comickal: recently read, strange mirage edition

[iainpj]

And with that, let's just get to it, shall we?



Maxwell Strangewell (The Fillbach Brothers; Image)
Cover Type: Softcover
Page Count: 384
ISBN: 9781593077945
$19.95

Take equal parts every bad and tacky 50s and 60s science fiction movie you ever saw. (Only the bad ones, mind.) Add thought. Insert dash of 2001 A Space Odyssey. Blenderize. The result would look pretty much like Maxwell Strangewell. A sort of "The apparently fully-dressed alien who fell to earth from the sea", even.

Anna Gilmour is out in the woods one day when she sees what seems to be a meteor fall to earth. She goes to see what it is, and discovers this extremely tall alien. She decides to call him Max, after her childhood dog. Max, having almost no idea what's going on, follows Anna back to her father's place. Anna, needless to say, also has no real idea what's going on or what to do with the very tall alien. Everyone else, on the other hand ... well, let's just say that there are a startling number of people -- including a pair of Tibetan monks called Yin and Yang -- who have quite definite ideas on what to do with the Strangewell, as Max turns out to be. It's a long and extremely meaty wild ride, and a hell of a lot of fun. (Seriously, nearly 400 pages for $20 bucks. You can't say it's not value for money.)

The black and white art is highly stylized, and works very well with the story. The story telling style is fairly quirky -- given the material, it would have to be -- and works in a few interesting nudges here and there, including a sorta kinda tribute to 2001 that I'll bet most people miss completely (and no, I don't mean the pointed echo near the end). Highly recommended, and something that would work for almost all ages. Not very young people, purely because the storytelling is too complex, and you'd need to judge whether or not what little violence there is would be appropriate to, say 10 or 11 year olds, but entirely appropriate for anyone older than that.

The Spirit 7 (Various artists)
A fill-in issue, with three different storytellers and artists substituting for Darwyn Cooke. The technical highlight of the issue is Kyle Baker's tongue very firmly in cheek Sin City style sendup. (True confession: someone had to tell me what it was that Kyle Baker was making fun of, as I'd never read Sin City. That he was making fun of something was obvious -- I'm pretty sure that neither Eisner nor Cooke would have the Spirit do what he does, and they definitely wouldn't have Ellen do what she does -- but it did leave me a bit lost.) Anyway, worth a read.

Wasteland 10 (Mitten/Johntson; Image)
Once upon a time, I was considering just plain dropping this title. Somehow, it's become an issue that I seriously look forward to. (I keep thinking I should drop it to trade, to get the story collected, but it manages to tell its story in a way that keeps me coming back.) Mitten has managed not to do one of the things that annoyed me with his art in the past, where he had particular templates of men and women that he would keep recycling in ways that made it hard to tell which character was which. There's more detail in the art for Wasteland than there is in a lot of his other work, which helps, and his art is perfect for the story. This issue, we start edging toward a few answers as to what's going on, just in time for Michael and Abi to wind up deep inside a bad situation. We also get a map of the post-apocalypse world, of the sort that makes you say, "Wait ... where's the East coast? Where's California?"

Repo 1 (Rick Spears and Rob G; Image)
Guys in cars driving around repossessing other people's stuff. What's not to like? A perfect summer popcorn comic. (Except, you know, the oil and butter would get it all slimy.) Mind, that description is slightly ... incomplete. Repo takes place in the future (near future, sort of), a time in which human cloning works (sort of). Police put down vaguely disorganized gatherings with excessive and extreme prejudice, without even trying to make sure they're getting what they're aiming at. Plus, every once in a while, things go BOOM! And into this falls one of the most lucrative repo contracts in history, thereby making sure that every repo man, woman and child within a square parsec or two tries to fulfill its terms. Nice, sly sense of humor, and colorful but very slightly dark art that conveys the mood of the story. With promises of sex (or at least innuendo) to come, and bad bad language (they are repo, after all), mature audiences best, but the grownups will definitely enjoy it. (Five page preview at Image)

Madame Mirage 1 (Paul Dini/Kenneth Rocafort; Top Cow)

OK, let me just get this out of the way now, so's we can commence the nitpicking and mad snarkery: I basically liked this issue. Essentially, it takes the premise of Marvel's Civil War -- what if people with superpowers or super enhancements were essentially outlawed? -- and it takes it to the logical next step; superheroes, people trying to do the right thing would essentially be forced to stop doing so, and supervillains would have a field day. Eventually law enforcement, or something, would figure out how to take down a lot of the supervillains, so they'd go underground and be able to operate essentially unfettered ... until Madame Mirage makes the scene. The story is a little unfocused -- it drops you into the middle of what appears to be a fairly complicated caper, and explains on the run, so this is not an origin issue per se -- but it moves fast. The art -- to which many people will have many objects, and I may have a few (see below) -- is watercolor; painting may not be quite the best choice for a story that's going to need somewhat dark art to match the tone, but it is very good and does complement the story. Both men and women are, in general, drawn in a highly stylized manner; the main character is rather noticeably sexualized ... although there may be somewhat of a point to that (see below). If you can get past the desperate cheesecakeyness of parts of it, it's worth a shot, for mature audiences. (Note: the issue is "oversized" because about half of it appeared originally as the 99-cent issue 0 promotion. I'm of mixed opinions on how to handle issue 0 of titles; on the one hand, if you miss issue 0, you may miss critical character definition or story -- for example, with Virgin's Devi, people who missed issue 0 had entirely the wrong idea of who the main character was by the end of issue 1. On the other, making people pay for issue 0 twice seems like a Very Bad Idea. In this case, I think they'd have been better served by skipping issue 0, since we got it all over anyway.)

Now, to the snark!

The title got off to something of a weird start, with many people objecting before publicaton to the original cover, at left, when it appeared in promotions. Apart from the really impressive anatomical improbability (you try putting yourself in that position; your back would be screaming bloody murder in about two seconds, if you could even manage it ... and where, pray, are the poor woman's nipples?), many many people objected to the fact that it looked like a porno magazine cover, with Madame shoving her maracas out there. So Top Cow commissioned a more sedate cover by Greg Horn ... No, really ... No. REALLY. And, oddly enough, that's exactly what they got. Frankly, although it doesn't match the interior art as well (naturally enough), I think Horn's cover is far better in terms of matching the story that we get. That said, I do think the face has a bit less definition and character, but still, overall, a better match for the contents.

Oddly, I can appreciate that Madame might have something very specific in mind when it comes to her costume. (Assuming, for the sake of argument, that the costume is chosen by the character as opposed to her creators because it looks coooool.) Yes, she's trying to evoke a noir detective. I would also think she's deliberately trying to make her opponents underestimate her -- at least, there's no other reason for a costume so severely at odds with what she's trying to do. Consider: she's trying to bring down all sorts of super-enhanced criminals. By and large, since she and her assistant appear not to be enhanced themselves, they'll need to do this using stealth and trickery and all sorts of underhanded dealings. It can only help if their opponents look at Madame Mirage and see, essentially, a high-class showgirl. Her boots may be slightly more practical than they appear; going up to her thigh as they do, they'll allow her to have slightly more in the way of leg protection, as well as a place to stick stuff to carry around in a way that keeps it all within easy reach, yet somewhat concealed. The bolero also might provide a bit of protection for her back and upper arms, plus maybe easy to get out of if she needs to.

Where I do object to her costume is in terms of relative practicality of other aspects. Stiletto heels, when you're running around doing very bad things to very bad people who will then try to chase and kill you, are relentlessly impractical ... but anything else with that outfit would look very odd indeed, and of course stilettos are a superheroine staple, silly as they are. The dress ... well. Here's the thing: as depicted in the promo artwork, the bodice is the only thing to object to, and even that only mildly. In the promos (at right), the dress is shorter at the bottom, and considerably more covered up on top. And note her spunky partner (image at left; she's the one in brown); aside from the oddly high-cut thing on the side, that is a relentlessly practical outfit, probably perfect for what they do. (Note, also, spunky sidekick status apparently means not only a well-covered chest, but a smaller bosom. And the difference in costume, at least, makes sense for the characters, since the sidekick has the more active role for the moment.) As depicted in the comic itself, however ... Madame appears to have about a 3-5 foot train, and the bodice has managed somehow to drop quite a surprising amount, so that, if we were in any doubt, we now know for sure that Madame is one of the nipple-free brigade. Also, despite having a rather large bosom, she apparently doesn't worry about coming out of that dress, even though she's fairly physically active. In a final moment of snark, I will also note that on the next to last page, Madame somehow manages to have a dress with a 3-5 foot train, side-split, blowing off to the side and back like a low-slung cape ... and cameltoe, all at once. I didn't even think that was possible. (The oddly clingy fabric does reveal that she has a very athletic body, by the by. Madame has six pack abs.)

(Purely a side note: I have a rant about the costumes of female superheroes that starts with Wonder Woman and Black Canary, middles somewhere Power Girl and the Magickal Cleavage window and the concept that no flying superheroine anywhere would likely wear a skirt, and ends with Catwoman and Jakita Wagner of Planetary. For today, I shall refrain.)

Snark aside -- and it is to be hoped that the art might tighten up, just a tad -- the story itself really and truly is worth a look. Irritations aside, I did like it. And here's hoping for somewhat less breastacular covers in the future.