Daytripper #3 (of 10) — Creators: Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba
I see McDonald’s was offering a Super Bowl deal: 50 Chicken McNuggets for $10. That might actually sound attractive as a one-time thing, but what if it was available every day? What if it was the only thing on their menu?
What does this have to do with Daytripper? Well, the first issue was about a twentysomething stuck in neutral, who has a small-scale epiphany and then dies randomly and senselessly. Kind of depressing, sure, but the Ba/Moon art, and the window into South American culture, balanced that out and made it worthwhile. Then, the second issue was about a twentysomething, stuck in neutral, who meets a girl, has a more mystic epiphany, and then dies mysteriously and senselessly. Now, consider this third issue. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but it concerns a twentysomething who’s had a bad breakup, then has a major epiphany when he sees a girl in a grocery store, then leaves, then turns to go back and find her because she’s the woman of his dreams… and gets run over by a truck. Bummer. End of story. Apparently, every damn issue of this series is going to involve the same damn plot, with the same damn sophomoric philosophizing and the same damn ending. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, killing one main character senselessly might be a tragedy; killing two just looks like carelessness. Killing all of them that way? That’s lazy writing, and all the pretty art in the world won’t make it right; I say it’s McNuggets, and I say the hell with it.
X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back! #1 (of 4) — Writer: Kathryn Immonen; Art: Sara Pichelli
Immonen was responsible for last year’s Hellcat series, a funny, hip and clever take on the character that came from a woman’s perspective but didn’t make a big deal of it, and was accessible to all readers without pandering or being too cartoony. Here, she’s taking on the X-Men character who’s a teenage girl with wings, and the story opens with Megan and friends, unpowered, in what seems a normal high school… but then isn’t, as things take a Buffyesque turn, and it turns out her friends are really — well, read it and see. It assumes a little too much X-knowledge on the part of readers, but, yes, it’s funny, hip and clever too, and the high-school stuff is dead-on. I didn’t buy it, but I was glad I read it, and I’m interested enough to read the next one; considering that the character is completely out of my demographic, that’s a major accomplishment.
Legendary Tailspinners #1 — Writer: James Kuhoric; Art: Grant Bond
See, there’s this old guy in a hospital, and he tells these tall tales, and it turns out he’s Baron Munchausen, and he has to convince the cute intern that stories are real before the fairy-tale bad guys, who hate stories, get to him and blah blah blah. It’s not horrible, but it’s the kind of thing J.M. DeMatteis would write, and it has his propensity for straying over the “twee” line to “cloying” (it doesn’t help itself by opening by quoting the worst Shel Silverstein poem ever). The art’s OK at straddling the realistic/caricature line, and the book’s heart is in the right place, but unless you’re a very young reader it comes off as just too precious for its own good.
Sci-Fi and Fantasy Illustrated #1 — Writer: Joe Brusha; Art: Claudio Sepulveda
You know how Grimm Fairy Tales and its spinoffs have carved out a niche by taking standard folktale riffs and adding nipples and gore to them? Well, here they’re attempting the same thing with pulp science-fiction cliches. This first issue involves a lonely guy who buys a “Lifemate,” a sex robot, and… well, it takes 48 pages to deliver exactly the kind of twist ending that Weird Science would have managed in eight — and let’s just say the art is not up to the level of a Williamson, a Wood or a Feldstein. Even if you’re 14 and horny (the clear target audience for this stuff), the $5 price is too high, especially considering that, since the ’50s, there’s been this science-fictional invention called the Internet….
Human Target #1 (of 6) — (First story): Writer: Len Wein; Pencils: Bruno Redondo; Inks: Sergio Sandoval; (Second story): Writer: Peter Johnson; Pencils: Chris Sprouse; Inks: Karl Story
An attempt to cash in on the TV series, and while it’s nice to see creator Len Wein (not to mention Chris Sprouse) get work, these are utterly standard action/adventure stories, not bad but not memorable, either; if you want a story with this character, the first appearances (Action Comics #416 and after) or the Peter Milligan Vertigo stuff would be better alternatives.
Jon Sable Freelance: Ashes of Eden #5 (of 5) — Writer/Artist: Mike Grell
The conclusion of the latest mini-series (the indicia says “#5 of 6,” but is wrong, although a note at the end says they’ll be back with another series eventually). It’s turned out to be a good story — tightly plotted, visually effective, suspenseful and sexy: it’s not innovative (it strings together a number of action-genre cliches), but you could see it as a decent hour-long TV episode with the character, a la Human Target; in fact, it fits that niche so well that it’s a wonder Grell’s never managed to get the Fox execs to bite on it.
Phil Mateer
