Monthly archives: July, 2007

Moment of the Week- Oracle’s posse shows up, Birds of Prey #108

Birds of Prey #108 had a lot of ground to cover. In what I believe was Gail Simone’s last issue on the title, she wraps up the Secret Six crossover story, has a knock-down drag-out fight between Spy Smasher and Oracle, and finishes it off with the “core” BoPs reminiscing about their time together. The best moment in the issue occurred after Oracle finished whooping on Spy Smasher. When Spy Samsher tries to claim ownership of Oracle’s operatives, she runs into a bit of resistance from pretty much everyone who’s every worked for Oracle: Huntress, Gypsy, Vixen, Katana, Catwoman, Manhunter, Metamorpho, Nightwing, Judomaster, Misfit, Power Girl, Wildcat, two Green arrows, Big Barda, Lady Shiva, Lady Blackhawk, Hawkgirl, several people I don’t even recognize, and of course, Black Canary. It looks like series artist Nicola Scott actually drew the lineup as a four-page splash, but apparently Birds of Prey isn’t as important as ASSBAr or JLA, because the image was divided into two two-page splashes. Regardless, it was a great mark-out moment for loyal readers of the series, and was a great way to cap off Gail Simone’s stellar run on a great title (even if I only caught the tail end of it).

Worst Issue of the Week- Quasar #1

I’m not sure what to make of this whole Annihilation: Conquest thing. I really enjoyed the prologue issue, and I really enjoyed the Nova crossover issue, but I couldn’t bring myself to pick up Wraith #1 a couple weeks ago, and I really didn’t enjoy Quasar this week either. I can’t really put my finger on why I didn’t like it, either. I really enoyed the art at times, but then other times the penciller used unconventional panel breaks that didn’t really read as panel breaks unless you were paying really close attention. The writing was decent, but then again, nothing much happened this issue. It’s really disappointing that these lead-in mini-series don’t interest me, because I was really excited by the prologue and thought I had missed out on a great story by skipping the first Annihilation. Now, I’m not so sure. I’m still tempted to buy the Annihilation: Conquest mini-series when that comes out, but I’m not sure it’ll make any sense if I skip the lead-ins. Help me out, readers of the first Annihilation: are these lead-ins essential to the story? If so, I guess I’ve gotten my fill.
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By Nick Abadzis
Published by First-Second, 2007. $17.95

The Plot: This is the story of the dog launched into space by the Soviets, far more in the vein of Pride of Baghdad than the usual chipper “animal” stories. The focus of the book is summarized in the actual quote of one of the engineers involved with the space program: “We did not learn enough from the mission to justify the death of the dog.”

The historical fiction account starts far before the launch of Laika, with the emotionally driven stories of the dog and of the man behind the Soviet rocket program. With thorough research, Abadzis delivers a dense denouncement of the USSR and its practice of subjugating humanity to ambition.

The Good: As mentioned above, Abadzis’ biggest strength here is the research. Laika is laden with details that sell not only the setting of the Soviet missile program but also of the personalities of the people involved (Abadzis takes liberties, of course). But, while some historical fiction wears its research on its sleeve (an academic sort of “look how smart I am”), the personal relationships are the core of this book. Particularly the warmth between a woman working in the lab with the dogs and the animals she watches. She, and others, struggle to keep emotional distance with the animals, especially Laika.

The Bad: For a book that Abadzis clearly put so much time into, it’s strange that he left so much of the art with an unfinished feel. Though his characters are well crafted and distinct and his composition is strong, his linework is overly simple with almost no use of shading. The simplistic art is almost a necessity, though, because this book is pretty long at 200 pages and has a Chris Ware-esque number of panels per page. As in, as many as 25 panels on a single page. Wow. That structure gives the book even more of a dense feel, which only exacerbates the book’s “talky” bent. This isn’t an action epic, after all. It’s by in large filled with people sitting around and talking.

The Grade: B This book strikes me more than anything as nearly tapped potential. It could have been one of the great books of the year, if not for the quality of the art. And it’s clear the art could have been better, as Abadzis a few times breaks out of his stoic stylings and creates not only eye-catching but truly inspiring pages. It’s when he digs into the feelings of Laika itself and allows the dog’s character and thoughts to grow and burst into dreamy imaginative panels that the book is at its absolute best. It’s just a shame he breaks out far too little.

Well, a lot has changed since I last did one of these here Doomino Effects. I got hitched, Doom DeLuise passed the Countdown review over to Jean-Claude Van Doom, Jean-Claude Van Doom decided to move and spend less time on comics, Doom DeLuise resumed his position as the weekly Countdown reviewer, and I came back from my honeymoon and bought two weeks’ worth of comics. I’m not sure what came out which week, and I don’t care, and by the end of this review, neither will you! So let’s get going!

Speaking of getting going, Justice Society of America #7 attempts to move the series along after the conclusion of the rather stupid Lightning Saga. I kind of enjoy these stories about characters that nobody really cares about, because to me, that’s kind of always what the JSA has been about. It’s like “Hey, here are some old characters and new characters based on old characters that used to be important, except you wouldn’t know if they actually were important or if we’re just making them up.” Either way, I don’t really care. That’s just been the charm of the series for me since the beginning.

I’ve always found Dale Eaglesham’s art to be rather stiff and fluid at the same time. He has these nicely flowing lines wrapped around awkwardly wooden poses and expressions, like painting a pretty seascape on a concrete wall. It works for this series, because it manages to reflect an older, classic style while also having enough modernity to it to not seem deliberately retro. But speaking of not getting going, I see that this Alex Ross painting of Citizen Steel has been de-bona fide, presumably by someone in editorial. Or maybe he just got out of the pool. No wait! I know what happened! He peeked at the cover for Justice Society #8! (more…)