Comic Reviews: Ultra 2; 100 Bullets 52, 53; We3 1

10/05/2004

Ultra 2: The Luna Brothers continue their interesting experiment in Ultra, as a look at the life of young, single superheroines portrayed not only with far more realism and sensitivity than you find in mainstream comics, but even moreso, from a couple of young guys like this. The script is comprised of work from both brothers, and the pacing is even and mellow, emphasizing both action and still scenes equally. The dialog is more nuanced than in the first issue, and they have crafted the blend of insecurity, shyness and interest we all know from early curiosity at a potential love connection, in such a way that I found it completely compelling. The script is very tight, using visual references and character mannerism to help tell the story, as when Ultra realizes the salad fork, with a guy's number on it, is missing, or when her dating hopeful admits to being shell-shocked by her celebrity, yet still manages to ask her out, and her response is a blank stare, conveying how stunned she is that he even had the 'cajones' to approach her. The girl talk scenes are scaled back some from the first issue's Sex and the City riffing, and the real-world super-hero-as-career premise the Lunas have established as context for the story is well defined. The art style is interesting: it uses pale shades of color wash, with blurred details in backgrounds and lots of soft lighting, which lends the book a diary-like intimate feel. The cover, and frequent elements within the story, reference popular men's magazines, which is a nice touch, and has some clever blurbs as well. While the facial features of the women in the book are too similar, the expressions as a whole are subtle and distinct, and are my personal favorite detail so far: the pursed lip, the smirk, the eye-roll, the awkward lip-bite, etc. This book gives the reader a peak into the life of a young woman professional, competent and complex, yet vulnerable and hopeful of new romance. She just happens to be bulletproof. One additional note: lots of neat detail there with regards to powers, as Ultra is shown to be tough, but not immune to pain, which adds realism. Also, her costume references, both visual (cape flapping weird directions, off center) and verbal (concerns about the bare midriff that 'marketing' insisted upon for her, despite the winter season) make Ultra one of the most realistic characters portrayed in recent memory.

9/10 Clicks

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100 Bullets 52,53: Brian Azarello's latest 100 Bullets arc, and the first since the series' half-way round-up for issue 50, continues here, as a young man, "Wild E" as he is known on the street, navigates dangerous waters in New Orleans. He's witnessed a woman chased and drowned by the docks, while having a soft moment with series regular and all-around kick-ass fem Dizzie, and in a brilliant combination of flashbacks and jump cuts, is found holding ex-Minutemam Shephard, Dizzie's mentor, bound hostage with intent to kill him for the murder... of the same woman he witnessed in the first issue of the arc. The reader, as of 53, still isn't granted the connection between Shephard and the woman, and scenes of Eddie and a local jazz prodigy are curiously foreboding, underscored by trademark vague business-speak between Shephard and one of the crime family bosses now being hunted down by Agent Graves. I confess to growing more confused by the larger themes at work in the book than I care to admit, though I suspect the storyline will coalesce in trade format. 53 issues in, and I have a lot of questions, though happy as a clam Azarello and Risso purport to be planning 47 remaining issues of the series to clear them up for me.

8/10 Clicks

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WE3 1: Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely have collaborated again on a thought-provoking, genre-busting whopper of a premise: government-funded cyber-killer assassins, scheduled for termination by their own spook handlers, on the the lam and out for revenge... and they are, as you see immediately, household pets. The curious simplicity with which Morrison fuels the script with little details about the program and the behavior of each animal, recognizable to any pet owner, is matched by the sheer beauty of Quitely's work. I appreciated how Quitely conveys an action sequence in a rapid-fire burst of tiny panels, as if the jittery images of these animals in adrenalized flight. I've re-read it three times, and can't get over the fact that Morrison actually makes me apply my own perception of each species' personality trait archtypes into the bahavior of these three creatures. It's pretty slick work, and there isn't a book on the market this year for which I am more amnxious to read the next issue.

10/10 Clicks


So says...Wrongrobot!


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