Comics Candy: September 09

I enjoyed 28 Days Later #1 (Boom Studios) with reservations. On the definite plus side, the art and colour (by Declan Shalvey and Nick Filardi) go a long way to evoking the dark, gritty, washed out feel of the original (and best) movie. Also, it’s a more direct sequel to 28 Days Later, featuring Selena (played by Naomie Harris in the movie). Good to see a strong female lead that isn’t pneumatically enhanced and wearing next to nothing (though there’s something to be said for that too!).

Story’s decent, but the big impassable wall of cars I met was Selena’s motivation for going back to the UK (from a refugee camp in Norway, where the story opens). All it takes is a brief flashback to a candlelit meal with a former boyfriend (husband?) and she’s off to join American journalist Clint Harris’s patently foolhardy expedition. Why? What prompts the change of heart (in, like, one page) from ‘not in a million years’ to ‘alrighty then’? Maybe it’s a quest to find this mystery man? But if so, tell us that!

The problem I find so often with many modern comics is that they no longer function as self-sustaining single-issue entities, just one fourth, fifth or sixth of a graphic novel. I’m not saying lay all your cards in the table in the first 22-pages, but at least give us enough to feel we’ve travelled a whole part of a story or character arc.

There’s also no payoff to the somewhat disconnected half prologue, half recap page the issue leads off with. Promising, sure, but needs to be tighter in terms of story and character.

Conversely, Punisher Noir #1 (Marvel) gives us a little too much character. And yet somehow still falls short of enough!

I remember the days when you got an origin in an issue. (In Stan Lee’s case, sometimes just a page or two.) Here, we have virtually 22-pages of part of an origin of our depression/prohibition era Punisher, but almost no story. There’s a three or four page introduction to the Punisher, which amounts to him sitting in a bedroom while a radio broadcast paints a gaudy picture of his crime-busting vendetta, then it’s all flashback/origin.

Nothing bad about the story or storytelling per se, but I desperately wanted a two-strand approach, with the flashback/origin interspersed with something dramatic or relevant in the (1935) here and now. And the origin strand isn’t even wrapped up in issue #1. It rumbles on, and yet - because we’re familiar with the mainstream Marvel-U origin of the Frank Castle Punisher - it promises few surprises. Shame. I love this Noir sub-Universe Marvel’s building here, but first issues are supposed to hook. Hook me, dammit!

And while we’re on the subject of origins, shouldn’t something called G.I. Joe Origins (IDW) have an origin in it? Maybe I’m being too literal here, but while the Scarlett story in #6 was perfectly serviceable in terms of action and execution and gratifyingly done-in-one, where was the origin?

Instead, Scarlett (aka Shana O’Hara) runs into an old college friend in Uzbekistan (as you do) and becomes enmeshed in a plot to blow up an oil pipeline by mercenaries masquerading as civil rights activists.

The college buddy turns out to be both an idiot and not so much of a buddy, but throughout I struggled to see this as very insightful into Scarlett’s background or character. I at least expected a related flashback that gave us an extra character kernel or two. Otherwise, if you like your covert ops in foreign climes it’s pretty decent. But call the series something else, please!

Ah now, here we go — the origin of the whole Marvel Universe, that’s more like it. The Marvels Project #1 (Marvel) is a geeky delight from start to finish and left me wanting more.

I confess, I love Ed Brubaker’s writing, and Steve Epting’s art is the perfect complement to his storytelling. But even if I didn’t, I’d have found much to enjoy here, as characters and story unfold against a backdrop of the creation of the original (android) Human Torch and the rise of the Sub-Mariner.

Brubaker takes the perspective of Tom Halloway, who - as those with more than a passing knowledge of the Golden Age Marvel Universe will know - becomes the crime-fighting Angel (not to be confused with the X-Man of the same name).

As America edges towards direct involvement in WWII, Halloway begins his own hands-on involvement in events, while behind the scenes other familiar faces come into the mix. Best of this month’s batch by a good way!

Slight caveat to the above: I love Ed Brubaker’s writing most of the time. But sometimes, as with Captain America: Reborn #2 (Marvel), I get a niggling suspicion he’s overstretching himself. It’s not bad, but there’s a feeling of ‘phoned-in’ about the script, which has so little in it of real weight or substance. Yes, Bryan Hitch’s art is lovely, but do we really need four spreads and four splash pages in one issue? When I see that, I always suspect it’s a story that could have been told in three issues (instead of five).

I’ve enjoyed Ed Brubaker’s Captain America run immensely, but this comes across as some kind of grudging contractual obligation. Shame.

Plenty to love about Daredevil #500 (Marvel) though… from the meaty, satisfying and, yes, surprising conclusion to the Kingpin/Lady Bullseye saga and the extra bits, including a nifty new story from Ann Nocenti.

‘Interesting’ about covers two DC reboots this month. Doom Patrol #1 and Batgirl #1 are as different as any two beasts can be in terms of style and execution, but both do a reasonable job of re-launching things in current DCU climes.

Batgirl is by far the most accessible and entry level of the two, but even here you do need a fair old grounding in the other DC Bat-books to get the who’s who and what’s what. Two previous Batgirls, Barbara Gordon and Cassandra Cain crop up in order to pass the baton to the new Batgirl and overall it’s job well done. Where, and how successfully, they go from here is anyone’s guess.

Doom Patrol, meanwhile, tries inordinately hard to be wacky and quirky and succeeds mostly in being hard to follow. I freely admit to having no idea what’s happened to the characters between Grant Morrison’s estimable run and this current Keith Giffen incarnation, but it feels distinctly like a lot of what’s come before has been rather casually discarded, which is a shame. Not bad, I just didn’t feel I cared enough to pick up issue #2. Great to see the Metal Men back (as a back-up strip) but for a throwaway story it’s insanely cluttered with panels and dialogue.

And finally, proof positive that a good recap goes a long way. The second issues of both Predator and Sir Edward Grey Witchfinder (both Dark Horse) would have benefited immeasurably from a ‘story so far'. Does no one (outside of Marvel) do this any more? And if not why not?

That said, Witchfinder (“from the pages of Hellboy”) rattles along at a very satisfactory lick, moody, atmospheric and entirely intriguing, tapping a rich Lovecraftian/Hammer Horror vein.

As for Predator, it labours under a problem faced by the AVP films: human characters you just don’t give a toss about. There’s almost zero characterization to be had, which in a book populated by aliens that don’t really have characters, is a huge flaw. Maybe a story so far would have helped. Maybe not!