Reviews
TheComicStore.com (August 16, 2001)
Reviewed by Paul Harrington
The idea of a powerful Wall Street broker or corporate raider sitting behind his desk reading a comic book is, well, delicious. Then again, after reading Titans of Finance we should be glad more of them don't read comics — it wouid only inspire greater hubris. Which is, of course, the most striking thing about this comic by R. Walker and Josh Neufeld. These people appear to believe their schemes the equivalents to a supervillain's "perfect crime."
Of course, no comic book about businessmen would be right without Ron Perelman and it's this tale that begins Titans of Finance. The corporate raider who purchased and then inspired many of the problems at Marvel Comics, and ultimately in comicdom as a whole, is certainly not going to get the red carpet treatment as any comic cons. Of course, when Walker and Neufeld put his machinations into context and then use Marvel characters in the backgrounds (everyone from the Thing to J. Jonah Jameson to Stan Lee appear) the absurdity of "RonMan"'s deeds is tangible. In fact, whether it's Perelman, "Chainsaw" AI Dunlap, or Michael Vranos (there are seven "titans" illuminated here in all) we're given the complete spectacle of pride's folly. This not to say that Walker and Neufeld are unfair in their attributions, but they certainly make it clear that they've little sympathy for these figure's moral and ethical failings.
it's interesting to note that while R. Walker is a business journalist, this is his first comic book. There are places in the earlier stories that are a bit rough, but he's a natural storyteller and by the later ones it's clear that he's mastering this medium. Josh Neufeld's work has been seen in Harvey Pekar's American Splendor and Keyhole, which he does with Dean Haspiel, amongst other titles. His style matches his subjects brilliantly and ranges from cartoony to realistic — often from panel to panel within a story. This playfulness doesn't detract from the writing, but underlines it. Another way in which we see how effective a creative team these two are is in the design concept behind Titans of Finance. It pretends to be an actual business magazine. Not only is this pose funny but it puts the stories in an effective context. Weirdly, Walker and Neufeld's stand on their subject's actions seems to be the only distinction between their comic and actual biz mags. This tactic reminds us where these figures get their ego's fed to begin with. After all, although they would appear to be cautionary tales to most of us, many in the business world won't see them as such. Rather, they're likely to read them as great stories of financial colossi who dared. Go figure.
Images, characters and likenesses © and TM R. Walker & Josh Neufeld
