Author Archives: Logan Dalton

Review: Cry Havoc #1

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CryHavocCoverCry Havoc #1 is yet another innovative creator owned masterpiece in the making from Image Comics. Writer Si Spurrier, artist Ryan Kelly, and three distinct colorists Lee Loughridge, Nick Filardi, and Matthew Wilson team up to tell an intense and occasionally frightening story about Louise “Lou Canton” London, who is a lesbian busker (street musician) and gets bitten by a werewolf in a dark alley. Somehow, she ends up joining other people with special abilities as part of a consortium of independent military contractors to take out a civilian, who killed CIA operatives at an “enhanced interrogation” facility in Afghanistan. Spurrier, Kelly, and colorists Loughridge, Filardi, and Wilson combine the real life horrors of the War of Terror along with a new twist on the werewolf story. There definitely aren’t any new moons involved.

Spurrier takes a non-linear approach to plot in Cry Havoc #1 starting literally with “the end” as Kelly and Loughridge show a woman behind bars completely consumed by the monster within with elongated limbs and lots of shadow space. The dialogue from an unnamed speaker establishes Lou as a wildcard in the series with her lack of control over her abilities. This opening page also establishes a type of visual coding for Cry Havoc. Loughridge colors the scenes set in prison called “The Red Place”, which has red in the gutters, Filardi colors the scenes from Lou’s past in London with her zookeeper girlfriend with blue in the gutters, and Wilson colors the scenes in Afghanistan with green between the colors. This ensures a smooth transition between storylines and matches a situation to a color like when Lou uses her werewolf senses to track down Lynn Odell, the civilian who killed the CIA personnel, and is also a monster of some type.

Each colorist also captures the overall feel of the various settings. Loughridge does stark mystery and terror with his use of shadows and hints of red. These pages are set in the future, and the identity of the people keeping Lou locked up are just barely revealed and definitely not expanded upon because they are the main antagonists of the series. Filardi’s pages range from soft and romantic with Lou’s blue hair shining the light of the London sky as she kisses her girlfriend on her lunch break to shocking as the blue mixes with shadows when Lou gets bit. Kelly’s pencil work gets a little more fragmented when the attack happens as the pretty people and buildings jumbles into blood, horror, and jagged panels. In keeping with the desert setting of Afghanistan, Wilson’s color palette is mostly muted browns and greens (for military uniform) except when one of the contractors uses their abilities, like Tengu, who spots the American black site with a blue eagle or the yellow glow of the unit’s mysterious, taciturn commander, Adze. All three colorists unleash a bolt of blue, yellow, or red when something supernatural happens to show how jarring it is to the slice of life story in the past or the war comic in the present.

But Cry Havoc #1 isn’t just well-crafted visual storytelling and visceral shocks from artist Ryan Kelly. Writer SiCryHavocInterior Spurrier fully develops his lead character, Lou, using the non-linear structure to strengthen her arc while adding intrigue with the first and last page. Like all good monster stories, the scariest monster is within Lou as she gives into her inner wolf while playing violin for a local band calls Squids of Forbearance. (Spurrier rivals Kieron Gillen in his turns of phrase sometimes.) Kelly and Filardi stain the page with blood and bold reds to go with the soft blue light of the club as Lou maybe likes her werewolf side, which she had vehemently denied earlier (But plotwise in the future.) on the helicopter in Afghanistan. She doesn’t want to kill goats much less insurgents or Lynn and is a little scared by a “shoot first” monologue delivered in a Southern drawl from combat veteran Stig. There is a battle between Lou London, who even shudders at hyenas at the zoo and loves music and beautiful things and women, and the werewolf, who is pure primal urge and literally twists Lou’s body on the first page.

Writer Si Spurrier takes the ugliest spectre of the probably neverending War on Terror, including torture and black sites, and combines them with the ancient, persistent myth of the werewolf through a personal story about a woman, who must fight against the worst of human nature and probably ends up losing. Cry Havoc #1 has a protagonist, but not a hero just a victim. This, along with the shadows and grit of Ryan Kelly’s art and the ability of  of colorists Lee Loughridge, Nick Filardi, and Matthew Wilson to go from neutral and restrained to chaotic and terrifying at the drop of the hat, is what makes it such a dark story. And it’s a tough read because Spurrier’s dialogue for Lou and her girlfriend is incredibly natural with sarcastic wit, rude humor, and normal activities like going to a kebab shop and kissing substituting for overwrought melodrama.

Cry Havoc #1 is the full package with a three dimensional protagonist, revisionist take on the well-worn werewolf horror genre with a dash of real world metaphor, and innovative use of colors as Lee Loughridge, Nick Filardi, and Matthew Wilson show that they are masters of that aspect of comics.

Story: Si Spurrier Art: Ryan Kelly Colors: Nick Filardi, Lee Loughridge, Matthew Wilson
Story: 8.5 Art: 9.0 Overall: 8.8 Verdict: Buy

Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review.

Investigating Alias #20-21

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Alias_Vol_1_20Investigating Alias is a weekly issue by issue look at the source material that inspired the popular and critically acclaimed Jessica Jones Netflix show.

In this installment of Investigating Alias, I will be covering Alias #20-21(2003) written by Brian Michael Bendis, drawn by Michael Gaydos, and colored by Matt Hollingsworth with dream sequence art from Mark Bagley, Al Vey, and Dean White in Alias #21.

“The Underneath” wraps up in Alias #20-21 as writer Brian Michael Bendis puts the meat of the plot in these issues as well as humanizing J. Jonah Jameson and showing that Jessica Jones can be pretty damn heroic as she has a real connection with Mattie Franklin, the third Spider-Woman, who has been drugged and used as a source of mutant growth hormone (MGH) by her skeezy, wannabe Kingpin boyfriend Denny Haynes. Alias #20 opens up with Jessica Drew going all Emperor Palpatine on Jessica Jones with bio-electric venom blasts, and then our protagonist repays her in kind with a right hook. They bond over the fact that they hate the Avengers and costumes and meet with J. Jonah Jameson and his wife Marla, who formally hire them to find Mattie after an emotional plea. A database search and phone call later, they end up at Denny’s hotel room where another young superhero and former New Warrior Speedball is losing control of his very colorful force field powers. Between this and Civil War where he’s involved in the deaths of hundreds of school children in Stamford, Connecticut, I feel really bad for him.

Alias #21 concludes this arc and starts off with Matt Hollingsworth’s most colorful palette yet with the primary colored energy bursts causing Jessica Jones to lapse in a dream state. This completely silent three page sequence is drawn by Mark Bagley and Al Vey with colors from Dean White and is the first time Killgrave (aka the Purple Man) has appeared in Alias as he is shown kissing and manipulating Jessica before the Defenders led by Doctor Strange show up. It’s a harrowing look at Jessica’s dark past and features many Marvel Universe cameos. After this, Jessica Jones takes out Denny Haynes and with an assist from Jessica Drew and various hotel room furniture dispatches the rude, sexist guy, who was hopped on MGH and beat her up in the club when she was looking for Mattie a couple issues back. They then find out that Speedball has been working with the police to bust Denny’s MGH ring, and Jessica Jones has to fly across New York City with a barely conscious Mattie to avoid Jameson’s enemies using her against him.

The story skips six weeks forward, and a now clean Mattie thanks Jessica Jones for saving her, gives her a newspaper story from J. Jonah Jameson that portrays her as a hero taking down a drug ring, and Marla Jameson says an offer to work as a P.I. for the Daily Bugle is still on the table. Jessica rejects the offer and ends up having an awkward chat/apology with Scott Lang, who hasn’t talked to her in six weeks, but professes his love for her in a manner worthy of a Cameron Crowe film. She reluctantly agrees to another date.

Alias #20 and #21 are pretty big issues in the scope of the series as a whole with the first appearance of Purple Man setting up the series’ final arc featuring his return into Jessica’s life. There is also Jessica having her first kind of “superhero team-up” (in a non-traditional manner) with Jessica Drew, having her longest “flight” yet, and Bendis kind of setting up the sequel series he did to Alias called The Pulse where Jessica worked for a special section of the Daily Bugle focused around superheroes. But beyond these pivotal moments, Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos show the emotional connection that Jessica Jones has created with the Mattie Franklin case because both she and Mattie were young superheroes and orphans, who were manipulated by older, evil men to do things that they didn’t want to.

JessicaJonesEmpathy

This is really captured in the closing of Alias #21 when Jessica is perfectly understanding and empathetic with Mattie. She loves smoking and drinking excessively, being snarky, and punching out her fellow ex-superhero P.I.’s, but also helps Mattie recover from her rape at the hands of Denny Haynes. Visually, Gaydos and Hollingsworth ditch the dark stylized noir of the New York, hotel room, and even earlier office scenes for a neutral palette and a simple nine panel grid as Jessica supports Mattie through the line, “Actually, I know exactly what you mean.” Jessica Jones is truly heroic because she doesn’t just punch out the rapists, but helps the victim recover by listening and just being there for Mattie Franklin

This conversation is followed up by an uncharacteristically positive superhero related story about Jessica Jones and Jessica Drew’s actions from J. Jonah Jameson, who Bendis had given some depth in Alias #20. First off, he has Jameson (through Ben Urich as a go-between) contact Jessica Jones first about helping him find Mattie after threatening her earlier arc, and after she scammed him and used his money to help charities instead of Spider-Man’s secret identity. This is a big step for him, and it’s because he is close to Mattie. Gaydos shows this emotion in his artwork with two close ups of Jameson’s sad face on an uncharacteristically silent page. If you remember, Bendis and Gaydos turned Alias #10 into an illustrated screenplay because Jameson talks so much.

EmotionalJJJ

A quiet J. Jonah Jameson is a big deal, and Bendis and Gaydos show this through the words and facial expressions of Marla Jameson. The scene is framed in the usual little square, big rectangle interview layout that’s been used throughout Alias, but Gaydos continues to zoom into Marla’s face and show how she partially feels responsible for Mattie going missing because of her and Jonah’s busy job. The final close-up shows her fear and the reason why she wants to hire Jessica Jones (and Jessica Drew) because the editor of a newspaper that attacks superheroes having a superhero foster daughter with drug issues could end Jonah’s career and ruin her family’s reputation. But Jonah’s motive isn’t entirely to save his own cigar chomping self, and Marla says that he truly cares for Mattie and wants to be a good father for her to make up for his mistakes with his son, John. Through this conversation and Jonah having to excuse himself earlier, Bendis and Gaydos show a more vulnerable, human side of the tabloid publisher. This is just a man, who wants his daughter to be okay and happens to mistrust masked heroes in an extreme way.

The most fun in Alias #20-21 comes from Jessica Jones and Jessica Drew teaming up. Bendis created Jessica Jones and revived Jessica Drew as a character putting her in the Spider-Woman costume for the first time in over 20 years in New Avengers and giving her own solo book in the Spider-Woman Origin comic in 2005. It’s safe to say he loves both characters and makes them equals in this adventure as they find common ground in their hatred for the Avengers and costumes. Bendis doesn’t have Jessica Drew come up with a huge reason for hanging up the Spider-Woman threads just that it made her “ass look fat”, and this sets up a perfect opportunity for Jessica Jones to quip about the leather The Matrix-inspired costumes that had been proliferating in the Marvel Universe since Ultimate X-Men. They both find a key piece of evidence to the whereabouts of Denny Haynes, and Jessica Drew gives Jessica Jones grief for using the Internet. This is because she doesn’t have an international network like Jessica Drew that pays for month long trips to Istanbul and has to make ends meet any way possible. However, Jessica Drew doesn’t come across as rich and annoying, and her venom blasts are really handy for getting inside locked doors. Hollingsworth uses harsh blue-white coloring for them to make them really jarring against the shadowy backgrounds of the hotels, streets, and apartments that Jessica Drew and Jessica Jones search for Mattie in. She is confident in her abilities, and it seems like Bendis is gunning for Jessica Drew to come back full time as a superhero, which she would two years later in New Avengers. (She was a Skrull though, oops.)

AssFat

Gaydos and Hollingsworth make a rare artistic misstep in the scenes featuring Speedball’s powers towards the end of Alias #20 and at the beginning of Alias #21. The Dippin’ Dots-style colors for his forcefield abilities are really fun, and it’s like he wandered off the set of a kid-friendly Disney Channel show into an HBO drama. However, the yellow, blue, and green balls everywhere obscure the action when Jessica Jones takes out Denny Haynes and his high-on-MGH goon with Jessica Drew and lessens the catharsis of this beatdown. But even if the action is less clear to follow, Gaydos, Hollingsworth, and letterer Cory Petit create an aura of chaos with his powers going everywhere and show that Speedball, who is having problems controlling his powers, is unsuited for this kind of delicate work like secretly infiltrating a drug ring to get MGH of the street. It’s like a darker 21 Jump Street situation, but with superheroes.

EnterKillgrave

Speedball’s colorful abilities do have one visual upside. They create enough of a trippy environment for Jessica Jones to fall into a kind of dream state for three pages, and the brightness of his costume and abilities is kind of a segue between rough hewn noir meets realism of Gaydos and the traditional superhero work of Bagley in the flashback scenes. The first page Bagley draws in a nine panel grid is the most powerful and unsettling as the shrouded, purple form of Killgrave has Jessica (in her Jewel costume) completely under his control. His appearance in the margins of the panel reminds me of early on in the Jessica Jones TV show where he just appeared in Jessica’s head or manipulated people from barely offscreen. His name isn’t mentioned in this issue, and the dream sequence is obscure foreshadowing, like the all-dream episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer “Restless”. The classic Defenders lineup of Hulk, Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Namor, Nighthawk, and Valkyrie showing up casts this dream even more into the realm of the weird. But Bendis and Bagley are wise to not let the cameo overwhelm the sequence and end with a close-up of Jessica Jones in her civilian clothes terrified and wielding some kind of energy weapon. It’s the first real visual taste of Jessica’s past mental manipulation at the hands of Killgrave, and Bendis keeps things extremely mysterious for now.

JessicaFlies

Even though there is an epilogue I mentioned earlier with Jessica Jones comforting Mattie six weeks after her incident and yet enough horrible conversation with Scott Lang, who calls Jessica crazy and then that he loves her, the full page spreads of Jessica flying with Mattie through the air are the true climax of “The Underneath” arc. It’s been mentioned earlier that Jessica can fly, but never figured out landing so it’s an ability she rarely uses. And in keeping with this, Gaydos’ flying pose for Jessica is pretty awkward, and she even crash lands in a random empty room saying the very Jessica Jones one-liner, “The shit I gotta do” before finding a taxi. But the opposite of Superman flying skills aside, this is one of the most heroic things Jessica Jones has done in Alias. She sympathizes with Mattie so much that she uses an ability that she is still uncomfortable with to make sure that Mattie gets home safe without the police and media using her as a tabloid headline. And unlike the beginning of the arc where she hesitates to stop a convenience store robbery, Jessica just jumps out of a window with Mattie. Even though she isn’t particularly inspirational and makes plenty of mistakes, Jessica Jones is a true hero.

Some visual issues with Speedball’s powers aside, Alias #20-21 is a real highlight reel for the series so far. There’s some banter and ass kicking with Jessica Drew and Jessica Jones taking down the men, who have been manipulating, drugging, and raping Mattie Franklin and some character growth as J. Jonah Jameson trusts and writes positively about superheroes who have touched his life personally. Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley also give us our first look at Killgrave and hint at the horrible things in Jessica Jones’ past, which she has used to empathize with Mattie in a powerful way. And finally, we get to see Jessica Jones fly in her own unique way with Michael Gaydos using a full page spread, but rejecting the iconic poses of superheroes in flight for Jessica struggling to carry Mattie. This scene is a real visual climax for the series so far and shows that Jessica Jones is a hero on her own terms and despite her self-doubt and lack of traditional superhero qualities.

Review: Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death #1

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PIVYCYCLE_Cv1_csFor the first time since her introduction in 1966, the popular Batman villain and sometimes anti-hero Poison Ivy has her own solo series. And writer Amy Chu and artists Clay Mann and Seth Mann take that solo distinction seriously as Ivy becomes increasingly distant from her old friends (especially Harley Quinn) throughout Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death #1 and throws herself into her work at the Gotham Botanical Gardens involving genetic engineering. Poison Ivy is trying to increase the lifespan of human and animals using plants and her own elemental connection to The Green, which may be a reason that she is not interacting with humans as much, with the exception of her co-worker Luisa. The main conflict in Poison Ivy #1 is internal as Ivy tries to balance her human and plant sides, and it reaches a fever pitch in the last few pages, which create the mystery hook for the rest of the miniseries.

I could go either way with the Manns’ art in Poison Ivy #1. Penciler Clay Mann aims at a photorealistic style with his art and succeeds without it looking like it was obviously traced a la Greg Land. Seth Mann uses an extremely clean inking style to draw attention to little details, like the light falling on plants or the background of a biker bar that Harley and Ivy go to after her work day is over. And this semi-painting style works for the slower, more quiet scenes with the help of Ulisses Arreola’s verdant palette, like when Poison Ivy finally gets to unwind, shed the hair tie and lab coat of Dr. Pamela Isley, and just be with her plant babies. There’s something about painted art that creates a feeling of harmony (or fear) of nature with DC’s plant elementals, like Dave McKean’s work on Black Orchid or John Totleben and Stephen Bissette’s Swamp Thing.

However, there’s a reason that McKean has mainly done covers or experimental work, and that Totleben and Bissette did their Swamp Thing interiors in a less representational style. This is because painted, photorealistic art is static and needs some additional storytelling tricks, like quick cuts between panels or an extremely high level of detail, like in Alex Ross’ work on Kingdom Come or Marvels. And every time, the Manns depict action, the story falls flat from the opening scene where Poison Ivy fights diamond thieves in Africa to Harley and Ivy kicking some creepy guys’ asses towards the middle of the comic. Basically, plants come out of the ground in both, and Mann doesn’t distinguish between Ivy’s passionate protection of the “living fossil” in Africa versus the disinterest in picking a fight with random strangers in the bar fight. And the big knock on the art is the lack of emotion in these finely depicted characters for whom cool disinterest seems to be the default expression with the exception of Harley gleefully swinging her hammer, and a close-up on Ivy’s eyes towards the end of the comic.

It’s refreshing that Amy Chu is giving Poison Ivy a kind of redemption arc as she is focusing on her scientific work instead of doing crime or being an eco-terrorist. She also gives Ivy the very relatable problem of loneliness and having difficulty interacting with other people. However, along with being lonely and having trouble fitting in her old friends with her new job and life, Chu makes Ivy kind of a jerk and ruins all the characterization Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner have done with Harley Quinn moving on from the Joker in one mean spirited line of dialogue. This is just to make a point that Ivy is going it alone and comes after the one spot of humor in the book when Ivy shows Harley show one of her new “experiments”. However, the final pages introduce some possible consequences for Ivy’s obsession with her work, but it’s a little too late after this faux pas writing and ending the major relationship in her life.

Unless you’re a huge fan of Poison Ivy and/or annoyed by the character of Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy #1 is worth skipping or trade waiting because its protagonist is less than endearing and her relationship with Harley Quinn is ended in a way that seems rushed and out of character. (There is hope for the pair with a nice panel of Ivy checking her phone for texts from Harley first thing in the morning.) Along with this characterization issue, Clay and Seth Mann’s art would be beautiful as covers or pinups (With the exception of photorealistic Harley Quinn in her roller girl outfit, which is almost as terrifying in an Uncanny Valley way as Alex Ross drawing the Archie gang.), but lacks energy or emotion.

Story: Amy Chu Pencils: Clay Mann Inks: Seth Mann Colors: Ulises Arreola
Story: 5.5 Art: 5 Overall: 5 Recommendation: Pass

DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Investigating Alias #18-19

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18-marvelInvestigating Alias is a weekly issue by issue look at the source material that inspired the popular and critically acclaimed Jessica Jones Netflix show.

In this installment of Investigating Alias, I will be covering Alias #18-19 (2003) written by Brian Michael Bendis, drawn by Michael Gaydos, and colored by Matt Hollingsworth.

In Alias #18, Scott Lang commits relationship suicide by asking Jessica if she was raped after she won’t open up about the past experience that Madame Web saw in the previous issue. After fielding an annoying phone call from her friend Carol Danvers aka Ms. Marvel, Jessica actually goes to her day job as a bodyguard for Matt Murdock, who is afraid that Daredevil’s enemies will come after him after he was outed as Daredevil in the tabloids. With the appearance from Murdock and later mentions of mutant growth hormone (MGH), writer Brian Michael Bendis intertwines “The Underneath” arc of Alias closely with his then current run on Daredevil. After work, her annoying fanboy Malcolm introduces her to Laney, the sister of a wannabe drug lord named Denny Haynes, who is supposedly having sex with Mattie Franklin and likes to party at the charmingly named Club 616. Jessica affects the clothes, makeup, and speaking patterns of a Manhattan socialite, gets into the club, and then sees Denny with Mattie super doped up right beside him.

Alias #19 features some downright pulsating colors from Matt Hollingsworth as Jessica’s attempt to rescue Mattie is foiled by Denny and his friends, who are shooting up MGH taken directly from a wound in her back. It’s a jarring, sickening sight for Jessica, and she tries to grab Mattie, but is actually defeated in a physical fight by some men who are hopped up on MGH. After getting thrown out of the club bleeding and barely conscious, she meets Ben Urich, who says he has been tailing her because J. Jonah Jameson thinks she has Mattie, and gives her important information about MGH. Then, she checks into the hospital, lies to police officers about being mugged, and finally ends up back in her apartment for a much needed rest. However, the issue ends on a real shocker (Pun fully intended) of a cliffhanger as Jessica Drew (formerly Spider-Woman) shows up in her apartment furious about what has happened to Mattie.

In these two middle issues of “The Underneath” arc, Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos go right at the jugular at every day sexism beginning with making Scott Lang a textbook mansplainer in the opening of Alias #18 and flat out asking her if she got raped even though she doesn’t want to talk about her past. And even when Jessica tells him that she’s angry, Scott asks why his unsolicited comments about her theoretical rape offend her. He’s more concerned with coming across as a “good guy” than her feelings with some awkward dialogue about hearing the end of her story about Madame Web from the previous issue. Gaydos’ storytelling is deft as he goes from three intimate panels of Scott and Jessica in bed to quickly having her dress and leave while Scott has the same dumb expression on her face. And then he floods the next few pages with emotions as Jessica’s paranoia returns while she walks around her apartment. Alias is usually a wordy book, but Bendis lets Gaydos have a few almost silent pages to show Jessica drinking to deal with Scott being a terrible person (Carol calling about him doesn’t help.) and collect herself so she can find Mattie Franklin, who appears in a flashback.

The theme of sexism continues (and is called out directly by her) in Jessica’s day job as a bodyguard for Matt JessClubOutfitMurdock, who she respects and empathizes with because his secret identity was compromised without his consent. However, she does throw a little shade his way because he told Luke Cage his secret identity and not her. This is sexist in her opinion and in her own special way, she trolls him by never knocking on his door when she arrives for her bodyguard duties and smoking on his porch because he can sense her with his superpowers. It’s just a friendly reminder, and Matt and Jessica actually have a solid, professional relationship as shown in a Sorkin-esque walk and talk scene where she tells him about how Jameson is pressuring her to find Mattie. Matt promises to help with that situation by doing a “client harassment” call, and Jessica instantly repays the favor by warding off the press, who calls Jessica an “ex-superhero slash private investigator person.” Elevator pitch, much.

The sexism comes to a roaring crescendo towards the end of Alias #18 when Jessica uses gross men’s ideas of female beauty and sexuality to her advantage in getting inside Club 616. After a rude bouncer compares to a cast member of a sequel to The Crow, Jessica puts on makeup, lipstick, a crop top, and short skirt so she can get into the artificial world of the club and save Mattie. She understands the heterosexual male gaze, loathes it, but uses it so she can do the right thing. And her observations about the vapidness of Club 616 are right on point and relatable to any introvert. Hollingsworth creates a digital glare with his colors to simulate the noise of the club, and Gaydos’ art blends together so that the people look just like a clump with no individuals being distinct. And Bendis puts the finishing touches with his sharp as tack inner monologue for Jessica, who sums why noisy clubs are so annoying in one powerful sentence, “These people are the reason I never go anywhere remotely resembling any place like this.”

 

And then she goes to work mining the bathroom gossip until she finally gets close to Denny Haynes, an evil, wannabe power player, who only sees female superheroes as notches on a belt. We learn about this from Jessica’s chat with his younger sister, who said that he wanted to sleep with a superheroine because a Russian gangster named Ivan used to date Dazzler. (I wasn’t aware this disco themed superhero was ever involved in mob activities.) Also, Denny is more horrible in person as he pressures Jessica into joining his friends, who are doing drugs even when she wants to leave and wait by the entrance to grab Mattie. There is an air of menace about Denny and his private VIP lounge with Gaydos shading his eyes, and Hollingsworth using a purple palette as Denny kisses the barely conscious Mattie before basically smoking parts of her DNA.

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Gaydos shows the abominable nature of his activities, and how it affects Jessica by having the panels in the pages where MGH is being used wobble and break perspective. It’s your usual comics panel grid, but freakier. And it gets Jessica angry as she punches a guy with yellow eyes, who then knocks her out. Gaydos uses pitch black panels mixed with blurry ones and close-ups of Jessica’s bloody face to show what a bad state she’s in until she goes to the grey and brown of a New York alleyway to talk with a very angry and foulmouthed Ben Urich, who is justly angry at MGH and its users. He’s also a nice exposition fairy for readers, who haven’t read Daredevil and have no clue what MGH is.

MGHHellofaDrug

Sexism rears its ugly, thematic head one final time as police officers question Jessica about her injuries while she’s recovering in the hospital. Bendis and Gaydos break the fundamental “show, don’t tell” rule of storytelling, but there have already been two major interrogation sequences with Jessica and the police and perhaps they didn’t want to be redundant. And Bendis’ writing is colorful enough as Jessica heads to her department. She calls the cops “fucking power tripping mother fuckers”, who treated her like a little girl and shamed her for being out after dark. They are a part of rape culture, who think that because women walk in certain areas and wear certain things that they were “asking for it”. Jessica’s words lash out at this terrible, invisible, yet very real institution, and Bendis isn’t afraid to expose his male characters’ sexism and biases even the heroic ones like Scott Lang and Matt Murdock. The feminist ideals that pervade Alias #18 and #19 make it so much more than the middle chapters of a trade paperback-length storyline and add a layer of social commentary to Jessica’s own character arc.

But what makes “The Underneath” really work as a story arc so far is Jessica’s personal connection to Mattie Franklin as young female superheroes, who both had to experience horrible things. It’s like her relationship with Hope in the Jessica Jones TV show, but with arachnid themed costumes. She’s doing straight up heroic things, like fighting guys with mutant powers, following leads, and getting beat up and ending up in the hospital just because she genuinely cares about Mattie and doesn’t want yet another female superhero to be manipulated by evil men. But her methods are different from traditional superheroes, and she ends up in hot water with Jessica Drew, who also cares about Mattie and used to mentor her. It will be interesting to see the two ex-superheroes turned P.I.s who share the same name work out their differences and interact in the concluding issues of “The Underneath”.

Alias #18-19 explores casual sexism, objectification of women, and rape culture through Jessica Jones’ continued search for Mattie Franklin, which gets tense and dangerous when she’s in real physical danger for the first time in Alias. These issues also allow Matt Hollingsworth to go wild with his colors from a sultry blue for the club sequences to a threatening purple when Jessica fights the MGH users or a morning shadow for when Jessica shows up for her day of work Matt Murdock. And Brian Michael Bendis continues to write the hell out of Jessica Jones, who is empathy, misanthropy, sadness, paranoia, and sarcasm all rolled into one of the most human characters to inhabit the Marvel Universe.

Review: New Romancer #2

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New Romancer #2With bright cartoonish art and a wicked wit, New Romancer #2 opens up with the worst date of all worst dates as bored socialite Felicity is set up by the New Romancer algorithm with Dwayne, who is into necrophilia. But for some reason she wants a second date because it’s more exciting than her usual rich guy wannabe boyfriends. And the pressure is on our protagonist Lexy, who must find Lord Byron (More precisely the A.I. downloaded into a body that looks just like Lord Byron), true love, and have her algorithm work all my Valentine’s Day. Plus Casanova is after Lord Byron for some reason having to do with his abilities and experiences as a lover that writer Peter Milligan doesn’t dig into quite yet. He’s an amusing villain though.

Through his art, Brett Parson definitely shows that he’s better at broad comedy than intimate emotion, which isn’t always a bad thing because New Romancer #2 is insanely hilarious at time from Felicity hurling herself from a yacht when Dwayne whips out his Casanova penis holder thing (Thankfully, it’s off panel.) to Lexy and her co-worker Mong’s reaction to her boss Raj saying he’ll buy “designer underpants” to go on a date with Felicity. This is because Felicity and her old money is the last, best home for the New Romancer online dating startup. Parson does unhinged very well in his art like a double page spread of Casanova cruising the California desert with the top down and speed lines in his wake. He and Milligan are definitely more interested in the comedy than the romance part of romantic comedy for now even if colorist Brian Miller goes all out with the pink when Lexy and Lord Byron is reunited. But instead of a soft kiss, her bloody awful poetry revives him from what seems like his millionth fainting spell of the series so far.

Lord Byron has a nice blend of timeless charisma with the awkwardness of being a stranger in the 21st century. (See the silly party hat that he picks up at the club he was at in the first issue and doesn’t take off until his date with Felicity.) He gets Milligan’s funniest and prettiest dialogue. Lexy’s dad Joe appears in his issue along with his complicated relationship with his daughter, who he both loved and experimented upon to make her the best programmer. He definitely has some major issues and is in prison for beating up a journalist, who called him a “cyber quack”. Milligan doesn’t pull any punches in showing that Joe had an abusive relationship with Lexy. Her dialogue is really sad in the flashback scenes as she tells her dad to fix her brain so that she can be normal. However, the goofiness of the art sort of ruins the seriousness of these scenes.

New Romancer #2 has an infectious, chaotic energy especially when Casanova or Lord Byron show up on the panel, and Milligan keep things relatable through the character of Lexy, who is having difficulties finding true love because of her idiosyncrasies and just how damn hard 21st century dating is for a twentysomething. Brett Parson also draws some funny facial expressions and gestures to along with Milligan’s wacky wit. Even though it often doesn’t know if it wants to be a romance, comedy, or serious exploration of relationships, New Romancer #2 is a pretty fun and unique read, especially with the promise of a face-off between Casanova and Lord Byron in the next issue.

Story: Peter Milligan Art: Brett Parson Colors: Brian Miller
Story: 7.0 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.3 Recommendation: Read

Review: Black Hood #8

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BlackHood8hacksvar-673x1024Dark Circle‘s Black Hood #8 continues to be one of the darkest superhero stories on the stands, and it’s barely in that drama as it’s mostly a gritty cop drama with Greg Hettinger aka the Black Hood continuing to battle his addiction to painkillers and vigilante justice while getting used to police work. Writer Duane Swierczynski uses just enough internal monologue to show how much pain he’s going through as his strategy to take out the Crusaders, a mysterious cult-like group preying on the homeless people of Philadelphia, fails miserably.

Guest artist Robert Hack, who is known for his retro meets horrifying art on Sabrina, makes the opening fight sequence between him and the Crusaders more bone breaking than bone aching. He uses multiple close-ups of Greg’s scarred face to remind readers about his injury and accidental gunning down of an innocent civilian in the first issue, and for every hit that he lands on the Crusaders, they give him a few blows to remember. Colorist Kelly Fitzpatrick uses scarlet backgrounds to draw attention to the brutal punishment that he takes in contrast with the usual dusky palette that she uses for Philadelphia at night. The use of shadows and claustrophobic angles extends to the Crusaders’ camp where they’re holding and “reeducating” homeless kids. Hack and Fitzpatrick truly create a kind of nightmare landscape that goes beyond the usual dirt and pavement of Philadelphia during the day.

Black Hood #8 reestablishes that Greg Hettinger is not the best police detective, not the best vigilante, and definitely not the person. He doesn’t have a firm no guns, no killing that traditional superheroes like Spider-Man and Batman do, and his moral code fluctuates on the situation. When Greg thinks he can take out the bat-wielding punk with his bare hands, he doesn’t use his gun. When said punk is a little too much to handle, he pulls out his gun and still gets it knocked out of his hands. He’s not the best strategist, and Swierczynski uses his narration to add a little dark humor in response to his ass kicking like comparing his plan to playing checkers with an angry toddler.

Greg is always flying by the seat of the pants, and this is what makes Black Hood such a tense read as his life, sobriety, and secret identity hang by the narrowest of threads. The scenes where he chats with and lies to his friend Jessie, who has been keeping him accountable in regards to his addiction and vigilante activities, has a similar kind of pathetic feel that Walter White’s conversations with his wife had in the early seasons of Breaking Bad. Even though Jesse and his cheesesteak loving partner are there for them, Greg shuts them out in his never ending quest for justice even though they both know he’s up to something because of the prominent bruises on his arm and face clearly shown in Hack’s art.

But despite all of Greg’s ethical and physical weak, the “Lonely Crusade” arc is shaping up to be a more traditional superhero story than the first arc of Black Hood, which had Greg taking down drug dealers so he could use their painkillers on himself. In Black Hood #8, he’s trying to get information and evidence on the Crusaders because it’s the right thing to do. The story is a bit of a riff on Daredevil with a Philadelphia flavor from Swierczynski and Hack because Greg must balance being a servant of the law as police officer and his police activities just like Matt Murdock is a lawyer by day and vigilante by night.

However, the sheer lived-in nature of Robert Hack’s artwork and its engaging nature combined with Kelly Fitzpatrick’s colors, and Duane Swierczynski’s hardboiled crime meets salt of the earth voice for Greg Hettinger sets Black Hood #8 apart from the other superhero books currently on the stands. Add Greg’s chronic inability to catch a break, and it’s a riveting read even if turns into yet another hero versus villain showdown albeit with a dose of reality because of Philadelphia’s real problem with homelessness and a highly unconventional lead character.

Story: Duane Swierczynski Art: Robert Hack Colors: Kelly Fitzpatrick
Story: 7.7 Art: 8.2 Overall: 8 Recommendation: Buy

Archie/Dark Circle Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Investigating Alias #16-17

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 alias_16_cover_marvel_february_2003Investigating Alias is a weekly issue by issue look at the source material that inspired the popular and critically acclaimed Jessica Jones Netflix show.

In this installment of Investigating Alias, I will be covering Alias #16-17 (2003) written by Brian Michael Bendis, drawn by Michael Gaydos, and colored by Matt Hollingsworth.

Alias #16 starts a new story arc called “The Underneath” where Jessica Jones looks for Mattie Franklin, who stumbles around Jessica’s apartment in costume and then jumps out the window while cursing her out. Jessica is freaked out and spends the night at Scott Lang’s apartment, who she started dating last issue.There, she calls Agent Quartermain, her contact at SHIELD, who gives her grief for sleeping with Ant-Man and gives her information on Mattie’s whereabouts and known associates. The issue ends with Jessica confronting J. Jonah Jameson, who she had previously scammed out of money while he wanted her to find Spider-Man’s secret identity.

Alias #17 uses a non-linear narrative structure with Scott and Jessica starting to have sex, but they stop when Jessica tells him that she’s had a horrible day beginning with “J. Jonah Dickface”. (Scott’s words, not hers.) Writer Brian Michael Bendis bookends the story of her day with Jessica and Scott’s observations on these events and offers insight into their relationship while furthering the mystery plot and also hinting at her dark backstory. After Jessica tells J. Jonah Jameson being missing and asks about his relationship with the girl that he and his wife raised and cared for, he gets angry in his typical, superhero hating way and promises to destroy her if she doesn’t find Mattie.

She does some online digging and finds out she was connected to Jessica Drew, a more prosperous Marvel private investigator, who doesn’t pick up her call because she’s in Istanbul for the month. Then, Malcolm, who is much more annoying in the comic than the Jessica Jones TV show, bursts in and is his irritating self. However, Jessica is so desperate than she enlists his encyclopedic knowledge of superheroes and possible connection to help find her offering him a job if he finds any information on Mattie. Then, she meets the cryptic, telepathic, clairvoyant, and quite creepy Madame Web, who babbles about Mattie possibly meeting a horrible, violent end. The climax of the issue is Web reading Jessica’s mind without her permission and seeing her horrible past (Killgrave still isn’t mentioned by name.), which causes her to run out in anger. The comic ends with Jessica silently remembering.

The opening scene of Alias #16 where Jessica Jones thwarts a convenience story in a not very superheroic way. I read this scene as Bendis along with artist Michael Gaydos and colorist Matt Hollingsworth deconstructing his more straightforward superhero work on Ultimate Spider-Man with artist Mark Bagley. Whereas Spider-Man would have swung in on a double page splash page and had some kind of a Clerks joke at the ready, Jessica opens up by throwing shade on a women’s magazine and its obsession with thinness and pleasing men. The hold-up happens as she is reading, and it’s never in doubt that Jessica is going to help, but she saves the day in her own special way starting out by throwing a can of soup at the robber and then just tackling him while referring to Spider-Man’s jokes as “shit”. However, the situation almost gets more horrible when the clerk is about to shoot the robber, and Jessica has to talk him down. The little incident doesn’t end with the typical, “Yo *insert superhero name here*, you’re the greatest and New York loves you”, but with Jessica having to pay full price for cigarettes. There is a sad, yet all too true kind of realism in the worker’s ungratefulness.

JessSuperheroClerk

This sequence encapsulates both Jessica Jones and Alias’ relationship to the superhero genre. Sure, she’s cool with helping people as seen in her previous cases, including an assist to Captain America, but superheroes are both a nuisance and a stress to her. Gaydos and Hollingsworth do an excellent job showing the stress part by quickly cutting from Jessica to the robber and now gun-wielding clerk with a blood red background showing she’s barely in control of the situation to go along with rambling dialogue like “El speako Englisho.” Gaydos shows the chaos of the situation by losing his usual panel grid and jumbling panels together as Jessica tackles the robber and tries to get everything squared away before the police officers come. And her fear of the police isn’t the silly “They’ll reveal my secret identity.” reason, but that the fact that police officers held her in an interrogation room and accused her of murder in the first arc of Alias and she’s afraid that they’ll do a similar thing and ask her continuous questions about quitting her superhero gig. The mistrust is well-placed, but kind of bites her in the ass when she doesn’t go them when Mattie Franklin shows up in her apartment and goes missing.

Along with setting up the P.I. plot, Alias #16-17 examines the burgeoning relationship between Scott Lang and Jessica Jones. Even though he has a criminal past, Scott is a decent guy, who cares about Jessica and invites her over to stay at his apartment for her safety, not a booty call. In fact, he’s snoring on the couch while Jessica does some work on her laptop with his adorable Avengers mug and Ant-Man helmet on his kitchen table. It’s a nice moment of domestic tranquility while Jessica freaks out about the missing, mysterious superhero, who showed up at her apartment, cursed her out, and literally bounced off the walls outside her place. Scott and Jessica also share some fun, sarcastic banter like Scott letting Jessica stay because he want “future boyfriend points”. But most of their conversation is about more serious topics.

Scott is a pretty good listener and stops having sex with Jessica in Alias #17 when he realizes that something is the matter with her. (Gaydos does an excellent job differentiating between emotionally vacant and pleasured fill faces in this scene.) However, he can get a little judge-y at times like when he inserts a completely unnecessary “I told you so” when Jessica says she should’ve called the police about Mattie after being verbally threatened by J. Jonah Jameson and getting a preternaturally eerie phone call from Madame Web just before she was about to dial Web’s number. And maybe his being an ass about her choices in a difficult situation is why she is silent in the final pages of the issue.

ScottandJess

In Alias #17, Bendis thinks of something clever to do with the annoyance that is Malcolm. Malcolm is definitely a stand-in for teenage fanboys, who picked up Alias for its sex, use of “fuck”, and perceived edginess instead of Hollingsworth’s noir color palette, Gaydos’ ability to convey fear, paranoia, and negative feelings through facial expressions and switch-ups in panel layouts, and Bendis’ ear for dialogue. He is just plain mean and makes fun of Captain America for revealing his secret identity and calls Daredevil a “pussy” for suing the tabloid that outed him as Matt Murdock in some kind of insane, proto-hipster way of telling Jessica that she’s cool for going public with her superhero identity way before them. But instead of throwing him through a plate glass window, but with her sass firmly intact, Jessica puts Malcolm the “geekboy” to work trying to find evidence on Mattie Franklin. And she gets to throw him the mother of all side eye when he asks for a cell phone to go with his purely theoretical part time job. Malcolm doesn’t get the robust manipulated addict to altruistic helper arc that the Malcolm played by Eka Darville in Jessica Jones did, but at least, he’s slightly useful to the plot in this issue instead of just being target practice for Jessica’s snark.

Jessica’s meeting with Madame Web towards the conclusion of Alias #17 is one of the most emotionally draining scenes in the series up to this point. Gaydos is an artist who conveys feeling through the eyes so he makes Web a character divorced from it by showing her either wreathed in shadow or just a panel of her glasses for close-ups. However, she isn’t completely removed from empathy and bows her head when she talks about seeing Jessica’s past while saying, “I’m so sorry.” This is the first straightforward thing she’s said in the comic, and her dialogue up to that point reads like possible ways this story arc could be concluded as Bendis doesn’t want to give away anything major at this point in the game. And then she does something that Killgrave did years ago (and we’ll learn more about later) and reads Jessica’s mind without her consent earning a well-deserved earful of anger from Jessica.

FuckYouMadameWeb

Telepathy and mind control has been one of the most problematic elements in both superhero and science fiction from Obi Wan Kenobi using it to get past a Stormtrooper in Star Wars to Professor X’s shenanigans in various eras of X-Men comics to Ms. Marvel being brainwashed, raped, and impregnated in 1980’s Avengers #200. I believe that reading someone’s mind without their permission is the psychic equivalent of rape because it’s a violation of consent and should be treated as such in sci-fi and superhero stories. Bendis handles it pretty well in Alias #17 by having Jessica tell Madame Web what she did was wrong in her signature foulmouthed way. Again, Gaydos goes away from the grid and uses big slashing style panel layouts to go along with Jessica’s accusatory gestures and Hollingsworth’s red and black palette. I don’t know much about Madame Web beyond the fact that she was extremely weird in the 1990s Spider-Man and Spider-Man Unlimited cartoons, but she comes across as a character, who lacks any kind of moral compass and idea of consequences. And she triggers memories of Jessica’s past that she would rather keep buried down deep as seen in the dark grey coloring of the final pages of the issue as she lays in bed.

Alias #16-17 opens with an exploration into Jessica Jones and Alias’ relationship with the superhero genre showing that it encroaches upon Jessica’s goal of just moving on with her life and job as a private investigator and also looks at her partially sweet and empathetic and partially strained relationship with Scott Lang as she tracks down D-List teen hero Mattie Franklin, the third Spider-Woman. Brian Michael Bendis’ writing, Michael Gaydos’ art, and Matt Hollingsworth’s colors are full of emotion as Jessica battles the pressure of J. Jonah Jameson accusing her of ripping him off in this situation along with being forced to relive past trauma when Madame Web reads her mind without consent. Jessica is really in a dark, lonely place by the end of Alias #17 even though she’s in bed with Scott Lang.

 

 

Review: Midnighter #8

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4983273-midn_cv8_dsA new arc and a new mission begins for everyone’s favorite badass, gay action hero in Midnighter #8. First, he must team up with Dominic Mndawe, an obscure South African superhero who first appeared in Grant Morrison’s Animal Man, against the Sportsman’s Ambition. Think the evil big game hunters Kendall Jones or Walter Palmer, but with a nefarious twist as they combine animals into monstrosities called Chimeras and hunt them for sport in Rochester, New York of all places. And sadly, it is Mndawe’s own power to aggregate animals (But without his connection to the Red, a force which sustains animal life.) that they synthesize to create these Chimeras so he is definitely motivated by a chance to redeem himself.

Even though this team-up is steeped in some obscure DC Comics lore, writer Steve Orlando puts in plenty of witty banter between Midnighter and Mndawe and also uses the former Freedom Beast like Dick Grayson to show Midnighter that killing isn’t the only solution to his problems. (Although, the members of Sportsman’s Ambition get quite the poetic death scene.) Midnighter teleports into action expecting to just punch or fight his way past these Chimeras, but Mndawe challenges him to take a second look with his enhanced eyesight and see the frightened animals behind the monsters. Colorist Romulo Fajardo continues his stellar work on the series with this panel using infrared colors to draw attention to the twisted nature of penciler David Messina and inker Gaetano Carlucci‘s Chimera and show how the Sportsman’s Ambition defiles nature just to get a thrill.

And the fight against the Chimeras isn’t just a chance for Midnighter quip about the overall weirdness of Mndawe’s or the fact that he’s in yet another weird situation involving genetic mutation. Orlando creates a strong parallel between these Chimeras, who are parts of African animals combined haphazardly together to be the perfect prey, to Midnighter, who is bits of computer combined with flesh to be the perfect fighter. (This is a fact he remarks upon in a conversation/flirt session with Robert in Boston.) And Midnighter becomes aware of this fact when he decides to knock out a giant spider created by the Sportsman’s Ambition instead of punching out its brain. With multiple flips and inset panels, Messina shows that Midnighter’s fight computer is as agile as ever, but winning a fight doesn’t necessarily mean killing one’s opponent, especially when it’s a scary, yet exploited animal.

PoorMidnighter

David Messina’s art in Midnighter #8 is the best of both worlds as he combines the rapid fire panel layouts of ACO with the sexy, sharp featured figures of Stephen Mooney, who illustrated the two part team up with Grayson in Midnighter. And he also has a knack for the grotesque as he just pours on the teeth, hair bits, and eyes on the synthetically made Chimeras to show just how immoral the Sportman’s Ambition are. But some of his finest work comes early in the issue in close-up when Midnighter is sitting in the shadows and thinking about how Matt’s betrayal hurts him even as he tries to cover it up by talking about how he was built to win fights. And when the actual fighting starts, Fajardo switches from a neutral or shadowy color palette to intense reds and cool blues as Midnighter flat-out demolishes the would-be Great White Hunters. Orlando and Messina lead off with the emotional vulnerability before hurtling Midnighter into fantastic action yet again as he hides his pain beneath punches, flips, and the macho-est of one-liners.

And the last pages of Midnighter #8 expose our protagonist’s biggest vulnerability: trust as he gives the people he has saved from aliens and various and sundry monstrosities easy access to that location. One of those people happens to be an undercover agent for Spyral, an organization that he used to go on missions against back when he worked for the Gardener in Grayson. Midnighter’s now-trusting nature puts him in Spyral’s hands, but they actually end up putting aside their differences to team up against Deadshot and the Suicide Squad, who stole the powerful Perdition Pistol. This is yet another example of Midnighter teaming up with someone who has a slightly different objective or moral compass than him, and he will have to put the lessons he learned from Grayson and Mndawe to good use while still asserting his own individuality with some cutting dialogue from Orlando, “I won’t work for you. But I will work with you.”

Midnighter #8 has a gross, clever team-up plot from writer Steve Orlando and artists David Messina and Gaetano Carlucci that connects thematically to Midnighter’s past as Gardener’s lab rat as well as his upcoming mission for Spyral against the Suicide Squad. Messina’s layouts are a little dialed down compared to ACO’s, but he does a better job conveying emotion, especially when Midnighter is reflecting about his past relationships. Overall, this is another well-choreographed and witty issue of Midnighter that sets up some thrilling future developments while telling a self-contained weird fiction meets action movie tale.

Story: Steve Orlando Pencils: David Messina Inks: Gaetano Carlucci Colors: Romulo Fajardo
Story: 8.3 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.4 Recommendation: Buy

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