4/11/12

BEST OF WEEK: FANTASTIC FOUR #605—All right, even I can grasp how implausible it’s getting to what a ridiculous extent Hickman is doing it for me. But it keeps happening! With the last issue of FF serving as a sort of palette-clearing sorbet epilogue to the massive three-year ride that finally pulled into the station, this issue is the proper first chapter to Whatever Comes Next, which turns out to be a fine summation of the issue, as Reed and his dad jump in their cloaked time sphere and make a series of millennium-sized hops to learn how the whole deal with Ben’s serum works out. The resultant fast-forward into the future of the team and New York itself is a fascinating glimpse that is over far too soon but incredibly rewarding. This functions as a microcosm of what makes this book’s initial premise so successful, opening up with blinding blasts of science wonder but then pirouetting mid-plane and resolving on the foundation of the beating heart of what really makes this series tick. Family. How we relate to our loved ones and the lengths to which we would go to save them. There were only a few words and panels by the time we made it to 6012, but they busted me up real real bad. Ron Garney, too, I’ve never really been a fan, but he provided beautiful scope for this far-reaching tale. Highly highly recommended, particularly as a drop-in issue. It’s kind of surprising that they didn’t go with this one for the .1 issue. This should still mostly crush you, even if this title hasn’t been one of your favorite books on the rack for months and months and months.

THE NEW AVENGERS #24—I had a pretty strong hunch based on the last pages of last issue that it was about time for a Luke Cage-centric. And, no problem, this guy remains one of Bendis’s favorites and gets a strong little blast here as he is reunited with wife and child but learns that, maybe not right this Big Event, but pretty soon now, he’s going to have to make a choice between family and the big show. Worth it for the single page where Luke & Jessica go back and forth for like three hundred words in a single image. Bendis! Tricky lettering, there. Well done. Deodato continues to thrill. This should be a fine ride for the next little bit here, from as far back as CIVIL WAR, Bendis has always delivered tie-in issues that are as good or surpass whatever’s going on in the main event. It will be a fine thing to make it on over to Iron Fist next month. Especially if “Dragon VS Phoenix” means he squares off against Hope and she kicks his teeth in with his own powers.

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #636—Another arc comes to a close and this series continues to provide a good time. I’m not sure what else to say, it’s nothing more or less than solid serial entertainment. Go, Kid Loki.

SECRET #1—Hickman’s proud march back to the swamps of creator-owned indie that spawned him continues with the release of this first issue. The scenes are razor-sharp, clearly crafted by someone at the tip-top of his game in terms of building narrative, but I didn’t think Ryan Bodenheim’s art quite rose to the challenge. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t offensive, just strained in a few places. Whereas with Nick Pitarra, you’re like, Where did he GET this guy? and it seems like dude can probably draw anything, this much more seems the product of Hickman headhunting indie talent and making someone’s dreams come true, hoping they rise to the challenge (which is funny, because that’s exactly what happened with Pitarra and THE RED WING). But this is still a compelling initial look at corporate security and espionage and I will be interested to see where they take it. Of course, you can chalk it up as just the skill set he showed up with, but Hickman’s got the best sense of graphic design of any writer working today.

SAGA #2—Well, the first issue wasn’t an insane fluke, this one’s probably going to go the distance. As if there was any doubt. Vaughan & Staples overcome the potential sophomore slump of such a devastating first issue with a second ride that settles into more of an even pace, mixing danger, humor, violence, and a spider monster assassin. My favorite part, though, has to be Vaughan’s deranged survey that he drops in lieu of a letters column. I burned forty-five minutes of New Comic Book reading time answering those twenty-five wonderful wonderful questions.

CONAN #3—Talk about compression. Here in the third issue, we arrive at the end of the beginning of this tale, a satisfying conclusion in and of itself, even though the reader, like Conan, thrills at what adventure now awaits our titular barbarian on the horizon. This issue succeeds on every level. We get massive plot advancement, but more importantly, deeper insight into the characters. Mainly Conan, of course, but even Bêlit, who gives an indication of being every bit as crucial to the unfolding of this tale as Juliet was to that famous play she was in that time. Ah, yeah, I kind of wish this had been called Conan & Bêlit, though that’s not a very Robert Howard title. I cannot speak with enough hyperbole about Cloonan and Stewart, they are turning in amazing work, page after page after page. Everyone should be freaking out about this quite a bit more than they actually are. Nothing short of stunning.

AMERICA’S GOT POWERS #1—Wow, and then Ross & Hitch show up with 38 pages for the $2.99 cover price. 38 PAGES OF HITCH INTERIORS. Face-melting. This one very much comes across as a Mark Millar comic that’s more concerned with characterization than the Awesome Idea that he just had that’s about to get a whole hell of a lot of that Hollywood option money coming in to keep his Scottish boat afloat. The title is, of course, terrible but a perfect reflection of its subject matter, a superhero reality show. Ross does a fine job tempering the widescreen Hitch sickness—which you of course always want to lead with if you’ve got the choice—with enough expository world-building to ground all the madness in just barely enough context. I’m not like slashing open my wrists at how great this is but will probably stick around for five more issues. Especially since, let’s be honest, it’s not like #s 5 and 6 are going to show up at solid four-week intervals after #4.

GLORY #25—Considering that almost this whole issue was a prophetic dream harbinger of what’s to come, it’s still pretty entertaining. Unlike SAGA this time out, though, these guys haven’t quite managed to hit me as continually hard as they did with the first issue. Good comics, certainly, but that #23 flattened me. I do like how EXTREME it is when people’s arms get ripped off. Nineties!

THE UNWRITTEN #36—So, the eponymous antagonist is basically a blank-page version of The Nothing from THE NEVERENDING STORY? That’s what I’m deriving from this done-in-one that serves as a continuation of all that business that was going on with The Tinker a little while back. And I’m okay with that. It really makes all kinds of sense. Really interested to get back to the main characters next month, see where they’re going now that the status quo just about climaxed itself. But now I have to wait four weeks! No mean feat, after providing new material every two weeks for eleven issues running, that we’re still hungry for more even after all of that.

FRANKENSTEIN, AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E #8—Oh man, Lemire/Ponticelli serve up a pretty crushing explanation of Where It All Went Wrong with Frank and his Bride. Rough, rough stuff. Was this Lemire’s last issue? If so, he could not have gone out on a higher note, fine work here on every level.

BATWOMAN #8—Yeeeeeeah, maybe this would read better in trade in a single shot, but the non-linear L O S T-esque timejumping does a massive disservice to consumption of this in singles. It’s not a complete mess, but if you’re going to go with delivering little slices of four discreet stories each time out, every single one of them absolutely must deliver and pull all kinds of weight that these just don’t manage. I’m getting more acclimated to Hadley’s style. Or more receptive of Williams not drawing this? Still planning to hang out, though, Williams has all kinds of goodwill accrued with me.

ACTUALLY, TIE! BEST OF WEEK, TOO: BATMAN AND ROBIN #8—Magnificent. In terms of action, this is nothing more than an epilogue, a coda to the main event. All that happens is Bruce rushes Damian back to Wayne Manor and Alfred patches him up and then they talk about what happened. But the characterization and dialogue is so rich, this one serves as the climax to the arc in all the ways that matter. Bruce and Damian come to terms with one another with grandfather Alfred presiding over the affair with all of the dapper grace and wit that we have come to expect. Tomasi’s spot-on characterization of these delicate exchanges is matched by Gleason/Gray, who have been blowing it up this entire time but never let up, really give it to us all the way up until the last exquisite page, which for my money can hang with any last page of any Batman story ever. Really, really beautiful work.