Stumptown #2 review

Did you ever pick up a comic on a whim, not hearing any hype surrounding its release, and strike gold with your chance purchase? That’s what I did with Stumptown. Oh yeah, solid gold, baby.

Dex is a private investigator and proprietor of Stumptown Investigations. Writer Greg Rucka creates a female character, both flawed and loveable. The series first arc The Case of the Girl Who Took Her Shampoo, But Left Her Mini follows Dex as she seeks the whereabouts of a missing girl. Taking the case to settle a gambling debt, Dex is quickly pulled into a quagmire of shady villains with hidden motives and itchy trigger fingers. Rucka nails the atmosphere and intrigue behind the protagonist and the plot. I love the layers that Greg Rucka weaves and builds as Dex gets deeper into finding answers.

Artist Matthew Southworth draws a pitch perfect match for Greg Rucka’s extraordinary narrative. In a character driven comic, the artist must be able to convey the story without relying on action sequences and muscle-clad heroes. His silent panels are well structured and flow perfectly.

Get onboard right now so that you can say, I was there at the beginning. This is a smart comic that should be at the top of pulllists.

4.5 out of 5

Punisher: Frank Castle MAX #75 review

I’m not sure if Marvel just doesn’t give a shit about The Punisher anymore, or if they are purposely trying to destroy the character’s legacy.  This MAX title is reseting under the helm of red-hot writer Jason Aaron and issue #75 seems like a mistake.

I have no inside information, but I figure the issue may lay with Marvel Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada. In the theatre of my mind, I imagine a phone-call that went something like this:

Joe Quesada: Yo, Vic…Goran-my-man, how’s it going?
Victor Gischler: Uh, great Joe. What can we help you with?
Joe Quesada: It’s Friday afternoon…deadline is on Monday. When are you going to send over Welcome to the Bayou part 5?
Victor Gischler: Uh, sir…it was only a 4-part arc.
Goran Parlov: Do you even read Punisher?
Joe Quesada: Hey – do you know how many books Marvel publishes each month? I can’t read them all.
Victor Gischler: …
Goran Parlov: …
Joe Quesada: Just messing with you guys, gotta go!

Five minutes later…Joe Quesada addresses a con-call with every contracted writer and artist that could be found.

Joe Quesada: I have a great opportunity for one lucky team. Who wants to put together a one-shot for one of our flagship titles?
<cricket cricket>
Joe Quesada: Punisher: Frank Castle MAX #75….huh? Huh? And it needs to be done by Monday.
<cricket cricket>
Joe Quesada: Fine! You guys want to be that way, you can ALL write it. Yeah, that’s it. I want eight pages from all five teams and now the deadline is Sunday morning – because I’m going to read them!

So, either through that scenario, or possibly by design, the final issue of the run includes five stories by five separate teams.  It can be difficult to put together a strong stand-alone issue due to the limited options for story build-up, so how much should be expected from only eight pages?

Story number one, Dolls, from the team of Tom Piccirilli, Laurence Campbell and Lee Loughridge tackles the never explored (sarcasm) softer side of Frank when it comes to family matters, especially children.  A lost young girl interrupts Frank just as he’s about to snipe some scumbag through a window in a nearby building.  Of course, Frank can’t resist helping reuinite the child with her father.  If it isn’t clear to the reader how this might affect The Punisher, having lost his family and that his daughter was about the same age as this girl, we are smacked in the head with a flashback frame from happier days.  Campbell and Loughridge capture the competing themes of a man who must stay in the shadows, even when in the open, and the shoppers just out for a stroll in the snow.  The highlight is a three-quarter page frame of a larger-than-life Punisher from the viewpoint of the little girl’s father as he looks up to thank the man who found his daughter.

.5 out of 1

Gateway brings us just what every comicbook fan wants and needs – another twist to The Punisher origin story.  The first two pages are actually pretty interesting.  We’re introduced to a “middle man” who, among other things, sets up hits for the mob.  He justifies that he is just a businessman that provides a service, but who never actually performs the illegal act.  The story faulters as the hit in question, traps the Castle family in the middle.  We’re shown how Frank is dealing with his loss, sitting at a kitchen table with place settings for the whole family.  Strangely, the Castle family has a hidden pegboard loaded with firearms in the hallway outside the kitchen.  Very convenient for a man looking for revenge.  The artwork by Das Pastoras is interesting, albeit not necessarily good.  The frames are drawn from differing and somewhat unconventional angles.  Gregg Hurwitz was on to something with this story.  The ”middle man” living a good life with a clear conscience is just the type of guy that needs punished.  Pull out the ’origin’ angle, expand the story and this could have been a great Punisher Annual.  It just doesn’t work here in any manner.

0 out of 1

The only ray of sunshine is this issue Ghoul by Duane Swierczynski and Tomm Coker.  As such, I don’t want to give much away, because it may be the only joy you get from reading this issue.  The plot is original and it is made for eight pages.  There isn’t any more to tell.  Stretching it out to a full issue would have ruined the effect.  The story is really told through the changing facial expressions of the antagonist.

1 out of 1

If you get a feeling of deja vu from Father’s Day, it’s because you have seen these panels before.  The pages take us through a slideshow of highlight scenes from the MAX series.  I’m still trying to figure out why I’m really being shown this when I flip to the last two pages only to see the Castle family in Central Park played out yet again.

0 out of 1

Ken Ashley and Rob Stull get the accolades for the second best art of the issue.  The colors are bold and contrasting flying us through a lot of action via thin slices of panels.  There isn’t much story to The Smallest Bit of This, but then again, what can I expect in such few pages?

.5 out of 1

If you’ve been keeping score, then you already know that Punish: Frank Castle MAX #75 is awarded:

2 out of 5

The all-star team of writer Bill Willingham and artist Mark Buckingham guest penciler Jim Fern and guest inker Craig Hamilton are back…  Uh oh.

I can’t say that I was a big fan of issue #82 where “guest” artists were also utilized (I’m not counting The Great Fables Crossover issues, because that had a crazy schedule and the team had to expand).  I don’t mean to cast aspersions on the work of these fine gentlemen, but to compliment Mark Buckingham.  Along with brilliant writing, the key to Fables’ success has been the beautiful and consistent penciling of Buckingham.  They’ve spoiled us by keeping the team together for such a long run.

This story is not the fanciful tale that we’ve grown accustomed to.  It takes us back in time to the glory days of the empire.  We’re introduced to Dunster Happ and his rise through the Emperor’s Scorcery Corps.  If we didn’t know better, we might think they were the good guys.  This is a case of the bad guys dealing with the worse guy.  The worse guy is Mr. Dark, the vile creature that currently has taken over Bullfinch Street and is threatening the Fables.

Pleasantly, we can pull away from the art comparisons that were made in issue #82 because none of the Fables appear in this issue.  Jim Fern has a more realistic style that fits this story.  The highlight is the battle scene with a blood-red sky on page eight.  The depiction of Mr. Dark portrays pure evil, so much that I felt a slight shiver when staring at his face.

I understand and appreciate the need to flesh out the character of Mr. Dark and to tell his tale, but now I’m ready to see the Fables again.

2.5 out of 5