CBR Review: Siege #1
Like Steve Rogers drop kicking the Red Skull out of his frontal lobe, I make my triumphant return to reviews for Comic Book Resources with a pretty loud bang: Siege #1
Thanks to the newest wave of Marvel’s writers, such as Hickman and Fraction and Remender, Marvel has become a much stranger place when the seeds for “Siege” were planted in a very young new century. The kingdom of the Norse gods is currently hovering over Kansas and is about to get invaded by the Green Goblin in an Iron Man suit. Volstagg just blew up Soldier Field. As “morally” dark as “Dark Reign” might have been on paper, it gave birth to a whole lot of crazy pulp scenarios that were light years apart from the kind of grim stuff that came out of the immediate results of “Disassembled” and “House Of M”. This makes “Siege” a much more widescreen and engaging work. It’s just a bit too crazy to get bogged down in the kind of gritty moping that previous Marvel events often fell victim to, and it’s a much better read because of it.
(Naturally, I can’t go very long without talking about all the other writers I’m enamored with at Marvel right now. C’est la guerre!)
The CBR Review: Ex Machina #40
I have a whole recap post of reviews brewing since my last, sadly distant, update to the site, but I just submitted this review of Ex Machina #40 and I’m so darn pleased with it (both the issue and the review), so here it is.
Because in so many ways, this issue was directly about comics and the city that so many of its stories have taken place in. And the final pages, as clever, truly surprising, and beautiful as they are, nail that convergence in so many ways. They illustrate so many things in such a small span of time. How fantastic a creative space modern comics is, how simple and singular a character Mayor Hundred is, what an extraordinary city Manhattan is; and how fundamentally captivated by all three Brian K. Vaughan remains.
Introducing Project P.R.O.J.E.C.T.
From Issue 10, Page 14, Panel 3
I ended my review of All Star Superman #12 (which I’m thoroughly happy with, by the way) by comparing Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s landmark run on the book to the book’s subject. A remarkable and alien artifact, crash landed in a medium that was not prepared for its sheer spectacularness, and whose presence had forever altered it. I stand by the assessment. All Star Superman was certainly one of the best comics I’ve ever read. And as a writer and an artist, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely stand as two of the most influential figures in their respective fields, at least as far as my own work goes.
And so it got me thinking. As readers of this blog and my reviews might already know, I’m awfully keen on deconstructing the mechanics of how comics work on the page. Part of this is because it’s obviously quite important and not very talked about, but part of it is because I’m just saying out loud what my brain is always thinking when it reads comics. ”How does this work?” ”What goes into making this work?” All, naturally, in the hopes that some of that process and problem solving might seep into my own work.
And so, along those lines, and carrying through on this All Star Superman as Superman himself idea, I thought it’d be neat to do what Clark does for Leo Quintum, both throughout the book and specifically in the panel cited above. Examine, in detail, the genetic structure of this book, how it was built, in the hopes that, if necessary, we (okay, “I”. I admit it. I’m both selfish and egotistical.) could build another one.
Now, one thing you won’t see me talking about are the kind of Barbelithy (but seriously, I love you guys!) kinds of discussions about arcane symbolism and that sort of thing. I just don’t have the head for that. I’ll be talking more about the straight ahead storytelling stuff. The book is obviously not without it’s overt symbolism, and I’ll of course touch on that, but if you’re looking for a guide to what chakras the Kryptonian Bloodline represents, you’re in for a disappointment. A lot of criticism of Morrison’s work tends to focus a bit too much on that sort of thing when, on the surface, I always feel that his work is far more straightforward than people give it credit.
I’m making no promises about how frequently you’ll see installments of Project P.R.O.J.E.C.T., or provide any kind of schedule. I am a simultaneously very busy and very lazy man.
But hopefully it won’t be too long before you and I take an extraordinarily close look at one of the best first pages of any comic, ever, and why it’s not the four panels themselves that make it so amazing, but rather the double page spread that follows it.
I Review…Lots Of Things
I’ve got a lot of catching up and house cleaning to do, as my website has been pretty spotty performance wise, lately. So, here are a sizable amount of my reviews for Comic Book Resources.
One of the great joys of Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker’s run on “The Immortal Iron Fist” — and it’s sad to call it simply a run and not just “series” as only one issue of their work on the title remains — is the incredibly detailed mythology they have woven into the title. There are enough Iron Fists with enough sidekicks and cohorts and villains to populate their own Comics Imprint. All of them appear with such vibrance and weight of character that they are instantly seen not just as two-dimensional scenery, but instead all part of a richly fabricated world, even if they only show up for a few pages.
There’s a wonderful moment in the midst of what, for all its huge wide screen action and spectacle, is really just a prologue for the final issue of Morrison and Quitely’s run on this book. Superman has gathered a small army of his Superman Robots to battle Solaris, The Tyrant Sun, who is gearing up to help Luthor conquer Metropolis and the rest of the Planet. Superman has spent the opening pages of this issue touring his Fortress, walking wistfully among artifacts that call back nearly every issue of the series. Charmingly disfigured animal victims of the Bizarro effect, the photo he took with Lana and Pete in Smallville, Superwoman’s costume. He knows that this is to be his final adventure, that he will never return to the Fortress, and that all these precious items must be taken care of.
It was December, 2007. “The Sinestro Corps War” had just ended and “Green Lantern” #25 closed it out, not only with one of the best finishes of a major storyline in recent memory but with, as Geoff Johns is often wont to do, a teaser of storylines yet to come. And so, with the promise of multi-hued Lanterns and the whisper of the hint of the possibility of Batman going toe-to-toe with the reanimated corpses of Thomas and Martha Wayne fresh in my mind, I eagerly perused next set of DC Solicitations. What would be the start of such an exciting journey into a bold new direction of the Green Lanterns?
I have to admit, I was never really into Thor. Sure, like any other red-blooded comic book reader in the early nineties, I loved The Asgardian Wars (anyone who doesn’t find an Art Adams drawn Loki watching Storm pummel Frost Giants in a crystal ball on top of some intricately detailed, Terry Austin-inked Mountain-Throne is kind of missing the point of comics in general), but as far as his regular series went (in its many, many incarnations) they just never landed with me.
Bagley’s art — much like his brothers in defection, the Kuberts — seems to have benefited greatly from a change of scenery. His work on Batman especially is quite dynamic and displays a unique take on his overall look. Busiek also does a nice job of meditating on the fundamental conceits of Bruce, Clark, and Diana’s secret identities. In the second half of the book, there is also a pretty intriguing hint at a kind of “Days Of Future Past” wrinkle to the storylines that are coming.
Justice Society Of America #16
It’s difficult for me to necessarily review this book objectively with a completely new reader in mind, and I think, to be perfectly honest, it’s a little unfair to. From “LOST” to “The Venture Brothers,” modern pop culture is rife with artifacts that simply place the burden on the audience to keep up. And there’s really no other way a book like this with twenty-plus characters, could ever work. You just have to hope that everyone is caught up, otherwise you’d be taking up twenty pages just explaining who everyone is.
I Review 100 Bullets #91
Behold, my first review as the newest member of the Comic Book Resources crack reviewing team.
But this is a book that’s so effortlessly successful at its intent while simultaneously so in-depth and complicated that you’d think everyone would be reading it, that message boards across comic book fandom would be bursting after every new issue. “ZOMFG, DID [BLANK] JUST KILL [BLANK]? AZZ WOULDN’T DO THAT NO WAI.” Alas, it never seems like anyone is paying attention.
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Benjamin Birdie
Suddenly kind of aged, Benjamin lives in Queens with his cat. His Master's Degree in Creative Writing has helped him immensely with his primary responsibilities of drawing things.
He can be reached at benjaminbirdie (at) gmail (dot) com.
And do feel free to follow him on Twitter.
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His Comics
Every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, this charming comic strip by myself and Kevin Church receives a sparkling new installment. A Comic Strip About A Comic Shop.