Comic Reviews: Cla$$War 5, Sleeper Season Two 1

7/13/2004

Cla$$War 5: Rob William's Ultimates Killer continues to hurtle towards it's inevitably messy end with this somewhat understated second-to-last-issue in the first act of the story, and I'm left sort of lilted, salivating excessively, and slackjawed. You see, we don't get a dozen wham-bam action pages in this issue. That's what I love about it. It's all coming up. One assumes. The big finale, the confrontation between the remaining members of Enola Gay, the US Government's super-soldier dirty tricks team, and the American, their former leader and sole apparent conscience. This issue is a stage-setter, filling in some crucial backstory, and showing us another glimpse into the fractured, uneasy alliance the Enola Gay members have maintained, in order to preserve their power and perks, and while the American rockets into the trap set for him, at the expense of innocent American soldiers, the general sense of dread builds exponentianally. I'm intrigued by Icon's fate, the strongest will of the Enola Gay, despite Burner's clearly manipulative actions holding the plot together. While her confrontation with American will be something to see, one wonders what's in store with Jefferson, the former bodyguard for the Prez who now seems to be writhing around in a Tetsuo-style God-mass... and if this isn't enough to whet this robot's whistle for the final issue, who the hell is THAT on the last page!? This book has suffered tremendously due to behind-the-scenes difficulties: burglary, loss of staff, production woes, yet despite the lag between issues mid-way through the arc, and the change in creative direction, it has continued to maintain a very high level of quality: Len O'Grady's slidly simple color palette has helped ease the transition between the brilliant Trevor Hairsine, off to Marvel, and Travel Foreman, who's life-drawing style renderings have breathed new life into the book. Foreman has an uncanny sense of forced perspective that just knocks me out of my seat. But the whole thing would simply be Image-style fluff without a solid core concept and excellent script, the vision behind the whole thing, which, thanks to Rob Williams, has never faltered. Act One, as it's called in solicitations, is scheculed to be published in a trade later this year, and I think the flow of William's script and plotting will be much enhanced by the single volume approach, muach as that other schedule-belabored adult superhero meditation, Millar's and Hitch's Ultimates. I'll be first in line to get my copy, and then begin impatiently festering, waiting for Act Two to begin, as it had better. Actually, this robot doesn't wait in line for comics, but you know what I mean.

10/10 Clicks!

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Sleeper Season Two 1: Brubaker and Phillips hit the ground running with the first issue in the new "season," which is a great way of pulling the tone of the book in the reader's mind away from comics and into the more dramatic cinematic-ish haze that some really finely crafted comic properties occupy: the action bleeds from the page into your skin, absorbed into your brain until you egin crafting the film in your head while you read, without even knowing it. This book is noir without the self-aware schtick, emotional without being excessively dramatic about it, intellectual without being verbose, and is almost instantly accessible. Our man Holden is now in a tough spot: he doesn't know who to trust, but he's been outed to the underworld super-boss Tao as a sleeper agent, and to the feds as a sleeper agent gone bad in bed with Tao's agent, Miss Misery. Each believes he's betrayed them in favor of the other. It's more double-crossing than the Coen's Miller's Crossing, but the reader doesn't know whose side Holden's on...because Holden himself doesn't know. There's some great imagery here of Holden dreaming about his love/hate/hurt relationship with Misery, one of the most complex and interesting dynamics in comics since Preacher's love triangle. We also see that Tao continues to keep Holden close to the chest, assuming that even if he has betrayed him, he can be controlled, a useful resource nonethless. When Holden is confronted by agents claiming to represent IO's John Lynch, and handles it in a very super-villain kind of way, Tao sees it as an opportunity to use Holden to get to Lynch. So by the end of this first issue, Holden remains in the same vice grip of deceit, manipulation, and violent expectation, except his prey, and handler, are reversed. Great start to a great new arc!

10/10 Clicks!

So says...Wrongrobot!

Newsarama's Original Interview with Rob Williams about Travel Foreman Joining Cla$$War

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