Comic Review

Surveying the contemporary state of sequential art and comic narrative

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ISOLATED COMIC BOOK PANEL #1572 title: ROOK MAGAZINE #1 - P40:1 artist: JIM JANES year: 1979

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Avatarex #1 first issue Review, Grant Morrison, Graphic India

The theory of the Yugas, the vast epi-cycles governing the nature of vast stretches of time, holds great scope for exploration in art and literature. Before encountering India, the nearest the modern west has to the concept of Yugas are astrological cycles, but the Vedic theory of the Yuga's governs far greater stretches of time, tens of thousands and millions of years.

The basic principle is that everything was created perfect - the 'golden age'. From perfection there is only one way to fall - into imperfection, and so there are 4 ages, gold, silver, bronze and iron. The last of which - the Kali Yuga - represents the most fallen, degenerate stage - the nadir of the cycle prior to its 'reboot' through cleansing destruction, in which only the seeds of the new world survive.

I understand how the premise, therefore, of exploring in comic an avatar brought to evoke this destruction could seem like a 'good idea'. The basic problem is that things need more than a 'neat idea'.

However, we are talking Grant Morrison here. His work on Doom Patrol and The Invisibles has partly redefined comics through his explorations of the occult and the esoteric through the medium. And Grant has been creating recently with Graphic India, an LA based project founded with the mission to "create enduring stories and heroes that foster the imaginations and fuel the inspirations of a new globalized generation of youth in both India and around the world." So there is plenty of references to India in an attempt to cross over the superhero comic genre into a contemporary exploration of themes close to the heart of Indian culture, and considering Morrison's experiences in India (which apparently formed a great part of The Invisibles) its no wonder he's crafting with such rich material as Indian metaphysics and philosophy.

So Grant Morrison is a magician and magicians are bad people to anger, so I don't want to give a negative review, partly out of fear. But right now, I'm not completely into this book. I accept expectations need to be checked because trying to form some idea of a character, world and its direction within 20 or so pages is not an easy thing to do. The premise holds a lot of potential and interest - the Avatar awakened for the end of the age, may have been woken up early, perhaps, or may not be quite right for the job. I suppose where it went astray for me is the introduction of 'The Bad Guy' and time for a big superhero fight. I was somehow expecting something else, - not so much the need for an external threat upon humanity -  maybe more of a nuanced exploration of the 'internal threat' - or Yuga philosophy - or, just *something else other than superheros fighting bad guys* - whether it is time to hit the reset button on the Kali Yuga yet, or not. Perhaps I'm not clear on what age range this title is meant to appeal to, or its just too early to say what the nature of this book is yet.

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[mkhyns-deactivated20210610]

POWER GIRL Art by Amanda Conner

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The Goddamned #1 review - Image Comics

Review by Kyballion Goddamned from Image Comics, written by bestselling writer Jason Aaron, with art by R.M. Guéra.

"The story takes place 1,655 years after Eden, and life on Earth has already gone to hell. The world of man is a place of wanton cruelty and wickedness. Prehistoric monsters and stone-age marauders roam the land. Murder and destruction are the rule of the day. Humankind is a failed experiment. This is life before the Flood. The story of man on the verge of his first apocalypse. Welcome to the world of the Goddamned."

Unless you are a small child that thinks swearing and fight scenes in comics that go on for more than a few pages are a good idea, you may want to think twice about this book.

So, we've got some very contemporary cultural marxist symbolic displacement going down - symbolic displacement often is achieved through inversion of the conventional meaning of symbols. You make the typical 'baddie' a kind-of goodie deep down - the lone-ranger trope, the 'monster in our midst' that the weak, hypocritical 'passivists' actually need to keep the peace. Sure. I like that archetype. But then lets take NOAH himself and make him the bad guy! So its basically like turning the story upside down. And what for? If you symetrically inverse something, you still have to tell a story. Inverting things doesn't constitute story in itself. This has to go somewhere.

What is the intention? Edgyness? Its like - "hey, this is sort of culled from The Bible, but, you know, we're doing it for fun, we don't give a shit about The Bible" - or rather, "we don't understand The Bible and don't want to because its not fashion".

There has been a long line of gnostic heresy in literature, where material, symbols, narratives from the Bible have been sort of explored and reconstructed in ways that reveal new depths and mysteries. For instance, 'The Apocalypse of Norea' - one of the Nag Hamadi corpus dug out of the Egyptian desert in the 20th century. Or "The Gospel of Judas", found fairly recently. I don't get the impression the author has even explored this kind of material, which, for me, makes this a superficial read. I get the impression he watched the recent Noah film and was inspired by the idea of the pre-flood world. Fine. But you need to go do research and get world-building. The comic medium is capable of carrying so much more than we're often served up.

Thats what I was left with. Again, I'm dealing with this tendency in comics of having to swallow someones political angle, without much story or character arc as recompense. But hey, don't let my disappointment at this book stop you checking it out for yourself, it may be just your cup of tea, if you like to see mud-covered savages murdering each other without much story to dress the proceedings.

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Aliens:Defiance - Dark Horse Comics Review

Review by Kingfisher I am going to cut to the chase and say Aliens: Defiance is just great and a return to origins of the source material and a worthy successor to the first three volumes of Aliens.

A bit of background. Dark Horse comics ran an amazing few volumes of Aliens, a storyline that followed on from the James Cameron Aliens movie, moving Newt, Hicks and Bishop into new difficult territory upon their return to Earth. The first comic, published in 1988, written by Mark Verheiden and illustrated by Mark A.Nelson, was stark, hard, and cold in atmosphere. The original is black and white, though subsequent reprints in various omnibus have colored the art... badly. I would recommend the black and white.

The second volume is a continuation of Mark Verheiden's story, and contains some of the best art I have ever seen in a comic book and the story is great too. Denis Beauvais' masterful ink and airbrush paintings, with a brilliant, dramatic finale and cliffhanger. Even though in retrospect it may be a little on the colorful side, this is still the best Aliens comic book Dark Horse produced and is in my personal top 10 best comic books all time.

When the 3rd volume came out, Earth War (now renamed The Female War, for some reason)  a lot of fans were dissapointed with Sam Kieth’s E.C comics 'Weird Science' homage art style. Its not that it was bad, its just that after Denis Beavais everything looked like a major step down in quality. And there were problems with the coloring of Sam's illustrations, the colors were 'comic book' in the sense of being bright, staturated, and poorly keyed for the mood of the subject matter. A lot of people complained and this was honestly reflected in their readers letters pages. The storyline too seemed also to flatten out and simplify, but this could have been down to the art. That said, looking back, without comparison to Book II, Earth War *is* good, and the covers for Earth War, by John Bolton, are probably the best depictions of aliens ever painted beside HR Gigers original designs.

After this trilogy was wrapped up, the Aliens comics went downhill even more. Aliens:Hive (by Jerry Prosser and Kelley Jones) does not look so bad in retrospect- but only in relation to what came after it. In Hive, the anatomy of the figures are well drawn, gestural and atmospheric, but the aliens look oddly muscular and blue, rather than glistening and biomechanical. Its strange how art can keep you at arms length or invite you right in.

Then there came about two decades of crap. Aliens Vs Judge Dredd. Aliens Vs Batman. Aliens Vs Pig. Aliens Vs Vampirella. Terrible.  I don't understand why people reduce the Aliens concept to just 'the bugs'. It was never just about the bugs IMO. It was about HR Gigers conceptual design work, outstandingly well designed visions of planets, alien ruins and spaceships, the encounter of the human race with a true, terrifying 'Other'. And it was about Ripley, and then Newt and Hicks (and Bishop, if the toaster counts). When you loose these ingredients you flatten out the whole thing to a b-movie monster. And thats not what rung peoples bells in the first place.

My admission is, I stopped buying the books halfway through Aliens Vs Predator Deadliest of the Species (authored by Chris Claremont), as again the art style and coloring just seemed to lack atmosphere, as well as it seeming more of a fanciful superhero book than sci-fi. So I'm a bit out of the loop. I picked up the Aliens book Xenogenesis from a second hand book shop for less than a dollar but it was horrible, insanely dumb, gaudy.

But its taken this long, and something that looks as good as Aliens:Defiance to get me to step back into reading Aliens comics. And I have to say I consider the art in the first two issues of Defiance, by Tristan Jones, to be on the level of fine art, and the story by Brian Wood also is approaching things with a lot of respect and sensitivity to the source material.

What grabs me about the art is, the chiaroscuro style of the inking, and the semi-neutral, low key coloring. I like the clean lines, deep blocks of form and cast shadow, and the use of ink splats, glows and gradients. When color is used, it has meaning, it focusses and hightens the energy during the action. Its just brilliant.

The plot has got a good, minimalist, tight hook too. Zula Hendricks, an injured marine, is basically sent out to the 'haunted house in space' scenario with a bunch of androids. She's the only living human being on the crew, which would be really weird as a situation to be in, even before meeting a xenomorph. So I don't want to say too much more except - check it out, this is the quality of book worth supporting.

Well done, Brian Wood and Tristan Jones.

[looopism]

Lava Lamp

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Satellite Falling #1 Review - IDW Publishing

REVIEW BY KINGFISHER

IDW is an award-winning publisher of comic books, graphic novels and trade paperbacks, based in San Diego, California. Satellite Falling is their  latest original 'creator owned' series, by writer Steve Horton and Artist Stephen Thompson. The official blurb goes like this:

"A lone human survived the death of the one she loved, and escaped a corrupt Earth. She now makes her way as a bounty hunter, on a satellite full of aliens. But someone’s about to turn her life upside down…"

Enter our protagonist Lilly, living in a satellite of some immense scale, who spends most of her time under cover ferrying around weird, colourful walrus and hammerhead shark aliens in her floating taxi cab.

The opening is depicted in a poetic and nuanced way, establishing that our protagonist is in a process of grieving. The writing and art mesh together seamlessly and deliver us straight into Lilly’s weird life. This is partly thanks to the brilliant art by Stephen Thompson - something about the clean, precise detailed line-work reminded me of Geof Darrow and his work with 'Hard Boiled', except Stephen is very skilled with expressive facial nuance.

Whilst we still lack some map or parameter of where this satellite is, or its expanse, overall appearance and layout, we know its very, very big. It makes for a fascinating backdrop to Lilly’s predicament - of being subject to coercion, forced to run dangerous missions. 

And that’s all we really have for the first issue, which is a good thing. The story has not been overly rushed, although the issue felt dense. And we are left with a cliffhanger. As a first issue I would say its a great success, and a high quality comic.

SPOILERISH PLOT OBSERVATIONS

There are definitely some concessions to the current cultural moment we're in... which tethers the book to the contemporary zeitgeist of progressive identity politics.

We are told humans forsake the satellite life because its filled with colourful, weird non-humans. And are thus referred to as 'racist'. Is humanity's difficulty in relating to other weird intelligent life-form really best understood and depicted as a problem like 'racism'? I offer the opinion that depicting humans sexual-preference-for-their-own-species as 'racist' is a 'category error' which avoids the actual questions of how humanity relates to these aliens.

Lilly is so not racist - she'll sleep with a non-human creature as long as its female. The alien's interesting ability to switch biological sex at will poses an interesting question - what would sexual orientation and preference mean in a world where physical bodies are genuinely fluid? Whilst Lilly’s choice to preference women for sex is depicted as a matter of choice, the choice to forsake alien inter-relations is depicted as racist.

Perhaps these questions will be explored in later issues. That would be interesting.

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digital sketchings ~

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Divinity II #1 Valiant

Review by Sofira

Another first issue title from Valiant with stunning variant covers.

Divinity II is an interesting book. As with the other Valiant titles, we’re looking at a very nice looking comic book, with glossy, lustrous cover and pages.  SImilar to the War Mother release, the art style has something vintage about it, but unlike War Mother (see Kingfisher’s review) is very effective and engagingly story-boarded. It flows well, though the colouring is at times gauche. But the art style is not the only vintage aspect. This book plays self-consciously upon cold-war themes, the space-race to the stars ensuring the supremacy of an empire. It uses the rekindled unease in recent years between Russia and the USA as a stage-set for its alien-superpowers to battle out over the issues to come.  This is all intriguing but here is my problem. If a political narrative is getting shoehorned into comic books, then it better be pretty clear on what its doing. One thing that got this book attention before it even launched is its casting of current president of Russia, Vladmir Putin, as a super villain. This is either funny and neat, or annoying depending on ones geopolitical standpoint. Perhaps by way of explanation, Matt Kindt says: “I was a kid in the ’80s hiding under my desk during drills in case there was a nuclear war; I remember when the “Day After” TV special came out – and my parents wouldn’t let me watch it, but all the other kids were buzzing about it,” says Kindt. “So I think culturally there’s something that’s been kind of ingrained in me and my generation that is always kind of in the back of your mind.” Putin and the Russian regime are depicted as deploying a 60s-era female cosmonaut who has returned to Earth from deep space with super powers, to build a new Soviet empire. Anyone familiar with Putin’s speeches on the need for a ‘multi-polar world’ perspective, where the planet is comprised of multiple civilisational points, not a globalist mono-culture, would be puzzled by Putin characterised in this way. But I am imagining the author and his envisaged audience only learns about Putin from mainstream media and fashionable agitprop like Pussy Riot.

So I guess this is where the book is not for me. Since I want to be told a story, not programmed by someones political perspective. I don’t buy the mainstream narrative that Russia is imperialistic, cold, backward, or ‘annexed the Crimea’ without a massive amount of Western black-ops provocation. So I have to read this book whilst believing the super-villain role for Putin is well deserved. Ok, I am focusing on maybe a part of the book that I could just let go of. But heres the issue : if  you are ‘playing’ upon the primitive propaganda of the cold war, then you better make sure you don’t just backslide into making more cold-war propaganda!  So, I do want to know more. The art, and flow of the story plays well, and I definitely want to continue reading. But lets see if it can own the tropes it is working with. Its just good enough to want to know more. For people with a simplistic black-and-white view of geopolitics, they will probably enjoy the proceedings more. I concede that it remains to be seen where the story goes, since we’re judging from issue 1 here. That’s how the first issue reads. Its pandering to people who want their bias confirmed, not questioned - and as the story unfolds, it will be interesting to see if it going to challenge mainstream narratives. I think, back in the 1980′s and 1990′s, that comics like The Watchmen and Martial Law already broke the back of the idea that any empire in particular can claim to be ‘the good guys’. But every generation forgets, it seems.

ART:6.5/10 STORYTELLING:6.5/10 GEOPOLITICAL AXIOMS:3/10

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4001 A.D -  War Mother #1

As mentioned in our ‘hello’ post, our reviews will tend to examine a work from the outside in - first impressions, toward the subtleties... Reviewer: Kingfisher As an introduction to this new title, here’s some of the Valiant press release: “Valiant is proud to unveil 4001 A.D.: WAR MOTHER #1 – the previously classified, self-contained one-shot launching a major new character into the future of the Valiant Universe on August 3rd! Out of the ashes of the summer’s most ambitious crossover event, join New York Times best-selling writer Fred Van Lente(IVAR, TIMEWALKER) and spectacular rising star Tomás Giorello (Conan) for a comics milestone two millennia in the making when War Mother steps out of a highly speculated-upon cameo in last summer’s best-selling BOOK OF DEATH…and into her armor-piercing full-length debut!“ A lot of work has gone into this. Its a beautiful physical product, slick pages, bright colours, crisp printing. The variant covers lend the first issue an iconic feel.  Here’s the rub. As I sat down for the ride and turned the pages, I felt like I was standing in another room. For some reason, that ‘effect’ I am looking at in a comic - the sense of immersion and fascination with the ‘sub-created world’ (to use a J.R.R Tolkien-ism, to describe that sense of a well-built world that casts the effects of ‘enchanting’ the reader) was not kicking in. There are a few observations I would like to make which could possibly explain this. Firstly, the art style is a very organic departure from the stunning hi-tech style of their mainstay ‘4001ad’. Except for the digital colouring, it indeed has the classical appearance of Bernie Wrightson era Conan. This is not a problem in itself - its interesting and gives the book a quirky and more barbaric edge, befitting the more primitive scenario. But the art by Tomas Giorello is not without its problems.Too many characters appear un-designed - overly similar. There is something around the design of the faces I find problematic, around the mouth particularly - everyone seems to be wearing a similar goofy and rather off-putting expression. It does get better, it is forgivable, but please, less heads turned to the camera! So now to our exceptional protagonist, Ana. “War Mother is a one-woman army bent on sacking the crash-landed sector’s technology-laden debris for anything of value to her tribe. “ Yep. She realliy is a fusion of Rey (Force Awakens) with Imperator Furiosa, except with a family life. And the opening scenes of the protagonist with her family are odd - it could have worked and would have made a good departure from the so-independent-lone ranger stereotype... except it doesn’t appear - at this point- that any thought went into the design or characterisation of the family, visually or within the dialogue. Why the exceptional War Mother’s family are a bunch of indistinct peasants seems incongruous - wouldn’t the spouse of Ana be somehow her match? THE REST OF THIS REVIEW IS SPOILERISH After a trope ridden interaction with Ana’s characterless family, we are outside, a mob of Mad Max freaks and peasants cheering Ana on.  Ana has been ordered by an undisclosed authority to go get debris from a chunk of tech (presumably, chunks of New Japan, see 4001ad) that happened to fall near their patch of forest.   For Ana to go-get salvage (which for some reason only she can do), she is armed with hardware which she pulls out of a quite poorly-visualised, fleshy organic mess. Presumably some kind of nano-tech matrix that gives the otherwise strangely primitive looking community everything it needs, except for rare metals. Why the nano-tech matrix couldn’t provide those grubby people soap, toothbrushes and nice clothes and an education is a bit of an open question. She also is armed with an A.I who we are quickly to develop sympathy for as it begins plaguing Ana with questions as to its origin and nature. Why giving a smartwatch such a level of self-enquiry is a good idea is beyond me, but we’re obviously being inaugurated to the fact Ana’s companion is a piece of tech who she will banter with, a bit like the drone companions from Iain M Banks Culture novels, wisecracking and otherwise giving something for the hero to bounce off. She then goes into the craft, fights mutant ape-dogs who are for some reason also interested in space-junk, rescues a ‘special child’ then later her i-phone shoots an alpha male from her own community in the head after a brief dispute, killing him, so we know she means it. There is an interesting old advert for reproduction-tech in the space-craft, and Ana shoots the advert angrily for some reason. It doesn’t seem like a good use of ammunition but hey, maybe that nano-tech matrix can make limitless ammunition, even though it can’t make soap or copper wiring. Do I sound a bit cynical about this book? I appreciate a first issue cannot always achieve much, but I am surprised, as a debut title, to get the feeling there wasn’t a bit more ‘round table’ on this book so that it engages people with no prior knowledge of the scenario of 4001 A.D. This is the beautiful idiosyncrasy of comics, where fantastic worlds can be brought forth without the budgetary constraints of film. Yet to be successful, enough rigour needs to be applied in the creation of internally consistent worlds for the spell of enchantment to be effective. Unlike 4001 A.D, which hooked me from the get-go, I can’t say I found enough of genuine originality or interest at this point to really want to know more. I will buy the second issue just to see if after establishing the basic game-board of the story, if things improve.  ____________________________ 4001 A.D.: WAR MOTHER #1 Written by FRED VAN LENTE Art by TOMAS GIORELLO Cover A by DAVID MACK Cover B by JELENA KEVIC-DJURDJEVIC Cover C by CARY NORD Character Design Variant by ANDRES GUINALDO Interlocking Mega-Cover Variant by RYAN LEE $3.99 | 32 pgs. | August 2016

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Welcome to The (independent!) Comic Review. Our reviews tend to take the following format - first impressions, on the physical impression of the book, printing quality etc. Then the art, because the art transmits more directly than the story, which we tackle thirdly. We are not going to make cushioned reviews to pal up to industry friends. Making a review is in some ways arrogant enterprise. We know this. At core though, despite criticism sometimes being probably quite difficult for the creators (and fans) to be exposed to, the reviews come from a baseline appreciation for the nature of comics and a comprehension of how much work goes into producing a comic book. Critique can provide vital feedback to the industry and also help customers choose comics that are right for them. The observation is, there are a lot of new great books coming out presently, so our emphasis will be to survey many of the new works, whilst occasionally tipping our hats to some of the classics in the field, often for the purposes of comparison. We’ll also be sharing some great art and news that may not be strictly about comics but will probably be of interest. We hope you enjoy this new project and if you’d like to be involved in reviewing, let us know.