Lord of the Jungle #1
Writer : Arvid Nelson
Artist : Roberto CastroReview : Anubhav Das Gupta
I thought I’d give some #1’s a try this week. So, here goes.
I love Tarzan. Everyone does. But only a few have actually read Edgar Rice Burroughs’ amazing novels. And these novels, they are very different from any of the movies or the TV shows. The comicbooks, however, were always pretty close to the source material. And this one stays close too.
Lord of the Jungle, infact, stays very close to the book. It’s primarily a comicbook adaptation of the first chapter of the book. But is it a good adaptation?
The best thing about the comic, in fact, is the Ryan Sook variant cover. Hell, it’s even better than the Alex Ross variant. It’s so good that I wouldn’t hesitate to frame it on a wall.
The book itself though just feels like a lazy half assed effort. Although Disney did it well, Tarzan’s origins are very, very tough to pull off. Rice Burroughs’ words were laced with magic and emotion and wonder, and all that is lost here. Writer Arvid Nelson brings nothing new to the story of the Lord of Apes, he just lazily recites whatever was in the books, sometimes adding a bit of uneventful dialogue. It works, though. But it doesn’t do anything else. Nelson doesn’t touch upon any of the emotional beats that he should have. Tarzan’s mother was dying and I didn’t feel a thing. An Ape loses her child and I’m still not feeling it. That shouldn’t have happened.
Artist Roberto Castro seems able enough with the action scenes, but he is almost unbearably awful when it comes to the dramatic ones. Nelson should have played to his artist’s strengths and written an action-packed comic, but instead he wrote a dramatic one, something . The faces kept on changing. In one panel Tarzan’s father had bloody anime eyes and it looked amazingly awful. And this “anime eyes” situation keeps on persisting in some other panels too. His art is for the most part devoid of emotion. But that said, I dig how he draws the apes. They are very close to the descriptions in the book. They are much more scarier, and much more sinister looking than they have ever looked before.
The worst thing about this comicbook is that in the next issue, it’s going to jump twenty one years. In those twenty one years, Tarzan has fought with god-knows-how-many beasts and has become the Lord of the Apes already. In other words, they are skipping the most interesting period of Tarzan’s life. We won’t get to see him taking on the Alpha-males of the Apes anytime soon. Shame. Instead we’re going to get the story of Tarzan and Jane, which has been told a thousand billion times already and it’s grown tired and old now. Plus, there’s no beating Disney’s version of the story, so stop trying. Please give me Tarzan being the badass he is. Don’t give me the Romeo version of him. Give me the alpha-male badass version for a change. The story of how Tarzan took on Kerchak, or any of the other apes, or the beasts, or the rampant cannibalism is much more interesting than how Tarzan lost his ladylove Jane to the villainous Clayton.
Dynamite, the publisher of this comicbook, relaunched Lee Falk’s Phantom a year back and it was horrendous. While this one doesn’t reach as low as that, it still fails to impress me. Shame on you Dynamite for creating such an average comicbook out of one of the greatest pulp novel heroes of all time. Shame on you.
If you have read the Tarzan books, you might want to avoid this. If not, give it a read. You may like it. Or search for the Joe Kubertones that Dark Horse published ages ago. Those were brilliant.
Score: 6/10
DANGER GIRL : REVOLVER #1Writer : Andy Hartnell
Artist/Colorist : Chris Madden/Jeremy Cox
Artist/Colorist : Chris Madden/Jeremy Cox
Review: Anubhav DasGupta
Honestly? I got my hands on these because of the J Scott Campbell Cover. ‘Three sexy women. Guns. Looks fun.’ So how is it? Anything but fun.
Explosions. Babes. And a title page that spoils a plot point. All this should be fun, right? It isn’t. Actually, it feels like a goddamn Abbas-Mustan movie. It just drags along doing nothing eventful while hitting us with explosions and action. It’s as if the writer kept on ticking off boxes in the “How to make a Fun Comicbook” checklist and didn’t care about anything else. It doesn’t even work as mild titillation. Mild titillation requires some level of competent writing. It’s got nothing. Even Look, I know I’m not going to be moved by the characters, but I expected this comicbook to be fun, at the most.
The art is just okay. Nothing brilliant. Nothing awful. There were a few panels that made me go “WTF is wrong with her HAND?!” or “WTF IS WRONG WITH HER HIP?!” But they were, as I said, few. Sad thing is, the art has potential to be energetic, but the coloring just ruins it. Makes it look like a goddamn Disney movie. It should look like something by J Scott Campbell, but instead it looks as if it was done by some guy who worked on the Little Mermaid and tried to copy Ramos’ style.
Danger Girl : Revolver #1 is not a fun comic. Hell, it doesn’t even work as mere titillation. Avoid. I took the bullet so that you wouldn’t have to. Do NOT be swayed by the sexy women on the cover. There is nothing fun or sexy about this comic. If you want something sexy, go for Adam Warren’s amazingly fun Empowered instead.
4/10
UNCANNY X-MEN #5
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist : Greg Land
Review : Rijul Partha
This makes for a few nice touches, like Cyclops and his Amazing Friends being worshipped by the natives, who've only seen humans in the form of the X-Force members. The dialogue between Magneto and Psylocke about morality is the best moment of the comic, even if it's so short. Greg Land just cannot draw Hope to look teenaged, and her interactions with Namor are ever-so-slightly too icky for my taste. Gillen has mostly been overshadowed by Jason Aaron over at Wolverine and the X-Men, and this issue proves that until he steps up his game, Uncanny will always be second-best.
Score: 7/10.
Review: DEADPOOL MAX II #4
Writer: David Lapham
Artist : Kyle Baker
Review : Rijul Partha
Score: 7.5 on 10.
FABLES #113
Writer: Bill Willingham
Artist: Leonardi, Randall, Russell, Cannon, Fern, Bachs, & Hughes
Review: Rijul ParthaAh, Fables. Possibly the greatest comic book on stands right now (at least, according to me, so you Snyder fanboys can shut up. I mean, American Vampire is good and all, but Fables has got that old-fashioned good storytelling. I'm digressing again, aren't, I?) and here we have Issue 113, wherein Willingham infuriates all his regular readers by making the second one-shot story in as many months. The previous one at least had some story hooks, one of which Wikipedia reliably tells me is super-important to the next arc. Here, we have four stories, about a travelling group of shapeshifting actors, a king who turns his cheating wife into a tortoise, a recently-deceased Fabletown wizard named Mr. Kadabra, and finally the humourous tale of Porky Pine and his predilection for human women. All these prove that Willingham is a master of the compressed tale in an age where a single tale takes months to complete. There are a number of different artists, including the extremely talented Adam Hughes, all of whom manage to capture the feel of the story they draw.
Score: 8.5 on 10.
Amazing Spider-Man #648
Writer: Dan Slott
Artist : Humberto Ramos
Review : Anubhav Sharma
Now this is just starting to get ridiculous. I had big expectations from Dan Slott’s run on the book post Spider-Island, which, in my humble opinion, was the best event we’ve seen in a while now, but the magic Slott wields in this book manages to top all the awesomeness we’ve seen since ASM #648. The stakes are high, with Peter Parker witnessing the destruction of New York thanks to his fellow Horizon employee Grady Scraps’ invention of a 24 hour time displacement device, which lets Dan Slott play around with a very fresh take on time travel, essentially serving the purpose of allowing Peter Parker to feel responsible for things blowing up.
It has quite a bit of story that Slott manages to cram into the book without anything looking too rushed or underdeveloped. Humberto Ramos’ art is as polarising as ever, with the same wacky exaggerated figures he is known for. I personally loved the art, which caps out an issue that is, to me, perfect in any way.
Score : 9.6/10
Batman #5
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist : Greg Capullo
Review : Anubhav Sharma
Much like the other two books I’m reviewing this week, this issue pretty much highlights all that is awesome in the current run. Scott Snyder takes a little break from the story to essentially make the severely drugged Batman undergo a mental downward spiral of sorts as the Court of Owls plays host to him in a maze. The extent of the court’s control over Gotham over years is further explored, much to Bruce’s denial. Over the years, Batman storylines have tended to enter clichéd territory with a villain doing bad things, Batman doing something awesome and ending the with ‘I’m Batman.”It takes a very special writer to convincingly portray a vulnerable Batman, and Snyder delivers magnificently. Francavilla once again hits it out of the park with his art finding the right balance between grit and realism to make this one a complete winner.
Score : 9.5/10
Morning Glories #15
Writer: Nick Spencer
Artist : Joe Eisma
Review : Anubhav Sharma
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you’re not reading this book, you need to do so ASAP. Third instalment in the third arc, the issue mainly focuses on Zoe and Hunter, while shedding more light on Zoe’s past. There is an excellent rhythm between the present and the flashback sequences, with the latter revealing a darker aspect of Zoe, which has been hinted at before but can now be safely said to not be the result of some kind of crazy sauce the kids are being fed at the academy. Overall an excellent character piece, which feels a lot like the excellent character driven second arc of the series. Joe Eisma’s panel layout and intense work sets the tone beautifully.
Score : 9.5/10
Steed and Mrs Peel #1
Writer:Grant Morrison
Art:Ian Gibson
The comic is based on the characters of a 1960's hit spy-fi TV show called 'The Avengers'(not the Avengers you're probably thinking 'bout). This statement gives rise to a very important question- Do I have to watch all the episodes and the lame movie in order to understand the comic?
The answer- NO. Some? Well.. Maybe..
Being a fan of both the writer and the artist, this was one of my first reads of the past week.
I think there are not words enough in the English vocabulary that could explain the brilliance of Grant Morrison. Not having seen the TV show, there were some places where I got a bit confused, but the surprises and humor of the comic were enough to cover it all up.
The real hero of the comic is artist Ian Gibson. The art looks exactly the way an artist back from 60's or 70's would illustrate a book. It's illustrated such finely, that it could even fool one into thinking that it is some comic from the 60's! The characters look a lot like the actors who played them in the TV show, but Ian maintains his authenticity, which one can just tell by looking at the comic.
In short, it is enjoyable, funny and awesome.
I think BOOM! Studios did a good job in reprinting the comic again (Had missed it the first time. Thank god I have friends living in the States!)
If you are (or ain't) a fan of the Avengers (Non-Marvel) property, then do your inner-self a favor and buy this issue.
Score: 8/10
1 comment:
Fables is the best comic I've read this week. Even if you aren't a follower of the comic, you should pick it up because the art and story are just amazing.
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