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A review by lunchlander
MySpace Dark Horse Presents, Volume 2 by Gabriel Bá, Kyle Hotz, Steve Niles, Gerard Way, Jon Adams, Guy Davis, John Arcudi
2.0
The first volume of MySpace Dark Horse Presents was pretty impressive, but this second volume is more miss than hit. It's bookended by a fairly obnoxious intro by Portland gossip columnist Ann Romano, which is either an inside joke I don't get or someone smugly looking down their nose at the very people who just bought the book she's intro-ing, and a closing essay in which Gerard Way, Evan Dorkin and Zack Whedon talk about superhero comics in a dismissive, somewhat uninformed manner.
Wrapped inside this cookie coating of holier-than-thou snobbery are a fair number of mediocre stories. The art is always impressive, but the stories often seem too short, pointless or just never fail to engage.
There are some notable exceptions. Whedon and Canete's Captain Hammer bit is a fun bit of fluff for those who dug Dr. Horrible. The BPRD, Wondermark and Umbrella Academy tales are as excellent as their source material. The Gabriel Ba/Fabio Moon bit is funny and beautifully drawn. And there are two original standouts, Ilias Kyriazis' "Jared" (a clever, funny riff on the aliens in human bodysuit genre, see also the terrible Eddie Murphy movie Meet Dave for an example of how not to do it) and Francisco Ruiz Velasco's "Legion of Blood: The Messenger," which I hope leads to more of Velasco working on this world in the future.
But a few great stories, even at that level, can't save the book from the "meh"-ness that fills the rest of it. A disappointment after the strength of volume one, although still just barely enough in the good department to rate a place on my bookshelf.
Wrapped inside this cookie coating of holier-than-thou snobbery are a fair number of mediocre stories. The art is always impressive, but the stories often seem too short, pointless or just never fail to engage.
There are some notable exceptions. Whedon and Canete's Captain Hammer bit is a fun bit of fluff for those who dug Dr. Horrible. The BPRD, Wondermark and Umbrella Academy tales are as excellent as their source material. The Gabriel Ba/Fabio Moon bit is funny and beautifully drawn. And there are two original standouts, Ilias Kyriazis' "Jared" (a clever, funny riff on the aliens in human bodysuit genre, see also the terrible Eddie Murphy movie Meet Dave for an example of how not to do it) and Francisco Ruiz Velasco's "Legion of Blood: The Messenger," which I hope leads to more of Velasco working on this world in the future.
But a few great stories, even at that level, can't save the book from the "meh"-ness that fills the rest of it. A disappointment after the strength of volume one, although still just barely enough in the good department to rate a place on my bookshelf.