Review: The Walking Dead Vol. 1: Days Gone By trade paperback (Image Comics)

[This review comes from Bob Hodges of the To the Black Rose blog]

I heard nothing but good things about Robert Kirkman's and Tony Moore's zombie series The Walking Dead from several sources whose taste I trust very much including Ed Brubaker and my local comic shop owner. But even paying just six dollars for the first trade, I felt I wasted my money. My dissatisfaction with the series is nearly total and as far as I know, unique to myself. So I'd very much like to hear from people who think my analysis is flawed, believe the series improves in future volumes or who have had a similar bad experience.

To start with the teaser on the back of the book is both pretentious and wrongheaded. In effect it says that "The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been replaced by a world of survival and responsibility ... In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start living." What does "frivolous necessity" even mean? And why is responsibility not possible in a commercial world? The implication that you are only truly living if you are struggling for survival is ridiculous. Human life ought to aim for virtue and flourishing in an Aristotelian sense, not some macho primitivist ideal of a man who has to fight to meet even his basic needs. So no Virginia, there is nothing inherently wrong with government (broadly defined as administrative unit), grocery stores, postal service, or television.

An author should not need to write an introduction to his own work, especially when that work is new. But Kirkman made good points in his introduction. He claims he does not want Walking Dead to be about gory horror (though some is unavoidable with zombies), but social commentary in the grand George Romero tradition. Also Kirkman says he plans to use the open-endedness of a comic series to document the struggles and growth of a band of survivors over a long period of time (instead of the sometimes arbitrary ending points in your two-hour zombie films). Walking Dead is not off to a good start in regards to either one of these goals.

Little social commentary in Walking Dead is not the clichéd "other humans can be more dangerous than the zombies" that the Romero's films, 28 Days Later and several other flicks have covered far more effectively. True, the danger other survivors pose and the fragility of human society may be the staple themes of the genre, but it can accommodate others. The original Dawn of the Dead dramatizes racism and consumerism with zombies and 28 Days criticizes extreme militaristic, scientific, and survivalist mindsets.

The only other commentary Walking Dead offers is that traditional gender roles will be strongly reinforced by the zombie apocalypse. This relates to the Kirkman's second failure in relation to his stated goals, portraying change in characters over time. These characters may change in future volumes, but there so banal at the outset how does it matter how much they change? Rick Grimes, the protagonist, is a blander than vanilla, square-jawed Dudley Do-Right of a cop. His wife Lori is a sapless housewife whose main purpose in life is the biological imperative to spawn off hateful, little brats like their son Carl (who to be fair is an efficient killing machine). The main antagonist in this volume is Rick's best friend and former partner Shane who is in love with Lori because she switched to him as a protector figure during Rick's gunshot induced coma. The reader should forgive her for this infidelity to her original protector/master (I mean husband), since she probably never noticed the change. Other than their different plans for survival, nothing differentiates Rick and Shane.

Lori and all the other female characters in the band of survivors all have their own protector/lover/husband. The attractive young sisters Amy and Andrea have the old RV owner Dale. Carol and her daughter Sophia are in mourning over the loss of their husband/father and young Glenn looks promising as a new one. Donna has her husband Allen. Donna is actually the only woman to question the brave old world where the women are assigned laundry duty while the men go hunting wondering "if we'll still be allowed to vote" after things return to normal. She is duly ridiculed by Lori for such independent thought and then almost immediately portrayed as helpless while a zombie attacks her. And of course she is shown to be hypocritical and puritanical to completely undermine any credibility the character might have. Lori has her own brush with independent thought when she objects to Rick arming their seven-year old son. She is of course duly and publicly overruled and then proven wrong. And despite Andrea's skill with a handgun, at no point in the story do any of the female characters kill a zombie. Whatever for when they have the men around?

The only nice and/or original touches in Walking Dead were Rick's realization that the zombies differentiate between themselves and the living through smell, the gory result of that discovery, and the fate that Jim, a mechanic who watched his family torn apart in Atlanta, chooses.

Another problem with Walking Dead is the ridiculously inaccurate picture it gives of Atlanta and its surroundings. Loren over at Suspension of Disbelief gives a few examples. These problems include that it rarely ever snows in Georgia despite the harsh winters shown in the comic, the area around Atlanta is if anything overdeveloped and woods in easy walking distance of the city would be rare, and Atlanta's overdevelopment includes suburbs in almost every direction from the city, but the comics shows a city that abruptly ends in countryside like Opal City in Starman. Georgia has large black and Hispanic minority groups, but the band of survivors is uniformly white bread (except for Glenn who looks Asian) and off course all straight. This lack of diversity in the characters is not just in terms of race and sexual orientation, but extends to their personalities and occupation reinforcing my earlier point about their blandness. Rick and Shane were cops, all of the adult women except for the younger sisters Amy and Andrea were housewives and Dale and Allen were both salesmen as was Carol's dead husband.

Genre stories involving zombies (especially Romero's films) are not normally noted for compelling characters, but generally work with the momentum of the plot and the work of the actors. As a comic book Walking Dead depends on the writer's dialogue and the artist's drawing of the characters to give them life without benefits of actors. Tony Moore's black and white art is serviceable, but I don't think the dialogue Kirkman gives the characters is enough to make them stand out for what is purportedly a character study.

The format of the trade itself is annoying, lacking page numbers, clear issue breaks, and the original covers.

Walking Dead espouses a dangerous philosophy of life and an oppressive system of gender roles as natural, portrays bland white people in an inaccurate representation of Georgia, and adds very little to the movies from which it is derived. I don't recommend reading it and wonder why it has received such good press.

13 on 52: Week Forty-Seven

(Inspired by 52 on 52, 52 Pickup, and others, Collected Editions offers a weekly thirteen words on each of the thirteen issues collected in 52 Vol. 3.)

Thirteen words for Week Forty-Seven: Liked Diana's resolution better than Rucka did. Want happiness for Buddy in end.

Got your own thirteen words on 52: Week Forty-Seven? Post them here!

Countdown to Final Crisis trade paperback reading order

OK, this is by no means complete, but here's a beginning, tentative attempt at creating a Countdown to Final Crisis trade paperback reading order. I would appreciate anyone who's been reading these books, with as few spoilers as possible, chiming in if you think you see something that needs to be reordered.

The overarching logic here is that, since one reads a full story in a trade, we place full stories side-by-side to be read in a way that hopefully spoils neither one. To that end, for example, Death of the New Gods ends about the same time Countdown to Final Crisis does, so maybe it needs to be placed after Countdown to Final Crisis Volume 4, or maybe not. It's that kind of thing I'm still working on, and could use help with.

Updates will be made as we go along. As such:

Countdown to Final Crisis Volume 1

- Teen Titans: Titans East

The Lightning Saga:
- Flash: The Fastest Man Alive: Full Throttle
- Justice League of America: The Lightning Saga (Countdown 50)
- Superman: Camelot Falls Vol. 2

- Superman: 3-2-1 Action (between Countdown 42 and 41)

Amazons Attack:
- Wonder Woman: Love and Murder
- Wonder Woman: Amazons Attack
- Catwoman: Catwoman Dies
- Outsiders/Checkmate: Checkout
- Outsiders: Five of a Kind

Green Arrow/Black Canary Wedding:
- Green Arrow/Black Canary: Road to the Altar
- Green Arrow/Black Canary: The Wedding Album
- Justice League of America: The Injustice League

- Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War Vol. 1

- Metal Men

Countdown to Final Crisis Volume 2

- 52 Aftermath: Black Adam (Countdown #49)

- Countdown to Adventure

- 52 Aftermath: The Four Horsemen

- Suicide Squad: From the Ashes

Teen Titans/Blue Beetle/Eclipso:
- Teen Titans: Titans of Tomorrow
- Blue Beetle: Reach for the Stars
- Countdown to Mystery

- Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters: Brave New World

- Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer

Death of the New Gods:
- Death of the New Gods
- Birds of Prey: Metropolis or Dust
- Teen Titans Presents: Wonder Girl
- Titans: Old Friends
- Superman/Batman: Torment

Sinestro War (Finale):
- Green Lantern: Tales of the Sinestro Corps War
- Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps War Vol. 2
- Superman: Escape from Bizarro World
- Blue Beetle: Endgame (between GL Corps 17 and Superman-Prime)

- Countdown Presents: Lord Havok and the Extremists

- The Question: Five Books of Blood

Countdown to Final Crisis Volume 3

Salvation Run:
- Justice League of America: Sanctuary
- JLA: Salvation Run
- Gotham Underground

- Countdown Presents: Arena

- Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer (updated)
- All-New Atom: The Hunt for Ray Palmer (updated)

Countdown to Final Crisis Volume 4
- Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes (updated)

I'd love any help or suggestions anyone could send, and if you want to reprint this, I'd appreciate your linking back. Of course, eventually we'll move this over to the DC Comics Trade Paperback Timeline when it's done. Thanks!

Review: Jack Kirby's Fourth World Ominbus Volume Two collected hardcover (DC Comics)

I remembered what Orion's dark secret was in all of this ... but I'd forgotten about Scott Free.

Much as I enjoyed the second volume of Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, I get the sense the third volume is where the action's really at. What I was looking for from the Volume One Omnibus was more interaction between the various series, and while we got that here (Lightray in the initial chapters of Jimmy Olsen, and Superman's mention of his meeting with the Forever People later on), I still remain eager for the full, whole-hog crossover.

Of course, the more I read the Fourth World Omnibuses, the more I see just how much Grant Morrison was riffing on Jack Kirby in his recent Seven Soldiers miniseries. Indeed, part of the fun is how close, but not quite, all the characters come to meeting, and how the various stories interlock, almost more than the reader realizes. Case in point is that little secret Orion and Mister Miracle share, binding the two disparate series together.

Also of great use here is Walt Simonson's introduction to the volume, where he positions New Gods, Mister Miracle, Forever People, and Jimmy Olsen as four perspectives on the same battle: that of the warriors, the contentious objector, the young adventurer, and the citizen bystanders. This perspective really illuminates the way the stories are related, even without the characters meeting. I admit I haven't been a fan of Simonson's Fourth World material, finding it too overwrought and heady, but this exposure to the original Kirby material makes me eager to give Simonson another try.

In his introduction, Simonson praises Kirby's New Gods story "The Glory Boat," and it's a fine story indeed. For every cookie-cutter story in the omnibus -- no matter how wondrous, most of the stories deal with the hero of the moment fighting a random Apokolips creation -- there's ones like "Glory Boat" and the initial Forever People arc, where Kirby's walk-on supporting characters are just as strong and rich as his heroes, that shows the power of Kirby's creations.

Frankly, I think the Fourth World has become distilled -- witness the generic grumpiness of Orion in Grant Morrison's JLA series, versus Kirby's initial three-dimensional hero -- and the Omnibuses are a nice reminder of the power these characters once had. I was especially struck by the scene in this volume, for the first time ever, of Metron flying to the Source Wall and gloating over those trapped there. We seen this sequence so many times (at least thrice, I'm sure, in Superman/Batman) that it's become tired, but just something about seeing Kirby do it for the first time makes me say "Oh, now I get it."

Jack Kirby brought a sheer, unmitigated wildness to his stories, and more than that, you can tell reading these stories that they contain not just Kirby's writing, but his personality. I've enjoyed the first and second Fourth World Omnibus far more than I thought I would -- I don't have the third and fourth yet, but no question they've gone on my wish list.

[Contains full covers, introduction by Walt Simonson, afterward by Mark Evanier, Jack Kirby sketch pages.]

On now to a Superman trade, and then the sky's the limit!

I haven't read DC Universe #0 yet, but ...

I haven't read DC Universe #0, and I don't intend to for a while. Trying not to spoil it for myself is interesting ... Newsarama did a pretty good job leaving the spoilers until after the jump on Wednesday, though now they've got a somewhat telling teaser image on their front page to go along with their Dan Didio interview. And don't get me started on the DC Comics site itself, which blasts "Spoiler Warning" while simultaneously mentioning which comic factors into the spoiler, basically revealing the whole thing right there.

So, I don't know what happens in DC Universe #0 ... but let me say this: it's always kind of troubling when Batman, Nightwing, and Wally (the Flash) West stand side-by-side. Batman and Nightwing are OK -- it's the Bat-Family. Batman and the Flash are OK -- it's the JLA. But when Batman, Nightwing, and the Flash stand side-by-side, you're reminded that Nightwing and the Flash grew up in the Titans together, and that the Flash and Batman aren't contemporaries. And that just makes Batman seem really old.

Like I said, haven't read DC Universe #0 yet. But if what happens is what I think happens (and didn't that already happen, in last year's crossover?), that's my argument against it. Because when Batman, Nightwing, Wally West, and you-know-who all stand side-by-side, then it makes Batman and you-know-who seem really, really old. And that's never good.  That's all.

(Postscript: And then, even as I'm writing this [Thursday], I just read a New York Times article about Free Comic Book Day, and spoiled the whole thing for myself right there. So there you go, spoilers happening live. Only took two days. Rats!)

Review: Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus Volume One collected hardcover (DC Comics)

Even though I'd never read a Jack Kirby story before, I went through the first volume of the Jack Kirby Fourth World Omnibus with a bit of nostalgia. Here was the Guardian, protector of the Project, along with the Newsboy Legion, Dubbilex, the Four-Armed Terror, the Kryptonite Man, all of it serving to take me back to ... the late 1980s?

Imagine how surprised I was to start reading Kirby's Fourth World stories for the first time, only to find them very, very familiar. Without any frame of reference (and nary a blogosphere to explain it), I had no idea that back around 1988, Roger Stern, Jerry Ordway and others recreated post-Crisis almost all the Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen stories found in this first Kirby volume. Sure, I knew these guys didn't create the Guardian or Apokolips, but the way in which these stories riff on Kirby, almost panel-by-panel (they've got Simian and Mokari, for gosh sake!) is just amazing.

And lest I be misunderstood, I'm not accusing the modern Super-team of plagiarism or anything; indeed what they were doing was recreating Kirby's stories for the new DC Universe, and sometimes even filling in continuity gaps (doesn't the Habitat scene in Death of Superman reference Forever People? Or the Roger Stern Toyman story that takes place at the abandoned Happyland?). But amazingly I can't find a lick of information about this Kirby revival on the 'Net--whereas, if this kind of thing were happening now, we'd have a Newsarama interview, press releases from DC, and the inevitable collected edition.

Kirby's stories, of course, are much looser than the post-Crisis Superman stories that I read first, reflecting the simpler comics sensibilities of the time. For this reason, I expected not to like the Kirby stories as much as I did, perhaps because of my unexpected familiarity. I think I was also expecting more of a Bob Haney Teen Titans "Zowie! Groovy!" feel, though the jargon here was at a minimum--or, in the case of the Forever People, their hippie-talk was so perfectly aligned to their characters as not to be distracting.

The first volume of the Kirby omnibus ended up reminding me very much of Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory (though the comparison, most likely, should be reversed). We have issues here of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, Forever People, New Gods, and Mister Miracle, all of which read as separate stories from one another, but all of which also interrelate and combine to tell one larger tale. Reading Mister Miracle on its own, one might wait two or three issues to understand that Scott Free's an orphan from Apokolips, but not if one has already gleaned the purpose of a Mother Box from one of the other titles. I found myself eager while reading this story to see the various characters meet, and hopefully such a crossover takes place in the next volume.

I was surprised to find these Fourth World stories published at the beginning of the 1970s, with their overwhelming 1960s "peace and love" vibe; Kirby's protege Mark Evanier writes in his afterward that Kirby was responding in some ways to Nixon and American's general mistrust of government at that time. I'm definitely the wrong one to comment on Kirby's historicity; instead, I took great pleasure in Evanier's note that Kirby actually wrote the Fourth World saga with an eye toward it being read in collected editions much like the omnibuses, believing that bookstore customers were more likely to pick it up that way. As if we really needed proof of Kirby's foresight, there you have it right there.

[Contains full covers, introduction by Grant Morrision, afterward by Mark Evanier, initial Fourth World sketches]

I'm starting on the second Fourth World volume now, and I'll be back soon with more comments. Thanks for reading!

13 on 52: Week Forty-Six

(Inspired by 52 on 52, 52 Pickup, and others, Collected Editions offers a weekly thirteen words on each of the thirteen issues collected in 52 Vol. 3.)

Thirteen words for Week Forty-Six: Glad villains show smarts (and Cale survives). Note Final Crisis mention: Darkseid is?

Got your own thirteen words on 52: Week Forty-Six? Post them here!

Review: Bizarre New World: Population Explosion graphic novel (Ape Entertainment)

Plenty of comic books start with the hero discovering the ability to fly. Skip Martin's Bizarre New World is unique, however, in that instead of putting on a cape and fighting crime, Martin's protagonist Paul Krutcher deals with the more mundane aspects of flight -- what his co-workers will think, how to avoid getting struck by lightning, and how to contend with his jealousy when someone else announces they could fly before Paul could. With spinner racks full of superhero slugfests, Bizarre New World (and it's new graphic novel sequel, Population Explosion) is a comic book with nary a punch thrown, one that dares to examine the practicalities of super-powers -- and in that way, some of the majesty that makes superheroes so compelling -- without the mindless violence that sometimes weighs comic books down.

Population Explosion picks up at the end of the first Bizarre New World series, as Paul barely has time to register his jealousy of fellow flyer Matthew before the rest of the world develops flying powers as well. A world-wide miracle quickly turns to chaos as budding flyers find themselves in dangerous situations. Paul receives a desperate voicemail from his son, sending him on a cross- country rescue mission -- but flying at top speeds turns out to be harder than it looks.

The best part of both of Skip Martin's Bizarre New World tales is that Martin just "gets" the way normal people would act in extraordinary situations. In the afterword, Martin dismisses the moment that people begin peeing from the sky as a "shameless urine joke," but it's an unexpectedly real moment, as is the image of the background character who's already wearing a super-hero T-shirt for just this occasion. One can't help, as well, to fall in love with Paul, who's tendency to fall asleep at work is balanced by his concern for how to get footprints off his ceiling, and his love for and late-night lightsaber duels with his young son.

If the first Bizarre New World's intention was to look at how one man would deal an extraordinary moment, Population Explosion examines how we as a society deal with unexpected world-wide events. The crux of Population Explosion is a ten-page conversation between Paul and the waitress Marie -- who's still watching her restaurant after everyone else takes to the air -- where Marie compares the flight development to September 11. Marie recalls wondering on September 11 when the first television movie would be made, a thought later borne out; the point she and Martin are making is both how disengaged collective society has become from the emotion of the moment, and also how cynical the individual has become in expecting that disengagement.

It's a point that's both relevant to the issues of the day -- Hurricane Katrina, the war in Iraq, an election that's become more media ratings circus than democracy -- and also to the superhero comic book genre. We've become so used to a flying man on the cover of our comics that we've stopped being awestruck by the possibility of a flying man, a point similarly made in early 2000s Superman comics. By offering a fantasy comic book that doesn't degenerate into fight scenes, Martin reimbues super-powers with some of their original grandeur, and avoids the somewhat tired paths travelled by other "normal man" stories like Heroes and others.

As a graphic novel, Population Explosion is an interesting, thoughtful tale, but Martin's talent is obviously in his dialogue, and at times the action suffers. There's a four-page sequence of Paul leaving the city, accompanied by gripping radio narration of the tragedies happening elsewhere in the world; while this would have been gruesome, it might have been better to see these scenes rather than just hear about them, or even to have Paul face more peril of his own. At times it's a bit too easy to see the writer pulling the strings -- Paul decries how his phone "always" goes to voicemail when he misses the frantic call from his son -- though Martin makes up for it with the depth of the characters.

Compared to other graphic novels out there, the $6.95 price for Bizarre New World: Population Explosion seems a steal, and the ways in which Skip Martin's Bizarre New World differentiates itself from your everday comic book deserves a look. For more information, visit the official website, www.bizarrenewworld.com.

On now to reviews of the Jack Kirby Fourth World Omnibuses, and more.  Stay tuned!

Review: Manhunter: Unleashed trade paperback (DC Comics)

[Contains spoilers for Manhunter: Unleashed]

Manhunter: Unleased offers a more comprehensive story than that of the looser preceeding volume, Manhunter: Origins, as attorney Kate Spencer must defend Wonder Woman from new charges regarding her killing of Maxwell Lord. This is an intriguing premise, and I enjoyed this straightforward superhero law drama far more than Kate's previous DEO-mandated defense of Dr. Psycho. Though the direction of the story isn't always clear--likely due to behind-the-scenes editorial issues--there are any of a number of great moments in this newest collection of the award-winning series.

In the course of Unleased, Kate Spencer meets DC Comic's Big Three, and I enjoyed writer Marc Andreyko's continued placing of Kate squarely in the middle of the DC Universe. In a way, Kate represents aspects of all three of the heroes: she calls on Superman, the heart of the DCU, to bail out Wonder Woman when the Amazon won't sacrifice Superman to save herself; similarly, Kate's intimidating methods often rival the Dark Knight's own. But one of the best parts of this story was Wonder Woman's immediate acceptance of Manhunter--I don't necessarily accept the comparison that Wonder Woman's killing of Maxwell Lord (to immediately save Superman) is like Manhunter's murder of Copperhead (as he's escaping), but the new friendship between these characters, after all the animosity of the pre-Infinite Crisis era, is nice to see.

Let me spoil this story by saying it turns out Circe is the main bad guy--though whether Circe is behind the renewed prosecution of Wonder Woman, or just behind the surprise appearance by a Blue Beetle look-alike, is never quite clear. Indeed, there's a cut scene about half-way through this trade where a shadowy villain--who's not Circe--swears to take revenge on Wonder Woman for her murder of Maxwell Lord. What's going on here is not clear, unless the stilted post-Infinite Crisis restart of Wonder Woman ultimately required a change in the culprit half-way through. Maybe this will play out later in the Wonder Woman title, but I wish we'd had more of a sense of the conclusion here in Manhunter.

Over the course of Unleashed, Andreyko sends the rest of the Manhunter supporting cast--Cameron Chase, Dylan Battles, and Manhunter Mark Shaw--out on separate adventures. I'm not familiar enough with the Chase story to really get the full weight of Cameron facing off against the Trapp villain that killed her father, though I imagine Chase fans enjoyed seeing her back in Gotham City. Even better, however, was the suggestion that Mark Shaw might become the new Azrael, even perhaps taking on Jean Paul Valley's old costume. I didn't realize until now how much Manhunter lore writer Dennis O'Neill put into the Azrael series, but with all the connections Andreyko is making, I may vey well have to go back and read those books again.

Unleashed ends on a high note, with Kate's friends and family gathered to celebrate her courtroom victory. It's a strangely happy moment in a book with such a hard-luck hero, and as with the end of Manhunter: Trial by Fire, I feel good for Kate even as I know that any coming misfortune will just make for interesting reading later on. Manhunter is a strange book--as dark as Checkmate and others, but with a cast that seems to love and enjoy one another more than in any other comic book out there. It makes for great but sometimes disarming reading--we enjoy the good times even as we long for the controversy that the bad times will bring.

Manhunter remains a great, challenging comic book, and I encourage again all the Collected Editions readers to give it a try. And let me not forget to mention the fantastic art by Javier Pina throughout the first four volumes; he draws not only the definitive Kate Spencer, but also a beautiful, realistic Wonder Woman in this trade.

[Contains full covers.]

Thought we might delve back into Superman pretty soon, but before we get there, how 'bout a couple volumes of Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus?

13 on 52: Week Forty-Five

(Inspired by 52 on 52, 52 Pickup, and others, Collected Editions offers a weekly thirteen words on each of the thirteen issues collected in 52 Vol. 3.)

Thirteen words for Week Forty-Five: Impressive how Adam right/wrong, heroes have no choice. 52 like Greek tragedy.

Got your own thirteen words on 52: Week Forty-Five? Post them here!