Good King Leonardo has decreed that we review an eclectic mix of comics this holiday week, so let's start with the unfamiliar supernatural and then move on into the familiar world of superheroes: |
Patricia
Briggs' Mercy Thompson: Moon Called #3
Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Patricia Briggs and David Lawrence: Writers
Amelia Woo: Art
Issue #3 of this supernatural-themed comic book
title is currently on the new issues shelves.
The series is based on author Patricia Briggs's
popular fiction novel series starring (who else)
Mercy Thompson. For the uninitiated, Mercy is
a car mechanic living in Washington state in a
town full of supernatural beings (i.e.,werewolves,
vampires, the usual lot). She's apparently a "walker,"
a last-of-her-kind magical being with the power
to shapeshift at will into a coyote. So she's
not exactly a "were-coyote," having
more of a higher, independent control over her
abilities/talents.
This latest issue is part three of a multi-issue
story arc entitled "Moon Called." The
plot begins with fast action, as a shotgun-toting
Mercy races to a werewolf neighbor's house after
she finds a murdered teen on her doorstep, only
to stumble into a fight to the death between her
transformed neighbor and an attacking werewolf.
Mercy kills the attacker, but not before her neighbor
Adam is badly wounded. The bulk of the remaining
storyline follows with Mercy racing against time
to get her wolf-neighbor help at another town
full of enchanted characters. Without giving away
any spoiler details, Marcy's arrival at the safehaven
town sets off a host of soap opera-like conflicted
feelings in her regarding painful past relationships
with some townfolk, including an old werewolf
boyfriend. The issue ends in a bridge to next
month's story segment, as after ignoring a friend's
warning to just sit tight for awhile, Mercy gets
impulsive and transforms to coyote form, in order
to seek-out her ex-boyfriend who's off in the
wild in his own wolf form.
My fear going into reading and reviewing this
title was that it might turn out to be a wannabe
Twilight series, given the immense popularity
of that supernatural teen heartthrob franchise.
Happily my fears were unwarranted, as the series
stands very strongly on its own unique legs as
an entertaining supernatural storyline. Patricia
Briggs collaborates in this comic book series
with co-writer David Lawrence, and the pair structure
a very well-crafted graphic tale mixing supernatural
elements, mystery thriller plot details and standard
relationship fiction. I was unfamiliar with the
Mercy Thompson fiction character and enjoyed learning
about her unique walker/coyote power, which makes
for a fresh approach to the standard werewolf
story structure. While there's a lot of good stuff
in this comic for fans of supernatural fiction,
there's also a nice mainstream fiction plotline
threaded throughout the tale, of a fiercely independent
loner woman struggling to maintain her cherished
independence while being pulled against her will
back into difficult past relationships. My only
review criticism of this comic is about the lettering,
of all things. There are several major lettering
misspellings in the dialogue that actually garble
the narrative at times, so here's hoping that
the good editors at Dynamite double-check the
letterer in upcoming issues of this title.
So a definite positive thumbs-up recommendation
for Mercy Thompson. If you're a fan of the supernatural,
this is an excellent addition to the many new
comics titles available in that genre. And even
if the supernatural isn't your reading preference,
that genre is balanced in this comic with enough
mystery and mainstream fiction story elements
to give any comic book fan their money's worth
of an entertaining read.
The plotline of Weapons Of Mass Deception focuses on an alien conspiracy against Earth. The story breaks-down into three plot segments. Section one details Plastic Man's effort to explain and convince Hal Jordan/Green Lantern that he's stumbled upon an alien conspiracy against Earth involving alien weaponry. The mid-section of the tale unfolds with the pair discovering that a duck-like alien group of bad guys are out to conquer Earth by duping American Earth criminals into doing their dirty work for them. And the third segment of the tale advances the action by alternating between our two heroes fighting the aliens in outer space and turning the tables against them on Earth by convincing the duped criminals to place Earth's well-being above their criminal instincts. Obviously, by issue's end, the good guys prevail.
I'm very conflicted about this comic book, ultimately giving it a lukewarm, middle-of-the-road positive recommendation. The basic plotline concept is o.k., effectively mixing together Green Lantern's world of aliens and space adventure with Plastic Man's world of ordinary, Earth-bound crimefighting. The problem is that Marv Wolfman's plot details and narrative dialogue is out-of-date for today's 2010 comic book reading-public. The slang and behavior of the characters are so "1980's" that after awhile its actually uncomfortable reading these story details. Its like watching an over-the-hill lounge act in Vegas desperately trying to be hip and relevant. The duck-aliens particularly don't work for me; they're either a flat insiders joke on Wolfman's iconic Howard The Duck work in the 1980's, or just a very stale and creaky idea for outer space villains.
These weighty negatives aside, three elements save the story from a thumbs-down recommendation. The first is a decent general underlying story concept, of combined space and Earth-bound superhero adventure to save Earth from alien dominance. The second is a quality sub-plot woven throughout the tale, in which Green Lantern is continually exasperated by Plastic Man's goofiness, to the point where he questions the guy's value as a crimefighter. There's a nice resolution by story's end to this sub-plot, in which Green Lantern learns of Plastic Man's worth and gains a valuable lesson about prejudging friends and colleagues. And the thrid redeeming element is Brent Anderson's always top-notch artwork, including some fun Plastic Man stretched-out graphics.
So a real mixed-bag review reaction to this one-shot, which ultimately deserves an average rating positive recommendation, based on the basic story idea, an interesting sub-plot between the two heroes and finally, some really nice artwork by Brent Anderson. And who knows, maybe there's a worthy place in today's fandom base for stories that feel a bit too retro but still serve as a well-meaning homage to an earlier, simpler time of comic book story-telling.
Jim McCann: Writer
David Lopez: Pencils
Alvaro Lopez: Inks
Nathan Fairbairn: Colors
Marvel Comics has just published issue #1 in a new 4-issue mini-series entitled Widowmaker, starring the superheroes Hawkeye/Clint Barton, Mockingbird and the Black Widow. The title is scripted by Jim McCann with pencils by David Lopez, inks by Alvaro Lopez and colors by Nathan Fairbairn.
The plot in this series is an international thriller. An anonymous tip leads Hawkeye and Mockingbird to Japan, where they discover that an American spy has been murdered on the eve of sensitive diplomatic talks scheduled between Japan and Russia over disputed border islands. It turns out that the murder is part of a much wider ongoing bloodbath instigated by an old, World War II era shadowy ninja group called Dark Ocean. The body count rises heavily as the duo head for Siberia, unexpectedly linking-up with the Black Widow/Natasha Romanov who also received an unknown tip. The trio discovers that Dark Ocean has set them up, as by issue's end they're mistakenly captured by Marvel's Russian superheroes, clearing the path for Dark Ocean to go after Russia's president in issue #2.
This is a very entertaining mini-series, mixing fast-paced action in multiple settings as the story moves forward very quickly in this first issue. Writer Jim McCann gives us an intriguing and complex tale, full of spy thriller false leads, mindgames and backstabbing worthy of a spy thriller novel on the par of fiction novelists such as David Baldacci. Be prepared to really focus and even dounble-back on a few pages worth of dialogue as you follow this complex but very worthwhile international spy thriller as it kicks-off its multi-issue storyline in issue #1. And a final review shout-out is warranted to the art team, which gives us both a high-grade graphic style and some wonderful large panel and full-page action sequences throughout this adventure.