Prophet #24 – Review

By: Brandon Graham (writer), Farel Dalrymple (art), Joseph Bergin, III (colors), Ed Brisson (letters)

The Story: Will a new artist affect the magic of Prophet?

Recap/Review (with mild SPOILERS): The first three issues of Prophet since the relaunch have been magical.  But…we all know how touchy a thing success and momentum in comics can be, so it was going to be very curious to see if Prophet could seamlessly weather an art change at this early phase of the story.

With Simon Roy moving out and Farel Dalrymple coming in, the comic doesn’t really miss a beat.  Given my druthers, I probably prefer the slightly more expansive storytelling of Roy, but Dalrymple is working in much the same vibe and style and less observant readers probably won’t even notice the change.

Similarly, the story keeps chugging along just fine.  Granted, after the BIG revelation at the end of Prophet #23, this is a very different tale.  No longer is this story taking place on a future Earth as we see the action shift to a far-away planet and a new and different John Prophet.  Mysteries abound and writer Graham seems to be in no hurry to explain anything.  The reader gets exposed to information and knowledge at the same pace as Prophet, so we really don’t know what’s going on as he traverses this bizarre, abandoned space station.

Fantastic Four #600 – Review

By: Jonathan Hickman (writer), Steve Epting, Rick Magyar, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Ming Doyle, Leinil Francis Yu & Farel Dalrymple (line art), Paul Mounts, Andy Troy, Jordie Bellaire, Javier Tartaglia & Jose Villarrubia (colors), Clayton Cowles (letters), Lauren Sankovitch & Tom Brevoort (editor) 

The Story: Marvel gives their first family a 100-page, $7.99 extravaganza featuring lots of cosmic action and the return of a familiar face…

Five Things:  [SPOILER WARNING]

1. ________ is back!  I purposely omitted the name because it seems kinda douchey to give a SPOILER WARNING and then put Johnny Storm’s name in bold right below.  But, he’s back!  And, he’s back in a new and improved way after his time in the Negative Zone.  This is really no surprise and given the Marvel often brings characters back a month after they “die” (Bucky) it is probably a huge show of restraint that they let Johnny be presumed dead for ~9 whole months.  If you’re a Marvel hater, you could work up a lot of rage about the cheap ploy of killing someone (but not really) and then milking that death in press releases before the death, releasing a ploy-bagged issue on Tuesday and then having special issues honoring Johnny in the immediate aftermath.  But….I’m glad to have him back, especially in the way that Hickman handles his return.  Speaking of that……

2. We learn about _______’s experiences in the Negative Zone.  I mostly loved this section where we learned that Johnny wasn’t really dead.  He was just held captive by Annihilus and forced to fight in gladiator matches alongside some Universal Inhumans and where he has died multiple times only to be restored by that nasty Annihilus.  The whole thing was really nicely done.  It showed Johnny’s pain at being there, his unwillingness to give up, the fact that Annihilus has his number, etc.  Really good stuff.  The only quibble I have is that the story added 2 pages to the moments before Johnny’s “death” with him talking to Ben Grim through the closed portal.  The original “death” was soooo nicely done with Ben feeling grief stricken, Johnny being brave, etc., so this added scene just cheapened it.

3. Kree, Inhumans, Annihilus, other Inhumans…..  I have to admit that this part of the plot is getting away from me.  While I’m actually reading it, I think it’s cool, but then when I sit down to type a review a whole 6 hours later….I really can’t remember many of the details and that tells you the story is too complex because none of it is sticking.  I actually blame the artists for this.  Comics are a visual medium and none of the artists who’ve worked on FF the last few months have nailed a scene from this complex plot such that it’s burned into your brain.

Omega: The Unknown #9 – Review

Jonathan Lethem and Karl Rusnak (Writers) and Farel Dalrymple (Artist)

Okay, I tend to lurk around the periphery of comic fandom, so someone will have to tell me: Is there any “buzz” around this book? Any? At all? [The Answer is ‘No.’ – Jason] Because it seems that there isn’t. Which is odd, considering it’s written by Jonathan Lethem and features a character created by Steve Gerber. Indifference to Lethem I can understand—he’s only famous in the quote unquote real world—but there was a time when Steve Gerber was the most celebrated writer in comics.

Gerber is kind of like Woody Allen: Even if you were there at the time, it’s hard to appreciate how revolutionary his work was back in the 70’s. Or maybe an analogy to Philip K. Dick would be more appropriate. Of all the comics being written at the time, only Gerber’s came close to the wild and unmoored Phildickian point of view. But Gerber didn’t doubt existence was real; he just doubted it had a point. “Absurd” and “mundane” were his two favorite adjectives. As far as Gerber was concerned, those were your only choices. “Meaningful” wasn’t on the menu.

In 1975, Gerber (along with Mary Skrenes) introduced Omega in what I consider one of the best first issues ever. The title character, a Superman-like figure, narrowly escapes the destruction of his home planet, pursued by one-eyed alien cyborgs. The cyborgs are also after an Earthling, an intellectual 12-year-old named James-Michael Starling. Like Omega, Starling is dark-haired, mysterious, and has the ability to shoot bolts of force from his hands when threatened. Also, it turns out his parents are robots. It was a great start to a series that quickly went downhill. In the last issue, number 10, Omega gained the dubious distinction of becoming the only super-hero to be shot to death by the police.

So what’s this new book about? I wish I could tell you. There’s a new Omega, who looks like a kid in his older brother’s pajamas. There are people without hands, hands without people, walking junk piles, heads with no bodies, and more midgets and misfits than a David Lynch movie. But the characters all wander around looking confused and slightly nauseous. There’s no passion, none of the snarky outrage that made Gerber so much fun to read.

Lethem and/or Rusnak try hard to capture his spirit, God bless them. Take this exposition that runs irreverently alongside a fight scene: “Kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten. Engulf and devour. Don’t play with your food. What makes you think you’re exempt from this special, one-time offer? The ‘Individual’ is one of our preferred marketing categories.” That’s pure Gerber right there.

But it just doesn’t work. I’ve studied this book carefully, trying to figure out why. It’s not the unfocussed plot, or goofy characters like the Mink, or Dalrymple’s art (which, frankly, is sometimes painful to look at). The problem is Lethem. Like many prose writers, he just doesn’t get the medium of comics. His dialogue doesn’t flow from one panel to the next. It’s as if he and Dalrymple are telling two different stories. Worse, his characters don’t take themselves seriously. Gerber understood that no matter how crazy things get, if the reader can’t see himself—see real people—in what he’s reading, then the story is dead in the water. Lethem and Dalrymple are trying, I can see that, and I give them credit. But it just doesn’t work. (Grade: C-)

– Andrew C. Murphy