BATMAN-ON-FILM.COM's "BATMAN IN COMICS" - Review: "WEDNESDAY COMICS #12" by Robert Reineke (October 20, 2009)

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS: WEDNESDAY COMICS, DC's new, 12-issue weekly series, reaches its incredible conclusion in September 2009!

WEDNESDAY COMICS has reached its conclusion, so a look at the series as a whole…

It’s not the song, it’s the singer could very well sum up Batman’s story in WEDNESDAY COMICS. In the end, Brian Azzarello didn’t really have a twist that would elevate a fairly standard noir story starring Batman. But, he didn’t really need one to pull off a successful story.

Among the features, Batman was often the best paced featuring 12 succinct little vignettes adding up to one story. Other writers struggled with the unique format at times, but Azzarello shined in his spare, moody efficiency. Not a panel was without purpose. No line of dialogue was unnecessary or missing. A rock solid story told by a rock solid writer.

Azzarello was matched step for step by his old artist partner Eduardo Risso. You can tell these two worked together on 100 issues of 100 BULLETS as there’s nothing in Azzarello’s script that Risso couldn’t deliver. Risso’s art was moody, exciting, and sexy as the story called for it. A writer and artist team in perfect synch is always a joy.

Perhaps not a classic, but an enjoyable Batman story for any fan.

KAMANDI by Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook defined pure epic. A fitting tribute to Jack Kirby and Hal Foster’s PRINCE VALIANT. I believe there are three features that can rightly be called instant classics in WEDNESDAY COMICS. This is one of them.

SUPERMAN by John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo ended up being a bit of a misfire. Bermejo’s art was terrific, but the story featured too much of Superman moping around and whining. Yeah, there was an explanation late in the story, but there really wasn’t ever a clear instance of Superman being noble and heroic in the whole thing to offer the fitting counterpoint.

DEADMAN by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck was a noir tinged supernatural adventure. The story perhaps needed more beyond the inherent likability of Boston Brand to carry it through, but every week it brought some of the nicest page layouts to the fore.

GREEN LANTERN by Kurt Busiek and Joe Quinones struggled with the format at the start. At least on Busiek’s end where there was much setup of backstory with too little payoff. However, the latter portion of the story was a rollicking science fiction adventure of the New Frontier era and it ended well. Joe Quinones had standout art throughout the story and looks like a terrific artist find for years to come.

METAMORPHO by Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred demonstrated that Neil Gaiman had an inner Bob Haney. Who knew? Definitely the most Silver Age feature of the bunch, capably drawn by Mike Allred, and full of fun sidelights, like a full game of Snakes and Ladders, translating Latin, and page layouts mirroring the table of elements. Perhaps the story suffered from time to time, the two page spread near the beginning of exploration stands out as a questionable use of space, but still lots of fun.

TEEN TITANS by Eddie Berganza and Sean Galloway just didn’t work. The story suffered from a lack of focus and was curiously continuity heavy in a continuity free environment. Sean Galloway’s art suffered from washed out coloring throughout and no improvement was made over the course of the series.

STRANGE ADVENTURES by Paul Pope is the second feature that I’d call an instant classic. Part Alex Raymond. Part Heavy Metal. And 100% Paul Pope in complete command of the page. It’s faithful to Adam Strange and, at the same time, a complete reinvention.

SUPERGIRL by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Connor had something that not enough comics have these days. Charm. For the first time ever I saw the appeal of Supergirl as more than a distaff Superman. Probably the most consistently funny strip as well and one with a great ending. Might be the first thing I’d show a young girl to spark an interest in comics.

METAL MEN by Dan Didio, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, and Kevin Nowlan was a moderate success. Dan Didio clearly is fond of the Metal Men and turned in a solid, albeit formulaic story. Not much scope to the thing though as the Metal Men spent most of the story in one room of a bank. Great art by Garcia-Lopez and Nowlan, who recently did the King Tut arc in BATMAN: CONFIDENTIAL, helped keep the story constantly readable though.

WONDER WOMAN by Ben Caldwell was simultaneously the most ambitious and most frustrating feature of the bunch. The second half was a whole lot stronger than the first and is worth slogging through the muddled initial segments for. And there are a ton of good ideas here for making Wonder Woman relevant and fun for the 21st Century. Probably the feature I’d most like to see revisited in an expanded format that is more comfortable to work with.

SGT. ROCK AND EASY COMPANY by Adam and Joe Kubert never quite took off. Joe Kubert is still a great artist, he draws poverty and desperation like no other, but there never seemed to be enough story. And sticking to variations of the 9 panel grid may have made for an efficient feature but one that really didn’t take advantage of the possibilities of the extra large page.

FLASH COMICS by Karl Kerschl and Brendan Fletcher is the third feature that I’d call an instant classic. Time travel, parallel universes, Gorilla Grodd, the strained love between Barry and Iris, and several different comic styles all meshed to create one of the best Barry Allen stories ever told and one that clearly took advantage of its format. A real winner.

THE DEMON AND CATWOMAN by Walt Simonson and Brian Stelfreeze never quite lived up to the sum of its parts. The solid art by Stelfreeze wasn’t the problem. The problem was that Selina and The Demon were constantly switching forms, while combating the ever changing gambits of Morgaine Le Fay, that there never was a chance for the best part of the opening installment, the flirtation between Selina and Jason Blood, to be explored. A teamup without interaction is kind of missing the point of a teamup.

HAWKMAN by Kyle Baker probably made little sense as a whole. Hawkman starts thwarting a skyjacking, which turns into an alien invasion story, which turns into Hawkman fighting a T-Rex on Dinosaur Island. But, darn it all if it didn’t have some of the most badass moments of any strip. Hawkman tosses terrorists out of a plane and talks smack. Hawkman struggles to keep a jetliner from crashing. Hawkman fights a T-Rex and talks smack.

Three instant classics and a bunch of solid features made WEDNESDAY COMICS a solid read and an overall success. Like any anthology, not everything worked all the time, but there was a solid cross section and something I could share with my wife who normally doesn’t read comics. As an experiment in format and showcasing art it was a great success. A return engagement with lessons learned from the first series would be more than welcome by me. And it’s a unique reading experience that I hope others get the chance to experience.