FF #4—So, Barry Kitson is about as good of a fill-in artist as you could ever score. I actually got to the end of the second page and was like, Steve who? Totally blanked on the regular guy’s last name, which seems should maybe be the omega-level goal of any serious pinchhitter. The plot thickens to great hilarity at the Anti-Reed council. That page about Diablo liking those Reeds is priceless. Also the second last-panel-no-dialogue facial expression that Kitson just nails. Cool to see Alex Power nonchalantly suited up in the Gee uniform, after all this time. Still really really loving this. Hickman Hickman, hyperbole3.
THE MIGHTY THOR #2—A gorgeous issue that’s pretty much set-up for the slugfest to follow. Who will win? Who SHOULD win? Debate amongst yourselves.
UNCANNY X-MEN #537—Yeah, man, Gillen keeps nailing the tone of this, charting a nice line from Morrison’s run on NEW X MEN to Whedon/Cassaday’s romp on ASTONISHING and straight on over here, by way of Ellis and Fraction. Strong talent. The Dodsons continue to draw the beautiful. And oh noes! How will we get out of THIS ONE??!??
CAPTAIN AMERICA #618—Interesting structure here that I might or might not have remarked upon last month. The book costs $3.99, except instead of serving up the standard Marvel 22 pages, Brubaker drops three interrelated stories here, two six-pagers with art by Chris Samnee that bookend 18 pages of Bucky with pencils by Guice. Given the global scale of the current arc, it really works. It’s not looking good for poor ol’ Buck, but Natasha’s officially gone rogue, so I don’t think we should sweat it too much.
KIRBY: GENESIS #0—I’m about seven months into a serious Kirby bender, so have got to be the ideal demographic for this, meaning there’s almost no way to be objective about it. I mean, give me The King at his drawing board smoking his pipe on Page One and I’m pretty much yours, you can even keep the krackle down to a minimum at that point. This isn’t as much a single story as an overview, an overture, calling out the introductory themes of all this cosmic insanity that’s going to be coming our way here in the next little bit. And right here on the page, it promises to be quite a ride.
AMERICAN VAMPIRE #15—This arc’s leaving me a bit cold. The art is, as ever, stunning, but Snyder’s not really plugging me into the characters as much as I’ve grown to expect him to. That’s all right, keep holding the line at $2.99!
GREEN LANTERN #66—I’m digging this about as much as someone who’s skipping the other two tie-ins could be. Pretty rocking Chapters 1, 4, and 7. It doesn’t hurt that I just started crashing through Kelly/Mahnke’s excellent post-Waid/Hitch run on JLA and am finding interesting alignments in what Mahnke was doing then compared to where he’s at now, post-FINAL CRISIS SUPERMAN BEYOND 3D. It’s a shame about Mogo. I hear.
ACTION COMICS #901—I just have no idea what went wrong. Who the hell is Kenneth Rocafort? Why did editorial think that he was the call to follow Pete Woods? Did Paul Cornell actually generate this arc? Reign of the Doomsdays? It smacks of editorial mandate. And is terrible. Not since Bill Mantlo took over ALPHA FLIGHT from Byrne has a title’s quality made such an insane plummet. Horrific. I pretty much want to bail out on this. Can’t believe after a year of looking forward to Cornell writing Superman, this is the result. Things were going so well just two months ago.
DETECTIVE COMICS #877—Yeah, Snyder and Jock continue to kill it. Not much to add. This is a Batman comic for Morrison haters. And lovers! That’s pretty much all of us.
****
BEST OF WEEK: STRANGE ADVENTURES #1—Well, I thought Pope had a story in here, too, so that was a shame, but other than that, just really loved this issue. Eight bucks, nine stories in seventy pages with a single ad amongst them. An anthology in which every story pulls its own weight. Reminds me of that old TIMEWARP series DC used to put out in the very early 80s, just good trashy done-in-eight-pages sci-fi. The 2000AD model, I guess. I’ve never heard of quite a few of these folks, and they all did a fine job. Peter Milligan’s story came with the creepy. Lemire, of course, brings the fucking thunder to Ultra the Multi-Alien, gives the impression of pretty much exploring the character to his/their fullest potential, or at least maximum emotional weight, in eight pages. I mean, I was loving this character when it was over and can’t think of a single thing to do with him that doesn’t simply diminish what Lemire accomplishes here. Kevin Colden’s “The Post-Modern Prometheus” was fantastic. Cornell’s “Saucer Country” was, interesting? Is there more to come? It definitely leaves you hanging in an uncomfortable way. Which very well might have been the point. And “Spaceman.” Azzarello is certainly a master of inhabiting his characters’ dialect. And does not care if the reader has no idea what is going on. Was the driver on Mars? One of the 17 kids engineered by Dr. Franklinstein? And isn’t that CNN newsanchor Megan Dietrich? I mean, Risso is a master. We all know that he can draw more than one female character. There are many, many women in 100 BULLETS. It’s odd that he went with this look. OR IS IT IN-STORY GENIUS? Tune in next issue! Or, wait. There's a next issue, right?
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