The Stop Button
blogging by Andrew Wickliffe
Category: Firestorm
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The super gorillas. I forgot about the super gorillas. If Bates likes writing anything more than strange applications of Flash’s powers, it’s got to be these super gorillas. But the super gorillas aren’t interesting to talk about, because it’s just the overdone dialogue and the gorillas talking about their intelligence. The Flash’s powers and their…
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Bates sure does try hard to get the reader to pay attention. He has another sequence this issue where the Flash discovers some clue and Bates calls out the reader to try to figure it out too. There’s only one problem with it… Bates still writes the revelation scene like the reader didn’t figure it…
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Even though Bates comes up with a lot of excitement for the Flash this issue–and the reader too–there’s something off about the feature story. Bates and Heck (inking himself to questionable success) put Barry through a bunch of different types of action. There’s a couple regular fights, a supervillain fight, a mid-town disaster sequence with…
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The way Cary Bates writes The Flash, there’s nothing super-speed can’t accomplish. But it’s so darn likable, it’s hard to get stopped up by the severe gaps in logic. Maybe not gaps… canyons. Canyons in logic. This issue has the incredible story of a young woman believing Barry Allen is out to kill her. The…
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Cary Bates sure does like exposition. It’s practically endless in the Flash feature, with Bates writing really long paragraphs of thought balloons explaining why The Flash can do what he can do. None of it makes any sense, but it sounds scientific. The story has The Flash trying to sort of two villains who are…
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It’s a pointlessly double-sized issue. The extra pages give Conway time to get in fight scenes between Firestorm and both villains–and the art on the fight with the Hyena does have a great double page spread–without having to sacrifice the character development. Ronnie and the girlfriend, Doreen, go on an actual date. There are big…
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The issue opens with a lengthy recap of the previous one’s events and Conway’s found a great way to do exposition in the series. Ronnie and Professor Stein just talk about it naturally. There’s a certain appeal to this issue of Firestorm, even though Conway tries through hard throughout. About the only time he isn’t…
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I don’t know how best to make the remark without it sounding like a slight but McLeod inks the heck out of Milgrom’s pencils this issue. There are maybe two questionable panels, otherwise the art is first-rate. And it’s first-rate art on an excellent comic. Conway doesn’t do a direct sequel to the previous issue,…
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I don’t want to spend time griping about Milgrom’s pencils. If his composition were better, I might even let it pass, but the composition–and how he handles the costumed stuff–is a real problem. Conway gets in a lot of scenes and Milgrom handles the transitions awkwardly. His figures in superhero motion are really awkward, especially…
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What an awkward first issue. Writer Gerry Conway has a lot of story to tell, since he covers the origin of Firestorm and has to introduce the two alter egos, but there’s also a couple action sequences. His solution for having to convey all the information isn’t original–he uses expository dialogue. Lots and lots of…
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What’s wrong with this art? Liam Sharp pencils, Andy Lanning inks, and the result is a mess. Figures change sizes, faces don’t maintain any continuity. It’s an ugly comic. The issue’s a mess anyway, since it’s a contrived crossover with Bloodhound. Jason–Firestorm–had a run-in with the employee of one of Clev’s (from Bloudhound) enemies. So…
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Why’s the bad lady got Madame Masque’s mask, only in silver? You’d think DC would want more originality. Cinar’s art suffers this issue. His lines are blocky and there’s a general gracelessness to his figures. The script is pretty boring too–it’s a standoff between Team Firestorm and Team Bad Guy. Team Firestorm eventually wins, but…
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The great superhero art from Cinar continues and this issue of Firestorm is a little better overall. Mostly it’s because Van Sciver and Simone have decided what famous plots to rip off. Here, it’s a little WarGames and a lot of Hulk. The giant Firestorm monster and the little Betty stand-in. Maybe they’ll get around…
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Reading Firestorm, I almost feel like… Gail Simone doesn’t like Firestorm. I mean, not really. It’s not a bad thing—the bad things about Firestorm are unrelated to it—but I was mildly excited, but then Simone and co-plotter Ethan Van Sciver flush everything distinctive about the original series. New York? Gone. Single dad? Gone. It’s a…
The Stop Button 