Aquaman Annual #1 – Review

By: John Ostrander (story), Geraldo Borges & Netho Diaz (pencils), Ruy Jose, Allen Martinez, JP Mayer, Mariah Benes, Oclair Albert, Julio Ferreira, Jay Leisten (inks), Rod Reis & Hi-Fi (colors)

The Story: The Others must race to stop a witch from saving the world.

The Review: Here’s a fun fact: Ostrander nearly shares my mother’s birth year, month, and is just shy of the day.  That definitely funks up the way I think of his writing.  I mean, do I really want someone my mother’s age to be writing comics for ostensibly a new generation of readers?  Not that it can’t be done.  Jim Shooter did a bang-up job on the Three-boot volume of Legion of Super-Heroes, and he’s only a couple years younger than Ostrander—and my mother.

On the other hand, I haven’t been all that impressed with Ostrander’s recent DC work, which makes me all the gladder that it’s only occasional.  While the premises of his stories are usually solid, his heavy-handed execution definitely reveals his age, or so it seems to me.  Under his pen, Aquaman and the Others seem a little too prone to theatrics; they’re blunter, louder, more melodramatic than their introverted personalities would support.

Wonder Woman #23.1: Cheetah – Review

By: John Ostrander (story), Victor Ibáñez (artist), Wil Quintana (colors)

The Story: Eat your heart out, fellas; this lady’s on the prowl.

The Review: If you ever want proof positive of Wonder Woman’s maligned status in the DCU, look no further than the Cheetah.  Superman gets evil geniuses, Batman sadistic madmen, and Wonder Woman a crazed lady in jungle-cat body-paint (which admittedly beats out a debutante in an actual cheetah outfit, but the point stands).  It’s not as if efforts haven’t been made to bolster Cheetah’s rep, but like her nemesis, she’s often the victim of writers who don’t get her.

There have been decent, even very fine stories featuring the Cheetah, but none that have had the lasting power and influence of Lex Luthor in All-Star Superman or the Joker in The Killing Joke.  Ostrander’s Villains Month offering falls within the general gamut of Cheetah tales: interesting, respectable, but strangely tame in comparison to the complicated portraits of her male peers.  It feels as though Ostrander brushes up against some potentially compelling material for the feline villain, but he ultimately fails to drag them into the light.

Aquaman #20 – Review

By: John Ostrander (story), Manuel Garcia (pencils), Sandra Hope, Rob Hunter, Ray McCarthy, Wayne Faucher (inks), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: Oddly, a girl who sees dead people is not the strangest member of the Others.

The Review: One of the best concepts Geoff Johns introduced on his run here has been Aquaman’s first team effort, the Others.  Johns not only managed to give each member a well-defined personality and design, he also gave them a strong team dynamic, as if they really had worked together for years.  Their intimacy was so convincing that it was kind of bittersweet to see them part ways when it was so tempting to give them a title of their own.

In this issue, Ostrander sort of tests the viability of the Others as characters in their own right, without Aquaman as their center.  Indeed, here Arthur seems more like a featured player in his own title.  Despite being their de facto leader (though the Operative may disagree with that assertion), he comes to them as someone asking his friends to do him a big favor, one he’s not yet comfortable presenting to his current team.  He stands equal to the Others, which in turn boosts their own standing.

WCBR Quick Hit Reviews – Week of 12/15/2010

Sometimes we get a few more comics than we can review in full, so here are the balance of the comics read by the WCBR staff, some good, and some pretty bad.

Thunderbolts #151 – This was a great little story that tells the origin of Ghost (for those who care of such things).  Again, Jeff Parker smashes an incredible amount of story into a normal sized comic.  Goodness do I wish he could rub off on some of his fellow Marvel creators (e.g. Fraction, Matt).  At the end, you’re crystal clear on why Ghost hates corporations and you really don’t blame him.  Very nice art by Kev Walker! Grade: B+ — Dean Stell

Doc Macabre #1 – Why buy this odd horror comic from IDW?  Well, it is drawn by Bernie Wrightson and that is reason enough for me.   Wrightson is a Hall of Fame-level comic artist who still has his fastball.  This comic looks great!  As for the story, it is about some young ghost hunter guy (Doc Macabre) who uses his wizardry and gadgets to get rid of ghosts and zombies for money.  Story is entertaining, but nothing spectacular.  Worth buying if you love beautiful sequential art.  Grade: B — Dean Stell

Captain America: Man Out of Time #2 – By Mark Waid (writer), Jorge Molina (pencils), Karl Kesel (inks), Frank D’Armata (colors), VC’s Joe Sabino (letters) I’m already on record as loving the premise of this book, and this issue has me loving the execution right along with it. Although Cap’s wild and rather exaggerated mood swings could have very easily come across as silly or out of character, Waid brings out just the right note in each episode to not only keep them realistic, but to use them to reinforce Steve Rogers’ essential humanity. (After all, who WOULDN’T go just a little bit nuts after being unfrozen, time-traveled, and brought face to face with an alien in the same two or three hour time span!) Special note has to be taken of the short but very sweet scene where Cap discovers his personal proof that he is not trapped in a dream. Moments like that, while possible in other mediums, are what make comics so special. A perfect marriage of a single, powerful static image and piece of dialog that packs (a rather unexpected) emotional punch. Very well done, and well worth picking up.  Grade: B — SoldierHawk

Secret Six #23 – Review

by John Ostrander (writer), RB Silva (pencils), Alexandre Palamaro (inks), Jason Wright (colors), and Travis Lanham (letters)

The Story: The Secret Six are lured to a game preserve where they are the prey.

What’s Good: Once you get past the fact that this issue is out of continuity, which in fairness, it’s pretty open about, this is a solid issue from returning guest writer John Ostrander, even if it’s a concept that’s been done many times before.  If anything, this questionable originality is in itself done with a wink and nod: the issue is titled “Predators,” perhaps a reference to the movie coming out this weekend, which looks to have a similar plot.  So really, this is Ostrander plugging the Six into a Predator movie, which is guaranteed fun on concept alone.

The hunters are written in amusing fashion as well; Ostrander seems intent on having them sound like gamers.  While it’s never over-bearing, there’s something in their tone and vernacular that reminds me strongly of the Mountain Dew drinking, profane crowd one often finds playing the newest shooter online.  That Ostrander applies video game lingo to a deadly game of murder is a nice touch of black humour.

I also must mention that while Ostrander does well with all of the characters, Ragdoll is absolute comedy gold.  Every single line he utters is genuinely funny.  It’s that perfect mixture of the bizarre, the depraved, and the innocence that defines the character.  Best of all, though, are when Ostrander inserts pop culture references into Radoll’s raving, which makes it all the funnier.  I never thought I’d hear Ragdoll make a Lost joke.

Overall, this issue is a celebration of the Secret Six.  It’s not a complex plot, but it’s wholly dedicated to making the Secret Six look like absolutely unstoppable badasses, which is refreshing given their low name value and relatively low power level.  It’s clear quite quickly that the hunters are in over their heads and when the Six decide to get even, things get very, very brutal.  As in, Bane ripping off limbs and beating people to death.

Though a mixed bag at some point, Silva’s art generally does the job.  The island looks good and the characters, when in costume, are vibrant and “characterful.”  Ragdoll’s face is also really, really well-done and it’s clear that Silva had the most fun with him.

Suicide Squad #67 – Review

by Gail Simone & John Ostrander (writers), J. Calafiore (art), Jason Wright (colors), and Swands (letters)

The Story: It’s Suicide Squad vs. Secret Six as Amanda Waller decides she wants Deadshot back and won’t take no for an answer.

What’s Good: As an issue of Secret Six, this really is a lot of fun.  There’s a scene that brings the bizarre Bane/Scandal relationship to new heights, as Bane interrogates Scandal’s date and essentially acts like the girlfriend father from hell.  Meanwhile, Ragdoll of all people finds himself in the hilariously awkward position of being the voice of reason.  The entire scene is absolute gold, largely because of how deadpan Bane is through it all.

This month also marks the first time we see Black Alice in action as a full member of the team, and sure enough, she fits quite nicely, bringing a brash, utterly unsubtle element to the team.  Simone and Ostrander also bring back her diary narration, which is just as fun as last month.  Her perceptions of her new teammates are all really enjoyable, particularly her summary of Jeanette.

Secret Six #15 – Review

by John Ostrander (writer), J. Calafiore (artist), Jason Wright (colorist), Sean Ryan (editor)

The Story: Deadshot is having some problems. He’s having control issues with his homicidal tendencies. So he calls in an old confidante and has a chat. The story follows themes back and forth in time, to his formative years and to his first meeting with Batman. The only question is: Does he get his control back? Given the history of Deadshot and of the Secret Six, we really shouldn’t be sure about anything.

What’s Good: This story compels from beginning to end. Ostrander obviously knows what Deadshot is about and what his demons are. We get to look over his shoulder through this whole issue. DC has been doing a number of these stand-alone, single-character examinations lately and has been doing a good job. I liked the confidante character, who is someone we probably need to take us through Deadshot’s tortured past and see it with normal eyes. I also like the parallels he found in everything that Deadshot brought to the table.

On the art side, J. Calafiore really makes me love this book and I’m really happy that he’ll be back for issue 17 as well. Calafiore also has a good sense of how Deadshot needs to be shown on the page and the right camera angles to show bullets, blood, close ups, blood, sinister expressions, and blood. He’s not perfect, but I never got comfortable with Nicola Scott and Doug Hazlewood, so Calafiore is an improvement in my opinion. The sort of plastic feel that Scott and Hazlewood established has softened into something much warmer and more human here. The postures are more natural and the layouts tell a lot of story on their own.

What’s Not So Good: Some of Calafiore’s art is still a bit rough. The expressions he uses to show emotions are sometimes stiff. Considering how many people get shot in the head in this book, I also would have responded better to an artist able to show nerveless bodies responding to gravity. The falling corpses here shared the same stiffness I saw in the expressions.

As a stand-alone interlude, this book works, but it felt a bit detached from the series. Deadshot refers to story elements that happened almost a year ago, but he and the Secret Six are just coming off of a pretty traumatic experience with the slavers that nearly split them apart only an issue ago. This and the blunt ending, leading into nothing, make me believe that although this story is fun for the SS and Deadshot fans, the casual readers have an excuse to not get it, because it won’t have any effect on the continuity. I hope this is a minor point, but considering that Secret Six is hovering around 25,000 in circulation through Diamond (direct sales, doesn’t include subscriptions), DC maybe shouldn’t be taking too many reflective moments and should jump back into the action and the multi-book arcs.

Conclusion: This is a good, bloody character study for Deadshot fans and Secret Six Lovers, but it didn’t make itself a “must-buy”.

Grade: C

-DS Arsenault