Broken Frontier

Hello, everyone! My name is William Gatevackes and I am back again to offer a preview of the comics arriving in stores tomorrow, May 24, 2006.

Secret Six #1 is the latest in a long line of new titles to spring forth from DC’s Infinite Crisis event. As I mentioned in last week’s column, it is hard for all of these books to find an audience in a glut of new releases.  Why should you pick up Secret Six instead of one of the litany of other comics you could choose from? Allow me to play devil’s advocate and give you six reasons why, in my opinion, you should add Secret Six to your pull list.

1. VILLAINS UNITED WAS A GREAT BOOK: In my opinion, Villains United, where the Secret Six first appeared, was the best of the Infinite Crisis prequel limited series. There is no reason to doubt that Secret Six will be just as good because…

2. GAIL SIMONE IS WRITING IT: Simone, who also wrote Villains United, is one of the best, if a bit underrated, authors working in comics today. If you want proof of her skills, look no further than Villains. She was given a bunch of Z-list bad guys and made them into…

3. INTERESTING CHARACTERS: Catman was a laughable Batman copy, Rag Doll was a minor JSA villain, and who ever even heard of Scandal? Simone turned each of them into fleshed out, realistic villains.  The reason why Simone was able to do this is because she is skilled at creating…

4. GREAT CHARACTER INTERACTION: This is why Simone is so good at team books. She realizes that the best way to build characterization is to show how the cast reacts with one another. Catman’s conversations with Deadshot turned him from a joke to “cool cat” and Rag Doll’s relationship with the Parademon adds depth to both villains. Did I say villains? By the end of the series, Simone turned these bad guys into…

5. A CAST OF ANTI-HEROES: Too bad to be good, too independent to join Luthor’s Secret Society, the Secret Six became characters looking out for only themselves, partially because they wanted to, but also because they had to. This means that their continued adventures in their own book will be…
6. AN INTERESTING CONCEPT: The team could be fighting the Justice League one month and Luthor the next. This opens a boatload of interesting story possibilities. These possibilities in the hands of a skilled writer like Simone could result in comic book gold.

I could add a seventh reason: that if the Secret Six mini-series does good they might be in line for an ongoing monthly. I do think the concept could excel as a regular series, but the title of the book is Secret Six, not Secret Seven. So, keeping in line with the premise, I could only give six reasons. And you thought writing this column was easy?

Fantastic Four: A Death in the Family is a one shot which Marvel promotes as featuring, “not a dream, not a hoax”, the death of the Invisible Woman.

Taken at face value, this would make this issue a must-have collectible. But since the Invisible Woman is featured on the cover of a future issue of Fantastic Four, the permanent state of her death seems to be in question.

Perhaps another member of the FF dies? The solicitation for this one shot states that the Human Torch is “willing to do whatever it takes” to see his sister alive again. Could this mean he sacrifices his own life? Well, an attack in the first issue of Civil War has put him in the hospital, a status which is referred to in later solicitations. Since it is hard to be dead and recovering in the hospital at the same time, it looks like Johnny survives.

The Thing has his own ongoing series, which continues after this issue hits the stands, and Mr. Fantastic plays a role in Civil War, so where does that leave us? Four minus four equals a grand total of zero family members who are to die in this issue.

Using a character’s death to sell an issue has been a successful, if somewhat odious, way for publishers to boost sales on a title. But longtime readers know that death is in no way permanent in comics. So why do companies continue to use it as a marketing tool?

Giving Marvel the benefit of the doubt and assuming there is some disclaimer stating this series comes after the Civil War series ends, and Sue Richards does in fact die, it’s highly unlikely that she will stay dead for long. It’s even less likely considering Jessica Alba is gearing up to portray her in the next Fantastic Four movie.

So, it doesn’t look like any immediate members of Marvel’s first family are going to be lost forever in this one shot. And a death of a member of the team’s extended family would be anticlimactic and possibly no less permanent. So expect any demises in the issue to be reversed neatly by the end of the book.

Speaking of Marvel, death, and the cynicism around it’s permanence in comics, tomorrow’s X-Factor #7 features team member Siryn dealing with the loss of her father Banshee, who died in a plane crash in the X-Men: Deadly Genesis limited series. How does she react? Much like comic fans, she greets the news with a great deal of skepticism.

Leave it to Peter David to come up with this type of plot point.  Not only does it satirize the attitude I expressed above, but it also plays well in the actual story as an example of the denial stage of grief. David breaks the fourth wall while at the same time not breaking it. I can’t wait to see how this is played out in the book. 

From Oni Press and the mind of Sam Keith comes My Inner Bimbo #1. The first of a five issue miniseries tells us what happens when a man’s under-developed feminine side materializes into an actual woman.

Sam Keith’s artistic style is a brash mix of exaggeration and realism and a similar style applies to his writing as well. His stories blend fantasy and reality seamlessly. This style was on display in his creation The Maxx, a book published by Image Comics from 1993 to 1997 and even adapted into a cartoon for MTV.

If his prior work is any indication, My Inner Bimbo will be an interesting trip down a unique and unusual road. If you have an extra $2.99 tomorrow and are in the mood for something out of the ordinary, you might want to give the title a try.

Finally, Wolverine #42 arrives tomorrow and marks the first issue of a new creative team, Marc Guggenheim and Humberto Ramos. Guggenheim comes to comics from the world of television, where he wrote for The Practice, Law and Order, and CSI. Ramos is known for his work on Spider-Man, Impulse and Revelations. 

It is always a dicey prospect when new creators take over a series, as itt usually takes a while for the team to gel and a new writer to find his or her voice. This task is especially hard for Guggenheim and Ramos because their first arc is a Civil War crossover.

The fact that ‘Vendetta’ is part of a crossover may add attention to their work that it might otherwise not have had. And being part of the crossover means that a lot of their storytelling is molded by more editorial influence than usual. Both of these factors may contribute to hampering the development of the team’s chemistry.

Perhaps you believe that chemistry between a writer and an artist isn’t as important as it once was. After all, the process of creating comics has changed greatly from the days of the Claremont/Byrne and Wolfman/Perez teams. But still, the bond between artist and writer, no matter how minor, remains a vital aspect of the creative process. And anything that inhibits this bond from forming can doom a collaboration before it even begins. 

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William Gatevackes is a writer living in Mamaroneck, NY, where he lives with his lovely wife Jennifer. He writes the periodic comic review at PopMatters.