By Miles Baker and Isaac Mills
Isaac’s Book
Hellblazer #242
Written by Andy Diggle
Art by Leonardo Manco
Vertigo Comics, 2008
Hellblazer is probably one of the worst books to get me to review – I’m a super hero guy, so I have little to no experience with this title in the past. If it weren’t for Swamp Thing I probably wouldn’t even know who John Constantine (the hero of the book) is. Of course, knowing who Constantine is helps very little with this issue, he was hardly in it. The majority of the comic is about two bad guys attacking each other, focusing on a fellow named Mako who indulges in very graphic violence – dismemberment, stabbing, shooting, and magical beheadings.
This particular story is the conclusion to a three part tale called “The Laughing Magician”, and although said magician may have looked awesome in parts one and two, in three he summons a little ineffective magical fire and is then brutally tortured and murdered. But maybe that was a random magician who went by the name of Laughing Magician, but the real Laughing Magician was Constantine’s unborn twin brother…
Yeah. I don’t know. As Superman would say- “I hate magic.” It just makes no sense.
Constantine wasn’t really cool here either; he watches a cigarette light itself, and that means something awesome to him, and it means nothing to me. All I could really get was that at the end he believes Mako is dead, when the reader knows he isn’t. So in a future issue, Constantine is in for it for reals.
The art was a little too David Mack for me, kind of a painted impressionistic style, making things less clear, but definitely scary looking. That was the main goal I think, so mission accomplished there.
Clearly this book wasn’t my cup of tea, but I really don’t think this was a well done issue by itself. That said, there is a giant dog pictured on the cover that has nothing to do with anything, but is kind of awesome.
Always got to end on a positive note.
Miles’ Book
Daredevil #106
Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Paul Azaceta
Marvel Comic, 2008
Oh DD, how I love you. I’ve been a tradewaiter on this series for a long, long time. Mostly because I’m cheap and my friend buys them so I borrow them to follow Matt’s fucked up life. But, for reals, I should be buying this book on a monthly basis because I like it so much.
I honestly can’t say that this is a good issue of Daredevil. It’s merely okay. If you didn’t know anything about the character going in you might say “who is that whiney bitch with the glasses?” and then I would say, “Dude, that guy is blind. Show some respect.” And then you would feel bad.
But you wouldn’t have been wrong.
Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil, has perfect reason to be a little sad. Some random supervillian just turned his wife into a crazy, murdering lunatic in addition to how fucked up he made her life anyway. Throw in that he’s a Catholic and he becomes the Kingpin of Guilt City, a seat he fills regularly.
Thankfully, Brubaker takes us out of Matt’s head for this sad-a-thon and gives us the supporting cast’s view of Matt’s latest bout of self destruction. This serves the readers in two ways: one, you get to see that even Matt’s friends are seeing a pattern; and, two, that Ben Urich is a really nice guy. That’s what this issue solidified for me most: that I really like Ben Urich. Ben is a star reporter, now editor, who figured out Daredevil’s identity long ago, but refused to report it because Daredevil did too much good for the city. Honestly, Ben’s ethics are better than Clark Kent’s. The man is such a stand up guy. He knows he could have a killer story if he would just report on Daredevil’s identity, but his friend means so much more to him doing the good he does.
That all said, nothing really happens in this issue besides moping. If I didn’t have such a warm spot for The Man Without Fear, I would rip this issue apart – but that’s not going to happen. While this issue isn’t the most exciting Daredevil, it does serve to strengthen the supporting cast around him. And that’s good enough for me.
Issac, it’s funny that you mention Mack’s painting style because the same week this came out, Marvel released a New Avengers with his pencils on it. That’s right, he just drew it.
No mixed media. No paints. It’s bizarre.
Wow, I just discovered this website this morning and I LOVE it. This is so going on my live bookmarks toolbar (you guys are right, Internet Explorer sucks). Miles: Great review and I couldn’t agree more. For me, when being a hardcore DD fan gets to be too depressing (which it did in #106), I make fun of it. For anyone who wants to take a look at my South Park inspired parody of that (beautiful) cover, click my name. Sorry for the shameless plug, just thought I’d share it. :)