4/27/11

What a week! There were 16 books in my folder! That’s too many. Had to make some hard choices and leave the two from Brubaker and OSBORN and AMERICAN VAMPIRE behind for the moment, but there was still more than enough to keep me up very late into the night.

BATMAN INCORPORATED #5—I’m, I’m not even sure what happened in this thing. Is Morrison weaving a quantum narrative? It totally looks like Doctor Dedalus kills that UN guy on Page 3, but then the guy’s okay in the fifth panel and you’re like, All right, the coloring went all red, that was just in the doc’s imagination. Because they’re still talking. Only later in the issue, the guy keels over. Was that just a harbinger? The poison kicked in at the end? Really love that shot of The Hood’s masterspy plane rocketing across pages 4 and 5, that is how you drop the titles. You’ve got to love how starstruck Batwoman is when she meets Bruce. Paquette drops a fight-scene layout that can stand up to the greatness we’ve come to expect of late after offerings from Quitely, Stewart, and Williams. Okay, but who was the old man, if not Netz? What is the method to Morrison’s madness? This one really has me scratching my head.

FF #2—Still really loving this book. What’s not to adore about the Thing vs. Doom before taking a powder to go get drunk with Sue Richards, Spider-Man wowing the Future Foundation with his intellect and then Reed’s finger hovering over the button that will wipe Doctor Doom’s despotic intellect clean? And a hell of a cliffhanger. This is why you don’t wait for the trade, my lovelies! One of the best books on the stands, and the best that this title has been in a long, long time.

THE MIGHTY THOR #1—These renumbering hijinks are getting pretty tedious, but let’s talk about the content. This one really hits the ground running as Fraction is joined by JMS stalwart Olivier Coipel and the always unbelievable Laura Martin. And they knock it out of the park. I mean, this thing is gorgeous. The washes of color as Thor and Sif are diving down to secure the worldheart are breathtaking. Plot-wise, this issue is all set-up, but it is so much fun to look at, you’ve got to take at least another couple of passes through. Sure it’s going to get quite insane before all is said and done. A hell of a thing to have on the rack when the Branagh bomb drops, when are theaters going to start selling related comics in the lobby?

AVENGERS #12.1—Wow, Hitch/Neary are completely on fire, here. Quite the effect, bringing the original ULTIMATES art team over to the 616 proper. I actually smacked my forehead when I made it to the spaceknight twist at the end, can’t believe no one’s ever thought of that. Ah, Bendis. Funny, too, that the last page is still that medium/almost-headshot zoom that Millar wrote for Hitch at least 25% of the time, maybe that’s just the way dude likes to end an issue. Of course, Bendis has like five times as much dialogue, more for your money. This certainly accomplishes its stated mission of telling an engaging story that will hopefully draw in new readers. Or, hey, just making an extra $3 off everyone who buys the thing, anyway.

UNCANNY X-MEN #536—Tonally, this is right where I want this book to be. Gillen’s hitting all the correct beats pretty much out of the gate and the Dodsons are in fine form, as ever. An interesting follow-up to all of those astonishing shenanigans from a few years ago. The $4 cover price is, however, galling.

MORNING GLORIES #9—Mm, this one left me a little cold, but the twin thing in general seems pretty played out, nothing about this approach seemed new or interesting to me. Kind of ready to get the next arc started (or, more like, ready to reach the sure-to-be-out-of-left-field epilogue to the last issue of these single –centrics).

FLASH #11—So, Manipul’s gone? That’s a shame. A casualty of this title being a flagship of the Next Big Event, no doubt. Kolins’s painted thing isn’t quite the look I’m feeling for this one. Real sorry the initial creative team is already history, that first arc was pretty much perfect.

DETECTIVE COMICS #876—And speaking of pretty much perfect, these guys nail every aspect of this. Was expecting great things from a Snyder/Jock run and have not been disappointed. If anything, Jock has cranked it up since the first arc. The centerpiece of the issue is, of course, Gordon’s conversation with Dick, which was very well handled in terms of both Snyder’s beats and Jock’s angle choices. I guess Gordon can never, will never be allowed to just come right out and say it, but, I mean, he KNOWS, right? Yeah, yeah, he does.

BRIGHTEST DAY #24—Well, it’s over. This was easily the best (semi-)weekly since the probably-never-to-be-repeated 52, and the art was even better. We got a really nice moment with Dove and Boston to shut down their arc. And an approach to Swamp Thing that is pretty much the diametric opposite of the nuanced psychological horror work with the character that first put Alan Moore on the map thirty years ago. I enjoyed the ride and only considered dropping the book once or twice this past year, but now that I’ve come to the end (and, granted, had both big moments of these last two issues spoiled for me by nincompoops), kind of wish I’d spent my $74 on something else.

ACTION COMICS #900—This beast. Hard to know where to start with this thing. I guess we’ll go in order. Okay, deep breath.

First of all, what we have here is the finale to the Lex Luthor story that’s been running since #890, and I’ve made no secret of really enjoying it every step of the way. However. In addition to being Part 11 to THE BLACK RING, this is also Part 6 to a Doomsday story that’s been running through a bunch of random titles this month. How is this thing going to read in trade? It’s ridiculous. Completely out of nowhere, we have Steel and Superboy and Supergirl and Cyborg Hank Henshaw Superman and maybe the Superman 1,000,000 of the 853rd Century I want to say? suddenly duking it out with an uberDoomsday. What should be a huge moment, Superman returning to this title for the first time in almost a year, is completely undercut by the feeling that I’ve picked up the wrong book because what the hell is going on here and where’s the star of the show I’ve been following all this time? Luthor does not appear until Page 8 and exits the stage with another eight pages still to go. Meaning in a 51-page climax, our protagonist does not appear for fifteen pages. That’s a third of the story! And then we’re supposed to just accept it and barrel on into the next big thing, the premise of which seems more than a bit laughable at first blush. I don’t know. It was better the second time, but still quite a disappointment. Interested to see what Cornell’s going to do now that the big guy’s back, but, bummer.

And then my man Lindelof shows up and crushes ten pages with Ryan Sook. The end of this thing hit me in the gut. Like, it hit me almost as hard the second time back through, when I knew exactly what was coming. Powerful stuff. As far as Lindelof goes, this is pretty standard L O S T fare, the season has just started and here’s a situation that we don’t fully understand at first and hey who are these guys, what exactly are they talking about? and then he drops the bomb, oh my gods, we’re on the Island and it’s the 70s! That controlled disorientation seems to be the main weapon Lindelof has in his narrative arsenal, but I guess as long as it keeps blowing people up, he’s getting the job done.

The Dini story was kind of weird, I didn’t really see the point.

The Johns/Frank thing was such a tease! I was loving it, turned to that double-page spread and was all pumped for what was going to happen next, all kinds of great banter just around the corner. But, no, that was it. Fill in the blanks yourself.

And then we come to the nine pages that everyone’s talking about. Taken on its own, the story made sense to me. The ending was a bit hokey. I think it was pretty brave of DC to greenlight it. They had to be expecting a backlash. I guess. I mean, I would think that something like that, they would realize that it was a really big deal and kind of be ready with the hype and spin, but it seems like they were caught flat-footed. Can’t believe they threw that switch and came back with, “We have no plans to follow up on this.” Really? Then why do it in the first place? Can’t fathom it.

The Donner storyboards, wish they would have just gotten Sean Chen or someone to draw sequentials, it was a decent story, but came across as filler in this format after the rest.

Quite the bargain for $6, though, I have to say!

BEST OF WEEK is too close to call. It totally would have been ACTION, but that Doomsday malarkey soured me. The first three I read were all pretty wonderful and would have taken it any other week if not for the presence of the other two.