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Aug. 22nd, 2005 08:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenygalBecause I'm way behind on new comics: random comments on back issues I've picked up.
DETECTIVE COMICS ANNUAL #2—I pulled this one on the grounds that Mark Waid was one of the names on the cover, and it more than delivered. It’s a full-length story set back in Bruce’s much younger training days--he’s smart (when he remembers to be), physically dangerous, and an utter loose cannon. It’s charming watching him screw up again and again because he’s yet to develop that patented Bat-repression, and gives you some idea why he needs it so bad. It also features a proper, well-done mystery, an engaging detective mentor for Bruce, some nice emotional bits, and a coldly effective link back to the present day. All this and Young Bruce calling himself after the author of "The Hardy Boys"--really, what more could I want?
Also, apparently this story is the much-updated post-Crisis version of a tale in which Bruce used to be Robin. Hey, don't look at me--I just report these things, you know?
WONDER WOMAN #100—Last issue of the Messner-Loebs WW run. One day, I swear, I will get the rest of it. For the moment, I have very little idea what’s going on here--except that the role of Wonder Woman has been taken over by Artemis and Diana is wearing black leather--and I don’t care; Diana is brave and strong and caring, and Artemis's death makes me sniffle. A lot.
IMPULSE ANNUAL #2--That cover is still one of the most charming things I've ever seen, and actually I bought the issue primarily on the strength of it. Bart is having so much fun there. The actual issue consists of two stories; the lead is a piece of fluff in which Bart, Max, and Vigilante thwart the bad guys, with appropriately purple narration. The backup is an historical story retconning Max into the origin of Western hero Johnny Thunder. (No, not the one from the JSA, the other one. You know, the one none of you have ever heard of...) It's not bad at all--Thunder's father comes off pretty vividly, I thought--but after a while I really kind of felt like shaking the author and going "Look, I get it! His parents want different things from him and he's going to develop a dual identity to deal with it! Can we move on now?" Admittedly, the fact that I have in fact read Thunder's origin before and knew the score going in may be influencing me here.
GREEN ARROW ANNUAL #7--You know, I can almost hear Chuck Dixon talking here. "Playboy billionaire is stranded on desert island and is forced to survive and, to some degree, grow up? Boring, boring, boring. I want a fight scene before he even gets off the island! Hey! What if there was somebody else on the island and he was a psychotic serial killer! Wouldn't that be cool?!" *sigh* It's not dire; Dixon keeps a lot of Ollie's struggle to survive alone, and his interactions with Nicholas Kotero aren't bad; in another story I'd even call them fairly compelling. But they really don't suit what I think Ollie's origin story is supposed to be about. I'm also kind of dubious about the idea that early Ollie hit a waiter, and so the guy didn't call for help when he saw Ollie go overboard. Now, that does suit the themes of the character, with his own actions always being his biggest problem, but physical abuse is not a character trait I particularly associate with Oliver Queen (his lines for how far he'll go are drawn much further than most heroes, but that's a different thing than punching people over minor irritations) and we're really not given any reason in this story to think he got over that--so it comes across as just smearing Ollie for no particularly good reason. Nice one, Dixon.
In other news, I will one day watch a TV show that is not twenty years old and vastly obscure. Just not right now, apparently.
DETECTIVE COMICS ANNUAL #2—I pulled this one on the grounds that Mark Waid was one of the names on the cover, and it more than delivered. It’s a full-length story set back in Bruce’s much younger training days--he’s smart (when he remembers to be), physically dangerous, and an utter loose cannon. It’s charming watching him screw up again and again because he’s yet to develop that patented Bat-repression, and gives you some idea why he needs it so bad. It also features a proper, well-done mystery, an engaging detective mentor for Bruce, some nice emotional bits, and a coldly effective link back to the present day. All this and Young Bruce calling himself after the author of "The Hardy Boys"--really, what more could I want?
Also, apparently this story is the much-updated post-Crisis version of a tale in which Bruce used to be Robin. Hey, don't look at me--I just report these things, you know?
WONDER WOMAN #100—Last issue of the Messner-Loebs WW run. One day, I swear, I will get the rest of it. For the moment, I have very little idea what’s going on here--except that the role of Wonder Woman has been taken over by Artemis and Diana is wearing black leather--and I don’t care; Diana is brave and strong and caring, and Artemis's death makes me sniffle. A lot.
IMPULSE ANNUAL #2--That cover is still one of the most charming things I've ever seen, and actually I bought the issue primarily on the strength of it. Bart is having so much fun there. The actual issue consists of two stories; the lead is a piece of fluff in which Bart, Max, and Vigilante thwart the bad guys, with appropriately purple narration. The backup is an historical story retconning Max into the origin of Western hero Johnny Thunder. (No, not the one from the JSA, the other one. You know, the one none of you have ever heard of...) It's not bad at all--Thunder's father comes off pretty vividly, I thought--but after a while I really kind of felt like shaking the author and going "Look, I get it! His parents want different things from him and he's going to develop a dual identity to deal with it! Can we move on now?" Admittedly, the fact that I have in fact read Thunder's origin before and knew the score going in may be influencing me here.
GREEN ARROW ANNUAL #7--You know, I can almost hear Chuck Dixon talking here. "Playboy billionaire is stranded on desert island and is forced to survive and, to some degree, grow up? Boring, boring, boring. I want a fight scene before he even gets off the island! Hey! What if there was somebody else on the island and he was a psychotic serial killer! Wouldn't that be cool?!" *sigh* It's not dire; Dixon keeps a lot of Ollie's struggle to survive alone, and his interactions with Nicholas Kotero aren't bad; in another story I'd even call them fairly compelling. But they really don't suit what I think Ollie's origin story is supposed to be about. I'm also kind of dubious about the idea that early Ollie hit a waiter, and so the guy didn't call for help when he saw Ollie go overboard. Now, that does suit the themes of the character, with his own actions always being his biggest problem, but physical abuse is not a character trait I particularly associate with Oliver Queen (his lines for how far he'll go are drawn much further than most heroes, but that's a different thing than punching people over minor irritations) and we're really not given any reason in this story to think he got over that--so it comes across as just smearing Ollie for no particularly good reason. Nice one, Dixon.
In other news, I will one day watch a TV show that is not twenty years old and vastly obscure. Just not right now, apparently.
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Date: 2005-08-23 01:58 am (UTC)I've read GA Annual #7, and as I recall it went more or less in one ear and out the other; advantage of reading it early and in a big stack 'o back issues, although I remember it did make Kotero's appearences in Dixon's Connor GA make a little bit more sense.
(It's still funny whenever anyone decides to haul out a One Of Ollies Archnemeses, though.)
The random hitting I forgot entirely, though it makes me *wince* when you mention it. Mostly on account of Hal rather than Ollie, though, who's now perpetrated 3 random punchings in 4 issues. *glares at Johns*
And sometime (possibly sometime when I do not have a headache) I should get 'round to reviewing some of my Massive Quantities of Dexcon comics. And other things. Should mention, though, that I read and much enjoyed all the Darkover ones. (Although man, she's NOT good at writing romance that doesn't come across as creaptastic. Even when there's not quasi-incest involved.) Good world-building, though.
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Date: 2005-08-23 05:38 pm (UTC)God, yes. Whatever else I may think of Meltzer's stories, I think he nailed it with the line about Ollie's best enemy being himself; I don't know if that's the reason he's never really assembled any kind of compelling rogue's gallery, but it's certainly a convincing rationale. More from the external POV than the internal, although there's a decent argument to be made that Ollie just doesn't have the focus to make a proper vendetta with. And certainly Dixon's attempt to manufacture an important bad guy in Kotero was a failure. (And how does Connor know what he looked like in Hate Crimes, anyway? I could actually see that being one of the stories Ollie told him--although at times I wonder just why Ollie, who was making a concerted effort to lose himself, was so into telling Connor all about his old times--but surely there were no visual aids involved?)
Although man, she's NOT good at writing romance that doesn't come across as creaptastic. Even when there's not quasi-incest involved.
Let's see, what was in that one--Star of Danger, no romance that I remember, Winds of Darkover, with the mind-control and the incest and yeah, check (although for all that I think Winds is one of the lesser entries in the canon, I'm really rather fond of both those couples), and The Bloody Sun, which...hmmm. Now, I adore TBS, I cherish Jeff, and I'm pretty damned fond of Elorie, too. (Although my real darling in that novel is Auster. Why yes, arrogant jerks do push my buttons. Not news, I'm sure. ;) But...okay, I can see your point. I don't, actually, have issues, because I think the unchallenged-authority and fragile-child parts of Elorie's personality manage to strike a balance where it isn't in fact creepy for her to be taking up with Jeff. I think she would have adjusted badly to the Terran Empire, but then I'm not sure Jeff would have handled his reentry much better; the "world sacrificed for love" aspect applies to both of them. But still. Yes.
Good world-building, though.
It's kind of patchy in places--I don't think we ever wound up with a good explanation for why such a profoundly sexist culture started only using women as Keepers, for example. But it's very...vivid, I think is the word I'm looking for.