2/09/11

CASANOVA #6—Or we’re just calling it GULA II? It’s 10 and 11, I think? I was all tweaked out, because I was positive Zephyr GoTime was 11, but obviously I got it wrong and it’s next month. No matter, this arc is reading even more insane in this format. That backmatter talk was kind of a bummer, but still good reading, a solid Earth-101 (or whatever the Marvel equivalent is to Earth-Prime) version of Jay & Silent Bob. Fraction & Dharb are definitely holding their own in the pathos evocation department. Took me over half an hour to read this fucker, just a hyperdense return on your money. I really love this comic too much. Really on the strength of it alone, but the other runs of course aren’t hurting, Fraction is making a hard charge at Ellis’s slot as my #3 Guy. Which shouldn’t even be possible*, but I’m just saying whereas I’m just floored and redlined by the overall effect of the craft the first time through with Morrison or Moore, I lock up with the beats of this CASANOVA engine every time to the extent that it’s like I made it last night when I was too bombed to remember, just in a perfect place and then came back across it this morning like, Yup, I did that. Casanova Fraction and I are blackout brothers. I think I’m trying to say? From electromagnetic ideaspace?

OSBORN #3—Who can resist leading off with the Fractions like this? Actually, shit, without even trying to, we’ve got a Portland round robin set queued to open things up. And right off, we get Muffoletto on the first page, which wouldn’t be so weird if the Mister hadn’t named his Secret Cinema director Toppogrosso how ever many years ago it was. Strange effect, tonight. Oh, but then she gets Y’all wrong, still on the first panel. Damn it, Kelly Sue. I should probably stop writing about this thing and read it.

Yeah, and then those sixteen panels on the leader of the pride are just thunder, on their own, without any kind of context. Fantastic. In what totally could have been a throwaway latest-big-event-epilogue-bullshit-whatever, you find two pages that you can put in somebody’s face to answer the question, Why Comics? Because this, suckah! It has nothing to do with Peter Parker or Norman Osborn and it doesn’t matter, because it’s true! And is that a “Help!”/””Hup!” Alan Moore cut across the staple fold? The balloon’s placement that far right makes it just the right percentage of ambiguous, but I sure hope it’s intentional. Brilliant! We might only have time for the Oregon kids tonight, folks, the way it’s looking. But my, how batshit this goes at the end. And it’s like Emma Rios snorted some uncut BaMoon, so much messier than #1. In a good way. We need to move on now.

NEW AVENGERS #9—So I didn’t even suss to it last time. Stuart & Laura are just gone now, aren’t they? Until the Big Event is over? Well you know what, FEAR ITSELF the core title is going to be the finest offering Marvel has ever made in that department, I’m just saying it right now. Fraction and the folks who did this title’s first arc? I know nothing about it except that they and something called fear will be involved and I am telling you, it is on.

….

Fucking. Insane. Opening sequence.

All out of breath now, and just the recap page. Out of control.

And then, man, damn. This one’s even better than 7 and 8. Which, again, I said flattened everything else. AND THOSE LAST TWO PAGES!!!! Bendis!

INCOGNITO 2 #3—Quite possible that I feel this way because it’s just been too long, shame, lads! Always! But this feels like close the best Brubaker/Phillips joint it’s ever been my pleasure to smoke.

Plus, just the audacity. The Lone Ranger, Shadow, and Three Little Pigs?

(and I will cop to some partial conflation confusion, Zack in bed with Zoe Zeppelin is all SLEEPER Holden, all of a sudden)

And stab my eyes, because I just closed the pages on a Jess Nevins essay about Captain Future. Too much to read tonight! Press on! We must escape the Oregon coast! Later for you, Professor Nevins!

X-FACTOR #215—Peter David is all kinds of subtle with the Vampires are Everywhere trope. But yeah, obviously, the romance of Madrox and Layla is what we care about most. That bit with the cop and free will, so well written, PAD. So well written. Again, the bar for this title keeps rising. All you can hope for.

JOHN BYRNE’S NEXT MEN #3—What a glorious kind of mad. More entertaining than a Shamus interview, and certainly with superior sequential storytelling. My guess on the mystery time traveler ID is Jasmine, just for old time’s sake/intuition?

UNWRITTEN #22—Another crushing blast, dodge, and I can’t help but think of the Gilliam flick. That last shot of Pinocchio, of course there can be all these different versions, but the fanboy in me immediately wants the team-up misunderstood fight.

FLASH #9—Man, when she tells him,” Just some here, just for a minute,” and then he hangs up, it just pulls your guts out.

Another great entry in the Johns/Manipul canon. Though finishing the lead story and finding the remainder pages dedicated to previewing the pages I already bought and am about to read is more belittling than validating, seems.

BATMAN & ROBIN #20—Fantastic effort, issue. Can’t believe, again, how good this is without Morrison. Real dick move on that ad mirroring the last page. Oh, wow, somebody used homage to try and bump up another 10,000 copies. Huge fan of Tomasi/Gleason on this. Great great work. That opening scene just rang so true, certainly definitely and truly happened, it was just waiting for one of the writers to happen upon it.

ADVENTURE COMICS #523—Levitz goes the New Mutants/Avengers, um, Academy route and hits the jackpot by landing Phil Jimenez to draw the thing. Unbelievable work. Was just in New Orleans for a con and could never get through the ten people that guy always had gathered round watching him work his magic. Is Page 4 an homage to the cover of Marvel's EXILES #1?Between the blocking and Glorith's resemblance to Blink, it kind of looks that way. They're just getting started here, folks, as Levitz closes the book on his first year back in the trenches.

****

BEST OF WEEK: Man, I think four-year old recolored, Dharb hand-lettered BaMoon goodness Fraction insanity still has the sauce to put down everything else that came out today. Though, I don't know, Chaykin on those Fury sequences certainly gives the boys a run for their money. Close call.







*and, let’s be honest, Gaiman is always welcome to just sashay back in and snag whenever he deigns, but you know, pecked to death by angry ducks and all that.