Magog #1 – Review

By Keith Giffen (writer), Howard Porter (artist), John Dell (inks)

The Story: A quick 1-page summary of Magog’s origin opens the book, but segues into a gruesome splash page that opens the book with a bang in Sudan. Magog is tracking illicit meta-tech that’s being used for nefarious ends. A mystery is in play. When he calls for Green Lantern (Alan Scott), he appears quick enough that Magog realizes he’s being kept on a pretty short leash by the JSA. Roots of a fracture begin appear…

What’s Good: Giffen, a long-time comic veteran, starts big with Magog in Sudan and keeps the tension rising. Some readers who don’t know much about Sudan might consider some of the gory images a bit over the top. The fact that some of this stuff is really happening in Sudan gave this opening sequence an added resonance.

Giffen also opened an interesting pandora’s box. Magog editorializes about how superheroes do not involve themselves in foreign situations. The logical inconsistency is as old as superheroes themselves. If you had the power of Superman, why not go stop the holocaust? Sudan is a very clear, modern example of a genocide no superhero is taking on, except Magog. Cool theme. I look forward to seeing where Giffen takes it, because he posed the question, but certainly didn’t answer it.

What’s Not So Good: Magog as a character is not very original or interesting. He’s just the Wolverine, Rambo, Punisher (take your pick) cliche, just in a different set of tights. He’s a lethal, sardonic, grim avenger we’ve all seen before. This isn’t Giffen’s fault, but he’s stuck with Magog now, so he’s going to have to figure out soon what makes him worth watching instead of any of the other clones out there. There are signs that Giffen is moving that way, but it will take time to see if the promise pays off.

In the exposition, we need to understand that Magog is brutal, but the level of violence he delivers in this issue is well into the gratuitous. Many stories have shown brutality without having to resort to slasher imagery. It unfortunately detracts from the quality of the book when something more subtle might have made a better point.

On the art, I’m not sold. It does an adequate job, but the faces and poses were a bit still and even generic (check out the panel with Green Lantern and Magog in the hotel room – they look like twins). Also, the skin tones in Africa bugged me. What on Earth was going on? The severed limbs clearly had caucasian skin, despite the fact that on the next page, the victims are clearly African. The skin tones of the brutal oppressors were also white, but with vaguely Asiatic features. That didn’t make a lot of sense, considering the Janjaweed of Sudan are also black. Given the courage Giffen had in locating the opening scene in the brutality of Sudan, I was disappointed that the art team held back on showing it more realistically.

Conclusion: I wasn’t wowed by this book and I can’t recommend it.

Grade: C-

-DS Arsenault

Captain America: The Chosen #6 (of 6) – Review

By:  David Morrell (Writer), Mitch Breitweiser (Art)

I’ll start off by saying Mitch Breitweiser’s got a long comic book career ahead of him. This guy not only knows how to draw Captain America, but he knows how to draw great action. The art in this series has always been top notch, and this oversized issue is packed with some great sequences and splash montages.

How’s the story? Eh, I was hoping for more – especially from David Morrell (author of First Blood and creator of John Rambo). The first five issues chugged along and felt decompressed. This issue finally gives us a pay off but the first two-thirds of the issue are overly preachy and, dare I say it, sappy. It’s the same redudant Captain America speech we’ve heard before. It’s his idealism, his hopes, his dreams. We get it; we know what Captain America’s about.

By issue #5 I thought I had the story figured out. Captain America is dying from his wounds from Civil War and is grooming his replacement. It seemed like the story was veering towards Corporal Newman somehow getting Cap’s strength and taking the mantle as the new Captain America. Instead, Morrell gives us a whole new story – an “elseworlds” story, if you will. It’s not a bad thing, but the story no longer fits into Marvel continuity!

The end of the issue wraps things up nicely. I like the general premise of this story and the art is beautiful, but it could have used less preaching. It also could have been told in three or four issues. It sucks when stories are drawn out for the sake of selling a trade paperback later on. (Grade: C)

– J.Montes