Comics Review: War of the Gods and Grimoire

I took a trip to the Downtown Mall last week with an agenda.  I had some business to do at the bank there and I wanted a pizza at the Grounded Café next door.  I also decided to check in on Coas Books and Zia Comics.  The bank took the longest to just do something simple.  The pizza was magnificent.  The Café’s clientele frightened me off and I ate the pizza back at work.  (Also, Grounded doesn’t sell sodas and I don’t think there’s a bathroom there.)  Actually, the people hanging around the mall during the day has gotten dramatically scarier.  I’m seriously rethinking my occasional trips there.

 

There wasn’t anything at Coas.  Finds like that Sabrina book are just totally random, not guaranteed.  I had had good luck at Zia Comics last time and found two entertaining comics.  Unfortunately, I didn’t notice any more issues of Barbarella or World’s Finest.  (They were restocking while I was there.  I might have just missed them.)  Today, my choices did not meet with success.      

Wonder Woman: War of the Gods #1 Special Edition

This is a reprint, an expensive $5 reprint.  (It is double-sized with only a couple of ads, so there is some value, I guess.)  However, I figured with George Perez working on it that it must be good.  It’s part of a four-part mini-series.  They had the first three issues there, but not the fourth, otherwise I probably would have bought all of them.  What a mistake that would have been.

 

I got a little pushback online once when I said Wonder Woman doesn’t have any iconic storylines.  Characters like Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man and groups like the X-Men and Teen Titans have plenty, but I couldn’t think of any for the Amazon.  There have been trades, of course, but nothing has stood out.  Getting into the possible reasons for this and the psychology of this character is beyond what I want to write for a stupid comic book review. 

 

(Okay really, Wonder Woman is the only other superhero character besides Superman and Batman to be continuously published since the Golden Age.  There really should be some better stories out there beyond her fighting Egg Fu.  And I still maintain that she’s dressed like a patriotic stripper, while being too unobtainable and noble to fantasize about.  She’s not as strong as Superman, not as smart as Batman, and doesn’t have worthwhile specialized powers like the Flash and Green Lantern.  Wonder Woman has no niche.)  

(Admittedly, Egg Fu is kind of awesome.)

 

War of the Gods came out in the early 90’s, a few years after Crisis on Infinite Earths, and I think it was meant to be a vehicle for a great Wonder Woman story since it features her mythology.  Unfortunately, it was crossed with a Crisis-like all-encompassing storyline that basically reduced her (and everyone else in it) to a minor character. 

 

I’d like to comment on the story in this issue, but frankly I couldn’t figure it out.  Crisis had several little side scenes in it where it would branch off to other titles.  Usually, these were minor subplots.  In War of the Gods #1, almost the entire issue is nothing but segues to other comics that aren’t even footnoted.  I don’t know how this story started or what’s going on in it.  I don’t know what to read to catch up and understand it.

At least for this issue, the crux of it is the Roman gods fighting the Greek gods.  I see you raising your hand with a question.  I have the same one, “Aren’t the Roman gods just Romanized versions of the Greek gods?”  Essentially, “Yes.”  (It’s more complicated than that, but pretty much.)  This is terribly shaky ground to start a story on. 

 

From looking at the other issues online, that’s not the whole story, but it’s all basically a bunch of random battle scenes with little narrative.  (Crisis had a strong storyline at least.)  The one selling point of this issue is the artwork.  It’s Perez finished by Cynthia Martin.  The other issues in this series are not as nice looking.     

 

I apologize for this slipshod review.  Reading this comic gave me the sensation of walking into a random movie at a theater halfway through and then leaving well before the end.  All this could be was a disappointment.  Except, I did like this silly scene with Lobo and Captain Marvel.  (Shazam.  Whatever.)  I’m not a Lobo fan, but he can be fun. 

 

The North Valley Grimoire #1

Great cover.  There was so little else on the racks at Zia that appealed to me, I ended up getting this indy comic based on the cover.  How many times have I repeated this action at the store?  Try not to think about it. 

 

I view most of these indy comics as “pilot episodes” and proof of concept pitches for movies and TV shows.  In this case, Grimoire is already a successful novel and a short story in the setting has been optioned for a movie.  This comic adapts the novel.  I think it’s trying to sell it to be adapted to another medium. 

Beyond possible future exploitation, the comic itself looks pretty good.  It’s stylish, but reasonably clear and sets the dark atmosphere of the story.  The story is about a private school girl obtaining a magical tome and a government agent coming to retrieve it.  There are others after the book.  The agent really wants it for his own purposes.  The girl doesn’t know what’s going on and has acquired powers from the book. 

It’s a fairly solid setup with a bit of larger world building.  The magic is mixed with technology and goes off like various superhero powers.  This magic use is hidden from the general public.  People who witness it are mind-wiped. 

The girl’s boyfriend has died and he left the book for her.  His motives are a mystery.  The agent also gets in deep trouble with his superiors by the end.  He wasn’t able to find the girl, but someone else did.

 

It was intriguing.  I found myself reading the comic carefully as it was presenting quite a bit of setting in a short space.  Given this is a five-issue series, I wonder well it will adapt a nearly 400-page novel.  That said, even with the action and magic, I don’t think the story was for me.  Its urban fantasy (or modern fantasy), which is generally for girls.  The characters weren’t appealing to me.  The story just has one-too-many trope-y elements and not enough originality.  Without engaging characters, this wasn’t going to work for me. 

 

This was yet another trip to the comic book store that has produced an unhappy haul.  They looked so promising.  Given the deterioration of the neighborhood, I’m genuinely concerned about going back for more abuse.