Comics in Review

[thehefner]

In comics this week, DETECTIVE COMICS # 841 is Heffie's Must-Buy issue. This is probably the best Mad Hatter story I've read in recent memory, but bear in mind, I speak as someone who far prefers the animated series' take (with Roddy McDowall goodness!) to the Hatter of the comics for the past fifteen years, a creepy tea-drugging pedophile. There was a time when the Hatter was seriously one of my favorite Bat-villains, and this issue has reminded me why.

(As has--I might add--this surprisingly well-done webcomic based on the animated Hatter. Oh Jervis, you tho cwazy.)



Meanwhile, in BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL, we get the final part of the Joker's new origin. Could have been worse, could have been a hell of a lot better, which is about what I'd expect from Michael Green, one of the writers of TV's HEROES. As long as it's considered one of the Joker's possible origins rather than the definitive origin ("The Killing Joke" can't even be considered this anymore), all will be well with the world.



And then there's THE BOYS. Oh gee, Garth Ennis, an issue where someone calls Jesus a sadistic bastard and then loses their faith? Wow, never seen that one from you before. Between that, your hatred of superheroes, and fetish for male butt-fucking, it's the most original thing you've ever written! Keep up the good work!

P.S., your book CHRONICLES OF WORMWOOD is also lazy bullcrap of yours. BATTLE POPE does hilarious blasphemy wayyyyy better. It's at least funny, whereas you can't seem to remove yourself from your own bitter prejudices. You said what you needed to say with PREACHER, pally, and you said it damn well there. Get over it.

That said, the latest issue of PUNISHER was utterly devastating. Some of the best work Ennis has ever written. Now this book right here would be an excellent discussion piece for violence in storytelling. It's unrelentingly gory and explicit, one of the most violent books on the mainstream stands, unreadable by the standards of more sensitive folk, and yet I wouldn't call it gratuitous. The book gets more harrowing with each issue, making REQUIEM FOR A DREAM look like DORA THE EXPLORER, and I can't wait to see what Ennis has up his sleeve for the final part.



THE TWELVE continues to be promising (but like all things in life, it needs more Blue Blade!), and has to potential to be a little masterpiece for JMS. Check it out. Where else will you see speedo-wearing Nazi-smashing superheroes with leg stubble?



Why aren't more people reading JONAH HEX? Rectify this immediately.

Furthermore, since we're talking DC westerns, why is no one reading BAT LASH? It's Sergio Aragones and John Severn! Shape up, people!

Comments

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the tea-drugging pedo thing was just not workng for me. This fancomic is awesome, thank you for pointing it out; if the current Batman is anything like, maybe I'll check it out.

And I am reading Hex. But Bat Lash drives me nuts.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Yay! That fancomic is pretty damn good, ain't it? Although unless Alice has got some deeper character reasons for doing what she's doing, her readiness to want to be friends with Jervis feels decidedly fanfic-ish and not organic. But the rest of it is good enough to earn my interest to see where they're going with it...

And good for you! But no Bat Lash? But--but he has Ben Browder's voice!

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

I assume you mean he has BB's voice in the JLU cartoon, which I have yet to watch. (And also, I have a love/hate relationship with Browder characters. Crichton I kinda like. Mitchell I frickin' HATE even when I sympathize with him. Browder himself seems to be a pretty cool dude, for values of "cool" that involve wearing giant bunny suits to be interviewed at cons.) It's just that all the times I've seen Bat Lash in anything, he's kind of a loser.

Although he was mentioned in the Starman trade I just read. As was Jean Valjean. Suddenly I am having TERRIBLE FANFIC IDEAS.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Ah! You haven't seen the western episode of JLU! Good times, good times. Adam Baldwin does a solid Jonah Hex (although I prefer the Batman Animated Series' grizzled old Hex voiced by Bill "squeal like a piggy!" McKinney).

"Kinda like" Crichton? Aw, he's worthy of more than kinda! Have you seen "Crackers Don't Matter"?

Bat's not a loser. He's a happy-go-lucky dandy of the west who looks like a wimp but somehow always comes out on top because everyone underestimates him. He's the sunny side of the west, the flipside to Jonah. If I ever write comics, I'm so gonna write a buddy western with them.

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

I have seen a fan music vid of "Crackers Don't Matter" and some of the sequel/mini-series. And that's all. ;~; *deprived*

I like dandies, but I guess because I've mostly seen him guest-spotting it's never been particularly heroic. Although I got the impression at one point that he'd have been a decent time-tossed team-up for James Jesse, back in the Impulse days.

[kali921.livejournal.com]

I'm not reading Jonah Hex because I agree with Chris Sims: it relies on rape too much as a plot device. Try to think of that from a woman's perspective, and how cliched, tiresome, and sad that is.

I haven't gotten this week's PUNISHER yet. Oh god oh god, what happens? I'm SO AFRAID. Ennis' run is coming to an end, and I know he's going to do something sadistic to Frank. I just know it. I trusted Ennis with Frank completely up until Sarah showed up, which was a real betrayal to the Punisher mythos on Ennis' part. I think Ennis went there because it was practically the only thing he hadn't done, and I'm sure there was writer ego involved in that decision, so Ennis could say "yep, I violated the one sacrosanct thing that people thought could never happen in the Punisher." I mean, what's next? Maria turns out to be a slattern and was cheating on Frank? Frank starts taking out innocents? Screw you, Ennis.

You know I agree with you that Ennis has done his most emotionally mature work on MAX Punisher. Nothing Ennis has ever written has gotten to me emotionally in such a visceral manner before. Anytime Ennis does something horribly twisted in any other book, I am unmoved, because it immediately takes me out of the story. I sit there and think "well, it's Ennis being sadistic again." There's no emotional center to that mode of Ennis.

Whereas with Frank, oh MAN. The emotionalism is THERE, 150%, all the time.

[shadowlongknife.livejournal.com]

Dude, I'm all about the Hex. I've been on the current run since issue 4, and am (trying) to find back issues of the last of the three Joe Lansdale Vertigo minis.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Did you read today's issue, with art by John Higgins? It's solid stuff, as usual.

[jellied.livejournal.com]

I dropped Boys a long time ago. And I'm thinking about dropping Batman Confidential as well-- god, that was awful. I can't believe I forgot to read Detective today!

And on a final note, boy am I glad that they finally wrapped up the Good Prince arc on Fables, though what's with Flycatcher's menacing premonitions?

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I noticed you dropped THE BOYS! Good on you! As for BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL, well, word is it's getting canceled anyway. Dunno what stories they have planned before then. It's a shame only because I'm working on a one-shot Batman story that I'd like to submit to DC, and CONFIDENTIAL would likely be the place it'd get published, unless they deem it good enough to be a fill-in story somewhere.

I just skim FABLES at this point, so I couldn't say, really.

[jellied.livejournal.com]

I buy it in trades, but I read every issue once it hits the racks.

And now that Y's wrapped up I guess I should start knocking out volumes 7-11(?) now.

[nymphgalatea.livejournal.com]

My Comic Book Guy tried desperately to prevent me from buying 1-6 of The Boys comics about a year back, even going so far as to demand ID, which I found hilarious at the time.

I felt a bit ill after reading them though. They just seemed to be nasty for the sake of being nasty. I liked Preacher, but this was just like a little boy being vulgar because he thought it was funny, even though everyone else had long grown weary of it.

And I liked DETECTIVE COMICS, but my favourite this week was THE ATOM, which had Ryan Choi in a plant-induced hallucination in which he got covered in syrup and tied up with Wonder Womans' lasso by Giganta. And then he woke up and fought giant B-movie rubber monsters by making a deal with the Lovecraftian Cancer God M'Nagalah.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Nasty really is the word for it. Nasty for the sake of being nasty. And what kills me is the fact that Ennis is capable of far better. It just feels like lazy, ugly work on his part.

Damn it, I clearly need to be reading ATOM.

[nymphgalatea.livejournal.com]

I love Atom because it's FUN. But it's not for all tastes. The art is sometimes a little "meh", and it's occassionally a bit too cute for it's own good. But it is deeply, deeply silly, in that off-kilter way that Gail Simone is so very good at. Even the Countdown-related issues were good (Jetpack Hitler!)