Wednesday, November 10, 2010

11/03/10

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #38—All right, fair play with the cover and last issue’s foreshadowing, not that they still won’t really do it, but after all the Angel spoilage, I was definitely riled and falling into their machinations. This was . . . a really strange issue. I think the oddness of the beats falls into this not actually being written as a comic unto itself but pretty much falling into all the gravity and heaviness of what would be happening in, say, and how can I not, minutes 34-51 of a L O S T season finale. There’s really no reason to bring up the show still other than I have a problem plus that was just what popped up to me (and, hey, they did the whole crashing plane thing last issue or the one before), but how satisfying would it be to watch a season finale from that series, or any other, just those minutes of it? I mean, there’s development. Every conversation counts. Dawn lived. That was a good thing. But this one just didn’t crush me. You know. which is fine. On one level, it almost feels wrong to grade the singles of this entire arc on any level except in totality. It is, after all, a Whedon season finale. But then again, this is the way it’s coming out, and FIREFLY never got one, and I am spiteful about the whole thing.

THE BOYS #48—How flattening is this book?!?!? This very installment? The first page and the last page pull the trick of both encapsulating the tone of all that has come before to perfection while simultaneously propelling the narrative on to heretofore unimagined heights. Especially the dexterity of that last page. My God, man. All this, while somehow the piss gets taken out of Butcher. Suddenly. All the pictures have.

GENERATION HOPE #1—This was pretty great. It’s nothing more than a new New Mutants set-up, basically, with go-to mutant messiah Hope doing her thing shepherding the kids that Fraction’s been doling out in the last few installments of UNCANNY, but what really got me, and it took a bounceback reflection, was the writing. Of course, I’m already so hard in Keiron Gillen’s corner, he’s got to really really Do Wrong for me to get derailed, and so at first I was disturbed and even annoyed by the tenor of the writing, the first-person, those characters, their voices. But then, going back over it, it became obvious that yes, this is exactly how these kids write/think/YEARONEmonologue, and it might grate a bit, but that’s a function of the filter we’re getting the words through, this teenage angst thing. I think. I don’t know. I’m going to watch Soundgarden play something live on Conan’s new show as soon as I’m done, so maybe that counts for something in here, somewhere. Rituaaalll!

DV8 #8—Ah, yes. Wood/Isaacs slam it home, conquer as well as we all knew they really would all along. I failed to do the rapidfire sprint 7-issue prep, so certainly some nuances got by me, but this one dropped all the hammers on me that I’ve been waiting for. Plus, especially now, just a splash of a shiftship carrier doing its business, that’s really all I need, even if every character beat on every other page isn’t right where it’s supposed to be. I’m really glad Wood got to blast this one out, here, at the very end of the storm.

HOUSE OF MYSTERY #31—Another great issue, but honestly, is there really anything to talk about besides the story-within-a story? FIG KEELE, TEEN DETECTIVE. Yah, still so Veronica Mars, but this accomplishment lets us know that this is what the world needs, there’s a vacuum that we must, by God, do all that we can to fill. A long time ago.

BRIGHTEST DAY #13—You can’t say that Finch is phoning in these covers. Yipe. The only thing crazier than maybe folding Wayne into this (which, yeah, I hit the order just right that the subsequent house ads didn’t spoil that last splash for me, real dick move again, DC) is Stringer Bell on the inside back cover. I was so sure that Omar got him. That motherfucker never misses, not even counting his Muslim wingman.

ADVENTURE COMICS #520—All right, now this one has blasted past my chronology awareness. Did Garth actually once die, in the fabled 60s or 50s or some such? It seemed for a minute like Levitz was just getting craaaaazy, but then the footnote was validating it. Unless they’re just being tricksy. I don’t know. Again, always, one of the finest representations of one of the company’s heretofore fully unrealized properties. And Lemire’s ATOM feature again spikes up to be my favorite pages ever featuring Ray Palmer. Not that there was so much competition, but still.

SUPERBOY #1—What a fantastic debut. While I failed to connect with SWEET TOOTH, I have been a fan of Lemire’s work on his ATOM back-up feature, and he cranks it up even more here. I care about Connor Kent about as little as someone who bought his first year’s worth of appearances way back during the Reign of the Supermen could, and I was real impressed with every beat of this. And the art is gorgeous. Never heard of Pier Gallo, really crisp lines, everything perfect. And Jamie Grant! I don’t know why it never occurred to me that he should be doing more work now that ALL-STAR SUPERMAN is done, but it is a delight to see him here. Beautiful tones. This is a first class effort from top to bottom. And only $2.99, to boot! Highly recommended.

****

BEST OF WEEK: BATMAN AND ROBIN #16—Domination. Morrison drops the hammer on the climax of the second act of his Batman mega-arc. It’s just a shame that this had to come out before THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #6. Kind of a garbage scheduling move, particularly since that issue should be coming out next week. They just churning this out so that we can get on with the Cornell arc? Really doing fans a disservice, seems like. Unless it’s on purpose and this is the way Morrison intended, for some reason. I guess we’ll find out soon enough. Grousing aside, it really doesn’t matter, because everything about this is a delight. That first panel of Dick, Bruce and Damian really says it all, down to Damian’s trademark *tt*. I thought we were going to be in trouble with three guys tag teaming on the art duties, particularly not having heard of one of them, but this is about as seamless as such an undertaking could be. Cameron Stewart trumps the fantastic small panel fight choreography he crushed on #7-9 with a double-page spread totaling 31 panels that really just has to be seen to be believed. Such a talent. And Frazier Irving is wisely held over to illustrate the darkest scenes of the book, most of which feature the Joker. Quite an insane way for Hurt to finally go down, never saw it coming.

I’m okay with the final scene that’s got everyone so freaked out. Yes, it takes a pretty serious suspension of disbelief that people won’t put two and two together with two former Robins standing there behind him (but I can’t figure out who that’s supposed to be standing in between them. It looks like an Asian girl with a ponytail? Not supposed to be Tim Drake, is it?), but given what we’ve already accepted about this world, these stories, the cloaking power of a pair of glasses, it’s really just business as usual. Not counting the Batman global franchise part, of course.

Really pumped for what comes next. Wish I wouldn’t have heard about there being a Batman, Inc. ahead of time, but I guess I need to stay away from CBR and Comic-Con coverage if I want to preserve that bubble. Most of all, looking forward to the Bruce/Dick/Damian dynamic. It’s going to be a ride.

3 comments:

  1. Yes, Garth has died before. It is a tale told and retold, many, many times before. Also told and retold is the story where he loses an arm and gets a cybernetic replacement. Did I mention he is my favorite Legionnaire?

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  2. Also - if you haven't caught Idris Elba in LUTHER yet, I can't praise it enough.

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  3. All right, thanks! Stringer Bell rises again.

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