{mosimage}Life Sucks when you have no Books of Magic, full of Fables and endings Ex Machina, a Green Arrow piercing Catwoman at the most inconvenient time.
[Editor’s note: due to a publishing snafu, we’re late publishing this article. Sorry for the inconvenience!]
Employee’s Pick
[DC] Books of Magic Vol. 2 #1-4
Writer: John Ney Rieber
Pencilers: Gary Amaro (issues 1-4), Peter Gross (issue 4)
Inker: Peter Gross
1990. Seven years before Harry Potter’s debut, Neil Gaiman creates boy magician Tim Hunter, a twelve-year-old Londoner destined to be the greatest magician ever. In ’94, he gets his own regular series, with a new writer who’d stay on for fifty issues.
Now thirteen, Tim’s first adventure is classic wish fulfillment. Turns out his boring parents aren’t his, and the real set live in the magical realm of Faerie. Or maybe not. Tim travels there to find out, and that’s when conflict rears its ugly head. Tim has a memorable encounter with a Manticore, whose hobby is taxidermy and whose collection, naturally, consists of his many victims.
Powerful though Hunter may be in theory, he’s only starting out; he has but a rudimentary grasp of magic, so it takes him two issues to mount any sort of assault on the Manticore. Even then, he botches it badly enough to encounter DC’s anthropomorphization of Death in issue four. They chat over tea, somewhat less than amicably, before Tim is forced back into life. This is his series, after all. He’s not allowed to expire, especially not this early.
New-Type Books
[DC] Ex Machina #40
Writers: Brian K. Vaughan, Garth Ennis
Pencilers: Tony Harris, Jim Lee
Oh, cool, an issue that doesn’t advance the plot one iota. BKV halts the story to insert himself and Tony Harris as a prospective writer/artist team looking to do a comic book based on the life of Mitchell Hundred. It’s perfectly charming while the engaging Harris is onscreen, but Vaughan is apparently a bore. Goes on and on about how New York City is great and he can’t bear to leave it. I guess this is an exercise for him, a way to push himself to do something he wants to do by having someone else (in this case, Mayor Hundred) suggest it. That’s nice, but it isn’t something I want to pay to read.
Two things keep this issue afloat, though neither quite makes it work. Harris’ art, for one, along with Harris the character, of course. And the two-pager at the end by Ennis and Lee. It’s also about loving NYC, a love Ennis is practiced at detailing. I normally hate Lee’s art, but I had no idea it was him until the credits. The way the scene’s set up, Lee is never asked to draw Hundred’s face head-on without the mask obscuring it, so there’s no chance for him to draw Mitch looking nothing like himself. There are lines everywhere (lines upon lines… and pouches!), but it’s relatively subdued. Unlike the main story, it works.
[DC] Fables #81
Writer: Bill Willingham
Penciler: Mark Buckingham
There’s an old story about King George III writing in his diary, on the day the United States of America declared independence from Britain, "nothing happened today" or "nothing of importance happened today." It’s only a story, of course, raising the question: is King George a Fable? Not the man, but the idea of the man, the fiction of him. Probably not, as that would raise everyone of celebrity status to fablehood, and you’d have a very different book. Still, if the fantastic King were reading this issue, I imagine that’s what he’d say. "Nothing happened today." Easier than facing what did.
Mister Dark drives into Fabletown in a Model T, as you do. It makes him seem older and younger simultaneously. I had thought he’d been locked in his box for centuries, but somehow he’s acquired a familiarity with our world circa the early 20th century. Maybe he’s going through history from the beginning and he’s up to that point now, or perhaps that era appeals to his classic sensibilities. At any rate, he solves the problem I spoke of in last issue’s review, where the Fables might be unable to return home since their secret hideout had been made plain to the humans. Dark’s not there to help them, however, so he replaces that problem with a new one by claiming Fabletown for himself and building a castle out of its ruins.
This is my favorite issue since Cinderella Super Spy in #71, and it has a cover to match. I love all the cute little icons scattered about. Important characters and items. It’s a shame part of it’s obscured by the UPC symbol. It’s James Jean’s final cover, the end of an era. Something of a trend, endings. This issue marks the end of the Dark Ages arc, though it’s also the beginning of a longer story. One we won’t get to till after the first ever Fables crossover, a nine-issue event covering three titles, which could mean the end of my Fables reviews for a while. Sigh.
Back Issues
[DC] Catwoman Vol. 3 #19
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Javier Pulido
Slam wraps up an investigation that conveniently mirrors his own life, Karon worries, and the sun comes up in the morning. Also, Batman drops by to be super nice. No, really. And he smiles. It’s a very small, but kind smile.
With this review, I’ll have covered every issue of Brubaker’s run, the definitive take on Catwoman. Twenty-four issues of heaven… followed by thirteen that kinda sucked. But those first twenty-four, whoa ho ho! This issue is an exceptional part of an exceptional run. One of the comics that make lesser comics stand out as inferior for failing to have the same impact. The scene where Karon counts pills would make an issue by itself, but it’s arguably only fourth most impressive here.
I like to evaluate the series I buy from time to time. It’s tricky, as you can turn up previously unknown wonders by rereading issues, but it’s not too hard to tell when you’ve fallen into buying a book out of habit. Every series should have issues like this, and be consistently near this level of quality. If it’s never as moving or laugh-inducing or thrilling as the best, it’s one of the rest, and you needn’t waste your time. It’s toughest with a series like this, or Marvel’s X-Factor, where it starts out great and, under the same writer, starts to fall apart. With X-Factor, it bounced back. Here, the writer left and it continued to flounder. Which comics do you stick with? How soon is too soon to abandon ship? I can only guess.
[DC] Green Arrow Vol. 2 #2
Writer: Mike Grell
Penciler: Ed Hannigan
The second half of the story begun last issue, Green Arrow vs. a monster that walks like a man. If you liked the first part, you’ll like this. Gritty, hardnosed vigilantism in the vein of Longbow Hunters. My favorite part is that it’s two issues, and the letter column (remember those?) promises another two-issue arc after this one. Longer stories can be great, but there are too many these days and not enough one-to-three-issue stories. It’s not good to force yourself either way, writing only one kind of story. Some tales should be truncated, others given room to breathe.
Trade
[First Second] Life Sucks
Writers: Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria
Artist: Warren Pleece
This reads like a movie. I could easily see it being adapted for the big screen. What I couldn’t see, in movie or comic form, is a sequel. I don’t know how you’d do it. This one volume has everything, a complete story that fully explores its premise. Much as I enjoyed it and grew to like some of the characters and the world they live in, I wouldn’t want to see it again. This is enough. I do want to see more from this creative team, especially Abel and Soria. Pleece is a good artist, whose work I’ve seen in Deadenders, but I could take or leave his style. That might be more due to the color, though, by Hilary Sycamore, which makes the characters look faintly airbrushed.
Our story is about Dave, the vampire clerk, who works in a convenience store and hates the taste of blood. He has a slacker friend named Jerome, who’s in a similar situation. Likes to leave the copy shop to hang out with Dave, who is literally unable to quit his job. Those superficial similarities are all this has in common with Clerks, aside from being funny. Dave doesn’t have much going for him. Eternal life, a mortal best friend and confidant, and somewhat iffy fellow vamp Jerome. Well, gainful employment. Hardly a given these days. His master never lets him forget who’s in charge, but he’s nice enough to pay him real money instead of enslaving him. There are problems, though. The sun, finding blood without murdering people, and Lord Radu’s old charge, Dave’s predecessor as Night Manager at the Last Stop, Wes. Wes is a surfer dude who only cares about himself. Highly aggressive, prone to violent rages, he quickly becomes Dave’s nemesis. Having no problem with the blooddrinking thing, Wes badly outmatches Dave.
Also, Rosa. Dave has a crush on a goth girl, who’s about what you’d imagine someone who plays at being a vampire would be, somewhere between hopelessly naive and a total idiot. But she’s hot! I’d crush on her, too, at least until I knew her too well to like her. By that point, odds are love has its hooks in you and you don’t want to let go. Stupid love.
Not much more to say without giving away the plot. Dave pursues Rosa while fending off Wes and dealing with the unique problems of a vampire clerk. It’s good from beginning to end, like so many movies that are over before you know it. One memorable story and we move on.
Truncation
Books of Magic – Tim Hunter > Harry Potter. It is scientific fact.
Ex Machina – Plot? No, no plots here. Just a reminder that Tony Harris makes everything better and Jim Lee isn’t always repulsive.
Fables – A great issue of a great series.
Catwoman – A great issue of a mostly great run on a largely mediocre series.
Green Arrow – Solid ending to the opening arc.
Life Sucks – Kinda sorta Clerks with vampires, but not really. Good stuff. If you like vamps and hate the pretentious crap that dominates the genre, check it out.
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