Wednesday, December 15, 2010

12/08/10

We’re going to attempt almost-real-time reaction to developments this evening, we’ll see how it goes. Opening with Fraction THOR and going out on the motherfucking Tome that the FABLES crew crashed down on us today . . . brr, we’ve got to get started. Probably going to be a little shorter, because I’m going to want to be getting to what’s next. The pervading energy this evening can only be described as primal.

THOR #618—This one’s really picking up some steam, now. And the fact that part 5 is a play on L O S T 1.11 turns my knees to butter.

NEW AVENGERS #7—Unbelievable! Hands down, the best Bendis issue since the relaunch, that’s taking into account both stellar opening arcs in both flagships along with the PRIME thunder from Davis & Farmer, 16 issues already, and then at this critical juncture, this crackerjack creative team storms back up hard out of the bullpen for this opening issue of the second arc, not only easily leveling the competing efforts across the way from Misters Romita and Janson, no mean feat, but also kicking all that’s come before to the curb, just so much to like about this one, so many great beats in one spine, my favorite easily being the one-two set-up of Imomenen drawing Wolverine at his actual non-Jackman 5’3 height, followed by the hilarious exchange with Squirrel Girl. The gods wept.
(just realizing this is actually like the stereotypical Bendis complaint, everyone just sits around talking, it’s an aftermath issue, there’s no actual, like, battle with Kang or whomever, but it’s all gold. I guess the X-MEN baseball issues were also always my favorite, so there you go)

27 #1—A gorgeous debut. Well served by the format. The first Vertigo book released by Image, maybe.

FLASH #7—Okay, I’ve never bought into the Johns Glorious & Definitive Take on the Rogues hype that everyone’s always propagated . Didn’t pick up his FLASH run when it was coming out but went back with interest during his first year on the GL run, and it all just fell a bit flat for me. The FINAL CRISIS “tie-in,” as well, even. Not so, here. This was the good un. Complete with the totally random mid-issue Tarantinoesque decapitation. Loving this series.

SUPERBOY #2—Just impossibly strong. Is life just going to suddenly be like Jamie Grant is pumping out 22 pages every four weeks for $2.99 a pop? That is a fine time in your life to be buying the funny books, my friends. Not counting all the now crushing Batbooks,* this damn thing is suddenly maybe my favorite monthly out of DC. It’s really, really, really good. I’m going to blast through The Essex Trilogy here in the very immediate future and I bet it’s going to really knock my socks off.

HOUSE OF MYSTERY #32—Stunning. At the eleventh hour, Sturges throws down the gauntlet for Best Line of the Night: “I’m a hard-boiled time cop sent from the future to keep her from giving birth to Jack the Ripper. I fell in love with her, I admit, but in the end, I did what had to be done.”

The gauntlet has been thrown down, Mister Willingham! What you got?

****


BEST OF WEEK
: FABLES #100—Wow, all right, real time worked out until I got to this monster, and it took me over an hour to read without even taking a break and then it was oh so late. So! One week later, the latest review filed, thus far . . . .

This is really a fantastic issue and just a hell of an experience. A 62-page main story that acts like it’s going to resolve the Mr. Dark long arc that’s been building since #76, but then about-faces at the last minute and catapults the entire status quo into parts unknown (well, technically, known, but certainly parts unexpected)(but if I’d just written “parts unexpected” without explanation, reader comprehension would have suffered, and you know I am all about the reader comprehension). Great character moments throughout, a couple of cool surprises, and quite the duel between Frau and the bad guy. The usual top drawer work from everyone, Willingham is still a master of the beats and twists, and Buckingham, Leialoha, Pepoy, and Loughridge maintain the groove they’ve had going for I’m not even sure how long. Years. And that’s just the main story!

THEN, we get an entertaining inversion, Buckingham’s first prose outing, illustrated by Willingham, who’s come quite a ways since his 80s work on ELEMENTALS and the very occasional fill-in on early JLI. As perfect as this art team is for this book, the illustrations for “Pinnochio’s Army” have me wishing for a Willingham solo issue. Maybe #150 would give him enough leeway, time to get it done? Surely he’s got things plotted out maybe that far? This story also pulls a cool trick where it seems like it’s just a pre-Second Exodus romp, the boys having fun switching it up, you know, Paul on the drums instead of bass for a minute, but then right at the very end they pull the screws and set up a very interesting thread that is sure to have dire implications as the months and years roll by out here in the mundy.

Man, and it’s almost too laborious to list everything else that’s in this thing. Buckingham drew a damn cut-out puppet theater with a couple dozen characters and multiple locations, we get a couple of epilogues, one featuring that Chrissie Zullo who killed on the CINDERELLA mini’s covers, making what I presume is her sequential debut. Then, you know, Adam Hughes, J.H. Williams III, and a couple other folks show up for another shot at one of my all-time favorite things about this series, when they just dedicated #59 to answering reader questions with actual stories. Only the twist here is the questions are asked by celebrities. Apparently, Marvin from PULP FICTION has always been wondering about the comics that Pinocchio, Blue, and Fly used to read back in the day, and Rev. Steve Newlin himself from the Fellowship of the Sun asks a wonderful question about Pinocchio’s mouth. I wish J.H. and Dave Stewart would drop by and answer my burning FABLES questions.

So, yeah, it was a pretty solid week. Shame for Bendis, because he could not have done better, and SUPERBOY is killing it, man my God, but in the end, it’s just not a fair fight against the FABLES tome. It has a spine! It’s $10! How are they even going to trade it? What would be the point? This is Volume 15, right here! Or 16, I guess? I don’t know, I don’t speak trade**! This wasn’t as much a comic book, as a fully immersive experience, a ticket to someplace magical, and I’m grateful, and it’s why I keep showing up every Wednesday, just hoping, every now and again, to be taken away for a little while. Thanks, crew. Here’s to 100 more and counting, indeed.


*Here, we invoke the Tony Daniel Exemption.

**a bald-faced lie, I get SCALPED, NORTHLANDERS, and INVINCIBLE in trade, the latter in those ridiculous Ultimate monster editions, which take like a year to come out, so now I’m like three years behind. Which is really a pretty huge drag. How’s about that SCALPED vol. 7, DC? You are killing me with your talk of February this and March that!

1 comment:

  1. It's IMMONEN, you fool! IMMONEN!!! You're killing me! ~wink~

    Totally agree with you on NEW AVENGERS 7. Bendis nailed it perfectly. Also agree about the old X-Men baseball game issues. It was always fun to see the heroes in a relaxed moment.

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