Isaac’s Book
T-Bird and Throttle #0
Written by Josh Howard
Art by Josh Howard and Otis Frampton
Viper Comics, 2008
Though I suppose it’s possible they were around earlier, I think the idea of an issue zero comic came about when DC had its Zero Hour crossover over a decade ago. The tie-ins for that story often came in the style of an issue zero in all of DC’s books, detailing some odd time displacement adventure, like Tim Drake (Robin III) meeting a younger Dick Grayson (the original Robin), while also reflecting about the title characters’ origin story a bit. This was a clever way of making every issue a jump on point for new readers, as well as an attempt to get everyone thinking every zero issue was essential to the main Zero Hour story.
Since then there has always been an issue zero or two appearing at the bookstores. I can think of an issue zero I received, probably during a Free Comic Book Day, about Invincible. Though the events of that issue took place in between issues 23 and 24 (or something around there), it served as an independent recap of everything that had happened in the series thus far, obviously a jumping on point again for new readers.
This issue zero of T-Bird and Throttle has been released before issue one, so it doesn’t follow the conventions I’ve thus far laid out concerning issue zeroes… so it should really be an issue one. The creators think they’re following those conventions, using a “comic in a comic origin story” framing device, but it’s really an awkward character introduction for the hero T-Bird to be reading us his origin from a comic in his world. All that usually does is end up taking the reader out of the story, bluntly reminding us that we’re reading fiction. You kind of have to be Grant Morrison to create an effective dialogue between yourself and a fictional character — and even then it doesn’t always work. To be fair, the way T-Bird and Throttle is told isn’t in that “comic character conversing with real people” manner, it just has clearly been influenced by those kinds of stories that have gone before it.
That influence is what is great about this comic. The clichés, the framing devices, the stylised Animated DC Universe style art, and the attempts to subvert our natural comic story reading expectations, all of this could only be accomplished by people with a real love of the comic creating craft. It’s fun to read a book that these guys clearly enjoyed making. Hopefully they will continue to learn from experience and other creators, and their stories will just get better and better.
Miles’ Book
I Kill Giants #2 (of 7)
Written by Joe Kelly
Art by JM Ken Miimura
Image Comics, 2008
I have a feeling that I would have liked I Kill Giants more if I had read the first issue. There’s a lot about it that appeals to me: the art, the tone, an element of fantasy mixed with reality. But I had too many questions or quibbles that I think would have been rectified by reading the first issue.
For example, I found a lot of the characters to be shallow, or one-note, throughout the book. All issue, Barbara and Sophia, our protagonists, do the same thing over and over again. Eager-but-awkward Sophia tries to win Barbara’s friendship, while Barbara is rude to everyone and acts strangely. And I have a feeling I wouldn’t see this as a problem if I had read the first issue.
I also really didn’t understand the significance of the ending, but I guess that’s the price you pay when you review a book entirely out of context.
But on the positive side, the art is fantastic, as is the publication design. I mean, look at that cover, it’s awesome. The coolest art trick is when Barbara releases some pixies (I’m not really sure why) and they are drawn as pure white lines with a hint of halo around them. The effect is that the pixies look both see-though and glowing, which is a hard effect to pull off in a black and white book.
And speaking of books, I think I Kill Giants will work a lot better as a graphic novel than as a serial. So keep an eye out for that. I think.
Yeah, when dealing with Joe Kelly, you have to read the whole thing. Could you imagine jumping into his Obsidian Age Justice League story at any point other than the beginning? The Justice League dies at least twice in that story.
Actually, that one is pretty hard to follow even if you had read the whole thing.
Once you get to the end though it feels awesome.
Another issue zero that appeared before the series issue #1 was the first issue of James Robinson’s Starman, which was also a Zero Hour spin-off. So this kind of issue isn’t completely without precedent.
I know you’re the Starman expert Jimmy, but I really don’t believe you on that front. I know the events of Zero Hour preceded the Starman series, making the original Starman older, so intellectually it should make sense, but it couldn’t have been an issue zero running concurrently with the rest of the Zero Hour stuff… that doesn’t make any sense to me.
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/thumb/b/be/Starman_v.2_0.jpg/350px-Starman_v.2_0.jpg
I believe that’s the Zero Hour logo in the upper right corner?
And Starman was directly spun out of Zero Hour. Jack Knight’s first appearance was in the first issue of that series.
No, I’m pretty sure you photoshopped that. Using all of your photoshop skills.
With photoshop.