RASL, The Assignment

RASL 1-12

The incomparable Jeff Smith’s followup to the epic Bone.  In a far departure from his magnum opus, he’s gone for a 15-issue science fiction story about a parallel dimension-jumping thief.  If I had known it was going to end in three issues, I would have stuck it out for a couple more months. Instead, I lost interest - RASL didn’t read well as a monthly series.  It fared better this time around as a binge read, and I might look up what I’m missing out on from the library.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

The Assignment

Huh, this should be sorted in the A’s, not the R’s.  I thought this was called (Re)Assignment, which the movie version was for a while.  (Starring Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver. I haven’t seen it, don’t plan to, either.)

So, intriguing premise: A doctor surgically alters a hitman’s body from male to female as revenge for an assassination.  I’d have bought more into the story if the post-procedure hitman’s drawn body language reflected that of a guy’s - it’s not like the hitman is trying to transition, his body was changed against his will.  Would he still move like he did with a male body? Instead, it feels more like a 70s exploitation film. And I don’t even know how to interpret the sex scene.  

Still, The Assignment provokes more thought than most comics, even the execution is horribly flawed.  Keeping it around.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice   

PS238, Quantum and Woody

PS238 0-5, 7-9

A little indie title about elementary school kids with superpowers by Aaron Williams.  I didn’t expect to keep this in my collection when I started reading - I remember it being decent, but haven’t gone back to it since my first readthrough.  It holds up better than I thought it would! Williams does a fine job of showing things from the teachers’ POVs, where they treat their charges and their abilities with a been-there-done-that attitude that’s amusing and satisfying at the same time.  

Great mentorship.

The kids are also a treat to follow.  Williams mixes a nice range of powers and personalities together.  Some are original, some are clear homages. Most are executed with good humor.  

Barry Ween was so hot back then.  I miss that comic.

Sandman was even hotter.

Might be the best power ever.

I'm amused by kiddie Dooms trying to one-up each other.

I’m good with the number of issues that I have, but I’m pleased to see that Williams is still producing PS238 online.  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

Quantum and Woody 0-5, 7-10, 18, 32

I never liked this as much as the critics did.  Rereading it did nothing to change my mind - It’s brilliant in some places, but Christopher Priest could never quite maintain the level of entertainment that would push it up to that next level.  Let it be said, though, that Priest is a master of nonlinear storytelling in comics (just take a look at that first issue!), and the following three page sequence is a wonderous piece of work by MD Bright.  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice (Pretty good for the earlier issues)

Tetris, Future Foundation, Superman: Up in the Sky, Lois Lane

3 new comics this week!

Future Foundation 1

Jeremy Whitley’s follow up to the lamented Unstoppable Wasp.  He’s gathered a bunch of characters in whom I have little to no interest and sent them on an adventure that just as blah.  Quick run down:

Alex Power - Never read Power Pack, don’t care

Julie Power - She was fine in Runaways, but I don’t get anything from her here.

Dragon Man and the Moloids - Don’t care.

Bentley-23 - The Quintin Quire of the group.  So hard to make an annoying character like this likable.  (Jason Aaron managed it with Quire. Whitley doesn’t manage it with Bentley.)

Artie and Leech - Hated them in X-Factor.  Don’t want them here.

And why would you bring back The Maker?  Something about him pisses me off to no end, and not in an entertaining comic book villain kind of way.  

Final dagger comes directly from Whitley’s afterward: “If you’re familiar with some of the other work I’ve done at Marvel, this book may be a little bit of a surprise to you.  I tend to be a writer who likes to focus in on characters, and my books then to stay relatively light on the action. But this isn’t that book.”

Oof.  Soooo...he took everything that was that was awesome about Wasp and decided to go in the opposite direction.  

Sorry, Whitley.  I wanted to like this so much.  Most likely not coming back next month.

Superman: Up in the Sky 2

Superman boxes for half of the issue.  Gets his ass kicked, but his determination somehow convinces his opponent to quit.  Suuure. At least Andy Kubert sells the brutality of the fight.  

The second half has more emotional weight - A healer sacrifices his own life in order to bring Superman out of a coma.  It’s actually quite beautiful and well executed. Nice job by Tom King on this one.  

Lois Lane 2

So it looks like this series is going to be about Lois digging into a mystery, misspelling her stories, working w/ Renee Montoya (yay!) and getting slutshamed by the public for kissing Superman (boo).  Solid enough for now, but I really hope Greg Rucka drops the last bit. It’s no fun to read.

Tetris: The Games People Play

Borrowed from the library.  A neat little history of an amazing game.  I was mainly fascinated by the massively complicated battles for the various publishing rights for the game.  I had no idea that there were so many parties vying for contention. A worthy effort by creator Box Brown.

Would buy? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Fine

The Pro

The Pro

Garth Ennis unleashes his full disdain for superheroes in this hilarious one-shot.  His weapon of choice is a weathered prostitute who’s just been granted superpowers, and he unloads with both barrels.  I’m going to let the work speak for itself.

God, I love Speedo.

That line of women is Amanda Conner at her best.

Ennis getting it all off his chest.

Multi-armed woman jacking off animals.  Not Ennis' finest moment.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Memetic, Nothing Better, Oni Color Special, Potter's Field

Memetic 1-3

James Tynion IV’s cool hook brought me in: Someone figures out how to use a meme to destroy the world.  The progression over the course of three days plays out just like Independence Day, as things get exponentially worse over time and a small group of people races against time to find a way to win.  

Top notch design.

The miniseries lost me when the origin of the meme actually turns out to be aliens.  That and the meat towers. Tynion lost me with the meat towers.

So.  Wrong.

I don’t mind that all of humanity dies at the end.  I mind that they died as meat towers.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Nothing Better 1-2

I bought this because I was a fan of Tyler Page’s Stylish Vittles, and mostly likely because they were available at his table at some con I was at.  This was back in 2005. Looking online, he just finished the nineteenth and final issue in 2018.  Props to his persistence, but even at the bargain price of 5 bucks for an online pdf of the whole series, this story about freshman at a Lutheran college isn’t interesting enough for me to continue.  

(I’d love to read a good story about people at university, something reminiscent of my time there.  This isn’t it. Not that it needs to mirror my experiences, but something more evocative.)

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Didn’t suck (Cutting)

Oni Color Special 2001

An anthology issue.  Pretty much crap aside from the Brian Michael Bendis story at the beginning - That thing is solid gold, and the only reason I’m keeping this around.  Bendis’ sendup of the indie comics of the day is all the more hilarious for the accuracy of his razor-sharp barbs. His Powers partner, Michael Avon Oeming, nails the various art styles as well, particularly David Mack’s.  Would that I could keep this story as a minicomic and excise the rest.  

So much good stuff in the word art if you take the time.

Going to be reading Red Star in a couple days!

And Bendis can take the piss out of himself, too.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine (Averaging Really good and Stupid)

Oni Color Special 2002

Take the previous issue and subtract Bendis’ story.

Regret buying: Yes

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Stupid (Cutting)

Potter’s Field 1-3

Mark Waid-penned miniseries about a man who investigates cold cases, aided by a Sherlock Holmesian network of irregulars.  Meh. It comes across a mediocre TV procedural.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Didn’t suck (Cutting)

Judenhass, Jumper, Last of the Independents, Leave it to Chance, Levitation, Lookouts, Me and Edith Head

It’s amazing how much more quickly I read through things when it’s not 100 issues of the same title.  

Judenhass

I never got into Cerebus.  I tried the first phonebook, but quit before I got very far into it.  I never made it to any of the more popular storylines. Other than that, my only knowledge of Dave Sim is that he’s a misogynist who pissed off Jeff Smith somewhere along the line.  So he’s controversial.   

Whatever his other issues, Judenhass (available for free download here) is a stunning piece of work.  Sim’s compiled a horrible array of quotes and actions demonstrating the world’s prevalent attitudes towards Jews over the course of human history, culminating in the Holocaust.  It’s illustrated with lightboxed photographs, repeated to heartbreaking effect, and I’ve rarely been so engrossed by any piece of reading.  

It’s not like the images or the history are anything new to me.  But Sims’ masterful arrangement and presentation combine to strike an emotional chord that’s quite rare.  It’s also appallingly topical today as the mantra of “Never again” feels closer to being violated than ever before in the seventy years of its existence.  

Read this.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Really good

Jumper

A graphic novel based on the Hayden Christensen movie, which I didn’t think was nearly as bad as the reviews made it out to be.  

Helps that it's Rachel Bilson.

It’s an interesting choice by writers Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir to center the story on the Paladins (the antagonists in the movie) instead of the Jumpers.  It doesn’t help that their fundamental premise feels flawed to me - they posit that Jumpers are dangerous because they inevitably grow up to become threats to society.  Well duh, they’re kids with no one to guide them as they blindly experiment with their powers! Maybe use all your insane resources to teach them instead of the killers in your employ!  Idiots.  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Last of the Independents

A fun little by-the-numbers bank heist gone wrong graphic novel by Matt Fraction and Kieron Dwyer.  Nothing more, nothing less. I did like Fraction’s acknowledgement at the end: “Don Siegel, Sam Peckinpah, Clint Eastwood, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Sergio Leone, and anyone else that thought a middle-aged man could be an action hero.”  I echo that sentiment, and I’m happy that it’s still the case today.

Yessss.

Yaaaaassssssss.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Leave it to Chance 1-5

A cute little all-ages title by James Robinson and Paul Smith.  It’s nice enough, but it doesn’t have the legs to keep my interest.  It’s diverting enough that I’ll keep it around for my kids to read someday, but that’s about it.  

Georgie is so cute.  Love his design.

Toad God!!!!

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Fine

Levitation

Another Jim Ottaviani history, this one about a particular levitation magic trick.  As with all Ottaviani graphic novels, it’s not quite as good as it could be. Clearly, I’m interested in the material, I bought the books.  But they’re never as fun as I hope they will be. I think I keep buying them not because I think they’ll get any better, but because I still want to support Ottaviani in what he’s doing.  Teaching history and science through comics is a laudable endeavor, and he deserves to be commended for it.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Fine

Lookouts 1

I bought this because the people at Penny Arcade are brilliant and just about everything they create is worthy of attention.  Gabe and Tycho aren’t the creative team on this comic, but I gave it a shot anyway.  I actually think writer Ben McCool and penciller Robb Mommaerts do a wonderful job here.  I only have the first issue because I missed the second at my shop, and I never picked it back up.  There’s not enough here for me to want to read more, but that’s not a comment on the quality of the work.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Me and Edith Head

A mini comic about a girl who finds purpose and fulfillment after being placed in the costume department of her school drama department.  It’s fine, but not as good as all the blurbs on the back cover…

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

Ivar, Timewalker, Moving Pictures

Ivar, Timewalker 1-3

I bought this completely on the strength of the title.  “Ivar, Timewalker!” is so completely evocative, with a great name and a great function.  It’s like saying “Galileo Five!”

It’s really weird how I’ve never gotten into Valiant comics since they rebooted.  From everything that I can tell, they’ve got top notch talent and decent reviews whenever I come across them.  The comics that I do have are interesting enough. But I’ve never really been compelled to keep reading them.  

Ivar, Timewalker (!) completely fits that mold.  I love the premise - Ivar travels back in time to prevent one of the inventors of time travel from inventing time travel. 

The beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Fred Van Lente injects just the right brand of humor into a story this fantastical, balancing it with a nice mix of apprehension as everyone’s motives remain clouded to the reader.  

I’m amused by the idea that every time traveller has tried to kill Hitler at one point or another.  

Except for that last guy.  He's got other plans.

I like Clayton Henry’s art as well.  And yet, I was fine with to stop at three issues.  Didn’t feel the need for more. I spoiled myself on the plot and thought, “Sure, whatever.  I’m good.”

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Moving Pictures

I got this with this week’s new comics.  I saw that Stuart Immonen did the art, and it appeared to be about saving works of art in Paris during World War II, which sounded really cool.

Eh, what a mistake.  The story by Kathryn Immonen’s a slog to get through.  I can imagine a version of this tale of two lovers who despise each other, one French, one German, while pursuing their own agenda that’s full of emotion, conflict, and heartbreak.  But the one that I got wasn’t it. I found it confusing and soulless. Stuart Immonen doesn’t help matters, as both the female and male leads have similar looking doppelgangers in the story.  I often couldn’t tell who was who.  

As a new purchase, this will get another read through in the future, but I’m sorely tempted to just cut it the day after I bought it.