SUPERMAN FAMILY ADVENTURES #7—The toy angle is played out to
maximum hilarity as Toyman assaults the Fortress of Solitude with a gang of
Justice League action figures and My Little Pony analogues. I wonder if
Baltazar/Franco knew that this was coming out the same day as the debut of a
certain ponycentric toy property newly licensed by IDW? I feel like they work
so far ahead that it’s not that likely. The universe is a terrifying
latticework! This one’s also good fun because we get some some Tiny Titans action,
always a treat, but the real greatness is Kara’s over-the-top reaction to
Conor’s missing tooth. I would have been totally okay with nothing but a
no-conflict Kryptonian Tooth Fairy Party with the rest of the Titans for the
rest of the issue. UNCANNY X-MEN baseball game-style! Worth it for just whatever
three panels of Raven would be had.
Miller says: I like Supergirl in the issue and I like all
the ponies and the little bears. And Superman and Superboy. But their real
names are Kal-El and Conor and Kara Zor-El.
MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #1—All right, I’m about
as completely ignorant of this rebooted franchise as a child of the eighties
could be, but the little girl is alllllllll over it, so of course we’ve been
counting down the days until this issue hit, with me all the while explaining
the unnecessary evils behind variant covers and how you really do not need to
buy all twenty different offerings, the interior content is the same in each
and every one. I really have never hated variant covers as much in my life as I
have during the past four weeks. So how does the issue read to someone who
isn’t a fan clamoring for cutie marks? Pretty accessible. You can dial right
in, appreciate the rhythm of the back-and-forth between the characters, and there
are a crazy amount of allusions to other stories in various media, from the
Blues Brothers appearing in a splash page on a balcony above ponified versions
of the writer and artist (who are sporting Phoenix-force and Batman cutie
marks, respectively) to lines that are straight-up quotes from ROAD HOUSE or
allusions to the remake of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS or MAGNUM P.I.
There is a lot going on in here, even if you can’t tell your Twilight Sparkle
from a Rainbow Dash.
Miller says: Well, I really like the cover and I like
Twilight Sparkle talking and I like ponies and I really like the story. And
Princess Celestia and Spike, too.
SILK SPECTRE #4—It absolutely does not matter that this is a
few weeks late as Amanda Conner, abetted by Darwyn Cooke, completely sticks the
landing and brings the first and finest of these prequel minis to a close that
lives up to the promise of the excellent preceding three issues. Is it possible
that the colors improved over the course of the series? Paul Mounts started out
at Incredible and only went up, those tones are breathtaking. One of the best
pages is a montage wherein we revisit all the various art styles used over the
course of the book for single-panel shots of whatever Laurie’s thinking at any
given time, a trick that would have been jarring and inconceivable in the
original series but that completely conveys the scattershot lightning crackle
of a sixteen-year-old’s racing thoughts. When we’re done roaring through the
red cartoon Sally Jupiter devil, the orange-tinted romance comic, the blue
children’s book, the purple pirate comic, the yellow Tijuana Bible callback,
and the indigo high-fashion shot, it’s on to Munch’s “The Scream” and
Waterhouse’s “The Lady of Shallot” with nary a backward glance. An incredible
recap and single-page justification for this entire series to exist, Conner’s chameleonic
work here is a tour de force. Then, it’s on into some over-the-top slapstick
violence that is terribly jarring and would be much more at home in the pages
of something written by Ennis but that works for me in this setting. Pretty
insane escalation. The only false note of the entire series unfortunately takes
place during the next-to-last page when we’re finally at that ol’ Crimebusters
meeting once again but with a richer appreciation of Laurie as a character than
we’ve ever had, but then she starts internally appraising the other characters
in individual shots, dropping all these incredibly on-the-nose insights that
are absolute groaners since you know what’s going to happen, bits like how
Ozymandias is surely the sort of fellow who thinks he can change the world
without punching and kicking, or how Laurie could NEVER date a square like
Drieberg, or, wait for it, the Comedian looks “more like somebody’s old man.” The
quasi-redemption for this one-yard-line fumble comes in the last panel of the
page wherein we first see Janey Slater scowling in the direction of our younger
model’s POV and then turn the page to discover a new character motivation for
Laurie’s relationship with Dr. Manhattan that is a completely earned natural
outgrowth of everything that this series has been about since the first page.
This was damn fine work, all around, and I look forward to everything Mrs.
Conner produces in the months and years to come.
OZYMANDIAS #4—This one’s picking up steam as we learn about
Adrian’s connection to and support of JFK and see just what he was up to on
11/23/63. I’m really a fan of that dropping-circle thing Jae Lee’s got going
with the layouts, an innovative trick that honors Gibbons’s groundbreaking work
on the original series without emulating it. Like Kirby said, the most Kirby
thing to do is not draw like Jack Kirby, it’s to draw like no one else but
yourself, blaze your own trail. Wein burns the entire final three pages on that
same Crimebusters meeting that I guess must be like an editorial mandate to
work in on every series since it’s the only time that everyone was together,
but, as in #1, Wein unabashedly just straight-up throws down the Moore dialogue
for pages at a time and we just see WATCHMEN as Jae Lee would have drawn it.
Which, maybe I’m just taking off my blindfold here, but there’s something
really disgusting about that, filling up more than a couple of panels with the
original. Even if it’s original editor and industry legend Len Wein making that
call.
THE NEW AVENGERS #34—And so it ends. This one’s a bit more
personal than last week’s, to be expected, as Luke Cage & Jessica Jones
have been Bendis’s pet Avengers for most of his run. Dr. Strange fights Brother
of Brother Voodoo across astral planes, resulting in an artjam that is far less
cohesive and impressive than what showed up last week, though I did enjoy
Dalaymple and Cloonan’s pages. A nice bit of callback closure with Cage turning
a profit off the mansion out of Stark’s pocket followed by a killer double-page
splash montage of highlights of Bendis’s entire run that is pretty impressive
to look at, all of it right there in one image, and of course there is the
inevitable last dialogue-heavy page of the family and Squirrel Girl nanny
walking off into the sunset, but I wish I was a little bit more crushed by the
final issue of this longest run in franchise history that lasted eight years
and 232 issues (which, incidentally, I thought I had dialed out for more than I
did, but according to the cover gallery, the only Bendis Avengers I abstained
on at all was DARK AVENGERS and AVENGERS ASSEMBLE, meaning I rocked 212 of 232.
No small amount of dialogue beats! It was pretty cool to look through those covers
one by one and catch little flashes of what was going on in my life as the
months roared on by. Congratulations, Bendis.)
THE ALL-NEW X-MEN #2—The art on this remains top-drawer,
Immonen/Von Grawbadger/Gracia really deliver A-list material, while Bendis
keeps things humming along rather well, managing the crowded ensemble with much
greater finesse right off the bat, what with those 232 issues under his belt.
There are a couple of great lines in here that are the complete opposite of
those SILK SPECTRE groaners, Jean’s “You think I want to be dead and dating a
homicidal mutant terrorist?” and Warren not even wanting to know what happens
to him are hilarious. I wasn’t in any way sold on this as a premise, but these
guys are really making it work. I wish I could be strong and put my foot down
and refuse to buy twenty-page four-dollar overshipping Marvel books on moral
grounds, but when they make them this good, I just can’t help myself.
UNCANNY AVENGERS #2—All right, with the Oh Shit! out-of-nowhere
madness card already played in the first issue, I was curious to see what
Remender was going to do to advance the plot now that we’ve got some kind of
status quo to expect. Again, he takes a deft hand with his ensemble, providing
strong and convincing character work with the majority of the team Cap is
organically assembling before jumping over to Rogue and Scarlet Witch in the
hands of this first arc’s nefarious nemesis. As spot-on as the writing is, of
course I would just pick this up to look at Laura Martin coloring John Cassaday
on interiors. PLANETARY all day and night, y’all. Oh, and that other series
that Joss Whedon wrote all the smart words for. Good fun to see Whedon dress
Logan in his Days of Future Past jacket here, too.
FF #1—I might have liked this one even better than the main
title. So great to see the Allreds back on a regular Marvel gig. Tonally, it’s
going to take me a little while to lock in, though, just because I so associate
their style in this context with Milligan’s X-FORCE/X-STATIX and everything’s a
bit brighter and Silver Ageier here in the Baxter Building. Fraction cribs from
himself and throws in those interviewer POV shots that were such a hallmark of
the dearly departed THE ORDER. And I was unclear, I thought the entire Future
Foundation was hitting the space/time highway with the team, but I guess it’s
just Franklin & Val and all the other kids are staying behind in this book.
It’s hilarious to hear everyone keep repeating “Just in case” something goes
wrong, because we all know that if we’re going to get months and months’ worth
of adventures in this parallel title, the main team is going to be gone much
longer than four minutes. Congratulations to Fraction, Bagley, the Allreds,
Brevoort, and the rest of creative and editorial for keeping me not only buying
but excited about both of these titles after Hickman was done, because it just
shouldn’t have been possible. The $2.99 price-tag is also much appreciated.
CHEW #30—Evil evil evil twisted sick and evil bastard. And
heartless! How could I forget heartless? The next time Lucas changes EPISODE
IV, there’s going to be an added scene where Luke & Obi-Wan make it into
the back back room at the Mos Eisley Cantina and come face to face with the
real power behind the Hutts, the puppetmaster orchestrating all the corrupt and
horrific things that transpire daily on that Outer Rim desert planet, and his
name is John Layman. I can’t believe how much this issue affected me. Masterful
writing, because in hindsight, this outcome seems inevitable and quite
obviously foreshadowed, not only throughout this issue but at the very least on
the last page of last issue (and I suspect there are a few more examples in
earlier issues), but it came as a complete and utter shock on the first pass
through this one. A pair of shocks, really, if you count all the amputations,
and we probably ought to do that. What courage, what grace, what heroism. And all
that before the last page, which is crushing, really heartbreaking, payoff to what’s
until now appeared to be nothing more than a running gag for this arc that was suddenly exponentially
intensified by the fact that #27 was released out of order so that instead of
it being in the back of our heads for the last half year or what not, it’s been
like three times that long. Horrible horrible horrible. So damn sad.
(PS-the art was really good, too)
MORNING GLORIES #23—Spencer does not pull any punches or
really appear to feel like he needs to hold the reader’s hand in any way,
because I’m reeling through all of this and feel like I can handle your
fractured multiple-thread timehopping narrative better than the average bear.
Probably need to go back and do a marathon reread at some point. Eisma
continues to refine and streamline his business, delivering dynamic high-energy
shots of this crowded ensemble while never losing sight of delivering
substantive storytelling over stylized flash, which really makes a double-page
splash devastating when it does show up. Great depiction of this David chap too,
the way he’s drawn shot me right back to that trick Adrian Lyne used in JACOB’S
LADDER where the actors waved their heads back and forth at a low frame-rate,
then when the film was played at normal speed, the results were horrifying. So
good on ya, Joe!
FATALE #10—This continues the trend of providing no surprises
in the main story, Josephine brings everyone around her to ruin, but then
pulling the rug out from under us in the framing sequence. As ever, though, in
this book, the yield is in the journey not the destination. Phillips and
Stewart bring Brubaker’s beats to life in a dark world that is as unflinching
as it is immersive, true pulp greatness improbably springing to life eighty
years too late. And at long last, Jess Nevins returns to teach us more than we
ever imagined was possible about some hidden corner of the genre. Devil pulp is
the topic this month, and Nevins employs his customary encyclopedic level of
knowledge and hyper-keen insight to draw a straight line from Faustus and the
first femme fatale of 1772 right to ROSEMARY’S BABY and EVIL DEAD 2, a
double-feature if ever there was one.
PROPHET #31—This remains glorious insane and one of my
favorite books on the rack. There is science dripping off of these pages,
children! Graham and friends have quite the crew assembled but it’s still
tremendous to continually mine old Image characters from the nineties who have
no business being taken seriously ever and are instead redeemed into menacing
warriors of the future. Troll is actually scary, skulking about like that. Who
ever would have thunk it? And that’s even before he mentions Badrock. Noooo! I
am ridiculously jacked up over the notion of what these lunatics will do with Future
Badrock, cannot wait. And Diehard suddenly has this Snake Eyes-type mute badass
thing going on. The Breakout Character Find of 2012! That’s right, Diehard. I’m
can’t believe how good this book is.
MULTIPLE WARHEADS #2—But as crazed as PROPHET is, it’s still
actually work-for-hire, just work-for-hire on the bleeding edge of possibility.
For the true and actual mental illness, look no further than this blast of
unfiltered Brandon Graham. Dude writes, draws, colors, letters, the whole
n-chilada. And puns. There should probably be a credit for puns. They are a
freakshow, this whole thing’s got a witty, playful vibe about it. The splash
pages of buildings are beyond belief, you can stare at them for days. I’ve
jammed KING CITY in the month since #1, so am much more acclimated to what
Graham’s got going on here and it’s very impressive, the guy has a ridiculous
amount of talent, one of the most exciting creators I’ve happened across in
some time, don’t think I’ve been this gacked out and inspired since first
running across Paul Pope.
FLASH #14—The gorilla warfare heats up in the second part of
this arc. Apparently, Buccellatto is leaving pretty soon, which is a damn
shame, his colors on top of Manapul’s lines are hands-down the best reason to
buy this book, such dynamic energetic imagery, which is to me is the most important
part of telling this character in particular’s story. The dialogue between the
rogues was a bit strained, conflict for conflict’s sake. But this was maybe my
favorite title page of the entire series, these guys must just be smoking THE
SPIRIT pages while they’re laying this business out.
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #14—Graham Nolan of KNIGHTFALL fame,
abetted by Victor Drujiniu on finishes, do a fine job pinch-hitting for Mikel
Janin, whose lush style has gone a long way toward defining this book. Poor
fella finally needed a break after thirteen straight issues. Nothing too
seismic happens here, Lemire moves things along well enough. Frank and Orchid
and Amy foolishly enter the House of Mystery and are of course assaulted.
Orchid stumbles upon one of those secret rooms Geoff Johns keeps where he’s got
all these really tantalizing hints about future plot beats on a board in
Post-it notes. I think I liked Rip Hunter’s chalkboard better. This series is
all right, but the news about HELLBLAZER getting cancelled kind of leaves a bad
taste in my mouth, at least every time Constantine lights a cigarette.
AMERICAN VAMPIRE #33—Snyder/Albuquerque bring it all roaring
to a finish. No big surprises here, the beats fall about where you’d expect
them. I mean, the cover alone. But characterization is consistent and the
energy of Albuquerque’s lines is more savage than ever. Sorry to see this one
heading out to pasture for a while.
I’m really pretty wild for every
beat of this thing. Morrison packs in so much into every single panel and
interaction. You get months’ worth of characterization and depth in just those
first six panels of Damian interacting with Barbara once he makes it into the
asylum. That look on Damian’s face when he’s talking to Alfred, love filtered through
all the madness he’s endured just to last this long. Oh, and the “grubby
madhouse from grubby madmen” line is such a bull’s-eye that it about melted me
down. As far as Damian has come, he is still that same little aristocratic
piece of shit he was when he was first showed up in The Cave at age ten, insisting
on only referring to his father’s surrogate father as Pennyworth. I find that
kind of consistency terribly poignant.
Is that Superman in the Oval Office? It’s not overly apparent, and there’s only the two panels, but that was my first reaction to seeing that first shot. It would be quintessential Morrison to make Kal-El the unnamed president in this future, particularly in light of the decision that he makes and how it functions as an inversion to the final installment of Miller’s masterpiece, THE DARK KNIGHT FALLS. And of course, Damian’s nemesis The Devil returns for the last blast. Still wearing the face of Dr. Simon Hurt, it looks like? I really can’t believe that this entire final glimpse into this future is begun and done in a mere seventeen pages with one page present-day in front and two afterward to frame it. So much going on. That shot outside the front doors of Arkham is something to see, the last stand of Batman and his irregulars (featuring Jackanapes and even a quite elderly version of Flamingo, that pink fellow from way back in BATMAN & ROBIN #4).
And then there’s the following page, flawless work from Burnham
which I won’t discuss, but what I will talk about is the greatness of the
layout of that following page, the way the aftermath of the flash-forward
climax resolves into the broken orange panel background that falls away as we
zoom out, of course making the shape of a bat on its way down before leaving us
with a long long shot of father and son alone in a background of no-panel white
space, all of Damian’s barriers and defense mechanisms wide open as he can only
whisper his fondest wish, to stay in the big house with his daddy forever and
for all time, this sudden and affecting moment immediately disrupted by a
distress signal coming over the emergency channel forbidding the reader from
lingering but compelling us to turn the page to see who’s in trouble or what
the next clue might be, when or where is the next deathtrap going to be sprung,
or maybe even why the villain set it in the first place, to find out what
happens next.
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