COMICS: Wed. 1/19/04

Madrox: This final issue wrapped things up better than I'd expected, but I still can't say the mini-series as a whole was entirely successful. There were some good character bits, but I just didn't care about the story at all, neither the main one involving Jamie nor the side-plot involving Rahne. I would sign on if Peter David established a new ongoing series with these characters, as the last part of the issue suggests will happen, but only because I know David can create great, interesting, funny stories with the characters, not because of any particular love for this mini.

Plastic Man: Had its moments, but mostly it felt like a rehashed Tom & Jerry cartoon. Hilarious punchline to the whole thing, though.

Wanted: Mark Millar finally brings the mini-series to a close with an interesting, fourth wall-breaking meta-premise (at least, the way I choose to read it): the shift to grim and gritty comics in the mid-to-late-80s actually occurred because the supervillains of the world defeated the pure and noble superheroes once and for all. All the brightness and fun of the comic book universe were replaced by darkness and deviance because the bad guys were victorious in remaking the world in their image. This, coupled with the cover's excellent mockery of Marvel's crass "Who's Next?" chart for Avengers: Disassembled:



...were highlights of a generally clever and certainly very different comic. The tears-and-teddy-bears parts of the story were heavy-handed, and wildly out of synch with the overriding cynical brutality of the rest of the issue and the mini-series as a whole, but things got back on track in the end, especially with Millar's giant "fuck you" to the reader on the final page. I'm still not a huge Millar fan, and this comic was sometimes hard to take, with its celebration of the concept of "freedom of choice" being used to justify rape, murder, and the general degradation of the species, but overall it was intriguing, inventive, and well-crafted.

Haven't read yet: Powers and Invincible. I also picked up the first Gotham Central TPB, continuing on my recent Ed Brubaker buying spree. Last week, I got the third collection of his excellent Catwoman series; terrific writing, especially in the second half of the book, which illustrated the breakdown of the characters' relationships following the tragic events of the first half, but good lord was the artwork in that second half awful. It was Javier Pulido's work, and it was just wretched. He's the reason I could never get into Peter Milligan's Human Target series -- I love Milligan's writing, but I could not stomach the artwork. I hate, hate, hate Pulido's art. Hate it.

And I got the collection of Charles Schulz's other cartoon, It's Only a Game. These were one-panel sports and games-related comics Schulz co-produced with Jim Sasseville from 1957 to 1959. I hadn't bought it before because, honestly, it hadn't looked very interesting, but I impulse-bought it this week. And after paging through it, I see my first instinct was right -- it's not very interesting at all. Sure, it's neat to see Schulz draw adults, but the humor is very weak, and, as a gag-based strip, there are no recurring characters or developing themes to hook me into it. I'm glad I have it, out of a completist impulse, but it's simply not very good.