3 December 2014 – Comics Fondle

Escape from New York #1

I’m trying to figure out how to describe Escape from New York to those unfamiliar with the movie. You wouldn’t buy the comic on a whim, without a familiarity, because if you paged through it, you’d be immediately lost. Writer Christopher Sebela doesn’t really do an introduction, he does a direct sequel to the movie… then immediately invalidates it.

But, let’s say you stuck with it for a few more pages. And then you wondered why Diego Barreto is drawing the main character so blandly. And why is the dialogue so terrible? Sebela rips off a line from Terminator 2. In a sequel to a movie from eleven years before T2. It feels weird. But not totally awful yet.

It gets awful a few pages later with Sebela’s first “I thought you were dead” line from a diner waitress. It’s a terrible sequel; bad, officially licensed fanfic.

It’s wretched stuff.

D-

CREDITS

Writer, Christopher Sebela; artist, Diego Barreto; colorist, Marissa Louise; letterer, Ed Dukeshire; editors, Alex Galer and Ian Brill; publisher, Boom! Studios.

Wool #3

It’s almost like Wool, the comic book, is meant to inspire the reader to instead go read Wool, the novel, in order to understand the character motivations. Because Gray and Palmiotti try for intense scenes, montage sequences, all sorts of things they can’t get done because they haven’t set up the characters well.

The villain is one dimensional. Even when his big secret gets revealed, it doesn’t offer him any depth because it’s a predictable big secret. As for the protagonist, the issue removes her agency–again–and sort of soft resets with the cliffhanger (and the big reveal).

Broxton’s art helps a lot–he does post-apocalyptic really well and he can pace out the scenes visually–and Wool does configure its derivative and familiar details in a reasonable order… but the series is now half over and there’s not much going on outside sci-fi standards.

But prettily.

CREDITS

Writers, Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray; artist, Jimmy Broxton; letterer, Bill Tortolini; editor, Matt Hoffman; publisher, Jet City Comics.

Judge Dredd #21

There are some amusing disconnects with Ezquerra’s art and Wagner’s script. It’s like Ezquerra didn’t get the jokes… or if he did, he paced them wrong. Or maybe there’s just no easy way to illustrate jokes amid a story about a nuclear attack.

Wagner figures out a way to both have nuclear attacks but still keep the story on a personal level. There’s both kinds of action, usually with some talking heads scenes between the two opposing sides. The story doesn’t hold much water, but it’s just supposed to move and move it does.

Even though there are some horrific ideas, the issue doesn’t leave much of an impression. It just moves so fast, so towards its goal, there’s nothing else going on. Except in the last few pages, Walter the robot gets some attention again. It’s amusing enough stuff, but just a little too silly.

Even for John Wagner.

CREDITS

Writer, John Wagner; artist, Carlos Ezquerra; colorist, John Burns; letterer, Tom Frame; editor, Nick Landau; publisher, Eagle Comics.

Day: December 3, 2014

Escape from New York 1 (December 2014)

Wool 3 (July 2014)

Judge Dredd 21 (July 1985)

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