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Comic Review by:
"Sweet" Dan Sweet |
Writers:
Hannibal-Chuck Dixon
B.A.-Erik Burnham |
Artists:
Hannibal-Hugo Petrus
B.A.-Casey Maloney |
Shipped on:
Hannibal-032410
B.A.-033110 |
Publisher:
IDW Comics |
MSRP:
$3.99 each |
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(15% OFF during it's 1st Week of release only at Alternate Reality!)
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“As much as I’m looking forward to an updated, big-screen “A-Team” revival, I’m
just about out of energy in regards to sitting through two more of these
prefaces.”
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“The A-Team” is a show that appealed to me greatly
as a kid, for no real explicable reason other than the flash and pizzazz it
offered in regard to its characters and action. I didn’t know what the hell I
was seeing, other than Mr. T and company wreck shop in a kick-ass van (which is,
seriously, one of the reasons I actively sought out a minivan when I was old
enough to drive). It wasn’t until years later that I caught the show again,
during a marathon of episodes no less, and really WATCHED the show, and while it
wasn’t nearly as impressive as I remembered it, and nothing ever is, I still had
a fondness for the war criminals-turned-heroes story that they churned out, over
and over, and over, and over.
It seems, as of late, that many renowned writers of comic books have taken to
writing sub-par adaptations of other mediums’ stories. Whether it’s Chuck
Dixon’s take on the A-Team, or David Lapham’s endless video game reproductions,
or even the great Marv Wolfman’s “God of War” (oh yeah, more on that one later),
it seems that names that I’ve always associated with good story telling are
letting me down left and right, by taking on crumby, go-nowhere tales meant to
reintroduce, or acclimate a oft-forgotten property with new fans. Does anyone
need background info on the members of the A-Team? Who was clamoring for the
revelation that B.A. Barracus’s first name is Bosco?! Do we need yet another
prequel to a movie that hasn’t happened yet?
While both books share the same writers, the artists’ styles differ
dramatically. There’re still the photo-referenced illustrations, replacing the
original actors’ faces with those of Liam Neeson, and Quentin ‘Rampage’ Jackson,
which is fine, I’m not that much of a fan to really give a hoot-nanny who’s
playing the Team, I just want to see them blow some $#!t up, and drive the van
off of a ramp through a giant ball of fire.
Hugo Petrus really manages to capture Neeson’s look, although I’d have liked to
see a bit of variety in the emotion he expresses through out, but when I think
back to George Peppard’s portrayal of Hannibal, he was almost always smiling
like a cat that just ate the canary, so maybe it’s more appropriate than I
originally gave it credit for. Casey Maloney, on the other hand, doesn’t work so
hard on capturing the essence of ‘Rampage’, as opposed to that of B.A. Barracus.
His take, to me, was more about the character of B.A., and not the star of the
new film. You could just as easily have illustrated Mr. T’s face on the same
body and the book wouldn’t read any different, and I think that’s the biggest
triumph at all.
The stories are, well, okay, I guess. There’s nothing in either of them that
drastically alters the characters beyond what we already know about them. You
learn a bit about Hannibal’s past as he infiltrates one of Saddam Hussein’s many
estates in order to extract an Iraqi scientist that’s created some sort of
biological agent one-hundred million times as dangerous as Saran Gas (that
figure may be slightly exaggerated). While it isn’t a great tale, it’s not
particularly bad either, it just isn’t note-worthy.
As tolerable as that story was, it only gets worse as I dove into the second
chapter, a bit of background on B.A. It seems that he also served in Desert
Storm (probably because that was the last war we fought in which we actually
came out the victors), but his is a story of betrayal and gang-bangers, can’t
forget the gang-bangers. Sent by a corrupt Captain behind enemy lines in order
to ‘retrieve stolen weapons’, B.A., or Bosco, as Mama Barracus named him,
stumbles upon a group of soldiers shaking down Iraqi bangers for cash by selling
them weapons, then stealing them back. This leads to a dishonorable discharge,
and the set up for Bosco to join the Team.
As much as I’m looking forward to an updated, big-screen “A-Team” revival, I’m
just about out of energy in regards to sitting through two more of these
prefaces. I simply can’t muster the enthusiasm it takes to get hyped by this
stuff. As great as the storytelling in modern comics has proven itself to be, it
irritates me to no end that companies continue to use big-name writers to shill
their wares to fanboy's. I don’t need to read yet another ‘Transformers’ comic
book sequel to the movie sequel to the franchise revival of the reboot (also
available from IDW!), and I don’t need to know where the hell the A-Team comes
from; I just want to see some $#!t blow up.
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All Books/Characters pictured herein are © Copyright 2010 by their respective
owners. No rights given or implied by Alternate Reality, Incorporated.
Reviews © 2010 Alternate Reality, Inc.
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