (Though to show how much I know, Vess lists Kaluta as one of his major influences.)

Kaluta.

Kaluta

Vess.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice

Lucifer

Lucifer 56-61

If Lucifer was an arc of Dragonball Z, this would be the part where Goku and Piccolo stare at each other for 30 minutes and charge up their chi as rocks float around them.  A ton of set up for the upcoming final battle, but nothing really interesting happens in the meantime: Lilith usurps command of the Lilim from Mazikeen. Elaine Belloc learns to control the godly powers passed along from her father, the Archangel Michael.  Jill Presto, realizing that she’s got another Basanos child in her womb, tries to kill it before it can be born. (She doesn’t succeed.)

It’s all pretty skippable, but at least Mike Carey does a nice job of building up the anticipation for the second War in Heaven.  I don’t really care about the outcome, but I am curious to see how it all turns out. Is everyone but Lucifer going to die? It’s entirely possible.  

This isn’t the first story I’ve read where God’s abandoned Heaven.  He memorably deserts His throne in Preacher by Garth Ennis, but with different consequences.  In Preacher, nothing really changes, even after the Saint kills Him.  That God doesn’t really have much effect on His universe unless He actively chooses to, so His Death (along with all of the angels in Heaven), leaves the universe no worse off.  

In Lucifer, God’s departure will eventually lead to the unraveling of His creation.  So higher stakes. Of course, there are already two other creations existing parallel to His, so, it wouldn’t be the end of everything if this one poofs.  This God has also been unseen up to this point.  He’s been defined entirely by his absence. His motivations are completely invisible, leaving everyone else to scramble in response.

Carey also returns to Karl and Jayesh from the first issue of the title, the burgeoning neo-Nazi and the man who loved him.  Jayesh is recovering from the brutal beating he received at the hands of the Nazis Karl sicced on him. Jayesh is also dating Karl now, who’s living with the guilt of his previous actions.  (In addition to instigating the attack, he also sodomized his now-boyfriend with a broken bottle.) To top it all off, it’s suggested at the end of the issue that deep down, Jayesh knows everything.  Which would add another level of trauma to this already-stacked layer cake of messed up. If nothing else, this issue stuck in my mind for longer than most.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Fine (Nice for 61)