What is a Short Pants Review? While we’d love to give full reviews to everything, there just isn’t enough time in the day. So we’ve come up with Short Pants as a way of providing capsule reviews from our varied review writers, giving quick hits and short capsule thoughts about various comics we’ve read recently.
This time out, Randy covers Fantastic Four #542, Toupydoops #5 and Y The Last Man #53.
Randy Lander Read and Thought:
Fantastic Four #542 (Marvel Comics): The first issue of Dwayne McDuffie and Mike McKone’s run starts in the middle of Civil War, and while it’s not the fresh start I would have hoped for, already the new creators have injected a fresher, more interesting feel into the title. With two inkers, relatively sparse backgrounds and inconsistent faces, the art looks like a rush job from the usually excellent McKone, but it’s still solid at the very least and occasionally stronger. The story is likewise a mixed bag, although in general I found it to be McDuffie making the best of a bad situation (Reed’s portrayal in Civil War). His reasoning for Reed supporting the act feels lot more like Reed than the inane “My uncle was a communist… and he got what was coming to him!” that Straczynski served up, and I liked the use of Human Torch and a surprise guest villain as well. As with all too many Civil War-related books, it’s all talk and no action, but the dialogue is sharp and does the characters justice and there’s some good humor mixed in as well. Good news, FF fans… there’s a light at the end of the Civil War tunnel.
Toupydoops #5 (Lobrau Productions): There are two stories going on in this issue of Toupydoops. Unfortunately, I was only interested in one of them, as Toupy’s job as a teacher and his kids is kinda like Kindergarten Cop… it’s cute and all, but just as Arnie was sort of out of his element, Toupydoops isn’t really a story about precocious kids and teacher’s rules, or at least it probably shouldn’t be. The good news is, the story about Teeter getting a job that Toupy wants provides some great insight into their relationship, some hilarious moments as we see Teeter’s lucky past and an inspired revenge on the set by Toupy. There’s also a very funny two-page scene featuring their cross-dressing neighbor Auntie Nathan. And the art in Toupydoops has always been strong, but there’s an even greater sense of polish in this issue. Toupydoops continues to be a rarity, a sitcom in comic book form that takes advantage of the medium of comics and the genre it’s working in to provide something witty and imaginative.
Y The Last Man #53 (Vertigo): Been wondering what happened to that supermodel turned garbage worker that Yorick met in early issues of Y? Yeah, me neither, but Vaughan skips out on the regular cast to look back on this character and turns out a very entertaining look at what’s been going on in post-gendercide Washington D.C., as well as a fitting send-off to a supporting cast member who had a rather ignominious death in these pages. There’s also a little clue dropped that maybe the plague isn’t going to need anybody to fix it, that maybe nature is already taking care of it, and the usual great character and dialogue work that Vaughan always offers, paired with solid art from one of Y’s regular fill-in artists, Goran Parlov.
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I thought McDuffie was coming on in issue 544, so this was a pleasant surprise. I loved the joke about Reed’s hat
I thought it was a pretty adequate excuse for the apparent mischaracterization of Reed, but I still hate the fact that the Thing is in France, of all places. That idea was dead on arrival, and even McDuffie can’t make up for it.
And I wish more people were reading Toupydoops. Haven’t read this one yet, as my shop doesn’t carry it and it slipped under my pre-order radar somehow, so it’s nice to see a new issue. Very funny stuff…too bad its schedule is a bit erratic.
PS where is everyone else this week?
21 Jan 2007 at 10:49 pm
QuoteI don’t know… they all wandered out of Panteon headquarters with a bottle of tequila each and said something about “Going to catch the donkey races.”
Haven’t seen ‘em since.
21 Jan 2007 at 11:25 pm
QuoteThen what am I doing with this donkey at the bar?
22 Jan 2007 at 12:02 am
QuoteAll you guys are just plain weird…
keep at it!
22 Jan 2007 at 12:32 am
QuoteMan am I glad Straczynski is leaving the FF. Obviously he can’t be blamed for the current direction caused by events spilling out of Civil War, but I can’t think of one arc that I really liked while he was on the book. I don’t want to bash him, but when you compare this run to Waid’s you can’t really help but find it wanting.
22 Jan 2007 at 4:23 am
QuoteLove Toupydoops. I have been preordering since issue 4. I hope it doesn’t go anywhere. I already plan to get that collection of college strips advertised to come out in July. And it is all your fault, Randy.
22 Jan 2007 at 9:18 am
QuoteI enjoyed this issue of Y, but I could’ve done without the whole “nature will find a way” solution to the plague. I know Vaughan had to provide some kind of explanation for the plague, but I really didn’t much care for it and any further attempts to touch on it just seem amplify the many issues that have been glossed over. For example, really nothing has been said in the series as to what the extinction/near extinction of every mammal species on the planet has done to the Earth’s ecosystem. I realize that this series is more about characters than hard science, but this is all the more reason why Vaughan should stick with character driven stories.
22 Jan 2007 at 5:38 pm
QuoteWell, I just finished finished off three bottles of tequila, two eightballs of primo, one issue of McDuffie’s Fantastic Four, a few Thai hookers, and four issues of McDuffie’s Deathlok.
Well, FF was good, and Deathlok was great. The rest… not so much.
22 Jan 2007 at 5:52 pm
QuoteHellhound, it does seem that Y has gone a bit awry in the last arc, and the big build-up to the revelation of what killed all the men unfortunately landed with all the grace and spectacle of a belly flop. I’m hoping that it will make more sense and read better in trade, but mostly I’m heartened that with this issue it looks like the character-centric focus is coming back to Y, as opposed to the techno-babble that dominated the last arc, and hopefully that bodes well for our wrap-up issues.
22 Jan 2007 at 8:18 pm
QuoteWith Y, could any wrap up live up to the 50-odd issues of build up? Ending series has to be the hardest thing in the world (be it comics, books, tv, etc.). Not ending a single story. That is one thing. But to take a great story with tons of cool characters, moments, arcs, etc and then say “it is done” will be difficult to pull off. How many lines or shows end well? I feel usually let down by endings in shows or comics and in most cases, things just seem to fade away into obscurity and then cancellation vs. solid ending. To me, anyway.
This last issue was a great return to the beginning of the story, though. It would almost be interesting if they do this as they make there way “back home,” even if mostly metaphorically for the main characters. But to see what has happened with all the little tales along the way now that some years have been put between them and Yorick. I wonder if a thoughtful fade out will replace a more big-bang ending?
22 Jan 2007 at 10:33 pm
QuoteGood endings are hard to come by, but Vertigo has a decent track record, as does Vaughan. Recently, The Losers had a good ending, and by all accounts (no spoilers please, I’m waiting on that last trade to come out this week), Lucifer did as well. Vaughan ended Escapists perfectly, and did the same for volume one of Runaways.
So there’s reason to hope for a good ending for Y.
22 Jan 2007 at 10:42 pm
QuoteYes, Lucifer ended well. You see, what happens is Lucif DAMMIT RANDY! I’M NOT A HOBO, QUIT HITTING ME!
23 Jan 2007 at 2:53 am
Quotei was glad to see mcduffie arrive already on FF, but did anyone else get the sense that he dialogued an existing issue over mckone’s pencils? the whole affair just had a strangely disjointed air about it. it wasn’t bad, just…odd.
23 Jan 2007 at 12:49 pm
QuoteActually Matt, I didn’t get that vibe when I was reading it, but looking back I can see that as a distinct possibility.
23 Jan 2007 at 1:22 pm
Quote