Blah blah blah comics blah (12/31/07)

Blah blah blah comics blah (12/31/07)

Dec 31

Even though my computer monitor keeps shutting itself off and I barely slept last night, I can think of no better way to spend a few of the last remaining minutes of 2007 than writing pointless reviews of comics that came out weeks ago so no one but me gives a shit about them anymore, can you?

Inside: Detective Comics 839, Incredible Herc/Hulk 112, and Superman 67somethingorother.

Detective Comics 839 brings to a close perhaps the oddest crossover event of 2007, and maybe the entire past decade, I dunno. I don’t think The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul was good, by any means, but it may have had enough cool moments and potential to not be actively bad.

The prevailing feeling I get walking away from it is that the whole mess was somehow dictated by a creative mind that just isn’t very skilled, and that these four writers–Grant Morrison, Fabian Nicieza, Peter Milligan, and Paul Dini, all of whom have the ability to write really great comics when they want to–were somehow forced to simply make the best out of the shit sandwich they were fed.

I don’t know enough about what happens behind the massive steel closed doors of DC Comics to know if that’s true; the gossipy bitch inside me wants to propose that Dan DiDio typed up a god-awful outline in an afternoon and crammed it down these writers’ throats, but there is absolutely no evidence to back that up.

I will say it seems very telling that there were no big self-congratulatory interviews on Newsarama for this event, at least, none that I can recall. No stories of big fun creative conference calls where everyone is blown away by Morrison’s creativity and there’s lots of good-natured chop-busting amongst talented guys. It seems to have been simply pushed out there and left to fend for itself.

Which is a shame, because as I’ve said before, there was POTENTIAL. The idea of Tim Drake’s pent-up angst and anguish over the deaths of his best friend and father suddenly cresting to a head when confronted with the power of the Lazarus Pit at his disposal; the avenues this opens up in the way of Ra’s seducing Bruce’s true adopted “son” while Bruce is left with his flawed and twisted biological son to deal with; Morrison returning to Nanda Parbat once again to explore its mysteries and characters as he did in 52.

Instead, even the parts that seemed to play to Morrison’s strengths were ham-handed and mucked-up. I still wonder this: If there was a fucking LAZARUS PIT in Nanda Parbat, why isn’t Vic Sage still alive? Or at the very least, why didn’t it get mentioned when he was dying there? Or even a passing line in the Resurrection storyline, admitting that the writers recognize this minor flaw in the logic of the fictional universe, and have at least concocted a dumb excuse to gloss over it?

Moreover, why did this city of great intrigue and mysticism suddenly become a place where anyone can just show up whenever they want and beat the shit out of ninjas?

Ugh. The more I write, the less I like. At any rate, the Batman titles seem to be returning to some kind of status quo that has little to do with the event’s missteps and stumbles, so we can at least sorta pretend it never happened.

Incredible Herc/Hulk/Whatever 112 is only mildly annoying in the sense that it comes out of absolutely nowhere because its true nature–an Amadeus Cho/Hercules road trip buddy book–was disguised until the last minute to protect the “secrets” of World War Hulk. That’s a dumb conceit, because honestly, wouldn’t this have sold better as a #1 anyway? And would knowing that Hercules and Amadeus Cho will survive World War Hulk and spend their days avoiding and attempting to destroy SHIELD at the same time, would that really have spoiled the ending of World War Hulk? Did anyone sit down to their copy of WWH #5, take in a sharp breath, and whisper, “Dear LORD, I cannot wait to find out what happens to HERCULES!”

Anyway, that’s just mild fanboy bitching, because the contents of the issue are excellent, regardless of the title or numbering. Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente are a great pairing of co-writers that instantly “get” what this book’s about, and what its potential can be–the “ancient, slightly dim lummox with a taste for partying paired with the immature young genius lends itself to endless story possibilities, and I like the way they’re stirring in some of the mythological background story for Hercules and Ares, which also plays right into the Registration versus non-registration nature of the sides being set up here. Basically, I think it’s two great tastes that taste great together, and I can’t wait to see where it goes.

The story “hook” of Superman 671 is one of those obviously genius, why-didn’t-I-think-of-that moments–basically, Lex Luthor made some kind of unknown shady deal with this weird insect race at some point in the past, and now they’re back knocking on the doors of Lexcorp to get what they earned in “payment,” only Lex has vanished and it’s Lana Lang behind the CEO desk. If I didn’t have a sick toddler in the other room waking up and needing some love and attention, I’d take some time to unpack just what makes this issue great, which would be yet another round of “My GOD, Kurt Busiek is awesome.” Suffice it to say that yes, Kurt Busiek is awesome, and his run on Superman is fantastic.

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