This Week's Comics: Angel, Batman, Fables
Feb. 28th, 2008 09:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonteYup, Angel arrived, one week late but not worse for the wear. And yes, that's the second issue of Fables this month. Which means everything I read is back on schedule but Gargoyles.
Angel: After the Fall 4 - As word gets out that Angel has challenged all of LA's demon lords, plans are made, and help comes from Lorne, who's set himself up as a not-Lord and has recruited the Groosaloug to joint he fight. But things are brewing with Gunn, as well, and everything is rushing towards a huge fight next month. Not a lot actually happens, but the dialogue is spot-on, we get to see characters we've missed, and things are moving along. Compared to the Buffy comic, this is a bit flat. There's little of the depth that Joss brings to his best scripts. But compared to most other comics, it's great.
Batman 674 - Held captive by the "third Batman," a badly beaten Batman begins to regain mysteriously suppressed memories of a terribly unsuccessful army project to create a replacement Batman, and begins to wonder if there is a new, unseen foe in the wings.
Last week, Grant Morrison revealed that he is writing what is essentially an epic Batman tale that ties together events from every era in the character's 70 year history (even the silly day-glo scoutmaster stuff from the 50s) and gives Batman the sort of challenges that he has rarely seen. At one level, it's bizarre that anyone wants to use all the odd stuff, all the things that contradict each other. But at the same time, it's incredibly ambitious and gutsy and Morrison might actually be doing something new with a character who's seen it all. And when Morrison manages to bring the pieces together, as he does this issue, it's a joy to read. He gets Batman. He gets Jim Gordon. He gets Gotham. He likes the good guys. He has vision. He is a great scriptwriter. Yes, he also likes to get weird and sometimes really has a hard time making everything coherent. But if you ask me why I'm still reading this book after almost dropping it three times, it's stunning issues like this that are why.
Fables 70 - With Flycatcher's kingdom established, an offer is made to the animals on the Farm for them to move there, even as the march by the exiled Fables to war proceeds. But not many animals want to give up their homes, or their cable TV and Internet. And will Boy Blue finally ask Rose Red out?
After the lackluster "Good Prince" arc, we get back to the Fables we know best, and to things that are not quite so cut and dried. There is at last a little tension, and also character play of the kind we are used to seeing here. So for at least this one issue, the comic I love is back. But the Fable War is coming, and I will reserve judgment about the quality and direction of this comic until after we see how it plays out. Willingham is promising some huge changes. And that often means, in comics, no change at all. We will see, but after six years, this book has earned the right to tell its stories before i say anything.
Angel: After the Fall 4 - As word gets out that Angel has challenged all of LA's demon lords, plans are made, and help comes from Lorne, who's set himself up as a not-Lord and has recruited the Groosaloug to joint he fight. But things are brewing with Gunn, as well, and everything is rushing towards a huge fight next month. Not a lot actually happens, but the dialogue is spot-on, we get to see characters we've missed, and things are moving along. Compared to the Buffy comic, this is a bit flat. There's little of the depth that Joss brings to his best scripts. But compared to most other comics, it's great.
Batman 674 - Held captive by the "third Batman," a badly beaten Batman begins to regain mysteriously suppressed memories of a terribly unsuccessful army project to create a replacement Batman, and begins to wonder if there is a new, unseen foe in the wings.
Last week, Grant Morrison revealed that he is writing what is essentially an epic Batman tale that ties together events from every era in the character's 70 year history (even the silly day-glo scoutmaster stuff from the 50s) and gives Batman the sort of challenges that he has rarely seen. At one level, it's bizarre that anyone wants to use all the odd stuff, all the things that contradict each other. But at the same time, it's incredibly ambitious and gutsy and Morrison might actually be doing something new with a character who's seen it all. And when Morrison manages to bring the pieces together, as he does this issue, it's a joy to read. He gets Batman. He gets Jim Gordon. He gets Gotham. He likes the good guys. He has vision. He is a great scriptwriter. Yes, he also likes to get weird and sometimes really has a hard time making everything coherent. But if you ask me why I'm still reading this book after almost dropping it three times, it's stunning issues like this that are why.
Fables 70 - With Flycatcher's kingdom established, an offer is made to the animals on the Farm for them to move there, even as the march by the exiled Fables to war proceeds. But not many animals want to give up their homes, or their cable TV and Internet. And will Boy Blue finally ask Rose Red out?
After the lackluster "Good Prince" arc, we get back to the Fables we know best, and to things that are not quite so cut and dried. There is at last a little tension, and also character play of the kind we are used to seeing here. So for at least this one issue, the comic I love is back. But the Fable War is coming, and I will reserve judgment about the quality and direction of this comic until after we see how it plays out. Willingham is promising some huge changes. And that often means, in comics, no change at all. We will see, but after six years, this book has earned the right to tell its stories before i say anything.
