By: Mike Carlin (writer), Rags Morales (penciller), Rick Bryant (inker), Nei Ruffino (colorist)
The Story: We’re going to need a real big can of bug repellent
The Review: Originality is hard to come by in fiction nowadays. To even grasp at the tail end of novelty, writers need the guts to plunge into the weirdness pool and fish out whatever fresh ideas they can get. Done right, those ideas can move beyond the strangeness of their conception and produce a great story on their own right. Otherwise, you just get a hodgepodge of promising details that never gel their potential together into anything substantial.
That’s much the case with the Canterbury Cricket, an undoubtedly odd character with an equally bizarre origin. But for all its weirdness, the retelling of how he came into existence is strangely unarresting, and it takes up the vast majority of the issue. On the day of the Amazon invasion into Britain, chauvinist Jeramey Chriqui takes refuge in the Canterbury Cathedral, which the warrior women destroy. From the ashes rises a shockingly well-mannered cricket-man, a transformation he claims is as divine as the place where it takes place.
Vaguely interesting, but sluggishly told, then unwisely followed up by a pointless anecdote about his first team-up effort. Again, Carlin presents an idea that’s far more intriguing in theory than execution: a group of “Ambush Bugs,” whose roll call includes all the insect-themed heroes and villains in the DCU: Queen Bee, the Cockroach, Firefly, and Blue Beetle. We don’t see how the group gathers, nor do we have a firm handle on their goals, other than to annoy the Amazons, which they carry out rather ineptly, resulting in their near-immediate defeat.
Cricket tells his sorry tale to some present-day members of the British resistance, a group whose most recognizable figure is the crusty Etrigan, the Demon (“Continue to make that infernal racket / and everything inside that heart / can be skilled from your skin-jacket / all ‘round these wooded parts!”), who leads the hair-extending Godiva, the Creeper-like Wicked Jinny Greenteeth, and Mrs. Hyde. Colorful characters, to be sure, but since we only get to see a couple pages of them in action, they do little more this issue than act as Cricket’s rapt audience (better them than me!).
If only Cricket dropped in some new details about the Amazon occupation, his less-than-engrossing campfire story would redeem itself, but you learn nothing, even though he claims he gleaned some information from the Ambush Bugs’ failed ambush. What he has to say must wait for when his new merry band joins with Lois Lane, and so this whole tie-in serves as nothing more than a transition issue for Flashpoint: Lois Lane and the Resistance #2.
Morales has a distinctively retro style to his artwork, but needs strong support from his inkers and colorists for his old-fashioned lines to shine. Unfortunately, Bryant’s fine inks thin out Morales’ pencils, which almost get lost amidst Ruffino’s dark, highly polished colors. This results in an almost waxy-looking issue, which does nothing to improve upon the underwritten script.
Conclusion: Weird, and weirdly forgettable. Just the name, Canterbury Cricket, invokes a hard sell, and little in the art or writing sells the whole idea.
Grade: C-
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – Blargh—Jinny and Cricket (which sounds like Jiminy Cricket)? Lord preserve us from seeing their offspring.
Grade
Conclusion