A Beautiful Gory Display: Bruce Wayne Returns, and So Do We!
But not only have the individual issues been a ridiculous amount of fun, with Batman getting involved in a battle between warring tribes (and shooting a caveman with a grappling hook!) or exonerating suspected witches CSI-style and then fighting Cthulhu), but Morrison provides one of his mind-bending overarching plots. See, Batman fighting his way back from the Dawn of Man would be too easy. But he’s also got a group of time-traveling heroes (including Superman) in his tail to make sure he doesn’t return to the present. While we don’t have all the details yet, we’re told that Darkseid (the evil god who started the whole mess “turned (him) into a Doomsday weapon and aimed (him) directly at the 21s Century”.
So Darkseid knew Batman would somehow be able to survive his exile and make his way back home, and actually incorporated that into his plan. (That’s right, villains now have to build plans around the fact that Batman will definitely outsmart them.) But Batman’s one step ahead of that, as our brief glimpse of him as a “temporal archivist” in the 64th Century shows. So basically, this is kind of my ideal story. It’s got complex time-travel and Batman being awesome. I can’t even tell you how much I’m loving this book.
I might have mentioned this before, but this book is the kind of thing that plays to DC’s strength as a fictional universe. While Marvel is essentially built on the work of four or five guys and was intended to be a cohesive universe from the beginning, DC comes from many disparate elements that were never meant to work together. In just two issues we’ve got Batman, Superman, a Green Lantern villain from the 40’s, characters from a 60’s prehistoric comedy book, a corporate hero from the 80’s, and a plan set up by a character from Jack Kirby’s psychedelic 70’s work. They’re from very different backgrounds and work in very different kinds of stories, but a writer like Morrison finds a way to mix it all together and turn it into something glorious.
With future issues set to bring us Pirate Batman and Old West Batman, it looks like it’s only going to get better, too. And we’re talking about a book where Batman maces an immortal caveman in the first issue. I can’t wait to see what he does to Blackbeard next month…
Atlas 1 (Marvel) – What we have here is a relaunch of Marvel’s cult favorite Agents of Atlas series. For the uninitiated, the Agents are a group of largely-forgotten characters from the 50’s, back when Marvel was actually called “Atlas” – Gorilla Man (a man with the body of an immortal gorilla), M-11 (a killer robot), Namora (an Atlantean Princess), Venus (an honest-to-god Siren), Bob 
Grayson (a Uranian superhero), and their friend/handler, Special Agent Jimmy Woo. Rather than get into all the background of the characters and their publishing histories, I’d rather just tell you how great the book is.
Grayson (a Uranian superhero), and their friend/handler, Special Agent Jimmy Woo. Rather than get into all the background of the characters and their publishing histories, I’d rather just tell you how great the book is.I missed out on the first Agents of Atlas series, and only checked it out after I read a review that mentioned a scene where a robot picks up a gorilla so that he can use both hands and both feet to fire four machine guns at the same time. As it turns out, this is exactly the kind of thing I am interested in seeing.
The first issue of the new series takes the focus off of the lead characters and shifts it to one of Marvel’s most boring characters. Triathalon was created for the Avengers in the 90’s, and nobody has ever cared about him. I mean, having the “speed and strength of three men” isn’t inherently exciting. Well, it would in real life, but not in a comic book where Thor and Iron Man play prominent roles. Even after a non-actionable version of Scientology became part of his backstory, Triathalon stayed boring.
Atlas presents the idea that Triathalon is actually the successor to 3-D Man (who was actually created in the 70’s and retroactively inserted into the 50’s). I don’t know if this idea appeared prior to this book, since my brain tends to block out appearances of Triathalon. Regardless, this issue has a character who inspires only apathy caring the narrative load, and it works perfectly.
Writer Jeff Parker makes the newly rechristened 3-D Man interesting and appealing, and that is not an easy thing to do. I hate to keep harping on it, but after plowing through all of the Atlas material and anything else I could find with Parker’s name on it, I still went into the relaunch thinking “I have to read about this guy?”
And damned if Parker didn’t get me interested in 3-D Man. He writes him as a guy who realizes he’s not a very good superhero. His girlfriend wants him to parlay his time with the Avengers into a reality show. He’s haunted by the mistakes of his past, and then people take demonic form and start attacking him. Suddenly, I care about him and I want to know what’s next.
The actual Agents of Atlas play only a small role in the story, but I think that makes it a better jumping-on point. We have 3-D Man as the point-of-view character, and he’s as weirded out by the talking gorilla and the retro killer robot as the new reader should be. While this issue is low on machine gun fights and guys from outer space fighting dragons, that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. It’s great, and Jeff Parker is now officially one of the guys whose name alone will get me to buy a book.
And I can’t forget the artist, Gabriel Hardiman. His work is gorgeous, and he’s one of those rare artists who can draw regular people wearing regular clothes and doing regular things. Plus, the guy draws a killer Gorilla Man. It’s the complete package, people!
Scott Pilgrim (Oni Press) – This is me doing you a public service here. You’ve probably seen the
trailers for the upcoming Scott Pilgrim movie, starring Michael Cera and directed by Edgar Wright. Perhaps you’ve been confused and perplexed, so I’m here to explain to you why this movie stands a reasonable chance of being the Best Thing you will see all year.
trailers for the upcoming Scott Pilgrim movie, starring Michael Cera and directed by Edgar Wright. Perhaps you’ve been confused and perplexed, so I’m here to explain to you why this movie stands a reasonable chance of being the Best Thing you will see all year.The comic (by Bryan Lee O’Malley), which has been presented as a series of digest-sized original graphic novels, is a romantic comedy about Canadian slackers. Scott and his friends are in a terrible band (named Sex Bob-omb), they’re constantly broke, and they mostly sit and talk. Scott’s dating an age-inappropriate high school student in the beginning, but then he falls for an Amazon delivery girl named Ramona Flowers. (Apparently Amazon works differently in Canada.)
And it’s very well-done – as I read the first volume, I really enjoyed it and thought it was legitimately funny and insightful. There’s an odd bit where we learn that Scott and Ramona can travel through sub-space (which is where the warp doors in Super Mario Bros. 2 take you), but it just comes off as a cutesy quirk. And then Scott meets Ramona’s ex-boyfriend, and that’s when we learn that they live in a world governed by videogame logic.
There’s a fight scene that ends the first book in which Scott manages to land a 64-hit combo (Street Fighter 2), and when Scott beats him in battle, Ramona’s ex turns into change (every videogame from the 80’s). Once those ground rules are established, the series just goes full-tilt crazy. It’s still very much a romantic comedy with characters who are realistic and human, but sometimes a guy uses his Vegan powers to punch a hole in the moon and impress a girl, and Scott has to defeat Ramona’s Seven Evil Exes in combat. And it turns out that seeing a tiny floating replica of your own head is disconcerting, even if it does give you an extra life.
The videogame iconography not only allows for over-the-top action, but it affects the storytelling in some neat ways. Before an uncomfortable meeting with an ex-girlfriend, Scott sprints for a save point, just in case he has to start over. Or when Scott decides he has to get a job and work on saving his relationship with Ramona, he levels up. Heartbreak is accompanied by a “CONTINUE” screen.
It’s absolutely fantastic, and highly recommended – O’Malley’s work is accessible, with a friendly art style, while still managing to present something legitimately new and interesting. You haven’t read anything like Scott Pilgrim, and you will love it. The sixth and final volume comes out in July, so there’s still time to get caught up before the movie comes out. I’m really excited about the movie, since I love the Scott Pilgrim story and characters, Edgar Wright can do no wrong, and the cast includes favorites like Michael Cera, Aubrey Plaza, Anna Kendrick, Chris Evans, and Mae Whitman. Yep, two Arrested Development alumni. What more do you want?
We’ll be back with more next week, including The Black Diamond (by Mr. Larry Young, who should be well known to anybody who reads our Lost recaps) and whatever I read this week that I really like. Full Disclosure: There is a reasonable chance that it will involve Batman.
