Isaac’s Book of the Month
Amazing Spider-Man #574
Written by Marc Guggenheim
Pencilled by Barry Kitson
Marvel Comics, 2008
Starting with the recap page we’re treated to a picture of Flash Thompson and the gang as drawn by John Romita Sr. from way back in the swingin’ 60s, as well as a brief history where Flash tells how his character has progressed over the years, chiefly in how he moved from enemy to friend to Peter Parker, and his time in the armed forces.
We open on a day in December, day 2104 of the Iraq War, and Flash Thompson is sitting in a hospital bed listening to Billy Joel’s “Christmas in Fallujah” on an iPod sent by Peter. We get a couple of lyrics on the page, but the most telling ones for Flash are “I’m fading from your memory, so I’m just as good as dead.” That just seems to refer to Flash’s conspicuous absence in the Brand New Day books thus far, while simultaneously adding a twinge of anti-war sentiment to this comic.
Along that line of thought, there’s also a moment where Flash, being interviewed by a four-star general, has to explain the term “cordon-and-search mission” to that same general, because he got his stars “working at the Pentagon.” It’s an example of the disconnect between those giving the orders and those on the front lines.
Most of the issue is about what landed Flash in the hospital with the prospect of the Medal of Honor. For every obstacle Flash has to face there’s a corresponding picture of Spider-Man that thematically relates. It’s a perfect example of how a person can be inspired to great things, even by a fictional character. True, from Flash’s perspective Spider-Man is real, but Spidey still has a mythic, incorruptible sense about himself to Flash, and from that point of view Flash and all of us “real people” get to see the same thing.
The first such picture of Spider-Man is the classic shot of him lifting the tonnes of rubble off himself after his fight with the Master Planner way back in Amazing Spider-Man #33, but as drawn by Barry Kitson of course. I’m such a sucker for that story — for that reference alone I probably made this Book of the Month.
I’m not going to tell you how this issue ends, there’s a bit of a twist to it, but they do a bunch of foreshadowing that I totally didn’t catch, but should have made me less surprised by the consequences.
The real reason this is Book of the Month (even I wouldn’t give it away for just a Master Planner reference, despite what I said two paragraphs ago) is because of this line from Flash Thompson that warms my heart: “What was going through my head was that the good guys think’a others before they think of themselves.”
Atta boy, Flash.
Miles’ Book of the Month
RASL #3
By Jeff Smith
Cartoon Books, 2008
I’m not sure if I’ve talked about this before, but there’s such a thing as the creative bank. It’s where creators assemble credit for doing excellent work. For example, Joss Whedon has exceptional credit; even if Dollhouse really stinks, I’d still care about his work enough that I would be excited about his next project. However, George Lucas, after three very bad Star Wars movies and one unforgivable Indiana Jones movie, is firmly in the red and I’ll be sending a couple goons to “liquidate” his “assets” soon — they’re going to break his arms so he can’t write no more.
The point of this is to say that after reading Bone, Jeff Smith has built up a lot of credit, which is why I was determined to follow RASL even though the first two issues didn’t thrill me. Mostly, they just set up mysteries and answered very little. There was no hook, except for the exceptional artwork of Jeff Smith.
This issue, however, fixed all that. Thankfully, there are still some of those mysteries around, but Smith gave me enough character and background moments to anchor this series in a way he hadn’t yet accomplished. This doesn’t mean the first two issues were bad, it’s just that they’ll read a lot better when collected. In the context of a graphic novel this series is perfectly paced; however, with this floppy’s slow shipping schedule it’s a little slow. However, this issue did enough right things to make sure I’ll be there for the next issue — in March.
Also, in the right column, he introduced a character named “Miles” and that always wins with me (even if that character is a bit of a douche).
