Day of Vengeance Come and Me Want to go Home

This review may be the toughest yet to write, not because of the comic itself, but because I'm now writing while at the same time experiencing the crippling misery that can only come from moving back to Windsor. Seriously, with every sentence I write I have this urge to just crawl into my bed and die instead.

If my comic-review site teaches you nothing else, here is a very valuable tip to anyone interested in going to the University of Windsor: Shoot yourself in the head. You’ll be one of the lucky ones.

Well, actually, I guess it’s not always so bad. I’m just going through the initial shock of going from Toronto, a town that doesn’t suck too much, to Windsor, a town that sucks very much. For example, it takes some time to get used to the migraine-inducing pollution. My head is currently killing me, though I am quite confident that in a few days the nerves in my brain will die and I will no longer mind the air.

For now, though… fuck where’s the aspirin?

DAY OF VENGEANCE: INFINITE CRISIS SPECIAL

Day of Vengeance was one of the four Countdown mini-series to act as a lead-in to Infinite Crisis. In many ways, it was my favourite series overall (maybe second favourite… Villains United was pretty cool) because it was the only series that, for the most part, didn’t take itself too seriously. I mean, any series starring Detective Chimp has got to be a fun read, right?

Still, the series sort of lost me by issue six, as there really wasn’t an ending. I suppose the idea was that it was supposed to lead into Infinite Crisis, but there wasn’t even a conclusion to the arc or anything, and what’s more, Day of Vengeance is barely even mentioned in Infinite Crisis.

Well, that’s where this issue comes in handy. While it’s been marketed as the continuation of the adventures of the Shadowpact (the protagonists of the DoV miniseries), it really is the conclusion that the miniseries never had.

They really should call this Day of Vengeance #7, as neither this issue nor the 6-issue precursor function much on their own. People who only read the original series will be largely unsatisfied with the conclusion, and people who only read this issue will have no idea what’s going on. So yeah, make sure you’ve read all the preceding issues of DoV.

What this issue offers is pure superhero fun, mixed with a little bit of mysticism. The use of mysticism in comics rarely intrigues me in general (Dr Strange is a Lame-oid!), but it’s the fun part that hooked me. Fun superhero action is really a rare commodity these days, especially in major titles tied to major events, like this one. Heck, even when you think about the context, you’d expect this series to be grim and gritty. I mean, the premise is essentially that the Spectre has started massacring cities and killing millions of people. On top of that, mystical superheroes have to react to an accident in Gotham city that resulted in thousands more deaths. This series could have been approached the same way as all those post-911-why-must-there-be-death-we-will-still-persevere comics that I really don’t like that much. But no! Instead, we have an oddly (yet welcome) light romp as the heroes merrily try to deal with the catastrophes. What fun!

Okay, maybe it wasn’t all tee-hees and giggles (at least one character bites it, and there’s blood), but Willingham certainly did not get lost in the melodrama, a problem too many of the Crisis tie-ins are facing. There are even some pretty funny moments. Getting to see Detective Chimp take on Rex the Wonder Dog was a rare treat, as well as the totally unnecessary yet totally awesome splash page, complete with index, on pages 10-11. These types of pinuppy splash pages, where dozens of characters happen to be posing at the same time, don’t make a lot of sense, yet they still are neat to look at. What helps is the fact that artist Justiniano is one talented cookie. His art reminds me of a cross between Rags Morales (Identity Crisis) and Mike Mignola (Hellboy), two artists whom I enjoy immensely, though for completely different aspects.

Apparently DC is fond enough of the Shadowpact to give them their own spin-off series, according to the editors at the end of the issue. Either that, or DC thinks that Shadowpact has sufficient marketability. Mmm, I dunno. None of these characters have done much outside of the DoV series, at least not recently. I have a feeling the series will be pretty good, and maybe even start off with high sales, but will be cancelled before issue 20. I’m pretty sure I’ll buy it, though. I mean, Detective Chimp!

8 out of 10

Ah crap. I'm still in Windsor.