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Batman: Batgirl
is reviewed here.
Best of Marvel '961997 (SC TPB) 218 pgs
Writers:
Mark Waid, Scott Lobdell, Kurt Busiek, Karl Kesel, Larry Hama, Bill Messner-Loebs,
Todd Dezago, Tom DeFalco. Artists: Adam Kubert, Chris Bachalo, Ron
Garney, Pat Olliffe, Cary Nord, Mike Wieringo, John Buscema, Joe Bennett.
Colours/letters/editors: various.
Reprinting: Generation X #17, Fantastic Four #416, Captain America #454, Untold Tales of Spider-Man #13, Wolverine #102, Daredevil #353, Sensational Spider-Man #8, Thor #502, Onslaught: Marvel Universe
Additional notes: intros by the various writers and sometimes artists.
Rating: * * * (out of 5)
Number of readings: 1
Published by Marvel Comics
In ye days of olde, DC Comics used to publish their annual
"Year's Best Digest", reprinting 10 or so stories culled from the previous
publishing year. Most collections contained a mix of good stories, O.K.
stories, and a few forgettable efforts that were probably included just
'cause the selection editor was friends with the writer or something. But
who cared? They made nice little grab-bags of stories, some you might not
have picked up on their own, for a cheap, digest price. Eventually DC discontinued
its digests, and so to did the "Year's Best" concept disappear.
Then Marvel briefly reprised the idea in the '90s with
The Best of Marvel '95, '96 and '97. No longer cheap digests, they were
printed as expensive TPBs, but with the same hit and miss quality, and
the same appeal of being a handy little sampling of the company's line.
But Marvel, too, seems to have stopped.
Why?
Before I get into reviewing The Best of Marvel 1996, I'll
just do a little plug for the concept. Not as an expensive TPB,
like this, but printed on cheaper paper to keep the price down, or even
utilizing a digest-sized format. At a time when the
industry is constantly bemoaning its shrinking audience, yearly round ups,
collecting better-than-average, relatively self-contained stories
from a diversity of titles make a great little advertisement for the titles.
A reader buys a "best of" collection, enjoys a character he/she had never
tried before, and decides to pick up the monthly comic on the stands. Presto
-- instant increase in readership. It alsoo might encourage writers and
artists to put a little more quality into things on a monthly basis if
they knew their stories might have a shot at being selected for inclusion
-- maybe. And finally, such collections arre just...fun. A potluck
reader of four-colour fantasy, but without the pressure an all time "Greatest"
collection is under. Since it's only the "best" of a 12 month period, one
can forgive a little chaff in the wheat.
But above all, such collections need to be cheap, since
they're more impulse buys than anything.
The above enthusiasm might seem out of place since my
actual reaction to The Best of Marvels '96 was decidedly mixed. As is to
be expected, there were a couple of really good pieces, some kind run-of-the-mill
stories, and some pretty forgettable stuff, too -- most collected from
a narrow four month period!
Since this was at a time when Marvel was cancelling a
bunch of its titles (not for long, just to re-start them with new numbering
and new creative teams) one can infer this wasn't exactly a bumper year
overall. In fact, three of the stories selected (Fantastic Four, Captain
America, and Thor) are literally from the "last" issue of their respective
titles. There's also a chunk of the book devoted to "Onslaught", which
was Marvel's epic crossover story for that year -- including reprinting
the final, 48 page conclusion to that saga. But it feels too much like
we've been dropped down in the middle (which we have), with too much hitting
and not enough interesting stuff to make for a self-contained read, and
big, splashy art that's kind of confusing, and the story ending in an unsatisfying
way.
The best pieces are the FF story and the Wolverine story.
The Fantastic Four is a 10 page short that re-examines
a pivotal meeting between Reed Richards and Victor von Doom in their university
days. It's not an action piece, or a superhero piece, but Tom DeFalco deftly
manages to tell a human drama while instilling in the reader a sense of
the possibilities inherent in the title ("Roads Not Taken") -- it's a "What
if...?"-style story, even as it doesn't diverge from established
continuity. It's oddly compelling. It's also drawn by the great John Buscema,
supposedly his swan song before retirement. Though his retirement may've
been short-lived since a couple of years later he contributed to stories
reprinted in the TPB Thor: The Dark Gods.
The Wolverine story makes effective use of the split between
words and pictures that make comics unique among narrative mediums -- a
split that is rarely exploited these days. It's basically two stories,
one told entirely with pictures, another told entirely in text, both unrelated,
but thematically connected. Ironically, writer Larry Hama says in his intro
that he had intended the comic just to be the silent, picture story. Had
he stayed with that, it would've been just a novelty, rather than this
moody, memorable tale.
Other pieces are O.K. but unremarkable. Some, however,
are kind of blah. The Daredevil piece marked a (temporary) change of tone,
moving DD back to his wise-cracking roots (in a story involving an implied
rape and murder!) but isn't much when viewed just as a story unto itself.
The Captain America story has him battling baddies in South-East Asia,
but it's actually kind of uncomfortable. By virtue of wearing the flag
of a specific nation on his costume, Captain America is the one superhero
least suited to international adventure. Spider-Man represents Spider-Man,
Thor represents Thor, but Captain America represents, if only symbolically,
the U.S. government...with all the baggage, good and bad, that entails.
Ultimately, The Best of Marvel '96 starts out kind of
fun, like one of those boxes of assorted chocolates, with the reader unsure
what each bite will bring. But, I'll admit, assessing my feelings at the
end of the book, I was indifferent to more stories than I actively enjoyed.
But halve the cover price and the concept of an annual
"best of" collection, from Marvel, DC, etc., is a sound one. This was O.K.
as a grab-bag of different stories and heroes, but pricey when only a couple
of the pieces really stand out.
Cover price: $27.95 CDN./$19.95 USA.
The Best of the Spirit
is reviewed here
Birds of Prey: Of Like Minds 2004 (SC TPB) 144 pages
Written by Gail Simone. Pencils by Ed Benes. Inks by Alex
Lei with Rob Lea.
Colours: Hi Fi. Letters: John Workman, others. Editor: Lysa Hawkins.
Reprinting: Birds of Prey #56-61 (2003) - with covers
Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5)
Number of readings: 1
Published by DC Comics
The Birds of Prey comic book series features the original Batgirl, now a wheelchair
bound uber-hacker named Oracle who guides street level operatives, namely
the Black Canary and, more irregularly, the Huntress. In an industry that
has trouble maintaining female leads, this all-girl team has done pretty
well for itself, even having spawned a short-lived TV series. That show
fiddled with the concept, namely by making Huntress the central character
(and a version of the character that owes little to this one), but other
aspects of the comic will seem comfortably familiar to TV fans -- some
of the heart-to-hearts between Oracle and Black Canary could easily have
been conversations between Oracle and Huntress in the TV series. I mention
this because even a poorly rated TV series probably had a larger audience
than most comics, and the comic might still benefit from a crossover audience.
The Birds of Prey comic has been a generally well regarded
effort if you're looking for breezy, two-fisted action tales, often with
foes that are crooks and gangsters rather than "super" villains, and with
some emphasis on the buddy bonding between the heroines. This trade paperback collection, Birds of Prey: Of Like Minds,
showcases the beginning of a new creative team of writer Gail Simone and
artist Ed Benes (and, like a lot of recent TPBs, it's been rushed onto the
stands so that, if you pick this up, then run to the local comic shop for
the latest issue...you'll only have missed an issue or two in-between).
And, for the most part, it delivers the goods as a breezy,
action series with an emphasis on buddy bonding.
The Birds come up against Savant, an unstable villain
who's well named; he's almost as smart as Oracle, and as physically tough
as Black Canary. His stock-in-trade is blackmail and he captures Black
Canary in order to force Oracle to do his bidding, forcing Oracle to call
in the Huntress for help.
The "Of Like Minds" story occupies the first four issues,
then segues into a two-part tale that stems from the first. That's worth
noting because I can sometimes read a TPB collection, getting my taste
buds set for a complex, epic saga...only to be a bit put-off when, as here, it turns out actually
to be comprised of two shorter, and simpler, stories. The kidnapping isn't the first act in an epic story. Rather, it is the story (well, the first story, anyway). Black Canary is kidnapped, Huntress and Oracle work to rescue her.
Simone writes breezily, with an emphasis on wry humour.
The result is both enjoyable...but also a touch light-weight. Simone tells
a tale that's fun even though it should seem decidedly unpleasant, involving
as it does Black Canary having both legs broken and, later, breaking her
own thumb to escape handcuffs! Oracle is worried that the Canary, having
been through a similar ordeal (way back in Green Arrow: The Longbow
Hunters) might be traumatized...but, instead, she remains cheery and
unfazed. If this was Daredevil or Batman, it would be treated as a gruelling,
gritty saga of human endurance...here, it's all pretty glib. The tone keeps
the story from being unpleasant but, I'll admit, one can look back with
qualms about Simone's cavalier attitude toward violence.
There's an unbelievable cartooniness throughout...such
as a sequence where the Canary, in a wheelchair and with a broken hand,
easily trounces three armed thugs.
Still, Simone tells the story well enough, keeping the
pace up, and even smartly structuring it so that each chapter has its own
narrative focus. The badinage is generally amusing enough and there is
some effective quirkiness, particularly involving the villain, as well
as his henchman.
The final storyline arises from the first, but leaves
a few threads dangling, presumably for later storylines -- though it's
not to be continued, per se. Reading on-line descriptions of the next couple
of issues, the series seems to start on a new plot line.
The art by Ed Benes and inker Alex Lei borders on a guilty
pleasure. Benes is a clean, disciplined artist, nicely handling faces and
figures and backgrounds. He has a touch of a Manga style perhaps, with
a certain Eurasian cast to all the women, and all the men big and blocky,
but not so much so that it slides into caricature. The guilty pleasure
comes in because Benes also likes women, or rather, the womanly form. It's
interesting how far comics have come (or fallen, depending on your P.O.V.)
that where once critics would heap derision on sexploitive comics, this
revamped Birds of Prey has been getting mainly good press. Both Black Canary
and the Huntress feature costumes with cut-off shorts that could be defined
as just a little, ahem, cheeky. And Benes favours low angle shots so that
even when focusing on a character in the background, a perky posterior
can be featured in the foreground. Granted, Benes avoids endowing his heroines
with ridiculous measurements (at least, any moreso than any comic book
hero, male or female) and the cheesecake poses at least stem a little from
the scenes.
Though I'm ambivalent, what's not to like about beautiful babes in revealing costumes who are given some emotional texture and legitimacy
by a female writer? You can respect 'em AND ogle 'em!
All of Benes' women look identical save for their hair.
And Simone is also guilty of writing her heroines a little homogeneously. Though, to her credit, amid all the action and glibness, there's some delving
into the relationships. As seems to be the overall editorial policy at
DC Comics, the characters are portrayed a lot as if they're wisecracking
teenagers. At times I wondered if Simone and Benes were angling for a gig
doing Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics. I can't say I fully recognized these
characters as the Barbara Gordon and Dinah Lance I remembered from days
gone by.
The fact that the series is written by a woman probably
gives it a teflon coating. I mean, with Black Canary spending much of the
story bound, battered and stretched out on a bed, with some risqué
dialogue, and banter emphasizing the skimpiness of the costumes, it's hard
to imagine a man writing this stuff and not getting hauled onto the carpet
for sexism.
Simone also has an unfortunate tendency to treat morality
as a kind of fluid concept. Sadly, she's not alone. Characters might debate
right and wrong, and even argue liberal views...but, in Simone's world
view, ethics are just something to be paid lip service to, nothing more.
Ultimately, what can one say? Fun and sexy and well paced,
with some quirky twists and turns, this collection actually makes me open
to reading further adventures...even as, breezy and superficial as it is,
it admittedly falls a bit short of being riveting drama.
Cover price: $22.95 CDN/ $14.95 USA
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