Echo ... Batman...

Echo 22

Everyone should read Echo.  It's so much more interesting than any other comic book out there right now.  Written by Terry Moore, the writer of Strangers In Paradise, Runaways, and Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, it's a huge departure from what I'd come to expect from him.  The most recent installment begins the run-up to the end - it's a limited series, in 30 parts.  This is part 22.

The story begins with a bang - literally.  Julie Martin is recovering from a divorce, out at Moon Lake (a dry lake bed) with her camera when BLAM!  Something explodes in mid-air, pelting her with drops of silvery metal, which will not come off her skin.  Instead, the drops merge into a kind of breastplate, covering most of her upper body and one arm. 

A doctor tries to touch it, and it takes his fingernail off.  Anyone with violent intent toward Julie is either thrown off or killed, all without Julie being able to control what the suit is doing.  And it's growing - the alloy attracts stray droplets of itself, and the more it attracts, the more Julie hears... an echo.

What Julie doesn't know is that the metal is an alloy from a very special suit created by physicist Annie Trotter for the Phi Project.  The big bang Julie witnessed (and is now wearing the fallout from) was Annie testing the suit.  Boom.  But Annie isn't completely gone.  The alloy bonds with the wearer at the quantum level, bonding DNA to itself.  Somehow, the echo of Annie survives, and the more of the alloy Julie wears, the more strongly Annie is able to come through.  And boy, do they need her to come through.

Turns out that the Phi Project, like so many earthly organizations, doesn't know its own strength.  They are committed to running this alloy through their collider (you know, like the Large Hadron Collider at Cern...?).  Annie knows that when they do this, it will be the last act of man - it will create a wormhole, a black hole, that will swallow up the entire earth, the solar system, maybe the universe itself.  So the race is on to stop that collider - Julie is aided by Dillon, Annie's boyfriend, and Ivy Raven, an agent sent to retrieve her, but who switches sides to help Julie. 

Echo is a book that, while I love Terry Moore's clean, elegant line work, would really benefit from color.  The story is complex and it's sometimes hard to tell one character from another at key moments.  It can be figured out without a lot of brain bending or eyestrain, it's just that with color, I think it would just be a bit more organic to follow.

The book is a fascinating read, combining elements of physics, metaphysics and psychology; it's the Dan Brown equivalent of an analysis of religion.  heh heh.  It's also nominated for an Eisner award, so I'm not the only geek who thinks it's worth a look.  Not only that, but Terry Moore's latest creation has caught the attention of Hollywood - Lloyd Levin, producer of the Watchmen, Hellboy, The Rocketeer and others, has optioned the series for a movie.  Check it out.

Batman 700

Batman #700 - that's a LOT of Batman comics, man.  First of all, the cover is amazing.  Beautiful work by David Finch.  The story by Tony Daniel (first half) and Grant Morrison (second half) is uneven, however. 

Still, "Time and the Batman" - cleverly, this is the answer to the riddle/joke that is posed again and again in the story - is an interesting read, using several different artists, among them Frank Quitely and Adam Kubert, to tell a tale of many Batmen.

I liked the way the characterization of Batman-Dick is progressing.  He smiles.  He asks the cop about his child.  He's a kinder, gentler Batman.  I liked the way the characterization of Batman-Damian shows him to be a different man, and a different Batman altogether.  I loved seeing Terry MacGinnis in continuity for the first time (I think it was the first time, anyhow).  Batman past, present and future - it was a great idea, and some of it worked well.

Some of it was a bit obtuse, however (that's Morrison for you).  I got the ending, I guess, but it really felt a bit disjointed and hyper at the end.  I know they were going for a manic feel, especially in the Damian timeline, but it just got very confusing for me, and the artwork was too busy and felt a bit rushed - anniversary issues sell forever, it's not good to rush them.  Overall, I recommend the book, but with the reservation that if you like a good, clean, readable story, this may not fit the bill in all areas.  But where it works, it's very good, and a fun and worthwhile investment.

Wednesday Comics Concludes / More Stuff

Wednesday Comics

With last week's issue of Wednesday Comics, DC's adventure concluded. My favorite turned out to be Supergirl, as I suspected from the beginning. Easy reading, superb art and characterizations, a nice, simple story that worked perfectly in this format, and a very amusing ending, all worked together to make the best of all the features included in the series.

Also excellent: Metamorpho (hilarious sub-dialogue from Java), and the Green Lantern feature. Both were stylish and fun.

Honorable Mention: Batman, Kamandi, Metal Men, Teen Titans, Strange Adventures, Hawkman, Sgt. Rock. Each of these had some great moments, and were all well crafted and great quality.

Superman, Deadman and Catwoman/The Demon were just a'ight for me. They were all nicely drawn, but the story was weak in each. The ending of the Catwoman story was kind of nice, though.

What didn't work for me: Wonder Woman. It just never gelled. The artwork was nice, what you could see of it - but so much of it was obscured by the sketchy technique (usually something I love, because you can see the loose framework of the drawing beneath), weird color scheme, and the incredible amount of dialogue. I could never tell which "panel" was supposed to be next - it just didn't flow at all.

So ends DC's latest foray into weekly serial comics. I felt this outing was superior to Trinity and to DC Countdown. I think the Powers That Be at DC are really enamoured of this weekly idea, and since the success of 52 have continued to try to recapture that lightning in a bottle. Wednesday Comics came closer to doing that than either of the latter two efforts. Will they do it again? My vote for now: no. Let it rest here with a modicum of success. Concentrate on finishing up Blackest Night. Think about doing something new over the summer if you must. What do you think? Does DC need a weekly serial?

Superman: Secret Origin

Ho hum, yet another retelling of the origin story of Superman, which everyone already knows, right? Well... everyone already knows the basics. But this series is different - and worth your time and money.

First off, it's no ordinary retelling. It's Geoff Johns doing the telling. Johns is arguably the best writer working in comics today (standing alongside him are Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, Mark Millar, and a few notable others). Although the others are also great, Johns' vision is perhaps clearer than anyone else's. He has a keen sense of where he is going. His stories begin to pull together almost immediately - you always have a sense of forward motion, that you're being propelled toward new information, new adventure, somewhere that is an actual destination, as opposed to spinning in circles while the writer figures out how to wrap things up. His payoffs are huge - he may make you wait, tantalize and tease, frustrate hell out of you along the way, but in the end, you almost always end up satisfied, saying, "That was good."

Second, it's Gary Frank doing the art. His work is interesting for its realism and oddness (a strange combination, to be sure, but it's true). The pencils have a quirky look, a definite style. The people have true features - he's not just drawing the same generic features on everyone and changing hair styles slightly, or dressing them differently - he's actually drawing people you might recognize if you saw them on the street.

The story contains elements of a lot of different origin stories: the original rocket ship falling to earth, Jonathan and Martha Kent, Lana Lang, Pete Ross, and Lex Luthor from the comics; the images of Jor-El and Lara, the crystals, the look of the young Clark Kent from the Donner Superman movies and the John Byrne Man of Steel series; the development of his powers slowly, also from the Byrne series, and from Smallville; the design of his outfit from the wonderful Superman Birthright. Johns adds some twists of his own: Clark's dismay and apprehension at the development of his powers, using the crystals from the rocket ship as lenses for Clark's glasses because of their useful properties.

It's a great approach - touching on almost all of the backstories available is great, because it makes them all feel as right as this does. Seriously, this could end up being considered the definitive origin story of Superman. There's plenty of fun for the old school fan, and because of the wonderful character development and nice backfilling of info for the newbie, I think it will be quite popular for years to come.

I highly recommend this series for its stylish retelling of the Superman origin - it's a great read, even if you think you know what happened, already!