Best of Times/Worst of Times: Cinematic Storytelling Part 2!

OK, so...Cloak & Dagger: Spider-Island doesn't really have anything to do with Spider-Island.  You would not get that notion from the "Cloak & Dagger: Spider Island" banner, or the legion of guys in Spider-Man costumes littering the cover.  This is called "button-hooking" the audience, and it does not add value to the package.  In fact, it's a giant dick in a disadvantaged orifice.

Oh, some will look at the trim and claim I'm hyperbolizing.  Yes, there are spider mutates mucking about in the background of the series.  Dagger even fights some for a little bit in issue # 1 before she decides she'd rather be going to her community college course.  That's how important Spider Island is to this series - Dagger actually engages with it and then basically says "This is boring the shit out of me, I'd rather do homework."  So if you dropped your money down looking for events to flesh out what Dan Slott is doing over in Amazing Spider-Man, then Marvel willfully lied to you and stole your money.  Now that's value!

No, the story has nothing whatever to do with Spider Island.  This is about Nick Spencer re-defining Cloak & Dagger, physically and thematically.  The catalyst is one Mr. Negative, who is burdened with a prophecy that Dagger will be the death of him. 

Spoilers ahoy now - he captures her, uses some kind of mysticism to invert her powers and turn her into a darkforce wielder, and then Cloak shows up to save her, and somewhere in the process he turns into a light wielder.  So they make out, their powers flip-flop, and then Mr. Negative just leaves her alone.

Now, that may be all well and good.  Maybe.  It's a very weird anti-climax that Negative just lets her go, although that weirdness is at least acknowledged in the script.  It doesn't necessarily make the story feel more satisfying, though.  It feels like most everything in Marvel feels like these days - narrative check kiting.  "I know you didn't get what you were looking for in this story, kids, but that's because we've got the REAL big thing coming up next!"  And then the next "real big thing" comes along and fails miserably as well, but just wait until that next one, folks, when the SUPER real big stuff happens!  Pfff.  I'm not amused.

Which isn't to say that nothing happened in the series.  Parts of it were quite entertaining.  I enjoyed the new takes on both Ty and Tandy, they felt more like real people than they have in, well, ever.  Switching the powers/roles of the duo is, I suppose, a "big thing" potentially.  Mr. Negative was sort of refreshing in that he's smarter than your average bad guy bear.  I'm not saying I've never seen this before, but often the best guys are truly evil while still maintaining a strict sense of honor and use next-level thinking more than brute violence.  Peter David is the king of writing these villains.  And to be fair, I think the end of the book, where Spencer goes for the slightly more difficult emotional ending carried by tenderness?  I think that worked.  Basically.

But it was all overplayed, there wasn't enough in it, and it took me about four minutes to read.  And this is where the devil's advocates begin to rant "Ah man, it took you four minutes because you're not stopping to appreciate the art and pause to absorb everything and let it sink in!"

To which I reply:  it took me four minutes to read because there twenty pages of content, and by my count nine of those were either splash pages or double splash pages.  That's bullshit.  No story is that big.  If cracked the galaxy in half, you don't need nine splash pages to do that.  A couple of crazy New York kids switching their super-powers definitely don't need nine splash pages.

It's gets to the point where I can't even really guess the purpose any more.  Here's the first splash page of the comic, which is really nothing more than just changing scenery:
 

What is the point of that?  Can you even see anything in that shot?  Yeah, spiders are running around, we get it. What was so important there, that it required 5% of the entire story space?  There is such a thing as the Law of Diminishing Returns.  The splash page, near as I can reckon, is a trick in the artist's tool box to lock in on a key moment in a story or character's progression.  It says "big" by being physically larger, showing more detail, using a greater percentage of the story space to give a dynamic moment a chance to be all that it can be in relation to the rest of the text.  That's what it's supposed to be.

The above panel is....just a change of scenery.  We already know things got dark.  We already know there are giant mutated spiders running around.  Nothing is at stake, and nothing is amplified because none of the figures are large enough to exhibit any detail.  To me, this is inexcusable, even it weren't over used. 

But it is.  A large number of panels for a page in this comic is five.  The scene where Ty moves in to save Tandy from the darkness?  Big scene, sure.  But it takes up six pages, five of which are either splash or double splash pages.  Four of them amount to a pair of "making out" double splashes.  It's too much, man, and it's overdone. 

And then you've got three pages of post spit-swapping pillow talk, followed by a fourth splash page:

It's pure self indulgence.  It's writers thinking that every one of their scenes is a shining pearl in the annals of the medium, and nothing less than a full panoramic view will suffice for the legendary shit they're putting down.  It's artists who are more in love with their secondary market re-sale value than the story their telling.  The pin-ups look good.  Mostly.  But you get to the end of the comic, and most of what happened:

A) Had nothing to do with Spider-Island, in direct opposition to all promises and marketing
B) Didn't particularly make sense given the motivations of the villain as portrayed in the series
C) Seems built entirely to erase all drama within the series in order to point to the next series
D) Takes a few scant minutes to plow through

Just to reiterate, I don't think Cloak & Dagger: Spider Island is a bad story.  I think what's there is enjoyable.  But it feels light, and inefficient, and self-indulgent.  A thing can be good and still be over-priced, and that's exactly what Cloak & Dagger is.  Unfortunately, that's what a lot of comics in 2001 are.

- Ryan

Chronic Summit Meeting!

Mike and I got together on Monday night for a Chronic Insomnia Summit Meeting.  It was time to check in and see where our energy levels were at and how we felt about the show.  We discussed the things we've been doing well, things that could be done better, things we might like to try in the future.

I can't speak for my podcast partner, but I think it went very well.

I will not get into specifics on changes to format and content, and we're not ready to set a target date for our inevitable return.  I can tell you that after Monday's Summit, Chronic Insomnia will be coming back in a form that will be recognizable to those who have been listening.  We've got some prep work to do, and some more self-indulgent lazing about to accomplish first.  But it's coming.  Soon.  For better or for worse.

And in the meantime.....comics!

Detective Comics # 881
DC Comics
Script:     Scott Snyder
Pencils:   Francesco Francavilla


I've gone on record multiple times saying that I think it's a bit of a shame and a tactical error to reboot this franchise.  But if you're going to go out...what a way to go out.

Scott Snyder's run on Detective Comics is the finest work done on the character since Dark Knight Returns.  It hasn't been flawlessly executed, but the feel of it is so satisfying.  Dick is his own man, Detective tells actual Detective stories, the plot lines are suitably dark and sophisticated, and the character work is superb.

James Gordon, Jr. is now one of the great Bat-Villains, and this issue clinched it.  All of Snyder's main threads are sewn up by the end of the issue, emotionally and mechanically.  The payoff is an absolute jackpot, because the double size issue gives the drama a chance to breathe.  In the hands of a different writer, I think this issue would read a little clunky and little too expository.  Because Snyder has such a chillingly good grasp on the sociopathic mind, though, you spend every panel gritting your teeth and hanging on every word.

So yeah, not only is this a very fitting end to the arc and this era of Detective, but it also plants the seeds for what should be some outstanding fruit further down the road.  I'm not going to spoil it.  I'm just going to tell you for the thousandth time - if you haven't been reading Scott Snyder's Detective...shame on you.

Spider-Island:  Cloak & Dagger # 1 (of 3)
Marvel Comics
Script:     Nick Spencer
Pencils:    Emma Rios


There are so many things not to like about this.  Let's see - it's yet another retread, for starters.  It's getting kind of embarrassing at the House of Ideas, frankly.  They don't have one success story in the last five years to point to, (and I'm being conservative and generous with that five year mark) yet they still keep trotting out these "golden oldies" and further dilute the power of an already spent tactic.  Just off the top of my head: Moon Knight, Ghost Rider, Alpha Flight, and Heroes for Hire.  Every book is somebody's favorite, but none of these are economically viable.

We don't actually need a Cloak & Dagger book, and if we did, now is probably the worst time in the world to test it out.  We need to contract, pull back, tighten up, and put out the best of the best in this market, not throw another fish at the wall and see if it sticks.

Then there's the "Spider-Island" factor, or more appropriately, the lack of a Spider-Island factor.  I'm not reading Amazing Spider-Man right now, (it's $3.99 and it's usually pencilled by Humberto Ramos, so that's a double no-go for me) but I don't have to be reading it to tell you that this Cloak & Dagger installment adds NOTHING to it.  Absolutely nothing.

This comic mentions that Spider-Island is happening, and even spends a few pages mindlessly mixing it up with the victims.  But that element is so muted, dull, and non-integral that Dagger literally stops fighting mid-swing to go to her community college class.  You think I'm kidding.  I'm not. 

And this is the sort of thing that I really love about Nick Spencer, but I gotta tell you - if I bought this book specifically to get more on Spider Island?  I'm PISSED.

Lots to loathe about this comic.  And yet, I do have a soft spot in my heart for these characters, I am mildly interested in what Spencer is doing with them, and Osborn taught me to adore the pencils of Emma Rios.  It looks like Spencer is interested in exploring Cloak & Dagger as a loving relationship, not a romantic one, and I think that's probably a good idea.  I think it's infinitely more interesting to let those feelings stay subtle, tense and dramatic.  ( a la the best of Moonlighting and Castle, as an example)

Spencer's take on the pair dynamic is to make them polar and dichotomous, which is obvious... but also makes sense.  Dagger wants a sense of normalcy and the mundane, Cloak seems to yearn for excellence and the extraordinary.  That's an odd couple theme that can work.

Spencer also seems able to address racial issues with a scalpel instead of the 4 pound maul everyone else is interested in wielding in 2011.  When the Avengers come calling for assistance with the rioting Spider-Folks, Cloak wonders why they always feel the need to address Dagger.  When he gets a real conversation, he gets it from Luke Cage.  Now that felt real to me.  That felt like a real thing, and I didn't feel preached at.  Maybe it's just because I'm hopelessly white, and so is Nick Spencer.  God help me, I'm actually curious to know what Hannibal Tabu's thoughts on this issue will be.

series

- Ryan

Random Comic Thoughts!

These are not going to be proper reviews, but just idle thoughts that came to me as I sat down with my mountainous DCB Service shipment.  As usual, I will probably spoil the excrement out of them, even while failing to actually review them.  So buckle up for that.

Detective Comics # 876

Yup, I'm officially in love.  Scott Snyder's Detective Comics is everything you imagined this book should have been, but probably never was.  It's smart, deftly written crime stories where Batman does actual detective work, and Gotham City acts as a kind of dark supporting character.

Virginia Woolf once said that Jane Austen was the most difficult of the great writers to catch in the act of greatness.  That's how I feel about Snyder's work on Detective.  There are no A-HA! moments that slap you in the face with their grandiosity, no mind-bending plot twists, no can't-believe-they-just-said-that-one-liners to dazzle you into crowning Snyder writing royalty.  

Which is not to say that I think he's incapable of these things.  What I'm saying is that what he's accomplished is probably more rare - he builds his stories in such a pitch perfect manner that you have no choice but to enter a state of deep and quiet satisfaction, and you have no idea how the hell he did it unless you're a freak like me and you backtrack and start looking at the nuts and bolts.

I think the key to it is that Snyder simply has a plan.  I think he sat down, looked at the pieces and said "I'm going to tell grounded human stories, and this is Gotham, so they're going to be dark."  Then he did it.

I think he looked at his main character and recognized that this is Dick, not Bruce.  Excellent observation!  What can we do with Dick that we can't do with Bruce?  Well, in this issue the case involves a relative of Anthony "Fats" Zucco, the man who killed Dick's parents.  That goes to character and tone.  It's a part of this particular protagonists history, and it serves the idea that Gotham tends to haunt.

Snyder also has Commissioner Gordon ask Dick to assess his son, who is pretty obviously bent and criminally creepy.  That serves to propel a thread from last issue forward, and it adds depth to both characters.

Would Gordon take something like that to Bruce?  I suppose it's a matter of opinion, but I think not.  I think Gordon would assume Bruce had a handle on it without him asking, and I also think Gordon would lose face bringing that to Bruce.  It would make him part of the problem.  But this is a new Batman, and that brings a new dynamic to this relationship.  And Snyder was able to build with that in a manner that makes the story more interesting, and doesn't smash you over the head with it like a hammer.

Detective isn't perfect.  I think the little speech about Batman refusing to fly overhead because you'll be blind-sided by the city if you don't stay on top of it was a little over-written.  When Batman falls in the death trap at the end of the issue, it's not entirely clear how that happened.  You can nitpick flaws if you put your mind to it.

More important is the fact that there was a killer whale sitting in a bank with a dead body in it, and that the body spilled out just as Gordon was finishing up talking about his creepy-ass son. It's more important that Batman was solving the case while perhaps being emotionally compromised by the Zucco elements.  It's more important that the tone is correct, and that all the moving parts of the story structure flow in such a manner that you never notice them except to wonder at the end why all comics can't read so smoothly.

I don't think he's lucking into any of this, folks.  It's all by design, and we can expect a lot of really good comics from Scott Snyder.

Actually, that might have been a review of Detective # 876, which just means that I'm a liar, which most of you are already comfortable with.

Iron Man 2.0 # 4


My great affection for Nick Spencer is well documented at this point, but I have to say that Iron Man 2.0 # 4 is a tutorial on how not to write a comic book.  It's not dull, or overly confusing, or anything like that.  It's a kind of backstory character study on the book's first villain, and it's not a bad idea.  It just doesn't make for a good comic book.

Here's what this issue amounts to:

Rhodes sends Kayleigh Harrison into the Dept. of Defense to look at Palmer Addley's secret files. She trades a couple of Spencerian verbal jabs with a cranky archive caretaker.  Then we get a bunch of four panel facial expressions as various subjects orbiting Addley comment about his state of mind.  These interview chunks are laced with no less than four double splashes depicting various scenes painted by the interviews.  Then Harrison walks out of the archives, I would guess convinced that Addley is a damaged nut job that probably should have been diagnosed and dealt with a long time ago.  The end.

The only point we ever see Jim Rhodes or the War Machine is on the cover.  Matter of fact, Tony Stark gets more overt attention in this book than Rhodes.  To me, this is just a textbook case of trying too hard. Nobody knows the terrible burden of being clever more than I, but this is just too much.

Comic books were not born to let talking heads run their yap and mug for Olivetti's camera for four panels a  page.  And double splash pages should be reserved for when Galactus is cracking the planet in half, not to show a sad guy sitting in empty bleachers. I think a novel could handle those interviews rather nicely.  You could add Harrison's interior responses to each session, and I think that could hold interest.  As a comic, Iron Man 2.0 # 4 just sort of sits there and slaps you in the face with how avant garde it's attempting to be.

I guess maybe a gambit like this could work if it were to cast novel new light on a really established character.  I could see that.  But to have these bit players mug for Olivetti's camera about a villain we don't really care about yet...I consider this issue to be a little self indulgent, and a serious momentum killer.  You get twelve shots a year, at best.  There's just no time for showing off unless it really pays off.

It did not pay off for me, and I would say that I am done with this book.  I'm never leaving Morning Glories or Thunder Agents, although I suspect Thunder Agents is going to leave me.  But I think this one is me bidding Iron Man 2.0 adieu.

Avengers Academy # 12



The gist of this story is that The Collector's daughter somehow pulls future, adult versions of the Academy back to this particular past to deal with Korvac, who as usual, is trying to ruin literally everything.

So the kids minds are loaded into these adult alternate bodies chosen for their peak attributes.  This is the kind of stuff that happens in superhero comics, so it's best that you not roll your eyes but instead just roll with it.  Or go read Blankets or Driven By Lemons or something, you always have that option.

There are some cheap ramifications at the end.  At least half of Veil's problems are solved, which probably makes her half as interesting.  I guess we'll have to wait and see.  Maybe this spurs her to come out of her shell a bit and she gets more interesting.  Reptil manages to maintain his adult form, and he's the only one.  It will be interesting to see how the others treat him now that he's the "one of these things not like the others" now.

But without question, the best thing that came out of that aftermath was a quiet moment between Mettle and Hazmat to close the issue.  The other kids are much more able to pose as "normal".  Mettle is stuck in that horrifying exoskeleton, and Hazmat has to remain in her suit or risk killing anyone she comes in contact with.  Veil used to be in that club to a large extent, because she wasn't terribly corporeal.  But her contact with Korvac largely fixed that, and so now the Big Losers club is down to two.

And even though Hazmat has continuously spurned any attempts to bond with other people, Mettle has a heart so big that he just can't help but continue to try.  And so you have this scene on the couch where he offers Hazmat a seat next to him on the couch without her helmet on, because he's really the only person who can survive it:

And that's why I love comics.  Mettle ends the issue by saying "Me, too", which is just..perfect.  You could try and make a case that this is just melodrama, but I disagree.  Or if it is melodrama, then give me more of that.  That moment is so absolutely organic given what happened in the issue, and we've gotten to know these characters well enough in the prior eleven installments that I think Gage earned every penny of that moment.

In case you hadn't noticed, Avengers Academy is the best of the Avengers books.  And it's the cheapest.  Go figure.

- Ryan

Chronic Spotlight: Coming Attractions!

Here's some stuff lying around Previews that you might want to think about ordering from your LCS or other comic book provider. We'll start cheap and work our way up the ladder toward your inevitable bankruptcy.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents # 1
DC Comis
Script: Nick Spencer
Pencils: CAFU
$3.99 suggested retail

This was an ancient Tower Comics property, where a bunch of Joe Lunchboxes with regular day jobs would use technology to infuse themselves with super powers and work with the UN. As many of these stories go, it descended into a kind of Miracle Man type "who owns the rights?" Hell, only without the McFarlane stains. Those never come out, not really, I don't care how much Spot Shot you plaster onto them.

No, DC appears to own the property free and clear, and had the presence to hand it off to Nick Spencer, oh he of Morning Glories fame. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not ready to announce that Spencer is the Second Coming. Yet. But I'm not ruling it out, either.

Spencer is keeping to the tradition of using more regular folk as his starring cast. The new hook is that the powers administered to these characters are ultimately lethal. To them. My first response was "You know, I think I liked that concept better the first time I heard it when it was called Strikeforce Morituri."

The thing is, it's a really good concept, everything has been done before, and I'm more worried that it's handled correctly now. Art is by something calling itself CAFU. I don't know what that is, but it sounds illegal and I want one.

Suggested retail on this thing is $3.99, but I'm going to recommend something else. Go over to DCB Service and find the book in the "Specials" category. DC is offering this comic for 50% off....signed by Nick Spencer.

So you can either wait for your local shop to not order this and maybe pay $4 if they do. Or, you can get if from DCB Service for $2, complete with an authentic signature of rising superstar and probable Jesus/Minerva love child Nick Spencer. I know which way I'm leaning.

Dungeons & Dragons # 1
IDW Comics
Script: John Rogers
Pencils: Andrea Di Vito
$3.99 suggested retail (unknown price on module variant)

I reviewed the intro issue for this property, and it's a cute little action piece. It's not going to change your life or anything, but sometimes you just want to read an adventure story. John Rogers has screenwriting credits on Transformers and Leverage, so he knows how to do that.

I don't ordinarily get into variant covers. I get the scarcity angle, but it has no real draw for me. What IDW is doing on this book is actually quite clever, though. Rather than just staple a different cover on the variant, they dressed it up as an old D&D Module and are adding role-playing content. So after you're done reading the book, you can use it as a module for re-creating the adventure in a gaming world.

Now that is providing relevant content and added value to a product. Bravo, gents. And women. Whoever you people at IDW are.

Hack/Slash: My First Maniac S/N HC
Image Comics
Script: Tim Seeley
Pencils: Dan Leister
$29.99 suggested retail

Hack Slash is a great series. The scripts are always funny, and the Cassie/Vlad relationship is one of the best in comics. If you like horror in any genre, you like comics, or you like to laugh, this should be an automatic pick up.

Since Seeley took the property over to Image, the product is now hitting seamlessly and getting better. Here's something we never saw from DDP - a nice hardcover edition shipped fresh of the heels of the completed storyline.

Now, you can go cheap and just get the soft cover TPB for $9.99, available simultaneously. And by the way, how awesome is that to have both available instead of being forced to buy something you may or may not want just to have it now? It's super awesome.

Me, I'm going with the limited and signed hardcover edition. Suggested retail is $29.99, but I'm only going to spend $18 at DCB Service. That's just obscene. By the way, that edition is going to sell for $50 minimum this time next year and probably closer to $100. Apparently I'm the only person in this joint who isn't allergic to money, so you can just forget that profiteering stuff I just mentioned if it helps you sleep at night.

The Sword: Complete Collection Deluxe HC
Image Comics
Scripts: Joshua Luna
Pencils: Jonathan Luna
$99.99 suggested retail ($150 SRP for signed edition)

This is a product I've been waiting on for awhile now. If you've had your ear to the ground at all, you know this story gathered some rave reviews. Like, RAVE reviews. Like, anybody who has ever read this achieved a spontaneous orgasm at minimum, and its on record as lowering blood pressure and curing bronchitis. That's how well reviewed Sword is.

Now we have the entire 24 issue storyline collected in one giant tome, and I am ready to consume. This edition will be printed to order, and then it's gone for good - so get on if you're coming aboard, because it will never be cheaper than it will be to order now.

Incidentally, there is also a signed edition that will be strictly limited to 200 copies. If you can afford it, I would pull the trigger on that. The Luna Bros are a strong niche commodity, and The Sword has "comics legend" written all over it. Legends never go out of style. That signed edition? That's a $500 book waiting to happen.

Once again, it's available at DCB Service for $50 standard version and $100 for the signed limited edition.

- Ryan

Chronic Review: Morning Glories # 1!

Morning Glories # 1
Image Comics
Script: Nick Spencer
Pencils: Joe Eisma
44 pages for $3.99

I will admit that I approached this book with some trepidation. I wanted to believe in it. Nick Spencer certainly seemed to believe in it, and has been pitching this book as the "next big thing" since April, with all the manic enthusiasm of a born again Christian. Here's a bit from an early CBR interview:

"Any comic creator with less than a year in the industry and working in a market that's fighting its way through a pretty turbulent "transitional" phase would have to be nuts to call his next book a career-definer and pretty much bet the farm on it becoming an instant hit. Well, ladies and sort-of-gentlemen, allow me introduce myself: I am that nutjob. After this interview, I am gonna smack at cars with an umbrella and maybe dangle a baby out of my window."

Mark Millar thinks that's over the top. So either there had to be something special happening here, or Nick Spencer was just a really committed huckster.

Like I said, I really wanted to believe in him, and the first issue of Shuddertown convinced me that he absolutely has chops. The problem, I think, was that I had heard this kind of story before when Joe Casey was selling The Intimates with equal zeal back in 2005. It was supposed to redefine superhero comics, or at least teen books. I read the first few issues of Intimates, and while there was nothing broken about it, neither was it particularly compelling. So when I heard Spencer's pitch, I really fought it. I've heard this song before. It can't be that good.

I'm here to tell you - believe the hype. Morning Glories is exceptionally good. Like, just put it on the Eisner ballot for Best New Series right now good.

Spencer likes to call the book "Runaways meets Lost", and I can see that. If one must boil it down, I prefer to think of it as "David Lynch does The New Mutants." I'm going to go very light on plot points, because I want you to enjoy the surprises, of which there are many. Whatever you think this book is about...it's not.

So what can I say about it without spoiling all the fun? Morning Glories is very strange, quite dark, often creepy, sometimes hilarious and almost always refreshingly novel. This comic crackles beneath the surface with ideas that pop. Certain books exude a kind of energy signature, where you can almost feel the creator's muse across the page. Hickman's Fantastic Four. Simone's Secret Six. Glories radiates like that.

I will say that Spencer writes the book in a way that will drive certain reader's up the goddamn wall. If you're expecting to be spoon fed from a giant exposition heap with a couple character introductions tossed in, you are going to be sorely disappointed. Spencer drops you into a transitional period at Morning Glories Academy, where some students are on the way out and a new crop are coming in. You get nebulous super powers, subliminal messages, impossible coincidences, and the best sense of escalating conspiratorial dread this side of Rosemary's Baby. You're plopped straight into the thick of the action and expected to use your brain a little to fill in the pieces - to which I say hallelujah. But some prefer a little more handholding. You won't be getting it.

The key to running a story that way is for the writer to establish him/herself as a competent conductor. Some stories trade on confusion masquerading as drama. Morning Glories is not confusing - it is an obviously intricate plot with its foundations in characters with depth, confounded expectations, and real mystery.

The mistake that so many of these Lost retreads make is that they think withholding answers is entertainment. It's not. There is no mystery without investment. What Nick Spencer remembered to do was have the characters do and say interesting and clever things.

Listen, there are types in this book that we've seen before. Ike is the haughty, debauched debutante of the group. The key is, can you make it fresh? So you get two pages of dinner conversation between Ike and his mother like this:

Spencer knows these characters, and he made them all sharp. There's an "emo" girl, of course. There just has to be. We've seen that before. But what you get in this comic is access to her journal, and it is horrible. It's horrible in exactly the way that a teenaged emo girl would produce. It's the most wonderful, horrible journal entries I've ever read.

There's a "meet cute" in the book, and 7,000 romantic comedies have driven this into the ground to the point where it's difficult to feel anything about them any more. So Spencer turns the whole concept upside down when Casey and Hunter conk heads together, producing flying papers and sparks. He knocks the characterization into the cheap seats over and over again.

And that's the only way these mystery plots can survive. First, they need to be populated with characters interesting enough to warrant the suspense. And you need to have some faith in the conductor. The reason why Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, and Grant Morrison (who gets a nod in the comic) are able to get away with outlandish twists and hanging threads is that we know that no matter how weird things get...there's method to the madness that will pay off down the road. The twists will make sense and the threads will unhang. This story feels like it has a skilled conductor with a plan, and it's positively intoxicating.

I could go on about all the easter eggs layered into this thing, of which I've maybe twigged onto only a small part, I'd wager. How about the red head crying about her birthday in perfect homage to Molly Ringwald in 16 Candles? And it's not in your face or jarring. It locks into the story perfectly. If you're not a John Hughes fan, you don't even notice and go on to the next panel. And if you do, it's an extra smile. There's several extra smiles in Morning Glories.

This comic is ripe with the unexpected and deep - good for multiple readings. I've already read it twice, and with all the easter eggs lying around, I expect it won't be the last time I reference this issue. But I'm done ruining your fun with buzz-killing analysis and reveals - just go out and read the Next Big Thing for yourself, already!

- Ryan

Chronic Review: Shuddertown # 1

Shuddertown # 1
Image Comics
Script: Nick Spencer
Pencils: Adam Geen
22 pages for $ 3.50

Shuddertown is the story of detective Isaac Hernandez and the lies he swims in. He's a classic noir protagonist; as flawed and dark as the criminals he seeks to bring to justice. Isaac doesn't have a lot of friends or a cheery disposition. What he does have is a history with drugs and a pile of cases that just don't seem to make any sense.


There's plenty of evidence at the murder scenes for Hernandez to find. The problem is that all of this gift-wrapped evidence points to dead people as the perpetrators.

It's a nice little hook, and Spencer plays it out with smart dialogue. Geen's pencils are very moody and fit the tale nicely. It's reminiscent of Maleev, or JH Williams, which always reminds me of Bill Sienkiewicz. (I wonder what percentage of today's comic book art we can actually trace back to that guy - 8 percent? More?) This is such a departure in terms of sophistication from Fade to Black that one finds it hard to believe they came from the same imprint. (although there are preview pages for Fade in the issue, just to remind you of the absurd fact) If somebody handed me this comic without the cover, I would have guessed Vertigo, for sure.

This is a mystery within a mystery. Spencer has been up front about the fact that there are layers here, and Hernandez foreshadows this as well. He's always talking about lies.

The success of the story depends upon the audience's investment in trying to parse out what is actually going on here. And I have a theory.

Before I lay this out, understand that we don't have much to go on here, and I'm traditionally very bad at piecing these things together. The good news/bad news for me is that I have a gift for maintaining the suspension of disbelief when I'm reading or watching something.

The good news is that I'm always surprised and can enjoy these things as the author intended. The bad news is that while everyone else knows the punchline a mile before it arrives, I'm the village idiot.

It seems to me that the themes here are A) Lies and B) Impact post-mortem. And I think that Isaac Hernandez is actually stone dead somewhere, and what we're seeing right now is the man's personal hell. What we're reading now is Hernandez being haunted by his past, trying to piece together murders that don't matter any more with evidence that doesn't make any sense. Hernandez is stuck in the past, but the world has moved on.

I don't have much to go on other than a gut feeling. My strongest piece of evidence is an interpretation of a brief phone conversation:


Isaac (and presumably the reader) are meant to infer that the Blevins case is in the past tense, and it is. But I think that somebody is trying to tell Hernandez that he is in the past tense. When Isaac meets Sam, he wants Hernandez to show him his side wound. Gunshot wound? Hard to say.

I think that wound may have been lethal, and Hernandez is just too committed to his own lies to admit it. Perhaps as part of a sacrifice of some kind. That wound is sitting right about the level a Roman centurion pierced Jesus to speed up his crucifixion.

It's quite possible I'm reading too much into this, but that's the whole fun of this kind of exercise, and these little opportunities to really test your noodle so rarely turn up in the genre. (Grant Morrison notwithstanding) I like this book a lot, whether I've "figured it out" or not. I suspect I haven't.

If you like Vertigo as a general rule, you'll like what you find here. This is worthy of your time if you're looking for something outside the superhero genre, and straight up your alley if you enjoy noir or stuff like 100 Bullets.

The only real disappointment for me was when I got to the back cover trumpeting the coming of issue of # 2......in June. I guess the good news is that Spencer is honest enough to announce the delay. I just don't get it, though. In order to find an audience in the era of mandatory attrition, you simply must hit that audience monthly. I hope this book survives, but I'm not sure that anything is going to fly in 2010 on a quarterly schedule. Shame, really, because comics needs a little more of this...

- Ryan