1/07/15

MIRACLEMAN #14 — Happy New Year! I spent the break finally catching up with the Marvel rereleases of this thing. Just in time for Moore to almost be done. It was quite a ride, and I certainly enjoyed it, but all along the way after that first arc, I kept waiting for the medium-defining thunder to crash in and deliver on the massive hype that has accumulated around this thing over the years. And this issue really, finally, does the trick. John Totleben’s work capturing emotions as expressed through the body language of dance coupled with Moore’s always-rhapsodic prose captions do indeed create a work of art far greater than the sum of its parts, beauty for its own sake all while delivering five-year-old exposition, for God’s sake. This is beautiful visual and narrative poetry quite unlike anything that I’ve ever seen before. That two-page spread of Liz and Winter saying their farewells is an aching piece of tragedy. And it only takes three pages for a nightmare held too long at bay to finally inevitably reassert himself just in time for Moore’s last cliffhanger. It’s going to be a long long wait until February 4th, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

ACTION COMICS #38 — I had not heard that Jae Lee was going to be contributing but was staring at that first page kind of confused for probably a full thirty seconds before checking out the credits at the top of the page and having one of those “Ah, no shit” moments. He certainly has a distinctive style. It’s too bad that this one couldn’t have come out in October because it was definitely one of the more chilling reads I’ve had lately. Kuder/Quintana really ratchet up their game here, which it didn’t seem like it was still possible to do, but as we head into this team’s second year on the title, everybody seems to be a little bit more relaxed and at ease, nailing every beat with that much more precision. Probably the most distinctive element of this issue is the haunted facial expressions. Even the big guy looks scared as shit half of the time, which of course goes a long way toward instantly conveying that emotion to the reader. Terrific work, all around. And you’ve got to love the next issue teaser. Of course INTO THE PHANTOM ZONE!

DETECTIVE COMICS #38 — Man, this is a good-looking book. I really enjoyed every page these guys did over on FLASH, but they’ve taken it to a new level here. Buccellato’s colors, in particular, are a singular delight, some gorgeous hues that you’re not used to seeing in Gotham or really in a monthly book at all, for that matter. The wash of pink sirens bleeding through the windows in the final scene is masterful. And I quite dig Anarky’s plot. It might even be the best use of the character since his first appearance waaaay back in #608 of the dearly departed first volume of this very title. It’s funny how quickly Donal Logue has claimed the character of Bullock for me, I read every one of his lines with that cadence and delivery now, at least as best as I can imagine it. And it’s always nice to see Matches Malone out on the town. Manapul brings some serious justice on that double-page spread of the Batmobile crashing in. And, of course, that last line is kind of regrettable, but nothing more than a sign of the times, I’m afraid. Overall, these guys are doing terrific work, and I’m digging this arc much more than the first one. Here’s to many more.

BATMAN ETERNAL #40 — That was some pretty unexpected business there on the bottom of Page Five and into Page Six! Fair play, writers. Not as much so the deal with Vicki. That wasn’t supposed to be Bard who got the drop on her at the end of last issue? It seems like there are three maybe-to-definitely bad guys with brown hair all running around wearing glasses, and I keep getting them all mixed up. Selina going after Stephanie certainly has interesting possibilities in terms of character interaction. But, oh, Jim Corrigan, couldn’t you have stayed gone from this series? It’s pretty crowded as is, and I don’t care about you at all.

FUTURES END #36 — The House of Mystery! I miss that latest relaunch so much. All well and good, but this neutered Constantine is kind of painful to encounter at this point. I suppose Lady Amethyst concurs. Funny to see him on an ad for his show two pages later. I really need to catch up with that, only ever hit the pilot. He does have a pretty solid rejoinder for Bearded Kal a couple of scenes later, I will give him that. And all right, I like Terry & Plastique now, the “Yer awesome” seals the deal. While creepy voyeuristic mentor-figure looks on through his binoculars, though? Not cool, Bruce! That secret origin of Darius certainly came out of left field. Respect once again to Ryan Sook for crushing another cover, not since J.G. Jones back on 52 has someone showed up with so much consistent weekly thunder.

BUCKY BARNES: THE WINTER SOLDIER #003 — Good Lord, is this a good-looking book. Brother Marco Rudy has managed to take it to his own next level, a truly fearsome thing to behold. Just look at that opening spread, land sakes. I love how cavalier Bucky is about this whole deal, just basically decides to go with the strategy of dating the queen almost on a lark but then seems to actually fall for her. Time will tell? The last four pages might be the most beautiful of Rudy’s career thus far. Those sunset colors beneath the expanding cosmos just about make you ache with beauty, just haunting. This one reads pretty fast, but you can stare at this art for hours, just about.

THE UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL-GIRL #001 — At long last! I didn’t actually pick this one up on New Comic Day but had to snag it the following week after all of the love that it got. This was indeed a lot of fun. The writing was amusing and casts our protagonist as goofy but still likeable enough to become invested in, and the cartoonish art style is a great fit for the material. Kraven the Hunter is also a solid choice for an initial antagonist, though it’s still a bit relatively close to that GREAT LAKES AVENGERS CHRISTMAS SPECIAL from a few yeas back to be already throwing Galactus in the mix, seems like. Wait! Unless this is like an Ambush Bug thing and every issue is going to end with this horrifying Galactus cliffhanger that never pays off. Though I guess they’d be going with Thanos to make it a more perfect analogue, were that the case. Anyway, good clean fun to be had here. A solid read with your kid(s) if you don’t mind the lead character saying the word “butt” about a dozen times in twenty pages.

TREES #8 — Wow. Well, the folks who were complaining that there was too much character work and not enough happening can come on back now. That was rough. I could have even used a little bit more character work before the carnage. Just heartbreaking all around. I’m a little surprised by how sad these resolutions made me. Ellis did tremendous work making me care about these characters with Howard of course bringing it all home to tremendous effect. I guess this is the end of the first volume? This reminds me of when my little brother and I used to spend hours and hours playing action figures, setting up layers and layers of backstories before finally dropping the hammer and just laying waste to the entire damn ensemble. That Ellis is a cold evil bastard.

GOD HATES ASTRONAUTS #5 — Just when shit couldn’t get more out, here comes a Kirby homage in the form of The Whizzard. Horrifying. That one guy speaking only in Vader quotes was hilarious. Rest in peace. This book is a dizzying and horrifying look into one man’s mind as it unravels and pulls us all toward the event horizon with it, circling round and round before surely inexorably taking us down the drain with it to at last be bathed in naked singularity.

THE FADE OUT #4 — Yet another installment of the goodness that Brubaker/Phillips have been spoiling us with for years, most recently complemented to maximum effect by the beautiful tones of Mrs. Breitweiser. I enjoyed the cameos in here, which is a good trick. When a famous old movie star comes in, it can sink the ship under the weight of the guest’s star power but Brubaker does a fine job here using it to enhance his character’s credibility and standing in the already ridiculous network of power players driving Hollywood. Of course, I’ll buy anything that these creators put out, but it is certainly nice to see it maintain such a consistently high level of quality.

BEST OF WEEK: ODY-C #2 — The second issue can be a really tricky beast to wrangle if you knocked the first one out of the park. I can still remember being so let down by the #2s of CASANOVA and THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY just because I wanted that rush again, that same trapdoor mind-blowing feeling of all the rules being suddenly dropkicked out the window and anything being possible. Which isn’t quite fair or realistic, and I’ve come to accept that. So, I cracked the cover on this one a bit tentatively, not expecting but halfway hoping another crazy four-page timeline would be folded up in there waiting for me, only this time there would be five pages, the inevitable escalation! But it only took this single Page One splash to set any of that trepidation to rest and assure me that we were all going to get a hell of a ride here, no problem. It’s hard to parse exactly the manner in which his talents knock me out, but penciling, inking, coloring, Christian Ward is a force of nature, that much is certain. This first shot is nothing less than the retelling of Zeus killing Cronos and taking the throne for her own, and it’s certainly a grotesque, shocking, and beautiful image. But then you turn the page, and there’s this crazed double-almost-splash of all the young gods running just amok, liberated in an instant orgy of violence and slaughter. And Zeus is narrating the whole deal. And by page’s end, we get that first shot of Promethene, who was easily the most compelling aspect of last month’s insane opening timeline. And then you turn the page again, and . . . look, just buy this book. If you didn’t already, read the first one, and then go buy this one. It’s one of the best books on the rack already, the art is insanely brilliant, and it’s the first time that Fraction’s writing has, for me, even approached the genius of CASANOVA, damn near even swinging to surpass it through the audacity of ambition alone, never even mind the dactylic/dummy hexameter he’s invented/adapted for the script, a linguistic exercise that serves as a perfect microcosm of this entire endeavor. Ripping Homer forward through space/time all the way past the present into the far future with all the ferocity of the Furies and Scylla & Charybdis combined while at the same time treating the source material with such loving deference and informing it with so much white-hot new invention and craft that we can only blink in the steaming aftermath and, staggering, assure ourselves that it has not always been thus, these tales are new and not in actuality the original songs sung hundreds and hundreds of years ago that had almost been lost and of course utterly distorted until now when we are fortunate enough to behold them at last in the unvarnished light of their naked truth.