In my previous posts (here and here) I reviewed Issue 1 of Revolution of the Mask, a comic created by Linkara who is well known on the internet for his comic reviews. Basically he just bashes the hell out of comics that were good in their day but horrible in retrospect, or nitpicks everything. There’s a saying that those who can not do, teach. Well then, in Linkara’s case those who can not do and can not teach, review. The sad thing about RotM is that the idea is interesting, but everything else about it falls horribly flat. So let’s dive into Issue 2.
Page 2 and 3
Not much really going on here as the heroes and Gamma (our narrator) are flying through the air. Gamma is of course a little put off by this, considering he is hundreds of feet in the air and the only reason he isn’t falling is because he is in Rorschach’s arms. I’d be a tad paranoid too. He asks them who they are, and after a stupid line (we’re the lawmakers and lawbreakers?!?!?) Eighth Wonder says they are Superheros. We also get the subtitle (apparently) of this issue, Secret Wars. Why the cover doesn’t have this subtitle is beyond me, or why the previous issue didn’t have one either.
Page 4 and 5
So the heroes land in some ruined city, and they get Gamma’s name again. They mention that a Gamma designation working in a network information facility (I’m willing to bet now that we are never informed exactly what a network information facility actually is) is a janitor or a censor. He admits he was a censor and had heard about drug addicts and maniacs he believed they were. Rorschach mentions that Superheroes are masked crime fighters, wearing masks because they value their secret identity.
Page 6 and 7
Gamma is just as confused as the rest of us, and asks what is going on. 8th wonder tells dusk to go bring the newbie up to date. That pretty much sums up page 6, which is horrible because page 7 is even worse. We get to see another female superhero do a bunch of bouncing around pretending to attack something (oh and one panel of a gratuitous crotch shot). She informs another superhero that it’s her own martial art called “Joyous Buttkicking” and that she’s looking for Templar.
I know I don’t want to bash the art too much in this, but the woman doing the bouncing around has the most horrible logo. It’s a JJ, but it doesn’t match all the other ink in the scene. It looks as though someone used photoshop afterwards to put it in, and that it wasn’t originally there. It’s disconcerting to look at and really stands out. Somehow 8th Wonder’s logo is fine, but not the JJ. I don’t get it.
Page 8 and 9
Gamma is brought by Dusk to meet Templar, who is a hero in a suit of armor. He also appears to be the librarian in a rather large library. Despite the large collection of textbooks and rather large looking books, instead Gamma is given comic books to read. Because apparently “The All” banned comic books because they glorified individuality. But that Gamma has never even seen a comic before is odd. It wouldn’t be impossible to create comic books that are simple propaganda for The All. It’s a medium that The All could be using to take advantage of the people. Hell I think there’s Islamist Jihadists who actually use propaganda in comics.
Okay, so everything up to this point I wrote not too long after the original review. The problem is that the comic is so dam boring, there’s almost nothing to mock/parody in it. It’s really not even worth a review. If you were wondering why “Revolution of the Mask pt. 3″ never came out, it’s because it’s an awful comic. There is almost no action and a lot of talking. Oh and Linkara’s idea of foreshadowing is smacking you over the head with a sledgehammer.
So we get a story about how the Superheros came to be, and it’s really dumb. They went into a city to collect resources for The All. They found comics but The All banned them. So they decide to escape back into the city, claim that they were dieing because bio-warfare had been used on the city and that they were going to blow up. A few explosions later and they laid low for a bit, before going back out into the world as Superheros.
Somehow The All never puts 2+2 together and realizes that these terrorists that are De-stabilizing it’s regime are the same people who disappeared into the ruins of the old city. Are there no airplanes or helicopters in this world? Why can’t someone do a flyover and just bomb the city into ruins? Or why hasn’t surveillance captured them flying in the direction of this city? Is The All only worried about the Superheros when they are causing trouble for it?
During all this we also find out what Linkara thinks is a superhero. Basically a good two shoes, because apparently he hates the idea of an Anti-Hero. Or more likely lacks the ability to write an Anti-Hero that doesn’t cross the line. I suspect his idea of an anti-hero is someone who rapes a lot of woman but is still a good guy.
Finally there’s a conversation between wannabe Rorsach and another guy whose name is never mentioned. But it’s already obvious that the guy is going to be the one that betrays the rest of the superheros. Why is it so obvious? Cause he’s the ONLY person critical of “8th Wonder” plan for action now, and pointing out that rescuing 1 person from The All doesn’t exactly win the war for them.
The comic ends with a page dedicated to the HQ of the Aligarchy. In a scene lifted from V For Vendetta there’s also a little girl graffiting “Free For All” on a random wall. Another message that doesn’t make sense, shouldn’t it instead say “Free From All”? Finally it ends with Omega reading quite possibly the worst comic ever, “Abstract Man”.
Even though I only spent 60 something cents on this, I can’t recommend it. The only good parts of the last one were the scenes lifted from other sources. This one rarely has even that saving grace. Go read this story pretty much done better by either 1984 or V For Vendetta. Hell even Brave New World is a better read, and they didn’t lift anything from that. But it wouldn’t surprise me if that was due to Linkara never reading BNW (they haven’t made a comic of it).
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