Deadly Class #2 – Review

by Rick Remender (Writer), Wes Craig (Artist), Lee Loughridge (Colorist)

The Story: Marcus gets acquainted with life at his new school as he somehow make friends and enemies.

The Review: There is a saying that pretend that all stories have already been told, that everything is a constant reutilization of the same concepts yet with different names and interpretations. While it is a bold statement that can be verified at length in multiple levels of fiction, there is a certainty in saying that many stories and ideas look very similar to each other. With this theory in mind, it comes to the writer to make things fresh and twist things up to make use of an established formula to make it so readers still care about what’s on the page, screen or whichever media is used.

It seems, in many ways, that this is what Rick Remender must had in mind when he created this story. Set in a school that trains assassins, the story focus on Marcus, a young Nicaraguan teen who got a bad start in life. Presenting his story in an overly classical architecture of how school are portrayed in many medias, Remender tries to make it so his concept bring in many comparisons and contrasts for the illusion of normalcy to work in favour of his comic.

It’s a sound approach, yet not one that is really working well in this issue. While there are some neat ideas shown with the classes and their teachers, there isn’t much else working in favour to this storytelling technique. Marcus is still the rebel kid, there is a bully (who is of Russian nationality to boot), there is a fat and nerdy kid and everyone is talking about the new kid in school. There are some tidbits which are interesting, yet for a rather big concepts, Remender does not go far enough to provide enough shock or material for contrast in themes and approach.
Still, despite this, Remender does deserve some credits in the fact that he builds up a whole world, a cast and a setting quite well in the span of a little less than 30 pages. Presenting some clear personalities, cliques and a certain way that the school function, there is a lot of material for development and surprises here that can fuel the series for a while.

Deadly Class #1 – Review

by Rick Remender (Writer), Wes Craig (Artist), Lee Loughridge (Colorist)

The Story: Living on the street kind of sucks, but being put in a rather nebulous situations with killers and cops is somewhat worse.

The Review: It’s been a really bright period of time for Image lately. With a few high-profile creators publishing their work through them, they have gained a reputation for being the place to be for many writers and artists, much to the readers delight. For those who want something new and decidedly different, it’s really a golden age of opportunities as the likes of East of West, Saga, Black Science, Lazarus, Sex Criminals and a multitude of others are still on the shelves for people to enjoy.

It’s with these kind of thoughts that I went on to buy this new series by Fear Agent and Uncanny X-Force writer Rick Remender and one of Guardians of the Galaxy‘s many artist, Wes Craig. With a certain pedigree from both creators, there was definitely something about this that I had to try. However, a nice creative team does not necessarily equate to an interesting book, as there needs to be a message, a direction and certainly a hook for readers to return for the inevitable second issue. How does this first issue manage, though?

As the opening to a series, it’s fairly solid, with a bit of a drag as far as its premise and ideas are concerned. There is a solid amount of action and a general depth to the setting that helps situate the themes and the tone of the story very well, with a certain weird vibe that brings the characters and many of the quirks fairly well on the page. The actual hook is mainly delivered in the final pages, though, so the actual feeling of the series might not actually be representative of what is shown here.

Batman Annual #2 – Review

By: Scott Snyder & Marguerite Bennett (story), Bennett (writer), Wes Craig (pencils), Craig Yeung, Drew Gerraci, Craig, Jack Purcell, Sandu Florea & Marc Deering (inks), Ian Hanin (colors) and Dave Sharpe (letters)

The Story: Batman meets a new/old denizen of Arkham while testing out their security systems.

Review (with minor SPOILERS): Bravo to DC and the creative team for introducing a new character!  I know that the fanboys love to read another Joker story, but I personally find new villains to be much more interesting.  Only with new characters are there unclear motives, unclear powers and unclear outcomes.  All the new character needs is a little hook to make them unique and it is suddenly fascinating to watch the creators fill in the blanks of the character.

The new character from this issue is named yhe Anchoress.  She has a really cool hook in that when her powers manifested, she accidentally killed her parents and was sent for therapy at the original Arkham Asylum back when AA was a place where a Dr. Arkham actually tried to help the mentally ill.  As such, she hates Batman for turning AA into a supermax prison for his rogues gallery.  Once that happened, nobody cared about helping the mentally ill. They just wanted to keep Joker and Clayface in their cells.  It’s an interesting way to introduce a character and to make us look differently at a landmark like AA.  I mean, I think almost all modern Bat-fans look at AA as a prison.  It’s easy to forget that AA probably used to have a different purpose….like treating the mentally ill and perhaps now those mentally ill don’t have the same prospects for treatment.  Readers of this site know I love real-world parallels (and so does Scott Snyder, I think), so I can’t help but see relationships between this take on AA and the closing of mental health institutions in the 1980s and all the crime and homelessness that happened as a result.  It’s just interesting to think about some of these criminals or bums as mentally ill people who have been failed by “the system.”

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #6 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: All storms must end sometime, and with them go the thunder.

The Review: After my review of last issue, reader Don asked me what titles I could recommend to satisfy his craving for Nick Spencer material, once this series wrapped up.  I had to admit I knew nothing that blended superheroics and political thriller so seamlessly and with such sophistication, wit, and craft.  It reminded me of how much I’ve enjoyed Spencer’s work here since it debuted, and how sorry I am to see it go.

If you like T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents as much as I do, then you’ll also be particularly dismayed to see how quietly this issue pulls the curtain on the series.  Spencer obviously has a lot of affection for all these characters, however brief their working lives are, and he attempts to give each of them as neat a resolution as possible under the circumstances.  Even so, you can clearly tell he had a much longer endgame in mind, and things were never intended to end this way.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #5 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Apparently, even a simple question of “dead or alive” has no straight answers.

The Review: Of course, the thing about having a huge relaunch of your entire line of titles is you’re not only thinning out all the weaker series, but the strong ones as well.  While DC made certain to preserve its anchors (e.g. Batman, Green Lantern) more or less intact, its young critical darlings did not receive such protection, sending perfectly strong titles to an early end.  I would definitely list T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents (as well as the underappreciated Xombi) as example.

This miniseries is thus something of a weird beast.  You’d think DC going through the trouble of releasing it in the first place would be an indication of their faith in the property, especially since they have no shortage of more popular ones to invest in.  Yet from the first issue, it’s clear the series doesn’t make itself out to be accessible or attractive to new readers.  Rather, this mini feels mostly like a continuation of the spare plotlines Nick Spencer left behind on his ongoing.

At the same time, Spencer’s plotlines aren’t of the kind that resolve neatly or quickly; if you’ve ever read Morning Glories or any of his other works, you’ll know his strength lies in letting his stories ferment, giving you the occasional potent taste, but otherwise reserving the rest.  For that reason, I find it hard to believe he ever intended for us to discover Colleen’s true loyalties this soon, or what her (and Emil Jennings’) ultimate goals are.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #4 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Wes Craig (artist), Hi-Fi (colorist), Sam Keith (feature artist), Jeromy Cox (feature colorist)

The Story: NoMan teaches us that living in a clone body can’t get in the way of friendship!

The Review: One of the things I really like about T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents—and there are many—is its point of view.  Most of the superhero titles on the stands are fairly clear-cut in who the good and bad guys are.  Even that darkest of knights, Batman, is obviously a force for good in the world, no matter what the urban legends say.  Very rarely do heroes have a moral quandary that’s truly unnavigable; in the end, they nearly always do the right thing.

About the only series that really mired itself in gray area was Gail Simone’s Secret Six, which almost took masochistic pleasure in confronting hard questions and having no answers.  Though completely different in tone and substance, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is very much a spiritual successor to the Six.  Both feature a cast of characters thrust into unpleasant situations for which no easy solutions can be found, forcing them to take uncertain moral chances in their attempts to come out the other side in the black, however slightly.

The major difference, of course, is the Six made no pretensions about being heroes, though (very) occasionally motivated by principles of justice.  The Agents, on the other hand, sincerely believe what they do, they do for the greater good.  Ultimately, however, they owe their existence to a wrongful war, and we all know that nothing exactly equates to the greater good in such circumstances.  At best, the Agents can only hope for what all war victors hope for: that history will vindicate them in the end.

That’s what makes Henry Cosgei’s (a.k.a. Lightning)—spoiler alert—sacrifice so meaningful and yet so tragically pointless.  While the death of Dynamo seemed sudden and had little emotional weight, given how little we knew of him, Spencer actually invested a great deal of time in Cosgei’s background and reasons for joining the Agents.  When you reflect on the fact that he put his life on the line to restore his honor after a bit of athletic cheating, you really understand the measure of the man, but too late.  And what did he die for?  For the Agents to retrieve their irreplaceable weapons?  To strike a blow against an oppressed people?

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #3 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: For taphophobes, consider this immersion therapy; you’ll feel better if you don’t die.

The Review: I must say, I was rather amused by the tagline inscribed on this issue’s cover: “NoMan’s dark secret revealed!”  For one thing, the tease is horribly melodramatic—italics have that effect on anything you write.  For another, it sets some very high expectations for the story, as any use of the word “dark” tends to do.  Your instinct is to wade in with some good-natured skepticism, unsure if the issue can succeed, but willing to see it through anyway.

But if anyone can actually live up to the “dark” standard, Nick Spencer can, and NoMan’s secret turns out grim indeed, in both substance and style.  From previous issues, we know experimental detonations of atomic weapons in the Subterranean land wreaked havoc on their country, and we know war between them and us surface-dwellers ensued.  What we didn’t know until this issue is how that conflict ended, and unsurprisingly, the end involved an atrocity of the grossest kind.

I mentioned last time how Spencer likes to add some clear real-world reflections in what he writes, and the use of a Doomsday weapon—make that several Doomsday weapons—against the Subterraneans to coerce their surrender is all that.  Very telling is how even now, presumably decades after the war, the Subterraneans have left open a mass grave, exposing the remains of all those who perished from the Higher United Nations’ deadly attack.  “Six million,” by NoMan’s calculation.  For perspective, the combined bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in somewhere between 150,000 and 246,000 deaths.

What makes these revelations all the more powerful is that we see them through the eyes of a man responsible for all this mess.  It’s NoMan’s pensive brooding that forms the spine of tension throughout this issue.  He reminds us that he was a scientist before a soldier, but under both guises, he was persuaded to do things he’s not proud of.  Yet for all the impressions he gives of cynicism and regret, it’s not lost on you that he continues his mission as he broods, leading you to believe he may not be capable of truly feeling those emotions anymore.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #2 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Wes Craig & Jerry Ordway (artist), Hi-Fi & Chris Beckett (colorists)

The Story: All I’m saying is if Demo grows a tiny mustache on his upper lip, I’m outta here.

The Review: Spencer is an interesting beast of a writer.  From his work on Morning Glories and Supergirl, you know he can weave some of the more engrossing, layered plots this side of modern comics.  He can also go wholeheartedly for the silly and heartfelt, as we’ve seen in his tremendous Jimmy Olsen.  Both of those sides of his writing character seem to come together in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, which can be totally sophisticated with the most outlandish material.

And you don’t get much more outlandish than “underground green-skinned nomads, who hid from the surface population for the better part of a millennium.”  It’s these kinds of concepts that made the Silver Age such a wonderfully bizarre period, a perfect feeding ground for comics.  But Spencer not only works such concepts into his story as an homage to earlier times; he gives them fresh spins to make them feel not only up-to-date, but relevant.

Consider his portrayal of the Subterraneans, who retain most of their goony appearance, yet now have a very overt political bent to them.  It’s no coincidence that at a time when the stability of Middle Eastern nations is in flux due to uprisings both nobly and criminally motivated, Spencer chooses to write the Subterraneans as a downtrodden, fragmented people (whose attraction to the more “civilized” people is their natural resources) searching for a leader, any leader, to speak out and take charge of their many grievances.

You can’t really say Demo is the best man for the job, however.  With his talent for rhetoric (“I have heard your mothers’ wailing as their children are forced to work in the mines, filling up the coffers of our oppressors!”) and his clear derangement, he brings back echoes of the Third Reich and the French Revolution, an egomaniac who feeds upon the unhappiness of the people he claims to represents to feed his own ambitions.  So, yeah, not exactly the ideal man of the people.

Demo does, however, make an intriguing villain, possessing the necessary intellect to know exactly how to take advantage of the two Agents he already has at his disposal—and I do mean that in the most basic meaning of the word.  He also has one other thing to his advantage, one which may connect directly to the last big twist from the former T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents ongoing: Iron Maiden’s claim to Colleen that, “I know he’s still alive.”  “He” being the original Dynamo.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Wes Craig (artist), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: Here’s a tip—don’t talk about dead mothers and brothers on the first date.

The Review: In this new DCU, there are more superhero teams than ever, one of them even having backing from the United Nations which presumably also sponsor our heroes here.  Spencer sets them apart, however, by giving them a much more overt political agenda and making them more attached to the governmental body which employs them.  Even against their best judgment, their movements in the field are determined by white-collar men sitting on swivel chairs in a control room.

For that reason, a certain shadiness infects every aspect of this team, from their very mission statement to the choice of members to the technology that makes their work possible.  Yet that technology began, like many things, with pure objectives.  We learn more about Emil Jennings, the man responsible for producing the scientific breakthroughs which gave birth to the Agents, all to promote “peacekeeping, humanitarianism, fostering better international relations…”

To that end, he creates an actual mathematical method (well, about as mathematical as you can get in a comic anyway) to “calculate the likelihood that any action undertaken ill improve the human condition.”  See, it’s this kind of thing that makes Spencer a conceptual wizard in the tradition of Grant Morrison; these fantastic ideas seem to roll off the top of his head, and not only does he convince you of their fictional logic, they bear implications for real life as well.

The fact Jennings’ algorithm is intended to help the world’s survival doesn’t disguise the fact that its role in the Menthor helmet defeats free will.  Besides, “survival” is a rather vague objective, one that doesn’t necessarily go toward “the greater good.”  So perhaps we should worry about this formula running the show, especially since it also powers Daniel, the hive-mind at the heart of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents’ activities.