Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Archives for September 2011

DC New 42 Review: Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1

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Is there really anything to say here? The cover of this book features Frankenstein wielding a gattling gun, backed up by his four-armed bride and a Japanese school girl wielding a revolver.

My hopes, they were not high.

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1

Written by Jeff Lemire, art by Alberto Ponticelli

Rating: 4 of 5 – Excellent

In a Line: “And so far, I must say I am worried. This place is an advertisement for mad science bound to go wrong.”

#140char Review: Frankenstein #1 makes magic happen w/outlandish plot, gruff antihero, & messy/sketchy art. Perfectly exciting debut left me howling for more

CK Says: Buy it!

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1 is a great comic book, and I’m shocked it’s out as an ongoing under the banner of DC. It goes to show that The New 52 isn’t completely for show – some different concepts are really getting a trial run as marquee titles, and it’s up to readers to show their support.

I was cold to this book for about half the issue. A miniature base in a a bubble that requires agents to shrink down to size to enter. Disposable organic robots that dissolve after a day of use. A master who randomly swaps bodies every decade, and is currently inhabiting an Asian school girl. A special forces squadron of volunteer monsters.

It all sounds rather tiresome. Yet, somewhere in the middle of the issue it turned from an obligatory read to a page-turner.

A lot of that has to do with the constant slinging of madcap plot points from author Jeff Lemire. (Yes, that’s the same Lemire that illustrated Animal Man. He is amazing.) If oddball details had been hammered into the ground I would have found them awkward. Instead, each was treated as routine – just another minor facet of an outlandish and compelling world constructed around our titular horror. Not explaining the ridiculous reality of the book gives the reader tacit permission to just not care where Frankenstein came from or why he’s a hero. The book became immediately more enjoyable.

I’d be lying if I said it was solely my suspension of disbelief that kept me hooked until I was really hooked. Actually, that can be chalked up to art from Alberto Ponticelli. I love the deliberate messiness of his pages, things left sketchy and roughly hewn. Yet, he can also scale back to show a clean panel of faces. At points he is definitely reminiscent of Chris Bachalo’s DC work.

The plot? Some sort of hell mouth has opened in a remote town, expelling hordes of carnivorous monsters. The Bride of Frankenstein went missing trying to contain it. Now it’s up the Frankenstein and his horrific team to monster mash their way through the town to plug the hole and locate Bride. If it sounds silly… well… it sort of is, but the book never descends into humor despite a few consistently wisecracking characters and an even-funnier straight man werewolf.

Frankenstein’s DC history is short and relatively recent, and doesn’t seem to have much bearing on the proceedings here. Lemire uses SHADE’s computer to narrate through a few otherwise incomprehensible situations. For a while we’re left to think it’s talking to Frankenstein, but by the end of the book it is addressing us directly. Again, advantage Lemire, who am I now mildly obsessed with.

This isn’t a perfect issue, but it is perfectly entertaining and absolutely worth a purchase. Pick this up while you still can, and while we can still send a signal to DC that we want more of Lemire and Ponticelli’s edgy horror on the slate for many months to come!

(I’ll offer the minor caveat that I have a confirmed soft spot for horror tropes used in not-entirely-horror idioms. See also Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula, Whedon’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Kripke’s Supernatural, etc.)

30 for 30 Project, 1992: “Precious Things” – Tori Amos

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Tori Amos has a new album out today, Night of Hunters, released just a few months shy of the twentieth anniversary of her seminal solo debut, Little Earthquakes.

I spent this morning tweeting my reaction to the new album, a classically set song cycle heavy on mythological themes. The music is bold and haunting, but the lyrics are largely obscure and off-putting.

Little Earthquakes was practically its opposite, all about clever wordplay even when the piano was reduced to music box simplicity, quoting the same lines again and again, or utter silence, on “Me and a Gun.”

(Watch me cover “Precious Things” on YouTube. For more info on my 30 for 30 Project, visit my intro post or view the 30for30 tag for all of the related posts.)

I remember Tori’s debut tickling at the fringes of my consciousness that year, maybe on MTV. [Read more…] about 30 for 30 Project, 1992: “Precious Things” – Tori Amos

DC New 52 Preview: On Sale 9/21

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This week brings the third wave of DC’s New 52 debut titles, all aimed to be easy to pick up for new readers but still rewarding to longtime fans.

Week two’s raft of titles was definitely less impressive on the whole than week one, despite a big block of above-average books. Week three packs heavy hitters Batman and Wonder Woman, and an underbill of beloved second-stringers like Catwoman, Blue Beetle, and Supergirl. Will this be be the week to break the better-than-average barrier with a score that tops 3.0? Or, will it do worse than week two’s four-book crop of sub-average comics?

Batman
Written by Scott Snyder with art by Greg Capullo & Jonathan Glapion

I’m a little gun-shy on this one. I thought a Snyder/Paquette Swamp Thing was a sure thing, but I wound up dissing it and drawing a personal comment from Snyder. Dare I get my hopes up here for Snyder on the more well-established Bats in his flagship, illustrated by killer artist Capullo? I daren’t identify this as my most-anticipated of the week, but let’s say I have a firm interest in the outcome.

What are the four other Bat-group titles out this week, and which of them is my most-anticipated book of the week? Keep reading to find out. [Read more…] about DC New 52 Preview: On Sale 9/21

DC New 52 Review: Green Lantern #1

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I don’t like Green Lantern.

There, now you’re really going to trust my review!

One Earth man specially selected by alien to wield the power of green light to defend the universe I can take. Hell, I even dig that multiple men have borne the ring over the years.

It’s when you add to that all the various other Green Lanterns, and the home world, and the power battery, and the other colored Lanterns – and then make that one of the central mythologies of the DC Universe – that my interest wanes.

All of those credulity-stretching elements make Green Lantern just another employee – a foot solider in a galactic brigade with the same standard issue weapon as all his comrades. Heck, sometimes other Green Lanterns can even operate in the same sector! Even when Marvel has expanded their most popular lines of comics, they’ve never trivialized an original hero concept quite as much as that.

DC went all-in on Lanterns in their reboot, not knowing at the time they set the slate that the Ryan Reynolds summer blockbuster would tank. But, flop or not, this is the obvious title that new fans would be flocking to. Is it up to the task?

Green Lantern #1

Written by Geoff Johns, art by Doug Mahnke & Christian Alamy w/Tom Nguyen

Rating: 1.5 of 5 – Weak

In a Line: “You’ve been off-planet too long, you’re beyond out-of-touch with everyday life – and people!”

#140char Review: Green Lantern #1 aimed at anyone BUT a new reader. It’s confusing. No denying Hal Jordon is magnetic to read; pity it’s >half about Sinestro

CK Says: Skip it.

This debut issue could not be any more unfriendly to a new reader or non-DC collector reading all 52 books. And, friendliness aside, it’s not very good.

I’m not entirely sure what to say about it, because it was clearly not aimed at me. The plot feels like it picks up from some prior action that remains unnamed. We follow a seemingly destitute and clueless Hal Jordan (even though I don’t think he’s the latter) as he gets evicted and botches a date, and a seemingly newly-introduced and highly moral Sinestro (even though I’m pretty sure he’s neither) as he zips around in space, seemingly planning something awesome and not at all sinister.

That’s it. You have now read Green Lantern #1.

This book lacks just about all there is to lack in the plot and script department. Some caption boxes or thought bubbles would have been kind to orient the reader, or even to add a little texture to an absurdly fast read. There is no explanation of how the ring works, anywhere. There is no mention of the fact that last week we saw Guy Gardner as Earth’s GL in the present and Hal as a member of the Justice League five years in the past. We meet a council of blue-headed dwarves who apparently act as the DMV for the apparently noble green power rings, but they are asses and kill one of their own for disagreeing with them. And what is a Star Sapphire ring?

Uneven art does the issue no favors. Sinestro is both red and pink throughout. Backgrounds of tight shots are vague and empty, as in one shot of Hal and Carol at dinner with a blank wall behind them when it’s been established that one doesn’t exist in any direction. One non-red-robed blue-headed dwarf guy appears out of nowhere (why is his robe different?) only to be zapped a panel later? We see the detailed emptiness of the apartment Hal leaps into (pictured higher than his own window) only to be confronted by a half dozen people in it a page later (when it is clearly below his window).

We get zero context of why Sinestro was imprisoned, except that he turned dictator on his own planet (which was maybe a good thing?), only to then visit his planet and see a Sinestro Corps (?) of Yellow Lanterns (?) enslaving other pink/red people (?). Sinestro easily dispatches a yellow-ringed scout, even though I’m pretty sure yellow is what the green ring is weak to.

The one thing the issue did bother to establish is that the ring chooses the wearer, and it implies that there is one ring bearer per sector. The final page cliffhanger neatly refutes both points.

While this intercutting issue may have been a thrill for fans who know the Green Lantern mythology, it’s a toss-away for new adult readers and those with a vague understanding of GL’s background. It barely makes a lick of sense, and though Hal is sympathetic the only likeable character is Carol Fenris. It is a decent issue for younger readers, with its simplistic “plot,” no bad language, and limited violence.

#MusicMonday: “Electric Twist” – A Fine Frenzy

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That I’ve been playing the syncopated backbone of this song all weekend from a newly purchased sheet music book is all the proof in the world that cover art can make a difference in selling a record.

I was forever hearing A Fine Frenzy’s name on the wind, but never a song. I assumed she was one of the bevy of artists sampled by Grey’s Anatomy or similar. I gave her a rote 30-second preview, and that combined with the little girl image on the cover of her One Cell In the Sea promised a pleasant-but-simpering cross between Ingrid Michaelson and Regina Spektor. Since I can barely get through an entire treacly disc from either without heaving up my most recent meal, I decided to take a pass.

(Before all of your Ingrid and Regina lovers get up in arms, I own many five-star songs from both artists, but they’re just a little too cutesy for me in 12-track format.)

When I spotted the cover of Frenzy’s followup, A Bomb in a Birdcage, I was intrigued. I recognized the name, but the black and white cover image looked more sultry than sugary.

Always willing to have an excuse to pick up a new album, I employed my tried-and-true method of sampling Track 3. (If your third track isn’t good, there isn’t much hope for your LP.)

“Electric Twist” is a five-star song. Its circular stutter of power chords are fuzzy and rich like fudge, while artist Alison Sudol’s voice goes from kittenish whisper to impossibly pure high coo. The primal, hip-thrusting rhythm eventually gives way to a satisfying sprint of straight-forward dance rock on the 1s and 3s.

I love acousticish indie rock that manages to be dance music, because that’s kind of music I want to make. The song had it’s hook deep into me before I even had a chance to hit “replay.”

“Electric Twist” was my doorway into Bomb in a Birdcage, a fantastic album that’s strong from front to back. Even E adopted it into her daily playlists, a sure sign of a deep disc with some obvious delights.

Moral?

Maybe you think it should be “don’t judge an LP by it’s cover,” but that’s the whole point of selling an aural experience with a visual one. Album titles and cover images are what get consumers to sample sounds – it was true fifty years ago in a record shop and it’s true today on the internet.

I’d say the moral is: keep the promise your cover makes, and make it a good one. The best album covers are like a perfect still frame from a mega-mix music video of your album.

Case and point: I’m pretty sure A Fine Frenzy is doing the electric twist on that cover.