Big Trouble in Little China #1 – Review

By: John Carpenter & Eric Powell (Story), Eric Powell (Writer), Brian Churilla (Artist), Michael Garland (Color Artist), Ed Dukeshire (Letterer)

The Story:
妖魔大鬧小神州, of course

The Review:
“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover,” they say. In this case, however, you should absolutely judge this book by its cover. Or, at least, it’s basic, non-alternate cover, which is clearly evocative to the original Big Trouble in Little China and how it exemplifies cult action-adventure films from the 80s. From the title’s font/logo, to characters’ arrangement, to the lighting and texture and caricature, it’s a pleasingly retro homage.

Inside, the caricature continues, with the figures looking cartoony enough for a MAD Magazine story, yet without degenerating into demeaning exaggeration or stereotypes. Or at least, not relying on them. It’s an interesting choice– it helps keep the humorous tone, establishes close ties to the original movie, and, yes, even dates itself a little bit. Speaking of which, I wonder that is also supposed to be the effect of the same-ness of all the dialogue bubbles. They seem to all be the same shape/dimensions regardless of size or position, which again makes things seem more like a MAD Magazine strip but also a bit stale and undynamic.

As the cover suggests, this is a sequel to the movie, and in fact, it picks up merely seconds after the film ends. A hell-beast has followed Jack Burton home (or at least, to his big rig) but not for the reasons you’d expect, which brings him back to Little China/San Francisco where supernatural gangs continue to plague the lives of his friends. It all makes the story feel very “real” as a genuine part of Jack Burton’s story (even if it’s been many years since I’ve seen the movie) but it somewhat relies on the film to have done all the heavy lifting for its characters and their inter-relationships. A little exposition would have been nice, especially if this is to capture a feeling of “new” just as much as it’s trying to be the next chapter of “before.”

The only bit of new character/world building comes from Jack Burton’s 3-page recount of his second marriage, complete with a comicbook-style flashback that takes advantage of artistic montage. In just this brief moment, we get see/read about Mexican bikers, bat-faced luchadores, giant Día de Los Muetros heads, and Babylonian demi-gods in Nebraska. Now THAT sounds fun and offers genuinely new weirdness, but it’s too brief and quite tangential to any other plot development.

Secret #1 – Review

By: Jonathan Hickman (writer), Ryan Bodenheim (artist), Michael Garland (colors) & Rus Wooton (letters)

The Story: Conspiracies, secrets, duplicity and some good, old-fashioned torture.

Review: [SPOILER WARNING] This issue does precisely what a #1 issue needs to do: Compel you to buy the second issue!  That’s no small challenge in this comic market where despite pathetic sales (Avengers is selling under 60K issues/month), there is still a lot of product being produced.  Comics are expensive and you don’t find any of the hardcore fans (with large pull lists) that aren’t looking to reduce the number of comics they read.  That makes it a tall order for a new #1. It has to either demand that a fan adds marginal money/time to their monthly comics budget OR drop some other title.  It’s Darwinian out there and I think Hickman has a potential winner!

The thing that pushes this comic into the “compelling” category is its hard edge.  There’s nothing niftier about the conspiracies, motives and basic subject matter of this issue than a comic like Thief of Thieves #1.  Both comic stories deal with theft and double crosses and both feature quality art, yet Secret should remain on more pull lists that ToT because of this hard edge.  ToT is soft; Secret is hard.

Hickman wisely starts the action with a big hook: man held captive in his own home by mystery assailant.  Who is this guy?  What does he want?  And most importantly, what is he going to do with the pliers?  BOOM!  Right there, the hook is set because the assailant is compelling.  The reader wants to know what could this poor man could know that requires the use of pliers!

The assailant looms over the entire first issue.  Later, when we learn that the tortured man has only kinda complied with his orders, you kinda flip out.  You want to shake the dude and say, “Do you want THAT MAN to come back?  Or come visit your daughter at college?  My god man!  Just do what he says!”  It’s hard to get that gut-level, emotional reaction in a comic book, but Hickman nailed it here.  He has us hooked for the period of time required to tell the first bit of the story in a way that he wouldn’t if he hadn’t used the pliers.  Take away the pliers as a figurative representation of the limits the comic will go to and this comic goes into the “waiting for the trade” or (in this digital age) the “I’ll come back if people say it’s awesome” pile.