BEST OF WEEK: FANTASTIC FOUR #604—I read this issue with a growing amount of dread and trepidation that cycled back and fed upon itself with every successive page. As I have noted in this space for the last few installments, there has been a strong feeling within the past few issues of this run that this story has been hurtling toward its logical end. Conclusive narrative gravitation, if you will. Which is a tricky thing on Marvel’s original flagship superhero serial. I mean, it’s not like they’re just going to quietly tuck this one in and give it the royal sendoff. The next logical conclusion was that Hickman was dropping the mic, blowing up everything on his way out the door Morrison-style and best of luck to the poor chump next month. This scenario seems most likely from the cover on, which is just the kind of generic team shot usually reserved for the first or last issue of an arc or run. It didn’t help when all that Kirby Krackle started erupting between Franklin and the Celestials. Or when Nathaniel makes direct reference to Reed going through the bridge way back in that very first arc, the DARK REIGN mini before they even let Hickman on the main book. And the hits keep on coming. That page about your children simply becoming who they’re going to be followed by those two pages of insanity. “TO ME . . . MY GALACTUS!” is some of the craziest shit that has ever gone down in this book, and that is really saying something. I love the flip on the consequences of our Reed choosing differently than all of his counterparts. And all the different shots of the extensive ensemble that Hickman has introduced and co-opted all pausing to watch the second sun, just a hell of a montage, there. Though what a final scene. Devastating imagery. Better than anyone since the initial glorious run, Hickman has drilled down into the beating heart of this book. What makes it work is not all the mad-science trappings, Negative Zones and Ultimate Nullifiers and Latverian despots. It’s the simple and eternal connections between family.
I made it to the end of the story. It didn’t actually say THE END, but the last page was all black and just had THE FANTASTIC FOUR logo with a 4. About as definitive and ending as we’re going to get from a #604 when there has to be a #605 coming the next month. Then we turn the page to an epilogue that’s a callback to the prologue from #570, Hickman’s first issue on the main title. It was perfect. I was crushed. Probably my favorite run of modern-day serial comics had come to a conclusion and provided satisfaction on every level, three years’ worth of plot threads spiraling up and around each other culminating in a resolution that naturally follow from all that had gone before and still managed to take my breath away. One of the best series finales I’ve ever made it through. I was gutted.
But oh look, Hickman’s still writing both books next month. Just on to the next tale. Cannot begin to imagine what he’s got planned next.
LOCKE & KEY #5—Wow. On the way to a New Orleans con six weeks ago, my friend put the first volume of this series in my hands. I’ve been hearing the hype for months and months and dove in, curious to see if it could possibly live up to the blistering acclaim. It surpassed it. When we stopped at Lake Charles for lunch, I let the crew go on inside and stayed in the van because I couldn’t put down Volume 2. The bastard left Volumes 3 and 4 at his house, so I had to purchase them at the con immediately, rabid to find out what happened next. When I made it to the end of 4, knew there was no way I’d be waiting until the middle of summer for the aftermath of all of that. But #s 1 and 2 of Volume 5 were sold-out and out-of-print. Oh noes! It was only Monday night of this week that another dear friend pointed out that we could just digitally download them. Off to the races! Jammed #s 1 and 2 Monday night, 3 and 4 Tuesday night (store-bought singles, waiting for weeks to be read) and there I was, right in the middle of SXSW with #5 piping hot off the rack and waiting to be consumed. So, it’s hard to just review the single issue. And you might say that I am one who is given to hyperbole from time to time. But, at least until MAD MEN finally clocks back in this weekend, this might be my very favorite story that’s currently being serialized in any medium. It is five-star top-of-the-line knocking-every-issue-into-the-stratosphere just damn good comics. What if Stephen King had a son who was pretty much a master storyteller before his first issue ever came out and so there was no learning curve whatsoever, from the very beginning every story beat and character interaction and line of dialogue was perfectly resonant, presaging what is yet to come and calling back to what’s gone before with surgical precision, with symphonic rhapsody? And then he found the perfect artist? This is not only one of my favorite horror stories of all time, it’s one of my favorite, period.
Um, #5 of Volume 5 was really good. It’s going to be a long month.
SAGA #1—Gaaaaaah, this week just about blew me out, what a ridiculous level of quality. I can remember when I was ignoring his ULTIMATE X-MEN run and still picking up three monthly titles from him, but it’s been a couple years now since all that came to an end and Brian K. Vaughan’s published output dropped to nothing. He’s still been working on material, graphic novels and this, presumably, but I had forgotten how much I dig his beats, in-dialogue and the way that he paces a plot. He’s enticed Fiona Staples to blast off with him on this bold new adventure and lady makes it happen on every conceivable level. As much as I love the art, the species designs, the very human expressions on the aliens’ faces, the layouts, my favorite thing she does might be the hand-lettered narration. Beautiful work. The premise here is, if not boilerplate then fairly standard, as far as space opera goes. We’ve got a Romeo & Juliet-type situation and open the story with the birth of the child of the forbidden union. Then, everybody runs around and talks good. It’s basically as simple as that, but the creators imbue their alien characters with such a degree of (I can only describe it as) humanity that we’re onboard with them almost at once, fully engaged in their fairly serious dilemma. Probably my sole gripe is that the mom drops “retarded” as a pejorative, which, never mind how you feel about it, feels like such a 21st Century Earth bit of slang that it trapdoored me right out of the story for a second, there. Still, this is just ANOTHER new #1 that I’m so grateful to have, can’t believe how many tremendous new monthlies are falling out of the sky lately.
THE AVENGERS #24—PurpleOsbornHulk! Because why not. Storm speaking in contractions does not ring true for me. We’re finally done with Osborn? Kind of a silly way for him to go down after all this time, but whatever gets the job done. Bring on Simonson. Please.
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #635—Gillen continues to show off his chops here. Another fine and silly recap page. And plenty of work invested into each individual dreamer who we only meet for a page or two, the lad is earning his pounds for this work, yes.
GLORY #24—This one didn’t destroy me quite as much as last time, if only because I was expecting it to, the old sophomore jinx. Also, the mixed-breed between warring tribes bit fell a little flat for me this month after the SAGA. It was still solid work, Ross Campbell turns in some compelling draftsmanship and, again, really needs to be lauded for his refusal to adhere to the decades-old stereotype of drawing a bunch of women with D-cups rocking brokeback poses.
CONAN #2—The first issue blew everything out of the water the week that it came out, and I think I like this one better. Wood continues to balance just enough Courier captions to give us a flavor of Howard’s original source material but still provide the images of this more visual medium a chance to breathe. To sing, even. Cloonan again turns in work that is the equal of her formidable output to date, really doing a fine job of imbuing her protagonist with body language and facial expressions that convey his youth and arrogance, an interesting variation on the chiseled Frazetta barbarian that everyone knows and loves. And, yeah, a last page that leaves you wanting more immediately. Also, again, enjoyed that Two-Gun Bob strip, the words he was writing interesting enough before you make it to the end and find out to whom the letter is addressed.
MOUSE GUARD: THE BLACK AXE #4—Quite some time after #3, David Petersen finally delivers the next piece of his third volume and it is well worth the wait. Some beautiful rendering here, you can definitely see how the battle with the fox took much longer to draw than previous issues. Beautiful work, but I’ve got to say that I’m ready to get back to the present. Or 1152, whenever the first two volumes took place. It is past time for Spring 1153.
THE UNWRITTEN #35—Um, wow. I thought this was running 50 issues? Maybe that was a pre-.5 issues plan, don’t see now how there could be more than one epilogue arc to go. Huge payoffs and business going down, prehistoric secret origins revealed, people and wands and guns melting into words just all over the place. Very satisfying. I guess #35.5 is probably going to be a hell of a thing. I’m interested to see what they’ll do next, this has been quite the ride.
BATMAN AND ROBIN #7—This ballistic arc roars on with an aerial batmobile/tank crashing through the walls at the last possible second. It seemed to come to a conclusion but then we get another twist on the last page, there. Gleason’s work is starting to look a bit strained if you go back and compare the linework to #1, but kudos to him for maintaining the monthly grind. There were a couple of terrible lines in this that I really can’t believe came from Tomasi, Batman’s “BLEED . . . BADLY” bit and then Damian’s last line. Clichés are pretty much never the way you want to leave off with your reader on the last page, no matter how clever they are, and this one simply wasn’t. Don’t know how that came out of him. This book is still holding its own in a very crowded and strong line of Batman family books, though.
FRANKENSTEIN, AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E #7—Fine work here, Lemire and Ponticelli turn in one of their best issues yet. Going to be a shame to lose Lemire on this one, but I’ll probably hang out and give his buddy a chance.
GREEN LANTERN #7—Mahnke/Alamy return as we launch into Part 1 of the next thing. I don’t know, Carol’s Star Sapphire again, Black Hand returns . . . I didn’t really care when those things happened the first time. This run looks like it’s starting to eat itself. Lately, I’ve been dropping mainstream superhero titles I’ve been picking up out of habit and shifting more in the direction of creator-owned. This run that I’ve been picking up for seven years now might be next.
BATWOMAN #7—This book is suffering from spoiling us with JHW3 interiors for a few months in a row out of the gate. I know that those pages aren’t anywhere near monthly work, but I hoped that the massive lead-time (#1 was originally solicited for Feb 2011, no?) would have given us more than five issues in a row. Which wouldn’t be such a big deal if I was more into this art. It might be worse that Reeder is trying to mimic Williams’s innovative layouts, which only serves to highlight the massive discrepancies in their styles. Or maybe I’m just not feeling the inks and colors. Also, the jumping between timelines and characters. Like I said last month, I’m all about it when it serves a purpose, tightens up the dramatic tension, but so far it’s just a series of scenes that seem thrown out haphazardly and haven’t had a chance to connect up after forty pages, now. I was almost getting into it toward the end there, oh no, she’s got to go steal Croc from Maggie, that could be cool, but then scene-shift to the present, a confrontation I don’t care about and limp cliffhanger to take us out. I read that someone else was taking over art for #9, meaning JHW3 isn’t coming back next. I don’t know, I might bench this one until he does.
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