Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #5 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (writer), Alberto Ponticelli (artist), Jose Villarrubia (colorist)

The Story: Man-made monster versus monster made of man!  That might not have made sense!

The Review: I’ll be honest; I made a strict, conscious choice to avoid O.M.A.C. from the moment it was announced.  My reasoning, perhaps unfair, was the idea of Dan Didio working on the writing end of things seemed like a very risky one.  Nothing I read of his work (either on The Outsiders or his Metal Men feature in Wednesday Comics) proved otherwise.  By the time strong reviews convinced me to try out O.M.A.C., it was too late, and it was on its way to cancellation.

So I went into this issue without, as the editor’s caption on the first panel suggested, any familiarity with the events of Didio’s end of the crossover.  Fortunately, you don’t need to read his companion title to enjoy this one.  Lemire starts his story by following Frankenstein from the moment he receives his mission to take down the One Man Army Corps, and at no point do you feel like you’re missing anything crucial.

Even better, the issue is just as enjoyable throughout as it has been all along.  It’s great fun seeing all these various, acronymed organizations in the DCU beginning to intersect, and the tension that naturally accompanies the overlap of authority of such agencies.  Personally, I’d bet my money on S.H.A.D.E.; they may lack the class of the more espionage-oriented Checkmate, but nothing beats their mad-scientist tech, like Palmer’s “recovery nanopires” showing up in virtual reality at the last minute to defeat Brother Eye’s invasion of their computer systems.

Besides, S.H.A.D.E. has the superior cast of characters by far.  Admittedly, I’m not really familiar with any member of Checkmate (besides the infamous Maxwell Lord, still working in good grace at this point, and the less-renowned Sergeant Steel), but come on.  Could anyone really beat the sheer audaciousness of Frankenstein or Father Time?

Final Crisis #6 – Review

By Grant Morrison (writer), JG Jones, Carlos Pacheco, Doug Mahnke, Marco Rudy, Chirstian Alamy, Jesus Merino (artists)

Honestly?  I love Grant Morrison’s work.  I admire his wild imagination and flair for telling chaotic stories that somehow always manage to make a strange kind of sense.  I loved The Invisibles, JLA, We3 and New X-Men, and even picked up his entire run on Seven Soldiers of Victory, a thematic prequel to Final Crisis.  I’m telling you this so you’ll know I’m not coming into this story cold.  I picked up every issue so far and followed the plot.  Sadly, I couldn’t care less for any of it.

And why should I, when DC has had a track record for over twenty years now of hitting the reset button with these massive storylines that promise to dazzle you with the illusion of change, only to be erased a few years later so that everything can be just the way it was before?  While I like the idea of Darkseid and his pantheon of Dark Gods gaining dominion over Earth, allowing the villains to finally win, I know things won’t stay this way long enough to make a difference, and if I know that then why bother reading?  Take this issue for example: do we really think the outcome of Batman’s battle with Darkseid is definitive?  How long before they reverse what they’ve done?

Also, why is it that these DC epics aren’t more friendly to new readers?  Why do they demand you to have a working knowledge of the last seventy years of DC continuity in order to understand them?!  Not only has Final Crisis not been friendly to new readers, it actively works to discourage and drive them away; seeking instead to cater only to those faithful elitists that have been reading DC comics for a long, long time.  The epic bullshit that Bendis writes for Marvel may be slightly shy of moronic, but at least his stories strive to be entertaining and accessible to new readers!

Ultimately, I can’t decide if Morrison is a victim of editorial slavery or an advocate of the bad storytelling DC has been pushing down our throats since Crisis on Infinite Earths. I can say with confidence though that this series was not meant for the casual reader.  It does not like you. In fact, it wants you to go away.

Grade: D-

-Tony Rakittke