Storm Dogs #1 – Review

By: David Hine (writer), Doug Braithwaite (art), Ulises Arreola (colors), Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt (letters)

The Story: Inter-planetary cops show up on a planet to investigate a murder.

Quick review: This isn’t a bad comic, but I doubt it’ll light anyone’s socks on fire either.  It’s actually comics like this one that make one realize what a broad term “science fiction” is.  Alien, Blade Runner and Star Wars are all “science fiction”, but they’re very different types of stories that have different appeals.  One of those is horror, one is crime and the other is a western.  Depending on the type of science fiction you enjoy, you may or may not enjoy this comic somewhat, but I doubt you’ll love it.

The set-up for the comic is pretty simple and something we’ve seen before.  We start out on an alien planet and meet a few of the local miners and local officials.  A murder has occurred and representatives from “the union” are there to investigate.  The planet has indigenous, intelligent life and that means the union investigators are forced to leave some of their high-tech toys behind.  You can probably guess other elements like the locals aren’t very happy to have the union representatives there and the union folks are a little fish-out-of-water without their technology and the aliens are surely involved somehow.

Bulletproof Coffin: Disinterred #2 – Review

By: David Hine (story/script), Shaky Kane (story/art), Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt (letters) & J.G. Rochell (design)

The Story: It’s open mic night and people are allowed to get up there and tell their sordid tales of horror.

Review: “Good, but not as electric as the original series because I can’t figure out the story yet.”  That’s how I’d sum up this second story cycle from Bulletproof Coffin.  The first series was such a breath of fresh air in comics: Weird story + pre-comic code flashback stories + great art and design.  In this issue, we still have the art and we still have the flashback stories, but it isn’t clear to me what “the story” is about just yet.  Remember, that issue #1 only showed us an origin for one of the characters.

This issue is again in origin mode as we see a jazz club MC who is opening the mic to allow people to tell their horrible stories.  It later turns out that the MC has a secret identity and is linked to the other Bulletproof Coffin characters, but we only get a few pages of that with the majority of the issue being devoted to the aforementioned “horrible stories”.

Now, those “horrible stories” are pretty magical.  Each seems like the kind of story that could have featured in an old issue of Tales from the Crypt.  The stories have a common theme with each having to do with bizarre surgical procedures performed on a loved one (sometimes with bad results).  Honestly, I wouldn’t mind a bit if Hine and Kane simply made a tongue-in-cheek homage to those old horror comics because I LOVE that part of the issue.  The only part bugging me is that there is a hint of a bigger story, but I don’t understand that story and my frustration causes me to easily lose sight of how much I enjoyed other elements of the comic.

Bulletproof Coffin: Disinterred #1 – Review

By: David Hine (story/writer), Shaky Kane (story/art), Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt (lettering) and JG Roshell (design)

The Story: Not exactly sure, but we get an origin for the Shield of Justice character.

Four Things: 

1. Just glad to have Bulletproof Coffin back! – The first 6-issue run of Bulletproof Coffin that ended in January 2011 was so much fun.  It was such a loving, campy homage to pre-comics code comic books that also layered in an interesting commentary on creator rights.  We readers get lots of great mini-series from Image, but it’s kinda rare to see a second act because the creators often move on to other projects.  For example: We’ll probably never see another issue of Cowboy Ninja Viking.  So, anytime the creators of a beloved creator-owned miniseries come back for an encore, we should cheer because you know they’re not getting rich doing this stuff.

2. Love how the flat colors pop. – I talk a LOT in reviews about wanting more flat, primary colors in comics.  Bulletproof Coffin is a great example of what I’m talking about.  These pages are just alive.  For anyone who doubts me, take a nicely colored Marvel comic (say, Fantastic Four colored by the reliable Paul Mounts) and open it up and do the same thing with Bulletproof Coffin.  Now walk to the other side of the room and see which comic can still catch your eye.  Flat colors just have a power to them that can never be matched by this highlighted crap.

3. Not really sure what it’s about yet. – I really struggled about what to write in “The Story” section up above because it isn’t at all clear what is going on (yet).  We DO get an origin for the Shield of Justice vigilante character that we met in the first miniseries, but how this relates to the opening scene of a naked man tunneling under a graveyard and coming up in the middle of other Bulletproof Coffin characters is beyond me.  Surely there is some meta-commentary going on here; I just don’t recognize it yet.

Batman and Robin #26 – Review

By David Hine (writer), Greg Tocchini (artist, pgs. 1-14), Andrei Bressan (artist, pgs. 15-20), Artur Fujita (colors), Patrick Brosseau (letters)

The Story: Batman, Robin and Nightrunner must deal with a mass escape from Le Jardin Noir, the Parisian equivalent of Arkham Asylum. Will they be able to conquer an entire new pantheon of super-powered criminals, including one who might just be even more twisted than the Joker himself?

What’s Good: Holy conflagration of evil, Batman! This is the last issue of Batman and Robin before the big reboot, and what an issue it is. An absolutely packed 20 pages that introduces an entire new metahuman rogue’s gallery, including the Son of Man. Named for the well known surrealist painting by René Magritte, Son of Man may be the most terrifying and inventive incarnation of evil since Harlan Ellison dreamed up AM. Bad guys have done a lot of nasty things in comic book history, but I gotta say–the reveal on the last two pages just went to the top spot on my own personal list. Not that it wasn’t rather deserved, but still… *Shudder*

Although the issue’s third act more than makes this worth reading in my opinion, the preceding pages are fairly standard, if quite well written, Batman fare. Although it’s great fun seeing new villains and important locations added to the ever-expanding Batverse, Hine is really handicapped in his exposition by only having 20 pages to work with. It’s just about impossible to get the needed information about all the new villains across, and tell a proper story to boot. To Hine’s credit, he doesn’t really try–he introduces the villains, and jumps right into the story, trusting the reader to put everything together. For the most part, this works very well: although none of the villains (save the Son of Man) are really fleshed out as people, Hine is able to use them as storytelling tools to great effect, and I would eagerly read more about any or all of them.

The Spirit #16 – Review

By: David Hine (writer), John Paul Leon (artist), Daniel Vozza (colorist)

The Story: Cosplaying may not all be harmless fun and games…

The Review: I’ve actually been in Paris this past week for work, and let me tell you, it’s a beautiful town with some good eatin’ and mostly fine people.  In fact, my estimation of the French really went up a notch this week when I found to my dismay over the weekend that I hadn’t bought a copy of this week’s The Spirit.  Not one to shirk my reviewing duties, even overseas, I went on an internet search blitz and found Arkham, the best and possibly only magasin des bande dessinées Americaines in Paris.

It was there that I bought this issue for a blistering four euros (thank God DC “held the line”, or else I’d have had to pay the equivalent of an Olive Garden meal for the comic).  Still, you can’t beat taking the Metro to a quiet, ancient corner of the City of Lights, grabbing a fresh peach from a corner fruit and vegetable vendor, and perusing graphic novels in a Parisian LCS with French heavy metal playing in the background.  Call me a romantic, but that’s a life I can get used to.

But enough with praising the French, and let’s get on with praising an American.  I often hassle writers who use excessive narration mostly because they like the sound of their own ideas.  Hine sticks to giving you the facts, allowing the dialogue, art, and your imagination to do the rest.  He just channels that pulp language evocatively.  Ovsack: “A cool million bucks and the eternal gratitude of the Octopus to whoever brings me the Spirit’s head.”  Doesn’t get better than that.

The Spirit #15 – Review

By: David Hine (writer), Moritat (artist), Gabriel Bautista (colorist)

The Story: Oh, Honey—you were too good for him anyway.  Or is it the other way around?

The Review: If you’re any kind of optimist, you’ll believe that even in the most depraved of individuals, there’s a soul lurking around there somewhere.  Fiction spends a lot of its time trying to uncover the elusive humanity in people, and has about as much success as us doing the same thing in real life.  Sometimes characters end up redeeming themselves; other times you just have to accept them as lost causes.

Hine has this remarkable way of making you empathize with even the most hopeless of characters.  As atrociously as Honey Steel behaves fronting for the mob, you still can’t avoid being unaffected by her passionate claim that the Spirit loves her, only to find the valentines she believed to be from him came from someone else entirely.  Since Hine shows us how much Honey cherished those epistles, we actually feel the weight of a years-long betrayal with her.

Even though Hine emphasizes that she brings most of her troubles on herself, he always leaves room for sympathy.  After all, how can you not relate to a person who winds up in a grim state of life because she took her youthful indiscretions just a little too far?  As long as Honey could believe Denny, the remaining symbol of her innocence, would love and watch over her even from afar, she could continue her unsavory lifestyle.  Once that sweet fantasy gets shattered, any hope she has of salvation is gone, and the burdens of the life she lives collapses in on her.

As is traditional in a Spirit comic, names give everything away.  Honey Steel: sweetness coating a much colder, harder personality.  It drives her to gun down the only man she loves, and it keeps you emotionally in tune with her as she does so.  Then you have Honey’s ruthless, loyal bodyguard, Charlie Soft.  He may shoot you as indifferently as he looks at you, but there’s a devoted, even gentle heart under all that brawn.  When he reveals a longstanding trick on Honey that spiritually rips her apart, you see the innocent romance of his intentions, making you despise and feel sorry for him all at the same time.

These complications all turn around into a very Shakespearean brand of tragedy: the missed cues, impulses taken too far, the most unfortunate of timing, all of it narrated by Hine’s almost clinical voice, which actually serves to underscore the emotions within the story.  He sticks to the facts, only occasionally dropping the barest hint of judgment (“Charlie was quite the teacher.”), allowing us to make what we please out of the characters’ behavior and dialogue.  He uses his narration to frame the action and drama, rather than move it along, and he does so expertly.

The Spirit #13 – Review

By: David Hine (writer), Moritat (artist), Gabe Bautista (colorist)

The Story: Do I choose the super-hot puppet, or the super-hot real lady?  Decisions, decisions…

The Review: When it comes to fiction, you can’t (or you shouldn’t) really expect incredible realism, but you do expect whatever it is you’re reading or watching to mimic reality as best it can.  But when it comes to genre fiction, you’re much more willing to let certain things slide.  For romance, it’s the ludicrously chosen lovemaking moments; for sci-fi, it’s all the pseudo-science babble; and for pulp, it’s the private eye’s rambling, uber-macho monologues.

The opening pages have the Spirit staking his claim on Central City against all the mobster vermin that threaten to take it over.  His speech, in almost any other circumstance, would be incredibly corny, but in this title, with Hine’s expert handle on pulp narration, you just get pumped up to hear the Spirit say, “They’re all wrong.  Dead wrong.  This is my city.”  The smash cut to our hero giving the beatdown to thugs across the red light district is icing on the cake.

Hine also brings his characteristic twist of drama into the proceedings.  The Professor’s puppet fetish is of course driven by personal tragedy from his past, although Hine smartly leaves events open-ended: was Esmerelda (the model for the Professor’s first lady-bot) really his first sweetheart, or just love from afar?  Did she betray him, or was he just paranoid of her doing so?  And was her subsequent death truly “an accident,” as the Professor states?

These are some juicy questions, but Hine never answers them—at least, not directly.  He sprinkles the issue with subtle clues you can weave together for your own conclusion: how the eyes in Esmerelda-bot’s disconnected head follow the Professor around the room; how he covers her unblinking face while trying to seduce Ellen Dolan; and the haunting final embrace between him and the restored automaton (“I love you…I’ll always love you” never chilled you more).

The Spirit #12 – Review

By: David Hine (writer), Moritat (artist), Gabriel Bautista (colorist)

The Story: You ever get a feeling from dolls that their eyes keep following you around the room?  Well, you should be worried—because actually they might kill you.

The Review: With any genre of art, you’ve got a few ways of going about it: stick to conventions for a traditional, if formulaic, work; stretch the boundaries and give a new spin to the genre’s spirit; or bring in elements from other genres for a mash-up category all its own.  An ongoing comic has the luxury of using all three routes as it sees fit for the story it wants to tell.

For the first leg of his run on The Spirit, Hine gave pretty standard fare as far as pulp stories go: mobsters and their dicey business, femme fatales, private eye cases.  But lately he’s grown more confident in offering more dramatically challenging material, and now he’s even bringing a bit of retro (even uber-retro, since puppeteers and their servant golems are old news for fiction) sci-fi stuff to the table.

By itself though, the robot mannequin concept would seem gimmicky and out of place in a title so obviously rooted in straight-up detective work.  But Hine smartly doesn’t give too much focus to the puppets themselves (although the Spirit doll is all kinds of creepy fun), but rather to their creator, mad-scientist assassin, the Professor.  What started out as a rival mafia premise is slowly becoming more of a character piece, the kind of thing Hine’s proven himself very good at.

The little layers Hine gives to the Professor this issue elevate the old man from creepazoid to a sympathetic figure.  Even though we know nothing of his history, the way Hine writes his behavior and reactions, especially to Ellen Dolan, says a lot about what a life starved of love he’s had—it certainly explains the robot-dame he has as his escort, and why her physical affections towards him in the end result in her beheading.

Batman #708 – Review

By: David Hine (writer), Guillem March (artist)

The Story: Some weird paranormal stuff is going down. Dick Grayson is having some unsettling moral side effects from a wound he got from Azrael. When the Crusader comes to the unsavory parts of Gotham, Batman has his hands full, even with the help of Red Robin and Catwoman.

What’s Good: I haven’t enjoyed March’s art before, but I don’t recall seeing him ink and color his own stuff, either, and this issue looked real good. Stylistically, I was most reminded of Craig Russell’s moody, spooky stuff. The expressions on the junky’s face and on Dick’s later on are the most striking, as well as some of the poses. I also liked March’s take on Batman’s cape and the clothing and hair on everyone, actually. March’s work is very fluid, but at the same time, this organic touch doesn’t detract from the heroism of figures. Batman is constantly larger than life and heroic, especially when checking out the damage left by Azrael. By the same token, the emaciated figure of Fireball fits the dramatic mold too, being the type of anti-hero exaggeration that sticks in your mind because of the grotesqueness of the character and situation. The color work was brighter than normal Gotham, and it succeeded in setting a different kind of tone. Dick’s false memories and the Crusader’s point of view both required a brighter kind of color style (much like White Knight is forcing in the current Batman and Robin arc) and the thematic greens and reds were very purposeful. All-in-all, beautiful visual storytelling and I am really glad I like Guillem March.

Storywise, I like the religious nutbar angle that Hine is taking here. I don’t know if this is editorially-driven, considering something similar is happening in Batman and Robin too, but I find the “moral Christian Knight” angle in this series more compelling. The imagery with Azrael and Crusader is strong and is forcing Dick into some moral territory and personal questions he doesn’t normally deal with. Heroes are often told they should do less. How often do they get told they aren’t doing enough, or haven’t taken a high enough moral ground? How often do they get questioned as to whether they are effective? It may be a question of focus (like whether Batman is an agent of individual justice or an agent of societal change), but the questions themselves are going to be fascinating to watch.

The Spirit #11 – Review

By: David Hine (writer), Moritat (artist), Gabriel Bautista & Pia Guerra (colorists)

The Story: The Spirit takes on Central City’s illegal immigrant problem, mafia style.

The Review: A good story can be told given any length.  In fact, when page or word limits constrain a writer, it forces the writing to cut the fat and keep only the material that works—which, given the babbling style of some writers, can be a very good thing.  But you can’t deny the benefits of getting more room for storytelling: it allows you to get better immersed in more detailed, richer settings and characters, and seeing how they evolve.

With the second feature now cut from the title, Hine has more freedom to deliver a more involved, plot-driven story, unlike the character pieces he’s given us before.  Not that those weren’t good, but they did end up relegating the Spirit to a kind of symbol in those people’s lives.  In this issue, the Spirit gets a sticky, but fairly clear-cut case, giving him a more active role in showing why he’s the hero of choice in Central City.

What’s more, the supporting cast also gets involved.  Usually Dolan gets relegated to expository duty, delivering the newest details of a case for his vigilante partner to tackle.  Here, Dolan’s balancing act as ally of both justice and crime lets him use his own brand of power to take down the human trafficking ring popping up in his city.  Kudos to Hine for getting Ellen involved by way of her ties to progressive community action groups.  In one issue, you get the vigilante, government, and citizenry working together to remove the same plague.

The addition of the Octopus’ manpower to their efforts is a surprising element, but great for bringing some character to these Zoot-suited bozos.  It goes to show that even in the crime world, there are degrees of despicable behavior.  You got to love Mr. Ovsack’s explanation of how he’s on the high road here: “Our drugs are clean, we don’t sell guns to kids, our girls are all over eighteen.”  But Hine wisely reminds us that mobsters are mobsters, as the factory explosion (with all the immigrant workers still inside) grimly shows.

The Spirit #10 – Review

By: David Hine (writer), Moritat (penciller), John Kantz (inker), Gabriel Bautista (colorist)

The Story: No one’s very fond of the cockroach, but Roscoe Kalashnikov is crazy about them—not in a good way.  And yes, his craziness involves guns.

The Review: Considering the ongoing nature of comic books, you’d think writers could afford to let their stars take a break from the limelight now and then to build up other characters.  When even incidental personalities get fleshed out, stories take on a whole new depth of flavor; you become that much more convinced this world exists out there, somewhere.

The Spirit is ostensibly about the titular hero’s never-ending struggle for justice in a city that resists it, but really, the star of the series is the traumatized city itself.  David Hine makes a pointed effort every issue to delve into the backgrounds of his featured characters, to the point where the Spirit feels like a guest in his own title.  The results are a Central City that genuinely feels populated with people, all with their own bag of inescapable hang-ups, damning flaws, and redeeming virtues.  It really brings home what the Spirit faces every day.

Take Roscoe Kalashnikov—great name, by the way.  The origins of his personal set of crazy are delivered matter-of-factly, in the voice of someone who has clearly embraced his screwed-up childhood.  But as the story progresses, Hine expertly teases out the stains still painfully lingering on Roscoe’s psyche, letting you get an almost sickening firsthand view of the guy’s total meltdown.  It’s a bit like reading Lolita—even as Roscoe pushes himself down the path to his own undoing, the little bits of honest-to-goodness insanity peppering his thoughts and behavior still invoke your sympathy.

The story takes on new meaning in light of recent current events.  I should stake my claim right here that Hine’s story is no intended statement on the Arizona shootings, but there’s an interesting reflection regardless.  You have a man with some disturbing psychoses that he represses, absorbing rather than healing the damage.  When the literal drop-in of one of fiction’s most potent plot devices—a loaded, silenced gun—comes his way, the unexpected consequences, hastened by the impulsive use of drugs, end up devastating him and others very quickly.  The beginning of the issue emphasizes Roscoe’s desire for power to put to use the self-control his father twistedly trains into him.   But once he gets it, you see how incapable he is at handling it, revealing the weak grasp of self-control he really has.  It may be an old story, but Hine executes it in gripping fashion.

Bulletproof Coffin #6 – Review

By: David Hine (story/script), Shaky Kane (story/art), Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt (letters) & JG Roshell (production)

The Story: Bulletproof Coffin comes to an end.  Will Steven find The Creators and save the world?  Or will the sinister G-Men thwart him?

What’s Good: What an awesome comic!  This series started out with an interesting concept: Steve Norman is a Voids Contractor who cleans out the homes of the recently deceased; who’s also a comic collector.  In doing his job one day, he comes across a pile of Golden Nugget comics (that are a clear spoof of the pre-comics code era) and gets sucked into the world of the Golden Nugget comics as the Coffin Fly.  The story’s main thrust was that Steve had to find “The Creators” and get them to write a new ending to the story so that the entire Earth wouldn’t be plunged into a zombie apocalypse.

Hine and Kane really bring this series home in a strong and self-aware way.  That was a huge relief because many interesting creator-owned comics start with a neat concept, but don’t wrap up very well.  That’s not a knock on creator-owned comics, but more the fact that they’re trying to tell a complete story and endings are hard.  Marvel/DC don’t have the same problem because they are not trying to tell the ending to Batman/Captain America.

This ending was just awesome as the weirdness very quickly takes a back seat when Steve finds The Creators .  What is hilarious is that they are the actual creators of this comic book, so we get to see comic book versions of all the folks listed in the credits above.  Hine and Kane turn out to be grizzled old guys who pack heat while they write comics.  Kane spends most of the issue with a cigarettes dangling from his lip while threatening to shoot Steve.  But just as Steve is prevailing on them to save the world, the G-Men show up.  But they actually turn out to be corporate lawyers from Big 2 comics who are there to buy out Hine and Kane so that they can make a movie featuring bastardized versions their characters.

So, what stated as a weird spoof of the pre-comics code era, ends-up being a satire on the topic of creator-owned comics and creators who “sell out”.  I love it.

Batman Annual #28 – Review

By: David Hine (first story writer), Agustin Padilla, Andres Guinaldo, Lorenzo Ruggiero, Walden Wong (first story artists), Tony Avina (first story colorist), Paul Tobin (second story writer), Ramon Bachs (second story penciller), Mick Gray (second story inker), Trish Mulvihill (second story colorist), Kyle Higgins (third story writer), Trevor McCarthy (third story artist), Andre Szymanowicz (third story colorist)

The Story: In the first feature, The Question works alongside both Batmen and Nightrunner to take down a Parisian cult from the inside.  In the second, Veil helps humanitarian clinician Leslie Thompson find regret and fulfillment in her work.  In the third, Nightrunner finds out how tough it is to wear a controversial icon amidst city riots.

The Review: Series annuals are usually a mixed bag.  On the one hand, the bigger page count offers an opportunity to tell big stories outside the continuity of the main ongoing.  Many times, however, you get a bunch of unrelated short stories from various writers and artists, all cobbled together.  This annual definitely falls under the cobbled category.

The editors could have taken a little more care at least in figuring out which story gets placed where.  The obvious connections between the first and third features make them shoo-ins to be companions, since they both involve the Parisian traceur Nightrunner, but they end up bookending the entirely unrelated second feature instead.  This by itself makes the annual a disjointed read.

The sense of disconnect invades the stories themselves.  The first feature jumps around without offering much in the way of what’s going on, or even who some of the characters are.  So much attention gets handed over to The Question (as played by Renee Montoya), it’s easy to forget the story supposedly ties into the Batman Incorporated banner.  Too bad Nightrunner, the candidate to be France’s Batman, doesn’t get more page-time or stuff to do than he does in this issue.  At least he fares better than Leni Urbana, the high-stakes intended victim of the story—at least, you assume so, because never once do you find out exactly who she is or what she does.

If writers want to sell the idea of other heroes taking on Batman’s symbol, then they have to work harder at selling those heroes in the first place.  What little Nightrunner gets to do in this issue is rendered moot by the American heroes.  Even as the focus of the third feature, Nightrunner’s background remains largely mysterious and his personality gets grossly overshadowed by Batman—either one of them.  Kyle Higgins introduces the interesting real-world element of Parisian racial conflicts, then spends too much time talking about them than showing their effects on Nightrunner.  Higgins really would have profited from having more pages to tell his story than he got.

The Spirit #9 – Review

By: David Hine (writer), Moritat (artist), Gabriel Bautista (colorist), Paul Dini (co-feature writer), Mike Ploog (co-feature artist)

The Story: The feud between the Ottoman and Bauhaus families ratchets up when the Spirit discovers a connection between Ophelia Ottoman’s murders, her dead husband, and a long-lost treasure.  But since this is Central City, that connection isn’t as clear-cut as you might think.

The Review: When DC included the Spirit in its First Wave revival of pulp heroes, it seemed like a good fit, but also kind of sudden.  The Spirit had recently been re-introduced under Darwyn Cooke’s pen and enjoyed success on the first leg of his series, but lost steam after Cooke (and his powerhouse retro-penciling) departed.  The Spirit was on the brink of losing his place in Central City to the Flash, who was about to be resurrected in the pages of Final Crisis, before he got transferred from his DCU-prime ongoing to another in the First Wave universe.

The Spirit now lives in a world kept perpetually in a kind of post-Prohibition era, and he thrives here more than he did in a land where metahumans walk the land and the Internet reigns supreme.  His skills as a detective and punch-up vigilante get better display when he’s forced to get down and dirty to do his work.  While the Spirit lacks the Bat Man’s viciousness and Doc Savage’s intellect, he keeps enough tricks up his sleeve to face down any sticky situation.  His scheme to give a pair of lovers a chance at freedom while ensuring they pay for their crimes is both inspired and twisted.  The final scenes leave you smirking at the Spirit’s triumph, but anticipating the blow-up that’s sure to come somewhere down the line.

This is the kind of thing Hine does a particularly good job at: portraying the Spirit as Central City’s last, best hope, but pulling back to show the enormity of what the Spirit has to face.  Even as the A-story is running full-speed, there are signs laced throughout hinting at just how deep crime goes in this world.  Even though each story arc may last only a couple issues and is fairly self-contained, a sense of a much bigger, almost omniscient foe looms at certain beats of the issue.  Each case acts as a puzzle piece, but one that fits at unpredictable corners of the bigger picture.  It’ll be very exciting when the Spirit figures out exactly what he’s really up against.

Detective Comics Annual #12 – Review

Lead Story By: David Hine (writer), Agustin Padilla (artist), Tony Aviña (colorist)
Back Up Story By: Kyle Higgins (writer), Trevor McCarthy (artist), Andre Szymanowicz (colors)

The Lead Story: Batman hits Paris, with the tentative blessing of the French authorities, as a series of riots and weird murders baffle police. Batman Incorporated grows.

The Back Up Story: The Question wears a Mark of Cain and heads far, far away to deal with it.

What’s Good: The Batman story was pretty cool. The creative team wasted no time in diving into the action with Batman duking it out with a mystery figure on the rooftops of Paris. The writing was brisk and the action was clear. I wanted to know who the figure was and who was wearing the Batman cowl. I was surprised (in a good way) by the answer. The action then cranked back in time, a week ago, four days ago, twenty minutes ago, to fill in the blanks. The timing shifts drove up the tension and were mostly effective.

Artwise, Padilla and Aviña had fun with the action across dark rooftops, in police offices, and in the catacombs beneath Paris. The art was dynamic and fluid, and the fight scene with mystery man evocative.

Despite my close following of the Batman Incorporated arc, I was almost more intrigued by the Question story. I haven’t seen much of her, but the whole Mark of Cain thing and the eastern influence was pretty cool. Remember when Frank Miller radically expanded the Daredevil mythos by introducing his teacher (Stick) and the Hand? I felt that something like that was going on here; not in such depth, but it was a pretty fascinating start. Crisp dialogue and emotional tension made the back up story work.

The Bulletproof Coffin #5 – Review

By: David Hine (story/script), Shaky Kane (story/art) & Richard Starkings (letters)

The Story: The story starts to swirl toward a conclusion as Steve Norman is pursued by the ominous Shadow Men.

What’s Good: The only weak link for The Bulletproof Coffin thus far has been that it was unclear whether there was any sort of real skeleton of a story or whether all this awesome weirdness was just floating in the ether (and could be enjoyed as long as you didn’t really try to put the plot together).  That lack of a “story” is something that will bother some people (i.e., the kind of people who were disappointed by the ending of Lost) whereas other are happy to have the wonderfully done send-up of old timey comics.

Well, we start to get a story here.  It isn’t complete and you still cannot string all the events together, but you can tell it is happening.  And the comic is so fun that you don’t mind the slight gaps.  Whereas reading Morrison’s Batman might make you want to throw the comic at the wall, you don’t mind flipping back a few pages in Bulletproof Coffin to revisit a reveal.  The difference is that this comic is just pure FUN and is not remotely trying to be serious.

All of the old-fashioned art goodness is still here.  Comics like this make you laugh at reviewers who score the “story” and “art” separately.  If you had someone like David Finch or Alex Ross illustrate Bulletproof Coffin, the story would fall flat.  Kane’s visuals really sell the over-the-top campy dialog that Hine has written.  It’s a very good collaboration.

Detective Comics #870 – Review

By: David Hine (writer), Scott McDaniel (pencils), Andy Owens (inks), Guy Major (colors) & Todd Klein (letters)

The Story: The finale to The Imposters story-line sees a free-for-all, murderous riot erupt at the carnival.

What’s good: Are you alternately bored and confused by Grant Morrison’s meta-epic “Return of Bruce Wayne”?  Are you having a hard time figuring out what is going on with Dr. Hurt and that Domino stuff that is going on in Batman & Robin?  Would you like a plain, old Batman story that doesn’t require you to pull out back issues to reference plot points from two years ago?  If you answered, “yes” to any of those questions, this story arc in Detective Comics is just the palate cleanser you needed.

Hine has created a really neat character in Winslow Heath (the Joker imposter).  We started to explore his background in the last issue and Part One of his origin was enough to understand why he is seriously unwell and why he hates Joker, but what we learn about him in this issue takes the cake and makes us understand why he hates Batman.  When you look at what happened to Heath, you actually find yourself feeling a little sorry for him.  Hopefully this is not the last we see of the character because Heath is a good villain.

Even though McDaniel’s art isn’t quite as crisp in this issue, it connects when it really counts.  The key is how creepy he makes Heath look in a few pivotal scenes.  This dude looks crazier and creepier than Joker has looked in years.  When you combine this look with Heath’s origin, it makes for an unsettling package.

What’s not so good: Hine spends a little too much time on the questions of: Is Gotham a nasty place because of Batman?  Do villains flock to Gotham just to test themselves against him?  Would Gotham have more petty crime, but be spared Joker-level mega-crime if Batman just hung it up?  This just isn’t a very interesting line of inquiry because it leads nowhere.  We all know that if Batman did hang up the tights, Gotham would be fine at first, but THEN…. something would happen that would bring him out of retirement and Gotham would realize that it truly needs its Dark Knight.  The End!  Could that story end any other way?  It is hard to imagine that it would, so why tease it?

It is also very disappointing that this is an old Bruce Wayne story.  There is no reason why this couldn’t have been a current Dick Grayson story.  For all the Bat-books that DC publishes, there really have not been very many Dick-Batman stories that have been independent of Morrison’s Bruce Wayne saga.  Can’t the guy just be a hero?

The art was not bad, but it does look a little different than past issues.  Different enough that it caused one to confirm that there wasn’t a change of inkers.  Perhaps it was just rushed slightly?  The “big” panels still have the juice, but the bulk of the book is lacking in the chaotic whimsy that earlier issues of this story had.

Conclusion: A very satisfying Bruce Wayne story for those who want a break from what Morrison is doing.  Not without flaws, but Hine has created a very cool new villain in Winslow Heath.  Hopefully, he’ll be back sooner rather than later.

Grade: B-

– Dean Stell

 

Ryder on the Storm #1 – Advance Review

By: David Hine (writer), Wayne Nichols (art), Feigian Chong (colors) & Richard Starkings (letters)

The Story: What starts as a prototypical noir-themed, PI story takes a supernatural twist towards the end.

What’s Good: This comic starts out by strongly establishing its noir chops: sexy femme fatale calling in to report her lover’s dead body.  Then the stereotype continues by bringing in the main character: Mr. Ryder, the hard-boiled Private Investigator who has an antagonistic relationship with the police despite the fact that his dad was a cop.  Within the first ~10 pages, Hine has established that he gets how to lay out a noir story.

Revealing too much would be in appropriate in an advance review, but suffice it to say that this comic does not remain a stereotypical noir story.  About 2/3 of the way through there is a supernatural twist that continues to build toward the end such that the reader is left with something pretty unique.  If you enjoy supernatural-themed noir, this should be your cup of tea.

Detective Comics #869 – Review

By: David Hine (writer), Scott McDaniel (pencils), Andy Owen (inks), Guy Major (colors) & Todd Klein (letters)

The Story: The impostor-Batman & Joker are revealed as this story moves towards a conclusion.

What’s Good: If you missed Bruce Wayne detective stories (and don’t read Batman Confidential), you’ll probably enjoy this issue/arc of Detective Comics.  This is a “middle issue” so there is no real expectation of climax or finale, but it suitably moves the plot along as we learn more about the identities of both the impostor Joker and Batman.

David Hine and Scott McDaniel have collaborated to create an impostor Joker who is quite creepy.  During one several-page segment explaining his origins, the character was highly disturbing but it was unclear whether it was the story itself OR the way that McDaniel had drawn it that made it so off-putting.  When that happens, you know that you have a creative team that is working together nicely and that is what most separates this Bruce-Batman detective story from countless others that hit the press over the years.  Everything is really in sync and it is just a very nicely done comic from a creative standpoint because the art is helping to tell the story rather than merely being an illustration of a script.

The art is also a real star of this book.  It has a thick and chunky look to it.  In places it almost has that wonderful look as if it was inked with a Sharpie.  Then the purples, greens and reds just explode off an otherwise darkly colored page.  The whole effect is quite nice.

The Bulletproof Coffin #4 – Review

By: David Hine (story/script), Shaky Kane (story/art) & Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt (letters)

The Story: Steve Nayman starts to wonder which reality is “real”: The one where he is the Coffin Fly or the one with his day-to-day existence.

What’s Good: The weirdness continues in this month’s Bulletproof Coffin, but what is nice is that we’re starting to see the overall story develop too.  And, that’s a good thing.  For as much as I love creator-owned comics, many start out really strong with a cool hook or two, but then fail to deliver any meat for the story such that my issue #3 or so it isn’t “novel” anymore and the story isn’t working for you either.  That’s just a lousy feeling.  I’m not going to jump right up and say that Bulletproof Coffin has turned the corner with this issue, but this issue feels like a transition where they are trying to change things up.

And I mean that in a very good way.  We still get the Bulletproof Coffin fun that we’ve gotten used to, namely the fake pre-comics code spoof of a old comic book (which are still just magic to me), but in this issue the flash back to Coffin Fly and Ramona (fighting zombie soldiers) starts to work within the context of the overall story that Hine/Kane are telling.  It is hard to tell exactly what is going on, but we start to see some explanations for some of the other weirdness that has been going on in our protagonist’s life so far.

I love Shaky Kane’s art!  It is just a huge homage to comics of yesteryear.  Honestly, for all some people gush about how advanced comic art was in the 1940’s and how we never see that kind of art anymore, mostly that is a good thing (if I’m being honest) because the vast majority of the art was not good.  What Kane does that is so special is pay tribute to that very flat style of art with all its weird anatomy and non-dynamic characters, but he does it in such a way that it is (a) clear that Kane isn’t a crummy artist who just draws like this all the time and (b) is clearly a homage to those old comics and NOT an attempt to make fun of them.

Detective Comics #868 – Review

By: David Hine (writer), Scott McDaniel (pencils), Andy Owens (inks), Guy Major (colors) & Todd Klein (letters)

The Story: The imposter crisis runs amok as Gothamites dress up as Joker and Batman and cause mayhem.

What’s Good: This is a clever little story for what it is.  After reading Batman #702 and then spending time reflecting on what exactly Grant Morrison is trying to do with his Batman saga, it was kinda nice to have this Detective story that requires ZERO reflection on comic events from two years ago, no digging out of back issues to re-examine past events and no angst about whether the day will be saved in the end.  This is just a lightweight Batman story.  Period. [And I mean lightweight in the good sense]

The concept of Gotham residents dressing up like Batman or being drugged into carrying out the wishes of Gotham’s villains isn’t exactly new, but Hine does a nice job of making this story fresh.  It even has a sense of humor.

It took me a few panels to get settled into McDaniel’s art, but then I really liked it.  It gives the issue a fairly whimsical, Tim Burton feel which mostly fits with this sort of Joker-lite story and Guy Major deserves credit for his nice use of bright colors.

The Bulletproof Coffin #3 – Review

By: David Hine (story/script), Shaky Kane (story/art) & Richard Starkings (letters)

The Story: Steve Neuman becomes the Coffin Fly and teams up with golden age comic characters.

What’s Good: It is no secret that I LOVED the first two issues of The Bulletproof Coffin.  Seeing this comic fan guy whose job was to clean up the belongings of the dead get sucked into a world where he has some connection to these “Golden Nugget” comic characters was just cool as hell.

What I’ve really loving is that as this 6-issue series moves into its middle issues, the story still has enough weirdness that the novelty isn’t wearing off AND the story itself is become entertaining in its own right.  That is no small feat because we’ve all read series that had a neat hook, but either failed to be wacky enough to maintain the weirdness OR just never had a story to tell (or both).  So far, that is not a problem here.

One thing that I found pretty fun about this issue is the parallel between Steve and his new alter-ego, the Coffin Fly.  Steve’s job consists of cleaning up the belongings of the recently deceased.  Coffin Fly drives around the post-apocalyptic wasteland in this armored vehicle (THE Bulletproof Coffin) dragging all the chains to dredge up knick-knacks (which he collects).  I find this interesting and am sure it’ll have something to do with the story.

But, the real star of this issue was the fake Golden Nugget comic about “Ramona: Queen of the Stone Age”.  These fake reprint Golden Nugget comics are just great.  They are so obviously a loving spoof of pre-comics code comic books and this one follows Sharon Sharone as she is pulled through a time-warp to become Ramona.  In this issue, we follow Ramona “as once again she falls into the clutches of LUST-CRAZED SAVAGES.  What TERRIBLE FATE have these primitive brutes planned for our helpless heroine?”  That is just the kind of stuff that you would never in a million years see in a modern DC/Marvel comic and that is mostly because when comics and movies talked about “savages” they were being incredibly racist towards people of African or Asian descent.  But, here they avoid that problem by having these savages be of unclear race (although they’re white dudes if they’re anything) and having them all wear helmets so they are almost faceless.  I love the nostalgia trip without the racial baggage!

The Bulletproof Coffin #2 – Review

by: David Hine (story/writer), Shaky Kane (story/art), Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt (letters)

The Story: Steve Neuman is a “Voids Contractor”.  He cleans out the houses of the dead when they have no heirs, but he has a sweet deal with his boss allowing him to enter the night before and snatch any especially precious items.  Steve is also a comic geek with a full-on comic geek lair in his attic, so when he finds a stash of old Golden Nugget comics in a house he’s working on, he is like a pig in shit.  Not only that, but he finds what appears to be the costume of the Coffin Fly (one of the Golden Nugget heroes).

What’s Good: I was tremendously disappointed not to be able to review the first issue of this new series at WCBR because my LCS didn’t have it, but I’m going to pour a little love on it here.  Anyone who reads my reviews here knows like I like whack, off-the-wall comics when I step away from Marvel/DC.  But sometimes a comic is just whacky.  I enjoy it, but at the same time I’m glad it is a 4-issue series because I know it’ll get old pretty fast.  Bulletproof Coffin is both whacky and GOOD.  Hine and Kane have enough of that weirdness in here to satisfy people who have already read their Captain America this week, but on top of that they are building a fleshed out world.  That is a very hard thing to do.  Many creator-owned comics try to build a world, but it is usually boring as hell to watch while they do it.  So when you read a review of those comics, you’ll see comments like, “I’m going to stick with this through the first arc because I think I like where they are going with these concepts.”  None of that here: You’ll marvel at the world building AND enjoy every panel of comic goodness in Bulletproof Coffin.

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.

Spider-Man Noir #1 – Review

By Fabrice Sapolsky (writer), David Hine (writer), and  Carmine Di Giandomenico (art)

The Story: Welcome to the Great Depression, Peter Parker. In this alternate, hard-broiled mystery (whatever that means) themed version of Spider-Man, Peter and his Aunt May are socialist rabble-rousers who run a soup kitchen during the greatest economic collapse of modern history. Peter’s world is ruled by a mysterious criminal called the Goblin and his crew of henchmen which include alternate takes of the Vulture and Kraven. True to his origin’s, Peter’s motivation for justice is fueled by the murder of his Uncle Ben. However, his youthful idealism is poised to lead him to a premature reunion with his Uncle until Ben Ulrich steps rescues him from Goblin’s gang and then takes him under his wing.

What’s Good: The pacing of the story is really well done by the introduction of an eclectic cast of characters through tight dialogue and an interesting interocular in Ben Ulrich. The character designs are mostly great. For example, the Vulture, who looks like the silent film era Dracula, is down right horrifying. Also, Spider-Man’s costume is both novel and cool.

I’m a fan of Carmine Di Giandomenico’s art from his work on Magneto: Testament and he doesn’t disappoint in this series. I guess his art excels in poverty and harsh settings as both these series offer similar atmospheres. His work appeals me to not for his technical prowess, but rather for his unique, indie feel towards setting and characters while retaining traditional structure.

What’s Not So Good: Peter Parker comes across one dimensional and that one dimension is constipational grumpiness. I guess the idea here is to get rid of the sweet, good-natured Peter Parker and replace him with an edgy and angry teen. The problem with this substitution is that it’s hard to actually like this series’ Peter as he is not at all endearing, but rather very annoying.  His facial expression is the same snarl in almost every panel that features only him.

My other chief complaint is that there is not enough Spider-Man in this issue. This is a Spider-Man title, right? How come we only get like three pages of ol’ Spidey and only one line from him where he uses the word “fellers”?

Conclusion: Overall, this is a good start to an interesting series.  However, I don’t see how this Noir series will appeal to anyone save the die-hard Spider-Man fans. At the same time, I’m sufficiently drawn enough to want to see where a few plot lines go, which is more than I was expecting when I bought this issue.

Grade: B

-Rob G