Well, hell, I forgot to celebrate the solstice. I owe myself a pagan feast or something. It is also the 21st anniversary of Tim Burton and Michael Keaton’s second collaboration opening in theaters. I went and saw that one a few times. But enough of all that, let’s dance!
AVENGERS #2 – I love everything about this book, it’s even better than last month, which totally took me by surprise and walloped me. Really, just all of a sudden sliding in as ultimate flagship book for this particular corporate entity, which, given the shared history between the creative team and the franchise, that all of a sudden we’ve branded it an old name from I think the 30s and then all of a sudden started slinging six times sicker thunder than everybody, including your beloved narrator, had right to expect when tuning into Bendis’s first Avengers issue seven years ago, which, now that I think about it, was a serious Base-10 milestone, #500. But, the book. So much to say. BRJW is on fire. I love the respect that Noh-Varr got, how buddy-buddy Robert Downey, Jr. got with him, the page of rookies Bucky and Maria questioning the old guys, totally failed to glimpse that potential dynamic last issue, Parker, always with Bendis spinning the words for Parker, and of course that double-pg spread and just the way he weighs the beats, old Brian Michael is absorbing up into a pretty scary master of the form with every passing month, page, and word. Possibly the greatest panel of the week, well, so early and so much hyperbole left to spew, but the thing about Page 10, panel 3, the paused pre-execution shot of Immortus behind the 1-2-3 exchange of dialogue, where I’m just sure that it’s Parker on 1 and 3 and Logan in between, but what I love so much about this is that the only character in the panel is, as I said, Future Kang, and you just have to figure out, of the eight people who’ve just been yapping in the last couple of pages, who to attribute this dialogue to, but Bendis has you so attuned, so trained by now, that, at best, someone could make an argument that it isn’t Logan, but I certainly don’t care to, and there’s just no question about Parker. At any rate, well done. Ha, without even beginning to plumb or parse the collar-shaking crazy of the last two pages. The fact that this might not even break the Top 3 of best things that happened tonight fills me up.
FANTASTIC FOUR #580 – And then there would be this. You never know what you’re going to get with this book every month except quality, and Uncle Johnny, Franklin, and Leech teaming up in a toy store against Arcade, of all people, with the Impossible Man in the mix, well, we really don’t miss Reed and Sue all that much. The great thing about this book is that Hickman consistently drops the way out there sci-fi crazy, but never forgets to offset it with solid character work, such as Johnny relating to Franklin over dads gravitating toward the other sibling. Really cool dynamic, there. Those Nu-Earth fast-forwards are Hickman peaking on pure intravenous Morrison. Was sure sorry to read that Eaglesham won’t be back, what was that, two arcs? but Edwards knocks it out again, and of course it’s incredible news that Epting is coming aboard, though that obliges Guice to hang out on CAP at least as long as Brubaker does. This series should be selling in the Top 10 every month, it’s everything that I need a comic book to be, and I want so much.
AMERICAN VAMPIRE #4 – Albuquerque and those writer fellows continue to impress. Sure am getting spoiled on 16 pgs per month of Stephen King. I’m thinking Skinner could be a bit more fleshed out by now, really very little has been done to augment our first impression of him, but I’m enjoying the ride. The scariest thing about this book, though, is how sick Albuquerque is. I mean, man.
X-FACTOR #206 – The bit with Longshot was priceless. Aren’t they all? Nice to finally get the gang all back together. Am really enjoying watching the creative team hit their stride on this incarnation. Interested to see what comes next, which, as Smilin’ Stan will tell you, is the name of the game.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #4 – Old Man Harris inspires us to enlist! Or defect, I guess, don’t know what the proper nomenclature is when you throw those wacky Rocket Reds in the mix. But, yeah, they know who’s buying this thing, old JLI fans, and are not afraid to serve up exactly what we want. Great ending, and the new bit with Max is intriguing. Four issues in, and I’m not so much as considering bailing out on this or BRIGHTEST DAY, fine work on the part of whomever decides what the weekly of the year is going to be.
LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #2 – Levitz is crushing it! After just the first pair of issues, I could not have been a bigger fan of his double-barrel assault, and he and the art team certainly maintain the greatness here. The notion of Earth Man as GL has got to be the most inspired way to run with the Johns lateral after that arc over in ACTION. Any Legion issue whose first page ends with Braniac riding off on a platform and dropping a HMPH! is just destined for greatness. Also, certainly worth the $4, I count 30 pages, with the back 13 uninterrupted or cluttered by ads. That’s what I’m talking about. Loving this series, such a good time to be a fan. Morrison might be right, we’re in the middle of a Second Golden Age.
SUPERMAN #700 – Interesting and kind of a rock show tactic to have the shorter stories warm us up for the headliner. I was pretty pleased with all three efforts. Old Chang does a fine job depicting Lois and Clark’s reunion to lead off, really nails it with the expression on her face right before the Big Kiss, knocks that one out of the park, too. All leading up to a final page that pretty much sums it all up, there. Beautiful. Then, writer/artist Dan Jurgens shows up and nothing but kills it with a Robin-centric story called “Geometry” that’s pitch-perfect. Wasn’t going to pick up that TIME MASTERS mini just because it seemed pointless, not like they’re going to actually find the guy over there, but that might be foolish. Another perfect last page. Just good old World’s Finest fun. And then we come to the much-anticipated debut of he who must be referred to only by his initials (people just don’t like spelling ‘Straczynski,’ I guess). Barrows showed us last month in the WAR OF THE SUPERMAN mini that he’d really stepped up his game, and he delivers headliner work here. Loved the Batman page. Also, great Flash interaction. You can tell Straczynski’s having fun in the big sandbox, getting out all the toys right away. As usual, I wish I’d stuck my head in the ground and managed to avoid knowing anything, because this prologue would have read better if I hadn’t already heard Mark Waid’s retort to the premise before I even bought the issue (which, yeah, was pretty funny). Looks like it’s going to be strong character work. I’m up for the walk, just wish the guy would head on down to Texas.
JOE THE BARBARIAN #6 – gaaaaaah, this is so good. I’ve been just adoring this mini, but the all-star team of Morrison/Murphy/Stewart/Klein actually manage to crank it up for this one. This is definitely going to be one of those I’m going to have to pick up in trade even though I’ve got the singles, which just almost never happens. How great is it to ride into a castle and have one-legged Jean-Luc Picard and Batman and Catwoman and Lobo and the original Master of the Universe standing there in the courtyard cheering? These guys can pretty much turn out the lights after Page 3, that was enough for this one. Cool trick, too, when the camera pulls back and Queen Bree goes down the staircase, we’re now charged to try to figure out exactly where Joe is back in his house. This is certainly ramping up well for the home stretch. An army to follow Joe. For Playtown! Singing fish. Was that freaking General Kael from WILLOW showing up at the end, there? Is Jack the Iron Knight? Will Joe find his can of soda? How much work is Sean Murphy going to get after this is over? Gorgeous gorgeous pages.
BEST OF WEEK: THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #3 – My favorite first pages of all time are when Morrison just attacks you right out the gate*, and surely no one was expecting this one to kick off with the crushing callback to my favorite two pages in all of FINAL CRISIS, the #6 showdown. Remember & Gotcha. It's simply natural progression reflecting content for this mini's narrative to evolve in complexity as it hurls protagonist and reader on down the years, this here’s the best one of these yet, and we have every reason to expect that the back half will be better than the first. But this issue. First page beats all that came before, in this series or this week, and then just keeps right on barreling through. Yanick Paquette is such a talent. Feel like this is the first time we’ve seen just non-cheesecake straight ahead action from this individual, and you know what, it works.
One of the first newsstand comics I ever bought was DC COMIC PRESENTS maybe #37, Superman and Aquaman at the mercy of tentacles on the cover with a Black Pirate back-up feature, my only encounter with the character, but my first exposure whatsoever to the back-up feature or even concept of an anthology comic at all. More than one story bound by the same spine. So, insane for Master Bruce to don those particular duds, Morrison folds yet another identity/Bat-archetype in with such a deft touch.
And I mean, you could extol the virtues of every page. This is simply, like before, nothing less than optimization of the concept, but this time out, it’s not Caveman or Puritan Witchburner but Pirate Batman. What isn’t there to love?**
LAST SCENE SPOILER: Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t old Hex’s face mangled up on the wrong side? All mirror-image like? That couldn't be a mistake, right? Not this month, of all months. What could that mean? The implications of that are beginning to trouble me.
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*-THE FILTH #3 springing to mind and demanding to be shuttled down here WITHOUT WARNING!
**-actually, I'll take that one, the editor or whomever's strange choice to let the issue run ad-free almost the entire way through, 31 uninterrupted pages, thank you so much, then, for no reason that I can fathom, break the narrative up at the very last chance, slap an ad for the BLACKEST NIGHT trade in between Page 31 and 32. Why not just put the last page on the left instead of cutting it off from the rest of the story? The effect is even more jarring because we've had this entire great issue without ads, and it badly undercuts the effect of turning to that final page. Really thought it was incredible to read up to that point with no ads, though, certainly quite the value for $4.
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