Uber #9 – Review

By: Kieron Gillen (writer), Caanan White (pencils), Joseph Silver (inks), Michael Dipascale (colors) and Kurt Hathaway (letters)

The Story: The Soviets turn the tide on the Eastern front.

The Review (with SPOILERS): This was another very solid issue for the series.  As with the whole series (and I’ve said this before), it remains much more of a war-comic rather than an alt-superhero comic.  I feel like I need to keep pointing that out because we’ve gotten so many World War II comics featuring superheroes (like Captain America or the Invaders or Hellboy or whoever) and then there are the “clever” comics/characters (like Red Son, Red Skull, etc.) that attempt to show us how the bad guys also wanted superheroes and how the post-War could have been very different.  Uber is decidedly not THAT.  It is not focused on characters, but on the narrative of the War itself.  We do get to know a little about the humans who are turned into super-soldiers, but it’s pretty shallow.  These guys aren’t Captain America where Cap’s origin as a humble, skinny kid are vital to understanding his entire world-view.  These are just disposable human soldiers who are deployed impersonally because war sucks.

Another thing that I loved about this issue is that it shows the series is (probably) going to be pretty faithful to the factual outcome of World War II.  I doubt it’ll be a series where we’ll examine, “What if the Nazis won?”  This issue focuses on the Eastern front of the European Theatre.  Aside from little snippets about the Battle of Stalingrad, the Eastern front doesn’t really enter our Anglo-centric consciousness.  That’s probably because the Allies had their hands full on the Western front, but also because the Soviets were the bad guys and we didn’t really care about what happened to them.  If the Soviets wanted to feed hundreds of thousands of citizens into the Nazi wood-chipper, that was great because it meant that many fewer American and British boys would die.

Threshold #8 – Review

Keith Giffen (Writer), Tom Raney, Phil Winslade, Timothy Green II, Joseph Silver (Artists), Andrew Dalhouse, Hi-Fi (Colorists)

The Story: The Hunted is cancelled and most of the players have to deal with that, Caul included. In the backup, Star Hawkins discovers just who the first player is and why she’s still alive.

The Review: Well, this was different. With the way the story had been going on, I had no idea how Keith Giffen could actually conclude everything and how he would close this very title. I did not have much hope for this to be satisfying, yet there are actually some nice ideas in there that are actually fun.

Going meta-fictional in the very last issue, the show in which Jediah Caul and all the characters takes part is cancelled, which prompts a lot of meta-jokes from the cast and the book itself. Dealing with how the book tried very hard to put new stories and how it accommodated a lot of changes during its tenure, it’s hard not to chuckle a bit during some of the scenes of the book in which Giffen himself seems to admit that he cannot actually conclude this series on a high note and that some subplots will never be resolved. The Blue Beetle scene especially is hilarious, with the author explaining via his characters and the context of the cancelled show why he had been included to begin with.

However, as much as Giffen tries to combine the literal and figurative elements with a touch of metafiction, it does not make it a particularly satisfying ending. Those who had become invested in the actual conflict and the setting will not find a lot to like in this different portrayal found here. In the end, many of the characters developed and their situations don’t add up to much as the story instead focus on Caul and the ephemeral nature of entertainment and fiction.

Animal Man #20 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), John Paul Leon (art), Timothy Green II (pencils), Joseph Silver (inks), Lovern Kindzierski (colors)

The Story: Step aside Daniel Day-Lewis—here comes Buddy Baker.

The Review: Every story, to a certain extent, tends to veer away from its original course somewhere along the way.  In most cases, this is a good thing; it’s a sign that creative energies are at work and the writer is not afraid to let them guide his work.  In some cases, however, a story can get so far off its path that it risks taking a completely different direction altogether, one that might lead it over a cliff.  In these cases, some course correction is necessary.

Animal Man’s problems may have started even before the Rotworld arc, but at some point, the series was no longer the deeply touching and horrifying title we fell in love with.  At some point, it became melodramatic, derivative, and gratuitous, all qualities better left to the raucous plots superhero books rather than one with potential for truly compelling and complex storytelling.  Lemire needs to regroup and center his protagonist once again, lest he totally loses our interest.

Animal Man #17 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire & Scott Snyder (story), Steve Pugh (art), Timothy Green II (pencils), Joseph Silver (inks), Lovern Kindzierski (colors)

The Story: Animal Man and Swamp Thing—reunited, and it feels so good.

The Review: The most disappointing thing about Rotworld has been the fact that at the end of the day, it’s another apocalyptic scenario with humanity on the brink of doom and a bunch of undead shambling around.  Granted, there’s plenty of stories that can be gleaned from that premise, but this title in particular hasn’t done much with it except feature a bunch of those shambling undead in superhero outfits.  Not quite the groundbreaking crossover we hoped for.

Another disappointment was the choice to separate Alec and Buddy, forcing them to find their way back to each other on their own.  Although Alec has accomplished a great deal during his time sojourning the world alone, Buddy, despite his company, has done little to help the war effort by comparison.  This series has already made it clear that Buddy, in the grand scheme of the Red, Green, and Rot, is really a second banana—but did they have to reduce him to sidekick in his own book?

Animal Man #16 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Steve Pugh (art), Timothy Green II (pencils), Joseph Silver (inks), Lovern Kindzierski (colors)

The Story: This time, the Green Lanterns are really going green.

The Review: I generally don’t approve of internet speculation about the whys and wherefores of publishing or writing decisions, but I do love trying to predict what’s coming up next in a story.  With the former, my belief is unless you have a firsthand account of the business, you really have no basis for your theories.  With the latter, your basis is the story itself, as well as the vast ocean of comic book continuity that serves, in legal terms, as both evidence and precedent.

So I was mightily impressed by Ghost of Mars’ theory on my last review of Animal Man that the Lantern trapped beneath Metropolis was Driq of Criq.  For one, I just had to give props for Ghost’s knowledge of the Green Lantern mythos, and for another, considering Driq’s undead nature, it made a lot of sense for the story.  In fact, I could’ve been fairly disappointed by another choice of Lantern, had Lemire not used an even better one.

Animal Man #15 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Steve Pugh (art), Timothy Green II (pencils), Joseph Silver (inks), Lovern Kindzierski (colors)

The Story: So it seems like the monster has become the master—of the monsters.

The Review: Being an ardent follower of both Animal Man and Swamp Thing can be, to use a well-worn cliché, a double-edged sword.  The sharp, shiny side is you have a plot enriched by two titles working together.  The dull, blunted side is dealing with moments where the two books cover the same terrain.  And let’s face it: if you’re reading either one of these series, you’re probably reading both.

That meant dealing with a lot of the same kind of exposition for the early issues of this arc.  Animal Man particularly suffered because Lemire doesn’t have quite the fleetness of language that his writing buddy does and he hasn’t been quite as aggressive with the pacing as he could have been.  Last issue felt like an especially low point for this series as a whole, burdened with more talk than action, and only the barest exploration of what’s left of the Rot-infested world.

Animal Man #14 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Steve Pugh (art), Timothy Green II (pencils), Joseph Silver (inks), Lovern Kindzierski (colors)

The Story: And just when your ruined world can’t get any worse, enter an evil sorcerer.

The Review: I’ll let you in on a little secret: I actually dislike reviewing issues that are mostly fighting sequences—actively dread them, really.  Unless the superpowers involved are fairly spectacular and innovative, I find it very hard to say anything about them.  They tend to reveal more about the artist’s strengths than the writers, and they rarely do much to inform the story, unless of course the characters engage in some awkward exposition in the middle of it all.

And I’ve already made plain my general dissatisfaction with the Rot horde as enemies.  As mindless, one-note creatures, they serve as nothing more than pure cannon fodder, stuff for our heroes to mow down indiscriminately.  Even the Rot-infestees don’t seem all that different from the normal type of Rotling, except for the fact that they wear clothes.  Since they pose so little challenge, it doesn’t take that much effort from Buddy and his gang to slaughter them, and leaving little for me to comment about on the issue’s first act.

Animal Man #13 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Steve Pugh (art), Timothy Green II (pencils), Joseph Silver (inks), Lovern Kindzierski (colors)

The Story: Buddy discovers his world can cross its overpopulation problems off the list.

The Review: One complaint everyone pretty much has about Events from either of the publishers, one I join wholeheartedly on, is how many titles they end up invading.  Sometimes—who am I kidding?—almost all the time, there’s no actual reason to squeeze them into the plot.  But you can’t deny that there’s no better way to give a storyline an epic, important feel.  When one title has a world-spanning conflict no other title notices, why should you do any different?

Such is the rock and hard place we have in Rotworld.  I’m rather charmed that Lemire and Scott Snyder continue to claim that this dystopia their stars have entered is anything more than an alternate reality, as if there’s even a chance none of this grimness will reverse course after several issues.  Can we truly believe that once this arc ends, we’ll have other heroes sitting around, reminiscing about the time Hawkman turned into a deformed, flesh-eating zombie?

Birds of Prey #11 – Review

By: Duane Swierczynski (story), Travel Foreman & Timothy Green II (pencils), Jeff Huet & Joseph Silver (inks), Gabe Eltaeb (colors)

The Story: Poison Ivy’s killer course on how to save the planet.

The Review: Look, none of us are naïve here.  We all know that there are some people in this world who can stand a little killing.  And I’m not talking about the ones who are clearly disturbed, like serial killers or child rapists.  I’m referring to the jags who see you waiting-signaling for a parking space and zip into it anyway, the corporate honchos who do everything short of snatching cash from your hands, the guy who leaves his pee all over the toilet, etc.

But horrible as these folks are, you don’t actually believe they deserve death (at least, I hope not because otherwise I suggest you seek counseling).  It just goes to show that our valuation of human life outweigh a whole slew of awful human behavior.  At the same time, most of us acknowledge somewhat hypocritically that there are things far more important than us.  It’s only when we have to practice that idea that we begin reconsidering our priorities.

Animal Man Annual #1 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Timothy Green (pencils), Joseph Silver (inks), Lovern Kindzierski (colors)

The Story: Socks has a very “unique” idea of what makes a good children’s story, to say the least.

The Review: Most of the annuals we see tend to use the showcase format, offering short pieces by a variety of writers and artists, a mixture of exercises by creative veterans and samples from potential new talent.  Then there’s the other kind of annual: the self-contained interlude, a story which wedges itself between arcs and has some importance in its own right, but with a higher price point which limits how important it can actually be.

Lemire manages this tricky balance by giving you some details which help you understand the bigger story of the “Rise of the Rot,” but which aren’t so crucial that anyone who didn’t buy into the annual would be left out when they picked up their next monthly issue of Animal Man.  And there is no better narrative tool to accomplish all this than the flashback.  Diving into the past avoids any substantial interference with the ongoing action, but it could yield enough revelations to make the reading worthwhile.