2 out of 5

Yeah, just two issues.  That’s how we roll in this here house of reviews.  So I stumbled across ish 1 in a cheapie bin and, yeah, it was interesting enough to see how the series would develop.  And I don’t doubt that it developed… okay.  Cult following and all.  But I guess the direction it seemed to be taking just wasn’t surprising.  Which was sort of how I felt about The Mask trade I read by the same team – the art’s great, and there’s definitely a satirical edge to things, but not really any new ideas besides the general poke-fun-at-stuff nature of the pitch.  But as we know, art does not make a book, and though I effing love Mahnke’s angular, detailed, over-the-top art style, he also, I think, benefits from panel direction, as the work here lacks a bit of zip, and his current Green Lantern work felt the same… but when he was on JLA, Joe Kelly seemed to either give him broader material or specific layout suggestions, because so many of those pages just felt really dynamic.  But perhaps I just connected with the story more, who knows.

Anyhow, Major Bummer riffs on the hero thing by granting a super slacker super powers.  That’s essentially the idea.  Toss in some aliens and a plot about other wayward superheros and cue some light comedy.  Arcudi obviously has some good ideas, but they feel unevenly wedged onto the page, and scenes don’t transition too well.  MB reminds me of the kind of stuff I was picking up when I first started getting back into comics, when I didn’t realize that just doing something a dash beyond the norm isn’t enough to merit my dollars when there’s plenty of much more effective stuff on the racks that’ll fill up my comic budget for the week in a snap.  Yaaayy