Ninth Art - For the Discerning Reader - http://www.ninthart.org
|
The Forecast for March 2nd 2005
Welcome to The Forecast. Every Monday, Ninth Art's core team of comment writers, the Ninth Eight, will be your guides to the best, worst, weirdest and most noteworthy books on the shelves of your local comic shop. BOOK OF THE WEEK: TEENAGERS FROM MARS TEENAGERS FROM MARS was one of those indie miniseries that appear out of nowhere, garner a whole heap of well deserved praise, and are destined to gain a cult following (ideal, given the B-movie connotation of the title). It got a lot of people talking, and the first three issues sold out, adding to that "Oooh gotta get it!" mystique. Not even fire could stop this thing. When I first heard about TEENAGERS FROM MARS, I expected some kind of Paul Pope-y, kids running around on rocky, Martian landscapes, that kind of, thing. When I read that it was about a kid going to war over the Wertham-style prohibition of comics, I was even more sceptical. I had images of comic geeks "starting some shit", a la Jason Lee. Instead, it turned out to be one of the best comics I've read in the last few years. Rick Spears and Rob G took a simple concept - censorship - and created the small town of Mars, an Anytown, a place kids have to get away from before ennui kills them. Macon is one of those kids, and in the space of the eight issue series, he loses his job, meets his dream punk, hangs out with zombies (as it were, and a good two years before zombie comics were hip), gets arrested, and wages a guerilla war on the local authorities - all in the name of comics (oh, and that whole freedom of expression thing). The trade, the first book to come out of Spears' new company, Gigantic Graphic Novels, contains all the things trades should: preliminary sketches, never-before-seen stuff, and pin-ups, including one by Mike Diana, the inspiration for the story. [Ben Wooller] BOTH YOUR HOUSES According to my scorecard, it's Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark, Brian Bendis, Frank Cho, Bryan Hitch and Mark Millar at Marvel, with Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Frank Quitely, Dave Gibbons, Jim Lee and Josh Middleton at DC. DC seems to have the stronger team, but it's not far behind Marvel when it comes to overexposing and diluting its talent pool, and DC's decision to poach Marvel boy Middleton looks just as petty and ill-considered as Marvel's grab for the distinctly DC talents of Lark. Ah, but apparently that's not what this week's DC VERSUS MARVEL TPB is about. Shame, because the tit-for-tat battle of the exclusives is far more interesting than the crossover event collected in this trade, a relic of an age when neither company could muster a convincing swagger. These days both houses appear puffed with braggadocio as they reheat, recycle and retread, and even something as simple as a BATMAN/DAREDEVIL crossover is too great a challenge of diplomacy for their egos. DC VERSUS MARVEL was a comic where the readers got to vote on the outcome of five key battles, with the lead icons at both companies reigning triumphant (Batman and Superman for DC, Spider-Man and Wolverine for Marvel), and the whole thing coming down to a Storm versus Wonder Woman clash. It was a pitiable gimmick that saw both companies put their pride on the line as they clung to each other like unsteady drunks. This year they're going toe-to-toe with more confidence in a new but equally lamentable game; whose ill-starred event can suck dry the most creators and best derail a whole universe; DC COUNTDOWN or HOUSE OF M? [Andrew Wheeler] STARK TRUTH On the surface, it seemed like a match made in heaven - the ultra-liberal shag-happy bucolic billionaire and the ultra-conservative Mormon author and commentator. But when it was announced that Orson Scott Card (ENDER'S GAME) was going to write ULTIMATE IRON MAN (Marvel Comics, art by Kubert & Miki), the divers alarums were more concerned with the author's politics than they were with what he might have to say about Tony Stark. This raised an interesting question, and one that has yet to be answered to my satisfaction: can you really divorce the artist from the art? After all, Card's not the first author to say something objectionable outside of his fictional playground (whether you find his fictional playground objectionable is another story). Does it matter if the work is entertaining, but the writer is a jerk? Can a writer with an extreme viewpoint competently and objectively portray a character with a diametrically opposite moral code? That might be the only good reason to read ULTIMATE IRON MAN: to see if a writer like Card - who might have been one of Tony Stark's most vocal critics, if Stark were real - can tell the story without compromising the character, or, for that matter, his beliefs. Common sense suggests that Marvel wouldn't be publishing the book if that were the case - foil cover or otherwise - but common sense and business don't always ride the same bus. [Matthew Craig] THE SHIPPING LIST FOR MARCH 2nd 2005: Shipping details come courtesy of Diamond. Visit the Diamond website for the latest information, as the list is subject to change. DARK HORSE NOV040051V STAR WARS CLONE WARS ADVENTURES VOL 3 TP $6.95 DC COMICS DEC048300 DC VERSUS MARVEL TP $15.95
IMAGE SEP041526D CASEFILES SAM & TWITCH #14 (RES) (MR) $2.50
MARVEL DEC041746 ARANA HEART OF THE SPIDER #2 $2.99
OTHER PUBLISHERS JAN052617E AFTERMATH DEFEX #5 $2.95
The Ninth Eight are Matthew Craig, John Fellows, Kieron Gillen, Alistair Kennedy, Zack Smith, Andrew Wheeler, Ben Wooller and Bulent Yusuf. Ninth Art endorses the principle of Ideological Freeware. The author permits distribution of this article by private individuals, on condition that the author and source of the article are clearly shown, no charge is made, and the whole article is reproduced intact, including this notice. Back. |