This month we honour Blue Beetle, X-Factor and Rasl.
By Isaac Mills, Miles Baker, and Owen K. Craig
Isaac’s Book of the Month
Blue Beetle #24
Written by John Rogers
Art by Rafael Albuquerque
DC Comics, 2008
Now is a good time for Blue Beetle fans. Ted Kord (Blue Beetle II) is alive and well in Booster Gold’s comic, the original Azure Avenger made a guest appearance in said Booster Gold comic and in the actual Blue Beetle comic, Jaime Reyes (Blue Beetle III) is taking on an ancient armada of alien antagonists… and scaring the living daylights out of them.
This issue follows up on Jaime getting the source of his powers ripped out of him and being thrown in a cell composed of pure “un-punchable-ium” (Jaime’s words, an awesome line). He escapes and proceeds wreck up the joint.
This series has always been about the idea that it’s what’s on the inside that makes a hero, that you don’t need fancy powers or anything like that. A sweet idea, but it was always hard to take seriously while the protagonist was walking around with a battle suit of incredible power. Now the writer is putting his money where his mouth is with a powerless hero. Not that it’s all that hard, all John Rogers (writer) has to do is have Jaime win in a half believable way, and mission accomplished.
All the good guys are using kind of classic cliché action hero dialogue while fighting, and I love every bit of it. There’s maybe like, one second where it’s a little too cheesy even for me: “Brenda, I’m not dismissing you. Jaime always said you were unstoppable. You could do anything. That’s why I’m trusting you and only you — to save my daughter!” That’s pretty bad soap opera style right there, then Brenda gets knocked out by a rock about two panels later, so that’s kind of an anticlimactic story point. There really was about two comics worth of stuff in this issue, so it moves incredibly fast, a fact I love. I’ve had enough decompression in comics, let’s have more bang for my buck, am I right!? I’ll take that silence as an agreement on your part.
While the art by Rafael Albuquerque is very expressive on the different characters, there is an issue regarding the scarcity of the backgrounds. But I’m a realistic guy, if he had to draw every single background he wouldn’t have had enough time for the awesome characters to be done… and the issue wouldn’t have been done for a billion gajillion years. And that would be terrible.
Miles’ Book of the Month
X-Factor #28
Written by Peter David
Art by Pablo Raimondi
Marvel Comics, 2008
I’m sorry to readers of X-Factor who didn’t pick up the Messiah Complex crossover. First, because it meant months of no X-Men comics, but also because they would have a hard time knowing what is going on in this issue. But me — who followed this series before, during, and after Messiah Complex? I loved this issue.
It could be argued that X-Factor Investigations lost the most after Messiah Complex. Team members were lost, scattered, pushed to terrifying places, and then put back down as broken people. Peter David picks up all the pieces, waves them around to show you how they are broken (some are even more broken than you realized), and then ends with Rictor getting a second kick to the teeth in that issue (one is literal, the other is figurative).
I don’t know what it is about me, but I like when I see characters and teams tearing apart at the seams. With Layla gone, the team finally realizes how important she’s been, which is sad and touching. Even Rictor, who trusted Layla the least, is broken up by her departure and is lashing out. Madrox, after his trip to the future in Messiah Complex is one angry and confused man. All of them are looking for a release and taking it out on the wrong people — it makes for great reading!
Top it off with my one of my favourite artists working today and you’ve got my book of the month.
Owen’s Book of the Month
Rasl #1
Written and Drawn by: Jeff Smith
Cartoon Books, 2008
Sometimes just a taste of something is enough to get me salivating. Case in point: Jeff Smith’s new book Rasl. One issue in and I don’t know much about what’s going on, but I can’t wait to find out more. At this point, all we know is that this guy steals art, and has the power to escape by traveling through time and/or space. Or maybe another dimension, I’m really not sure. We don’t know his name, but we know that he looks badass while stealing the art and he drinks “a shot of Macallen, a Sam Adams and a Goose up with a twist.”
What’s more tantalizing, though, are the tidbits dropped throughout. Why does he have a tattoo that says “Maya”? How do those giant engines allow him to travel through time and/or space? Why does he need that wacky mask to do it? Who is the guy with the reptillian face? Why is Bob Dylan calling himself by his birthname? They’re intriguing questions, and after writing and drawing Bone Jeff Smith has earned my trust that he will answer them in a fun and satisfying way.
The art is every bit as charming, clean and expressive as we’ve come to expect from Smith. The character design for our lead is distinctive and badass, but in an endearing way. There’s something about black and white that just feels right for Smith’s art, and while the colours in the Bone reprints and Shazam: Monster Society of Evil were fun, the starkness of this book wouldn’t feel the same to me with greens and reds in there.
I loved this book. It left me with lots of questions, but all the right ones. I can’t wait to pick up the next issue and start the slow journey to answers.
Owen, I disliked RASL for pretty much every reason you liked RASL. Where you got a taste, I saw a picture on a menu. There was almost nothing in this book except two chase sequences, and while Smith draws a great chase, that isn’t enough.
You’re right about a couple of the mysteries, like I’m interested in seeing what happens with the Maya tattoo. If only because then there will be another character. So far the main character has had no one to play off of and that’s where you get your character. I feel I know next to nothing about this man.
I will pick up the second issue because Smith has a lot of credit in the bank with me, but there was next to nothing in this issue that made me want to pick up the second one.
Hey Miles, if you don’t end up loving this series then I owe you a beer. Maybe that’s why I loved it, I was anticipating the inevitable satisfying answers that we can be sure that Jeff Smith will give us. Somehow tantalizing questions are less irritating when the writer has your trust.