From: lf7z@ellis.uchicago.edu (glenn alan carnagey jr)
Subject: Re: Good Week Reviews, 8/30/92: Miracleman 23/Silver Age 1
Reply-To: lf7z@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 17:35:37 GMT

In article <1992Aug30.224833.7507@lokkur.dexter.mi.us> heifetz!lokkur.dexter.mi.us!scs@uunet.UU.NET (Steve Simmons) writes:
>
>Miracleman 23/Silver Age 1
>Writing: Neil Gaiman
>Art: Mark Buckingham
>Painting: D'israeli
>Cover: Barry Windsor-Smith
>Ratings: Writing good, art poor, overall acceptable.
>
>This is one of the most disappointing issues I've seen of Miracleman.
>The art is a particular disappointment.  Buckingham is not up to his
>normal standard (especially noticable because of the nice "Mark
>Buckingham's Sketchbook" section at the end, a fine b&w collection),
>and the coloring is wretched -- D'israeli should turn in his magic
>markers.  If this book had been ground out to make a 30-day deadline
>it might be acceptable, but it's been about six months between issues
>(I notice that First has given up any pretense of it being a regular
>book; one honesty point for them -- but about three years late).
>Even the cover is forgettable.
>
Well, first off, it's been exactly a year between issues, and the
company is Eclipse, not First (from whom it'd be a *really* long
wait).  I really don't understand your beef with the art or the
coloring, it beats the heck out of most of what's out there, but to
each his own.

>The writing (and the story) is decent.  But if MM were coming out
>monthly at this quality, after 6 months I'd stop buying it.
>
Again, I'm confused, you rate the story as "good", here "decent", but
would drop it if it were monthly?  Personally, whether it's fair or
not my expectations are a lot higher after a long wait than for a big
two monthly.  I think it holds  a lot more promise than the Golden
Age, which I didn't like as a whole, though I liked a few issues a
great deal.

>We see the Miraclekids as teenagers, and it's not a pretty sight.
>They're classic adolescents but with superpowers and no guiding
>adults.  This may be what Gaiman is going for with `The Silver Age,' a
>kind of "Lord of the Flies" for supermen.

I think we're going to see MM's empire fall apart at the seams, and a
good deal of conflict, and that MM, YM and possibly Miraclewoman will
be at the center of this.

>Dauntless seems at first a caricature.  But after a while you realize
>that he was made to be one by Gargunza's dreams.  This makes his
>one-dimensional reactions to things more understandable.  Admittedly,
>he is supposed to be in a state of shock.  But that's not what I'm
>referring to.  After meeting the other topdwellers of Mt. Olympus,
>his talk with MM reveals a very shallow personality.  When he
>becomes the mailman and breaks down we see things in a different light.

Your first instinct was correct, not shallow, but rather in shock and
naive, just like MM was for a good deal of Moore's run.  But I expect
Gaiman's take on the same phenomenon to beg quite different, at least
I hope so.

>One problem with the story is inconsistancy.  When Winter was born,
>she appeared to be maturing very quickly -- and in fact, chided her
>father for being so backwards.  Although 19 years of story have gone
>by, Winter has if anything become less mature.  Similarly there is
>no trace of extended intelligence or morality from most of these
>miraclechildren.  They're ordinary adolescents with more powerful
>toys, that's all.
>
This is purposeful on Gaiman's part, and as you yourself said, it's
probably important for the coming storyline.

Pax ex machina,
Glenn
......................................................................
"When children are playing along on the net,
   in comes the playmate you never have met,
 Nobody heard him and nobody saw,
   his is a picture you never could draw."
g-carnagey@uchicago, with apologies to R.L.Stevenson
......................................................................


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