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The Muppet Show #1 (Boom Studios)($2.99)
by Graig Kent

This really shouldn’t work.
A comic book.
About the Muppet Show.

I mean, after all, the charm of The Muppet Show is the Muppets, isn’t it? The marginally maneuverable puppets, their uniquely fuzzy craftsmanship, the performances by their handlers Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Richard Hunt, et. al., this is where the appeal is, no? And if The Muppet Show wasn’t just about the Muppets then did not the celebrity guests they had on every week make it kind of like Saturday Night Live sketch-comedy/variety show for a family audience?

Well, yes, to all, but celebrity guests weren’t everything. Performances and appearances were not the show’s only appeal. Over five seasons, followed by a slew of movies, TV specials, revivals, repeats and successful DVD collection, The Muppets and The Muppet Show became iconic, deservedly gaining a legion of fans with not just an accessible sense of humor, but by also building characters, relationships, a family dynamic that continues to welcome in new viewers. So it’s not inconceivable that the Muppets could translate into comics (and they did, once before, via the cartoon Muppet Babies), but the actual Muppet Show? How could that possibly work?

It really shouldn’t.

And yet, in the hands of Roger Langridge, it does. Subtracting the elements of performance, celebrity guests, and the visual aesthetic of real Muppets, Langridge somehow manages to channel acutely each and every major character he uses, and even outside of Kermit and Gonzo, he’s able to, like the show, introduce one-time-use sketch performing Muppets. I’m not sure if Langridge is a lifelong fan like I am, but he carries it off as if he were. Not only that, he has obviously studied the program, and is aware of how it moves, the rhythms of the show, and he’s more able to translate that into the comic.

The Muppet Show comic features the irreverent humor of the show, one foot in old Vaudevillian sensibilities, one foot in the modern day, and a third alien Muppet foot in the 1970’s when the show aired. From sketch to backstage, Langridge moves the comic at a comparable pace to the show, getting in actual laugh-out-loud moments in the sketches with some of the more familial dynamics of the back-stage assembly. He even strings the sketch performers through the background of the backstage just like the TV show. He gets it. He just gets it.

Artistically recreating the Muppets is a challenge for any artist. Three-dimensional, limited-motion, hands-up-their-backs puppets weren’t meant for comics, yet Langridge’s cartooning style has put them on the page not as photo referenced, but as accurate and vibrant stylized representations of their real-world counterparts. They sure look like who they need to look like (not enough credit can be given to Digikore Studios for their incredible coloring), but Langridge isn’t drawing them as photo-referenced Muppets but as characters, letting them move and breathe as they need to on the page while still giving their facial expressions and sense of movement that Muppet feel. What Langridge captures best is the “camera angle” and staging, how the characters fit in the panel and how they appear to the reader is almost exactly like they would appear on the show, primarily from the waist up, with sets designed to hide the puppeteers.

I have been watching the Muppets my entire life, they are a large part of the foundation of my sense of humor. I’m not a fanatic but I am a fan, and I thought for certain this would be at best a valiant but unsuccessful effort at reviving the Muppet Show, but by the time Langridge knocks out the perfect comic book iteration of the Swedish Chef, I realized I was already laughing and having a good time. When’s the last time you said that about a comic book? It’s absolutely.


FOUR AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS



Dark Reign: Elektra #1 (Marvel)($2.99)
By Devon Sanders

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Marvel’s handling of Elektra. As you probably know, Elektra was very much killed a while back by her creator, Frank Miller. Frankly, it was one of those rare comic book instances where a fictional character’s death allowed for a transcendence, equal in comic book terms, to a Jimi Hendrix or a Jeff Buckley. Death made her. Resurrection just may have been her undoing. Since her resurrection by the higher-ups at Marvel Comics, Elektra has had numerous series, teamed up with Wolverine, acted as an agent of the counter-terrorist organization, S.H.I.E.L.D., made quite a few guest appearances and finally, was abducted by aliens. Yes, you read that right. The Marvel’s resident stealthy ninja assassin in red was abducted by world conquering aliens. Elektra, welcome to the insanity that has become the current Marvel Universe.

Elektra stumbles, disoriented, from the alien Skrull starship. Amidst the chaos are her sometimes ally, the organization S.H.I.E.L.D, with the intention of finding out just how she came to this place. Instinct takes over and many good men and women lay broken and bleeding at her hands. Tony Stark, Iron Man and then, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. orders her detention and soon, she finds herself in hospital. Her long journey home has come to an end, a new one soon to begin. Days pass and her wounds are allowed to heal. Soon, Iron Man will fall with S.H.I.E.L.D. to follow. Elektra now finds herself in the sadistic hands of the former Green Goblin, Norman Osborn, new director of H.A.M.M.E.R. Newly healed bone is broken and the assassin finds herself in an all-too familiar place, captured, at someone else’s “mercy.” A fire within has been stirred. It’s Elektra, literally unbound, versus a new world order. In Dark Reign: Elektra #1, the odds, finally, look to be on her side.

Writer Zeb Wells (Amazing Spider-Man) surprised me with this one. Primarily known as a “funny” comics writer, Wells returns Elektra to her former deadly self, cleverly keeping her to her own council. With every turn of the page, you can practically hear her keeping a silent tally of the deaths about to be unleashed. It’s tense and suspenseful stuff showing that Wells knows how to set a mood and tell a story.

Artist Clay Mann (Dardevil) proves to be a bit of a revelation here. I’d seen his work before but not quite this... polished. Mann’s style has newfound slickness recalling Thor’s Olivier Coipiel. What he excels at is page layout. Early on in the issue, Mann uses a 9-panel grid, smartly, to draw the eye into the action and next page, blowing up the action big with the use of a full-page spread. It’s practically comics in high definition, perfectly befitting this story. It’s always a treat when an artist finds what the character needs and Mann executes this exactly.

Dark Reign: Elektra #1 with it’s dramatic usage of tension and the last two pages’ symbolism could potentially be a return to form for one of Marvel’s more reluctant mainstays. Shame it took an alien abduction to get her back “home.”


FOUR OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS

 

[Trade Winds] Fallen Angel Omnibus (IDW)($24.99)
by Graig Kent

With the economy the way it is today, and the general status of the comic book marketplace, it’s getting difficult to find value in comics. $3.99 for 22 pages of story (or even 30 pages of story + back-up story) just isn’t very attractive for even the wealthiest of comic enthusiasts, for even the best of stories. Gone are the days of picking up a handful different books off the rack, when five books would cost you 50 cents or five bucks. It seems that people are, or soon will be, willing to shell out for a collected edition or original graphic novel rather than a monthly periodical as the norm. One benefit is, on occasion, publishers are willing to dole out their wares in bulkier forms at bargain prices… Marvel’s “Essential” series, DC’s “Showcase” line, Dark Horse, Oni and here, with Peter David’s Fallen Angel series, IDW’s Omnibuses.

The Fallen Angel Omnibus collects the first 21 issues of the title’s second series, a gargantuan 500+ page softcover for $24.99. The first series, also 21 issues long, was published by DC, and as David explains in his introduction, was originally supposed to dovetail into the mythology of his Supergirl series. The axe fell before he could do that, which allowed David to wrangle the book as a creator-owned series instead of part of DCU architecture, thus transporting it to IDW and breathing new life into it. The publishing past of Fallen Angel is only important in knowing that there are preceding chapters to this series (the first 12 issues were collected in two volumes from DC, oddly the second volume of which came out well after the first two trades of series two were already published by IDW) and that they are referenced marginally in the second series, but the second series picks up quite some time after the first, forging a fresh new path.

Bete Noir is known as “the city that shapes the world”, and it’s a rotting, stinking cesspool of crime, corruption and sin. It’s operated by the Magistrate, whom the city speaks to, whom it protects, but the Magistrate isn’t almighty, he still answers to the Hierarchy. A king, a demi-god of town, the Magistrate rules with delicate operation, everyone serves his will it seems, all but the Fallen Angel. Lee is indeed a fallen guardian angel, cast down from heaven to live amongst the humans for her failures under the boss. Where the Magistrate rules, Lee gets drunk, picks fights and takes requests.

Time seems to almost stand still in Bete Noir, out of step with the rest of the world, but still as people don’t necessarily look older, some can feel the years, and the current Magistrate is looking to pass along the title to his firstborn son, who happens to be the offspring he produced with Lee (both his greatest love and his greatest nemesis), the child whom he thought was aborted, the child who was given to a nun, raised in a church and is now a priest.

In this volumes, many secrets about Lee’s past, the nature of Bete Noir and its corrupting effect on not just its citizens but also the world’s are explored. It’s rich supporting cast is expanded, including Sachs and Violens (which David created with George Perez for Marvel Epic in the early 1990s), Lee’s predecessor, and, obviously Lee’s son. There’s also a multi-part tale featuring Billy Tucci’s Shi, which takes place in one of the two hidden sister cities to Bete Noir, Yellow Springs.

Fallen Angel is a book that believes in religion, but it’s using it more in a fantasy/superhero vein than as a tool for conversion. Without spoiling it, David’s crafted a rather amusing non-scientific rationale behind global warming. Religious idealists might find the book blasphemous, but David ably takes religious stories, superstitions and misconceptions and weaves them together into a highly enjoyable book that’s into being philosophical when it’s not about kicking ass.

There’s a roster of artists over the 21 issues, although the bulk of the chores are handled by J.K. Woodward. Woodward opens the initial story arc with fully (digitally?) painted work which is effective at delivering some of the more awe-inspiring moments of the story. Subsequent issues, which Woodward handles with more conventional illustration and coloring techniques show more prominently the flaws in his work. There’s often a lack of consistency to a character’s appearance with an occasional look of distortion. There’s also an obvious tendency to either photo reference or photo manipulate (or both) leaving many of the panels feeling stiff and unnatural. But overall, Woodward handles the storytelling aspects well, with good flow along the panels. As well, he’s not afraid to experiment with storytelling styles and techniques which allows him to really punch up some sequences and differentiate the stories through illustration style.

In some respects, I find the title character to be the book’s weakest link, but also its greatest strength. Her character, when put up against what we typically view stories involving spiritual beings, is way off type. The rather bitter, drunk, vindictive former angel with a sailor’s mouth is not what we’ve come to expect from fictional angels, way off type from Michael Landon and Della Reese, and even Christopher Walken and Peter Stormaire’s dark portrayals of angels would seem heavenly compared to Lee. I guess it’s because Lee doesn’t act as a stranger to humanity, she doesn’t act above human impulse, but also she acts so… crassly American that makes her unusual. But then again, it makes you think, about what she knows, and how she is, and why she is that way.

Lee does take a side-seat in the second half of the omnibus, however, with stories about her predecessor, her son’s role as Magistrate and Shi taking the spotlight in the crossover, by the end of this first massive volume you become aware that it’s not just about the Fallen Angel, but about the world she inhabits that David enjoys exploring. Like Bete Noir, the book is dark and flawed, but there’s certainly more than enough to enjoy to keep coming back. At less than 5 cents a page, it’s at the very least an affordable vacation from the norm.


THREE AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS



[Trade Winds] Skelebunnies TPB (SLG Publishing)($10.95)
by Graig Kent

You know it can’t be a good sign when a book’s publisher takes the bulk of his two page introduction praising the creator but panning the characters he’s developed. “This is shit. It’s awful, nobody is going to want to read it.” That’s a direct quote from SLG publisher Dan Vado with respect to the SLG published Skelebunnies by Tommy Kovac.

To be fair, Vado, in his intro, does state that he came around and eventually came to enjoy the living dead abominations that populated the three one-shots that are collected here with additional bonus features. I wish I could say the same.

I like irreverent, oblique, and silly humour, I also can enjoy scatological dick and fart jokes with the next Kevin Smith/Judd Apatow patron, and even violence as comedy I can chortle at.Skelebunnies has all these styles of comedy, and yet very little of it amused me. I wasn’t put off by it, I wasn’t offended, and though Vado is right and it is “wrong on every other level”, I didn’t find it so audacious as to be admired. Most of the buttons Kovac is trying to push have been pushed before, and and with far more skilled fingers. This is not to say Kovac isn’t talented, his recent, utterly fantastic Wonderland is a prime example that Kovac can tell a story, and even here his cartooning is wonderfully rendered in a variety of styles, showing incredible flexibility. I guess it just comes down to I don’t find his creations funny.

To be honest, here’s why: this sort of stream-of-consciousness, punchline-free humour which sometimes takes dead ends or really has no purpose is exactly my sense of humour about 15 years ago. I’m not saying I was as talented as Kovac (my cartooning skills weren’t even close to being as sharp) but I can see the cogs moving in the background, I can see the wizard behind the curtain, and I know how flimsy the foundation is. It’s not trying too hard, it’s just not trying hard enough. The lack of cohesion is one part of it, but general berserk, fourth-wall breaking, semi-self aware pointless mayhem is the bigger issue. There’s a lack of craft to the comedy, it’s missing refinement. Put Skelebunnies up against Milk and Cheese or Arsenic Lullaby and the difference is tangible.

“What’s the point?” the back cover copy asks. “To giggle, my friends. To giggle.” If only. Vado has higher praise in his introduction for two other Kovac series, Autumn and Wonderland, I’d recommend you start there instead.


TWO OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS



Oracle: The Cure #1 (DC)($2.99)
By Devon Sanders

The final page of Oracle: The Cure #1 made me laugh. I am 100% sure this was not the creator’s intention.

Barbara Gordon, formerly known as Batgirl, has returned to a Gotham City, if at all possible, at its worst. The Batman is dead, the villainous population of Gotham runs wild in her streets and at a time when the city needs her most, Gordon finds herself left with nothing but anger and frustration. The man who lead her on her heroic path, Batman, is dead. Amidst the confusion, a father and villain simply known as The Calculator visits his one and only daughter in a hospital, a victim of a ridiculous superhero/supervillain escapade. Elsewhere, remnants of an obscure equation have begun to show up on the internet, an equation, that if unleashed, could bring about the end of all we know.

Writer Kevin Vanhook is nothing if not a straight-ahead sort. Nowhere does he mention Oracle’s rich backstory. No mention of her history as Batgirl. No mention of her life as the defacto leader of The Birds of Prey or their move to Metropolis. No, Vanhook is more interested in telling the story he set out to tell. I suspect anyone picking up this first issue will know this niche character’s history inside and out so, why bother with a recap? I do think he’s on the right path, as far as that goes. One thing lacking in Oracle: The Cure is any true sense of tension. There’s plenty of talk about it but Vanhook fails to bring any across in his actual writing in convincing matter. Vanhook does tease a potential MAJOR change for Oracle but it’s one that feels forced towards shock, smacking of editorial and I have to say, it’s one I truly hope doesn’t happen.

Artists Julian Lopez and Fernando Pasarin share art chores on this issue and do a great job of maintaining artistic continuity between one other. Lopez’s Oracle is slick and pretty, at times, suggesting a bit of Adam Hughes while Pasarin works in a style grounded more in realism. Oracle: The Cure is a mini-series twice-blessed.

Oracle: The Cure #1 is by no means terrible, simply unfocused. What’s The Calculator’s interest in this particular equation, why should any care or know who his daughter is and shouldn’t The Calculator be dead following the events of the final page? Who is this min-series for? True Oracle fans or anyone invested in the current “Batman: Battle For The Cowl” event. I count myself amongst the first, not the latter. This first issue won’t do anything to lessen that fact but does nothing to strengthen it.


TWO AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS


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