THE RED WING #1—Hickman and a crew of folks he appears to have materialized from out of nowhere show up with a tale that’s interesting and engaging from the get-go. I dug the opening scene that hits the chronal wall and cuts to four pages of white, even more striking than Brubaker/Phillips/Staples pulling some of the same pacing malarkey over on CRIMINAL. My only marginal complaint is that this first issue’s so heavy on the coolness of time-travel fighter pilots, it’s a little light on character development. But, you know, with this much crazy bursting forth, I don’t actually need that much, and have faith that Hickman will deliver. He does have a thing for the time-traveling fathers in absentia, though, doesn’t he?
FF #6—Mm, well, one cool thing about this coming out bi-weekly is that we can just take the whole issue to hang out with the Inhumans and not miss our regular cast too badly. Tocchini provides solid pages, though they didn’t move me quite as heavily as the past couple issues of Kitson. This one didn’t blow me away as much as the rest of the series has been doing, but served as an interesting quasi-retcon for Black Bolt that I’m sure will yield pretty serious business in the months to come.
THE NEW AVENGERS #14—Bendis and crew continue to hammer out the tie-in goodness. Believable almost-exit from Pete dialogued to perfection, as usual. Mockingbird whupping ass up on some giant Nazi robots, Luke Cage subbing in for Pete on a Fastball Special, the Merry Marvel Magnificence we’ve all come to expect, or at least hope for, hey.
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #625—These folks continue to tear it up. Gorgeous colors on this tale that makes us continue to root for Boy Loki, little shit though he be. This has already got to be one of the most underrated books Marvel puts out, serious quality.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #1—Weeeeell, I guess there’s a movie coming out, so never mind the organic character-driven motion that Brubaker’s been pumping out month after month for six years and change. Change should probably be in quotes. Baaaaah! So, corporate/editorial mandate kvetching aside, this is actually, of course, still a really wonderful issue, and certainly what you want to put in the hands of all the kids and adults streaming into the store after watching Chris Evans hurl his red, white & blue hunk of vibranium about. McNiven knocks it down, as ever, staged a really cool kind of homage to Steranko on that page where the action kicks in and Steve starts running and all of a sudden it looks like a STRANGE TALES cover with Nick, Dum-Dum, and Sharon in the background (and, okay, talking the Cap movie and Nick Fury, HOW could they miss the chance to have Samuel L. back in WWII kicking ass with the Howling Commandos? It Does Not Make Sense. They already paid him, what $20 million for nine movies, what is there a stipulation in the contract that says he can only appear in two minutes of half of them? Infinity Formula, son!). But yeah, this is a really solid new #1 that actually feels tonally just about exactly like the last Brubaker #1, minus the jaw-dropping Holy Shit murdering the Red Skull on the last page moment.
THE UNWRITTEN #27—Another solid entry in the canon. I’m digging the Tinker and curious to see how this riff on Golden Age creation plays out against the main narrative.
BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT #3—Wow. It’s been over six months since #1 of this came out. Seems pretty wild that Finch got this thing greenlit, well, much more so that he’s going to survive September, even with bringing Milligan on. I mean, of all the titles, I’ll be stunned if this and JL make it to six issues. Moreso this. But how’s the issue? Mm, it still takes maybe five minutes to read, there’s a ton of great hyper-detailed quasi-Jim Lee linework, and there’s another dramatic character reveal burning up the last two pages, though I’m not sure who it is. Not terrible, but nowhere near the crushing experiences I’m receiving in Gotham from other sources.
GREEN LANTERN#67—Wow, can’t believe that this ending didn’t get spoiled. A pretty surprising shakeup to the status quo. I’m, yeah, really interested to see where Johns is going to take this next. Mahnke is still a hoss.
AMERICAN VAMPIRE: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST #2—Murphy/Stewart are really just stunning. Vampire Nazis and why not, of course! Snyder gives us another installment demonstrating that he’s a storyteller of the highest caliber. Quite the rookie season this fella’s had.
DETECTIVE COMICS #879—Francavilla colors, too?!? This guy is an animal. Yeah, Snyder just pretty much wants this book to be about Jim Gordon and then offers definitive proof on a monthly basis as to why that’s a wonderful idea. And of course, the fuse gets lit at the end of this one, Gordon’s next move is going to be interesting to behold. Just one more issue until the relaunch, right? And Jock is back. Should be a hell of a thing.
FLASHPOINT: FRANKENSTEIN AND THE CREATURES OF THE UNKNOWN #2—Lemire and friends continue to dish out the creature commando goodness. Not setting the medium on fire but tremendous fun. This is the only tie-in of the event I’m buying besides BATMAN, and that’s looking like the call here with just a little bit left to go down the stretch.
****
BEST OF WEEK: X-MEN: SCHISM #1—I barreled away from the horrah that was the post-Claremont ‘90s X-Men franchise as fast as anybody else, dipped my toe back in the water with Joe Mad for a minute, but it wasn’t until they brought Morrison over for NEW X-MEN that I came back in as a monthly reader. Then, right after he was out, Whedon & Cassaday started their run, which was certainly no less wonderful in my eyes for the fact that it appeared to have been created specifically to squeeze all of my nostalgia glands dry on a bi- or tri-monthly basis. By the time that beast finally tapered off, we had Fraction about ready to go on UNCANNY and Ellis picking up the slack on ASTONISHING, and then Gillen subbing in lately for Fraction and really just creaming everybody in a very few issues. Enter Jason Aaron. I haven’t hit any of his Marvel work because they’ve charged $4 for every single single he’s ever put out, and for whatever reason, I drew the line with him and Remender (much to my entertainment detriment, I’m sure). But I’m a huge fan of SCALPED and couldn’t resist checking this out to see what he’d do when he got the keys to the entire damn mansion. And, friends, it is a thing of beauty. Pitch-perfect character beats raining down like a hailstorm. I don’t think I’ve read better interaction between Scott and Logan ever. We even get a benday-dot flashback to a panel from the early 100s. Aaron doesn’t just nail it to the wall, he drags Pierce’s big old wooden X from UNCANNY #251 out of the Australian outback and crucifies that shit. And brings back Kid Omega. And introduces a new Black King of the Hellfire Club who is actually menacing and compelling. I’ve been digging on the franchise more and more in the past few years, and it looks like it’s in better hands than ever, here on the cusp of the next big wave. A stunning first issue.
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