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Flying
monkeys and babes. This is my heaven.
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Jason
Schachat's
Occasional Breakdown
12/13/05 page 3
page
1 here, page
2 here Thankfully,
Y: The Last Man #40 gives us
a bit of a kick in the ass with a visit from one of our
favorite formerly psycho sisters: Yorick’s sister
Hero. And, before you can write it off as just another romp
with her imaginary friend and that darn ninja who stole
Yorick’s monkey (no, not a colorful metaphor), writer
Brian K. Vaughan gives us two things we’ve been longing
to see: the results of Yorick’s one moment of weakness
while remaining faithful to his fiancé and nuns bent
on world domination.
Okay,
so maybe we weren’t expecting the nuns.
However,
the fact that Yorick knocked up the only girl he’s
slept with since the disaster that slaughtered every other
man on the planet is pretty incendiary. Not only will this
make it even harder to cover up his increasingly well known
existence, but we also get to look forward to that moment
when he finally does catch up with his girlfriend and has
to explain that he’s now a father.
This
outing also warms us up to Hero a bit more. She may have
screwed up bad, in the past, but she really isn’t
as bloodthirsty as her poor temper might suggest. Of course,
all that may change when she discovers that the Israelis
murdered her mom, but it’s good to see her relax for
a moment first.
After
the amount of time we’ve spent with Yorick, 355, and
Dr. Mann, it’s good to get in this break before they
head to Japan with their newfound Australian lesbian spy
(ain’t this book just great?). For followers of Y,
this story makes for a great little oneshot. Unfortunately,
I can’t recommend it for newbies, since it depends
so heavily on the reader’s knowledge of past events.
A must for anyone who’s read Y before, but
not a good jumping-on point.
And,
though Gotham Central #38 starts
a new arc about corrupt Crime Scene Investigator Jim Corrigan,
it also isn’t a good jumping-on point.
Well,
I guess that all depends...
If you
last remember Jim Corrigan as The Spectre or a socially
crippled guy with thin hair in an extremely long graphic
novel, it’ll take you a few pages to catch up. If
you remember Renee Montoya as Harvey Bullock’s partner
and not an edgy lesbian out for a little of the old ultra-violence,
it’ll take a few more pages. If you don’t know
anything about the corrupt Gotham Police Department... well,
you’ve probably never read a Batman book then, so
you might as well just hop on and enjoy the ride.
The
plot separates out into three perspectives that weave around.
First, we’re with Detective Cris Allen as he tails
some Narco cops known to work with Corrigan. Then, we join
Renee Montoya as she picks fights at a lesbian bar. Finally,
we’re with Corrigan himself, going through the dirty
business of making a quick buck off of other peoples’
misfortunes while hiding behind a badge.
The
interesting obstacle here is that Montoya’s new proclivity
for violence has botched previous investigations of Corrigan’s
crimes, so Cris has to go this one alone. Not just without
Montoya, but without any help from the rest of the department,
either.
As you
might assume, things don’t go well.
Gotham
Central was going really well with the “Dead
Robins” arc, but this new Corrigan story feels a bit
odd after last month’s Infinite Crisis crossover.
One minute, we see complete and utter chaos consuming Gotham.
The next, we’re back on track with Renee, Cris, and
Corrigan. Jarring, to say the least.
And,
while the issue is well written, it isn’t until the
end that we get the big surprises. Until then, it feels
like writer Greg Rucka is trying to refresh our memories
of all the history with Corrigan (which is to say the post-Spectre
history, of course). The places this story could lead us
are interesting, but the issue itself left me uninspired.
If you like the Gotham Central hard-bitten detective style,
it’s a good buy, but, if you’re well acquainted
with the book and want things to get moving, you might be
a bit disappointed.
Page
4: Marvel Zombies #1 and Outsiders #31...
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