Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The Huntress #3 (February, 2012)



Moretti's yacht docked at Torre Annunziata, and was met by a squad of polizia cars squarely in the gangster's pocket. Huntress looked on. "They're protecting Naples' biggest mobster? This country is totally corrupt." Huntress beat up on some cops with more silly trick crossbow bolts, so that she could sneak aboard the boat to eavesdrop. Shame she didn't have a parabolic device handy, instead of the weaponized Nerf products. This led to Huntress calling her exposition device reporter acquaintance, who connected comments about "the Chairman" to Hassan, an oil sheik from Kufra. All those trafficked girls were another national export of the Magreb [sic] breakaway state. Hassan and his sons were negotiating asylum as their country was being overtaken by the Arab Spring.

In a cute if forced moment, Helena stared down a pair of dogs. "Never was much of a dog person. More of a cat person."

At the ancient ruins of a gladiator arena more valuable than the lives of anyone present, Huntress defaced the historic architecture as a distraction while breaking up a clandestine meeting between young Ibn Hassan and local authorities. Huntress beat up some more stooges, shooting a plain arrow through one guy's arm. Huntress was seized from behind by a large bodyguard wearing a ghutrah, who called himself "the Lion of Kufra." The guy was strong, but a nerve pinch finally took him out.

In an interlude during that match, Ibn Hassan escaped to Moretti's yacht. Meanwhile, the senior Hassan was back in Kufra, screwing dissidents' daughters while working out the final details of screwing his country before screwing off to Italy. Just so everyone knows he's the baddest bad guy...

"Crossbow at the Crossroads: Part Three" was by Paul Levitz, Marcus To and John Dell. It wasn't the exact same plot as #1 like #2 was, but was still very much like whole chunks of the video market for action movies in the heyday of VHS. Huntress fought someone with a bit of sand from a land of sand, but he was nothing special. This mini could be retro cool if it were sexy or funny or amusingly bad-- anything but strictly perfunctory. The art is consistent, though I'm not as high on it, probably because I'm so disdainful toward the dull, thin story being depicted as endlessly spinning wheels.

New 52's Day

2 comments:

karl said...

So far, this mini-series has dissapointed me. The Huntress has done little but shoot crossbow bolts at villains without any approcahable effect...whats she done so far? Each issue seems ot be repeating the other. Paul Levitz said she reminded him of Modesty Blaise yet that hreoine moved their story onwards. The last issue had Huntress fighting some no-neck thug amongst some ruins...why? And it went on far too long, and just as he had the upper hand she suddenly won; very odd. I also find her two little helpers all too eager to help her out..again, why, theyr not known for exactly helping vigilanties over there.
I was really looking forward to this book but its same old same old for me each ish. I just hope the upcoming Worlds Finest with Helena and Power Girl provides more scope and readability factor. And youre so so so so right about the fight scenes being straight from an 80s VHS film; I was watching some old VHS Cynthia Rothrock [who remembers her?!?] movie several weeks back and this comic took me right back there; I mean, Im half expecting Jan-Michael Vincent to turn up in a gym any minute!

Diabolu Frank said...

karl, you're right. Huntress listens to the mobsters' plans, hits a few thugs, listens to the politicians' plans, hits a few goons, repeat ad nauseum. That's pretty passive for a super-hero, and not at all dramatic. I also hate the old nerve pinch gag-- a total cop-out. Not to be bloodthirsty, but shatter a nose or a kneecap or something. Style counts.

I thought this would be a New 52 highlight for me, but Levitz has embraced every exasperating cliche of decompressed storytelling. In three issues, I think there's maybe been as much plot as in one of his '70s back-ups. It's also funny that you mentioned Jan-Michael Vincent, because I just finished writing an unpublished piece for another blog referencing one of his movies. Huntress must really take us into an Eric Roberts frame of mind! It kills me to not be excited about a Huntress/Perez/Power Girl/Maguire series, because Levitz is just that tired, and liable to stick when other creators depart...