3/28/12

BEST OF WEEK: FF#16—The epilogue issue. If this was classic Claremont UNCANNY, it would be ten pages of baseball and twelve pages of characters working out their feelings via long-winded and heavily stylized dialogue. Here, we have two versions of Franklin Richards giving each other nicknames, the corresponding versions of Valeria expressing their mutual dislike for one another via narrative captions and the miracle of time travel, the Torch inviting himself to move in with Spidey, because of course, a truly fantastic reveal with regard to a geosynchronous orbiting space station, and the secret of what Valeria whispered to Uncle Doom when shit was going down with the mad Celestials and Galactus and that last alternate Reed. As much a mission statement for what’s to come as respite from all that’s gone before, this glorious double-shot of sequential thunder from Hickman remains just about my favorite thing on the rack. So consistently rewarding.

DAREDEVIL #10—Though Waid and the Riveras certainly continue to blow it up with Matt Murdock. This is the second and final part of the battle with the Mole Man, some gorgeous fight choreography from Mister Paolo. And the radar-sense panels really don’t seem like they’re ever going to get old. Nice little twist on the Black Cat, I did not see that coming. Don’t let the crushing amount of hype turn you off this book. It completely surpasses it. This is about as good as corporate comics can get. Which is better than it sounds, fine fine work here, all around.

MORNING GLORIES #17—Otherwise known as The Talking Issue. Spencer takes yet another page out of the Lindelof playbook and follows up a devastating cliffhanger with no advancement whatsoever and instead revisits the events of the previous two issues from a different point of view, that of Jade and Ike sitting in the cave anchoring (or whatever) the bodies of our time wanderers. This is a Jade-centric episode that more than a little resembles Claire’s flashback from Season 3. In a good way. I have to say, between the dialogue and the way Eisma frames the shots, they keep this one moving along real well and make the entire issue pretty compelling. No mean feat, as it comes in at 34 pages for still just three measly dollahs! That’s almost eight dollars’ worth of Mighty Marvel Action! Rounding the bend of its second year, this book is as great as it’s ever been, which is no mean feat, considering how strongly it came out of the gate. Recommended for one and all.

THE UNWRITTEN #35.5—Yah, and this one was as crazy as expected. The story of a new character who winds up being one of the readers in The Grid and rocks a pivotal little set-up here in the epilogue of this pretty climactic arc. It will be interesting to see how what he does next plays in to the main narrative. Taking this book bi-weekly was definitely a gamble that we are now in a position to declare a success on every level.

SPACEMAN #5—Maybe the team behind 100 BULLETS deserves paper stock that is at least average? This is déjà vu, did I complain about this last month? Or wait, maybe it was for FAIREST or FABLES. Same difference, though, if it was across the board, I’d get it, but if Vertigo’s going to spring for decent quality paper for AMERICAN VAMPIRE, they really ought to do the same for this. I can even almost understand cutting costs for FABLES singles, that’s such a tradewaiting book for most folks, but something like this, the entire creative team of such a well-done and –regarded book reuniting for only nine issues, it seems to merit a bit better treatment. This installment was more of the same, top-drawer work from all parties. Sorry to only get four more of these, but can’t wait to see how it all turns out.

AMERICAN VAMPIRE #25—Snyder and Albuqeurque serve up the last part of “Death Race,” which might actually feature my favorite protagonist to date, particularly in light of that last shot. Really strong material before we dial back into the main narrative for an event that will surely reverberate in the months to come.

FLASH #7—I didn’t feel like too much went down in this one, but they still managed to serve up two or three shots that make it worth picking up all on their own. And the consequences of Barry’s decision should make for compelling reading in the next little bit, here. Glad these guys aren’t going anywhere for some time.

UNCANNY X-FORCE #23—I’m still not quite acclimated to Tocchini’s style here, but the breakneck pace of the story more than makes up for it. We get an fairly insane resolution to this arc that sees the stakes ramp up to such an exponential high, it just about beggars the imagination. In this one, our heroes really do have only a few seconds to Save Everything, but to do it, they have to commit an action that is almost unimaginable. Remender delivers all of this madness via character work with Psylocke that continues what has turned into the best and most engaging run in her history. Two years in, this one is showing no signs of flagging. I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next.

NEW AVENGERS #23—And just under the wire, we get the last of the whole DARK REIGN 2.0 in before the next thing happens. This was fine. As much as I’ve ever cared about Skaar. Which isn’t really saying so much. Deodato remains a hoss.

AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #0—And is time! The Big Event is Upon Us! This right here is a prequel containing two stories that set up this story’s two female protagonists. Art on both by Cho. Bendis catches us up with The Scarlet Witch, who hasn’t been seen in some time, while Aaron checks us back in with Episode #47 of Rebelling Against Cyclops with Hope. There really was some nice tandem thematically between the two stories, they function very well as inversions of one another and are richer reading experiences due to their juxtaposition in a single periodical. Bendis has Vision put the Total Shutdown on poor Wanda while Aaron throws some none-too-subtle Eve parallels on our girl Hope (she fights the Serpent Society, for God’s sake). Cho certainly draws some beautiful faces, but his figurework comes across as a bit stiff in places here where I think we could use a bit more dynamism. Still, this book is pretty enjoyable and does a fine job of executing its mission parameters, bringing us up to speed for The Big Event XII (or whatever we’re up to now).

AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #1—Aaaaaaand the trusty LCS either didn’t realize or ignored (I’m going to go with the former) the whole street date situation, so after being furious that Marvel was throwing down four Bendis Avengers in one week (I abstained from the Vision-centric AVENGERS #24.1 [I mean, really, didn’t Hitch do a #12.1 last year?] and went ahead and with a heavy heart dropped Fraction THOR because it was yet another fill-in artist for a $4 20-pgr), I still picked this up and thought it was a very solid first issue. Which I guess we should suspect, Bendis’s SECRET INVASION #1 is the best first issue of this kind of thing that I’ve ever run across, as much of a mess as the series turned out to be. But yeah, we get Big Saving New York Action with the Avengers, a bit of check-in character building on Utopia with our merry mutants, then Steve & Tony break it down for Obama (which, this briefing made me totally pine for a montage of good old 44’s reaction to all the major catastrophic situations of Marvel days of yore. “You say he’s got a helmet like a tuning fork . . . and he wants to eat the planet? That is unbelievable. Truly unbelievable.”), followed by a pitch-perfect conversation between Scott and Steve that escalates in all the right ways. My favorite part of the issue was the look on Namor’s face when Cyke throws down the gauntlet, the bemused respect. Great work from Johnny RomRom, really cool to see him reconciling his classic mid-80s run alongside Claremont with his more recent work relaunching the flagship alongside Bendis post-SIEGE. This one also does everything that it’s supposed to do. The fact that five such excellent writers are passing this one back and forth between them gives me a great deal of hope that the narrative fumbles that have plagued Marvel events in the past decade will not recur here.


!EMERGENCY ALERT!: As we were going to press here at Wednesday Night Mass, your Excited Editor has learned of the very real and true possibility that the third issue of the new CASANOVA finally came out last week! If so, it was certainly the greatest thing that happened, in any and every medium! Stay tuned for further developments!