Robert E. Howard's Savage Sword #9 - A Review

The best part of Robert E. Howard's Savage Sword is the same strength shared by all high-quality anthologies. Should you find something in the collection not to your liking, you can always go on to the next offering and be certain of finding something enjoyable.  That's certainly the case with this ninth issue of the series, which contains a wide variety of tales based on or inspired by the works of Robert E.Howard.

The issue's first offering is its weakest - a strictly standard Conan the Barbarian story titled Den Of The Pleasure Goddess. The script is inoffensive yet made intolerable by the hack artistry of Freddie Williams II.  Thankfully, this issue closes with a far better Conan offering - a colorized reprinting of the Roy Thomas/John Buscema adaptation of Howard's Black Colossus.  There is no comparison between the two chapters and the final story showcases why Howard and Buscema are considered by many to be the definitive creative team for classic Conan comics.

The Lovecraftian tale of Conrad and Kirowan comes to a better conclusion than what was suggested by its lackluster first chapter. Admittedly, there is less action here than in a standard Howard story but what the text lacks in excitement is more than made up for in the artwork of American Vampire artist Alberto Albuquerque.  There is some classic weird imagery here, as a group of academics is told the tale of a book that can open a gateway to Hell.


The rest of the book is equally enjoyable.  The tale of Sailor Steve Costigan and his efforts to ditch an unwanted fanboy following a boxing match is an enjoyable sports tale.  And the conclusion of Breckinridge Elkins - Mountain Man is one of the funniest things I've read in a good while.

The Movement #1 - A Review

I've been looking forward to The Movement #1 and dreading it in equal measure.  I've been looking forward to it because Gail Simone is one of my favorite writers and the idea of a superhero team focused on dealing with the problems of the common man ala Dennis O'Neil's revamp of Green Arrow offers a level of relevance and reality that has been lacking in most of DC Comics' output since the New 52 revamp started.  And I've been dreading this title since it was announced that Freddie Williams II (whose work on Captain Atom and Green Arrow I didn't enjoy) would be the series' artist.


For the most part, this first issue is a by-the-book superhero team introduction story, with our cast being given a chance to show off their powers and reveal their code names.  There's a mix of old and new Gail Simone creations, with this Earth's version of Tremor from Secret Six being part of The Movement as well as Katharsis, who we saw opposing Barbara Gordon in the current Batgirl book.  We're also introduced to the Pied-Piper like Mouse (a self-dubbed King of Rats) and the empathic Virtue.



The main plot of the issue centers upon Captain Meers - seemingly one of the few honest cops in Coral City.  At the very least, he's the only person in the department who seems at all concerned about letting two dirty cops who were caught on film attempting to force sexual favors from a minor continue working in the field.  Unfortunately, thanks to the power of bureaucracy - and the fact that the offending footage came from the Anonymous-style hacktivist group Channel M - there's nothing he can do.



With a serial killer targeting the town's homeless, Meers has enough on his plate without having to worry about his own men breaking the law.  The rumors of metahumans now working alongside "the Channel M brats" aren't helping him maintain his calm either.  And when a seemingly demonically possessed teenager begins raising a ruckus at a local church, Meers blows his calm completely even before he and his men first encounter members of The Movement.  


Any fears that outspokenly liberal Simone would run riot and turn this book into one gigantic "stick it to the man" rant prove wholly unfounded.  Public Workers Unions - that favored bogeyman of fiscal conservatives everywhere - are portrayed as unfavorably as the bent cops who are preying on young girls.  More to the point, The Movement isn't portrayed as an entirely sympathetic or heroic organization.  While they do go after the corrupt cops we see in the issue's opening scene, they also wait and force a confrontation with a large number of police officers who - as far as we know - aren't guilty of any crimes.  The two dirty cops are seemingly beaten to death, rather than being delivered any legal punishment.  Virtue also doesn't help matters by using knowledge gleaned from using her powers to antagonize Captain Meers, who might have been sympathetic to The Movement's cause up until that point.

   

I can't say that I disliked Freddie Williams II's work this time around.  I can say, however, that I don't think his particular style suits the story that Simone is trying to tell.  Williams' artwork is highly stylized, being cartoonish and over-exaggerated.  While Simone can go over-the-top (as anyone who enjoyed Secret Six can attest), the story so far doesn't seem to suggest that level of wacky fun amid the darkness.  Even if it does develop into that kind of series in later issues, I think Amanda Conner (who did the cover for this issue) would prove a better fit for the material.  Granted, that may be because I've been dying to see a long-term Simone/Conner team-up for a while but the point still stands.

Regardless, The Movement #1 is a thought-provoking premiere issue and well worth purchasing.  We don't have much of a read on the titular team yet but Simone's script gives us enough of a taste to want to see how things develop.  And while I'm still not a fan of Freddie Williams II's style, I can say that his artwork in this issue is the best I've ever seen.

Green Arrow #0 - A Review

I dropped Green Arrow three months ago but some of you wrote in to tell me I should give the #0 issue a shot, if only because it was supposed to finally explain Ollie's origin story.

Honestly. One of you might have mentioned that it was written by Judd Winick!

I don't think I can fault you all, though. Even the cover scan on DC Comics website credits Ann Nocenti as the writer. I'd like to think it's because The Powers That Be finally realized that Judd Winick's name is a poison arrow to the heart to all Green Arrow fans. I'd LIKE to think that but given the reports that he was offered the Green Arrow title in order to keep him working with DC Comics (whether this was before or after Nocenti took over the book, I don't know) I know it ain't so.

I'm going to start off discussing the artwork this time because... well, Geebus Suffering Crackers, just look at the first page!





This is the work of Freddie Williams II, whose work you might remember from Captain Atom. Note that Ollie here is missing a pectoral, has an upper-left arm that is out of proportion to the rest of his body and the linework on the middle of his face leaves him looking like he has an arched unibrow. To call Williams' grasp of anatomy off would deny you the chance to use words like abysmal and nonexistent. And yet, thanks to the inking of Rob Hunter, this is still an improvement on Williams' work on Captain Atom, where he handled his own inks and you frequently couldn't separate the characters from the backgrounds.

Incidentally, am I the only one amused that a man named Rob Hunter is working on a book about a superhero inspired by Robin Hood? Probably so. But if that thought does amuse you, even a little, hold on to that happy thought. It's may help you get through what is to come.

Our story opens with 19 year old Oliver Queen throwing a party. On an oil drilling platform his dad owns. Where he's supposed to be working as a supervisor as punishment for having blown off the last three jobs his dad gave him. All of this is explained to Ollie again (and us) with all the subtlety of a fart in a nunnery by Ollie's girlfriend, Leena.





A quick side note about Leena. Leena is your typical Judd Winick girlfriend - going from Bimbo To Responsible in 2.3 seconds. One page she's defending Ollie's archery skills to his best friend. On the next, she's calling Ollie out for his irresponsibility for throwing the party she was enjoying until about two seconds ago.




Faster than you can say Louis Gossett Jr., a cyborg terrorist who calls himself Iron Eagle crashes the party and starts trying to steal the oil. And faster than you can shout "WOLVERINES!", Ollie decides to abandon his cowardly best friend Tommy Merlyn and go all 80's action movie.

If the name Tommy Merlyn sounds familiar, you've obviously been keeping up on the announcements regarding the upcoming Arrow series. In that, as here, Ollie's best friend before being shipwrecked is named Tommy Merlyn. I bring this up because out of all the things Judd Winick could have taken from the information about the Arrow storyline we know so far, this point is the only thing he chose to bring over. I could forgive them blatantly ripping off the Arrow pilot - it's a highly anticipated show and the Green Arrow title right now could use all the help it could boosting it sales. But no - the only connection the two have is the name of Ollie's best friend. That's it.





Goofy as Williams' rendering makes the ultimate layout, I have to admit this is an effective sequence. It establishes Ollie as someone who will try to fix his mistakes, taking responsibility for saving the lives of his friends after his lightening security at the oil platform for his party put them all in danger. Oliver proves himself to be resourceful and clever in a fight. And dare I say... he is both brave AND bold.

Of course since this is a Judd Winick story, and Judd has never been able to write a Green Arrow story where Ollie didn't screw up things up in the worst possible way, his attempt to shoot the bomb trigger out of the Iron Eagle's hand goes wrong. Seems the trigger is a dead-man's switch and the sudden lack of pressure results in one big gooey kablooey. Somehow, despite reportedly hiding downstairs, Tommy is suddenly propelled over the side alongside Ollie and is more horribly burned and disfigured than he is.



Perhaps the art is meant to imply that Tommy pushes Ollie out of the full force of the blast but - as I've pointed out - Freddie Williams II is a terrible visual storyteller.



Somehow, despite the two floating on rubble only feet apart and being in the same current, the two get separated. One year and one one-page montage later, Ollie has spent a year on a desert island, somehow having learned how to make his own bow and arrows. This despite there not being any indication that his aforementioned $400 an hour archery lessons also included information on primitive bowery and fletchering or that Ollie had any survival training at all.



Twelve months later, Ollie is bailing a young rogue named Roy Harper out of prison and press-ganging him into helping him with a crusade to "make things right" after Roy hacked Queen Industries' computers.

Why did Roy do this? What are his motivations? Money? Boredom? Protest? And where did he pick up his mentioned - but not demonstrated - skills with weapons and technology? Why did Ollie think he could assure Roy's loyalty only by bailing him out and offering him a job? Was it a whim? Or some idealism he thought they shared?



These are all good questions that are completely ignored and will probably be explained later. Maybe. In Red Hood and The Outlaws, once we get done figuring out how to explaining away how Bruce Wayne had four Robins in six years and one of them is a 10 year old ninja he sired with the daughter of his worst enemy. And if you think I'm being glib about them not bothering to explain anything about Roy Harper and his connection to Ollie in this book, take a look at the official history for Green Arrow.



It has yet to be fully explained... because YOU COULDN'T BE BUGGERED TO EXPLAIN IT!

Make no mistake, children - this is a bad comic. It is incompetently produced. Some might guess - justifiably - that it was rushed to completion. The artwork is disjointed, over-stylized and generally terrible. The script explains too little and portrays Ollie as a total boob by forcing him into a situation where his attempts at heroism get people killed, thus attacking the very concept of heroism and taking responsibility for ones wrongs in the first place. And yet, despite that, I have no trouble damning it with the faint praise that this is the best thing anyone has done with Green Arrow title in the whole of the New 52 canon. Make of that what you will.

DC Comics? Please - forget this book, reprint Green Arrow: Year One and send a memo to anyone who might every write Green Arrow in anything ever, which reads "THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT".

Captain Atom #1 - A Review

Captain Atom is perhaps the strangest character to receive a solo book in the New 52 line-up. One of the many characters Steve Ditko co-created for Charlton Comics after his departure from Marvel, DC Comics picked up the rights to the whole stable of Charlton heroes in the early 1980s. And yet, despite being a frequent member of the Justice League and having appeared in a number of DC’s animated works, the good Captain is probably better remembered as the inspiration for Doctor Manhattan in Watchmen than he is for his own exploits.

This comic starts right in the middle of the action, as we join Captain Atom fighting some man in an armored suit. We learn that apart from having the power to absorb and release energy, Captain Atom also has a newly discovered power to disassemble the bonds between atoms. However, using this power seems to cause his own body to start coming apart and he is encouraged to take a break from the heroics. This suggestion is ignored as a volcano opens up in the heart of downtown New York City and a nearby nuclear reactor threatens to go critical.

J.T. Krul’s script is full of action but little else. Krul does little to develop Captain Atom as a character, past establishing him as a natural hero who will risk his life to save others. We never learn his real name or how he gained his powers, past some vague mention of an accident. The supporting cast is only slightly more developed, with two scientists belonging to a group called The Continuum – a young prodigy and a wheelchair-bound old pro – helping Captain Atom to understand his new powers while monitoring his condition.

The artwork by Freddie Williams II is uninspired and inconsistent. This is one of the few books I’ve ever seen which is both underinked and overinked – frequently on the same page. As a man made of living energy Captain Atom himself looks appropriately insubstantial but there are points where – thanks to the color palette used – he can barely be distinguished from the background.

All in all, this book was a disappointment. J.T. Krul has written some good books in the past but I don’t think this is one of them. I’m hard-pressed to believe that the writer who did so much to develop the personality of Oliver Queen in Green Arrow could write something this generic and bland. Captain Atom may as well be Captain Planet for all the personality he possesses here. Maybe this will build to something bigger. But if it does, I won’t be around to see it.