The Week In Ink: March 18, 2009

Oh, Jinx. Out of all the characters introduced in G.I. Joe: The Movie, you were my favorite.

 

 

Well, except for Big Lob, but really: Who doesn’t love that guy? I mean, besides Hasbro.

But enough about that! It’s Thursday night, and that means it’s time for the Internet’s Most Princely Comics Reviews to make their play! Here’s what I picked up this week…

 

 

…and here’s what I thought about ’em!

 


 

GI Joe: Cobra #1: So after three months and three new GI Joe books from IDW, the sinister forces of Cobra finally make their appearance. Although really: If they didn’t show up in the series that’s actually called “Cobra,” I think it’s safe to say that we’d be dealing with a problem. Still, Cobra Commander himself has yet to make an appearance, but one has to imagine that at this point, IDW’s just keeping everyone’s favorite masked military/cult leader off the stage so that they can reintroduce him with greater fanfare down the road and get people really excited about him, but they’ve overlooked one crucial element in this plan:

There are those of us, such as me, who will always be excited to see Cobra Commander. Heck, I haven’t not been excited about Cobra Commander at any point in the past twenty-five years, and I don’t imagine I’m going to start now just because IDW thinks a story about Destro’s henchmen using remote control robots to hack all of GI Joe’s internets! makes a better story.

But that’s what’s going on in the regular title. Cobra, by Christos Gage, Mike Costa and Antonio Fuso, is more of an espionage book, following Chuckles as he goes undercover to infiltrate the bad guys, and it’s actually pretty good. The beats of the plot involve the oldest tricks in the book–near the opening, Chuckles shoots Scarlett, but surprising no one, it turns out to be a setup to endear him to the Vipers–but it’s done with some very well-done writing and the details, like Chuckles’ sharp narration and the fact that he uses comedians as his aliases, that really make it sing.

It’s good stuff if you’re into GI Joe–which, as the record will show, I am–and while it doesn’t quite hit the heights of excitement that Larry Hama’s GI Joe: Origins did, it’s certainly another one of those side projects that’s blowing the main series away.

 

Hotwire: Requiem for the Dead #2: It’s the second issue of the new series starring ALICE HOTWIRE: DETECTIVE EXORCIST, and believe it or not, Warren Ellis and Steve Pugh have managed to throw in another high concept. This time, it’s THE GHOST BOMB–weaponized spirits that run off of unsuspecting corpses, thus combining ghosts, WMDs and zombies in what has to be some kind of trifecta—and much like the first issue, it’s a hoot. Although it does beg the question as to why they didn’t just go all-out and call this thing ALICE HOTWIRE: DETECTIVE EXORCIST VERSUS THE GHOST BOMB! It would be like printing money.

Or, more accurately, it’d be like printing a Warren Ellis-y spooky-science adventure book starring a sassy, pixieish heroine for which people would then give you money. But you know what I’m getting at here.

Either way, I’m pretty sure that’s one of the few ways this thing could be improved, as it already includes a scene where said heroine whacks a guy upside the head with a spooky-science two-by-four. I mentioned last month that as a publisher, Radical is doing a lot of things that I like, and especially in this issue, the higher production values of their comics really show off Steve Pugh’s gorgeous art. It’s a thoroughly beautiful book and a very fun read, and the only thing that’s not great about it is the lettering. It’s a minor complaint–especially since Pugh’s handling every aspect of the title writer, artist, and letterer–but a couple of typos were enough to make me notice. Still, if that’s all I’ve got to complain about, Pugh’s doing something right, and it’s definitely worth a read.

 

ISB BEST OF THE WEEK

 

 

Mysterius the Unfathomable #3: I’ve held off on reviewing Mysterius over the past few months, not just because I wanted to wait until I had a better handle on where the series was going before I started to talk about it, but mostly because I figured that anybody who would bother to listen to me about it would’ve already picked it up based on the fact that it’s a new comic by Jeff Parker and Tom Fowler. There’s not a lot I can add to something that we all already know is awesome.

And awesome it is. I’ll cop to being a little skeptical at first, as I always am when a new book about a conniving, magically oriented protagonist shows up. It’s not that there isn’t room for more than one, but when you’re talking about mystical bastards–especially ones that are coming from an imprint owned by DC–the 253-issue shadow of Hellblazer can be awfully hard to escape. But while Mysterius certainly is a mystical bastard, he’s a different breed than John Constantine. They’re similar in that they both appear in comics that have staples and occasionally do magic, but beyond that, there’s not much of a comparison.

The big difference here is that Mysterius is far more lighthearted than its competition, albeit in a gallows humor sort of way that squeezes laughs from an opening scene about the torture of the afterlife and rolls right into the most clever setup for a demonic invasion that I think I’ve ever read. Parker’s story has a great sardonic wit to it, with the kind of dialogue that I find myself repeating to friends later because I laughed so hard when I came across it the first time. It’s solid stuff.

And as for the art, Tom Fowler’s work has never looked better. His faces are theatrical and incredibly expressive, and his character designs fit the script perfectly. Mysterius himself is all pot-belly and a huge red onion of a nose, but Fowler manages to do an amazing job with his eyes, alternating between the washed-up mystic and the genuine sorcerer with the change of an expression. It all makes for a book that’s pure joy to read, and really, more of you out there ought to be doing just that. It’s excellent work.

 

Street Fighter Legends: Chun-Li #2: For a second there, I was going to write about how the events of this issue contradicted previously established Street Fighter continuity, but then I realized that:

a) I was wrong, they actually don’t, and far more importantly…

b) I was about to type the phrase “previously established Street Fighter continuity.

Thank goodness I stopped myself before it was too late.

 

Uncanny X-Men #507: All right, folks, I’m just gonna come right out and say it: The past few issues of Uncanny have been hands down the most exciting an X-Men book’s been since Grant Morrison left.

With a franchise like the X-Men, which has been pumping out roughly sixty-three titles a month since 1991, the difficulty for a writer has to be figuring out stories that we haven’t seen before. Admittedly, it’s not as hard as it could be, since they’ve basically been doing the same stuff over and over since the Dark Phoenix Saga, but still. There’s a lot out there you’ve got to break away from, and managing to pull that off while doing something that’s also incredibly enjoyable is no mean feat. But that’s exactly what Matt Fraction and the Dodsons have done here.

Because this is a comic book where the X-Men, recruiting various forgotten scientists from the shadier corners of the Marvel Universe, end up fighting a giant mutant atomic super-lizard. This is something I have never seen them do before.

And I’m not sure I ever want to see them do anything else.

 


 

And that’s the week. As always, questions about anything I read this week can be left in the comments section below, and although I haven’t had the chance to read it, all previous evidence points to the new Courtney Crumrin probably being pretty awesome.

29 thoughts on “The Week In Ink: March 18, 2009

  1. No Watchmensch? After Civil Crisis — featuring a tranvestite Nick Fury and Taylor Hicks as Captain America — I gave Rich Johnston another shot, and he delivered a nice bit of satire. It was good for me, especially since I saw Watchmen in IMAX on Tuesday.

  2. 1.) I’m still waiting for a Big Lob figure.
    2.) Almost every new Street Fighter game retcons the ones before it and also retcons Final Fight stuff in it’s spare time. A great weight was lifted from my soul when I stopped giving a damn about it.
    3.) Essential Godzilla is more proof that Ernie Chan is the man.

  3. I flipped through Watchmensch when I picked up my own order today, and it really struck me as MAD-style parody, but with less subtlety. And really, that says a lot about its quality.

  4. Two things I have always dug are the art of Steve Pugh and Chun-Li’s Princess Leia-style cinnamon rolls.

  5. Hey! The Street Fighters games do not retcon things as in a “This thing that happened actually didn’t” it just adds in previously unknown details. Plot wise it just goes SF – Alpha series – SSF2 Turbo – SF4 – SF3

    oh god what have I done with my life

  6. Y’know, I love the old Street Fighter games (and the animated movie), but I’m glad to say I didn’t even realize the games HAD a continuity.

  7. While Ms. Hotwire’s outfit may be more alluring than Judge Dredd’s I am not convinced she has Judges Hersey or Anderson beat. Those are the future cop uniforms I am waiting for.

  8. Hey, how’s that roller derby comic? I’ve reffed a mid-Atlantic women’s league the last couple of years.
    While I love the hell out of the sport and its history I have a really hard time getting into its pop cultural spinoffs — the A&E Rollergirls series, etc.
    But I might give the comic a shot if it’s any good.

  9. As far as Street Fighter goes, all I know is I want some sort of team book involving Dudley, Hugo, Dan and Blanka, just having ‘adventures’ like going to the shops and things. Possibly guest-starring Shingo and Benimaru from King of Fighters.

    Drawn by Frank Quitely.

  10. I dug the new Derby comic. Clones, nekkid skaters and mad scientists make for a fun time. Oni is also putting out an anthology of different Derby related stories submitted by those involved in WFTDA which also has the potential to be fun.

  11. If I was to pick just one of the new GiJoe books, which one do you think is overall the best?

  12. Spot on re: Mysterius. For some reason, it feels like some kind of really good 70’s TV pilot (query: oxymoron?) — like Banacek with sorcery, a backstory, and better writing. Here’s hoping Wildstorm plans to extend this into a regular series.

    And for some reason, Fowler’s art reminds me of Mort Drucker’s. Which is a good thing.

  13. PS

    Re: Paul Grist and Jack Staff, I read his work on the new IDW Dr. Who comic was a one-shot.

    Has he signed up to be the regular artist for the book?

  14. I think there might be some retconning in Street Fighter’s backstory, but I think it partly comes from dodgy changes made in localisation. I heard the US team made some odd changes to Cammy and Fei Long’s stories when they first appeared, which weren’t mentioned again so they might have seemed like retcons.

    To be honest, I was OK with Street Fighter’s story until the statue on Sagat’s stage stood up and started firing lasers.

    Bison becoming a body-hopping transexual child molestor was a tad weird too.

  15. “Hey! The Street Fighters games do not retcon things as in a “This thing that happened actually didn’t” it just adds in previously unknown details. Plot wise it just goes SF – Alpha series – SSF2 Turbo – SF4 – SF3”

    That’s what I used to think. Some things fit in the gaps like Untold Tales of Spider-Man. Lots of weird things like how Ryu beat Sagat in the SF1 tourney to Blanka not knowing his name in SF2 were changed in Street Fighter Alpha. There’s a ton of info in this fan-made “The Street Fighter Plot Canon Guide” that pulls bits from different endings and sources. It’s a great resource with a lot of work put into it but it also shows why there’s no point in trying to follow the canon. Just press start and beat the crap out of people!

  16. “Big Lob takes the ball…Big Lob goes for the hole….Aw…Big Lob shut down by the poll”

  17. Didn’t they totally change Blanka’s backstory, including how he got his electricity powers?

    And how do you explain that Saget went from raising three adorable moppets in San Francisco with Uncle Jesse to becoming a one-eyed Thai kickboxer?

  18. You guys realize that there was a REASON I didn’t want to get into the nuance of Street Fighter Continuity, right? Right.

    Okay then:

    What do you mean no more Jack Staff?

    There hasn’t been a new issue of the allegedly monthly since November, and with Paul Grist working on stuff like the Torchwood comics and the Doctor Who one-shot–you know, stuff that he can probably actually get paid for–I doubt that’s gonna change anytime soon. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t begrudge Grist for it or anything, but it’s a little disheartening that my favorite comic isn’t going to come out for a while.

    Hey, how’s that roller derby comic?

    It’s not bad. Dennis Culver does a great job with the art, but the story’s pretty shaky. There’s not much in the way of panel-to-panel transitions for the first part (although it picks up towards the end).

    If I was to pick just one of the new GiJoe books, which one do you think is overall the best?

    Origins, hands down. Larry Hama at his best, with fantastic art and Snake Eyes beating a dude up with an IV stand.

    Um… the X-men fought a giant atomic super lizard, and they did it in Tokyo, in Uncanny #181.

    Golly, Junior G-Man, sounds like you get a gold star!

  19. Puff was a girl version of Lockheed, and I’ll be dead in the cold cold ground before I agree that Lockheed is a lizard. If anything, he’s some weird member of suborder Pterosauria. Ergo, the X-Men haven’t fought a giant atomic super-lizard (order Squamata) before.

    No-Prize, please!

    (And ladies, I’m single!)