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Snapshots for 10/18/04
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.
THE CAVALCADE OF BOYS #3 & #8
by Tim Fish (TMC)
 Here's another something I never would have come across if I wasn't reviewing: A self-published gay romance comic. I'll be honest, I wasn't sure I'd be able to relate too much to Cavalcade of Boys, and Fish does sort of make the read feel more like jumping into a world that I know nothing about rather than focusing on the commonalities of all romance, hetero or homo, but the stories are definitely well-crafted. Fish's style is an odd mix, reminding me at times of Archie Comics or the work of Blue Monday's Chynna Clugston-Major and at other times like John Byrne or Erik Larsen, on the other end of the artistic spectrum. His stories, meanwhile, are reminiscent of the work I've read from Los Bros. Hernandez, a series of vignettes that unite to tell the larger story of a decent-sized cast. Cavalcade of Boys is focused more on the love lives of gay men than it is on their sex lives, although several of Fish's characters have a plenty healthy sexual appetite. For those seeking the comic-book equivalent of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy or Will & Grace, you should probably look elsewhere, as Cavalcade is less flashy and considerably more honest than that. It's a little more narrowly focused at a gay audience rather than a mainstream audience as a result, but for those interested in gay themes, I'd definitely recommend Cavalcade of Boys, not just for its verisimilitude but for its entertaining stories and attractive artwork. 7/10
HUMAN TARGET #15
by Peter Milligan & Cliff Chiang (DC Comics/Vertigo)
 After a very promising start, the "Second Coming" arc disappoints in its second chapter, exploring less of the role of a messiah and more of the same sort of hand-wringing that Chance does about all of his identity stealing jobs. Chance's goal has become less of the believable ideal of showing his friend the truth about Paul James's cult and more about a more general desire to "defeat" the cult and its elders and maybe to indulge in a little of the fame and adulation that Paul enjoys. The exploration of the nature of faith and whether Paul was a good person despite the cliche of cult leaders being more or less con men is also gone, replaced by a brief scene in which he seems to have cast off the moral guidance that he had just last issue, and the whole thing feels more like a story that changed midstream than a continuation of an excellent first issue. Chiang's artwork continues to impress, even if Loughridge does some weird experimentation with the colors in this issue that didn't always resonate with me, but the story missed its target with me. 6/10
JACK STAFF #6
by Paul Grist (Image Comics)
 I don't review this book often, because I reviewed it a number of times at previous websites (you can see my general overview of the black and white iteration of the series HERE), but I've got a nice shiny review copy here, and I haven't really talked much about the colors, so what the hell? The short version is that Jack Staff works as well in color as it did in black and white, and it is a loving tribute to British comics while remaining surprisingly approachable to American audiences. Grist's style, applying love for the archetypes he's using with one hand while slapping them on the back of the head with a stinging and dry sense of humor with the other, makes for pretty fun reading. In addition, his structure, which weaves a number of characters in various time periods into different stories that thread together, is something we don't see a lot of in comics. It honestly works better in trades where you get the stories all put together, but it's fun to read in single issues as well, and there's some nice payoff in this issue for the lead story. There's also a delightful bit of fun in the form of a "cut your own card game" set of pages, and a story that begins on the covers, another couple of unusual touches in the modern-day comic book. There are a lot of superhero comics out there, but fun and light superhero comics are something else entirely, and Jack Staff offers up a sense of fun and an imaginative cast of characters that is hard to find elsewhere in the industry. 7/10
MADROX #2
by Peter David, Pablo Raimondi & Drew Hennessy (Marvel Comics/Marvel Knights)
 The second issue of this miniseries brings more neat ideas about Madrox's odd power, a few more clues into how he was "killed" in the first issue and a touch more of David's schtick style humor than probably belongs in the book. It's different from David's X-Factor, despite featuring three of the same characters, but it's also different from his work on Fallen Angel, and while it doesn't grab me as much as either of those projects did (and do), I like that David continues to show versatility in his work and there's certainly strong craft and plenty of interesting moments to keep readers interested. Raimondi, Hennessy and colorist Brian Reber also do phenomenal work here, with gorgeously-detailed backdrops of the streets of New York and Chicago or a lush mansion in Chicago and terrific characters who don't get the shortcut of looking like Hollywood actors or being distinguished by gaudy costumes. 8/10
TEEN TITANS #17
by Geoff Johns, Mike McKone & Marlo Alquiza (DC Comics)
 In the wake of the Teen Titans/Legion crossover (which honestly kind of fizzled out for me), Johns has used the time travel of that story to launch the Titans into a favorite story type of mine, the dark possible future. Alternate versions of the heroes, a world gone wrong, and our heroes unsure what they can (or should) do to fix it are all to be found in this familiar but still fun take on a genre staple. Given the dark present that both Marvel and DC are mostly wallowing in at the moment, my interest in this dark type of material is a little bit on the wane, but there's some very interesting material in here, notably Batman's confrontation with Joker's daughter and the ruthless edge that the confrontation reveals and some gorgeous designs for the adult Titans and their foes courtesy of McKone and Alquiza. Johns also isn't letting stories drop in order to tell these future tales, he's referencing ongoing plotlines like the Wonder Girl-Superboy romance, Superboy's dilemma over his DNA and Ares's obsession with Wonder Girl, although I worry that the driving force of this future is also going to reference a modern day event relating to Tim Drake, the one that caused me to again curse Brad Meltzer's writing when I skimmed the end of Identity Crisis looking for "comic atrocities" this week. For right now, though, I'm finding this tale of dark potential future and grown-up (but not grown good) versions of our heroes intriguing, and the artwork, as always, is gorgeous. 8/10
VIDEO #2
by Stephen R. Buell (Lost in the Dark Press)
 We're only two issues in, but I like to think of Video as "What if Brian Wood tackled The Rapture?" Buell's approach has that same grungy do-it-yourself ethos that got my attention when Brian Wood produced Channel Zero, only applied to examination of religion instead of politics. The characters are a little sketchy at this point, and Buell's storytelling is a bit on the scattered side, probably deliberately so, but the central idea is really strong and the turns the story has taken have been surprising. This issue provides a couple big surprises, one of the violent shock variety and another of the surprise revelation variety, and while there's not enough story available yet for me to be truly hooked, I am definitely curious. If you dug Chosen and want to see another sort of down-to-Earth, human take on the second coming, Video is definitely worth a look. 7/10
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