4/10/13

BEST OF WEEK: BATMAN AND ROBIN #19 — And the grieving process continues! This looks to be the first of a five-part arc, if the Kübler-Ross-implying title is anything to go by. Carrie Kelly gets a solid opening page in the New 52, quoting “Cymbeline” and dumping pizza on a lecherous passing driver, establishing her as a young lady of above-average intelligence who isn’t going to take shit off of anybody. I do wish we didn’t have the footnote telling us what Shakespeare play it is. The quotes are enough that we’re not going to mistakenly attribute the dialogue to Tomasi and it would be more fun to have to look it up and find out than have them just give it to us there in the first panel (that particular play is certainly a bit too esoteric for me to spot). The relative rarity of the selection makes it an interesting choice meriting further investigation. Shakespeare listed it as a Tragedie in the First Folio, actually the last one in sequence. 36 OF A 36-ISSUE LIMITED SERIES, as it were. Modern-day critics lump it in with the romances. It deals with issues of innocence and jealousy. Potential subtext to consider, going forward.

Tomasi hits another pitch-perfect exchange between Alfred & Bruce there about referring to Damian in the present tense. Stop ripping out our hearts every month, there’s nothing left! Especially the way that dovetails right into the splash of Carrie in the costume, which evokes a complicated little succession of emotions that it was really something to wade through and try to parse on the first pass, just at the moment that we’re still reeling from the loss of Damian, suddenly, here in present continuity, we’ve got the reverse-nostalgic thrill of seeing one of the very best Robins ever to don the costume, who has been a part of our lives for nearly thirty years now, suddenly somehow face to face with our hero at his lowest point.

And then so great to see Frankenstein! Good on this crew (as well as Lemire/Fawkes over in JLD) for not letting his book’s cancellation keep him out of circulation. I love how elastic both Batman the character and DC the universe have managed to remain over the years that this unholy notion is, in this day and age, a perfectly logical reaction to the death of a Robin. Of course the guy’s going to abduct Frankenstein to the Arctic Circle and reverse-engineer the reanimation process. It’s the only course of action that makes any sense! Alfred calls in Tim, whose presence leads this plot to play out in believable and organic fashion with a two-page epilogue back at the apartment Carrie shares with an unnamed roommate (no sign of MiCHELLE or a Billy of either gender as of yet). All praise to the creative team for crafting an issue that is this week’s highlight while managing to feature it’s Shocking Reveal! Character on-panel for less than a third of the issue. It remains to be seen what effect her presence will have upon the modern-day mythos. She was apparently surreptitiously giving Damian acting lessons. Those Playhouse 90 Kinescope copies that she dropped off on Page Two are from a live-action anthology that ran on CBS from 1956-60 and was apparently just The Business, by all accounts. Rod Serling scripted the first two episodes, among others, and won the first Peabody ever awarded to television writing based on his work on the series. One big deal was that the series increased the running time for hour-long anthologies to ninety minutes, as referenced in the title. And this explains the list from last issue that I mistakenly attributed to Conner Kent, this was instead her recommended viewing to further develop his acting chops. To what end, I can't decide. It's certainly an interesting posthumous twist. Damian was taking Secret Acting Lessons from Carrie Kelly! What can it all mean? This is one of the very best monthlies on the rack and I can’t wait to see where they’re taking it next. Though I’m pretty sure it’s going to have something to do with Anger.

BATMAN #19 — This is a very solid issue but it’s the first one of this volume that reads like just another monthly issue as opposed to a juggernaut pressing ever onward. Which is not inherently a bad thing, just worthy of note. Of course, after my complaining last week, we get a quite excellent in medias res cold open followed by the flashback that doesn’t even catch us up, though 99% of readers are going to be able to connect the dots for themselves. The single page of Damian was quite an effective gut-punch, kudos to editorial for preserving the surprise by placing that on an even-numbered page. The lead feature is as well done as we’ve come to expect from these guys and Tynion/Maleev manage to entertain with the back-up, though I might prefer having at least Tomasi script this particular conversation between these icons, or really just have it take place in the book up above so we can get Gleason/Gray/Kalisz up on it. No disrespect to Maleev.

SAGA #12 — This was already one of the most talked about issues of the year before it even hit the rack due to writer/creator Brian K. Vaughan issuing a press statement the day before it came out announcing that Apple had decided not to make the issue digitally available due to “two postage-stamp sized images of gay sex.” He further went on to state that “Fiona and I could always edit the images in question, but everything we put into the book is there to advance our story, not (just) to shock or titillate, so we’re not changing shit.” All right, three cheers for artistic integrity and not letting corporations have their way, etc, etc. Of course, this did nothing but drive up sales on hard copies, they were long gone off the rack when I made it in just after five on Wednesday. It turns out that it was the folks at Comixology’s interpretation of Apple guidelines that temporarily halted the book’s digital release, not the evil censorship of Apple overlords. But when it finally came time to consume this landmark example of artistic impression, I was less than impressed. Not with the issue itself, it focuses on Prince Robot IV finally meeting D. Oswald Heist and, like other issues that don’t feature the main cast, I found it a pretty engaging tangent. It’s the images itself, these character-based examples of gay sex that supposedly drive the story forward and aren’t there to shock or titillate. They’re both on Prince Robot IV’s screen, on the first page of the issue and the first panel of the second page. Which, you know, traditionally Vaughan is always trying to shock us on that first page, more often than not using the dialogue to wink at us on some meta-textual level. But the images are of a dude performing fellatio on a penis and then on the second page, that penis along with two other new arrivals are ejaculating all over his face with the dude’s tongue sticking out, clearly digging it. In what way does this advance the story? Is the robot prince really gay and this is the way we find out? Without the controversy, I wouldn’t have really thought much of it, just written the images off as gratuitous explicit titillation but with the writer going out of his way to state that it’s in no way gratuitous but totally in service of the story, it leaves a pretty bad taste in my mouth. I realize that I don’t have access to the master plan, this might look like mid-eighties Alan Moore foreshadowing in a year or two, but I kind of doubt it. Disappointing and kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. (thank yew very much)

STAR WARS #4 — More of the pitch-perfect post-Episode IV greatness we’ve come to expect. Nice to finally get the disembodied voice of Alec Guinness on-panel and yet another cool twist with Prithi hearing it. The splash of -3PO and R2 might be as perfectly as this series has thus far managed to caption the tone of the 1977 film, you can not only hear Anthony Daniels berating his poor beleaguered companion but the best part is that they don’t even bother to include the sound effects of the little astro-droid responding to every insult. I love how anyone with a deep affection for the saga can read this page and hear their very own series of bloops and blorps rising and falling. Wood drops his signature trick of pulling another new character out of nowhere and immediately establishing her with a memorable voice, Birra Seah. This one’s too much fun, the pages go by too fast.

HAWKEYE #009 — Once again, this is nothing less than one of the very best books Marvel is putting out, Fraction/Aja/Holligsworth/Eliopoulos lock up with glorious symphonic precision. With the exception of Valentine’s Day this year falling on a Thursday not a Friday, but there’s no telling how it really goes there in the 616. I love that Kate’s wife-title is also “Kate” almost as much as her “Heeeeeeey,” but nothing this week beats turning the page to encounter her “Bitch”-bumping Clint’s cheek. And that cover. So much greatness. Almost all of which is mitigated by Brennan’s return, what a terrible shame.

FANTASTIC FOUR #006 — Voyage to the Dawn of Time! An interesting ethical debate about finding an unknown lifeform stranded there in the aftershock of The Big Bang. Everything we’ve learned from science fiction teaches us not to get involved. But Benjamin J. Grimm’s just got too much heart. I dig how Johnny calls him “my buddy” when he’s out of earshot. The Attack H.E.R.B.I.E.’s mangling the Dalek catchphrase are wonderful. This is a pretty drastic issue, high drama all around. And is that a misprint or is the next issue really coming out alongside FF in two weeks? Could Bagley really be that unstoppable?

UNCANNY X-MEN #004—Cool way to do the crossover with the other book, give us the psychic conversation between Emma and her former collective protégés during the external one between the two administrations that we’ve already witnessed, then follow up on the cliffhanger here on the last page. Chris Bachalo continues to completely knock it out of the park on pencils and colors and kudos to his four (!) inkers on keeping the art style pretty much uniform, I was shocked to notice that there were that many of them after reading the issue. I’m also digging the inching along of character development we’re getting on these four new mutants, it’s cool to have some new blood injected into the mythos so soon after Gillen’s book with Hope’s team. And of course Cyclops runs his Danger Room off an iPhone, that makes perfect sense. But all anybody really cares about: we’ve got Bachalo on an X-book, what do we have to do or undo to get Jonothan Starsmore & Paige Guthrie back in the fold?

WOLVERINE #002 — Just like last issue, the creative team delivers a compelling solo adventure starring the ubiquitous Canadian berserker samurai. This book does everything it’s supposed to do: Paul Cornell’s plot beats fall into place right where you want them to, the characterization is spot-on, Alan Davis continues to display why he is one of the very best storytellers in the industry with dynamic shots that draw the eye along the page, expertly embellished by Mark Farmer, and tastefully colored by Matt Hollingsworth. Top drawer work, all around.

UNCANNY AVENGERS #006 — Wow, Apocalypse beating the shit out of Thor in 1013 Scandinavia, what’s not to love? Remender really has a handle on Apocalypse’s voice. Is his role as caretaker of the Celestials a new thing? It doesn’t sound familiar but makes all kinds of sense. They are all descendants of Kirby, whether directly or a couple generations on down. And of course, back this far, Thor is much more of an idiot, kind of like Hemsworth in the top of the Branagh movie, there. Man, he will always trust Loki. Even if it isn’t really Loki, as it turns out. Daniel Acuña tears it up providing full art for this entirely flashback issue that sets up how truly staggering Thor’s battle-ax Jarnbjorn is, which is pretty bad news because now Kang’s got it. I hope Alex Summers doesn’t mind that I refer to it as a battle-ax, I understand that it’s really so much more than that.

AGE OF ULTRON #5 — Tony’s near-breakdown over the perfection of Vision as Trojan Horse is spot-on characterization. Robert Downey, Jr. delivers another incandescent performance. The narrative split here is well done and suited to Peterson and Pacheco coming in to help out on art. I assume one guy will draw Fury’s team in the future and the other will chronicle Wolverine’s attempted Pymicide in the past. This series could use some action. I know I shouldn’t really be surprised but it’s unfortunate to consider that in five issues with twenty dollars cover price down the hatch, not that much has really happened. Of course, the high concept has gone down, Ultron wins. And the art has been gorgeous throughout, Hitch/Neary/Mounts at the top of their game. We’ve witnessed a couple of major character deaths and been told about several more. But in one hundred pages of comic book, this has been a pretty slow burn thus far, strong characterization from Bendis but very little in the way of on-panel plot. I’m hoping this has all been set-up and we’re going to just blow it up here in the back half. We’ll see. Sorry to see this art team bow out, though, hope they’ll have more to draw besides metropolitan wreckage when they come back. And but what’s with the Ultrons blowing The Drag all to hell? Bendis first started wrecking U.T. campus just a little while back over in ALL-NEW X-MEN and now he straight up destroys both sides of Guadalupe in a gorgeous two-page spread. What gives, Bendis? Real Dick Move! Hitch’s photo reference is completely spot-on with the exception of I can’t find the smoking ruin of The Castilian, seems like that should on the left side of the spread about two-thirds of the way up. Maybe it finally launched into space like I always suspected it would. Man, I really used to spend too much time altered in that building.

AVENGERS #009 — Huh. That’s it? I’m sure more will happen with these two characters, but it seems a little soon to put them away after relatively little in the way of action. I mean, they whupped up on the team, went to Mars, came back to Earth, and now have gotten captured. Granted, Hickman has it that they’ve broken the world with that last stunt the Star Brand kid pulled so I guess that’s going to have some kind of consequences amidst all the other shit that’s going down in the 616, but it feels like kind of a limp ending just tucking them away on Stark’s satellite on the far side of the sun, particularly in the first issue of this title that has all eighteen members on the roster. Not a bad issue by any means, I’ve just come to expect a bit more thunder and this feels like nowhere near enough payoff for everything the series has been building up to thus far.