2/05/14

ACTION COMICS #28 — Pak & Kuder continue to knock it out of the park here as The Adventures of Clark & Lana kicks into subterranean mode. This might be my favorite issue of this short run thus far, which is no mean feat because they’ve lost the element of surprise, now I’m expecting the serious greatness. We get another serious dose of spot-on characterization/interaction between our two leads. Of course, making Lana the dominant point of diplomatic interaction is perfect but I in particular dug the way that Kuder staged the scene of them changing clothes in the same room, the way he played down the sexy and conveyed a sense of familiarity more in line with siblings. A nice bit of restraint before he blows the barn doors off with the serious action toward the end of the issue, what a run of dynamic splash pages! Once again, these guys perfectly balance everything that makes an entertaining single issue starring the original superhero. And Pak is even good enough to set up the stabbing-in-the-back on the last page so that new readers won’t call bullshit. This has shot right up the list to one of my favorite monthly releases, so glad and grateful to feel that way about this character again.

DETECTIVE COMICS #28 — Man, I’m bummed that this run is already coming to an end. A year and a half went by too fast! This is simply more of the rock-solid greatness we’ve come to expect with Aaron Lopresti doing a terrific job pinch-hitting for Jason Fabok, who has presumably been hard at work on he and Layman’s last issue since the moment he got his hands on the script. Lopresti is a great choice, there’s barely a hiccup between his art style and Fabok’s. Of course, our hero has a plan and battles his way back into the fold with the assistance of a kiss from Poison Ivy, but there is some bad news waiting for him on the last page. Not reading the tie-ins served me well in this case; I presume that the stars of those titles all underwent whatever circumstances that led them to this point in their own respective books but just having them all show up here like this right there at the end with no previous set-up makes for an especially surprising cliffhanger.

FOREVER EVIL #5 — Well, we had to wait until halfway through the issue for someone to get dismembered, so I hope everyone was okay with that. And Luthor made the point to satisfactory effect before “Waynes tend to DIE.” Even the lettering is ham-handed. Finch/Friend/Oback continue to produce beautiful pages with all kinds of intricate linework that only tapers off there on a couple toward the very end (thinking specifically of the shot of the five heavies standing their ground against Batman). And oh no! Steven Moffat’s Crack In The Universe turns out to be the Big Bad that destroyed the CSA’s universe. Paging The Doctah!

TRILLIUM #6 — JesusChristGod, what a heartbreaking opening scene. Jeff Lemire drops the hammer hard in those first five pages, proving once again that he is one of the most accomplished storytellers of his generation. But, “oh no,” indeed! This issue once again uses a variation on the flip-book convention we’ve been hanging out with since the first issue to string the reader along a dual narrative in which Nika and William negotiate the blended conceits of each other’s time periods to get back to Peru where presumably all will be set to rights. The final page once again tosses out our expectations and leaves us stuck waiting for another four weeks. I kind of hate the future people who are going to read this in trade. Though what a ride they’ll have. Very interested to see what further flip-book madness Lemire has up his sleeve for the final couple of issues. Just when you think he’s done it all, he comes up with a new permutation.

CATALYST COMIX #8 — Man, I just like the way Dark Horse books feel, the cover stock, the way they’re bound. Casey and company round the home-stretch as we come upon our final round of cliffhangers for our catalytic characters! Ulises Farinas maintains his tradition of juxtaposing very sparse linework of characters on tight shots with extremely detailed panels of presumably greater import. Of the varied tones that Joe Casey hits in his narration across the different stories, I dig what he’s got going with Frank Wells most, just the right dash of Kirby. And that’s before the fourth page of this installment, yoW! Dan McDaid starts slinging thunderbolts! The secret of Frank Wells! All leading in to the penultimate installment of “Amazing Grace,” a panoramic explosion of light, sound, and action! Brad Simpson, the anchor for this entire terrific anthology, in particular blows it up here. And Paul Maybury turns in his best pages yet, tethering the unfathomable extra-d madness of The Reaver Swarm to a two-dimensional page that we can contemplate from the safety of our three-dimensional biological constructs. This mini-series has been something special since the beginning and it looks like it is going to go out with one hell of a bang, or a “bigger bang” if you believe the hyperbolic next-issue copy, and how could you doubt it, Catalytic Convert?!?

SECRET #5 — Ryan Bodenheim cranks it up a bit here, really strong and bold linework throughout. That little 5 on Grant’s chin is a bit distracting, though. But not nearly so much as Rus Wooton’s near-constant always-maddening emboldening and italicizing. Those four pages of This Is The Plan montage aside, folks can barely get out a couple of sentences before all of that malarkey kicks in. I know I keep going on about it but it keeps happening and really really preventing me from any chance of connecting to the material because I keep reading all of these emphases with ham-handed overacting and diabolical music trumpeting forth just about every other word balloon. Duh-duh-DUUUUUH!

THE FOX #4 — Had to get the Mack cover. This is more Kirbytastic dynamic action courtesy of Haspiel & Waid. This series really is the antidote to continuity-heavy corporate books full of dismemberment, if that kind of thing gets you down. Also, very cool to have The Fox crossover with The Shield for the final issue. Though they seem to be two different adventures based on the disparity of final-panel dialogue. I think? We’ll see.

BEST OF WEEK: MARVEL KNIGHTS: SPIDER MAN #5 — Nothing less than an absolute tour de force. This series has been nothing but thunder from Page One but it is quite a thing to see Marco Rudy put the pedal all the way down on the floor and roar in past the finish line. I haven’t been keeping count, but I guess Peter fought a couple dozen of his scheduled ninety-nine foes in the first four issues? Rest assured that Rudy ensures that the remainder of bad guys are each and every one accounted for in this final installment, the majority of whom are found in a single double-page spread that features three horizontal panels across the length of the two pages wherein no less than nine Peter Parkers are going batshit insane against a massive crowd of villains and, really, there have got to be more than seventy-something dudes in just this spread alone. Rudy improbably accomplishes this without seeming flashy or like he’s showing off, this is just what’s happening on this page, Spider-Man is fighting Everybody Else. Rudy’s explorations into JHWIIIesque layouts are intensified this issue by the fact that he apparently rolled up and smoked all nine issues of the seventh volume of David Mack’s KABUKI: THE ALCHEMY while he was painting parts of this thing, there’s this deal in the middle section where there are a few pages in a row where all the panels are fixed within the shadow of Wilson Fisk that is straight Mack in all the best ways, but my favorite part of the entire issue is that Rudy’s got this really lush watercolor bleed style going on, which is particularly cool with the Klimt allusion that serves as a bookend for the issue. I’m thinking Rudy’s got to be responsible for the full color on those sections? Val Staples certainly brings the justice on the “normal” sequential panels and of course we wouldn’t be here without Matt Kindt’s story, but make no mistake, Marco Rudy is the star of this show, this is the point where he graduates from promising penciler on Red Circle comics and alternate-to-Yanick-Paquette-who-can-more-than-hold-his-own (no mean feat, there) to a marquee name in his own right, one to be reckoned with and who will command sales due to nothing more than his attachment to a project. This was a terrific ride and it will only read better in trade in one furious ad-free rush. Highly recommended.

WOLVERINE #1 — Ryan Stegman is a beast. There’s no getting around that. And maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, but I can’t believe the degree to which I miss Alan Davis/Mark Farmer/Matt Hollingsworth and how much less engaged I am with this narrative following their departure. Paul Cornell isn’t helping by introducing new characters with names like Pinch and Fuel. Ninja and Heavy? I mean, come on. He’s still got enough of a line into Logan that I’m interested to see where things head from here, but this volume has got a hell of a lot to live up to.

NEW AVENGERS #014 — We join our heroes of 616 in tuning in to yet another doomed permutation of their merry band, the gang from Earth-2319, a charming little place that has weathered four Ages of Apocalypse and both Braddocks assuming the mantle of Captain Britain. The B-plot is essentially Stephen Strange selling his soul for ultimate power, which seems like a pretty rough arrangement for Bendis to walk back. Bianchi’s lush painted style is a terrific fit for all of these dramatic goings-on, especially Alternate Reed Richards sacrificing himself to ensure that Alternate Victor von Doom lives one page longer than he would have otherwise, which should bring a tear to the eye of any trench-embedded True Believer.

BATMAN: BLACK AND WHITE #6 — And so Volume 4 comes to an end. What a tremendous run. It’s a shame that Becky Cloonan didn’t write her own script, making every story of this final issue the product of a single writer/artist would have been a pretty cool little conceit on the way out. Cliff Chiang comes out absolutely swinging with a story featuring a young Dick Grayson Robin’s instrumental role in capturing Clayface. As much love and respect as Chaing gets, it isn’t close to enough. I mean, man. Olly Moss and Ms. Cloonan turn in a tale about the aftermath of a one-night stand with our Young Master Wayne that draws a somewhat disturbing parallel between his knocking boots and knocking the shit out of bad guys. I’m not really okay with Batman sexually fetishizing his run-of-the-mill nocturnal back-alley activities. Which seems like kind of a hypocritical sentence to type, but you see what I mean. I’ve never seen Dave Taylor’s work. The guy is a hell of a draftsman, though I could use a bit more shadow for balance, particularly in a story featuring this character. Dude’s got a nice European flavor happening, though, to be sure. Adam Hughes delivers by far my favorite story of the issue, a tour de force revolving around Selina Kyle (who else?) that does terrific work mining the emotional content of one of the Caped Crusader’s most interesting relationships. And that’s just the writing, the guy is one of the best illustrators in the business, accept no substitutes. The final story of this volume is by Dave Johnson, of Azzarello/Risso covers and RED SON fame. It’s . . . a pretty dark note to end on, the content of the story belied by the clean and even wholesome good-girl style that Johnson adopts. It is always wonderful when it turns out that the master illustrators can produce compelling plots as well, and this issue proves that in spades. I’m going to miss getting to read these every month and eagerly await the next product of Mark Chiarello’s editorial greatness. For Archie Goodwin, forever.