iZombie #28 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Michael Allred (artist), Laura Allred (colors), Todd Klein (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Shelly Bond (editor)

The Story: Will Xitalu eat the world or Gwen find a way to stop him/it?

A few things: 1). A pretty good ending, considering. – I know we should only grade these comics on their actual merits (i.e. what’s on the page) because in time, no one will care that this series probably ended a little prematurely due to Roberson’s (kinda messy) departure from DC and lackluster sales.  If you go back 5-6 issues, there was nothing about the story that screamed, “The end is nigh!”.  So, it was a little worrying to see the end announced so soon and wonder how Roberson and the Allreds would wrap things up neatly.

Given those conditions, this is a pretty solid ending.  Not a “great” ending, but very good.  This story was really about Gwen and she gets to complete her story arc.  The way she ends things makes sense given what we know of her character.  And the people of the universe get to trade that nasty, tentacled Xitalu monster for a hot, naked cosmic being.  That’s an upgrade to any pantheon!

I Zombie #26 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Michael Allred (artist), Laura Allred (colors), Todd Klein (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Shelly Bond (editor)

The Story: The end is near as the extra-dimensional squid-monster Xitalu (and his demonic minions) attack.

Two things: 1).  Story isn’t moving quite the way it should. – This series only has two issues left and there is a LOT going on.  In a way, this issue is a microcosm of the entire series where we’ve had more ideas and characters than we have pages.  I Zombie has an ensemble cast, but Gwyn is really the main character.  All of the other characters support her – or should support her.  But Gwyn is only on 6 pages of this issue!  And, it isn’t as if this is some isolated story arc in the middle of the series where the supporting characters move to the front…..only two more issues remain!  How is Gwyn going to have a satisfactory conclusion to her story when she will probably only get a handful of pages in those final two issues?  The answer is that she probably won’t have a satisfactory conclusion and it just smacks of this series being cancelled before it’s time. It’s a shame because there is such potential here.  Gwyn is a great character has to yield time to interesting characters like: Ellie the Ghost, the hot vampire grad students, Amon, the Dead Presidents, Diogenes and Spot and his chimpanzee grandfather.  True, there are a few characters who are less interesting (this phantom gunman, for example), but for the most part the characters are really cool.  But, both this issue and this series suffered from the problem that more isn’t necessarily better.  This series probably would have been better if Roberson had only used half of these characters and saved the rest for a future project.

IZombie #24 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Jim Rugg (art), Laura Allred (colors), Todd Klein (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Shelly Bond (editor)

The Story: A background for Agent Kennedy of the Dead Presidents.

Review: This is an issue that suffers a little bit because of the news that the series is ending at issue #28.  We have a lot of plot threads that need to be resolved and (honestly) the background of Agent Kennedy wasn’t in the top 10.  Issues like this that focus heavily on the background of one particular character work very nicely in long running series.  We saw a lot of these issues over the 72 issues of DMZ and they added richness to the various characters, but I’m not sure this was the story that I Zombie needs here at the finish line.  It would be like Scalped having an issue that focused on Office Falls Down’s childhood in the middle of this final story arc: Nice, but not necessary.  Moves like this make one wonder if the series is naturally ending or if someone just decided to pull the plug?  It doesn’t seem like this is the issue the creators would have put out there if they always intended for the series to end so soon.

IZombie #22 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Michael Allred (artist), Laura Allred (colors), Todd Klein (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor), & Shelly Bond (editor)

The Story: The big threat is beginning to show itself.  What impact will this have on our main characters?

Five Things: 

1. Interesting plot development for Gwyn. – Even though I Zombie has an ensemble cast, Gwyn is the main character.  I was a eager to see Gwyn get taken back to Dead President headquarters (because surely that place held some answers about what is going on with all these monsters), but it’s still interesting to see her and Horatio on the run.  This will probably lead to some answers too, just not the ones we thought we were going to get.

2. Love, love, LOVE Laura Allred’s colors. – Honestly, good colorists don’t get enough credit.  Laura Allred’s colors are the glue that holds this series together.  Of course, some of the power in her colors comes from things like the way Gwyn’s RED dress pops off an otherwise grey page.  But, she’s got some other clever tricks too.  Love the white/grey hair color for Gwyn and the slightly purplish hue to her skin; no normal humans are these colors and it helps to set her apart.  I also love the vampire chick’s combination of green sweatshirt + red hair.  Again…the red hair (with a little orange) is a color that you’d never see on a living human.  You can’t look at these characters and think they are normal.  Another thing that catches my eye about Ms. Allred’s coloring is that she doesn’t add highlights (which I HATE), she adds shadow.  It sounds simple, but I surely don’t see other colorists working this way and it is very effective.

3. Great cover. – It seems like the only place to get decent covers anymore is on creator-owned books.  I LOVE the way your eye is drawn to the object of interest (Gwyn) on this cover.

IZombie #21 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), J. Bone (guest artist), Laura Allred (colors), Todd Klein (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Shelly Bond (editor)

The Story: Gwyn the zombie gets hooked up with the Dead Presidents and Galatea’s plans start to make more sense.

Four Things: 

1. Nifty guest art by J. Bone. – Whoah! Wasn’t expecting this…  Guest art is a fact of life in comics and it’s nothing new either (go back and read those old X-Men comics and you’ll find lots of guest artists).  What’s neat about this J. Bone appearance is that it isn’t on a done-in-one issue that explains some back-story item even though that seems to be the popular way to use guest artists.  Nope….this guest art happens smack in the middle of a story arc.  A couple of things are cool about this…..  For one thing, J. Bone’s art is a lot of fun.  He’s much more of a cartoonist than Michael Allred is and that means that his storytelling is crisp and clear because he can do all the exaggerated body language stuff.  But he has that same economy of line that Allred has, so the even though the shape of the characters is a little different….it’s still a similar overall look.  You could probably convince me that Allred drew this when someone dared him to draw like Bruce Timm or something.  The other thing this shows is what a wonderful job the Allreds did of designing the characters.  Between their colors and their identifying features, it’s never a problem recognizing our favorite characters even with a very different art style.

2. Consistent coloring is so important. – This issue really makes you appreciate how important coloring and consistent coloring is in comics.  Even though the line-art duties have changed for this issue, by keeping Laura Allred on the colors, this book looks and feels like I Zombie.  Obviously coloring is important (duh!), but a big part of identifying some of these characters lies in the color.  For Gwyn it’s all about her hair and skin tone.  For Galatea’s vampire helper, it’s all in the red hair and the GREEN Oregon Ducks sweatshirt (LOVE that red/green combo).  I doubt this would have worked as well if they’d brought in a new colorist for this issue and just given them the color palate that Mrs. Allred uses.

IZombie #20 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Michael Allred (artist), Laura Allred (colors), Todd Klein (letters), Gregory Bond (assistant editor) & Shelly Bond (editor)

The Story: With the feds on site looking for leftover zombies from the big outbreak, how’s a girl supposed to get a brain to eat?

Five Things: 

1. A new direction for the series. – The ending of this issue really causes one to wonder if the series is headed into a new chapter.  The first story cycle really seemed to mostly be about establishing the characters.  True, there was a story going on with Galetea’s plans and the big zombie outbreak, but most of it was about undersouls and oversouls that the differences between ghosts, zombies, mummies, revenenants, were-creatures, etc.  Now Gwyn has gone running off with the Dead Presidents I guess to be part of their super-team?  It should be very interesting to take Gwyn out of her hometown and see what happens, especially with the Dead Presidents who are such interesting and mysterious characters.  And, we’ve also got the were-terrier and his new boyfriend, someone getting chloroformed behind a dumpster, Ellie’s new boyfriend, etc.  Lots of good stuff…

2. Maybe getting a little busy again. – If I’ve had a long-standing bone to pick with this series, it’s that it has a little too much going on in each issue.  It reminds me a little bit of when you’re trying to download 8 things onto your computer at one time.  Sometimes it is more rewarding to let just one thing download first and be done with it while the other stuff happens in the background.  To that point, there are 6 distinct plotlines rolling through this issue and that’s a lot to get into 20 pages.  It’s Roberson and Allred’s book and they can pace it how they please and I really do enjoy it, but I might enjoy it even more if they’d prioritize one of the threads and move the others into the background.  Or, kill some characters.  That’s always good for sales.

IZombie #19 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Michael Allred (art), Laura Allred (colors), Todd Klein (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Shelly Bond (editor)

The Story: In the aftermath of the zombie outbreak, our main characters take time to regroup…..or hide.

Five Things: 

1. Nice settling point for the series.  We always make a big deal of “jumping on points” and their importance to new readers.  But, what about us existing readers?  Sometimes it is nice to have an issue that slows down and recaps what has happened and resets the action.  I Zombie is a kinda complex story….there’s a lot to remember from month to month and if you have a single month where you were perhaps sleepy or distracted when you read an issue, going forward it is kinda like juggling when your timing and rhythm is messed up.  So, I really appreciated how this issue slowed things down, allowed us to catch out breath, but also started a small pebble rolling for some new story action.

2. Glorious art!  When you engage fans on the weird “story vs. art” discussion, you’ll find answers all over the place, but I’m an “art guy”.  I can enjoy a story that is hectic sometimes if it has consistently superb art to carry the water from issue to issue and that’s what we’ve got with I Zombie.  I love the simplicity and softness of Mike Allred’s characters.  We get so detuned from reading superhero comics with their focus on detailed anatomy and rippling muscles that we forget that isn’t how people really look.  Allred’s characters are all wearing clothes and sometimes they are all the more attractive for it.  I mean…..our eyes/brains can just discard an image of Catwoman or Psylocke because they are so clearly not a realistic depiction of a woman…..but Gwyn (the central character of this series) just looks like a sexy lady you’d see on the street.

3. Enjoy Gwyn’s dilema.  Gwyn’s in kinda a pickle in this issue.  Eugene, Oregon has suffered a zombie outbreak and while the national guard and monster hunters have put it down, they’re still looking for stray zombies to kill so Gwyn needs to lay low.  But, that presents a problem because if she doesn’t eat a brain soon, she’ll stop being sexy, coherent Gwyn and become shambling, “Brraaaaiinnnnns!” Gwyn. I’m looking forward to seeing how this gets sorted out.

IZombie #18 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Jay Stephens (guest artist), Laura Allred (colors), Michael Allred (inks on a few pages), Todd Klein (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Shelly Bond (editor)

The Story: The back-story of Diogenes, the monster hunter from the Fossor Corporation.

What’s Good: This is a very clean and streamlined story.  IZombie is an enjoyable series, but its Achilles Heel is that it has a lot going on in a typical issue with the action bopping around to visit a large cast of characters in every issue.  Not a problem here.  This issue is really smooth.  The main story thread of I Zombie has introduced us to the characters of Diogenese and Horatio who are monster hunters for the Fossor Corporation.  Diogenes is the old, grizzled vet and this issue gives us our first glimpse into his backstory as we see him when he was a fresh, new agent and he’s teamed with the Fossor’s top agent and sent to Brazil to clear out some vampires.

As you’d expect, the situation is bigger than they anticipated and they get into all kinds of hairy situations.  One of the fun things about this series is that, even though it is very much set in the present-day “real world”, there are these constant vampire infestations, zombie outbreaks, etc. and the Fossor Corporation is there to mop things up.  It kinda has feel like the Men in Black movies where the aliens were everywhere, yet the civilians were so buried in their daily life that they didn’t even notice.  Substitute zombies/vampires/mummies/were-creatures for aliens and you get the idea.

This issue also has some of its trademark fun as exhibited when Diogenes and his mentor track down the vampire nest and meet the “vampire queen”.  What’s awesome is that she isn’t some immortal being who has been a source of myth and legend among the native peoples for centuries. Nope, her origin is more like the vampires in Eugene, Oregon in the main story arc who are just a bunch of University of Oregon graduate students who got bit by vampires and decided to open a paintball facility.  It’s really fun to see a writer just have fun and not be a slave to Bram Stoker.

I Zombie #16 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Michael Allred (artist), Laura Allred (colors), Todd Klein (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Shelly Bond (editor)

The Story: Many plot points crash into one another as the zombie outbreak afflicting Eugene, Oregon comes to a climax.

What’s Good: Honestly, the best thing about this comic (and series) is the artwork.  I’ve heard podcasters and bloggers toss rocks at Mike Allred because he always draws the same way, which is true, but if I drew this attractively I’m not sure I’d be in a huge hurry to change things up.  His softer style is the perfect fit for this title where the lead character is a female zombie because he makes Gwyn look soft and feminine (as compared to the statuesque superheroines with the bulletproof bossoms and shiny butts we see in other comics).  Even the guys in this comic are soft and kinda emo.  I’m not sure if that’s just how they appear with Allred’s art or if Robertson tailored the characters to Allred’s strengths, but it gives this comic series a very unique feel compared to anything else on the shelf.

Kudos also to Laura Allred for her wonderful, mostly flat colors.  She has many touches throughout this series, but one of my favorite is the way she colors Gwyn.  Since she’s a zombie, you’d expect her to be kinda grey, right?  Well Allred colors her lavender!  Ordinarily, you’d think, “Why would a zombie be pinkish/lavender?  That makes no sense because they shouldn’t have blood flowing around!” but it works well because it shows that Gwyn isn’t human without making a hideous monster.  I guess Allred could have made her greenish too, but then she wouldn’t be attractive and Gwyn’s ability to be pretty is an important part of this series.

From a story standpoint, a lot of threads come crashing together in this issue.  One of my complaints about the series is that way too many things are going on for a 20-page comic, but at least most of those stories are starting to interweave.  In this issue, Gwyn, Horatio & Spot get out of the sewers and run into those freaky/cool Dead Presidents who we’ve seen in the back-up stories for the last few months.  So, that is two stories pulled in.  Then Diogenes (Horatio’s monster hunter boss) shows up to address a dangling plot point about how Horatio is dating Gwyn (who is a zombie).  And Spot’s grandaddy (who is trapped in a chimpanzee body) shows up with Spot’s geeky friends.  It is all coming together and next issue should be even better.

Superman #714 – Review

By: J. Michael Straczynski & Chris Roberson (writers), Jamal Igle (penciller), Jon Sibal & Robin Riggs (inkers), Marcelo Maiolo (colorist)

The Story: Stop eating those French fries, Superman, have some self-respect!  Don’t you know you can fly?!

The Review: Superman has been around for so long, has been written by so many different kinds of writers, and has gone through so many permutations that it gets a bit harder every year just to give him a story that avoids the formulaic, let alone one that brings something new to the table.  And while “Grounded” as a premise made an admirable attempt to try break away from familiar plotlines, it long ago lost its novelty and is now knee-deep in clichés.

It doesn’t get any more so than Lois Lane in a threatening situation and Superman coming to her rescue.  To start off an issue with this kind of thing already tells us not to expect much in the way of mind-blowing material.  And even though you have zero doubt Supes will get Lois out of this safe and sound, it’s amusing to see him accomplish the task within the first three pages.  Not surprising, though; we all know Lois is just a tool to get Superman into action, nothing more.

That said, the action we get hardly counts as the big blowout you’d expect at the end of such a long, hyped story arc.  Part of the problem lies with our villain—I’m sure she mentions her name somewhere, but I don’t care enough to really remember or look it up—who nurses, predictably enough, a misdirected, personal vendetta against our hero, and has no qualms about stating it with ridiculous explicitness: “I want you to suffer, Superman!  Like you’ve made me suffer!”

I can only imagine Roberson’s fatigue with this storyline (it does feel like it’s gone on forever, doesn’t it?) has caused him to throw the dialogue to the wind, as it all falls into embarrassingly corny territory: “I am your shadow.  I am all of the doubts and fears you’ve been afraid to face!”  Superman’s response?  “What you are is annoying!”  Terrific rejoinder, big guy.  Your time on New Krypton clearly deprived you of practice in the art of American repartee.

Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #6 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Shawn McManus (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist)

The Story: Clean the house, Cinderelley, kill off that assassin, Cinderelley.

The Review: Perhaps the most brilliant thing about Fables is how even though it’s a serious plot and character driven series, with quite a lot of dark material, because the very nature of its characters is childish, it can easily turn itself on its head and become fun and even silly.  It’s hard to think of any title that typifies this more than Cinderella: Fables Are Forever.  Though clearly a parody of many things, it never fails to demonstrate a sullenly grim streak, a potent combo.

Look at Dorothy.  This twisted version of the famous girl-child still works incredibly well.  Roberson seems to posit that instead of longing for home after seeing the big wide world, she has tasted the endless possibilities of the world and lusts for more, until only the challenge of killing keeps her interested.  But it would’ve been more interesting had Roberson explored a little further Dorothy’s amnesiac period, when she regressed to innocence, implying there may still be a small town farm-girl under that ruthless assassin’s persona.

In the end, perhaps what turns out to be Dorothy’s real weakness is that she is still a girl, despite her raw, sordid personality and lifestyle.  She exhibits with almost childish lack of control some of the most grating flaws of many young gals: cattiness (“You complete and utter bitch…God, will you shut up, already?!”), an unnervingly fickle temperament, and self-centeredness (“You don’t even know how smart I am!”), all of which prove her undoing.

Superman #713 – Review

By: J. Michael Straczynski & Chris Roberson (writers), Diogenes Neves, Oclair Albert, Eddy Barrows, JP Mayer, Jamal Igle, Jon Sibal (artists), Marcelo Maiolo (colorist)

The Story: This is a job for Superman!  What?  He’s not there?  Leave a voicemail, I guess….

The Review: No matter how much you get into a superhero comic, at some point you’ll notice the faint tingle of suspended belief tingling at your amygdala (or whatever part of your brain matters of faith are located in—obviously I should never be anyone’s doctor or shrink).  But keep it at bay you must, otherwise all sorts of uncomfortable questions about the logic and realism of what you’re reading will cow your simple pleasure into submission.

But when the writer himself chooses to address those questions, there’s really nothing you can do about it, is there?  Fortunately, Roberson brings up several valid, thought-provoking issues that neatly ponder the implications of having a super-powered alien in our midst:  the fear of his overwhelming might; whether he can be trusted to use his powers appropriately; the possible resentment from the mere mortals.

The subject matter works; the format which Roberson chooses to address these things does not.  Characters telling stories within stories can be tricky to begin with, but in a comic, a bunch of brief, exemplary anecdotes just produces facts and details with little to no movement or substance whatsoever.  Having Clark and his “guide” asking random passerby their opinions on Superman certainly adds no dramatic depth, and it just seems inherently forced.

I Zombie #15 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Michael Allred (art), Laura Allred (colors), Todd Klein (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Shelly Bond (editor)

The Story: A cute zombie & her monster-hunter boyfriend take on a hoard of shambling zombies.

What’s Good: This is a pretty standard issue of I Zombie.  If you’re invested in and enjoy the story material (which is kinda upbeat slice-of-life meets creature movie), this will be a fun issue for you.

Even though I’ve enjoyed this series quite a bit, one of my constant complaints has been that there are too many plot lines for a 20-page comic.  In this issue, Roberson smartly reduces most of the story elements to a page or two.  So, even though we check in with the chimpanzee grandfather and Galatea, the main story of Horatio and Gwen trying to deal with a hoard of zombies occupies more than 50% of the issue.  This makes the comic feel more like it is about something and has a story than merely watching a lot of goings-on among a group of loosely connected characters.

It also looks like a lot of these plots are starting to swirl together such that you could almost see all these strange characters in one place in an issue or two.  And, that includes the Dead Presidents back-up story characters that have been a cool addition to this series.  Some neat things could happen if these folks all intersect and I’m looking forward to that.

Elric: The Balance Lost #1 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Francesco Biagnini (artist), Stephen Downer (colorist), Shannon Watters (assistant editor), Matt Gagnon (editor), Michael Moorcock (creator)

The Story: Eric, a game designer, dreams he’s an albino sorceror prince called Elric, travelling through worlds overrun by chaos. At the same time, on another world, Hawkmoon, a retired warrior, finds out that an ancient enemy may be returning. Simultaneously, Corum, last prince of the Vadhagh, returns home to find a deathless companion in a tight spot. A war is brewing between war and chaos and Eric is at the center of it.

What’s Good: This series is for Elric fans, but also of Moorcock’s not-as-famous-but-still-quite-awesome other creations such as Prince Corum. Roberson captures the feel of Elric and even Corum (who, in my mind, is a more subtle character, and tougher to encapsulate). Roberson is ably assisted by Biagnini who has tough shoes to fill, as this is not the first time that Moorcock’s genius has been brought to comics. Many artists have tried to depict Moorcock’s spooky, eerie, unstable multiverse, most notably P. Craig Russell, but Biagnini brings the chaotic madness to life in not only to the plane where Elric is trapped (check out some of the monstrosities and the dismemberments), but the Corum’s supposedly normal homecoming, where the horror is not in the monsters, but in the behavior of the decrepit humans.

I think that Roberson launched issue #1 with momentum, as we have the mystery of the connectedness of Corum, Elric, Hawkmoon and Eric to unravel and each of these four is facing an impending disaster. The dialogue is tight, and changes style for each character: cynical and tense for Eric, noble and understated for Corum, bitterly self-aware for Elric, warmly familial for Hawkmoon and rabidly fascist for Garrison Bow (Eric’s brother). And while we don’t have all the information we want, Roberson delivers what we need, so our questions will pull us back for issue #2.

Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #5 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Shawn McManus (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist)

The Story: Watch what you’re doing with that glass cat!  You break it, you bought it!

The Review: Does anything beat a good rivalry?  It’s a rhetorical question, because of course nothing does.  I’m quite a fan of the sitcom nemesis, the one who pops up every now and again to drop some mocking taunt just when the protagonist is at his lowest, but my next favorite is the ongoing, escalating face-offs between two enemies.  Done right, the stakes just get higher and the history between them even richer with each encounter.

And for an archenemy so recently introduced as Dorothy, it’s surprising how gung-ho you already feel for the big girl-fight with Cinderella to go down.  We can see from their first showdown in the past that even with Ivan’s help, Dorothy gets pretty much schooled by Cindy, who manages to take back the kidnapped Snow White and sucker-punch her freckled counterpart at the same time.  This incident will no doubt keep both women aiming for victory in their next match-up; Dorothy to avenge her defeat, Cindy to prove the last time was no accident.

The issue also calls attention to Cindy’s role as a career killer, a funny thing since the whole premise of the series revolves around that very fact.  But even in action she tends to be so darn cool and cute that you’re often inclined to overlook the grim implications of her day job.  Still, when Dorothy claims they both serve the same function, it speaks volumes that Cindy has no hesitation in denying it and making a clever distinction: one’s a mercenary, the other “a patriot”.

Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #4 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Shawn McManus (artist), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: This time, Cinderella’s taking the catfight straight to Dorothy’s face.

The Review: Fables has sprung off a lot of quality spin-offs since its conception, but none have quite the pure, unadulterated fun of the mash-up between Cinderella and James Bond.  Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love had such a strong execution of the idea that it was a pity it existed only as a limited series.  How great it is then to get another glimpse into the covert operations of Cindy—and with an even more apt title.

By now, every Fables writer has gotten to be an expert at taking our friendly, familiar fairy tales and turning them on their heads.  Roberson’s portrayal of Dorothy Gale as a professional hit woman works not only because of its twistedness, but also because of how much sense it makes when you consider the implications of her background.  After all, she was pretty much hired to assassinate the Wicked Witch; that she grew to love it shouldn’t be too implausible.

Cindy’s longstanding rivalry of sorts with Dorothy also gives us a welcome look into the former soot-covered girl’s history beyond her sordid affair with Prince Charming.  Whether she’s acting the bimbo in Fabletown or showing her real steel, Cindy’s kind of an oddball among the Fables. so it’s nice to see that in her world of allegorical espionage, she has a few counterparts—though lacking her fair appearance and disposition.

Superman #711 – Review

By: J. Michael Straczynski & Chris Roberson (writers), Eddy Barrows (penciller), J.P. Mayer (inker), Rod Reis (colorist)

The Story: No, Superman–not the electric-blue costume!  The situation’s not that desperate!

The Review: It’s pretty obvious the original premise of Straczynski’s storyline—Superman walking across the country, discovering the real America, or something—has largely faded from view.  This may be a wise choice, since there’s only so much angst to be mined out of it, especially for a dozen-plus issues.  Whatever hang-ups prompted the Big Blue to embark on this bizarre journey in the first place long ago exhausted all dramatic possibilities.

Since his takeover of the series, Roberson has pretty much been giving you the usual Superman activities, and only the non-Metropolis settings tip off the fact you’re still reading “Grounded.”  Except for Supes’ singing of praises for America at the end (those of you concerned after reading the over-sensationalized story in Action Comics #900 can rest easy—he still loves us), Superman steers clear from the dislikable preachiness of this storyline’s early issues.

Instead, he spends most of his time doing what he does best: in the air, helping people with his usual sincerity and sympathy, even someone as troubled as Livewire.  Her outrageous behavior and senseless rants (“Every time I try to have a little fun, you have to come along and spoil everything.”  ) come off a bit contrived, but shutting her down puts Superman’s old electric costume to good use, and at least she gets a more formidable power set out of it.

And at least her antics allow for some fun guest spots.  It’s great seeing Jimmy Olsen using his quick-thinking (and high school physics on top of that) to offer his pal ground support.  Nick Spencer showed us Jimmy really takes off as a character when he has a more active role in facing trouble, instead of acting the mansel-in-distress for Superman to swoop in and save.

We also get cameos from some relatively obscure characters, like Dr. Roquette, young genius of Cadmus (Superboy’s old haunt) fame, now of S.T.A.R. Labs.  Honestly, it’d be great to see her more regularly, with all her retro gear (spangled jacket-vest—really?) and colloquialisms (“Oh, poop.”) intact, as she can serve a very useful, if semi-deus ex machina role to the title.  You can’t say the same for Iron Munro, who has little sway over the plot, and gets hardly any face-time with Superman before taking off to replace Livewire-thrashed dinner jacket.

This issue also introduces a mystery lady with an attitude problem, who has in her possession a crystal a là Kryptonian tech, with Superman’s most painful memories held within.  No doubt she’s a sign this storyline’s finally getting some much needed direction, but she vanishes before you learn anything about her, so her appearance seems rather superfluous to the plot.

Elric: The Lost Balance #0 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Francesco Biagini (artist), Stephen Downer (colorist), Michael Moorcock (creator)

The Story: It’s hard to call this a story. It was more of a prologue and introduction to the world of Elric, for free, courtesy of BOOM! Studios on free comic book day. Elric is lost in some sort of planar waste, and is delivered a call to action by an agent of balance in the form of a crow.

The Review: I am an Elric fan and the more I reread Moorcock, the more I realize what a powerful influence he was on my writing. His concept of the eternal hero, as well as the concepts of the albino prince with the cursed sword, the fifteen planes of existence, the Lords of Law and Chaos, are all top shelf, first class fantasy ideas. I don’t think that Moorcock’s ideas have really permeated fantasy, in that many other authors are inheriting them or reacting to them, but I think that this is because his worlds and universes are so dark, original and disturbing. For that reason, I am absolutely thrilled that BOOM! is doing Elric. He’s perfect for the serial medium form of comics.

What BOOM! offers us here is not much of a story, but a teaser. A mature, jaded Elric, the albino sorcerer, is lost elsewhere and else when, and can’t get home. Fortunately, he is attacked, providing souls for his cursed vampiric sword to consume so that it may strengthen him enough to cast a spell to go home. However, the Lords of Law and Chaos, never far from Elric, beckon him through an agent. Elric has a choice. Roberson uses this as an opportunity to introduce readers to Moorcock’s multiverse and the various forms of the eternal champion. It’s a taste, but it left me eager for more.

IZombie #13 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Michael Allred (art), Laura Allred (colors), Todd Klein (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Shelly Bond (editor)

The Story: After spending the first dozen issues mostly sorting out who these freaky characters are, it seems that we are embarking on our first mission-based story arc having to do with the evil Galatea and an outbreak of zombies.

What’s Good: This is another very strong month for this title visually.  After taking a break last month, Michael Allred is back on art duties; and when you combine his clean, efficient and organic style with Laura Allred’s soft and tasteful colors with Todd Klein’s artful lettering, you get a pretty product again.  If you read comics largely for the graphical storytelling (as I do), just the combinator of these 3 masters at work accomplishes 80% of the battle of having a good comic.  What I love so much about Michael Allred’s work is seeing how varied and organic his lines look.  Just look at any panel in the comic and see how many varied thicknesses of line he shows.  You can almost start to guess what kinds of implements he is using.  One thing that makes the final product really distinctive are the partially shaded aspects you get with what looks like a gray marker.  It isn’t clear if Michael is going that (with a marker) of if Laura adds the effect while coloring, but it allows for subtle shading while maintaining an almost flat coloring style for most objects.  Flat colors just kick all kinds of ass and if you don’t believe that, take two comics, one that has flat colors and one with this highly rendered stuff and put them across the room and see which one POPS out at you.

The story itself settles a lot in this issue.  IZombie has been very enjoyable, but its biggest fault is that there is just too much good stuff going on.  You had the main characters, the vampire ladies, the chimpanzee grandfather, Amon the dude with all the secrets, Galatea and her vampire underling and the monster hunters.  Often times, it was just too much to keep track of, but in this issue, it seems to be streamlining into two stories (that’ll probably connect).  The stories seem to promise some answers to what Galatea is up to and also threaten the gang with some Romero-style zombies.  The zombies might even have some impact for our main character, Gwyn – The Friendly and Attractive Zombie who is trying not to become a shambling, “BRRAAAIINNSSSSS!” zombie.

What’s Not So Good: Even with what I’ve said above, there is still a little too much going on in this issue.  The part that bugged me is that the vampire girls show up for a couple of pages and while I really like the vampire girls, it isn’t clear what they have to do with the story right now.  It kinda seems like they could go back on the shelf for a few issues until we have more resolution on what appear to be the main story lines.  Then, we get a back-up story, that has all kinds of cool/awesome wackiness like a Soviet zombie/special-forces soldier, a talking brain in a Mr. Coffee pot and a team of super agents consisting of an lucid zombie, a funky ghost and a were/she-male.  And, that part is awesome! But as I’ve said, this series has already got a lot of things going on at once and now we’ve got ALL this new stuff too.  It’s almost too much awesome at once.

Conclusion: Great, great issue (and series) from a visual standpoint.  The story is enjoyable too, but I really don’t think it would hurt to streamline some more.  It’s a shame because all of the story elements are really cool, but it is kinda like drinking out of a fire hose.

Grade: B

-Dean Stell

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Superman #710 – Review

By: J. Michael Straczynski & Chris Roberson (writers), Eddy Barrows & Travel Foreman (pencillers), J.P. Mayer & John Dell (inkers), Rob Reis & Dave McCaig (colorists)

The Story: Can a nerd from the sticks and an emo from the big city work together to defeat an immortal caveman?

The Review: I’ve managed to stay above the fray when it comes to the polarizing “Grounded” storyline Straczynski’s been writing into Superman, but only by not reading it altogether.  The pitch of Superman walking America for reasons you can only describe as misplaced just didn’t appeal.  But with big things coming his way this year, it’s only appropriate to check in with him before the status quo gets shaken up again.

At first, the issue starts off much as you’d imagine: having come upon another city on his road trip, Superman chats it up with the little people and tries to help them with their problems.  But with the appearance of Batman, Roberson switches gears, flashing back to the first adventure of the World’s Finest, before they get the idea to wear their underpants outside their costumes.

In the grand scheme of things, the story’s a very random aside from Superman’s “Grounded” journey.  Batman shows up very suddenly and for little reason, other than to chide Superman’s sabbatical pretty much the same way Lois, the Flash, and Dick Grayson have.  The recollection of their first team-up feels very out of context from the current plot too, being far better suited for Superman/Batman since it’s largely self-contained and kind of messy, continuity-wise.

That said, Roberson writes it well enough, albeit a little predictably.  It has all the typical elements of a Superman-Batman story: showing off their core personalities, acknowledging each other’s strengths and weaknesses, sly hints to their future heroism.  Vandal Savage and his army get defeated a tad too efficiently, and with so little struggle from the villain you never feel Bhutran (gateway to Nanda Parbat, the immortal city) is ever in any real danger.

This would have been a fun, if slightly pointless, excursion if not for Roberson’s attempts to bring some deep, meaningful conversation into the mix.  Clark and Bruce (both past and present) spend way too much of their idle time pontificating on the nature of justice, the value of their work, and on handling death.  It just feels forced, heavy, and a little pompous—which kind of fits given what I’ve heard about Superman’s slightly arrogant attitude throughout this storyline.

I Zombie #12 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Gilbert Hernandez (art), Laura Allred (colors), Todd Klein (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Shelly Bond (editor)

The Review: Anyone who has followed my reviews of this series knows that I’m a serious fan of Mike Allred’s art, so when I first flipped this issue open, I said, “Hey!  This isn’t Mike Allred art!  Oh…wait a minute….this looks like one of the Hernandez brothers!  Hot dog!”  A glance at the credits shows that, in fact, our guest artist on this issue is Gilbert Hernandez of Love and Rockets fame (among other things).  Vertigo just does a TREMENDOUS job of bringing in guest artists who are incredibly talented and pretty consistent with the look and feel of the series.

Since I’m already talking about Mr. Hernandez, let’s stick with his art.  He is a great example of knowing what lines are important and the fact that sometimes you don’t have to noodle with your art and make everything hyper-detailed to get across the impression that the artist is trying to convey.  Just as a random example, there is a page in this issue with a ghostly cowboy.  He is pot-bellied, but Hernandez is able to communicate this fat belly with a mere rounding of the contour of the character on one side and three short lines above the belly (showing where the shift folds to envelope the belly).  That’s it.  And then to top this off, colorist Laura Allred just colors the shirt flat blue.  What a relief when you see image after image in Marvel/DC superhero comics where there would be a lot more linework and some heavily rendered coloring showing off the glistening highlights of the dude’s fat belly.  This is a great issue from an art standpoint.

The story is up to the task too.  My biggest complaint with I Zombie is that there is too much stuff going on in most of these issues.  This issue is very streamlined as it amounts to a simply back-story on Ellie the Ghost.  Long time readers of the series know that Ellie is main-character, Gwyn’s best friend, but we haven’t really known much about her: How she died?  Why she hangs out in the graveyard?  How did she met Gwyn?  All are answered here.

I, Zombie #11 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Michael Allred (art), Laura Allred (colors), Todd Klein (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Shelly Bond (editor)

The Story: Kinda a wrapping up story as many loose ends are secured.

What’s Good: Roberson and Allred have done a yeoman’s job of world building over the first eleven issues of I, Zombie.  It hasn’t always been smooth, but I do feel like with this issue, they finally have all of their game pieces out on the board such that they can play with them.  That may seem a little strange: “How can it take 11 issues just to get organized?”  Well, this world is complex.  You have zombies, were-beings, vampires, ghosts, possessed beings and a few others.  On top of that there is a secret society of monster hunters that features prominently.  And….none of these creature types is exactly what you’ve grown used to from other fictional works.

Of course, Gwyn, the cute and coherent zombie (who merely needs to eat one brain per month to remain cute and coherent) is one great example of the novel spin on the undead archetypes.  But there are many others…  For example, we learn in this issue that the vampire chicks who were running the paintball club (and sucking just a little blood on the side) were until very recently a bunch of graduate students at the University of Oregon.  As readers, we’re so used to vampires all being world-weary, 800 year old Viking kings and the story being about how they are people-out-of-time, that this is a very fresh take.  These young ladies have been vampires for a couple of months and are just getting the hang of it

And, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have art duties from the Allreds with letters by Todd Klein.  I think if you’d put worse artists on this series, I may have dropped it a few times when the story got too complex, but the Allreds’ soft and lively art helps me just skate on through.  I’ve made my positive feelings for the Allreds’ art know in multiple places on this site, so let’s spend a moment talking about Mr. Klein’s lettering.  Lettering is really becoming a lost art form today.  You get to see great hand lettered works sometimes (anything John Workman works on), but a LOT of lettering these days is nothing special: boring fonts, word balloons that are WAY oversized, etc.  I’m 99% sure that Klein does computer lettering, but his work just shows that someone approached the lettering with the same care that was used on the art or the scripts.  It is hard to describe, but the lettering almost has a softness that echoes the art.

Starborn #4 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Khary Randolph (art), Mitch Gerads (colors), Ed Dukeshire (letters) & Bryce Carlson (editor)

The Story: Ben & Tara continue their escape from a whole host of bad-guy aliens as the initial arc of Starborn wraps up.

What’s Good: This is a pretty well executed story.  The themes are all things we’ve seen in fiction before, and (as they say) there are no “new” stories… But that doesn’t mean that creators can’t do a snappy job of giving us a fresh take on something we may have seen.  We wrap up the first story arc with this issue and it leaves us in a pretty compelling place:  Earthling Ben has been plucked from his mundane life where he writes mediocre science fiction as a hobby.  A few issues ago, he was attacked by aliens who seemed ripped from the pages of one of his novels but he was saved by the remnants of some galaxy spanning civilization.  The rescuers claim that Ben is the heir to the throne and that all the aliens trying to kill him are insurgents of some stripe or another.  Clearly, the mission will be to put “the rightful heir back on the throne”.  At his side, he’ll have the sexy/competent bodyguard, Tara, and the gruff/grim General Talon.  Color me intrigued, I’ll read this story going forward.

I’ve really enjoyed Khary Randolph’s art and Mitch Gerads colors in this series so far.  Randolph comes from the Humberto Ramos/Chris Bachalo style of character design that I love so much, and his work is especially strong in this issue.  It looked like he was using a heavier (but still varied) line to ink his work this time and I really liked the way this works with Gerad’s bold colors.  These characters are all expressive and alive and that’s what I want from sequential art.  If I just want a pretty picture, I can look at something in a museum.  If I’m reading a comic book, I want my characters to look vital.

Superman #708 – Review

By J. Michael Straczynski (plot), Chris Roberson (script), Eddy Barrows (pencils), J.P. Mayer with Julio Ferreira (inks), Rod Reis (colors) and John J. Hill (letters)

The Story: The “Superman Squad” arrives from the future to convince the original Superman that he is, in fact, important, and that his heroics do actually help people. Also, Wonder Woman shows up and learns an important lesson.

The Objective Part of the Review: The Grounded storyline continues, and becomes more convoluted and confusing in its purpose than ever. Wasn’t Supes’ purpose in this whole exercise to reconnect with America and the common man? So why does he spend most of this issue jumping through time and navel-gazing (with the help of some quite clunky and badly-integrated exposition from the Superman Squad)? I thought this storyline was about Superman and the people he loves and works to protect. So either I completely misunderstood the point of this year long story arc, or the arc itself has been completely derailed and/or misunderstood in the wake of its creator’s departure.

In spite of the feedback I’ve gotten on my opinion on the artwork for this book, I continue to enjoy it. Is it the best ever? No. But I continue to contend that the basic nature of the geometry and bright, bold colors fits Superman’s world quite well. It would be improved (and look less like a “kid’s” comic book) if the pencil work was more carefully detailed, but overall the effect is a good one, and suits the nature of the book well enough.

The Fangirl Part of the Review: Fair warning on this section: this is my personal reaction to the book as a huge Wonder Woman fan, and has nothing to do with the writing, art or other creative aspects of the book addressed above. That said:

SHAME on you, Joseph Michael Straczynski.

So you decide to give Wonder Woman a confusing, yearlong, semi-out-of-continuity (?) reboot. And a new, ‘gritty update’ style costume. Okay. I can live with that. As a Wonder Woman fan, I’ve certainly been subjected to worse. I can roll with almost anything, at this point, and still find enjoyment in the character and the tale. What I absolutely CANNOT abide that takes place in this issue is twofold:

1) You put a big, HUGE moment for Wonder Woman—quite possibly the single biggest character moment in her entire year long arc, since this is apparently the moment she, you know, DECIDES TO BECOME A FREAKING HERO—in a book that is not hers?! What on god’s green Earth convinced you even momentarily that that was a good idea? Do you realize what a betrayal that is for people who have loyally followed the Wonder Woman book through this reboot arc, and have been eagerly awaiting the big hero-realization moment? I understand that you were supposed to write both books through both arcs, and that a crossover probably made sense at that time. I have no objection with the crossover itself. But to put THIS moment in a book that is not Wonder Woman is a terrible, terrible thing to do to her fans.

2) Location (I reiterate: in the WRONG BOOK) of the biggest Wonder Woman moment to date aside, the execution. Good lord, the execution. Superman gives her the impetus to become a hero? Really? She couldn’t have figured that out without him? She couldn’t have followed her own heart and conscience and compassion (arguably the strongest aspects of Diana’s character) to realize that, maybe using her powers to help people MIGHT be a good idea? She couldn’t have been inspired by her fellow Amazons, or maybe some heroes from Greek mythology? ANYTHING besides randomly running into Superman (while apparently taking a break from the Earth-shattering issues going on in her own storyline) and realizing that, durrr, maybe people with heroic-like powers should actually, y’know, BE HEROIC. Not only that, it sets her very, very apart as a (supposed) member of DC’s Trinity. She should be (and has been, til now) Superman and Batman’s PEER, not their wide-eyed apprentice or sidekick.

Starborne #3 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Khary Randolph (art), Mitch Gerads (colors), Ed Dukeshire (letters) & Bryce Carlson (editor)

The Story: Benjamin & Tara continue trying to escape from the supposedly bad aliens that have descended upon Earth.

What’s Good: I said in some other recent review that strong art is vitally important to a comic book because it can help the comic remain interesting when the story hits a lull.  Stories are going to do that because that is simply how drama works and strong art is what keeps you from saying, “Boring!” and possibly dropping the series (especially in this brutal comic sales environment where there are too many series chase a shrinking pool of readers).

That’s a round about way of saying that the art is (again) a very strong point for Starborne #3.  In reviews of the first couple issues on this site I’ve spoken about the strength of Khary Randolph’s loose, cartoony style.  I think it is more effective for this series when the characters are running and jumping, but it still works pretty well even when the characters are standing around more (as they are in this issue).  So, let’s take a second to talk about Mitch Gerads’ colors.  Starborne is a cosmic book and coloring is very important to putting the reader in a “cosmic” frame of mind.  The action going on in a story like Starborne is a level of non-realism that is well beyond a typical superhero book, so normal color palates aren’t going to cut it and there are a few panels in this issue where Gerads just kinda cuts loose with a whole spectrum of colors to emphasize the fantastical nature of that element of the story.