¡Viva Dirk Deppey!
You know, he was wrong about DK2 (God, that comic blew), but one small stain doesn’t wipe out a legacy of some of the finest comics blogging the Islets of Bloggerhans have ever seen. Still: eons ago (way back in February) Dirk Deppey abandoned the Islets for finer pastures, up there in the High Country, where paper-bound dinosaurs graze. —Given the time lag endemic to the nervous systems of those vast, lumbering beasts, it’s only now we’re starting to see the fruits of that devolutionary step. And fine, fine fruit it is: a linked pair of essays writing around Grant Morrison’s recently(ish) concluded Nantucket sleigh ride on Marvel’s X-Men, looking at some of the industry backstory that led up to “NuMarvel” and leafing through the comics that are not so much following in his footsteps as, well, not. He nails the at-once powerful appeal and, yes, limitation of Whedon’s just-commenced run with the same characters:
Wisely sidestepping the futuristic pop-culture snap that Morrison injected into the longrunning mutant soap opera—an act one suspects he probably couldn’t have matched—Whedon instead wanders amiably amongst the collected memories of an army of longtime fans, concentrating on emblems and tropes that have worked for decades and making them shine with the skill of a master children’s novelist.
On the nose. —The problem, of course, is I’m going to hit the bookmark tomorrow morning and there won’t be anything new to read! Curse you, dinosaur!
But viva Deppey, nonetheless.
