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[Trade Winds] Seekers Into The Mystery: Vol. #1 - Pilgrimage Of Lucas Hart (Boom Studos) ($15.99)
By Graig Kent

Those of us who were there come down on comics in the ’90’s pretty hard. It was a pretty tumultuous time filled with plenty of highs, but overwhelmed by the lowest of the low. One of the brightest points was the emergence of Vertigo, giving a very mainstream home to comics that weren’t so mainstream. Through Vertigo comics grew up, and fast, which isn’t to say they were the first or the only “suggested for mature readers” publisher, but they were certainly the ones that drew attention. With a creator-friendly attitude and a drive towards audacious, Vertigo triumphed in what could be easily called the Golden Age of the mature comic.

The bastions of the line came from across the pond: Gaiman, Ennis, Morrison, Ellis and their respected signatures: Sandman, Preacher, The Invisibles, Transmetropolitan. But that’s not to say they were the only thing worth reading, but so much else that Vertigo published got lost amongst the figureheads, some that should have shone just as bright, others that rightfully faded into the background. J.M. DeMatteis’ Seekers: Into The Mystery is certainly one of those titles, but which one?

Seekers: Into the Mystery was originally published in 1996, running 15 issues, which at the time seemed all too brief. The first five issues have just been reprinted by Boom Studios in trade, which I’m glad to see. I was there for the initial run, and I remember being quite fond of it, and rather disappointed when it ended. The unfortunate thing about memories is sometimes they’re not very specific. What did I actually recall from my first encounter with it? Little aside from the feeling of it being rather profound and that non-specific sense of “it was good”.

So the Boom trade provided a nice sense of rediscovery, and with over a dozen years having passed, the experience was familiar but fresh and surprisingly the crux of the opening chapter of the series had completely escaped me. You may consider this a SPOILER, but it’s printed on the back cover of the book, so I think it’s fair game. Lucas Hart is a bit of a failure, an intelligent man whose life has crumbled around him. A flash-in-the-pan screenwriter with only one true success to his name after a decade in Hollywood, a long-dissolved marriage and a flimsy physical relationship with a starlet. He wakes up with night terrors - also experiencing them during the day - of a little red demon with knives for teeth trying to claw his way out from inside him. The severity of the terrors are strangely juxtaposed by serene dreams of flying as a child, and as an adult. Hart has no idea what any of it means except that it’s driving him crazy… until he realizes the demon in his belly is not trying to hurt him, trying to make him remember the abuses he suffered as a child and how he would fly to escape them.

The sudden emergence of long-repressed memories, however, isn’t the full story, but just the background, and some unusual character and occurrences come into play. A dancing woman, a scatological homeless man, a spiritual leader in the guise of Doug Henning, and even further, more tangible dreams of flying all lead to the titular “Mystery” which Hart ventures “Into”.

With this first volumes providing a third of the published story, it feels incomplete, and even to some small degree, unsatisfying. In most cases, the discovery of the abuse, explaining the dreams, would be it, but DeMatteis feeds in so much more that it’s an appetizer only, with the standalone fifth chapter laying the bedrock for a much fuller series. Given the breakdown of what was published (three 4-arc stories with an epilogue/transition issue after each) I can see why the decision was made to go with just the first 5 chapters (meaning two more volumes to go) but a full omnibus or the first two arcs of the series would have provided a more satisfying collection.

DeMatteis wrote Seekers in full narrative, which I often, but not always, find in comics to be a bit of a cheat to get the story moving at a pace unsuited to the medium. Here, it’s the strength of the writer’s storytelling, DeMatteis’ skill, and the story he has to tell that keep it aloft. Glenn Barr provides the art for the first arc, with Jon J. Muth providing art for the 5th chapter, and both provide a strong sequential sensibility, with a good accompaniment of imagery with narration in the panel flow, but I find their complimentary styles of illustration to be visually unappealing. Utilizing a thin, freehand line with scratchy inks, it’s not very clean and kind of bland.

What’s most apparent with the book is I couldn’t put it down. DeMatteis’ words have flow, making them endlessly readable, leaving me with the desire to do little more than dig out the remainder of the series from my long boxes. I can see why, given the opening arc’s subject matter, Seekers didn’t succeed. But if the direction the series was leading into at the end of the fifth chapter is any indication, I can see why I remembered it so fondly. The unusual cast, the unique sense of the metaphysical and the sense of discovery was enough to carry me through once, and I’m quite sure again.


FOUR OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS



THE INCREDIBLES: FAMILY MATTERS #1 ($2.99, BOOM! Studios)
By Adam Prosser

It’s a sad fact that comics have lost their populist status. Where it was once possible to reach a huge audience and forever leave an imprint on the cultural consciousness via comics, it’s become almost unheard of for a comic character to enter the public imagination without also having some kind of TV or movie spinoff. This is driven home by the fact that The Incredibles, created for an animated movie, are by far the most popular original superhero characters of the last decade, handily eclipsing any costumed hero you’d care to name that has their origins on the four-colour page.
 
In spite of this, though, superheroes are still irrevocably linked in the public mind with comic books, so it was probably inevitable that Disney would spin them off into a comic. What’s interesting, though, is that this new Incredibles comic isn’t published by Disney itself, but has instead been licensed to BOOM! Studios, and is written by that company’s EIC and longtime superhero scribe, Mark Waid.
 
This puts a different slant on things, because superheroes as they appear in comics have diverged - at times significantly - from how superheroes are reflected in the pop culture at large. Superhero comics, as we all know, are speaking to a much smaller audience these days, one with a whole set of conventions and attitudes that can make them rather impenetrable for a casual reader; whereas superhero movies and TV shows are usually simpler and more interested in exploiting the dazzling visuals and explosive action that the genre affords. I don’t mean that as a criticism of either storytelling mode, but I think one of the appeals of The Incredibles to superhero fans was that it came without decades of continuity and built-in assumptions. It was a movie with a certain purity to it, a celebration of the potential of the superhero genre. Sure, there was a certain level of deconstructionist sophistication at work, but the movie stayed focused on the fundamentals of sheer entertainment: explosions, laughs, and cool stuff.
 
So, on picking up this comic, I wondered to what degree the Parr family was about to get tangled up in the convoluted world of print superheroes…and whether that would be a good thing or a bad thing.
 
As it turns out, Waid keeps things pretty simple and straightforward - maybe a little too much. The plot focuses almost entirely on a time-travelling robotic supervillain named Futurion who attacks the Parrs while they’re making a visit to the zoo. There’s also an interlude with the Parrs back at home, while they try to fit in with their new neighbours, and the final pages set up an ongoing dilemma for Mr. Incredible, but that’s about all there is to it. There’s no mention of how the world is reacting to the return of the supers, or indeed, whether the government still has them outlawed; the focus is squarely on how the Parrs are coping as a family that has to get suited up and fight superhuman menaces every once in a while.
 
Marcio Taraka’s art is suitably cartoony and provides some chuckles in and of itself, though he puts enough of his own spin on the characters that they feel a teensy bit “off-model” at times (by Disney standards, anyway; by DC/Marvel standards, it’s quite faithful.) There are some nice touches in the characterization; I particularly liked Violet’s resentment at her role as team babysitter (when danger looms, she’s handed Jack Jack and expected to stay in the corner with her force fields up). Actually, the whole opening third is a bravura action sequence with a great central gag. After that, things get a little dodgier; there’s not much real humour, and the plot seems to be spinning its wheels a tad. This is where my above concerns come in; I feel like Waid, as a DC/Marvel guy, is trying so hard to break out of the usual traps that he falls into some different ones. The vibe I got from this comic was more classic Silver Age, which isn’t entirely inappropriate, but the Incredibles, while innocent and whimsical, still had a very modern feel to it.
 
Or maybe it’s just me. Waid unquestionably has some huge shoes to fill; Brad Bird is famously reluctant to do a sequel to the movie, so further adventures of these characters are going to be rabidly devoured by fans. This is almost guaranteed to be the biggest-selling title Boom publishes for quite some time, and though a monthly comic will probably have trouble keeping up to the relentlessly entertaining standards of the movie, it’s not unreasonable to push them just that little bit harder. Isn’t that what The Incredibles are all about?


THREE AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS



[Raided] Invincible #60 (Image)($3.99)
By Graig Kent

Beneath an utterly decompressed double-gatefold cover (only 65 characters on four pages? George Perez could do that in one) lies the absolutely most compressed “event comic” ever written. It’s a truly audacious feat that Robert Kirkman is attempting to pull off with this issue, a done-in-one, full-universe cross-over,  which makes him either insane or a genius. I guess if he fails it’s the former and if he succeeds it’s the latter. Well, let’s just say he’s an insane genius, because he doesn’t quite pull it off, but at the same time he shows how absolutely slight “event comics” are. Giving himself an extra half dozen pages of breathing room, Kirkman bridges his Invincible universe with every other Image-published superhero character he can get his hands on. An old nemesis of Invincible has unleashed 20 other-dimensional, evil versions of the titular hero on his Earth and they face off agaist heroes from the well known like Spawn, Madman and Savage Dragon, to, well, a whole bunch ‘o’ characters I’ve never seen before or have only a passing familiarity with. Where Kirkman succeeds is in creating a sense of “event” without all the hullaballoo and crossover/tie-in malarkey, but it doesn’t succeed in being a very rewarding read. Things are so compressed that there’s no time for drama or character or even any real fight sequences (they’re more like fight snapshots). And the sense of logic in many cases (like how could Madman possibly defeat an Invincible doppelganger, as implied in the story) leads to the desire for more of the event to be seen. Kirkman notes in the letter column that he was hoping to spend more time with the special guests, but juggling an actual story and the crossover sensibility just couldn’t be done in 30 pages. An 80- or 96-page book would have been more suitable.  As an irregular reader of Invincible (I left off around volume 5 of the trades), I found the book easy enough to follow and engaging, so, like any decent “real” event, it’s even accessible for the curious. Not too shabby.


THREE AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS


Green Lantern Corps #34 (DC)($2.99)
By Devon Sanders

Read Green Lantern Corps #34 , a prelude to DC Comics' "Blackest Night" event and the saying, "hold your tongue" will take on new meaning.
 
The planet Daxam, homeworld of the Green Lantern's "torchbearer" Sodam Yat, lay burning. Another casualty in the ongoing coup of The Sinestro Corps conceived and detonated by the world-conqueror, Mongul. The Sinestro Corps is up for grabs and the only thing standing between Mongul and supremacy is Sinestro's enforcer, the murderous Arkillo. Blows are exchanged and the balance of power is brought about in an act so bizarrely awesome, words cannot do it justice.
 
Artist Patrick Gleason does this moment and the others surrounding it, more than justice. Gleason is in all his "over-the-top," almost schizophrenic glory, illustrating pages 8 through 12 as if possessed by the spirits of Bob Clampett and The Shaw Brothers while next, channeling the best of John Romita, Sr's DC's romance comics, all in the space of a page turn. Gleason is a true student of comics design and page layout and rapidly becoming DC Comics' best kept secret.
 
Writer Peter Tomasi (The Outsiders) is definitely becoming one of my favorite writers, finding depth in characters other writers simply couldn't. Under Tomasi, characters you thought you knew, such as Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner, are there to be rediscovered and revitalized through dialogue and motive. While Green Lantern writer Geoff Johns, with his Red, Blue and Orange Lanterns, may be the main architect for the overall Green Lantern franchise, Tomasi and Gleason are its dutiful foremen providing its rock-solid foundation.


FOUR AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS



[Raided] Ex Machina Special #4 (Wildstorm)($3.99)
By Graig Kent

Mitchell Hundred, the central character of Ex Machina and Mayor of it’s alternate history version of New York, is one of the richest characters being published in comics today. He pops off the page, like a living, breathing person more than a character, someone whose emotions are easy to relate to, whose politics you can understand, whose interests and knowledge aren’t limited to a few “traits” and who constantly has the ability to surprise without ever moving outside of his natural sense of self. Either Hundred is a brilliantly conceived and realized character or a very personal reflection of his creator, Brian K. Vaughan (or, well, both). Exploring hot-button politics and social issues through a clever dual-era story structure, the series has a fresh take on both superheroes and politics. This issue finds Hundred facing off against the media over his new green policies, while a horticulturalist goes on a murder spree, claiming that Hundred gave him the ability to talk to plants and they tell him to kill. Amusing and suspenseful, the special closes with a moral, in a sense, calling into question the green-friendliness of  the comic book, which as Hundred (a comics fan) wrestles with, you have to assume Vaughan is too. One of the purposes behind Ex Machina Specials seems to be to allow series artist Tony Harris some breathing room, and allow Vaughan to work with some other incredible talents, here with John Paul Leon. Leon bangs out a great looking book, negotiating two variant styles between the present and past sequences, and keeps Hundred and cast nicely on-model with Harris’ depictions. A fun and poignant read, perhaps even new-reader friendly, altogether another fantastic installment to a brilliant series.


FIVE OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS




G.I. Joe #3/ G.I. Joe: Cobra #1 (IDW)($3.99ea)
By Graig Kent
 
My wife’s the G.I. Joe fan, where as I was more a He-Man kid growing up.  Oh sure, I had a few figures and a couple of vehicles, but it’s only been within the past decade that I’ve paid all that much attention to the stories that have gone along with the characters. I picked up Marvel’s pricey reprints of the 1980’s series when they cropped up earlier this decade, and I’ve tracked down a few of the Kid Rhino DVD sets for my wife. I still can’t truly call myself a fan (I’ve met fans and fanatics, and I know I’m not one of them) but let’s just say I like ‘em.  While not enough to pick up the Devil’s Due pseudo-continuation of Larry Hama’s Marvel series, I like ‘em just enough to lend a curious eye to IDW’s reboot of the property.
 
Writer Chuck Dixon is a natural fit for the G.I. Joe ongoing series, and is the main draw to the title for me. Dixon is a workhorse writer, able to crank out solid story after solid story.  He excels in the action-adventure genre - an obvious espionage and military enthusiast - he also has a good handle on characterization and character differentiation, which, when dealing with a roster of dozens, is much needed.
 
His first two issues dropped the reader into familiar surroundings but with a sense of new discovery. Things are different, but good different, with a modern, updated sensibility.  Scarlett’s a leader, not just Snake Eye’s girlfriend, for example. Their enemy is not yet their known enemy, just an unknown terrorist organization. Similarly, the Joes are covert.  Joe Public isn’t aware they exist, and their enemies are only somewhat conscious of the threat they pose to them.
 
The third issue is a bit thin on story, as the Pit comes under attack by a trio of Trojan horse robots operated remotely from a castle in Scotland, keeping the Joes fairly busy. Meanwhile, the Baroness and Destro meet for the first time, and it’s hardly love-at-first-sight (more like love at first fight.  Ha. Ahem). 
 
The art by Robert Atkins and Clayton Brown is serviceable, getting the tech and hardware down pat, and putting some good designs in for the characters, but their storytelling isn’t very dynamic, leaving the action more flat than it should be. Since Dixon excels at drafting action sequences, the art team really needs to punch them up, make them as visually interesting as they can.  It’ll make or break the book in the long run.
 
Dixon isn’t the only notable writer working on G.I. Joe for IDW, however, Larry Hama is back working on G.I. Joe with Origins, and Christos Gage is co-writing G.I. Joe: Cobra with Mike Costa.  Together they’re working on a tight continuity between the books while presenting them each with a different purpose. To be honest I’m not a fan of Hama’s writing (an atrocious run with Batman in the 90’s saw to that), and thus I’m skipping Origins. Gage, however, is much like Dixon, is a good fit, another solid workhorse writer capable of high volume, high quality, action-packed work, certainly enough to get enthused about.
 
With G.I. Joe: Cobra #1, Gage and Costa are going hard-boiled espionage, using throwaway G.I. Joe: The Movie character Chuckles as the story lead, following him as he tries to infiltrate a criminal organization he’s not even sure exists (one guess as to what that is).  A bit reckless, totally undisciplined, Chuckles washes out from Joes, but Hawk has other uses for a mercenary and sends him deep, deep undercover.  In terms of tone, it’s kept serious despite Chuckles’ constant wisecracking (which he does in dialogue but not in narrative) and an atmosphere of confusion and mystery surrounds Cobra, it’s hierarchy, its initiation process and it’s purpose. 
 
It’s like a lite version of Brubaker’s Sleeper (artist Antonio Fuso is more akin to Sean Phillips than, say, cover artist Howard Chaykin), carrying a Queen and Country-esque vibe, both references certainly surprising for a modernized comic based on a 1980’s toy line. In fact the IDW Joe line grows up the Joe brand, obviously quite aware that the fanbase is no longer pre-teen kids but avid 30-something fans, nostalgia hunters and potential newcomers intrigued by the upcoming live action film. Solid and surprising, but at $3.99 an issue, they will need to maintain a high quality to keep the non-dedicated fan involved. (too many issues uneventful issues like G.I. Joe #3 and it hits the drop box).


G.I. Joe #3: TWO AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS


G.I. Joe: Cobra #1: THREE AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS

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