Review: Batwoman: Elegy

I first came across Batwoman: Elegy about a year ago when I saw a photo roundup of Read Comics in Public Day.  Someone in one of photos was holding a copy of this very comic, and the cover totally caught my eye. Yes, I judge books by their cover.  That's why they put a fucking cover on the damn things, so it'll catch your eye.  Anyway...the cover to Batwoman got my attention; There was something about the stylized layout that screamed for a closer inspection.

During my next trip to the comic shop, I tracked down a copy and gave it the ol' flip-check.  And my mind was blown.  The art was, as they say, off the chain.  A couple people noticed my bulging eyes, and slack jaw and acknowledged my awe.  Yes, they assured me, Batwoman: Elegy was a sweet fuckin' comic. Not just the art, but the writing as well.

Unfortunately, at the time, the book was only available in hardcover, and out of my price range, so I filed it away in that part of my brain that can unfalteringly  remember band line-ups, 90's baseball team rosters, and titles of books I want to read, but mysteriously cant remember shit I try to memorize for a mid-term or final. When the book finally came out in softcover earlier this year, I picked up a copy and waited for the right moment to give my eyes a glorious treat.

That moment came a bit sooner than I expected with the big shuffle and relaunch at DC.  A Batwoman series had been planned and delayed for some time, I'd even picked up and read the #0 issue to whet my appetite.  When the relaunch was announced, I knew it was time to give Elegy read so I'd be all caught up when the new issues started hitting shelves.

My recent read of Stumptown gave me high hopes that writer Greg Rucka would be able to deliver the goods with an interesting and engaging Batwoman story.  Boy did he ever.

The story is equally about Kate Kane, the woman behind the mask as it is about Batwoman and her battle against a psycho named Alice who quotes Lewis Carrol and aspires to unleashing a toxic death-cloud over Gotham city.  While all the crime fighting business is taking place, Rucka intertwines the story with scenes that depict Kane's past in the military, her complex family situation and childhood, and her struggles relating to her sexual identity.  All these elements work together to create a character who is intensely real, highly engaging, and downright fun to read about.

I was incredibly impressed with the writing effort here.  I got the feeling that Rucka had really set out to make Batwoman/Kate Kane a believable and realistic character, and I feel like he pretty much nailed it.  There were a few plot elements related to the Alice versus Batwoman story line that felt like they were dropped into the story without any supporting information, but this was minor and didn't really take much away from the reading experience.

As great as Rucka's writing was, and it was quite good, the art of Batwoman: Elegy, handled by J.H. Williams III, was astounding.  Simply put, Williams is one of the very best artists in the business and Batwoman is (in my opinion) his crowning achievement thus far.

Not only does JHW3 display his talent in Batwoman: Elegy, he also displays his versatility. He uses different styles of art to depict various aspects of Kate Kane's life.  When she is Batwoman, he uses an almost photo-realistic art approach, a more vintage style for her military days, a cartoonish style for her childhood, and a clean, crisp art style for her current day, out of costume scenes.

While each style is well done, impressive, and displays Williams' talent, my favorite art sequences were the Batwoman ones.  I loved how Williams used non-standard panels to break up the page and used a much more stylized iconic approach to portray the action.  This made the fight scenes seem much more realistic, as they captured the chaos of the fight, yet displayed Batwoman's prowess and skill, and made it all look fancy to boot.  Williams' ability to create beautiful, dynamic art that makes the action leap off the page is an amazing skill and a quality that only makes me love this comic more.

If judged solely on art, Batwoman: Elegy would receive high marks, but Rucka's writing is equally great.  The character development work he put in makes Kate Kane one of the more interesting characters I've read in any form of writing lately, and she especially stands out as a female comic character that isn't just about gigantic breasts and skimpy clothing.  It's sad that she stands out for that reason, but you can either lament that fact, or enjoy the fact that Batwoman/Kate Kane is a shining beacon in the industry of how good comics can be.

For the relaunch, Batwoman will be co-written by J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman, and JHW3 will handle the art as well.  The #0 issue which hit shelves early in the year was handled by the same team, and I enjoyed it, so I feel like the title is in capable hands.  The writing will probably suffer a bit, but the seeds that Rucka planted should continue to bear fruit down the road.

I can easily recommend Batwoman: Elegy, and in fact, have already loaned my copy out and successfully recommended to other folks around the interwebs.  A great lead character, great writing and great art make this one a slam dunk/homerun/hole in one.  If you have even the slightest interest in reading an awesome comic, give this one a shot.

Grade: A+

Comic Quickies: Big Names

Rachel Rising #1: I was so excited when I saw the solicits for Rachel Rising.  I've never read a thing by Terry Moore, but I've heard lots of good things about his work on Strangers in Paradise and Echo and I had a good feeling about this comic as soon as I laid eyes on some of Moore's interior art.

The comic begins with nine wordless, art filled pages which take place in the woods with a mysterious woman watching on from a distance as another woman literally digs herself out of a shallow dirt grave.

The buried woman is the title character, Rachel Beck, who can't remember what the hell happened to her last night. As the reader, we are as clueless as Rachel, and can only search for clues in the art, and try to make meaning out of the small things she discovers.  The first issue offers up a scant amount of information: a strangely bruised neck, three missing days since she last remembers a thing....and there's something wrong with her eyes.

Not a lot to go on, but I was completely sucked in by this comic.  Moore's art, which completely carries the story for the first few pages is lush and gorgeous.  The mystery element of what the hell happened hooked me, and there are a lot of things that happen or are seen in through the course of the issue that left me with some seriously burning questions.  Like: who the fuck was that lady watching Rachel dig herself out of a shallow grave?

Awesome stuff, and easily the best comic I've read all month.

Gotham Noir One-Shot: Before I even flipped open the cover, this comic had all the hallmarks of greatness: A Gotham City/Batman story set in the 40's featuring Jim Gordon as a down on his luck P.I., a noir-style crime story, and the creative team of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, which has been a money combo for me in the past.

Unfortunately, this comic failed to impress me.  I was pretty underwhelmed by the story, I found that I couldn't make myself care about what was going on.  It was sort of interesting to see how Brubaker placed classic Batman characters like Catwoman, and the Joker into the mid-century narrative, but the whole time I sort of felt like I was reading a What If? type story, that was lacking in authenticity.

I can't say that this was a bad comic, it just didn't strike me as the quality I've come to expect from Brubaker and Phillips.  It's so sad when things don't live up to expectations.

The Red Wing #2: This four issue mini-series started out incredibly well, and I had high hopes that the second issue would live up to the quality of the first.

It did...for the most part.  In terms of writing, the story took a much appreciated leap forward. This issue developed characters, delivered some important back story, moved the plot along nicely, and delivered a sweet twist at the end.  All in all, an epic win for any piece of writing.  Hickman is clearly a top-level writer working at the peak of his game.  So, yeah, in that regard, this was a great issue.

The art was a slightly different story.  Nick Pitarra was a complete unknown prior to this comic, and then he came out the gates strong with a brilliant looking first issue.  The dude set the bar pretty damn high for himself, and I felt like he didn't quite nail it on this issue.  Though most of the time Pitarra did manage to recapture the artistic glory of the first issue, there were a few times the art looked flat to me.  There also weren't any mind-blowing art sequences here like there were in the first issue.  That might sound pretty nit-picky but I guess I just have damn high expectations from the previous issue.

My petty complaints aside, this is still a great comic, and one that I'm very much looking forward to reading for the next couple months.

Sweet Tooth #24: This comic gets continual mentions here on the Comic Quickies feature because Jeff Lemire continues to not only write an amazingly captivating and emotionally gripping story, but he also continuously experiments and push the boundaries of his art.

In this issue, for the first time ever, Lemire handled some of the coloring duties.  Why? Especially when he's got Eisner Award winning colorist Jose Villarrubia on colors?  Well, it worked out perfectly on this issue as Lemire's colored pages matched up with a particular character's journey between the worlds of the living and the dead.  Lemire used watercolors, and they gave a very creepy, other-worldly feel to the pages he worked on.  Obviously, the other-worldly feel was perfect for a story that took place on err...other worlds.

This isn't the first time Lemire has tried some new things artistically with Sweet Tooth.  He's done a story-book style issue, and even an issue where three different guest artists tell the back story of three different characters.   Each time, the unique approach has made for a great comic reading experience.  This isn't the end of the art experimenting either...Matt Kindt is a guest artist for three straight issues coming out in the very near future.

Review: Halting State

Halting State is very much a novel for the modern human.  It's a near future sci-fi crime novel where the crime, a bank robbery, takes place on a virtual world inside an online role-playing game by a band of orcs with a dragon on hand for back-up.  As the case gets investigated, what seemed like a waste of time for the police, turns into a crime that has severe real-world implications.

For a technologically challenged dude like me, who can barely figure out how to properly operate a blog, the ramifications of the crime that is the centerpiece for this novel were a bit hard to wrap my brain around.  That being said, Halting State is a fast paced crime story that melds the crime and sci-fi genres extremely well.

Despite my short-comings, Halting State was a pleasure to read.  For one, Stross used a rotating cast of three point of view characters.  Each character had a different connection to the crime that is being investigated.  Their vastly differing lives collide thanks to this virtual bank robbery, and their various backgrounds add depth to the story.  I enjoyed the rotating points of view; they kept the story feeling fresh, which kept me turning the pages.

In Halting State Stross takes a unique writing approach, and utilizes the ginger-haired step-child of perspectives, the Second-person perspective.  Sure, it took me a bit to get used to, but I quickly came to enjoy this unique point of view.  Often when I read, I perceive the events of the story from a movie-like distance.  However, with the second-person perspective, I felt like I was looking directly through the character's eyes at the events of the story.  That may seem like only a slight change, but for me, it made me feel like I was closer to the action, and it made the three point of view characters seem more alive as they perceived and reacted to events differently.

I've been making an effort this year to branch out and read more sci-fi this year.  In the past, I've had a hard time delving into the genre mostly due to two big stumbling blocks: I either 1) don't "get" how technology works, and don't care to read info dumps that explain it. Or 2) get depressed by the author's imagined future which is far shittier than the present.

Lucky for me, for the most part, neither of those beasts reared their ugly heads with Halting State.  The novel is a near future story, so things aren't all that different, thus I understood how most of the technology worked, and Stross' future didn't crush my soul...it seemed alright.  I did struggle a bit some of the technology stuff, but that's to be expected for a guy like me who can barely work his own cell phone, and Stross provides enough detail without being overwhelming and dull.

The kicker for me was that at the heart of things, Halting State is a crime novel, and I love me some crime.  The investigation that takes place in Halting State is an interesting one, with all the twists and turns you'd expect from a non sci-fi crime story.

I had a lot of fun reading Halting State.  The rotating perspectives and short chapters kept the story moving along at a nice pace, and the second-person point of view made the book feel very unique and added an element that for me felt very fresh and different.

All told, Halting State is a great read, and I think hardcore sci-fi fans and folks like me who struggle to get into the genre can equally enjoy this novel.  Worth checking out.

Grade: B

Mastodon: Curl of the Burl

In a little over a month from now, Hunter, the newest album from metal giants Mastodon will hit stores.

Have I mentioned that I'm excited for this?

Well, my buddy Justin, and Oceans of Ale beer blogger, is pretty excited too, and he comes through again here delivering yet another hot tip about the up coming album.

The band has released what is meant to be their first single for the album.  The song is titled Curl of the Burl and it's pretty fucking awesome.  It sounds great, good and heavy, yet still melodic.  From what I've heard of the album so far, it seems like they're poised to release yet another gem of an album.

Comic Quickies: Finales

Green Wake #5: This fifth issue marks the end of what originally was going to be the whole series, but Green Wake has sold well enough to be magically transformed into an ongoing title rather than a five issue mini.  Nice!

So how'd the first arc go? Pretty great.  The comic has a great blend of mystery and horror, which I know I mentioned before, but that's truly what sells me on the comic each month.

Riley Rossmo's art is totally unique and unlike anything I've encountered before.  Rossmo's style can be a blessing and a curse for me though.  There are times when I feel like his squiggly lines, and textures can be too much. Those times mostly come during the highly emotional moments that Wiebe scripts.  I feel those moments would be better served with a cleaner presentation so that the raw emotional power that is prevalent in Green Wake could have more room to breathe.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a raw emotional power to Green Wake.  Make no mistake, this is an intense story about love, loss and coping with what it leaves behind.  Kurtis Wiebe is so adept at portraying the emotional moments in a very genuine way, that I wonder if he has recent experience in such things.  Either way, it is incredibly compelling.

Overall, a great first arc, and I'm excited to see where the story goes from here.

The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde #4: Another finale, this time in Victorian London.  The fourth and final issue of The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde delivered what the whole series had been building up to:  Mr. Hyde versus Jack the Ripper!

The showdown was a bit boring if you ask me, and the outcome of the action wasn't so much a surprise as it was confusing and strange.   Through the first three issues I really enjoyed where this was going, but I was ultimately pretty disappointed with how the whole thing ended.

Definitely not my favorite mini-series ever, but not the worst either.  Still, I liked the creative team enough that I hope they get some work in the future.  The final page hinted at perhaps some more Inspector Adye adventures, so hopefully Haddon and Corley can keep working and keep improving on what is a solid start in the comics business.

Jonah Hex #70:  The final of my arc/series finales is the final issue of Jonah Hex.

I became a fan of Jonah Hex after the 69th issue rocked my socks off with some great writing and the fantastic art of Jeff Lemire.  When I saw that the final issue would feature the art of Ryan Sook, I figured what the hell, and picked that one up too.

Sadly, my socks stayed firmly on my feet for this issue.

Like I had with the 69th issue, I picked this up because of the artist.  Now, I can't say that I've ever read anything that features Sook's art, but I've seen enough of his various cover artwork to know that the guy is great.  That being said, I can't really say that I was all that impressed with Sook's interior art in this issue.  It was good, but just not as good as I had hoped for.  I think the sparse, barren desert setting didn't allow provide enough of a backdrop for his art to flourish.

The writing wasn't anything special either.  The story was kinda hard to follow, and pretty fucking weird too.  But not in a good way.

A month ago I would have said I was all in for Hex's upcoming All Star Western adventures in the DC relaunch, but now I'm a bit more skeptical, and will approach the first few issues of the series with a much more discerning eye.

Review: Ex Machina v9 Ring Out the Old...AND Ex Machina v10 Term Limits

One of the most difficult challenges for any writer of a serialized story is ending the damn thing, and ending it well.

I've been slowly plugging away at the Ex Machina series since last December and though I've enjoyed the series, it has had some ups and downs.  That being said, the events of the 7th and 8th trades gave me high hopes that the ending to the series would be one that did justice to the overall story of Mitchell Hundred, that man who can talk to machines.

Sadly, the ending did not come anywhere near my expectations.  Instead of an ending that tied up main plot lines, brought in those hinted at elements that were seemingly critical to the main plot, and wrapped things up nice and clean, the ending was disjointed, sported some jarring plot gaps, and left me confused, and very dissatisfied.

One of the most frustrating aspects of the lack-luster ending was that the book shifted from what had been mostly a political drama with bits of super-hero stuff mixed in, to being almost completely about Hundred's powers and his masked adventures...to the point that he was not handling political crises, but crises that a costumed hero would face in a typical capes and tights story.

My first reaction to the ending was "Huh?" followed by a reread of the bits that left me confused.  I thought for sure I had missed something crucial that would make the end satisfying, but there was none to be found.

During my next stop at the comic shop, I discussed the end of Ex Machina with the owner, and some well-read customers and they all confirmed that I hadn't missed anything, the ending was just weak, and that they'd had similar disappointed reactions with the ending.

It wasn't just the writing that left more to be desired though.  For the first time all series, I was underwhelmed by Tony Harris' art.  His usual quality stood firm in Ring Out the Old but his art in the finale, Term Limits, appeared to be "mailed in" at times.  What was most annoying though, was that one page would look like an amateur version of Tony Harris had handled the art, then the very next page would look like classic Tony Harris.  The inconsistency of the art was frustrating to say the least, but also disappointing.  Believe me, once you've seen what Harris is capable of, anything less than the best is just not enough.

What makes the weak ending to Ex Machina so sad and disappointing is that I know what the creative team of Vaughan and Harris are capable of, and these last two trades just weren't it.  Overall, this is still a pretty solid series, but the ending doesn't do justice to what at times was an amazing comic.

In the end I would say yes, I recommend this series, especially if you are a super-hero comic reader looking to get into the non-mainstream stuff.  Ex Machina would serve as a pretty solid go-between.  In many ways, Ex Machina has done the same for me, but in reverse, as I'll be subscribing to some super-hero comics for the first time this September with the new DC relaunch.  And yes, I would still recommend it to most any other comic reader as well, because there is a lot to love about the entire series, but I recommend it with the caveat that you'll likely be disappointed with the ending.  I know I was.

On to better (hopefully!) things...

Grade Ring Out the Old: C

          Term Limits: D-

Overall Series Grade: C+

Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a murder mystery...sort of.  The story is told by Christopher John Francis Boone, an autistic teenager who is mathematically adept and socially inept.  Unable to understand the intricacies of social interaction and such things as sarcasm, complex facial expressions, and body language, Christopher takes things at their literal face value.

Late one night he discovers the dead -impaled by a garden fork- body of his neighbor's dog, Wellington.  Christopher is soon found by the dog owner, cradling the dead canine and winds up being  arrested by the police for questioning.

Upon his release, Christopher decides to take after his literary hero, Sherlock Holmes, and discover who murdered poor Wellington.  Though his investigation is discouraged by his father and his neighbors, his special education teacher at school, Siobhan, encourages him to write a book about his investigation.  However, Chris' sleuthing leads him to discover some things about his parents he was never meant to know.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was meant to by my quick, easy-breezy post A Dance with Dragons read that provided quick, easy to digest entertainment, and refresh me after reading such a massive tome.  While The Curious Incident did all that, I was pleased, and a bit surprised to find that it did more.

The author, Mark Haddon does a fantastic job of portraying the unique mind and mannerisms of an autistic child.  Through Christopher's narrative voice you get a strong sense of who he is, and how he is driven by routine, order and predictability.  However, once he begins his investigation, his routine is shattered, and the ways he copes with and interprets events that unfold, which for most people would be emotional nut-shots, is fascinating, unique and interesting.

Without a doubt, Christopher is one of the most unique literary characters I've ever come across.  His personality, narrative voice and mannerisms are at once fascinating, and frustrating to read.  Christopher's literal, mathematical and logical approach to everything in life started to wear on me.  As I struggled to read a story from the point of view of a person who is so fundamentally different from me I came to understand how his father, and those around him also struggled to deal with, interact, and co-exist with Christopher.  That Haddon was able to pull all of this off is no small feat and quite the literary accomplishment.

However, since we see the people who populate Christopher's world only through his emotionless eyes, I found that the other characters didn't stand out or appear nearly as developed as Chris.  This caused me to visualize them mostly as empty vessels who occasionally spouted dialog, and mostly served as tools to show Christopher's uniqueness.

Christopher's mannerisms, which fall under the autism spectrum, often came across as oddities, and were used to make the novel funny and inject some lightness to what is a very emotional story.  I'm not so sure how I feel about this.  Special Education is the most prominent form of segregation in schools these days and special education students are often put in a position of "other" and made the butt of joke.  The fact that Christopher's eccentric behavior, which stems from his autism, is used to create jokes in the novel sort of rubs me the wrong way.  More than anything, it made my question my own perceptions of folks with developmental differences and whether or not my perceptions and assumptions are fair.

All told, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a unique and thought provoking novel.  This is one of those books that can be easily enjoyed by nearly anyone.  It was a great in-between novel to give me a little breathing space before I dive back into meatier stuff.  A solid non-genre book worth checking out.

Grade: B-