I don't actually have any comics to review this week. Not that I didn't want to buy any comics this week - there's mainstays Birds of Prey, Mighty Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, the second issue of Fathom, the third of True Believers, and heck, I was even going to get the third issue of Batgirl, regardless of not being wowed by it so far. But unfortunately, Diamond managed to send my comic shop's shipment to Timbuctoo, of Upper Volta, or Goddess knows where by mistake. Of course Diamond doesn't think this is really a big deal, since hey, one store doesn't mean much to their $500 million turnover, so instead of making an effort to get my shop the comics they've paid for, they're just going to do nothing for now, and bundle them in with next week's regular shipment. Thanks, Diamond.
In the meantime, I've pulled a bunch of the trade paperbacks I've read since the February TPB-a-thon off the shelves, and reviewed them instead.
Atomic Robo: Dogs of War #2 ~ In fact, I reviewed this one back in September 3rd's column, thanks to publisher Red 5 kindly sending a preview PDF out - but since it's the only comic coming out this week that I've been able to read, I figured I'd repost the review:
World War II, and the Allied invasion of Sicily is at stake, with US troops landing on the beaches while Robo is tasked with preventing the Nazi robo-tanks from being deployed to repulse them. Now that's a good storyline - even if I'd never heard of Atomic Robo before, I'd want to read that. This issue repeats the first's trick of melding pulp sci-fi robo-fighting action with authentic war scenes - the 'narration' in the opening sequence, in the form of a letter one of the soldiers writes, is an especially convincing touch (and also serves for one of the best moments in the issue, when at the end the letter comes full circle to encompass the whole issue's events in a particularly funny way). Robo himself is also presented in a credible light - his dry wit is hilarious as always, but he's also presented very plausibly as a soldier at war, and writer Clevinger manages the delicate balancing act of not allowing the humour to overshadow the life-and-death seriousness of the mission, or vice versa. Robo's portrayal is also quite interesting from the point of view of having read the complete first miniseries, which spanned his whole life up to the present - this Robo is less self-aware, not so in command of himself (he even gets a kind but firm talking-to from a general about his perspective later on, which would be difficult to reconcile if it happened to present-day Robo), and this works both in terms of his personal timeline - he's younger, after all - and in terms of the war having had a similar effect on everyone involved, forcing them into difficult situations that taxed their ability to reconcile their feelings with the necessities of what had to be done. The usual backup story goes back to the first miniseries, picking up at the end of the 'pyramid tank' adventure when Robo and his Action Scientists were confronted by a giant zombie-cyborg-mummy, and revealing what happened.
Gotham Central volumes 2-5 ~ These really are a great combination - high-quality comics, and very easy to read. You know how sometimes you just don't feel up to tackling a meaty, involved, complex storyline? Not an issue with Gotham Central - it doesn't demand you do brain-work to enjoy it, it just pulls you in, and before you know it your mind's whirling with everything going on. Each of these four volumes (I reviewed the first back in February) is named for a particular storyline it contains, but they're not collected by story - most contain several individual or ongoing cases, and there are longer storylines that run through the course of the series as a whole. In these volumes, Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen take centre stage more than I felt they did in the first - volume two contains the story where Renee is outed to her colleagues, a story that's explored in various ways (though never sensationalised or trivialised), and the ramifications of that shock, and her relationship with Daria, play out in the background of the remaining volumes. At the same time Crispus's personal storyline is set up, with the involvement of crooked crime scene investigator Corrigan who Cris eventually tackles head-on, and these two storylines, Renee's and Cris's, collide in the end, making for a powerful finale. Other characters get arcs, keeping the series from becoming solely Renee and Cris's story, fellow detectives and others drawn into various cases - newspaper reporter Simon Lippman, a recurring character, gets a particularly powerful subplot in the 'Dead Robin' storyline, and former detective Harvey Bullock has a role in an earlier case that's written with a lot of subtlety and conviction. If you liked Renee's storyline in 52, or if you like police fiction in general, this is a great series to try out.
Witchblade: Takeru ~ Witchblade by way of being about a weapon passed on from bearer to bearer, has always dabbled with heroines other than it leading light Sara Pezzini, both in flashbacks in the main title, and in spin-off issues and miniseries over the years. This volume contains the twelve issues of the 2006 manga interpretation of the title, and is entirely self-contained - past bearers are alluded to only briefly, and have little bearing on the story, so even if you've never read an issue of the regular title this is as accessible as it'll ever be. As seems to often be the case with manga and anime (I'm no expert, but it does seem to be a trend) the story is far less episodic than Western equivalents, having more in common with a novel in twelve parts than a status quo-based monthly comic. The story concerns Takeru, a young and fairly innocent teenage schoolgirl, who bonds with the Witchblade when the nunnery where she lives is attacked by demons. Rather than being a simple hero-vs-monsters tale, everything evolves over the course of the series - Takeru's struggle with the Witchblade's nature, and revelations about her own origins, the demons' motivations and history, the actions of the shadowy military faction involved in both sides - and the story is told fluidly from beginning to end, rather than the origin and finale being comparmentalised into the first and last issues, with those in between just filling in time. It makes for an interesting read, and for someone who's not really that familiar with manga, having prior knowledge of the Witchblade and its themes helps make the story more instantly familiar. There are down sides, though - the art, while very well drawn in its own right, has been coloured from a monochrome original, and the newsprint-quality pattern shading still shows through, diluting all the colours. In addition, the speech bubbles - vertical, to accomodate Japanese writing - were evidently drawn as part of the original art, meaning they can't be replaced with horizontal bubbles, meaning that the translated text has to be fitted into vertical spaces that English writing is ill-suited to, and quite a bit of simplification has had to go on as a result of just not being able to fit many words in. And the story, while strong in its core, contains several elements that seem rather arbitrary, especially considering that twelve issues give only so much time to develop subplots and side stories - there's an insane US military leader who just seems bizarre, without sufficient explanation as to how someone like him could be in such a position, and while Takeru's best male friend Kou is integral to the story, her girl friend Ayaka has nothing to do with anything much, and just seems to be there to make lewd remarks and flash her bottom at everyone in sight. Speaking of which, Witchblade has never exactly been shy of eye candy in its artwork, and the manga version doesn't hold back - adhering into the usual stereotype of manga fan service, there are panty shots aplenty, and Takeru's various Witchblade forms feature some truly staggering levels of almost-nudity from the 'blade armour. (Mind you, while it's a bit confronting to have the heroine skimpily-clad to such a ridiculous amount - seriously, just go naked, it'd be easier - it is a refreshing change that she's got a nice set of filled-out curves, rather than being the big-boobed skinny supermodel shape that Western comics often opt for.)
White Tiger ~ Bit of an odd one, this. You don't get many genuinely new characters in Marvel or DC comics, and this kind of thing - a new incarnation of an old name - is the closest they usually get. But she's new to me - I'd never heard of 'White Tiger', nor have I read any of the Daredevil issues that this spins out of - and I'm always happy to give a new girl a chance. This volume... it's not bad, it's just nothing out of the ordinary. Angela del Toro's situation in becoming the White Tiger isn't anything unusual - she's in a tough spot, she wants to take down a villain, and due to lack of options the only avenue open to her is to put on a mask and take advantage of the mystical amulets that give her her superpowers. The story shows her making the decision and going through the motions of getting a start as a costumed vigilante - an interesting process (especially getting a costume - it's an amusing quirk of a superhero-rich world that if you've got powers, you can go and get a costume professionally made) but nothing revolutionary - and acquiring a useful secret identity/day job, and all the usual baggage that forms a superhero's status quo. I guess it's kind of the way the trade is packaged that makes me a bit ambivalent - the prominence of Tamora Pierce's name on the cover, combined with the references to her other work on the back, made me think this'd be something different to the usual comic book fare, one of those instances of a 'big name' writer coming in and doing something special, but... it's really just the usual. I wouldn't mind seeing more of White Tiger, but to be honest, while I enjoyed reading this, I'm not really that invested in whether she gets more stories for herself, or if she just joins the ranks of all those characters who pop up now and then for a cameo whenever a writer remembers them and finds a spot in whatever comic they're working on.
Supergirl: Beyond Good and Evil ~ This contains Supergirl #23-27, and something from Action Comics, and I confess I've only read the Supergirl issues so far. And those are... confusing. We start out with the 'Tesseract' story, which takes up the better part of two issues, and which I still have no freakin' idea what it was about. There are these long stretches of silence, then dialogue that makes no sense, then more random space action, and... I'm all for unusual storytelling, but seriously, this stuff is just trying to be profound when it really doesn't have the smarts to shoot that high. Then Supergirl angsts about her past, and we get another retelling of her origin, which again retcons what her parents were like - really, can we just pick an origin and leave it be? - and then she gets into the start of the first thing in quite while on this title that deserves to be called a 'storyline', where she promises a sick boy that she'll find a cure for his cancer. I've seen some of the later issues where this storyline continues, and it's okay - not great, but not awful - but the final issue in this volume is just abysmal, with Supergirl's decision being revealed to have disastrous consequences for one of those disposable dystopian futures that pop up whenever a writer feels like being 'dark' and 'gritty' without really wanting to put any effort in. It's all... it's just not very good. I want to like Supergirl, but even with Joe Kelly thankfully gone, she's still mired in stories that go nowhere, and creators who don't seem to know what to do with her. Just tell good stories, would you? There's so many comics that tell good stories, it can't be that hard.
Dynamo 5 volume two: Moments of Truth ~ God, Scrap's hot. Sorry, just wanted to get that out of my system. I'm in a funny position with this comic - I really like it, but exactly because of that, I'm hesitant to switch from TPBs to monthly issues with it. Of all the comics I get, this is one of the most difficult to stop reading - I think I'd have real trouble waiting a month after every issue to get more, and ironically it's easier to wait for the trade - I can put it out of my mind until a volume arrives, and then burn through it from cover to cover non-stop. This one, following the introductions and team-building of the first TPB, goes in the other direction - things start falling apart, the individual members of Dynamo 5 aren't seeing eye to eye, and little problems grow into major schisms. It's all written very naturally, easy to read, but with a mature sensibility than doesn't sell its characters or the reader short - these are young adults, not 'kids', and the decisions they make are very easy to relate to, even when you find yourself sometimes wishing they'd think things through a bit more. Mahmud A. Asrar's art is spot-on perfect, with exactly the right mix of comic book dynamic action, visual appeal, and emotional subtlety. And while we're talking about Dynamo 5, I've been doing a little experiment lately, giving my personal trainer, who's never been a comic reader at all, random TPBs to read issues from while she makes me do painful exercises, and Dynamo 5 is the one she instantly got into. Whether you're a comic newbie, or have read dozens of issues a week for as long as you can remember, if you're not reading Dynamo 5, and think to yourself "I'd like to read a superhero comic," this is where to go.
