Drop Dead Dangerous #0 – Advance Review

By: Chad Cabrera (writer), Mike Banting (artist), Sam Gungon (cover colorist)

The Story: It’s not easy trying to make it as a gumshoe in the Wild West.  It’s even harder when the guy who tried to murder your wife is your newest case.

The Review: Manga is an interesting bird in the world of comics.  Beyond the obvious differences in artistic choices (goggly eyes, leaner, shaggier men, etc., an unashamed love for cuteness) are the huge differences in storytelling.  Easterners tend to dwell on symbols, dragging out layers of meaning in even the most ordinary objects and behaviors.  They’re not shy about using long swaths of exposition, out-of-context jokes, and ideas with no bearing on reality.  Cultural differences sometimes make character behavior and motivation completely inexplicable.

Then you have Drop Dead Dangerous, a weird hybrid trying to inject Western culture into all this.  But manga is a medium that’s been crafted so long by Asians it sometimes almost resists the transfusion.  That’s the case of Drop Dead Dangerous.

This is a zero issue, so the real meat of the story is yet to come, but the set-up Chad Cabrera offers is certainly not groundbreaking, not is it even particularly compelling.  The characters are of your garden variety: the woman-obsessed serial murderer, the traumatized lady victim, the tragic private detective, the orphan seeking companionship…  No matter which side of the ocean you’re from, these are stock fiction archetypes.  They play against each other predictably, doing little to separate themselves from the cliché.

Even though the manga is ostensibly a Western (the cowboys and Injuns kind, not the policies and social values of the European and North American west kind) there’s really nothing in the writing that fits the genre.  The Jack the Ripper-type villain and his pursuing P.I. are more pulp or noir figures, and there’s no sense of the machismo, solitude, or lawlessness that really drives the drama of the Western.  The style of the narration and characters comes off too sentimental and melodramatic to convince you this is frontier country.

Freedom Formula: Ghost of the Wasteland #1 (of 5) – Advance Review

By Edmund Shern (writer), Chester Ocampo and Kai (art)

This isn’t a book I’d normally buy. Frankly, there was nothing in the promos that led me to believe this would appeal to my tastes. I’d gone through a manga phase years ago, and I could hardly see how something that’s “manga inspired” could be fun. I mean, if I want the real thing, I’ll go buy it, right? Then there’s the racing element. I can’t stand the Asian racing scene, Nascar, or crap like Initial D. It’s stupid and frankly, a waste of gas. Talk about polluting the atmosphere. Anyway, with all these negatives going against this title, I braced myself for the worst.

Radical now has a proven track record of quality titles. If you haven’t read Hercules or Caliber, you should. Freedom Formula, however, has the most potential to be the company’s break out title. The book has manga driven elements that’ll appeal to younger readers’ tastes, while keeping that post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk feel that had us Gen X’ers loving Akira back in the day.

This first issue does a lot of “rule setting”, laying down the ground work of what’s to come. It’s a bleak future, yet one of hope. Wars have ravaged the planet for years, but finally the world is at peace. The popular ruling sport consists of drivers racing around in modified military mechs. If there’s no more war, you might as well use them for something right? Zee, the protagonist, is what people call a Wastelander. He’s never been to the city, but on his father’s dying request he reluctantly makes his way toward Los Petropolis with a parcel in hand. Everything that happens next harkens back to the old adage of “being at the wrong place at the wrong time” (or right time), as Zee gets himself in a load of trouble.

What I enjoyed is how writer Edmund Shern takes his time with the story. Sure, it gets us from the Wastelands to bustling city of Los Petropolis very quickly, but we get a good glimpse of what’s gone on before and what the world is like now. The only thing that doesn’t work is the abrupt ending of the issue. If the creative team had given us one more page to wrap things up into a cliffhanger, it would have been fine.

Chester Ocampo and Kai do fantastic work. I have no idea what these two artists did before, but what they do here is quite impressive. And while I disagree with their panel choices and high use of negative space in the first five pages, the rest of the book does a great job of showcasing their storytelling and artistic skills. It’s definitely manga inspired, and old Zee could easily be mistaken for Kaneda (from Akira), but there’s also a Steve Epting like quality to their work that adds a strong sense of depth and drama. The double page splash of Los Petropolis’ skyline will floor you.

Don’t let the manga inspired look deter you. I know it’s easy to look at this book and think “style over substance”, but I digress. You can have both. This title along with Radical’s other offerings are evident of that.  (Grade: B)

– J. Montes

Spider-Man Family #7 – Review

By: Karl Kesel, Todd Dezago, Mark Waid (story), Karl Kesel (art), Val Staples (colors)

This issue of Spider-Man Family is a loving tribute to Mike Wieringo. Many of the writers he’s worked with in the past have come back for this special issue to craft a story that very much centers around Wieringo’s kindred spirit. So, don’t expect something emotional and heavy – this story is completely light-hearted.

The title of the story says it all – “Looter’s Quest” is a 30-page globe trotting adventure featuring about one of Spidey’s most ridiculous foes. The Looter is completely obsessed with finding the “twin” meteorite that matches the one that gave him his powers. Why? Because he wants to be smarter (and probably a more intelligent villain). Spider-Man catches on to his plot and follows him from place to place, yet the Looter somehow manages to outwit him time and again!

Giving nods  Mike Wieringo, we’re treated to many of the characters he worked on such as Spider-Man (duh), Doctor Strange, and the Fantastic Four. As you can imagine, it’s silly and full of cheese. While this story may not win any awards, but its sentiment is heartfelt.

As for the other stories, well, they’re nothing too special. We have a reprinting of Venom #1 by David Michelinie and Mark Bagley, Spider-Man: Death & Destiny #1, and another installment of Spider-Man J – the manga version of Spider-Man. Priced at $4.99, Spider-Man Family weighs in at a hefty 104 pages, which if you think about it, is a bargain. (Grade: B-)

-J. Montes