DC 52: On the 1s & 2s: Frankenstein

About, oh, two weeks ago, I asked folks for examples of DC 52 books they might be interested in seeing reviews for. I had the idea for reviewing two issues of a series at once, largely because I wanted to use the "on the 1s and 2s" phrase, but, also, because it has felt like there isn't always enough meat to the single issues of this relaunch to fairly judge just one. The first up is Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E.


The first thing I noticed when going over this selection was how at odds the cover art seems to be with the interior. Employing JG Jones on covers doesn't just give you art that is at conflict with the interior pencils, but suggests practically a brand difference.

But then breaking past that initial concern, I'm faced with yet another apparent contradiction. The story elements, on the surface, seem to suggest more action movie than indie drama. But the muddied, moody art (including the way coloring is employed) suggests the type of story you'd see in Vertigo books, where the action is rarely THE THING, but mostly there to service the story. The coloring, in particular, really seems to fit what I more often have seen on Vertigo product than DC Universe: larger sections of one solid color, rather than more intricate detail. Which, separate from a review, makes me wonder if there's some manner of cost savings in such a move, rather than simply being an artistic decision.

This is not to say I don't enjoy Alberto Ponticelli's art at all. I do, despite some of the inconsistencies (namely Frankenstein's monster looking like several different characters throughout the book). His art is always effective, tells the story ably and can handle the blend of action, humor and drama well. One of the strongest stretches for the art appears with a flashback in the second issue. In relating a supporting character's history (and, also, informing us on some of S.H.A.D.E.'s history), the art team perfectly evokes the feeling of old, grainy home movie footage.

The book uses classic horror movie characters, which would seem to suggest the style of art is fitting, as moody/muddied is often found in horror comics. But the cast is really a swerve, as it is much more of a sci-fi book with huge, bloodied battlefields through the first two issues; a sort of "sword and raygun" fantasy that might be better served by cleaner pencils.

The writing is very strong. I'll be honest: despite my warning above regarding single issues being hard to judge a property by in DC's 52, I had decided to stray away after the first issue, until this book was suggested for review. I'm very glad for the opportunity, as the additional installment casts the whole in a different light. It's difficult to pinpoint where and why there was a change, but suddenly everything clicked much more nicely once I was several pages into #2. Ideas seem less thrown out there, but are, instead, part of well-executed world building and character depth. Not every note is perfect (the gag about no one telling the doctor that Frankenstein's monster was such a gentleman comes to mind), but, somehow, the accumulation of bits between the issues starts to gel, without there being anything to put my finger on as being done differently from one issue to the next.

Lemire deftly weaves horror concepts into sci-fi properties and makes some of his sci-fi concepts feel all too real. Whether we're talking their base of operations, the prison within it, the communications system or the nature of the external threat in this first arc, all of the ideas just work.

Except when it comes to lettering. Of all the things to still have difficulty adjusting to, it was the method of delivery for S.H.A.D.E.net communications. The lettering was an x-on-black style (where x could be white or, more commonly, some other color that was used in large amounts elsewhere on the page) that was a bit of an irritant to my eyes. Why the purpose was clear (setting itself apart from other captions/bubbles), the combination of using it in such dark areas of art and often using non-white colors (making it stand out slightly less well on the black) was a source of frustration. Hopefully, it is something they can adjust and I can adjust to going forward.

Overall, this is an enjoyable series with a talented creative team. I think I'll be adding this to my regular purchases going forward.

A Request

I'm looking to review a swath of New 52 books from DC. I've read practically all of them, but I'm not such a masochist that I'm eager to go through them all. Ideally, I'd like to go over the first two issues of at least ten of the titles. But, since I'm being selective, I'd like to get a little direction from those who are reading the blog.

Please take the time to note five of the New 52 that you'd like me to review the first two issues of. With the limited replies I generally get, you just might see me review all five of your requests. ;)

New 52: Aquaman

I'll flesh this out in a later post, but just to get my initial reaction up here immediately:

Why did I have to pay $3 for Geoff Johns to literally lecture a section of the comic book reading audience on how Aquaman isn't the joke they think he is, especially when a good portion of that group probably skipped the book on the shelf to begin with?

For my money, we got about three-to-five pages that should have been in this book...and they were the ones that just featured the new-big-bad rising from the deep.

Any other writer, the next issue would not be leaving the shop with me. But, then again, few other writers would be bold enough to expect their audience to pay $3 to be told (much more than shown) how the character is much cooler than the people making fun of them for buying the issue think.

At least the art is strong, even if some of the coloring effects are a bit much.

Scheduling: The Biggest New 52 Problem

A lot is being made about the controversial contents of a few books from DC this week. As with so much in American entertainment, the controversy boils down to sex. Regardless of where you come down on this particular divide, it brings to mind a completely different, yet related problem...

Scheduling.

In the previous week, there was the issue of strong similarities between two books that could have been resolved by the schedule for the 52 roll out being over a month long. In fairness, the schedule wasn't so tight that they couldn't have pushed one of these to another week.

But now we have the Starfire and Catwoman controversies that are overshadowing other quality releases. When you want word of mouth, reviews, buzz, etc to influence sales, a comic book Wednesday becomes much like a movie Friday: you don't want your product to get lost in all the attention competing products get. If the competing product is from your own house? Well, you quite simply bump it to a different release date where it can shine on its own.

In releasing two books that, regardless of your personal feelings about, were sure to cause a loud reaction, DC hurt a few of their other books. Ironically, Wonder Woman and (to a lesser extent) Supergirl were two high quality, otherwise-high-profile releases that aren't going to get as much attention as they merited because people will be talking about the sexual issues at play in Red Hood & the Outlaws and Catwoman.

It might be that DC had this as a calculated move, thinking two strong female characters without sexual overtones used would help counterbalance the sturm and drang caused by those otherwise-low-profile books. While you can see the logic behind that (if not, sadly, the effectiveness in use), the better move would have been to stretch out the release schedule a bit more or, at the very least, schedule the two tempests-in-a-teapot to separate weeks so they didn't go all "Wonder Twin Powers Activate! Form of...misogyny accusations! Form of...DC thinks strong women are sluts!"

Controversial works can be good for business. But when they obscure your other worthy products or waste their attention-grabbing ability by being piled up on the same date, it just doesn't make good sense.

Schwappathy...Ended?

I didn't intend for my first new posting on the site in ages to be about the decline of my old stomping ground.

No, I planned on talking about the successful DC relaunch. Why? Because curiosity got me running into the store to get the books and the horror stories of sold out issues had me hot-footing it over there instead of taking days or weeks to head in.

While my pile has been dominated by DC, I've actually bought some single issues I wouldn't have otherwise picked up. I've been trafficking comic related sites and social network entries more, so I saw Clevinger asking fans to pick up a new Atomic Robo issue and people talking about Pigs by Nate Cosby.

Now, I love Robo, but it is normally trade purchase for me. Seeing as how Clevinger had an interesting take on Firestorm that I wasn't going to get to see published, I figured I'd pick up this first issue to show some support (and then decide whether or not to trade-wait on the rest later).

Cosby? He's been a damn entertaining Twitter follow since leaving the editor chair and I was keen to see what a book written by him would turn out like.

There are certainly other non-DC books I pick up, but they were things I'd likely have picked up without this whole New 52 thing reinvigorating my anticipation for Wednesday deliveries. SIXTH GUN is one of the rare books that I'd actually search through the old weeks' shelves at the shops to make sure I didn't miss if work had gotten in the way of my making a weekly visit.

But, yeah, the apathy has come to a rather abrupt end. I plan on trying to post opinions and all around here to see if anyone wants to read them. Most of the traffic I ever got was because of a passionate fan working at a publisher, leaking information because he had concerns about what they had planned. Since he's ridden off into the sunset (for the purposes of this site, not in his life or career), it remains to be seen how piqued curiosity is for my musings...