One Year in Four Colors - Alan Moore: Wild Worlds (Part 1)

So I've decided to write a review or analysis of every Graphic Novel I read in 2009. I'd try for every comic, but none of us have that kind of time.
*Spoiler Warning* should be considered general practice.


Alan Moore: Wild Worlds

Writer: Alan Moore
Artists: Various
Publisher: DC/Wildstorm

Writing these reviews has actually changed how I buy and read comics. When I went into the store the other day, I thought about what book would flow nicely from my last review, in addition to being something I wanted to read. A few things called out to me from the shelves, but in the end I went with this - a collection of stories Alan Moore wrote for the Wildstorm Universe during the late '90s, not including his run on WildC.A.T.S. (which I should hopefully pick up soon). In my review of Captain Atom: Armageddon I got a chance to touch a little bit on the mechanics of the Wildstorm Universe and what makes it different from the DCU proper. In addition, Alan Moore even came up given that Atom was the inspiration for the popular character Dr. Manhattan in Moore's seminal work Watchmen. Now that Wildstorm is officially considered a part of the DC Multiverse as of Infinite Crisis and 52 I feel that as unofficial walking DC encyclopedia I need to shore up on my Wildstorm knowledge and bring it up to speed, and what better way to start than a collection of work written by quite possibly the most celebrated writer in all of modern comics?

Alan Moore is one of the few comics creators that could possibly considered a household name (alongside Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, and Frank Miller). Starting off working in the British independents he had a famous run on Captain Britain for Marvel UK with collaborator Alan Davis before being picked up by DC, where he'd truly become known as a legend - first with his groundbreaking run on Swamp Thing (which helped completely redefine the character, introduced John Constantine, and directly led to the creation of the adult oriented Vertigo imprint), an assortment of high quality and high profile DCU work (Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow and The Killing Joke), and of course Watchmen.

Soon after Watchmen, Moore had a pretty epic falling out with DC over a number of issues including royalties and creator rights - and especially that DC has kept Watchmen in print continually so that the rights will never revert back to him and artist Dave Gibbons (Watchmen was created before collected editions became the industry standard, and may very well have been the game changer). His hatred towards DC is so pronounced he has demanded his name be taken off every movie based on his DC properties - Constantine, V for Vendetta, and now Watchmen.

After DC, Moore began doing work on a number of the second tier companies' super heroes. He had a notable run on Supreme where he basically told all of his untold Superman stories with that character instead. He also began a long relationship with Wildstorm, one that only recently ended. He first started with a run on the flagship WildC.A.T.S. where he did what he does best - completely turned the original premise on it's head and made WildC.A.T.S. a contemporary and relevant title. It was around this time that Moore wrote the stories collected in Wild Worlds. Later Wildstorm created an imprint entirely for him, called America's Best Comics, where every title was an Alan Moore original. When Wildstorm was sold to DC it nearly caused the ABC line to collapse because of Moore's absolute refusal to work for DC comics in any capacity. The rumor is that Jim Lee, owner and executive editor of Wildstorm, personally visited Moore in England after the sale to reassure him that DC proper would have absolutely no editorial control over his work, and erected a series of corporate firewalls that made it so that Moore actually received his checks from Lee's personal account. This arrangement lasted for awhile, producing notable work like Promethea, Top Ten, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen until DC did in fact make content restrictions on two separate ABC titles. That combined with Moore's dissasatisfaction at the promotion of the V for Vendetta movie using his name led to him officially severing his last remaining ties with DC Comics and leaving the ABC line which was for all intents and purposes, him.

That said, how are the stories in this volume?
Pretty meh overall, actually. Lets go through them -

Spawn/WildC.A.T.S: Devil's Day
Art - Scott Clark

First off, it is INCREDIBLY weird to see Spawn both on the cover and in the story of a book published by DC comics. These are stories originally printed when Wildstorm was part of Image and not DC, and in those early days there was (and still is) a loose universe amongst all the different Image super-heroes, so Spawn and the Cats teaming up isn't that weird on it's own. But I'm totally unclear on how DC wrangled the publishing rights to reprint this without having to co-brand with Image. That sort of thing is usually a dealbreaker.

Spawn is one of those characters I've pretty much stayed away from ever since my dad bought me issue 2 when I was a little kid and the entire issue was pretty much The Violator ripping people's hearts out of their bodies and it scared the shit out of me. That really was the entire issue - that and this chunky, scruffy clown who looked like a pedophile. But I figure if anyone can make me be interested in Spawn it would be Alan Moore.

Sadly, more than any other story in the book, this one is kind of a mess. The art is nowhere near up to the standard we have in the the industry today as far as storytelling goes. There are a lot of pretty pictures and big poses but major plot points have to be narrated explicitly in a way that almost seems condescending because there's almost no sense that these things are actually happening in the way described. The perspective is also way off, making the reading experience jarring and sometimes unpleasant. For a comic to really work on all levels the art and words have to work in unison to tell the story - when they're out of sync (and not for intended effect) the whole lanuage of comics, this delicate balance of iconagraphy in two forms becomes muddy.

The story sets up a theme that runs through most of the work in this collection - that of outside forces with god-like abilities manipulating others from afar. In this case, a group of mystics who have grown beyond existence itself seek amusement by sending an amulet back through time, creating a time loop where Spawn goes evil and takes over the world (or at least Manhattan). When the surviving WildC.A.T.S. of the future come back to kill Spawn in the past they end up bringing him into the future with them - thus setting in motion the very consequences they sought to prevent.

This is basic super-hero fare, and it never goes beyond that. There are also a number of what feel like extremely manufactured personality conflicts, especially between Grifter and Spartan over control of battle tactics. It's never explained why they're arguing, neither is really established as being right or better, and there's really no sense of closure when it's resolved even though it's supposed to feel like a 'moment'. This may be because most of the dialogue and character work is spouted off in such expository factor that there never feels like any sort of build or depth. Also, the book was written in 1996 - so one of the characters from the future talks entirely with a very computer oriented slang that was supposed to feel cutting edge but is already horribly outdated and so gets very annoying, very quickly. Some of the 'twists' are so heavily foreshadowed that when they come it's almost more surprising that the characters themselves didn't figure it out on their own.

The highlight of the story for me was seeing Grunge and Burnout from Gen13 (another Wildstorm title and favorite from adolescence) as traitors in the future, especially with Grunge now being an evil accountant named 'Suit' - cause what else would be the idealogical antithesis of a character created to capitalise on the '90s grunge movement?
Also, like I said, I haven't read much Spawn - but he sounded a lot like a really whiny Spider-Man in this issue and that is not the impression I ever got from Spawn's voice before.

Overall, not a great start to the collection - I'll be back later with the rest.

One Year in Four Colors - Captain Atom: Armageddon

So I've decided to write a review or analysis of every Graphic Novel I read in 2009. I'd try for every comic, but none of us have that kind of time.

*Spoiler Warning* should be considered general practice.

Captain Atom: Armageddon

Writer: Will Pfeifer
Artists: Giuseppe Camuncoli & Sandra Hope
Publisher: DC/Wildstorm

Captain Atom: Armageddon is one of those weird beasts you only find in the world of comic books and collected editions, given how many masters this book is attempting to serve. This book acts in many ways as connective tissue - a transitionary story to move people and places into the appropriate spots for their next appearance and major events that are lined up. What makes this particular book stand out is that it is attempting to do that with two entirely separate super-hero universes and publishing plans. In order to function properly, this book has to tell it's own fulfilling story from beginning to end - but also take Captain Atom of the DC Universe from where we last saw him and lead him to where he's going, but also leave the Wildstorm universe in an entirely new place.

The plot of the story is about Captain Atom mysteriously arriving in the Wildstorm Universe with no way to get home. He soon discovers that the nature of his trip has led to something gone wrong inside him and unless he returns home immediately, his very presence on this alternate Earth will lead the the absolute destruction of this Universe.

Captain Atom is a DC hero, who originally started as a Charlton hero. In the '60s, Charlton was it's own comic book company - publishing characters like The Question and Blue beetle. Eventually they went out of business, and during the 1980s DC bought the rights to their characters and during the landmark Crisis on Infinite Earths integrated those heroes into their line - the conceit being that they had been a part of their history the whole time. The Charlton characters were actually the inspiration for the groundbreaking book Watchmen, and Captain Atom was the direct inspiration for Dr. Manhattan. Since Crisis, Atom has been a part of the DC Universe - acting as both a government operative and member of the Justice League. His backstory is that of Nathaniel Adam - a government agent falsely accused of treason. Rather than rotting away in prison, he chose to undergo an experimental quantum procedure in exchange for his freedom should he survive. Instead, the accident sent him twenty years into the future and imbued him with atomic energy and a quantum shell. Since then, despite being one of the most powerful beings on Earth, he's always felt overshadowed as both a hero and a man by people like Superman - never attaining A-list status.

The Wildstorm Universe began as one of the founding studios of Image Comics. In the '90s, a group of extremely dissatisfied and extraordinarally popular Marvel artists banded togather to form their own company based around creator rights. It was a shot heard round the industry - and one of those artists was Jim Lee, famous for his work on the X-men. A loose collection of individual studios, his was called Wildstorm and became it's own self contained super hero universe including title like WildC.A.T.S., Deathblow, and Gen13. Eventually Lee sold Wildstorm to DC comics, remaining it's Executive Editor, and Wildstorm became a separate publishing arm of DC (like Vertigo, CMX, or the now defunct Minx line). Along the way Wildsorm became known for darker, more morally ambiguous heroes with a sci-fi edge - leading to books like The Authority, Sleeper, and Planetary.

After a huge boom in the early 2000s, the Wildstorm Universe had sort of cooled off, and a revamp was planned. Across the continuity stream, DC was gearing up for it's Crisis sequel, Infinite Crisis. And so Captain Atom: Armageddon was born - to help draw attention to the Wildstorm reboot by including a DC character in the lead up, as well as to set up Atom for his next story beat in Infinite Crisis. The story started with Atom's last appearance in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies when he appeared to sacrifice his life to save the Earth piloting a giant rocketship into a Kryptonite meteor, and attempts to address some lingering continuity errors from that title.

But aside from all the publishing concerns, this is a story unto itself. And what really drives this story is the difference between the DC and Wildstorm Universes using Atom as a viewpoint, and a man just trying to get home. And in that, the story does a wonderful job. Captain Atom is portrayed as an honorable hero - always looking to avoid confrontation in the name of sanity and discussion, his attempts constantly being thwarted by an entire world of metahumans who hit first and MAYBE ask questions after the funeral. His horror at seeing an entire people subjugated by fear is palpable, his anger at seeing the human race cowering under the bootheel of morally ambiguous super-powered 'heroes' is justified. This book shows Captain Atom as the best kind of hero, and a good man - who despite constantly feeling lessened in his shadow still says "Thank God - Superman" when he sees a flying man in a cape coming towards him. This book really invigorates Atom as a character - and does a good job of showing why the Wildstorm Universe deserved a Noah like flood at the end to wipe away their sins.

So what makes this book harder to enjoy in hindsight is the knowledge of what came after, and how much potential was squandered. Instead of capitalising on this book with a Captain Atom arc that finally saw him become the hero in the DCU that he always had the potential to be, editorial decided to pursue a failed idea from decades back and turn Atom into Monarch, an insane power hungry villain with absolutely no explanation. And the big Wildstorm reboot? Dead in the water after two flagship titles never made it past two issues, and has already gone through another reboot since - DC usually waits twenty years between Crises and Marvel has never had one, so that's bad.

This was a fun story that made me love Nathaniel Adam a little bit more, and it's reccomended if you want to see what makes this character so cool - this is Captain Atom at his absolute best. But for the novice comic book reader, not the best starting point.

One Year in Four Colors - Justice League International Vol. 3

So I've decided to write a review or analysis of every Graphic Novel I read in 2009. I'd try for every comic, but none of us have that kind of time.
*Spoiler Warning* should be considered general practice.




Justice League International Vol. 3

Writers: Keith Giffen and JM DeMatteis
Artists: Kevin Maguire, Ty Templeton, and Steve Leialoha
Publisher: DC Comics

In the late '80s, the Justice League was at a crossroads. After a brief flirtation with the 'Detroit Era' (a short lived period in Justice League history where almost everyone you've probably heard of left the team, Aquaman took over and moved the league into a bunker in Detroit with only four complete unknowns, Zatanna, Martian Manhunter, and the Elongated Man making the roll call) the JLA was in shambles and the original Justice League of America series was cancelled for the first time. In the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths the entire DCU was being reorganized, and a Justice League series was a must. Given the success of Crisis a new crossover was planned, Legends, which would end with the reformation of a new league and a brand new #1 issue to launch the new title.

Editor Andy Helfer was in charge of putting together the book. He was told make it big, make it bold, make it about the stars again. Great. That sounds like a mandate for the classic JLA we all know and love.

There were a couple problems.

DC editorial politics being what they were back then, no one wanted anyone touching 'their' characters - and each editor had to approve usage of the characters they edited. So almost none of the big guns were available as they were all undergoing revamps in their respective titles. Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman, The Hawks - all off limits.

So who WAS on the team, he asked?

Well it turns out the roster was going to be decided in the pages of Legends. Sadly, the writers hadn't actually written Legends yet, nor did they know who would be in the league, and would he please leave them alone about it? Oh, and what's the status on Justice League?

Thankfully, Helfer found someone just crazy enough to take on the project with him, even without any idea of what they could do - comic stalwart and to be Legend Keith Giffen. They decided if they couldn't have a roster pre-planned, they'd come up with a situation for the book that was roster proof - the idea of an eccentric, mysterious businessman named Maxwell Lord who would attempt to manipulate the group from the outside, and eventually tie them to the United Nations. instead of being the Justice League of America, they would be Justice League International. Instead of a satellite headquarters operating in geosynchronous orbit around the Earth, why not dozens of embassies, each located in a UN member nation. They would embrace the B-, C-, and D-list level of their characters as an opportunity to really develop them.

And the biggest change? Instead of just being fun... could they maybe be funny?

It had really never been done before, and it payed off huge. A total paradigm shift from any league before, or franchise team book at all. If the JLA had always been a book about a bunch of super powered people who did their jobs extremely well, this was the book that saw them driving each other crazy on coffee break, or having to live with each other. This was the book about regular people who just happened to be super-heroes. And maybe they barely got along at all.

Joining the creative team was scripter JM DeMatteis (Giffen did the plots, but was afraid of handling dialogue), a noted comic scribe known mainly for straight ahead heroics and deep spiritual stories of faith. Turns out he had a wicked sense of humor too, and filled each of Giffen's plots with gag after gag. The two of them become so synonymous with each other for so long it was a shock to learn that they had been working together years before they ever met.

Rounding out the group was a brand new artist, utterly unheard of at the time, that they decided to take a chance on - the incomparable Kevin Maguire (one of my absolute favorites, and one of the ONLY artists I buy just for the art). His clean linework and INCREDIBLE facial expressions made the book and gave life to each of the heroes. His characters didn't pose - they acted and reacted like real people caught in the utterly absurd situations that men running around in capes find themself in. If regular comic books are the newscast, JLI was the moments before the camera roles and the guests sit around picking their noses.

This became one of the most beloved runs in comic history, and changed the nature of the league for years after. Eventually becoming a house style that tended toward boorish self parody once Giffen and crew left, the original books were packed with a solid mix of action, characterization, and humor. This is the run where we loved to hate Guy Gardner, watched Blue Beetle and Booster Gold become the Schlafstein/Pratt of comic books, where J'onn got addicted to choco cookies, and Batman actually made a JOKE! It was incredible, and remains beloved to this day.

This book is the third volume in the run, and it's not as strong as the first two. The jokes are starting to feel a bit more forced, as the humor/action blend is edging further and further towards humor (and there's a LOT of G'nort in here, a character I enjoy much more in smaller doses). The art is also uneven, with Maguire handling most of it, but assisted by Steve Leialoha and Ty Templeton on chapters. Templeton is solid as always, but Leialoha looks ungly and rushed and certainly not up to today's usual quality.

There are some great moments though - including the early onset of Blue and Gold shenanigans. Also, Giffen creation Lobo has a major role in the book and as this is from before he devolved in a one note self parody, his character is refreshing and enjoyable in a way I've really never seen other than when written by Morrison.

I also finally got the fish-dolphin reference from 52.

Basically this is part of a treasured run. If you're collecting the whole thing, or already love these characters, then reccomended. But if not - start with Vol. 1. They're better comics overall, and the beginning of this particular chapter in JL history as well.

One Year in Four Colors - Gotham Central Book 1: In The Line Of Duty

So I've decided to write a review or analysis of every Graphic Novel I read in 2009. I'd try for every comic, but none of us have that kind of time.


*Spoiler Warning* should be considered general practice.




Gotham Central Book 1: In The Line of Duty
Writers: Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka
Artist: Michael Lark
Publisher: DC Comics

Gotham Central was an interesting book for a number of reasons, and the first being it's basic premise - a cop ensemble drama set firmly in the DCU. It's tag line was "In the shadow of the Bat," and it's utterly true. This is a comic based entirely around the best supporting cast in all of comics - Batman's. And not the famous ones either - Jim Gordon gets 2 pages, Robin and Oracle each have a panel, and Harvey Bullock is only mentioned by name. This is a book about the rank and file of the GCPD Major Crimes Unit (MCU) and it's a credit to how rich and developed Gotham City is that a book like this, where Renee Montoya is the closest thing to household name in the leads, even got a chance at existence. I actually think this book would have fared even better if it existed now, post One Year Later, because when it debuted things around Gotham were very different than the way most people think. Jim Gordon was no longer commisioner, having stepped down into a very non-permanent retirement, and perennial favorite Harvey Bullock was no longer with the force due to some shady dealings. Instead Commisioner Akins runs the GCPD and the cast is made up of Gotham stalwarts Renee Monyoya (Bullock's old partner) and Crispus Allen (her current partner), former Superman supporting character Maggie Sawyer, and a bunch of newly introduced detectives.

The format of the comic was different too. The cast was divided into two shifts - the day shift and night shift, with stories alternating between them. Brubaker stewarded the night shift while Rucka handled the day shift, and two would co-write the arcs where all the characters came together. It's a really interesting episodic device that allows for a real ensemble to develop, and a more comprehensive look at Gotham's finest. All of the action is capably handled by Michael Lark. Brubaker and Lark would remain a team, working right now on Marvel's Daredevil, where Rucka reunited the band for an arc as well. The dual shifts also led to a really episodic feel to the show, capitalizing on the Cop Drama phenomenom still sweeping the airwaves with untold amounts of CSI and Law and Order available at every hour of the day. At one point in time, the book was due for development as a WB series, but was shelved because of possible associations with the utter failure Birds of Prey and the risk of stealing some of the spotlight from the then upcoming Batman Begins feature.

But what Gotham Central really does for me is help illustrate exactly why I love the DCU so much, and more than any other fictional universe out there. Because the DC Universe is so fully fleshed out and well developed that when done right, I don't question that this down to earth, gritty police book can take place squarely in the same world as the sci-fi overtones of Superman or the magical horror of Swamp Thing. As a medium, the DCU is receptive of any genre you can put into it and still maintain it's sense of continuity and cohesion. Don't get me wrong, trying to make heads or tales of the history of the DC multiverse is a grauate level seminar in universal mechanics and inordinately fucked up, but it does provide a medium for any possible kind of story to be told and still feel like it belongs. Marvel does super-heroes great, and their characters overall may even have a broader appeal - but 9 times out of 10 when they try a horror, western, romance, or pure sci-fi set within the Marvel Universe it just doesn't feel right. In DC I can get horrow, sci-fi, crime drama, and good old fashioned overblown super-hero theatrics and it all feels perfectly at place.

And make no mistake about it, this is a Cop Comic in a world of Super-Heroes, not a Super-Hero comic with cops. It's a genuine look at how impotent a police department would feel with a real life urban vigilante protecting the populace better than they could ever hope to, complete with a public 'we need help' floodlight attached to the roof. These are real men and women dealing with a world often way over their heads. Michael Lark is NOT the best artist to draw someone like Mr. Freeze and make his costume look anything less than ridiculous, but I think that's kind of the point. There's something a little bit scary about just how awkward and out of place these garish costumed criminals look, and how dangerous they still are, that makes a villain like Two-Face, who's only 'costume' is a polytoned suit and severe facial disfigurement, pop even more.

And the characters are worthwhile and distinct. Like I said before, Batman has the best supporting cast in all of comics, and this book can go a long way to showing why. From the famous rogue's gallery that everyone knows, to the beat cops that suddenly come alive, to the very city herself, Gotham is teeming with character and characters. The book includes the first three storylines from the original monthly run -
-"In the Line of Duty" - the opening piece about a cop killed by one of Gotham's freaks and a grieving partner's quest to have the GCPD end it and not the Bat.
-"Motive" - A whodunnit murder mystery involving a kidnapped girl.
- and "Half a Life" - Where Renee Montoya's personal and professional lives get torn asunder by the most dangerous admirer one could imagine.

These are solid comics. Not utterly sensational or mind blowing, but well done genre pieces that fit alongside good episodic television. If you're already a fan of Batman, or like NYPD Blue, The Shield, or anything like it - give Gotham Central a look.