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From: hutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison)
Newsgroups: net.comics
Subject: Re: June Issues of DAREDEVIL and ALPHA FLIGHT: Reviews
Message-ID: <1312@shark.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 2-Apr-85 23:47:39 EST
Article-I.D.: shark.1312
Posted: Tue Apr  2 23:47:39 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Apr-85 06:39:55 EST
References: <384@nmtvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: hutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison)
Distribution: net
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 80
Summary: 

[ Snikkt, Snikkt .... slash, gouge, cut, owwie ]

In article <384@nmtvax.UUCP> nmhr@nmtvax.UUCP writes:
>*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MASSAGE ***
>
>
>	Since I am an avid fan of DAREDEVIL and ALPHA FLIGHT (having almost
>all 219 issues of DD and all 23 issues of AF), I will try to review them
>every month or so. As for credentials to review comics, all I can say is
>that I have my opinion...as ludicrous as it may seem to some.
> (Daredevil review excised)
>
>ALPHA FLIGHT #23
>	Has it really been two years? It seems like yesterday when the Alphans
>were fighting Tundra and only this morning when James Hudson (Guardian)
>was killed.
>	Alpha Flight is (to me) the best title that Marvel has. The great
>John Byrne has kept the characters from experiencing Shooter's editing
>and advising. This issue's story, "Night of the Beast," brings to rest
>some of the questions I have had about Snowbird and Sasquatch. The only
>detriment of the issue is the conspicuous absence of Shaman (who is
>guest appearing in DR. STRANGE, I hear). The rest of the story is flawless.
>	Artwise, Byrne is still the best. The colors in my copy seem strange,
>like someone just picked a random blue or orange or whatever. Of course,
>that could be the quality of the paper. Otherwise, the art is fantastic,
>although not quite as  good as FANTASTIC FOUR.
>
>
>Next month: ALPHA FLIGHT's two-year anniversary issue promises to be
>	a spectacular one. Be there, or be misconstrued.
>
>Tracy McInvale
>New Mexico Humanities Review

Pardon me, Tracy, but I must tear your review to bloody shreds.
First, the blind adoration of the "great" John Byrne, the most self-indulgent,
pitiful, egotistical excuse for an artist since Jack Kirby.  Fine, so those
aren't necessarily faults in an artist.  The characters haven't been touched
by Shooter's "editing" because Byrne's writing, when it isn't done with a
photocopier, is so close to Shooter's style as to reek of stylistic plagiarism.
(Them's fightin words!)  WELL, IT IS.  Shooter has shallow characters, deus
ex machina, and people do things for stupid reasons completely out of character
with their established personas, and Byrne is much the same.  The major reason
why it looks like there is any kind of difference is that Byrne still uses the
Claremont "I...Hurt" style of dialog, and makes the feeble attempt to make
powerful women characters, or at least interesting ones.  The ONLY place where
he has succeeded in this is the character of Heather.  And I fully expect her
to gain some kind of power within the next twenty issues, or die horribly.

As for the questions about Sasquatch and Snowbird, well, he seems to have, ahem,
REVISED the origin of the former.  At least in "next month's issue" he gets rid
of them both.  No, this is NOT a spoiler, this has been pre-announced for some
time and is obvious to anyone who actually bothers to learn the Byrne style of
formula plotting.

As for the ARTWORK... GLAAAAH!  I haven't seen anything so shoddy since the
disgusting Giant Sized Avengers #4!  Ill-proportioned characters (not just
non-heroic, but DEFORMED, and not only Puck!) in painfully impossible poses
are the RULE in Byrne's new style of FAST! work.  Not only that, but he has
this amazing ability to draw exactly three male heads, and exactly two female
heads, and exactly one basic female body, and exactly four basic male bodies.
Then he draws in a costume, or a bit of dangling fur, or some long, short, or
punk (on the WRONG PEOPLE) hair, or a bit of slithery mucous, and he claims
that they look different!  Byrne's artwork is a slap in the face of anyone who
actually pays money for his books.  (Yes, I buy AF, mostly from habit, and
partly because the stories and characters he lifts here are less familiar to
me than the ones he spoils in FF.)

I won't even begin (it would take too long) to describe what he has done wrong
with the once-Fantastic Four.  Besides plagiarizing stories.

It will be interesting to see what happens when Byrne takes over the Hulk.
I have often wondered what a skinny, emaciated Hulk with an egg for a head
and eyes that sink all the way back into the wrong side of his head, would
look like, and you may expect (based on his past performance) to see that
creature soon after he takes over.  I can barely wait for his sixth issue,
where he does 3/4 of the book as panels of green with the occasional sound
effect.  At least he won't have to write dialog!

Hutch  ( rant, rave, snarl...  snikt, drip, drip, drip )