BEST OF THE WEEK
What I bought and what I thought, week of January 5!
THE QUESTION 3
I'm reading a lot of bitching about how Rick Veitch is somehow "ruining" this character by deviating from the original Steve Ditko concept, but I just don't see it. I read those Ditko stories, I don't think this is all that different from what the Sturdy One did all those years ago, it's just been tweaked a bit. If anything, Alan Moore has disrespected the character more with his re-imagining him as the bugfuck crazy Rorschach. I like what Veitch is setting up here, nodding to Ditko's Randian leanings with the Luthor Science Spire plotline, while showing us the Question getting down and dirty, rooting out criminals in the Metropolis underground and trying to find out what's going on. I'm even anticipating Superman butting in next issue- I'm not sure if Veitch has written Superman before, but I'm curious about how the man who wrote Maximortal will handle him. Veitch has even replaced the one thing that was annoying me, the Ginsburg-ian poetry interludes, with a more down-to-earth inner monologue this time out. Still, I might not be as engaged by this if not for the outstanding art of Tommy Lee Edwards, whose just-loose-enough style is a joy to scan, with its dynamic figure poses and perspectives. I wonder of the guy who tried to buy the "fireworks" at the Metropolis pawn shop was drawn to look like The Losers' Jensen on purpose... A-
FLAMING CARROT 1 (33)
This seems a little tentative; Bob Burden's art looks very rushed and sloppy (not that Bob was ever exactly meticulous in the first place) and it doesn't have the free-flowing insanity of Burden's 80's best- but hey, whaddaya want? It's been a while, and even the greats get rusty! There's still plenty of funny stuff, with singing zombies and baloney guns, and the Carrot is still a mack daddy pimp. If he can maintain the commitment and we get another longish run, I have no doubt that we will get some absurdist gems before he's finished. Note to letterer Roxanne Starr: "obnoxious" doesn't begin with "A". B+
JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE 7
Now that the JSA has moved on, we continue the "Elite goes undercover to bust interdimensional drug dealers" storyline, and it's OK I suppose, but the most interesting thing going on as far as I'm concerned is the further developments in the Manitou Raven (obviously Kelly really likes this character)/Green Arrow/Raven's wife Dawn triangle, and as always the Mahnke/Nguyen art. B
BREACH 1
The goodwill engendered with me by Marcos Martin and Alvaro Lopez's nice art job on Batgirl Year One led me to pick this up, but here their work seems uninspired and bland (despite that beautiful Lopez inking line) and this is essentially an equally uninspired rehash of Watchmen's Dr. Manhattan and Captain Atom's origin stories. Whether or not this will get better remains to be seen; Harras' past work gives me no reason to think he's capable of it. I'll give it a chance, though, because I want to see if the art will lift it up. Stay tuned. C+
MIA: Legion of Super-Heroes 1; supposed to be on back order and come in late last week.
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