4/07/10

Been meaning to start this forever, and this week of new comics was too incredible not to write about. On to it!

S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 – I’ve been pumping my fist in the air about Hickman’s run on FANTASTIC FOUR since the first issue of his Dark Reign mini came out, and, after getting a look at Dustin Weaver’s variant cover to the first issue, I’ve been really really excited about this one hitting the stands. How could it stand up to such celestial expectations? It turns out Hickman/Weaver/Strain surpassed my wildest hopes for how good this could be. The conceit of this series is that we, via 1953 POV character Leonid, are ushered into the Immortal City beneath the Vatican and told the secret history of S.H.I.E.L.D., which turns out not to have started off with Lee and Steranko in the pages of Strange Tales, but was apparently kick-started by a Brood invasion at the dawn of civilization. Or, more specifically, that manly polymath Imhotep refusing to buckle before it. (Cool Easter egg I missed the first time through, in the panel when Imhotep first delivers the order’s mantra/catchphrase, you can clearly see En Sabah Nur, soon to be known as Apocalypse, just hanging out there in the background with the rest of the troops, undoubtedly forming some proto-Darwinian notions, he’s got that look on his face). Something that seemed off about that scene, isn’t Imhotep a bit on the Caucasian side of things? For an Egyptian living in the 27th century B.C., he’s definitely looking a bit American. Maybe it’ll turn out to really be Reed at the end of Hickman’s FF run.

At any rate, we then rocket through history learning about what other famous folks were also agents of the shield (or, in one case, the spear). Every scene is tight, inventive, and immaculately rendered. Weaver is a force and Strain complements him perfectly (with the sole exception of Imhotep’s skin tone). I’ve seen a few people complain about the antagonist who shows up in 1582 Rome, claiming that if Galileo could beat him way back then, then that undercuts his supposed first defeat, published around 1965. I’d say rather than diminishing Reed Richards and family’s abilities, this serves to elevate SuperScience Galileo and imply centuries of wonders prior to the first published exploits of superheroes back just before WWII, hundreds of years worth of tales that can be explored in subsequent series or, better yet, in the readers’ imaginations, where there are no continuity glitches, no one’s ever out of character, the art is always unbelievable and everything happens just the way it’s supposed to.

THE BOYS #41 – Some horrifying misadventures with Superduper. Had to laugh out loud over that last scene’s resolution, so perfectly in character for Hughie, but then nothing trumps that last panel, the look on Butcher’s face along with the next issue blurb, which almost should have been a thought bubble. Am considering saving these to read one arc at a time, think it might flow a bit better that way. Annie and Wee Hughie’s sweet love does not seem long for this world.

HOUSE OF MYSTERY #24 – John Bolton! What a killer snag for the story-within-a-story. Thing is, I don’t see how it tied into the main narrative at all, it was more of a backup. Am I missing something? Sturges and Rossi show up and deliver another intriguing issue while doing little more than nudging everybody a little further down the narrative. Vertigo is really making it happen lately.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #33 – Well, it sure lived up to the title, didn’t it? (One gripe, why is it okay to explicitly show the act of aerial sex for pages and pages and pages, but “Them Fucking” has to be “Them F#@%ing”?) Meltzer is knocking his issues out of the park, I haven’t dug the tone this much since Ultimate Drew’s Tokyo arc a couple years ago. Jeanty continues to befuddle me, though, it looks like he can’t draw a character resembling Eliza Dushku to save his life, but then he nails Angel and Spike without even trying. More practice? Great tease about Spike, I’ll be three times more into this book when he shows up. Just hope they don’t feel the need to recreate the infamous Bronze balcony scene. Buffy!

FLASH ORIGINS AND FILES 2010 #1 – This was all right. At $4, it definitely smelled like it was going to be filler when I saw it on the rack, but knew I’d regret passing up a Johns Barry story. Turns out, he nails this premise I’ve been trying to bang out off and on for the better part of the last decade. I always thought if I had just one issue of FLASH, it should take place in like thirty seconds, Linda asks Wally to take out the garbage and all kinds of crazy shit erupts. Well, Johns applies that whole relative time thing to Barry to stupendous effect, even though it’s just fifteen pages of story and three more of set-up. He loves those Rogues!

UNCANNY X-MEN #523 – Of all the artists who have rotated in through Fraction’s run, I’ve definitely enjoyed the Dodsons the most. Such beautiful work, clean lines and a gorgeous palette. We get a pretty heavy focus on Cable and Hope this issue and of course Fraction nails their characterization in about a page and a half. I haven’t enjoyed picking this book up monthly this much since the late eighties, which is about the best compliment I can give it, halcyon days at Greymalkin Lane for me. I hope Fraction plans on sticking around for a long, long time, because there is a very short list of people who might be able to effectively follow what’s already shaping up to be a seminal run, and I’m afraid most of them would decline.

DEMO 2 #3 – After the first time through, this felt like it might be my favorite DEMO or LOCAL story. It’s a study in economy, everything about it is perfect, every line there because it needs to be. After people have been collaborating for some time and felt each other out about as well as they can, at some point, if they keep at it, then they both kick it up a notch (best example of this off the top of my head being Brubaker/Phillips transitioning from SLEEPER to CRIMINAL), and man, it’s a beautiful thing if you’ve been along for the ride. When this is done, I’m going to have to go back and hit Volume One and LOCAL and this all in one big blast to see what kind of a cumulative effect they have upon each other. My favorite part about this issue (well, I adored Cloonan’s art, let’s make it “something I really enjoyed about this issue”) was that I was just positive the dude was going to be the Polaroid Boyfriend from LOCAL #2, I mean, that’s practically the same M.O., yeah? so was just cringing the entire time, positive he was about to show up. Wood says that he expects the resolution to have annoyed some folks, but I thought it was perfect, couldn’t have gone any other way. Of course, I dug the way THE SOPRANOS ended, so I guess your mileage may vary.

BATMAN & ROBIN #11 – Another installment in the gargantuan Morrison run. Damian goes ahead and burns a splash page voicing the suspicion that most have surely been harboring since Oberon Sexton first showed up, so I guess it can’t be true? Too easy? I’m still not used to Dick calling Alfred Alfie, though I suppose it’s logical enough. Can’t believe the “death stroke” line got by me the first time, I would make a terrible ward and sidekick to the world’s greatest detective. Nice how Morrison references the bit about devil worship from a Peter Milligan arc that’s twenty years old. He handles the trick perfectly, Alfred tells us all that we need to know, but it gives you a nice little shiver if you read the original story some time before Michelle Pfeiffer was cast as Catwoman. Between the X-Men run and then on over to Batman, Morrison has been dropping monthly long-run goodness on my two favorite mainstream franchises for an entire decade now. We shouldn’t take something like that for granted.

FEVER #1 – And finally, Brendan McCarthy’s long-awaited ode to Steve Ditko’s greatness hits the stands, and it’s everything I needed. Glorious explosions of day-glo, awkward gangly anatomy, surreal trips through the webwaze dragged along by spider-demons in top hats. Quite a few wonderful moments, from the guy telling Spidey, no it is NOT cool that he called the cops to the horrifying flight of the sorror-fly to the “rhyme” that M’Matrixx taught those dogs eating the unhappy meal. And that last page, I mean, either you’re on board with this book or not, but there’s no way you’re going to hit it and think, “Eh, maybe I’ll check this out next month,” you’re either definitely coming back or probably not giving it another chance. Definitely come back, people. Harrah!

DODGEM LOGIC #2 – All right, all that AND the second issue of Alan Moore’s Northampton publication hits. Not enough hours in the night to read every word and be at all functional in the morning, so I might have to come back later and revise, but for now I will say that of course Moore’s article on anarchy is an interesting read and that the JOHNNY VIABLE strip was quite good. And it seems strange to think that until now, we’ve been living in a world without a comic written and drawn by Alan Moore called ASTOUNDING WEIRD PENISES. Certainly a relief to put those dark days behind us.

****

BEST OF WEEK: I’m going to give it to S.H.I.E.L.D. by a nose, the premise is executed so close to perfection and I can’t imagine what the next five issues have in store for us. It just barely outpaces FEVER, though. McCarthy is such an original. Can’t believe that Morrison Batman takes the Bronze medal behind two Marvel books, that’s stranger than anything that happened anywhere this week, even in the Moore comic. Astounding!