10/17/12

BEST OF WEEK: THE ZAUCER OF ZILK #1—So, I don’t read the solicits, and this resulted in the glorious surprise of walking into the store Wednesday afternoon and stumbling upon 32 majestic pages of raw Brendan McCarthy magic. I had been meaning to track down the 2000 ADs that originally serialized the story a few months back, but this is much better, $4, no ads, nothing but the magic. I can’t honestly say there are really any surprises in here, as McCarthy has trained us to expect fantastic explosions of polychromatic glory and otherdimensional madness at every turn, and with that as a given, there’s not really much that’s out of bounds unless he just like upends his palette and goes in a completely different direction. Which I’m certainly not asking for, more of this until the end of time will be fine. Our protagonist is kind of like The Doctor if The Doctor was a narcissistic aristocrat dick of a prince, and then he’s got to save his little text-message-speaking shorthand-named 2+2 (“Tutu”) from his nemesis. Across time and space, no-worlds and un-time! This story is certainly not for everyone, but if you’re the sort who thinks taking psychedelic mushrooms watered with Grant Morrison’s blood might at long last earn you access to the secret omni-dimensional garden of great ideas, then this is for you.

CHEW #29—Yet another installment of one of the most original and entertaining books on the rack, these boys still seem to be ramping things up even though they’re almost to the halfway point. Once again, Poyo manages to steal the entire issue with only a double-page splash to his name. POYO! Layman continues to just barely ease the title character back into the fold, actually giving Tony a page to himself this month out before tossing him back off-panel to let the supporting cast shine. It really hurts me when twin sister Toni takes a bite out of people’s shoulders, I can’t believe that keeps happening. And we get yet another power-set. At this point, I’m really curious as to whether or not all of these diverse and very inventive attributes are going to coalesce into any formal sort of factional situation or if they’re just going to remain plot drivers for these very entertaining one-offs. Next issue will be massive.

GLORY #29—Strong characterization this time out for little sister Nanaja, which really ramps this series up, the conflict between the two of them. Keatinge tones down the action and really digs in to the characters. It’s a risky call but it works for me, I’m a bit more invested in not just the hybrid girls but good old Henry and Glory’s new boyfriend. Though I could maybe stand to unsee that shot of them in bed together.

WONDER WOMAN #13—I was hoping to get just a liiiiiittle more follow-up on the big last page of #12 after two months of waiting, but of course Azzarello is happy to keep stringing us along with next to nothing on the Fourth World front. Tony Akins continues to turn in very competent work that would be perfectly satisfactory on its own merits if he wasn’t filling in for Chiang. This was solid but a bit of a letdown after waiting through the zero month for just a bit more Kirby in my Wednesday night diet.

BATWOMAN #13—I stumbled into a perfect little Amazonian hat trick here without even trying to program it. This is again nothing less than breathtaking art, every single page. Or double-page spread, I should say. Big respect to DC for not breaking up the flow of the story once with ads and letting the narrative run uninterrupted. You could burn a thousand words on each and every double-page spread, there’s a ridiculous amount going on in all of them. That labyrinth might be my favorite, though the black one where they’re covered by worms and there are many more words than should ever in all rationality be on a comic book page is a good un. It’s going to be a shame when Williams quits doing the art on this book, but I won’t be able to look away while he’s still on it. Just ridiculous work.

MINUTEMEN #4—All right, yes, this is clearly the tale of the team’s loss of innocence and transition into the retired broken-down husks chronicled in Hollis Mason’s bestselling UNDER THE HOOD, which of course gives the framing device much more resonance. This is all pretty well done, writing and art are top-notch. You just come away from the reading experience feeling pretty dirty. Not unlike the effect hypothetically produced by stumbling across the P.I. concealed camera photographs of the cast of THE NEW FRONTIER’s raunchy sex lives. I didn’t really need to know the secret origin of The Silhouette that badly.

NEW AVENGERS #31—Well of course, I should have known that Bendis wouldn’t be done with Cage/Jones until the very last page of his run on this title. Which hopefully will not bring the couple full-circle back around to ALIAS #1. Though you have to wonder/worry with old Gaydos suddenly back in the fold. Even though we get the two main Bendis tics here, our heroes sitting down to a meal with heaping side-orders of dialogue, as well as fifteen static-shot panels in a row while two guys have a conversation, this issue feels a bit more substantive than last week’s issue of the main title.

DAREDEVIL #19—This is that rare book that spoils its last page on the cover and still manages to take you completely by surprise. Waid begins his second year on the title with the same breakneck pace to which we’ve grown accustomed. Samnee/Rodriguez continue to provide gorgeous vistas that never stop pushing the narrative forward, as much as the reader wants to stop and just take a bath in them. It is interesting to note that for all the talk about this title’s tone surfacing from the abject misery that has dominated the character since Frank Miller first brought us the ballad of Elektra Natchios, lo, these thirty-two years ago, as bouncy and fun as it was when it started, at this point we’ve got Matt just barely recovering from doubting his sanity, Foggy convinced enough that he’s craaaazy to have not only terminated the partnership but sell him out to his Assistant DA girlfriend so that she can set up a citywide manhunt and Ol’ Hornhead’s head disembodied and at the mercy of a former C-list villain. Macabre!

HAWKEYE #3—I didn’t think this one had any room to get better. Everyone involved continues to absolutely murder it. The tone is perfect, Clint’s voice really shines through in the narration. Fraction builds an entertaining yarn via the countdown of bad decisions playing against the goofy wonderfulness of all the trick arrows and how these things affect our dynamic duo, who remain simultaneously one of the best and most forehead-slappingly obvious ideas for a pairing that anyone has had in some time. Aja is a force, perfectly complemented by Hollingsworth, whose restrained palette suits the stripped-down tone of this book to a tee. Believe the hype, people, all the people screaming from the mountaintop after two or three issues aren’t just raving madmen, or they have a really good reason, I should maybe say. Most schools of thought will probably put this as BEST OF WEEK, though I stand by my omni-d phantasmagoria. But, come on. The single-panel return of his most famous costume, alone.