Flashpoint: The Canterbury Cricket – Review

By: Mike Carlin (writer), Rags Morales (penciller), Rick Bryant (inker), Nei Ruffino (colorist)

The Story: We’re going to need a real big can of bug repellent

The Review: Originality is hard to come by in fiction nowadays.  To even grasp at the tail end of novelty, writers need the guts to plunge into the weirdness pool and fish out whatever fresh ideas they can get.  Done right, those ideas can move beyond the strangeness of their conception and produce a great story on their own right.  Otherwise, you just get a hodgepodge of promising details that never gel their potential together into anything substantial.

That’s much the case with the Canterbury Cricket, an undoubtedly odd character with an equally bizarre origin.  But for all its weirdness, the retelling of how he came into existence is strangely unarresting, and it takes up the vast majority of the issue.  On the day of the Amazon invasion into Britain, chauvinist Jeramey Chriqui takes refuge in the Canterbury Cathedral, which the warrior women destroy.  From the ashes rises a shockingly well-mannered cricket-man, a transformation he claims is as divine as the place where it takes place.

Vaguely interesting, but sluggishly told, then unwisely followed up by a pointless anecdote about his first team-up effort.  Again, Carlin presents an idea that’s far more intriguing in theory than execution: a group of “Ambush Bugs,” whose roll call includes all the insect-themed heroes and villains in the DCU: Queen Bee, the Cockroach, Firefly, and Blue Beetle.  We don’t see how the group gathers, nor do we have a firm handle on their goals, other than to annoy the Amazons, which they carry out rather ineptly, resulting in their near-immediate defeat.

Cricket tells his sorry tale to some present-day members of the British resistance, a group whose most recognizable figure is the crusty Etrigan, the Demon (“Continue to make that infernal racket / and everything inside that heart / can be skilled from your skin-jacket / all ‘round these wooded parts!”), who leads the hair-extending Godiva, the Creeper-like Wicked Jinny Greenteeth, and Mrs. Hyde.  Colorful characters, to be sure, but since we only get to see a couple pages of them in action, they do little more this issue than act as Cricket’s rapt audience (better them than me!).

Superman: The Last Family of New Krypton #1 – Review

By: Cary Bates (writer), Renato Arlem (artist), Allen Passalaqua (colorist), Rachel Gluckstern (assistant editor), Mike Carlin (editor)

The Story: What would have happened if Jor-El, Lara and Kal-El all escaped the destruction of Krypton?

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: Right off, I really enjoyed Arlem’s art. He puts rich texture and detail onto the page. Even with a computer, Arlem must have spent hours and hours and hours to stipple (put down little dots to denote texture and/or shadow) on the bedspread, wallpaper and chair on the last page (to say nothing of the people). Or, check out the panel where Lara tells Jor-El she wants to be alone. The Quitely-like level of detail is worth the price of admission. Arlem’s expressions evoke emotion and the action, and even the environments, are dynamic. Arlem is hereby invited to draw any book I buy.

On the writing, I want to split the technical, tactical telling of the story (the dialogue, the panel-by-panel unfolding, the character choices) from the strategic, editorial choice (the premise and the DC’s decision to tell this story over some other one).

On Bates’ telling of the story, I’m mostly pleased, with one significant exception. Bates delivers crisp dialogue and a well-paced story; although the jury is still out for me on whether to buy the motivations he’s selling for the characters, especially the all-important choice to foster Kal-El to the Kents. There’s obviously conflict there, between Lara and Jor-El, but also within Jor-El, but Bates takes the easy way out (for the writer) by dismissing the characters’ doubts without showing us why they would do that. To me, it seemed patently obvious that the decisions deserved more explanation. Still, if I forgive his tactical short-cut, I’m left to enjoy the execution of the story.

Power Girl #7 – Review

By Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (writers), Amanda Conner (art), Paul Mounts (colors)

The Story: The women of the Planet Valeron, ruled by Vartox the Hyper-Man, are all rendered sterile by the contraception bomb. Vartox goes off to find the perfect mate to ensure that his species continues. He picks Power Girl.

What’s Good: Do not pick up this issue if you’re looking for a Justice League feel, an Outsiders feel, or even a Batgirl feel. This issue is for people who buy Deadpool or who thought Barbarella was funny. This is a book of tongue-in-cheek irony, zaniness and cleavage with a villain who talks like his lines were swiped from a Republican serial. This exuberance works because Vartox the Hyper-Man (think part Zap Brannigan, part Austin Powers, talking about himself in the third person) has to fight Yeti pirates, who in defeat, spring a contraceptive bomb on Valeron. It works because Vartox has advisors like Groovicus Mellow (ripped right out of a 70s blaxploitation movie) and because he can order the seduction musk rifle to be prepared. It works because Vartox wears lesser clothes than Power Girl, exposing hairy legs that definitely aren’t worth the view. Gray and Palmiotti play with our expectations for a cleavage-focused series like Power Girl, and turn them against us with a hairy, speedo-wearing sleazebag.

Amanda Conner is a great cartoony artist who draws a mean sword-wielding yeti, a ridiculously unattractive Vartox, and a hard-bodied Power Girl. Her faces evoke emotion and even without dialogue, the story would have been told well. She reached back into the cheap and trashy movies of the seventies to imbue Valeron with a disco sci-fi mood with kitschy beads and huge pink throw-pillows in crystal palaces. The action scenes were clean and clear and I always knew what was going on. All in all, a great issue for Conner.

Justice Society Of America #32 – Review

by Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham (writers), Jesus Merino (art), Allen Passalaqua (color), Rachel Gluckstern (assistant editor), Mike Carlin (editor)

The Story: The Bad Seed, Part 4: Power Girl, the Flash and Mr. America struggle to find out who killed Mr. Terrific. In the meantime, Dr. Midnight discovers that the Green Lantern has been using his ring to keep Mr. Terrific’s body in stasis, so that he is preserved in the condition of only moments after death. This is because Dr. Fate is going to see if magic can do what medicine could not. And then the villains close in…

What’s Good: Merino does some great work in this issue, from the beads of sweat on Green Lantern, to the multiple images of the Flash, to the Flash’s wrinkly face, and the pleading expression on the suspected murderer. The action sequences are dynamic and clear, and the emotions are clearly running high, even without the dialogue.

Sturges and Willingham continue their massive (I counted 34 heroes and villains in this issue, although 1 is dead, 2 are probationary recruits, and 3 of them are dogs) mystery saga. There’s only one issue left in the Bad Seed arc, so they are pulling the plot threads tighter. By the end of this book, the tension is wound incredibly tight. By next issue, this arc has to tell us who hired the 15 villains, why they didn’t want Star Girl harmed, who really killed Mr. Terrific, whether Mr. Terrific actually qualifies for a death certificate, and what happens to fracture the team in two. That’s a whole lot of story to be sitting on the edge of your seat for.

What’s Not So Good: Bits of dialogue sounded a bit off to me. The villains especially have some lines that could have been improved or dispensed with. Some of the JSA’s arguing seems to be serving the story more than the characters who are speaking, and King Chimera’s bit of upper class diction, while giving him a new sound in the beginning, is in danger of making him a caricature. But, this dialogue complaint is a small mark against an otherwise solid book.

Conclusion: Sturges, Willingham and Merino have me on the edge of my seat, and I can’t wait for the answers to all the questions they’ve put on the table.

Grade: C+

-DS Arsenault