Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles (2018) #5

Spc05

It’s the penultimate issue. I forgot there were six. I was hoping for five. Especially since the comic opens with the Soviets–in the fifties–talking about how eventually America will elect a complete idiot president and then they’ll nuke us. Or something. If Russell wanted to correlate with modern day stuff, he needed to do it. Not just as a throwaway joke to distract from the endlessness of Exit Stage Left.

This issue has a big speech from Snagglepuss to Congress. Tragedy has struck and S.P. is dismantling his life so he can speak the truth. It’s not a rousing speech. I mean, if it were a rousing speech or if he gotcha’d the senators, it’d be something. But it’s nothing.

At the same time as S.P.’s testimony, his play has its opening night. The recent tragedy informs the play, the rousing speech informs the play, yada yada.

If only some of it were good.

The art didn’t bother me as much as usual. I don’t know why. I don’t think it’s better, but it might be. Maybe I’m just so thrilled it’s almost over.

Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles #5 (July 2018)

Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles #5 It’s the penultimate issue. I forgot there were six. I was hoping for five. Especially since the comic opens with the Soviets–in the fifties–talking about how eventually America will elect a complete idiot president and then they’ll nuke us. Or something. If Russell wanted to correlate with modern day stuff, he needed to do it. Not just as a throwaway joke to distract from the endlessness of Exit Stage Left.

At the same time as S.P.’s testimony, his play has its opening night. The recent tragedy informs the play, the rousing speech informs the play, yada yada.

If only some of it were good.

The art didn’t bother me as much as usual. I don’t know why. I don’t think it’s better, but it might be. Maybe I’m just so thrilled it’s almost over.

CREDITS

Opening Night; writer, Mark Russell; penciller, Mike Feehan; inker, Sean Parsons and Jose Marzan Jr.; colorist, Paul Mounts; letterer, Dave Sharpe; editors, Diego Lopez and Marie Javins; publisher, DC Comics.

DC Retroactive: Justice League of America – The ’70s 1 (September 2011)

So Andy Smith can do a mediocre superhero comic. His faces are a little unfinished, but his figures are fine. Gordon Purcell, on the other hand, is—from what it looks like—regularly working on Archie? Purcell handles the “real” part of the story, which involves the JLA going to Earth-Prime (the “real” Earth, pre-Crisis, where superheroes exist in DC comic books).

Bates does a great job with the script, which gets dense with dialogue, but always moves. I was a little confused over the villain’s plan—it involved Adam Strange and the Zeta Beam—but it’s a good script. And when it’s the Smith art, the flashback story feels like a glossy, somewhat overproduced but still well-done issue. But I couldn’t stop wondering why Purcell during his pages… seventies Justice League didn’t look like Archie.

That problem aside, it’s an excellent issue. Bates does fine work.

CREDITS

Enter Justice League Prime; writer, Cary Bates; pencillers, Gordon Purcell and Andy Smith; inkers, Jose Marzan Jr. and Smith; colorist, Carlos Badilla; letterer, Wes Abbott; editors, Chynna Clugston Flores and Jim Chadwick; publisher, DC Comics.