A Tale of Two Comics

I read eight comics this morning (catching up after a busy week) and two of them stood out, but for very different reasons. I'd picked up both on spec, not really planning to buy future issues but wanting to check them out before making a decision.

Nightwing is a title I've bought on-again, off-again over the past 10 years. I gave up on it about 6 months ago after Bruce Jones came on-board as writer and made it unreadable. Obviously I wasn't the only fan who felt that way, as his tenure didn't last terribly long (and the message boards were full of gripes about the title.. even moreso than the regular amount of griping that even good comics get). In this day and age, I drop comic titles faster than I drop my sandals at the door, so there has to be something special to keep me investing my $3 each and every month. The appeal of Nightwing is the concept: this is Dick Grayson, the original Robin, graduated out from under Batman's wing into a new superhero identity of his own choosing. So there's a hook, at least.

But a lot of times it's hard to believe, based on what the writers write, that this guy named Grayson is really the former Boy Wonder, trained by one of the greatest detectives/heroes/athletes/fighters in the DC Universe. He makes stupid decisions, gets his ass handed to him at the drop of a hat, and generally lacks any direction whatsoever. I picked up the most recent issue because Marv Wolfman took over as writer. Twenty years ago, Wolfman was one of the best writers in the business, re-launching the Teen Titans and transforming them from a single punchline concept (sidekicks banded together, to show the grown ups they can operate on their own) into a viable super-group that could be seriously compared to the X-Men or Justice League. Marv was also this title's originator, sort of, at least in terms of crafting the story in which Grayson tossed aside his red and yellow shorts and booties in the processing of becoming Nightwing.

Two decades ago, he did all that. Unfortunately, the comic genre has moved on since then, and Wolfman really hasn't. He still writes dialogue quite competently, and introduces supporting characters right on cue, and knows his DC history well enough. But this issue had no pizzazz, and no surprises. It was a paint-by-numbers comic if ever I've read one. Nothing wrong with that, unless you expect more for your $3 entrance fee like I do these days.

On the other hand, I also took a flyer on the first issue of a mini-series called Dr Strange: The Oath. Like with Nightwing, I've had a long and checkered past with the good doctor. I probably own in excess of 200 comics starring him, and yet I've almost never warmed up to him. Simplest explanation: he's the Sorceror Supreme, which means he's a magician, which means he does magic, which means the writers get to make up the rules as they go along. If you want to know why I love Science Fiction and have little or no use for Fantasy, that's it. I know some writers of Fantasy (like Tolkien) play it fair but frankly, I just don't care to take that chance, nor to spend the time learning the fluid rules of Ragnarok (if any even exist). So let's just agree that I don't generally enjoy stories about magic and move on.

So why slap down my hard-earned cash... (sorry, hard to type while I'm laughing so hard)... on a title featuring a character I really don't like that much, in a genre (fantasy) I don't like much at all? Well, the scribe of this mini-series is Brian K. Vaughn, who's written a fair number of comic titles over the past 5 years or so. Most of those titles, I've never tried, simply because they never really caught my eye. But one of his titles, Ex Machina, is among my favourites, and has been for a couple years. I'll have to do a blog entry on it at some point, but right now we're talking about Dr Strange. I gave the first issue a try, against my better judgment, on the strength of one other title by the same writer. And proceeded to enjoy a Dr Strange tale like I'd never done before.

Vaughn managed to hit all the right notes, on a character he was writing for the first time (as far as I know). He works a 2-page origin recap seamlessly into the story, just in case someone's followed him into Dr Strange's realm, rather than vice versa. The sorceror's trusty and long-underwritten aide Wong gets new life breathed into him at the same time that we learn he's dying, and we discover that there's more than one oath on the line in this series. And best of all: the big mystic battle between Dr Strange and some slug-like god of another realm happens off-panel, saving us from having to sit through psychic assaults, warding spells and last-second deus ex machina conjurings to stave off defeat! It's like Vaughn read my mind!

So in the end, I probably won't bother with more Nightwing issues anytime soon, but I'm there for the duration for Dr Strange: The Oath. In terms of sampling: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times (ouch! but you knew it was coming, right?)