The Comic Book Club: Xombi and Fear Itself: Book of the Skull

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This is what happens when Techland goes to the comic book store: we end up discussing what we picked up. This week, Evan Narcisse, Graeme McMillan and Douglas Wolk talk about Xombi #1 and the Fear Itself: Book of the Skull one-shot.

DOUGLAS: The first rule of superhero comics is: Everything always comes back. No, seriously, everything. Always. Without exception. Xombi was my favorite of the original Milestone line, in the mid-’90s: a kind of supernatural techno-thriller with a wicked sense of humor and a protagonist who was basically a superhero but had no interest in any of that costume/codename stuff. Since the original series ended with issue #21, writer John Rozum has popped up in a lot of unlikely places–I believe he was the main writer on Scooby-Doo‘s comic book for a couple of years–and the character’s appeared maybe twice. I’d have put Xombi‘s chances of getting revived as a series somewhere between, I don’t know, Gross Point and Jemm, Son of Saturn.

(More on TIME.com: The Comic Book Club: Night Animals and Batman Inc.)

So it’s a real surprise that Xombi has ended up being the first Milestone series to be revived as an ongoing DC Universe title (I don’t think Static Shock counts), more of a surprise that Rozum’s writing it, and an outright shock that it’s being drawn by Frazer Irving–one of the most interesting, distinctive artists working in mainstream comics right now (his three-issue run on Batman & Robin last year was extraordinary). It’s also strange that DC’s been doing relatively little to promote it; its presentation seems weirdly tossed-off, and the fact that Irving’s first name is misspelled on the front cover doesn’t help. (On the other hand, there was also a glaring typo on the cover of the Return of Bruce Wayne hardcover. Maybe DC just needs a cover copy editor.)

According to this interview with Rozum, the new launch issue actually takes place shortly before the end of the original series–hence the reference to our protagonist David Kim having become a “xombi” about two months ago. But I like pretending that the previous series never actually appeared: Rozum simply throws us into Kim’s life with a couple of lines of expository dialogue, and off we go to the world of super-powered nuns. Which: yes. This is a series with super-powered nuns in it: an all-seeing one called Nun of the Above and a shrinking one called Nun the Less. (Plus another one who says her identity is “none of your business.” Nice.) And attacking snow angels composed of negative space. That kind of thing.

As with almost everything Irving draws, though, this is ultimately his show. Irving’s worked up his “one dominant color per scene” style on the last few projects he’s done, and here it works beautifully. So do his little details (the mouths on the screaming coins in the opening scene), and his sense of lighting (the glow around Catholic Girl!), and his dramatic staging of a story that really doesn’t involve all that much in the way of conventional spectacle. Absolutely gorgeous.

EVAN: So, when Milestone Media launched their comic line, I enthused about it to friends of every color and creed. More than once, I heard, “Well, of course, you like them. You’re black and they’re for you.” Then, I handed them Xombi. And people came to see the light: Milestone rocked because the comics were good before they were anything else.

(More on TIME.com: The End of an Era? Memories of Milestone Comics)

To be honest, I don’t remember much of the original Xombi run. Bits and pieces–that perfectly horrific origin, Catholic Girl and Nun of the Above, Manuel Dexterity–remain crystal clear but, by and large, I can’t quote it chapter and verse. So, it’s a joy to rediscover John Rozum’s particular brand of weird. You can point to the high chieftains of the British School of Weird (Morrison, Gaiman, Eliis and, of course, Moore) and see similarities. But there’s always been a particular American-ness to Rozum’s ideas. They’re not strongly derived from Lovecraftian legacy, but feel more like repurposed, remixed folklore. So you get papier-mache puppet demons, talking coins and yes, those awesome super-powered nuns. It’s everyday weirdness, not arch or stiff but still dangerous.

Rozum’s one of those talents who always strikes me of deserving wider acclaim. I’d throw him in there with Tom Peyer, Stuart Moore and Tony Bedard, guys who’ve executed short, brilliant runs on comics that became cult favorites. (Man, that Peyer/Morales Hourman was a thing of beauty.) Despite the lack of promotion that you’ve noted, Douglas, I really hope buzz builds around Xombi. And here’s hoping that we get trades of the original Xombi run and Rozum’s excellent Midnight, Mass miniseries. A guy can dream, right?

GRAEME: There’s a lot of Morrison here, specifically his Doom Patrol – those first three pages could have come from one of his DP issues, if only they’d had such beautiful art. But I agree that there’s also a sense of Americanness, for want of a better way of putting it, in Rozum’s writing. In all the things he’s written – Scooby-Doo, X-Files comics, the wonderful Vertigo series Midnight, Mass – there’s been a connective thread of the “other,” but Xombi has always been the place where I think it’s been handled with the most imagination and wonder, if only because (Kim aside) no one really treats it with any wonder within the story. There’s a matter-of-factness that really works here, which I love. Tonally, it’s surprising how well this fits in with the original series, which I’ll admit to loving when it came out – I remember Milestone sending me a copy because I’d had a letter published in Books of Magic, and they were like “You might like this,” and being flattered and surprised by how much I loved it – with only a little flutter for first issue nerves. (Am I the only one who thinks it feels a little rushed?) It may be too esoteric for a mainstream audience, but I’ll enjoy every issue before it gets canceled.

(And, for the record: I agree with everything Douglas says about the art. Irving is a spectacular talent, and this seems like a book where his style fits perfectly. I hope he stays around for the duration.)

DOUGLAS: For the first comic book that’s actually branded with a Fear Itself logo, Book of the Skull is a strangely tepid issue–and it’s left me with relatively little sense of what Marvel’s big 2011 spring/summer event Fear Itself is actually about. There’s some kind of… Thule weapon… a little like Thor’s hammer… but it… and except.. uh, Sub-Mariner, a book bound in the skin of Atlanteans… and, like, Captain America and Bucky… and a big monster that talks in an alien typeface when it’s not saying things like “KAAHRAHH!”… and what, again? Somehow, this issue managed to make me wish an insane skull-faced Nazi with cleavage came off as more of a well-rounded character. (Odd that it’s Ed Brubaker rather than Matt Fraction writing the prologue, since Fraction’s writing the Fear Itself miniseries but I guess Captain America is officially his territory.)

GRAEME: Apparently Fear Itself was conceived as a Cap/Thor-centric event to tie in with this summer’s Marvel movies, but as it got further and further down the planning road, the Cap stuff got shoved more and more into the distance until it became its own little prologue book, with Fraction handling the rest of the plot and Cap characters in the main series.

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DOUGLAS: Tom Brevoort pointed out on Twitter a couple of days ago that this issue, as published, doesn’t identify Captain America by name. That’s not much of a faux pas–it’s hard to imagine anyone who’d pick it up who wouldn’t recognize Captain America–but it points to a bigger problem with this issue: that it assumes its readers will have all kinds of knowledge of its characters, their motivations, and the situation this is leading up to.

GRAEME: This isn’t the first time this has happened. Last year’s Siege made very little sense unless you already knew about Norman Osborn/”Dark Reign” as an event/the current Thor status quo. The way Marvel approaches event comics is very insular, which may be a good idea, businesswise – It rewards the longterm fans for their attention, and also boosts the backlist by promoting the idea of “You don’t know the full story until you’ve read ALL OF THESE BOOKS.”

DOUGLAS: I don’t know: I read more Marvel comics than most people I know who read Marvel comics, and I still wasn’t clear even on what some of the things telegraphed as the big plot beats and emotional moments of this issue were supposed to be. Book of the Skull actually reminded me, in a lot of ways, of that issue of Justice League of America that nominally led into Final Crisis but didn’t actually do anything except bring a couple of long-missing characters back into play.

EVAN: This issue had one job, and one job only: get me excited for an event that I’m only mildly intrigued by.

It didn’t do that job.

This issue felt like a weird bit of plot lying on the fringe of the current Marvel Universe, not a good thing for a lead-in to the Fear Itself event. I’m not up on recent Captain America continuity, but Zemo’s colloquialisms read oddly. And the issue lacked the punch that Brubaker’s Cap has in general had for me. The old Skull didn’t quite have that sadistic, unhinged quality that Brubaker brought to him and, like Douglas said, everything else going on in the issue was too muddy for me to really get excited about. Motivations were rote all around and overall, the work here felt procedural. And, man, I seem to remember much better art coming out of Scot Eaton. I would saw that the inks and colors tamp down his pencils, but there’s too much blocky composition here for me to give him the benefit of the doubt. The figures, layouts and camera angles all feel pedestrian and middle-of-the-road. Part of me wonders if this was one of those prequels that was actually tacked on after the main plotting was done, resulting in a rush job.

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So where this issue leaves me is even more cold on Fear Itself. Don’t get me wrong: Fraction and Immomen are monster talents and I’d gravitate to whatever they do separately, much less together. But what I know of the story has failed to hook me. I know it’s all about generational conflict and psychological baggage, but I wanted a sense of how that’d play out in specifics. Book of the Skull didn’t give me that.

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