The Spotlight Comic
Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter #1:I was always going to buy this comic book. Beta Ray Bill has been one of my favourite characters since I first heard of him (I think it was Michael Avon Oeming talking about him in an interview about Omega Flight). And Beta Ray Bill deciding to rid the universe of Galactus is really a logical choice if you think about it. Bill's always been a Horse of Action. And yet it's such an awesome concept. In taking on Galactus, Beta Ray Bill makes a statement. He's always been single-minded about whatever course of action he's been pursuing, but this decision, and in fact the entire comic book, turns him into a force of nature more than anything else.
He's the last of the Korbinites, but he's not quite a Korbinite himself. I gather he's sort of a regular Korbinite fused with a cyborg, with some wild beast scattered into the equation for good measure. But he's Korbin's champion, and it must suck if you're the champion of a people, and those people get their entire world eaten by a giant dude in a purple hat, eh? So it seems like his motivation is revenge, which is admittedly a piss-poor motivation by anyone's standards, but I think it's more than that. He's a blank slate in terms of character, really. Not three-dimensional, not by a long shot. Single-minded, as I said, about ridding the universe of the menace that killed his people. And yet he's one of the only beings in the universe noble enough to lift the hammer of Thor. This is not your average planet-less, vengeance-seeking horse from space.
I suppose it's the whole semi-cyborg thing coming into play here, but Beta Ray Bill is sort of detached. There's a bit in Godhunter #1 in which a ship is in danger from a tsunami, and Thor's first instinct is the save the ship, but Bill responds with "Four million souls are in peril. This plan will save all." He knows how to make the choices that matter. Not totally driven by emotion, in other words, which is really interesting, since having revenge as a motivation, as Bill apparently does, makes you kind of an emotional character, doesn't it? Maybe not. Bill later says simply, with regards to his decision, that is is "Necessary". Is this a calculated decision?
Galactus, it has been established in comics in the past, is a fundemental force of the universe. Thor correctly notes that Beta Ray Bill's course of action is against nature. Killing Galactus would save countless lives, but Bill sure as hell knows that it is not good to fuck with the fundemental forces of the universe. Fabric of reality and space-time and all that, which may be a possible end to this limited series, but that's only a hunch, mind.
Later in the conversation Thor tries to appeal to Bill's analytical side, asking if he thinks he can succeed with just him and his sentient ship Skuttlebutt on his side. Our horse-faced thundergod says it doesn't matter. What's right is right. Bill knows there is a very large chance he'll fail. But he does it anyway, cause it's right. It's a very superheroic mindset. A further layer upon Beta Ray Bill's paradoxical personality! Later, when fighting Stardust (a really pussy name for a Heral of Galactus), notice how he ignores Stardust's exclamations, or doesn't directly address them. You reject reality, Galactus cannot be denied, et cetera. Yeah, it's pretty clear that Bill knows exactly how likely he is to succeed in taking out Galactus. That makes his determination to do it anyway even more awesome. Force of nature indeed.
'Course, not sure if Kieron Gillen layered this issue with this much character work or if I'm reading too much into the dialogue.
Anyway, there are reasons to like this issue other than Beta Ray Bill being Beta Ray Bill. The storytelling is pretty compressed, as it needs to be for a three-issue series, but it's very neat how much Gillen and Kano get done. Bill beats the shit out of Stardust, and the cosmic action is drawn very well. It's always different drawing stuff with space as the background, and Kano makes everything look explosive and loud, the way cosmic stuff should be. Props to the colourist as well. I like the auras that things have throughout the issue. Nice touch that once again makes everything a little more exciting.
The religious theme from the Green of Eden one-shot a few months back, also starring Beta Ray Bill, is similarly not-so-subtle here. There's a bit where Bill destroys this church, the leader (possibly the subject of worship?) of which can make black holes by hitting keys on his giant organ. That in itself is pretty obvious. I assume it's saying something about bad religion. And how, y'know, it's not wise to worship someone who's title is "Harbinger of Annihilation". Stardust also refers to the planet-eating process as Galactus' holy communion, and if you go by the title of the comic book, Galactus is directly called a god. I'm not completely sure where this is going, but I'm interested to see a follow-up of this element. Seeing religion dealt with in comics is always fascinating when it's fresh.
Also in this issue: Beta Ray Bill and Thor stop a giant tidal wave by hitting it with their hammers. In addition, as Galactus is about to eat a planet (that's been evacuated by cute animal creatures), Beta Ray Bill blows the planet up. Because he's Beta Ray Bill and he does shit like that over lunch.
The later half of the comic is Beta Ray Bill's first appearance, written by Walt Simonson, who's considered to be the definitive Thor writer, so that's a bucket of awesomeness right there. It helps that the issue is also bloody good.
Right. Shorter reviews for the rest of the weekly haul.
The Unwritten #2:There's actually a huge advancement in plot this issue, but we still find out so little. It's a story about stories, which is always interesting to read. And the truth-versus-fiction mystery is endlessly fun to play with in your head, while at the same time giving The Unwritten a dark, fantastical atmosphere. It has its own universe, with reality and stories mixing with each other. Fiction bleeds out into the real world and it's slightly trippy, but somehow fun, despite the mature themes. Maybe it's the innocence of the ersatz Harry Potter franchise that's discussed fervently on the here-and-now Internet page that appears this issue. Very nice touch. I just enjoy reading it.
Tom Taylor is also shaping up to be an interesting character. He's struggles with identity, which is a predictable enough problem, but he seems to change over the course of this issue. He's firm in his denial at first, dismissing what he deems bullshit, but as the plot deepens, so does his understanding of truth and reality (or loss of understanding, eh?).
Excellent comic. Made me think in new ways. Mike Carey just has really solid plotting here. You can tell he's got this all figured out. And Peter Gross' art is perfect for the tone here. Got the first issue because of the $1 cover price. I'm getting the future issues because this is an insanely good comic book, in true Vertigo style. This is a comic to watch.
X-Factor #44:It's what you'd expect from any given issue of X-Factor. Peter David knows these characters and he gives more developments in that department. Just spot-on character work, helped immensely by the dialogue. The plot moves along adequately, but I have to say that the Madrox plotline was the more interesting of the two. The Monet-Darwin thing was the focus of the issue, so the entire issue became a little meh compared to the rest of the series.
Holy shit, there are two pencillers and four inkers on this issue alone. I didn't notice until it was pointed out on the Internets somewhere, which really says something. For a huge art team, this issue was visually pretty consistent. It would be nice to have a regular team on the book, but I will not gripe. It could be worse, after all. At least Larry Stroman isn't on this book any more.
I sometimes find my love of this series puzzling, but it really is probably the most consistent and the best X-book on the stands. And I like it. I'm standing by X-Factor as long as Peter David does. I try not to let my misgivings re the scans_daily debacle get in the way when I read X-Factor. It helps.
Werewolves on the Moon: Versus Vampires #1:Read the title again. Now look at the cover.
A werewolf in a spacesuit stabs a vampire in the chest with the American flag. In the background, a familiar silhouette is cleverly inverted.
The interior of the comic is similarly awesome. Art and story-wise. It's also really funny.
Also in this comic: a vampire gets his face ripped off by a turbo magnet. Later, he slips on werewolf pee and gets impaled. He then falls to bits.
I think I've covered all the bases here. Is there still a reason for you not to be reading this?
Captain Britain and MI13: Hell Comes to Birmingham TPB:
Still the best superhero team comic book being published. Yes, possibly even better than Secret Six for sheer fun. It's a hell of a romp. The ideas are wild, the plot is fast-paced and a joy to read, the characters are written probably better than they've ever been (when has Blade ever been interesting?), the dialogue is real and sharp, and it's pretty damn funny at times on top of it. Heck, Captain Britain even spun out of the hugely popular Secret Invasion event (and was the best thing to come out of said event), and by popular I mean all eight issues of Secret Invasion were in 2008's top 10 bestselling issues.
And still this book is getting cancelled. The world is indeed unfair. This comic does everything right, and deserves to be bought. I feel kind of guilty for trade-waiting, actually.
Bottom line, a comic that's good like you wouldn't believe. Please buy the trades to ease my guilt.
Final Crisis HC:Mmm. Another story about stories, kind of. The DC event comic of 2008. The hypercompressed storytelling that Morrison sometimes employs is ramped up to eleven here. Really cool in the sense that readers have to do a lot of the work in between panels. I can't talk about this at length. I've got to reread it.
Suffice to say that this is impossibly epic. It's on a huge scale, and I mean huge. Multiversally huge. The story just weaves in and out of the gigantic cast. This is something completely different, and I hope it paves the way for event comics that aren't just suckers of money.
Props to the art team for keeping up with Morrison's bombardment of ideas, but it was still rushed in places, and it looked slightly shitty at times. Didn't hamper the reading experience, though.
Expect a Final Crisis post. Soon. For now I can only say that this is a comic that's clever in a Morrison-type way, but not too elusive. I enjoyed the hell out of this.
Yep. Huge week for me. Any comics you think I missed this week that were awesome? Tell me in the comments. Or, y'know, just give me comments in general. I like comments.
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