Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site decwrl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian From: boyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian) Newsgroups: net.comics Subject: Ketchup Comments Message-ID: <2038@decwrl.UUCP> Date: Wed, 27-Jun-84 06:04:18 EDT Article-I.D.: decwrl.2038 Posted: Wed Jun 27 06:04:18 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 30-Jun-84 03:47:16 EDT Organization: DEC Engineering Network Lines: 103 Getting Old Business Out of the Way: Nays: JLA #228-230; ATARI FORCE #10; MARVEL TEAM-UP ANNUAL #7 Yeas: SIX FROM SIRIUS #1; MACHINE MAN #1; RONIN #1-6 JLA #228-230 In getting the latest JLA, the first part of the latest JLA/JSA cross- over, I decided to pick up the previous 3 issues that involved the Earth-Mars war. I'd realized that I'd read all of the previous stories about the Martians leaving Mars and settling on New Mars, so I figured I might as well catch the end(?) of it. Frankly, these issues were prime dogmeat. The writing was clumsy (especially the synopsis in #229 --- yuccchhho) and the characterization awk- ward. And did anyone else notice that Conway was a whole month off in his date for the Eagle landing (he mentioned it as being 20 June 1969)? These issues make me feel better about not buying JLA on a regular basis. ATARI FORCE #10 This is the first issue of this title that gives me pause. Part of it was Conway's use of the term "mainframe computer" in an inappropriate place (it felt like he thought "mainframe" was a good buzzword, and that readers would think, "Gee, this isn't any old *ordinary* computer!"). The rest of it was the scene in which the Dark Destroyer goes into an antimatter universe to get some antimatter to use as a weapon. Why on earth he has his men (I use the term loosely) remove the "antimatter core" from an asteroid is beyond me; the whole damn asteroid should be antimatter! MARVEL TEAM-UP ANNUAL #7 This was truly dreadful. I find it hard to believe that the woman who writes POWER PACK could come up with this bilge. Spider-Man and Alpha Flight team-up to fight the Collector, who's up to his old tricks. This time, he's try- ing to collect members of the Plodex race, which Marrina is. Of course, Puck, Sasquatch, Aurora, and Northstar are not going to allow this, and so they try to rescue her. Spider-Man gets involved when the Collector nabs him because he found him an "interesting speciman" (it's done in such a way that one suspects that it's Spidey's costume that he's interested in, not Spidey himself --- it's beginning to look more and more like the new suit *is* a living being in its own right). Then comes page after page of silly fights, involving hypnotic snakes, flying carpets, geniis, giant clams, et al. (sounds like an ADVENTURE game). The Alpha Flight members don't act like themselves (shades of SECRET WARS!), and there is just too much unamusing silliness. I think that Louise Simonson was trying to make it a "fun" comic, sort of like BLUE DEVIL, only she didn't pull it off; it ends up being just a dreary mess. SIX FROM SIRIUS #1 Sounds like a "western in space" from the title, and doesn't seem much more than that from the plot, but it's done with style. Doug Moench seems in top form with this one, and Paul Gulacy's art is the best he's done in years. So far, what's happened is this A-Team sort of group has to bust this woman out of an impregnable space prison in order to prevent some nasty politicking from going on. Of course, the rub is that when they finally manage to get through all of the defenses and guards (trained, as usual, at the Cylon Sharpshooters Academy), they find out that the prisoner wants to stay. It all sounds cliched, but it's so well done, you don't care. Definitely worth picking up. MACHINE MAN #1 With a Tom DeFalco script, I wasn't prepared to like this much. With Herb Trimpe pencils, I was prepared to like it even less. I figured that the only saving grace was going to be the Barry Windsor-Smith inks. Well, golllllly! Surprise, surprise! The art was terrific! Despite the credits (Herb Trimpe: lay- outs, Barry Windsor-Smith: finishes), it looks like pure BWS. Loveitloveitloveit And the script isn't half-bad, either. Basicly, not much happens in this first issue, but the stage is set, the characters introduced. Machine Man finds him- self resurrected in the year 2020, some of his enemies are still up and about, and a familiar face from THE AVENGERS makes an appearance. and from what I un- derstand, *another* familar face will make an appearance, too. The game's afoot! And I'll be here to watch it. I recommend that you all do, too. RONIN #1-6 I put off reading RONIN #6 until I had the chance to sit and read the whole series at once. My first impressions of the series was that the first issue was really interesting and the rest went slowly downhill. My final impres- sion is that the series as a whole is a work of art. The story, when read piece- meal over the course of a year, seemed very confused, but read all at once, it's fairly easy to keep track of everything as it happens. It seems that most people complained about the art. Well, yeah, it looked a tad sloppy (first 2 issues were good, #3 & #4 were bleah, but #5 & #6 picked up again), but then, I've never been all that enamored of Miller's actual drawing, even in DAREDEVIL. Mil- ler's strength has always been in his storytelling layout and his page and panel composition, and in RONIN, he excels at those. He borrows heavily from the Japanese school of comic storytelling, and it works to great effect. The test of this is to try reading the comic by only following the art, and not reading the captions or dialogue. It works! And I find his page and panel to be top notch. It's to easy to dismiss a work like this by thinking that it's nothing like his DAREDEVIL work. Well, sure it isn't, but it wasn't meant to be! Miller has tried to do something different, and maybe it didn't turn out perfectly (I'll warrant that it could have been a lot better), but I think the flaws of this work are far outweighed by the virtues. Now, *this* is what a graphic novel should be! ******************** Coming soon to a node near you: More Comic Reviews! Featuring: CAPTAIN QUICK AND A FOOZLE #1, DALGODA #1, HULK #300, SUPERMAN #400, THE UNCANNY X-MEN AT THE STATE FAIR OF TEXAS (!) and a host of others. Be there or be square! --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC Maynard, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA