House Rules! - Week of 02/22/06

This week: Supergirl #5, ASM #529... also AXM #13, Vigilante #6, and Wonder Woman #226

Supergirl #5

"Power - Chapter Five: Supergirls"

Writer: Jeph Loeb
Art: Ian Churchill/Norm Rapmund

Note-a-Quote: "Please. Make a move on us." - Black Canary (Dinah has one line in the entire book, and it makes me want to have her babies. And no, I didn't mistype that. For you, Dinah, I will grow a womb.)

Two girls, sharing similar abilities but different backgrounds. Each with their own purpose and desires. Both in short skirts and revealing tops. Both incredibly, almost disturbingly thin. Both ready to fight to the death.

But enough about Paris and Nicole, let's talk about these two Supergirls that are flying around.

As our story opens, "Evil Kara" recounts her "origin" wherein her father Zor-El sends her after the spaccraft launched by his brother Jor-El. Unlike the story "Good Kara" would spin, in Evil Kara's tale Jor-El is anything but the loving brother. Upset with always being dismissed and disputed by his younger brother, Jor-El sends his only daughter on a special mission to find her younger cousin Kal-El... and kill him. EK is sent in a ship designed to imbue her with yellow sun power (like Sunny Delight! Sorry, I needed a product plug in here...) and also designed to create an "innocent" persona to allow her to hide until it was time to strike.

Of course, a few things throw a wrench into her plans. The ship doesn't manage to escape all of the planet's destruction, and by the time she gets to Earth, Kal-El is a grown man. So the evil one has to bide her time further, waiting, watching, only rising to the surface briefly when Darkseid controlled Kara. Darkseid sensed the evil, and told Lex to use the black kryptonite to release Kara's inner darkness.

Giant Boobies!

Sorry. Just wanted to wake up everyone that drifted off halfway through that explanation. So Good Kara and Bad Kara fight it out. Rrowr! Cat fight! Now I have your attention back. The fight gets broken up by the Justice League members still on the moon. Both Karas suggest that the JL run for it, but the League's having none of that. Evil Kara takes off, and Good Kara tells J'onn to, "Warn him that we're coming," before taking off as well. Hawkman tries to get J'onn to chase the pair down, but J'onn refuses, noting that "he" will deal with them when they get there.

While Good Kara recalls how she's ended up fighting all the superheroes she's come across because they sensed a "darkness" within her, Bad Kara ambushes her in space. The pair crash down on the planet in none other than Gotham City, where the Batman is waiting for them. Good Kara hopes that Batman brought his K-ring with him. Evil Kara tries to put down Batman, but... well, he's Batman. Good Kara tries to help out, but Batman warns her to stay clear as it's being handled. Good Kara gets smacked back out of the fight, and again wonders why Batman won't use the stupid K-ring. She rushes back in to try and help him, then gets the point. Superman and Wonder Woman are also on the scene.

Bad Kara rushes Good Kara and smacks her into a dust crater... or so it would seem. The dust settles and it appears Good Kara has the upper hand. Superman sweeps in and right crosses Bad Kara... or so it would seem. Bad Kara asks Superman what the heck he's doing, and it then becomes apparent that something is up. Bad Kara accuses Good Kara of switching their costumes (kinky!). Good Kara, naturally, says that her twin is lying. Superman, unable to deduce which is which since they're identical, decides that the best way to resolve the issue is to punch everyone with an S on their chest until he's the only one standing. It works about as well as it sounds like it should.

A mini-super melee ensues, but things finally settle down after a few smacks are laid down by all. Bats whips out the K-ring (yeah, he had it the whole time), one Kara pins the other down, Diana ties them up with her lasso and... mmm, lasso... huh? Oh. Diana ties the two Karas up and asks the question, "Who are you? (Who, who... who, who!)" The action fuses the two Karas back into one Kara, who tells the assembled trio that what was in the past is past and that they as her foster parents, the three of them will help dictate what she becomes in the future. Happy endings all around. See you next year!

This issue... hmm. You know, I could say that Mr. Loeb and I have a love/hate thing going on. Some of his work really works for me, and then every now and then something just sits wrong. this sits wrong for one very important reason. The title of this book is Supergirl. She's related to Superman. Why then, when it comes to characterization, are the two S characters the only ones doing things out of character?

Case in point: Superman, when pressed with the dilemma of which Kara is which, decides to attack both. Huh? Seriously, here... this is the same dilemma that I've seen countless times before in a hundred different shows and movies. There's always a way to tell which one is which. If nothing else, he could have just waitied until one Kara told him to take out both of them, because that's how they usually figure it out. But no, the Last Son of Krypton uses the same amount of logic that the Hulk does in this situation. The heck?

Adding to this insanity is Clark's initial attack method. He fires off a beam of heat vision at Wonder Woman. Now mind you, she deflects the beam and hits both Karas, which is presumably what Supes wanted. But the expression Diana has the spilt second he does it doesn't indicate this is a plan she was aware of. In fact, the expression is more akin to, "WTF?!" So you see my confusion here. If your own allies aren't sure why you're doing something, how can we believe it makes sense?

To further the S-problems in the book, we have the deulling Karas. Now mind you, the artist makes it pretty clear which is which and that switch has taken place (more on this in a second), but when Superman attacks both Karas, what happens next? Clearly, Good Kara should be able to deduce that Superman is only trying to be "fair and balanced" in his attack, possibly even trying to goad Evil Kara into retaliating. So what does Good Kara do? She launches a counter attack, just like her evil counterpart. What makes it worse is that even Evil Kara sees that the logical thing for Good Kara to do would be to stand down. To have the same relatively intelligent, thoughtful Kara from the beginning of the issue become the reckless, hyper-emotional kid that would be necessary to attack her own allies (...again... sigh...) makes no sense, especially when she's supposed to be separated from her darker impulses.

And to make this bad characterization even more highlighted, every other character in the book is portrayed well. The JL in their limited appearance all fit the bill, Batman and Wonder Woman are spot on (and its not out of character for her to smack an ally if they have it coming... see, it makes sense for her). The only ones that come off badly are Kara and Superman.
I won't harp on the art too much. Churchill delivers some nice images across the pages. Of particular good praise is the way he clearly helps define which Kara is which after the switch takes place. The shock and dismay on Good Kara's face as she realizes the costumes are switched is matched by Evil Kara's amused smirking as she lurks behind Superman and tells him how "evil" her doppelganger is.

But aside from the character flaws, the story was okay enough. It wasn't five dollar good (and why was this issue five bucks? If I had seen it befor eI paid for it, I might have thought twice about it), but it gets us back to one Supergirl. Hopefully it will stay that way.

Story: 4/10 (Good start, good finish; cofusing and mishmashed middle)
Art: 8/10 (Good art, and very good character expressions.)
Overall: 4/10 (You can live without it. I only recommend it if you like pretty pictures.)



Amazing Spider-Man #529

"Mr. Parker Goes to Washington (Part 1 of 3)"

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Art: Ron Garney/Bill Reinhold

Note-a-Quote: "The bird is voice only. I can't see in there. Nice tan, by the way." -Tony Stark (An obvious answer to an even more obvious question. And the visual is priceless.)

Peter Parker is awakened from his slumber by an insistent bird. I swear this isn't the start to some sort of randy bar joke. It turns out Tony Stark bought his P.A. system out of the Get Smart catalog. You might think I'm kidding, but you just know Tony's got a shoe phone laying around somewhere. Anywho, Tony calls Peter into the lab because Tony is done putting the finishing touches on Peter's new costume. Tony runs through a list of the suit's components, and the darn thing has more special features than the new Ultimate Avengers DVD (it never hurts...). After taking care of one more loose end, there's nothing left to do but take the suit out for a joyride.

Cut to... a pair of lowly thugs evade the police while carrying a hostage in their trunk. As they plot their next evil maneuver and the demise of their hostage, they spot what will be their undoing: Spider-Man! But haha, the bad guys are safe because there's nothing around to let Spidey swing over to where their car is. As the crook points out, "What's he gonna to do... fly?"

Now you know Tony can't build a suit that doesn't fly. It just ain't pratical. And although technically it's a glide, Peter swoops down on the evil doers and shows them the error of their ways. Crooks in custody, hostage recovered, alls well that ends... he's got a gun! The one crook can't let it go and tries to shoot the web-slinger. The hostage is in the way! The one thing Spidey's new suit doesn't have is Spider-sense!

... but, you know, Peter still has that on his own, so he knows danger's coming. He gets between the hostage and the bullet and takes one for the team... well, the lady. But fear not, true believers. Spidey is now bullet proof. Screw that. He's freaking invulnerable.

Later that evening, Peter confronts Tony with an obvious question: why build a new Spidey-suit? The answer is not so obvious. Tony explains that there's some rough times up ahead, and that he needs someone with him that he can depend on. Tony wants to hire Peter on has his second, his protege, his... apprentice . Where the heck did that come from? Anyway, Tony needs someone with him that can back him up through what's coming, no matter what . ... the heck?

Given how Tony's stood by him through the previous hard times, Peter accepts his new position with Tony. Tony welcomes Peter in, and gives Peter a folder to review before they head on their trip. Peter opens the folder and gawks as he reads a letter; it's a request for Tony Stark to appear before the Metahuman Investigations Committee... in Washington!

Oh, please. You know they're going to Washington. It's in the freaking issue title.

Once again, JMS delivers a solid issue. It's a relatively simple and short tracked story, but it fills in a lot of details and answers a lot of questions. Most notedly, it explains why Tony Stark builds a new suit for Peter. Granted, you'd think it's something Tony would do at some point for a fellow Avenger if requested (or maybe even if not), but to see Tony with an unlterior motive gives it a bit more grounding. I'll reserve a good deal of commentary on said costume, as I'll be going into that in more detail in another article, but the new suit goes through the motions well here.

I'm unclear on whether or not the page design fell to the artist or if it's the work of the writer's scripting, but there's some really well designed panel work here. The layouts help the storytelling as well as setting up the humor at some points. A good example of this is the page where Peter asks Tony about why MJ's arm is okay when it was clearly broken during his previous run-in with Morlun. Tony spouts a fantastic meld of techno-babble and pure B.S., and then Peter and Tony both silently stare out of the panel, breaking the fourth wall, as it were. And somehow, despite what it is, it still works beautifully within the story.

If there's one complaint that I might register, it's that Peter doesn't really look like Peter out of his costume. I can count on one hand the number of times where I saw him drawn and thought to myself "If I saw him outside of his own book, I'd know that was Peter Parker." A minor complaint, but one that I'm willing to register.

The character usage gets a big thumbs up from me as well. Peter is the focus (as he should be), but his supporting cast gets a lot of good lines and fleshing out as well. JMS manages to make Peter and MJ seem at home in Avengers Tower, something I didn't think would be possible. MJ in particular always ends up managing to steal at least one scene for herself, which is the way it should be. Tony Stark makes a perfect ally/supporting cast member. I enjoy the notion of his role as mentor to Peter and hope that it leads to mroe positive interaction with them. Heck, even bit roles are portrayed pretty nicely. From cocky 3rd string crooks to an unnamed cop that ends up intimidating the would be spider killer, they all play their parts and do it well. Even the ever-looming notion of having to go behind Steve Rogers' back provides its own little character moment. Cap exerts his presence, and he doesn't even appear in the book.

It's good to know that in the aftermath of The Other, JMS can spin a good tale. Or at least the start of one. As a lead in to the upcoming Civil War arc, this gets things off on a strong note, if not one with small, ominous overtones .

You should probably ignore the ominous music. Probably. At least until Peter stops calling Tony "Boss" and starts referring to him as "Master."

Story: 8/10 (a nice debut for the new spider-duds)
Art: 7/10 (better than average, and the good moments are priceless)
Overall: 8/10 (Need a point to start reading Spider-Man? This is as good as any, kids.)


House Shots (short reviews of other titles this week)


Astonishing X-Men #13

"Torn"

Writer: Joss Whedon
Art: John Cassaday

The Skinny: Joss is back and he's bringing a lovable squad of muties with him. In this issue we learn more about Emma Frost's ties to the new Hellfire Club (and Cassandra Nova). The X-team resumes training on the kids that are left at the Academy. Kitty makes a move on Piotr. A shadowy figure compels Emma to make a move on Scott. An evil move, mind you. And if that's not enough, Sebastian Shaw still wears a neckerchief. An evil neckerchief. Wrap your head around that.

My Take: It's a good opening volley from Whedon on his return to Astonishing. As usual, Joss does the important thing and gets the characters right. In particular, I enjoyed Kitty sitting in her room trying to psych herself up enough to go talk to Pete. But all of the X-Men have nice moments dealing with each other. Wolverine training children is eight shades of wrong, but it feels so right. Someone may want to keep a closer eye on him, though. And I hope the goverment agency SWORD is actually going to do something eventually, because I'm getting tired of looking at them.

Story: 6/10 (Building to something, but not quite there yet)
Art: 6/10 (Does what it does and tells the story)
Overall: 6/10


Vigilante #6 (of 6)

"Into the Night"

Writer: Bruce Jones
Art: Ben Oliver

The Skinny: After discovering that psychiatrist Justin Powell is, in fact, Vigilante (whoa. biiiiiiiig shock.... not) police psychologist Rene Taylor is forced to face off with the darker of his alter egos. After convincing Vigilante that the only way he can continue to exist is to merge his personality and Dr. Powell's into one through hypnosis, the pair is interrupted by "Killer" Kort and "Child-Killer" Culkins. Blah, blah, blah, bad guys dead, good guys carry the fight, etc. etc.

My Take: I want to like Vigilante. I really do. And to be fair, I like the character that's presented here. But I have two very specific problems with this story. First, it was painfully obvious throughout the series that Powell was Vigilante. Maybe not painfully, but I couldn't be the only one that had it pegged around issue 2. Because of that, the big reveal in issue 5 and the subsequent aftermath in issue 6 seems a bit anti-climactic.

Second, as this series is set in Metorpolis, there is no way on earth that Superman lets Vigilante operate there. I was willing to let Queston slide in his limited series because he was just visiting Metropolis and the Superman portrayed in that book was such a prick you just wanted stuff to go on under his nose. But Supes would never let an actual kill-the-bad-guys vigilante operate in his city for very long. But who knows? Maybe this new melded Vigilante willbe a little gentler with people. Yeah, right.

Add a cast of characters that were otherwise forgettable (I had to look back at an issue for each and every name I used here) and you get a mini-series that was okay, but probably didn't need six issues to hash out.

Story: 4/10 (Predictable story with odd twists. Meh...)
Art: 7/10 (Nice darkish visuals help set the mood, but can only do so much...)
Overall: 4/10 (Get it to complete your series, but otherwise don't bother.)
Overall (Series): 5/10 (It probably would have worked better with a two less characters and two less issues.)



Wonder Woman #226

"Cover Date"

Writer: Greg Rucka
Art: Cliff Richards/Ray Snyder

The Skinny: Through a series of tabloid covers and flashbacks, we get to see glimpses of Wonder Woman and Superman's relationship through various periods of time in Diana's life. The whole thing ends with the here and now, where Diana inspires people to do the right thing one more time before heading off to help a friend in need.

My Take: As "final" issues go, this is a good one. From the tabloid covers peppered with their own little inside jokes to the actual meat of the conversations betwen Kal and Diana, it's all one nice package.

Despite the news rag's implications to the contrary, Wonder Woman and Superman have a close but ridiculously plationic relationship. If it were any other individuals except them, I probably wouldn't buy it, but because it's them it works. From the way the two relate to each other to the way Diana turns a group of rioters into would-be fire fighters with just her words, you couldn't really ask for a better bookend to this volume of Wonder Woman.

Do you get the impression that I liked this book?

And I dare you not to look at the cover montage at the end of the book that includes Superman wearing Wonder Woman's costume and no have it haunt your dreams. I dare you...

Story: 8/10 (A little more poignant if you know the history, but as good as a one-shot story gets)
Art: 6/10 (Not as defined as it could be, but carries the story.)
Overall: 8/10 (The End. until Wonder Woman #1 this summer, that is.)


T-Mail! (replies to posts and e-mails)

Cory Sanchez posted...
Great reviews. Looking forward to more of them.
I'm not crazy about the subtitle 'House Shots', but have failed to think of anything better.

House Says: Thanks for the vote of confidence, Cory. I'm not all that crazy about it, either, but I'm still at a loss for an alternative myself. I try to look for titles that either incorporate something related to houses (because of my username) or something related to 'T' (as evidenced by this subtitle). I'll probably get over all that before it's over, though.

That's going to do it for this week. Remember kids, we're just weeks away from One Year Later. WAFOYL? Nah, that doesn't work at all. If you have any ideas/suggestions/comments, feel free to leave them here or contact me at th_houston75@hotmail.com. Please reference either "Waiting for Wednesday" or "House Rules!" in you subject, so I have some idea why you're mailing me.

Coming Soon in House of Ideas:

The Web-Slingers New Clothes: the breakdown on Spidey's new duds, and why you shouldn't worry if you don't like them.
Cracking the Blinds: In a new sub-feature, I break down exactly how my comic rating system works. For all four of you who care. :P
More T-Mail: And, if you're lucky, the introduction of the T-Mail song! Oh, you know you want to see that.

See you when I see you.