Voodoo #6 – Review

By: Josh Williamson (writer), Sami Basri (artist), Jessica Kholinne (colorist)

The Story: My only advice to you, Voodoo, is talk it out before you walk it out.

The Review: It’s always intriguing when these creative shake-ups happen in comics.  Sure, the reasons why someone departs from a project can have a lot of drama (see John Rozum’s exit from Static Shock), but to me it’s more interesting to look at who’s being brought in to replace him, and why.  Maybe this is only a DC thing—though I tend to doubt it—but I’m amazed by how frequently their titles lose great writers, only to get filled in by terribly mediocre ones.

Perhaps it’s a bit too soon and too harsh to say so now, but Voodoo seems to be one of those cases.  True, it’s not like Ron Marz was a particularly visionary storyteller on this title.  And I certainly understand, given Williamson’s success on Xenoholics, why someone might have thought it’d be a good idea to bring him in to this sci-fi, alien-populated series.  But when you think of the general tone of Xenoholics, which many have described as “quirky,” “tongue-in-cheek,” or “a white trash CONTACT,” it’s clear Williamson’s sensibilities are completely at odds with the extraterrestrial thriller Marz had been going for all along.

For those of you who weren’t convinced last issue, the dialogue has indeed taken a permanent turn for the worse.  If you can, take a look at this issue’s cover (courtesy of Paulo Siqueira and Rod Reis), and pay attention to the characters’ faces.  Despite the fact Voodoo, Black Jack, and Fallon are all battle-hardened, highly experienced soldiers who take a licking and keep on ticking, they all sport the same childishly astonished expressions at the rain of rubble around them.  That same inappropriate immaturity has infected their speech.

At one point, Black Jack and Fallon’s banter reads like the preening of two middle-school boys trying to sound like high school gangsters: “Just because you’re back in armor doesn’t mean you got skills, desk jockey.”  “Oh, yeah?  Watch me go bust out our prisoner!”  If that isn’t out of character enough, Williamson also seems to forget that “Skinny” (the hybrid Daemonite from #3) is in fact a no-nonsense, practically brooding alien sergeant, choosing instead to play up his redneck appearance: “You dummy!  You can’t go running to the war council thinking they will save you.  They’re still gonna punish you!  Hahahahahaha[!]”

Voodoo #5 – Review

By: Josh Williamson (writer), Sami Basri (artist), Jessica Kholinne (colorist)

The Story: Don’t be hating on me, brother—we’re all of the same people, right?

The Review: I think it’s only right that I tell you how much I hate research.  When I studied journalism in college, that was always my least favorite part of the writing process.  I’d read the news, and enjoy that, but I hated the meticulousness of having to sift through mountains of information to find the details I needed.  And now that life’s gotten so busy, I don’t even keep up with the news very well.

So it should be to no one’s surprise that I had no idea a new writer was taking over this title from Ron Marz up until I got this issue.  It hardly mattered, though; I could tell, just from reading through the first half, that something was amiss.  The thought that kept running through my head was, Man, Marz is having something of an off day, isn’t he?  So it goes without saying that the change in writing doesn’t feel like it’s for the better.

First off, Williamson is a great deal more liberal in his use of narration than Marz ever was.  Williamson fills whole panels with text, mostly exposition.  More problematically, he gives it all a whiny, plaintive tone this series never sported before now.  You can hear it wafting from Fallon’s recounting of her background: “Things were easier when I was a Black Razor.  Becoming the FBI liaison and tracking down extraterrestrial threats looked like a promotion.  Not I see it was really a punishment.  This job was my whole life.”

The dialogue has gotten more emotionally charged, too.  Marz always impressed me with his choice to make the cast as restrained in expressing their emotions as possible.  Whether you’re talking Voodoo or Agent Fallon or even Green Lantern, nearly every character on this series is a soldier or peace officer of some kind, so holding back their true feelings made a lot of sense.  I don’t know if this is Williamson’s style or if it’s the climactic nature of the issue, but it seems like everyone has decided to let all their inside stuff out: “You’re an abomination!  You must be annihilated!”  “You will not ruin…my mission!”  “Are you insane?!”  “All this power the Black Razors gave me—all that I can do—and I can’t stop a single woman half my size?!”