What I’ve Been Reading 5/6/09

So I did get around to seeing “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” over the weekend. I’m saving the bulk of my opinion on the assumption that we’ll be talking about it on “No Podcast for Old Men” in the next week or two, but I will say that I thought it was alright. Jackman nails the character of Wolverine like he did in the “X-men” movies, the rest of the cast also did a pretty good job with theirs (and my fears that Liev Schreiber was “too cerebral” an actor for Sabertooth were mostly unfounded), and things blew up nicely. The film’s biggest problem is that it fails to emotionally involve you in what’s going on. It has some decent ideas about how Wolverine became who he is, but the execution fell flat more often than not.

So for now, it seems that comics are still the place to go for the Wolverine stories that really matter (assuming you’re the kind of person that thinks a Wolverine story can “really matter”). On that note, the rumor came out today that writer Jason Aaron, best known for “Scalped” and assorted other Wolverine projects, will be taking over “Punisher MAX” with artist Steve Dillon with issue #75. After I lost my reason to care about the series after Garth Ennis left, naming Aaron as the new ongoing writer would actually get me to buy the series again. If you’re wondering why that’s a good thing, just click on the link below.

Wolverine: Manifest Destiny #1-4 Yes, those numbers mean that I bought this in single issue form. Why’s that? Because I found this preferable to paying $30 for an oversized hardcover containing the miniseries plus four other “Manifest Destiny” one-shots I don’t care about. Of course I wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of picking these up if I hadn’t heard this series was as good as it is. Jason Aaron and artist Stephen Segovia (with Paco Diaz Luque picking up the slack in the final two issues) bring Wolverine to San Francisco and toss him straight into a 50-year-old vendetta involving the nastiest gang in Chinatown. These four issues are essentially one big kung-fu movie and it’s as violent, ridiculous, and entertaining as you’d expect. Aaron makes the most of a formula setup with excellent pacing, good use of flashbacks, and lots of witty dialogue while Segovia and Diaz Luque show the story with style. Yes, these four issues are more expensive than a ticket to “Wolverine,” but they’re ultimately more entertaining.

Scalped vol. 4: The Gravel in Your Guts When I last discussed Aaron and artist R.M. Guera’s brutal Indian reservation crime drama, I expressed hope that Dash Bad Horse’s character arc had reached its nadir and he was going to start on the path of redemption from here on out. This volume takes that notion, beats it to a bloody pulp, chops it up, and feeds it to the dogs with one sentence: “Can you show me how to smoke that?” So from here on out, I’ve let go of the notion of Dash earning any kind of redemption (before it’s too late…) and am looking forward to seeing just how far down the spiral he’ll go. Chief Red Crow, on the other hand, finds himself pushed to the limit with the brutal methods the Hmong’s enforcer, Mr. Brass, is using to make sure their investment in his casino is rewarded. The beauty of this series continues to lie in the moral ambiguity of its characters as Red Crow isn’t an evil man, but he’s done some very, very bad things for the sake of what he thinks is the greater good; and, even though Mr. Brass is an out-and-out monster, Red Crow’s methods for achieving his goals are only marginally less brutal. Excellent stuff all around.

Green Arrow: Year One This is the only Green Arrow comic that I own that isn’t written by Kevin Smith. Like nearly all superheroes, my interest in the character extends only as far as who’s writing him. In this case, it’s Andy Diggle with his frequent collaborator Jock on board to provide the art. They’re not the most famous duo in the comics business, but after their work on Vertigo’s “The Losers,” I’ll buy pretty much anything they work together on. That said, this isn’t up to the same heights as “The Losers,” but I wasn’t expecting it to be, and it succeeds in its aim to provide an entertaining action story that freshens up the characters origin story for the new century. (And for Hollywood as well, I imagine, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.) The story is simple enough: spoiled young millionaire playboy Oliver Queen gets marooned on an island by a trusted friend and is forced to hone his archery skills in order to survive. Things go beyond just surviving when he finds out that the island is also home to some opium traders who have enslaved the local population to do their dirty work. What ensues is both entirely predictable, yet still manages to be good fast-paced fun. Recommended for fans of Diggle/Jock, the character, or people who’ve wondered what his appeal is.

Nightschool vol. 1 Writer/artist Svetlana Chmakova produced one of the best examples of OEL manga with “Dramacon” a few years back. She displayed real style, energy, and talent with her writing and art on the series and wound up winning me over to it despite the fact that it was aimed at anime fangirls a good decade younger than I am. (I realize there’s no way to make that last bit sound not creepy, but you’re just going to have to live with it. Or buy the “Ultimate Edition” and find out why I was won over.) “Nightschool” is her new series, currently being serialized monthly in Yen Press’ “Yen+” anthology, and while I liked it, the first volume isn’t quite the home run I was expecting. Essentially the series is about what happens after midnight at a local school that doubles as a learning facility for vampires, werewolves, witches, and other nightkin go for their classes. The first volume focuses on Alex, a young Weirn (a particular breed of witch, as the back cover informs us) whose education is handled through homeschooling and her older sister Sarah who works as a “night keeper” (think “administrator”) at the school. Chmakova’s art is as good-looking and energetic as it has always been, but she drops the ball in the beginning as there are some crucial worldbuilding details that were left out. Things like showing how the school actually functions (we only get a few semi-connected scenes of school life), showing us where these human “hunters” come from, and what the particulars of this “treaty” they keep talking about are. I’m sure she’ll get around to explaining everything in time, but these are things that need to be considered when you’re springing a whole new world on the reader. Even so, Chmakova knows how to tell a story and even if we’re not entirely sure of all the fundamentals of her world, we’re still invested enough in its characters to find out what’s going to happen to them in the next volume.