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Review Date: 03/12/2010
Good King Leonardo
has selected for reviews this week two comics from ongoing
mini-series as well as one comic from an ongoing monthly
series, so let's see how all three are faring:
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First
Wave #1
Publisher: D.C. Comics
Brian Azzarello: Writer
Rags Morales: Art
Nei Ruffino: Colors
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DC Comics has released this past week issue #1 in
its eagerly-awaited and much-advertised First Wave
comic book title. This is a six-issue mini-series
that brings together several Golden Age comic book
characters with the Golden Age pulp fiction hero/adventurer
Doc Savage and his team of adventurers. I reviewed
a few months ago a one-shot Doc Savage/Batman comic
book prelude to the series, which introduced the concept
of the veteran hero Doc Savage training a young and
inexperienced Batman in the ways of being a hero.
Issue #1 of First Wave introduces three separate sub-plots.
The main storyline focuses on Doc Savage and his four
adventurer friends. Savage investigates the
mysterious recent death of his father and soon confirms
that Clark Savage, Sr. is not deceased but instead
has disappeared, leaving a mysterious clue for the
team to pursue. Our second sub-plot stars Rima
The Jungle Girl, who assists an American stranger
to her South American jungle, as he flees an evil
and mysterious scientist who endangers both the American
and the jungle's tribespeople. And our third
storyline stars The Spirit, who teams with his friend
Police Commissioner Dolan in investigating a crime
that leads The Spirit into an issue #1 cliffhanger
introduction to The Blackhawks.
As an old fan of the Doc Savage pulps, I've been very
excited awaiting this new series, which crosses Savage
into the mainstream comic book world to interconnect
with this group of well-known comic book characters.
I wasn't disappointed at all with this high quality
and very entertaining comic. This kick-off issue
is very well-crafted, as writer Brian Azzarello skillfully
introduces his three separate hero plotlines.
The three storylines alternate back-and-forth nicely,
with clear indications that these seemingly separate
adventures are actually interconnected and that these
characters will come into more contact with each other
as the storyline progresses in upcoming issues.
I only had two minor concerns with this issue.
First, there's so much good, detailed story narrative
and just plain stuff going on that I wonder whether
or not the six planned issues of this mini-series
are enough to successfully wrap-up this wide-ranging
and multi-character story universe. Our good
friend the young Batman hasn't even been introduced
to this storyline yet. I'm hoping that the six-issue
mini-series is just a kick-off event to this wide-ranging Art
Deco reinterpretation of the early DC universe, leading
to a follow-up monthly title or a second limited
series. Secondly, writer Brian Azzarello takes
the approach of portraying The Spirit's friend, Police
Commissioner Dolan, as having a politically corrupt
side to his personality. As a long-time Spirit
fan, I found the depth of this side of Dolan to be
disturbing, and I'm hoping that Azzarello tones this
corrupt element in Dolan down quite a bit
as the series continues.
But overall, a very enthusiastic thumbs-up to this
wonderful and entertaining interpretative addition of
the Golden Age, Art Deco early days of both the DC
universe and the world of adventure pulp fiction.
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Madame
Xanadu #20
Publisher: Vertigo D.C.
Matt Wagner: Writer
Joelle Jones: Penciller
David Hahn: Inker
Lee Loughridge: Colors
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Vertigo DC Comics has just published issue #20 in
its ongoing Madame Xanadu comic book title.
For the uninitiated, this character was created by
DC veteran artist Mike Kaluta back in the late-1970's
as a mystical character who has since undergone various revivals
and reinterpretations within the DC universe.
She's often scripted in modern-day tales as an occult
character operating from her Greenwich Village
tarot shop. The current Vertigo series explores
Madame Xanadu's early historic origins in ancient
times as part of the King Arthur legend. This
series establishes her as the young wood nymph
Nimue Inwudu, sister to both Merlin's future rival
Morgana le Fey and Vivienne, the Arthurian legend's
famed Lady Of The Lake.
Issue #20 is Chapter 5 of a multi-issue story arc
entitled "Broken House of Cards." Set in Arthurian
times, the tale has two interweaving storylines.
The main narrative has the good-hearted future Madame
Xanadu/Nimue sparring with her bad girl sister in
an extended dialogue regarding their actions toward
the humans of their ancient era. Nimue is unsuccessful
is halting Morgana's meddling in royal politics, leading
by issue's end to Morgana setting-up the initial political
intrigue of what will become the famous tale
of Camelot. The second plotline introduces a
young Merlin to the tale; by the issue's end, the
rookie sorcerer has stood his ground against
the selfishness of Morgana's actions, laying the groundwork
for their eventual tragic conflict later in the Arthurian
legend.
When
I began reading this comic book, I had expected
to find a modern-day Madame Xanadu tale set in her
Greenwich Village tarot shop. I was surprised
and ultimately very pleased with this Vertigo historical
infilling of Madame Xanadu's early life. The
creative team gives us a very entertaining addition
to this character's backstory. While the art
is more of a cartoon-style, its the perfect fit for conveying
the emotion between the three main characters of the
young Nimue, Morgana and Merlin, as they butt
heads which each other in taking their
first hesitant steps along their respective good
or evil paths for which they become famous in the
King Arthur legend.
So an enthusiastic thumbs-up for this unexpected treat
that foreshadows the famous tale of Camelot through
the eyes of the Madame Xanadu comic book universe.
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Green
Hornet #1
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Kevin Smith: Writer
Jonathan Lau: Pencils
Ivan Nunes: Colors
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Dynamite Entertainment has revived the old-time masked
action hero The Green Hornet, along with his trusty
masked chauffeur sidekick Kato. Issue 31 is
written by well-known writer and movie director Kevin
Smith, with art by Jonathan Lau and Ivan Nunes.
Phil Hester is listed in the credits as being responsible
for "breakdowns," a term that I've never seen listed
in comic book credits before.
Older comic book fans will remember that The Green
Hornet is Britt Reid, a newspaper publisher by day
and a masked crimefighter by night. Reid is
assisted by his chauffeur Kato, who drives their technologically-advanced
car called Black Beauty. The Green Hornet was known
for fighting criminals with knockout gas and knockout
gun darts. The character originated in the 1930's with
a nationally popular radio program and crossed into
the comic book genre in the 1940's. One interesting
piece of trivia is that the character was created
as the great-nephew of The Lone Ranger, giving him a
marketing spin-off connection to the very popular
Lone Ranger radio show of the 1930's Golden Age of
Radio entertainment. Baby boomers may also remember
the very popular 1966-67 television series, starring
Bruce Lee as Kato.
Issue #1 is entitled "Episode One: Night And Day."
The first half the the story is set in the past
and is action-oriented, as Century City's two remaining
crime families hold a summit to consider creating
a truce in order to join forces to eliminate The Green
Hornet. The Hornet intervenes and single-handedly
subdues the huge gathering of bad guys.
Thus ends the reign of organized crime in the city,
allowing the original Green Hornet and Kato to retire.
The second half of the issue moves to the present
day, and introduces the Hornet's spoiled son, just
as his girlfriend dumps him because he's a shiftless
wealthy playboy. The issue ends with a hint
that the now elderly Britt Reid will be anointing
his son as the new Hornet to give him a purpose in
life.
The letters page of issue #1 states that this comic
series is an adaptation of an unproduced Kevin Smith
screenplay for The Green Hornet. After reading
this issue I can see why the screenplay is unproduced.
The problem is that this is a Kevin Smith-scripted
comic book, loaded with Smith's trademark pretentious
and extremely snarky dialogue and character attitude
that many readers including myself just don't enjoy.
You don't have to be politically correct to feel
at the least uncomfortable and at the most actually
offended by Smith's inapproriate dialogue references
to the Italian and Japanese ethnicity of the criminals;
combine that with one weird, incomprehensible gun-toting
scene/snarky sexual remark involving Reid's wife
along with a final panel in which the younger Reid
closes the issue by mooning the reader, and you've
got a typically smug Kevin Smith comic.
Smith has a very loyal comic
book reading following, so if you're one of his loyal
fans, feel free to check-out his typical fare
in this new series. But if like me you're
not a Smith fanatic, my advice is to skip this new
interpretation of The Green Hornet, which disrespects
the heritage of this iconic Golden Age character by
updating the original character's world only by adding
modern-day coarseness and snarkiness to the storyline.
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Contest
Winner Announcement!!!
Our latest contest asked
you to answer the trivia questions of what is the largest
man-made water body in America, and what major construction
project resulted in the creation of this water body.
We received several correct answers, so by a random
roll of the dice the winner is (drumroll, please)...Matt
Turnbull, who correctly answered that the largest man-made
American water body is Lake Mead, which was created as a
result of the construction of Hoover Dam.
New
Contest Announcement!!!
It's time to put your thinking
caps back on with a comic book-oriented contest challenge.
The theme of our latest contest is superhero sidekicks.
Your challenge is to e-mail us at Gordon_A@msn.com and tell us
who your favorite superhero sidekick is and why you prefer
this sidekick above all others. There are many obvious
well-known sidekicks, such as Robin and Bucky tagging-along
respectively with Batman and Captain America, and feel
free to make your case for one of the A-list sidekicks.
But also feel free to pitch us someone unusual or obscure.
My favorite sidekick is Plastic Man's old buddy Woozy Winks,
just because he's such an oddball character. First prize
is a $10.00 gift certificate to That's Entertainment, so
e-mail us with your contest entry now!
That's all for now,
so have a great comic book reading week and see you again
next week here In Bongo Congo!
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