PGHHEAD’S 2022 COMIC ODYSSEY, PART 35
In 2021 I set a goal to post reviews here for 1,000 comics, and finished the year at 1,008 reviews. It was a stretch - - not to read that many comics, because I actually read quite a bit more. The challenge is to find and take the time to write a fair review of what I read - - but I made it. I’m up for a new year, and a new challenge. My goal for 2022 is to read and document 1,200 comics. That’s an average of 100 books per month, easy enough to check and update. Wish me luck!
# GOAL FOR September 10, 2022 . . . 833 comics documented
CURRENT COUNT . . . . . 815 comics documented
#796 - #797 DETECTIVE COMICS #1062, #1063 “Gotham Noturne, Overture Part 1 & 2 by Ram V and Rafael Albuquerque (DC Comics, September-October 2022)
The dark, impressionistic covers by Evan Cagle drew me in right away. Then a quick scan of the interiors cast a spell on me. The title/credits page with its’ musical references is what nailed it, and persuaded me to purchase this title. The night, very appropriate for a Batman book - - and the way I prefer them - - dark. The overture — the beginning, a start, to something more substantial. I haven’t been as excited for the creative team and the direction that Detective Comics is taking for some time.
Plus, the back-up story is equal in quality and very thought-provoking.
Simon Spurrier and Dani explore the presumed directionless world of ex-commissioner Jim Gordon, in semi-retirement but not out of the game.
Back to the Main Event: The next item that mesmerized me is the artwork of Rafael Albuquerque and the spot-on color work by Dave Stewart. Dark, moody, lots of shadows, atmospheric. This is how I usually see Batman and Gotham in my mind. Did I mention that I like my Batman stories dark and deep? (You guessed it . . . The Batman movie made my list of best versions of Batman/Gotham.)
It seems that I’ve been noticing a trend lately, and this may sound like I’m repeating myself . . . but this appears to be some of the finest work from Albuquerque in a long time. If the trend means that artists in general are stepping up their game, then we regular readers are going to benefit.
Ram V builds enough into these two set-up issues to provide a long run of dark, deep, stories with impact. Batman/Bruce Wayne is not the most confident and seems to be off a step, which he has noticed and it gnaws at him. Some familiar characters are here, as well as the introduction of a new (crime?) family migrating to Gotham with rising to power and domination one their agenda. Two-Face, as drawn here, seems more tragic/dramatic than ever. I’m not going to furnish anymore details. I suggest you give this title a try-out, especially if you’re a Batman fan.
Did I mention the Albuquerque art? Holy turnabout, Batman! This book is really good.
FOUR AND ONE-HALF out of a possible FIVE STARS.
#798 - #807 TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: THE LAST RONIN Hardcover by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Tom Waltz with art by Kevin Eastman and Esau & Isaa Escorza (IDW Publishing, July 2022) Collects the deluxe five-issue series.
I'm glad I read this at one sitting. I collected the individual issues, and after the delayed and infrequent release dates took the wind out of the sails, I decided to hold them and wait until I could read the entire story. Glad to see this released in a quality hardcover edition, which is the version that TMNT die-hards should treasure.
Although the comic series isn't finished, this puts a nice bookend on the end of the original four TMNTs (except for the little twist in the epilogue) in a satisfactory fashion.
The art was premium quality and the story was compelling, if not a little predictable. What made it work for me were the interactions between long-running TMNT family members (Casey Jones, April) with Mikey and his developing mentor relationship with April's ambitious daughter. FOUR STARS.
#808 - #811 THE FADE OUT, ACT ONE graphic novel by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image, 2015) The creative team extraordinaire of Brubaker and Phillips make a departure from writing fantastic crime comics about the criminal life to write a fantastic crime comic about post-World War II Hollywood noir. Wow. This feels like a movie script, and even plays out like a long, suspense building dramatic film. There's an incredible cast of characters, all fully developed and deserving of both admiration as well as scorn.
I read this in the individual issues, and the portraits featuring a single character on each cover are very expressive and set the mood of each issue perfectly. Divided like a film or a stage play into three acts, this first volume comprises the opening act. What a beginning! Repeat readings reveal subtle scenes and dialogue that add more substance to the story.
The observations of the narrator (self-conscious screen writer Charlie Parish) sometimes read like they could have come from Raymond Chandler and the thoughts of his character, private detective Phillip Marlowe. Except Parish doesn't have his confidence, maturity, street smarts and skills - - - he's agonizing over discovering the murdered body of movie starlet Valeria Sommers that was entered into the books as a suicide in a typical Hollywood cover-up.
Some examples of the observations . . . . .
Charlie at Sommer's funeral: "He looks around and can't tell whose grief is real. . . and who's just putting on a show in case the press is watching."
Aspiring actress Maya Silver waiting for the big break, and feeling relief when she is hired to replace the deceased actress: "The last night of her old life. Imagine that. For a moment, a wave of relief washes over her . . . before it rushes right back out to sea." FIVE STARS.
#812 - #815 THE FADE OUT, ACT TWO graphic novel by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image Comics, September 2015) Question: As Brubaker and Phillips are so adept at creating tight, four-to-six issue crime comics series, what might occur if they were given twelve issues to stretch out a story? Answer: Some pretty great story-telling!
Rather than pad this tale with unnecessary background and filler, they add depth to a wide range of characters and don't waste a panel. Some readers may be impatient as the story progresses at a much slower pace in Act Two, but I bonded with these characters enough that I'm actually worried for what might happen to them in Act Three. Also, events in Issue #8 indicate that things are going to proceed much faster and more dangerously from this point forward.
Hats off to the creators for that character rundown following the credits page that make it easy for new readers to jump on Act Two and still pick up the story. I don't recommend that, just as I wouldn't want to enter a movie theater 20-40 minutes after the beginning. Too much character background will be missed, as well as some subtle details that pay out in Act Two and will probably be even more relevant in Act Three.
Plus, some really key scenes will lose full impact if the backstory is not known, like the scene where film studio security thug Phil Brodsky says to a drunk, blacklisted screenwriter Gil Mason: "Looks like you're a real 'wrong place, wrong time' kinda guy, doesn't it? Gil survives that encounter without feeling Brodsky's brass knuckles, but later reflects while smoking in bed: "Gil thought that actually could sum up his life. . . but he knew there was another factor in play, too. That he was here by choice, not accident. Gil put himself in the wrong places all the time . . . it was his worst bad habit.
One of my favorite scenes (among many) in Act Two occurs as screenwriter with a secret Charlie Parish escorts upcoming movie starlet Maya Silver to a Hollywood premiere: "Charlie never felt more removed from humanity than he did at events like this. . . . The mob of screaming voices, crushing each other for an autograph . . . Of course, they're just the more primal version of the same disease he suffers from. . . He knows that . . . Charlie's just a moth who figured out how to get closer to the flame . . . . . But Maya, and people like her, they did him one better . . . They figured out how to be the flame, instead."
Just one more to share, also from Charlie, and then I'll leave you alone. "There are moments in life that are like a perfect song, the kind that really gets inside you. . . . Like the moment Maya mentioned her father, when she almost let some sorrow show through . . . Charlie had never written anything that elegant, even when he could still write . . . But he'd always envied songwriters. To him, they were like alchemists . . pulling emotion and memory out of thin air. . . Transporting you . . . May was like a song, his drunken eyes saw that now . . A strange, haunted melody . . ."
FIVE STARS.
