Comics | the m0vie blog

Wednesday Comics: Sgt. Rock & Easy Co.

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Darren

Earlier this week I reviewed Wednesday Comics, a rather spanking anthology from DC Comics. I kinda figured, however, it might be worth my while to break out some of those fifteen stories on their own (but not all of them) and discuss them, as it’s easy to lose sight of a particular writer/artist’s work in an anthology. Now we’re going back to a “new” old bunch of pulp characters.

Sgt. Rock & Easy Co. is an interesting choice for the anthology. Although it’s a war comic, it was only introduced in 1959, long after the end of the conflict and in the twilight days of the newspaper strips that this anthology is meant to reproduce. It’s inclusion arguably speaks more to the desire by DC to create a nostalgia for a long legacy that never quite existed than it does to the character’s popularity or place within DC continuity. Sgt. Rock & Easy Co. is one of only three non-superhero strips included – the post-apocalyptic adventures of Kamandi and the Strange Adventures strip, following Adam Strange: Space Hero – and it seems a logical fit if the goal was to create the impression of a large interconnected tapestry of DC history. After all, the only thing as pulpy as a superhero story is good old fashioned war yarn.

That's the closest you'll come to a splash page in this storyline...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: adam kubert, comic books, Comics, conflict, dc comics, easy co., easy company, joe kubert, nazis, pulp, second world war, sergeant rock, sergeant rock & easy co., sergeant rock & easy company, sergeant rock and easy co., sergeant rock and easy company, sgt rock and easy co, sgt. rock, sgt. rock & easy co., war comics, wednesday comics | Leave a comment »

Wednesday Comics: Superman

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Darren

Earlier this week I reviewed Wednesday Comics, a rather spanking anthology from DC Comics. I kinda figured, however, it might be worth my while to break out some of those fifteen stories on their own (but not all of them) and discuss them, as it’s easy to lose sight of a particular writer/artist’s work in an anthology. I’ve done Batman and Wonder Woman, so I figure I should round out the trinity with the Man of Steel.

John Arcudi’s Superman project was arguably the comic in Wednesday Comics with the most banking on it. Aside from featuring perhaps the most iconic superhero on the face of the planet, it was also serialised in USA Today. That’s a pretty solid forum for publicising a comic book event, a respectable newspaper with an international circulation. So I can understand that DC might have wanted to avoid a particularly “challenging” or even “geeky” story. However, they ended up choosing perhaps the must dull and lifeless story in the collection to serialise to the public at large. Even more than that, Arcudi’s Superman is a perfect illustration of everything that’s wrong with the character in recent years and why he has seen his hold on popular culture somewhat diminished.

Superman's ship isn't the only thing which crashes and burns...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: comic books, Comics, dc comics, superman, wednesday comics, wednesday comics: superman | 1 Comment »

Wednesday Comics: Wonder Woman

Posted on August 29, 2010 by Darren

Earlier this week I reviewed Wednesday Comics, a rather spanking anthology from DC Comics. I kinda figured, however, it might be worth my while to break out some of those fifteen stories on their own (but not all of them) and discuss them, as it’s easy to lose sight of a particular writer/artist’s work in an anthology. Now it’s time to discuss the most controversial (or, at least, divisive) of the bunch: Wonder Woman.

When you discuss the ambition of DC Comics’ wonderful Wednesday Comics series, the argument inevitably comes back around to Ben Caldwell’s Wonder Woman strip, which seems to be the most divisive of the bunch. Everyone hates Teen Titans and loves The Flash, but Caldwell’s take on the iconic Amazon has served to split readers down the middle. It shouldn’t be too surprising, though, since the strip is really one of the handful to play with the extra space the book was allowed. While I’m not exactly overjoyed with the story, I certainly respect it a great deal for having the guts to follow through on some fascinating design ideas.

Wonder Woman fans should get a kick out of it...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: ben caldwell, dc comics, wednesday comics, wonder woman | 2 Comments »

Wednesday Comics: Kamandi

Posted on August 28, 2010 by Darren

Earlier this week I reviewed Wednesday Comics, a rather spanking anthology from DC Comics. I kinda figured, however, it might be worth my while to break out some of those fifteen stories on their own (but not all of them) and discuss them, as it’s easy to lose sight of a particular writer/artist’s work in an anthology. I thought I’d turn my attention to one of the conspicuously non-superhero titles in the anthology, an adaptation of the classic Kirby comic, Kamandi.

Although Kamandi only debuted in 1972, there’s an argument to be made that the character is better suited to this particular format and style of storytelling than the DC superheroes which otherwise populate the collection. Created by the legendary Jack Kirby, Kamandi is the story of the last boy on earth, attempting to survive in a post-apocalyptic future ruled by hyper-evolved talking animals (rats, cats and – most viciously – apes). The character has a lasting cult appeal, but was never necessarily the most popular property at the publisher, but it’s nice that they dusted him off for this project. I have to admit being a bit surprised at the creative team – Dave Gibbons is regarded as an author, but made his name as an artist, so it’s strange to see him writing this – but it works, it really comes together and suits the unique format of the project perfectly.

Gibbons successfully apes the adventure comics of yore...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Comics, dave gibbons, dc comics, jack kirby, kamandi, ryan sook, wednesday comics | 2 Comments »

Wednesday Comics: Batman

Posted on August 27, 2010 by Darren

Earlier this week I reviewed Wednesday Comics, a rather spanking anthology from DC Comics. I kinda figured, however, it might be worth my while to break out some of those fifteen stories on their own (but not all of them) and discuss them, as it’s easy to lose sight of a particular writer/artist’s work in an anthology. And I thought that the opening strip deserved a bit of discussion, as it’s perhaps come under a bit of fire for a lot of flaws that are present through a lot of the stories collected.

Batman is the story arc which opens Wednesday Comics. Indeed, it was the story which would find itself peering out at the reader week-on-week. Perhaps it was unfortunate that Brian Azzarello’s take on the Caped Crusader went first, because it’s typically drawn a lot of criticism that the stories told failed to take advantage of the format. A lot of the criticism of the story can also be directed at a lot of the subsequence serials, but the Dark Knight draws the brunt of the negativity. Which is a shame, because – despite its conventional nature – Azzarello and artist Eduardo Risso offer a pretty effective snapshot of the Caped Crusader.

Go with a bang...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: batman, brian azzarello, Comics, dc comics, eduardo risso, noir, wednesday, wednesday comics | Leave a comment »

Wednesday Comics: The Flash

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Darren

Earlier this week I reviewed Wednesday Comics, a rather spanking anthology from DC Comics. I kinda figured, however, it might be worth my while to break out some of those fifteen stories on their own (but not all of them) and discuss them, as it’s easy to lose sight of a particular writer/artist’s work in an anthology. So I figured I’d start with the best of the bunch, The Flash.

I think it’s safe to say that the Flash is on a road to reinvention. Writer Geoff Johns, who pioneered the resurrection of Green Lantern as one of the company’s most successful properties (and one of the most impressively consistent books), is currently working on a relaunched Flash series, that looks to follow the pattern set by Green Lantern. There are rumours of Warner Brothers greenlighting a movie. The scarlet speedster is definitely in an upswing. Still, one of the best things to happen to the character in… quite a while, actually, is this twelve-page comic in Wednesday Comics, written and illustrated by Karl Kerschl, with some help from Brenden Fletcher. It’s easily the best comic of the collection, but it also stands as a proud testament to the possibilities of the character, one of the original Silver Age heroes.

Quit monkeyin' around...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: barry allen, brenden fletcher, dave mccaig, dc comics, flash, gorilla grodd, iris west, karl kershl, rob leigh, the flash, wednesday comics | Leave a comment »

Wednesday Comics

Posted on August 25, 2010 by Darren

Hawkman unsheathes his knife and crawls into the gasping T-Rex’s jaws, thinking “Sadly, this is not the craziest thing I’ve ever done.”

– Hawkman

Wednesday Comics is an amazing little experiment, a bit of comic book nostalgia delivered by some of the most talented people in the business with a smile on their face and a skip in their step. For those who don’t know, DC Comics – always the more boldly experimental of the two major companies – ran a twelve-week collection of newspaper comic strips. Fifteen strips bundled together, the reader was offered one page of a given comic at a time on a super-sized newspaper sheet, with a full story told week-on-week. It was a bold little experiment and while the whole is almost certainly greater than the sum of its parts, there’s much to love here.

There in a Flash...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: adam kubert, amanda conner, barry allen, batman, ben caldwell, beware the creeper, brenden fletcher, brian azzarello, brian stelfreeze, catwoman, comic strips, Comics, dan didio, dave bullock, dave gibbons, dc, dc comics, deadman, eddie beganza, eduardo risso, etrigan, flash, green lantern, hawkman, jimmy palmiotti, joe kubert, Joe Quiñones, john arcudi, José Luis García-López, José Villarrubia, kamandi, karl kerschl, kevin nowlan, kurt busiek, kyle baker, lee burmejo, metal men, metamorpho, michael allred, neil gaiman, nostalgia, paul pope, plastic man, retrospective, ryan sook, sean galloway, sergeant rock, sergeant rock and easy company, serialised, sgt rock and easy co, sgt. rock, strange adventures, strips, supergirl, superman, teen titans, the creeper, the demon, the demon and catwoman, the flash, vinton heuck, walt simonson, wednesday, wednesday comics, wonder woman | 4 Comments »

Geoff Johns’ Run on Green Lantern – Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps (Vol. I & II) & Rise of the Black Lanterns

Posted on August 18, 2010 by Darren

All right, gang. Let’s go shoot some zombies.

– Captain Cold, Blackest Night: Flash

It wouldn’t be a massive world-ending crisis of a DC Universe cross-over if there weren’t tie-in issues by the bucketful. Sinestro Corps War, Geoff Johns’ earlier Green Lantern mega-event, was relatively low-key in its ambitions, only really spilling across into four specials that dealt with the wider DC Universe. This time there’s close to thirty, which is, as you’d imagine, quite a lot. Given the relatively simplistic nature of the event (it’s basically “superhero zombies”), you’d be forgiven for expecting that the crossovers and tie-ins would become dull or monotonous, but they mostly avoid that. It’s partially due to the variety of perspectives offered, but also due to the extremely talented pool of writers and artists on hand.

As cold... as ice...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: batman, black lantern corps, blackest night, blackest night: batman, blackest night: black lantern corps, blackest night: flash, blackest night: jsa, blackest night: superman, blackest night: teen titans, blackest night: titans, blackest night: wonder woman, captain cold, comic books, Comics, crisis, crossover, dc comics, geoff johns, greg rucka, james robinson, jsa, jt krull, justice society of america, kal-l, miniseries, peter j. tomasi, review, rise of the black lanterns, superman, teen titans, the rogues, wonder woman, zombies | Leave a comment »

Geoff Johns’ Run on Green Lantern – Blackest Night, Blackest Night: Green Lantern, Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps & Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on August 11, 2010 by Darren

Wow. This is pretty much the climax of Geoff Johns’ five year run on Green Lantern, dating all the way back to Rebirth – where he reintroduced Hal Jordan, the original Silver Age version of the character. Since the very start of his run, he’s been dropping hints about the upcoming “war of light” and the prophecy first articulated in an Alan Moore short story decades ago – the prophecy of “blackest night”. Throughout his tenure on the title (and indeed his role shaping the DC Universe as a whole, as one of its guiding writers in the last decade), he has hinted again and again about big events looming on the horizon. Blackest Night is that event. And, in a way, it’s just as wild and crazy and huge as it should be.

Green Lantern reaches new heights...

Note: I am aware that the excellent Peter J. Tomasi wrote the Green Lantern Corps tie-in, but I thought it best to include it in the write-up here. I’ll actually be including my review of the tie-ins under the “Geoff Johns’ Run on Green Lantern” banner, even though he didn’t write all of them. If you’re looking for an opinion on Tomasi’s writing, it’s excellent and it’s highly recommended. Indeed, all four of these wonderful hardcovers are. Oops, did I just spoil my review?

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: barry allen, black hand, blackest night, blackest night: green lantern, blackest night: green lantern corps, comic book death, comic books, crossover, dark age, dc, dc comics, death, doug mahnke, event, geoff johns, green lantern, green lantern corps, guy gardener, hal jordan, hardcover, ivan reis, john stewart, nekron, patrick gleason, peter j. tomasi, rebirth, red lanterns, review, silver age, sinestro, tales of the corps, the flash, zombies | 9 Comments »

Absolute Kingdom Come

Posted on August 4, 2010 by Darren

The nineties were a tough decade for the comic book medium. Violence sold. “Grim and gritty” represented the direction for most major comic books. Superman died. Batman was crippled. Green Lantern became a genocidal maniac. The Flash had long since abandoned the comic book universe. This was the era back-to-back Venom miniseries, the rise of Rob Liefeld and the lethal vigilante. A lot of people trace back this trend to the success of groundbreaking series like Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns, which demonstrated that darker imaginings of conventional superhero comics could sell. Of course, that wasn’t the point of the comics at all, but such complexity is not the speciality of managers and executives. However, if the birth of that so-called “Dark Age” of comic books could be traced back to those roots, then perhaps Kingdom Come can be identified as the birth of a counter-movement against such trends.