|
PIPELINE COMMENTARY AND REVIEW #60
26 July 1998
by Augie De Blieck Jr.
http://www.nic.com/~augie/pipeline
A curiosity: This week my company sent me to a Franklin Planner seminar
to figure out how to better manage my time. This weekend's schedule
never came to fruition, life got in the way, and I got very little of
what I wanted to get done accomplished. None of the e-mail. Half of
the reading. And I'm writing this column at 10 p.m. on Sunday night.
Isn't that ironic?
So we have a complete hodgepodge of an issue for you this week, with a
couple of comics printed a month or 36 ago, as well as some from this
week and the past couple of weeks.
Starting with the oldest: BLACK LIGHTNING #5, published by DC Comics in
1995, written by Tony Isabella and drawn by Eddy Newell. I picked this
up at the convention last weekend after hearing so many good things
about it. Quite honestly, they were all right. This is a fabulous
insight into a "superhero's" mind, complete with regrets and feelings of
helplessness, pain, and torment. It's not pretty, but it is moving,
touching, and well done. Eddy Newell's black and white artwork is
amazing in here, and complements the traditional four-color stuff to a
tee. This is my first-ever issue of Black Lightning, and I was able to
follow it with little problem. If you ever run across it in a
bargain bin, jump at the chance to buy it.
Moving somewhat closer to the present: DC published THE MIST as a part
of its Girlfrenzy! campaign not all that long ago. James Robinson
writes it and John Lucas/Richard Case drew it. I just liked it. It's
very well done. Very smartly done. Maybe it's just because I've also
read a lot of STARMAN issues lately in a successful effort to catch up
on that series, but this one works for me. I think it's a good addition
to anyone's STARMAN collection. Someone who has no interest in Starman
might not really care.
Speaking of which, STARMAN #46 is a beautiful issue. While James
Robinson excels in setting stories in the past with the classic
characters, Gene Ha's art really steals the show in this issue. He
pencils, inks, and colors this one. It's a lot of wonderful noir-ish
stuff, with an excellent storyline tying into a lot of the continuity
Robinson has set up in the series. Yet it is still accessible, I'd
think, to a non-Starman fanatic. You'll miss out on several of the
innuendos and a couple of the story's layers, but should be able to
follow the straight-forward story here.
How many artists does it take to illustrate one Chris Claremont
storyline? I'm not entirely sure, but I think we're pushing a dozen now
with his four-part WOLVERINE tale just wrapping up. This issue features
guest-penciller Stephen Platt, who brings back so many memories of
the days when all the artists were trying to mimic Jim Lee and Rob
Liefeld and Marc Silvestri and Todd McFarlane... It wasn't pretty, was
it? The originators of the style were always fun to watch, but their
clones were weak. (I also just picked up JLA QUARTERLY #12 -- the lead
story in that is another excellent example of this. Perhaps it's even
better.) But even Platt can't go the distance and Angel Unzueta is
brought in to help finish it. It also required the services of 5
inkers to finish up this issue. In the end, I think the variance of the
art really hurt the story. I felt a little disappointed in the end.
Upon rereading it, I see the point and nod my head and agree with the
classic Claremontian tale. But the changing art styles really made it
difficult to follow at times, or at least distracted the reader.
That's never a good thing.
On the other side of things, though, is DC's latest series, YOUNG
JUSTICE. It's the best first issue of a title I've read in a long time.
This is classic Peter David writing, with great gags, silly characters,
a light tone, and some Freudian psychology included to help identify the
characters. This is definitely a must-read, if only for page 3. On the
other hand, I'm also REALLY happy to see Todd Nauck on a regular series
again, and on such a high-profile one at that. There are those of us
who have been following him since his work on Image Comics' NEWMEN,
where he amazed and wowed us with pages of art that were both
fun to look at and served the story. There were lots of little things
added in, too. Everything from Madman mugs to MST3K references hidden
away. He's good and I've also heard he works fast. In any case, I'm
proud of the little bugger. ;-)
Peter David also serves up a wonderful SUPERGIRL #25. Just don't look
at the last page first. That would be a big mistakes. Hide it as
best you can, even if you're scanning the letters pages for something
first. Needless to say, PAD is complicating poor Linda Danver's life
more and more. I find it fascinating. I'm sadistic, apparently.
-Augie
|
