[SEARCH FOR “ROMANTIC LOBO” AND THIS IS WHAT YOU GET]

Oh, what a tiny week. I only bought three new issues this week — Freedom Fighters 5, Lobo 100 Page Spectacular 1 and Scratch 9 number 4. I flirted with the idea of buying that new Weird Worlds, but honestly, who cares about Garbage Man? He’s the poor man’s Swamp-Thing, isn’t he? And Tanga (or whatever her name is) sounds like a horrible dance club on the Landing. Post-holiday doldrums all around, and the best DC can do is offer a month of extended branding exercises by way of slick new logos for all its titles. This is exactly the sort of thing that excites marketing people, but I don’t know if it sells books. It certainly didn’t in my case. On to the comics at any rate.

[THAT LOGO MAKES ME WANT TO BUY POSTAGE STAMPS]

I had high hopes for Freedom Fighters at one point, I really did. The team was offbeat enough that I thought it would feel more like an 80s kind of comic. Somewhere Palmiotti and Gray lost me with a plot twist — I’m still not sure why we’re in a super villain prison or who S.H.A.D.E. are, but I don’t read a lot of DC books so that last bit may be more obvious to you — and it’s now very difficult to understand what it is these guys are trying to accomplish. I thought they were trying to rescue the Vice President of the USA, but I don’t know why they thought they’d find her in a superprison — it’s not like she’s Dick Cheney. I’m also not clear on what it is these heroes can do, since they haven’t really done anything successfully since the first issue; I’m not even really clear on everybody’s powers. I also have problems with a big, bald black guy being leader of the prisoners (it’s a bit stereotypical isn’t it?), and Phantom Lady makes a leap of logic on the last page that took me a while to piece together. In short, Freedom Fighters: Yeah, what?

[SUPES BLASTS UPPER BODY ONLY IN THE GYM]

Now, things are much clearer in the Lobo 100 Page Spectacular. An anthology book featuring two stories broken into three parts, this is … well, it’s not as good as I’d hoped, and my expectations were exceptionally low after that Scott Ian penned two-part Lobo special from the middle of last year. Y’know, when Keith Giffen writes a story (as he does with the first one in this book), I expect to laugh and love it. I don’t expect to be baffled by references to Thirty Something, which was on TV more than two decades ago, and raves, which were relevant almost as far back. This whole deal feels like it was repurposed from an earlier decade — tell me honestly: Keith Giffen’s been in a coma for 20 years, hasn’t he? Actually, no; this whole book is a reprint, so at one point these jokes were fresh. Time is not kind to pop culture references, is it, Geoff Peterson? (No one in 2031 will get that). Alan Grant’s story features Lobo and Etrigan the Demon, two great tastes that go great together, as Grant proved a long time ago when The Demon had his own title (Thirty Something was still on TV, can you believe it?). When I was buying this Fleet asked me what was the appeal of Lobo, and I was hard pressed to answer.

[THERE’S NO WAY YOU CAN TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY]

Twenty-something years ago, there was an irreverence to the character that reminded me of the best of the 2000 A.D. books; he was something of a joke version of Wolverine, and he was also a larger commentary on the increasing violence in all comics, but a funny commentary. Lobo was like Wile E. Coyote from the Road Runner cartoons, if Wile E. were viciously competent and crudely witty. Now, every character at both of the Big Two is essentially Lobo from the early 90s, or is trying to be, and so the Main Man today comes across as just another psycho. I suspect Lobo in 2011 won’t really work without Simon Bisley and his insane anatomy, or an artist with a similarly divorced from reality style. There needs to be some sort of cue that lets you know this is so far over the top that you’re not supposed to read it like you read Batman, or whatever dreadful grim’n'gritty hero is your particular point of reference.

[SCRATCH AND POSSE]

Scratch 9, however, still features its best (and original) creative team of Rob Worley and Jason Kruse, and as the final installment of this initial arc, it wraps up the story in an entertaining bow. And there’s legitimate heroism in this, not just kids-type heroism. Worley’s over-arcing story is essentially one of the main character, Scratch (a loveably dim-witted cat), discovering there’s more to himself than what he first suspected; he’s willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to save his human friend, Penelope.

[SCRATCH GOES FULL-ON HERO]

Worley also squeezes in some jokes at Scratch’s expense, which is nice; I like that he’s heroic but not perfect. In the world of mainstream superhero comics (Marvel/DC) there are rarely moments of pure, unfettered heroism anymore. It’s all terrible circumstances and grim one-liners, but there’s nothing for you as a reader to latch onto emotionally. Worley and Kruse give you that release, just like Sholly Fisch does on Batman: Brave and the Bold and Dan Slott does with Amazing Spider-Man. The linking factor? They’re all all-ages books. Somehow, because they’re bound by the strictures of the all-ages code, they deal more with the heroic ideals than other comics. What’s wrong with comics when I need to turn to the kids’ section of the shop to find books that feature characters with distinct moral codes? Maybe a lot, or maybe I just got old.

Anyway, it should be clear that in a thin week, Scratch 9 is far and away the best thing I read this week. I think that would be true in just about any other week, or at least any week that didn’t feature a certain Brian Woods-written book about vikings. I have enjoyed Scratch 9 from the beginning of the story, and I’m as happy to give it this week’s crown as I am to see that there’s another Scratch story coming soon, according to the last page of this month’s book. I’ll take my heroes any way and in any shape I can get them.

-Paul

---

Both comments and pings are currently closed.