Future Quest (2016) #3

Future Quest 3

I was considering dropping Future Quest based on this issue but Parker takes that option away. Or tries to take it away. He does a fill-in issue with Birdman and the Herculoids each getting an origin story. The Birdman story has Steve Rude art. It’s awesome Steve Rude art too. Even when something is dumb–and it’s really dumb because Parker’s not trying to tone down the Hanna-Barbera dumb stuff. He’s embracing it. Future Quest feels like a cartoon you watched as a kid, only you’re watching it as an adult and the art is a lot better than it should be. But the writing is either on the same level or just being a little too self-aware.

If it were the sensation of watching a Saturday morning cartoon block, it’d be something. But it isn’t. Parker isn’t going for that sensation–he’s just doing a Crisis of Infinite Hanna-Barberas. It’s a very mundane stuff.

I mean, the Herculoids story doesn’t have Steve Rude art and it has more content (and opportunity to be dumb), but it’s still better. Maybe because it’s the second story and it means the comic is over, but Aaron Lopresti and Karl Kesel can do action art, even with dumb actors. Lopresti and Kesel don’t make the Herculoids look cool, but they do make their action sequences competent. It’s action versus the Birdman story, which was iconic superhero action without an iconic superhero. And a dumb James Bond knock-off plot. Herculoids is always dumb, but it’s imaginatively dumb.

But neither story continues the main plot. So do I want to keep reading a comic just for Steve Rude art. Because it’s not a disappointment. No one could do this approach better than Parker. It’s all just too stupid to be taken seriously. With these properties, it’s just a bad idea.

Future Quest 3 (September 2016)

Future Quest #3 I was considering dropping Future Quest based on this issue but Parker takes that option away. Or tries to take it away. He does a fill-in issue with Birdman and the Herculoids each getting an origin story. The Birdman story has Steve Rude art. It’s awesome Steve Rude art too. Even when something is dumb–and it’s really dumb because Parker’s not trying to tone down the Hanna-Barbera dumb stuff. He’s embracing it. Future Quest feels like a cartoon you watched as a kid, only you’re watching it as an adult and the art is a lot better than it should be. But the writing is either on the same level or just being a little too self-aware.

CREDITS

The Deadly Distance; artist, Steve Rude; colorist, Steve Buccellato. Vortex Tales: The Herculoids in Mine-Crash!; penciller, Aaron Lopresti; inker, Karl Kesel; colorist, Hi-Fi Colour Design. Writer, Jeff Parker; letterer, Dave Lanphear; editors, Brittany Holzherr and Marie Javins; publisher, DC Comics.

Justice League International 3 (January 2012)

It’s an action issue in the old Justice League tradition, two heroes break off and have a related adventure. Jurgens takes it even further, with the administrators teaming up too. Only Guy Gardner gets to play it solo.

The result’s a mixed bag. Batman and Booster Gold are good together, but only because Jurgens’s characterization of Batman as encouraging Booster is interesting. He sells the unlikely mentorship.

The Red Rocket and Ice though? Boring. Red Rocket’s a self-stylized ladies’ man. It’s weak. So is Fire and Vixen. Of some interest are the two new characters, the Chinese guy and Godiva. Their sequence is fine.

Lopresti and Ryan start rough, but have things mostly under control by a few pages in. They can’t handle the administrators, but they do manage the crazy scale of the comic. Giant Sentinel looking things, huge spaceships and sci-fi nonsense; they pull it off.

CREDITS

The Signal Masters, Part Three; writer, Dan Jurgens; penciller, Aaron Lopresti; inker, Matt Ryan; colorist, Hi-Fi; letterer, Travis Lanham; editor, Rex Ogle; publisher, DC Comics.

Justice League International 2 (December 2011)

It’s not exactly a talking heads issue. Instead, it’s an arguing heads issue. Oh, there’s action at the beginning, but it’s just to show the team isn’t a team. But Lopresti’s art doesn’t work for showing that failure. He splits up his pages into four tall panels (during the action scene), showing what the team is doing. It doesn’t come across like they’re outgunned.

And Lopresti does do all right for most of Justice League International. It’s just a superhero team book and he and inker Ryan handle it (though there are some problems distinguishing Booster and Guy Gardner and the chins are funny). But he can’t do nuance.

I never realized a Dan Jurgens book would require nuance, but apparently it does.

Some small problems aside, this issue’s really… pretty good. Jurgens moves past all the relaunch nonsense. It’s about people working together.

International is far better than expected.

CREDITS

The Signal Masters, Part Two; writer, Dan Jurgens; penciller, Aaron Lopresti; inker, Matt Ryan; colorist, Hi-Fi; letterer, Travis Lanham; editor, Rex Ogle; publisher, DC Comics.

Justice League International 1 (November 2011)

I can’t believe I’m saying it… but Dan Jurgens writes a pretty good Batman. Jurgens’s Batman is empathetic and can work with people. Having him be Booster Gold’s cheerleader makes Justice League International something different.

The book is mismatched superheroes against threats they aren’t powerful enough to overcome. Jurgens manages their personalities well enough–though he’s got problems with their United Nations bosses. It’s strange. His superhero dialogue is fine, his bureaucrat dialogue is not.

But Jurgens also goes so far as to deal with anti-U.N. sentiment in the United States–homegrown terrorists blow up the Hall of Justice. It’s a surprising subplot.

It’s not quite good, but it’s certainly readable. Jurgens introduces some new stuff–Batman and Booster–to the superhero team standards. It’s fine.

As for artists Aaron Lopresti and Matt Ryan? They get the job done. They could be better, they could be much worse.

CREDITS

The Signal Masters, Part One; writer, Dan Jurgens; penciller, Aaron Lopresti; inker, Matt Ryan; colorist, Hi-Fi; letterer, Travis Lanham; editor, Rex Ogle; publisher, DC Comics.