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Snapshots for 8/24/05
There's no way that Don and I can cover all of the material we have for review in full reviews, so these capsule reviews will offer some brief comments on other recent releases.
 Horror is not easy to do in comics. Part of the reason for that is that you need to control the pacing, to build suspense, and doing that can mean audience boredom. The Luna Brothers may have found the perfect way to hang onto the audience while they build mystery, and that is to feature an unusual monster: the hot naked girl. It sounds ludicrous that the villains, or at least some of the villains, of this piece are a pack of naked girls, but their attack on the world at large this issue is bloody and certainly freak-out scary and disturbing, and the revelation of what motivates them on the last page is chilling. The last piece of the puzzle drops into place on the final page of Girls #4, and while there are still plenty of mysteries left to explore, the shape of the story has become clear, and it's a strange but undeniably compelling horror tale.
 The first issue was really good... the second issue is better. Godland is in some ways a tribute to the bombastic style, wild imagination and cosmic concepts of Jack Kirby, but you better believe there's plenty of Joe Casey's modern, somewhat sarcastic and also wildly imaginative style in there as well. The conversation between villains Basil Cronus and Friedrich Nickelhead (I love that name) is just terrific, a perfect blend of modern hipster self-awareness and unpretentious Silver Age speech, and the motivation that actually drives Cronus is weird and fun as well. I also got a big kick out of the second part of Adam Archer's origin in this issue, which includes Scioli and colorist Bill Crabtree delivering a superhero meets kung fu style training sequence that's just too much fun for words. Unlike so many single issues these days, Godland really delivers bang for your buck, with two action sequences, an origin story and some good 'ol villain speechifying all contained in these pages. Godland is some of the most fun you can find in a comics shop these days, from those gorgeously-designed covers all the way to the last cliffhanger page. Check it out.
JACK CROSS #1
by Warren Ellis & Gary Erskine (DC Comics)
 Fans of Jack Bauer (24) and Jack Bristow (Alias) would be well-advised to check out the newest espionage badass named Jack, Ellis and Erskine's Jack Cross. Jack Cross #1 reads like a cross between Ellis's usual stylistic tics and the right-wing action dynamics of 24, a fascinating blend because Ellis's sensibilities are so clearly on the liberal side, and applying that formula to another formula that is almost by necessity conservative makes for a fascinating contradiction. It's especially nice when you've got an artist who can keep up, and Erskine and colorist Brian Reber present some excellent visuals here, conveying the clockwork precision of the attack in the opening pages (though I missed the sound effects greatly, especially in the automatic weapons fire scenes), the casual nature of Jack's "off hours" persona on the beach and the brutal methods that Cross uses to get what he needs out of the suspect.
This isn't the first time that Ellis has delved into the story of necessary monsters, but Jack Cross is slightly different in that he sort of "switches off" his normal personality to become a civil rights-violating, torturing, hard-nosed bastard. Ellis writes a great interrogation scene, with his protagonist using monstrous, despicable violence against a suspect in the name of a greater good, and it's the same sort of thing that can be seen in the use of Jack Bauer in 24. Cross knows that what he does is quote-unquote wrong, knows that it violates his principles, and suffers personal consequence as a result of his decision to violate those principles. This little touch of humanity makes Jack Cross more engaging than the uber-competent badasses that Ellis has offered up in so much of his work of late, and makes Jack Cross the strongest Ellis project I've read in quite a while.
 Noble Causes stumbled a little at one point, but I'm so glad I decided to check back in, because the book is definitely rewarding its long-term readers now. The twists and turns in Zephyr's pregnancy, the impostor who replaced Doc Noble, Liz's acclimation to the Noble family, the true loyalties of Krennick and more all come to a satisfying conclusion in this issue, which is the wrap-up of the first year of the ongoing series. This kind of thing can easily feel like a deck-clearing exercise, with Faerber and Bueno lining up a jumping-on point and new story direction for #13, but everything feels really natural, like it's been planned all along, and there are any number of great moments. The arrival of the "cavalry" in the alley, the revelation of Liz's new ability and the satisfying ending to Zephyr's pregnancy story are all the kind of memorable moments I hope for in a soap opera style superhero comic, reminiscent of the best days of old school '80s superhero storytelling, when this kind of soap opera was being done well. Bueno has also come along quite nicely, and several of the moments are down to his artwork and Ron Riley's coloring, especially the laser sights of the police and the gun teleportation tech of Doc Noble, although the disappearance of all the color on one key page was an unfortunate priting error. At any rate, whether you dive into the trade paperbacks or just come back next month for the start of the "next season" in issue #13, if you're a fan of old school superheroics with a soap opera/subplot focus, you might want to give Noble Causes a try.
 Aaron Williams always offers up a nice mix of pop culture commentary and gamer-specific humor in Nodwick, his tale of a barely-successful, not-quite-competent band of fantasy adventurers. This issue ties into the long-running story of an evil god who has been attempting to take over their world, a god whom the heroes have foiled mostly through luck or by accident several times, but it's completely approachable as a standalone as well. The three-page opener that tales the tales of how the mortal races gained knowledge has enough jokes in it to make the whole thing worthwhile, but the rest of the story is a lot of fun as well, as the heroes come upon a legendary artifact that can increase the intellect of the wielder... by smacking him across the back of the head. Sure, it's a goofy pun, the clue by four, but Williams makes it about more than that, playing off a strongly established set of characters to make the humor specific to them, and though the story itself is sort of one step along the road to a larger plotline, it also has an ending that caps off this particular chapter as well. In addition, Williams art continues to delight, a cartoony and very expressive style that is instantly recognizable and distinctly cute. Nodwick is a great read for anyone who has ever played D&D, and who knows that there's often a pretty large gap between the heroes of fantasy novels and movies and their heroic counterparts in role-playing, who often veer close to parody rather than adventure.
SMALL GODS #10
by Jason Rand, Juan & Eduardo Ferreyra, Jim Keplinger & Lucius A. Romero (Image Comics)
 "Nightingale," the third Small Gods arc, kicks off in this issue, and diverts from the story of cops and crime with psychic powers to the story of how the military might use such assets. If you guessed "in a sinister, even cruel" fashion, come up and claim your teddy bear, because the first part of this story is a nasty little story of a blackmailed and brutalized special op whose telepathic powers allow her to act as a one-woman killing machine. There are some familiar touches to this story, blending as it does the barely controlled monster-as-weapon story (think Akira, for example) and the morally corrupt black ops story, but it's still a solid read with some spectacular artwork from the Ferreyras. The explosion that takes out the base and serves as the cliffhanger is especially pretty, but you've got to credit them with the brutality and effiency they show in the assault on a drug cartel compound and the chaos caused by Fierro's telepathy during the assault as well.
The backup tale, written by Keplinger and illustrated by Romero, is completely different, a story of con artists in New Orleans that has some nice flavor in the dialogue and compelling characters but suffers from its brief (four page) length and some muddiness in Romero's art. Which is not to say it's a bad story, because in general Romero's art has some nice mood and tone, reminiscent of the black and white work of Alex Maleev or Greg Scott, but it sometimes tells a story more by implication than clear panel-to-panel continuity. Perhaps more importantly, the story is just barely getting going when it comes to an abrupt halt. The flash-forward psychic vision does provide a compelling reason to come back, though, and while I have some complaints about the overall darkness of Romero's art, I don't really have any complaints about his storytelling, which does convey the generalities of the story flow.
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?! #1
by Keith Giffen, Mike Leib, Wally Wood & Bill Molno (Boom! Studios)
 Within the pages of What Were They Thinking?! #1, you'll find comics that will offend some gays, women, Japanese, Germans and of course Americans. You will also find laughs a-plenty, if your mindset is in the right place for it. There can be no denying that the premise of What Were They Thinking?! is sort of a sophomoric humor idea, taking old comics and re-dialoguing them for humorous effect, but, immature or not, the premise yields some funny results. The old war comics were sort of rah-rah propaganda anyway, so they are as ripe for parody as those propaganda posters that have been so humorously remixed, and there's something gloriously wrong and funny about remixing some of the most macho comics ever into stories of a "coyote ugly" women's squadron or dumb as a post American commandos. Wally Wood's art has now pulled double duty, serving as solid war comics originally and as the backbone of an ironic humor comic today, and Giffen and Leib have created a memorable cast of entertainingly dumb characters in the three tales found in here. It seems like a joke that could get old fast, but applying this same approach to different genres of old comics could yield more comedic gold, and certainly this issue is well worth a look for those who want something weird and funny out of their comics.
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