Airboy 1 (June 2015)

Airboy #1 Remember James Robinson? He wrote a bunch of DC comics recently–according to himself in his new series, Airboy, no one liked. Everyone liked his Golden Age or retro stuff from the nineties. It’s a shame he didn’t have the stones to talk about when he said his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the movie) was better than League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the comic book).

Airboy is about Robinson (the comic book’s writer) and Greg Hinkle (the comic’s artist) trying to make a new version of Airboy. Is the comic true? Probably not. I can’t imagine Image soliciting creators for an Airboy relaunch and Robinson and Hinkle would probably be dead from all the drugs they do in the comic.

It’s okay. Hinkle’s got a nice style and great attention to detail (I loved when Robinson looked out his window for traffic) but, so far, it’s one note and incredibly derivative.

CREDITS

Writer, James Robinson; artist, Greg Hinkle; publisher, Image Comics.

The Saviors 2 (January 2014)

294640 20140131143415 large Thanks to the double page spreads, this issue has something like seventeen pages of story. Only most of it is action stuff with the stoner lead on the run for the sheriff. Only the sheriff is now a flying dragon alien.

Bone’s art is fine, but not the right style for an all-action issue. Worse, when Robinson does take a break, he pretty much just mimics scenes from Terminator movies. He’s hinted at some original ideas–like the alien invaders are psycho environmentalists–but none of them come through enough to make a difference.

It’s the second issue and all Robinson’s promises for the next one is more unoriginal answers and more chasing. Maybe at some point The Saviors will get interesting, but it seems a long way off with Robinson taking every diversion he can.

A faster pace and less grandiose panel layout would help things a lot.

CREDITS

Writer, James Robinson; artist and letterer, J. Bone; publisher, Image Comics.

The Saviors 1 (December 2013)

291859 20131224152647 large Weird. Weird is a good word for the first issue of The Saviors.

The J. Bone art–black and white–is good. It’s simultaneously energetic and pensive. He’s drawing the word from the perspective of the perpetually stoned protagonist, Tomas, so there’s got to be a balance. Bone finds it.

The story apparently has to do with a stoner discovering evil monsters are impersonating people on Earth in positions of power. Writer James Robinson never gets to that revelation. He establishes Tomas through a stoned monologue (to a lizard) and then gets going on an action roller coaster. The action is better than the setup.

The book has its problems, of course. Foremost has to be the blandness of Tomas as a lead. He’s the stoner from high school grown up, with Robinson silently judging him. It would’ve been more interesting for Robinson to lionize the stoner.

It’s decent though.

CREDITS

Writer, James Robinson; artist and letterer, J. Bone; publisher, Image Comics.

Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton (2010) #1

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Does DC have any ideas? I mean, any whatsoever? Reading this comic, it seems like the last three crises were just used—as far as Superman is concerned—to reboot Zod as a villain. I mean, he’s a psycho bad guy again here. It’s so incredibly tired at this point, who do they think cares?

Even when the mystery supervillain shows up at the end, it’s another “who cares” moment. I know James Robinson gets geek cred for Starman and Golden Age but he’s the guy who wrote The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie. Maybe he’s past his prime.

Speaking of past his prime… what happened to Pete Woods? I used to love his work and here, it’s so polished and shiny there’s no personality (or particular detail). Maybe he’s just overworked.

It’s a weak, dumb comic… Robinson can’t even write a good “This is a job for Superman” moment.

Superman: New Krypton Special (2008) #1

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Someone has pointed out Johns casting Lois Lane’s dad as a jingoistic, sadistic supervillain really just is… you know, the Hulk, right? I mean, someone besides me. It’s so startlingly uncreative, one has to wonder.

This New Krypton Special does raise a couple interesting ideas—one is the People of Kandor being, well, basically stupid jerks. It doesn’t make me want to read the series, however. Oh, another moronic move—a bad guy named “Agent Assassin?” I mean, that one’s worse than the Image stuff.

There’s some great art. I love the way reading Frank’s pages feels like one’s reading a sequel to the Christopher Reeve movies. It’s too bad Johns’s plotting on everything else is goofy. Woods and Guedes are good too, Woods being better.

It’s too bad Johns shoved New Krypton into a nice memorial to Jonathan Kent. It sort of undoes that whole sequence, the subsequent nonsense.