Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Archives for September 2011

the story so far

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I have a history of getting in way over my head on Crushing Krisis.

I just want you to keep that in mind, as a dedicated CK reader and non-comic book fan. Because, I know that describes a lot of you, and at the moment it seems like comics have completely overtaken the blog.

It’s called a linewide relaunch by DC Comics, there are 52 issues, and in one of those piques of insanity I have about blogging I convinced myself I was going to outdo all of those professional comic book websites and review all 52 in-depth all by myself.

Please consider the past insanities CK has witnessed. I posted 25 new recordings in 24 hours not once, but three times. I’ve blogged every day for a month twice, the first time also recording a song a day. I posted seven two-song digital records in seven days. I created the only comprehensive guide to collecting X-Men on the entire internet. I wrote a book in 30 days. I listed the best 40 albums of 2011 after listening to nearly 200 contenders.

Point being, when I set my mind to doing something insane on CK, I follow through, but it rarely becomes an habit forever.

Are comics going to go away on 10/1? No. They’re a story-telling medium I’ve always loved, and I’m excited to integrate them into the mix of topics at CK. Next year I even want to find a way to release my own comic, despite my ineptitude at all forms of illustration.

Are you going to continue to endure 3-4 comic reviews a day, every day, all month, totally devouring your feed reader.

No.

Just so we’re clear.

DC New 52 Review: Batman #1

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In Marvel comics it has become an ongoing, in-universe joke that Wolverine appears in more titles each month than would seem to fit into the life of any person, super or not. You’d almost think he shares the super-power of duplication with Madrox, or at least occasionally borrows Hermoine’s time turner.

Batman shares a similar status (eight and counting this month), but his multitude of appearances typically occur in and around Gotham. It’s not much of a stretch to picture him swinging through Batwoman on his way from Detective Comics to Batman & Robin.

Super-scheduling aside, the challenge facing any over-saturated hero is differentiation – how are the appearances different, and appealing to different audiences? Wolverine has it in spades – some books with X-Men, others solo, more with Avengers. Spider-Man gave up on it, and now he’s down to one main title that comes out constantly. There’s a new issue, like, every other day.

Batman is presently supporting three solo titles (four, if you count Robin), and I honestly don’t see much point in that beyond Bat-saturation. Batsuration? I’m definitely Batsurated, and it’s only week three. Why not move to the Spider-Man model?

Batman #1

Written by Scott Snyder, art by Greg Capullo and Jonathan Glapion

Rating: 3.5 of 5 – Great

In a Line: “Are you asking me if you were convincing as a homicidal maniac?”

#140char Review: Batman #1 treads lightly between gory DC#1 & goofy B&R#1 w/a solid mystery & fuller cast. Capullo’s art is perfect. Expect more good things

CK Says: Buy it.

Batman #1 packs a fun meaningless brawl, a portentous business move, and a grim mystery into one tidy debut issue that wisely cedes the “thrill-a-minute” crown to other Batbook debuts in order to sketch a fuller picture of Bruce Wayne and his cast of characters. Scott Snyder hits all the right beats and keeps Bruce in costume for just enough pages.

I love the device Snyder uses to set the tone, with Batman distractingly narrating a relatively rote mission with an editorial about the Gotham Gazette. If it’s a little glib it can be excused for being such an effective device for setting the stage of Gotham, as well as Bruce Wayne’s intentions for it as both a philanthropist and a superhero.

Greg Capullo is absolutely perfect for Snyder’s grim Gotham with a sliver of hope. His textured work never gets too dark thanks to inker Jonathan Glapion and a subdued set of desaturated colors from FCO Plascencia. I might even prefer his monstrous, deranged Joker to the lithe asexual one in Detective.

While villains get tons of line-work and toothy grins, Batman is portrayed simply – black cowl, lantern jaw with a slash of a mouth and a tiny furrow for a chin. The rest of Capullo’s Bat family is all dashingly, boyishly handsome. His version of the cave is expansive, but still claustrophobically hemmed in by columns of rock. His brightly lit ballroom scenes aren’t as striking, but they shouldn’t be – and I got a visceral thrill from the first scene of Bruce back in costume.

It’s hard to make an always grim Batman anything but flat and predicable – the issue becomes about gadgets, villains, and violence. Snyder’s Batman has dimension and a sense of gallows humor. In Detective it was all gallows and no laughs, and in Batman & Robin the latter was all maniacal giggles all the time. Only here does the millionaire playboy turned city defender really come through in the personality of our hero. While he’s not a wise-cracking Spider-Man, that doesn’t mean he has to be a humorless soggy cape, either.

Should you buy Batman #1? I say yes. Detective Comics was more of a classic and Finch might be more of a scorcher on art this week, but Snyder and Capullo find a comforting middle ground that pays homage to all of the versions of Batman we’ve grown up with. Perhaps devout Morrison fanatics will find this too plain-jane in anticipation of the return of Batman Inc, but otherwise it’s sure to please.

DC New 52 Review: Supergirl #1

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While I love female superheroes – as evidenced by their ratings so far this month – I don’t always love the “-girl” versions of male heroes.

The practice of creating female (and teen) (and dog) versions of popular heroes is a decidedly DC habit, as Marvel never did anything of the sort with their core slate of heroes with the possible exception of She-Hulk. (Yes, you could argue more recent versions like X-23 and Rescue fill the same role, but they are separate characters with established stories – not Wolvergal and Iron Woman).

The problem with these matching woman heroes is they have to be altered with every reboot of their male counterparts. In fact, one of the major outcomes of Crisis on Infinite Earths was to remove Supergirl from continuity so Superman could truly be the last son of Krypton again.

The removal didn’t last for long. She came back as a peculiar amoeba-in-the-shape-of-a-girl courtesy of Lex Luthor, later merged with a mortal teenager, and was subsequently discarded in favor of a standoffish Kryptonian cousin – not to mention the massively popular Power Girl.

That puts us on version six of Supergirl with this debut issue. That’s a lot of girls to remember, but DC’s reboot says we can forget all the past iterations and focus on this new one.

Supergirl #1

Written by Michael Green & Mike Johnson, art by Mahmud Asrar & Dan Green.

Rating: 3 of 5 – Good

In a Line: “I know it’s a dream because there hasn’t been a blizzard on Krypton since I was barely old enough to walk.”

#140Review: Supergirl #1 has great art & provides the 1st super-strength bash of a fight this month, but skimps a bit on story

CK Says: Consider it.

Supergirl #1 is an act of delicious contrition – the first out of three dozen DC relaunch books that’s all of an origin story, an exhibition of powers, plus a knock-down, drag-out super-powered fight.

This book teases so many things that people may have wanted or even expected from a Superman relaunch. We get an opening shot of meteors descending over the midwest. We have an egg-like spaceship of Kryptonian origin. We even get a set of super-powered fisticuffs! We also get an unveiling of killer heat vision that evokes Cyclops’s lack of control over his powers.

Except, we know all of that about Clark, so what’s the fun of it? Rehashing the origins of established heroes feels rote and deliberately padded. Yet, Supergirl is a heroine who doesn’t haven a singular definition. With her, every new display of power evokes a nod of our head, “Yes, of course she can do that. Very interesting.”

Writers Michael Green and Mike Johnson do a good job of threading internal monologue through brisk, easy-to-follow action beats, playing Kara’s bewildered reactions true to someone who woke up on another planet. That only a little story elapses around the action is forgivable.

I enjoyed the art, as much for Asrar’s pencils as for the beautiful palette of colors from Dave McCaig. The pair of them seem to ramp up the Super iconography through the issue until it reaches a thrilling crescendo in the last panel. All the while, Asrar draws Supergirl as young and lithe – not an overly-muscled, overly- breasty babe. (It’s a pity he didn’t fix her awkward face on the cover, it’s nearly classic.)

McCaig’s coloring style on early pages evokes watercolor, with seemingly liquid-stained patches of light and dark. It helped to maintain the in-a-dream mood of Supergirl’s narration, which is shattered by the bright lights of the squad sent to collect her. As dawn breaks over the battlefield, McCaig shifts into a more standard set of superhero colors. It’s a genius transition that I didn’t entirely pick up on until my third read.

While I’m concerned they’ve boxed themselves in with an immediate introduction of Superman, all the positives neatly erase the slightness of the issue. If writers Green and Johnson can carry the philosophical bent of Kara’s narration as a stranger in a strange world into upcoming issues, Supergirl will be a welcome second-string Kryptonian title to Morrison’s Action Comics.

DC New 52 Preview: On Sale 9/28

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DC’s final week of relaunched #1 comics is an peculiar one that can’t decide between sure things and novel experiments.

We get a hunk of the Justice League in Superman, The Dark Knight, Aquaman, Flash, Hawkman, and Firestorm – plus a second Green Lantern team book. Those are all marquee titles, plus the high-visibility Teen Titans.

There’s also a strong oddball contingent: a Vampire book, a Wildstorm refugee, another miltary book, a western, and a reverse image of the Justice League in their “Dark” title.

What will the best title be? Will we see a repeat of weeks one and two, with several stories that will make your stomach do jumping jacks of excitement? Or, will it be more like last week, with a middle ground of titles that promise future excellence?

Whatever the case, when the week is through we’ll see just how successful DC’s highly controversial reboot really was.

All-Star Western
Written by Justin Gray & JImmy Palmiotti with art by Moritat

I know, when I saw the title I slipped into a deep slumber too. Is DC really taking it old-school, to when the newly devised comic code sent superheroes into hiding and we wound up with a newsstand full of westerns and romance comics? Not quite, because this book follows supernatural-tinged gunslinger Jonah Hex. Also, it’s written by veteran storyteller Jimmy Palmiotti, who got his start as an inker for Marvel comics (and, especially for Joe Quesada). The time period still isn’t a surefire hit for me, but there’s enough here that intrigues me that I can give this book a fair shake.

What else is out this week, including not one but two books I am absolutely salivating over?

[Read more…] about DC New 52 Preview: On Sale 9/28

DC New 52 Review: Legion of Super-Heroes #1

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In my opinion, the entire endeavor of writing for and reading comic books is about continuity. The comics that appeal to me the most are the ones with the longest continuity. That’s part of why I love X-Men and avoid DC – X-Men refers back to 1963, while DC restarts or erases whenever they hit a tangle.

Given my predilection for continuity, I’m almost universally disinterested in alternate timelines and possible futures. What’s the point if it has nothing to do with the other thousands of comics I’ve read?

Legion of Superheroes presents an interesting wrinkle to my rule. Yes, it takes place in the 31st Century with increasinly less frequent interactions with Superman and Superboy, but it has been around for hundreds of issues – it has its own far-flung future continuity. However, in a wrinkle to the wrinkle, since Legion’s 1958 introduction this is the fifth version of the team.

Sounds way too convoluted. But, more importantly, is it any good?

Legion of Superheroes #1

Written by Paul Levitz, art by Francis Portela

Rating: 2.5 of 5 – Okay

In a Line: “You sure this isn’t a training mission?”

#140char Review: Legion of Superheroes #1 tosses readers in the deep end of 31st Century. Enjoyable, but overload for new readers w/ too few emotional beats.

CK Says: Consider it.

Legion of Superheroes #1 plunges forward with careless glee, its only concession to new readers being a set of attractively designed introductory captions explaining the homeworlds and powers of the many, many heroes we meet.

The story on the ground doesn’t need too much more introduction. Chameleon Boy leads a team to infiltrate a militarized planet that broke contact with the outside world. Levitz offhandedly gives the idea that all Legionnaires are well-publicized, which helps establish quite a few facts about the intergalactic heroes and the culture they operate in. Otherwise, their infiltration mission is fairly rote until they hit an obstacle at the end of the issue.

It’s the B-plot back at the ranch that drags. We meet a slew of people tossing around references that make no sense at all. While introducing tons of heroes on panel helps set the scope of the book and probably delights longtime readers, it was overload for me – especially because many of them barely had a line.

It’s all par for the course for a book with a big cast steeped in continuity, but Levitz makes the critical mistake of tying all of our emotional beats to knowing what the characters are talking about. We aren’t given any reason to care about anyone just based on their action in the present.

From there I quickly turned off to this issue. It’s a rare case where I would have rather watched brawl with less running commentary, as Francis Portela’s art is bold and sure throughout. He makes this set of strangers out to be iconic heroes, but I can’t find a reason to care about any of them. (I was slightly put off by a close-to-verbatim ripoff of X-Men’s Thunderbird/Warpath, but who knows – maybe this costume came first?)

It’s a shame Legion verges on unintelligible for new readers like me, because I think there is a lot to enjoy in this re-debut. This issue could have presented more of a primer on what the Legion is and the purpose they serve in the 31st Century. Without that, I doubt it will attract many new fans.