Thanos Rising #2: I thought I'd reached a point in my life where if a book, movie or show looks awful. I can just go with my gut, not watch it and be content that way. It usually works out. It worked out with Liam Neeson vs. Board Games (I think they call it Battleship). It works out with reality shows like Bet My Baby. It should have worked out after reading the first issue of the Mad Titan's origin story. After one issue of one of Marvel's most awesome, time honored foils getting the Anakin Skywalker treatment, I should have had enough.
However, like some comic book adventurer, I stood there at the shelf of new releases, saw the second issue, shrugged my shoulders and said, "It can't hurt." I mean, with Jason Aaron and Simone Bianchi working on it, there's no reason it shouldn't be able to turn itself around. After all, there are only so many feelings you can pack into one title. And, ideally, the first issue of any title should be considered experimental like a television pilot. The CW's Arrow took several hints and improved upon the obvious weaknesses of the inaugural episode. In other words, I assumed this issue couldn't be so bad. This was a flawed hypothesis.
A few years have passed from the events of the first issue to the second issue which I was certain would cut down on all the kiddie angst. Of course, that didn't stop Degrassi from happening so that makes me 0 for 2 on my guesses for this week. Thanos has gone from whiny outcast to teen prodigy. The time jump feels out of place and the pathos still feels contrived, but it's less so than the last issue. Still, this isn't what really takes away from what could have been an awesome story. The trouble here is that for a story that takes place in space, it doesn't feel very...space-like. I've mentioned before that a fun part of Brian K. Vaughn's Saga is the fact that the dialogue feels natural because they don't talk like ex-communicated Dune characters. The other side of that coin is that it's a book where big spider with a battle axe can have a conversation with a guy who has a television for a head. In Thanos Rising, two high school kids were making out and got abducted. There was no difference between this happening on ANOTHER PLANET and this happening in any movie Jennifer Love Hewitt or Sarah Michelle Gellar was in before the turn of the century. All in all, this book has several opportunities to be awesome, but to to properly show out....you have to show up first.
Bottom Line: 30 gorgeous looking pages of disengaged drivel. 5 out of 10
The Movement #1: The fun thing....or the thing that was supposed to be fun about the DC reboot was that it doesn't necessarily have to stick to a time honored script laid out by years and years of tradition (no matter how much fans actually LIKED that script). The part where it has failed in this regard is that we're getting the same things that we found stale in the first place except some people are younger, some people aren't married and...oh, yeah...there's a Muslim Green Lantern. It's like Domino's Pizza "making better pizza" even though you liked Domino's just the way it was, but they give you the same pizza and call it new and relevant because now it's Muslim.Well, now we're getting some variation in the DC universe with Gail Simone's story of superpowered residents of Coral City standing up to the corruption eating away at their neighborhood Occupy style. One problem with this premise is that it would have been a bit more resonant with the Occupy sympathizer audience back when the Occupy movement took up more media attention. Simone's script is somewhat balanced and manages to introduce a fairly large cast without the book feeling crowded or rushed. Freddie Williams' pencils seem to convey the gritty vibe that Simone seems to be going for. Of course, some of the heroes feel a little...silly. There's a guy who controls rats. That's it. That's his whole power. There's another member who looks sort of like steampunk Hawkgirl. This has the potential to be a decent addition to DC's ranks because it's a universe from which we don't receive as much street level action. But we need a better reason to care about these characters than "people are broke and mad."
Bottom Line: Gail Simone gives us a serviceable start to book with a premise that seems relevant and irrelevant all at once. 7 out of 10.
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