Batman's Night Business: Prey

Recently I got cut loose from work a few hours early, and was able to take up my usual role when I'm not on the clock as a comics vagabond/hobo. Upon visiting the comics shop at the King Of Prussia Mall and grabbing the new titles I was seeking that week, I decided to tempt fate and possibly deplete my wallet even more by browsing the back issue bin. I came across two items of interest, issue numbers 11 and 15 of Batman Legends of the Dark Knight: Prey parts 1 and 5 by Doug Moench Paul Gulacy and Terry Austin . Prey is of interest, because lately it has been getting some press. It was rumored that the newest and final Chris Nolan Batman film would be based heavily on this storyline. Upon hearing the news I took a mosey on over to amazon, where copies of the trade are currently selling for $140.00 used!!! So it goes with out saying that I would pick up these issues for a measly $6.


Upon opening the pages and leafing through, I could not help but get a sense of art deja vu...like perhaps I had seen something similar before. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks! For some reason Prey reminded me a lot of Night Business by Benjamin Marra! I don't know why, but the style used by Gulacy and Marra are very similar. The colors used on Marra's covers also are very similar to the interior colors of Prey.


Marra's drawings are certainly a bit more crude than Gulacy's, but there is a similarity in the approach of the figures and handling of the subject matter that I cannot help but notice. Prey was produced in the early nineties, when the 80's still had a heavy presense in pop culture. Batman: Prey seems to be a product of the time it was created. Perhaps that's why Prey does not have a greater presence today like Batman:Year One or The Dark Knight Returns does, it lacks that timeless quality. Night Business is set in 1983, and I can only assume is intended to emulate the type of comic Prey is (sans the superheroes).


I would argue that Marra's action sequences are a little more fluid, more kinetic than Gulacy's which seem a little stuff at times. Marra recently drew a short in Marvel's Strange Tales II. Perhaps this could lead to more mainstream comics work? I would love to see his take on the caped crusader.

-Eamon

The Many Gravestones of the Waynes

Batman's appearance, and his world around him, changes drastically depending on what artist draws him. With characters like Batman or Superman I think the feel is generally more important than continuity, but it is interesting how different artists depict the gravestone/stones of the Wayne parents. Sometimes there are two, sometimes the stone is one shared monolithic memorial.

The above panel appears in Batman year one, and is very powerful, especially in the context of the page/issue. Art By David Mazzucchelli and colors by Richmond Lewis.

Here we have a panel from the final issue of Batgirl year two, Batman finally and formally welcomes Batgirl to the fold, and she finds the reason for the crusade. These tombstones definitely reference the ones in Batman: Year One I'd suspect. Art: Marcos Martin on pencils, Alvaro Lopez on inks and Javier Ridriguez on colors.

In the seemingly completely forgotten Batman: Year Two (written by Mike W.Barr with art by Alan Davis and Todd McFarlane) the Wayne family plot undergoes a transformation, both sharing one marker. Certainly easier for Bruce to drape himself over. Above art: Todd Mcfarlane on pencils, Alfredo Alcala on inks and Steve Oliff/Gloria Vasquez on colors.


Here we have the Wayne plot as seen in the Tim Sale-illustrated, Jeph Loeb written Batman : The Long Halloween. Martha seems to have gotten a much more impressive tomb than Thomas, perhaps an indication of which parent Bruce loved more? Gregory Wright on colors here. (in the context of the comic, Bruce is under the influence of the Scarecrow's fear toxin, and being chased by the police for suspicion of the holiday murders.)



Below is an image from Gotham by Gaslight, once again the Waynes share a tombstone. Pencils by Mike Mignola, inks by P. Craig Russell, David Horning on colors and John Workan doing the letters.



And there we have it! Not an all encompassing collection, but a smattering of examples from my collection. Hope it was interesting!

-Eamon

Comics I bought on 3.23.2011

This Wednesday I purchased my wares at Brave New Worlds in Old city! Let's Begin shall we?


First on the list is Batman Inc. number 4, by bat-scribe extraordinaire Grant Morrison on writing duties and Chris Burnham on art chores. The issues opens with the new Batwoman (of Batwoman Elegy fame) tracking a crook named Johnny Valentine through the original Batwoman's (Kathy Kane) circus (apparently the original Batwoman ran a circus!). We get a flashback to Kathy Kane's first exposure to Batman and Robin. In the present, Batman and El Gaucho, the Argentinian superhero, are forced to duel with electric brass-knuckles... to the death, or three orphans will drown at the hands of villains El Sombrero and Scorpiana. The issue is filled with flashbacks of the dynamic duo coming into contact with the original Batwoman, and Batman's love affair with the Batwoman, and the forming of a 'bat-family'. Ace the Bat-Hound and Batgirl even make an appearance! But there is more than meets the eye behind Batwoman, and why she is getting so close to the Batman.


The interesting thing about this issue, or at the very least the most interesting thing to me, are the flashbacks to days of the original dynamic duo and the Bat family. I find it thrilling that Morrison is continuing his trend started in the Black Glove and Batman R.I.P of including all aspects of the character's history. The flashback scenes have a very animated and fun quality to them, and we see some expressions of happiness on The Batman's face, something you don't see very often with the modern version of the character. I also love love love how he draws Robin. Chris Burnham does amazing work in this issue, the characters all have distinct and fun facial features, and the action is conveyed extremely dynamically, no static panels or figures that look as if they have been frozen in their poses by some kind of freeze ray. The introduction of the new Batwoman did seem a tad abrupt to me, and I am wondering how she will fit into the current storyline, and at a certain point it feels like Batman turns on El Gaucho fairly quickly on the word of the villains currently making them punch each other to death...with electric brass knuckles. But nonetheless this was an exciting issue that will once again have me return to Batman Inc. Next issue.

I also Picked up FF #1, The Uncanny X-Force #6 and an interesting Captain America one Shot, Captain America and Batroc the Leaper. As an added bonus this one shot has a classic Lee/Kirby Cap story in the back, I found this page to be especially awesome:

I really like how Cap is crouched and circling his enemy in that last panel.

-Eamon

Jademan Kung Fu Special # 1

So this past Sunday I went to the Showcase comics in Bryn Mawr and picked up two trade paperbacks, Knightfall part one: Broken Bat (with an awesome cover by Kelley Jones) and a hardcover collection of the Black Panther series by Reginald Hudlin and John Romita Jr. I got these both for 50% off which was awesome, but I also got a 50 cent comic, from Jademan comics, called Kung Fu Special #1. I did not read this comic yet, but found some totally unexpected material inside. They show the process of making the comics, which I always think is awesome. We are also introduced to Tony Wong, the "Master Archited" of Jademan Holdings...or at least the comics. Mr. Wong appears several times throughout, and he is one hip dude.
Pretty Handsome spread right? I really feel cheap laughing at improper English in foreign works brought to America, but for a comic book that was once on American comic shop shelves, it is a little unforgivable...so here is a great snippet:

Mr. Wong is also a dashing playboy, as evident by this double paged spread in the middle of the comic:
Here is a pretty decent albeit somewhat tacky portrait (perhaps a self portrait?) you could probably expect to see in your Aunt Vikki's favorite hair salon.
The amount of Wong in this comic is almost baffling. Maybe they thought he could be like Jademan's very own Stan Lee? Here is a picture of him showing his wares. Who wouldn't want the entire Jademan lineup of comics?!


These were a complete surprise gem of hilarity, but back to comics, I really love this page of faces.


Until next time!

-Eamon

Challengers of (Omega) the Unknown

While Christmas shopping at a local mall comic shop, I came across a collected edition of Omega the Unknown, a recent adaptation of a short lived 70s series called Omega the Unknown, by Steve Gerber, Mary Skrenes and Jim Mooney. The updated version is by novelist Jonathan Lethem and Karl Rusnak on writing duties, illustrator Farel Dalrymple is both penciller/inker and letterer, with Paul Hornschemeier on color duties (and some short sequences) with an additional few pages by Gary Panter. The book definitely has an "independent" comics look to it, all of the characters, even the superheroes, look like they could be real people on the street as opposed the the uber muscled attractive hero types in any regular marvel comic. Omega the Unknown takes place in New York City, and really plays up the location, something I think more Marvel comics should do (seeing as how New York City in the Marvel Universe is home to almost all of their heroes). Our hero, Titus Alexander Island, is a young man who was raised and home schooled by a very proper couple, who want their son to come more accustomed to the world as he gets older. On their way to take Alexander to a new school, the family has a car accident, and Alex wakes finds his mother's severed head next to him, with wires coming from the neck. Alexander was raised by robots (thus his analytical, cold behavior). From there, Alex is beset upon by a growing cult of attacking robots, protected by a mysterious man in blue tights and a red cape, stalked by a local superhero, The Mink, and forced to adapt to the real world he had been shielded from for all 14 years of his young life.

Lethem does a great job of balancing super heroics, science fiction, and the feeling of city living. The book is laugh out loud funny at times, most especially because of the characterization of the local hero The Mink, who appears frequently on local news programs and game shows, has his own comic book series, and is rather sinister when all is said and done . The Mink has a loyal army of followers, politicians in his pocket, and has his base of operations on a personal island on top of a Daedalean labyrinth in which he throws his enemies. The Mink is possibly my favorite character in this story. He is most assuredly a villain, not to be trusted, but at the same time is unraveling and trying to expose a plague of robots that is slowly taking over the city, through tiny nanobots being fed to the city through a chain of fast food joints and packages infested with the bugs delivered by a fed ex type organization. Our other hero, the blue clad and seemingly mute (perhaps just a man of very very few words) Omega, has crash landed on earth, and is also one step behind Alex for much of the story. He has the Greek symbol Omega on both of his palms, something which also happens to Alex, and gives him strange powers. Omega is one man against two fronts, possibly three. He is utterly alone in the world, battling a secret army of alien robots, and is also relentlessly pursued by The Mink. He has some connection to Alex, but what could it be?


The Art in Omega the Unknown is simply breathtaking (as are all the covers and overall design of the hardcover collection). It does not really look like any other book Marvel has ever put out, and would be just as at home with more independent publishers like Top Shelf. The panel borders are uneven, the entire book is somewhat sketchy and inky, with beautiful hand done lettering. Dalrymple is excellent at conveying the quirky mood of the story, and really helps sell Lethem's story. The big laughs and the chilling moments are only as strong as the partnership of artist and writer, and this combination definitely meshes well. There is an attention to detail here that really sells everything, and is integral to conveying the urban feeling that I think Lethem is trying for. This detail also makes the robots and monsters that much more creepy and impressive.

With Omega the unknown Marvel has put forth a charming and utterly endearing, original series, which ends almost as abruptly as the original Omega: The Unknown ( I think this was likely planned, as Omega the Unknown was cancelled after ten issues). With this, and the recent Strange Tales and Strange Tales II Marvel is covering some ground that is inspiring, and I hope that they continue this trend of unexpected use of their army of characters.

How Keanu Reeves made me a fan of the Punisher.

I had never really been a big Punisher fan before. As a younger kid I thought he was too gritty and scary, too adult for me to pick up and read. I stuck to reading Batman, X-Men, and any other comic book that had a Saturday morning cartoon equivalent on at the same time. As I got a little older, I was no longer intimidated by the Punisher, rather, I was unimpressed. "Big deal, he's an angry looking dude with guns and a skull on his shirt! If I want that I'll just watch an action movie!" Those were my feelings in a nutshell regarding the Punisher, and I still kept up with my X-titles and moved into the soon to become phenomenon Manga fandom. Then, it happened, a movie came out that started this whole change of events. That movie, was the Matrix. I'm not going to go into the Matrix too much here, (it was awesome of course) and it also made me a Keanu Reeves fan (snicker if you will, but he has some good flicks under his belt, dammit!). What does this have to do with Frank Castle(That's the Punisher's real name)you ask? Well, Keanu Reeves soon was in another action movie, Constantine, based on the seminal Vertigo series, John Constantine: Hellblazer. The movie was somewhat removed from it's original source material , as I later found out, but I checked it out as a Reeves fan, and I liked what I saw. So, like Batman the Animated Series and the X-Men animated series before it, the film Constantine prompted me to pick up some John Constantine: Hellblazer trades, and I found another series that I would become a life-long fan of. Amongst these trades, the work that stood out the most to me, and kept me coming back to those somewhat pricey Hellblazer trades, was the work of writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon.

When I think of Hellblazer, Ennis and Dillon's version is the clearest in my mind, the definitive version, like Warner brother's animated version of Batman from the animated series is my quintessential Batman. After I read all of the Ennis and Dillon Hellblazer I could get my hands on, I wanted more. That is when a friend of mine, in college, loaned me the first, and subsequent volumes, of Preacher. I was in heaven! Preacher had extreme violence, dark humor, and was just plain odd, and I love every single page of it. Ennis and Dillon are the perfect story telling combo, and I read through those 9 trades very quickly. This, my friends, is where Frank Castle comes back into the picture. After all that Preacher, my taste for Ennis and Dillon was not quite yet satiated, and that is when my Preacher connect got me my Ennis and Dillon re-up, in the form of The Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank trade paperback.

Welcome Back, Frank is written, as you can probably guess, by Garth Ennis. Pencils are by Steve Dillon, inks by Jimmy Palmiotti, with colors by Chris Sotomayor (As well as iconic covers by Tim Bradstreet). The Punisher finds himself back in New York City (after some weird storyline where he hunts demons for heaven or something) to renew his war on the crime that plagues the good people of NYC. The Punisher's war mainly focuses on the crime families, and in these issues specifically on the Gnucci family. The Punisher kills one Gnucci brother in a warehouse during a drug buy, and kills another in the city morgue, featuring a shoot out with corpses being used as human shields (The Punsher chooses a nice fat corpse, bullets don't pass through those as easily it seems). The next Gnucci brother is hogtied and gagged, and the Punisher hoists him up completely over his head, and throws him off of the top of the Empire State building. These actions start an all out war with the leader of the Gnucci gang, Ma. Throughout the trade the Punisher crosses paths with Daredevil (who he ties up and humiliates), some odd neighbors (an Obese man, a shut-in mousey woman who bakes extra cookies and pies for Frank, and a pierced punk "Spacker Dave") and has him being tracked by the two detectives with the worst luck in the police dept, a Russian monster of a hit man, and a fan club of violent vigilantes.



The thing that makes Welcome Back, Frank so good is that...well it is just damn funny, and damn entertaining. It fills the violence quotient you would expect from a Punisher comic, but it isn't the type of violence that makes you squirm. It had loads of dark humor (making an amputee funny? Who'da thunk it?!) and doesn't take itself too seriously, but isn't a complete write-off either. It is a nearly perfect piece of entertainment, it satisfies on every level I expect to be satisfied with while reading a comic. Dillon's drawing here is very strong, an interesting middle ground in between his slightly more detailed work he did in Hellblazer and Preacher, and his somewhat more simplified work he does in lets say, Punisher Max: Kingping. His comedic timing (if such a thing is possible in a comic, I just can't think of another way to describe it) is right on money. I cannot praise this book enough.




After Welcome Back, Frank I moved on in my reading. The Punisher came back into my life when a little movie came out called Punisher: War Zone. Ignore anything you hear from the critics, this is an extremely well crafted movie, completely over the top and violent. This re-ignited my interest in The Punisher, and I went to the stores and picked up some issues of a Marvel Knights series, Punisher versus Bullseye. This series was written by Daniel Way, with art duties taken up by Punisher familiar Steve Dillon. Dillon is the reason I bought these issues, at the time I hadn't read anything by Daniel Way, and I did not particularly like the cover. The issues I have read of this series, I love. Much like the Ennis Punisher issues, it is hysterically funny. A mobster who once had to cross dress to disguise himself and escape from the Punisher (inexplicably he still cross dresses to the current day, and is in hiding) and his dim witted nephew hire on Bullseye to take out Frank Castle. Whether or not this was a good plan remains to be seen, I have only 3 of the 5 issues, I missed out on the last two and have yet to find them.




Following these, I took another break from Punisher books, until I came across yet another Steve Dillon-pencilled Punisher run, Punisher Max #1. I believe it's a relaunch of the Punisher Max series, previously written by Garth Ennis. This run is penned by Jason Aaron, with pencils/inks by Steve Dillon, and colors by Matt Hollingsworth. Collected in the trade paperback Punisher Max: Kingpin, Aaron tells the tale of how the Kingpin came to be. It is like a modern revamp, the Punisher is already well established, and getting on in years. The Kingpin is merely a heavy,but has plans in motion to become the Kingpin of Crime in NYC.



This series is dark. Still funny, but much more gritty. Frank Castle is practically a monster, he tortures his prey before killing them with pincers and hack saws, and literally pours salt into their open wounds. The Punisher is at his height of ruthlessness here, at least compared to what else I have read of the character. He is headed down a dark, dark path, as is the future Kingpin of Crime, Wilson Fisk. Fisk has a family, and works to become the top crime boss to ensure his son does not have to endure the same hard life he had to live through. The Kingpin is also strong as an ox. He runs through walls as if they were made of paper and cardboard, and by squeezing both sides of one mug's head,he pops his eyes out of his sockets. The Unfortunate mobster wanders around with his eyes dangling out of his sockets, until he finally shoves them back in...only to be killed by the Punisher. Humor is still around though maybe a bit harder edged than Ennis's previous Punisher work. (The work Ennis does in his current series, The Boys, definitely has a much harder edge than anything I've read from him before. Perhaps this series is trying to emulate?) Did I mention there is also a Mennonite hit-man? Yeah you heard me.



Needless to say, the Kingpin ascends to the highest level of crime, and the Punisher remains a thorn in his side. He turns to the hit man Bullseye to try his hand at destroying Frank Castle, and these issues, in my humble opinion, is where this new MAX series gets going. Bullseye is, in a word FUCKING INSANE. Jason Aaron paints Bullseye as a ritualistic hit man, who must learn as much as he can about his target in order to eliminate them. This is a little more complicated than going to the library and looking at old newspapers, or using google. Bullseye tortures information out of known contacts. He visits sites in which castle has been know to live, and kill. He sleeps in mattresses the Punisher has slept in...naked. The Lengths Bullseye goes to familiarize himself with his target have to be seen to be believed. I cannot wait to see where Aaron goes from here. As for the artwork, Steve Dillon's style is a tad simplified here, I find the work he did in Welcome Back, Frank to be a bit more polished and appealing, but I still think this is exactly the kind of book he should be working on.

Film Strips: Fist of The North Star

I am a huge fan of the anime/manga franchise, Hokuto No Ken created by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara, known on American shores as Fist of the North Star, a martial arts acion series set in a post apocalyptic landscape. The animated film, directed by Toyoo Ashida, ranks amongst one of my favorite anime films. The mix of extreme violence, Mad Max style villains and tidbits of melodrama makes for some great entertainment. I had known for some time that a live action adaptation had been made, in America, which seemed to be a direct to dvd release. I did not recognize the vast majority of the cast, (save for Malcolm Macdowell and Chris Penn) and the movie looked low budget at best. This movie was undoubtedly bad...but I have Netflix so I took the plunge and watched it!

The "star" of the film is Kenshiro, the heir to Hokuto Shin Ken, a deadly martial art that strikes pressure points in the body and explodes from within. (this aspect is never explained in the film, I wonder if people who have no clue what Fist of the North Star is all about even know why people are exploding and such) Kenshiro is played by Gary Daniels, who has the physicality needed for the role, Daniels is one jacked mo-fo...but he has the acting range of a cinder block, his eyes constantly bulged in an expression of surprise. The Kenshiro in this film is a pained character, running from his fate to inherit the title of "Fist of the North Star". This differs from his portrayal in the comics, that Kenshiro is a man who has accepted his role as heir to Hokuto Shin Ken, and travels the barren wasteland that is now earth in search of Shin, the man who gave him seven wounds on his chest, in the shape of the big dipper, as well as kidnapping the woman he loves, Julia.

Shin, portrayed by Costas Mandylor, is the master of Nanto Seiken, a brother school to Hokuto Shin Ken. The schools are supposed to exist in balance, and never clash, but Shin crosses the line and kills the previous Fist of the North Star, Ryuken, played by Malcolm Macdowell. Madylor is not too notable as Shin, his best moment is the flashback scene in which he gives Kenshiro his scars. He is relegated in the rest of the film to trying to win the love of Julia, the woman he kidnapped from Kenshiro, and trying to create a new world order. It seems like the character with the most screen time is Chris Penn, who plays a character that is a Pastiche of two characters from the original, Jackal. (His appearance is that of Jagi, his name was taken from Jackal, a scheming enemy of Kenshiro in the comics) Chris Penn might just be the best actor in the film...but he is wasted with awful awful dialogue, and speech after silly speech about killing, without ever actually doing much besides beating a woman. Ken's long lost love is played by a japanese actress, Isako Washio. She does not have a great grasp of the english language, and I find it odd that in a film full of white men playing characters with names like Ryuken and Kenshiro, the one character named JULIA is played by a japanese woman. There are also a bunch of cowering innocents, most notable Ken's child companions from the comics, Bat (played by Ruffio from Hook) and Lin, who was mute in the comics, but in this version is blind instead...ok.

For a movie based off of a martial arts manga, there are not too many good fights. Gary Daniels is a martial artist first and foremost, an actor second....well maybe an actor third or fourth. The fights are shot too close, the action is hard to catch. The way Gary Daniels emulates Ken's Hundred crack fist of the North star is laughable, and he fails to utter the "A-Ta Ta Ta Ta!!!"s that Kenshiro shouts while he pokes the various pressure points on his enemies. When his enemies explode, which happens far too little, it's off screen. That is not what one expects in a Fist of the North Star film. The best parts of the movie are the costumes and the miniatures. The costuming is very faithful to the source material for the most part, Ken's costume is dead on, and in the flashback scenes Shin's boots match the kind he wore in the comics. Little touches like that redeem the film to a slight extent. Certain touches with the miniatures ring true as well, like the iconic shot of a skyscraper impaled with a battleship. Sadly, it is a bad indication when the most positive aspect of the movie are the miniatures and costumes...not that they aren't important!

The ultimate downfall of this film, besides the poor acting, writing, score, direction and fight choreography, is director Tony Randel's lack of understanding the overall story and characters of the original, and what viewers are expecting from a Fist of the North Star film. Instead of making a movie about a guy that can make other guys explode, and paying that forward as much as possible, he gives us a movie with lots of strange speeches, a lead character running from his destiny, as well as what the audience wants to see. The best way to watch this movie is to listen to the audio commentary track, featuring Gary Daniels and director Tony Randel. Gary Daniels comes across as a pretty nice guy, who has a great appreciation for the source material, and considerable knowledge on the subject as well. Tony Randel, on the other hand, comes across as more than a little embittered, seemingly making excuses for some of the short comings of the movie, and making outrageous comparisons to all sorts of art movements and films that have influenced him in the making of this picture...which only underline how bad this film is. He seems to want to prove that he actually made a great film...or if it did turn out poorly it is the fault of the source material or time constraints. In any event, this is a bad movie that could be fun to watch if you're a fan of the comic...but don't expect anything good!