Wednesday Comics #5

In which it seems that most of these comics get better each issue, some are seemingly on a plateau (for better or worse), and a few, just a few will probably turn out to be bad ideas.

1. "Metamorpho, The Element Man" by Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred. What a comeback! This resembles the kind of offbeat modernist take on one of the hoariest of silver age concepts that Gaiman seemed to have been promising in the first issue, before being sidetracked by massive splash pages and cutesy reader inquiries. My continuing quest to detect Gaiman's authorial "voice" within this story may be a fruitless one, as this story is constructed almost deliberately to lack the weight and density of a normal Gaiman story, but I will make do with vaguely British dialogue and the continuing presence of Urania Blackwell. In this issue, it turns out for some reason that Simon Stagg brings along a catering crew to his many adventures, but unfortunately the French cuisine is almost spoiled when someone unseen unleashes deadly poison chlorine gas. Rex and Urania, using their 8th grade chemistry skills, figure that using their powers to combine sodium and chlorine will create a rain of table salt. The French chef complains in a stereotypical way, and really all of this is over the top, but of course with Allred at the helm it's all meant to look arch and pop and we expect this sort of ridiculousness. I wonder if Gaiman will have this go deadly serious at some point, however, given what we know of Urania. I wouldn't put it past him to backtrack on all this nouveau-pop stuff and attempt some of his old meta-tricks. My personal favorite touch: Java snacking on his buffalo, unaware of the deadly chlorine gas killing everyone else.

2. "Batman" by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso. This comic also gets points for improving drastically this week, in part because we finally get to see the title character in action, doing one of the things I love seeing him do the most--chilling in the batcave, mulling over clues, and getting harassed by Alfred. It's also the best-looking strip I think Risso has done so far, due to a seriously odd take on Alfred that certainly brings out some of the butler's dormant Semitic features (I kid, maybe?). Risso's big-lipped take on Wayne is also, as far as I can tell, highly novel, as most artists still tend to draw him as a broad-shouldered, blandly handsome rich guy whose haircut never changes (come on, at least Superman had a mullet for a little bit). Azzarello has Alfred do one of the things he always does best, which is make vague comments about Bruce's sex life, which always makes Bruce uncomfortable. As for how this fits into the larger story, I'd say that Azzarello would be taking the easy way out if he were to have Bruce being set up by the femme fatale of the last issue. I expect a lot of double-crosses in the next seven weeks, but surely Batman has handled far harder cases. Still, this issue shows more promise than the last several.

3. "Deadman" by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck. The perennial underdog continues its story with aplomb as we continue with the increasingly desperate adventures of Boston Brand, the depowered Deadman who is now forced once again to use his acrobat skills. As one would imagine, being dead for as long as Brand has has made him pretty rusty. Bullock is good at crafting forward-momentum in this fight scene and it all looks so great, particularly the money shot at the end (I think Bullock should get more points than he does for investing at least one panel each with the kind of compositional pizazz that could take decades to perfect). It is here we pause, because it seems that the demons have succeeded in killing Brand, so where does he go now? Is he dead for serious? Will he just come back again? It's possibly the single most engrossing narrative in Wednesday Comics, as well as the most consistently good. If you get Bullock and Heuck on a monthly Deadman book, I will buy it.

4. "Strange Adventures" by Paul Pope. We continue the adventures of the newly-escaped Alanna, hiding under a gnarly tree with the rooster-dog of last issue. No Mandrillus sphynx monkeys this time, unfortunately, which will cost Pope a few points, but seriously: Pope has managed to corner the market on old-school sci-fi visuals that are like amphetamine-driven versions of pulps past. Pope's evocation of Strange's zeta beam makes a brief comeback, but more important, I can look at the middle panel of Alanna in shelter, with its mangy trees and bizarre stalactites, forever. I'm curious to see what Adam is up to now but I wouldn't really mind if Pope kept up the story of Alanna indefinitely.

5. "Wonder Woman" by Ben Caldwell. Caldwell continues his rejiggering of the Wonder Woman mythos by having Diana come into contact with Priscilla Rich, who in the regular DC universe is known as Wonder Woman's arch-nemesis Cheetah. At this point I think Diana is getting the idea that these aren't particularly normal dreams, and this gradual realization is partially why I can handle how repetitive each self-contained story seems to be, especially as we realize that Diana is gradually finding all the tools she needs, this issue the quest being for the tiara of the Sakyamunis. If DC wanted to do some sort of "ultimate" take on the character, they would be wise to use this as the blueprint. As usual, people are leveling claims to the effect that there's too much going on in each issue, as if that's ever an issue, and as I keep saying, it's still a lot easier for me to follow than something like, say, "Teen Titans." Especially, with having a recognizable villain like Ms. Rich, I think the way "Wonder Woman" is set up encourages new readers to absorb this strip as discrete episodes that could or could not be part of a larger narrative. Caldwell's choice of layouts, splitting linear panels into horizontal and vertical strips packed with detail, is unmatched here or elsewhere. This man needs more respect, and less discouragement from people who think this comic does too much.

6. "Hawkman" by Kyle Baker. Not much happens this issue, and both the aliens and the Justice League are nowhere to be found, leaving Katar alone to deal with a plane that seems to be heading for its doom. The funny thing here is that it seems like Hawkman fails, only managing to steer the plane into an island where we can only presume no one is going to make it out alive. And yet that would seem like a bummer for anyone who has been reading and enjoying Hawkman as much as I have, leading me to believe that maybe (just maybe) Aquaman is going to come to the rescue now that they are, at the very least, on land. Baker is good here at mixing Hawkman's fruitless attempts to steer the plane using nth metal technology and showing brief snapshots of hapless passengers, a few of which we have seen before, as they prepare for the worst. It does seem uncommonly horrible and serious for a comic like this, particularly given America's recent track record with plane crashes. Still, Baker's photorealistic yet expressive style makes this a comic that is always fun to watch even when very little actually happens. I think I read somewhere that Baker was already able to finish all his comics months before deadline, which is even more astonishing given how much detail seems to be already present.

7. "Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth!" by Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook. Speaking of money shots, Sook puts his at the beginning of the comic as opposed to the end, and it's quite a good one: from left to right, we have Prince Tuftan attacking a rifle-bearing ape with a sword, and knocking said ape off his motorcycle; in the middle, we have Kamandi tackling another ape, this one holding a bazooka; and to the right, in the background, we have the smoldering crater of what was once Dr. Canus' blimp. This is the stuff great films are made of. The rest of the comic, speciesism aside (Kamandi crying, "we are not animals, we are human!" before roundhouse-kicking the ape leader, which as you know is both true and false), is quality art as well, and the writing lags only slightly. Working in this particular style, it is easy to tell that Gibbons is no great prose stylist, and much of the description here is unnecessary given what we can tell of the action. Wednesday Comics was conceived at the outset as a project where art was supposed to be as or more important than the writing talent, and that is never more obvious than in this beautiful-looking but slightly vacant piece of work.

8. "Flash Comics" by Karl Kerschl and Brendan Fletcher. It is getting more and more difficult to tell what is happening with this comic. I know, it's time travel, and that in itself is supposed to be sufficient reason to not ask too many questions, but what exactly is the relationship between the Flash and Iris strips, at this point? Are there three Flashes running around? Is the one from the future the one that's consorting with Iris? Perhaps they were unrelated all this time. Seriously, though, without the Flash comic to back it up, "Iris West" is completely pedestrian, so I hope the links are made more clear as the comic continues. Similarly, I can't really tell what's going on with either Flash in the other comic, other than one is floating in space, mabe, and one is frozen in a block of ice. Or maybe one of them went through time, and the other managed to escape the block of ice and is now floating in space. I dig Kerschl's take on Gorilla Grodd, a villain who tends to be overused. I just hope that Kerschl and Fletcher go the "hey it's old-school Flash, so therefore, here's time travel" route, and really work on integrating time travel elements in new and interesting ways.

9. "Sgt. Rock and Easy Co." by Adam Kubert and Joe Kubert. This strip continues to get the award for looking great even as virtually nothing continues to happen. This time, we are almost, almost on the verge of Sgt. Rock being capped after several weeks of torture and critical beatdowns at the hands of Nazis, and of course the very idea of the Nazis successfully shooting Rock in the face gives me chills. Fortunately, that doesn't happen, but for a stupid reason: the guns is jammed. Seems like the sort of convenient and hoary excuse utilized by first-time writers, if you'll forgive my impetuousness. Still, how can I fault this comic when it looks as good as it does? Damn, it is vibrant. All the detail here is in this faces and hardware, and backgrounds are virtually non-existent, a true nod to the silver age and further, to the era of episodic strips. I do wish that the plot would advance a little bit (we don't even get anything interesting from the side adventure with easy company), but maybe next time...

10. "Metal Men" by Dan DiDio, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan. This strip isn't as enjoyable here as it has been in recent weeks, and the entire contents herein, where Magnus has a conversation with a fellow scientist who plans to kill himself out of jealousy, seems redundant and silly. DiDio was getting a few good cracks here and there before but this issue is almost as deadly serious as it is implausible, which is always a bad combination. Still, even without the yuks of the Metal Men, the comic looks great and seems to be building itself towards a spectacular scientist beatdown in week 7 or so. "I resemble that remark" is corny, though, and should have been excised, I don't care if it is silver age-ish or what. Not much else to say about this comic, so deliberately middling week after week.

11. "Supergirl" by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner. Conner gets major points here for the last panel, which shows an exasperated Supergirl threatening to take a newly calm Krypto and Streaky to the supervet, or whatever. Unfortunately, Baker's "Hawkman" covers more or less the same territory this week (seriously, it's been a bad time to do plane crash stories for a while now) and Baker does a better job coming up with a finish that leaves me expecting more. I have to admit that Conner's Supergirl does look great, though, more like a teenager than we have come to expect. Everything else is inconsequential by comparison, and I am surprised by how much more good press this is getting than something like "Deadman."

12. "The Demon and Catwoman" by Walter Simonson and Brian Stelfreeze. I'm not sure why this couldn't have just been a Demon comic with Catwoman as the occasional guest star, as Selina has been running around in cat form for several issues running and hasn't really done a damn thing as a result. I also can't figure out Etrigan's rhyme scheme for the most part. It occurs to me that I haven't talked about Stelfreeze's art yet, for the simple reason that nothing about it really jumps out at you, although it's not like he makes anything hard to follow. This comic does seem like it isn't really utilizing the larger page to its full effect, as all the panels here are big enough to shrink down to normal size without losing much of the flavor (kind of like "Sgt. Rock" except in that case one can enjoy the pock marks on Sgt.'s face in better view). I love a Demon story as much as anyone else, but this comic hasn't even begun to delve into the Kirby-inspired wackiness that great writers have been able to utilize. Maybe if we see some more action, I will change my mind.

13. "Superman" by John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo. I've been on record as saying that I have been enjoying this Superman strip more than a lot of people, but even at this point I think it's beginning to lose me. It looks great, really, particularly in how Bermejo splits the page evenly between Kryptonian and earth-related happenings (often without even separating panels), and Krypton's red landscape is particularly brilliant. Still, this is all stuff we've seen so many times already, and we are already in the fifth issue. A bit of intrigue is allowable in the last panel, but not much. Great storyboards for a video game? Maybe. A gateway strip for an innovative new serialized comic? Not really. Pathos will only get you so far, even with a character like Superman.

14. "Teen Titans" by Eddie Berganza and Sean Galloway. I am still unable to tell if everyone is on an ocean or what exactly is going on. There is something new and odd here that could work in succeeding issues--telling the story from the position of medical caretakers who can't stand the ways in which superheroes so brazenly risk lives and the lives of others. But of course, this doesn't go too far, as we are witness to superheroes acting truly and selflessly to save Blue Beetle, who apparently doesn't make it. Is this supposed to be a strip about the unintended consequences of collateral damage caused by superhero fights? Or is it merely trying to sound like something that novel when in actuality the idea isn't really there, and instead we have a hodge-podge of random Teen Titans interacting in ways that really don't make sense? It depends on what Berganza and Galloway are planning in the future.

15. "Green Lantern" by Kurt Busiek and Joe Quinones. In this issue, Hal Jordan flashes back to the time when he knew someone who was almost as much of a prick as he is. That man was Joe Dillon, who you remember turning into an alien earlier. If you think "hotheadedness" is a great and original character trait that hasn't been beaten to death by comics already, you'll probably love the interaction between these two douchebags as they try to compete for the opportunity to go into space. As usual, Jordan is unsympathetic and really quite loathsome when it comes down to it; similarly, this comic has very little else going for it. This is probably the worst work I have ever seen from Busiek, a usually brilliant guy. Oh well, we can't always be 15 for 15.

Wednesday Comics #4

I apologize again for this being late. I have several excuses: last week I had to fly down to Des Moines in order to be a groomsman at a wedding (which involved having to do lots of stuff including posing for a million pictures and eating delicious free food). Then I had to come back and prepare myself adequately for the GREs, which I finished not a few hours ago. With that behind me, I shall do issues 4 and 5, hopefully in quick succession. I know I'm being quite repetitive at this point (which is always the case when I attempt art criticism), but damn, this keeps looking better and better. And this time, "Metamorpho" makes a comeback.

1. "Wonder Woman" by Ben Caldwell. I've had it with the naysayers of this comic, those who say that it's "too hard to read" or hard to get through. When was the last time you had a good old-fashioned challenge reading a comic book? When was the last time you picked up something like Finnegan's Wake solely for the challenge of it, to immerse yourself in something lofty and experimental at the expense of your own sanity? Not that I am necessarily prepared to compare Caldwell to Joyce, but who knows? He's a young man. As far as I know, Caldwell is seriously breaking the mold here by separating one of the sequences here through redirecting the reader's eye leftward as opposed to the way cartoonists have done it for 100 years. For a little bit, I couldn't tell what was going on. Then I did, and boy was I impressed. Comics have tried all sorts of experiments, but a Western comic that asks you to redirect your eyes in the middle of the page? Fairly unique. Additionally, the colors seem to get better on this comic, everything looking less washed out, and the negative space showing up more clearly than ever. Think of how much this comic tries to cram, and notice how it does it so well: over the course of a page, Wonder Woman visits the underworld, fights some "black dragon goons" (we never get a good look at them, which I suppose is a Caldwell trick at this point), gets zapped by some beams of light, and this time seems to be seriously lost in sleep, suggesting that there is a linear point to WW waking up at the end of each issue (by the way, for those complaining that not enough of these are self-contained, this is probably as close as one will get). I hope Caldwell gets more respect in the future, and I encourage him to go further micro, as history will vindicate him as a new kind of talent in the future.

2. "Hawkman" by Kyle Baker. It seems like it would be difficult to pull off a Justice League strip within these pages, but it is inevitable at some point, so kudos for Kyle Baker for integrating the rest of the DC universe into Hawkman's comic in a way that makes me feel excited about a Hawkman/JLA team-up. We see Batman and Hawkgirl in silhouette, as well as a brilliant Baker rendition of the watchtower, zipping along and battling Makkorthite ships like something out of Star Trek, only better. Meanwhile, Hawkman fights the alien monster that has grown considerably since last week, and Baker's artistry really nails the beast and also illustrates how a regular-sized guy like Hawkman could take him down: through the carefully-placed application of sound effects of course. We end with a cliffhanger, with Katar having to chase down a plane falling to its death, finally having a purpose due to the fact that no other flying superheroes around (that's what I like to think Hawkman adds to the team, anyway: he flies better than most superheroes). I also must add that I am pumped that Aquaman was mentioned and I hope that he shows to back Katar up. Please let this happen.

3. "Deadman" by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck. For the fourth time, Bullock comes up with a page that looks beautiful and frameable in a way that most of these pages are not: dividing the comic halfway between a splash page of Kalak attempting to slice Boston Brand, and the right side of the page, which advances the action a bit and allows Boston to show off his acrobat moves, which he rarely gets a chance to use. A lot of the stories in Wednesday Comics have divised good ways of drawing issues devoted entirely to fights that don't seem like cheating for those who are looking for discrete elements of plot to be revealed each issue: I think, in terms of this, Bullock and Heuck are ahead of the pack. I think these guys should be working on a Deadman animated series, which of course would never happen, but why not? Boston is, I believe, a novel take on the tragic, conflicted yet laconic hero, and he still looks very cool.

4. "Strange Adventures" by Paul Pope. In which we finally get to see Alanna, whom I've maintained is probably getting her best treatment in a long time, show her warrior side, and Pope gets to get out the implied grotesquerie. I will once again give Pope the award for best single panel, the circle on the botoom that shows Alanna riding on some sort of rooster dog across an endless expanse of grayish space. Full disclosure: I think this comic will continue being in the top five simply for the way in which Pope draws those Mandrillus Sphynx Monkeys. Have they showed up elsewhere? I was never the biggest Adam Strange fan. Pope is also very funny (the guard who finds Alanna to be disgusting due to her lack of hair) and knows how to imply bloody retribution without actually showing it. The best thing about this comic, however, isn't the characters but rather the whirling landscapes that make me think that this is the comic to read on acid (if there's one comic you don't want to read tripping, I would suggest "Supergirl").

5. "Metamorpho, The Element Man" by Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred. Thank you Gaiman and Allred, for doing something slightly satisfying. This is by far the best issue of "Metamorpho" yet, which so far has been extremely uneven, although I must say my reaction has something to do with the return of Urania Blackwell, inevitable as I know it must have seemed for some ever since hearing about the project. You may remember her from an early issue of Gaiman's Sandman where she was extremely depressed but unable to kill herself due to her elemental powers. I wonder if that will be hinted at here. In any case, this doesn't really sound like the Gaiman I imagine, but then again I wonder if my conception of Gaimanism has relied too much on Sandman and not enough on his ability to tell tense adventure stories when he needs to. Gaiman injects a little throwback sexism (to remind readers that this is retro, of course), and a mystery silhouette (not Dr. Stagg?) explains what the Star of Atlantis is. I hope this is another comic that leads to an Aquaman cameo. I hope that's where every single comic goes from here, seguing into an Aquaman cameo. Of course, Gaiman's retroisms are ably assisted by Allred, who does this sort of stuff all the time. I daresay it's the best-looking thing he has ever done.

6. "Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth!" by Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook. This is also, I think, the best issue of "Kamandi" yet, with the style seeming more relaxed than before and Sook really letting loose with the Kirby craziness (a talking tiger brandishing a sword and gun jumping in the way of Kamandi and a bunch of ape soldiers), and he makes it look good. There is also, I presume, a bit of an homage to the whole Hindenberg dust-up (or maybe Gibbons is just referencing The Rocketeer). Compared to the other stuff Kirby was capable of, Kamandi was never the most original of creations (come on, Planet of the Apes), but it did provide Kirby the opportunity to make some awesome pictures. Also, I liked the way parts of the Kamandi-verse were integrated into Final Crisis last year. This is a comic that could easily go downhill, but for now I think it is getting better. Will the girl serve a purpose?

7. "Superman" by John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo. I'm surprised by the amount of bad reviews this comic keeps getting, mainly I think for the Superman/Batman dialogue that seemed uncharacteristic for some but at least for me illustrating something that would make sense in their relationship: that is, that there's a lot of stuff that Clark can't talk about without being berated. And a man can only hurt so much before he has to go home. Arcudi nails Ma and Pa Kent, really in the way I described last week, and there's a sort of pathos here that one doesn't see in other, more madcap strips. Leave it to critics to charge Arcudi with failing just because he is trying some character as opposed to plot-based. Nevertheless, this is pretty basic stuff, and I can't imagine even Arcudi can squeeze a convincing emotional arc out of this in five issues. Bermejo is great as well, really excelling in these sorts of statuesque arrangements, his evocation of a state fair Norman Rockwell-esque to merit its conclusion (although we could always see more). I hope Arcudi doesn't break down and start doing plot stuff just because that's what people expect. Just leave the alien from the first issue alone, and concentrate on Clark and his occasional depressive bouts. That makes for good reading.

8. "Sgit. Rock and Easy Co." by Adam Kubert and Joe Kubert. I'm putting this on here mainly because it looks cool, as the plot is still paper-thin, although I don't know if that is pretty normal by Sgt. Rock standards. Certainly, watching Mr. Rock get his ass beat for four consecutive issues doesn't have nearly the effect on me it probably would if I actually knew much about the property. Still, he's in there for diversity's sake (war comics being an underrated property for too long) and plus this is Joe Kubert. The funny thing about Kubert is that for a guy with such old-school credentials, the level of detail he puts into each panel is startlingly modern. The welts on Rock's face look shockingly brutal, and the Russian lady doesn't look like a nondescript woman but rather someone who has gone through what one would bet she would have had to go through. There's only so much more I can take of this, however, until it becomes Saw or something similarly brutal/voyeuristic. Hopefully the Kuberts don't go the route of laying massive amounts of retributive pain on Nazis to make us feel better (which seems to be what Quentin Tarantino's new picture is more or less trying to do). This is a consistent comic with beautiful art. While not exactly advancing at the pace I'd like, it is far from unsatisfying.

9. "Flash Comics" by Karl Kerschl and Brendan Fletcher. Unfortunately, I have had to take this once-brilliant comic down a peg as the central conceit seems to not allow for the storytelling opportunities I imagined at the beginning of the series: I hope this is a minor setback. There seems to be less of a relationship between "The Flash" and "Iris West," as I know one doesn't necessarily follow the other, but with time travel being a basic plot point, I thought that wouldn't matter. Maybe the better thing to do would be to read all the Iris strips in order once they are all collected, and then all the Flash strips, but again, I thought Kerschl was going to have them refer to each other in unexpected and offbeat ways. You might also notice that, aside from Caldwell, Kerschl is cramming as much in the page as anyone, and for this reason alone I continue to trust him. He's very good at detail, and he manages to integrate disparate figures like the Flash and Gorilla Grodd into the panel in ways that look almost (but not quite) non-ridiculous. If I had to guess, I would say I enjoy the Iris strip more than the superhero one.

10. "Metal Men" by Dan Didio, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan. I also have no idea why this strip isn't geting more respect, considering that it is trying to do humor and does it I think more respectfully than Supergirl. This time however, the strip ends on a semi-serious note, with one of the robbers threatening to suicide-bomb the entire bank. Didio allows for some good observations (why is Mercury colored that way?), and works in an uncomfortable romantic subplot between Platinum and Doc Magnus. Didio is surely covering a lot of territory and making use of every panel he has, and the art is even more game, illustrating the slight seriousness of the situation in spite of the goofy antics of the Metal Men. Didio's idea seems to be to have the Metal Men do something goofy and put more people at danger as a result: it's a new play on the superheroes-doing-more-harm-than-good archetype. Or maybe it's meant to be straight-up silly. Nevertheless, I give Didio points for the dialogue here.

11. "The Demon & Catwoman" by Walt Simonson and Brian Stelfreeze. Here is an example of a comic that seems exciting and well-done but leaves very little impression. While the vibe here is very new-school decompressed storytelling, the two leads seem to lack much in the way of personality, which I understand is easy enough to do with Etrigan and Catwoman (Jason Blood was always the more interesting guy, anyway). Also, I don't really get how Etrigan sometimes rhymes and sometimes doesn't (unless there's a sonnet scheme that I'm not really detecting, the kind of thing Alan Moore did in Swamp Thing). The comic also ends on an odd note, with the Catwoman creature sort of stuck in mid-air, Etrigan having taken her out easily, and we wonder if perhaps decompression is the wrong word to use. I just worry that a lot of this action won't be followed upon, but perhaps with Etrigan on his way to fight evil, things might either pick up or slow down. Either way, I'm fine.

12. "Batman" by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso. This is not Batman's best week. The noir vibe will only go so far when the hapless hero and femme fatale seem incapable of anything other than cliches. Surely, this wouldn't seem too far out of place in "Rex Morgan," if the silhouettes were creepier. I have alarmingly little to say about this edition of Batman. This is some sort of strained comic book idea of what constitutes flirting for rich people, and it's disconcerting not because we believe Bruce Wayne isn't capable of this but because Azzarello is treading on such worn material. Risso's art is good at suggesting that there are things already at work that I am not perceiving (playing with bat shadows and casual could-be-symbols). Azzarello is basically setting this up like 100 Bullets, so I can only imagine there will be some mindfuck five or six issues down the line. I'm sure, when it happens, I will realize how stupid I was.

13. "Teen Titans" by Eddie Berganza and Sean Galloway. Galloway's style, as confusing as ever, is at least not impenetrable like last time. I am able to tell now, for instance, that Triton managed to do some damage against the Titans ambulance ship, or whatever it is. Yet new confusions arise. How did Triton get back up there? Was he there in the first place? Where is everyone now? I gather that they are in some sort of water at the end. Were they near an ocean? Was I supposed to recognize this before. I blame my own severe ignorance. Triton is not a villain I'm very excited about, to be honest, as he seems to be very much part of that quasi-badass villain mode that was so popular in the 90s. Still, there is some intrigue here. What did the Titans do that was so horrible, as to not deserve any honor? Perhaps the unmasking of this boring villain will explain something. I suppose that is what will happen. Maybe it will be time travel. Whatever.

14. "Green Lantern" by Kurt Busiek and Joe Quinones. I have to make clear that I am preternaturally biased against Hal Jordan, if I hadn't acknowledged that already, and this comic didn't help change my conception of Jordan as an essentially smug, overbearing, callous asshole. Even the Human Torch has an iota of self-doubt. Meanwhile, Busiek basically writes Jordan for what he is, a prick, talking to some other prick we saw change into an alien last issue. In all, this strip is moving at a snail's pace, and Busiek isn't doing the best job at having some sort of hook to draw us in each issue. All we see here are two douchebag white guys talking shit to each other. At least Jordan's inexplicable Eskimo sidekick isn't around this time...

15. "Supergirl" by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner. I can't write about this strip without sounding like a dick. I know it will probably get better. Conner's facial expressions on Streaky are priceless. Nevertheless, this is by far the most inconsequential seeming comic included here, and nothing really happens that didn't happen last issue as well. It seems Palmiotti can only go so far with this idea (pets gone rogue!) and it is really starting to show. Beyond that, I don't want to say anything that will only make me sound stupider once I have read it in its entirety.

Wednesday Comics #3

I'm sorry that I am posting this so late. Who exactly am I apologizing to, and why? I'm pretty sure no one. Some have already been arguing that Wednesday Comics is already not living up to the massive hype it has set itself up for...which was massive indeed, almost suspiciously as if it was inevitable that people would make that claim even after three issues. I, for one, am more impressed than ever with issue 3. At least half of the comics are engrossing entertainments, and there aren't any that are absurdly bad. And I find myself more and more looking forward to Wednesday so I can get my fix. Get ready for some very similar numbers this week, though, as I believe the winner is once again:

1. "Deadman" by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck. Sadly, virtually no love and attention has been afforded to this comic, which stands above the rest even though it doesn't have any high-profilers in the title or the byline. I'm speaking seriously as someone who never considered himself a huge Deadman "fan" (I'm sure they exist, though): this comic is obviously the work of creators in love with what they are doing, and focused on the goal of making the story visually accessible for those who happen to come in the middle and engrossing for those who happen to follow it. And this time, the ending hook is even better than last week Boston Brand, flying through indeterminate Ditkospace after attempting to save a woman from being murdered, finds himself in hell, maybe, or at least surrounded by fire, and discovers that...he's alive, and somebody named Kalak holding an axe is going to make sure that isn't the case for long. More than any other strip, Deadman is the kind of stuff I can imagine putting up on my wall to admire. The almost aggressively minimalist style echoes both Kirby and Ditko, and Bullock manages to have Boston visually occupy multiple panels in a way that seems more in keeping with the book's style than, say, "Metamorpho." I can't wait to see human Boston versus Kalak, and I hope in time people start giving this strip a bit more of their attention.

2. "Strange Adventures" by Paul Pope. I swear I never get tired at looking at Pope's Mandrillus Sphynx Monkeys, who have yet to make much sense as successful offworld conquerors but are nevertheless oddly engrossing villains. Pope's style--lumpy, amazingly high cheekbones, slick geometric environments--make him more oddly suited for this kind of strip than I would have imagined. Adam Strange continues to look rugged and act heroic, and this time we get to see some of Strange's brain power at work. Pope's visual evocation of zeta beam waves fits the look of the strip whil remaining archly detached from what else we have seen thus far, and there's quite a mystery at the end: if Strange can't control these zeta beams, yet he can find them if they are around, where has he been sent to? And what about Alanna, who has remarkably not been sexualized to the extent one would think she would be? I have no reason to think this strip won't continue to be consistently profound and entertaining.

3. "Hawkman" by Kyle Baker. Of the two strips here where a crucial reveal has human characters turning into alien bug monsters, Hawkman is by far the better. Baker's washed-out and action-centric style works wonders on a book starring a character known far better for his particular look than for any other characteristic. The Hawkman here is something new, I think, in that he has birds help him on his missions (I could be wrong about that), but I would imagine this is going more toward Hawkman the space cop than Hawkman the Egyptian, and I always like the latter more anyway. Baker gets points for the second coolest-looking alien in Wednesday Comics, the hideous Makkorthian (that, readers, is why these were white terrorists, I guess). I don't really know how well their "staged terrorist attack" would really work in provoking the world to war, but that's not what this is about. This is about Hawkman fighting hideous aliens with a sword in one hand and a mace in the other. I can't help but feel sorry for the people on this plane, though. Pretty much everyone says this strip is one of the big successes, and I agree.

4. "Wonder Woman" by Ben Caldwell. I think this is the best Wonder Woman strip yet, and Caldwell should be winning some sort of award for cramming as much as he does in a way that still keeps the book's forward momentum going. Yes, I know I said last time that I already predicted I would get tired of Wonder Woman waking up at the end of every panel and realizing it was a dream, but you know what? This is the closest thing we have to a true, episodic comic, and I am shocked by the amount of people who say it is somehow unreadable because too much is going on. I appreciate this retake on Wonder Woman all that much more because it does seem to be trying something new. Additionally, I know people have been complaining that the art isn't very vivid, and the colors are kind of washed together, but I sort of like that approach in the middle of this collection, and furthermore Caldwell's style--sort of off-Disney but utilizing weirder angles that seem to be hiding key plot points, like David Lynch--seems to be completely his own considering the other stuff people are going for in their respective comics.

5. "Flash Comics" by Karl Kerschl and Brenden Fletcher. The schizophrenic vibe of this book is not as novel as it once was, but this is still great stuff, the connections between the two strips within playing off their respective genre-types in interesting ways while keeping the continuity. I already talked last week about how that old standby time travel is perhaps too obvious of a Flash plot device to use when considering a retro Flash comic, so I'm glad Kershl and Fletcher found other ways to keep it interesting. Is that Wally West's kid at the end? What kind of name is "ether-wiki"? And maybe no one realizes how horrible of a death being thrown off a tower by Gorilla Grodd would be. Why is Barry Allen so callously fucking with the timestream now? Hopefully he will learn his lesson. If I were to judge this book based on writing as opposed to aesthetic success, it would be #1.

6. "Superman" by John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo. I actually liked this strip better than Azzarello's this week, not necessarily because it was breaking any new ground. Still, Superman's relationship with his foster parents has always struck me as one of the most real and affecting aspects of his character, and Bermejo distills the sort of relationship the three of them have: Ma doting, Pa affable and supportive, and Clark comortable and at rest-in three brilliantly-cast panels. Of course, this doesn't necessarily follow why Superman is being such a sad-sack right now (nor does it really excuse why he's going around looking through buildings to see what Lois Lane is up to), but still, give Superman a break. I believe that Arcudi is capable of constructing an engrossing Superman narrative that consisted of 12 pages of him hanging around with his family. In fact, I think it should be done.

7. "Batman" by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso. People forget that Azzarello once wrote Superman, and it was at about the same level as this. Again, Batman is merely a side-character for this episode, hanging outside a window like Spider-Man and listening to the sort of domestic dispute that could have been an outtake from 100 Bullets. Azzarello is clearly indulging his fascination with writing femme fatales as Risso indulges his unbelievable ability to make supposedly beautiful women look distinctive from one another. Additionally, the dialogue between this woman and her nerd son-in-law (I think) is sufficiently complex. I would really like it if it turned out that Luna was a nice enough girl with no evil designs on anybody, but that seems unlikely. This book is consistent, but maybe I'm just suffering from Batman fatigue (like I would imagine half of the western world).

8. "Sgt. Rock and Easy Co." by Adam Kubert and Joe Kubert. This book is as high as it is 90% for its art, as the story is pretty much wafer-thin and I'm pretty sure I can see what's coming. But still. Joe Kubert can really draw Sgt. Rock getting beaten with a nightstick, and he frames those panels very well with Easy Co. coming to the rescue. If I were Adam Kubert, I would set up some of this to perhaps go into further detail about the men of Easy Co., or even the mysterious picture taker. This comic is almost the anti-"Wonder Woman" in a way, with big, splashy realism as opposed to WW's experimental fantasy elements. I think the two compliment each other extremely well.

9. "Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth!" By Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook. Sook's artwork is great and flashy in a different way than Kirby's ever was. I'm afraid I was mistaken last time when I though Kamandi and Prince Tuftan were just going to ignore the rats that were surrounding them. Of course, Dr. Canus can't be far away, helping to carry the two to their destination by blimp. And then in the distance they spot a human female, which is odd because Kamandi is supposed to be the last of his kind. My biggest problem with this is that its paint-by-numbers with Kamandi, which I realize by saying this I am not being consistent, as at least half of these strips are meant to be derivative of silver-age concepts of superheroes. Still, it looks like this strip is picking up speed, and Gibbons can certainly write well, even if he never rises above a pleasantly generic level of dialogue. At least in that respect it is Kirby-esque. I like "Kamandi," but will it dare to do the unexpected? I doubt it.

10. "Metal Men" by Dan Didio, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan. The best part of this strip is the title, but the rest is good too. I am pleased by the lack of metal-related puns elsewhere, and its funny how Doc Magnus' unruly crew continues to get them into more and more serious trouble even as their antics get more whacky. If I were Didio and wanted to show I had serious balls, I would have the bank robber shoot the kid at the beginning of the next issue and devote the rest of the strip to exploring Magnus' guilt at having made such thoroughly irresponsible robots. This book also has sort of an old-school X-Men vibe, with an irascible non-powered professor dictating his superpowered and vaguely naive students. This is another strip that is getting no love, probably I would imagine due to a predisposition against anything Didio, which is unfair. The art is great, even if this strip has a way to go before I would elevate it to anything beyond "pleasant."

11. "Metamorpho, the Element Man" by Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred. Let this be a lesson to you, Neil Gaiman: you are obviously slumming it at this point. Could Gaiman have taken more than, say, thirty minutes to write the dialogue for this piece? The message from the Metamorpho fans of America is infintely less clever than last time, and this book seems to be treading on the "Metal Men" comic in terms of metal jokes anyway. Allred's art looks great, of course, but this book is going to have to pick up some massive speed because it doesn't sound at all like Gaiman is really engaged with this material. Maybe the eventual appearance of Urania Blackwell will help things along: I would really suggest going the Caldwell route and stop with the splash pages, which make for good pinups but give very little reason to reread this piece.

12. "Green Lantern" by Kurt Busiek and Joe Quinones. And here is the award for second-best bug alien transformation of the week. Hal Jordan looks odd at the beginning of this, almost semitic, and Carol Ferris continues to be the very definition of a one-note character (at least Iris West doesn't keep repeating the same shit over and over again). This strip continues its streak on being pretty much light on everything. It looks fine, but retro-oriented art of this type is done better elsewhere. Hal Jordan's green tie is a nice touch, though. Am I intrigued about the fate of Joe Dillon? Maybe. I'd like to know if he's going to die, perhaps. Still, I wouldn't care if the rest of the bar was bombed and Hal Jordan went to go do something else in space, where at least people look more interesting.

13. "Supergirl" by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner. I wish I wasn't giving such consistently low marks to this comic, which is essentially harmless and should be charming for anyone with a soul. Unfortunately, I have none, and "Supergirl" has yet to engage me. What kind of airplane is going to have a big cartoon decal of anything, by the way, particularly one that can be seen from the ground (I forget, Streaky has super cat vision). Also, Krypto committed a federal crime and Supergirl should lock him in jail. The art on this book is beginning to grow on me, and I imagine in time I will be giving this strip a better review once my cold heart finally melts.

14. "The Demon & Catwoman" by Walter Simonson and Brian Stelfreeze. I have next to nothing to say about this comic. I don't even think it fails as a strip, necessarily: it just seems more typical of a regular linear than I am accustomed to, which really shouldn't be as off-putting as it is. I was also really disappointed that Etrigan has already shown up, which means no more regular Jason Blood, who is an interesting character in himself. I haven't been paying attention very well, maybe: is there a reason Catwoman wears goggles and ear plugs? Also, the last line is terrible. That aside, I can't muster that much to say n its defense. Even the device of having a collar that constricts when Catwoman attacks is sadly underused.

15. "Teen Titans" by Eddie Berganza and Sean Galloway. Maybe it's just a bad idea to do team books in Wednesday Comics. For the third week in a row, I can't tell what's going on, and this time there is a confusing new character who looks so generic I was wondering if he was supposed to be Trident in disguise, but then Trident pops up again, but...where are they? What sort of art style is this trying to evoke? Are we supposed to be afraid when, on the last panel, it doesn't even look like Trident's blast is having any effect? This is just a lost cause, art-wise, with this sense that something dynamic might be happening, but it never does.

Wednesday Comics #2

Andy Diggle says, "Wednesday Comics is a gorgeous design object...but in terms of actual story content, it's anorexically thin." It would be all to easy to argue with Mr. Diggle on the grounds that one can't expect that much out of one issue, but that would be to easy. There are lots of people who continue picking up their favorite comics primarily for story reasons, for intriguing setups and novel plot twists, for strong characterization, for humor. There's no reason to think that the talented stable of writers here couldn't, with all their firepower, figure a way to do that with the limited space they have. In fact, one would think some of the writers tending toward long-windedness would be able to utilize this to their advantage. I was just reading Barth's Lost in the Funhouse, and in his introduction he talks about how he was able to curb his capacity for lengthy 800-page beasts by forcing himself to take upon the "premodern tale" as his guiding point: "The clown comes to want to play Hamlet, and vice versa; the long-distance runner itches to sprint." I think this issue more than the last one showed that these writers are at least gearing up to make the best of this forum. Or at least the good ones are. In any case, I rank them:

1. "Deadman" by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck. A cursory look around the internet shows that seemingly no one is giving this strip much love, which I assume has something to do with the fact that this is one of DC's extreme niche characters, and a marquee creative team is not involved. This is disappointing, because so far Deadman's comic has really stood out for being intriguing in different ways, both in its contained form and even moreso as it unfolds. Bullock and Heuck both come from animation, having done among other things the New Frontier movie, which was possibly the only nostalgia-baiting comic of its kind that I could stomach (the lack of Alex Ross helped). The art style is in this animation mold, and its dynamic and Kirby-esque in the best sense, with clusters of close-up panel layouts at the beginning offset by Deadman suddenly in a big green orb, with a green disembodied head of a woman warning him that he is doing too much tampering of living affairs. I get sort of a horror movie vibe here, with Boston Brand stuck in a conundrum to the effect that he has to stop a crazed super-powered serial killer from terrorizing women, but by doing so he is affecting the balance of...something. What's wonderful is that Boston Brand does the right thing, and disappears--maybe he's dead for good, but I'd doubt it. Seriously, if you just go over this comic again, look at how beautiful and minimal this is, and observe how much you want to know what happens next.

2. "Hawkman" by Kyle Baker. This one is definitely goofy, I know, and I'm sure how much mileage Baker can get out of "Hawkman vs. terrorists" (maybe a lot), but I like its gung ho fashion, its unabashededly sentimental bird-human solidarity element, the huge glasses of the kid putting on his seatbelt, and the art, particularly with Hawkman posing for the kid, thumbs up. One might be surprised by Hawkman's brutal tactics (he takes out a bunch of terrorists by having birds fly through the windows and throw them to their death), and similarly one might question his wisdom in busting through even as he seems so sure that everyone is buckled in save for the terrorists, but hey, these are terrorists, and sometimes people must be murdered. Damn this is beautiful looking, almost photorealistic at times. I applaud Baker for showing us that if there's one thing that humans and animals can agree on, it's that terrorists must be stopped.

3. "Strange Adventures" by Paul Pope. Although it doesn't have a single panel as geometrically flooring as the one I mentioned last time, Pope's comic still comes out far ahead in terms of art and plotting, and the strip's grimy look brings to mind the actual grittiness of old-school serials (as opposed to the sort of faux-retro vibe of Green Lantern). Pope's Mandrillus Sphynx Monkey's are beauties of design, and up close one can see that Pope puts an alarming amount of work into making them seem like vile creatures: massive underbite, red babboon schnozz, a veritable army of piercings, and Lord Korgo is surrounded by a bunch of skulls that seem to at least resemble human skulls. Pope's irregular lettering continues to kill me (why don't more comics play with lettering format a bit more?) and his Adam Strange is muted, yet heroic. Not much to say about this comic other than that. Refreshingly, Pope refrains from cheesecake shots of Alanna in bondage; I look forward to Adam Strange fucking with monkeys in space.

4. "Flash Comics" by Karl Kerschl and Brendan Fletcher. Hey look, it's the same top 4 as last time. I wonder if this will be a theme. Kerschl and Fletcher continue the Iris West/Flash twofer, utilizing a retro, Benday dot-oriented technique for the Iris comic and more conventional full-color work for the Flash. This time, Iris West is first, and I can already tell where the team seems to be going with this: by having these two comics constantly refer to each other and even directly follow one another, a lot of interesting effects regarding time travel, that old Flash standby, can be utilized in new and unexpected fashions. I have to admit, I didn't see this coming when I read the first issue. In the regular comics, time travel with the Flash can get to be sort of a boring plot point and kind of a headache, but this seems to have a framing device that suggests something new can be done with this hoary, hoary plot point. Just as I think this is probably the millionth time that Barry Allen has met himself from the future, probably. Oh well, it's the Flash, and it encapsulates plenty of old-school Flash comics well.

5. "Batman" by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso. No Batman per se in this comic, only Bruce Wayne, attending the funeral of the poor Franklin Glass, who was killed last issue off-panel we presume because Gordon was stupid enough to call Batman at the last second. Intrigue of the film noir kind follows, which one kind of expects from this creative team, so of course the biggest trope of all, that of the femme fatale is introduced. If you can't already tell she's bad news, you are very stupid, and let's hope the world's greatest detective isn't as stupid as well, even as he saves her life from a shadowy gunman and she kisses him in gratitude. There's an odd sense of space here, and one can't really tell when or how Bruce Wayne gets to this woman in time, and what exactly happens to the nerd in front of her, but maybe all this will be explained later.

6. "Superman" by John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo. I wasn't aware this was allowed, but Batman shows up in this issue of "Superman," in full costume unlike his own eponymous strip. I like this strip a bit more than the last one because it allows, finally, for a tolerable interaction between Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent. The whole Batman and Superman matchup has been done so much to death that there is hardly any distinguishing feature of their relationship, at times, they seem like the greatest of friends, even though one would think Superman would get tired of Batman's prickish behavior. So it happens here. Finally, someone has the gall to say to Batman what should have been said long before: "What you Earth made me think I could talk to you about this?" Indeed. Batman is certainly not a useful person to talk to in many situations, and particularly the way he is portrayed here, it makes sense that Superman would fly off rather than try to talk this through. Is Arcudi's Batman off-character? I don't know. He seems a tad vindictive but sometimes Batman just seems to have "those days." Bermejo has a habit of drawing like everyone looks like a marble statue, and this is especially true here with two paragons of superhero manliness having a little chat. I'm just happy that Arcudi is able to insert Batman into a comic where he is emphatically not useful. If only someone would do that with Wolverine...

7. "Metamorpho, the Element Man" by Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred. Nope, still doesn't sound very much like Gaiman, and this time nothing really happens, other than Rex, Java and Simon Stagg walk around a bizarre-looking island. Maybe more will happen next issue. Of more interest is the bottom, some sort of meta strip-within-a-strip where a bunch of kids talk about "the most popular comic book in America" and how Rex Mason comes from a long line of other such element men, including "superhot, superbabe, superspy Urania Blackwell." Will this explain how she got to Gaiman's Sandman? I predict yes, and I predict that this comic will take even more meta turns as it goes forward. Not much to say about it other than that. Allred's page, though it consists of few images, is beautiful, almost typically retro at this point, but in Allred's case at least it looks so square that it looks like something creepy is going on underneath, like David Lynch.

8. "Wonder Woman" by Ben Caldwell. I have a feeling this comic might get tedious if each one ends with Diana waking up and realizing it's a dream, but I have to give Caldwell amazing props nevertheless for telling as much story as he does: the sheer amount of dialogue and content is enough for four or five "Metamorphos" at least. And the story isn't bad either, nor is the non-superhero vibe. Yes, it is sometimes hard to read, and inscrutable, but there are beautiful effects here, such as the bar-sized horizontal panels that only a project like Wednesday Comics would allow. I'm intrigued about where this comic may be going, but it better be going somewhere different sometime soon.

9. "Sgt. Rock and Easy Co." by Adam Kubert and Joe Kubert. Again, this might read better in collected form, but at least the art is something to pore over. I could just watch Joe Kubert watch an increasingly mangled Sgt. Rock for 12 issues, probably. Is anythinig else going on here? Nazi interrogations, it turns out, were brutal. We get to the point where we have an idea that the rest of Sgt. Rock's crew is out there, somewhere, and will probably save his hide in the next few issues, after the requisite flashback is over. I love the camera motif, because only a really sadistic Nazi would like taking pictures of this. I would like it if Adam Kubert would beef up the content a bit, and it seems that there is no way he is going to be setting up anything that will break new ground, but when was the last time Sgt. Rock did that, really?

10. "Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth!" by Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook. Sook is great. Gibbons needs to step up his game. There's a difference between paying homage to Kirby and offering absolutely nothing new, not even a smattering of a plot point, that differentiates this from anything Kamandi-related in the past. The war between tiger people and apes is still a constant. Rats have evolved and are running around scavenging live people now (because they have guns) and they attack Kamandi and his friend Prince Tuftan. A gun battle ensues, but Kamandi and Tuftan are curiously concerned about how they are going to escape to rescue Tuftan's father without a horse when they still have to fend off the murderous advances of more rats that they have forgotten to kill. I can almost picture what's going to happen now: a brutal but oddly protracted adventure through rat and ape territory, with Prince Tuftan being told along the way that he shouldn't consort with Kamandi. Whatever.

11. "Metal Men" by Dan Didio, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan. About as good as last issue, I thought. The Metal Men's puns are lame, but par for the course in a book like this. Similarly, the art is pretty square, eschewing most of the artistic breakthroughs and flourishes elsewhere, which at this point is actually kind of a plus for me. "Metal Men" is refreshingly offbeat and endearing in its own way, with a light-hearted vibe that is entirely its own. It's probably the closest thing to a humor piece present, and for this if nothing else, it should be treasured, and supported. I look forward to the Metal Men utilizing their elemental powers in more creative ways in the future.

12. "The Demon and Catwoman" by Walter Simonson and Brian Stelfreeze. Seriously, I can't believe Simonson has already blown the money shot on Etrigan. I thought at this point it was better to utilize Etrigan sparingly, to make for Jason Blood a more intriguing character: at least I prefer him that way. And Etrigan not speaking in rhyme is very, very disappointing. Maybe this is a transition issue but I fail to see both where Catwoman is and what she is doing, nor can I tell if Etrigan is particularly mad at Seliina or someone else. Why is Etrigan howling like a wolf? I will give this a second chance if Jason Blood comes back, which I guess given the title is unlikely.

13. "Teen Titans" by Eddie Berganza and Sean Galloway. A slight improvement, not so heavy on te exposition, further augmented by Robin calling Nightwing "Dick." I don't like this sort of legacy fetishism, never did. Apparently, the Martian lady's name is Ms. Martian (ugh), and who would have thought that she would have survived being stabbed? Certainly anyone with half a brain. I have a feeling the art may grow on me as this continues. Still, the visual storytelling is convoluted and lacks a real anchor, and I can't tell at the end who is underwater and how that is. And what happened to Ms. Martian?

14. "Supergirl" by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner. I don't see why, just because this is a comic about Supergirl, the content has to be absolute fluff. An intriguing development happens at the end of the comic, where it appears Krypto may have been seduced into a life of crime, so I hope that plot will have us seeing Krypto doing depraved and sordid things we would never imagine him doing. I don't see why it couldn't be a comic where Krypto and Streaky tear a murderous swath through Metropolis, viciously mauling and eating ordinary human children who get in their way. Sound brutal for a Supergirl comic? Why? I would have rather they tried a kid-oriented approach on, say, "The Demon and Catwoman" than here, but I understand most people probably wouldn't agree with me. Amanda Conner is a really good artist, by the way, but she basically sticks to the book, which in a regular comic would be more than serviceable, but not here.

15. "Green Lantern" by Kurt Busiek and Joe Quinones. And here is how you don't do nostalgia. Deliberately mentioning America's "Atom secrets" seems lame enough, as is Jordan's statement that aliens stealing AMERICAN secrets need a little more POP, as if the art deco surroundings weren't garish already. Perhaps I am just still steamed after last week's issue, which featured Hal Jordan's ferociously lame supporting cast, but in a way this is worse, because it is treading on such obvious territory that I can't see Busiek infusing this with the charm he seems to normally have in great quantities. Busiek is great, he just needs to pace better.

Intro/Wednesday Comics #1

Hi. This is kind of an experiment/challenge to see if I can write some sort of semi-regular feature on a weekly basis. Wednesday Comics is a weekly, limited 12-issue series published by DC Comics, which you may have heard of due to the not undeserved amount of positive hype and press it received, particularly in how it shows that DC, one of the biggest comic publishers out there and probably, of the "big two," the most conservative in terms of orientation and approach (being that the continued success of DC Comics largely banks on a half-dozen characters created prior or during World War II, a good dozen during the late 50s/early 60s, and a handful of other concepts since, and their readership seems to prefer it that way) is not incapable of trying something new and, given the restrictions of the medium, somewhat radical. Wednesday Comics is not structured in the style of your typical, linear 20-something page comic book adventure format, printed on sheets double the length of 6 1/2" x 10 1/8" (I should add that there is nothing wrong with this, and that plenty of great writers have been able to plenty of radical stuff within this format [and there's plenty of examples of that you can find elsewhere, and if you can't, I'll be happy to give you a few pointers]). Wednesday Comics can, by contrast, be folded out to 14" x 20" and is printed on newspaper-type paper, deliberately meant to evoke the glossy linears of today but rather the Sunday comic strips of yore (let's forget that these strips still exist today and are, for the most part, embarrassing).

DC managed to pull together quite a package for this one, and it's partially why the hype is so deserved. Altogether, there are 15 different comics present, each a page long, each starring a different established DC property. Each of the 15 different creative teams, nearly all masters of their field, were given carte blanche to devise a self-contained story sans any continuity save what they wished to impose--the result is that, at the end, we should have 15 twelve-page long oversized stories filled with gorgeous art that will at the very least seem like an appealing throwback to the more self-contained days of comics' golden and silver age days. What's more, these stories are all diverse enough properties, and utilize such an odd variety of writers and artists, that it seems very unlikely that one would pick it up and find nothing one would like, or reread incessantly.

I should say that part of why I was so interested in this comic is because of the extreme pedigree that comes along with it. You have Neil Gaiman, well-known for Sandman as well as recent literary and film endeavors, working with Mike Allred, an artist known for his subversive appropriation of pop-style art in indie books like Madman. There's quite an indie presence here in general, actually. Some of my favorites include Paul Pope, who I like most for Heavy Liquid; Kyle Baker, who did Birth of A Nation with Aaron McGruder; and Brian Azzarello, who has done a lot of stuff including 100 Bullets (drawn by Eduardo Risso, who collaborates here as well). There are also a fair amount of mainstream creators here, no less renowned for their brilliant works using established superhero properties. Simply put, I was extremely curious.

What I will attempt to do in this blog is provide a running counter of how I feel about the whole project. I assume, simply from Issue 1 alone, that I will mostly be pleased. I feel it is necessary to state that it feels hard to judge the stories' intrinsic worth based on one page alone (and a crucial reason, I would imagine, why DC probably feels it is taking a huge gamble with this story). I don't make any claim to say that this is anything other than my own opinion, and that it will at any given time probably change severely as these stories progress. With that in mind, I will provide a weekly ranking, from 1 to 15, of which stories I think are most successful, story and art-wise, and which aren't. Since I'm much more of a writing guy than an art guy, this review may be disproportionately focused on content--I'm truly sorry if that angers anyone (really, should it, though?), but I am making an honest attempt to work through these obvious issues on my part. Anyway, I hope my commentary is enlightening, even if at first it will probably be pretty slight. I'm working on one damn page, each, so, you know...

1. "Strange Adventures" by Paul Pope. Even right out of the gate it is incredibly difficult to choose, but I have a feeling my decision will turn out to be more righteous than I thought, 11 weeks down the line. The art here is just staggering in its fluidity and its offbeat nature, and I can't help but pore through this page multiple times in a row, even as I write this. In fact, I would nominate the panel of the horrifyingly blue baboon-like "Mandrillus Sphynx Monkeys" raining down on our heroes' Escher-esque stair and bridgescape as the best individual panel in the whole package. Pope is obviously trying to bring the Adam Strange character back to the old-school pulp it could never quite inhabit in the shared DC universe, so that's why you get Alanna's whacky costume and facepaint as well as the aforementioned death rain of monkeys. Also, "Strange Adventures" gets further points for Pope's lettering style, deliberately eschewing the clean typeface more or less made standard in the last 70 years. I'm excited for what's going to happen, too...what, really, can even Adam Strange do, flying with his jet pack armed with his pistol to attack an entire invading army? It's just beautiful, and Adam and Alanna's conversations are touching in their brevity.

2. "Flash Comics" by Karl Kerschl and Brenden Fletcher. Kerschl and Fletcher really surprised me by playing further with the oversized format: dividing their section into two sections, the first being a solid adventure strip, "The Flash," in which Barry Allen engages in some witty repartee with Gorilla Grodd and then foils his evil bomb plot, only to remember that in his rush for justice, he has forgotten about his wife Iris. Flash forward to "Iris West," a comic deliberately meant to evoke old romance comics via the often-used-to-convey-staid-50s-values artistic canard of benday dots (kind of like pointillism, with the dots grouped so close together they looked filled in, unless you blew up the picture or looked very closely). "Iris West" deliberately follows upon the Flash's adventures by showing a furious Iris West, stood up at dinner yet again, prepared to leave Barry forever. Except she realizes (rationally) that it would be horrible to end their marriage simply by leaving a note for Barry saying she was leaving forever, but when she tries to talk to him, he has already vibrated elsewhere (the Flash can vibrate, leave it at that). I love the parallel storylines here--I hope Kerschl and Fletcher find new and interesting ways of intertwining these stories in the future.

3. "Deadman" by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck. One of the great things about Wednesday Comics is that it allows DC comics to make marquee names out of characters that probably couldn't carry a successful book. Take Deadman, a sort of brilliant concept, a conflicted quasi-hero who is literally dead, in the sense that he was shot and now roams around all day as a spirit that no one can see or touch. The difference between Deadman and other, uh, dead people is that Deadman can inhabit the bodies of living people and make them do his bidding (half the time in comics where Deadman appears, he has to spend a long time convincing people that yes it is Deadman, and no he isn't fucking with them, and I always thought there should be some comic where someone like Green Arrow tries to get out of monitor duty by claiming to be actually Deadman, and he has to go do something important). Anyway, what I most appreciated about this strip, despite its slight and slightly derivative nature, is the extremely helpful way it encapsulates Deadman's origin, which is hard enough to do in a regular comic book but even harder to do in a one-page spread, but Bullock and Heuck pull it off well. It also ends on an improbable high note--Deadman has found the killer already? What is he going to do for the next 11 issues? Also, beautiful art, slightly reminiscent of the Batman and Superman animated series of the 90s.

4. "Hawkman" by Kyle Baker. More absolutely mind-blowing art, particularly the middle spread, the exceptionally awesome looking Hawkman with mace in tow, being flanked by hundreds of killer looking birds. While the means behind this story is somewhat suspect (I was not aware that Hawkman had any affinity with birds, the same way that Aquaman does with fish), I like that it takes the point of view of the birds surrounding Hawkman, leaving us to guess what the hero's intention is. Even tough we assume it's probably to somehow board a plane being held hostage by murderous, unshaven, white (!) terrorists.

5. "Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth!" by Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook. You may remember Dave Gibbons as the artist of Watchmen, if you are the sort of extreme layman who will only pay attention to this post if I mention Watchmen, which was made into a movie, don'tcha know! Kamandi is one of Jack Kirby's coolest and most underused creations in my book (although Grant Morrison utilized both Kamandi as well as the Command D bunker in Final Crisis, to my everlasting delight), and Gibbons does well to encapsulate the feelings of the Last Boy On Earth by employing the sometimes tired trope of integrated prose rather than word or thought balloons--it works here well, especially in contrast to the majority of other comics that are not so narration-oriented. Gibbons isn't exactly pushing new territory with Kamandi yet, and it's basically a textbook example of how to set up all the obvious stuff so you can get to something meatier, but Kirby's concept alone more than makes up for it: Kamandi navigating by raft through decaying flooded New York City, with buildings half underwater, finally making it to his Command D bunker (where the last of his kind hid away from radiation poisoning after the Great Disaster). He is the Last Boy On Earth, in case you didn't know, until bam! Wait until next issue.

6. "Metamorpho, The Element Man" by Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred. Gaiman's deliberately old-school riff on the classically maladjusted DC icon doesn't really contain much of Gaiman's voice (in that there's scarcely any talk of myths, or other worlds, or Shakespeare, or Elizabethan Nick Fury), and it seems that Gaiman's Metamorpho and the world he inhabits is firmly rooted in the 60s, which were far simpler times comics-wise, they always tell me. Because of this, though, Allred's art is all too perfect at evoking Gaiman's pastoral (see previous note on benday dots) retroisms. It seems like Gaiman is setting up the story nicely, in any case, as well as the characters. Rex Mason, otherwise known as Metamorpho, the Element Man (although people still mostly call him Mason) lives with Simon Stagg, a billionaire adventurer who employs Mason on his crazy explorations. Also along for the ride is Java, Simon's man-child muscle, and Sapphire Stagg, the beautiful daughter who Rex pines for (and doesn't really do much to hide it) but can never have because of his freakish nature. If you recall the Gaiman Sandman story with Element Girl (and if you do I want to be your friend), you should know that this doesn't resemble that story in any way.

7. "Batman" by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso. This is supposed to be the big selling point of Wednesday Comics--not only does it feature the most famous hero of all, but it is done by the team of Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso, fresh off the 100 issues of success that was 100 Bullets. Is this as successful? I'm not sure. The art is pretty great, although I'm not sure if Risso's facial expressions are meant to suggest what they do--Batman looks pretty pained in one panel when one would think that he would be stone-faced as usual, but hey, this is artistic liberty being taken and it's about time someone tried it. I have no idea why Commissioner Gordon wouldn't call Batman in a bit sooner, also. Of all the comics here, this seems like the one that would have the least difficulty transitioning into a regular linear comic, although as stated before, I reserve the right to be completely wrong about that. It's nothing we haven't read before, but Batman and Gordon's dialogue at the beginning is tops, and knowing Azzarello, it will probably be apropos by the end of Batman's short journey.

8. "Sgt. Rock and Easy Co." by Adam Kubert and Joe Kubert. It's an incredible-looking comic, with art that looks pleasingly retro in a non-intentional sense (what I mean is that Joe Kubert isn't trying to imitate a style, he is that style). All that's really present throughout the whole comic is Sgt. Rock's increasingly bloodied and broken face, as he gets punched by Nazis. The main Nazi looks suitably sinister, and what's up with the dude taking pictures? A novel storytelling technique, naturally. This one shows major promise even if it does seem slight on first reading.

9. "Superman" by John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo. This is, of course, DC's other flagship character, and of all the comics present it is the only one being published in an actual newspaper, USA Today. The issue of a comic taking up more space in a newspaper already notorious for its lack of content aside, "Superman" stands on its own due to a quasi-interesting (if done plenty elsewhere, I'm sure) cliffhanger and the art of Lee Bermejo, which is beautifully detailed and makes great use of white space. The alien that Superman is fighting seems far from threatening, and we don't really know yet why Superman is complaining about having to fight him when it seems like he started it, but Bermejo really nails Superman's expression in that last panel. Don't know much about Arcudi, but I will keep the faith for now.

10. "Metal Men" by Dan Didio, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan. This might end up being Wednesday Comics' closest thing to a self-contained, punchline-centered funny that we would expect from a Sunday paper. It's also legitimately amusing, I think, but you probably won't think so if you don't know anything about the Metal Men, their different personalities, or why they are hanging out with a scientist whose only visual accessory is a tobaco pipe. Judging from the fashions, I assume this is supposed to take place during the 60s, but I can't tell really what style Didio is trying to ape or why. Still, Gold's comment is funny at the end, as are the rest of the Metal Men's costumes. I hope "Metal Men" ends up being the goto punchline-oriented comic of the bunch, if only so it will cause a renaissance of Metal Men-related comics in the future.

11. "Wonder Woman" by Ben Caldwell. Caldwell gets points for trying to cram the most material into his page, although on second reading it doesn't seem as if Wonder Woman's interaction with the birds really matter to the degree that he couldn't have spread it out a little. But that's never what Wednesday Comics is about, anyway. I appreciate Caldwell's novel technique of utilizing all available space, confining small moments and gestures to tiny panels within panels that still, for the most part, seem to follow very well. While I am sick of the whole "it was just a dream, except it obviously isn't" technique as much as anyone else is, it's worth it to see a semi-serious and semi-new iteration of the Wonder Woman character, one that seems closer to her mythic roots and eschews most of the superhero stuff since.

12. "Green Lantern" by Kurt Busiek and Joe Quinones. Like "Metal Men" and "Metamorpho," this comic is deliberately retro, perhaps an attempt by Busiek to rejigger the Gil Kane-era Lantern in a self-conscious, "remember the Cold War?" sort of way. Except Hal Jordan doesn't appear until the last panel, and he doesn't do anything particular interesting in that panel. The rest of it is devoted to Green Lantern's supporting cast, which for my money was never the most interesting support group out there--Pie is a low-rent Jimmy Olsen type sidekick that no civic-minded writer dares to use anymore, and Carol Ferris is this completely implausible character who is stunningly beautiful, runs the test pilot site where Jordan works, and occasional has superpowers but is villainous, for some reason. I never will be as big a Hal Jordan fan as some people, I guess--his self-absorption, his ease with the ladies, his conservative ideals, even the merit-based reasons by which he gains his superpowers, kind of make him the anti-Spider-Man. Forget Superman, he's the least relatable guy out there. So far, Busiek hasn't really sown the seeds of anything to look forward to.

13. "The Demon and Catwoman" by Walter Simonson and Brian Stelfreeze. I have no idea why these characters were lumped together, but there is promise here. My main issue is that Simonson is basically making Catwoman out to be a harpy for no reason, attempting to use her feminine abilities to have her way with Jason Blood, which doesn't work of course because Jason Blood is far too important for that sort of thing. Whatever. This characterization of Catwoman is too easy and needs to be stopped. Is Catwoman really supposed to be so stunning and beguiling that she basically only steals as an afterthought, in between bouts of sleeping with random men? And is Simonson making it so that Selina can talk to cats like Hawkman can now talk to birds? Also, Blood seems remarkably off his guard. Why would he even entertain a woman like this, when he would rather spend his days practicing magicks? Still, I have a feeling this will improve, as a confrontation between Catwoman and Etrigan has to happen, and I would love to see Catwoman get incinerated, or at least get her ass kicked, for her foolish and self-absorbed behavior.

14. "Supergirl" by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner. Cutesy, with not a lot going on. I'm not sure which Supergirl this is supposed to be, but assuming that the bulk of this will involve her chasing around Streaky the Supercat and Krypto the Superdog, I'm sure this will get tedious. Some concepts were best left un-revamped forever--this is one of them. Perhaps there may be some intrigue involving why exactly Streaky and Krypto are acting like such assholes. It better be a downright interesting reason, I have to say. The art is also kind of generic, but at the very least Amanda Conner draws a respectable, non-jailbait Supergirl, which of course means we should all give her extreme props, if only for that. I just don't see this story going anywhere. Prove me wrong, please.

15. "Teen Titans" by Eddie Berganza and Sean Galloway. Berganza should have taken his cue from "Deadman" in figuring out how to incorporate an origin in such a small space. As it stands, this seems like the biggest failure of the bunch. A bad guy calling himself Trident wants to be known as the first bad guy named Trident to really matter, and muses on all the different iterations of the Teen Titans before impaling some Martian Manhunter lady (who the fuck is that, by the way?). Since I am not emotionally invested in the Martian Manhunter lady and I know that if she is anything like the actual Martian Manhunter that there's no way being impaled could kill her (right?), there's not much for me to go on. Also, the art is sort of faux-cartoony and faux-eastern in a way that made me hate the Teen Titans cartoon back in the day. Also, it's hard to tell where everything is or why this is happening. Improve yourself!

Overall, though, this is a fantastic concept. I know at this point I'm only nitpicking, and I bet many of these series will only get better in the next few weeks. I will remain a loyal customer, and will continue ranking these series as each becomes more substantial. Until next week...