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SPOTLIGHT ON HUMOR
Another term for comics has long been "funny books," but being funny isn't really what the majority of comics do these days. Superhero adventure and melodrama has long since taken over as the dominant genre, and while there are pockets of funny in the big two, it's more the kind of thing that's left to the other publishers. Fortunately, these publishers have more than picked up the slack, and this week, I'll take a look at a handful of books that bring the funny. There's a variety of humor here, from the "everything and the kitchen sink" wackiness of Amazing Joy Buzzards or Middle Man all the way to the relationship humor that drives much of Banana Sunday, Hero Squared and PVP, and some of these books (like Giant Monster) could just as easily fit into other genres. In fact, if you want to be more accurate, you could say these are humorous books, even if all of them don't fit strictly into the humor genre. But these books all have one thing in common, and that's an ability to make the reader laugh.
 I almost feel like the best way to express how cool Amazing Joy Buzzards is would be to lay down a list of the elements in this issue. Exciting racetrack action! Machineguns! Angels! Masked mexican wrestlers battling over good and evil! Yetis! Tales of adventure! The secret origin of the enigmatic Stevo! Really, each issue of Amazing Joy Buzzards is packed with cool ideas and even cooler visuals, and this one is no exception. Smith and Hipp serve up breathtaking action sequences and some of the most lovably goofy villains this side of Venture Brothers, and they do a lot of it with mostly silent storytelling. The origin of Stevo, revealed in this issue, is fun and imaginative, and further cements Amazing Joy Buzzards in the realm of the weird, while leaving open an obvious introduction for a new character down the line. If you're a fan of action and comedy, you'll definitely want to give Amazing Joy Buzzards a look.
 In the end, Banana Sunday is a lot like the confection that shares its name: a little bit gooey and not quite substantial enough to make a meal, but plenty sweet and really great in moderation. Nibot and Coover don't expand much in the last couple issues from where they started, and so the gags and the character bits feel a bit repetitive, but they're still enjoyable and there's a general vibe of light fun that I much appreciated. As Nibot notes in his afterword to issue four, this kind of unapologetic fun is rare enough in comics these days. Certainly the revelation about the monkeys' true origins was a clever one that I didn't see coming but which is perfectly fitting for the tone of the book, and Coover's cartooning throughout is top notch, fun and cute and with great comedic timing. Those with a fondness for monkeys, for Archie comics or just for great cartooning, as well as those with kids who appreciate any of those things, should definitely check this out.
 OK, I know it seems weird to include a Steve Niles book in anything but a horror round-up. And I know that I had some pretty harsh words for the first issue of Giant Monster. As it turns out, though, issue two makes me re-evaluate the whole story, because this issue just made me laugh like a goon. There was sort of a tongue-in-cheek vibe to the first issue of Giant Monster, but it was wrapped up in a lot of more straightforward exposition, and in this issue, everything has hit the fan and the gags fly fast and furious. The monster's footsteps actually create undead... sort of. The tearful reconciliation with the ex-wife has a very nonstandard (and darkly funny) conclusion. The whole thing with a secret ex-Nazi scientist and the perfect weapon he has to put up against the giant monster cracked me up. Niles pulls out a variety of twists and turns, and Jones and Fotos serve it up with a bloody, gorey and very funny style. The double crosses and reversals in the last few pages fly kind of fast and furious, making me think that the pacing overall is still a bit off (chopping off a dozen or so pages in the first issue would have made more room for the more interesting action), but it's now clear to me that the glimpses of fun offered in the last few pages of Giant Monster #1 bloomed in full once issue two got going.
 With the third and final issue of Hero Squared, two things become clear. One is that the way this story is structured, it really should have been an ongoing all along, because neither the one-shot nor the miniseries really provides much in the way of closure in its final pages. The other thing, however, is that Hero Squared is much more than just Formerly Known as the Justice League with the serial numbers filed off. It's actually part romance comic, part superhero comic, and Ambush Bug over at Ain't-It-Cool-News said it best when he said that it's "He Said, She Said" in spandex and body armor. Hero Squared isn't just a chance to poke fun at superhero and supervillain toady cliche, it's a chance to explore broken relationships and relationships teetering on the brink through a lens made of unstable molecules. The romantic problems of Milo and Stephie and Captain Valor and Caliginous are considerably more complicated since they're alternate world versions of one another, but they're grounded in the same selfishness, lies and hurt feelings that drive so many good stories of romance gone wrong.
I find it interesting that Giffen and DeMatteis have managed to make Milo sympathetic despite having willfully cheated on his girlfriend and basically acting like a self-centered jerk throughout the series thus far. He's a guy going through some changes who has faced a life full of disappointments, and it becomes easier to see in this issue that Milo's issues with Captain Valor and with Sephie are really issues with himself. Ironic that it took a supervillain (even if it is a version of his girlfriend) to bring these things to light for him. Meanwhile, Captain Valor, Stephie, even Caliginous, are learning things about themselves as a result of what is essentially a straight superhero vs. arch-nemesis conflict. That conflict, of course, contains plenty of superhero slugfest, which Abraham and company do very well, and if the costumes and battlesuits are a little generic in design, at least the action is exciting.
Hmm... maybe Ambush Bug had it wrong. With all the fighting and dysfunctional relationship stuff going on, maybe Hero Squared is more like the Jerry Springer show with superpowers. However you categorize it, it's more than just "bwa-ha-ha" humor. In fact, most of the Giffen/DeMatteis schtick seems to be taking an increasing back seat to the more interesting and fresher relationship stuff, and I find myself anticipating the ongoing series of Hero Squared quite a bit as a result.
 If you've got a concept that accommodates mafia gags and monkey humor on its pop-culture reference spectrum, you've really got something. And brother, do Grillo-Marxuach and McClaine have something with Middle Man. What I had originally taken to be something of an action book with a tinge of humor turns out to be a humor book with a tinge of action, as the final two issues delve whole-heartedly into a great monkey/crime conspiracy with a time-out for personal issues with lead character Wendy and origin time for lead character The Middle Man. The story moves along at a nice clip, pausing only for the aforementioned pop-culture references and sprinkled throughout with clever, fun and funny dialogue.
The first miniseries of Middle Man offers up a pretty solid little plot about a supersmart monkey obsessed with mob movies, complete with a nice fourth issue reveal that turns all of that on its head a bit, but it's not just the plot and the concept that make this a great read. No, mostly its the lead characters and their dialogue, from the sarcastic and occasionally mean-spirited Wendy Watson to the unflappably polite and deadly competent Middle Man himself. When they're investigating the monkey labs and Wendy finds time to criticize super-intelligent monkey paintings based on her own art background? That's genius character stuff. The use of a glass of milk as an interrogation tool? Also genius. The narrator getting tired of laying out the whens and wheres, or "the rules" popping up, "top ten list" style, as Wendy lays them down? Great use of the medium.
McClaine matches Grillo-Marxuach's pitch perfect verbosity with a cartoony visual style that never skimps on the detail. The action scenes at the end of issue four, many of which require a pretty crowded room, are excellent, and so much of the character interaction comes down to the expressions on Wendy, The Middle Man or an angry talking chimp that McClaine deserves plenty of credit for the character stuff as well. Middle Man #4 is the end of this miniseries, but there's a one shot, a trade and a second miniseries coming out next year, which says to me that these creators are in for the long haul and we're all in for a lot more of this fun and imaginative series.
 A wonderful and witty blend of proper young girls and ever-so-slightly incompetent yet salty pirates makes Polly and the Pirates a blast to read. Naifeh's humor is in fine form this issue, and readers will probably find themselves laughing out loud more than once. Polly's dash for freedom and over the side of the boat is comedy in the best Tex Avery fashion, and the pictured version of Mistress Lovejoy in Polly's head as she tries to decide what to do about being surrounded by sharks is hilarious as well. Polly learns in this issue that proper manners don't always serve, but fortunately, she has an inherited gift for swashbuckling that shows up in a couple of memorable action scenes and a charmed life that shows up in who she runs into in her travels. Naifeh includes some interesting local color in the form of the "Emperor" that Polly meets (fans of Gaiman's Sandman will recognize this one) and another interesting character in the form of someone who shows up at the end in a nice, humorous parallel to the way that issue one ends.
Visually speaking, Naifeh is also at his best here, quite possibly even better than his Courtney Crumrin work. The period dress, gorgeously realized ships and seaports and distinctive characters give the book an instantly recognizable sense of identity. And the humor comes just as much from perfect pacing in the art as it does from Naifeh's dialogue. In terms of genre and character, Polly and the Pirates is as different as Naifeh's Courtney Crumrin series as it could be, but in terms of charm, beauty and humor, it is at the very least Courtney's equal.
 One thing that's kind of fun about PVP is that Kurtz clearly feels comfortable using it to express whatever ideas he has in his head. So each issue of PVP offers up a few different stories, from the one this issue about a super-intelligent cat's visit to the vet all the way to "true Comicon stories" that are all about the real-life Kurtz instead of his comic book characters. PVP also walks the line between a continuing story, with all the office wars between Cole and Max Powers and ongoing relationship stuff, and approachable daily strip, and that's something Kurtz does well, making PVP very accessible to newbies and rewarding for ongoing readers as well.
Kurtz nails down the politics of the animal kingdom with a clever take on the "cats are evil, dogs are dumb" paradigm in the opening strip, does a funny take on a passive-aggressive relationship with more Max Powers-Cole Richards stuff and introduces a new twist in the ongoing status quo by having Jade's sexy sister Miranda join up with Max's Powerplay crew. Over the course of these stories, Kurtz shows off his penchant for the pop-culture with a Dude, Where's My Car? reference and a Bizarro reference reminiscent of the genius take on the concept in Seinfeld, finishing up with a series of mustache-related gags that nails the "I hate you guys" level on which so many male friendships exist. There are also some nice extras in this issue, from David Finch parodying his New Avengers cover to Kurtz parodying Bendis's dialogue to a great sketch from Chris Moreno poking fun at and simultaneously consoling Kurtz for his Eisner loss. PVP continues to be a lot of fun, like a really good sitcom that acknowledges not only pop culture but geek culture as well.
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