Comically Challenged: Batman/Doc Savage Special

“Tommy guns & jet planes, dirigibles & Ferraris, computers & walkie-talkies. Art deco skyscrapers overlook shantytowns.  Men are bruised, and women are painted-and doing a lot of the bruising.  Cities are urban jungles-and there are also uncharted mysterious countries with their own jungles as well.  It’s a world where you’re guilty before being proven innocent-something that rarely happens.  Little people make big mistakes and suffer the consequences.  Life is cheap, and everyone has their price.  Where part of the thrill of being rich is watching the poor suffer.  My kind of town.”-Brian Azzarello

That’s just plain sexy.  What can I say?  I’ve always been drawn to that classic film noir style of storytelling.  You know, some broke private eye just sitting around in his office contemplating life over a drink and then some shapely femme fatale walks in pleeding for his help.  The structure is pretty cliché, but it’s so unlike my day-to-day life that I love it.  What did I get today but a book that falls into line with this genre.  Brian Azzarello and Phil Noto’s one shot Batman/Doc Savage Special.

This quick read is basically a preliminary taste of what’s to come.  The new project, entitled “The First Wave”, will introduce a new universe.  One where there are no super-powers just plain old boring people.  Know what isn’t boring? When writers cannot fall back on the extraordinary, they are left to come up stories that are actually far more imaginative than if they were to blame events on the same old thing…let’s say, the time space-continuum for example.

But, wait, Auburn: what about the Noir series from Marvel?  You’ve read those, right?  Yeah, I have.  My biggest problem with the Marvel Noirs is that they focus too much on being clever with rewriting characters and fitting the super-powered “round peg” into the film noir “square hole” that the storylines suffer.  Do not sacrifice substance for the sake of being creative.  As of now, Azzarello has not.

Here’s the new deal:  Bruce Wayne is just starting out at this whole crime-fighting thing.  It’s during that beginning stage when some people are calling him a criminal and some see him as a hero.  Well, let’s be honest, that stage never really goes away in Batman.  At any rate, he’s just getting started.  Now, I’ve never read any Doc Savage.  I’ve heard the novels were really good…chances are I will be more likely to read the ones with word balloons.  He’s just this really buff, really tan guy that goes around solving crimes but he does it with celebrity status.  Savage comes to Gotham since Batman is suspect #1 in a murder.  Once they realize they’re on the same team, life lessons are learned.  Or something. It’s just the preliminary book but so far, sounds like a pretty good time, right?  Soon, we will have The Avenger with Justice, Inc. (terrible name-by the way), The Spirit, Black Canary (sans the Cry), Rima The Jungle Girl and The Blackhawks joining the plot.

This week’s one shot was enough to pique my interest.  Azzarello definitely gets gritty dialogue, whether it is insightful and internal or a conversation with very dry humor.  I like the dynamic between the man that’s just trying to save a city vs. the man that’s more globally focused.  It’s like what Batman and Superman COULD have been if they weren’t holding meetings in a satellite in space or using Brother Eye.  Although the structure of this new universe has a 1940s style to it, it is in fact set in a more modern setting.  That in itself, was pretty hard for me to get used to.   Oh well, suck it up and read on I guess.

Before I get too much into the art, let me just say that the cover by J.G. Jones is absolutely stunning.  It gives you the sense of the pulp comics of old when the cover sort of dealt with the story inside but was obviously sexed up a bit to make it more impressive.  If there were the hourglass figure of a woman, the spread would cover all grounds.  We have the shadowed and mysterious Batman, a very angry Doc Savage whose shirt has been torn to bits (for reasons we don’t know), a city skyline and bats.  A lot of bats.  Okay, that’s done.

Let’s talk about Phil Noto. I get the simple layout; you wouldn’t want to get too fancy because it takes away from the writing.  I like the movement in the action scenes and the differences in color and light throughout the book.  The art within the panels is very pretty.  Pretty.  NOT WHAT A GRITTY TALE SHOULD LOOK LIKE!  By itself, it would be fine but it just doesn’t fit the story.  His men are soft.  Why, Sir?  I’ve seen your Jonah Hex!  Ain’t nothing about that guy that’s pretty.  Why does Doc Savage have the same skin texture as Bruce Wayne?  Why does Bruce Wayne look just like the woman he’s standing next to?  I need Bogart, Sir, and you’ve handed me early Cary Grant.  I am not pleased.

If Noto would roughen up the art a little bit, I’d be singing this book’s praises right and left.  It’ll be interesting to see what’s to come from First Wave but until my bruised men stop looking like painted ladies, I’m not completely sold on it.