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PIPELINE COMMENTARY AND REVIEW #29
21 December 1997
by Augie De Blieck Jr.
http://www.nic.com/~augie/pipeline
To all those of you out there who celebrate it, "Merry Christmas!" I
was going to write an all-positive review column this week in honor of the
holidays, but there are a couple of things which bugged me too much to do
so. Maybe next week.
BATGIRL ADVENTURES #1 is a one-shot in the animated style written by
Paul Dini and drawn by Rick Burchett. It's done in the *new* animated
style, as opposed to the "good" animated style, but something extra clicks
here. The "Gotham Knights" style is more iconic and more stylized, whereas
the original animated series design was more "realistic," as it were. And
that's where the Gotham Knights style fails -- When tt's animated.
When it's in motion. So things which are easily forgiven when static look
worse. It's why I think this comic book works so well. It's a very stark
look, and one which works best when laid out well and held motionless.
It's more of a comic book style than a cartoon style. The fourth panel on
the 7th page is an excellent example of this. It would look way too
straight and angular if it were animated. But held for a panel here, it's
breathtaking. This is good stuff. And Paul Dini's story is very well
done, with appropriate amounts of mystery, conniving, and surprises.
Give Gladstone one bit of credit: They do go out on a bang. THE
ADVENTUROUS $CROOGE McDUCK #2, the final issue of the series in light of
the Gladstone Implosion, contains Don Rosa's latest story, a 29 page
masterpiece entitled "A Little Something Special." This story contains
everything that Rosa fans look for. There are acute and obtuse references
to the continuity Rosa has set up for $crooge. There are some wonderful
moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity. There are background gags galore, and
enough of the little things populating the background to make this story
worth looking at again and again. There's a number of BIG action scenes,
but the highlights of the story are the emotional moments. The last couple
of pages are worth the price of admission alone.
Technically, everything works out, too. Susan Diagle-Leach's colors
look marvelous on this paper and none of the pages show up off-register.
John Clark's hand-lettering prevents the cheapness of the Whizbang
font's look. Don Rosa's ducks are subtly-nuanced, with a strong leaning
towards terrific facial gestures and emotions.
Just do yourself a favor and don't read the horrible editorial written
by Geoffrey Blum first. In fact, don't read it at all. For one, it ruins
the ending to the story, which is the main emotional thrust. For two, he's
a bitter man whose hatred for Rosa's work -- not to mention Rosa's very
fans! -- continues to show through. Gladstone's made some dumb mistakes in
the past, and their continued reliance on Blum to denigrate the very work
they're trying to sell continues to astound and amaze.
Moving back to super-heroics, AVENGERS #1 came out this week from
Marvel. Wow. It's awe-inspiring. I've never been a big Avengers fans.
Stories starring the Avengers tend to bore me. And quite honestly, I'm not
too sure if this plot appeals to me all that much. However, I'm willing to
ride it out and see what happens for a number of reasons. Firstly, Kurt
Busiek is writing it and the man can hardly do wrong. I can't recall ever
reading a bad story by him. Secondly, George Perez is pencilling the book.
And it makes your jaw drop every time you turn the page. To get some idea
of all the work he has to get through, take a gander at the inside front
cover, which ticks off all the Avengers. Wow. And then watch Perez put
them all in the story -- and in the same panel in a couple of cases.
One of the other Heroes Reborn titles, CAPTAIN AMERICA, came out with
its second issue this week. And it's a bit of a disappointment for me.
Why? Well, for one my head is still in an amazing amount of pain from
being hit with all the subtlety of Cap's shield. In the first issue, Mark
Waid labored to show us how Captain America symbolizes his country all over
the world. And it worked for me. This issue he tries to establish the
link between Steve Rogers and his shield. And he tries way too hard.
Having made his point early on, Waid makes it again. And again. It
breached establishment for me and went to cornball pretty quickly. And it
works to spell out the ending in short order, too.
That said, however, I was impressed by the pacing of this issue. The
entire story is one long action sequence, and it's impressively done.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, THE SAVAGE DRAGON #44 is a more
introspective talking heads issue. Who'da thunk that one? There's only
one thing approximating a punch in this issue. For a long-time Dragon fan,
this storyline is a lot of fun. I echo Erik Larsen's lament in the letters
column that new fans wouldn't do too well to start with this issue, but oh,
well. Yeah, yeah, I know: Every issue is somebody's first. But if you
ask me, you still have the throw the bones to long-time readers --
especially in this market, where you have to rely on word of mouth. People
aren't sampling books that look cool by their covers anymore. Nope, it's
word of mouth. Please the long time fans and you can pick up some new
ones.
-Augie
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