Jon Pay: Private Investigator 1, $1.50 US each, published by BDP Comics
Writer & Artist: C.A. Aabo
Rating 4.5 out of 5 stars
Lunacy, sheer lunacy! And just the type I happen to like!
I have an affection for the hardboiled detective sub-genre of mystery fiction, having read various works by such authors as Raymond Chandler, Dashell Hammett, Robert Parker, and John D. MacDonald. As a result, I also enjoy a good parody of such material. Jon Pay: Private Investigator is just that: a tongue-in-cheek spoof of the trenchcoat & fedora set who prowl the mean streets of the city in search of the elusive truth.
Jon Pay is the typical hard-drinking, cigar-chomping, card-playing smart-ass ex-cop turned private eye. Pay is invited to play cards with an old friend, millionaire Charlie Urchel. Pay brings along Linda O'Meilley, his former partner on the police force, and current companion in witty verbal sparring. Unfortunately, the game is interrupted by George "Machine Gun" Kelly, Cob City's most hopelessly inept criminal.
Kelly is a small-time bootlegger who still distills booze, even though Prohibition is long over. It's all he knows how to do (and even then, he's not very good at it). Kelly's wife, frustrated at her husband's ineptness, decided to give his criminal career a rather large nudge. She buys him a machine gun (which he doesn't know how to use) and forces him into a plan to kidnap and ransom Charlie Urchel.
And so Jon Pay soon finds himself crossing paths with Mr. and Mrs. Kelly. As the saying goes, hilarity ensues.
Jon Pay is the self-published work of Norwegian-born C.A. Aabo. In the issue's afterword, Aabo admits to a fondness for film noirs. And it is a fondness that certainly shines through. Aabo was obviously having fun when he created this issue. His enthusiasm results in a humorous, enjoyable romp through the archetypes of the private eye genre.
Aabo has a distinctive art style. His characters are cartoony in a manner that makes them quite amusing. He does a great job at drawing the most extraordinary expressions on the characters' faces. At the same time, the settings, backgrounds, and everyday objects (like furniture and automobiles) are rendered in a realistic, detailed manner. The combination of these two styles results in artwork that is both humorous and stylish. Aabo's work is certainly noteworthy.
All in all, Jon Pay: Private Investigator is one of the most impressive, high-quality self-published books I have seen come from an unknown creator in some time. C.A. Aabo's work promises great things. After reading this issue, I certainly hope that Aabo has the time and resources to produce a follow-up issue. With his keen sense of humor and unique artwork, Aabo shows great potential.
Suicide Squad volume 2 #s 1-3, $2.50 US each, published by DC Comics
Writer: Keith Giffen; Pencils: Paco Medina; Inks: Joe Sanchez
Rating 1.5 out of 5 stars
Coming in as the winner for "Worst Comic Book Revival of the Year" is the stunningly awful Suicide Squad.
Harsh words? Perhaps. But, to paraphrase Mystery Science Theater 3000, "I want to hurt this comic book, but I can never hurt it as much as it's hurt me." That, and I wouldn't mind if someone decided to give me my money back.
The original Suicide Squad ran from 1987 to 1993. Covering the tail end of the Reagan years and Bush Senior's entire administration, it was a very timely series. John Ostrader & Kim Yale crafted a series of stories revolving around a top-secret government program that recruited convicted supervillains and sent them on covert, high-risk, and often illegal, missions in foreign countries. It was certainly a product of its time, coming in the aftermath of the Iran-Contra Affair and during the Presidential stint of a former CIA director. Suicide Squad achieved a devoted cult following and, nearly a decade after its cancellation, is still frequently praised as one of the best mainstream books of its time.
Someone at DC Comics must have decided the time was ripe to revive the Squad. On the face of it, it is a rather appropriate period. In the real world, George W. Bush slid into the Oval Office after one of the most controversial Presidential elections in this nation's entire existence. And in the DC Comics universe, the President is none other than Lex Luthor, a character who has brought flouting the law up to an art form. Between the real-life election scandals and the fictional election of a supervillain to the White House, DC Comics no doubt thought that it would be relevant to restart the Squad, as it is a concept that at its very core deals with government corruption and the abuse of authority.
Unfortunately, in the actual execution of the idea, in the return of the Suicide Squad series itself, DC dropped the ball. Badly. The finished product is a confusing, sub-par mess of half-developed ideas. Whatever potential the book had is clearly squandered.
The writer for the new Suicide Squad is Keith Giffen. While he remains a very good artist, I have found Giffen's writing in the last decade to be rather hit-or-miss. He seems to be drawn to bizarre ideas, over-the-top characterization, and non-conventional storytelling. Not that any of those are automatically drawbacks. On the contrary, innovation is to be praised. The problem with Giffen is that he seems so interested in creating offbeat, esoteric work that he neglects to produce something that holds together. That is certainly the case here.
Adding to this problem is Paco Medina's art. In a series that focuses so heavily on covert scheming and military-rooted operations, it would make sense to bring on board an artist whose style is grounded in reality, and who has a firm grasp of storytelling. Medina is not that type of artist. Rather, he has a very Manga-inspired style. He renders bizarre-looking people in cluttered, busy panels. Medina brings to mind Duncan Rouleau, another Manga-influenced illustrator whose work has often left me uncertain as to what I am supped to be looking at. Not that Medina is necessarily a bad artist. It is just that assigning him to this particular series was an ill-considered choice.
Put together Giffen's highly eccentric writing with Medina's convoluted artwork, and the result is a series that is a nigh-incomprehensible read. I found it a monotonous, exasperating chore to plow through these issues.
One of the primary weaknesses in Giffen's writing on Suicide Squad is that he fails to adequately explain to the readers the background of the characters he is using. In the first issue, he brings together a team made up of Major Disaster, Cluemaster, Clock King, Multi-Man, and Big Sur. I know who Cluemaster is, because the character has been used several times by Chuck Dixon in recent years. I have very vague recollections of Major Disaster from a Justice League story that came out about a decade ago. As for the other three, I have absolutely no idea who they are. I recall there was a Clock King on the animated Batman show, but I don't have a clue if this is supposed to be the same character. Ideally, Giffen would provide the readers with some background information on this collection of costumed criminals. But he does not. Practically the only information we are given is that these five have worked together before. A brief mention is made that the Cluemaster has a daughter. Aside from that, we learn absolutely nothing else about these characters. This results in an inability to feel any significant connection to the group. When the casualties start mounting on their mission, it's almost impossible to even care, as these characters are nothing but ciphers.
Things do not improve in the second issue. Which is regrettable, as this is the story where the core cast of characters is introduced. Leading the Squad's support team is General Rock (formerly Sgt. Rock), the famous World War II veteran. Giffen does not inform us of how Rock came to be heading up this new Suicide Squad, much less how he was promoted to a general. The details of the later were partially delved into within the Superman titles, when President Luthor appointed Rock to his Cabinet. But no mention of that is made here. I think a recap would have been useful for readers unfamiliar with that subplot. Certainly I could have used any information on Bulldozer, the wheelchair-bound right-hand man to General Rock. Apparently the two are old friends, but we are never actually told this. The fact is, I do not know who Bulldozer is. As for the other two support team members, Havana and Modem, they are brand new characters. As such, Giffen does actually provide information on the pair. Presumably he will delve into their backgrounds further in the future.
Alas, the trend of minimal background information continues unabated in the third issue. Another five-member Squad team is assembled. Of the group, I've seen Bolt and Killer Frost before. But Larvanaut, Putty, and Eliza are complete unknowns to me. Again, it would have been extremely useful if Giffen had explained who these characters were supposed to be.
There is also a failure on Giffen's part to provide coherent storytelling in these issues. I am still very confused as to what the specific mission was that Major Disaster's group was sent on in the first issue. Apparently they have to retrieve a scientist. However, it's never explained if they need to rescue him from terrorists who kidnapped him, snatch him away from terrorists he's aiding, or something else. The ending of the book is quite incoherent. We learn that the scientist is insane and that he's creating organic bombs that look like little kids. It is never quite explained why he is doing this. The issue then ends with a jumbled firefight. In that specific case, I think the fault lies with Paco Medina. But everything else seems to be due to Giffen's writing.
The story in the second and third issue revolves around a horde of genetically engineered army ants that are eating their way through the population of a tropical resort. Giffen's storytelling and dialogue in these issues has the same weaknesses as the first. In a key two-page scene in #2, an unidentified woman and a trio of men are arguing over the problem of the ants. From the dialogue, we learn this group was somehow involved in creating the ants. But we are not informed of who these people are until the last panel of the scene, when one of the men refers to the woman as "Talia." Here I concluded that the woman was Talia Heed, daughter of immortal ecoterrorist Ra's al Ghul. As Talia took over as CEO of Lexcorp after Luthor was elected President, I then guessed that the ants were created by Lexcorp. Much of this guessing would have been unnecessary if Giffen had simply included a narrative caption of the first page of the scene that read "Lexcorp Corporate Headquarters" or something along those lines. Most of this is confirmed a few pages later in a scene between one of the three men and Lex Luthor himself. But I still feel Giffen needlessly muddled things for readers here by omitting certain important information.
Giffen also causes much confusion with his efforts at witty banter between the Squad members. Most of this is lettered as dialogue captions floating in the air, not pointing to any specific character. It's difficult to figure out which character is saying what. The result is a jumbled mess.
Paco Medina's artwork demonstrates a definite weakness in the army ant story. It is difficult to tell that the are ants are actually supposed to be ants. Except for on the covers, Medina draws them in such a way that they look less like a swarm and more like a gray tidal wave. At least Giffen states in the dialogue that they are indeed ants.
Although I was dissatisfied with aspects of Medina's artwork on these three issues, I feel the bulk of the failings can be laid at Giffen's feet. There are times when Medina does provide some clear, straightforward artwork, and Giffen fails to follow through with comprehensible scripting.
Of course, the series is not a complete disaster. The basic concept is still a sound one. The idea of the honorable veteran Sgt. Rock heading up a government program of very dubious morality has potential. To explore how the character went from soldier to spook, becoming a willing participant in black ops missions, is a good idea. It would be similar to what Marvel did with the character of Nick Fury, but would take it a step further, as Rock seems to have completely immersed himself in the shadowy scheming that gives the Squad its existence. And the new characters that Giffen has created seem interesting. The interactions of the Squad's core cast are volatile, which could lead to some unusual developments along the way.
And, as I conceded, Medina's artwork does hold promise. He just needs to work on his layouts and storytelling, especially during action sequences. His covers for these three issues are certainly dramatic. I liked the one for #3, which has a group of soldiers getting munched on by the mutant ants. The blurb on the cover reads "Our Army Ants At War," a clever play on the old DC war title Our Army At War. Whoever came up with that particular gag was quite inventive.
Unfortunately, the weaknesses in Suicide Squad far outnumber the strengths. I was terribly disappointed. I gave this series three issues to hook me. I was probably being overly generous with my time (and money!) but I wanted to give the book a fair chance. But at this point, I honestly am unwilling to follow this series any longer. I know that there are better books out there, and I would much rather read those.