New Post

Hey, it's a new post.

Really this is me focusing more on a chance to practice writing reviews because I've been inspired to do so, and I'm sure will not interest you all that much. Still, I'll also use this to say what's going on with me too. Right now, I'm working at the ALC again, teaching Koreans English. I always find English teaching rewarding and while I enjoy the work, I need more hours. Until I get them, I'll be working at the Gas Station part time, so I'll be pretty busy for the next while.

Also I saw Coraline last weekend. Man, the new 3-D they're using these day looks impressive. They even used 3D on the previews, which looked awesome, even when the movies looked awful. Sure that live action movie about live-action Guinea Pigs who fight crime looks awful, but in an eye-popping kind of way.

Anyway, here's my comic review for the day:

Wonder Man: My Fair Super-Hero

Me, I’m a guy who loves a good romantic comedy. Of course, when people think romantic comedy they often think chick flicks in the vein of Pretty Woman or My Best Friend’s Wedding or every other Julia Roberts movie (I’m sure that’s an unfair hyperbole but I’m sticking with it). Me, I love romantic comedies like the ironic yet endearing “Princess Bride”, or the odd “the Trouble with Harry”. You know, ones that are really quite genuinely sweet, but manage to do it with a warped sense of humour. Wonder Man: My Fair Super-Hero certainly had a lot of potential: a great comedic talent in Peter David and a plot taken directly from the classic musical My Fair Lady. There was a lot of potential, but in the end, it doesn’t seem to fit together very well.

Wonder Man, for those who don’t know, was a formerly (and very briefly) a super-villain who was suppose to destroy the Avengers by posing as a hero, but ends up being a real hero sacrificing his own life to save them (or so he thought). Do to the nature of his powers he would later return from the grave… several times, but that’s another story. He eventually uses his powers to become a Hollywood superstar as well as a hero. In this tale, Wonder Man is discussing the nature of good and evil with a documentarian. The documentarian thinks that some people are just born evil while Wonder Man thinks that even his most nasty foes are capable of rehabilitation. Suddenly, another Hollywood bigwig is attacked by a berserker martial artist calling herself Ladykiller. Wonder Man takes her out handily enough (though she does prove to be surprisingly tough) and the bet is set: Wonder Man vows to turn Ladykiller into a super-heroine his upcoming documentary.

As I said, there is a lot of potential her, and the mini-series certainly hints at a lot of interesting subjects but never deals with them in any satisfying way. It certainly discusses the idea of whether what Wonder Man is doing is immoral trying to force rehabilitation (in a manner not dissimilar to brainwashing) but it sort of feels like when characters talk about it the discussions they have never really affect the characters actions too much, almost like the discussions are happening outside the plot. I suppose it does effect a decision that Wonder Man makes at the beginning of chapter four, but even if the conversations weren’t there his decision wouldn’t feel strange or out of place.

The villains are also pretty weak and do surprisingly little in the story. They have powers but the nature of those powers are never fully explained (so one guy can turn his hands into stone and that other guy can clap at people to death?) and it doesn’t even seem to matter that they have them because they never confront the hero and they don’t actually effect the plot except for their leader. Perhaps Peter has plans for the characters later on down the line but they get little to do here. There’s also a noticeable continuity error and while I hate to be the guy who whines for every inconsistency but it really does take me out of the plot when a character that’s supposed to be dead shows up at a part to hang out. This I blame on the editor who could have just gotten the creators to make a few quick changes and it would have been fine. Just bugs me is all.

The romance itself also holds promise but when the characters do fall in love it doesn’t really feel earned (possibly true of My Fair Lady as well, but I haven’t seen it, only the many spoofs of it.) The explanation of why the romance blossoms is plausible and even a little deliciously dark (Stockholm Syndrome) but it doesn’t feel organic, even with Ladykiller opening up about her painful past. The final act with Ladykiller’s “Coming Out” had the potential to be very charming but it all feels sort of rushed towards the end, despite the fact that the story doesn’t really feel tight.

I’m also not very fond of the art by Andrew Currie, with the characters all looking a little awkward. I can’t put my finger on exactly why but the face structures seem a little off to me. The one character he gets dead on is the Beast, who plays a major role in the story. He decides to give Beast a cartoony look that serves the character quite well. In fact, while I’m not fond of this particular book, I’d love to see Currie on a funny animal book like Uncle Scrooge, Peter Porker, Spider-Ham or Captain Carrot and the Amazing Zoo Crew. I think his animated styled art is much more impressive than his straight forward super-hero art. The art issue is only made worse by an artist fill-in in the middle of the book by Todd Nauck. Interestingly, I like his art on this book a bit better except for his Beast, who looks a little wrong (though few artists other than Frank Quitely can do Beast’s feline look justice).

I know it sounds like I’m pissing all over this book, but I’m not trying to. The book isn’t bad, but there’s a lot of wasted potential. The book feels rather pedestrian, which is a shame because I know that Peter David is capable of mixing action, comedy and character drama very well in other works, like "Hulk" and "Fallen Angel". And using a classic film’s plot for a super-hero/Hollywood actor seems like a good idea and I would like to see Peter David try it again, but I really want there to be something a little more solid than this production.