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So
does this make it metafiction?
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Jason
Schachat's
Occasional Breakdown
11/28/05, part 2
part
1 here
Now,
I’d usually wager a lot that Ex Machina is
worth the money every time, but Ex Machina #16
tests us a little with the true story of how Mitchell Hundred’s
father died at the hands of his own mother. Unfortunately,
the story isn’t much more detailed than that. Poppa
was drunk one night back in 1969, and went a bit homicidal
when he found out Hundred’s mom had been attending
protests and “free love” rallies. In self defense,
she whacked him over the head with a fire poker, and the
rest is history.
The
story also gives us the traditional run-in with a local
trailer-trash bad guy and his unwashed goons, but that only
feels like a too-long path to an important bit of information
about Hundred’s superpowers. For the most part, the
“Off the Grid” arc just adds a new character
to the cast.
What
makes it worth buying is the art by Tony Harris and co.
Even though it usually feels like he’s re-using the
same pair of models for a good number of his character designs,
the work is rich, expressive, and gorgeous. Tom Feisters’
inks give the lines just enough weight, and JD Mettler’s
colors bring to life expansive deserts, claustrophobic trailers,
and that warm yet chilling night in December when Hundred
lost his father.
This
may not be the best place for new readers to start, but
they’re quickly running out of excuses for not reading
Ex Machina. An addictive mixture of Starman
and The West Wing, this book continues to reinvent
the superhero from the ground up without clutter or cliche.
Get into it soon.
And
PLEASE give She-Hulk #2 a gander.
Undoubtedly one of the smartest books Marvel’s produced
in years, the new volume continues to maintain intellectual
supremacy after the House of M by doing what no
other book has done in years: making us like Hawkeye.
Okay,
I’ll admit that’s not such an amazing feat,
but it’s a hell of a lot more impressive than killing
him off or using a re-boot to bring him back again.
After
the last issue prompted She-Hulk to grab an amazing opportunity
to bring Marvel’s favorite bowman back to the land
of the living through an unorthodox form of jury duty, we
now find ourselves swept up in the time travel trial of
tomorrow... or two weeks ago, depending on how you look
at it...
The story starts us following Hawkeye on a crime-fighting
spree throughout New York, surprised at how surprised everyone
is to see him. She-Hulk then has an intimate moment with
her boyfriend, trying to get past the mental blocks that
make her transformations so difficult to achieve. *insert
lewd comment here*
She
then goes about crafting her nefarious scheme to keep Hawkeye
from getting his purple butt blown up while trying to figure
out how to defend the time traveling professor who killed
the man he was told would kill him if he didn’t kill
him before he traveled through time to kill– you get
the picture.
Things
actually go surprisingly smoothly until the giant robot
shows up...
The
first issue of the new She-Hulk had me a little
worried. Last time around, Dan Slott and Juan Bobillo gave
us quick stories, tight issues, and lots of witty jabs at
comics, superheroes, and continuity or the general lack
thereof. This relaunch seems to be taking its time with
the plot and gave us more exposition in one episode than
we got in the first arc last time around.
Now,
my fears are quelled. We’re still dealing with the
same wickedly irreverent cast and creators, but the last
thing they want to do is repeat themselves. She-Hulk learned
to accept Jen, but now Jen needs to learn to accept She-Hulk.
Oh,
and then there’s her poor roommate Pug, who we were
led to believe had wound up living happily ever after with
Jen... but it’s more like he ended up living with
Jen and her boyfriend John Jameson.
If you’ve
had enough of confusing mutant soap opera, this is the book
for you. If you can’t get enough of the dust-covered
encyclopedias of Marvel Universe history, this is the book
for you. If you have half a brain – well, in that
case, you might want to see a doctor... but buy She-Hulk
on the way to the hospital.
Never
having been a huge fan of Geoff Johns’ run, Flash
#228 has me wondering if his recent departure
from the title was a bigger loss than originally imagined...
Following
a run in with a creepy cult of born-again children (of the
corn) who turned out to be a delegation from another reality
(it could happen), Wally takes it upon himself to retrieve
an item they desperately need to save a sick friend. Along
the way, our hero suffers a few hallucinations that all
foreshadow bad things to come for his newborn children.
Then
he teams up with Nightwing and gets a good talking to while
they search for the super magical doowacky that’ll
do something, something...
Let’s
do a little test, shall we?
You
step into a room filled with super-powered people who immediately
scream “It’s the Flash! We must destroy him!”,
but, after demonstrating what a nice guy you are, they instead
ask for you to give them an extremely dangerous item called
“The Summoner”. Do you:
A.
Beat the living snot out of them and save the day.
B. Retrieve “The Summoner” and let them beat
the snot out of you.
C. Retrieve “The Summoner” and use it to save
the day (somehow).
D. Australia.
If you
answered “B”, your name is probably Wally West
(though “D” would also have been acceptable).
So,
yeah, this issue is pretty damn confusing. Wally’s
about as gullible as you can get and displays some of the
jittery ADD we haven’t seen from him since his early
days in the big red tights, but he also has a new family
to take care of, identity and infinite crises that should
wisen him up, and Nightwing to... brood and generally be
smarter than him.
On the
other hand, this story gives us a nice return to the character
development of Wally, and it’s good to see the focus
returning to the legacy of the speedsters which made Mark
Waid’s run the glory days of the franchise, but...
but Wally’s just so dumb here.
It’ll
take some time to see what direction this story’s
zipping off in, but the momentum from “Rogue War”
is fading fast. This issue’s pretty forgettable, but
a few more like it will bring Flash to a screeching
halt.
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