Comic Thoughts by I.M. Vine: Issue 02 - Fear Agent, Batman, Get Jiro (Part 1)

[I_M_Vine]

Introduction

Hello there, strangers.

This here is a little experiment I started last week. Ever since the pandemic started, I have become somewhat addicted to collecting graphic novels. It has come to the point where I am out of space for my books even after I tried to thin it out. The problem? I have yet to read many of the books I have acquired.

Thus, I thought it would be a good idea to start reading and writing down my thoughts. This will help me keep track of the books I have read so far and what I thought about them.

I’m interested in seeing if there are other collectors are there like me who buy a lot of books but don’t get around to reading all of them. Maybe this will inspire them to start reading as well.

Finally, I also want to share how I got these books and how much I paid for it (if I remember). I want to share my story, but I welcome all of you to share yours as well.

Feel free to disagree with me if you want. I am not a professional reviewer. I am just a guy with too many graphic novels and a desire to get back into writing.


Disclaimer:

In my first issue, I reviewed 9 titles. That is because I had a backlog of books I had already read. This week, we only have 3 books. I expect this to be the norm moving forward. On the flipside, having less books lets me dive a little deeper in my review. However, I do not want to spoil the book for anyone, nor do I want to go in too deep into the story. These are just my thoughts and impressions of the books I read this week.


Question of the week:

• What is one comic book you had zero expectations over but ended up absolutely loving it?

For me, it is either Kingdom Come or Fear Agent (see my thoughts below).


Reviews:

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• Get Jiro by Anthony Bourdain

Why, How and How Much?

I found this book at an Ollie’s a few months ago. I believe it was 2.99. I snagged it up immediately even though I had no real intentions of reading it. I love me a 2.99 Vertigo book.

Thoughts?

I doubt I would have read this book if it wasn’t that I recently found the prequel to this story, Jiro: Blood and Sushi a few weeks ago at my local Ollies. I picked up that 5-dollar deluxe hardcover book and went home happy (you can read my thoughts on that story in Issue 01 of Comic Thoughts).

I wanted to read something simple and short, so I read Jiro: Blood and Sushi. It was decent enough, so I decided to give this one a shot.

This book reads like a sort of John Wick spoof. Part of the story in the first few issues is to figure out who Jiro is, but the problem is I just read the prequel to this story a few days ago. I already know who Jiro is.

I think I kind of ruined the story for myself. I think I would have enjoyed this story a lot more if I had gone in blind like it was intended.

As for the story itself, this seems like a simple run of the mill bad ass guy story, not that there’s anything wrong with it. Sometimes, I enjoy some mindless fun. I don’t think comics need to always have a deeper meaning to be fun.

Honestly, this story is competent enough, but nothing that you should go out of your way to read. I certainly wouldn’t pay full retail price for this book, but for 3 dollars? It overdelivered.

Recommendation:

If you are into Japanese food, a foodie or a chef, I think you will get a lot more mileage from this book. For me personally, I don’t regret reading it, but I doubt I will remember anything about this story in a few weeks’ time.

[I_M_Vine]

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• Batman: Broken City by Bryan Azzarello and Eduard Risso

Why, How and How Much?

Because of my love for The Batman Animated Series, along with both Batman Beyond and the Justice League shows, Batman has been one of my favorite characters since I was a kid. One of the first trade paperbacks I remember owning were Batman: Knightfall Vol 2 and Batman: Prodigal.

Ironically, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve fallen out of love with Batman. However, I love buying Batman books, especially if they are nice and cheap (I know I make no sense). I bought this book on Ebay. The seller had a buy 2 get one book free, so I picked up this book and 2 other Batman titles I hope to review in the future. This was around 6 bucks.

Thoughts?

Last week, I praised Brian Azzarello and Eduard Risso for their stellar work in 100 Bullets. They are the sole reason I bought this book.

There is something about this book that just put me off immediately.

The story is narrated from Batman’s point of view through thought bubbles on the page. However, I wasn’t sure this was narrated by Batman until I was a few pages in. His voice just seemed off to me. Maybe it’s because literally in the first couple of pages, Batman begins to compare himself with God and says they both have the same sense of humor. This Batman is chatty… and kind of odd.

The story continues with Batman hunting down a criminal which takes him into an apartment where he meets a half-naked woman who asks him to pinch him, so he does. There is a hilarious panel where Batman appears to be shocked and shy be the sight of the half-naked woman. The only thing missing were blush marks on his face. I guess this Bruce Wayne isn’t a playboy by any means.

Later on, Bruce Wayne trains for 12 hours straight after a night of vigilante justice. In addition, this book features Batman doing a swinging kick from a stripper pole. All the while, there is a running gag of Batman literally beating the teeth out of Killer Croc’s mouth in a downright sadistic bit. Granted, this sounds kind of awesome in a ridiculous way, but it just didn’t click for me at all.

On the flip side, this is a crime story. Two parents were shot in front of a child, mirroring what happened to Bruce himself, and Batman is obsessed with finding the killer. Azzarello tries hard to make this story be dramatic, but it just fell flat for me. There were just too many quirky moments that took me out of the story.

I feel that Azzarello was trying hard to make a sort of dark comedy or a dramedy, but it just came off as awkward and disjointed. I wouldn’t call this story horrible, and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone found humor in it, but personally, I found this to be quite a let-down coming from this creative team.

Aside from solid art from Risso, there is nothing memorable here.

Recommendation:

If you want an essential Batman story that makes you happy to be a fan, look elsewhere. As I mentioned before, lately I have been underwhelmed with Batman as a whole. Perhaps, I have become jaded with age. However, I was downright annoyed by Batman at some points during this story.

Skip this unless you want a cheap Batman graphic novel or if you are a completionist. Pick it up in the 5-6 dollar range if you must.

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• Fear Agent Vol 1: Re-ignition by Rick Remender and Tony Moore

Why, How and How Much?

I was a huge Rick Remender fan. His run in Uncanny X-Force is one of the reasons I become a serious comic book fan. The trade paperback run of Uncanny X-Force were one of the first books I bought when I started collecting.

However, I was underwhelmed with Deadly Class and The Scumbag. I felt Deadly Class started to drag while The Scumbag just turned me off. It seemed to try too hard to be shocking. I recently purchased and read Tokyo Ghost, and I felt it was trying too hard to be hip and edgy. This had caused me to become frustrated with Rick Remender, and for the most part, I do not go out of my way to buy books by him anymore.

But, I came across the oversized trade paperbacks books for Fear Agent on Ebay for a steal (12 dollars total for Vol 2 and Vol 3). I picked it up immediately. I couldn’t find the oversized Vol 1 for under 15 dollars, so I simply bought the original TPB Vol 1 and Vol 2 (it has the same issues as the oversized Vol 1) for 5 bucks a piece. I picked up the whole run of this book for 22 bucks. I’m proud of that one.

Thoughts?

This is by far my favorite book on this list, and one of the best books I have read in recent memory. This is just fun, sci-fi goodness. I devoured this gladly, and the rest of these series just jumped ahead on my next-to-read list.

Fear Agent is plain fun. We are not hampered with a ton of exposition. Instead, this comic shows you who the characters are by their actions. Our man character is Heath Huston, a Texan turned Alien Exterminator who we join during one of his jobs in outer space.

If there is one thing that could be criticized from this book is that several aspects of this story can be a little generic by today’s standards. It features a wise cracking alcoholic goof with good intentions who gets hit a lot but somehow gets the job done. It reminds me of Nathan Drake from the Uncharted games, which is also a kind of spinoff from Indiana Jones. I would also compare Huston with Starlord from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies (the ship especially reminded me a lot of the Milano), and even to John McClane from Die Hard.

With that said, make no mistake about it, this story is definitely worth a read.

I loved the art on this book. I’m ashamed to say I did not know the name Tony Moore. That’s on me. He is the artist on this book, and his art brings this story to life. He does a great job putting in little details that help us understand the characters, their intentions, and their emotions. This is definitely one of those cases where good writing meets good art to create something memorable.

This volume includes the first four issues of the story. I do not want to spoil the story, so I will only say that by the end of this arc you will have traveled across galaxies, met different alien races, traveled in time and discovered an end of the world alien invasion. The final page will leave your breathless, and just like that, now you need to read Volume 2.

Recommendation:

Buy this book. Make sure to buy Vol 2 as well. I assure you, once you finish the last issue, you will definitely want to read more. I will give you all my thoughts of Vol 2 next week.

Farewell:

I want to thank everyone who took their time to read this. As I said, this is a little experiment. I hope to continue doing this for the near future. I welcome your feedback and your comments.

I also want to thank everyone who replied to my first issue with encouraging words. I appreciate your time.

Next week, I will definitely read Vol 2 of Fear Agent, but I have no idea what else I will read. That’s part of the fun. Trust me, I still have many, many books to go.

See you next week!