Static, JLA: The Hypothetical Woman, Voodoo, ps238, new American Splendor, and a free comic that deserves to be.
Employee’s Pick
[DC] Static #8-13
Writers: Robert L. Washington III (issues 8-11 & 13), Kurt Busiek (issue 12)
Pencilers: John Paul Leon (issues 8-9), Brian O’Connell (issue 10), Wilfred (issues 11 & 13), Neil Vokes (issue 12)
Like the current Blue Beetle series, Static started with two writers, one a well known veteran, the other a relative unknown. The veteran leaves a short ways into the series, and under the rookie the book is as good or better than ever. Static endures a crossover in issue eight, part of something called the Shadow War, yet it’s one of the funniest issues of the series. Almost makes me want to read the other half. Almost.
Issue nine finds Static shoe shopping… and busting a gang of shoplifters. One of the group is a bang baby – Milestone’s version of superhumans – the misguided son of a crack addict. Drug use was a common theme in Static, one of the things that didn’t survive the jump to the cartoon. Drugs, gangs, and girls all featured prominently in Static’s life. The Big Bang, where Static and the other bang babies got their powers, was thus named because it was a meeting between hundreds of gangbangers, a turf war to decide control of the city.
Static’s trouble with girls leads to an ambush by the supervillains Puff and Coil, after the former baits him with poorly written love notes. They’re would be gangsters, too, of course, vowing to "take over the city!" Muahahah and all that. In the tradition of Spider-Man and sitcoms galore, Static juggles a date with the long-suffering Daisy Watkins and a fight with Puff and Coil, determined to protect his secret identity without completely giving up on the only girl willing to give him one chance, let alone several.
Issue twelve features special guest writer Kurt Busiek, who pits Static against a villain who looks to be a precursor to the character Charcoal in Marvel’s Thunderbolts. This cat, D-Struct, is another gangster (shock!), reformed and trying to escape the Bloods, who were trying to pull him back in before they discovered his superpowers, and want him all the more once they find out. They kidnap his dad, he has to fight Static, yadda yadda happy ending. Sad ending, really. D-Struct and his dad live, but they have to move away. The issue ends with the eerie juxtaposition of Static flying off with a smile on his face as D-Struct calls after him, "someday I’d like to come home." Odds are, that day will never come. Maybe after his father passes on, and he only has to worry about himself. Unless he has a family of his own by then. He’s better off letting go of his old home and finding a new one, even if that means letting the Bloods win.
Issue thirteen has Static fighting a freaky snake creature sent by the mysterious Behind the Scenes Man, who appears only in shadow on account of he is mysterious. One more subplot on the barbie, slowcooking to perfection. Static’s doing that thing so many superheroes do, ignoring what’s going on around him, shunning his friends without meaning to, because it can take all his concentration at times to be an effective crimefighter. Something’s wrong at the comic shop, something’s up with his buddy Rick, Daisy has strong feelings for him… He barely notices any of it, so it just builds up while more and more villains get in line to fight him.
It’s funny how you get attached to a certain artist’s style. John Paul Leon’s not the best penciler around, but he gave these characters a distinct look. One look at Brian O’Connell’s art in issue ten, and I was desperate to get Leon back. He didn’t come back, but Wilfred (who apparently has but the one name) is at least an improvement over O’Connell, though he draws Virgil more muscley than he should be out of costume.
New-Type Books
[Ape] Ape Entertainment’s Cartoonapalooza
Writers: Kevin Grevioux (Monstroids), Brent E. Erwin (plot, Go-Go Gorilla), Chad Lambert (story, Go-Go Gorilla), Matt Anderson (White Picket Fences), Christopher Mills & Joe Staton (Femme Noir), Steve Bryant (Ursula Wilde)
Pencilers: Robert Duenas (Monstroids), David Hedgecock (Go-Go Gorilla), Tim Lattie (White Picket Fences), Christopher Mills & Joe Staton (Femme Noir), Steve Bryant (Ursula Wilde)
In my Free Comic Book Day Special, I looked at some of the better free comics available online and off. You can get some great stuff for nothing. Often, though, you get what you paid for, and that’s the case with this FCBD giveaway.
First up is Monstroids, featuring cyborg heroes, monkey villains, and dialogue-by-numbers. Every line of dialogue in this six-pager is a cliche, as is what passes for a plot. I’ve literally read this entire story before in bits and pieces somewhere else. With such a black hole of creativity, it’s hard to be sure the writer speaks English or is even human. It would just figure if this were ghostwritten by Robosapien.
Go-Go Gor… Sorry, Go-Go Gorilla and the Jungle Crew. God, that’s terrible. It’s a ten-pager, featuring anthropomorphic animals because. It’s not painfully bad, but there’s nothing much to it. Cartoon animal heroes fight a cartoon animal villain and only one character is the least bit endearing. I feel sorry for him if he ends up joining the "Zoo Crew," as that would be what we referred to as "slumming" when I was a kid. Though it’s plainly aimed at small children, Go-Go throws in a few lines that only adults will understand. As with the kids’ cartoon Fairly Odd Parents, this does not turn it into an all ages title, as the writing quality is far too low.
Five-pager White Picket Fences is decent, though it has as little story as you’d expect from something so short. Boy vs. urban legend as his friends and a girl he’s trying to impress look on. The regular series might be worth a look for those willing to go out of their way to get it. I can’t recall my LCS ever carrying an Ape Entertainment product.
Femme Noir is basically noir-by-numbers, but it’s more forgettable than offensive.
Ursula Wilde has the sort of pseudorealistic art style that keeps me openminded about stylized art. I’d rather see a good artist who chooses to distort proportions than a bad one who attempts realism. The former can be beautiful in its own way, or at least interesting, while the latter is always dull.
[DC] American Splendor Vol. 2 #1
Writer: Harvey Pekar
Pencilers: David Lapham, Dean Haspiel, Mike Hawthorne, Hilary Barta, John Lucas, Ed Piskor, Zachary Baldus, Chris Weston
I tend to read to escape from reality, but it’s not so bad that it needs escaping all the time. Sometimes I like reality just fine, and maybe I still want to read something. Doesn’t get more realistic than American Splendor, Harvey Pekar’s tales of… Harvey Pekar, a regular guy from Cleveland, Ohio. Pekar got his start in self-publishing, inspired by his friend, Robert Crumb. Like most writers, Pekar can’t draw worth a damn, but he writes well enough to get people like Crumb to illustrate his stories. The boost in fame he received from the recent movie adaptation of his life, in effect of his life, can only help in finding talented artists. And publishers, as we see by the Vertigo logo on this comic.
The first story in this collection of shorts deals with Pekar’s "open door policy" on visitors. Like many average people, Pekar wasn’t born to fame. Even after having a movie made about him, he’s not a celebrity on the level of Paul Giamatti, the guy who played him in said movie. He’s not inundated with fanmail and autograph hounds, and constantly worries about his lack of recognition, both for reasons of finance and vanity. So when someone wants to meet him, he says "OK. Come on over." David Lapham illustrates the uncomfortable meeting between Pekar and a particular fan, a teenager whose future looks bleak from what we see and hear from him. He seems like a boring kid, but the story itself is curious, though devoid of exaggeration for dramatic effect. As with a fictional story, we get to peer into this boy’s life for a moment. Then, illuminated, we depart.
Other stories deal with Harvey falling down, going to get his medication, working at a movie theater in his youth, and critical reaction to a graphic novel he co-wrote called Macedonia. He’s not happy about some of the things critics said. Though I respect Pekar’s writing ability, I have to disagree with him here. His examples of criticism sound very fair, while his arguments against them are weak and irrelevant. His defense of the novel itself is more interesting, but it’s, well, defensive. I’m more inclined to read it now that I know it exists, but less inclined because I feel pressured by Pekar to read it, enjoy it, and say only good things about it. I do agree with the crux of his argument, however little it seems to relate to the criticism he denounces, that you can do anything with comics. It’s true, there’s no limit to the types of stories you can tell with the medium. There are some limits to the details, such as sound and motion, but you can cover as many genres as movies, books, and other mediums do. They’re awesome. Also, Ed Piskor apparently draws in the nude.
Back Issues
[Image] Voodoo #3
Writer: Alan Moore
Penciler: Al Rio
This miniseries isn’t working for me. It’s nominally about a superhero, but she doesn’t wear her costume or use her powers or participate in the story much at all. So far, Voodoo is a generic horror movie character. She’s too big a name to be a victim, but all she’s done so far to avoid getting killed is arrive too late. The evil night club owner what sacrifices dancers to resurrect an unspeakable evil prefers to off dancers who were working at the club before Voodoo started. All of whom have as little personality and intelligence as the title character. Voodoo finally notices that something’s amiss this issue, after the writer beats her over the head with it. Sadly, it turns out she didn’t read that Voodoo book from last issue, so it’s only the audience who realize that those old folks in the hotel are actually supernatural beings. Even after learning that the hotel not only burned down, but burned down years before she supposedly set foot in it, being possessed by one of the gods, and having another character – a policeman who’s the only living human with half a clue what’s going on – tell her that something’s amiss, she only begins to question things in the manner of someone who doubts the existence of the supernatural. And oh yeah, maybe it’s not such a good idea to leave the only other surviving dancer alone at the club.
It seems this is merely a vehicle for Moore to explore his interest in voodoo the religion, with Voodoo the character thrown in as an afterthought. Also, Al Rio gives everyone the exact same permanently arched eyebrows. Everyone.
[Dork Storm/Henchman] ps238 #16
Writer/Artist: Aaron Williams
I love creative power use. Williams takes a group of students with unconventional powers, abilities that have little or no combat use, and finds a use for every one. Between their powers and the quick thinking of the powerless Revenant and Moon Shadow, the kids and their misguided ex-kidnapper evade well meaning superheroes and arrive safely back at school. In the same way Williams makes it a point to involve all the kids in the story, Revenant takes pains to encourage Moon Shadow and let him do detective work of his own. At this rate, he’ll grow up to be a fantastic vigilante. For all his similarities to Batman, Revenant takes a much gentler approach to mentoring. Batman is the disapproving father you can never please. Revenant’s the fun uncle who’s wise in the ways of the world. Sidekicking for The Revenant would be hard work, but you’d want to do it, and it wouldn’t take a monumental triumph to earn a kind word.
There’s also the Ambriel subplot, about a girl whose power is a sort of guardian angel who protects her from all harm. Only it regards anything resembling an attack as harm, including inoculation against viruses, and Ambriel can’t turn her power off, so when someone else turns it off for her, she suddenly becomes deathly ill. The "power’s always on" trope is a pet peeve of mine. Superheroes are typically written as having abilities they can use at will. If they want to fly, they do. If they don’t, they don’t. But some abilities are always on, and often it’s only so they can be used to torment the character. Someone with an accelerated healing factor or invulnerability will always be using their power because it’s involuntary. Normal people heal and, to an extent, have a form of invulnerability. If you’re hit with a feather, it doesn’t hurt you. Superhumans merely extrapolate that so that speeding buicks are like feathers. Then there are the involuntary powers, like heat vision and superspeed. If you had both normal vision and the ability to fire beams of heat from your eyes, you’d need to have some way of swapping between the two, and superspeed is choosing to move at a different speed. So, in theory, any involuntary power should have an "off" switch. In practice, it’s case by case, with always-on powers being a character’s tragic flaw. One character has an all too effective external shield, another sees all points in time at once and risks insanity by being around people.
The problem isn’t that the character has a flaw, it’s that the flaw is or becomes hugely debilitating and is used as a sympathy hook for the character. You feel sorry for her and hope she gets better, while her search for control becomes a defining character trait. Control that is never acheived, because thus defined, she can’t stand up anymore without her flaw. She crumples up like the paper thin concept that she is. Meanwhile, other heroes have no problem controlling their powers and become well-rounded characters. Williams takes a bit of a different tact here, turning a helpful power into a retroactively harmful one. It’s like, you know how Superman is always standing in front of bad guys and laughing like a pirate as their bullets bounce off him? If he suddenly lost his invulnerability, he’d have to learn how to dodge or die real fast. I’m not sure he’s inoculated, either. His alien physiology probably takes care of that stuff somehow. It’ll be interesting to see where Williams goes with this. Watching a character struggle with an uncontrollable power can get boring. I much prefer to see them evolve, if not by gaining control than by finding something else to help define them.
Trade
[DC] JLA: The Hypothetical Woman
Writer: Gail Simone
Penciler: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez
Originally published as the fourth story in JLA Classified, appearing in issues 16-21. Although the original story had more than a couple errors (misplaced speech bubbles, a typo here and there), none of them are corrected here, as the trade reprints the issues verbatim with no bonus material. Also, no ads. That, price difference, and personal preference are the only reasons to buy the trade over the single issues.
The JLA deposes a tyrannical despot, General Tuzik, ruler of a nameless country. Instead of going to jail for his many crimes against humanity, he goes to China, given sanctuary by its foolish government. Tuzik parlays his exile into greater power by offering various world leaders the chance to strike at the JLA with impunity by striking through him. They give over their greatest weapons, secret technology harvested from the League’s greatest foes, and Tuzik uses it to plot their demise. He also uses it to blackmail his "allies," threatening to turn his new weapons against them if they don’t give him money and power in addition to the gifts already given.
It’s an imaginative story. Starro the conqueror is recreated as a highly adaptive virus. Three duplicates of the radioactive monster Chemo are unleashed upon one of the general’s rebellious allies, along with satellite weapons based on The Key’s technology. It’s also a familiar story. Intentional or not, Simone offers an alternative to the ill-advised recasting of Max Lord as a superhero-fearing moustache-twirlingly evil villain in Countdown to Infinite Crisis. Tuzik is everything the false Lord was. He was underestimated by the league, who decided it was better not to step on diplomatic toes than to bring a mass murderer to justice. He used his own dethroning as an argument against superheroes. It’s the same argument "Lord" made – "if they can do it to me, they can do it to anyone" – only more sensible this time since the repeatable action in question involves fighting villainy, which is what heroes do. He even has the mind control angle, with a little help.
When Flash is infected with the Starro virus and there’s some question as to whether the rest of the league is infected, the US president responds much the same way "Lord" did, by looking for the best way to kill the JLA if need be. That might be a reasonable response in the real world, where powerful men, women- weapons going rogue would most likely result in a situation where the best thing you can do is minimize damage. Similarly, the president’s eventual decision to bomb the site where hundreds of infected are being kept in quarantine is perfectly logical, as the virus was extremely close to being incurable and the danger of it spreading was high. But heroes find a way. The Justice League has been mind-controlled too many times to count, but they always overcome it. More often than not, they save the endangered innocents. Between that and the everpresent threat of alien invasion, you have to be crazy, evil, or stupid to want to do away with superheroes. Tuzik is evil and maybe a little crazy, so although this isn’t the best story, it works.
It’s dragged down by the inclusion of the one and done superhumans, General Tuzik’s Hypothetical Army. A group of well-meaning soldiers with the combined personality of a crust of bread sneak into Tuzik’s compound in China, attempting to kill him. They’re not sneaky enough, so Tuzik catches them, and after they surrender without a fight, he kills them. Then, by using the supposedly godlike Hypothetical Woman, he resurrects them, gives them superpowers, and infects them with the Starro virus to place them under his control. They’re all ridiculously overpowered, and aside from Ghost Lion, who has "the power of stories" and enough awesome for everyone, they’re pretty lame. It’s hard to find a credible opponent for Superman, let alone Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter combined, but the concepts for the Hypothetical Soldiers are the sort of thing you see when roleplaying with munchkins. One has psychic knives that can cut through anything, the scientists can’t find a limit for one’s power, one’s as fast as The Flash and leaves a trail of jagged glass in her wake, one "can manipulate all forms of matter," one knows every martial art ever and supposedly can’t be defeated "by anything." Ghost Lion also has no stated limit to his power, though his creations are shown to be somewhat less than corporeal.
This is hardly the first time obscenely powerful characters have been created as foils for the Justice League. Joe Kelly did it twice in his run on JLA. And, yeah, most of those powers are possessed by preexisting heroes. Firestorm, Green Lantern, Zatanna. The problem begins with the heroes being ridiculously overpowered. Taking a big rock and smacking it against another big rock isn’t my idea of entertainment. If a character has no vulnerabilities, he needs to get some or be cast aside for someone better. Really, though, the Hypothetical Army aren’t essential to the story. They’re one more distraction, one more delay in the League’s quest to bring Tuzik to justice and find a cure for the Starro virus. Which, I suppose, is why they aren’t fleshed out.
Truncation
Static – Frequently funny, action-packed, all-around good superhero book.
Ape Entertainment’s Cartoonapalooza – Not worth the money I didn’t pay for it.
American Splendor – Harvey falls down. Slo-mo replay at 11.
Voodoo – Quite possibly the least interesting Alan Moore comic I’ve read, as it’s only of average quality.
ps238 – One more book I need to start collecting in earnest. Too good to rely on the online issues alone.
JLA: The Hypothetical Woman – Worth a look, as it has some good moments, but basically a throwaway story with disposable characters.
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