By: Peter Milligan (writer), Mikel Janin (artist), Ulises Arreola (colorist)
The Story: Now, now, June, there’s nothing to lose your head about.
The Review: As a reviewer, I try to keep my biases under control when I do these things, or at least make them obvious when I can’t keep them inside anymore. So I’ll admit it: I really looked forward to this series back when all the new 52 were announced. It featured a bunch of my favorite characters within one of my favorite genres, and it had a fairly qualified writer and artist on deck to boot. But now I must confess this series has been a disappointment on a lot of levels.
For while Milligan has been a competent storyteller for this series, dedicated to selling the “dark” part of the title, he has made the plot and tone dull through repetition. He needs to understand that we get it—Enchantress has gone loco and so is her counterpart, June Moone, and so is just about everyone gathering to confront her. In fact, I’d give good money simply to never hear the words “crazy,” “insane,” “mad,” or any synonym thereof ever again. Milligan sprinkles them throughout every issue, and they’ve lost meaning as a result: “Enchantress has gone crazy.” “A magic that’s stronger and crazier than [Zatanna’s].” “Oh God, I’ve landed in a madhouse.”
Milligan just needs to learn the wisdom behind “Less is more,” or at least the value of timing. He’s so eager to convince you of how twisted this story is, he doesn’t seem to realize that subjecting you to so much grimness can only build your resistance to it. We’ve already seen decayed golem girlfriends come back to life, women getting themselves killed en masse in the street, and a guy who needs a seizure to activate his powers. Homicidal children feel pretty commonplace after all that.
All this applies to character work as well as plot. By this point, Enchantress’ simpering and whimpering about needing June Moone to feel whole fails to garner any of your sympathy, mostly just irritating you. “Why isn’t anyone listening?!” she cries. Because what you’re asking for is cruel and rather selfish, and there’s little anybody can do to help you if you insist on attacking them in this haphazard fashion, you think (or at least, I think).
There are other, more fundamental, flaws with the story besides. For one, you still don’t quite understand Dove’s continued presence in this story. While the early scenes of her and Deadman falling out over the physical nature of their relationship worked fine, all her material afterward has felt unnecessary. We never get to see what happened after her traumatizing run-in with Enchantress in #2; she simply reappears in this issue, beaten and weary, but at least walking upright, only to be told the obvious by Constantine: “You ran into some bad magic?”
On a purely personal level, I disagree with Milligan’s current portrayal of Madame Xanadu, a character who has always been shown to be in control of herself even when she’s not in control of the situation at hand. Now, she’s seen as a woman so on the edge of breaking down that she’s become a druggie to keep herself in control, and even in that state, she shows a very unbecoming testiness when confronted (“I never wanted…to hurt anyone… You don’t…understand.”).
Janin’s photorealistic art is fine, giving the script more dramatic depth than it really possesses, but he’s undermined by Arreola’s somewhat uneven, grainy, and at times faintly blotchy coloring. Looking at everyone’s skin tones, you can see actual patches of color against each other, which results in an overall unsightly effect.
Conclusion: One more issue just to see where this title is going, and I think I’ll probably be done. It’s gotten too hard to overlook the problems with the story, and it simply lacks the subtlety and richness its brethren “Dark” titles has.
Grade: C-
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – In another burst of favoritism, can I just say that I’m also not thrilled that Milligan has made Zatanna ineffective not only against Enchantress, but against her copies as well? Give the Mistress of Magic some cred, won’t you?
– Now, imagine this series written by John Rozum and drawn by Ryan Sook. Big win in my book of impossible dreams.
Grade
Conclusion