Saturday, December 08, 2007

Howard the Duck - Breaking the Fourth Wall?

No, brilliantly, on page 7, two AIM agents are WASHING the fourth wall. Inspired post-deconstructionist wimsy courtesy of Templeton and Bobilla.

Sadly, this is the dreaded "plot" issue, and Templeton squeezes a lot of stuff into the issue. It moves so damn fast that we barely take note of She Hulk's pink panties late in the issue. (Nice to see the Jennifer picks a color that compliments her skin tone. Can we thank the colorist for that one?)

In many ways, I'm rather glad to get the plot out of the way. We all know that Howard works best in set pieces, pretty similar to the Marx Brothers, so move the characters from point A to Point B as fast as possible and lets get to the funny stuff. Works for me.

Some good social commentary on this one, with Jennifer Walters trying to actually be a lawyer with a judge who would have been well at home at any of the celebrity trials of the last couple years. Beverly, who is sorely underused in this issue, gets some time on the Larry King show, and Howard finally gets to see MODOT, the player behind this rogue group of AIM scientists. I'd say that we're setting up for a rousing finale with a lot of explosions in the final issue when it all goes to hell.

This is a fun series, and I can't recommend it enough as an antidote to the over the top brutality of the Annihilation:Conquest series. and I like Annihilation:Conquest. just, man, you gotta have something to laugh at as well. As Alan Weiss used to say to me, "its all comical books, you know!"

Just posted: an interview the Templeton here. Go read it yourself! Waaugh!

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