Comic Review Bites

Mystery Society by Steve Niles and Fiona Staples

A sexy couple with the means and the motivation to solve some of the more unusual crimes are recruiting members for their new Mystery Society. Conveniently, a ghoul named Secret Skull and Jules Verne's brain encased in a quirky robot body apply for the job. Add the atomic twins that Nick Mystery rescues from Area 51 and we have the makings of a really fun team.

Unfortunately, in spite of Fiona Staples' fantastic artwork, this great concept falls flat with sub-par plotting, sub-par subplotting, a lack of mystery, an annoying antagonist and rather lame attempts at wit and humour. This comment is very negative, but I'd like to think that it's a negative with a lean to the positive. As in, I can see a lot of potential for good old fashioned tongue-in cheek mystery wagon fun with this book, if it can stop trying so hard and just relax and enjoy itself.

2.5 of 5 stars

We3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

Three lost pets are turned into war machines but as prototypes, their phase of the test program is complete and WE3 are set for termination. Their chief handler disapproves of this and gives them the means to escape their fate. Out in the world, they deal with their hunters with brutal precision that reflects their individual natures but in their hearts and minds is a single word: "home."

I think a true animal lover will find this book even more gut-wrenching than I did, but I can definitely appreciate the emotions attached to it, especially with the lost pet posters that begin each chapter.

This was recommended to me when I asked for a good Grant Morrison story. The story idea was really good and I liked that there was not a lot of dialogue and exposition. Morrison truly allowed the art to speak and Quitely delivered admirably. I loved the way the visuals begin from a pet's eye view and I loved the unique splash pages, particularly the one that separated the page into a mosaic of frightening violence.

3.5 of 5 stars

X-Men: Magneto Testament by Greg Pak and Carmine Di Giandomenico

The best thing about this series is that it is not about a superhero/villain or mutant, but about a very human boy forced to become a man during the Holocaust. We've always known about Magneto's past, but we've never seen it. Not like this. I kept wondering if and when his powers would manifest, as we've seen in various other incarnations of his story, but the harsh reality is ... painful.. and educational.

4 of 5 stars

Graphic Novel Review: Happy! by Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson

Happy! by Grant Morrison

Someone needs to point me at a Grant Morrison book that proves the hype. Yes, I have read Batman: Arkham Asylum and agree that it was pretty good. Had I not read it before, I would have learned about how awesome it was when I struggled through Supergods, where Morrison repeatedly pointed out that fact. Then there was his run on New X-Men where one of my all time favourite X-stories ripped out of the pages of Classic X-Men #27, but with all of the subtlety and perfection of the original ending replaced by a drama-induced splash page that completely misses the point.

Happy! has done very little to raise my opinion on the worthiness of the hype.

What? Me? Bitter?

Happy! begins with some men summarizing the main character, Nick Sax, in a single word of four-letters. No, not that four-letter word. THAT four-letter word. If you’re offended by gratuitous use of four-letter words, then this book is not for you. It starts off with very, very gratuitous swearing; an intended commentary by Morrison, who says “It’s the most offensively sweary book I think I’ve ever written. It gets to like, you’re just thinking, I cannot read the word fuck again. Please do not put the fucking word fuck back in this comic, and you’re only on page 3 and there’s twenty four pages. It’s actually exhausting!”

This is Morrison’s first time with Image Comics with this creator-owned book. I love what Image is doing in the industry by publishing so many creator-owned projects. It’s refreshing and fascinating to see the creativity unleashed when these writers and artists are liberated from the iconic characters of DC, Marvel and Image. Most of the books I’ve read so far have been fantastic, but Happy!, considering that quote above, comes off as a teenager finally getting the keys to dad’s sports car.

Anyway, I’m not offended by contextual swearing. Once the joke settles in after a few pages, the story is able to move on to the introduction of Nick Sax. Sax is a former cop who, through some convenient corrupt cop tropes that we learn about later, is now a hitman. He is an unhealthy, curmudgeonly man who spends his money on vices and eczema cream. In a display of graphic blood and violence, he takes out his targets at the beginning, as well as the nephew of a big mob boss, who tries to trade a password to mob riches for his life. Remember the password as it fuels the secondary plot that allows Sax to be hunted by the mob, carefully padding out the too short story.

Sax is seriously wounded and hospitalized and this is where the book’s saving grace appears in the form of the titular character.

How can you not look at Happy and not, well, be happy? Unless you’re Sax who is doped up and in pain and convinced that this cheery blue horse is a hallucination. Happy helps Sax escape the clutches of the evil henchmen looking for the password, because Happy needs Sax's help. Happy's little girl, Hailey, has been kidnapped by a nasty, evil, disgusting Santa. (This is a Christmas tale, after all).

Happy is definitely the highlight in the book. He's annoyingly cheerful, but not obnoxiously so and he isn't all sunshine and rainbows once he realizes what Sax is about. Initially, Happy has no idea why he's appeared to Sax, but the connection is made later. This connection serves to finally motivate Sax to do the right thing and save Hailey, but there was not nearly enough character development in Sax to convince me that the connection given was enough to make him give a damn.

On the other hand, Happy realizes that he can do much more than just nag at Sax and, in a glorious splash page, takes care of business. I would have loved if the book gave me far more of Happy, what with him being the title character and all, and far less of Sax (not that there was much to Sax in the first place.)

Other than Happy's moment of glory, the ending was predictable, with Sax supposedly redeeming himself after stumbling miraculously on the bad guys. But again, there is so little evidence in his character development to convince me that he truly earned or even cared about this redemption.

The artwork deserves some attention because it really makes up for what the story and characters lack. Robertson does a fantastic job of capturing the gritty, dirty, ugly feel of the characters. mood and environment, with Happy's bright blue strangeness being a perfect contrast to the gloom.

2 of 5 stars

Graphic Novel Review: Batman R.I.P. by Grant Morrison

Batman R.I.P. by Grant Morrison

 I’m not even sure how to sum this one up, but don’t take that as a bad omen for this story. I enjoyed it very much, but there’s so much going on here that it’s not easy to try to sum it up in a few words. However, I’ll try. Basically, this chronicles Batman’s descent into madness and his “death.” Batman has always led a troubled existence where he’s sometimes struggled with whether his actions as the caped crusader really do more harm than good.

Those feelings seemed to have come to a head in this arc where we read about his quest to understand madness. Batman becomes obsessed with a wealthy crime organization known as The Black Glove led by Dr. Hurt—who unbeknownst to Batman implanted a trigger word deep into his subconscious that would turn him into a madman. When the trigger word is finally used against him, Batman withdraws from life, living on the streets in a seemingly mad state, leaving Gotham prey to a crime spree orchestrated by The Black Glove.

I wouldn’t recommend this for the casual reader. You need to have a little knowledge of Batman and his world before diving into this. I read a few stories leading up to this arc, and I still had to feel my way around with the story a little bit. However, even though I still have some questions about the events leading up to this arc, I enjoyed this.

I’m a sucker for this kind of psychological mind trip, and it was fascinating to watch Batman go through this madness while still trying to be Batman. And the funny thing was that Dr. Hurt kept saying that Batman was done, that with his sanity gone he was just a shell of a nightmare. However, Batman said that sanity, which he equates with his “Bruce” personality, was the only thing keeping Batman in check.

The story also centered partly on Robin and Spoiler (in a tie-in Robin #175 and Robin #176) with some supporting scenes from Nightwing and faces familiar from Batman Inc. Robin realizes that something is wrong, that Bruce has been brainwashed in some way, and he sets out on a personal journey to find out the extent of the damage in order to know what his next move should be. We learn about Batman’s 49 days of solitude leading up to these events through Robin’s story. Spoiler helps and hinders him in some ways, which she reveals her reasons for at the end, and the tension between Robin and her is palpable due to her not revealing that she was alive all the time Robin thought she was dead.

The Joker was a break out performance for me. I have to say this is one of the creepiest ways he’s ever been depicted. He reminds me of Jack Torrance from The Shining as he appeared in the picture at the end. He also seemed to be channeling Pyramid Head in some ways with his body apron and knives. In his own sick, twisted way, he seems to be Batman’s biggest adversary and his greatest advocate. He’s chillingly disturbing here, maybe even more so than he was in Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Of course, the arc ends with Batman being aware of everything that has happened to him. Part of my beef with Batman was how he just seems to know everything. I know he has to stay one step ahead of the game, especially since he’s a non-powered hero, but there was little mystery left after you realize that Batman has played the game better than The Black Glove. However, it was spun in such a way that it didn’t come off forced or silly, just typical of Batman. The arc also ends on an ambiguous note. Did Batman really die or didn’t he? We all know the answer to that question, but it still makes for an interesting read.

Final Verdict:

3.5 of 5 stars

Supergods by Grant Morrison

Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human by Grant Morrison

This book is a wealth of information and insight on the industry that even includes suggested further reading and a thorough indexing. The book inspired many interesting discussion points for my book club, but while I appreciate Grant Morrison's passion for comics, Grant Morrison's passion for Grant Morrison and his industry biases were quite clear.

This was a difficult read, mainly because of the writing itself. It is clearly written by someone used to having his words quickly translated into images. Without the images here, he was overcompensating and it began to seem as though he fell in love with all the words on his screen, reviewing each sentence, adding some more adjectives, then duplicating each sentence and switching in some synonyms.

Occasionally, his descriptions were aided by comic covers or pages. I would likely have less issue with the writing had this been written into a coffee table format book that included more images.

It is important to note that most of the images that did appear were from DC Comics, the company and characters which dominate the book, making it clear who's side Morrison is on.

The book is subtitled, "What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human," which is addressed initially, mostly through Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, but this focus is eventually lost, with the second half of the book focusing instead on Grant Morrison. It turns out, this is actually an autobiography (and blatant promotion of past and upcoming works) that, as a friend noted, probably didn't have enough to make a full book, so add the comic history... To his credit, Morrison did manage to make it through over 100 pages before pointing out how successful Arkham Asylum was and remains, but by the second half of the book, entire chapters are dedicated to his works and his trials and tribulations with Marvel and a clear bitterness towards Image (though his description of Image characters, artistry and books is apt).

He did manage to speak with initial kindness towards Marvel and its earlier creations, with a surprisingly pithy description of the X-Men. Later, when he goes into his time on New X-Men, he at least shows some level of humility in terms of the criticism his storylines received.

2 of 5 stars