New Comic Book Blog

I decided everyone reading here might not enjoy reading about comics and/or graphic novels, so I've started a new blog for that: Shelly's Comic Book Shelf. It's still somewhat under construction.

Midnight Nation

Title: Midnight Nation
Author: J.Michael Straczynski

I read this 12-issue comic series last year, after the last issue had been published. Having been previously burned by starting to read a series before it concluded that never did conclude, and because I didn't want any of the details to fade from memory between reading each issue, I wanted to read this series at one time. I spent a Sunday afternoon immersed in this incredibly moving look at the nature of the soul.

This week, I finally got around to buying the collected edition and for people looking for a graphic novel, I can't recommend it more highly. Last night, I was skimming through the collected edition, which features a story that hadn't been part of the original series, and found myself reading the epilogue again. And then went back and read the entire 12th chapter and skimmed earlier sections and was once again overcome with the emotion that had me in tears when I first read this story. JMS is an excellent writer and all his skills are on full display here. Almost as moving was the essay he wrote for this edition which explains how he came to write the story.

David Grey is a police detective who becomes trapped between realms when he has his soul stolen. He's given one year to get it back and must walk from California to New York to reclaim it with a mysterious woman, Laurel, as his guide. The usual comic book elements are here. There are demons and lush illustrations and enough action to satisfy most fanboys and fangirls, but upfront and center is the philosophical debate re: the nature of humanity, the people who fall through the cracks, and the ultimate choice David is forced to make at journey's end. I cried, not out of sadness but out of wonder and the sheer beauty this story held, for the emotional release that comes with resolution after such a long, exhaustive journey, even though it was only on paper.

I don't think you could ask more of a comic than that, or of any book.

Comic Books Anyone?

I read comic books and am proud of it. I've been reading them for nearly 45 years now, without interruption except for a period of time in the late-'80s/early-'90s when I boycotted DC Comics (the only comics I read back then) after they killed off the original Supergirl.

Up until now, if I wanted to discuss a cool comic I read, I blogged about it on Cyber Chocolate, but since comics are a big part of my reading material, I figured this was a better venue. Don't worry, I won't be reviewing every comic I read, but when one makes an impact on me, I'll discuss it here, though I'll likely mention it on Cyber Chocolate, too. That is an eclectic blog, after all, reflecting my many and varied interests.

So, I've added my list of comics reading (On My Pull List) to the sidebar and will probably add a comics review blog or two to the book review blogs at some point. Just so you know.

EDITED 9/5/06: I've removed the pull list. It makes more sense to have it just on my comic book blog.

Brad Meltzer's "Identity Crisis"

I was going to rant over in Cyber Chocolate about Brad Meltzer and the DC Comics "Identity Crisis" mini-series he wrote last year, thanks to an interview with him and Rags Morales, the artist, in the March issue of "Wizard," but then figured it was getting too long for that blog and is basically a review/commentary, and is more suitable here. And since most folks here probably don't care about comics, I'll do the short version of the rant. I mostly liked the series and was disappointed by the ending. The full story was part mystery, part character study, but I think the mystery should at least have a satisfying resolution. I didn't think this did, nor did many other folks, and a lot of people didn't like any of the story, though they are outnumbered by the folks who liked it. But still, I enjoyed it enough to consider reading on of Meltzer's suspense novels. Til I read that interview.

Without boring you with details from the story, or to give anything away for folks who haven't read it but want to, here are some bits that bugged me.

About a moment in the story where it's revealed that the superheroes did something morally questionable or wrong years ago to a villain (altering his memory and personality), Brad said: "...And you actually feel for Dr. Light. For the first time, in this moment, you're rooting against Zatanna, and you're routing against the heroes." Except that while I did feel sorry for the evil idiot, I was also glad for what the heroes did to him because given what he'd done, he deserved it. At best, this was morally ambiguous, not clearly wrong because people do have a range of feelings re: criminals and punishment. And if Brad thinks the readers got his point or couldn't see it otherwise, he either doesn't know his readers here or he didn't write the thing as well as he thinks he did.

About the big "red herring" in the mystery where it looks like another character is about to become a victim, he said, "...People were so convinced that all we were after was death, once we killed Sue Dibny, they never realized we were putting the killer right in front of them." Except that a number of people on various message boards figured it out fine.

About giving away on a cover who the next victim was to be: "...Seeing (character name) on that cover is why you feel the tension. I told you want is going to happen on page one. Now I'm going to use the old Hitchcock quote: 'It's not the bang that's scary, it's the anticipation of it.' You know the ending. You know what is coming. You know he is going to die. But I'm not going to give you the death until you feel every emotion I can put you through to get there, to the point where you don't want to turn that page." I'll give him that it was emotional, but tense? Not as much as it could've been. Because to me, it had a feel of inevitability to it and all that remained was the how. Hitchcock succeeded because it was never obvious. He was a master of putting it all there but keeping you guessing as to what mattered a lot and what didn't matter as much. And a movie flows. Comics told in monthly installments can be static, and the reader has time to pick each issue apart. Again, Brad's skill didn't live up to his intent in my opinion.

The next to last issue ended with one character looking guilty, but the killer is never revealed so soon, so I knew it was a fake-out, which left the obvious other one who was the actual killer. Batman, busily using his intellect to solve the crime, became superfluous as someone else figured it out first. Half of the last part was essentially epilogue at that point despite focusing on the theme that most interested Meltzer — what it means to be a hero, to strip them of their confidence, yadda yadda yadda. The true epilogue is moving and bittersweet, but there's a whole lot of stuff in between it and the revelation of the killer's ID that fall flat.

To me, this was a clear case of the parts not adding up to a cohesive whole. I wish Brad had addressed complaints many readers had with the clues and odd characterizations. And now I can't help wondering if his novels are like this; a lot of great scenes that don't add up between the covers. I was considering reading The Zero Game (I think I got the title right). Anyone read it? Or any of his other books? Care to let me know what you think of them? Thanks.