Sunday Splash Page #74

"Giving Batgirl a Sword is Just Unfair", in Batman and the Outsiders (vol. 2) #8, by Chuck Dixon (writer), Julian Lopez (penciler), Bit (inker), Marta Martinez (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer)

I thought there would be more than 2 volumes of Batman and the Outsiders (3 counting the one DC's publishing at the time this post goes up), but I guess those titles were just called The Outsiders. One of them, written by Judd Winick, wrapped up in mid-2007, when Batman came strutting in and took over from Nightwing. Typical Batman shit. Leaves a thing along for years, then shows up one day and says, "this is mine," and just takes it.

Then again, I wouldn't have wanted to be part of Brad Meltzer's Justice League book either, so maybe this seemed like a good alternative.

This volume, though, went through all sorts of mess in a short time. Each of the first three issues was solicited with a different creative team (Tony Bedard and Koi Trumbull were listed for issue #1, I know that much), and the roster got mostly overhauled. Catwoman and Martian Manhunter were originally, plus that Aquaman who wasn't Arthur Curry that Kurt Busiek came up with a wrote for a while post-52.

By the time the first issue actually shipped, Chuck Dixon was on as writer, with Julian Lopez as the artist most of the time. Catwoman, J'onn, and Aquaguy vanished (although Geo-Force was still around), and here's Green Arrow and Batgirl. I have absolutely no idea what happened there, but if Cassandra hadn't been added to the book I wouldn't have bought it, so things work out sometimes.

Cass was back to something close to her character from the Puckett/Scott run on her title. Not talking much, not understanding jokes or references, not showing much concern for her well-being. But she was still recognizably Cass, which was a big improvement over the clusterfuck Johns and Beechen had pulled on her the previous two years. Take what I can get. 

Green Arrow seems to be on there to be the one who questions Batman's judgment the most (and the act like a dick towards Cass because she'd been in the League of Assassins). Bats just ignores it, Cass lets Ollie try to kill her if it'll make him feel better, so it's actually Metamorpho who butts heads with Ollie the most. Which is kind of fun. I like Metamorpho anyway. And Dixon brought in the idea from 52 of Ralph and Sue Dibny running around as ghosts. Although they didn't seem to be acting as detectives so much as playing Deadman and possessing people. Still, I think that was more than anyone else ever did with that idea.

Some of the faces Lopez draws look a little strange, and sometimes the proportions seem off (Grace has oddly small fists for how big she is at times), but the work is very expressive. Maybe the faces look odd because a person making that expression should look weird. And it works for the funnier moments. Batman recruited a scientist onto the team who remote controls an OMAC from the Batcave, and some of his actions while he's doing that, and when he meets Alfred are pretty funny. When Lopez needs to string together a sequence of panels for a fight scene, he can do that. You can tell how the action progresses from one to the next easily. There's nothing special about the page layouts or anything, it's just solid artwork for a superhero comic. It makes sure all the information you need is there, it sells the emotions and the action.

The overarching plot involved an alien parasite from beneath the Moon's surface, controlling people and trying to do. . . something. We never found out, because Dixon left the book (or was fired, I forget which) around issue 10. Supposedly because he was angry with how Batman R.I.P. was fucking with his book. Grant Morrison was waiting until the last second to send his stuff in for that story, so DC couldn't change any of it. That left everyone doing tie-ins scrambling to get their shit done on tighter deadlines. I get Morrison not wanting his work fucked with, and I doubt he told DC to make other books tie in, but come on, have some sense of the fact you're making other people's lives harder.

With Dixon off the book, and tie-ins commencing, I jumped ship. Just as well, because once the tie-ins were over, Keith Champagne took over writing and retooled the roster, dumping Cass and Green Arrow among other, and I want to say adding Killer Croc? I don't know. At some point I think Dan Didio started writing it, which is when you know the book is going to be total shit, but I was long gone by then.

What I Bought 8/9/2017 - Part 1

Bought a couple of comics this week I had not bought previously, and it turned into the ol' "Good Idea, Bad Idea" situation. Good Idea: Buying Giant Days #29. Bad Idea: Buying Hulk #9 because you think Hellcat's going to be in it a lot. If you care to know anything further about what I thought about either book, please continue reading. If not, um, there'll be more comics on Monday?

Hulk #9, by Mariko Tamaki (writer), Julian Lopez and Francesco Gaston (artists), Matt Milla (colorist), Cory Petit (letterer) - The scowly face drawn over Jennifer's picture is a pretty solid representation of me after I finished this comic.

Jennifer is looking for her favorite cooking show host, who has been turned into a big green monster by two guys because. . . I don't know. They were the producers of his show, did they think it would boost ratings? The cook is roaming the town, badly scared, and the medication he found that is supposed to reverse what happened, doesn't work, so he's losing it. Jen and the cook's boyfriend are trying to find him before it's too late. Hellcat shows up on two pages, they chat on the phone a bit, that's it. At least they're still friends.

I was really only buying it expecting a little more Patsy and Jennifer interaction, silly me. This bit where Jennifer is reluctant to change, because maybe she isn't sure she can trust herself. Or it? Is she thinking of this hulk form as something different from her? I'm not clear on that. It's kind of interesting in theory, but in practice, I don't care.

I think Lopez is drawing the first half of the book, and Gaston takes over about the time Jen has hulked out and surprises the two producers. Assuming I'm right, Lopez goes a lot heavier on inks, and his style seems going in a more photo-realistic direction than Gaston, who by comparison has a more simplified style. It works, but it does produce a different feel between the two halves. The first half, with all these shadows and people looking concerned and sad is morose, things are dire. The second half, the shadows decrease noticeably, the coloring seems brighter, which would imply things are on the upswing. Even though Jen has forced herself to change, is scaring the crap out of people, and Oliver is losing control of himself. Sounds like the situation is getting worse, but not really how the art paints it. Neither style is bad in a vacuum, but they're at cross-purposes here.

Let's chalk this up as me making a mistake, one I've made before and will undoubtedly make again.

Giant Days #29, by John Allison (writer), Max Sarin (penciler), Liz Fleming (inker), Whitney Cogar (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - The university theater productions, skimping on the backgrounds for their fancy practical effects, like simulating flying, and arrows.

So, I am still about 12 issues behind, but Esther had been excelling in romantic literature courses, but is being surpassed by a student named Emilia, who seems great and wonderful and charming, and who Esther already hated because she's dating the guy Susan likes. I entirely sympathize with, "You hurt my friend, so I must kill you." Esther's attempts to out-do Emilia result in her giving her professor entirely bad ideas about trying to take advantage of her at some mixer (I doubt this is intentional, but the way Sarin draws Professor Lord, he looks like Jack Kirby, which was a strange coincidence). Emilia whisks her away, and they seem to have become best friends by the end of the issue, to the point Esther has adopted Emilia's style entirely, which is concerning.

And there's another plot with Daisy trying to get Ed to date a bit, and Ed being too hung up on that fiction trope of true love being some massive, perfect thing that hits you like a truck immediately. Again, I sympathize, or perhaps empathize.

One thing I've appreciated about this book reading through the trades is Allison keeps stuff moving. Situations progress rather than stagnate, new issues crop up constantly. Which may not sound like much, but if you've read some of the decompressed shit Marvel and DC put out - and I, unfortunately, have - it's sometimes novel to get back to something that gets the hell on with things.

The Esther vs. Emilia thing was already in full swing, but has pushed forward and into a different direction. Although at this point, I'm extremely suspicious of Emilia. She seems too perfect and uninterested in how many people imitate her and fawn over her, which makes me suspect she's reveling in it and hiding it extremely well.

And I like having those kinds of conflicted feelings. Should I be suspicious? Should Daisy be pushing Ed to pursue this relationship he isn't sure about, even though he's probably waiting for the absolutely perfect situation that will never occur? Yeah, probably, but as a person comfortable by himself, who nonetheless has to deal with both subtle and unsubtle pressure from family and occasionally friends about finding someone, I'm kind of inclined to side with Ed's right to live his life how he wants. But I don't think Ed is as naturally solitary as me, so he should listen to Esther and call Cathy back.

Sarin's able to exaggerate his art extremely well for comedic impact, or the dramatics of these college kids, freaking out over all sort of things. Esther's appearance in the "beasting the bones of my enemies" panel was outstanding. In other circumstances it would be scary, but here, when she's basically vowing to destroy someone who is (seemingly) unwittingly stealing her spotlight, it's a ridiculous response, and so it fits the scene perfectly. Also, I love the font Campbell used for that voice balloon. Likewise, Daisy's three-panel increasing freakout at Ed over not calling Cathy back, where Cogar keeps increasing the use of red, and making it a deeper red as well), as Daisy fills more and more of each successive panel, screaming at him about how perfect Cathy was for him. And then fourth panel below them, where she puts frozen yogurt to her forehead and there's steam the same shade of red rising from that one spot on her head.

So far, I feel very good about my decision to start buying this book regularly. I have to get one right sometimes.