Posted in: Comics, Review | Tagged: Batman, Comics, dc, marvel, MVL

Wednesday Comics Review: FF #1 and Dark Knight #2

In FF #1 no one dies. But everything changes. For years the book has twisted and turned with different approaches, occasionally changing team members, getting new reasons to exist, being dubbed "imagineers" or what not, but with FF #1, we get the biggest change to date, standing for both the First Family and the Future Foundation, as the scope of the team begins to change, with the aim of solving the future. The death of the Human Torch has provided a milestone that has knocked the look, the direction and the membership of the team in a very different direction.

But is it any good?

Hmm. Not sure yet. There are lots of bits that feel all big, important and dazzling. And I don't just mean Sue Storm's FF XXX entrance.

Can't you just feel the wah wah pedal?

Not to mention the Wizard parading around in nothing but his helmet. But there's a lot of feeling that things are about to happen without actually anything ever really happening. The FF are looking to the near future to evade their recent past and missing out on what's happening in the present. Probably why they're so rubbish dealing with AIM and the Wizard. Maybe it's core to the themes of the book but it can be frustrating to read.

There's family conflict, intergenerational to boot with granddaughter siding with grandfather against their respective father and son delivering combo punches against the man in an equally irritating fashion. Because no one can get to you quite like your family.

And that may be the core of the book. They are setting up a body that will save the work, but at their core they are a family. And family has this tendency to make silly and stupid decisions. There may be one at the very end of the issue as well.

The Dark Knight by David Finch is not about family, it's not about much to be fair. But it is very pleasing  to let one's eye drift across the page, feeling the tick lines as they cross the face of an old friend. In this case we see a Penguin, his visage defined by inky fish hooks.

And for all that this book is late, it's a slim volume, only 19 pages in total, 2 of which are splash pages. And you don't get a fulfilling chunmk of story here, eeking this out over months will be painful.

So accept that. Ignore plot, forget what happened before, treat this as an art book and suddenly it becomes much more entertaining. When the expectations of plot on cohesiveness are left behind, you can see this comic for what it is. A series of very very cool images indeed, full of acrobatics, sensational lighting and angles that titillate the senses. Why does it need to do anything else?

See? That's just cool.

Comics courtesy of Orbital Comics, London. See their podcast interview with Dave Elliott about his new Image stuff, and what is actually going on with Miracle/Marvelman…

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