Aria (1999) #4

I’m very curious as to what the original plan was for Aria. Clearly, they didn’t intend it to be over in four issues. I know there are subsequent limited series, but this issue ends a huge storyline. Of course, it’s a huge storyline Holguin creates, for the most part, in the third issue. Half of this issue is told in summary.

Anacleto’s back and has some lovely, lovely stuff here. Not as lovely as his rendition of the third issue would have been, but still lovely.

When I say Holguin told this issue in summary, it’s not just flashbacks. He does these magical battle scenes in summary. It’s like he was writing with the express purpose of not making Anacleto work too hard… or too long.

So Aria–still don’t know why that title–goes out with on an incredible low point. Very pretty, but Holguin’s plotting is laughably absurd.

Aria 4 (November 1999)

Anacleto’s back and has some lovely, lovely stuff here. Not as lovely as his rendition of the third issue would have been, but still lovely.

So Aria–still don’t know why that title–goes out with on an incredible low point. Very pretty, but Holguin’s plotting is laughably absurd.

CREDITS

Among Ruins; writer, Brian Holguin; artist, Jay Anacleto; colorist, Andy Troy; letterer, Dennis Heisler; publisher, Image Comics.

Aria (1999) #2

Less narration and more story (even if more story does mean a lot more characters) mean a better issue. What a crazy concept. Holguin should have patented it.

I also need to backtrack on the fairy tale thing. These are faeries, not fairy tale characters. At least I think. I know the protagonist (the Aria title is confusing to me) Kildare–because all female comic book protagonists have cool names–mentions fairy tales in the first issue. Not so much here.

This issue features Anacleto’s first art assist. Strangely, they use it on a sequence he would have done much better with. Why they didn’t use the backup guy on the filler is beyond me.

Oh, I haven’t mentioned how many characters are in this issue. Just from memory, I’m guessing it has eight major speaking parts (five being new characters).

Holguin’s writing is shockingly amateurish compared to the art.

Aria (1999) #1

I’m not sure what Aria has going for it, post-Fables. The idea of making fairy tales real but only in the magic sense… it’s just surprising Holguin didn’t think maybe using real characters would work better.

The selling point of Aria now, as it was back in 1999, is the art. Anacleto’s magical take on New York, rural England and his unlikely proportioned heroine (wouldn’t all the magic people be good looking? Some aren’t) is something to see.

And the story works for it–it’s silly and magic (the comic is kind of like the cover to a magical romance novel as a serial)–but Holguin doesn’t try anything.

It’s the safest comic ever, with a beautiful and busty heroine who’s also smart and kind and narrates the whole thing incessantly.

It’s like every other comic book with a female protagonist written by a man, except the art’s beautiful.

Aria 2 (April 1999)

Less narration and more story (even if more story does mean a lot more characters) mean a better issue. What a crazy concept. Holguin should have patented it.

This issue features Anacleto’s first art assist. Strangely, they use it on a sequence he would have done much better with. Why they didn’t use the backup guy on the filler is beyond me.

Oh, I haven’t mentioned how many characters are in this issue. Just from memory, I’m guessing it has eight major speaking parts (five being new characters).

Holguin’s writing is shockingly amateurish compared to the art.

CREDITS

The Shores Of Sorrow; writer, Brian Holguin; artists, Jay Anacleto and Roy A. Martinez; colorists, Brian Haberlin, Alex Posada and Andy Troy; letterer, Dennis Heisler; publisher, Image Comics.

Aria 1 (January 1999)

And the story works for it–it’s silly and magic (the comic is kind of like the cover to a magical romance novel as a serial)–but Holguin doesn’t try anything.

It’s the safest comic ever, with a beautiful and busty heroine who’s also smart and kind and narrates the whole thing incessantly.

It’s like every other comic book with a female protagonist written by a man, except the art’s beautiful.

CREDITS

Fairy Tale Endings; writer, Brian Holguin; artist, Jay Anacleto; colorists, Brian Haberlin, Drew Posada and Alex Posada; letterers, John Roshell and Liz Agraphiotis; publisher, Image Comics.

Marvels: Eye of the Camera (2009) #6

Meye6

Okay, so Busiek doesn’t pull it off, not saving the whole series, not even saving the whole issue, but when he has the chance to be a right cheap bastard and have the mutant girl be a hallucination of a dying cancer patient… he doesn’t do it. He doesn’t do the M. Night Shyamalan ending. He does the work instead.

The ending doesn’t work–we never find out the title of the new book the protagonist was working on and there’s this whole emphasis on his concern for mutant rights–which started an issue ago, certainly not through the whole series–but most of the issue does.

Marvels: Eye of the Camera is a piece of shit. The only issue worth a cent, much less three hundred and ninety-nine of them, is this last one. It could have been a one shot. Would have been better as one too.

Marvels: Eye of the Camera (2009) #5

Meye5

If Marvels II is really all about the protagonist dying, shouldn’t they have made the issues match the Kübler-Ross model–the five stages of grief–you know, from that “Simpsons” episode with the blowfish. Just an idea.

I’m not sure when this issue takes place. Sometime in the late 1980s at least. The protagonist has been dying for six months or something, so this history of the Marvel Universe is rather abbreviated. It’s idiotic, really. I mean, if the point of Marvels was to age things real time, based on publication date, look at this nonsense. Whatever.

This issue ends with a thread from the first series returning. It’s an interesting, cheaper than cheaper idea. I mean, if Busiek really resolves the story of the runaway mutant girl… it means the first series really was all bullshit to him.

I think I dislike this comic book more each issue.

Marvels: Eye of the Camera (2009) #4

Meye4

Ok, so Secret Wars took place in the seventies? I mean, based on the style of the protagonist’s new boss, at least. She’s wearing clothes straight out of “Mary Tyler Moore.” It’s fine, of course, if it does take place in the seventies in Marvels, but maybe mention it, guys. Maybe mention the year. Maybe tie in some events. Or at least get things right when it comes to costumes, if you aren’t going to mention years.

As I understand it, Alex Ross brought Marvels to Marvel and Busiek came onboard it. So letting Busiek run Marvels II seems a little odd. There’s absolutely no passion to the series, but there’s not even any interest in it. There’s a lot of random events, not particularly memorable ones either, taking place over a dozen years in this issue.

It’s not disastrous, but it’s a waste of time and money. Mine, specifically.

Marvels: Eye of the Camera (2009) #3

Meye3

Does Busiek have a point this time? This entire series seems pointless. It’s Anacleto, finally, drawing superheroes–not a lot of them, but some of them–and they look good and the comic looks good overall, but Busiek isn’t doing anything here. There’s nothing… pressing about this comic book. It’s completely by the numbers.

It’s so unspectacular, I don’t even remember what happened this issue. It ends with Spider-Man not trying to save the Hitman. It apparently takes place in the seventies, since the Punisher has just shown up, but there’s no seventies texture to it. Apparently, setting Marvels in a point in history is over now. It’s just the same as every other Marvel comic. Stuff happened a while ago. An indeterminate while ago. Like when Doctor Doom says many months ten years after an event. Sure, it’s many months….

Oh, man, this was four bucks an issue?