Late, but still pluggin' away!
Comic Reviews for the week of 6-23-04
Yep, still not current, but I'm trying! A lot more work than I'd
thought, and even this won't be the complete record of everything I
read this week, but I'm making up for it in more detail than my last
round up. It feels like an easier thing to group 'em together as
much as possible, instead of putting up an individual post for
each. Lemme know if you disagree. Anyhow, on with the
show....
The Authority: More Kev # 2
W: Garth Ennis
Ill: Glenn Fabry
C: David Baron
What Has Gone Before:
The Authority have entered into negotiations with a super-powerful
alien race that sent The Doctor, Jack Hawksmoor, Swift and The Mechanic
back to the Carrier in various states of disarray, claiming to desire
satisfaction in an as-yet undisclosed way. Meanwhile, Kev, an
itinerant British Special Forces operative has thwarted yet another
attempt on his life by vengeful IRA terrorists--who caught up to him in
the midst of a drunken tryst. The morning after, he's called in
by his boss for a meeting, not knowing it will be with Apollo &
Midnighter of the Authority, with whom Kev's had (to say the least) a
colorful working relationship. He freaks when he sees them, but
they're not here for him, but for someone he's dealt with.
What Happens Now:
The super-aliens are looking for a particular individual that Kev was
once charged with guarding. Kev tells the man's fate, in the
process telling how it happened that a tiger was there in the basement
in which the British government official was stashed after he'd created
a breach in security by first requesting a well-endowed hooker and then
proving too sexually perverted even for her. This government
official is in fact an extra-dimensional fugitive that the super-aliens
have been tracking for decades, and demand his return from our reality
or they will wreak havoc on the Earth. This is a huge problem,
for not only did the tiger make short work of the "man," it happened
over eight years ago.
My, what fun!
My previous review of The Authority
# 13 should make my opinion of this book
obvious. However this IS a Garth Ennis book, and while he's not
the god that Mark Millar is, the man writes some damn entertaining
books, even if his most renowned series, Preacher, doesn't do much for
me. I like this book for basically every reason I detest the main
Authority title: Mr. Ennis disses the hell out of them,
especially the "fun" couple of Apollo & Midnighter. And
though they and the others of that execrable group of "superheroes" do
haunt the proceedings, it's really all about Kev, a highly effective
British special forces member, who while he's excessively good at what
he does (kill people, break stuff), he doesn't suffer fools or
higher-ups gladly and tends to do and say what's truly un-Politically
Correct at just the right time to get those aforementioned fools and
higher-ups mightily upset with him. Call him the Punisher (Ennis'
other claim to comic book fame) with a real job, half a conscience and
a sense of humor.
That said, you Garth fans now know what you're gonna get in this book:
lots of Brit-influenced humor, tons of gory violence and the occasional
naked chick, well realized by the pencil and pen of Mr. Fabry.
It's a great deal of fun, and yeah, the schadenfreude works for me, so
you few, you weird, you inexplicable Authority fans will
probably want to steer away from this title. If you can get the
first issue, you'll see the two snootiest Authority members
done unto (though not fatally, dammit!) in a way you HAVE to see
(which, again, you may or may not like if you're a fan of the
group)! Not a personal buy for me this week, but I do highly
commend this to your attention.
Recommendation: Buy
Conan # 5
W: Kurt Busiek
Ill: Cary Nord w/Thomas Yeates
C: Dave Stewart
What Has Gone Before:
Conan, as he continues his ventures to see the world, has fallen in
with a noble group of warrior known as the Aesirmen. As they
entered into final battle with the raiders that had burned and pillaged
the Aesirmen's village, they are all set upon by huge, inhuman
warriors. Those they do not kill are taken prisoner, including
Conan, and are taken to the mystical northern realm of
Hyperborea. Conan had heard many wondrous tales of the place and
had wanted to see it, but only after a house slave for one of the
Hyperboreans revives him from an ambulatory state of stupor does he see
the truth: Hyperborea is indeed a land of wonders, but it is sustained
by drugged slave laborers and the sacrifice of human souls. The
Hyperboreans have lived for millennia and have become so bored with
life, they occasionally throw themselves from the walls of their city
into a bottomless abyss--along with all of their servants and
slaves! And now Conan's "owner" had decided to undergo the rite
of "Farewell" himself!
What Happens Now:
As Conan works to revive his drugged Aesirmen comrades, his Hyperborean
owner reflects to the slave who awoke Conan how Hyperborea came to be,
including the perverse use of those captured in their wars and raids,
and how the ritual of "Farewell" came to be. Unfortunately, those
warding Conan and his friends are far too observant and sound the
alarm. Now Conan must fight his way out of Hyperborea, through
the massive warriors that imprisoned him in the first place and against
the powerful magics of the Hyperboreans themselves!
The Ultimates no longer owns the sole concession on
movie-quality work.
My Lord, is there a more absorbing or more lyrical book out
there? I've yet to get hold of any of the '70s Conan books,
let alone the straight Robert E. Howard stuff, but like a great movie
makes you want to hunt down the book upon which it's based, this comic
is THAT good. The art is literally that, and this is one book
where the colorist truly adds to the proceedings. It's so good,
sometimes you think you're looking at paintings, even though Mr.
Stewart is probably just Photoshopping it like everyone else.
Busiek's take on Conan is letter-perfect. He's the pure
warrior, but he speaks well and is hardly the dullard, just focused on
the task of living an "interesting" life! This is a book that
deserves the phrase "High Adventure!" I understand the PTB want
to do an new Conan movie, with or without The Governator1.
Much as with Mark Millar's The Ultimates, they've got their
plot and storyboards right here. Yeah. It's THAT good!
Recommendation: Buy
Thor # 81
W: Michael Avon Oeming w/Daniel Berman
Ill: Andrea DiVito
C: Laura Villari
What Has Gone Before:
The greatest disaster possible has occurred: the mold that produced
Mjolnir for Odin, mythic in and of itself, has been stolen by Loki and
used to create more hammers! None of them are near the power of
Mjolnir, but all are incredibly potent nonetheless. Now Loki and
his hammer-wielding crew, including his werewolf son Fenris, have gone
forward to destroy Asgard and all the Norse gods. They attack,
and even Thor is unable to stop them. Mjolnir is shattered and
Thor is nearly killed. He narrowly escapes and comes to Earth to
gain the support of his Avenger comrades to turn back Loki's mad quest.
What Happens Now:
Captain America and Iron Man return with Thor to what's left of Asgard.
They're immediately set upon by Loki and his forces, but between Cap's
superior battle tactics, Shell-head's armour and Thor's still-potent
remnant of Mjolnir, they're turned back. The trio eventually find
the survivors of the initial attack, but discover that Balder the Brave
is dead. Thor sends his friends back to Earth and rallies the
survivors to strike back at Loki and defeat him and his forces once and
for all!
In a word, wow!
I picked up the issue because it's one of the branded "Avengers
Disassembled" prologue titles. I'd looked in here and there at
the Thor title recently, but the whole taking-over-Earth storyline did
nothing for me, and Lord knows if any of it is within any recognized
continuity. So looking in now (and with Thor # 80, which begins
this six-part story), I had no idea what I was in for, save something
that would fold into the upcoming maxi-series. Man, what an
incredible surprise! The story's called Ragnarok, and my,
oh my, does it deliver! 'Course, I probably should expect this of
Oeming, what with his Hammer of the Gods series, but this is as
dramatic and swift a turn of events as I've ever seen in a regular
book. As I noted before, you never know when some big
earth-shaking event such as this will get the old reset button
treatment, but judging it for what it is, this is a stirringly and
shockingly dramatic story, the kind of thing you long to see in these
titles that have been moribund for seemingly forever. Dunno where
they go from here, or how it ends, but I find that whenever I can say
that about any dramatic presentation of any kind, I'm in the midst of
some truly great stuff. Kudos all around, especially to Ms.
DiVito and Ms. Villari, who's work is more than up to the snuff of the
writing of Messrs. Oeming and Berman. Who knows if the "Avengers
Disassembled" thing will work out; good enough that this aspect of it
is more than worthy of your time.
Recommendation: Buy
Mystique # 16
W: Sean McKeever
P: Manuel Garcia
I: Jay Leisten
C: Matt Milla
What Has Come Before:
Mystique, working as a deniable operative for Charles Xavier, has
stolen information from an Austrian company, DermaFree, that points to
not only the testing of a new miracle drug on mutant guinea pigs, but
that the substance has its origin in mutant DNA--Mystique's!
Having secured information as to the whereabouts of the captive
mutants, she and Shortpack, her diminutive telepathic field handler,
have invaded the facility. Mystique finds hundreds of embryos
cloned from her cells, which have been killed to produce the stem cells
that make up DermaFree's product, and is distracted from backing up
Shortpack, who has been discovered by the guards!
What Happens Now:
Shortpack, in trying to escape the guards, awakens one of the captive
mutants, who uses her own telepathic abilities to save him.
Mystique finally comes to Shortpack's rescue, but by now all the
captives are awake, one of whom is instrumental in their escape from
the facility. After the captives are put in a safe house,
Mystique and Shortpack go after the man who gathered up the guinea
pigs, a man named Viktor in Prague. After taking out two of
DermaFree's more persistent mutant thugs, Mystique goes in to meet
Viktor, abruptly finding him to be more powerful than she'd figured.
Best spy/mutant thrills around.
When I fired off my terse dismissal of Mary Jane # 1,
something half-clicked at the name Sean McKeever, as if he'd done
something really good and that this book was an unfortunate dip in
quality. Well, I'm only recently one to follow a given creator's
career, but I should have remembered that he'd taken over from the
great Brian K. Vaughn on this title, since the quality hasn't fallen an
inch in the hand-off. It'd be one thing to have a good mutant
book, or a good spy book, but the two together with better-than-average
dialogue and characterization? It's a damn rare thing, and worthy
of your hard-earned $2.99. Still can't figure out what happened
on Mary Jane. If you want realistic teens in close
relation to your superheroes, buy Ultimate Spider-Man.
You want the best spy book on the market (and really the best Marvel
mutant book too)? Get Mystique.
Recommendation: Buy
P.S.: If you didn't catch Mystique from the get-go, the "Drop
Dead Gorgeous" trade is newly out. Again, you're well advised to
pick it up.
That's the lot for now. More to come. I think. 
1Just a brief political aside to note the distinct dearth of
stories about Governor Schwarzenegger. There is the old line
about no news being good news, but given the state of the news media
today, one could go further and say that ANY news about conservatives
of any degree or stripe is all but inevitably BAD news. The
"partisan press" (as Rush Limbaugh so correctly puts it), wouldn't
hesitate to trumpet even the slightest mis-step or the most obliquely
shadowy move on the part of Ahnold. Which is not to say that they
WOULDN'T report anything good about his administration or positive news
about the California state budget or growth in its economy; they'll
just bury it on page B32 or put a 15-second mention of it on after the
sports report. I don't follow news about the status of California
that well submerged, so you Golden Staters may have a different view,
but given how quiet the press down south has been, it would seem that
yet another conservative actor is doing a kick-ass job in Sacramento!