Memories of One Perfect Day - Review of Batman the Dark Knight volume 3 - Mad (New 52)

 

Review:

A substantial portion of the Batman's Rogues Gallery of villains have an at-best tenuous grasp on reality. Hence the need for Arkham, an asylum for the criminally insane. Joker, Riddler, Scarecrow, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, to name a few, are less about super-powered villains, leaning more to the twisted, sadistic, psychopathic or deranged.

Gregg Hurwitz gives us a deep-dive origin backstory of another member of this group of twisted psychopaths, the Mad Hatter and his Wonderland prism through which he sees the world. A childhood marred by medical issues and experimental treatments with risky side-effects collided with heartbreak over a teenaged crush who dumped him after a seemingly perfect day together.

In this six-chapter story arc, Hatter seeks to recreate that perfect day through mind control, abductions, murderous auditions and staged rehearsals and more. It is a dark, disturbing tale, befitting the collision between a Dark Knight and an insane, diminutive Wonderland escapee. 

Hurwitz does give us occasional moments of humour scattered throughout the narrative, for example playing on the famous turn-around-and-he's-gone Bat-trope ("Nope. Still here.") but they ultimately either fall flat or are dwarfed by the sheer depth of darkness.

Overlaying the insanity and paralleling Hatter's own lost love is a love story between Bruce Wayne and a world-famous pianist. Will he share his deepest secrets with her? This love story attempts to give depth and social connection to Bruce Wayne, to pull him out of his bat-cave and dark obsessions. Unfortunately, it does not work. It blooms and advances so quickly that the reader can't help but feel that it is just a plot device and, sure enough, a tragic twist leads to a predictable Bat-rage.

The art is deliberately repulsive throughout this collection. Ethan van Sciver does most of the heavy lifting and casts the Mad Hatter's flashbacks in appropriately nostalgic sepia tones. Hatter's face is ugly, a horrific mask of hate and insanity. His henchmen, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, flit between cartoonish, roly-poly buffoons and dangerous thugs. 

Yet the chapters drawn by Szymon Kudranski are even less pleasant. The sepia is replaced by a harsh back-lighting; the panels are reminiscent of water-colour paintings but over-inked and indistinct, and it is frustratingly difficult to tell the characters from one another.

Where Kudranski's style works best is in the Annual, a standalone Hallowe'en tale in which Hatter, Penguin and Scarecrow are trapped in a house of horrors. They are convinced that Batman lurks around every corner. Can they work together enough to survive the night and escape the trap? This limited cast of very distinct characters eliminates the character-recognition issue and Kudranski's images can shine in this moody, spooky context.

The book itself, the hard-cover collection, feels like a cynical attempt to take advantage of Batman's enduring popularity. There is nothing special about the volume, no extras features or insights. Just a ho-hum book collecting a dark and twisted but ultimately ho-hum New 52 Bat-tale.

Description:

Everything hangs in the balance in the Dark Knight’s life as Bruce Wayne grapples with revealing Batman to the woman of his dreams. But just as he’s ready to give her his all, the Mad Hatter joins the ranks of one of the greatest threats Gotham has ever known. By poisoning and kidnapping its citizens, he terrorizes Gotham in an attempt to rebuild his lost hopes into a wonderland.

Can the Caped Crusader save the city-and his new love-before the Hatter shatters their world forever?

Collects: Batman: The Dark Knight #16-21, Annual #1

Authors:  Gregg Hurwitz
Artists:  Ethan Van Sciver, Szymon Kudranski
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Jan. 21, 2014
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  978-1401242473
Pages:  176 pages

A Twisted Sacrament - Review of We Only Find Them When They're Dead volume 1

 

Review:

The creative team of writer Al Ewing and artist Simone di Meo gives us a visually gorgeous and conceptually ground-breaking sci-fi thrill-ride. This collection brings together the first five issues of the 2020-2021 series by BOOM! Studios.

At the centre of the story is Captain Malik and his crew of four. Their livelihood is best considered as deep-space miners. Except what they mine are the corpses of giant alien gods, found drifting at the very edge of the galaxy. Beyond them is the vast, empty darkness of inter-galactic space.

But they are not alone in their mining quest. Each of the dead gods, the size of a mountain or more, is mined in a cutthroat competition between dozens of "autopsy ships" - with each one staking their claim to a divine eyeball or sector of cheek, or to the metals and fabrics making up the garb of the gods. Each of these competing ships, like Malik's, includes a quartermaster, an engineer and most crucially a surgeon to operate the giant laser "knife" for carving up the flesh of the god.

Novelty of concept is not enough, on its own, to support a compelling story. Even with the potential Judeo-Christian overtones and themes around devouring divinity, all left surprisingly untouched and unexplored in these initial chapters, the story needs more. 

So, Ewing drops human conflict, broken relationships and long-simmering interpersonal feuds into the mix. Malik's history with one of the law-enforcement escorts unfolds through at times jumpy flashbacks - an engagement between the escort and Malik's brother, a family smuggling and black-market scheme, a suspicious last-minute swap of work shifts, a horrible accident - all work to foster a personal vendetta against Malik by the law enforcer. And when Malik sets out into the void with his little ship, in search of a still-living god, she pursues him to hunt him down.

Simone di Meo's visuals are gorgeous with painted splashes of colour on black backgrounds. It gives the feel of deep-space action, while leaving lots of room for attention-directing bursts of light and flashes of colour. His innovative art matches the unique scenario of the series.

The story is not without its flaws, however. The flashbacks try to hold our hand through the jumps in time and place. Using references to the year, tucked subtly into the panels, helps a little, but is over-used and winds up fragmenting our attention and confusing more than helping.

Likewise, Simone di Meo is freed from the confines of standard panel structures and layouts. This frequently enhances the overall story; but when his free-flowing images fail to draw the reader's eye in the right sequence, a frustrating amount of extra effort lands on the part of the reader to make sense of what is happening. And the comic-standard word balloons feel jarringly out of place on top of the beauty and innovation of these pages. Given the creativity and innovation displayed in the graphic storytelling, could they have imagined a better way to communicate the characters' speech?

Overall, this beautiful and imaginative book rates 3 capes.

Description:

Captain Malik and the crew of his spaceship are in search of the only resources that matter – and can only be found by harvesting the giant corpses of alien gods that are found on the edge of human space.. and now they see an opportunity to finally break free from this system: by being the first to find a living god.

THE GODS ARE ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL... ...AND THE GODS ARE ALWAYS DEAD. Captain Malik and the crew of the spaceship the Vihaan II are in search of the only resources that matter – and can only be found by harvesting the giant corpses of alien gods that are found on the edge of human space. While other autopsy ships and explorers race to salvage the meat, minerals, and metals that sustain the human race, Malik sees an opportunity to finally break free from this system: by being the first to find a living god. But Malik’s obsession with the gods will push his crew into the darkest reaches of space, bringing them face to face with a threat unlike anything they ever imagined, unless the rogue agent on their trail can stop them first... 

Superstars Al Ewing (Immortal Hulk) and Simone Di Meo (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) present a new sci-fi epic about the search for meaning and the hard choices we make to find it, no matter the cost to the world – or universe – around us.

Collects: We Only Find Them When They’re Dead #1-5

Authors:  Al Ewing
Artists:  Simone Di Meo
Published By:  BOOM! Studios
Published When:  May 11, 2021
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  978-1684156771
Pages:  112 pages

Hungry Children! Review of Fairest: The Hidden Kingdom (a Fables story)

 

Review:

Bill Willingham's multiple award-winning Fables universe brilliantly reimagines the characters from classic fairy tales and nursery rhymes, setting them as long-time refugees settled into our real world. In this collection, Willingham provides overall guidance but hands the creative reins over to South African writer Lauren Beukes. The result is recognizable Fables Universe characters but cast in a tale that feels closer to Asian Horror films than either the urban fantasy fiction of the original series or the fairy tale land of the source material.

The result is both starkly beautiful and deeply unsettling.

Rapunzel, with her faithful companion Joel Crow and a tagalong Jack Horner, leaves Fabletown for Japan, to search for her long-lost children and put right a past she thought long buried. 

Fables she knew, loved, betrayed and lost long ago, whom she thought long dead or gone, are still there, hiding in plain sight in modern day Japan. When she arrives, some of those old friends seek to use her, others to kill her. 

Characters like Tomoko, her fox-woman former lover with a spherical and magical soul of fox-fire, and whose current loyalties are decidedly mixed. Her torture of Jack is gruesome and cruel.

Or like blue-haired Mayumi with her grotesquely disfigured face, thanks to the sword of a warlord long dead. She has emerged as a Yakuza assassin par excellence.

Rapunzel must navigate these and other past sins and wounds and shifting loyalties in the present and come to terms with what she left behind upon fleeing Japan centuries earlier.

Inaki Miranda's art is disturbingly effective at evoking the horror underlying Beukes' story. His attention to fashion detail, from ancient dress codes to the modern streets of Tokyo, adds to the fun. But he does not shy away from the violence and freaky visuals in the more terrifying sections. His use of cross-panel slashes, selective heavy inking and blue-tinting (most critically in the scenes at the well which lies at the heart of the tale) elevate and complement the narrative, helping to make sense of a complex and at times confusing story.

Bill Willingham's only writing in this collection is the backup tale at the end. It contrasts heavily with the main story in both tone and visual mood and really does not belong here. Was it only included for marketing or royalty purposes? It sticks out like the fabled sore thumb from the rest.

It is the tale of Raymond T. Fox and his date with Princess Alder, a living humanoid tree. It provides some frivolous fun and the only nudity in the whole book. The story would be fine elsewhere but here it undermines what Beukes and Miranda have created, and I must dock the overall collection a cape as a result. I would give the Rapunzel tale three and a half, but the overall collection just two and a half capes.

Description:

New York Times bestselling, award-winning creator Bill Willingham presents a new series starring the female FABLES. Balancing horror, humor and adventure in the FABLES tradition, FAIREST explores the secret histories of Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Cinderella, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, Snow White, Rose Red and others.

In a stand-alone tale, Beast must hunt a beauty, but what is her relation to his past? And then, in a 6-part epic, Rapunzel lives one of the most regimented lives in Fabletown, forced to maintain her rapidly growing hair lest her storybook origins be revealed. But when word of her long-lost children surface, she races across the sea to find them--and a former lover.

Collects: Fairest #8-14

Authors:  Bill Willingham (Author), Lauren Beukes
Artists:  Inaki Miranda (Illustrator), Barry Kitson
Published By:  Vertigo 
Published When:  July 30, 2013
Parental Rating: Mature
ISBN:  978-1401240219
Pages:  128 pages

The Big Bad Wolf Nearly Bites It: Review of Fables volume 3 - Storybook Love

 

Review:

Bill Willingham's ground-breaking Fables series ran from 2004-2015. The critically acclaimed series won more than a dozen Eisner Awards. Its fantastic premise brings fairy tale characters into new relationships with one another and transposes them into modern-day communities, most notably in a New York City neighbourhood.

The opening chapter of this third volume of the original series follows Jack (of Beanstalk fame) and his adventures back in the civil war. While these Fables characters are not immortal, they are long-lived. It is a playful tale with bayou poker, a magical sack, a reprieve from the Grim Reaper and more. Opening the volume as it does, it very much sets the tone of imaginative situations, gory violence and sexuality for the chapters to come.

It is followed by a two-part tale in which a sensationalistic reporter is sniffing around for their secrets. Putting together several clues, historic photos and some modern-day paparazzi stalker skills, he correctly deduces their extremely long lives. His conclusion? Vampires! Bigby Wolf's scheme to destroy evidence and shut him up leads to a heist-film feel involving Sleeping Beauty and a little table-turning blackmail of his own.

The title tale, 'Storybook Love,' is a four-part thriller drama as Blackbeard and Goldilocks scheme to kill Snow White and Bigby Wolf. Charming them and sending them away on a remote camping adventure on the West Coast gives Goldilocks plenty of opportunity to hunt them down and kill them. But Bigby Wolf is more than a rugged and dour security head - he is the Big Bad Wolf, seventh child of the North Wind, and he turns the tables, although it is ultimately Snow White who saves the day.

Meanwhile back home, Prince Charming duels Blackbeard to the death, proving they are not immortal and one main character will die.

Mark Buckingham handles the art duties in this story arc, and he delivers tremendous work! His turn in these chapters led to becoming the primary artist of the series. Especially remarkable are his creative layouts, with plane-shaped panels while Snow White and Bigby Wolf fly back home, or the shield-shaped pages during the sword duel.

The whole collection is filled with loads of gory violence, no matter the artist, as well as some sex and nudity thrown in, earning the volume's Mature rating.

This book gives us gorgeous visuals, a brilliant premise, intense drama, major character developments, even if some of them do feel flat and uninteresting.

Description:

A new Softcover collecting the acclaimed FABLES #11-18, including the 4-part "Storybook Love." Also included are the 2-part "A Sharp Operator" and the single-issue tales "Bag o' Bones" and "Barleycorn Brides." Don't miss this amazing third collection, topped off with a stunning new wraparound cover by James Jean

Collects: Fables #11-18

Authors:  Bill Willingham (Author), Mark Buckingham (Author
Artists:  
Published By:  Vertigo 
Published When:  May 1, 2004
Parental Rating: Mature
ISBN:  978-1401202569
Pages:  192 pages