Joe Casey (1) (1970–)

See? This is what happens when you get old. You forget that you read stuff. Apparently, before I quit GR the last time, I read this and reviewed it.

And, in my humble opinion, I was bang on. Here's my review from September of 2021:

Come on Goodreads, there's gotta be a way to rate something with negative stars. Stars that the damn reading material owes me.

Because this steaming pile of pages owes me some hours of my life back.

I don't know who Joe Casey is, but hopefully he's found more show more meaningful work in an all-night variety store, because he can't plot a story worth a shit. And this new take on Deathlok? Yes, he clearly states it's a complete departure from the classic Deathlok, but this thing ain't even worthy of being a C-level supporting character, much less the headliner of it's own book.

We're supposed to believe that Jack Truman, S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent 18, is the best Manhunter they've got. Yet nowhere in the Marvel universe has he ever shown up prior to this, and when he does, he is a drooling maniac that just wants a good fight, and pretty much levels Hell's Kitchen to fight Cable, because, for whatever reason, he seems to think Cable's the ultimate match for him. He completely goes rogue, just like every single other S.H.I.E.L.D. agent under Joe Casey's keyboard. Seriously, does ANYone follow orders in S.H.I.E.L.D.?

Even better, this entire four-issue fight is drawn by some cheap-ass bargain-basement Kirby wannabe called Ladronn. I have two words for Ladronn's art. It sucks.

And then our hero Jack Truman turns into some cheap-ass, bargain-basement version of Deathlok, and suddenly becomes a lot less of a drooling maniac. Visits a sister for an issue, then she's forgotten. Fights a fucking clown.

A. Clown.

At least Ladronn was jettisoned, but then we got Leonardo Manco, who is a knock-off Jim Steranko/Paul Gulacy wannabe, who draws virtually every single male with the same face, and fills each panel with so much line work that it's impossible to determine precisely what is happening.

The Nineties were a dark goddamn time for Marvel.

I spent five entire dollars on this piece of crap, and that's at least ten bucks too much. Steer clear. show less

Come on Goodreads, there's gotta be a way to rate something with negative stars. Stars that the damn reading material owes me.

Because this steaming pile of pages owes me some hours of my life back.

I don't know who Joe Casey is, but hopefully he's found more meaningful work in an all-night variety store, because he can't plot a story worth a shit. And this new take on Deathlok? Yes, he clearly states it's a complete departure from the classic Deathlok, but this thing ain't even worthy of show more being a C-level supporting character, much less the headliner of it's own book.

We're supposed to believe that Jack Truman, S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent 18, is the best Manhunter they've got. Yet nowhere in the Marvel universe has he ever shown up prior to this, and when he does, he is a drooling maniac that just wants a good fight, and pretty much levels Hell's Kitchen to fight Cable, because, for whatever reason, he seems to think Cable's the ultimate match for him. He completely goes rogue, just like every single other S.H.I.E.L.D. agent under Joe Casey's keyboard. Seriously, does ANYone follow orders in S.H.I.E.L.D.?

Even better, this entire four-issue fight is drawn by some cheap-ass bargain-basement Kirby wannabe called Ladronn. I have two words for Ladronn's art. It sucks.

And then our hero Jack Truman turns into some cheap-ass, bargain-basement version of Deathlok, and suddenly becomes a lot less of a drooling maniac. Visits a sister for an issue, then she's forgotten. Fights a fucking clown.

A. Clown.

At least Ladronn was jettisoned, but then we got Leonardo Manco, who is a knock-off Jim Steranko/Paul Gulacy wannabe, who draws virtually every single male with the same face, and fills each panel with so much line work that it's impossible to determine precisely what is happening.

The Nineties were a dark goddamn time for Marvel.

I spent five entire dollars on this piece of crap, and that's at least ten bucks too much. Steer clear. show less

The Super Young Team was one of the more interesting aspects of Final Crisis, a group of Japanese super-teens designed as a contemporary version of Jack Kirby's Forever People, and as a result, Dance was the Final Crisis Aftermath tale that I was looking forward to the most.

Though this came out in 2009, Dance feels like it could sit alongside what Phil Sandifer calls the "New Pop" style of contemporary comics, like Batgirl and Young Avengers. Except that... it's just not as good. There could show more be some interesting ideas about the boldness of youth, what it means to grow up, how to be a superhero in the era of Twitter, but none of that's actually here. Rather, we watch the Super Young Team be manipulated by hackneyed PR managers for five issues when they suddenly get their crap together and save the day. It's not quite as cliche as it sounds-- I did like that Most Excellent Superbat doesn't decide to give up Twitter, but instead invents a replacement for it that joins people brain-to-brain, and I also liked the reveal of the grave threat facing Japan-- but it didn't really have anything to say.

There are glimpses of big ideas in it, but they don't come to fruition. Both Most Excellent Superbat and Shiny Happy Aquazon ultimately turn down heroes from the previous generation to forge their own paths, but there's no sense of why it's important, of what the younger generation gains by rejecting the older generation's identity and forging its own. Or, what about the fact that the supposed deficiencies of this generation come from the previous one: we're just living in the PR-fueled world our parents created. Nothing like this is really grappled with. The book just becomes generic superheroics without anything to say that you haven't seen before, even if it does occasionally want to try.

I feel like there's potential in these characters, so it's a shame this was it for them, as far as I know; the "New 52" reboot restored the original Forever People in an insta-cancelled series by Dan DiDio and Keith Giffen. All five of them seemed like they could be really interesting given the chance, and I also really liked the sense of a history of Japanese superheroics created by Morrison and Casey, with the JLA-esque Big Science Action, who shout delightful things like "Big Science Emergency"! The appearances of ur-hero Ultimon-Alpha, with his stereotypical doomsaying, was one of my favorite parts of the books. Hopefully someone tries something with the Super Young Team again one day; I really like it when DC takes that very American idea of the superhero and filters it through the sensibilities of other cultures.

DC Comics Crises: « Previous in sequence | Next in sequence » show less

This is a gross caricature of an American family. Raging, drugged out, violent father; delinquent, sexpot daughter; animal mutilating, budding psychopath son; and the quite mother who yearns for a wholesome family from leave it to beaver. They are all overdone, and sadly all less horrible than some real families. The books makes white, suburban America the villain. There is plenty of room to criticize middle class culture. It's full of targets for mockery and I'd usually like that. This is show more just off.

The mild mannered mother snaps and begins a murder spree after an encounter with a rapist milkman. It gets weird after that.

The art is a little cartoonish. show less