Empowered: Internal Medicine – Review

By: Adam Warren (story & black-and-white art), Brandon Graham (color art)

The Story: I need 20ccs of ninja stars, stat!

The Review: Empowered is an interesting series in a number of ways, but one of them is the method of its release. Unlike a monthly series or even serialized graphic novels like DC’s Earth One line, Empowered is typically released in trade paperback volumes comprised of as many short chapters as the story demands. The upside is that Empowered is a tighter and more detailed world than many series can provide. The unfortunate side effect is, of course, that Empowered doesn’t come out all that often.

So, while it may delay volume 9 a bit, fans of this strange little ‘superchica’ that could will likely be happy to know that Adam Warren has released another Empowered one-shot. This story is a fun, fairly self-contained romp through the fascinating periphery of Emp’s world. It’s less a lost chapter than a micro-sized volume, complete with all the wit, action, and unique turns of phrase that would entail. While the shorter size obviously limits Warren, he merely takes fewer detours and takes advantage of the lower expectations on the issue to craft a complete little package.

Prophet #23 – Review

By: Brandon Graham & Simon Roy (story), Roy (art), Richard Ballermann (colors), Ed Brisson (letters)

The Story: John Prophet continues his mission across the future-Earth wasteland with an assassin in hot pursuit.

Review: This was another great issue, but confounding to review.  It is very hard to put into words what makes this such an enjoyable reading experience… which is odd, because I review a LOT of comics.  It’s really one of those cases where the best thing I can say is, “Try it. You’ll like it.”

But, since this IS a comic review site, I should probably make an attempt to put my love into words (even knowing it won’t do the work justice):

1. Worldbuilding – Beyond the fact that John Prophet has awoken in on some future-Earth that is a wasteland and is dominated by aliens and evolved insects, we really don’t know much.  Everything we see in the story is through the eyes of Prophet and he is only letting us tag along.  There is never a point in the comic where we cut away from Prophet to see what the insects are up to or anything else that would give the reader additional insight.  It is a simple, but powerful narrative technique.  Sometimes this pacing where mysteries aren’t revealed can be frustrating, but because Graham isn’t bouncing all over the place with the action, you’re content to let things unfold at their own pace.

2. Stoicism – Nothing deters Prophet.  He just keeps plugging away at his “mission”.  Only, his mission isn’t ever that clear.  Again, the reader isn’t really his companion on the journey; Prophet is just letting us follow him.  As he goes forward, things happen and we learn stuff, but Prophet isn’t going to do a lot of inner monologue to explain events.  At one point in this issue, he loses an arm, but there isn’t any melodrama where he screams and there aren’t panels of him spurting blood.  He is undeterred because he still has a mission.  Just this little thing is such a relief compared to some superhero comics where loss of arm can generate an entire spin-off miniseries.

3. Simple text. – I mentioned above how the narrative is simple and linear and the text matches that.  In some ways, it reminds me of proof-reading my kid’s essays from school.  On one hand, you chuckle because the sentences are short and simple.  But, there is a lot of power in short/simple sentence structure (certainly more power than in long, complex sentences with lots of commas).  Graham just keeps it moving with these blunt sentences: Bang, bang, bang…

Prophet #22 – Review

By: Brandon Graham & Simon Roy (story), Roy (art), Richard Ballermann (colors) & Ed Brisson (letters)

The Story: John Prophet continues to find his way in a future wasteland Earth.

Five Things: 

1. No prior knowledge required. – I missed the first issue of this Prophet relaunch (the unfortunately numbered Prophet #21) because I had zero interest in a dusted off 90’s Image title.  But, after hearing everyone hoot and holler about that issue, I checked it out and loved it.  This issue continues to show that you don’t need to know anything about the original Prophet series.  I haven’t even read the Wiki entry about the old series and have not a clue what it was even about. Yet, I love this series.  The set-up is so simple: John Prophet emerges onto the surface of a future Earth that is a barren wasteland.  He’s clearly been in an underground “hibernation” for some time and nothing is as he remembered it.  That’s all, if you can wrap your mind around that, you’ll be fine.

2. Mysteries abound. – Part of the fun of a book like this is figuring out what is going on.  What happened to the Earth?  How far into the future is this taking place?  What animals do these mutants descend from?  Very little is explained; much as John Prophet is on a mission, the reader is on a mission too.  And what little we learn comes from just paying attention as we look at the page and look for clues in the artwork.

3. Love the way Graham is writing this. – I typically don’t enjoy comics that use narration boxes as a prime storytelling device, but Graham makes it work here.  What I love about his narration boxes is that they are T here is no high-mindedness like you get in something like an older Batman comic, (“Gotham is a living beast.  A beast that has its own moods, but a beast that I command, blah, blah, blah….”).  Graham’s boxes all punctuate and add to the storytelling aspects of the art.  No metaphor…no simile, just descriptions of the actions.  Often times, direct is the way to go.

Elephantmen #25 – Review

By: Richard Starkings (writer), art by various

The Story: In a recap of sorts, we follow the inner monologue of one of Hip and Ebony’s fellow agents at the Information Agency, as he reflects on the history of the Elephantmen.

What’s Good: I love Elephantmen, but this is the first really good “jumping on point” issue that has come out since the series started.  It gives a nice recap of the series to date, complete with lots of footnotes to previous issues if you want to know more.  Of course, you’d be better off buying the trades or tracking down the back issues, but if you refuse to do that, this issue will get you pretty well caught up before spending the last 2 pages introducing the ominous new story arc that will carry this series for the near future (which looks like a lot of fun, btw).

The other hook on this anniversary issue is that it is drawn with 25 splash pages, each by a different artist.  In some ways, this issue is a little like having an Elephantmen themed sketch-book.  Not surprisingly, my favorite page was by Ladronn who is probably most responsible for the look of the series.