Zatanna #16 – Review

By: Adam Beechen (writer), Victor Ibáñez (artist), Ego (colorist)

The Story: What’s a girl got to do to get some freakin’ sleep around here?

The Review: I notice there’s been a recent uptick in the number of reviews where I discuss common story formulas and plot devices, which seem to be on the swell in DC lately.  It makes a fair bit of sense.  With most of the creative energies flowing into the upcoming relaunch (ten days and counting!), and the majority of titles spending their remaining issues on fill-in one-shots, you can’t exactly expect boat-rocking narratives or ideas.

Here we have another old plot structure: a character wants something, and things get in her way.  In Zatanna’s case, all she wants is something most of us working/studying stiffs can identify with: some good ol’ shut-eye—whatever that is.  In a way, the premise highlights a fairly significant logistical question in the world of comics: when do heroes sleep?  They work all day in their secret identities, and most of them operate as vigilantes at night.  That’s no way to live.

But Zee, like many of us, makes a determined attempted to have it all, even in spite of the antics from a certain teal-skinned lad from Limbo Town.  Of course I mean Uriah, smooth-talking peer to the more famous Limbonite, Klarion the Witch Boy.  Aside the absence of a feline familiar, Uriah serves as a pretty close analogue to Klarion: both are young, unnaturally eloquent lads of bratty disposition, who use their formidable magic to get what they want any way they can.

Uriah’s powers also prevents Zee from putting how down too easily as he worms his way into Shadowcrest under false pretenses, then proceeds to punk “one of the seven or eight most important magical items in any universe” from her tremendous library.  Thus ensues a chase across weird worlds, strange lands, and parallel dimensions, offering us a mere glimpse of the extraordinary life Zatanna must live on a daily basis.

The Spirit #14 – Review

By: Matthew Sturges (writer), Victor Ibáñez (artist), Ego (colorist)

The Story: Make no mistake, kids: collecting comics pays!

The Review: Even though The Spirit is of the old-school pulp/noir tradition, meaning it’s ostensibly a detective series at its heart, the actual detective work has been rather light on this run so far.  David Hine made up for it by crafting tense dramas, where the mystery comes from the depth of the characters rather than the salient features of the plot.  Still, it’d be quite a missed opportunity to not have the Spirit put his gumshoes back on at some point.

Sturges uses his one-shot, fill-in opportunity to full advantage by taking our hero back to his detective roots, which not only pays homage to the Spirit’s original conception, but also to the comics medium as a whole.  Making a comic book writer (with a resemblance to Will Eisner himself—even the name, Lou Schleicher, has a familiar ring) and his “art” collection the heart of this issue not only sets up a fun premise, but speaks on what makes comics so beloved.

The trail of clues begins and leads along in old-school fashion: a dying man’s cryptic words, the hint in his unfinished work, the “red herring” (literally), and the answer right under your nose.  The Spirit pieces them together in a fashion only an astute comics fan like him can (you can’t see Batman making these connections, brilliant as he is), so you not only feel the usual triumph that comes with these “mystery solved” moments, you also feel a rare sense of delight as well.

Our villains are mostly forgettable thugs (with shocking taste in what they consider art, seeing what they attempt to do to Mr. Schleicher’s treasures), but no Spirit comic would be complete without a compelling and bodacious broad, which Alabaster Cream definitely is.  Sturges basically takes Bettie Page, an idol who influenced pin-ups the way Eisner did comics, puts her in glasses, and makes her a comics geek.  It’s a character conception that couldn’t possibly fail, both disgustingly clever and fitting all at the same time.

Solid as Sturges’ script, it’s really Ibáñez’s art that makes this issue a comic of the highest caliber.  DC should get smart and sign him immediately, because his work is what gives comic book art a good name.  The level of detail he packs into each panel makes the Spirit’s world come alive almost cinematically.  Just look at the props he puts into Alabaster’s mess-cat apartment: the Batman Lego figurine, a Dr. Fate cosplay helmet, the bear charm on her keychain.  It’s worth mentioning he actually gives you two fully-developed, totally different kinds of art in this issue: one for the Spirit’s running story, and one for Mr. Schleicher’s Strongman comics.