Archive for Brother Voodoo

Strange Days

StrangeTales2

Strange Tales #2

Marvel’s alternate comics bonanza continues with Tony Millionaire’s epic battle of Iron Man vs. Baloney Head, Liver-wurst Face, and a giant holographic image of Dwight D. Eisenhower; R. Kikuo Johnson’s tale of the Puppet Master’s attempts to use a hypnotized seeing-eye dog to get his daughter Alicia Masters a job; Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca’s look at Brother Voodoo as a blaxploitation hero; Jhonen Vasquez’s warning about the dangers of being a M.O.D.O.K. fanboy; Jacob Chabot’s freakin’ awesome tribute to Ben Grimm and facial hair; and the continuing saga of Peter Bagge’s “The Incorrigible Hulk.”

Verdict: Thumbs up. Really wonderfully madcap stuff. The standout stories are definitely the ones by Tony Millionaire, R. Kikuo Johnson (Alicia Masters’ inability to decorate a cake has never been funnier, nor have four background panels of a hypnotized dog’s fierce dedication to peeing on the Thing been more alarmingly awesome), Jhonen Vasquez, and Jacob Chabot, whose story about Ben Grimm’s chia-pet facial hair is the type of thing they build legends on. Go get this comic, and don’t delay.

DoctorVoodoo1

Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural #1

Jeremiah Drumm, the former Brother Voodoo, is the new Sorcerer Supreme, so he’s now known as Doctor Voodoo. He ventures to Dormammu’s dark dimension to imprison the magic-wielding conqueror. After escaping, he talks about his strategy for taming the supernatural world with Dr. Strange, tries to attend to patients at his clinic in New Orleans, battles an evil loa, and gets completely spanked by Dr. Doom.

Verdict: Thumbs down. There’s so much to dislike here. Voodoo’s defeat of the monstrously powerful Dormammu is too quick and too easy. Strange is depicted a decrepit worrywort — and the bizarre handlebar mustache he’s saddled with may be this comic’s biggest crime. Drumm at least loses the ridiculous pidgin accent that Brian Bendis stuck him with, but we don’t end up learning much of interest about him in the first issue. The only person who comes off well here is Doom, whose masterful and nearly effortless takedown of Voodoo makes it look really, really likely that Drumm wasn’t the right guy for the job. This is not the way you introduce a first issue.

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Oh Brudder, Where Art Thou?

Via Snell and Kevin Church and Benjamin Birdie: Okay, lemme set this up. The most recent issue of Brian Michael Bendis’ “New Avengers” comic reveals that Dr. Strange is no longer the Sorcerer Supreme — he’s been delving too much into black magic, and he’s fallen from his mystical perch. As the Avengers, Strange, and a bunch of supervillains try to track down Strange’s magical accoutrements, including the Eye of Agamotto, we discover that the new Sorcerer Supreme is very likely going to be Jericho Drum, a.k.a. Brother Voodoo.

Very cool, sez I — nice to see a little shakeup on the mystical front, and Brother Voodoo has been a fairly cool character who has mostly been neglected since he was created in the ’70s.

Brother Voodoo’s debut as the Sorcerer Supreme looks like this:

Oh, wow.

The guy was educated in the U.S., and spent quite a few years stateside working as a psychiatrist, fer gosh sakes. He’s been running around the superhero community for who knows how long. He’s the brand-spankin’-new Sorcerer Freakin’ Supreme, and Bendis sticks him with insulting and possibly racist pidgin dialogue.

Coming up next month in Marvel’s numerous Bendis-written comics, Cecilia Reyes will show up wearing a sombrero and taking a siesta under a cactus, Hulkling will develop a lisp, and Amadeus Cho will get coke-bottle glasses and gigantic buck teeth. Why Bendis has been doing such a good job with Luke Cage, I dunno, but maybe he’s gonna start back up with the “Sweet Christmas” stuff again…

Come on, Marvel, enroll Bendis in a sensitivity class before it’s too late…

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