Thoughts on 12-28's Comics

Well, I've finally Made It. This blog got its first pervert hit a few days back; someone found their way here by Googling for "wonder woman the superhero and a normal person having sex comic" (without the quotation marks). An auspicious day to be sure.

This site doesn't turn up until the second page of search results, so this person must have been searching rather dilligently.

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The Brave and the Bold 9
Changing Times
-- Waid and Perez diverge a bit from the usual format and deliver three short team-up stories instead of the usual one. This book, with its focus on "What happens next?" plot progression and sci-fi/fantasy flash (not a perjorative!), all within the framework of only one issue per team-up, is pretty light on character drama under even normal circumstances. Here, that's even more the case, as we get three even-shorter-than-usual stories.

It's all good, though. This book continues to be an absolute blast, telling the kind of balls-to-the-wall imaginative stories that only superhero fiction can tell. Waid has a talent for taking what would normally be a pretty straightforward, boilerplate story and peppering it with clever dialogue, a few funny jokes, and a few unconventional twists that alter the journey if not the destination; thereby turning it into something more. Perez's art has a similar strength, and what would come off as a generic genre staple (e.g. mummies) is captured so perfectly that it becomes fresh and wondrous all over again. And given the page limitations, it's impressive that Waid manages to pack in as much characterization as he does.

The Metal Men and Dial H for Hero: What I said about Waid taking what should be a boilerplate story and turning it into something more? That definitely applies to this one. We have the clichéd "We loved you the way you were; you didn't have to change" plot that's probably appeared in dozens of Saturday morning cartoons, but Waid sprinkles in bits like the cesium line (which even someone as scientifically ignorant as me has been waiting for someone to point out to Mercury), and the final product's just a delight.

Blackhawk and the Boy Commandos: Before reading this story, I didn't care much for the Blackhawks and knew next to nothing about the Boy Commandos, and I can't say my interest in either has increased. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this quite a bit, and both groups were fun here.

Did anyone else think that one page where Brooklyn escapes was likely either a case of miscommunication between writer and penciller or of post-art script alteration? According to the word balloons, Brooklyn jammed the Orb's staff in to create a diversion, but looking only at the art, it certainly looks like he just ran away and it was the mummy who jammed the staff in to catch him! If it was a last minute change, maybe someone realized that in the earlier version the mummies have technically still won because they still have the Orb... and that *was* their goal.

The Atom and Hawkman: Out of all three, this pairing feels most like it could have supported a full issue-length story. Right from page one, with the Atom's jealousy over Carter Hall being both an intellectual and incredibly buff, you get the feeling there's a lot that could be explored in these two's interactions. Throw in Hawkman's former close association with Ray Palmer on top of it all, and there's definitely story potential here.

It's a fun story. Waid excellently utilizes the Atom's narration style from his own book, and we get a decent sense of who both these people are. That said, it makes no sense that the bio-belt and the Nth metal would screw each other up when the same thing never happened when Ray was wearing it (and given Hawkman's total surprise, I think it's safe to say it was indeed a new experience).

Batman 672
Space Medicine
-- I didn't used to understand why Grant Morrison has a reputation for confusing stories. I haven't read what I understand to be his trippier works, but people have called his mainstream superhero work confusing, too, and that I didn't get. No longer.

This issue is, quite frankly, incomprehensible. I dare anyone to make sense out of the last several pages. Everything's perfectly straightforward up until the false Batman shoots Gordon, at which point things turn lopsided.

*However*, I'm pretty sure confusion's the point and we're not supposed to understand those final pages yet. In any case, I want to read the next issue to find out just what the heck is going on, so the issue did it's job.

As for all those pages preceding the gunshot... I really liked the introductory sequence, which is delightfully cryptic. The Bruce Wayne-Jezebel Jet subplot, on the other hand, isn't working for me, and its scene this issue highlighted why. Bruce is explaining to Alfred how deeply smitten he is, listing the reasons why, and you realize almost everything he says is new information to the reader. The relationship is being developed almost entirely off-panel, which makes it hard to care about it or her.

The Flash 235
The Wild Wests, Part 5: Headlong
and
The Fast Life, Part 3 of 4
-- Waid's pilot run had a slow start, but it quickly improved, so that by now I'm in for the long haul... or I would be if he wasn't leaving in one issue. The Flash family setup he's created definitely has running legs, I think (ouch).

The way being a parent has affected Wally is... well, I can't say realistic because I haven't met many new parents, but it's certainly engaging. Waid's never been afraid to make his characters jerks from time to time, when it's logical, and I appreciate that. And given all the emphasis in so many other superhero comics on how death and pain are a superhero's constant companion, I found Wally's agreement to stop protecting his children so much very refreshing.

As for the back-up story, it's a hoot and a half. The jokes in these back-ups deviate a bit from Waid's usual style, which can probably be chalked to co-writer John Rogers. Waid's humor tends to derive from the situations the characters find themselves in or from put-downs by arrogant geniuses. The jokes here are more about word play and odd turns of phrase. Or I'm talking out of my ass; that's a possibility, too. The twist at story's end was neat.

Given that Waid's leaving so soon, I guess it's unlikely we'll see the scene where the Batman costume comes springing out of the Flash's ring. Nuts, because that might have been my favorite part of the entire All-Flash issue. Dare I hope the planned story gets moved to The Brave and the Bold?