4/21/10

AMERICAN VAMPIRE #2 – As these things go at the best of times, this second installment is even better than that killer first issue that made me so so happy. The Us v. Them bit is an interesting twist on the standard mythos, but really, let’s talk about Stephen King. My man lets loose! Going for broke. Hilarious. I’m loving it. And want more candy myself. Those last two pages are gold. You almost get the impression that he’s trying to drop a horror equivalent catchphrase to Show Me the Money! which produces its own unsettling echo, intended or not.

Gratitude and love to the DoubleMc, who let me have his copy after the owner of my local comic shop, who I’m not going to call out by name because, you know, still the local, and a man without loyalty isn’t much of one at all so not screaming his name from the high heavens, but he knows who he is and, Dude, taking this book OUT of my folder and giving it to some other guy was so fucking uncool it just about caused a meteor shower to rain down tonight over the park that my balcony overlooks, because that would be the universe course-correcting to provide some balance on the cool/uncool spectrum that you mussed up this morning when you pulled that shit, My Friend.

DV8 #1 – I was quite curious about this, love the Wood’s work on DEMO, LOCAL, NORTHLANDERS, DMZ, et al, and was intrigued to learn that this was like his dream gig, the pitch he kept resubmitting, think I read this was like the fifth iteration, and it’s certainly a hell of a premise. And execution, never heard of Isaacs or Stratchan, but they beat the hell out of them pictures. Does everything a first issue is supposed to, hope it sells well. Better than I expected and hoped it would be. Starting out with seven little Indians co-created by Jim Lee and ending up with alien battleworld Risk is certainly a fine day’s work.

GREEN LANTERN #53 – An initially solid and intriguing cannonball into the post-event landscape until editorial keeps on going and just blasts through the boundaries of decency and common sense, to wit, panels 2-4 of the final page actually telling you the three other titles that you need to pick up to literally follow these characters, before we get that last panel that, yeah, reminds you not to forget to make it back here next month. I mean, already enjoying the book, but come on.

Meant to open with, too, but hey probably better to close on an up beat, but got a beer in between this and the last issue and spied the uneaten remainder of my wife’s tub of popcorn, popped a few down the hatch like you do, but then realized while picking the kernels out of my teeth with my tongue while reading this book that Johns and crew are really just rocking the summer blockbuster pedal on the floor craziness year round now, it never slacks up, we literally just got done with the madness kick-started last FCBD, 50 weeks later, I guess, and now they’re all like, “Okay, y’all, catch a real deep breath, we’re about to go back under . . .”

The thing is, instead of just picking up one weekly, they’ve sold me on at least trying all three of them this year. BD was a solid open, how can you dodge that JLI team, even with Winick? And same goes for Wein and all the fellas on LEGACIES. Strong showing, gentlemen.

JLA #44 – Couple of funny bits early on, Eisner-nominated writer Robinson (and, seriously, I just can’t understand how this fellow with an admittedly distinguished resume nabs a slot in a year when Jeph Loeb doesn’t get recognized for ULTIMATUM) straight-up steals the Danger Room and works that first word into Dick’s dialogue, which came out much racier than I’d intended. Second bit is in that shield containing the logline/status quo data (what’s the term for that?), he also goes ahead and tells you “Members come and go. The roster may change.” Don’t even bother writing to complain about random people popping in and out. Do you understand?

Bagley draws the hell out of everything. I bailed out on the back end of his USM run but got back on board during TRINITY, and he’s starting to remind me of JRjr, not as much a DC equivalent as taking that one man’s patented approach to the Marvel Universe and carrying it across the street and applying it to the icons, it’s really a pretty interesting thing to behold.

Clearly Robinson was fucking with us on the Faust approach. Every STARMAN fan was like, O shit he just brought back Jack, fuck and damn.

But it turned out all right.

X-FACTOR #204 – Weird to read the recap page from the crossover, made it to the last paragraph just screaming in my head, “But, how are the girls?!?!? What have they been getting up to lately? Are they both married off with kids, by now?” As for the issue itself, another more than competent affair from David, DeLandro, et al, it will be interesting to see how we get out of this cliffhanger. Total faith in David, whichever way it goes.

DARK TOWER: THE BATTLE OF JERICHO HILL #5 – At last. Talk about bringing it home. This entire time, no matter how well David has crafted dialogue and arranged Furth’s beats, all the gorgeous vistas that Lee and Isanove have given us, the elements have never managed to synergize and produce an effect anywhere close to as intoxicating as the original source material. Well, you had to read every one of these issues and all five thousand and change pages of the prime text, but they lock it all up together in a really beautiful and elegant way.

Again in the last two pages, we suddenly lock up with Hickman’s brand new S.H.I.E.L.D. catchphrase and it’s quite the odd effect.

Initially couldn’t bear to go past the last page, the end was too perfect, but have now barreled on through to Lee’s unadorned pencils. The man is a genius. The layouts, too. Any artist worth his or her salt needs to be giving these a good hard squint or three at four in the morning.

BEST OF WEEK: JOE THE BARBARIAN #4 – This one really gets a little bit better with every issue. And I was so sold on the first. This time out, Murphy continues to dynamite our expectations, a new character joins the merry band (one who provides more than her share of forward momentum, looks like), we catch a hilarious glimpse of what the dwarfs have been up to since going off-panel, and Joe gets a little bit closer to lapsing into a full-on diabetic coma. That double-pg spread when they're walking up to the castle, man, you can see Joe's fingerprints on it!