January 2009

Story- Eric Shanower
Art- Skottie Young

First of all, take a second and say the title of this post out loud to yourself, without pausing between “Oz” and “number”.  It kinda flows trippingly off the tongue, doesn’t it?  That same jaunty feeling permeates every panel of this great series.

Like many of you, I’m sure,  I’ve never read the original book by L. Frank Baum, or any of the sequels.  Just one of those things I fooled myself into thinking I’d actually do someday.  But whatever I’d heard or seen about it always hinted that there was more to be discovered than in the films.  So when this series, purposefully based on the book, was announced, dollars prepared to bail from my pocket.

In this installment, Dorothy has already been “cycloned” away to the magical land of Oz and been sent on her way by the munchkins to find the great and powerful wizard who might be able to get her home to Kansas.  She has just been joined by the Scarecrow, and sets off with him on her way, where she encounters her final two companions, the Tin Man and the Lion.

The first thing you notice here is that you actually get a more fleshed out backstory for Dorothy’s quirky companions, and Eric Shanower gets a lot of mileage out of the characterizations revealed as each tells their story.  The lamenting Scarecrow in particular reveals the childish, poignant innocence of a newly created lifeform just trying to figure everything out.  He constantly feels foolish for his lack of brains, while at the same time making astute observations about the human condition afforded only to a non-jaded observer.  Think of Commander Data from Star Trek:TNG, and you get the idea (many of the characters even speak in a simple cadence, with no contractions).  As kind of a man-child myself, this stuff always hits me where I live.

The Tin Man’s origin alone is a good indicator that we’re not in the movie realm anymore, Toto, as it’s very sad, and surprisingly macabre for a children’s story.

And now the art.  Skottie Young does a magnificent job on this.  The whimsical curlicues and rough lines are a perfect match for this story, and evoke all the warmth, fuzziness, and invention of Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes. Jean-Francois Beaulieu’s coloring also deserves mention, especially for the sepia sequences and sunrises, which coat the eyes like honey.

This series is the cup of warm cider you sip as you envelop yourself with a blanket in front of a fireplace and the winter winds howl in vain outside your window.

Story- Garth Ennis
Art- John Higgins

The Boys is one of those series where the art is as much of a selling point for me as the plot.  So it’s good news that I almost didn’t notice this issue of Garth Ennis and Darick Roberson’s hero-lambasting epic comes without the Robertson part.  Higgins does a good job aping DR’s crisp lines and detail, so I didn’t miss him as much as during the “Glorious Five Year Plan” arc with Peter Snejbjerg (although PS earns some awesome points for working two J’s into his last name).

Now about that plot.  Part 4 of “We Gotta Go Now” is kinda business as usual.   Wee Hughie, essentially finished with his tasked surveillance of the mysterious G-Men, has developed a strange pity and concern for the junior team he infiltrated, G-Wiz, and feels like there’s more work to be done.  Though he’s freaked out by their Animal House frat antics and bizarre sexual habits, he believes they’re essentially good guys and doesn’t want them turning into the jaded, crazy, and suicidal weirdos the senior G-Men seem to become.

Hughie also has another date with Annie where they get that much closer to learning each other’s secrets, Mother’s Milk makes headway in his investigation into Silver Kincaid’s death,  Butcher gets upset about..something, and The Frenchman and The Female, as usual, do close to nothing.

The series that was supposed to (all together now) “out-Preacher the  ‘Preacher’ series”,  isn’t doing its job.  From the beginning, Garth Ennis has positioned The Boys to be a skewering of superheroes in the form of twisted analogues of popular established characters, like the X-men, in this current arc.  The problem is, since the beginning, the insight he brings is pretty superficial, and juvenile.  The Teen Titans, in the “real” world, would be a-holes, sexual deviants and drug addicts.  The Justice League, a-holes, sexual deviants and drug addicts.  Iron Man, an a-hole and a sex addict (not so different from the real one, I guess).    You see where this is going.

Now, I don’t have an issue with juvenile humor.  Or crudeness.  But this series is constantly bashing you over the head with it, and it really starts to come off as shock for shock’s sake.

The recent issue describing how the Justice League analogue, The Seven, botched their 9/11 rescue attempt was so riveting because it reached beyond the boobs and burps to show the devastating consequences hubris can have in the powerful.

We are also supposedly about half-way through the series, and we still know squat about three fifths of the title team.

So anyway, overall, it’s good, not great.

Story- Brian Michael Bendis
Art- Stuart Immonen

Full disclosure time.  Spidey might be my favorite hero.  So much so, that I subconsciously chose his color scheme while designing this site, not realizing it until I was done.  Plus, USM was the series that drew me back into collecting comics after about a 12- year hiatus, through the ’90s (as I understand, I really didn’t miss much during that time).  However, as you all know, having an investment in a character only heightens your concern over his or her proper treatment.

Anyway, something occurred to me while reading this issue.  Brian Bendis should write for a sitcom.  His strength throughout his work on this and other series has always been sharp dialogue.  His characters banter back and forth as if they’re in a modern His Girl Friday.

But his super-heroics?  Not so much.  After reading the uber-hyped, but ultimately disappointing punch-fest that was Secret Invasion this past summer, this issue brims with with life and energy simply because of all the people..just…talking.

Two plots in this issue: Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four is on the phone with Peter and MJ, desperately and hilariously trying to get out of a date with a Paris-Hilton-esque socialite, and Aunt May attempting to reintegrate a newly resurfaced Gwen Stacy into her old high school.  No easy task, as Gwen publicly died, and is now back as a you-know-what, and Aunt May is forbidden by S.H.I.E.L.D. to disclose how it all happened.

So where does Spider-woman fit into all this?  Johnny Storm runs into her after his date while fighting a re-designed, closer-to-616-version of an old Spidey-rogue.  And, uh, stuff begins.  Heh.  Remember who Spider-woman actually is?  Awk-ward!

And yeah, the Ultimatum banner is on the cover, because the events of this issue take place just before the storm hits NY in that other series.  That awful, awful series.

So, anyway, Brian Bendis sitcom.  I’m calling it.

Story- Bill Willingham
Art- Mark Buckingham

Oh, snap!

Hmm? Sorry, just finished Fables #79.

If you haven’t been following this great Vertigo series of all our childhood fairytale characters living together in modern day New York, go out and pick up the trades from the beginning and catch up.  Go ahead, economy be damned.  I’ll wait.

Reviewers are constantly apologizing for their boring and repetitive critiques of this series because it’s just that consistent and awesome.  This issue is no exception.  Ho hum.

Part 3 of  “The Dark Ages” continues to follow the ramifications after the war against the Adversary, starting with a touching and apt funeral for one of the main characters lost in a final act of heroism.  There’s also a scene featuring the new “Mr. Dark” that really creeped me out, in a good way.  The developments and surprises in this issue are just further examples of Bill Willingham’s blatant disregard for a status quo.  This comes partly from the freedom and independence a creator-owned world gives you, but also from just great writing with attention to detail and character.

Mark Buckingham’s framing borders, a staple of the series, still evoke wonder and give a unique storybook feel to the issue, as always.

Great work, all around.

PS- Soak in the beautiful James Jean cover work while you can, folks, ’cause he leaves with issue 81 at the end of this arc.