1. Swallow Me Whole
Nate Powell
Swallow Me Whole is a haunting, nightmarish treatment of suburban adolescence. The story follows the mental journeys of half-siblings Ruth and Perry. They have mental problems to begin with - Perry sees a tiny wizard who tells him to draw things, and Ruth is obsessed with patterns in her insect collection - but as they get older, Ruth sinks steadily deeper into her madness, and Perry finds it more and more difficult to resist the Wizard.Nate Powell is not content merely to chronicle events as an observer - his art draws the reader in, forcing us to experience the characters' mental states for ourselves. Understandably this makes for a confusing read...but what a confusion. The light, incomplete, nebulous drawings translate into a mental fuzziness, compounded by the alteration of dialogue text; the only really clear moments are those of extreme darkness, when Powell slops on great gouts of shadow.
The cumulative effect is extraordinarily spooky. Mad rushes of ink-spatter bugs clog the page. Slack-jawed larvae float through the panels. A lumpen frog, straight out of an unsettling dream, stares and stares. A scene with "the extra pill" (a common delusion of medicating mental patients) is extraordinarily unnerving. And, as in all good stories of madness, in the end you're not sure if it was real or not.
2. Batman: The Long Halloween
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Tim Sale
This is "Batman Noir" - or shall we say, Batman done right. The story concerns Batman, District Attorney Harvey Dent, and Captain Jim Gordon of the Gotham City Police Department trying to track down the mysterious Holiday Killer, who is targeting the Falcone crime family. Suspicions are cast on everyone; the declining Gotham Mob becomes entangled with the rising "Freaks" - the supervillains of the Batman universe - and the body count rises. All hell breaks loose, and we're along for the ride.This is definitely a noir story. The heavy lights and darks of the Batman universe are even starker here, and the simple flatfoot sleuthing of the original Detective Comics is accentuated over the rough-and-tumble (although there is plenty of roughing and tumbling - the combat here is satisfyingly visceral). Even Batman's brooding inner monologue is chopped into noir-sized chunks. Ultimately this is Batman at its best, free of inane schemes, alternate universes, and - best of all - no Robin. Even the "Freaks" are at their best here: Joker, looking especially demented; a very effective Poison Ivy; and Catwoman, having more fun than she's had in a long time. My favorite character, though, has to be Julian Day, aka "Calendar Man" - here we see him captive at Arkham Asylum, pressing his face against the glass and giving Batman a knowing smirk.
3. Joker
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Illustrator: Lee Bermejo
Another one of those joyless, post-Dark Knight depictions of the Batman universe we love so much - not that that's a bad thing. The book follows a low-life character named Jonny Frost in his journeys with the Joker. The Joker somehow got himself released from Arkham Asylum, and is now back to wreak havoc upon everything and everybody - to "get back what is his". Joining the Joker are a realistic re-visioning of Killer Croc, a slightly-tweaked version of Harlequin, and even the Riddler - sans green suit, of course - along with various other henchmen and gunsels. Be forewarned, this is not your daddy's Joker; not once does he use Joker Gas to give everybody a happy smile - not even the reader. Mostly he shoots, stabs, and slashes with broken glass. Whoopee. I'm kind of divided on this one, especially since the visuals are so gorgeous; unfortunately, I'm more of a wacky-Joker kind of guy.4. Crisis on Infinite Earths
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Illustrator: George Perez
Yes, sportsfans (and comicsfans), it was only a matter of time before my baleful gaze would swing around, Sauron-like, and come to rest upon the most mind-numbingly overplotted, stultifying, ludicrous pile of uber-dreck ever to peforate the bowels of that lumbering beast known as comics: DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths.
The "plot" concerns the DC "multiverse", which contains infinite earths, and is currently being threatened by a plague of antimatter. The DC superherd must therefore figure out what (or who) is causing this cataclysm and, in true DC fashion, kill it until it is unable to resurrect in the next issue.
The problem with all this is that the writer, Marv Wolfman, saw CIE as an opportunity to clean up DC's massive storyline-continuity problems and cull their superherd (which, we can suppose, was overburdening the super-ecosystem - wouldn't want them all starving to death). Thus, he created a 12-part series which would encompass the whole of the DC universe, and included thousands of characters and storylines.
The result is a real cosmic clusterfuck. New characters appear every other page - sometimes a dozen at a time. The panels are squeezed with as many talking heads, verbose speeches, and ineffective ray-blasts as possible. You'll never keep track of who's who, or which earth you're on, or even what unfortunate series of events caused you to pluck the book off the shelf and start reading it...I have to admit that even I was surprised by the sheer awfulness of this turdburger. I found myself reading it for the sheer perversity of the experience (giggling maniacally the whole time, and weeping).
All snarkiness aside, something must be said for George Perez: whatever you think of his drawing style - I'm not especially enamored with it - the man is a machine. He fills in page after page after page of intricately laid-out, teensy-weensy panels with consistently clear and understandable images, not to mention nailing each and every character's look and posture - no mean feat when some of the characters haven't been seen for decades. Obviously the inkers and colorists had their work cut out for them as well, but GP did all the grunt work. I know what it's like to plow through a dozen panels or more, page after page. The man must have checked himself into a hospital beforehand. I doubt that there was any real hiatus between issues.
At any rate, though, not even GP's superheroic efforts could save this one. Take my advice: unless you're a real awful-comics junkie (as I am), stay away.
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