5/30/12
FF 18/Ravagers 1
Ravagers 1
In 1994, I was 11 and J. Scott Campbell was drawing Fairchild on the covers of the first Gen 13 issues. I don’t think I’ve ever actually read an issue of those early Image runs, but the cover (remember the cut-out?) were enough to make me pick up Ravagers. This is also an issue 1, which means I probably wouldn’t be swept away with all the characters and continuity from the previous issues DC seems intent on not filling the reader in on. I was partially right.
Ravagers starts mid-story, continued from Teen Titans #9. Dr. Caitlin Fairchild and two dozen teenagers are escaping from a colony run by a man named Harvest and the group N.O.W.H.E.R.E., who have been keeping them as slaves and experiments. Despite being dropped in part-way through a story, it’s easy enough to follow along with who people are and what’s motivating them. Several characters did die, and they died with me nothing absolutely nothing about them other than the one had a great rack. Only one of the teen killed even has a name as far as I saw, so there was no tension or emotional connection to the deaths. It did serve to put over how ruthless the villains were, and while I’m usually against this sort of thing in comics I was alright with it here; why these guys are so terrible is the launching point of the series. Having not reading the Titans lead-in, and Mackie used the (fairly gratuitous) deaths as a way to introduce the antagonists as a big deal. If it wasn’t for the cover, the series would have a real ‘anyone could die’ vibe to it.
And about the cover; I like that the team is named, but it undercuts some suspense from the first issue. Two of the cast featured leave just a few pages in, and there’s no reason for me to not believe they’ll be back to save the day next month. And someone got the names wrong as well, switching Thunder and Lightning’s. Looks amateur, but not the most embarrassing thing I’ve seen on a comic cover.
This has to be the first time in a very long time I’ve read something with art from Ian Churchill I’ve enjoyed. It doesn’t look as Michael Turner-inspired as it has in the past, and I generally liked how everyone was depicted. Ridge is a cool monster-man, and I like monsters. And Dr. Fairchild and Fairchild the super-human both look distinct enough you can tell them apart. I’m a little surprised Churchill’s even capable of drawing a normal woman. Ravagers has done a lot to make me reconsider my opinion on him.
I doubt I’ll be grabbing the second issue, but it’s not a bad comic by any means. A lot of action, and it looks to be a team-on-the-run series, which promises a lot more action in the future. And if Churchill can keep up this level of art this book might go somewhere.
FF 18
FF has what I consider to be a ‘bad’ deceptive cover. Deceptive covers in general I enjoy, and they usually over-hype the internal contents to make someone want to read the book. This is true in a way here – it involves a trip to the bug-infested Negative Zone – but the menacing tone of the cover clashes with the very fun story of Johnny Storm teaching that’s inside.
I have to start by saying that I’m just not a fan of Nick Dragotta’s art in this issue. I’ve liked his work in the past (X-Men First Class), but maybe this is ‘flip your five year old opinion on artists’ week. It doesn’t cross-over to making the issue unreadable, but man there’s a lot of ugly kids. That said, the N-Zone bugs are good and the kid Moloids are super-cute. They’re part of the real highlight of the book, asking Johnny about reproduction (which johnny ties back into love). But with a cast as diverse as the students here, several not human, love as an answer just doesn’t work. It’s a fun scene I’m having a hard time thinking of any other comic you’d find it in.
Storywise, Hickman looks to be wrapping things up. There is a very large change back to the status quo of the Negative Zone brought up in the story, and the Kree/Inhuman storyline gets addressed too quickly before Black Bolt and the Inhumans head back to earth (to deal with the Phoenix force, I’d assume). Even future Franklin says something that leads us expecting a soon-coming exit from the title, and probably the current Marvel U.
Art aside I really did enjoy then issue, and the reveal on the last page is enough to make me want to come back for more.