boyajian@akov68.DEC (03/29/85)
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 Napolean of Crime. Nyah-ah-ah!! ******************************************************************************** |=>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 #39: "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 | ******************************************************************************** BATMAN ANNUAL #9 (DC, $1.25) [C- overall] This year's BATMAN ANNUAL is another Mike Barr extravaganza, though instead of one long story like last year's, here we have four different stor- ies, each illustrated by a different artist, each showing a different facet of the Batman's personality. I don't think I need to tell you again what I think of Barr's approach to the Batman. I was taken by surprise, though, by a couple of the stories. The first story, illustrated by Jerry Ordway, shows Batman's first face: "The Child". Much to my astonishment, Barr really managed to capture the right feeling of this facet. This story was *good*. On the other hand, I've always been a sucker for Batman-encounters-a-situation-much-like-that-which- made-him-into-the-Batman stories. The Ordway art was reasonably good, but he's done better. [B-] "The Avenger" side of Batman is illustrated competently but with no pizzazz by Alex Nino. This is the kind of Batman story I expect from Barr --- ghastly, and with no idea of how Batman works. This may be a spoiler, but I don't care, I'm so infuriated! I'm sorry, Mr. Barr, but Batman would not knowingly and with malice aforethought cause the deaths of any criminals, no matter what the reason. This totally negated the good feeling I came out of the first story with. [Z+] Next, we have the face of "The Detective", with good, but not great, art by Dan Jurgens and Dick Giordano. No personality conflicts in this case, which is just a simple murder mystery. This is the style of story that Frank Robbins filled DETECTIVE COMICS with throughout the 70's, and which I enjoyed. Barr, however, is no Robbins. The mystery and its solution were simple, and not very imaginative. It didn't take me long to guess whodunit. [D+] The fourth story should have ended at page three. Basicly, this in it- self was a four-in-one story. The plot is that a clinic is burning down. Bat- man both helps a children's physical therapy class escape the fire and catches the arsonist. The escapade is first told from the point of view of the thera- pist, then one of the children, then the arsonist, then the Batman. While the last three points of view are interesting, they don't really have anything to do with the point of the story! This story is supposed to illustrate the face of "The Man" that lies underneath the cowl. As such, the story ends at page three when the therapist makes the comment that she "never realized there was a man under that mask..." The rest of the story just becomes excess baggage. Nevertheless, I enjoyed those first three pages so much, that I'll give this story a [C+]. Another negative comment about this story, though, concerns the art. I was really looking forward to seeing Paul Smith do a Batman story, but it really didn't come off all that well. It's the best-drawn story in the comic, but considering the artist, also the most disappointing. He should have had a stronger inker than himself on the art. THE BLACK DRAGON #1 (Marvel/Epic, $1.50) [C-] I was expecting great things from this. Something new for Claremont (it has no mutants in it!), an exciting Middle Ages adventure story with a touch(?) of fantasy, art by John Bolton. What more could anyone ask? Well, the story is interesting enough, though not exceptional. A nice change from the superhero comics. The Bolton art, though, was disappointing. This guy can be *really* dynamite when he wants to, but here he's merely good. I think that I was hoping for a painted comic, along the lines of MOONSHADOW. Some of the best art by Bolton I've seen has been painted. Oh well, can't have everything, I guess. Still, it's worth a looksee. CAP'N QUICK & A FOOZLE #2 (Eclipse, $1.75) [C-] The adventures of the Cap'n and Klonsbon was one of the three things that made ECLIPSE MONTHLY worth buying (the other two being, of course, "The Masked Man" and "Rio"). Character, humor, and great art. Then, it spun off into its own book. Three times the thrills, three times as many chuckles, three years between issues! No, not *that* bad, but Marshall Rogers seems determined to make Neal Adams look like Speedy Gonzales (are we *ever* going to see the third issue of SCORPIO ROSE?). Thank God his art is worth it. Anyways, the unfortunate thing about this second issue is that is seems at a loss for direc- tion. The first adventure has just wrapped up, and Klonsbon and the Cap'n now do nothing more than meander across the landscape until they make their way back to the Cap'n's dimension for the third and last issue. A couple of the sequences are amusing, such as the space cabbie scene and the Judge Dredd spoof, but mostly it's just marking time. It's too bad we've had to wait so long for so little. Let's hoope that the last issue is sooner and better. THE HUNGER DOGS (GRAPHIC NOVEL #4) (DC, $5.95) [D+] When DC did a Baxter reprint of Kirby's THE NEW GODS, the last issue contained some new material that "completed the saga". Well, not quite. This graphic novel picks up where that "final story" leaves off, and this time, things have come to a much truer ending. Not that Kirby can't bring us more stories of Darkseid and Son, but there this story does pretty much end an "era" in the saga of the New Gods. Kirby's scripts have always been rather over-written, though they are much more so these days than when he first started his "Fourth World" series. The writing here, when it's not so bad as to make you gag, is just so much meaningless rhetoric. But Kirby's forte has always been his concepts and his dynamic artwork. We don't have as much of the former as I'd like here, but there's plenty of the latter. This certainly isn't prime Kirby, but it's a *hell* of a lot better than CAPTAIN VICTORY and SILVER STAR that he did for Pacific. I'm not sure that I can really recommend this, especially considering the price. I'm sure that this would have been just as well off as a 64-page Baxter comic (about the size of MANHUNTER) at half the price. For those of you who are diehard fans of Kirby's Fourth World series, you might want to pick this up, as it's better than the earlier "finish" of THE NEW GODS. But those of you who aren't fans of the series would do just as well to pass this by. You won't be converted, and you'll just be upset at what you paid for it. MAGE #6 (Comico, $1.50) [C] Not one of the better issues, but what's significant about this issue is that --- I'm hooked. Yup. The scales have fallen from the eyes. Light dawns over Marblehead. Actually, I was hooked with the last issue, but this was the first issue where I was waiting with anticipation. Took me a while, but it's worth it. I'll admit that I didn't pick up on it earlier because the art did not excite me. And while I like the artwork better now (the higher-quality paper and printing help a *lot*), it's really the characters and the very natural-sounding dialogue that I'm really taken with. Earlier issues are hard to find, but if you can find a copy of MAGEBOOK Volume 1, which contains the first four issues, do so. Then pick up #5 & #6 (or you can wait for MAGEBOOK 2 to come out in a half-a-year or so). This is good stuff. Oh, Matt Wagner's other feature, "Grendel", which had its own black and white comic for three issues back when, continues as a back feature starting in this issue. Unfortunately, as a (I would guess) re-cap of the three earlier issues, it leaves a lot to be desired. I think I need to find those issues in order to make sense of all this. THE NEXT MAN #1 (Comico, $1.50) [D-] Roger McKenzie and Vince Argondezzi bring us an old concept in a new comic. The Next Man is a "dead" hero from Vietnam who's been genetically engin- eered to be a superhuman being. Ostensibly, he is to be one of a team of such that will function as an advance space exploration team to survive in hostile planetary environments and help terraform those planets (shades of Fred Pohl's MAN PLUS!). Of course, as any reasonably well-read comics fan can guess, the project leaders *really* want to create a superior army for motives that aren't quite on the up and up. And, of course, our "hero" rebels when he finds out the truth. What we end up with is a Jack Kirby comic without Kirby's pizzazz. Like almost anything, I'll give it another shot or two, but unless it really takes off, it won't be a permanent fixture of my collection. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA