16 July 2014 – Comics Fondle

The Mice Templar Volume II: Destiny #9

A couple quick observations. The first I should have made a long time ago–I wonder if having templar in the title and it being the name of famous knights affects people’s initial impression of Mice Templar. I see it as being a dismissive thing and, after reading Glass’s amazing success here… no one should be dismissing this comic.

Second, again one I should have made already, has to do with Santos’s art and how he deals with scale. The way he makes the reader the size of the mice changes how one reads Mice Templar. He makes the world dangerous and fantastic subjectively, not objectively. The comic’s not on zoom, in other words.

As for this issue, which does setup the sequel–Glass hits a home run. Every time he needs a plot twist or not, it works. Every action sequence is perfectly paced.

It’s assured and wholly successful. It’s great.

CREDITS

The Festival of Samhain II; writer, Bryan J.L. Glass; artist, Victor Santos; colorist, Veronica Gandini; letterer, James H. Glass; editor, Judy Glass; publisher, Image Comics.

Rocket Raccoon #1

Rocket Raccoon is cute. Part of its cuteness is how it’s not supposed to be cute, even though it’s Skottie Young and he does cute stuff.

Raccoon isn’t supposed to be cute because it’s all about how Rocket is actually a dangerous space rogue and Casanova. The ladies can’t get enough of him. Why would be the first question? It’s funny, of course, because he’s a raccoon or whatever but it would have been nice for Young to pay it some attention.

Unless no one can figure it out, other than he’s a cute little critter and the ladies just can’t resist.

The issue moves pretty well from joke to joke. One problem would be the sitting and talking on the phone sequence. Young tries to keep it lively with Star-Lord having an action sequence but it’s not enough.

Young’s the right Raccoon artist, but maybe not the right writer.

B-

CREDITS

A Chasing Tale, Part One; writer and artist, Skottie Young; colorist, Jean-Francois Beaulieu; letterer, Jeff Eckleberry; editors, Devin Lewis, Sana Amanat and Nick Lowe; publisher, Marvel Comics.

The Fury of Firestorm, The Nuclear Man #4

Conway has got his plotting down again with this issue. He gives Broderick a lot of varied action–it’s an all action issue, but set over a few hours (they just skip the quiet moments)–and Broderick’s ambitious in visualizing the different scenes. There’s the battles in a frozen New York, a fight between Firestorm and the Justice League, a visit to Hollywood and then a stop-off at the JLA satellite.

The art’s especially important since Conway quiets down the narration quite a bit. He’s letting it play out visually so he can keep some plot twists secret until their respective reveals. Rodriguez does a nice job with the inks too. Can’t forget the inks.

Playing Firestorm off the other superheroes also gives Conway a chance to develop that character, who’s somewhat different than his two human alter egos.

The big resolution is fantastic too. It’s great superhero stuff.

CREDITS

The Icy Heart of Killer Frost!; writer, Gerry Conway; pencillers, Pat Broderick and Rodin Rodriguez; inker, Rodriguez; colorist, Gene D’Angelo; letterer, Todd Klein; editors, Carl Gafford and Len Wein; publisher, DC Comics.

The X-Files: Year Zero #1

I’m not a big “X-Files” fan; I have not watched many episodes but I have seen the movies. And I do not recall atrocious banter being part of the formula. Karl Kesel writes inane dialogue for his protagonists, who artist Greg Scott questionably visualize. They aren’t going for photo-reference–there’s a decided lack of detail–but everything is so static they might as well have done it.

The story has the agents investigating a case about cat people. Is it scary? No. Is it interesting? Not really. The Year Zero in the title refers to the comic flashing back to the first FBI team investigating the supernatural. So flashbacks to the late forties. The flashback art, by Vic Malhotra, art runs hot and cold. Just when Malhotra does something good, he flops something else.

This comic doesn’t offer anything worthwhile to anyone outside an “X-Files” memorabilia collector.

CREDITS

Writer, Karl Kesel; artists, Greg Scott and Vic Malhotra; colorist, Mat Lopes; letterer, Robbie Robbins; editor, Denton J. Tipton; publisher, IDW Publishing.

Day: July 16, 2014

The Mice Templar Volume II: Destiny 9 (May 2010)

Rocket Raccoon 1 (September 2014)

The Fury of Firestorm, The Nuclear Man 4 (September 1982)

The X-Files: Year Zero 1 (July 2014)

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