I Took A Chance, And I Liked It

Take A Chance 1-5 (2008-09)
Dabel Brothers Publishing
C.E. Murphy, writer
Ardian Syaf, Aleksandar Sotirovsk and Jason Embury, artists

Here's another book I had written down to try some time without knowing a great deal about the story line. I'm trying to do better about making a note to myself of where such recommendations come from, but in the case of Take A Chance, I believe Andrew "Captain Comics" Smith wrote about the miniseries in one of his syndicated newspaper columns or in his regular feature in the now-departed Comics Buyers Guide.

Whoever it was that talked the book up, I wrote down the title and the writer, and I've periodically checked for a trade collection of the series without any luck. I don't know, maybe the series wasn't successful enough to warrant a trade. But a few months ago, I decided to look for this series in trade format in earnest so I could request a copy from my local library. I couldn't find a listing for a trade on Amazon or anywhere else I looked, so on a whim, I searched on eBay and found a set of the single issues for sale at a reasonable price.

Chance is the name of a non-powered female vigilante operating in New York City. The first issue, mostly set-up, gives a glimpse into the world she operates in. Frankie Kemp took self-defense classes, created a costume and began patrolling the streets at night after a personal tragedy heightened her need for justice. That was five years ago, she explains, and Chance started out taking down simple street thugs, pushers and would-be rapists. Then a terrorist attack on the city left a number of people dead, but also inexplicably granted a percentage of the survivors with super powers. With so many super-powered individuals running around — some good, some not so good — Chance decided it was too dangerous for her to continue attacking criminals directly. Instead, she prefers to prowl the streets documenting crimes, gathering evidence and then anonymously turning that material over to the authorities.

With all of that established, the next four issues of the series follow Chance's efforts on a specific case where she promises to take down a narcotics trafficker if a young junkie promises to stay clean. In order to keep her end of the deal, Chance must again take direct action, confronting both criminals and well-intentioned others, both powered and non-powered allies and threats.

The set-up with the terrorist attack and various people developing powers makes me wonder if Take A Chance was part of a shared universe with other titles, but as far as I know, this is the only story that features Chance. Writer C.E. Murphy is known for writing several supernatural-themed novels with strong female protagonists. Maybe that's where the shared universe idea comes from. Any of my followers out there able to offer any insight on that? Anyway, I don't know if Murphy has any other comics writing credits under her belt, but she did a very nice job on this story, especially if it is her first for the medium.

On the art side, Ardian Syaf is a name familiar to me from some more recent DC titles. He draws the main character as attractive and athletic without going overboard to the hyper-sexualized imagery some heroine books are known for. As always, I'm more of a story-person, but the art in this title services the story nicely. My one quibble was going to be the cover to the second issue, which depicts Chance taking someone down with a powerful kick, but doing it while wearing a short skirt. Chance's costume does not feature a skirt, and I hate when artists get major details like that wrong on a cover image. But when I read the issue, guess what? Chance does indeed have to engage some criminals while wearing a skirt. Frankie was out dancing with friends when they run into trouble. When she goes to change into her costume, she has only brought the top and mask portion of her Chance outfit to avoid having to conceal the full costume.

All in all, this was a great series I'm glad I tried and am happy to recommend to others. As a bonus, house ads in the back of each issue brought some other Dabel Brothers books to my attention that I want to check out. So not only did I get a great read from this story, but a trail to some other possible reads as well. Can't beat that kind of outcome when trying a new title!

My Faith Pays Off

Lazarus Vol. 1: Family
Image Comics
Greg Rucka, writer
Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano, Brian Level and Santi Arcas, artists

I count Greg Rucka among the writers whose work I usually tend to enjoy. I can't say I've read everything he has produced, but I am a fan of many of the things he brought to the mythos of Batman and Superman while he worked on Detective Comics, Gotham Central and The Adventures of Superman. His run on Wonder Woman is one of my favorite runs on the character and one I consider a definitive take on the Amazon princess. Not limited to DC, I also very much enjoyed his work on Black Widow over at Marvel.

I enjoyed his take on these characters so much, I decided to try his Queen & Country series from Oni almost a year ago. I purchased the entire run of that series in one lot, read it over the course of a few weeks and loved it just as much. Rucka is incredible at writing strong female leads, and I enjoyed the adventures of Tara Chase in Queen & Country enough to make the jump to one of Rucka's Q&C prose novels, "A Gentleman's Game," which was a solid, enjoyable read, as well.

Somehow, though, as much as I enjoy Rucka's writing and watch for his name when I'm placing my orders each month, I completely missed Lazarus when it debuted in 2013. I had no idea it was coming out and no idea what to expect from the series when I finally did learn of its existence. I don't even recall for certain now how I first heard the title without knowing more about it; perhaps I just stumbled across it looking for something else. But this first volume was pretty cheap by usual trade pricing standards, likely because it collects only four issues of the title instead of the more common five, six or more. Nice price. Greg Rucka writing. I decided to give it a try even though I knew not what to expect.

When the trade arrived, I could see by the simple yet dramatic cover that we have another female lead, likely a tough one as she is shown with a bullet hole in her forehead and a rather annoyed expression on her face. This does not appear to be a lady you want to mess with, especially if being shot in the head only pisses her off.

When I sat down to read the book, however, I became a little nervous. If there's teaser or descriptive copy on the front or back cover of a book, especially one like this I'm completely unfamiliar with, I always read that first. Gives me a clue what I'm in for. All of the recommendations were good; no surprise there. But one of them called this title a "clever spin on dystopian fiction." I tend not to like dystopian fiction. Too depressing. Why can't we all get along? Why can't the future be bright and happy?

But then I read the descriptive copy. It promised a world split along financial lines — wealthy families, the few who work for them, and everyone else, the majority, called "Waste." The meaning behind "Lazarus" was also explained. Each family has one individual responsible for defending the family, protecting it. That person is called the family's Lazarus. I was intrigued, and I trusted Rucka enough to dive in, hopeful once again.

So I read the trade. This isn't the kind of comic I might normally choose to read, but I'm glad I did in this instance. These four issues pulled me into this world Rucka has crafted — our world but not quite. This first arc gives us just the barest glimpse into how things work in this world, but it was enough to pull me in. I don't want to spoil any details for anyone who hasn't read Lazarus yet, so I'm kind of light on story specifics, I know. Suffice to say that there is a great deal of intrigue hinted at in these first four issues, and a very rich, complex series of relationships just within the handful of characters we are introduced to at the outset. Much, much more seems to be just under the surface. And I, for one, am looking forward to uncovering more of this world.

They Were This Close To Losing Me

Fantastic Four Vol. 2: Original Sin
Marvel Comics
James Robinson, writer
Leonard Kirk, Marc Laming, Karl Kesel, Rick Magyar and Scott Hanna, artists

I've always liked the concept of the Fantastic Four: it is a fun idea that these four individuals are more explorers than superheroes, and that above all else, they are a family. And I've read a lot of Fantastic Four stories over my collecting years that I have enjoyed quite a bit. But I've never owned and read a run that felt like the definitive FF to me.

I decided to try again when the title was relaunched early in 2014 with writer James Robinson at the helm. Robinson has produced some stories I have very much loved, but also some that have left me disinterested, so his run wasn't going to be a lock. In fact, I'd intended to sample his version of the FF in trades borrowed from the library, but then I found a good deal on the first two trades (issue Nos. 1-10) of Robinson's run and decided to gamble.

The first volume, The Fall of the Fantastic Four, didn't boost my confidence a great deal. I'd read enough advance solicitation information to already know that Robinson planned to take the team down to their lowest point before, I assume, building them back up. The road taken to do the dragging just seemed kind of long and not too inspired. I was getting bored with the story: Some beasties escape from Reed Richards' lab in the Baxter Building and commence terrorizing the good citizens of Manhattan. Eventually, the team devises a way to neutralize the threat, but not before the monsters do a great deal of damage to life and property. And then it occurs to the New York powers-that-be that maybe it isn't such a good idea for these four very well-known adventurers to live publicly in the heart of the city, keeping all manner of nasty weapons and crazy scientific inventions and other-dimensional portals and who-really-knows-what-all-else in what amounts to their back room.

So the FF are put on trial. And even their friend and ally, attorney Jennifer (She-Hulk) Walters, isn't able to defend them against most of the charges. Part of the problem with this first trade was how long the set-up drags on. But also, it becomes kind of obvious early on that someone — we don't yet know who — is manipulating events to turn public opinion and the justice system against the team, but none of the FF seem to catch on to this fact. And neither do their friends, many of whom have been victims of such a strategy before. No, they all complain about how unfair everything happening seems, but no one questions beyond that.

All of that changed with this second trade, which not only continues the downfall of the FF but also ties into a company-wide crossover event, Original Sin. I haven't read Original Sin, but the basic gist seems to be someone killed Uatu, the Watcher, and once he died, secrets he has learned from watching the Marvel Universe all these years become known to some people. In the case of the FF, Benjamin Grimm, aka the Thing, learns that one of Reed Richards' early attempts to cure him of his deformity is accidentally sabotaged by Johnny Storm, the Human Torch.

Maybe part of the reason I liked these issues better than the first five is the focus on the Thing, my favorite of the FF members, but this trade doesn't focus solely on him. There are also continuing troubles for the other three members of the team.

Best of all, we finally begin to see the FF not standing alone against all that is happening to them. The first to stand up against all of the "unfair" charges and accusations is Jim Hammond. For those not in the know, Jim Hammond is an android with the ability to burst into flame, which earned him some fame as the original Human Torch during World War II. Hammond fought Nazis alongside Captain America, Bucky, Namor and his own sidekick, Toro, in the original Invaders team. Being an android, Hammond could still be around, and has recently been reintroduced into the current Marvel Comics Universe as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Along with all of the other charges against the FF, Reed and Sue Richards are ruled unfit parents. Hammond's S.H.I.E.L.D. unit is put in charge of their son, Franklin Richards, and a number of other children Sue had been working with under the Future Foundation program. Hammond not only sees the injustices being heaped on the Fantastic Four, but refuses some orders pertaining to his new charges. In defending his actions to S.H.I.E.L.D. director Maria Hill, Hammond learns that she also recognizes the bizarre nature of the events surrounding the FF and is also suspicious of the motivations behind the trial and subsequent developments.

This still may not prove to be that definitive Fantastic Four story I was hoping for, but I'm a lot more interested in the story and where it's going after reading this second trade. In fact, I'm interested enough to order the third volume when it comes out so I can see where Robinson and crew are taking things. Can't say I felt that way after reading the first trade, and if I hadn't bought both books together, I likely would not have bought the second, which would have been a shame!

Will My Green Arrow Please Stand Up

Rather than a specific issue or story line, today I decided to talk about the wandering failure that the New 52 has wrought upon one of my favorite characters, Green Arrow, aka Oliver Queen.

I first became aware of Green Arrow in the late 1970s and early 1980s when he participated in Justice League of America stories or his own solo adventures in World's Finest Comics. I missed out on the new "relevant" Green Lantern/Green Arrow series created by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams in the mid-1970s, but the new costume and personality these two creators gave to the Emerald Archer influenced his characterization for the next decade, at least, and the hero I was reading owed much to their work.

Going back and reading reprints of the O'Neil and Adams stories in 1983 is when I grew to really appreciate the character and come to see him as one of my favorites. That affection grew and was nurtured by the Green Arrow miniseries that same year by Mike W. Barr, Trevor von Eeden and Dick Giordano and was cemented by Mike Grell's fantastic Longbow Hunters series in 1987.

Having said that, I don't know why I didn't immediately pick up the Mike Grell ongoing Green Arrow series that followed Longbow Hunters. I swear, I really did love that series right from the start. At this point, I did have a local comic shop I frequented regularly for my comics, but I was not online much and hadn't even heard of Previews at the time, so maybe I simply wasn't aware of the existence of the ongoing for a while. Whatever the reason, I started in on that series about two years into the run reading forward each month as well as backward when I could find copies of the back issues I'd missed.

I was very sad to see Ollie killed off in No. 100 of that series, then being written by Chuck Dixon, and while he was a very different character, I enjoyed the adventures of Ollie's son, Connor Hawke, as the new Green Arrow. I'm not nearly as big a martial arts fan as Dixon seems to be, so some of the Connor GA stories were less to my liking than others, but I stayed with the series until it ended with issue No. 137.

After a few dark nearly-Green Arrow-less years, it was announced that Kevin Smith was going to bring Oliver Queen back from the dead in a relaunched Green Arrow title in 2001. Smith was joined by artist Phil Hester, and while I was less impressed with Hester's more cartoony art at the time, I was glad to have the character back. Smith left the title after 15 solid issues, and we were treated to one of novelist Brad Meltzer's first comics-writing turns with his excellent "The Archer's Quest"  and then after a few issues, Judd Winick took over the writing chores. Winick is one of those hit-or-miss writers to my tastes. I really like some of his books while others just leave me feeling meh. But he did a good job at the helm of Star City's resident bowman and stayed with the title for the remainder of this run and into the 2007 Green Arrow and Black Canary relaunch. That title had the added plus of fantastic art by first Cliff Chiang and then Mike Norton. The Green Arrow and Black Canary series finished its second half with excellent writer Andrew Kreisberg and then J.T. Krul on the final three Blackest Night and Cry For Justice tie-in issues.

All of that background is to show I have a history with the character, reading Green Arrow's adventures, and for the most part, enjoying most of the tales he is featured in. I don't agree with everything that happened in Justice League: Cry For Justice or the subsequent Fall of Green Arrow, but I liked both titles and could see Oliver acting and reacting the way he was portrayed in those stories. Less to my liking was the 15-issue Green Arrow: Brightest Day series where Oliver is all about his forest, but I think most of that series stemmed from editorial dictates and might not be where series writer Krul would have taken Oliver without the whole Brightest Day framework, which I liked with regards to other characters. I base this, in part, on the fact that another writer finished the final three issues of that series. I also haven't read Green Arrow: Brightest Day again since it was new; maybe my opinion of it would improve with a fresh look.

Then along comes the New 52, and everybody and everything is rebooted back to square one. Except Batman and Green Lantern, which were seeing a great deal of popular story lines already, so the rebooting wasn't quite so evenly distributed. But I was all set to accept a new, younger Oliver Queen as Green Arrow. A fresh start didn't have to mean disaster. And the first three issues of the New 52 Green Arrow were good with story by Krul and art by the incredible Dan Jurgens. Oliver has a bit of a team working behind the scenes to assist him, but subtracting a few years and changing up his costume were pretty cosmetic; I could still see this as the hero I liked, just a slightly different guy from a slightly different dimension or something.

The problem was, those three issues didn't last. Issue No. 4 saw a creative change to writer Keith Giffen, who was replaced by Jurgens by issue No. 6. Then we got Ann Nocenti, who's run on the title lasted until issue No. 16. But her run on the book was all about horn-dog Ollie who thought more with his groin than his brains. This guy wasn't really a hero so much as a screw-up. With each creative change, I liked the character less and less. And there seemed to be a lot of creative changes.

Jeff Lemire's run (issue Nos. 17-34) was very dark for my tastes and centered way too much on the mysticism of the various clans he introduced into Oliver's back story. Then elements from the CW television series "Arrow" started to creep into the book. Now, I've watched "Arrow" since the beginning, and I very much enjoy the show and Stephen Amell's portrayal of Oliver Queen. I'm very happy the show has lasted into a third season, and I'll be happy to see it continue for several more years. But it is the television version of Green Arrow. That guy exists in an equally valid, but alternate dimension from the guy I like to read about in the comics. Television and comics are two different media; they have different strengths and weaknesses, and I believe they are best served by different approaches. I love watching the TV show, but I don't want to read the TV show in my monthly Green Arrow comic.

So, why do I keep buying the monthly comic if I don't like what they're doing with the character and haven't for basically the last 30 issues? I guess that means I have more money than sense, but my wife would be quick to remind that we don't have that much money. So maybe I just don't have any sense. But the creative teams change on this title so often, every time I convince myself to just drop what I'm not enjoying, I think, "But wait, a new team and direction are coming next month; maybe it really will get better." Except so far, it hasn't.

I hope the comic will find its niche now that Andrew Kreisberg is back writing the character as I enjoyed his work on the title pre-New 52. But Kreisberg is also one of the producers of the CW televison series. I'm hopeful, but concerned as well. But I'm still buying the title each month hoping for the best. At least, for now ...

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