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daibhidcOkay. If there's one thing I think people reading this know, it's that I'm not one to criticise media too harshly, and certainly don't usually tear things apart. "Didn't quite work for me", "Wasn't too keen on that aspect of it, so I'll focus on what I did like", "Not sure I'm the target audoence", those are generally my harshest critiques. Occasionally I'll be so flabbergasted by a "bad" aspect of a work ("Borough of Staffordshire"?) that I'll focus on it, but I'll still add that I basically enjoyed it if I did, or - if I didn't - that I might have if I hadn't been so distracted by the problem. That's how I roll.
DC Comics Presents Challengers of the Unknown is a horrible, horrible comic. It is a godawful mess on multiple levels.
The big concept is to reinvent the Challs for the New 52, with a cast including the original Challs and the 90s "DC Weirdoverse" team that I have fond memories of. The set up is that they're all contestants/crew on an I'm A Celebrity type show called Challengers. I rolled my eyes slightly at another "superhero reality show" story, but basically I was okay with this; the Challs originally met on their way to a radio interview show, after all. My problem is the plot and the characters.
The plot is a nonsensical mess in which Dan Didio seems to think that random things happening, and then unhappening, create a sense of unease and displacement, rather than leading the reader to think "If nothing follows from anything else, what's the point?" The characters ... oh good grief, the characters. If the high concept is uniting the two teams, it would be nice if anything about them other than their names and -- in some cases -- basic appearances was retained. Otherwise it's just a bunch of new people who happen to have names the reader confusingly associates with other characters.
The original Challs were brilliant scientist Prof Haley, hotshot pilot Ace Morgan, daredevil Red Ryan, tough guy Rocky Davis, and Token Girl June Robbins. Prof seems to be largely unchanged, except it's hard to tell because he only has one line. Ace is still a pilot, but becomes an undead monster, Red is a musician, June is the show's producer and in a relationship with Ace, and Rocky is an eccentric archeologist, who is responsible for the show's premise. Which might be more meaningful if we were ever given a clear idea of the show's premise, and how it relates to the crash and subequent random events.
You will note that, apart from calling Rocky "eccentric", I haven't mentioned any personality traits, even the very broad ones Kirby gave them. That's because I didn't notice any.
The 90s Challs were cutting-edge physicist Brenda Ruskin, mystical game designer Kenn Kawa, steady pilot Marlon Corbet, and hard-headed race-car driver Clay Brody. Kenn is now a famous video-blogger (which I guess keeps the computer aspect), Marlon (assuming he's the character referred to only as "Maverick") is still a pilot and gets about two lines, and Clay is the show's host, and I'm not sure he even gets that. Again, not much in the way of characterisation, except that Kenn's a bit of a jerk.
And Brenda ... Brenda was the point where I nearly tore the book in half. Obviously we can't have a brilliant female physicist as a main character in the New 52; that might appeal to girls and then the book would get cooties all over it. So Didio's Brenda is a bimbo whose claim to fame is that she slept with Ollie Queen. I honestly think that giving her the original Brenda's glasses and scarf on the cover constitutes false advertising.
I haven't had this level of loathing for a comic since Identity Crisis. I'd give it to charity, but that would mean inflicting it on someone else.
DC Comics Presents Challengers of the Unknown is a horrible, horrible comic. It is a godawful mess on multiple levels.
The big concept is to reinvent the Challs for the New 52, with a cast including the original Challs and the 90s "DC Weirdoverse" team that I have fond memories of. The set up is that they're all contestants/crew on an I'm A Celebrity type show called Challengers. I rolled my eyes slightly at another "superhero reality show" story, but basically I was okay with this; the Challs originally met on their way to a radio interview show, after all. My problem is the plot and the characters.
The plot is a nonsensical mess in which Dan Didio seems to think that random things happening, and then unhappening, create a sense of unease and displacement, rather than leading the reader to think "If nothing follows from anything else, what's the point?" The characters ... oh good grief, the characters. If the high concept is uniting the two teams, it would be nice if anything about them other than their names and -- in some cases -- basic appearances was retained. Otherwise it's just a bunch of new people who happen to have names the reader confusingly associates with other characters.
The original Challs were brilliant scientist Prof Haley, hotshot pilot Ace Morgan, daredevil Red Ryan, tough guy Rocky Davis, and Token Girl June Robbins. Prof seems to be largely unchanged, except it's hard to tell because he only has one line. Ace is still a pilot, but becomes an undead monster, Red is a musician, June is the show's producer and in a relationship with Ace, and Rocky is an eccentric archeologist, who is responsible for the show's premise. Which might be more meaningful if we were ever given a clear idea of the show's premise, and how it relates to the crash and subequent random events.
You will note that, apart from calling Rocky "eccentric", I haven't mentioned any personality traits, even the very broad ones Kirby gave them. That's because I didn't notice any.
The 90s Challs were cutting-edge physicist Brenda Ruskin, mystical game designer Kenn Kawa, steady pilot Marlon Corbet, and hard-headed race-car driver Clay Brody. Kenn is now a famous video-blogger (which I guess keeps the computer aspect), Marlon (assuming he's the character referred to only as "Maverick") is still a pilot and gets about two lines, and Clay is the show's host, and I'm not sure he even gets that. Again, not much in the way of characterisation, except that Kenn's a bit of a jerk.
And Brenda ... Brenda was the point where I nearly tore the book in half. Obviously we can't have a brilliant female physicist as a main character in the New 52; that might appeal to girls and then the book would get cooties all over it. So Didio's Brenda is a bimbo whose claim to fame is that she slept with Ollie Queen. I honestly think that giving her the original Brenda's glasses and scarf on the cover constitutes false advertising.
I haven't had this level of loathing for a comic since Identity Crisis. I'd give it to charity, but that would mean inflicting it on someone else.
