Reckoning #1 & #2 ~ This is the other comic sent to me by Travis Legge of Aegis Studios, along with last week's Corpus Christie. In brief, Reckoning is the story of Justine, a woman whose lover got involved with drug dealers, leading to his murder. Justine's life is in ruins, and by her own admission she goes a bit crazy, which is where the comic begins, with her having tied up the guy who drove the getaway car, and patiently sawing off his penis. Bit crazy, yep. You'll have recognised the standard setup for a revenge story, but what makes this one different is the characterisation of Justine - firstly that she's crazy, and secondly that she's an amateur. Often in tales like this, the regular person whose wife/husband/whatever has been killed just takes revenge as a matter of course - they've been driven to the edge, and that's that. Justine is interesting because she acknowledges, and is affected by, her own instability - she's not just a 'revenge story', she's been driven a bit mad, and rather than that just being a prerequisite for her killing people, it's an aspect of her that the story deliberately explores. The amateur thing - for instance, that it doesn't occur until after she's castrated and killed the driver that someone might hear his screams (luckily he lives in a real hole of a neighbourhood, so it's plausible there was no-one nearby who felt like playing hero and investigating) - is interesting because usually the avenging angel is either some kind of former commando or super-cop or suchlike, or just mysteriously develops those skills the moment they decide to take bloody vengeance. Justine's instability gives her an advantage, in that it makes her utterly fearless - even criminals aren't used to dealing with truly insane people - but she's still not necessarily good at what she's doing, and that adds an interesting layer of drama to the story, in that it's not just about her killing people, but about whether she'll be able to fulfil her vowed revenge.
Legge is the writer; Santiago Espina provides the pencils and inks, and the black and white art is stark and pretty effective, though it's at its best in the present, when Justine has gone off her rocker, rather than in the flashbacks when things are more normal. Espina's insane Justine turns out well - she's sexy (often deliberately so - she's in her underwear for her first killing), but her craziness is visible in her face and in her body language in a lot of frames, even as an undercurrent in the more rational scenes, and it makes for an interesting combination. Reckoning has its own Myspace page, and for US readers, issue #1 is available for free download from Wowio.com, with #2 on the way.
Common Grounds ~ After last week's set of reviews, including Troy Hickman's Pilot Season: Twilight Guardian, Troy himself stopped by to leave a word of thanks, and mentioned that the 'I like it, but can this work as an ongoing series?' reaction I had to Twilight Guardian was one he was getting a lot of, and similar to the reaction he'd had to Common Grounds, a book about "superpeople sitting and talking". Intrigued by that idea - and curious enough about Twilight Guardian to want to get a better knowledge of Hickman's work, so as to better guess whether Twilight Guardian could make it - I sought out this trade paperback. And let me tell you folks, it's a solid hit. The trade contains numerous short stories, all focusing on superheroes, supervillains, or general superheroic goings-on in one way or another, and all linked to the 'Common Grounds' chain of cafés, where heroes and villains alike observe a truce so as to have someplace where they can relax - like Cheers for superpowers. There are a couple of continuing stories, mainly in the final segment which references a lot of the previous ones, but by and large this is a collection of all the stuff that'd happen between the scenes of every other comic book: a speedster lamenting how difficult it is to find entertainment in a world that from his point of view happens at a snail's pace, a hero and villain idly chatting about origin stories in the men's room, one of the 'golden age' heroes at a reunion musing about past glories and how the march of time has affected his friends, a support group for superhumans with weight problems, a band of giant monsters sombrely musing about a world that's just not afraid of giant monsters any more, a pair of old enemies stumbling across each other and, their battles long past, seeing each other as people, a sidekick searching for his mentor who's missing after a run-in with a villain.
They're human stories - the powers and costumes don't matter, these stories are about people like you and me, with mundane problems and battles and victories and losses, and Hickman knows the right words to show how these ordinary, mundane stories are extraordinary, far more meaningful and powerful than a tale of superhumans engaged in pyrotechnic battles. Honestly, everyone who reads superhero comics and has any appreciation for well-told character stories should read this - not only is it entertaining and poignant in its own right, but it adds an appreciation of the people behind the powers that really affects how you see the whole superhero genre. Most comics only occasionally manage moments like this - and shine when they do; Common Grounds does it from cover to cover. And so far as my other curiosity goes, about Twilight Guardian - well, I still don't know what direction that story may take, but this volume proves that Hickman has the talent and understanding to make it something special. If you're after more on Twilight Guardian, Troy left a link for the comic's blogspot page, where more info and more reviews can be found.
Guardians of the Galaxy #2 ~ The mystery guest hinted at last issue shows up - no, of course it's not Captain America, but it's an intriguing mystery wrapped in sci-fi trappings nonetheless, and the similarity to Cap's defrosting and its significance to the Avengers is noted in the story in a way that opens many interesting possibilities. Last issue's story threads are continued - Phyla making an effort to reach out to Drax (father of her late lover Moondragon), with mixed success, and the very unhappy Universal Church of Truth having a beef with the Guardians who took out their templeship, and now discovering an unrevealed something that changes their plans from 'kill them' to something more involved. All of the cast get their moments, either in battle or in the between-battle scenes back at Knowhere, and Paul Pelletier's pencils are bold and energetic, classic comic book art for a classic-style cosmic comic adventure. It's not a stand-out issue that'll grab the attention of newbies, but for those already reading, it's solidly entertaining.
Trinity #3 ~ Issue three, the Wonder Woman cover completing the three-cover spread I decided I'd get as a sampler of this title - and this is it for me. Not that it's bad or anything, but the majority of the issue is kind of a rehash of the Green Lantern segment of the previous one, with the rest of the JLA substituted for John Stewart, and the backup focuses on someone called Tarot (not the 'Witch of the Black Rose' one, sadly), off in her own corner of the DCU where her cards are hinting at nebulous events coming. I guess if you'd already decided to buy all of Trinity, this would be a fairly enjoyable issue, but for me, there's nothing that leaps out and demands that I buy the next issue to find out what happens next. So no more Trinity reviews from me, unless something spectacular happens, like Batwoman turning up - DC's third weekly series seems to be off to a decent start, with the story remaining more or less focused (unless 'Konvikt' has nothing really to do with the Trinity story, but there are hints that he does), and all in all the worst problem the title has is that its logo is dull and kind of ugly. After Countdown's implosion, DC needed a strong start for this weekly, and while it's not instantly awesome, it seems good enough to pass muster.
American Dream #4 ~ This issue is a bit more-of-the-same, with our titular heroine running through a by-the-numbers superhero story, where she's captured, the villain delivers some exposition, she's locked up, she escapes, everyone gets into a fight... I don't mind it, really, but it's a bit like McDonalds hamburgers - okay for a snack, but it's junk food and you don't want to live off junk food, because there's far better food out there. Er, comics. You know what I mean. A high point is the villains nicking Dream's weaponry, and her subsequently wiping the floor with them because she knows the weapons a whole lot better than they do. On the flip side, the 'revelation' that the nameless crystal monsters are actually the abducted immigrants, transformed into monsters, was a bit lacklustre, since I guessed that ages ago. Sorry for the spoiler if you didn't, but really... you should've, it's not rocket surgery. With one issue to go, unless this delivers a startling surprise in the final act, it'll go down as an 'okay' miniseries, but no reason to get excited about the MC2 universe in general.
Bomb Queen V #2 ~ With our three intrepid and argumentative bloggers tagging along in optimistic hope of an interview - and remaining alive - White Knight arrives in New Port City, confronting first the long-suffering Mayor Hilton, and then Bomb Queen herself, with his insanely polite manner backed up by a seeming invulnerability to being blown out of existence, which is just as well for him. There's not a lot of surprises this issue - the twin headlines are White Knight's mild-mannered pursuit of answers, with ridiculously inoffensive dialogue that's comedy gold, and BQ's much more offensive response, which obviously doesn't kill him (we're only two issues in), but is fun from a technical standpoint, with ample reminders that her tendency to indiscriminate violence is backed up by a very clever mind with plans within plans. As well as writing, Jimmy Robinson provides detail-rich art (coloured by Paul Little) that's full of interest, with dark comedy aplenty in the backgrounds, eye candy galore in the amply curvaceous and barely-clad Queen, and a fine sense of kinetic action and style in the fight scenes. All in all, strong issue.
Pilot Season: Genius ~ Colour me intrigued. Genius starts out with a trash-talking South Central girl shooting a cop, which kind of sets up expectations of a typical bad girl gang tale - but that's so not what's going on. Destiny (said cop killer) is a bona fide genius, a once-in-a-generation fluke, like a kid who can outplay grandmasters at chess - only Destiny's chess is military strategy. But she wasn't born into the army, she was born into the worst part of LA, where drugs, rape and murder are a way of life, and the police can't help, and in many cases don't care anyway. What she sees - not unreasonably, it's not a new theory - is that 'white society' is happy to let black neighbourhoods like hers degenerate into killing grounds, and being a born general, she does something about it the only way she knows how: she goes to war. On the other side of the fence is Detective Grey, a number-crunching LAPD officer who's predicted, correctly, the recent gang-related events are actually a prelude to all-out war, and that the precision of the 'enemy's' moves indicates a level of military intellect that means the police might be badly outmatched.
It's a fascinating setup, because Destiny is so clearly in the wrong - but the more you think about it, the easier it is to see that it's not just a matter of making a moral choice. She even says at one point, of her campaign, "So help me, I don't know how to do anything else." From the outside looking in, it's easy to frown on her decision to make her neighbourhood a self-governing state - especially when she orchestrates a massacre of the police sent to investigate what's going on - but from her point of view, as someone who doesn't have the luxury of living in comfort and safety, for whom the drug and gang problems are real and lethal threats every day, and have been her whole life... and she's got the military ability to change the way this world of hers works... it's not so easy to condemn her wholeheartedly. The fact that these issues came to mind because of lines of dialogue here and there in this issue makes me believe that writers Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman have every intention of exploring this moral dilemma, and I'd welcome the opportunity to read it. Afua Richardson's art is a perfect match for the story - there's realism to it, but also stylisation where needed to convey the intensity of what's going on, and the bleached, cel-shading-esque colours (a bit like the ads I've seen for the latest GTA game - not that I'd know anything about that, my most up-to-date console is an N64, but I spend more time with the trusty old Super Nintendo) lend a stark, heavy, heatwave kind of feeling.
The next two Pilot Season issues appear, from the ads, to star guys, so I doubt I'll do more than glance over them. Right now, I'd be very happy if this and Troy Hickman's Twilight Guardian were the winners.
Anna Mercury #2 ~ Now this is more like it. Giving the lie to last issue's cliffhanger, which seemed to suggest (if you didn't know otherwise) that the whole thing was some kind of virtual reality, we now get a full and fascinating explanation of what's going on. And also improving on last issue, a lot is going on - much page space is taken up with explaining where Anna is and what she's doing, in a clever and entertaining sequence between her mission controller and the understandably bemused Prime Minister, but even so Anna herself manages to move forward quite a bit in her personal storyline. In fact, this issue is so intriguing and captivating that I have to wonder why the first one wasn't - all its showing off its pretty art and having Anna do Spider-Man-esque acrobatics didn't achieve nearly as much as this issue's delivery of imaginative sci-fi concepts and well-written dialogue, in terms of making this title something worth pursuing. If you did happen to read issue #1 and felt a bit underwhelmed, maybe even decided not to bother continuing - look again.
Hulk: Raging Thunder ~ A two-in-one issue, with a 23 page new story, and a reprint of Fantastic Four #133 from 1973, in which Thundra takes on the Four (with Medusa filling in for Sue Storm, who's evidently left Reed at this point, obviously temporarily) with a particular interest in a duel with Thing. The new material is... well, surprisingly, I could read a lot more of it. The basis for Thundra's timeframe, a couple of centuries in the future, is that men and women have evolved apart, with advances in reproductive technology going hand-in-hand with the sexes distancing from each other socially, finally leading to the 'Gender Wars' in which men and women form separate nations in a Mad-Max-esque future where personal combat, not mechanised weaponry, is the way of battle. The whole Gender War thing is obviously a holdover from simpler times when "Hey, what if we go into the future, and men and women are fighting each other?" sounded like a great idea to comic writers, so there's a bit of inherent silliness to it - but writer Jeff Parker takes what he's got to work with and does surprisingly well with it, almost making you forget that it's a bit of a goofy sci-fi-lite premise. The plot - Thundra travelling back in time to do battle with the Hulk (green Hulk), ostensibly to prove her prowess but in fact with an ulterior motive - is simple enough, but it's her narrated commentary on her society, on warfare and the motives of the combatants, and the clever twist on where the story goes, that forms the real meat of the issue, and it's quite well-written and enjoyable to read. Mitch Breitweiser (lines) and Moose Baumann (colours) provide strong, realist art that brings to mind post-apocalyptic movies, with quite a serious tone to keep the scenes of bikini-clad warrior women from seeming over-the-top gratuitous. If Marvel ever happened to be casting around for something out of the ordinary to revive in a miniseries, they could to a lot worse than to look here.
