SIEGE #4 – Well, this was a fine way to blast away the lingering elements of, let’s just call it, the Dark Bendis Age. The pace rockets along, and the big moments are still given just enough room to breathe that you don’t have time to think how ridiculous it is that all of this is going down in about five minutes. My favorite kewl idea is Tony hacking into Osborn’s helicarrier and turning it into a bullet. Best art has to be the look on Thor’s face after Loki’s last line, just a hell of a thing to render and Coipel knocked it out of the park. The end still turns into nothing but a commercial for What’s Next (just as blatantly as the end of Diggle’s ADAM STRANGE mini across the street, not to mention INFINITE CRISIS just a couple of forks down-river), I mean, just the way those last two pages are staged, Steve was talking, then you turn the page, and it’s suddenly straight up a pin-up, they’ve all turned and oh my God, they can see me, the entire Marvel Universe is pulling an Animal Man and I’m in my boxers and Tony Stark totally wants a hit off of my Lone Star, look at the smile on his face. Then, of course, you turn the page for the commercial. Wasn’t going to buy this until I heard it was only four and done, but as someone who jumped on board with Bendis seven years ago, glad I stuck it out. And, dammit, am probably going to have to give both of the new #1s a shot. And Brubaker. Even though you know they’re all going to be $4.
NEW MUTANTS #13 – They did the Vanisher! Hope decked Dani! Cyclops and Cable butted heads! Pierce said, “Fraction!” There is a footnote following a cliffhanger that does not take place on the final page telling you what other book you need to go buy to find out how they get out of that one! God love these misunderstood mutants!
THE FLASH #2 – I like how we hit the ground running with these Renegades, Johns does a fine job in just a couple of pages of establishing the kind of dynamic team chemistry that completely sells these new guys and leaves you wanting more, which is always preferable than having a mini starring people we don’t care about shoved in our face. Manipul’s certainly holding up his end, as well, dynamic depictions throughout of Barry’s super-speed, the kind of hyperkinetic line by which this series, above all others, lives or dies. And the nice man even fixed the dolly’s blond hair. Barry Allen is just that good, people. This series has a timeless and old school quality to it, one that I suppose you could argue is pretty much the embodiment of the Silver Age crush that Geoff Johns has used to basically kick us back into something pretty close to a pre-Crisis status, I mean, it’s right there on the cover, BRIGHTEST DAY, but branding aside, it’s good comics and I likes it.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #1 – A bit unwieldy, the title. The Giffen/Dematteis league was the first one that I bought monthly, so really, no way I wasn’t going to give this one a shot. (oh wait, hell, they just started up on BOOSTER GOLD today and I went right by it, shit). And Winick doesn’t mangle it at all, the first work of his I’ve enjoyed since EXILES. It’s kind of a shame, the way this issue was paced, they completely spoiled it with just the tagline for the ad that’s been running, as soon as I saw that, was like, “OH, that’s what he did there in #0,” and then that turned out to be the climax of the entire issue, was sure sorry I figured it out. And for that matter, since that scene actually takes place again in this book, why have it in #0 at all? Doesn’t that book have enough protagonists who might have benefitted from the extra pages? Ah well, still an enjoyable ride. Lopresti does great interiors and Old Man Harris kills the cover, as ever.
WAR OF THE SUPERMEN #2 – This series is crazy! I’m sure part of it is that I’ve sat out this entire line for the past year, but obviously, they hit the gas with this one. I mean, when you blow up a planet in the first issue and turn our yellow sun into a red one in a single page to follow that up, it certainly leaves you what they could possibly have in store for the next two weeks. I mean, not really much further left to go, is there? What is the escalation from planetary destruction and aging stars by millennia? I tell ya, with Marvel and DC both resetting out of their latest crises, the mini-events going on over in the Batman and Superman and X-Men narratives, Vertigo knocking it out yet again this week, not to mention Ellis and Andrews killing it on ASTONISHING, just a heavy heavy week, folks.
THE UNWRITTEN #13 – Well, this one’s got Tommy in it. Which, of course, isn’t really a bad thing, but after #5 and #12 . . . you get the drift. I would totally buy a novel or graphic novel starring the fictional Tommy Taylor, the boy wizard we only get snatches of. The last scene of this issue is nothing short of poetry, Gross carries the day. That last panel of the penultimate page followed by the first on the final page, nothing less than a perfectly rendered sequence. So chilling.
FABLES #95 – So good to get this one back to form. Got so drawn into the story of the sisters when they were young that the entire part of my brain that does the dot-connecting was just shut down, totally missed the import of the fact that the little fellow they were messing with was a dwarf. Eagerly anticipating and dreading the next installment.
DAYTRIPPER #6 – Well, hell, I really didn’t think they could just keep this going, but this one, again, might be the best one yet. Such a beautiful and lyrical piece of work. Got to get it for Mom when it comes out in trade. Running out of wonderful things to say about this one. It has a weight to it that you just don’t get very often. In any medium. And every single issue is a complete and satisfying experience in and of itself. Damn fine work from some of my favorite South Americans.
ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS #1 – God, Ellis’s dialogue just sings here. That page with Scott and Ororo, I hate to even parse it, the rhythm crackles along to perfection. Sorry that he’ll be done after this and the other thing with Jimenez. Though it definitely looks as though he’ll be bowing out on top of his game and with fine collaborators. This one’s really nothing but set-up, but done so well, it’s a pleasure to watch unfold. Andrews has never been better, absolutely crushes that double-page splash on 4 and 5.
****
BEST OF WEEK: THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #1 – Ah, Morrison. It feels like so much longer than fifteen months since we’ve read your Bruce Wayne (which is to say, the Omni-Bruce). Wild to basically get what happened the page after FINAL CRISIS ended. This issue wrings about as much entertainment as possible out of the premise What If Batman Was Thrown Back to the Stone Age? Of course Savage is the antagonist, can’t believe I didn’t see that coming. One crucial bit of off-panel action: where the hell did he find a bat that big? That’s just a hell of a sequence to chop, matching wits with that guy. But I suppose I wouldn’t rather see it than anything else we got, the scenes are very well balanced. Loved how Boy fell into the Robin role without seeming forced at all, just a natural progression of events. That shot with the eclipse and waterfall is breathtaking. Though, of course, not just a normal eclipse, clearly something to do with Omega Effect timeskipping. And wild to have Superman and GL and Booster just show up like that, certainly not expecting to see those guys. A promising start to what’s sure to be a wild ride through the centuries. And there’s no one I’d rather take it with, man, Grant Morrison and Bruce Wayne are all the company you need.
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