boyajian@akov68.DEC (JERRY BOYAJIAN) (07/23/85)
Reviewed this time around: DC COMICS PRESENTS ANNUAL #4 MARVEL SUPER SPECIAL THE STAINLESS STEEL A DISTANT SOIL #5 #38 [RED SONJA] RAT #1 THE ELEMENTALS #4 MYTHDAVENTURES #5 STAR TREK #19 THE ETERNALS #1 PETER PARKER THE UNCANNY X-MEN #198 GRIMJACK #15 SOUTHERN KNIGHTS #9 Ratings for the comics reviewed are as according to the Mad Armenian Scale, a shameless rip-off of the Moriarty Scale, stolen out from under the very nose of the Napoleon of Crime. Nyah-ah-ah!! "For a critic, it's better to have wrong standards than none at all." -- Elmer Allyn Craft ******************************************************************************** |=>A+< A veritable Classic. One of the best of All Time. Example: THE SPIRIT | |==>A< One of the best of the year. Ex: TEEN TITANS #38: "Who Is Donna Troy?" | |==>B< A very good issue, one of the best of the month. Example: CEREBUS | |==>C< A well done, entertaining issue. Satisfying. Example: JON SABLE | |==>D< Rather boring, or a few good spots mixed with more bad ones. Ex: ROM | |==>F< Boring AND stupid or childish. Example: MARVEL SUPERHEROES SECRET WARS | |==>Z< Actually offensive. Example: DAZZLER --- THE MOVIE GRAPHIC NOVEL #12 | ******************************************************************************** DC COMICS PRESENTS ANNUAL #4 [DC, $1.25] D+ This issue marks the second appearance of Superwoman, a character that Elliot Maggin created for last year's DCCP ANNUAL. Superwoman is Kristin Wells, from the 29th Century. In her first appearance, she traveled back to the 20th Century to research the identity of the character of Superwoman, who mysteriously showed up, fought alongside Superman for a while, and then mysteriously disappeared again. Of course, she realizes during the course of the story that *she* is Superwoman. At the end of the story, she returned to her own time. Now, here, she again travels back to our time, and again she helps out Superman. Only this time, she stays in the 20th Century to finish up her "career" before returning once again to her own time. The way the story ends, I'm beginning to suspect that Superwoman will be appearing regularly in the post-CRISIS DC world for awhile, until the time comes for her to disappear back to her own time. Since she is not Kryptonian, and her powers come from advanced science, this would not be violating the "no-other-Kryptonian-survivors" fiat. Anyways, the art by Eduardo Barreto & Jerry Ordway is pretty nice, and Maggin's story in certain ways isn't too bad, but I had problems dealing with the whole concept of the "Luthercon" that is the setting for most of the story --- a convention celebrating Superman's most dangerous enemy? Really! But, despite the silly-spinoff nature of the character, I think I rather like her, and look forward to more stories. Maybe they can do something with her that they couldn't do with Supergirl. A DISTANT SOIL #5 [WaRP, black & white, $1.50] D+ I'm just about to give up on this one. It's been five issues, and I'm still confused about what's going on, who's allied with whom against whom, and I can't keep it straight in my head which character is which. And I find that reproducing Colleen Doran's art from her pencils results in a very dark and dirty look. But starting next issue, the comic is going bi-monthly, and now that all of the characters are in place, it's promised that the story will start to move. So, I'll stick this one out for a couple of more issues, and if things still don't click, out it goes. THE ELEMENTALS #4 [Comico, $1.50] D+ A step downward from previous issues. The art didn't seem quite up to snuff, nor did the story, which crawled along at a dreadfully slow pace. Two nice touches: Fathom's escape and Saker's origin (a bit rough on ol' JC, but what would you expect from this point of view?). THE ETERNALS #1 [Marvel, maxi-series, $1.25] D- I wasn't all *that* fond of Kirby's Eternals, though he certainly put his usual pizzazz into it. Roy Thomas gave them a little punch when he added them into the extended Thor storyline that culminated in #300. But here, they're just dull. The way this issue looks, were just in for a dozen issues of fights between Eternals and Deviants, with Humans caught in the middle. Ho Hum. GRIMJACK #15 [First, $1.25] (Munden's Bar: B) I have to confess that I haven't been too impressed with Grimjack of late. Somehow, the old Grinner seems to do no more these days than to punch a few people around and spout pithy sayings. It's *just* good enough to keep buying (mostly for the art), but it's a far cry from its earlier issues. But the treat here is the Munden's Bar story written and drawn by Phil (MYTHADVENTURES) Foglio. In it, Gordon goes away for a few hours and leaves the bar in the care of a friend (the bowler-hatted character that pops up in a lot of Foglio work --- a thinly-disguised caricature of himself, in fact). Of course, chaos results, as "Phil" hires a band that proves to be very popular. One thing that really got me was that all the songs that the band played (and we got only 1 or 2-line excerpts) are *very* bawdy songs that are popular amongst sf fans (the only significant one Phil left out was "The Friggin' Falcon"). And Gordon's ingenious method for getting rid of the band was hilarious. I'm still chuckling. MARVEL SUPER SPECIAL #38 [RED SONJA] [Marvel, $2.00] F+ No surprise: This is an adaptation of the new movie that Dino D. has foisted upon us. Surprise: It's done by the regular RED SONJA comic team, Louise Simonson and Mary Wilshire. Another surprise: Despite the two considerable talents involved, it is nothing short of awful. But then, one cannot make diamonds out of river mud. Unfortunately, this isn't even an acceptable brick. MYTHADVENTURES #5 [WaRP, black & white, $1.50] B- A review or twain ago, in reviewing STIG'S INFERNO, I mentioned that now that the Ambush Bug mini-series was over, that STIG'S INFERNO was the funniest comic on the market. I lied. It's tied with MYTHADVENTURES. This issue is almost non-stop laughs, from the cries of the hawkers at the Deva bazaar to the panel showing the dragon-mongers wares (which included Cecil the Sea-Sick Sea Serpent and Godzilla) and beyond. This is truly funny stuff. PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #107 [Marvel, $.65] C+ I never really knew the character of Jean DeWolff that well. Though she occasionally showed up in books that I read, she mostly stuck to the Spider-titles, which I only spottily read. But yet, I felt a sad twinge at her death in this issue, mostly due to the powerful scripting by Peter David, who helped me feel something for her by showing how her passing affected the other characters in the book. With David as regular scripter on this title, I think I'll add it to my list. This guy's good. SOUTHERN KNIGHTS #9 [Fictioneer, black & white, $1.75] C I wasn't going to review this. I reviewed the previous issue, and I don't really have much more to say about it. Plus, I don't want to feel like I'm either brown-nosing or dumping on Henry, but he asked me, so... Truth: This is good stuff. Not great stuff, but good stuff. Henry seems to improve as a writer with each issue, though he probably needs a good editor. Some of his dialog is somewhat stiff, but that's a minor matter. What makes the book click is the characters. The angst-ridden teams of the major pub- lishers is nowhere in evidence here. The Southern Knights is a group of heroes that work well together, are all friends, and have character. Connie is the only one that I don't really care that much for, though Kristin more than makes up for her. And there are some nice little character touches with Dragon this time around. If I have any quibble with this comic, it's in the art department. Chuck Wojtkiewicz is rather uneven. His covers are quite striking (Henry, does Chuck do the coloring for the cover?), and some of his interiors are nice, but he has poor perspective in many panels, and too often he gives a concave look to people's faces. Maybe a stronger inker is called for. As for the back-up strip that's been running for a few issues --- "Missing Beings". Well, it's a nice idea, but I'm afraid that I don't care for it much. The joke regarding the main character's name just strikes me as too "cute". And the computer's proclivities strikes me as a bit silly. So, when all is said and done, I heartily recommend this comic, and I've done so, a few other times before Henry appeared in this newsgroup, so don't accuse me of ulterior motives. :-) While it may not be up to the quality of, say, THE X-MEN, it strikes me as a more honest effort than X-MEN. THE STAINLESS STEEL RAT #1 [Eagle, mini-series, $2.25] D I've liked just about everything that Eagle's put out up till now. Unfortunately, TSSR doesn't quite make the grade. Although, I've read a fair amount of books by Harry Harrison, I've never managed to get to his novels of Slippery Jim DiGriz, upon which this comic is based, so I've come into this without any prejudices. I'm not sure just what it is about this comic that doesn't click for me, but there's definitely something there. Maybe it's just that it's not as outrageous as I expect from Eagle's previous features such as Judge Dredd or J.R. and Quinch. STAR TREK #19 [DC, $.75] D Whatever one can say about Walter Koenig, being a good writer is not it. The plot of "Chekov's Choice" isn't necessarily bad --- it seems like an average tv episode, actually --- but the scripting is just awful. Events happen too quickly, with no thought behind him, motivations are muddy, and the resolution is just plain silly. I suspect that if anyone other than a Real STAR TREK Star had written this, no one would've even considered it fit for publication (except maybe Gold Key, when they were publishing STAR TREK). And the Dan Spiegle art is some of his poorest that I've seen in quite a while. THE UNCANNY X-MEN #198 [Marvel, $.65] D+ Considering how highly I think of Barry Windsor-Smith (I voted him #1 artist in the CBG poll), and how much I liked the previous issue of this comics he did (#186), I expected Great Things from this issue. Unfortunately, they were not to come. I found the story to meander meaninglessly and self-indulgently. I just couldn't figure out how the end (Ororo's acceptance of her current status) followed from the events of the story. It almost seemed like I was reading a Joseph Conrad novel. And worst of all, Windsor-Smith's art was too dark and muddy to be able to really appreaciate it. What a shame. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Acton-Nagog, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA