“The Maze Agency”—and Mike W. Barr
Apr 26, 2019 15:51:04 GMT
theravenking and President Ackbar™ like this
Post by Nalkarj on Apr 26, 2019 15:51:04 GMT
Has anyone else read this? Created by Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis, written by Barr, pencilled by Adam Hughes, inked by Rick Magyar.
It’s the kind of thing I should love: a crime-solving duo (will-they-or-won’t-they?) based on Steed and Emma, investigating impossible and/or inexplicable crimes that are complex but scrupulously fair-play, wisecracking their way through like Nick and Nora—with a heavy dose of the ’60s surrealism of Batman (or The Avengers itself, for that matter). The few reviews I’ve found on the ’net are uniformly positive.
So why do I not like it all that much?
Jennifer Mays and Gabe Webb (the names—haha) aren’t that well-characterized—not up to Steed and Emma’s level, let alone Nick and Nora’s—but they’re very likeable and charming. The plots are always clever and often brilliant; Ellery Queen himself [i.e., themselves] would have been proud to come up with the solution to why a thief should steal worthless picture-frames rather than the expensive pictures in them. (And not the same solution as Doyle’s “The Six Napoleons”—a solution that has been so overdone that it’s become a tired cliché.) Speaking of Queen, he’s clearly Barr’s favorite mystery writer, to the extent that Gabe Webb is basically a Period 3 Ellery Queen clone, and Ellery even makes a guest-appearance in Issue #9. As a mystery-plotter, Barr beats a whole ton of other writers. He’s inventive and intelligent—on par with John Sladek, who also wrote latter-day detective-stories and also couldn’t find a market for them.
So, again, why don’t I like it?
It’s mostly because it’s boring. Barr is a good plotter but a poor writer, and for much of the series all Jen and Gabe do is go around, look at evidence, and question suspects. The best mystery-writers were able to avoid this trap; in a John Dickson Carr novel, for example, it’s a full-blown adventure in the Stevenson mold, with the plot always advancing, adding more complications and character-building. It’s the same way in the stories of Carr’s idol, G.K. Chesterton. With Agatha Christie we have miniature character-portraits and exotic settings to keep our interest, along with a charming writing style. These writers don’t give us clues by interview; they dangle the clues in plain sight, but we’re too engrossed in their stories to notice.
With Barr we have the Ngaio Marsh problem—static suspect interviewing that goes on for pages and pages. The comic book format does give us something to look at, so it’s a bit better than Marsh’s prose in which Insp. Alleyn talks to suspects for 100 pages, but nevertheless the problem remains.
Barr seems to be a brilliant idea-man: that picture-frame trick, for example, or creating an anti-Batman in his Batman story “The Player on the Other Side” (the title taken from—what else?—an Ellery Queen novel). He has two different Batmen fight the same villain on two different worlds, and the villain learns from his mistake on the first world and creates a better trap for Bats on the second. An even more extreme vigilante, dressed as a skeleton, is wandering the streets of Gotham City. And so on. But, whether for Batman or the Maze Agency, his executions don’t live up to his concepts. That last concept, for example, is for Batman: Year 2, an absolutely dreadful story that makes no sense despite a great opening. Barr creates but then doesn’t do anything with his anti-Batman, “the Wrath”: Bats fights him, and that’s it.
If you at all like mysteries, as I do, The Maze Agency is recommended for its brilliant plot-tricks. Other than that, unfortunately, it’s just not very good.
If anyone here knows any good Barr comics, do let me know. There has to be something he wrote in which the execution is as good as the concept.
It’s the kind of thing I should love: a crime-solving duo (will-they-or-won’t-they?) based on Steed and Emma, investigating impossible and/or inexplicable crimes that are complex but scrupulously fair-play, wisecracking their way through like Nick and Nora—with a heavy dose of the ’60s surrealism of Batman (or The Avengers itself, for that matter). The few reviews I’ve found on the ’net are uniformly positive.
So why do I not like it all that much?
Jennifer Mays and Gabe Webb (the names—haha) aren’t that well-characterized—not up to Steed and Emma’s level, let alone Nick and Nora’s—but they’re very likeable and charming. The plots are always clever and often brilliant; Ellery Queen himself [i.e., themselves] would have been proud to come up with the solution to why a thief should steal worthless picture-frames rather than the expensive pictures in them. (And not the same solution as Doyle’s “The Six Napoleons”—a solution that has been so overdone that it’s become a tired cliché.) Speaking of Queen, he’s clearly Barr’s favorite mystery writer, to the extent that Gabe Webb is basically a Period 3 Ellery Queen clone, and Ellery even makes a guest-appearance in Issue #9. As a mystery-plotter, Barr beats a whole ton of other writers. He’s inventive and intelligent—on par with John Sladek, who also wrote latter-day detective-stories and also couldn’t find a market for them.
So, again, why don’t I like it?
It’s mostly because it’s boring. Barr is a good plotter but a poor writer, and for much of the series all Jen and Gabe do is go around, look at evidence, and question suspects. The best mystery-writers were able to avoid this trap; in a John Dickson Carr novel, for example, it’s a full-blown adventure in the Stevenson mold, with the plot always advancing, adding more complications and character-building. It’s the same way in the stories of Carr’s idol, G.K. Chesterton. With Agatha Christie we have miniature character-portraits and exotic settings to keep our interest, along with a charming writing style. These writers don’t give us clues by interview; they dangle the clues in plain sight, but we’re too engrossed in their stories to notice.
With Barr we have the Ngaio Marsh problem—static suspect interviewing that goes on for pages and pages. The comic book format does give us something to look at, so it’s a bit better than Marsh’s prose in which Insp. Alleyn talks to suspects for 100 pages, but nevertheless the problem remains.
Barr seems to be a brilliant idea-man: that picture-frame trick, for example, or creating an anti-Batman in his Batman story “The Player on the Other Side” (the title taken from—what else?—an Ellery Queen novel). He has two different Batmen fight the same villain on two different worlds, and the villain learns from his mistake on the first world and creates a better trap for Bats on the second. An even more extreme vigilante, dressed as a skeleton, is wandering the streets of Gotham City. And so on. But, whether for Batman or the Maze Agency, his executions don’t live up to his concepts. That last concept, for example, is for Batman: Year 2, an absolutely dreadful story that makes no sense despite a great opening. Barr creates but then doesn’t do anything with his anti-Batman, “the Wrath”: Bats fights him, and that’s it.
If you at all like mysteries, as I do, The Maze Agency is recommended for its brilliant plot-tricks. Other than that, unfortunately, it’s just not very good.
If anyone here knows any good Barr comics, do let me know. There has to be something he wrote in which the execution is as good as the concept.
?
There are lots of Queenian references, including an extended one at the end to Cat of Many Tails, but the mystery isn’t that great. Still, the team-up was neat.