A whole ton of "meh"

[sigma7]

In lieu of actually responding to it, here's my proxy reaction to Infinite Crisis #7, provocatively titled "Infinite Crisis #7 or a Kick to the Balls: U-Decide!":

I know as reviewers we're supposed to offer a thoughtful, objective critique. I know it's important to not be terribly emotive, and provide rational, considered, thoughtful and well-rounded overview of our subject.

But you know, I don't know that a review like that would fully encompass how truly, gutwrenchingly godawful this misbegotten stillbirth of a comic series has been. In the past, I have defended Geoff Johns. While his writing has never been exactly scintillating, it's been solid, workmanlike, I've said. Of course, I also wrote a rather scathing review of 'Green Lantern: Rebirth' which included frequent colourful uses of the 'F' word (fuck, just in case). Well, I'm gonna try and keep a cool head and see how long it lasts me before the invective burbles up and I turn into Uncle Kranky, the world's greatest Tourette's suffering comix reviewer....

Comments

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

To sum up my review: if you want splattergore, there's better places to find it. If you don't like splattergore, you don't want to read it either.

Oh, and the stolen Collegian thing made the front page of the Mercury yesterday. :)

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

To sum up my review: if you want splattergore, there's better places to find it. If you don't like splattergore, you don't want to read it either.

Concurred, utterly. The few decent moments in the series seemed wholly accidental. It's not uncommon to have a series whose whole purpose for existence is to fulfill an editorial edict, but there are tons of better ways to do it. Original Crisis at least had an aim -- simplify the DC multiverse -- and did it. IC dragged up heroic characters from a perfectly decent happy ending, villainized them, and tried to make their struggles/deaths moving. Failed. Tried to do a little continuity house-cleaning. Eh. Tell me there was a better way of doing so than "Superboy punched through time." Killed off dozens of unneeded characters and one or two "names" for shock value.

While I've never been a big Marvel fan, at least their events have a raison d'etre about them. Hell, Civil War actually has a solid premise and an interesting story (though I fear it being in the hands of Matt Millar). The new Crises just felt exploitative and uncomfortable. Glad this particular brand of insanity is done with. Can we get back to illustrated narrative, kplzthx.

Oh, and the stolen Collegian thing made the front page of the Mercury yesterday. :)

And KSNT, apparently. I love how the Sigma Chi story would've blown over in a relatively short time, but because of their (alleged) efforts, now gets an added layer of indignity and a new lease on life. And how they're implicated without anyone actually being identified/charged definitively.

It's just too funny.

[motteditor.livejournal.com]

See and I feel just the reverse, which I think is in large part to being much more of a Marvel fan and relatively unaware of the DCU. I thought it was fun; I didn't necessarily understand a lot of the details and I thought bits got dropped, but the big fights moved me. I had no connection to COIE, so changing the ending of that doesn't bother me.

On the other hand, Marvel's recent events have just been horrible. Disassembled was one of the worst comic stories I've read. House of M was similarly atrocious. Book's still out on Civil War, but I'm at a complete loss for why they're attacking Cap when the law hasn't even been voted on yet, much less passed. And that says nothing of the fact I'm one of the world's biggest New Warriors fan and the series is the final nail in their coffin, no pun intended.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Never been a NW fan, but I found myself saddened at their mass offing. But even though the execution (pun unintended) of Civil War leaves me concerned (Millar has no concept of the word "nuance"), at least there's a narrative flow there, and an actually fascinating premise. IC had no such structure and instead just seemed to revel in the gore of decapitating third-stringers on the page.

COIE really set the standard for the massive "event" series (moreso than Secret Wars, I'd argue), and it was pretty interesting for me; it was my first exposure to 50-70% of the DCU, and it finally defined it in a very...necessary way. IC just left the waters more muddied, and the motivations are just all across the board. Like Identity Crisis, you can cop out by making your villain insane, and that gives you a blank check for any action you give 'em. Sad and uninteresting.

Eh. I dunno. If you enjoyed it more than I did, I'm glad, because I'd hate to think that everyone who opened it came away with the same sense of disappointment.