Random Pulls from the Bargain Bin
In these economic times, finding inexpensive entertainment is difficult. Thank goodness for the local comic shop and a slew of comics nobody cares about anymore! Each week Daniel Elkin randomly grabs a comic from the bargain bin (for 50 cents) to see what kind of bang he can get for his two-bits. These are those tales.
September 14, 2011 – paid 50 cents for:
NECROWAR #1
Published by: Dreamwave Productions
Written by: Simon Furman
Art by: Adi Granov
THE PLANET IS SOUP.
I can’t believe I have to relive July of 2003 for this week’s column.
July of 2003 was when Nike bought Converse for goodness sake. It was also when Valerie Plame was outed as a CIA operative in the
Washington Post by that stale loaf of moldy bread Robert Novak. It was when that 86-year-old still-driving-and-drooling motherfucker had a “senior moment” in Santa Monica, CA and hit the accelerator instead of the brakes mowing down ten people, including a three-year-old girl and a seven-month-old boy. It was also when Pat Robertson called for a “massive prayer offensive” to try to stack the United States Supreme Court with conservative justices.
July of 2003 saw the deaths of Buddy Ebsen, Bob Hope,
AND Barry White. It saw the cancelation of
Digimon: Digital Monsters and the premiere of
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
Viennese doctors even transplanted a human tongue in July 2003.
All of this and, thanks to that yokel in the flight suit a few months beforehand, we were still under the impression that in Iraq, “Mission Accomplished”.
Honestly, even if July, 2003 was a cute puppy I would still have an urge to piss on it.
Into this mess of a month came
Necrowar #1 from Dreamwave Productions.
Do you remember Dreamwave Productions? Founded in 1996, Dreamwave cut its teeth on
Transformers, spewing out all sorts of series based on the franchise. Then in January of 2005 they went belly-up and stuck their freelancers with some of the company’s debts.
Because of this and the fact that I had to remember July of 2003, I am already predisposed to hate
Necrowar #1. I will rise above this petty subjectivity, though, as I am a professional and it is my mission to examine the work for what it offers in and of itself.
So
Necrowar #1 starts like this:
Ummmm…. ok?
There’s a boy and he finds a dying man. Really, you know that’s how I want my entertainment -- disturbing, bloody, and totally out of nowhere. Please continue,
Necrowar #1.
In the next couple of pages, the narrator ruminates on dying. His name is Damien Arnaz and he says that all his life he’s “been chasing death…” He goes on to reveal the tragedy of his life. His parents died in a “road accident” when he was young and this, coupled with the dying man discovery, seems to have given his life meaning insofar as it compares with death. Pretty heavy stuff, actually, which gives Arnaz a layer of characterization I was not expecting.
Arnaz has joined the Alliance Forces in order to court his own death and ends up being part of an elite force. He blames this fact on a woman.
Ashley Colt, specifically.
Now I have some problems with this Colt character right off the bat. First off is her name. By calling her Colt, are we as readers supposed to instantly internalize that she’s a bit frisky? Second, look at her. What’s with the hand on the hip? Is she a subconscious fashion model that just can’t help but pose? And finally, what is that garbage she is babbling? Is she supposed to be ironic and therefore clever? Or is she serious and therefore kinda creepy? I don’t know, but after all of Arnaz’s waxing about death, Colt’s sudden appearance throws me.
Or maybe that was the point, to provide the juxtaposition between death’s brooding nature and life’s sexy posturing? Is Simon Furman not pandering but playing with metaphors? Hmmmm…. Maybe there is more to
Necowar #1 than I expected.
