#IReadsYou Review: ELEKTRA VOLUME 2 #1

[This review of "Elektra Volume 2 #1" is one of the early comic book review that I ever wrote for my “Negromancer” blog (which began as a website) way back in the Summer of 2001.  For a few years, I wrote my comic book reviews under the column title, "Why I Love Saturn," which I took from Kyle Baker's 1990 graphic novel, "Why I Hate Saturn."

Recently, I was able to recover my files from two 2000s-era hard drives.  Beginning with this review, I am going to go back and re-edit all my original “Negromancer” comic book reviews and post these updated versions on here, my “I Reads You” blog.  I hope you enjoy the trip back in time.]

ELEKTRA VOLUME 2 #1

MARVEL COMICS/Marvel Knights

STORY: Brian Michael Bendis

ART: Chuck Austen

COLORS: Nathan Eyring

LETTERS: Comicraft's Wes Abbot

EDITORS: Stuart Moore; Nanci Dakesian

COVER: Greg Horn

52pp, $3.50 U.S., $5.25 CAN (September 2001)

"Why I Love Saturn?" Episode 6

In typical fanboy fashion, I salivated at the thought of the return of Elektra, Frank Miller’s sexy, assassin and anti-heroine from his run as writer/artist of Marvel’s Daredevil back in the early 1980’s.  But I only wanted Elektra to come back if she were to be guided Miller, or Miller and one of his cohorts, like Bill Sienkiewicz, so I, of course, ignored Pete Milligan and Mike Deodado’s mid 90’s incarnation.

In true clown fashion, I still bought the new series, starting with this first issue, Elektra Volume 2 #1.  It is written by way too busy Brian Michael Bendis; drawn by Chuck Austen; colored by Nathan Eyring; and lettered by Wes Abbot.  So many have sung Bendis' praises, via the Internet and magazine articles.  Even other customers in my local shop heartily recommend him, but I’ve yet to read anything by him that’s really “knocked my socks off,” although I haven’t yet read Torso or Jinx.

Still, I can’t go crazy over a man whose main claim to fame is his reinvention of the early Spider-Man saga in Ultimate Spider-Man.  All he is doing is simply retooling for a “modern” audience stories that were very well told when they first appeared in the early 1960’s created by Stan Lee and the amazing Mr. Steve Ditko.  Honestly, John Byrne’s modernization of the early Spidey tales in Spider-Man: Chapter One was excellent.

With his “Ultimate” title and, now, Elektra, Bendis has firmly established himself as the writing equivalent of Ron Frenz.  Bendis is now the “Super Adaptoid” of comics.  However, Frenz version 2.0 is in dire need of repair, as Elektra is the work of an unoriginal and intellectual impoverished mind.  Realistically, I can’t expect anything remotely related to characterization in this book; after all, the only important things about the characters are as follows.

Elektra is a scantily clad assassin whose costume includes a loose, flapping towel to cover her genitalia and another piece to cover the crack of her ass.  Her breasts are impractically large for someone who must perform many impossible athletic feats.  The men in her book are smug 20-somethings with nothing to say, but think that everything that they have to say is funny and/or witty (see Carson Daly or the cast of the American Pie movies).  The established Marvel characters who will visit her book, as Nick Fury does this issue, need no characterization because they’re, well, they are who they are.  Nick Fury is an icon, right?

Most of the dialogue in the first issue belongs to a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who is the antithesis of interesting and engaging.  He is dull and witless, and it’s not just that he talks too much; his conversations amount to the buzzing of flies.  The character is undoubtedly Bendis himself – college and pop culture educated – and possessing of nothing of substance worth conversing to another person.

Chuck Austen, this series' “artist,” uses a computer to model and to produce his work.  Much of the art in this issue amounts to poor, stiff renderings and copies of Frank Miller’s work on Elektra, the way Rob Liefeld’s drawings are poor, stiff pencil renderings of Miller and Art Adams' work.  Austen's drawings are awkward and clumsy; it’s the work of a mentally challenged man who apparently has never seen people.  He draws people as if he were an artist with an arthritic hand who bases his figures on the crayon cave drawings of the Neanderthals of La La Land.  If you think that I am being harsh, you are wrong.  Harsh is the splash page on page 39 of the book, the one with Elektra leaping the table.  ‘Nuff said.

F

0 out of 4 stars

Re-edited:  Sunday, June 29, 2025

The text is copyright © 2025 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Review: GREEN ARROW #6

[This review of "Green Arrow #6" is one of the early comic book review that I ever wrote for my “Negromancer” blog (which began as a website) way back in the Summer of 2001.  For a few years, I wrote my comic book reviews under the column title, "Why I Love Saturn," which I took from Kyle Baker's 1990 graphic novel, "Why I Hate Saturn."

Recently, I was able to recover my files from two 2000s-era hard drives.  Beginning with this review, I am going to go back and re-edit all my original “Negromancer” comic book reviews and post these updated versions on here, my “I Reads You” blog.  I hope you enjoy the trip back in time.]

GREEN ARROW #6 (2001)

DC COMICs

"Why I Love Saturn" Episode Seven

STORY: Kevin Smith

PENCILS: Phil Hester

INKS: Ande Parks

COLORS: Guy Major

LETTERS: Sean Konot

COVER: Matt Wagner

36pp, $2.50 U.S., $4.95 CAN (September 2001)

“Quiver, Chapter 6”: “The Hollow Man”

Every time that I think that Kevin Smith and Phil Hester's current Green Arrow comic book series might slip in quality, it remains good, and often gets better.  This is a well-written comic book by a man who knows comic books, their history, their structure, and how to tell a good story.  Hester is a strong storyteller who dazzles with a unique graphical style. Clearly, this is an example of how to create a good, long serial – every chapter counts and every chapter engages. You go, boys!

I’ve only seen one of Smith’s movies, the brilliant and funny Clerks.  [At the time that I wrote this interview, I'd only seen one of Smith's films.]  On the surface, it seemed as if the characters in the movie talked too much.  While some writers can use very few words to convey volumes, some use lots of words to tell the whole damn story.  Smith is one of those writers; he uses every word to paint his mural. He pours forth the verbiage, to inform and illuminate.  If after all that talk, you still can’t get it, dear readers, you’re probably some version of slow.

So what Kevin does best, he does in Green Arrow #6 (“The Hollow Man”).  The Oliver Queen Green Arrow returns to the land of the living some years after his death in an aircraft explosion.  He remembers nothing of the life we saw him live the last 20 years, which was his life in the hands of writer/artist Mike Grell.  Smith weaves a complex, but not complicated, engaging mystery that carries Queen, his cohorts, including Batman, and us along on a whodunit that is the best I have seen in comics in a long time.  Here, the Dark Knight Detective is really a detective, and Queen is a simply a man at odds with the time he is in now.  The character has usually been at odds with the times in which he lives. Reading this fine magazine can give one the idea that Green Arrow has been around for decades waiting for a balladeer worthy of telling his story, and that is the Kevin Smith-Phil Hester team.

Hester, this series' pencil artist, is a capable draftsman. He seems to understand Smith and lays out panels that interprets the script and turns it into riveting storytelling.  Scriptwriter and artist work so well together that they almost seem to be one really good comics creating unit.

Smith undoubtedly is a man that could help revitalize comics if he did more work. His clear, straightforward stories, unadorned by intellectual pretensions, could entertain and enthrall comic book novice readers and aficionados alike.  However, we must respect his wishes to produce movies.  My greedy ass will content myself with what I can get, while hungering for much, much more.

A

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

Kevin Smith and Phil Hester's run on "Green Arrow" is collected in GREEN ARROW: ARCHER'S QUEST OMNIBUS, VOL. 1 with available at Amazon.

The text is copyright © 2025 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

--------------------------

Amazon wants me to inform/remind you that any affiliate links found on this page are PAID ADS, but I technically only get paid (eventually) if you click on affiliate links like these, BOOKS PAGE, GRAPHIC NOVELS, or MANGA PAGE and BUY something(s).

#IReadsYou Review: BONE #43

[This review of "Bone #43" is one of the early comic book review that I ever wrote for my “Negromancer” blog (which began as a website) way back in mid-Summer of 2001.  For a few years, I wrote my comic book reviews under the column title, "Why I Love Saturn," which I took from Kyle Baker's 1990 graphic novel, "Why I Hate Saturn."

Recently, I was able to recover my files from two 2000s-era hard drives.  Beginning with this review, I am going to go back and re-edit all my original “Negromancer” comic book reviews and post these updated versions on here, my “I Reads You” blog.  I hope you enjoy the trip back in time.]

BONE #43

CARTOON BOOKS

"Why I Love Saturn" Episode Five

CARTOONIST: Jeff Smith

COVER: Jeff Smith with Steve Hamaker

28pp, B&W, $2.95 U.S., $4.50 CAN (July-August 2001)

“Prayer Stone”

For the unfamiliar, Bone is a delight hiding in wait for you to discovery it. Begun in 1991, Bone is best read in one of its seven collected volumes, which are available in comic book shops and bookstores, both the brick and mortar versions and online versions.

But for those in the know, who follow the semi-regularly published individual issues, it is one of the truly great comic books of the modern era, and one of the best since it began publication. Like Cerebus before it, Bone has become much more than what it seemed to be in the beginning of its run. What began as a fine all-ages, adventure tale has become an excellent epic fantasy, or, at least, as good as a comic book can be as an epic fantasy.

Bone #43 finds Gran'ma Ben, Thorn Harvestar, and the Bone cousins (Fone Bone, Phoncible P. “Phoney” Bone, and Smiley Bone) having finally reached the sacred walls of the old capital, Atheia.  There, they hope to discover a way to save “the Valley.”  So what will they find there?

In this work, cartoonist Jeff Smith is a master yarn spinner and fine comic book creator. He understands how to arrange panels on a page and how to arrange pages to tell the most effective stories. Smith's art skills are strong, and like Jamie Hernandez of Love and Rockets fame, he is one of the few modern comic book artists who plies his trade in black and white as a master illustrator and storyteller.  Both Smith and Hernandez's comics approach the power and skill of past black and white masters such as Alex Toth and Wally Wood.

If you stopped reading Bone in the last few years, it’s just as good, if not better than before. It’s calling you home. New readers, try one of the seven trades; the story is entertaining and coherent no matter where you start.

A

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Original date:  September 4, 2001

Edited with a rewrite:  Tuesday, June 17, 2025

The text is copyright © 2025 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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The entire run of Bone has been collected in a single paperback collection, entitled BONE: THE COMPLETE CARTOON EPIC IN ONE VOLUME at Amazon.

Amazon wants me to inform/remind you that any affiliate links found on this page are PAID ADS, but I technically only get paid (eventually) if you click on affiliate links like these, BOOKS PAGE, GRAPHIC NOVELS, or MANGA PAGE and BUY something(s).

#IReadsYou Review: LOVE AND ROCKETS Volume II #2

[This review of "Love and Rockets Volume II #2" is one of the early comic book review that I wrote for my “Negromancer” blog, the original version, way back in mid-Summer of 2001.  For a few years, I wrote my comic book reviews under the column title, "Why I Love Saturn," which I took from Kyle Baker's 1990 graphic novel, "Why I Hate Saturn."

Recently, I was able to recover my files from two 2000s-era hard drives.  Beginning with this review, I am going to go back and re-edit all my original “Negromancer” comic book reviews and post these updated versions on here, my “I Reads You” blog.  I hope you enjoy the trip back in time.]

LOVE AND ROCKETS VOLUME II #2

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

"Why I Love Saturn" Episode Three

STORY: Gilbert Hernandez; Jaime Hernandez; Mario Hernandez

ART: Gilbert Hernandez; Jaime Hernandez

LETTERS: Gilbert Hernandez; Jaime Hernandez

EDITOR: Gary Groth

COVER: Gilbert Hernandez with Carrie Whitney

BACK COVER: Jaime Hernandez with Carrie Whitney

36pp, B&W, $3.95 U.S., $5.95 CAN (Summer 2001)

The return of Love and Rockets can be viewed with trepidation. After all, Gilbert Hernandez’s Luba, Luba’s Comics and Stories, and his all ages title Measles, and Jaime Hernandez’s Penny Century well served their talents. However, fans of the Los Bros. were apparently having trouble finding their post L&R work precisely because it did not carry the “Love and Rockets” brand. Volume II of the fabled title, which ran from the mid-80’s to the mid 90’s for 50 beautiful issues and is one of the all time great comic book series reunites Jaime Hernandez and Gilbert Hernandez with brother Mario Hernandez for the first time in ages. It’s off to a wobbly start.

The first reason is because it follows such an important and well-regarded work as the original series and expectations are very high. Secondly and more important, the brothers have simply outgrown it the need for an anthology series that combines their work.

Gilbert is the least served by the new series of the three. His aforementioned solo works served his growing talent as a writer, difficult, as it is to believe that he could get better. With the serialized “Blood of Palomar, “X,” and “Poison River,” Gilbert had proved himself to be the preeminent comic book writer. Yes, better than anyone writing during that time, including Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, who were getting all the attention. His post L&R solo titles served Gilbert’s ability to weave a long story arc over several issues or different titles. The stories were stunning when read together, but they were almost as good when read as single issues.

Love and Rockets Volume II #2 opens with “Julio’s Day,” Gilbert’s short tale that showcases everything that he does well: evocative dialogue and excellent page layouts. His art is that which marks him as a special cartoonist, that being a writer who can tell his story in words and pictures as well or better than it could be told in words or in pictures alone. However, the format of L&R Volume II limits Gilbert’s contribution to these kinds of nice little shorts like “Julio’s Day,” of which he is quite good. We can, however, get that from Measles; or the two Luba titles.

The issue’s second offering is Jaime’s “Maggie,” which is a pleasant little offering as far as the story goes, nothing serious or earth shattering. Although capable of beautiful, longer work, Jaime thrives in short stories and vignettes; he entertains in one page as easily as some can fail to entertain in a four issue mini-series.

The ongoing revelation is certainly Jaime’s continuing, astounding growth as an artist. From the beginning, his talent was obvious, and his ability to harness that talent became evident with each story. I am so overwhelmed by his illustrative powers that I can hardly stand to look at a page for more than a minute before I must turn my face lest I go blind. As an illustrator of black and white comic books, he is Toth-good, Eisner-good, Wood-good, and too damn good.

Mario Hernandez returns in the current issue as a writer with Gilbert as artist in "Me for the Unknown." The story’s surrealism is ably matched by Gilbert’s drawing prowess, but the story fails to arouse much interest. I’m quite sure that it would be best read in its entirety. The feeling is that something fantastic waits just over the horizon from these the combo of these two brothers, but serialization may not be good for any Mario-Beto collaborations.

The issue’s final offering is Gilbert’s return of Errata Stigmata is “Erratic Stigmatic,” which is a welcome return of an old character. It is a nice morsel of Beto’s continuing experimentation with his brand of surrealism, which mixes and matches several genres, artistic styles, and storytelling forms. Uniquely his own brand of work, one can see a story like the above and realize that there is nothing like Beto’s cartooning in current comics.

Reservations aside, this book is not to be missed simply for the fact that three brilliant comic book minds are moving and expanding the medium. Over time the series will gain its own momentum and surprise and delight us as the original did. Sadly, this is largely lost on a comic book reading populace that is too hungry for the next bat/mutant/manga event spectacular.

A-

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Edited from the original:  Sunday, April 20, 2025

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

Enjoy Love & Rockets paperback and hardcover trade collections found at the LOVE AND ROCKETS LIBRARY page at Amazon.

The text is copyright © 2025 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

--------------------------

Amazon wants me to inform/remind you that any affiliate links found on this page are PAID ADS, but I technically only get paid (eventually) if you click on affiliate links like these, BOOKS PAGE, GRAPHIC NOVELS, or MANGA PAGE and BUY something(s).

#IReadsYou Review: ORION #15

[This review of "Orion #15" is the first comic book review that I ever wrote for my “Negromancer” blog, the original version, way back in mid-Summer of 2001.  For a few years, I wrote my comic book reviews under the column title, "Why I Love Saturn," which I took from Kyle Baker's 1990 graphic novel, "Why I Hate Saturn."

Recently, I was able to recover my files from two early aughts hard drives.  Beginning with this review, I am going to go back and re-edit all my original “Negromancer” comic book reviews and post these updated versions to my “I Reads You” blog.  I hope you enjoy the trip back in time.]

ORION #15

DC COMICS

"Why I Love Saturn" Episode One

STORY: Walter Simonson

ART: Walter Simonson

COLORS: Tatjana Wood; Digital Chameleon (separations)

LETTERS: John Workman

EDITOR: Joey Cavalieri

COVER: Walter Simonson with Tatjana Wood

56pp, Color, $3.95 U.S., $6.50 CAN (August 2001)

Orion and The New Gods created by Jack Kirby

“At the Edge of the Abyss”

Orion is a DC Comics superhero character that first appeared in New Gods #1 (cover dated: February 1971) and was created by writer-artist Jack Kirby.  Orion is the son of the super-villain, “Darkseid” of “Apokolips,” who traded him to “Highfather” of “New Genesis” in a peace deal between the two planets.  Orion has powers similar to that of Superman, and he rids a device called an “Astro-Harness.”  In 2000, DC Comics began publishing Orion, a 25-issue series written and almost entirely drawn by Walter Simonson (best known for his run on Marvel Comics' Thor from 1983-87).

After a little over a year, the fifteenth issue brings to an end what could be considered the first major arc of Walter Simonson’s engrossing epic comic book series, Orion.  The story/epic begins in the first issue with Darkseid’s occupation of the town of Main Line, Nebraska in a bid to extract the “Anti-Life Equation” from the town’s inhabitants. Mentally exhausted and frustrated by his sire’s machinations, Orion meets Darkseid in combat and seemingly kills him in the fifth issue of the magazine. By the eleventh issue, Orion has mastered the Anti-Life Equation and begins to order Apokolips, New Genesis, and Earth in an attempt to end war, suffering and strife. 

Orion #15 offers Darkseid's returns.  But is Darkseid actually another opponent who seeks to engage Orion in battle?

THE LOWDOWN:  I must admit to being mostly disinterested in Jack Kirby’s New Gods and other “Fourth World” comic books that are not the work of Kirby (with the exception of an occasional mini-series or odd stand alone story here and there).  That was the case until John Byrne took over the mid-1990’s revival of the New Gods (Vol. 4, 1995-97) for the final four issues (#12 to #15) and  then, produced subsequent 20-issue series , Jack Kirby’s Fourth World (1997-98).

I was saddened to see Byrne extinguish the title, but I was curious after the announcement that Simonson would have a follow-up magazine that would focus on Orion.  It is in Issue #15 that we can see what Simonson does when he is really “on his game,” and as good as he has been, this issue is a career highlight precisely because he doesn’t rely on the fact that he can rest on his laurels because he is a mature and practiced veteran. His knowledge, ability and passage meet at a nexus that the best comic book creators rarely reach even in a career of standout work.

Orion is one of those rare “these days” books in which the title thrives not just on the popularity and strength of the characters, but primarily upon the skills of the artists involved.  Simonson’s tales are not only epic in scope, but are also melodramatic and operatic in execution. As in the best of serializations, Simonson weaves strong character development, directs engrossing plot lines, and executes the genre trappings with verve of an old hand who is an old master.

Orion is in fact a sad and pitied figure in the tradition of tragic royalty.  Blessed and cursed by birth and history and with power and a great warrior’s skill, he struggles to bring order to his universe precisely because he cannot find that same order anywhere.  His home of Apokolips is a nest of never ending intrigue, betrayal, and hypocrisy.  New Genesis, the enlightened opposite of Apokolips is more of the same except it has flowers, sunshine, and nice architecture.  Earth is the playground of misguided super powered beings that, in the long run, are actually largely ineffective.

It is in the world that the reader must see and engage the lead, which is not a slight of the other characters.  Even those that are not necessarily as developed as others, Simonson endows them with their own list of wants and needs and weaves them into the vast tapestry that is Kirby’s Fourth World. However, it is Orion that we must follow, because Simonson draws the reader to him; the reader sees the world only through Orion’s eyes. Yes, the others are interesting, but we view them always with the thought in mind of how he or she fits into Orion’s story.  Is he friend or enemy of Orion? What does she want of Orion? This is truly one of the standards by which other “solo” books should be measured.  Regardless of how “cool” or interesting a supporting player might be, that player is merely a piece on the lead’s board.  No supporting player should have a story or plot thread concerning him that does not directly affect the lead.

About Simonson art – what is there to say?  Like Byrne, he captures the sense of grandeur, scale, power, and dynamism that was in Kirby’s work, and executes it in their own inimitable style.  Rather than an homage or remake, Simonson continues the saga the way one storyteller would follow the others before him who were also painting, so to speak, on a larger shared canvas.  One can see Simonson’s considerable skill and talent in the vitality of the line work, the simultaneous grace and roughness of the inking, and the draftsmanship of a man who knows what he is doing.  The panel layouts and arrangement so much serve the story in plot and pacing that one knows that it could never be any other way – meaning he didn’t do it to make pretty original art for buyers who are easily wowed by the eye candy of a pinup.  Characters literally leap off the pages, and they pose with the grace and confidence of proven warriors and kings born.  There is pathos and drama that is better than some “movie” and is worthy of the theatrical stage. Every single panel matters, and Simonson wastes nothing.  There is no filler to snap the attention of those easily distracted.  This is quality work, good storytelling, and style over substance.

If you ignore so-called mainstream work, Orion can be your guilty pleasure that is not a guilty pleasure.  For the ones chasing alternate covers, “Ultimate” titles and revamps, there is good food at this table called Orion.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Walter Simonson and of Jack Kirby's “Fourth World” will want to find a trade collection of Orion (2000).

[This comic book also includes the back-up story, “Great Than / Less Than” from writer Kevin McCarthy, artist John Paul Leon, colorist Tatjana Wood, and letterer John Workman.]

A

★★★★ out of 4 stars

EDITED:  Sunday, April 13, 2025

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. “I Reads You”

In 2018, DC Comics began publishing trade collections of Walter Simonson's Orion, which you can find at Amazon.

https://www.dccomics.com/

https://x.com/DCComics

https://www.facebook.com/dccomics

https://www.youtube.com/user/DCEntertainmentTV

https://www.pinterest.com/dccomics/

https://www.periscope.tv/DCComics/1ZkKzezXwZdxv

The text is copyright © 2025 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

------------------

Amazon wants me to inform/remind you that any affiliate links found on this page are PAID ADS, but I technically only get paid (eventually) if you click on affiliate links like these, BOOKS PAGE, GRAPHIC NOVELS, or MANGA PAGE and BUY something(s).