Weird Worlds #5 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Lobo gets his money, G-Man gets a missionary, and Tanga gets hit on.

The Review: The three-feature miniseries that is Weird Worlds has been an interesting format choice for the series, but ultimately a serious limiting factor for its success.  Each feature runs about the length of DC’s short-lived co-features, but with only a six-issue run, that’s hardly the basis for a really substantial story arc.

It’s unlikely Kevin VanHook would’ve benefited from a longer run, as his Lobo story has little substance to begin with.  The last issues have taken Lobo planet-side, then up in space, then back on planet again, in a way that makes you feel VanHook has only a vague idea of where his story’s supposed to go.  Lobo’s a man of action, so it doesn’t really take much plot to give him something entertaining to do, but the plotting has been so thin you’re not even sure what’s going on down to the second-to-last issue.  S’Glayne’s a Nelson Mandela of sorts to the little pink guys, but with so few clues to his history or how he became a political bounty (other than the chancellor’s “I am your father” twist at the end), you wind up more interested in Lobo’s single-minded pursuit of his payout than in some alien revolution nonsense. Maybe if Jerry Oroway could offer some slicker-looking action, this feature would have more energy, but that’s a big if.

Garbage Man runs into the opposite problem as Lobo, as it’s clear Aaron Lopresti has a much bigger story to tell than the format allows.  Each issue has introduced a new character, only for the feature to run out of time just as you get to know them.  Take G-Man’s train-mate, Reverend Joshua: the homeless pastor gives a perfect opportunity to delve into Garbage Man’s spiritual path—something he desperately needs, as he’s been meandering around, looking for things to do for some time now—but Lopresti takes so long conceiving the reverend’s history that the train literally stops before the two really get down to some deep talk.  The story might’ve been better served if Joshua had been cut in favor of expanding Batman’s investigative scenes, which definitely have greater stakes for the story’s resolution.  Even Lopresti’s tremendous art gets limited by the largely talkative script.

It still feels like only Kevin Maguire has a complete handle on what kind of story he can tell successfully, given his restrictions.  His story is less about building up a conflict and leading to some grand resolution; it’s much more focused on throwing the easily likable Tanga into bizarre situations and letting her talk/blast her way out of them.  You’re never bothered by the plot’s aimlessness because you’re always so caught by how genuinely, amusingly weird the current story is—it doesn’t get much weirder or funnier than the messianic, white-robed Za—a blue, pupil-less Jesus, if you will—“recuperating” by way of lounging amidst a harem of nude(?), vaguely female aliens.  Tanga’s creeped-out reactions to that, and to the floating head that essentially acts as Za’s pimp, are both natural and delightful: “…technically, I have nowhere to be, but nonetheless, I’m suddenly eager to get there.”  Maguire’s channeling Star Wars hardcore in his alien designs, as despite the undeniably off-putting, inhuman physical features he gives Za’s ladies, they still reek of unmistakable skankiness.

Conclusion: DC’s experimental medium for sci-fi originality seems, like most experiments, a passable effort, though hardly as breakthrough as you might hope.  It’s unlikely the last issue will redeem the sluggishness of the series as whole, but it’s worth sticking around for.

Grade: B-

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – How a grungy-looking homeless man is supposed to find and approach a classy, lady paralegal without getting the cops called on him is beyond me.