The Doomino Effect for the week of August 1, 2007

Hello my little white dots on black fields, and welcome to this week’s Doomino Effect. This week was the first week at my new comic book shop. Last year, I had to find a new comic book shop, and the winner of that search was a great store that I really liked shopping at. Unfortunately, though, they moved to a new location that’s even further than the already long-distance I had to travel, to the point where I couldn’t justify a trip all the way to the other side of the city.

Instead, I now shop at one of the losers in the aforementioned quest. It’s a store that foolishly (in my opinion) buries its new releases in with the older comics, so that it’s a chore to figure out what is new this week and what came out within the previous three or four weeks. They also don’t order nearly as many comics, so this means that the Doomino Effect is likely to be shorter, as I will inevitably miss out on books I would have otherwise picked up. BUMMER.

Speaking of bummers, I’m an idiot and I keep buying Countdown! This week was #39, and I think I finally figured out what we are counting down to. At this pace, the books keep getting progressively stupider and more poorly-drawn, so I’m predicting that issue #0 will be some crayon drawings of what I can only assume are potatoes or rocks bumping into each other.

In this issue, Karate Kid and Triplicate Girl break into Oracle’s hideout. In one of the stupidest moments in home security history, Oracle hides the secret door to her “well-guarded” headquarters behind a giant and very-breakable computer screen. For your next hideout, Oracle, I suggest putting the computer screen on a wall and putting something a little more sturdy than glass in front of the actual door. Granted, that would be more secure, but it wouldn’t allow Master Crapwriter Paul Dini the opportunity to have Karate Kid dramatically crash through the final barrier! Also, Captain Boomerang is simultaneously in the Outsiders and the Suicide Squad and Jimmy Olsen is running around fighting crime in pajamas, which is such an ironic, post-modern take on superheroes!

Speaking of superhero deconstructions, that leads me to Metal Men #1, in which a team of superheroes has been literally broken down into a cast of elements! I kind of thought it might really suck, but I ended up really enjoying the action and interplay between the metal people. I also cracked up at Will Magnus’ presentation. I’m a big fan of robots, but along with pirates, zombies and ninjas, they’re about as camped- and kitched-out as anything could possibly be. I have a feeling that this comic will be a good read based on the premise that these robots have personalities and a purpose and aren’t just riding on that wave of “Hey, look! They’re robots! Robots are so ironically cool!” Substance, baby. Substance is the new irony.

And speaking of substance, that leads me to Thor #2, which was our Book of Doom this week, and substance was something this book lacked a whole lot of. If I were going to keep buying this series, I would look forward to the completion of this arc, when I could sit down with all the issues and spend a good four minutes out on the porch swing, reading it front to back. It’s proof that Thor alone isn’t enough to carry the belt – he needs a good storyline. And nobody cares about Thor the Rural Economic Developer; Thor needs to smash.

And speaking of smashing, that leads me to World War Hulk #3. This series is all smashing and pounding and exploding, but it’s just done so well! Something about the way Greg Pak is orchestrating this violence is really clicking. Perhaps he just understands that it is what it is, and to be careful not to make it too much more. Perhaps the occasional attempts to slow the story down and take it to another intellectual level are just a metaphor for many failed writers’ attempts to try to make a BIG FIGHT story too complex, and the subsequent violent reactions that take place in this story are representative of the notion that now is not the time for pondering the deeper societal impact of violence or the emotional undercurrents that would run throughout; now is the time for HULK SMASH, and by doing that properly, those societal impacts and emotional undercurrents will reveal themselves.

Such is the growing crowd of fans who have gathered to cheer the monster heel champ after turning on the goody-two-shoes faces, not ironically at Madison Square Garden. Hulk has corralled his captives there, presumably to observe while they battle each other to the death. Doctor Strange, however, has taken it upon himself to release some creature named Zom, apparently to fight fire with fire and smash with smash. It’s been slow moving, but I’ll be darned if folks like Bendis and Pak haven’t managed to make Doctor Strange into an interesting main eventer over the past few years.

And speaking of Bendis and Doctor Strange, that leads me to New Avengers: Illuminati #4. The cover here would imply that the Illuminati’s better halves are going to play a role in this issue; unfortunately, they’re just the topic of a pretty hilarious conversation that opens the issue. The important part of this story, and I have no idea why it wasn’t on the cover, was to take Marvel Boy from the 2000 Grant Morrisson / J.G. Jones miniseries and retcon him into the 616 Marvel universe.

While I soured on a lot of Bendis work around 2004-2006, I think the guy has been at the top of his game lately. This Illuminati series has been a fun collection of stand-alone stories that have seemed to fly under the radar of much of the Marvel Universe, but I’ve got a feeling that it’s all just designed to clean up continuity of the past and lay the groundwork for something much bigger in the future. If it is essentially five-part maintenance, bravo to Marvel for taking the care to make it a fun, interesting read.

After the griping about the girls, the Illuminati visit Marvel Boy in the Cube and use their own respective techniques to try to get through the teen angst and make contact with the hero beneath. They’re presumably trying to plant the seeds to get him to follow in Captain Marvel’s footsteps, earning his way out of prison rather than fighting. I’m curious to see where that goes, but if it gets people to check out that amazing Marvel Boy miniseries, it’ll be worth it.

And speaking of characters trying to live up to heroes of the past, that leads me to Justice Society of America #8, which is pretty much a Liberty Belle solo story. I knew nothing of Ms Belle prior to this issue, so it was a nice little break to get familiar with the character and place her within the rich historical context so familiar to Geoff Johns but so relatively foreign to many readers. It was also a glimpse at Damage, who really hasn’t had a lot of face time (no pun intended) or explanation time since his beat-down in Infinite Crisis #1. All in all, it appeared to just be a popcorn break of an issue before leading into the Kingdom Come crossover, but it was still a worthwhile read that was far better than most fill-in issues.

Overall, it was a good week this week. I’m going to keep picking up Justice Society of America, New Avengers: Illuminati, World War Hulk and Metal Men. I’ll probably keep torturing myself with Countdown, just to see if my potato prediction is correct. Unfortunately for the God of Thunder, Thor is out the door.