What I Bought 7/16/08

I don't know how people who write for a living do it. It was surprisingly tiring typing up those stories, I mean, typing up those completely true accounts the last three days. Time to get back to nice, short review posts. Bugger, 4 comics this week? Not as short as I'd hoped. I read through X-Factor and decided to pass it by. There were certain things that interested me, but I don't think those will be the primary points of interest the next few months, and Stroman's art made me miss Pablo Raimondi. It wasn't terrible, though the faces were odd at times, but too rough-looking for my tastes, like these were initial sketches that would be tightened up later. That's enough talking about what I didn't buy, so let's discuss what I did purchase.

Batgirl #1 - Yep that's certainly Batgirl on the cover. Awful lot of stars there in the background, for being in a major city and all. The cover doesn't mention this is a mini-series, while the DC website does. Curious.

Basically, Cass is looking for her father and Deathstroke. She's renewed her vow to never kill, except she plans to break it when it comes to those two. So her vow means about as much as my swearing I'm going to lay off the salted snack treats. Swell. She gets a name from a gun-runner, puts it through the old Bat-Computer, gets hassled by Nightwing, defended by Bats and Robin, who explain everything that's happened since the end of her series until she joined the Outsiders, she starts tracking down the addresses the computer gave her, finds something pretty grisly at one of them, and end of issue.

I wonder at Beechen's strategy here. There's a lot of talking, about 4 pages that are nothing but characters discussing what happened to her, when she was drugged, what she did under their influence, the whys and hows. It might have been better to parcel that out a little each issue, or maybe Beechen just wants to get the past out of the way as quickly as possible and move forward. That might be the best plan, or it might not. The thing is, even though Cass can speak fairly well now (and Beechen explains how), she's still not the talkative type. So we get pages of Alfred opining to Bruce about her on the phone, and later Nightwing, Robin, and Batman discuss her situation in great detail - while she's standing right there. It makes her a bystander in her own story. I imagine it's an important point that she doesn't defend herself from Nightwing's accusations. For that matter, I'm surprised it's Grayson, not Tim, that's hostile towards her. Tim had many more run-ins with "crazy, Punisher-style" Cass, so I'd think he'd be more soured on her. I think I'm remembering that issue where Cass mentioned Dick told her the story of Cinderella and did the voices for it, from which I inferred a friendship (maybe big brother/little sister) between the two.

Calafiore's artwork is what I remember from Exiles. It's sharp edges and solid, not too flashy, but it conveys movement pretty well, and boy they really seem to like shadows. Lots of faces hidden in darkness, or costumes blending with them. It's not a bad idea, for a story involving the the Batclan. I wasn't really drawn in by this issue, but I'll give it at least one more issue.

Batman & the Outsiders #9 - Batman looks a bit old and dumpy on the cover there.

Metamorpho's under arrest in France for stuff, some of which he didn't do. He escapes, meets some teammates, but is stuck with clothes that Ollie picked out for him. Cue amusing sight gag. It made me laugh. I think this book has something that manages that every month, which is always a plus. Meanwhile, Batman and his tech staff have figured out why the giant gun was firing at the moon. It's a little 2011 (or was it 2051?), a little of that Batman Beyond episode with the future Justice League and the Starros. Only no Starros here, something else. Batman wants to know what's happening, and has his trio in France pick up one of the astronauts, and brings her to Looker. I must say I'm surprised she's still a vampire. That happened back even before Zero Hour. I guess no one likes the character enough to undo it.

So it appears we're finally getting around to the point of the OMACs, REMACs, space shuttles, and everything else. Of course, with Batman RIP tie-ins around the corner, and Dixon not coming back after they're done, I wonder if they'll finish this or not. I hope so. Be a shame to get this far along and just go gallivanting off in another direction. I adore Marta Martinez' colors on this book, so vibrant. It's actually a little odd, since you wouldn't expect a Batman book to necessarily be bright, but they can bring the shadows when needed, and make those look real pretty too. And Lopez can still do some nice facial expressions, especially with Metamorpho, though the faces look too stretched out at times, the eyes too small at others. Also, the part with Looker got a bit too cheesecake. Too much swooning, and what the heck was with that outfit? Also, might have been better served not showing us the monster on the last page, or not so much of it. Just give hints, let our minds do the rest. So a little good, a little bad.

Moon Knight #20 - First, I like the perspective on that cover. Second, look over there by the spine of the book, at the poster on the wall. Is that Lupin? If so, I wonder why? Also, this book cost a dollar extra, but there were two other comics included, so it seemed like a pretty good value to me.

I figured this was a done in one, and all those previews Marvel kept putting in other comics made me really want to buy this for the art. I liked Deodato on the Tigra mini-series he drew a few years ago, and I think I liked his work on Amazing Spider-Man, just not the stories he was drawing (The Other, Sins Past). So here we are. As I understand it, Marc Spector is currently a fugitive from the Initiative, 'cause he did the hero thing after Tony suspended him. He's hiding in the sewers, and flashes back to '94, when he got called in on a series of murders that left him in a rematch against the first opponent of his costumed career.

Benson makes Moon Knight kind of interesting in his perspective on things. At one point he decides the only way to fight an animal is to fight like an animal, but he says he won't do that. Yet some of things he does seem to suggest he might (releasing others like his foe on their jailers). I suppose the difference is in whether its planned or instinct. Look, let's get to the art. I love Deodato's Moon Knight. For a guy dressed all in white, he's impressively brooding and dark. With the cape, I'd like to see him on a Batman title (as long as the writer didn't use it as an excuse to write Dark, Angry, Jackass Batman). Or a Shroud story. Plus he draws a great {insert name of foe here}. There was a show I watched frequently that had one of those in it, and this is how I wished it had been portrayed. This being vague stinks.

One other thing I enjoyed was a comment by Marlene as to whether that was Bruce Willis they were seeing. I couldn't pick out who she was pointing at, but I wonder if that was a joke, given Deodato has been known to use actors as models for his characters (witness Tommy Lee Jones as Norman Osborn). I think I saw John Malkovich in the cab in this issue. Maybe. Not a complaint, just a comment. You know. I might stick with Moon Knight after this month. The pull list has been getting a bit small lately.

The Punisher #59 - Those black outlines (the soldiers against the city, the shell casings against the white) are pretty nice. Bradstreet can do some pretty good stuff when he doesn't just draw Frank holding a gun, looking menacing. I'm, he's still sort of doing that here, but there's other stuff too.

The Delta Colonel views the videotape Frank made of Rawlins spilling his guts back in the Black is White, Up is Down arc. He sends his guys (and the little twerp the generals tagged them with) on their way, while he prepares. . . something. There are a couple of excerpts from that book as well, detailing a solider who served in Vietnam who was clearly hurt by the time spent there. I'm still not sure what each of these is meant to convey. Are they commentary on Vietnam (our 'Nam, as opposed to comic book Vietnam), on the Punisher, both, neither? I know I keep coming back to that point each month (for at least the last 3 or 4 issues), but it's got to be important, doesn't it? I think I've actually drawn the connection between this month's passage and the Colonel, but it bears further investigation. I think that'll be my big blog project after #60 comes out, trying to piece this together.

There's not much else to the issue. The generals seem to realize they have perhaps selected the wrong man to take care of Castle for them, and are, I believe, about to make a huge mistake. Gentlemen, the humiliation you might face in a trial would be bad, but I'm pretty sure getting shot is worse. Just some friendly advice. So it's a lot of set-up, and very little else, but I figure next month will have quite a large bang. Might drunken, pissed off Nick Fury make an appearance?

So, what kind of a comic week was it for you?