Comics Review: Wonder Girl, Batman, and Frosty

[It took so long to finish those comic posts from my last visit that I'd bought more in the meantime.]  OMG!  I’m doing a Comics Review and it’s just new comics fresh off the rack.  No reviews of obscure, non-superhero 80’s titles this time.  I’m selling out and going mainstream with this one . . . err . . . except for the Frosty one. 

Wonder Girl #4

I never thought I’d be able to fall in love again at my age . . . with a comic book.  This was the third time I’d gone to Zia Comics looking for this issue, so you know it’s serious.  (Actually, it’s probably my fault for not double checking the release date.) 

 

Joelle Jones’ artwork is again, breathtaking.  I kind of question some of the sepia-toned pictures used for a couple of montages and the green-hued flashbacks, but only because the artwork doesn’t quite show up quite as well.  It just speaks for itself.   

As for Jones’ story, I don’t quite know what’s going on, but here’s what I understand.  Hera has brought Yara to Mount Olympus to have her trained as her champion.  There’s some kind of power play going on.  The Themyscira Amazons, with Artemis and the Cassie Sandsmark Wonder Girl, are opposed to this.  There are other tribes of Amazons, including a Brazilian one where Yara was raised.  And, she’s the child of an unknown god.  If I’d started this with Issue #1, I wouldn’t be surprised if I was still lost, but the story does seem to be going somewhere specific.     

I took this issue with me to dad’s apartment, along with my sketch pad.  I did my daily drawing there from it, while watching a NASCAR race.  When I showed the comic to dad, he grabbed it and started reading it.  He’d apparently enjoyed reading Issue #3 and Future State #2.  (I still don’t know what the relationship is exactly between these titles.)  If my endorsement is too fanboyish, surely my dad’s carries more weight.

  

Batman: The Long Halloween Special

I read this on Halloween night, just to make sure I was in the right mood.  However, there wasn’t much scary about it, apart from the $8 cover price.  It is a 48-page prestige format book with no ads.  It is a small graphic novel. 

I have a confession to make: I’ve never read The Long Halloween.  That book and Batman: Hush are two stories that I’ve always wanted to read, since they’re comic book classics.  I’ve likely picked them up on several occasions.  (They’re continuously in print.)  Usually the price forces me to put them down.  One of these days . . . 

 

This special is something of a prequel.  It makes many clear allusions to the main story from a hindsight view.  So, given my ignorance of the source material, I can’t really tell you how well it ties in or if it adds anything to the story.  There is the irony that the only reason I picked this up was because of its title.  I can only review this story as it is, not what it is a part of. 

 

Just as a standalone, it’s good.  Jeph Loeb has put a Batman story to the tune of a psychological character study.  Calendar Man and Two-Face (Harvey Dent) carry most of the tale with a calculating Batman trying to foil them.  I love the little subplot interlude with young Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon Trick-or-Treating.  I’ve read several books with Tim Sale’s artwork.  He has a very idiosyncratic style, but is a master of telling a story with pictures.

 

Was it worth $8, though?  That’s the question.  Certainly, regular comics aren’t worth $4.  (I’m making an exception for Wonder Girl, but that’s because it’s beautiful, and I can get additional use out of it as an art book to draw from.)  If you haven’t read The Long Halloween, I’d say save your money.  That said, I don’t regret the purchase at all.  Maybe someday I’ll bite the bullet and get the whole story.  I’m going to make the assumption that this story adds to the original, since the original creators are involved.  If you’ve read it, you’ll probably want this.  If you’re a big Batman fan, I’d assume you’ve read The Long Halloween, but if not, you’d still probably want this.     

     

Stanley the Snowman

Wait.  In spite of an overwhelming similarity to the classic Christmas character of Frosty the Snowman, this actually isn’t Frosty.  It was $2 on the rack, though.  Lacking any Archie comics, it seemed like a harmless purchase.  (I was in a good mood, because I’d finally got my Wonder Girl.)  The cover was appealing enough.  

    

I certainly got plenty for my $2.  It’s bright and colorful on slick paper.  There’s just a couple of house ads in the back, so it’s basically all content.  The art style is American manga, that is to say, sort of an amateur version of good Japanese manga.  That’s not really fair.  The artwork is good.  It’s not exactly in the Japanese style, because meant to be printed in color and in a floppy format.      

As for the story, our main character, Jenny, is a pleasant girl who has some inherited ability to bring snowmen to life.  That’s an oddly specific magical girl power.  I’d say it was almost a bit sinister, but it’s all so innocent.  This is supposed to be a kid’s comic, so I don’t suspect a dark twist to the story.  Unfortunately, this issue is basically a preview for a graphic novel.  It just sets up the larger story. 

 

Other than putting this up as something of a Christmas decoration in my apartment, I’m not sure what else to do with it.  This might be good for a kid, as long as you were prepared to buy the graphic novel if they liked it.    Like I said, the production values are good, especially at this price.  The publisher, Scout Comics, also makes comics for an older audience.  I may need to check out their other fare.