Honestly, if you aren’t reading Hellcat already, I can’t do anything for you. Why aren’t you reading this amazingly charming, funny, fun, interesting, and well done book? It’s really very great, to not put too fine a point on it. David LaFuente’s art is great and unlike 90% of comic art out there.
So, I’ve had a hard time getting into Wonder Woman outside of basically Joe Kelly’s JLA and a few other short runs. The Heinberg run was terrible, Jodi Picoult was bad, and Simone’s run didn’t grab me at all. Esther has a few reasons why, but the core of it for me is that she is very rarely interesting in a written manner and she’s got crap for good villains. She’s got a fake Catwoman, a gross midget and I’m sure that there’s an Evil Wonder Woman Doppleganger in there somewhere. Wonder Man or something.
I read the latest issue of Gail Simone’s WW, #26, because I kept hearing about some ridiculous goings-on in there. There’s Darkseid’s minions bothering to graffiti the old home of the Greek gods, who apparently went into space at one point and dress like Star Trek extras. Those bits are dumb, but the dumbest thing has got to be Genocide, WW’s new arch-enemy.
She clearly comes from the Geoff Johns School of Naming, as her nom de villain is very similar to such stand-out names as Atrocitus, Kryb, and Rapetronicus, the Robot with the Heart of Cold.
Genocide is wall-to-wall ridiculous. She has spikes for eyes, spikes on her shoes, spikes on her gauntlets, and spikes on her belt. Just for good measure, she’s got chains on her gauntlets, too, along with a ’90s-era headgear thing. Genocide even does the old “quippin’ while she kills” thing.
Overall, WW26 was pretty dumb, but then I was informed of Genocide’s origin. I think it was in DC Universe #0 where some unseen or shadowy figures gathered up dirt from the locations of various atrocities, including Auschwitz, Croatia, and Darfur, apparently to create a new being made from clay. Setting aside how amazingly tasteless that is (hint: it is just about as tasteful as a monster made out of aborted babies, as last seen in Countdown), it’s a strangely familiar idea, and yet still somehow ridiculous.
Where have I heard this before? Bad costume, terrible origin, bad dialogue… oh.
[Serpentor] was created through a breakthrough in cloning research by Dr. Mindbender from the DNA extracted from the unearthed remains of the most ruthless and effective military leaders in history, including Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Attila the Hun, Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Vlad the Impaler, Hannibal, Genghis Khan, and Grigori Rasputin.
The moral of the story is that this all sounds pretty ridiculous and I think I’ll give it a miss.
To bring us up to speed, Venom left his life in San Francisco as a Lethal Protector to the secret underground city behind so he could visit New York City and throw down with Carnage. Carnage was already taken care of, so Venom fought the newly-christened Scarlet Spider, who knocked him out and led to his apprehension. Now Eddie Brock and the symbiote are separated and incarcerated by the government.
This brings us to Separation Anxiety (Venom #23-26) written by Howard Mackie and drawn by Ron Randall.
In a bout with splitting hairs, I always found it interesting that they named a videogame after this story. For one, the game’s story isn’t based on Separation Anxiety, but Lethal Protector. Second, the game is meant to be a sequel to Maximum Carnage, even though that story came after Lethal Protector. Third, even though Carnage had nothing to do with Lethal Protector, they toss him in as the final boss for the hell of it. Hey, they did have those sprites lying around from the last game.
Sometimes (all of the times that have ever been times in recorded history) Dinosaur Comics is really, really good. This is one of those times.
I’m slowly trying to get back to writing those smarty-art posts everybody loves, but getting b.o.m.b. is tough! I’ve got a few things planned to get back into the swing of things and get it hot in here. I’ve been slacking like crazy lately.
Look for the start of a short series on a very specific Frank Miller-related subject later on this week, and I may try to rope some blog pals into talking about it with me. I’m hoping it has legs, but I’m sure that we’ll find out soon.
You can see my views on Batman #681 over at PCS. I’m not sure why the front page hasn’t updated, but there should be a few reviews going up this week, too.
Posted in linkblogging, Read Good Comics by david brothers |Comments Off on Hope is useless against a superior foe
It’s been three years since Gav and I relaunched 4thletter.net on my own server and rededicated our efforts toward comics blogging. I was going to do this big post about my favorite posts from the blog or some other fancy “we’re still here, suckers!” post, but I finally got out of bed about an hour ago time and effort were against me.
Either way, it’s been a good three years. One day we’ll get too big and have to break up and then this will be the epitaph written on 4l’s grave:
At the height of their fame and glory, they turned on one another, each struggling in vain for ultimate supremacy. In the passion and depth of their struggle, the very art that had raised them through such radiant heights was lost. Their techniques vanished.
Until then, we’ll never reveal the secrets of the Wu-Tang. Here’s to three more.
The day after the last issue of Batman RIP, I’ve been thinking it over, and you know who would make a great writing team? Judd Winick and Grant Morrison.
I don’t care much about Mark Millar’s Old Man Logan arc in the pages of Wolverine one way or the other, but I don’t get this part. Logan and Hawkeye drive around South Dakota and pass this.
The Venom symbiote just chilling on the side of a mountain. No reference to it anywhere. It’s just that panel. The hell is that about?
Anyway, before I get into the next Venom arc, we should take a look at Marvel Comics Presents #160-163. There were no Venom appearances in these issues. There were stories involving Tigra, Slapstick, Hawkeye and Vengeance, but nothing with Venom. Why is it so important? Because it introduces a character named Mace.
Mace is a character created by Carl Potts. Through the four issues, he writes an origin for him as basically the Japanese Wolverine. A criminal organization called the Sunrise Society takes the cloned DNA of a skilled martial artist and has it genetically engineered to create the perfect warrior. Since the Society is paranoid and thinks the scientist that created Mace is a traitor, they have him killed. The scientist is quick to destroy all of his notes, making Mace one-of-a-kind. Using his new cyber ninja skills, Mace escapes the Sunrise Society and knows freedom for the first time in his life.
He’s armed with a cybernetic mace, a healing factor, a laser gun that’s fine-tuned to the tattoo on his arm so it only works when he’s holding it, special vision abilities and… you don’t care. I don’t care. Nobody cares. Nobody has ever cared about Mace other than Carl Potts. That’s why we have Venom: The Mace (Venom #16-18 for those keeping track), featuring the superhero team-up that NOBODY asked for.
Notice I didn’t say Secret Six, the comic, is perfect. I’m sure there are flaws in there somewhere, but I’m not in the mood to find them. And, of course, none of the Six are perfect at anything. Deadshot’s a great shot, but he isn’t exactly legendary, and he godawful fighter. Catman has always played second-fiddle to Batman. Actually he’s played something like eighth fiddle to Batman. Possibly he got kicked out of the string section altogether and has to follow Batman around with a tuba. My point is, he’s not in the same league. Scandal turned to business because she couldn’t measure up to her father and runs a mercenary team because she couldn’t quite hack it in business. Ragdoll is pretty flexible, but you’d have to put him up against Dick Grayson in a stretch-off before I’d could judge who’s bendier. Plus there’s always Plastic Man.
Nor do they form the best team. When a team’s greatest accomplishment is managing to keep one of its members from getting knocked up by a guy named Dr. Psycho you know that you aren’t talking about the JLA. Especially since the team didn’t manage to keep one of its members from knocking up Cheshire. Right there, in that middle ground of evil between Dr. Psycho and Cheshire is where the Six’s effectiveness lies. What I’m saying is, they’re not impressive.
It’s a cliché to say that a character’s flaws are what make them unique. However, that concept has become a cliché for a reason, and Secret Six demonstrates this reason very well. Batman, as a character, is allowed to make mistakes, but is never allowed to be shown as a buffoon. These characters can. Superman is never allowed to be as petty as any of these characters are. Wonder Woman cannot have their moral failings. None of the team books are allowed the goofiness that this team shows. Because of their ineffectiveness and essentially petty natures, the Secret Six are allowed a freedom that no other characters in the DCU have. Showing the team rescue a puppy, shoot a nun, enter a dance contest, liberate a nation, design a line of handbags, none of these things would be out of place in a Secret Six comic. They will only do things for certain reasons, but there is nothing they will not do.
After you’ve seen the tenth preview for a Batman comic that says something like, “Will the Dark Knight cross the line and kill his opponent,” and thought to yourself, “No. Obviously not. Why even bother trying to make me believe something like that,” that wide range of possibility begins to look very good.
I love YouTube. Did I ever tell you that? Well, I do. There’s so much great stuff to be found within.
The other day, I went on a voyage into its dark underbelly to discover some rather interesting superhero-related commercials. Some of it is too great not to share.
It all started when someone brought up this odd commercial about Ralph Nader discussing kryptonite. I haven’t the slightest clue what this is even about and I suspect nobody does other than Nader himself.
