Monthly archives: June, 2007

DC might not show us the solution to the two-Legions problem for quite a while yet. Know why? Because we may or may not keep buying comics to find out how the good guys beat the bad guys, but we’ll probably keep buying them to find out just how continuity is arranged these days. It is in DC’s financial interest to hold continuity resolutions over our heads. We won’t always pay for action, for fun, for good writing, for good art, for good characterization, but we’re suckers for continuity mechanics.

– Legion Abstract’s Continuity notes for the Lightning Saga

Right now, DC’s commodity is continuity. More than anything else, Infinite Crisis and 52 were a celebration of attention to detail. Whether they were carefully laid plans or the mundane made meaningful, the mega-crossover was woven together from the fabric of what had happened in DC Comics pages for the years preceding. Clues were placed and red herrings were loosed, and those who looked closely and did their homework were rewarded for their attention.

A bad writer forces the reader to suspend their disbelief. A good writer takes the choice out of their readers’ hands, as their meticulous attention to the details of their artificial world results in something so well-crafted, the reader’s common sense and critical thinking alarms are never tripped. They immerse themselves in a world that is believable through its consistency.

Good writers earn the benefit of the doubt when something is wrong or out of place. In a well-crafted world, if the reader ever thinks “Wait a minute, that shouldn’t be a happening,” that’s usually a hint that something is deliberately that way. When inconsistencies happen with a bad writer, or at least someone who hasn’t earned that trust, it’s just something wrong that pulls the reader out of the story rather than inspiring that creative part of an active reader’s imagination.

So this week’s Doomino Effect brings us to Detective Comics #833, in which Zatanna and Batman hang out to solve a mystery. As a comic book story, it was a fun read. As a surprise, I was a little annoyed and disappointed. SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! IT’S A WEEK OLD SO BUY THE COMIC ALREADY! (more…)

Book of the Week- Detective Comics #833

In a week that a lot of stuff came out that should have been quite good (but unfortunatley wasn’t), one title stood out to me due to its amazing surprise ending: Detective Comics. Since he took over the book a year ago, Paul Dini has rarely used the big guns in Batman’s rogues’ gallery. Sure, there have been issues that featured the Riddler or Harley Quinn, but for the most part the villains in Dini’s stories have been no-name crooks that really brought the detective back to Detective Comics.

So when I started reading this week’s issue of ‘Tec, and saw it featured a no-name crook, I wasn’t disappointed. I’ve come to expect solid Batman tales from Dini regardless of the situation he puts the caped crusader in. Then we get the big reveal at the end: that this isn’t a no-name crook after all. In fact, it’s the biggest name of them all. When Dini wrote his spectacular Robin/Joker Christmas story, I figured that would be the only time we’d see the Clown Prince of Crime in this run on Detective Comics. After all, if you have to use someone like the Joker sparingly in order for them to continue to pack the same amount of punch. Or, apparently, you can write as many stories featuring them as you want…as long as they kick all kinds of ass.

Line That Bears Repeating of the Week- Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #2, by Peter David

“So were the lovers joined in the Barony of Mejis, near the end of the last great age…and the green moss beneath the place where he thighs joined turned a pretty red as her virginity passed. So they were joined and so they were doomed. Ka.”

Umm…gross?

Panel of the Week- Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness #4, by Fabiano Neves

I can’t remember the last time I saw an image of the good doctor that captured his essence quite the way this one does… (more…)

TMNT the video game was released in March to coincide with the release of TMNT the movie. The movie really reminded me of everything I loved about the Turtles from my youth, including the tremendous arcade-style video games that came out back when Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis were considered the pinnacle of home video gaming. While the new game was released on all the standard consoles a few months ago, there was really only one version I had any desire to play. I mean really, what better use is there for a Nunchuck controller than controlling a nunchuck?

Like most movie tie-ins, the plot of the game is essentially the same as the movie, but told through the Turtles’ point of view. That means more action and less plot, which is certainly a good thing if you already know the story or don’t particularly care about it. Throughout the game you play as all four Turtles (and the Night Stalker), making your way through Central America and the sewers and rooftops of New York City before storming the headquarters of Max Winters to take on the four stone generals. Along the way, you get to kick the snot out of some street thugs, Foot soldiers and Bigfoot. There’s nothing revolutionary about TMNT, but it’s still a hell of a lot of fun.

The real joy of the game, which is the case in nearly every game on the Wii, is in the control scheme. TMNT takes a page out of the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess playbook and makes the Wiimote your sword (or sai or bo staff or nunchuck). Simple shake the controller and you whip out your weapon, creating all kinds of cool combos without even trying. Likewise, shake the nunchuck and you’ll perform a jump kick move. The A button jumps, and the B button uses Bro Power (don’t worry; I’ll explain that in a bit). That’s really all there is to it. The simplicity of the controls are what made the game so engrossing; you get the gist of them almost instantly and can then work on combining them together to perform more complex actions. (more…)

Hey, remember last year at this time, when the calendar aligned to 6/6/06, and the sky turned red, and demons clawed their way up through the earth’s mantle and humanity survived by only the narrowest of margins? Yeah, hard to believe it was a year ago already… After reading this latest batch of comics, I almost wish it was the end times again. Whew, what a crap pile. No fewer than six books landed in the “soon to be dropped” pile. Ugh, let’s get to slogging.

Worst: Left on Mission #2

The art on this book is perfectly fine, and the first third is fairly interesting, if a bit decompressed. It’s very Jack Bauer, in short. The last chunk, though, bogs down in a morass of dialogue between the main character and some chick with whom he used to have familial relations, as Ron Burgundy might say. There’s not enough to figure out what’s going on, despite the hefty word count. Color me confused and bored.

More confusinger: Crossing Midnight #7

I started out really liking this series, which meshes Japanese folklore and a contemporary story of adolescent rebellion. And then… something changed. There are times when a shift in paradigms works in comics (see: Invincible), but this isn’t such a case. Now, the series has fallen headlong into the fantastical parts and completely disconnected with reality. Oh, and me. I wanted to like this book, but it’s time to say so long.

Horseshoes and hand grenades: Fall of Cthulhu #3

This book is close… but not quite. I dig the premise of a guy being drawn into the occult entanglements of a relative, and there are some very creepy moments in a dream existence (when the book really nails the Lovecraft vibe), but those moments die on the vine thanks to terrible interaction between characters. The protagonist and his girlfriend talk in cliches and have unrealistic reactions to the weirdness swallowing them.

Turd falling: Countdown #47

Already, our very own Doom DeLuise has taken this tripe to task and said he’s giving the Paul Dini-led weekly one more chance. Allow me to top that. I’m done. I became a huge DC supporter around Infinite Crisis, and I kept up through most of 52, but things have just fallen apart here. Aside from Jimmy Olsen with powers (which is inherently interesting because it’s an old-school throwback and Jimmy is cool), there’s nothing to keep me reading Countdown. Amazons attacking! Nobody cares. Flash’s rogues amassing! Read about it in Flash. The Monitors are, uh, doing something! The Monitors are dorks.

We still have no idea what this Crisis is about, or if anything is really threatened. No stakes have been set. Unlike IC, there weren’t years of sly buildup. It’s just a big pile of stuff. Worst, of course, is the bizarro treatment of Black Adam. Don’t the editors and writers understand that the quick turnaround rips any impact from developments with him? Do they all suffer from ADHD? This is just bad, and until further notice, I’m done. (more…)