|
|||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||
|
THINGS TO CLICK
- - - - - - - - ONLINE COMICS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
REVIEW
The Creeper # 5 (of 6)
This issue of the Creeper consists of a combat scene between the Joker and Batman, followed by a brief scene with the Creeper and Batman, and finally a swell fight sequence (7 pages!) between the Creeper and a prison full of escaped maniacs infected by the Dr. Yatz serum. This is all part of the conspiracy to make pamphlet style comics utterly obsolete (if not unreadable) since there is a lot of nothing to explain what has gone on before in the multi-part story. This issue's story takes place on an island in Gotham Bay - - but you won't know that unless you've read the previous issues, nothing here tells you anything about orientation. If you're walking into this tale at issue #5, you can certainly pick up on every re-treaded cliché easily enough, but if you actually want to enjoy the story on the level of reader versus a critic who hates the whole damn superhero genre, then you are not only out of luck, but you'll need something like a Dr. Yatz growth serum injected straight to the brain to lift your confusion (but maybe not your anger at being ripped off by DC Comics, who obviously meant for this series to be a single trade paperback and not anything like a competently edited 22-page comic book.) "There's a little piece of me inside you..." says the Joker, scratching his chin and gazing upon the Creeper restrained on a crucifix shaped gurney (page 9.) Not exactly a revelation, as the writer (Steve Niles) has been leading up to this connection between the Joker and the Creeper for several issues, making it so clear that the only hint that wasn't used to get the point across was a biplane flying over Gotham pulling a sign saying "Attention: Batman: The Creeper and the Joker are both green and yellow: why?!" It is interesting that the Joker whacks Batman in the face with a board, but there isn't any blood, but Joker bleeds profusely after being punched, and then especially when laughing at a sarcastic remark from the tied-up Creeper - the blood shoots from Joker's nose. (The crack really wasn't that funny but then the Joker does take humor rather too seriously). Batman pummels the Joker and is only stopped when Dr. Yatz injects something or other into Batman, rendering him unconscious. With Batman utterly helpless, Joker then kills him... no, wait, Joker walks off with Dr. Yatz to the Joker helicopter, why bother to kill his arch nemesis when he's got the chance? From the fleeing helicopter Dr. Yatz uses a remote device to open all of the cages in the prison, releasing a horde of serum-infected inmates who attack the Creeper (he escaped from his bonds by changing back into Jack Ryder, a smaller fellow that could slip out from beneath the restraints. The relationship between the Creeper and his alter ego Jack Ryder is more like the Bruce Banner/Hulk relationship than anything like the original Steve Ditko Creeper of yore. By the way, why can't fellow Yatz-victim Gavin change back and forth like Jack Ryder/Creeper? Maybe that's being saved for the final issue when Gavin gets even with Yatz?) With the island hideout starting to be overun by the escaped prisoners, Batman is not around to fight because he woke up and promptly ran off after telling the Creeper "There are things we need to discuss..." because the Creeper told him "Yatz said some things that have me worried. You go after the Joker and Yatz. I'll catch up." In this series, Batman often appears briefly, only to then quickly exit, as if he had some terrible ADD affliction that won't allow him to concentrate, or stay put long enough to ask about all the lunacy going on around him. It is curious that Batman let's Creeper order him around, too. This is miles from the arrogant (and then humbled) Batman that Steve Nile's wrote about in his disturbing Gotham County Line 3-part series from 2005.
The one truly human note that Steve Niles has maintained in this revival of the Creeper is the situation of Gavin, the huge teenager turned monster that Dr. Yatz originally experimented upon with his super-growth-or-whatever-serum. Sure, Gavin is an out of control homicidal killer, but he's also a sympathetic victim who has metastasized to an enormous hulk, so big that when artist Steve Scott has to draw him in the same panel as Dr. Yatz, Gavin's legs mysteriously vanish into a fog below him. One good thing about this issue is that Steve Scott's drawing has loosened up some from the previous issues, and Scott's art seems to be the only thing maintaining the quality of the original goofy "creepiness" of the earlier issues in this series, as Steve Niles' script at this point is a catalog of cliché's and only the most minute forwarding of story plot. Since this is the penultimate issue before the final installment to this series, I am hoping Niles is hoarding whatever original/interesting story elements he has for #6, because there is little in #5 that could not have been jammed into the end of issue #4.
My review of Creeper 1 and 2, Creeper 3, Creeper 4, and Creeper 5. Sales on The Creeper as tabulated at the "Beat" blog here:
Links: |
||||||||||
HOSTING AND DESIGN FROM
eeweems.com
