Yes indeed, it was a big Wednesday, so big I have to write twice the review.
The Walking Dead 90 felt like a roller coaster all in one issue, tying up points from the previous couple of issues like the standoff between Rick and Nicholas, addressing their fallout, and introducing new themes all very satisfactorily without letting us think anything is really resolved. Nicholas and Rick reach a peaceful if tenuous understanding. Carl goes home. Andrea reaches out to Rick and says something so warm, hopeful, and life-affirming it made me look forward to the next issue with almost reckless optimism.
Of course, the key word is "almost." We can count on Robert Kirkman to not let us remain long on top of the world before taking us down. Rick's uncertain of his place in any "safe" society. It's becoming clearer just how deep Carl's own scars run. Glenn is nervous about Nicholas and has more reason to be worried about Maggie, who says she can't live "like this." And Abraham's new girlfriend seems to be using him to make a play for power within the community. While the issue ends on a very high note, I'm still on the edge of my seat anticipating the next issue with equal parts hope and dread.
On the other hand, the inaugural issue of Wolverine and the X-Men left me feeling rather elated. For too long, I'd felt that the X-books had been too bogged down with darkness, imminent extinction, and Cyclops's more militant brand of leadership to be any fun. Jason Aaron effectively threw all of that out the window. The school is back. The themes of coexistence and misfits struggling to find their places even among fellow misfits are back. The characters are relatable and even likable- warts and all. Small tidbits of realism like the inspectors' concern over Headmistress Pryde's lack of academic credentials stood out nicely and balanced out what might have otherwise been a roiling cacophany of hyperkinetic craziness.
My only complaint is about how some of the "interdimensional gremlins" Beast mentioned were drawn. I wasn't sure what exactly those creatures who each resembled a nudist, chaotic neutral Nightcrawler on a perpetual sugar rush were supposed to be. Bamfs? They certainly weren't the cuter, cuddlier Bamfs as I remember them. Maybe they just need their "daddy" back to keep them in line. In any case, I hope there will be no Bamf-hunting.
Overall, though, the book was chock full of laugh-out-loud moments such as hadn't been seen in the X-books in a long time- I'm thinking since Excalibur's whackiest moments. As Kade Kilgore (who, now that I think of it, may well be a better villain than I at first expected) said, "The very idea of a 'Wolverine School for Gifted Youngsters' is utterly absurd." And it just may be extremely entertaining, too.
Showing posts with label The Walking Dead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Walking Dead. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
The Walking Dead 89: Review and Spoilers
Upon the first reading, there doesn't seem to be much to this issue- just the simmering tensions within the Community escalating to a fever pitch! And do they ever! Once I started reading, I couldn't stand to put the book down.
The issue starts right where 88 left off, though it's not necessary to have read 88 or really any previous issue to understand what's going on. I think Kirkman may have mastered the delicate art of writing an ongoing series in which almost any issue can serve as a good "jumping on" point. Members of the Community grumble about Rick and his band of newcomers moving in and taking over, so Nicholas formulates a plan to take Rick out permanently and tries to get Spencer, Olivia, and eventually the rest of the community to go along with him. While it remains to be seen how successful he is, there is no doubt about his methods. He insults Olivia's intelligence, Spencer's manhood, and the loyalty of anyone who, even if they disapprove of Rick's leadership, doesn't agree with what Nicholas has planned. As his bullying becomes more violently apparent, it becomes more evident that his hatred of Rick has blinded him to his own actions. He threatens Glenn, Maggie, former friends, even little Sophia, all while blaming Rick for making the Community more dangerous.
There are a couple of breaks from the tension. Rick discusses with Andrea his changing relationship with his son, and a scavenging party kills a few roamers while they find little food. To those unfamiliar with the book, it may seem odd that in a post-apocalyptic comic book, the part where zombie heads get smashed constitutes a break, but this is perfectly in accordance with this series' running theme. The monsters against which we need to be most vigilant are not mindless ghouls, but very much alive, very human, and all too real.
The extras in the back include the conclusion of the interview with The Walking Dead: The Rise of the Governor author Jay Bonansinga which offers some helpful advice for aspiring writers. A rather amusing couple of letters also poke some gentle and affectionate fun at the practice of shameless self-promotion. And then they allow Arcadio Bolaños to promote in one of them his work for Grayhaven Comics. This further proves to me that whoever the real monsters may be, Robert Kirkman is not one of them.
The issue starts right where 88 left off, though it's not necessary to have read 88 or really any previous issue to understand what's going on. I think Kirkman may have mastered the delicate art of writing an ongoing series in which almost any issue can serve as a good "jumping on" point. Members of the Community grumble about Rick and his band of newcomers moving in and taking over, so Nicholas formulates a plan to take Rick out permanently and tries to get Spencer, Olivia, and eventually the rest of the community to go along with him. While it remains to be seen how successful he is, there is no doubt about his methods. He insults Olivia's intelligence, Spencer's manhood, and the loyalty of anyone who, even if they disapprove of Rick's leadership, doesn't agree with what Nicholas has planned. As his bullying becomes more violently apparent, it becomes more evident that his hatred of Rick has blinded him to his own actions. He threatens Glenn, Maggie, former friends, even little Sophia, all while blaming Rick for making the Community more dangerous.
There are a couple of breaks from the tension. Rick discusses with Andrea his changing relationship with his son, and a scavenging party kills a few roamers while they find little food. To those unfamiliar with the book, it may seem odd that in a post-apocalyptic comic book, the part where zombie heads get smashed constitutes a break, but this is perfectly in accordance with this series' running theme. The monsters against which we need to be most vigilant are not mindless ghouls, but very much alive, very human, and all too real.
The extras in the back include the conclusion of the interview with The Walking Dead: The Rise of the Governor author Jay Bonansinga which offers some helpful advice for aspiring writers. A rather amusing couple of letters also poke some gentle and affectionate fun at the practice of shameless self-promotion. And then they allow Arcadio Bolaños to promote in one of them his work for Grayhaven Comics. This further proves to me that whoever the real monsters may be, Robert Kirkman is not one of them.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
The Walking Dead 87: Review and Spoilers
Another Wednesday brought me to the comic book shop in search of treasure- or at least something worth reading. My pick for this week is again The Walking Dead. Issue 87 has kept up the trend of offering up a lot of good reading for the money, this issue's extra being a preview of The Rise of the Governor, coming out this fall. I found the characters engaging and relatable. I really want to know what happened at Wiltshire Estates. The intent of including this was to make me want to buy the book. Mission accomplished. My only quibble is with "her ashen face is almost angelic," being said about a young lady who is neither dead nor, to the best of this reader's knowledge, dying. Healthy kids don't have ashen faces, so is there something going on medically, or was it just a severe case of one word not chosen well? And will I let this dig into my brain?
Naw. There's the main part of the comic book yet to review.
And here unfortunately was one misstep I hoped Kirkman and company would avoid. Carl "woke up" too soon and with apparently nothing more than an eye put out and some soap-opera style amnesia. Granted, readers may be bored by stuff that seems overly medical, but some real life details of severe head trauma and recovering from it might have served well- like the way people look when their eyes are open and they may begin responding, but they're still not back up to a fifteen on the Glasgow coma scale. That hard stare that may be unfocused or too focused, that can express very strongly any emotion or nothing at all but can't actually tell you anything, from someone you're not sure is even aware of you- that to me is creepier and might have had the potential to drive Rick even further up the wall with his regrets.
That Rick has to deal with his regrets and that he's not having an easy time with it, that neither Holly nor Rosita are letting Abraham get away with his bad romantic choices, and that the community's dealing with a looming food shortage, impending winter, and what could (and should be) a pretty long, tough rehabilitation period for a good but critically injured character makes me wonder how they'll cope, and it makes me want to stick around to find out how well they'll manage. If they manage...
Naw. There's the main part of the comic book yet to review.
And here unfortunately was one misstep I hoped Kirkman and company would avoid. Carl "woke up" too soon and with apparently nothing more than an eye put out and some soap-opera style amnesia. Granted, readers may be bored by stuff that seems overly medical, but some real life details of severe head trauma and recovering from it might have served well- like the way people look when their eyes are open and they may begin responding, but they're still not back up to a fifteen on the Glasgow coma scale. That hard stare that may be unfocused or too focused, that can express very strongly any emotion or nothing at all but can't actually tell you anything, from someone you're not sure is even aware of you- that to me is creepier and might have had the potential to drive Rick even further up the wall with his regrets.
That Rick has to deal with his regrets and that he's not having an easy time with it, that neither Holly nor Rosita are letting Abraham get away with his bad romantic choices, and that the community's dealing with a looming food shortage, impending winter, and what could (and should be) a pretty long, tough rehabilitation period for a good but critically injured character makes me wonder how they'll cope, and it makes me want to stick around to find out how well they'll manage. If they manage...
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
The Walking Dead 86: Review and Spoilers
Welcome, friends, for all are friends here until I see any evidence to the contrary. I hope it will be auspicious, if rather cliche, to make the inaugural post of this blog a review of one of my favorite comic books.
What I've liked about The Walking Dead is that there is no pretext of moral superiority in the main characters. Nobody's pushed as a great leader or a terrific role model. The characters make their choices, good or bad, face the fallout, and evolve. Some whom I didn't like at first grew on me. Some that I loved at first have lost standing. (What was Abraham thinking, cheating on Rosita?) And so far, the cliche, gimmicky, shock-value, temporary comic book death hasn't happened in this universe and likely never will. Dead means dead. Permanently. Even if characters come back, it's only as reanimated corpses, most of whom don't last long before taking a bullet through the head.
The cliche comic book coma also has not occurred. In too many cases, writers unsure what to do with a character will injur the character badly enough to keep him or her sidelined until their run is over or they suddenly have a story that requires the character. Then, after months of being nearly completely ignored, they open their eyes to much fanfare, and just like that, they're all better! Yippee! No, TWD is showing much more promise in that area, depicting Carl's condition a bit more realistically. He'll have a tough road ahead assuming he lives, and I'm pretty confident that this will continue to be addressed.
I like the talk Rick had with Andrea, because here it feels like in spite of all Rick has been through, he's finally stepping up to the responsibilities he always had and giving them due priority. Of course it's his job to protect the community. He took an oath to protect and serve. The collapse of civilization as we know it only temporarily diverted him from that mission, and it will be interesting to see how his renewed resolve affects the community- assuming he lives.
Overall, while this may have seemed like a "slow" issue, I found it great reading rich with character development and more logical followup to the events of "No Way Out." I look forward to seeing where TWD will go next.
The fan reaction to Carl getting shot once again made the letters page an irresistible read. The inclusion of so many critical letters and the reason for including them kicked my respect for Robert Kirkman up several notches. Writers benefit from hearing or reading what doesn't work for the readers as well as what specifically does. Sucking up to writers is just as useless as bashing them. On the other hand, and this note is directed particularly to Mr. Kirkman though it applies to other writers, while it's great to keep engaging the readers on the letters page, you don't need to defend your work.
And on that note, I was delighted to flip over and read Man and Elephant Man 1, even if it was for no other reason than that between that and TWD 86, it made for an awful lot of comic book for just $2.99. I liked the premise. I liked the gritty voice of Hip Flask, Information Agent and narrator extraordinaire. I absolutely loved the consistent pulp sci-fi feel. Here's the butt... er... but. I felt the nudity and the generally unrealistic way the female characters behaved detracted from the story. Where I come from, women who stand around in bad weather with bare midriffs get cold, and female office workers generally don't greet men at work by throwing their arms around them no matter how much they like their coworkers. But since the ending revealed a possible explanation for the women's rather ridiculous behavior, I'll consider withholding judgment on the upcoming books- particularly if they give the women sufficient clothing. I've got a daughter, and I can't always stop her from reading over my shoulder.
What I've liked about The Walking Dead is that there is no pretext of moral superiority in the main characters. Nobody's pushed as a great leader or a terrific role model. The characters make their choices, good or bad, face the fallout, and evolve. Some whom I didn't like at first grew on me. Some that I loved at first have lost standing. (What was Abraham thinking, cheating on Rosita?) And so far, the cliche, gimmicky, shock-value, temporary comic book death hasn't happened in this universe and likely never will. Dead means dead. Permanently. Even if characters come back, it's only as reanimated corpses, most of whom don't last long before taking a bullet through the head.
The cliche comic book coma also has not occurred. In too many cases, writers unsure what to do with a character will injur the character badly enough to keep him or her sidelined until their run is over or they suddenly have a story that requires the character. Then, after months of being nearly completely ignored, they open their eyes to much fanfare, and just like that, they're all better! Yippee! No, TWD is showing much more promise in that area, depicting Carl's condition a bit more realistically. He'll have a tough road ahead assuming he lives, and I'm pretty confident that this will continue to be addressed.
I like the talk Rick had with Andrea, because here it feels like in spite of all Rick has been through, he's finally stepping up to the responsibilities he always had and giving them due priority. Of course it's his job to protect the community. He took an oath to protect and serve. The collapse of civilization as we know it only temporarily diverted him from that mission, and it will be interesting to see how his renewed resolve affects the community- assuming he lives.
Overall, while this may have seemed like a "slow" issue, I found it great reading rich with character development and more logical followup to the events of "No Way Out." I look forward to seeing where TWD will go next.
The fan reaction to Carl getting shot once again made the letters page an irresistible read. The inclusion of so many critical letters and the reason for including them kicked my respect for Robert Kirkman up several notches. Writers benefit from hearing or reading what doesn't work for the readers as well as what specifically does. Sucking up to writers is just as useless as bashing them. On the other hand, and this note is directed particularly to Mr. Kirkman though it applies to other writers, while it's great to keep engaging the readers on the letters page, you don't need to defend your work.
And on that note, I was delighted to flip over and read Man and Elephant Man 1, even if it was for no other reason than that between that and TWD 86, it made for an awful lot of comic book for just $2.99. I liked the premise. I liked the gritty voice of Hip Flask, Information Agent and narrator extraordinaire. I absolutely loved the consistent pulp sci-fi feel. Here's the butt... er... but. I felt the nudity and the generally unrealistic way the female characters behaved detracted from the story. Where I come from, women who stand around in bad weather with bare midriffs get cold, and female office workers generally don't greet men at work by throwing their arms around them no matter how much they like their coworkers. But since the ending revealed a possible explanation for the women's rather ridiculous behavior, I'll consider withholding judgment on the upcoming books- particularly if they give the women sufficient clothing. I've got a daughter, and I can't always stop her from reading over my shoulder.
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