Veronica #170 Review
This is a strong Dan Parent cover and the concept (Veronica imagining she is Cleopatra) is a good one, but sadly, the concept really does not go anywhere.
Parent, as usual, provides excellent art (embellished here by inker Jim Amash), but the story just doesn't even really attempt to transcend the basic plot - Veronica imagines she's Cleopatra. I am not expecting some brilliant story, but I do expect more than what Parent gave us. He basically hit all the standard plot points, even Archius (after Julius Caesar), but the clever moments are few and far between. The one good joke is when Veronica invents the credit card during ancient Egypt, and she describes it in a way that people of the time could understand! Quite clever.
But the rest of the story is basically connect-the-obvious-dots. Except for the ending, with an Ancient Egypt dancing contest, which COULD have been fun, I guess, but instead just comes off tired. And the "twist" at the end? Not good.
The second story, still ably drawn by Parent and Amash, is writen by Mike Pellowski, and it is a slight step up, as Veronica examines a minor league baseball franchise that her father has just purchased. The whole story shows us how Veronica and her father view baseball very, very differently, but at the end, Veronica finds something she enjoys about baseball very much. It's a slight story, but still charming enough, and enough clever writing for it to stand out.
The LAST story, though, also by Pellowski, with art by Parent and Amash, I was NOT a fan of, as I STILL don't know the joke! It has to do with detention. Five cool points to the person who can read this story and explain to me the joke, so long as the joke isn't "We're supposed to think that ARCHIE is the one with detention, but really, it's Veronica!" Because if THAT's the punchline, then the story made NO sense, as there was nothing presented in the story that made it seem like Archie, and not Veronica, was going to detention. In fact, it appeared as though Veronica WAS making references about detention all throughout the story.
So...am I missing some hilarious story that just went right over my head?
It's a possibility!
As for Veronica #170, sadly, I would have to not recommend. Not one of Dan Parent's better projects. That's the second Parent project I knocked. Trust me, though, folks, he IS a talented comic book creeator! Honest to goodness!
posted by Brian Cronin at 5/10/2003 11:54:00 PM
3 Comments:
I know this doesn't really have much to do with what's going on in the Archie books these days, but I just posted a really cool Betty & Veronica page that in my opinion shows the pizzazz that the Archie books used to have but have been saddly lacking for at least a decade.
Take a look
My biggest problem with how the current Archie books look, and I'm just certain that the folks at Archie are just dying to know what a 44 year old male comic geek thinks they need to do to improve their books, is that they have moved away from the more traditional ways these characters look and act and instead have mellowed their personalities and art wise, rounded the characters designs, rendering them somehwat "softer" to look at.
I mean look at the page I posted and forget the really cool pagelayout and just look at the expression on Veronica's face.
That's a look you just don't see anymore.
Like I said, Archie is probably not falling all over themselves, worrying about what I like. But still I think those 60's Archie books really stand the test of time and I don't think you will ever be able to say that about these current books.
- rick
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