I suppose it’s inevitable as DC’s line grinds to a halt that we’re all going to be talking about what it is the “New 52″ means, and why we love it or loathe it, and a bunch of other stuff that boils down to angrily shaking our fists at people we’ve never met. At the moment, I’ve convinced myself to take the high road, and opt for the “wait and see” method of judgment; until these relaunch titles come out, I don’t really know what I feel about them, right?
Of course, then I read the Shazam! 100 Page Spectacular 2. Or more specifically, I read co-publisher Dan DiDio’s message on the last page and immediately wondered why I’m even bothering with this company. Didio spends a little time patting himself on the back for figuring out a way to scale back the company’s production schedule these last few months, and how they’re going to be able to keep the same number of titles on the shelf by padding their output with the Retro-Active titles and reprint collections such as this here issue of Shazam. Dear Dan: No one who reads and enjoys comics cares about the minutia of making a publishing schedule — we want good, fresh stories about our favorite characters. If you think this is the sort of information that gets us excited about your books, I shudder to think what your OMAC series with Keith Giffen is going to be about — will he be the One Man Accounting Corps and spend most of his time developing new actuarial tables?
Anyway, Shazam 2 reprints four 1998-era issues of the series by Jerry Ordway and Dick Giordano, two guys who know how to make a comic book about characters. I wasn’t crazy about this era of Captain Marvel, so I’ve never read these stories — and they’re OK. Not great, mostly because I was always bothered by the teenage versions of the Marvel family alter-egos. I believe the boundless optimism of Captain Marvel works best when you remember that’s a kid in that body, fighting crime and believing wholeheartedly in big-picture ideals precisely because he’s a kid. I’m trying to maintain a smidgen of that optimism for myself come September, but as often as DiDio misjudges what comic fans are interested in (BUTTONS! POKER CHIPS! SYMMETRICAL PUBLISHING WAVES! COMICS WITH NO FEMALE CHARACTERS AS ANYTHING OTHER THAN EYE CANDY!) and then boasts about his ability to be so off base, it’s going to be difficult to hold that course.
You know what the antidote to that is, right? Great, character-driven comics. Dungeons and Dragons 9 is just such a comic, and I say that knowing full-well that I was the only person in all of Star Clipperdom to buy issue 8 upon its release. John Rogers and Andrea De Vito continue to use classic storytelling elements such as strong characterization, clear conflict, foreshadowing, humor and steady doses of action to make a fantastically fun comic every month. Human warrior Adric Fell rushes from crisis to crisis, this time falling into the thick of a worlds-spanning power play by an evil giant, and his reluctant ally is the father of the young lady he’s currently … how to phrase this delicately? … boning. This awkward situation is the source of much of the humor, mostly because enchantingly caustic halfling Bree Three-Hands keeps offering terrible advice to Adric. Is it the title and all the associated “weak nerd” connotations that are scaring you people off this book? Because this is a great team book, and you’re all missing out.
A strange thing has happened in Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris 5. I’m completely inured to Dejah’s scanty “two-coins-and-a-hanky” outfit at this point — it doesn’t even register as totally ridiculous anymore. Maybe that’s because Dejah is so busy pummeling rump in this issue, saving her father, grandfather, hometown and the lives of countless others through her willingness to engage in hand-to-hand combat with a 50-foot tall automaton powered by her enemy. Arvid Nelson’s first arc has been nicely pulpy throughout, but this issue finally gives us everything. Dejah’s the heroine of her own story, we get a clear-cut victory and a bit of pathos, and Carlos Rafael’s art is very nice. As far as pulp comics go, this series hit all its marks and then some.
Also pulpy in the best fashion is Star Wars: Dark Times Out of the Wilderness 1, a Randy Stradley and Doug Wheatley adventure set in the period shortly after Revenge of the Sith. Darth Vader is on the trail of a Jedi who escaped the slaughter, and it turns out to be Dass Jenner, the star of the Blue Harvest series I enjoyed so much despite its haphazard release dates. Dass and Ember, the former madam he helped in Blue Harvest, are on the run, knowing their lives are in danger but unaware that someone like Vader is hunting them. Before it’s over one of them has come clean about a rather sizable lie they told to make their relationship more convenient, a mysterious commando is revealed to be on their trail and Vader — sweet, malevolent Vader — is gaining on them. Stradley certainly knows how to construct a plot, but Wheatley’s art is probably the real star. He draws a mean, mean Vader, and that goes a long way to establishing Star Wars credibility in my book. Hopefully, this arc is wrapped up before the end of the year — I hate when Dark Horse puts their Star Wars titles on hiatus for seven months in the middle of a series.
Chris Roberson and Francesco Biagini’s Elric: The Balance Lost 2 is a bit more problematic. As I mentioned last month, I love the character and I’m a huge fan of Michael Moorcock’s body of work in all its permutations. E:TBL shuffles between Elric, Dorian Hawkmoon, Prince Corum and our modern-day Eric Beck, which I think is diverting the narrative into too many streams. If you’re not familiar with the Moorcockian idea of the Multiverse and the many incarnations of the Eternal Champion, is an issue as jumpy as this one going to lure you in? I ask because by the time this issue was over I felt like we’d spent a lot of time hopping from one foot to the other without really moving forward — and I know who these people are and how they fit together. However, I like how this issue introduces Eric’s destiny and role in the story, and we get a nice bit of action from Elric. And therein is the other complication; if you name your book “Elric,” I’m always expecting him to be the star of the story, and so far he’s not really been anything other than the most recognizable name in an ensemble cast. I could do with some more Elric in my Elric comics, is what I’m saying.
Roger Langridge’s Snarked! 0, however, has no snarks in it whatsoever and yet I read it with blissful delight. Inspired by the poetry of Lewis Carroll, Snarked stars Wilburforce J. Walrus and his dimwitted sidekick, the carpenter Clyde McDunk, as they set out to eat, mooch and connive their way to a better life. Wilburforce channels W.C. Fields and Reid Flemming in his caustic witticisms and snide asides, McDunk is pleasingly dense, Princess Scarlett is bossy and the whole thing has the feel of E.C. Segar’s classic work on what became the Popeye comic strip; Popeye makes a cameo in one crowd shot, in fact. This being a zero issue the story is all set-up, and only eight pages long to boot. That matters not one whit; it’s full of jokes, Langridge’s art is dynamite, and the book is filled out with reprints of Carroll’s relevant poetry (“The Hunting of the Snarks” and “The Walrus and the Carpenter”), an activities page with word hunts and connect the dots projects, pages from Princess Scarlett’s diary and a facsimile reprint of the front page of the local daily paper, “The Jabberwock,” which assures us that “You Too Can Believe Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast.” This is an exercise in silliness worthy of Lewis Carroll, and it was hands-down the best thing I read this week. I laughed so hard at this exchange:
McDunk; “I’ve never once been savaged by a tiger!”
Wilberforce: “Well, we live in hope…”
that I had to lie down for a minute. All comics should be this exhaustingly delightful. I can’t wait for issue one to arrive. And I will live in hope on that DC front, as well; if my hope is misplaced, maybe DiDio is the one to get savaged by that tiger.
-Paul
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One of my favorite bookstores in St. Louis. Star Clipper offers not only the best selection of comic books and graphic novels in the city, but also a cornucopia of art, design and pop-culture related books and magazines. 
