Even Without Knowing All The Characters, The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin Is All Right!

The Good: Decent dialogue, Interesting plots, Good character moments, Most of the artwork
The Bad: Annoying reuse of Green Lantern’s character conflict
The Basics: Objectively, it seems like I ought to be more enthusiastically recommending the team-up book The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin, but I’m not. Go figure.


I try to keep an open mind about everything I get in to read. After all, I make no bones about not knowing everything, especially when it comes to graphic novels. Even so, given how I was not wild about the two prior volumes of The Brave And The Bold graphic novels, I went into reading the fourth volume, The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin with a little more wariness than normal. Despite being on guard, I actually enjoyed The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin. The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin, like the prior books I have read in the The Brave And The Bold series is essentially a team-up story in the DC Universe. Actually, volume four The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin features two completely unrelated team up stories.

The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin features a two-issue arc that focuses on Supergirl and Raven (neither of whom am I overly familiar with). The rest of the book is the title “Without Sin” arc that focuses primarily on Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern and the Phantom Stranger, with a supporting appearance by Green Arrow. And The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin is mostly impressive, though it is not without its faults.

I have only now gotten in a few Supergirl books, so the seeming extensive amount of her character conflict presented in her part in The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin is something I have to take on faith as appropriate. Having not read a single book that even alluded to Raven, her character is entirely new to me and their team-up appears interesting and pretty mundane as far as team-ups go. In other words, the two heroes seem well-suited to a team up and their story is really only lacking in a villain that is compelling in a way that makes one want to read any of the scenes he is in.

My bigger issues with The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin is how Hal Jordan is used. The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin clearly comes from a time following Hal Jordan’s resurrection and I can dig that. But the story uses a character element that offers no reflection upon the actual character. Hal Jordan was possessed by Parallax and went on a killing spree throughout the DC Universe before he was put down. Since his resurrection, he should have a lot more wisdom to understand the Phantom Stranger and, frankly, it seems lazy of author David Hine to put Jordan in a situation where he might be possessed again. I’m not saying that the whole Parallax arc disqualifies Hal Jordan from any possession arcs, but in The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin the element of possession is introduced without any character reflection on Jordan’s part and that is more problematic than audacious.

The first two chapters of The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin focus on Supergirl and Raven. The “Past Tense” storyline finds Supergirl having nightmares about her father and the way he programmed her to be a killer. Frustrated and unable to find anyone else to reach out to, she abducts Raven for a conversation. While Raven teaches Kara to meditate and find her voice, a young man suffering from identity issues breaks into a University laboratory where her believes a weapon of mass destruction is being built. In responding to that threat, Raven and Supergirl will discover parallels between their own parental conflicts and his.

This story in The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin is pretty simple and is essentially about three people with daddy issues. It’s not bad, though it is a little obvious. Moreover, the villain never quite pops, arguably because of the narrative technique. Writer Marv Wolfman intersperses the villain’s story with the budding relationship between Raven and Supergirl and it is not entirely clear why. The villain is clear, but whose flashbacks pop up every few pages and frames takes a while to develop and that technique is more annoying than imaginative.

The artwork in The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin is universally good, though it is not extraordinary. The sense of movement in Supergirl’s hair when she lifts off is well-rendered and Raven looks consistently adult in her costume (which is a striking contrast to her clearly teenage appearance out of it). The “Past Tense”/”Fathers” story is well-colored and easy to read, though it is a story that ultimately lacks a truly deeper theme.

The lack of a compelling theme beyond telling an obvious superhero story extends into the second section of The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin. The best writing, the best movies, pretty much the best anything, includes a bigger picture aspect and I have found that to be true in the most audacious and impressive graphic novels as well. Books like Kingdom Come (reviewed here!) and Justice (reviewed here!) make a deeper commentary on humanity and they hold up exceptionally well as a result. Despite being an engaging story, The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin is, alas, not truly deeper than that.

The “Without Sin” section of The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin is a fairly engaging story with excellent artwork, though. The four-part story focuses on a mission that the Phantom Stranger and Green Lantern (the Hal Jordan incarnation) take on together. On Earth, there is a hospital where a small group of children with severe birth defects are being raised. One of them, who has never had any apparent ability to interface with the real world begins to suddenly write volumes of information in many different languages. She writes about the ends of worlds, worlds destroyed by a villain known as the Purge. And one of her tomes features a world that has not yet been eradicated.

Journeying to Kahlo, Jordan and the Phantom Stranger catch up with the resident Green Lantern there and learn about the pleasure planet and its people. On Kahlo, the citizens dream as the result of a parasitic type creature and that same creature makes for a real boost to the planetary economy. With the tourist trade booming, a black market for exporting the entity also thrives and that has brought the attention of the world-slayer Purge. In fighting off Purge on Kahlo, Jordan and the Phantom Stranger inadvertently turn its attentions to Earth and the helpless girl there who might be all that stands in Purge’s way!

The latter two thirds of The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin is presented with painting-style artwork that is truly exceptional for most every panel. While the individual frames may not have a great sense of movement within them, the between-panel movement is good and makes the story very easy to follow. The story, however, is more basic than I would like. The adventure is good and the use of Green Arrow – who is characterized as somewhat (appropriately) frail – is one of the better ones that I have read. But there is a serious neglect of the characters involved. None of the characters grow, change, develop or even reveal much of their own true nature, making The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin a much tougher sell than I would like.

Even so, The Brave And The Bold: Without Sin is worth reading and is an engaging story, even if it ultimately has a somewhat inconsequential feel to it.

For other books in the The Brave And The Bold series, check out my reviews of:
Volume 1 – The Lords Of Luck
Volume 2 – The Book Of Destiny
Volume 3 – Demons And Dragons

6.5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please be sure to visit my Graphic Novel Index Page for an organized listing of all the graphic novels I have reviewed!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Everything But The Motion Picture, Star Trek Omnibus 1 Anthologizes Marvel's Late-70s Comics.

The Good: Moments of character, Price
The Bad: Generally mediocre artwork, Poor coloring, Often ridiculous stories, Plot-heavy, Campy dialogue
The Basics: Even fans of the Star Trek franchise are likely to be disappointed by the way Star Trek Omnibus 1 fills in the gaps after Star Trek: The Motion Picture.


Despite being quite the avid fan of the Star Trek franchise, I am too happy to admit there are some points in the franchise where the gaps are just fine by me. Following the rebirth of the franchise with Star Trek: The Motion Picture (click here for my review of that! ), Star Trek exploded with fan fiction and ideas which poorly bridged both the gap between the original television series and the gap between the first and second films. The gap between Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan seems to be a point where fans are determined to figure out just what was going on with the heroes of the starship Enterprise. That time period has been the subject of numerous novel series’ (The Lost Years) as well as comic book adventures and fanfic up the proverbial wazoo.

During that portion of Star Trek history, Marvel comics owned the license to the Star Trek comic books and in their attempts to tell stories that followed up on Star Trek: The Motion Picture they went wildly into the science fiction realm. Unlike the original television series, Star Trek, though, they did so with very limited social commentary. Instead, they were plot-heavy stories which tend to remake the worst episodes of Star Trek or show a complete obsession with the new appearance of Klingons, without understanding anything about Klingon culture. In other words, these were poor to fair attempts to keep Star Trek growing in some “official” capacity while the novels, new movies and spin-offs were produced. However, most fans would be just as happy to let this period in the franchise be forgotten as it is just abysmal. Unfortunately, though, we are not allowed to forget because IDW has now released the comics as Star Trek Omnibus 1.

When Marvel produced the Star Trek comic books, they had the license for about a year and a half, producing eighteen issues which were about seventeen pages long. The stories began with the Marvel recreation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (there’s a weird title: Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Comic Book) and IDW eliminates that from Star Trek Omnibus 1. Instead, this is the fifteen original comic books shrunk down (in physical size) to the size of a Manga novel and anthologized as a single book. All fifteen issues are presented without their annoying breaks for advertisements of the time, which is nice. The stories, however, are less-than-thrilling.

These start with the two-part story where the Enterprise returns a prisoner to the planet Thallus and as a result, begins to see ghosts, werewolves and the like aboard the Enterprise. Unfortunately, while the Enterprise is so incapacitated, Klingons board it and things look dire for the Enterprise crew. All of the rest of the stories are one-shot stories where a single issue tells the complete story. These range from a murder mystery of an alien ambassador being solved on the Enterprise to an adventure to a planet where Kirk, Spock and McCoy’s coming has been foretold for 24,000 years. Spock is captured by a race of giant insects in another and in still another, the Enterprise becomes a plaything for vengeful aliens who use mind control to torment the crew.

As well, Spock finds himself stranded on a primitive planet where he must fight for survival until the Enterprise crew may rescue him and when a heretofore unknown love of Scotty’s returned, her anger puts him in a coma where he is tormented with nightmarish visions. Then comes a mission where Rand, McCoy and Spock are trying to rescue a starship whose inhabitants have been killed and the alien responsible is still there . . . driving them mad. McCoy runs into his daughter, Joanna, who is engaged, but tragedy strikes when Klingons take the compound she is working at. This is followed by Kirk falling under the influence of a computer which makes him into a Pharoah before the Enterprise is visited by the devil. This low point is only usurped by a story where the Enterprise is invaded by gnomes. After a Federation probe accidentally begins poisoning a planet, Kirk, Spock and McCoy – disguised as Goranians – are captured by the Goranians and ultimately Kirk and Spock mind meld.

There is very little character construction in these stories. However, “…Like A Woman Scorned” with its use of psychological torment for Scotty from Dr. Wentworth, at least makes a passing effort at it. As Scotty lays in a coma being tormented, Kirk and Spock must figure out what is going on and the way the Enterprise is put in danger makes sense for Scotty, given that the ship is arguably his one true love. As well, the story with McCoy’s daughter tries to fill in one of the long-insinuated elements of “Star Trek” lore, which was that McCoy had a daughter. His character work in that issue when he must wrestle with seeing his daughter again and who she is engaged to is interesting at the very least.

As well as particularly lame stories – so many of them seem to have to do with mind control, which might be a reflection on the late-70s the way technology taking over was a recurring theme in Star Trek – Star Trek Omnibus 1 is limited by the source material for the look and feel of the book. While the original comics were newsprint, IDW reprints the issues on decent paperstock. However, they are unable to create better artwork and the coloring is absolutely terrible. The artwork is erratic, so Kirk, Chekov, Sulu and McCoy often look alike and interchangeable. However, to give some credit to the Marvel artists, they do use the medium fairly well, creating monsters, space battles and the like which would be cost prohibitive on a television show or movie budget.

But anyone who is serious about comic books or stories will be woefully disappointed in the look and feel of Star Trek Omnibus 1. IDW did a pure printing, so the colors look faded and do not have the rich saturation of contemporary comic books (this is like putting an old film on DVD without cleaning it up first). It is old and it looks old. And if the stories were remotely interesting, it would be worth it. However, they are not. There is, however, a cover gallery in this so readers are losing nothing by getting this as opposed to the original comic books. In fact, this volume is likely to hold up and one is not damaging a potentially valuable comic book by reading the stories in Star Trek Omnibus 1 instead of painstakingly going through the entire actual comic books these were culled from.

Even so, it’s not enough for anyone – even the die-hard fans – to go out of their way to pick this book up. It is likely to just disappoint readers. I know it disappointed me.

For other Star Trek comic book anthologies, please visit my reviews of:
Star Trek: Countdown
Star Trek: Mirror Images
Star Trek Archives Volume 3 - The Best Of Gary Seven

2/10

For other book reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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Overblown To The Point Of Me Feel Cheated: Crisis On Infinite Earths Drowns In Self-Referentialism.

The Good: Some of the artwork, Basic story concept
The Bad: Story drags on, Incredibly self-referential, Time leaps which make no sense
The Basics: After a long time waiting for it, Crisis On Infinite Earths disappoints as a very comic book-y story that doesn't know when to end.


Just because something is first, does not make it the best. Indeed, in the world of DC graphic novels, no volume was presented to me as the ultimate experience the way that Crisis On Infinite Earths was. It was the first crossover comic book series that engulfed the entire DC Universe in a single storyline. And having finished reading it now, instantly Justice (click here for that review!) and Kingdom Come (click here for that review!) are better stories, artwork and uses of the medium than Crisis On Infinite Earths. And the thing is, it's not that I didn't GET Crisis On Infinite Earths; I do. The problem is that the story doesn't work nearly as much as it is hyped to. Instead, this is a remarkably self-referential work which is so engulfed in its own purpose that it becomes a story only an expert in the field would truly appreciate.

In other words, if you're not hooked on DC comics, there is little to grab you with Crisis On Infinite Earths. And while there are some serious and engaging graphic novels and anthologies that tell adult stories that anyone who like reading will enjoy, Crisis On Infinite Earths is not that story. This is the graphic novel for people who have a Ph'D in DC Comics. Here's why: according to the forward by writer Marv Wolfman, the purpose of Crisis On Infinite Earths was to clean up the DC timeline - which had different origin stories for characters like Superman, Wonder Woman and the Flash based upon the time period the comics were written in - and it was supposed to be the all-engaging DC storyline which included elements from every major DC publication in its fifty year history. In fact, Wolfman mentions that the book was delayed for three years while he did the research necessary to make the project truly work and include everything needed.

The problem is that throughout, obscure character groups come up in time periods other than where the main narrative is and the inclusion of these characters - most notably a six page divergence to Easy Company in an alternate universe's 1944 (80 - 85) - which not only distract from the main narrative, but make no real sense. And I write novels pertaining to the multiverse, so it is not the reader's lack of comprehension which sinks this book in my mind, it is a lack of detailed study and appreciation of the referenced materials. But given the obscurity of some of the characters, threads and references, Crisis On Infinite Earths only works for the die-hard fans who probably care less about universal continuity than the writers and publishers wanted to believe. But the most annoying aspect of Crisis On Infinite Earths is that the bound edition which collects the yearlong mini-series does not have any easy-to-understand charts or descriptions for newbies.

The concept of Crisis On Infinite Earths is simple: a man named Pariah appears on Earth moments before it is obliterated by an antimatter cloud which is invading not only the universe, but every universe in the multiverse and consuming each universe. On Earth-3, where super heroes are jerks and hooligans, Lex Luthor, the world's greatest hero, and his wife, Lois Lane, save their child Alex by launching him in a rocket through a hole in the multiverse to a universe not yet consumed by the antimatter universe. With the help of his superheroine Harbinger, the Monitor begins to assemble a team of super heroes and super villains to save the Earths that have not yet been consumed by the antimatter cloud and the antimatter universe. By taking up positions near the Monitor's devices at key points in Earth's history, the superhero and supervillain teams work to save Earth. But the devices which are protecting the Earths soon fall prey to shadow creatures who thwart the attempt.

But when the Monitor is killed, Harbinger, Pariah and Alex Luthor marshal the forces of the five remaining Earths to lead an assault on the antimatter universe and the villain who is behind the attempt to destroy all of the universes, the Anti-Monitor. As heroes like Supergirl are slaughtered, entire universes are wiped out of existence and through the actions of Alex Luthor, the five remaining Earths begin to occupy the same time-space which threatens to destroy humanity's last chance of survival.

The problem from the outset is simple and twofold. First, the book references several events that precede the story without satisfactory explanation of them. Most notable is the disappearance of the Flash, who apparently was on trial and now has disappeared. He reappears in spectral form throughout Crisis On Infinite Earths, but there are several allusions which receive the annoying asterisk and "See issue X of 'Y'" and that wears thin. It is almost as annoying as how in the latter pages of the book, as characters depart, readers get the "Continued in issue X of 'Y.'" In other words, the book quickly begins to feel incomplete and the story does reference many events not in the actual volume, so it has the feeling of being less than it could be.

But the other problem is the more serious one. Because Wolfman is so busy destroying the various Earths, he seems to be content to not explain or provide a handy key to readers to understand what the various Earths are. Earth-3 does not so much matter, because it is almost instantly destroyed in the book and readers get the impression that it was pretty much around only for that purpose. But, what separates Earth-1 from Earth-2 from Earth-S from Earth-X from Earth-4? It's never made quite clear. Some have Superman - is it the difference between 1940s Superman and 1960s Superman? Who knows? Not I and I read this entire 364 page book. The idea that DC is trying to clean up its continuity only works if people understand fully how the continuity was off to begin with and how the continuity is resolved at the end (HUGE strike against the book for that!).

But even there the story fails to work because there are time jumps within the story that make no apparent sense other than to include characters that had not previously been referenced. So, for example, characters will be fighting on Earth-1 and suddenly, the story will jump to Earth-1 thousands of years ago and a fight that is breaking out there now. It, quite simply, does not feel well-constructed and in the desperation to include everyone they can, Wolfman and his team make the story less clear than it ought to be.

As for the artwork, Crisis On Infinite Earths was actually recolored for the anthology version and it is brightly colored and looks more like a contemporary comic book than a newsprint comic book or comic strip. Unfortunately, this is not one of George Perez's best works. The pages have panels that are very wordy and as a result, each panel has a low sense of movement. It's not the ideal use of the medium when one has more photographs than video, but Crisis On Infinite Earths does not move the way most graphic novels do and that is problematic.

That said, the story has moments when I cared what happened, but largely, this is a huge group of superheroes working to solve a common problem with little wrinkles popping up like the villains banding together - led by Lex Luthor and Brainiac - to stop them from worrying about the Anti-Monitor and focusing on putting out smaller fires for a while. But because the book is so plot intensive, there is almost no character development. Indeed, Superman begins whining in the last chapter in a way I would have cared about if I still cared about the book at that point. But that was long after I stopped caring and when I was just to the point where I was ready for my next book.

Sadly, Crisis On Infinite Earths will not satisfy serious readers.

For other graphic novels, please check out my reviews of:
JLA: Secret Origins
Blackest Night
Amazons Attack!

4/10

For other book reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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