The Maze Agency 18 (February 1991)

275583 Scott Clark has the most ambitious layouts of a Maze artist for a long time. There are all these different little sequences, sometimes only taking a half page, where he crams in visual information and sometimes important scenes.

It’s a shame he doesn’t draw better, or have a better inker than John Tighe. Forget people not looking alike, there are some panels where entire noses disappear. But there are a few good panels, which makes one wonder if Clark didn’t put in the time.

The mystery’s strong; Barr has some good twists. The major one is how none of the suspects really suspicious. Instead, they’re all bland suspects without much motive to misdirect. Kind of. At one point I didn’t even think anyone involved had committed the crime, like Barr would bring in some surprise guest.

It’s a reasonably successful issue, with Barr ignoring his tepid subplots for the regular cast.

CREDITS

This Murder Comes to You Live; writer, Mike W. Barr; penciller, Scott Clark; inker, John Tighe; colorist, Susan Glod; letterer, Vickie Williams; editor, David Campiti; publisher, Innovation Publishing.

Batman, Inc. 8 (October 2011)

Who knew Morrison was a fan of Batman: Digital Justice? Or is he just a fan of Tron?

Batman and Oracle team up to play a really cool VR game where they have to defeat a bad guy in the grid. Artist Scott Clark contributes the digital art, which at times sounds like it’s supposed to look cheap and retro, but Clark never changes up his style.

The result would be a disaster if it mattered. Morrison plays a lot with Batman, Inc. This time, the play leads to a crappy comic. The writing isn’t terrible–just dumb when it comes to technology–but Clark can’t integrate the text into the art. It’s ugly and confusing.

Morrison’s idea of the future of technology is a lot like the mid-nineties, only he drops modern tech buzzwords. Those moments particularly distract.

I’m failing to think of anything I liked.

The end?

CREDITS

Nightmares in Numberland; writer, Grant Morrison; artist, Scott Clark colorist, Dave Beaty; letterer, Dave Sharpe; editors, Katie Kubert, Janelle Siegel and Mike Marts; publisher, DC Comics.

Mister Terrific 3 (January 2012)

I thought, for a moment, new penciller (or fill-in, whatever) Scott Clark was Randy Green (just a really bad issue for Randy Green). But he’s not. Scott Clark is someone else and he’s not very good. His figures change in muscle density and his faces don’t match between panels. Except Mister Terrific. He looks exactly the same each shot.

Wallace has a moment in this issue harkening back to the seventies with the bad guy revealing his identity and origin to the hero in a quick, one page recap. Of course, it harkens back to Marvel comics more than DC.

There’s very little interesting about this comic book. This issue we learn Mister Terrific is an egomaniac, in both identities. But Wallace doesn’t seem to recognize the narrative problems he creates for himself. Instead, he ignores them.

Between Wallace and Clark, it’s patently impossible to take Mister Terrific seriously.

CREDITS

Haunted; writer, Eric Wallace; penciller, Scott Clark; inker, Dave Beaty; colorist, Mike Atiyeh; letterer, Dave Sharpe; editors, Kate Stewart and Joey Cavalieri; publisher, DC Comics.