By: Too many to list—check out the review.
The Story: Robotman enters a race! Garbage Man vs. Dinosaur! Tanga breaks up with Za!
The Review: I don’t know why it took me this long to realize it, but it occurred to me today that one of the biggest disadvantages of a multi-feature series is how vulnerable it is to inconsistency. With most ongoings, if you get a stinker of an issue, you can always hope the next one will make up for it, or drop it entirely if things don’t improve. If you have a title with some features you like and others you don’t, you get mixed feelings whether you keep reading or ditch it.
If “Robotman” was a solo ongoing, I’d probably stick it out to see if it gets any better. Early parts of the story were delightful when Matt Kindt stuck to pure, old-timey sci-fi creativity. This chapter still has some of that to some degree, like Cliff baiting the nanite-infected island animals so he can consume their organic parts to repair himself (you have to love that Scott Kolins draws Cliff’s nano-anti-bodies as microscopic, chibi versions of himself). But as soon as you get into more dramatic territory, your interest wanes. Though we finally get to see the infamous racecar incident Cliff’s mentioned all this time, there’s disappointingly little conspiracy or complexity to it, being more like one of those tragic consequences of scientific risk. Besides, it’s hard (especially for a prude like me) to feel all that sympathetic, when Cliff’s own risk-seeking behavior lands him in those circumstances in the first place.
With “Garbage Man,” this is a feature I’d have dropped a few issues back had it been its own series. Aaron Lopresti has been splitting his time between two plotlines (G. Man’s ongoing vendetta against Titan, and his regular encounters with random monsters), which thins out both in a ten-paged chapter. Here, he focuses mostly on the crazy happenings in the sewer, and the story’s much improved for it, but it still feels like it’s meandering, looking for the big twist to make it worthwhile. But which twist is that supposed to be? Certainly not G. Man’s takedown of a sewer dinosaur, nor Samantha’s penitent return to him, nor the revelation that Dr. Clive (from way back in Weird Worlds #1) might be responsible for the homeless man whose dreams bring impossible creatures to life. At least it all looks great, albeit a tad cutesy, with Lopresti and Matt Ryan’s detailed figures and John Kalisz’s bright colors.
As you might guess, “Tanga” would be the ongoing I’d stay true to, even if it stumbles every now and then. It hasn’t always been clear where Kevin Maguire wanted to take the story of this lavender alien, but with each issue he’s added to her world so that now she has clear goals, friends, and enemies, all of which you see through her fun-loving eyes. In this issue, we get a showdown between her and what may appropriately be called her arch-nemesis, the lecherous Za, in what’s looking to be their final battle—if you can call him hitting on her while they blast at each other with energy beams a battle. As always, the comedy rings true; the setting of their spar takes place inside the whale-monster we saw last time, and Tanga only finds escape by flying through its small intestine: “Yay! The light at the end of the tunnel… Talk about mixed feelings.” Maguire has also brought first-rate art to the feature, not only in terms of its depth, but also expression; Tanga’s gagging face as she flies through the whale-monster’s colon sums up everything that’s funny about the scene, even without her jokes.
Conclusion: As always, a very mixed bag, but it’s more good than bad. One strong feature and two middling ones surely don’t equate to a terrible title, but they make for an underwhelming one, nonetheless.
Grade: B-
- Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: - Attention, DC writers: you need to take it easy with these unnecessarily complicated acronyms. U.N.R.E.A.S.O.N.? Give me a break, for crying out loud.
Filed under: Reviews, DC Comics Tagged: | DC Comics, Aaron Lopresti, Matt Ryan, John Kalisz, DC, Mike Atiyeh, Scott Kolins, Kevin Maguire, Rosemary Cheetham, Garbage Man, Tanga, Cliff Steele, Matt Kindt, Robotman, My Greatest Adventure, Za, My Greatest Adventure #4, My Greatest Adventure #4 review
