FLASHPOINT THE CANTERBURY CRICKET #1
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
Size: 32 pages
Price: 2.99
When Flashpoint was announced we suddenly got a huge wave of mini-series and one-shots to go along with the event. Of course I didn’t want to get anything Flashpoint related because I was still pretty upset over the lame ending Blackest Night gave us. But then a particular one-shot was announced and everyone, including myself, were immediately intrigued by it. Just who or what is Canterbury Cricket? Is it an established character or something more? Well as the weeks went by and with it finally coming out, I couldn’t contain my intrigue for it and I bought a copy. After reading it however, I couldn’t believe I got suckered into such a bland comic.
The ultimate problem with this comic is that the ‘origins’ for this seemingly new character is very rushed and ultimately boring. This ‘Jeramey Chriqui’ (GET IT!?) has no personality and except for the constant narration telling us he was a ‘bad kid’ we get nothing to support that. His origins make absolutely no sense in how he went from a normal kid to a giant cricket. So he was in a church and a cricket was in it? What the hell is that all about? Then we have boring interaction with ‘The Resistance’ and after awhile Etrigan’s rhymning got tiresome to read. The stuff involving ‘The Ambush Bugs’ (which may or may not be the original reference for the character) was the only section I was actually interested in reading. Maybe we should’ve had more of that and less of this confusing and ultimately boring origin story.
I’m excited for Rags Morales being the artist for the new Action Comics. But a good amount of the pencils in this issue looked pretty rushed or down right confusing to follow. There are literally points where people get shot, put on fire, or explode and Morales makes it confusing to understand how it’s happening. It’s not all bad mind you, the splash page revealing the Cricket is pretty good, and again the pages with the ‘Ambush Bugs’ are good too. Overall though the art can’t even save this mess of an issue.
For all the hype this book had, admitally the hype coming from us, this is just a disappointing origins for a once interesting character. The Canterbury Cricket suffers from confusing origins, baffling characterization, and ultimately disappointing artwork by Rags Morales. If this were say, a two issue mini, then maybe Mike Carlin could’ve done something with this new character. Or hell why not just focus on the ‘Ambush Bugs’ and other insect related heroes/villains in this new DCU landscape? Instead we just have this disappointing and rushed looking one-shot to always disappoint us.
Art: 2 - Average
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Good reviewing skills as always, TNC.
Yeah, with this comic I saw it coming.
People in our demographic need to understand that sometimes a property that seems aggressively nonsensical, random and babyish . . . doesn’t always turn out to be interesting and charming. In fact, that rarely happens.
You’d think that after debacles of face-value superficiality like “Snakes on a Plane” we would’ve become wiser and less apt to buy into things based solely on wacky titles. But we really haven’t. If anything, I think we’re getting more gullible.
A comic about a superhero cricket SHOULD be a hard sell. There’s a difference between the good-spirited goofiness of the idea and the actual reality of what the content would be. Reflecting upon ideas like Canterbury Cricket SHOULD make us think “Yeah, funny idea, but it’d be tough to actually make a good 22 pages out of that.” But for whatever reason, people just want to indulge in the hype without any caution, and then they get disappointed by the reality when they should have known better to begin with.
Over the last couple months I’ve been dumbfounded by all of the articles and hype that this one-shot got. Many writers and posters who I really respect got suckered by this. Some of them chose to devote HOURS to discussing and formulating articles about Canterbury Cricket without knowing anything about it… and then the comic itself turns out to be quite underwhelming. I wish I could say I’m surprised. I wish I could have been proven wrong.
But why the heck does our demographic of internet people waste time in this way? We’re THIS desperate for something to believe in and distract ourselves with that we’ll spend THIS much time and hype on a random property, which a ten-year-old could have told us was a lame idea? I hope this will be a small learning experience.
I was unsure and curious about this and leafed through it in the store. Very glad I did that, because I would have been upset about the $3 down the drain if I had purchased it.
Good review. You hit the problems, and the one good idea (ambush bug team) right on the head.
Very fair review. And dead on as regards the art not making things clear – the attack by the Amazons is tough to follow.
Overcritical, I found lots to appreciate in this.
@Franktiger Okay, what would those be?
Well, liked how Rags drew Etrigan, how Mike Carlin portrays Chriqui to be a real ‘scoundrel,’ the ambush bugs part, and the idea that the Amazons were basically using England’s resources to build a fleet of Invisible Jets, two of which bombed the Canterbury Cathedral.
Chriqui becoming this like hideous looking man-cricket somehow reminded me of the movie The Fly.
Maybe I shouldn’t have used that word, cus I tend to appreciate certain things about books that others don’t and dats fine.