Image Comics Review: Nocterra #10

Image Comics Review: Nocterra #10

Review: Nocterra #10

[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Publisher:  Image Comics
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Tony S. Daniel
Colors: Marcelo Maiolo
Letters: AndWorld Design
Reviewed by: Carl Bryan

Summary
“Big Bad Bill is Sweet William now…. – Van Halen

Nocterra #10 – Part Four…”Pedal to the Metal”

As the Sundog convoy draws nearer to the birthplace of Blacktop Bill, a terrible…

View On WordPress

Batman Swallowing His Own Cape: The Modern Caped Crusader’s Narrative Autocannibalism - Comic Book Herald

One of my two big pieces this month (want to get the first real newsletter out before the 1st, though no promises), an examination of how the logical storytelling endpoint for Batman as we understand him has long since been reached, and how those since have in spite of their considerable efforts failed to manifest the next step.

An additional note since there wasn’t any place for it in the piece: Why on God’s Earth would you take Jace Fox’s faceplate off and not put him in the extremely rad second-stage-of-his-career suit Derington already designed?

Admittedly I’d miss the faceplate if I was still getting I Am Batman, but I get you don’t want a non-white Batman to permanently be the version who shows zero skin. It looked cool when Jason Todd had it in Battle For The Cowl though, and it looked cool with Jace. But now he’s just wearing the regular Batman costume! Why have Derington give you the suit if you’re not gonna use it?!

I’d love to see the alternate universe where the Court of the Owl storyline had Dick Grayson as Batman as it was originally intended to be before Flashpoint rebooted everything.

but did you get it? batman uncovered the whole court of owls thing when he was 8 years old but it was just his luck that he found their super secret chamber which was kinda forgotten? all dusty? but now it was just there? and they went hey why don’t we use it, it’s not like he’s coming back (spoiler alert: he did come back and the court of owls was no more)

My Variant Cover for UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY #17 — in stores this October from Image Comics.

My Initial Thoughts on the DC Black Label Imprint Series

So, I have taken about a week to examine the news that was released by DC Entertainment last week in the form of a new publishing imprint label for the comics publisher known as DC Black Label. In short, these new stories will be stand-alone series by iconic and well-known creators that will exist outside of the main DC comic universe to allow the respective creative teams a blank page to tell…

View On WordPress

 In 2006, Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert kicked off a brave new era of Batman. Batman had a kid, and he was a total asshole. This made a lot of people very mad. We’re still arguing over it. Anyway.

Batman Vol. 1 #657, Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert

Morrison’sBatmanquickly went off the deep end, incorporating all sorts of insane Silver Age madness into the main continuity. One of the biggest stories incorporated, and one of the lynchpins of the run, was the International Club of Heroes. A collection of knockoff Batmen, they were all gathered, along with Batman himself, on a mysterious island. While the Club itself was relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, the villain organization introduced, the Black Glove, proved to be one of the most enduring components of the run. A secret society of the rich and depraved, the Black Glove meets once a year to bet on the life-and-death struggle of a third party. In addition to their criminal activities, they’re also a bit of a cult, seeking to summon the dark god Barbatos.

Batman Vol. 1 #676, Grant Morrison and Tony S. Daniel

One year, for their annual party, they choose to bet on Batman. This goes about as well as one could expect, and the Black Glove is defeated by Batman. They largely vanish from the DC Universe afterwards, leaving behind only their leader, Doctor Hurt (secretly an immortal ancestor of Bruce Wayne), to continue to trouble Batman. Fast forward to 2011. Barry Allen has just rebooted the DC Universe in Flashpoint. Scott Snyder is writing Batman.He needs a villain for his first arc. Enter: The Court of Owls.

Batman Vol. 2 #8, Scott Snyder and Jason Fabok

The Court of Owls is a secret society of the rich and depraved, who get together to bet on a life-and-death struggle of a third party. Also, they’re cultists trying to summon Barbatos. Also, they have a historical connection to the Waynes Graysons. No one seemed to really care that Snyder was just retelling The Black Glove but worse, and the run went on to be wildly successful.

Fast forward once more to 2018. Scott Snyder is riding high off his idiotic Metalevent. The Source Wall has been destroyed, unleashing all sorts of horrors. In his Justice League, he introduces one of the new “mirror” forces from the Dark Multiverse. Opposite to the Emotional Spectrum established by Geoff Johns in Green Lantern is the Invisible Emotional Spectrum, represented first by Ultraviolet Lanterns Sinestro and John Stewart.

Justice League Vol. 4 #3, Scott Snyder and Jorge Jimenez

We’ll leave aside the stupidity of treating the non-visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum as ordinary colors to fit into Geoff Johns’ small-minded concept of the Green Lanterns. The Invisible Emotional Spectrum is implied to include the rest of the non-visible electromagnetic spectrum including infrared, x-rays, and all that jazz. We’ll move on to November 7th, 2018 in a minute, but first a bit of history.

Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #3, Alan Moore and Bill Willingham

In 1987, Alan Moore (yes, that one) wrote a few stories for Tales of the Green Lantern Corps. In one of them, he introduced the idea of a blind alien Green Lantern who had no concept of the color green, or light in general. So how does a Green Lantern work if he doesn’t know what green is? Rot Lop Fan, the alien in question, identifies the color associated with will as the F-Sharp note, and Lantern as a bell. Thus, he becomes the F-Sharp Bell. Fast forward back to today. Grant Morrison arrives back on a DC monthly ongoing, after many years away.

The Green Lantern #1, Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp

Morrison immediately references Rot Lop Fan, then goes on to indicate the existence of other “Green” Lanterns, those who cannot see our visible spectrum of light. By placing them next to Rot Lop Fan, and identifying them as X-Ray/Gamma/Microwave Lanterns, he almost directly refutes that the Ultraviolet Lanterns introduced by Snyder would exist. After all, Geoff Johns’ Emotional Spectrum is based on visible light for humans. Aliens might have an entirely different comprehension of light and color. An Ultraviolet Lantern might very well be a “Green” Lantern in reality.

I’m not saying Morrison is wrecking Snyder’s shit before it even has a chance to develop as petty revenge for copying his Batman, but he’s certainly not doing it any favors.

Short version: Charlie’s family is determined to start a new life in their new town, but after only one day, his daughter Sailor goes missing under ominous circumstances.  Charlie is contacted by someone claiming to be a witch-hunter, who tells him that not only is Sailor in grave danger, but that she was offered in sacrifice to the forest wytches by someone in the town.

What I thought: If you like horror, you’ll like Wytches.  If you dislike horror on the basis that it’s too unbelievable, or too gory, or too raw in the human element, you will not like Wytches.  I loved that it took the time to really explain what was going on and how all the mechanics worked, but I did not like that they went about it in that old annoying way, where they just say the made-up name for something and expect that to mean anything to someone who is hearing the name for the first time.  Yeah, “Look for the Irons” might be good advice, but if you don’t know that Iron refers to a group of people that’s not useful information.  Fortunately, the main character, Charlie, has some sort of sixth sense that tell shim when a super common word is being used in referance to something not common.  Seriously.  When he asks aloud to his reflection, “Where are you?” just musing to himself about his missing girl, he gets the reply written on his belly, “Here.”
I seriously thought that meant he was supposed to cut himself open, or maybe that the person who gave him the signal was in the room, but no, it somehow got correctly interpreted to mean “Here Point, Vermont.”  Oh yes.  But of course.  That was going to be my third guess.
It’s sounding like I didn’t like this, but I did.  The horror element was superb, just enough information given to keep you interested, just enough peril to keep you rooting for the players.  The girl, Sailor, suffers from intense anxiety and panic attacks, even taking the time to explain exactly what that feels like when her father insists that she just “get over it.”  It was a great way to show a real mental issue, and the fact that there were real terrors in Sailor’s life just made her all the more admirable when she worked past them.  She’s resourceful, almost to the point of not asking for help when she needs it, because she believes that all of her issues come from within and should be solved the same way.  Obviously that’s not how life works, and she pays the price for it.
The art was amazing.  I kept thinking that Charlie was (at least physically) based on the dad from King of the Hill, but besides that, the range of expression and the diversity of the cast was very real, very much something I could believe.  There was an odd splatter effect on all the pages that had to do with the weird occult stuff, I think having to do with whatever flavor of magic was being used t the time, and while that did make for panels a bit hard to see, it was interesting and not something I’ve seen often.  Really, it gave the impression of blood or water on the “camera” as you sometimes see in movies that break the fourth wall, but in the end, it added more than it took away.

Read it if you liked: 30 Days of Night by Steve Niles, Squidderby Ben Templesmith,  Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin, Anotherby Yukito Ayatsuji