11/27/13

BEST OF WEEK: INFINITY #6 — Here we have it, it’s all led up to this. The Avengers have been to the far side of the universe and back, triumphed over all manner of insurmountable odds but Thanos came and took Earth while Tony was holding the fort. Bad Tony! This last issue was the real test, I’ve enjoyed several Big Events from timely old Marvel Comics in the past dozen or so years, but just about every time, the final issue is too short on resolution and packed much too full of “COMING NEXT MONTH . . . [DARK REIGN/THE HEROIC AGE/NOW!/WHATEVER NEW BRANDING IT IS THIS YEAR FOR ESSENTIALLY THE SAME GIG THAT WE ALL SHOW UP FOR NO MATTER WHAT SILLY WORDS THEY HAVE AT THE TOP OF THE COVER THIS TIME]!” But this is the first Big Event that Hickman has been driving and I let myself hope. This time would be different. And it certainly starts out well. The Avengers finally land and are off to it. Thor’s line to Banner about harnessing his appetite is pitch-perfect, a gem of a little character beat tucked in amidst all the explodo. Weaver has been knocking the art out on this all along but really takes it to another level here, the level of detail and dynamism on his pages is really something to see. I loved Maximus’s role in the resolution. Hickman seems to really lock in with that guy. I’m not sure what the Star Brand did? I mean, he made that cool sign that I used to draw on my hand in fourth grade but that just sent the bad guys running for cover? And the main conflict resolves in classic Marvel fashion, more satisfying of a finish than usual but with the door certainly still open for further development. What is interesting are the different places in which this event has left the various factions of the alien alliance. The Ex Nihili, Shi’Ar, Kree, Skrulls, Annihilus, all of that is fodder for years’ worth of stories just based on what we’ve got right here. And you’ve got to wonder what the plan is for Thane and Ebony Maw. It seems like Hickman’s just barely getting started with those guys. And of course, no surprise in the world where Thanos winds up when all is said and done. Those guys, I swear.

NEW AVENGERS #12 — And then, on the other hand. How the hell do you release an epilogue to the big climax to your massive universe-spanning event and put the goddamn last page of that climax on the cover of said epilogue when it comes out on the same day? It wasn’t even only the last page of INFINITY #6 proper, that epilogue with the Illuminati also has this same damn shot on the last page. When I caught a glimpse of this cover in the store at 1:30 in the afternoon on the day it was released, I did a partial double-take (a take-and-a-half, call it), because without going out of my way to avoid the covers, I at least certainly don’t give them too much scrutiny before reading the issue lest I deduce the contents of the interior pages from that single image. I pretty much just double-check that this is the issue in my pull and it’s not some fill-in by garbage creators and then I pays my money and go home and read it that night. But when I saw this cover image of Thanos apparently turned into a statue, I certainly thought to myself, “Huh, so, it looks like the mad Titan won’t be that much trouble when all is said and done?” I mean, I was under no illusions that on the last page, he was going to like kill all eighteen Avengers and those other thirty people on that little cast-of-characters page and that the two Hickman books were going to suddenly be two interconnected titles entitled THANOS and THE CULL OBSIDIAN, but I can only suspend my disbelief so hard! I don’t know if maybe INFINITY #6 was late and these two weren’t originally supposed to ship on the same day and once that became apparent, it was too late, and if that was the case, I understand, not really much to be done at the point, but if these two books were originally solicited for the same date, then I rate the editorial situation Obsidian Abysmal because poor fucking form. I enjoyed the hell out of this entire crossover and then here on the very last night got to read the climax with the spoiler image of this issue’s cover in the back of my head the entire time. So. I needed to get that off my chest.

The issue itself. Once I get over being pissed at the cover. It’s just basically cleaning up the massive amount of character fallout from the crossover. T’Challa gets the boot, probably deservedly so. I can certainly see where his countrymen and –women are coming from. Solid interaction with Namor, there, those two really have been played off each other to tremendous effect this year. When Stephen Strange said that he is not a pawn, he is the Doctor, did anyone else holler “Doctah!” at the book? Because it has been that kind of month. But so yeah, Reed and the boys talk to Black Swan and Hickman lays down his cards, not unlike what Bendis has done over on the X-books in the wake of “Battle of the Atom” but to potentially far more sweeping effect, basically saying, “Yeah, all of these stories this year, the interconnected titles and big crossover, this might have all seemed like some serious shit going down, but we are really just barely getting started.” I love how he just throws in some insane concepts we’ve never heard of all Morrison-style, the Mapmakers and Sidera Maris and Black Priests and Sinnu Sarrum and Ivory Kings. Ominous tidings, friends! The last line of dialogue also bookends nicely with the “Solve Everything” motif that opened Hickman’s FF run. The man is laying down quite a tapestry of interwoven sequential glory. And Deodato remains an absolute hoss, A-list business all the way. This remains one of my favorite Marvel books.

UNCANNY AVENGERS #014 — Wow, man. I guess Remender liked the taste of all that shit he had to eat for writing Havok’s speech in #005 because I can see the people who did not care for that losing their goddamn minds over what goes down in this issue. They certainly can’t claim that he hasn’t been building up to this since #001. But man! Damn. Of course, you can say it’s comics and they’ll be right back at the end of the next Big Event (Rogue was rocking a Wolverine power-set at the time of her disintegration, so why not just healing factor that business right up?), but this still played out like an insane season finale. Even though it’s in the middle of the arc. It’s unfortunate that death has become so meaningless in comics and we’re all so jaded that the knee-jerk response is that of course they’ll all be back because then to have any sort of emotional connection to the events, at least what I have to do is trick myself with the hypothetical “What if all of this really counts? What if they DON’T come back? If McNiven’s drawing, doesn’t that mean it will last at least a few years?” and that this is actually the climax of Simon and Wanda’s relationship, the Rogue/Wanda animosity that’s been seething since #1, etc. And so, taken in that light, yeah, it’s pretty heavy shit. If Simon really goes out this way in a blast of Kirby Krackle to help Wanda successfully perform what amounts to an inversion of her infamous HOUSE OF M #7 spell, that is a poignant and beautiful piece of writing. And man, I really really wonder what is in store for next issue. Seems like I heard this initial story was going to last eighteen issues. I can’t imagine who’s going to be left to pick up the pieces after four more issues of all of this impaled-from-behind insanity. Did anyone else notice how in the same way Wanda inverts her spell, those stabbing-ladies-to-death-in-their-back is also a direct inversion of Bullseye and Elektra in the all-time classic DAREDEVIL #181? That is why I am paid the big American dollars!

ALL-NEW X-MEN #019 — Maybe instead of rush this thing out two weeks later, we could just wait for the regular art team to get this book out on time but not biweekly? Which isn’t a dig on Brandon Peterson and Israel Silva, who are very talented in their own right, the art is just such a huge part of what makes this one of my favorite books, I’m sorry that the motivation to move more than twelve issues a year means we’ve got to have other talent shoehorned in when keeping a monthly schedule isn’t even the issue. And but in-story, Warren goes straight-up post-Crisis Jason Todd on a bad guy, drops him and then we get a shot of our hero’s unrepentant face watching the guy plummet. Dark Angel all over again! I love Illyana’s incredulity at Teen Scott saying the police will need a statement. And I was definitely feeling not in the loop on the fleeing mutant there, but I guess that’s because I don’t really know her by first name. It looks like she gets her hair back and a New Teen Crush if next issue’s cover is anything to go by.

FF #014 — Wow, all right, this was cranked all the way up and even better than most of the Fraction-scripted issues. Which is a good thing, it’s certainly the direction I would prefer to be trending at this time. The art remains on fire but the plot has finally caught up with it with several interpersonal dynamics hitting a critical mass while Doom is drawn inexorably into the trinity amalgamate that he foreswore in the pages of this very issue. The Business is giving every indication of being just about to go down. I am very glad that, due to scheduling, the last word on these two series will be given here as they potentially come crashing together.

HAWKEYE #14 — Now, this is more like it. As previously noted in a now-classic archived review, the script for the annual left me a bit cold but, here, Fraction gets twice as much done in half the space, a solid Kate-Bishop-as-West-Coast-Hawkguy solo misadventure. Very entertaining. Annie Wu is well suited to drawing this half of the book, her sketchy and somewhat more cartoony style is a great fit for Kate. This damn book was so good, they split it in half and each half is now as good as the whole thing used to be all together.

BLACK SCIENCE #1 — Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera have the science-pulp dials red-lined in this new series about an anarchist scientist trying to teach himself the rules of the universe and all the eponymous knowledge that necessarily goes along with such an endeavor. Fans of FEAR AGENT will dig on this in particular. Dean White’s painted colors go a long way toward establishing the mood and atmosphere of these pages, recalling the covers of tattered old pulpy science fiction novels from years gone by. What’s so terrific about this issue is the breakneck pace. Remender drops us into a ticking-clock situation and never lets up, piling on the obstacles and complications for our hero, who’s trying to accomplish the relatively straightforward task of bringing some water to a pillar, but there’s a really cool juxtaposition in the balls-out on-panel action and the exposition delivered through first-person narration that comes off a lot like Grant Morrison dropping a stream-of-conscious monologue twenty minutes after drinking the entire pitcher of psilocybin tea. Seriously batshit concepts erupting on almost every page. So far, the biggest problem this series has is to put out a second issue that can hang with the pace and madness of this #1, just a hell of a ride.

MORNING GLORIES #35 — Oh, my aching brain. I have concluded that I read way too many other stories in this and other mediums to be able to devote the requisite amount of brainpower to fully appreciate the labyrinthine insanity of this title. Not that I’m asking them to dial it back, I just need to crank my situation up here a bit. At least we have Professor Meylikhov to explain the business to us and explain how this panel came from #26 and we first saw this shit back in #17. I wonder if Damon Lindelof really really loves this comic or thinks they’re making fun of him. Why can’t it be both?

KICK-ASS 3 #5 — This was actually a pretty solid comic book with plenty of heart. Which is chilling, from the pen of Millar, but there you go. Our hero is in a pretty good place, happier than he’s ever been, so of course that is terrible news considering that he’s, I believe, two issues away from his final issue. Especially given that closing montage, brrrrr.

SAGA #16 — The complexity of this series is certainly increasing as Vaughan appears to have no problem ratcheting up the meta-dial even higher with Marko going to something called the Open Circuit, which appears to be basically virtual serial drama/soap operas (I have always said that the day they finish up a fully immersive three-dimensional virtual-reality patch on old serial dramas, I am a doomed man because I will never be able to get off That Island)(if I ever even make it past the requisite warm-up drinks with Draper/Sterling). “Most of it is just melodrama but some of the storylines can be interesting, especially when the audience gets involved.” Dress it up just a little bit, fella! This whole second arc since they came back has been a pretty slow burn, but it looks like things are on-pace to crank right the hell up if the last two panels are any indication.

PRETTY DEADLY #2 — I didn’t realize so much until reading the recap from last issue but this series is at least as much style as substance. Which doesn’t have to be a bad thing, I don’t mean it in a pejorative way. Because there’s plenty of substance. There’s just A Lot of style, too, is more my point. This simple prose description of the events of a single issue is kind of an insane thing to wade through and a fairly beautiful work of art, in and of itself. Emma Rios & Jordie Bellaire continue to turn in art that manages to be perfectly suited to the story at hand while simultaneously reveling in the sequential storytelling experience in a way that is medium-specific. This right here is a highly stylized and gorgeous celebration of sex and violence that hits Tarantino-scale levels of rhapsody, a bunch of hard women leaving all manner of lifeless wreckage in their wake.