Fatale 1 (January 2012)

Fatale‘s first issue has some extra pages, but not so many it’s totally different from a regular comic. Brubaker does wonders with the pacing. He opens with a modern story, then flashes back into something. It’s unclear if it’s the manuscript the protagonist found or just a flashback.

But in that flashback, Brubaker moves between three characters. So it’s a less than thirty-page comic with four characters and all the time well spent. The pacing’s so great, Fatale being compelling is just a bonus.

The cliffhanger’s a little soft though. It doesn’t have enough impact since the reader has just meant that particular protagonist.

Sean Phillips’s artwork is fantastic, whether it’s the action scenes or the fifties stuff. The fifties art is a lot more static; it’s calm, even though it’s rather violent.

Brubaker and Phillips turn in such a strong, but singular, first issue, Fatale‘s hard to anticipate.

CREDITS

Death Chases Me, Prologue and Chapter One; writer, Ed Brubaker; artist, Sean Phillips; colorist, Dave Stewart; publisher, Image Comics.

Incognito: Bad Influences (2010) #5

Ibi05

Brubaker goes with a simple conclusion—not out of Tom Strong, but keeping with his Moore fascination on this series, out of Watchmen—and it works. Maybe it doesn’t, I don’t know. He ends the series with a lovely setup for a third Incognito and that setup works and so it just makes me want another one more.

Actually, I should be upset. The entire series was just a setup to get Zack to where Brubaker ends this issue. Brubaker even reveals a certain logic to the series (it takes place over a week) and he could have used it during, having each issue take a day or whatever.

Not only didn’t he use that pacing, he didn’t even mention it being a week or having a particular timeline until the last issue.

Still, it’s hard to be upset. It’s a good trip, with Brubaker avoiding his usual Marvel missteps.

Incognito: Bad Influences (2010) #4

Ibi04

I just noticed, this issue, Phillips is really playing up the masks this series of Incognito. Everyone’s got a mask of some kind or another (well, all the girls have Catwoman masks out of the Adam West “Batman”) so it looks like he’s keeping busy illustrating other stuff, since Brubaker’s still not giving him particularly interesting set pieces.

It all takes place at night; maybe the non-colored work is more dynamic.

But Brubaker definitely needs more issues. He’s introducing all these new and interesting things but just showing them for a second before he has to move past. It’s like he’s expanding the Incognito universe, while still trying to stay on task. He resolves his surprise this issue (at least, starts to) and he handles it practically as an aside.

When I finished Incognito, I didn’t want a sequel. One issue left of this series and I want another.

Incognito: Bad Influences (2010) #3

Ibi03

Okay, so every issue of Bad Influences so far has had a different pacing structure. Here, Brubaker splits it between his three or four main characters. Except two of the main characters are antagonists and it’s unclear how much either is going to have to do with the series overall and he gives Zoe Zeppelin her own focus now too. She’s even less of an active character than the bad guys.

As for Zack Overkill, it’s hard to say where Brubaker’s taking him this series. He’s not quite treading water with the character, but he’s moving along really slow, to the point I’m wondering if issue five isn’t just going to end with a cliffhanger for the next series.

My enthusiasm for the series isn’t exactly waning (though Phillips again doesn’t have anything interesting to illustrate), but it’s getting a lot more realistic.

Incognito would work better as an ongoing.

Incognito: Bad Influences (2010) #2

Ibi02

Look at Brubaker surprising me… not so much with anything going on in the issue, but with the soft cliffhanger. The entire issue suggests he’s going to have problems filling out three more issues, then the cliffhanger suggests he’s not going to have enough time for all his plans.

I coasted through this issue on goodwill from the first one. It’s not a bad issue, it’s just a stretched one. Brubaker takes a lot of time to get Zack’s story to a place he could have in the first half of the issue, maybe even less. The Black Death is back this series too, which makes it feel a little like old home week, but also like Brubaker doesn’t have enough for the standalone Incognito series he implied last issue.

Still, it’s a decent comic, probably better than anything last series.

Although Brubaker doesn’t give Phillips anything interesting to draw.

Incognito: Bad Influences (2010) #1

Ibi01

Until the last few pages, the first issue of Bad Influences seems like a slice-of-life book. Zack Overkill is relating his new life to the reader and it’s all rather amusing. The issue opens with an event then Brubaker goes back and explains it—humorously and cinematically. Even with the ending’s change in narrative tone, this series has stronger writing than the last one. Brubaker’s allowing himself to have some fun.

That fun isn’t just in the humor of the scenes, but of the narrative in general. Incognito now feels even more like the illegitimate, albeit darker offspring of Tom Strong. Especially during the flashbacks to Zack’s conflicts since the last series. I don’t remember the last time Brubaker seemed so enthusiastic (so, of course, I’m guarded for what comes next).

Great Phillips art—it takes place in New York, which lets Phillips open up.

It’s quite strong.

Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her (2005) #6

Bwts06

It’s interesting how Morgan finishes the series—it’s kind of setting up Civil War only with Dubya as the bad guy. I guess Marvel lost the cajones.

He also runs out of space, hinting the character he wasted about fifteen pages on throughout the series will be a threat next time, not this time. And there is no next time. The editor really should have asked for an outline.

The issue opens like a dream sequence, where everything’s going to be okay and then Natasha will wake up from a drug-induced delusion. Only she doesn’t wake up. The calvary arrives and it looks ludicrous—Daredevil running around in broad daylight, the blond Black Widow accessorizing her rescue gear—another sign Morgan stopped caring, if he ever did about this series.

He gets it to a mildly honest final moment (borrowing from The Terminator no less), but it’s not enough.

Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her (2005) #5

Bwts05

It’s not an all-action issue, instead Morgan creates the all-torture issue. Well, okay, he’s got a scene with the blond Black Widow saving Daredevil and another one with Black Widow’s sidekick, but basically the entire issue is just Natasha either being tortured or about to be tortured.

Oddly, the torture isn’t what drives the comic (and presumably the series) off the rails. It’s the pacing. Nothing happens this issue. Nothing gets resolved from last issue. Morgan’s just dragging it out. It’s like he needed one more issue of the last series so instead Marvel gave him six.

There’s something incredibly defeatist about it too. As good as Morgan writes Natasha, he doesn’t spend any time writing Yelena (blond Black Widow) well. He writes her as a self-aware bimbo, like if “Sex and the City” met superheroes.

It’s a disaster; I didn’t even pay attention to the art.

Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her (2005) #4

Bwts04

I think I just remembered how this series ends. I think it’s with a big, unresolvable cliffhanger.

Unfortunate.

Anyway, this issue’s pretty good. It’s an all-action issue—Natasha goes and gets her sidekick from the South American work farm. There’s also another big Daredevil scene with Nick Fury—Matt beats up a bunch of guys—and it’s where Morgan is setting up the eventual series cliffhanger.

The art is off again. It’s the faces. They aren’t Sienkiewicz faces here, they’re a strange amalgam.

The issue opens with those bad faces and it’s this scene setting up yet another plot thread. I guess the series did open with it, so it’s not a setup, but Morgan hasn’t done anything with it since the first issue.

This Black Widow series might be the perfect example of why you shouldn’t do a sequel to a good limited series; they don’t necessarily work.

Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her (2005) #3

Bwts03

Reading the scene where Nick Fury gets tortured by a Bush flunky, it’s clear why comics should never get too involved with politics, especially not superhero comics. It’s Nick Fury… shouldn’t Captain America bust in and save him? And if Captain America isn’t busting in and saving him, isn’t the reason why more important than anything else going on?

Otherwise, the issue is all right. About half of it is spent on Black Widow’s teenage sidekick, who’s recuperating in a third world South American hospital. It takes the focus away from Natasha, which is okay because Morgan doesn’t really have a story for her this series. It’s still all clean-up, competent and all; there’s just no real point to it otherwise.

The art’s finally starting to mesh though. The Phillips is a lot stronger than the Sienkiewicz here—like Sienkiewicz decided only to do faces or something. It works.