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Marc Alan Fishman: I’m Now A Who From Whoville!

Well, it took me a while to make my way through it, but I’m pleased as punch to report I watched an entire season of Doctor Who. And no need to bury the lead: I’m a fan. Peter Capaldi made me a fan. As for the rest of the Whoniverse, not so much.

For those loosely following my journey to TARDIStowne, this has been a long and bumpy road. When I’d noted my friends had started to watch (somewhere between the 9th and 10th Doctors) I gave the show a tepid try. Because I’d not been privy to any Who lore – be it actual storylines, or knowledge of the production itself – I initially found the show to be too low-budget, and too in-jokey for me to care. As the world around me anointed their arms with tally marks, whispered “Don’t Blink,” or went on and on about something called Bad Wolf, I remained ever-snarky. And then, when a weekend left me with nothing to do but catch The Day of the Doctor with my wife and son, I’d openly declared my desire to jump on the bandwagon. And thus I programmed the Capaldi Who to Season Record. Cue the theme music.

It’s not that surprising – to me, at least – that Capaldi was the hook that grabbed me. My love of Gregory House would be the telltale heart there. At their cores, Greg and Twelve (can I call him Twelve?) are problem-solvers. And they are both likely to use their tongues as the tool to save the day. Unlike House though, Capaldi’s Who was never outright rude for rudeness sake. He was curt, yes, but always when danger or a mystery seemed to be afoot. Tie this into the season’s overarching question – Is the Doctor a good man? – and you have the conflicted lead taking charge each week as the universe finds new ways to unravel.

And whether Capaldi was debating a dying Dalek, scoffing at Robin Hood, or giving dimension to flat foes, he presented it all with a nuanced performance that I believed was deep. Unlike the current James Gordon on Gotham, the gravitas of the Doctor felt lived in. And given I personally knew nothing of the decades-long history of the character? Well, that sums up Capaldi’s talent and my fandom pretty easily.

As with the original Star Trek, Firefly, or any number of other science-fiction shows I would eventually find an affinity for, the key to my kindness has always been strong characterization. Beyond Capaldi, I must give credit where it’s due. In spite of being plucky to the point of annoyance, Jenna Coleman’s Clara did eventually win me over. And her beau for the season, Danny Pink (“P.E.”!), while being a bit too much of a nondescript archetype when action was required, did eventually find his place. Funny then right as I was enjoying his grounded nature… that he (SPOILER ALERT) got smashed by a random plot device… err… car. In any event, the companions of this season were built to show us sides of the Doctor that were necessary in an introductory season. Now, a dozen or so episodes later… we know Twelve is not a leader of men, a lover of the ladies (though he creepily sorta dug kissing his arch, no?), or anything beyond an admitted “idiot with a box and a screwdriver, passing through, helping out.”

Long before I enjoyed the show, I’d considered Doctor Who to be as much (if not more) about the universe the he inhabited versus himself. But Capaldi’s season proved to me that to be untrue. While the episodes throughout the season were chocked in references that scooted way over my head, the most potent moments were never about anyone or anything more important than the Doctor himself.

Obviously tied to the aforementioned Good Man motif, it was clear even in the more lackluster or frustrating episodes (Earth taken over by trees, I’m looking at you…) that the definition of this iteration of the Doctor was at the heart of the show. And even in the face of his newly reformed nemesis, with the entire Earth under the threat of annihilation, Capaldi’s grimaces and line delivery sucked every scene into his orbit.

If I were to be critical, it’d revolve mostly around the specific adventures themselves. I found the show to be at its best when the plots were small and specific. When the Doctor had to handle a murder mystery on the space-faring Orient Express, or dealing with an unknown flat threat targeting a small town, there was a wonderful balance between the threat and the solution. When the show went big, with Earth-swallowing fairy tale forests, or the season finale’s masterful plot, things tended to get out of hand. Heady concepts are the bread and butter of the science fiction serial… but in a season that is built around a introspection, these few-too-many universe-shattering melodramas felt like loose Star Trek plottos, not quirky BBC fare.

With a dozen adventures now under his belt, I’m excited for the future. With the prospect of a new companion to roam all of space and time with pending, as well as litany of returning alien allies and foes, I expect a second season of Capaldi to move outside of the reactionary into something more proactive. Let’s see where this Doctor really wants to travel.

That is of course, unless his new companion Bogarts the TARDIS for their own agenda. Either way, I’m on for the ride…

Eyebrows and all.

 

The Law Is A Ass

BOB INGERSOLL: THE LAW IS A ASS #344: BATMAN’S PROPERTY RIGHTS AND WRONGS

4252353-behush1Batman Eternal, the Energizer Bunny of comics that keeps going and going and going and… (If I repeated “and going” for another thousand words think Mike and Glenn would complain? It would certainly make my job easier.) Batman Eternal is taking a novel approach to comic books, both figuratively and literally, by telling a year-long, novel-length Batman story. Here’s the thing about novels, though, to make them long enough to be novels, things have to happen. Usually lots of things. But here’s the thing about things, especially lots of things, not all things work.

So it is that we come to Batman Eternal #34, where something happened. Something that shouldn’t happen happened. No, something that couldn’t happen happened.

Seems that over the years, Batman secreted seventeen bunkers loaded with weapons and explosives in little hidey holes all over Gotham City . He financed these caches with his corporate cash. Which is to say, Batman – secretly Bruce Wayne – used money from Wayne Enterprises, which supported Batman, Inc. financially, to fund these weapons caches. But the secret of those secret caches had been compromised. And compromised in a bad way. Not bad as in declaring slaves were only three-fifths of a person, but it was a bad compromise.

Tommy Elliot, Bruce Wayne’s one-time childhood friend and now the masked villain known as Hush, broke into the Batcave and learned the location of the caches. In addition, Hush took some of Alfred Pennyworth’s blood, so he had the genetic material needed to bypass the DNA-encoded locks on the caches. And if you think that spells trouble, you don’t know how to spell. It does, however, mean trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with B and that stands for boom!

In Batman Eternal #32, Hush used the first of the explosives he stole from Batman to blow up a police military vehicle. He knew that the explosives used would be traced back to Batman. How he knew that I don’t know, because I don’t know how what was left of explosives after they exploded could be traced back to Batman. Did Batman’s mother sew his name on them? (What too soon?) Anyway, in Batman Eternal# 32, they were. Traced back to Batman, that is.

Meanwhile, at Wayne Enterprises, business home of billionaire-playboy Bruce Wayne, he said in his best William Dozier voice, CEO Lucius Fox had a cow. (No, not a delicious steak dinner, the kind of cow that Bart Simpson says you’re not supposed to have.) Lucius knew that if the weapons used could be traced back to Wayne Enterprises’s financial backing of Batman, it would look bad for the business. Bruce Wayne assured Lucius that the situation was under control.

It wasn’t. Which brings us to Batman Eternal #34. And to the second explosion in a building somewhere down by the docks. And finally, to the angry confrontation between Mayor Hady and Lucius Fox. The Mayor was understandably upset that the weapons Wayne Enterprise bought were being used to blow up Gotham City. Lucius was understandably a Fox in sheepish clothing.

Now while this scene played out, Batman tracked down and captured Hush. Thus preventing any more explosions. But Lucius didn’t know that Batman had gotten the situation under control, so he took steps of his own.

Just after he caught Hush, Batman learned that the federal government, acting I assume with the cooperation of Lucius Fox, seized “the chief operating functions of Wayne Enterprises” along with all of its holdings “both foreign and domestic.” “For all intents and purposes, Wayne Enterprises is no more.”

First, isn’t that a bit of an overreaction? Two explosions and the government seizes all the assets of a multi-billion dollar international conglomerate? The Gulf oil spill caused more damage than both explosions combined and the government never went to BP stations grabbing up the beef jerky. And all this over two explosions? In Gotham City two explosions would be a slow news day.

Second – and this is where that whole something that couldn’t happen happened comes into play – remember last week when I said that under the combination of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, people can’t be deprived of their liberty without due process of law? Well, funny thing, the Fifth Amendment doesn’t mention only liberty. What it actually says is that no person shall be “deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law.” You probably noticed the italics I added back there and are way ahead of me. You’ve already figured out that today we’re talking about property and the “Takings Clause” of the Fifth Amendment. If so, congratulations, cause that’s what we’re doing.

Corporations don’t actually own their assets. The shareholders own them. Thus, when the federal government seized all the holdings of Wayne Enterprises both foreign and domestic, it was seizing property owned by Wayne Enterprises’s shareholders; chiefly Bruce Wayne. Under the Fifth Amendment, the federal government could not seize this property without due process of law.

What would constitute due process of law? There are a few things. It’s likely the weapons and explosives were contraband. (Well, the explosives, anyway. Under the Second Amendment seventeen caches of military-grade ordnance is just a firearm safe.). Anyway, if either the explosives or the weapons were contraband, then the government could seize them right away. Contraband is property which the government has decreed no private citizen – real or corporate – may own such as drugs or counterfeit money, but not, unfortunately, box sets of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Because people have no right to possess contraband, the government may seize it as soon as it finds it. But the other Wayne Enterprises property – the real estate holdings, the office furniture, the keys to the executive washroom – these wouldn’t be contraband. The government couldn’t simply seize those things without due process of law.

In order for due process of law to work, the government would have to file some sort of forfeiture proceedings. It could, for example, claim that Wayne Enterprises was involved in racketeering operations and seize the property under the RICO statutes. Before the government could do that, however, it would have had to indict Wayne Enterprises under the RICO statutes, and then move for an injunction to seize the assets so that Wayne Enterprises could not dispose of them. The federal government did not file any RICO indictments against Wayne Enterprises, so it had no authority to swoop in and seize its assets.

Moreover, even if the government had indicted Wayne Enterprises and moved to seize the assets, there would have to have been a hearing before a judge on the government’s forfeiture motion. A hearing in which all Wayne Enterprise shareholders – including Bruce Wayne – would have had the right to be present. There were no such hearings. No hearings means, no seizures. No seizures means Wayne Enterprises is hale and hardy and Bruce Wayne is still rich.

The government could also file some other sort of forfeiture proceeding, say a motion to seek the assets because they were a nuisance or some such complaint. Once again, there would have had to be a hearing in front of a judge, before the assets could be seized in this way. Once again, there was no hearing. Once again, Wayne Enterprises is still free of government control. And once again, Bruce is still solvent.

Ah, but couldn’t Lucius Fox as CEO of Wayne Enterprises have voluntarily agreed to the government seizing control of Wayne Enterprises and it’s assets, thereby obviating the need for any hearings? In a word, no. In two words, no no.

As a corporate officer of Wayne Enterprises, Lucius owed a fiduciary duty to the shareholders to act in their best interests. He could not willingly give the shareholders’ property to the federal government without the permission of those shareholders. Doing so would have been an act against the shareholders’ best interests and a violation his fiduciary duty. So again, I am left with the conclusion that Wayne Enterprises still stands and Bruce is still a billionaire-playboy.

Now I freely admit that twenty-eight years as a public defender practicing criminal law left me a little unfamiliar with corporate law. So if there are corporate lawyer types out there who can think of a way in which the federal government could have seized all of Wayne Enterprises assets in less than twenty-four hours and without any sort of indictments, forfeiture motions, or hearings on the matter, I’m willing to listen. Not sure I’ll be convinced, but I’ll listen.

After all, it’s the law that’s a ass, not me.

Martha Thomases: The Great Comic Book Lock-Out

There’s been a story making the rounds on the Internet among women who work in the comic book industry. It’s the first-person account by a father who takes his young children to his local comic book store and finds himself embarrassed in front of his daughter. Like the smart little cookie she is, the daughter explains to her father that there is nothing in the store for her.

This is a complaint that women in the comic book industry have been making, as a group, for at least twenty years. Neil Gaiman captured the ethos perfectly in an early issue of Sandman – which is when a lot of fanboys learned that particular point of view was out there. Still, even with all this discussion over the decades, this gentleman did not notice until he had his own daughter, and looked at his comic book store through her eyes.

Some women, reading this story, immediately suggested a few dozen comics or graphic novels that his daughter might like but which, apparently, were unknown to the salespeople at this particular store. Some women were irked that this gentleman wasn’t aware of the problem until it was his problem.

I understand both reactions, but neither is the part of the story that made me the most angry.

There seems to be a school of thought in which the only fiction available to readers is about the readers themselves. Boys can only read about boys. Girls can only read about girls. African-Americans can only read about African-Americans or, possibly, racial minorities can only read about other racial minorities. Certainly, the thinking goes, white kids are only interested in reading about other white kids.

Let me be clear. I don’t think there is some kind of committee that issues these edicts. I think it is a more subtle form of bigotry.

Here’s an example: When I worked at DC and we launched Milestone, a lot of retailers told us that they weren’t going to order the books because they didn’t have any African-American customers. There are so many errors in this kind of thinking that it made me want to tear my hair out. Here is why:

  1. Milestone comics are not created by exclusively black creators for an exclusively black audience.
  2. White readers will not find anything they don’t understand in an issue of a Milestone comic.
  3. The money that African-Americans use for goods and services is exactly the same as that used by white people. If a retailer stocks comics that might appeal to African-American customers, these African-Americans may use this money in his or her store.
  4. Most capitalists consider more customers for their goods and services to be a desirable state of affairs.

The same thinking can apply to comic books that might be appropriate for young girls and, I would argue, for young boys as well. Comics that don’t overly sexualize the female characters. And yet, in the comments section, a retailer claims that no one buys such books for more than an issue or two.

Maybe none of his regular customers buy such all-ages titles regularly. However, a look at a national best-seller list shows a wide variety, including books appropriate to an all-ages audience. Booksellers make money with these books. There is no reason any particular reader can’t.

Comics are not the only literary format with this problem. To quote from the link: “Ellen Oh tells a story of being in a bookstore in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2012, and watching a little white girl reach for The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis, a book with a black girl on the cover. Her mother takes that out of her hands and says, ‘Oh no, honey, that’s not for you.’’’ Oh recalls. This is a version of a story I heard repeatedly from the librarians, authors, and editors I interviewed.

We can’t do very much about individual narrow-minded parents. We can celebrate the fact that fiction in all media allows us to see the world through another set of eyes.

Comics do this in a way that allows us to immerse our senses with color and artwork and so much imagination that there was a time when people thought comics were just for kids. That kind of thinking started to fade away thirty years ago, and this was a good thing. It’s not a good thing to keep the kids out.

Nor anybody else.

 

Tweeks: Mean Girls Game for iOS is Here!

Mean-Girls-High-School-Showdown-Game-mean-girls-6711211-555-371There is nothing so fetch (that’s British for awesome) as Mean Girls! Well, except maybe getting to answer Mean Girls trivia, quote the movie AND defend a tiara on our iPhones at the same time  So Much Drama released Mean Girls: the Game on iOS last week and ever since then we’ve been addicted to staying out of the Burn Book and defeating the new Plastics clique at North Shore High with our popularity points and  candy grams. 

This week we review this game, tell you why you need to watch the movie (even if it’s for the 100th time) and remind you all that on Wednesday We Wear Pink.

You go, Glen Coco!

How Much Does It Cost To Build A Dalek?

  • News
  • February 5, 2015

Not a cosplay project – there’s plenty of resources for that.  Heck, the BBC used to send out official plans for one. But an actual, proper one, with the mutant and the hoverpad and the exterminatey-ready-to-go-ness?

The UK’s Horror Channel are now running classic Doctor Who episodes, and they took the opportunity to run the numbers.

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Click to embiggenate

These numbers include all the startup costs; R&D, as well as initial set up of the factory locations. So we’re looking at the cost of rolling that first Dalek off the line – presumably the per-unit costs would decrease as time goes on.  Allowing for depreciation, once production gets up to speed, costs could drop precipitously. Though of course, even the first Dalek could get quite a bit done.

Also, with a number of nuclear plants already in existence, one might be able to cut a deal with a forward-thinking city to set up a lab in an extant plant, not to mention the various tax breaks many municipalities would offer to such a job-creating endeavour.

The cost of raw materials would drop over time as well as more areas are conquered, allowing for greater collection activities.  And since Daleks are in a sealed system capable of surviving in the vacuum of space, odds are they aren’t too worried about the effects of fracking on the environment. That would certainly reduce the costs of mining – no need to worry about EPA restrictions.

The Horror Channel’s website has more info on The Doctor, as well as a neat web game that lets you demolish Daleks at various locations  around England.

Box Office Democracy: “Project Almanac”

Going in to Project Almanac I had a very clear idea of what I would be getting: Chronicle but with time travel instead of superheroes. To its credit that isn’t really what Project Almanac is, it isn’t as predictable or as overly dramatic. It doesn’t have a conclusion that’s drawn out too long. In fact, in a lot of ways it feels like Project Almanac is the inverse of Chronicle in that it’s a movie that never seems to know when to stop being playful and start being serious. When the time finally comes to put the dramatic hammer down there isn’t enough time left and we’re left with a third act that feels rushed and unsatisfying.

(more…)

Dennis O’Neil: In For Repairs

Ye ed here again. 

Our pal Denny remains in for repairs. Let this be a lesson to all of us who think we are invulnerable to ice: if Denny isn’t, what chance do you have?

Marifran tells us that, outside of a complication last weekend, he is home and well on the mend. That is very good news indeed. He will be healing up as fast as he can – dodging the dark side of winter is one thing; blowing off the spring is quite another. 

Hang in there, Denny. Erudite people aren’t exactly a dime a dozen!

 

Doctor Who Lego set approved

  • News
  • February 4, 2015

NOW we know what the cubes were in The Power of Three – space Lego blocks.

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Lego has announced that its newest approved project will be a Doctor Who and Companions Lego set, designed by Andrew Clark.  Created as part of their Lego Ideas program, the site allows users to design and submit potential Lego sets to be manufactured by the company.  Past sets from the program include japan’s Hayabusa satellite, a series of Minecraft-inspired sets, and an assortment of female scientist minifigures.

Doctor Who already has a building block license with the company Character Building – their blind-buy minifigures are currently available across the world.

Emma Owen, UK spokesperson for LEGO Ideas commented:

“We’re extremely excited to announce that a Doctor Who and a WALL-E set will be released as our next LEGO Ideas fan based sets, congratulations to the designers Andrew Clark and Angus MacLane!

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No details have been revealed concerning the contents of the sets, only that more information will be forthcoming for a release by the end of the year.

Get in line now.

Mike Gold: Our Pulp Roots

justice-inc-2500063One would think that because the roots of comic book heroes are deeply planted in the forest of pulp heroes, adapting such characters to the four-color medium should be a snap. Despite the superlative efforts of such talents as Garth Ennis, Frank Robbins, Eduardo Barreto, ComicMix’s own Denny O’Neil and a handful of others, this is not the case.

Let us politely say that, overall, pulp heroes have enjoyed a mixed reception. Some good, some bad, some wonderful, some insipid. Sturgeon’s Revelation remains in complete control.

In making the transition, some people resort to measures that put these characters in modern times. Usually, that trick doesn’t work: The Shadow, The Spider et al are creatures of their own times. Sometimes they become something different – in the 1960s Archie Comics turned The Shadow into a routine, and boring, costumed superhero. At least the guy who wrote most of it, Jerry Siegel, knew something about capes.

These days most of the pulp hero resurrections are being handled by Dynamite Comics, and by and large they’re doing a fine job. I didn’t care for their approach to The Spider, but I was surprised that their putting Doc Savage in the modern era while maintaining his past actually works. Their Shadow is mostly terrific; there’s a lot of it so some is better than others.

It’s hard to go wrong with Gail Simone, and she fits Red Sonja like it’s her second skin. Probably has something to do with the red hair. Zorro has been in fine hands, particularly the stories by Matt Wagner and then even more particularly those stories drawn by John K. Snyder III. The idea of team-up up Zorro with Django is nothing short of brilliant, and Quentin Tarantino teamed up with Wagner to provide the story.

Because The Shadow, Doc Savage, and The Avenger are all owned and licensed by Advance Publications (better known as Condé Nast, which is one of their divisions), it was inevitable that these three would share their own mini-series. Any fan with an appreciation for history felt his spider-sense a-tingling when Dynamite announced they had all three licenses. The concept is akin to skating on thin ice.

Not to worry. This just-completed mini-series, Justice Inc., was written by Michael Uslan, and Michael knows his stuff.

Now, you might be asking “Geez, Mike, what the hell are you talking about?” In fact, you might have been asking this question for several years now, but I’ll just assume you’re referring to Mr. Uslan’s far greater notoriety as a Hollywood producer who specializes in bringing comic book characters to the screen. You know, like all those Batman movies. And the forthcoming Doc Savage movie, the one IMDB says is starring Chris Hemsworth (maybe) and is to be directed by Shane Black. Yep, that’s the guy.

However, he’s also written quite a few comic books. In fact, I regard him as one of our best writers – I will read any comic book with his name on it, and I just might even pay for it. (I heard the phrase “hey, kid, this ain’t a library” so often I salivate at each utterance). And he’s done some truly innovative stuff: he’s the guy who married Archie Andrews off to both Betty and Veronica – sadly, separately – and now he’s got Betty and Veronica out of Riverdale for a year in Europe. He’s written Batman, THUNDER Agents, The Spirit, The Shadow / Green Hornet crossover “Dark Nights,” the revived Terry and the Pirates newspaper strip, Beowulf, and an issue of DC’s original Shadow run. And other stuff.

Joining Uslan on Justice Inc. is artist Giovanni Timpano, who is quite up for the challenge of drawing such a character-heavy story in period. Covers – well, there are a lot of them by a lot of good people. Dynamite tends to approach variant covers the way a 16-year old boy approaches an orgy. But, yes, Alex Ross has one over ever of the six issues.

Since we’ve got at least three heroes and sometimes their associates, I should note the villains are two of the pulp classics: Doc Savage’s arch enemy John Sunshine and The Shadow’s persistent creep Dr. Rodil Mocquino, a/k/a The Voodoo Master. These are choices that might be obvious to the hard-core, but they are so for a good reason: they are solid villains right out of the best pulp traditions.

Even though Michael and I have yet to work together, he avoids violating one of my great many cardinal rules: he keeps the in-jokes accessible to the knowing without getting in the way of those that don’t know. Indeed, in-jokes abound in Justice Inc, ranging from very cute to quite clever. He takes some extremely minor liberties with the characters: Doc Savage is a bit more sarcastic than in the pulps, The Shadow seems a bit more OCD given the fact that he’s hardly a team player (unless it’s his team), and The Avenger’s origin story is bent slightly to accommodate this being set at the very beginning of his career.

You might ask why I’m plugging this mini-series after its conclusion last week. Outside of the fact that I’m absurd, it is possible that your friendly neighborhood comics store has a run left, and you should always support your local friendly neighborhood comics store. Aside from that, the trade paperback collection comes out in mid-May and is available for advance order from Amazon.

I doubt Uslan is going to give up his day job in order to churn out more great comics. That’s just a guess, but, damn, I can hope.

 

Emily S. Whitten: The World’s Worst Superhero Team!

quantum-and-woody-9977330This week I thought I’d get back to basics and, you know, actually talk about a comic book (gasp!). Being in the mood for some potentially light reading, I poked around the myriad stories that I’ve picked up and not had time to read yet, and happened upon the first TPB for Quantum and Woody! The World’s Worst Superhero Team (the Valiant Comics 2013-2014 version). One look at the title and the cover (one tough-looking costumed superhero, one completely douchey-looking frat boy type superhero, and… a goat?) and I knew I’d probably at least not be bored.

And boy, was I right about that. I’m trying to think of a way to sum up what I just read, and I feel like, “This book is so wrong it’s right” might just about cover it. The premise – about two estranged brothers who end up reuniting to find out who murdered their father – sounds like it has potential from the start, and it does provide a good structure for the action. But what makes the book really work are the irreverent humor, the zany take on storytelling, and the strongly developed personalities of the characters we’re introduced to; as well as the flips back to the early years of Eric (Quantum) and Woody.

Those glimpses of earlier times show us a couple of brothers who were once very close, despite Woody being a foster child in the home of Eric and his scientist father, and, well, … a bit of a problem kid. They draw us in to make us want to know more about how the brothers ended up in a present where they’re fist-fighting over their father’s casket; without overwhelming us with the past.

The present shows us a Woody who is always careless and short on funds and, almost always, as douchey as he looks on the front cover (like when he tries to tell the cops who are coming to arrest him and his brother that his brother is a “crazy black man” and a “Muslim fundamentalist who tried to blow up our Godless white science!”).

Because, oh yeah, did I mention? Eric is black, and Woody is white. Which the story totally owns, in the way that the TV show Psych owns the best-friendship of Shawn and Gus – by not ignoring it, but turning an alternatingly warmly humorous and sharply commentarial look on it instead. The present also shows us an Eric who is more serious and responsible (except when led astray by his ne’er-do-well brother), and who also has Army and tactical training, and an actual paying job. Naturally this mismatch turns out to make the two the perfect pair to see “working” together. It sets up a fun buddy story dynamic that (surprising to no one who knows me) reminded me a bit of Cable & Deadpool – the responsible straight man and the wacky irresponsible comic dude somehow balancing each other out. Oh, and the results of an exploding science experiment force them to spend time with each other even when they’d rather be anywhere else (can anyone say, “bodyslide by one?”).

The first four issues in the Volume I TPB show us the crazy science experiment and origin of the “superhero” part of the buddy story, and it was a weird and interesting enough tale to keep my attention, despite being a little convoluted. Some of it almost felt like an elaborate excuse to take a stab at a certain historical figure (I won’t spoil everything for you) but, eh – I was amused anyway. And the rest of it, involving the brothers’ dad, allowed for some great emotional beats in a comic in which most of the time, nothing is sacred, as the story pokes fun at clowns, cripples, superhero costumes, and more. But it’s played for a laugh that works, because the writer (James Asmus) isn’t asking you to agree with the (sometimes offensive) commentary; but instead, writes it in such a way as to lampoon the wrongness of the joke as much as the target.

And while we’re mentioning creators, let’s send a fist-bump (Woody would totally fist-bump) to artist Tom Fowler and colorist Jordie Bellaire for dynamic and expressive art, and vibrant (except for the muted flashbacks, done to good effect) colors in the book. The writing and art make for a fun, and cohesive whole, and kept me laughing or smiling (even while sometimes shaking my head) pretty much the whole time.

Needless to say I want to continue reading to see what happens to these two knuckleheads. It looks like there are at least two more TPBs by James Asmus out there, and a quick Google search shows that it’s recently come back under the new title of Quantum and Woody Must Die!. Sooooo…I know what’s next on my pull list.

Off I go to acquire some more Quantum and Woody! Maybe you should too? And until next time, Servo Lectio!

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