BEST OF MONTH: BATMAN #1—Crushing. I was expecting greatness but still got completely leveled by what these guys did. This was a perfect issue in every way. As a #1 pilot for new readers. As just the first part of a new Batman arc, establishing the status quo with just the right balance of exposition. The tone of Bruce Wayne’s voice in the captions, that whole GOTHAM IS… bit. The in medias res craziness of shutting down an Arkham breakout in SEVEN PAGES with the unlikeliest help of all (even though I totally fell for it, seemed like nothing more than picking up from where Morrison last left him). And Capullo/Glapion. My God. Such masterful storytelling. This was everything a relaunch issue should be. I liked it better than Morrison on ACTION. Very very well done, all around. Can’t wait for more.
WONDER WOMAN #1—Another pitch-perfect offering. Azzarello continues not to pull any punches in terms of reader accessibility, spells nothing out for you. But hey, we all know Diana, and can certainly deal with getting pitched into basically a horror comic with her. Complete with our own disposable Furies. Cliff Chiang turns in some all-star work, here. A very auspicious debut for our warrior princess.
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #1—Wait, is Glorith the Mysterious Hooded Lady that’s in every other book? That would be a strange play for the Trade Federation, particularly since the kids actually acknowledge FLASHPOINT in this one. Which makes no sense, I get that like Batman and GL aren’t all screwed up, but if a few little things altered Superman’s origin, it seems like that would be a catastrophic rewrite to Legion continuity one thousand years later. Bradbury’s butterfly effect, and all? As is, this might as well be #17 of Levitz’s run. The kids from the academy are even folded in. I don’t know, I think I might want to like Legion more than I have the ability to, or something, the stories are never bad, but they just aren’t locking in with me, seem totally disposable. Probably not sticking with this one, even though Portela handles the ensemble pretty well.
X-MEN: SCHISM #4—Really really good, I continue to be impressed by this mini, and certainly wasn’t expecting a dip with classic tag-team Davis/Farmer taking their shot at art duties. Aaron does a fine job ratcheting everything up without ever leaving the island, and just when it can’t get any more heated, Cyclops has got to go bringing up Jean without even mentioning her by name. Slugfest! And not because of misunderstanding, but because each guy totally wants to kill the other! These fellows are going to have lots of bad blood serving as teammates when this is all said and done.
GENERATION HOPE #11—I wish I’d read this before SCHISM, as it pretty much came across as classic tie-in filler. The kids stand on the beach and have their own micro-debate on whether they should stand or run before deciding to go tell Scott they’re X-Men, which I of course already read. Tim Seeley’s work is inconsistent, some pages are all right, sometimes it looks like the girls are kind of melting. It’s quite strange seeing Val Staples coloring mainstream superheroics, as opposed to CRIMINAL. Not bad, but not terribly consequential.
AVENGERS #17—The Avengers who aren’t doing important things in FEAR ITSELF run into Cage’s crew from their sister book and then Marvel Boy hacks the hell out of everything and saves the day. Excellent last page from Bendis, the sequential equivalent of Steve Rogers dropping the mic. The cover was totes ripoff, though, (!) not only did Hawkeye and Spider-Woman not do it amidst the wreckage of New York burning, they didn’t even kiss or nothing.
UNCANNY X-MEN #543—Nothing can stop Piotr Nikolaievitch. This one’s a bit thin, from the conflict resolution to the last scene. These two from Gillen tonight have not hit me as hard as usual, but it might really be because Aaron is just destroying over there. I guess FEAR ITSELF->SCHISM is the order? Really looking forward to SCHISM #5 in two weeks. Annoying that they are rebooting this with #1. Will it really sell THAT much better than #545? Is it worth it?
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #508—Mm, this one’s another tie-in casualty, not enough happens to justify having picked it up, we just get to the point we left Tony in FI #6, with only a couple of things along the way to make any kind of argument for having picked this up. And a Pepper cliffhanger and Tony Stark turning down his twelfth drink might not be it.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #3—Glad to hear Davis is signing up for this title, knew McNiven wasn’t long for the monthly grind. Considering bailing, though. Have come a long way with Brubaker, but $4 a month for twenty pages is garbage. Kind of thought he’d run out of gas by now, but if he’s got the stamina to keep telling Rogers tales, my wallet might not have the juice to keep up. Particularly with the double-down over on the old numbering with Samnee/Breitweiser. I’m getting kind of down on the $4 Marvel singles, if you can’t tell.
X-FACTOR #225—Nice to have another top-drawer artist on the team, Leonard Kirk does fine work. Strange to give Rictor his powers back in a different series. We’ve kind of been hanging out with him for a few years over in this one. Ho hum, another quality issue of X-FACTOR.
BUTCHER BAKER CANDLESTICKMAKER #3—I was expecting Ennis to dig the hooks in, and he doesn’t disappoint. Excellent, believable characterization all around. Oh, Butcher & Becky, why do you have to be doomed? It’s been a long time coming, but this insight into what makes Butcher tick is doing an excellent job of adding momentum to all the madness already going on over in the main title, heading into the home stretch. And Robertson is killing it, as ever. Not a THE BOYS mini to be skipped.
FABLES #109—It is a pretty dick move putting that ONCE UPON A TIME ad on the back inside cover of this comic book. Got to wonder what Willingham makes of that one. Well, how he articulates it, at least, I’ve got a pretty good idea what he thinks about it. Otherwise, another rock-solid issue of FABLES. All the pieces on the board get pushed a little further down the way after we get Ozma’s prophecy (I think?) repeated for us (from #100, I want to say, that whole thing was pretty crazy).
THE RED WING #3—I’m not always sure what’s going down in this thing, but shit usually seems to be coming apart six ways from Sunday two timestreams over, and it always looks beautiful doing it. I think this is another Invaders/Correctors from a Parallel Universe thing? I really wish I had fleshed out that idea when I had it a few years ago, before Hickman and FRINGE came along and blasted me into the stratosphere. Lots of concept for your four issues, hey.
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