Comics are Awesome II

[Dominic]

Okay, this week's haul....

New Avengers #18:
I am given to understand that Bendis is leaving the book in the near future. (My source is a friend who quoted a report online.) And, thus far, this arc is reading like a changing of the guard. Prediction: Either Victoria Hand, Squirrel Girl and the Cage baby are all more likely than not to get killed off. Bendis is likely to do this with style, but the outcome is going to be predictable. I also predict fantrums about whoever gets killed. (I heard at the comic shop today that Marvel has an editorial mandate to kill at least one character per quarter, which makes my prediction even more likely.) This issue showcases Bendis' talent for dialogue and applying grounded logic to superhumans. (Just how would somebody with enhanced senses react to a baby in need of changing being held by somebody who smells like a squirrel.)
Grade: B


Sanction #1:
Yeah, I bought it and read it so you do not have to. (You are welcome by the way.) Loeb's writing is stuck in the 90s in terms of both premise and execution. Apparently, Cable has to kill the Avengers to stop some kind of bad thing from happening...yadda yadda who the fuck cares. This issue ends with the sort of cliff-hanger that nobody over the age of 14 is going to buy in to. (Because, if Cable did kill Captain America, it ain't going to stick.)
Grade: D

Dom
-also read the first 2 issues of "Mega Man".

[andersonh1]

Batman and Robin #4
We learn a lot about the villain and exactly how he's connected to Bruce Wayne. As if it wasn't apparent before, the two go back to the days when Bruce was training in preparation for his war on crime, and the two clash over methodology. Nobody is on the verge of killing Batman, who survives thanks to his usual planning ahead and thanks to Alfred. I hadn't intended to read this book on a monthly basis since I'm not a fan of Damien (and I'm still not a fan), but the storyline keeps me interested. The art is good too.

Green Lantern #4
Eh, the story continues to be interesting, but for whatever reason Hal Jordan's intelligence has been reduced to the point where he comes across as a pretty dim bulb. That first became apparent in the relaunched Justice League, and I had hoped it was a result of the character being younger and less experienced, but he's not much better in the present day. You'd never know he was a veteran Green Lantern with years of experience under his belt. Sinestro continues to believe himself always in the right, while the citizens of Korugar that he's trapped with at the end don't see it that way at all.

Geoff Johns has been really good for Green Lantern up to this point, but I'm not a big fan of the new DC's younger, dumber Hal Jordan. If anything can kill my enthusiasm for the book, that might be it. We'll see. I realize he's not the veteran of the early 90s with grey in his hair and a thoughtful, seasoned approach to problems, but he's regressed considerably since DC rebooted their universe. Not good.

[138 Scourge]

Yeah, you don't like Damien now, but just wait. He'll grow on you. I didn't like him either at first, but he went from being "Oh, dumb idea Robin" to "character I don't mind" to "Favorite Robin" pretty quickly. I don't know if the new guy can make him as entertaining as Morrison did, but the character's pretty cool when he's done well.

[andersonh1]

Yeah, you don't like Damien now, but just wait. He'll grow on you. I didn't like him either at first, but he went from being "Oh, dumb idea Robin" to "character I don't mind" to "Favorite Robin" pretty quickly. I don't know if the new guy can make him as entertaining as Morrison did, but the character's pretty cool when he's done well.

Well, I find him interesting even if I don't like him. He makes for good storytelling and drama, so my dislike won't make me drop the book or anything. I guess I'm just a fan of Tim Drake as Robin, and how level-headed and dependable he was. The pint-sized assassin just doesn't compare.

[Dominic]

Objectively, Damien should have been wiped out in "Flash Point". Him being around runs counter to the logic of the streamlined context DC is trying to market.


Okay, another review for this week:

Mega Man #1 - #4:
Honey Bear left these as extras when he came to drop off Sky Shadow and Junkheap.

Flynn does a good job of adapting the first game and working in elements from other adaptations. He also gives a nod to something that always kind of bothered me about the "Mega Man" games, specifically the wholesale slaughter of reprogrammed (and thus unwilling) robots. Granted, there were videogames, but it would have been nice to see some acknowledgement of the fact that Cut Man was being forced to fight to the death. (Maybe I was just an overly sensitive kid.)

Flynn takes more than a few liberties with the syntax and pacing of the game. But, these liberties spare us what would end up being tedious sequences and smoothed out the story.

The problem with this series is probably less Flynn's fault and more the result of what seems to be the Archie House Style. In places, the writing has a "right off the boat" quality to it. I noticed this when I was reading the wedding arc as well. I do not know enough about Archie Publishing's organization to be sure, but I would be willing to bet that they have editors who comb over scripts to make them read this way. Most likely, the intent is to make the scripts kid friendly. But, it actually makes them harder to read.

Grade: C/D

[Onslaught Six]

Flynn does a good job of adapting the first game and working in elements from other adaptations. He also gives a nod to something that always kind of bothered me about the "Mega Man" games, specifically the wholesale slaughter of reprogrammed (and thus unwilling) robots. Granted, there were videogames, but it would have been nice to see some acknowledgement of the fact that Cut Man was being forced to fight to the death. (Maybe I was just an overly sensitive kid.)

Flynn takes more than a few liberties with the syntax and pacing of the game. But, these liberties spare us what would end up being tedious sequences and smoothed out the story.

It's actually a rather common thing to make the robots simply disabled rather than dead in extended MM fiction; this lets the older robot masters show up later, both as enemies (Cutman and Gutsman in the animated series, who were in every episode and probably killed off more than once) or as reprogrammed allies (Megaman Megamix). Other fanworks tend to deal more with the permanence of killing these machines and openly dealing with slaughtering them, like The Megas, who once wrote a song from Dr. Wily's viewpoint with lyrics like this:

I see his hands, covered in my children’s blood/And his eyes do not waver

(Incidentally, go listen to the Megas. And the Protomen.)

The problem with this series is probably less Flynn's fault and more the result of what seems to be the Archie House Style. In places, the writing has a "right of the boat" quality to it. I noticed this when I was reading the wedding arc as well. I do not know enough about Archie Publishing's organization to be sure, but I would be willing to bet that they have editors who comb over scripts to make them read this way. Most likely, the intent is to make the scripts kid friendly. But, it actually makes them harder to read.

I can sort of see this. But I've never heard the term you're describing. I googled "Right of the boat" and got porn sites named "Right off the boat." So, uh.

[Shockwave]

I don't know what "Right of the boat" means either.

[Dominic]

Sorry. I meant "right off the boat", as in "these immigrants are right off the boat".

The language is basic to the point of being tedious because they do not completely understand how to use it. The results are usually bad. (And, in case anybody is going to misread that as me being anti-immigrant, I will be the first one to say that if I ended up in a non-English speaking country, my reading and writing in their language would be akin to fecal matter.)


Dom
-maybe "out of the crib" would have been better?

[Onslaught Six]

Okay, that makes sense. And yeah, once in a while I kind of get that feeling too (although I wouldn't necessarily put it the way you did).

[Dominic]

The phrase has been around for longer than either of us.

And, like I said, it is probably because Archie as a publisher, writes down. The problem is that it makes the resulting comics appear sloppy.