The Massive #18 – Review

By: Brian Wood (writer), Garry Brown (art), Jordie Bellaire (colors) and Jared K. Fletcher (letters)

The Story: The feud between Callum Israel and his old enemy Bors comes to a head.

Review (with SPOILERS): I don’t review The Massive every month because I feel like I always say the same thing: In The Massive, Brian Wood has created a fascinating world, but has stuck us watching the most boring man remaining on the planet.

Unfortunately, this issue was another example of the same problem.

In this story arc, we’ve seen Callum Israel and his colleagues from Ninth Wave drive their boat to Scandinavia to hassle whalers.  Apparently, anti-whaling was a big deal for Ninth Wave pre-Crash and Callum just can’t let go.  Because of the Crash, these whalers aren’t doing any sort of “commercial” whaling anymore: they’re now going out in longboats and hand-throwing harpoons at the whales.  The meat goes to feed the people of the village.  Nothing too sinister about this anymore.  And, the whalers are lead by a former oligarch named Bors who Callum used to battle with in the pre-Crash world.  Obviously life has changed for Bors and there are no more political power-plays, no more Ferraris, etc.  Bors is now a simple man who leads a bunch of whalers.

The Massive is intensely frustrating because there isn’t enough of a consistent thread through the various stories to really make a coherent narrative.  None of the stories seems to have any closure.  I mean, if you gave someone the first trade paperback of The Massive, they might wonder if our protagonists ever found the missing ship.  They might say, “Wow.  That was great.  They’re already up to issue #18?!?  Don’t SPOIL it for me, but I’ll bet it was awesome when they found all their friends on the missing ship….”  Except that plot-line seems to have been discarded.  Not “resolved”….just discarded.  Nobody in this issue even mentions the missing ship which had previously been cause for steaming around the world on a wild goose chase.  It’s just frustrating because Brian Wood is a new writer where it would be safe to assume that he just doesn’t know what he’s doing; Wood is an experienced pro who has told excellent long-form tales before.  So, there is a part of me that still wonders if it’s just me.  Am I not getting it yet?

The Massive #15 – Review

By: Brian Wood (writer), Garry Brown (art), Jordie Bellaire (colors) and Jared K. Fletcher (letters)

The Story: Will Georg launch the missiles from the Russian sub?  Can Cal and Mag stop him?

Review (with SPOILERS): It’s a little depressing how this series can’t quite capitalize on its tremendous promise.  Brian Wood and his artistic collaborators have created a fantastically interesting world in The Massive.  There is so much potential in this world and Wood seems like the type of writer who is interested in telling thought-provoking tales that have a coherent theme and message, yet we keep getting issues like this one.

I actually had to retype this review a couple of times.  The first effort turned into this 2000 word screed where I was ripping apart various scenes of the comic in a blow-by-blow fashion.  I realized that nobody wants to read THAT.  So, I tried again and had the same thing happened.  Then I restarted a third time and it got a little better, but still not quite the tone I wanted…..and now we have this.

Let’s just say that there are a LOT of problems with this issue.  Mostly, it just isn’t clear what is going on.  The opening scene is really confusing.  I mean, I saw Mag get the abort signal and saw him leave the bathroom, but really didn’t understand the impact of Georg being left behind until much later in the issue.  The thing is, there was no dramatic purpose to the opening scene being vague and unclear; it’s not a mystery that “pays off” later in the issue.  It was just sloppy storytelling.  You could blame the artist a little bit since it is mostly a silent sequence and the art really isn’t very clear, but I’m not sure how he could have done better.  I think Wood just wrote a scene that was pretty tough to illustrate and then there was no subsequent communication between artist and writer to fix it.  I wonder if that’s the kind of thing that happens when you’re writing The Massive, X-Men and also wrestling with the Lucas/Disney braintrust over your Star Wars outlines?

The Massive #14 – Review

By: Brian Wood (writer), Garry Brown (art), Jordie Bellaire (colors) and Jared K. Fletcher (letters)

The Story: Callum Israel searchs for a rogue submarine in a flooded NYC.

Review (with SPOILERS): This was another pretty strong issue of The Massive.  Just as with last month, this series is so much stronger when it is exploring this intriguing post-Crash world than when it focuses on the search for The Massive (the missing titular ship).  This is a cool world and it’s entertaining to see what will happen next whereas the hunt for The Massive is dull as hell and us readers don’t care about those missing people because we’ve never met any of them.  Heck…..I’m not sure any of the main characters have even mentioned the name of a single person on The Massive.

I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of that drab storyline, but let’s enjoy this nifty tale while it is in front of us.  Basically, in this issue we see Callum Israel and his crew looking for a rogue Chechen crew-mate who has stolen a Russian nuclear submarine and may want to fire his missiles at Russia.  All of this happens against the backdrop of a Manhattan that is under 40 feet of water and with the US Navy breathing down their necks.  It’s hard not to have a cool issue when you’ve got all these nifty elements and Garry Brown draws all the ships and helicopters really, really well.

I really like how Wood is playing with an idea of what our current world could become.  There’s a huge theme to The Massive that “you reap what you sow”.  That could describe global warming and its role in The Crash or it could describe a former Chechen child-soldier who is about to launch nuclear missiles at his former Russian oppressors or it could describe guys like Callum and Mag who can’t get away from their past working for a private military contractor.  These issues aren’t always handled perfectly, but I applaud any comic that aspires to something better than “giant monsters fighting giant robots!”

The Massive #13 – Review

By: Brian Wood (writer), Gerry Brown (art) & Jordie Bellaire (colors)

The Story: A glimpse of the post-Crash United States.

Review (with SPOILERS): This will be an odd review as I’m traveling and left my issue of The Massive #13 back home.  So, I’m writing purely from memory rather than my customary method where I have the issue next to me and can flip through it for reference.  As such, it’s very much a review about first and lasting impressions.  Who knows????   Maybe THAT is the way reviews should be done all the time?

This issue gave me a bit of storytelling-whiplash as we appear to have totally abandoned this “Where’s the Massive?” storyline from last issue.  Heck, I’m not even sure how they have physically relocated from one part of the world to another.  Weren’t they in the Pacific?  It really makes no sense and if you’re a big fan of the storyline where our protagonists basically steam around the world looking for a missing sister ship…then you will be disappointed with this issue.

The Massive #12 – Review

By: Brian Wood (writer), Danijel Zezelj (art), Jordie Bellaire (colors) and Jared K. Fletcher (letters)

The Story: Callum Israel keeps chasing after The Massive.

Review (with little SPOILERS): I said in last issue’s review that The Massive isn’t really “a series to review on a monthly basis”.  Yet–due to a light week–The Massive is back under the bright lights again.  Let’s see how this deliberately-paced series fares when faced with monthly pressure to create a “discussable moment.”

The Massive #11 – Review

By: Brian Wood (writer), Declan Shalvey (art), Jordie Bellaire (colors) & Jared K. Fletcher (letters)

The Story: Ninth Wave continues looking for the Massive off the coast of California.

Review: The Massive is a very odd series.  For one thing, it isn’t much of an ongoing story.  It’s more of a setting and an opportunity to watch some characters roam around and do stuff in this setting.  As such, it’s really not a series to review on a monthly basis.  When you review a series month-after-month, there is more tendency to focus on what happened in that issue rather than examining the series as a whole.  So, having not reviewed the series since the seventh issue, let’s take a look at what is going on….

The Massive #3 – Review

By: Brian Wood (writer), Kristian Donaldson (art), Dave Stewart (colors), Jared K. Fletcher (letters)

The Story: The crew of the Kapital argues about whether to stick with their non-violent principals….

A few things: 1). Why should we care about The Massive? – I hate to be so negative on this title because I’ve really enjoyed everything else that Brian Wood has done.  I do still expect this title to be good in the long run, but it isn’t a very good comic right now.  The biggest problem is there is no central purpose to the story.  I guess the purpose is to “find The Massive”, but we’ve been given no reason to care about this missing sister ship.  We’re told that the crew of The Massive has many of our protagonists’ friends, but we’ve not been given any flashbacks showing why these unseen people are important.  Why should we care about The Massive?  And, even if it is assumed that we DO care, why should they keep looking?  What indication is there that The Massive is out there and not sunk or raided by pirates?  And they don’t even seem to be staying near where they lost The Massive.  Hong Kong and Alaska are not close to each other.

The Massive #1 – Review

By: Brian Wood (writer), Kristian Donaldson (art), Dave Stewart (colors) & Jared K. Fletcher (letters)

The Story: In a post-ecological catastrophe world, a ship of Greenpeace-types search for the sister ship.

The Review: 

1. A different type of apocalypse. – Environmental catastrophes aren’t new to fiction, but it seems like most apocalypse stories these days deal with zombies, nuclear war, super-plagues, etc.  The world of The Massive isn’t ruined…..yet.  But, it is definitely showing a global environment at the tipping point, as it was recently postulate. Earth might be NOW.  Brian Wood is very timely with his stories.  His DMZ featured military contractors run amok and a corrupt American government that distrusts its own citizens before such concepts had really injected themselves into the public consciousness.  Let’s hope his crystal ball is a little off with The Massive, huh?  It’s just nice to see a post-apocalyptic world that is different.

2. Tight cast. – Wood stays away from one of the big pitfalls of monthly comics and keeps his cast tight.  Although there are numerous people in the story, only 3 matter: leader and ship’s captain Callum Israel, his right hand man Mag Nagendra and his right-hand woman Mary.  That’s it.  When you think of series like The Walking Dead where an excellent character like Michonne goes 6-7 months without any meaningful dialog, you can see what it is appreciated to keep it simple.  Surely more characters will be added in the future, but for now it’ll be nice to just get to know these three folks.

3. The “story” is a little uninspiring so far. – “Disappointing” is the word that comes to mind.  This is the type of first issue that Wood can get away with because he has a track record.  Even though this issue was a little frustrating, I’m still 95% confident that this will be a series I’ll love before long.  If an unknown creator had given me this issue, I probably wouldn’t be back for issue #2.  While the setting and characters are interesting, there was no hook in this first issue beyond the fact that they’re looking for their missing sister ship, The Massive.  And, they get into a fight with pirates.  I guess looking for your friends on the sister ship is noble, but it isn’t much of a fictional hook.  I mean, there isn’t even a subplot where the child or lover of one of the main characters is stranded on The Massive.  This is where trust in the writer comes in.  Surely Wood has something more interesting in store than a mere search and rescue comic and I can’t wait to see what it is.

Previews – May 2012

Maybe we’ll start this as a new feature?  I’ll flip through Previews, tell you what I think is worthwhile and you can tell me I’m a moron.  Sound like fun?

DARK HORSE

– Axe Cop: President of the World #1 – At some point, this odd comic that is written by 8 year old Malachai Nicolle and illustrated by his brother, 31 year old Ethan, will lose it’s magic.  Someday Malachai will probably “grow up” too much or become too self-aware, but until that happens we should enjoy the ride.  Here’s a link to my review of last Spring’s Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth #1.

– Early issues where you can hop on before it’s too late.  Fatima: The Blood Spinners #2 by Gilbert Hernandez, Mind Mgmt #3 by Matt Kindt and The Massive #2 by Brian Wood.

– Eerie Comics #1 brings back the beloved old Warren Publishing title.  It’s really hard to go wrong with a horror anthology in black and white.  Of course, don’t miss the big brother: Creepy Comics #9.