Miles’ Book
Green Arrow and Black Canary #15
Written by Andrew Kreisberg
Pencilled by Mike Norton
Inked by Josef Rubinstein
DC Comics, 2008
If an issue ever screamed “jumping on point” it would be this issue of Green Arrow and Black Canary. As the issue opens, Black Canary has a knife to her throat by a new, terribly named villain, Dregz. Green Arrow stands across the alley, bow in hand, ready to take the shot but unsure if Black Canary will be killed in the second it takes the arrow to reach Dregz. For some reason, this seems like a good moment for Green Arrow to reflect on his life, and other things that happened in a second.
So the rest of the book is a “this is your life, Oliver Queen” type issue. From what my esteemed colleague Isaac Mills told me, this is the first issue from a new writer and it’s almost like he’s writing an issue while learning about things that Ollie has done. The other effect is to establish readers with what he wants the status quo to be. In all, it feels like a filler issue because it is.
I don’t think it’s a very good filler issue either because long-time fans will know that all this stuff happened, and new readers don’t get enough to explain what’s happening in the flashbacks. I mean, you get that it’s his origin story (or the new retconned one), but that’s the only impact it has. There are, however, some intentionally funny moments of dialogue along the way that I liked.
I was really looking forward to Mike Norton’s artwork in this. Between his brief work on Runaways and Queen and Country, I’ve developed an interest in him. This, however, disappointed me. It didn’t look like the Norton I remembered. This is much more generic and I firmly blame the inker. The amazing Norton I remember had thin, effective lines and Rubinstein lays on heavy, thicker lines that take away from Norton’s unique style.
The issue does leave on a story beat that’s interesting. After Black Canary uses one of her sonic screams to incapacitate Dregz, the panel pulls back to reveal an elderly woman whose eardrums have shattered by the scream. However, neither of the title characters realize this and go home to have sex. It’s this kind of gross negligence that hooks me as a reader.
Isaac’s Book
Amazing Spider-Girl #27
Script, plot and pencils by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz
Finished art by Sal Buscema
Marvel Comics, 2008
I hate when stories are stretched out for too long; it’s a common problem these days, though I do avoid a fair amount of it by not buying most Marvel comics. The correct pacing for a story is still a tricky thing to find, and though it’s rare, a comic can also go too far towards the other end of the spectrum and be too rushed. You’ll usually find this happening when a creative team is booted off a book and (if they care) has to wrap up their various storylines in a rush.
Throughout Spider-Girl’s publication history she has been nearly cancelled several times, and whenever the axe is about to fall we get a fond farewell to Spider-Girl that contains a goodbye to the character while taking care of as many subplots as possible. Then she survives, and the writers have to start over creating their mysteries and adventures. As a result Spider-Girl’s stories are light, fun, and don’t require that much information to follow along.
We had gotten pretty far into this, Spider-Girl’s second series, and I wonder if the guys in charge were starting to think their book was uncancellable, because they started doing a clone story arc. Anyone who’s read some Spider-Man comics in the 90s knows that’s a dangerous prospect for keeping the fans. Well, last month the axe finally fell for real, Spider-Girl’s series will be done at #30, and she’ll be relegated to one of the stories in the Spider-Man Family book. It could actually have been a whole lot worse for her, so that’s good.
So, yes, lots of stuff happens in this issue: May (the true Spider-Girl) is trapped in the body of Arana due to some magic-psychic mind switching thing, and she’s got the spirit of another woman named May (obviously the departed Aunt May making an appearance) advising her like this was a Firestorm comic.
Arana (in Spider-Girl’s body) gets captured by some goons that take her to the Black Tarantula (Kingpin of crime that can shoot awesome omega beam-looking blasts from his eyes like Darksied). He wants her for some reason I forget, but Arana wants to meet up with the Tarantula there to assassinate him. Oh, they apparently had a thing years ago.
Another Spider-Girl (the clone of May, or the original who had been replaced by a clone years ago, not that that distinction really matters to anyone except cloneophobic Spider-People as always) is swinging around as Spider-Girl and impersonating May, which is a neat trick considering she doesn’t have any memories of these people so it shouldn’t be hard to figure out she’s a fake, and goes after Fury, the Goblin Queen who had previously kidnapped Peter Parker (May’s dad and the original Amazing-Spider-Man).
Peter Parker is currently being brainwashed into believing he is Norman Osborn (the first Green Goblin), orhe’s getting Norman’s memories implanted into him (which amounts to the same thing), and that has succeeded in creating one evil looking purple and green garbed Goblin for a final battle that will clear all the cobwebs of plot lines away again.
It’s a lot to take in, and I dreaded the inevitable misunderstandings and fighting between friends that this kind of situation creates.
But a phone call and a “tell me one thing only that person would know” later, and the situation is pretty well explained. Not only that, but Arana suffers a physical trauma at the Black Tarantula’s hand (or eyes rather) which snaps May back to her real body. Having that many problems solved so quickly and easily leaves me a little queasy; fictional problems don’t get solved that fast, it wrecks tension, and real problems don’t get fixed that fast because it’s far too improbable.
But boy do I want to read what comes next.
I rather enjoyed the 1.76 (or whatever) seconds gimmick that the Green Arrow book did, it reminds me of an old old old Superman story where he has to travel around the world and stop crimes and gather evidence or something before an innocent man is killed on death row, all in one minute, and the Flash has also done the trick of having an entire issue devoted to the actions of a few seconds (unless I’m making it up, and if I am, then I call dibbs on writing that story), so it’s interesting to see how this kind of super hero trope is accomplished by a non powered character- and just the sheer number of flashes of memory and feeling that a person can have in a moment is a fair way to approximate this.
But I’m biased, I’ve been wanting a non Judd Winick Green Arrow story for soo long. It is totally an easy jump on point for new readers.
The part at the end with the person who got hurt by the Black Canary, I was trying to figure out what happened there, I didn’t think Black Canary could break through a wall with her scream, but if she can then you’re right of course that would like burst the eardrums of whoevers inside. The violin paraphernalia inside certainly suggests that this violence will herald the birth of a new sinister Fiddler.
*snort* obviously it’s not the original Fiddler, since he was killed in the first issue of the fan favourite Villain’s United series a few years ago.