7/24/31

BATMAN/SUPERMAN #2 — We get Jae Lee for the duration this time and two versions of the title characters. Pak continues to excel at the captions, striking strong counterpoints between the four main characters while managing to keep their voices unique. No mean feat. It makes sense for our guys to be over on Earth-2, the darkness of Lee’s style is practically screaming ELSEWORLDS. This is well worth the cover price, though it is interesting to note that this is practically a Marvel value here, all DC does to ostensibly justify the $3.99 cover-price is include a couple of variant covers as back-matter, no additional story content whatsoever.

FLASH #22 — Another high-quality installment, the likes of which we have become accustomed to from the cosmic Manapul/Buccellato treadmill. I feel like I single it out almost every month, but this title page in particular was the absolute thunder. I think it was the first one with which they tried to be subtle and not so much foreshortened lightning-in-your-face THE FLASH!, the effect of which was sublime, I totally failed to spot the letters in the laundry and buildings, being more concerned with the dialogue and foreground art and it wasn’t until I saw “IN REVERSE PART 3” on that right side of Page 3 that I went back and was thrilled to see how well they’d hidden the main title. Phenomenal work. The issue itself was excellent, of course the art is always spectacular but there was also good character work, some nice tension between Flash/Iris re: Barry and of course the uncomfortableness of our guy having to drop her off with Patty. Not cool, Barry. And Reverse-Flash is terrifying and seems unstoppable. Already can’t wait for next month.

THE UNWRITTEN #51 — I was a little unclear on what happened with our trio of young mages. They made duplicates of themselves to fight Mister Dark? That wasn’t entirely clear from this issue. Maybe I missed it last time out. Carey, Willingham, and Gross, with the assistance of Buckingham on co-pencils and Russ Braun finishing a few pages, continue to produce a pitch-perfect FABLES crossover within the pages of this book. Still very curious and interested to figure out how this will eventually fit in with FABLES continuity but certainly enjoying this ride too much while it’s happening to get hung up on such concerns in the meantime.

BEST OF THE WEEK: THE ROCKETEER & THE SPIRIT #1 — I was going to wait for the trade on this but then couldn’t resist that Darwyn Cooke cover. And why wait? They were good enough to go with the IDW model of presentation vs DC, meaning $3.99 for a no-ad situation as opposed to $2.99 for ten pages of ads. No question what’s better. What top-drawer talent they recruited for this crossover. Of course we know that Mark Waid is going to completely knock the lights out on something like this, or really anything, but wrangling Paul Smith into the fray is a particularly inspired choice. Smith was a contemporary of Dave Stevens in the eighties, both at the head of the movement of the new guard of inspiring young artists at the time who were pushing themselves and the medium as far forward as possible, both at the very top of their game but whereas Smith broke through to serious mainstream adoration through a particularly memorable year-plus on Claremont’s UNCANNY run that saw such highlights as the introduction of the Brood, the initial Madelyne Pryor/Dark Phoenix fakeout, and the all-time classic “PROFESSOR XAVIER IS A JERK!” opening page, Stevens took a serious amount of time honing a somewhat smaller number of pages of his creator-owned property to perfection. And Stevens, of course, was drawing inspiration from a relatively simpler time best personified by the medium-defining work of Will Eisner on his seminal detective hero The Spirit. So, while to no one’s surprise, Waid bull’s-eyes every single character collision/interaction to perfection, even those limited to a couple of panels, it is a real thrill to see Smith go to town on a style that manages to be simultaneously evocative of both artists, amalgamating Stevens’s photo-realism and Eisner’s cinematic layouts and composition. This is only the first twenty-two pages, but the creative talent lays down the basic set-up with such facility and apparent ease that it seems pretty much a lock that this is going to be an optimum-case one for the ages when all is said and done. The only aspect of this book that is anything less than perfect is the title page, the straightforwardness of which is pretty much embarrassing on the same day that FLASH came out.

THE MASSIVE #14 — There’s a Georg flashback as Ryan defects, then comes back to negotiate Mal’s surrender to the American government, and then it’s time to take in a show on Broadway. Possibly a version of FINDING NEMO got up and running before the collapse?

GAMMA ONE-SHOT — This is great fun, right here. Dark Horse was good enough to reprint this compilation of a three-part serial that ran eight pages at a time in DARK HORSE PRESENTS #18-20. Like LIL’ GOTHAM, this series benefits from having the individual solely responsible for interiors as a co-writer, so the beats line up very nicely. What we have here is a kind of Pokemon send-up by way of the wild west with a dash of kaiju action thrown in, all drawn and hand-lettered in a smile reminiscent of Brandon Graham’s solo material. While Dusty’s road to quasi-redemption might not be the stuff of legend, this tale is a self-contained burst of fun that is more than worth the $2.99 and ten minutes it will take the reader to consume it.

YOUNG AVENGERS #008 — That is a more-than-solid single-page interdimensional montage that kicks things off. Gillen keeps the ideas flying fast and furious and the tag-team art crew of McKelvie/Norton/Wilson provide consistent excellence throughout. No great surprise to see the return of the Oubliettes, can’t believe it took this long. And Miss America is coming into her own as a character, I like how they’re not rushing to spit out her origin but just letting her hang out and develop at a slower pace. It worked for the hairy Canadian. Also very cool to see McKelvie’s stylistic panel-play return, Miss America smashing down on the panel borders for an emergency exit leading to the return of a character who will have fans of JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY all in a tizzy. Followed by more panel-play there at the end with Teddy and David running away, strong strong panel work all around. And that last page, this book is making some kind of hard charge for some a sweep at the GLAAD Awards, Kate Kane & J.H. Williams III, watch your back!

UNCANNY AVENGERS #010 — Remender continues digging deep, dusting off Ozymandias, not that Comedian-killin’ fellow who used a secret psychic space-alien conspiracy to save the world from communism and nuclear holocaust, but some Egyptian-type who I vaguely recall running around in the X-books sometime in the nineties, when I kept dropping in to confirm that it was still a train-wreck disaster post-Claremont and dropping right back out. At any rate. This issue. The balance on this title is starting to swing a bit heavier in favor of the philosophy talky-talk than I would prefer. I’m fine with protagonists being characterized via the particular way in which they hash out some kind of issue with one another but it feels like it’s happening every time. Oh, Alex and Wanda are off checking out the Guatemalan temple, it must be time to talk about Xavier’s Dream and our culture’s desensitization to violence as portrayed by media cycles. Wanda seems to be crushing on Alex pretty hard, there. And wow, can’t believe that The Grim Reaper Horseman made a CHEERS reference, that was certainly an interesting call. Logan telling Thor and Rogue to quit ass-grabbin’ is a good time, but I do believe that verb should be a hyphenate. Also a fan of him calling the former “Fabio.” And Shai-Hulud from Arrakis makes a triumphant present-day appearance! Our heroes can’t seem to catch a break.

NEW AVENGERS #008 — Well, that was a whole bunch of random business blowing up, there. This issue appears to take place on a tangent to INFINITY #1 with the majority of Cap’s 18-member squad heading off-planet off-panel and leaving Tony behind to walk around and Talk Bbout Really Heavy Shit with Reed, which is turning out to be this book’s comfort zone. Which I’m fine with. Medusa gets pissed and slaps Black Bolt, the Wakanda/Atlantis hostilities erupt, and we burn four pages on checking in with the arriving invaders in a variety of locales. Deodato/Martin’s pages are beautiful, as ever, but overall, this one felt more like racing down a bullet-point list of plot-points that need to be accomplished, as opposed to the crushing single-issue experience that characterized every month of the first arc.

HAWKEYE ANNUAL #001 — All right, I think I went in with expectations that were too jacked up for this one and it kind of let me down. I guess is what happened? Since her arrival in #002 of this title, I have been a huge fan of the dynamic and interaction between Kate Bishop and Clint Barton, and old Gillen has done fine ensemble work with her over in his book, but when I heard that this annual was going to be a solo story featuring her, presumably following up on the horrifying ending of #011 that we got from Arrow/Lucky/Pizza Dog’s POV, I was really really looking forward to this. And it’s solid, certainly. There’s nothing wrong with it. Javier Pulido drops back in to follow up on the two-parter her illustrated in #s 4 and 5. I was, in particular, a fan of the cartoonish inset-panels that featured Kate’s internal monologue. Matt Hollingsworth’s pretty flat palette continues to be exactly what this book needs, no more, no less. And Fraction does make with the clever while providing a tale of Madame Masque stalking her down-and-out houseguest Kate, who knows she’s being stalked and is stalking in return, repeat ad infinitum on down the line. And like I said, there’s nothing wrong with it, per se, this issue just doesn’t hit that crazy alchemy that is like a regular expected thing in the ongoing where every month, they push the form forward just a little bit further on the page and break our hearts off the page with the story of how these people relate to one another and make their troubled way in a world that might be the Marvel-616 but is really just Bed-Stuy, which stays the same no matter what universe it’s in.