What I Bought 9/21/2012 - Part 2

I suppose I ought to review the 0 issues I bought before Zero Month is over.

Dial H #0, by China Mieville (writer), Riccardo Burchielli (artist), Tanya & Richard Horie (colorists), Steve Wands (letterer) - This theme cover month thing reminds me of the one DC did January of 2011, with the characters in front of their emblem, against an otherwise white background? I found those covers boring, too.

This one's set in the far past, as a woman named Laodice manages to activate a very clunky dial and becomes "Bumper Carla", a hero capable of stopping a fabled beast of Babylon. The dial gets broken in the process, but the day was saved, she's made leader, all is well, right? No. Someone in a strange costume came around asking questions about her, but he's locked up, and not the problem anyway. The real problem comes when Bumper Carla shows up and kills Laodice. For stealing her powers. For letting innocent people die.

So that was creepy. Burchielli really gave Carla a genuine look of grief and rage, but more than that, a sort of derangement that makes her frightening, where she might otherwise look silly (like she did when Laodice transformed into her earlier in the issue). All this raises some interesting questions about the dial and the heroes, especially the addition of the "Still Zone" Carla was banished to. What's that, and does it relate to the figure Jent observed during one of his transformations?

Green Arrow #0, by Judd Winick (writer), Freddie Williams II (artist), Rob Hunter (inker), Rob Leigh (letterer), Richard & Tanya Horie (colorists) - I was not planning to purchase this, as it was being written by Winick. Not so much out of some protest against him as for the fact I'm buying the title for Nocenti. He isn't Nocenti, so I don't buy it. But the cover said it was written by her, so I left it in the pile. Stupid, lying covers.

So it's Ollie's origin. Where he's supposed to be running an oil rig, but is instead having huge stupid beach parties and generally being terrible at archery. Thieves take the opportunity to hijack a heli of drunks and take over the rig. Rather than let them just steal the oil, Ollie tries to stop them and gets all the hostages and the rig blown to smithereens. He survives, returns to civilization, posts bail for Roy Harper, his buddy Merlyn is lying burned up in a monastery somewhere, and I don't care about any of that crap. I could not give less of a damn about Roy or Merlyn, or any of the rest. Neither of those feels like things Nocenti will bother to pick up on, so why bother? And did Ollie call Iron Eagle "Raven" as a point about how little attention he was paying, or because Winick wasn't paying attention either?

The Hories colors are brighter than usual. Not to the extent they are on Dial H, but more so than when Tolibao draws the book. Which leads me to believe they have to try hard not to overwhelm his thin linework. Freddie Williams' art looks rougher than I remember, though it's been awhile (the early stages of Beechen's Robin run, I think).

Resurrection Man #0, by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (writers), Ramon Bachs (art, 1-19), Jesus Saiz (art, pg. 20), Jeromy Cox (colors), Rob Leigh (letters) - That's not a bad cover. More creative than the other 2, but it'd work better if Mitch showed a little more sign of struggling against all the hands. I suppose he could be so accustomed to it he hardly notices them anymore, but he looks sort of bored.

Good Mitch Shelly is the arm Bad Mitch Shelly got blown off while they were illegally testing their Tektite solutions. They reattached the arm, then it was rejected as Bad Mitch grew a new one. They tried burning the rejected arm up, but the Tektites in it survived and rebuilt the entire person. Viola, Good Mitch! In the present, Good Mitch quickly defeats Bad Mitch, then when Heaven and Hell show up for his soul, he hands Suriel Bad Mitch. Which seems like cheating since I wasn't under the impression Bad Mitch kept resurrecting, but whatever. Hell Guy is content to let Good Mitch roam free, as he has 'plans' for him.

I'm not at all clear on why Bad Mitch's condition deteriorated. He had healed, then after they get rid of his old arm, his condition went in the tank? Did all the Tektites get together in the right arm? If so, how did the new one regenerate? Does it raise any issues that Good Mitch has his own soul, despite basically being Bad Mitch's right arm? Why have Jesus Saiz draw one page? What's the point of that? I don't know. Maybe my hopes were too high for this title. There was a good idea for this final meeting of the Mitches, but it didn't have enough time, or DnA wasted too much time. Take your pick.