Panels Without Borders: Six
These days, creative teams come and go and Batman has had a great many of them working on his adventures over the decades. During that long span of time there have been extremely few runs that could genuinely be called classic. The tales that Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin created for Detective Comics was one of those periods.
Now they are all back with BATMAN: DARK DETECTIVE issue one and every fan who experienced their previous great triumph first hand are fervently hoping that they can find their way back to that inspired standard again.
Have they manage to pull it off?
To be honest I’m not too sure.
All the main elements are certainly here: a suitably dark Batman, a homicidally crazy Joker (sporting a visual nod to his Red Hood origins), a beautiful Silver St Cloud and Gotham City itself as only Rogers is capable of rendering it.
The art is unquestionably as good as before; Englehart’s writing is as strong as ever; even John Workman’s sound effects lettering strives to put us back to that rightly honored place and time.
That’s all very well, but I also have to say that nothing very much happens in this issue that we have not seen before in other Batman stories. Almost all of the main action takes place in a single location and because of that the story feels a bit static or it just may be that Englehart’s natural pacing feels a little different to what other mainstream writers are doing nowadays.
Maybe the problem was me, perhaps I was expecting too much from this first issue and put it down feeling as if something was lacking but not knowing exactly what.
In the final analysis it doesn’t really matter all that much anyway. There is still enough good feeling within me for this entire project that I will overlook this slow start and will be buying the rest of the series anyway. I strongly encourage you to do the same.
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All right class its time for a Pop Quiz. Description: Mockingbird recruits six operatives to band together and resist a greater enemy. What comic am I describing?
No Tommy, Secret Six is the wrong answer.
Anyone else?
Sorry Carol, it’s not the Secret Society of Supervillains either and the very fact that the two of you could even remember those really obscure titles just shows that you having been reading comics for far too long now.
The correct answer is of course VILLAINS UNITED number one and yes class it is another Infinite Crisis tie-in book.
Surprisingly for all its rehashed D.C history origins this story is not that bad. But realistic its not that great either. Gail Simone turns in a good script and the art by Dale Eaglesham and Wade Von Grawbadger is competently done but Wade has certainly done much better work in the past.
It would not be fair to say that this book should only be bought those wishing to have every part of this year’s big D.C event but I can’t really see it attracting the causal reader. I predict that multiple copies of this comic will be sitting in cheap back issue boxes in a few years time.
Not exactly a waste of money but lets just say that I will not be staying around for the next five issues to find out who the new Mockingbird is.
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There is contract killer running around Miami. He is an expert shot (as you would expect) but he also appears to know some ballet, be proficient in acrobatics and seems to enjoy humming a tune while doing his bloody work. Not exactly your average assassin but then again MATADOR is not your average comic.
I have read issue one twice over now and I still don’t fully understand what’s going on but I find that it doesn’t bother me that much because I was thoroughly entertained by it all anyway.
The last time I remember being this confused but at the same time being as intrigued about how a story was going to develop was when I read the premiere issue of American Flagg.If it continues to improve and hits those dizzy heights then I predict that we may see a second mini series.
This story premise hit all the right notes with me and I can’t wait to see how it all comes together. Devin Greyson has really taken care to bring her female protagonist to life. We see her work and family environments and they both ring absolutely true: real people inhabit this make believe world.
Listen up all you fanboys out there: this is a comic that your girlfriend would actually enjoy reading for its own sake, rather than because you asked her to. She will see a realistic representation of a young woman’s life and that’s a rare thing in comics.
Brian Stelfreeze does a sterling job of work especially in capturing the multi ethnic look of modern Miami and the Matador himself was suitably enigmatic. Lovely stuff.
I will warn all you back issue dealers right now. Your customers will be looking for this book in the months to come, so you had better buy a few extra copies and keep them safe. This one is guaranteed money in the bank.
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RISING STARS: VOICES OF THE DEAD is the new mini-series featuring the hero, or perhaps anti-hero is a better description, from this particular comic book universe that can see and talk to dead people. This character was used sparingly but effectively in the main series but the same cannot be said here.
The story by Fiona Avery in issue one is distinctly patchy. She tries to capture the feel of Straczynskis work but it just doesn’t happen. I thought that she telegraphed the obvious story ending to the reader about three quarters of the way through the book, presumably in case we were preparing to throw the comic away and therefore would not actually reach the last page.
The art by Johnson and Faucher for the majority of the story was distinctly average and the only time it really rose above that was during the surreal mind meld sequence with the ghost. For those few panels this tale reached the levels of good comic book horror.
This one is only for Rising Stars completists.
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All the previous comics that I have so far reviewed have all been at the start of their particular runs. So I think that it is appropriate to finish with a title that has reached its conclusion this week.
FALLEN ANGEL is one of those comics that only comes along once in a long while.
After initial publication it quickly builds up a small but devoted fan base, usually by word of mouth. The professional part of the industry praises its creative team and say that it’s some of the best panel work they have ever seen done. Wizard magazine chooses it as one of their hot picks one month and tell people that they ought to be reading it. The comic publisher also feels that they have something special here and because it is a slow starter they will give it some extra time in the marketplace to build up its audience.
This strategy worked spectacularly well with the Powers book but has failed miserably with Fallen Angel.
I count myself among the small loyal fan base I was talking about but I think that this whole story was presented in completely the wrong format.
If D.C published novelisations of their characters the way Marvel used to do then I truly believe that this would be a big seller. Or perhaps a television show would be the way to proceed; the Buffy crowd would lap all of this stuff up and I would certainly love to buy the action figures a bit hit would generate.
It’s obvious to me that David has a created great deal of back story to his creation and a novel would allow us to read a lot more of it. Fans of his writing already know that he can tell a good story and I for one would like to know more about this particular character and the city she inhabits.
That’s not to be for now.
Regarding the contents of issue twenty. The creative team of Peter David and artist David Lopez knew that the end was coming for a few months now and this has at least allowed them to tie up the various plot strings rather neatly. It was a very good issue of a great series and I will miss it.
Hopefully Peter can manage to fine another piece of heaven for his Angel to shine.
I have been a science fiction, comic book and animation fan for a very long time. I honestly believe that comics are an extremely vital and exciting art form whose true worth is only now beginning to be recognised in the mainstream media and this appreciation can only continue to grow in the future. I regularly write science fiction short stories and send them off to the magazines. So far their response has not exactly allowed me to give up my day job but I plan to keep plugging away at it..
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