Category: Reviews

Review: Will Smith in ‘Hancock’

With comic franchises pouring from Hollywood’s every orifice this year, something like [[[Hancock]]] would normally be considered a breath of fresh, creative air. This can be said for the film on paper, but it fails to deliver in the latter half of the film. That said, Hancock is still good fun in a theater, and delivers with all the things we wanted to see Superman Returns do time and time again, but never came through.

The plot follows an unruly asshole (not being vulgar, this term is important to the character) of a superhero who resides in downtown Los Angeles, attempts to keep people safe from the ever-rising crime rate, but ends up causing more damage than he prevents. This makes Hancock (Will Smith) the ultimate antihero, being hated by just about everybody in the world (or at least L.A.) He crosses paths with an up-and-coming Public Relations guru (Jason Bateman) who thinks Hancock can become the hero that the world needs, but with a little bit of help.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: The text of this review posted after the jump contains descriptions of significant plot points, so consider this your official SPOILER ALERT. -RM]

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Review: This Week in ‘Trinity’ #5

trinity5-4792955First things first: I actually, gasp, liked this issue.

For the first time ever, Kurt Busiek pulled the storylines together and gave a sense of the big things ahead. Not perfect, but much better than the past few.

What happened?

The fight against Konvikt finally reached an end, as Batman’s smarts helped the big three devise a clever knockout punch. Batman was the star of the issue, also nabbing one of Morgaine Le Fey’s underlings (which look like the rat creatures from Bone), after it had branded Wonder Woman with an omega symbol.

During a brief interrogation (ended by the rat creature self combusting), it says, "You are the trinity. But you are weakened. Breaking. Soon, you will fall." Buh, buh, BUM!

There’s a little character moment that shines, as Batman and Superman are reluctant to advise Diana to see a doctor, and she points out the inconsistencies of gender relations. It makes her character a little more interesting, which is something plenty of other writers have failed to do.

In the backup, a trio of lame villains (Whiteout!?!) try to kidnap Tarot, who has started to see the trinity in her cards (as justice, strength and the devil — guess which hero goes to which card).

They fail, not unpredictably, in large part thanks to the reappearance of Gangbuster. Which, I’ve got to say, is pretty awesome. At the end, we see Morgaine Le Fey’s creatures after Tarot.

Like I said, everything’s coming together nicely, and we have dire warnings galore. So, hope returns, although I’m still curious as to why Busiek feels the need to include only the lamest villains.

Van Jensen is a former crime reporter turned comic book journalist. Every Wednesday, he braves Atlanta traffic to visit Oxford Comics, where he reads a whole mess of books for his weekly reviews. Van’s blog can be found at graphicfiction.wordpress.com.

Publishers who would like their books to be reviewed at ComicMix should contact ComicMix through the usual channels or email Van Jensen directly at van (dot) jensen (at) comicmix (dot) com.

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Review: ‘Prince of Persia: The Graphic Novel’

prince-of-persia-7562889Prince of Persia: The Graphic Novel
By Jordan Mechner, A.B. Sina, LeUyen Pham, and Alex Puvilland
First Second, September 2008, $18.95

The first [[[Prince of Persia]]] game was a 2-D platformer almost twenty years ago, and the next big thing with the name Prince of Persia on it will be a major Jerry Bruckheimer-produced movie next summer. In between have been a number of games, with a number of different protagonists and plotlines. (And I’ve played exactly none of them, as far as I can remember – just to make that clear.) This year, in between the games and the movie, First Second is publishing a graphic novel loosely based on the series – or at least the title. It’ll be in stores in September.

This graphic novel is credited as “created” by Mechner (seemingly because he invented the original game, and maybe still owns a piece of it), written by Sina, and with art by Pham and Puvilland. And, as far as I can tell, the story here has nothing specific to do with any of the previous incarnations of Prince of Persia. (If I’m wrong, please correct me in comments.)

In this graphic novel, you actually get two stories for the price of one – they’re told intermingled, though, which can make it difficult to remember which story a particular panel belongs to, or which characters belong to which stories. (Evil, nasty overlords being depressingly common in stories like this, for example.) I did read Prince of Persia in bound galley form, though – without color – so it’s quite possible that the palette of the two stories are different enough to make that distinction clear in the final book.

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Doctor Who in Review: Season Four, Episode #9 – Forest of the Dead

[EDITOR’S NOTE: My apologies for the late arrival of this week’s "Doctor Who in Review." We’ve been catching up after all of the Wizard World Chicago chaos! It’s times like these that I could really use a TARDIS. – RM]

The hit BBC series Doctor Who is now in its fourth season on the Sci-Fi Channel, and since we’re all big fans here at ComicMix, we’ve decided to kick off an episode-by-episode analysis of the reinvigorated science-fiction classic.

Every week, I’ll do my best to go through the most recent episode with a fine-tooth comb (or whatever the "sonic screwdriver" equivalent might be) and call out the highlights, low points, continuity checks and storyline hints I can find to keep in mind for future episodes. I’ll post the review each Monday, so you have ample time to check out the episode once it airs each Friday at 9 PM EST on Sci-Fi Channel before I spoil anything.

Missed a week? Check out the "Doctor Who in Review" archive or check out any of the past editions of this column via the links at the end of this article.

Keep in mind, I’m going to assume readers have already watched the episode when I put fingers to keyboard and come up with the roundup of important plot points. In other words, SPOILER ALERT!

Let’s begin now, shall we?

Season Four, Episode #9: "Forest of the Dead" (more…)

Review: ‘Demo’ by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan

It seems every month that a new comic comes out purporting to offer a new, more realistic slant on superheroes. From Watchmen to Next Men to Powers to Kick Ass, that idea has long been a popular one.

Except, none of those comics feel very real. Sure, they take elements from reality and offer a slightly more grounded or cynical look at heroes, but the stories within their pages don’t begin to evoke everyday life.

And this is why Demo stands so far apart. The on-again, off-again series from writer Brian Wood and artist Becky Cloonan is finally concluded, and all 12 issues are now collected in a substantive new softcover (Vertigo, $19.99).

Begun in 2003 with a first issue featuring a girl struggling to handle her newfound telekinesis, the series was always about the people in the stories, not the abilities that set them apart. That first issue is rich with metaphor: the girl learns how to break away from home, become independent and not get in the way of her potential. Valuable lessons for anyone.

One of the strongest issues (#5), follows a girl who physically changes in appearance to match the desires of the people who see her. She could be a kooky X-Man, but Wood instead uses the strange ability to explore perception and desire, and the line between love and lust.

While the material is well worth reading on its own, one of the subtexts to watch is the continued development of Wood and Cloonan. You can trace their growth as creators along with the issues, and in the end the series is something entirely new again, not really touching on superpowers at all.

Cloonan’s work is exceptional, bouncing between styles from issue to issue. It’s hard to believe one person was responsible for such a disparate collection of art.

And while Demo features almost entirely young, hip characters — Wood’s bread and butter — he writes their interactions with as much grace as any writer in comics. There is a deep, haunting truth to these stories, so realistic it almost hurts.

Van Jensen is a former crime reporter turned comic book journalist. Every Wednesday, he braves Atlanta traffic to visit Oxford Comics, where he reads a whole mess of books for his weekly reviews. Van’s blog can be found at graphicfiction.wordpress.com.

Publishers who would like their books to be reviewed at ComicMix should contact ComicMix through the usual channels or email Van Jensen directly at van (dot) jensen (at) gmail (dot) com.

Review: ‘Superpowers’ by David J. Schwartz

superpowers-us1-4585912Superpowers: A Novel
By David J. Schwartz
Crown, June 2008, $14.95

There are two kinds of superhero novels, with very different rules. The more common – but less respected – kind of superhero novel takes characters and situations we already know from an existing comics universe and tells a story using that furniture. Those books can be amazing, like Elliott S. Maggin’s two Superman novels, Last Son of Krypton and Miracle Monday, or they can be mediocre, like…fill in your own example here. But they all hit the ground running, since they work from our knowledge of those universes. Who would read a Spider-Man novel if he’d never heard of [[[Spider-Man]]]?

The other kind of superhero novel tends to come from people outside the comics field, and usually reinvents the wheel in its vision of superheroics. (Like everything else, sometimes doing it elegantly and sometimes producing an oval object that doesn’t even work as a wheel.) Some of the better examples of that type of superhero novel are Michael Bishop’s Count Geiger’s Blues and the recent Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman. Those books often have aggressively obvious titles – [[[Superfolks]]], [[[Hero]]], that kind of thing – to immediately signal to the audience that they’re novels about superheroes.

[[[Superpowers]]] is one of the latter kind of novels, down to the title. The British cover (see the continuation) even has line drawings of the characters in costume (by Norm Breyfogle, a name we who read comics will nod knowingly at), much in the style of last year’s [[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]]. And the set-up is quite typical of an outsider superhero novel: five undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) develop individual superpowers after an evening of drinking homemade beer. (One of the endearing things about Superpowers is that Schwartz doesn’t even try to explain their origin – something unexpected happened, and they now have powers. Period.)

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Review: ‘All Star Batman and Robin Vol. 1’

assbar-9206861A couple years ago, back when Frank Miller and Jim Lee’s All Star Batman and Robin started inconsistently shipping, I read the first few issues and then waved the series off. I hated it so much I added an extra “S” and started referring to it by the acronym ASSBAR.

At the time, it seemed like a good portion of comics critics felt similarly about the book. Then a curious thing happened. More and more reviewers started to come around to the new, harsh [[[Batman]]] that called Robin “retarded” and tried to kill cops.

Now with the first volume conveniently collected, I decided to revisit the series. Had it improved? Had I just given up to early? Or was it still ASSBAR?

As much as I love that nickname, I may have to retire it, because this series is not as bad as I first thought. Miller displays a near-mastery of pulp dialogue and narration, and Lee proves what everyone already knows, that he’s a master draftsman of superhero comics.

In case you’re one of the select few who haven’t read the book, it’s a wholly new take on Batman’s first years, and he’s portrayed as essentially a psycho. Which, in a lot of ways, makes sense. You have to be pretty nuts to put on tights and kick the crap out of muggers.

But Miller pushes it to ugly extremes, with Batman kidnapping Dick Grayson and forcing him into the war on crime, nearly killing fellow superheroes and possibly killing corrupt police officers. This Batman is completely unhinged, which becomes fully apparent in a later issue when the Joker appears and seems sedate by comparison.

Now, this is what Miller does well, crackling along at the harsh edge of humanity as he has in Sin City, 300 and elsewhere. But there are two inherent problems: First, this goes against every incarnation of Batman we’ve seen and degrades the character. Second, and most importantly, that degradation doesn’t work because it’s paired with Lee’s artwork.

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Review: ‘Wanted’

wanted1_00-5729527Reviewing Wanted, the film based on the Top Cow miniseries by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, is a difficult request. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov, the film is enjoyable, but solely on a puerile level, and undoubtedly not for the reasons that Bekmambetov intended. This movie is exactly what would happen if a hyperactive 16-year-old was given free range to write a script; it features an Angelina Jolie butt-shot, bullets that don’t travel at normal speed or in a straight line, and the euphoria of telling off your boss and all the jerks at work. But when asked if this film is actually any good, or even a good comic adaptation, the answer is a strong “No.”

Those of you who remember the comic series remember a truly raunchy adventure about an assassin named Fox who recruits a cubical jockey to take his father’s place in a secret society of supervillains known as The Fraternity. From there, we get a few twists and turns thrown our way, but primarily, this was a comic book about all things comic books: superheroes, villains with puffy capes, a cannibal baddie, and even a few digs on other genre flops like Adam West’s Batman.

With that in mind, the movie takes its own liberties, and generously at that. Replace “supervillains” with “assassins,” “puffy capes” with “bullets that curve,” and “cannibal” with Morgan Freeman. It is totally understandable how this movie was sold, because people are so afraid of doing superhero films that don’t have names like “[[[Iron Man]]]” or “[[[Batman]]]” attached to them, so instead they were going for a Matrix redux, and failed miserably.

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Review: This Week in ‘Trinity’ – Part 4

We’re up to week five of DC’s big weekly event, and I regret to inform you that I’ve already caught myself thinking "same old, same old."

What happened?

The fight with Konvikt continued, with all the heroes getting knocked around, including your Big Three. At least they took the fight away from civilians, but still, so far the main point seems to be that there’s nothing really special about Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman. They get their butts kicked by giant, purple aliens just like everyone else.

Quick tangent — I’m not sure if there are any other Weeds fans out there, but I find it impossible to read the name "Konvikt" and not immediately think "Dumb name" in Doug’s snarky voice.

Back to the issue, which was pretty breezy, it ends with Batman doing some detective work to take a new tack with Konvikt (dumb name), and then getting ambushed by another alien, Graak (really dumb name).

Meanwhile, villains Morgaine Le Fey and Enigma (who needs to just come out of the Two Face closet and admit to being  Harvey Dent) watch on their magic crystal ball and offer cryptic commentary.

Whoop-dee-doo.

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Review: ‘Madame Xanadu #1’ by Matt Wagner and Amy Reeder Hadley

Fresh off another successful Grendel run and two excellent Batman miniseries ([[[Monster Men and Mad Monk]]]), Matt Wagner is switching gears so hard he may have just shredded the transmission.

A revival of the occult heroine Madame Xanadu? Really?

Sure enough. Wagner is writing the Vertigo series, the first issue of which debuted this week. It’s, well, odd, for lack of a better word. The first chapter begins in Arthurian times as Xanadu tries to prevent Camelot’s bloody fall.

Wagner channels a bit of Shakespeare’s lyricism in Xanadu’s dreamy, esoteric narration. And much of the goal seems to be recasting the common legend in surprising ways, not the least of which is Merlin as an old horndog.

The art, by relative newcomer Amy Reeder Hadley, is as graceful and natural as the titular character. The slight manga influence further similarizes the book to Elf Quest, which it mirrors fairly closely in tone.

The only real problem so far is the lack of scope in the first issue. Not a whole lot happens, at least till the last page, and there’s almost nothing to hint that this series is going to be an epic love story between [[[Xanadu]]] and the Phantom Stranger that lasts through several ages. I had to check the PR cheat sheet for that info.

Van Jensen is a former crime reporter turned comic book journalist. Every Wednesday, he braves Atlanta traffic to visit Oxford Comics, where he reads a whole mess of books for his weekly reviews. Van’s blog can be found at graphicfiction.wordpress.com.

Publishers who would like their books to be reviewed at ComicMix should contact ComicMix through the usual channels or email Van Jensen directly at van (dot) jensen (at) gmail (dot) com.

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